Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-05-25
ANTI-sLAvERY BUGLE, SALEM, o.

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zed witchcralt as a crime, and thousands
and tens of thousands had suffered the
extreme penalty for it, there was obvi-
ously little chance Of convicling any one
accused of it in an ordinary court of jus.
tice, surrounded by theforms and techni.
c%alities of the common law. The sub
iect transcended the senses, and dealt in
evidence which must be ruled out Of any
common-sense court.
The Royal Governor, Sir William
Phipps, arrived in May, bearing the new
charler-a man after Cotton Makers
own heart. He regarded himself as d.
vinelv raised up for this awful crisis, and
without the slightest misgiving in regard
to his utter want Of authority, established
a special commission for the counties Of
Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex, TO try
these cases. The commission Of this
perfectly illegal tribunal bore date the Cd
of June, 1902, and on that very day it
proceeded to try Bridget Bishop, an old
woman who had been suspected of witch.
craft twenty years before. The commits.
sion consisted of Lieut.. Governor VIM.
Stoughton-tho same who afterwards
built %S!oughton Hall at Cambridge-Jon.
nlhan Curwin, John Richards. Barlholo.
NEW Gedney, Wait Winthrop, Samuel
SowaIl, and Peter Sergeant. Nathaniel
Saltonstall, at first appointed, refused to
pnct, and Curwin was put in his place.
Not one Of these judges was "a lawyer.
Two of them had been educated as min.
listers, W o as physicians, and one as a
merchant. Thomas Newton was COM.
missioned as attorney general, and Ste
phen Sewall, as clerk. Whether either
of them was a lawyer VIC do not ascer-
tain; but, at all events, the proceedings
before the court had no farther rcsem-
blance TO legal ones, that the forms ofin-
dictment and verdict. There was no
challenging Of jurors, no sitting of testi-
mony, no exclusion of irrelevant matters.
no pleading Of eloquent lawyers in de-
fence, giving the accused the benefit Of
flaws and doubts. There was nothing to
stop The sweep Of the popular prejudice,
or prevent the court from consummating
a Iorcgone conclusion. No Lynch
Court, sitting on an unfortunate abolition
ist, ever manufactured evidence more
perfectly TO its mind, or with less scru-
pulousness, han this High Commission
of sanity puritans.
The indictments were first drawn up,
and the chief justice charged the grand
jury that they were lot 10 mind whether
the afflicted were really pinned and conSu-
med as was expressed in the Indictment,
but whether the afflicted did not suffer
from the accused such Affections as natu-
rally tended 10 their being pinned and con-
sumed. This, he said, was pining and
consuming in the sense of the law. We
give below the indictment accordingly
found against Bridget Bishop, the first
put upon trial, rs a sample of all -
Tue INDICTMENT OF BR1DGEr BisHop.
ESSEX SIS. Ammo Regni Regis q Re-
ginn WiIlielmi q Mario,
nune Anglia, sc, quartz
"The Jurors for our sovereign lord and
lady the king and queen present, that
Bridget Bishop. alias Oliver, the wife of
Edward Bishop, in Salem, in the county
ofEsseX, suwyer, the nineteenth Of April;
in the fourth year of the reign oiour SOW
ereign lord and lady William and Mary,
by the grace of God, Of England. Scot
land, France and Ireland. king & queen,
d TENDERS Of The faith, &C., and divers
other days and times, as well before as
after, certain deteslable arts, called witch
crafts and soceries wickedly and feIoni-
ousIy hath used, practised and exercised,
at AMI within the township of Salem, in
The county Of Essex, aforesaid, in, upon,
aud against one Mercy Lewis, of Salem
Village, in the county aforesaid, single
woman; by which said wicked arts the
said Mercy Lewis, the said 10Th day of
April, in the Alb year above said, and di.
yers other days and times, as well before
as after, was and is hurt, tortured, adlic.
ted, pined, consumed, wasted and tor
mented, against the peace of our sover-
eign lord and lady the king and queen,
and against the form Of the statute in thai
case made and provided.
Endorsed, Billa Vera.
"Witnesses, Mercy Lewis, Nathaniel
lngersoll, mr., Samuel Paris, Thomas
Putnam, junior, Mary WaIcott, Junior,
Ann Putnam, junior, EIiz Hubbard, and
Abigail Williams"
1t will be almost incredible 10 those
who have been taught 10 respect their
ancestors that the evidence admitted on
trial differed not materially from that on
the preliminary examination. First the
afflicted were sworn 10 testify as to who
afflicted them. Then those who to save
their lives had confessed themselves
guilty Of having sold themselves to the
devil and renouncod allegiance 10 their
Maker, were called upon 10 testify what
they knew. The absurdiIy of this was
remarked, but without effect, at the time.
Afterwards proclamation was made to
any n who chose to come forward and
testify, and in this way the most irrele-
/, want stories were raked up from former