The sun., 1891-06-03
Tho Alleged Letter of Cotton NIather

torK WnoIys uuu Cue SteDS 10 tudC euu SeeIu
to be rapid.
Tho Alleged Letter Of Cotton Mather.
In his sermon last Sunday on individual
interpretations Of the Christian creed. the
Rev. DR.. HRBEn NEWTON offered from the
pulpit. as an example OF eccentric religion
the subjoined letter purporting to have been
written by COTTON MATnEr, and only re.
Gently discovered and published:
September i5 1889.
ITO Ys Aged and Beloved. Mr.. JonS iiicaiSsos,
"Thers be now nt sea q ship called Welcome, which
has board 100 or moro Of the hers'ics and malie
nans called Quakers with ". PESS. who is the chief
scamp at tho head of them The General Court has
Accordingly given secret orders to Master MALACHI
luscorr OF the brig Porpoise to wav lay the raid Wei
come stlv rs near the Cape OF col ~ may be- and
make captive tho said PESS and his unRod!y crew. SO
that the Lord DO gioriaed and not nocked tho
soil Of this country with heather wo-shp Of
these people Much spoil can be made by selling the
whole lot to Barbadosa where saves fetch good prices
IN aud ar.a-: and we shnll not ony do the ord
great service by punishinR tho wicked but We shall
make srea. good for ms min'ste. and peop's.
''Yours in ye bowels of GaHisr
"Cor;o; MArHEa"
II this letter were genuine. it would be one
OF tho most astonishing epistlrs ever writ.
ten by theolozian. But it is still more as
tonishing that man like DR.. NEWTON
should accept It unhesitatingly and rass it
over to his flock without the slightest ex.
aminai ion Of the evidence Us to It's authen.
t;city. The document has been widely cir
culated In print as an historical curiosity.
Tho question Is whether it is not hoax.
Among Others mn ingenious writer in the
81. Louis Republic Inns subjected 1t to crit
ical analysis. Tho main points which the
Republic has made against tho genuineness
OF Tie letter Grc these. as wo remember
them without the article before us:
l. COTTON MArHEn did not promptly
receive shipping news by Atlantic cable, and
it was a physical impossibllity for him to
know by September l5 1852. that WILLIAM
PESN's ship Welcome had sailed for America
in that samc month Of the same year.
As matter OF fact, the CoTToN MArHER
letter to JOHN H1oa1NsoN. IL written at oil
by COTTON MATHER, must have been written
almost exactly at the time OF the departure
Of ths Welcome from London. The duration
Of PENN's voyage was six weeks; the date Of
his landing at Newcastle ON the Delaware
was October %. 1862. He must have
sailed about September IL, the dnte OF the
alleged letter. In reply to this objection 1t
might be said. we suppose. that the Quaker
haters OF New England were we'll informed
In advance as to the intended movements OF
the PENN colonists. WILLIAM PENIS char
ter 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 notorlety In theolog-
ical and maritime circles on both sides Of
the ocean that secret orders could easily
have been given before September 10 to Mas
ter MALACHI HUsCoTT OF the Porpoise to
intercept the vessel and sell tho Quakers for
rum and sugar for the glurncation OF tho
Lords cause.
g. COTTON MATIIER Is mRde TO speak OF
WILLIAM PENN as the "chicf scamp" at the
head OF the QuNkers. The Republic ma!n-
talns that scamp Is too modern word, in
the sense Intended. to have been applied by
COTTON MATuFR to PENN at that Period 1t
was not strong enough. 1t then implied tol-
Grafton and not unkndly feelings, Just as
We spenk Of child as little rogue.
To this it may be said that while scamp
was never used by SHAKESPEARE. 1t Is not
impossible that nearly century after
SHAKESPEARE verbal slugger so accom-
plished as CoTToN MATHER might easily
have found In tho old French escamper and
the Italian scampare just the cpithet he
needed to describe PENN's migration.
8. The business OF selling slaves In the
West Indies wns 30 we'll established as q
Boston industry at that time. according to
the Republic, and the return cargo was so
invariable, that CoTToN MATTER would not
have thought 1t necessary to explain the
state OF the market. or to mention rum and
sugar as the proceeds OF the proposed enter
prise. There is not much In this argument.
4. The last and perhaps on the surface
the strongest item Of internal evidence pro-
duced by tho Republic is tho 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 force an opistle. or to have
been In correspondence with the aged and
beloved JOHN HIadINsoS over themes like
this. or to have been In possession OF tue
secret intentions Of the Massachusetts, au-
thorities The Republic holds that by this
oversight the forger OF the letter has heed
leesly furnished proof OF Its spuriousness.
But does that follow? 1t Is true that
CoTToN MATHER was only 10 at tho date
OF the letter, but our esteemed contem-
porary over.ooks the fact that at 10 this
rcmar fs BILE person WAS rather an old young
man. He had been out Of Harvard College
about four years. He had already been
preacher for nearly two years. Ills hardly
less distinguished parent, INCREASE
MATHEn. was the pastor OF the North
Church, where only two years later the son
became his colleague. There is nothing
startling in the supposltion that II COTTON
MATHZR wrote the letter about the Quakers
at all. he wrote II at the age OF %.
We have not bocn examining the RSpub-