Night Essay, Research Paper

March 13, 2000

English 6

Dear Governor of Salem,

I thought I should write to you about the current upheavals of our community. I just do not understand why you are killing all these innocent people. It saddens me to see you make all these life changing decisions, without even considering the possibility of these children lying. Since when did you obtain the authority to slaughter all these women and children? You have no proof, nor evidence to convict these people. All you have is the testimony of a bunch of young girls. When in fact you should be questioning the young girls. I believe that Pairs said that he saw these same girls, dancing naked around a boiling culdern of fluid and dead animals. Now I may be an uneducated man, but if I was to convict anyone of witchcraft, it would definitely be those girls. The people you’ve decided to convict and hang, have either been, poor farmers, beggers, nonbelievers or people that were not know well. If you would have at least taken a couple minutes or even in hour to hear a these people had say, then maybe you would have realized, that these girls are just lying. Have you even taken into consideration how many children’s mothers will hang? Or how much pain the families of the victims will have to endur? I’m telling you as a friend and a villager, Please stop all these murders! These people do not have to die. I know that in some of these cases the evidence was leading towards witch craft, and I agree that those girls were very believable, but if you would have looked very closely, you could tell it was staged. Did you even notice that whenever Abby would collapse or scream that the other girls would start to scream shortly after? For instance, do you remember when we had just convicted Mr. Proctor of trying to overthrow the court, that after Elizabeth had given her confession, Abby started to scream, then the other girls started a little after? Another time was when Mr. Proctor told us about him having sex with Abby, did you notice that as soon as the situation was brought out, that she stopped yelling, and began to threaten the jury? Now would that have been a reaction that an innocent person would have made? Or would that have been a reaction that a guilty person would give. Now, I want you to sit back and ponder what I have said. Before you decide to come to any conclusions I want you to weigh out what I have mentioned, to what you have seen with your very own eyes. Are I’m going to warn you, that if these legal slaughters continue, that there will be arise in tension among the villagers. Do you really want to deal with that? The really want to deal with your people losing control? Do you think you can handle all of the village, while it is slowly turning into chaos? You now as well as I do, that if this slaughter continues, that you will be pulling people away from God. Because who said that God would damn towns of people, because some girls said that they were trying to take their souls? I mean think about, would you pray to a God that says that killing innocent people is right? I know I would not. Do you remember when Mr. Hale stated that whatever his conclusion was about the village, it would be honored? Do you call dismissing Mr. Hale like a child, as honoring his word? To me that seems considerably dishonorabe. That means that you lied. So what is that make you, does that give us the right to put you in jail? No it does not. Why? Because you are the governor, and you make the decisions. To me that is not sound right. I always used to think that God and the Bible had the last say in our fate. So why don’t you let God and the evidence judge us. On a personal note, my wife was going to have my baby and five months, but now since you have hung her, I have no child and no wife. My wife was a wonderful person, and she would have been a wonderful mother. That time has gone, and now she is with God. Do you want to do the same thing to Mr. Proctor? If you hang him, his child will grow up without any parents. If you had any decency, you would at least let Mr. or Miss Proctor live. I urge you to take what I have said to the consideration. Just remember you are judging a whole village, and you are condemning fathers, mothers and children. Also remember what the Bible and God teaches us about tolerance and love. Thank you for taking your time and reading this letter, I hope it has opened your eyes.

Sincerely,

The village Salem, MA.