Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881. Excerpt: ... of them you must seek here. There are several points at which the history of Salem impinges upon that of the country at large. There are other matters which we are sure must have an interest for strangers. Hawthorne's personality; his contribution to American letters; are among them. The witchcraft delirium is one of them. We show the spots associated with the genius of Hawthorne, but the limit of time imposed forbids us to venture further. We show the material reminders of that monstrous fanaticism, the witchcraft frenzy, for which it is our lot to suffer unduly; the hill where its victims perished; the death-warrant formally endorsed with the record of the hanging; the childish gossip, which, having served for evidence, was solemnly recorded. All this we show, and it is amongst our contributions to your history, is it not?--this dreadful warning, pointed by the spectral, bloody finger of the past, teaching to all the future the lesson that fanaticism is an unsafe ally always. This lesson also we must leave to the silent eloquence of facts. To the War of the Rebellion, again, Salem contributed without stint and bore her honorable part in writing that lamented page in the history of the country. But we deal to-day with a remoter past. There are two or three points in our story on which we must not be silent. They take us back to the troubled period just before the war of Independence. They begin with the arrival of Gage, the first military governor of Massachusetts, bringing in his hand the obnoxious Boston Port Bill. They cover the immediate establishment, by royal orders, of the state Capital and Headquarters at Salem. They take us to the North Bridge, where our people and the King's troops sternly confronted each other with no advantage to the latter, ...
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