This plain, courageous talk was badly needed just then and helped to clear confused minds. In conclusion the signers minced no words:

 Our troubles which have hitherto been great we foresee are likely to continue and increase; if other methods be not taken than as yet have been; for there are more of our neighbors of good reputation and integrity who are still accused and we know not who can think himself safe, if the accusation of children and others who are under diabolical influence shall be received against persons of good fame.

Here, at long last, was the voice of common sense. The appeal, probably composed by Mr. Dane, hurled back the charge of sinister influence on those who had been the accusers, where it properly belonged; for whatever was devilish about the witchcraft hysteria was inherent in the motives and machinations of the foolish girls and those mysterious background figures who abetted them. Dane's argument was corroborated by a young man named Thomas Brattle, a graduate of Harvard in the Class of 1676 and shortly to become its treasurer, who wrote a letter under date of October 8, 1692, to an unnamed clergyman, in which he spoke out frankly and fearlessly regarding "the delusion called witchcraft." Commenting on the judicial methods of the magistrates, he said:

This Salem philosophy, some men may call the new philosophy; but I think it rather deserves the name of Salem superstition and sorcery; and it is not fitt to be named in a land of such light as New England is. In language which Francis Dane and Dudley Bradstreet must have read with joy in their hearts, Brattle pointed out that the courts had accepted as evidence what amounted to little more than malevolent gossip and that it had listened to immature girls who were both mountebanks and liars. "Poor Andover," he added, "does now rue the day that ever the said afflicted went among them." Regarding the contemporary situation in that town, he commented:

 Now I am writing concerning Andover, I cannot omit the opportunity of sending you this information; that whereas there is a report spread abroad the country, how that they were much addicted to sorcery in the said town, and that there were fourty men in it that could raise the Devil as well as any astrologer, and the like; after the best search that I can make into it, it may prove a mere slander, and a very unrighteous imputation.

 Brattle stressed the fact that many of the victims "denyed their guilt and maintained their innocence for above eighteen hours, after most violent, distracting, and dragooning methods had been used with them, to make them confesse." Amplifying this statement, he wrote:

 Such methods they were, that more than one of the said confessours did since tell many, with teares in their eyes, that they thought their very lives would have gone out of their bodyes; and wished they might have been cast into the lowest dungeon, rather than be tortured with such repeated buzzing and chuckings and unreasonable urgings as they were treated withal.

 These practices seem to anticipate some of the cruelties of twentieth-century Nazis and Japanese. In his letter Brattle insisted that some of the best people in the Colony, "men for understanding, judgment, and piety inferior to few if any in New England," utterly condemned the proceedings and felt that the callous inquisitorial procedures might "utterly ruin and undoe poor N.E." Finally, in words which rang out strong and true, he called upon the approaching General Court to counteract the mischief caused by "these blind, nonsensical girls."

 Unfortunately this courageous rejection of the witch hunters and their procedures was not put into print at the time, but was unquestionably circulated in manuscript among selected legislators, and its contents were familiar to many persons. The fact that it was prepared by a reputable and responsible citizen indicates that the current of public opinion was being reversed and that at least a few intelligent observers were willing to listen to arguments. The General Court, swayed as such bodies usually are by political considerations, did little at that session to abate the hysteria. Nevertheless the clouds of fanaticism were clearing.

 Meanwhile people were getting a little bored with the flagrant exhibitionism of the Salem Village girls, and some incidents in Gloucester helped towards their discrediting and repudiation. The General Court had designated special sessions of the Superior Court of Judicature to complete the trials of fifty-two alleged witches still incarcerated. Observing signs of a change in sentiment and pushing their advantage, the relatives of the Andover prisoners sent on December 6 still another petition, complaining that many of the victims had been exposed to great suffering from cold and privation and were "in extream danger of perishing." Several of them were shortly released, but under heavy bonds. At this time the Reverend Mr. Dane addressed to the Court a respectful but insistent letter, under his own signature, covering the course of events as he was acquainted with it. Part of this highly interesting document reads as follows:

 Whereas there have been divers reports raysed, how and by what hands I know not, of the Towne of Andover and the Inhabitants, I thought it my bounden duty to give an account to others as farr as I had the understanding of anything amongst us. Therefore doe declare that I believe the reports have been scandalous and unjust, neither will bear ye light. As for that of the sieve and scissors, I never heard of it till this last summer, and the Sabbath after I spake publickly concerning it, since which I believe it hath not been tryed. As for such things of charms and wayes to find their cattle I never heard, nor doe I know any neighbors that ever did so, neither have I any grounds to believe it. I have lived above fortie foure years in the Towne and have been frequent among ye inhabitants and in my healthfull yeares oft at their habitations and should certainly have heard if so it had been. That there was a suspicion of Goodwife Carrier among some of us, before she was apprehended, I know; as for any other persons I had no suspicion of them and had charity been put on, the Devil would not have had such an advantage against us; and I believe many innocent persons have been accused and imprisoned; ye conceit of spectre evidence as an infallible mark did too far prevaill with us. Hence we so easily parted with our neighbors of an honest and good report and members in full communion; hence we so easily parted with our children when we knew nothing in their lives nor any of our neighbors to suspect them, and thus things were hurried on; hence such strange breaches in families; severall that came before me that spake with much sobrietie, professing their innocency, though through the Devil's subtilty they were too much urged to confess and we thought we did well in so doing; yet they stood their ground professing their innocency.

 It was indeed a gloomy story which the old gentleman, the scrupulous shepherd of his spiritual flock, had to recount; and in a postscript he struck an even more pathetic personal note: Concerning my daughter Elizabeth Johnson I never had any ground to suspect her, neither have I heard any other accuse her, till by spectre evidence she was brought forth; but this I must say, she was weake and incapacious, fearfull, and in that respect hath falsely accused herself and others. . . . The Lord direct & guide those that are in place and give us all submissive wills & let the Lord doe with me and mine what seems good in his own eyes.

 By the date of the meeting of the Superior Court on January 3, 1693, reason had been restored to most Andover citizens, thanks largely to the pertinacity of Mr. Dane. One gentleman, whose name has been withheld, when charged by an enemy with witchcraft, sued him for one thousand pounds for defmation of character; and this action made even the "teenagers" more cautious. When the court opened, the judges quickly agreed to eliminate "spectral evidence" as a basis for conviction, thus leaving valid only confessions by the defendants themselves. Of the fifty-three brought up for trial at this session, only three were convicted and sentenced, on the basis of their own foolish statements. Two of these, Sarah Wardwell and Elizabeth Johnson, were residents of Andover. Judge Stoughton also signed death warrants for five others who, although reprieved in September, still persisted in their confessions.

Extracted from chapter 8 of an out-of-print book called "Andover: Symbol of New England" by Claude M. Fuess.