ISBN 0-9647362-2-5
$60.00

BETTER THAT
100 WITCHES
SHOULD LIVE

The 1696 Acquittal of Thomas Maule
of Salem, Massachusetts,
on Charges of Seditious Libel
and Its Impact on The Development
of First Amendment Freedoms

 JAMES EDWARD MAULE

Three hundred years ago, an outspoken Quaker
living in Salem, Massachusetts, criticized the self-
selected Church-State elite for its religious
persecution and intolerance, its attempt to impose
its views on the citizenry, its hypocrisy, and its
mismanagement of the witchcraft crisis. When
arrested and tried for seditious libel, he persuaded
a Puritan jury to disregard the Court's direction to
convict. In acquitting Thomas Maule of the
charges, the jury agreed with his principal
argument: The court had no right to suppress his
expression of religious belief.
     Thomas Maule's triumph over a coercive
theocracy was a significant event in the march
toward the adoption of the First Amendment.
Though this episode in the continuing battle
between lovers of liberty and those who fear
unfettered expression happened long ago, the
underlying tension between governmental control
and individual liberties continues unabated in the
late twentieth century. Book bannings, speech
codes, burnings of newspaper print runs, proposed
content restrictions on telecommunications
carriers, and other attempts to control and restrict
the words uttered by American citizens
demonstrate that modern repressionists need to
learn the same lesson Thomas Maule taught to the
Puritan elite: Advocating one's views through
carefully reasoned expression rather than coercive
imposition is the morally correct choice.

      (continued on back flap)

(continued from front flap)

     This book is an analytical biography not
only of Thomas Maule, the Salem Quaker, but also
of his legal encounter with the Puritan elite of
Massachusetts. In breaking with those who praise
Thomas Maule's acquittal as the "first victory for
freedom of the press in America," James Edward
Maule concludes that the acquittal contributed to
the idea that there were at least some matters on
which a person could comment without being
punished by the government and that the trial not
only influenced the development of First
Amendment rights in general, but also contributed
significantly to the establishment of the freedom of
religious expression.

     Reproduced in this volume, and available
for the first time in other than microform, are
Thomas Maule's four extant writings: the
offending treatise, Truth Held Forth and
Maintained, his sequel, New England Pesecutors
(sic) Mauled With their own Weapons, and two
letters, An Abstract of the Letter to Cotton Mather
and For the Service of Truth. Also reproduced is
Rev. Joseph R. Maule's previously unpublished
M.A. thesis, Basis for the Maule Characterizations
in the Romance, House of the Seven Gables.



James Edward Maule is a law professor at
Villanova University School of Law. The author of
The History and Genealogy of the Maule Family,
he has also written numerous tax and other books,
and is a recipient of the 1993 BNA Tax
Management Distinguished Author award.


Cover art   1995 Denis Andruchovici

A JEMBook Publishing Company Book
Published by James Edward Maule