Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-06-05
DR.. NEwTON's BLUNDER
In Giving Credence to an Alleged Letter of
Cotton Mather.
NeO York sun

ual interpretations Of the Christian
creed, the Rev. DR.. Heber Newton Of
fered from the pulpit, as an example of
eccentric religion, the subjoined letter
purpOrting TO have been written by Cot
ton Mather, and only recently discov-
cred and published
September Is, 1852
"To Ye Aged and Belored, Mr.. John Higgin-
son:
There be now at sea ship called Wei
come, which has on board 100 or more of the
hereticS and malignants called Quakers,
with w Penn, who IS the chief scamp a
the head of them. The General Court has
accordingly given secret orders to Master
Malachi Huscott, of the brig Porpoise, to
waylay the said Welcome slyly as near the
Cape of Cod as may be, and make captive
the said Penn and his ungodly crew, so that
the Lord may be glorified and not Knocked
on the soil of this new country with the
heather worship of these people. Much
spoil can be made by selling the whole lot
to Barbados, where slaves fetch good
prices in rum and sugar: and we shall not
only do the Lord great service by punish
ing the wicked but we shall make great
good for His minister and people.
Yours in We bowels of Christ,
COTTON MATHER.
If this letter were genuine, it would
be one of the most astonishing epistles
ever written by a theologian. But it is
still more astonishing that a man like
DR.. Newton should accept it unhesitat-
ingly and pass it over to his flock with
out the slightest examination of the
evidence as to its authenticity. The
document has been widely circulated in
print as an historical curiosity. The
question Is whether it is not a hoax.
Among others, an ingenious writer in
the St. Louis Republic has subjected it
to critical analysis. The main points
which the Republic has made against
the genuinenesS of the letter are these,
as we remember them without the ar
ticle before US:
l. Cotton Mather did not promptly
receive shipping news by Atlantic cable,
and it was a physical impoSSibility for
him TO know by September II, 1852, that
William Peun'S ship Welcome had sailed
for America in that same month of the
same year.
AS matter of fact, the Cotton Math-
er letter TO John HigginSon, if written
at all by Cotton Mather, must have
been written almost exactly at the time
of the departure of the Welcome from
London. The duration of PENIS vOy-
age was six weeks: the date Of his land
ing at Newcastle on the Delaware was
October 2S, 1852. He must have sailed
about September 10, the date Of the
alleged letter. In reply to this object
tion it might be said, we suppose, that
Quarker haterS of New England were
well informed in advance as to the in
tended movements Of the Penn colonists.
William PENIS charter from the
Crown had been obtained in 1851, and
the fitting out of the Welcome and the
probable time of her sailing were prob
ably matters of such notoriety in theo-
logical and maritime circles on both
sides Of the ocean that secret orders
could easily have been given before
September Is to Master Malachi Hus-
colt of the Porpoise to intercept the
vessel and sell the Quakers for rum
and sugar for the gloritication of the
Lords cause.
>. Cotton Mather is made to speak of
William Penn as the "chief scamp" at
the head of the QuakerS. The Rep1tb-
Tic maintains that scamp is too modern
word. in the sense intended, to have
been applied by Cotton Mather 70 Penn
at that period. 1t was not strong
enough. 1t then implied liberation and
not unkindly feelings, just as we speak
of child as little rogue.
To this it may be said that while
scamp was never used by Shakespeare,
it is not impossible that nearly a century
after Shakespeare verbal slugger so
accomplished as Gotten Mather might
easily have found in the old French
scdInper and the Italian Scdmpdre just
the epithet he needed to describe Penn's
migration.
3. The business of selling slaves in
the West Indies was so well established
as a Boston industry at that time, ac-
cOrding to the Republic, and the return
cargo was so invariable, that Cotton
Mather would not have thought it nee
esSary to explain the estate Of the mar
ket, or to mention rum and sugar as the
proceeds of the proposed enterprise.
There is not much in this argument.
4. The last and perhaps on the sur
face the strongest item of Internal evil
dence produced by the Republic is the
circumstance that at the date of the
letter Cotton Mather was boy of only
10. He was born in 1868. He was too
young, as our esteemed contemporary
apparently thinks, to have penned so
fierce an epistle, or TO have been in cor
reSpondence with the aged and beloved
John HigginSOn over themes like this,
or to have been in possession of the
secret intentions of the Massachusetts
authorities. The Republic holds That
by this oversight the forger of the let
ter has heedlesSly furnished proofs OF
its spuriouSneSs.
But does that follow? Iii true that
Cotton Mather was only 10 at the date
of the letter, but our esteemed cOntem-
porary overlookS the fact that at 10 this
remarkable person was rather an old
Young man. He had been out Of Harvard
College about four years. lie had already
been preacher for nearly two years.
His hardly less distinguished parent, In
crease Mather, was the pastor OF the
North Church, where only two years
later the son became his colleague.
There is nothing startling in the sup
position that if Cotton Mather wrote
the letter about the Quakers at all, he
wrote it at the age of 10.
We have not been examining the Repub-
lies grounds of disbelief with view TO
dissent from its conclusion that the
letter is bogus, but merely to call atten-
tion.to what seems TO US to be still
stronger internal evidence of fabrica-
ton.