The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1871-09-16
reformation.


A New Puritan Hero.$
The Boston correspondent Of the NeW Yorl
Tribune hiss been permitted to peruse sdvaac>
sheets Of work about tc be published By 4re
Spofford. entitled New England Legends" ed
las furnished that journal with the Outlines q
one of them which is worthy of having furaiehed
splot to the suthor of 1.-THE Scarlet Letter"
Giles Corey figures among the victims ct the
Salem witehcraft madness, but heretoisro not
ocnspicuoasly, Mrs. Spofford has ferreted out
the details Of that bloouy delusion frsn among
the town archives and family traditions. and has
restored him to his proper place In the history OF
fansticism. Heis described as "a man OF marked
traits, no: the least marked of which was IN I'M
bending will andIa hetrt that knew no fear"
He was rich and eighty years old when the OK.
citement about witchcraft began in his town of
Salem His wife, In discussion with him, ex.
pressed her disbelief in witchcraft; he was q
fanatical believer in it, and, true Puritan, was
~ much epraged at her heresy as q Salem car
pet.bagger missionary to Mississippi at the pres
emit day would be at the assertion that . slave
holder could escape eternal damnation. In HE
anger Corey exclaimed that ''the devil was in
her, and, for all he knew, she might be . witch
herself" Along with most of those who ven
tured to express any doubts of the manifestations
Of alleged witchcraft, she was arrested a. herself
awiteh- Two Of his four sons-in.law testified
in court to the language he had used to her, and
the old man himself, in defiance of well-known
and long established law, was called on to com.
NIT what that law calls the "treassn" of giving
evidence against his own wife. Bat he evaded
all Questions and her accusers, enraged by his
obstinscy, denounced him as her acoomplice,
and he was carried to prison as wizard. The
poor woman herself was banged.
In his cell te had leisure and solitude for re-
Election. Knowing that he was gsiltless OF witch
craft, he soon believed, if he had ever doubted,
that his wife was as innocent &c himself. His
old love for her came back in its full strength,
and as she was no more, it took the true Puritan
shape Of hatred of somebody else. Two of his
sonsin-law had stood by her as bravely as they
dared to do, and he resolved to reward them and
take vengeance on the other two, who had testi-
fled against her, by leaving his whole fortune to
theforner. He went about it with true Puri-
tan determination and thoughtfulness. As the
law then was, if an accused stood mute he could
not he tried, and the old man we'll kew that
whether he pleaded guilty or not guilty, his an
swering at all would lead to his trial and con-
viotion, with forfeiture Of his estate to the COL
ony. He carefully and deliberately made HE
viii. cutting of the obnoxious eons'in-law, and
leaving his estate to the ether two; and when
brought into court for trial, he refused to plead
at ell. As Massachusetts, law and philanthropy
OF that day directed in such a case, he was pc
to the torture to force him to plead; and from
that moment he never uttered syllable. This nm.
speaksble torture condemned one to a.dark coll;
there, with only a strip of clothing, to be laid
upon the foer, with an iron weight on the chest.
receiving the alternate fare of three ,raouthfuls
of bread one day, and the drafts. on the next Of
the nearest stagnant water, till obstinacy yield
ed or death arrived" This slow torture, which
Ire Stoves fictitious Legree weuld have shrunk
with horror from witnessing, was intenGfed in
Giles Corey's case, by INJECTING it on him ex-
posed to the open air, and the weights were of
stone 'fde was stroEg IN spite of his years
the anguish was long; pressed by the burthen,
his tongue protruded from his mouth con-
stable struck it back with his staff, bat not
word GENE with it, and he died unAincAingly,
never pleading guilty, or not guilty"
If anything could cover up the deep stain the
Salem witchcraft fanaticism has made On the
character o. the Massachusetts, Puritans ia his
tory, it would be that the same race and sect,
and the same times, produced such true hero
and martyr as GILES Corey. The Justice or So
yenge he sought was secured. and his will could
not be dieputed. But he had, for both himself
and his wife, tar nobler revenge which he had
not dreamed of. So palpsble judicial murder
made even Salem fanatics shudder with horror,
and their eyes were all At once opened to the
atrocity of the deeds which a gloomy supersti.
ton and blood thirty priestcraft had led them
to perpetrate. The tide Of popular sentiment
turned. and witchcraft and witch.hangiug we're
never again heard Of in Salem.-Ss Loa. Re.
publican.