ed a sermon against witchcraft, crying from the pulpit, with arms extended, "Witchcraft is the most nefarious hightreason against the Majesty on high. A witch is not to be endured in heaven or on earth." His sermon was printed and scattered broadcast among the people, and bore terrible fruit not long afterwards. time it was simply an undemonstrative poor creature hanged. The excited Mather belief, but at length it assumed an active (who was ridiculed by unbelievers) preachfeature in society in Massachusetts, as it was encouraged by some of the clergy, whose influence was almost omnipotent. Before 1688 four persons accused of witchcraft had suffered death in the vicinity of Boston. The first was Margaret Jones, of Charlestown, hanged in 1648. In 1656, Ann Hibbens, sister of Governor Bellingham, of Massachusetts, was accused of being a witch, tried by a jury, and found guilty. The magistrates refused to accept the verdict, and the case was carried to the General Court, where a majority of that body declared her guilty, and she was hanged. In 1688 a young girl in Danvers (a part of Salem) accused a maid-servant seized with convulsions and swelling of of theft. The servant's mother, a "wild the throat, and all the symptoms produced Irishwoman" and In 1692 an epidemic disease broke out in Danvers resembling epilepsy. The physicians could not control it, and, with Mather's sermon before them, they readily ascribed it to witchcraft. A niece and daughter of the parish clergyman were a Roman Catholic, declared with vehemence that the charge was false, whereupon the accuser, out of revenge, accused the Irishwoman of having bewitched her. Some of the girl's family joined in the accusation and assisted her in her operations. They would alternately become deaf, dumb, and blind; bark like dogs and purr like cats; but none of them lost their appetite or needed sleep. by hysterics. Their strange actions frightRev. Cotton Mather-a superstitious, ened other young girls. A belief that evil credulous, and egotistical clergyman; a spirits in the form of witches were permitfirm believer in witchcraft, and who be- ted to afflict the people was soon widelieved America was originally peopled with spread, and terror took possession of their "a crew of witches transported hither by minds, and held it for about six months. the devil "-hastened to Danvers, with oth- The "victims " pretended to see their torer clergymen as superstitious as himself, mentors with their "inner vision," and spending a whole day there in fasting and forthwith they would accuse some old or prayer, and so controlled the devil, he said, ill-favored woman of bewitching them. At who would allow the poor victims to "read length the "afflicted" and the accused beQuaker books, the Common Prayer, and came so numerous that no person was popish books," but not the Bible. Mather safe from suspicion and its consequences. and his associates were satisfied that the During the prevalence of this terrible deIrishwoman was a witch, and these holy lusion, in the spring and summer of 1692, men had the satisfaction of seeing the nineteen persons were hanged; one was THE HOUSE OF A SUPPOSED WITCH. killed by the horrible punishment of pressing to death; fifty-five were frightened or tortured into a confession of guilt; 150 were imprisoned, and fully 200 were named as worthy of arrest. Among those hanged was Rev. Mr. Burroughs, an exemplary clergyman, whose purity of character was conspicuous. of being a witch. The sons of ex-Governor Bradstreet were compelled to flee to avoid the perils of false accusations; near relatives of Mather were imprisoned on similar charges. When the magnates in Church and State found themselves in danger they suspected they had been acting unrighteously Malice, rapacity, and revenge often im- towards others, and cautiously expressed pelled persons to accuse others who were doubts of the policy of further proceedings innocent; and when some statement of the against accused persons, for they rememaccused would move the court and au- bered that they had caused a constable dience in favor of the prisoner, the accuser who had arrested many, and refused to would solemnly declare that he saw the arrest any more, to be hanged. A citizen devil standing beside his victim whisper- of Andover who was accused, wiser and ing his touching words in his or her ear. bolder than the magistrates and clergy, And the absurd statement would be be- caused the arrest of his accuser on a lieved by the judges on the bench. Some, charge of defamation of character, and terrified, and with the hope of saving their laid his damages at £1,000. The public lives or avoiding the horrors of imprison- mind was in sympathy with him. The ment, would falsely accuse their friends spell was instantly broken, and at a conand kinsfolk; while others, moved by the vention of clergymen they declared it was same instinct and hopes, would falsely not inconsistent with Scripture to believe confess themselves witches. Neither age, that the devil might "assume the shape sex, nor condition was spared. Finally of a good man, and that so he may have Sir William Phipps (the governor of Mas- deceived the afflicted." Satan, as usual, sachusetts, who had instituted the court was made the scape-goat for the sins for the trial of witches), his lieutenant, and follies of magistrates, clergy, and peosome near relatives of Cotton Mather, ple. Many of the accusers came forward and learned and distinguished men who and published solemn recantations or dehad promoted the delusion by acquiescing nials of the truth of their testimony, in the proceedings against accused per- which had been given, they said, to save sons, became objects of suspicion. The their lives. governor's wife, Lady Phipps, one of the The legislature of Massachusetts appurest and best of women was accused pointed a general fast and supplication, "that God would pardon all the errors remained in Donne Castle until the bat of his servants and people in a late trag- tle of Culloden. While settled at Paisley edy raised among them by Satan and his he was called (1767) to the presidency of instruments," and Judge Sewall, who had the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, presided at many trials in Salem, stood and was inaugurated in August, 1768. up in his place in the church on that He had already written and published fast-day and implored the prayers of the several works, and had acquired a fine people that the errors which he had com- reputation for scholarship. Under his mitted “might not be visited by the judg- administration the college flourished, fiments of an avenging God on his country, nancially and otherwise. He was not only his family, and himself." The parish president, but was Professor of Divinity; minister at Danvers in whose family the also pastor of the Presbyterian church "affliction" started, and who was zealous at Princeton. At the beginning of the in promoting the prosecutions, was com- Revolution the college was for a time pelled to leave the country. The credu- broken up, when President Witherspoon lous Mather still believed in witches, and assisted in the patriotic political movewrote in support of the belief. He was ments. He also assisted in framing a thoroughly ridiculed by unbelievers, one State constitution for New Jersey, and of whom he dismissed by calling him "a coal from hell," and suing him for slander. went as a delegate to Congress in time to advocate and sign the Declaration of Independence. For six years he was a punctual attendant of Congress, serving faithfully on important committees. He This episode in the history of Massachusetts is known as "Salem Witchcraft." It astonished the civilized world, and made was a member of the secret committee 16 Tyre 18=1692 According to the within mitton preceps Ghane taken the God FAC-SIMILE OF SHERIFF'S RETURN-EXECUTION OF A WITCH. an unfavorable impression on the sur- and of the board of war. Witherspoon, JOHN, signer of the Declaration of Independence; born in Gifford, Scotland, Feb. 5, 1722; was a lineal descendant of John Knox. Educated at the University of Edinburgh, he was licensed to preach at twenty-one. When the Young Pretender landed in England young Witherspoon marched at the head of a corps of militia to join him. He was taken prisoner at Falkirk, and In Congress he opposed the repeated issues of paper money, and he wrote and published much on the topics of the time. In 1783 he went to England to collect funds for the college. He died near Princeton, N. J., Sept. 15, 1794. Woedtyke, FREDERICK WILLIAM, BARON DE, military officer; born in Prussia about 1740; served for many years in the army of Frederick the Great, attaining the rank of major; came to the United States with letters of recommendation; settled in Philadelphia; and was made brigadiergeneral, March 16, 1776, and ordered to join the Northern army. He took part in the engagement at Crown Point; and died near Lake George, N. Y., July 31, when he was appointed United States eir1776. cuit judge. In 1802 he engaged in merWolcott, EDWARD OLIVER, legislator; cantile business in New York City, in born in Longmeadow, Mass., March 26, which he continued until the breaking 1848; studied at Yale College; was gradu- out of the War of 1812-15, when, with his ated at the Harvard Law School in 1871, son, he established an extensive manufacand began practising in Denver, Col., tory of textile goods at Wolcottville, where he became interested in silver min- Conn. He was governor of Connecticut ing; and was United States Senator from in 1818-27. He died in New York City, Colorado in 1889-1901. June 1, 1833. left a long manuscript poem descriptive of the Pequod War, which is preserved in the collections of the Connecticut Historical Society. He died in Windsor, Conn., May 17, 1767. Wolcott, OLIVER, signer of the Dec- Wolcott, ROGER, colonial governor; laration of Independence; born in Wind- born in Windsor, Conn., Jan. 4, 1679; was sor, Conn., Nov. 26, 1726; graduated at apprenticed to a mechanic at the age of Yale College in 1747; began studying med- twelve years. By industry and economy icine, but on being appointed sheriff of he afterwards acquired a competent fortLitchfield county, in 1751, he abandoned une. In the expedition against Canada it. He was in the council twelve years in 1711 he was commissary of the Connec(1774-86); also a major-general of mili- ticut forces, and had risen to major-gentia, and judge of the county court of eral in 1745, when he was second in comcommon pleas and of probate. In 1775 mand at the capture of Louisburg. He Congress appointed him a commissioner was afterwards, successively, a legislator, of Indian affairs to secure the neutrality county judge, chief-justice of the Supreme of the Six Nations, and he became a mem- Court, and governor (1751-54). In 1725 ber of Congress in January, 1776. After he published Poetical Meditations, and he the Declaration of Independence he returned to Connecticut, invested with the command of the militia intended for the defence of New York, and in November resumed his seat in Congress. Late in the summer of 1777 he joined the army under Wolfe, JAMES, military officer; born in Gates with several hundred volunteers, and Westerham, Kent, England, Jan. 2, 1727; assisted in the capture of Burgoyne and distinguished himself in the army when he his army. On the field of Saratoga he was was only twenty years of age; and was made a brigadier-general in the Conti- quartermaster-general in the expedition nental service. In 1786 he was chosen against Rochefort in 1757. At the second lieutenant governor of Connecticut, and served in that capacity ten years, when he was elected governor. He died in Litchfield, Conn., Dec. 1, 1797. Wolcott, OLIVER, financier; born in major-general, though only thirty-three Litchfield, Conn., Jan. 11, 1760; a son of years of age. On the evening of Sept. 12, the preceding; graduated at Yale College Wolfe, who had just recovered from a in 1778, and was a volunteer to repel the serious attack of fever, embarked with his British and Hessian marauders on the main army on the St. Lawrence, above Connecticut coast towns in 1779. He be- Point Levi, and floated up the river with came a volunteer aide to his father, and the flood-tide. He was preparing for an was afterwards a commissary officer. Ad- attack upon the French the next day. mitted to the bar in 1781, he was employed The evening was warm and starlit. Wolfe in the financial affairs of Connecticut; was in better spirits than usual, and at and in 1784 was appointed a commission- the evening mess, with a glass of wine in er to settle its accounts with the United his hand, and by the light of a lantern, he States. He was comptroller of national sang the little campaign song beginning: accounts in 1788-89, auditor of the United States treasury from 1789 to 1791, comptroller from 1791 to 1795, and Secretary of the Treasury from 1795 to 1800, capture of Louisburg by the English, in 1758, he acquired such fame that Pitt placed him at the head of the expedition against Quebec in 1759, with the rank of "Why, soldiers, why Should we be melancholy, boys? Why, soldiers, why, Whose business 'tis to die?" But the cloud of a gloomy presentiment of victory of the English fell upon his alsoon overcast his spirits, and at past mid- most unconscious ears. night, when the heavens were hung with black clouds, and the boats were floating silently back with the tide to the intended landing-place at the chosen ascent to the "Woman Order," THE, an order issued by General Butler, in New Orleans, which produced wide-spread indignation throughout the Confederacy. Many of the women in New Orleans, it was alleged, openly insulted the National officers and soldiers in the street by words and actions, and would leave street-cars and church-pews whenever Union officers entered them. Finally, it was alleged, a woman spat in the face of two officers who were walking peaceably along the street. General Butler, to arrest the growing evil, issued an order (May 15, 1862) intended to work silently, peacefully, and effectually. It was as follows: "As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject to repeated insults from the women (calling themselves ladies) of New Orleans, in return for the most scrupulous noninterference and courtesy on our part, it is ordered that hereafter, when any female shall, by word, gesture, or movement, insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her avocation." The conduct was not afterwards repeated. The was misrepresented in every "order" form, but sensible women acknowledged its justice. General Butler received from the Confederates the name of "Butler the Beast." President Davis issued a proclamation (Dec. 26, 1862), in which he pronounced Butler to be "a felon, deserving Await alike the inevitable hourThe paths of glory lead but to the grave." of capital punishment," and ordered that he should not be treated simply as a public enemy of the Confederate States of America, but as an outlaw and common enemy of mankind; and that, in the event of his capture, the officer in command of the capturing force do cause him to be im GENERAL JAMES WOLFE. (From a portrait by Schaak, in the National Portrait Gallery, London.) Plains of Abraham, he repeated in a low tone, to the officers around him, this touching stanza of Gray's Elegy in a Country Church-yard: "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, "Now, gentlemen," said Wolfe, "I would rather be the author of that poem than the possessor of the glory of beating the French to-morrow." He was killed the next day, and expired just as the shouts |