This letter has been long over due, there lurks in my heart and in my spirit a sorrow for what had happened on that cold morning many years past. My heart and spirit are ailed with remorse of my ignorance to the righteousness that was so apparent in your husband and the malevolence in myself.
I was so devout in the salvation of my reputation versus the upholding of true puritan values as your husband did. And as I lay here, an old man facing death, looking back on your husband's bravery and my cruelty, I ask for your forgiveness. I am no good man and I do not deserve it, but I cannot bear with the pain of my blindness and cruelty to your husband's devotion to puritan virtues.
I am haunted by my decision to hang your husband. I should not have given into my pride and should have called off the hangings after it was abundantly clear that the trials were nothing but a scheme for revenge. There was nothing more evident of this then when Abigail had run away the very day of the hanging, and yet I was firm on my decision to hang your husband. I thought myself so fondly when I truly was the opposite of good and proper and your husband was the exact definition.
At my final hour, I ask for your forgiveness of my treachery and my cruelty. I bear all my sins of the trial to you and God as I enter another court, a supreme court. I bid you farewell, and I bid you my apologies.
Sincerely,
Danforth
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