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as well as a God-fearing Christian.
It was not under his long and wise chief magistracy that religious bigotry and intolerance hung and tortured their victims, and the terrible delusion of witchcraft darkened the sun at noonday over Essex.
If he had not quite reached the point where, to use the words of Sir Thomas More, he could ‘hear heresies talked and yet let the heretics alone,’ he was in charity and forbearance far in advance of his generation.
I am sorry that I must miss an occasion of so much interest.
I hope you will not lack the presence of the distinguished citizen who inherits the best qualities of his honored ancestor, and who, as a statesman, scholar, and patriot, has added new lustre to the name of Winthrop.
Danvers, 6th Month, 19, 1880.
