| Show BEN HE WRITES A remarkable LETTER TO CAPT W P BLACK the following letter from gen B F butler batler to capt W P black is given to the public t through the columns of the local press 1 I am in v very e r nine much h obliged to you for your letter and I 1 am also thankful for the recel receipt pt of vo your ur ar argument ament to the jury I 1 in the case of spies Spie iret et al or what will be knowlin know nin the long history as the anarchist case our pleasant acquaintance under the most unpleasant circumstances the joint unsuccessful alvo advocacy cacy of life tor or men who were unlawfully convicted and unwisely executed has given me an insight into your purpose aad character obar Ghar acter and will make our friendship a lasting fasting one at least on my side 1 I had not believed it possible that palpable judicial murders could again prevail in this country they once did in what we have been accustomed to re regard ard as the best and purest days of tae the coi colonies onies it is less than two centuries since seven men of the highest standing a majority majo ridy of whom were reverend gentlemen clergy menas good and pious meu as ever lived as ex Ibm plary la in every relation of life as it was possible for men to be sat oat in a so called court of justice each morning session whereof was opened with ler vent prayer to the divine source of all knowledge grace and power to direct the actions of his servants as the judges of that sturt court and in that court were arraigned day after day poor miserable broken down superstitious 0 u 3 women and children upon the accusation that they had commerce with the devil and used his power as a means of spite upon their neighbors and as one of the means of inflicting 7 torture because thereof the devil empowered these poor cres creatures tures to shoot common house pins from a distance into the flesh of their neighbors call dran by which they were greatly afflicted being put into the bar to be tried they were not allowed counsel and thank god our profession was not disgraced because the attorney general was waa a merchant the deluded creatures sometimes pleaded guilty and sometimes not guilty but in either event they were found guilty gaily and executed and the pins which were produced lu in evidence can now be seen aymong tile the records of that courtin the court house of the county of essex massachusetts and beyond all this that court enforced worse than the tortures 0 of inquisition dreadful wrongs dpn a prisoner in order to accomplish his bis conviction giles corey was an old man eighty years of age he had a daa daughter ahter some forty years of age simpleminded simple minded notable not able to earn tier her own living and a small farm arm and a piece of land and a house bouse there thereon on which he hoped to leave to his big darall ter at his bis then impending death giles was accused of being a wizard his life had been blameless in everything except his supposed commerce with the devil upon ex parte testimony lie he was indicted for this too great intimacy with the evil one and set to the bar to be tried for his bis life giles knew that if he pleaded not guilty he was sure to be convicted because that was the doom of the anarchists of that day and it if he pleaded guilty he be would woud be to deatti deaia and in either case the farm would be forfeited to the king butia but it he did not plead at ai all such was tile the law then he could not dot be tried at all and his property could not be forfeited to the king and taken aken from his daughter so giles mute and put the court at deafoe deao oe and thou that bourt of P OUS clergymen gy ller resorted to a method ethod to make him plead which had wit wt been in practice in england for two hundred years and never here and poor giles was taken and laid on the ground by the he side of the court house bouse on his back with the flashing sun burning in his eyes and a single cup of water from the ditch of the jail jai with a crust crest of bread vias mas given him once in twenty four hours houra and weights were placed upon his body until at last tile the life was crushed out of himbur not the fathers love for his child he died but not until his parched tongue protruded from the old mans fevered amouta mouta it was thrust back by tile the chief justice with his cane the cherished daugh daughter teT inherited being fully imbued wit knowledge of what good men W aiu 14 do when they are arc e bihr A i baet h eadd for or their souls a 0 X W her banea ea I 1 if has not been to fe ige a source o ca at so ao much wonder as 0 arce it mi Q otherwise berwise have been how the law was administered in frenzy in chicago years hence when you and I 1 have passed away the cases of giles corey and the witches and the cases of the anarchists will be compared by just jast aln minded benm fenimore men imore ore than they are now I 1 alep hope 0 e cherem there may y one tact fact follow in th the e a anarchists Cs cases e 8 that tbt followed in the witches eases cases judge sewall a reverend gentleman one of the judges of the wit witches coes before he died learn learned edlow now had erred and sinned before god and he repented in sackcloth and ashes literally coming out in the face of his colre gatior and standing in toe the broad aisle of the church exclaiming while his bis written confession of his sins and folly in the witches case was being red read alas aias god have mercy on me what I 1 have done 1 I 1 hope you biu live to be present when ope one 61 d the fhe judges before whom you argued will find it his duty to take a like step but I 1 fear that while he be has had bad the tae incredible lolly folly ot of judge sew saw all in the treatment of his bis prisoners he wont nave have the piety of sewall la in publicly appealing to his bis god tor for mercy as an example against all others offending in like manner A learned and upright judge writing the I 1 judicial history of witchcraft crait in ia this country sums up as follows it if the popular cry is to be the standard of baat what is right the security of property is at an end personal liberty is no longer safe and the blood of toe innocent will often seat the triumph of a popular administration of justice in the triumph atrium h of popular vengeance fater some later writer on judicial proceedings ce comparing ceca paring the judicial murder of the witches with toe the trial of the anarchists will close by saying alas how surely from age to age doth history repeat herself one further tact fact which I 1 send to you for your comfort the determined action of a single member of our profession standing up against this craze brought it to an end I 1 look for like fruits to come from what you have done I 1 I 1 journal april eth 1888 |
