\headline={\hfil 10 May, 1703}
\nopagenumbers
\noindent Dear People of Salem, \bigskip

You each and all embody the corruption of Godgiven morality, and I condemn you on His behalf.
There is no excuse for your unjust convictions of myself, my wife, and our fellow countrymen.
Your rascality forces me to die for your indulgences---something no man ought face without cause, of which I know you to have had none for you heathens would have taken any confession, regardless of its truth simply to save your reputations.
My name has been preserved but not without the loss of fibrousness throughout the great providence of Massachussets.
Had I falsely confessed as you sinners wish, I would become equally corrupted; I would be a co-conspirator in the murder of my wife and of Rebecca.
And it is by your illicit errors.

Parris, you could not see past your own greed and conniptions.

Putnam and Goody Putnam, you have wrought upon us your ineptitudes, and you have permitted no man to escape your lust.
Both of you lust yet for power, for land, for wealth without bound.
It is not a Godfearing man's prerogative to accuse his fellows of wizardry and bewitching.
But it is that of a scoundrel.

And Abigail, you have committed the gravest sin yet: false witness, adultery, and disrespecting God Himself.
It is not my position that you are deserving of hanging or of burning at the stake.
But Abigail, girl, you have atonement yet far beyond any reasonable amount for any singular person.

God scowls at your souls, for the barbaric murder of Rebecca---the godliest woman any of you have set your eyes save Mary of Nazareth herself.
For the inhesitant killing of Elizabeth.
For thine false witness and thine worship of those other than Him.
For the ineptitude and for your inconsiderations.
How may you walk free from your sins when you could have prevented every death by your very own hands.

If Danforth were but an iota less hasty, if Parris had listened to but a fragment of Rebecca's words, if Abigail and her goons were not trusted beyond the word of god Himself, if Putnam had admitted to a singular falsity, if Corey's witness were not neglected beyond sense, perhaps I would not be hanged.

\bigskip
\noindent Yours truly,
%\noindent Fuck you,
\smallskip\noindent John Proctor

\bye