I'm reading The house of the Sevens Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Here's a quote that could hardly fail to remind me of our recent conversation about the cruel internment (and its aftermaths) of all Americans of Japanese descent however young, however aged, however infirm, however few drops of the blood of the Yellow Peril ran in their misfortunate veins:
"...Old Mathew Maule, in a word, was executed for the crime of witchcraft. He was one of the martyrs to that terrible delusion which should teach us, among its other morals, that the influential classes, and those who take upon themselves to be leaders of the people, are fully liable to all the passionate error that has ever characterized the maddest mob. Clergymen, judges, statesmen, the wisest, calmest, holiest persons of their day, stood in the inner circle round about the gallows, loudest to applaud the work of blood, latest to confess themselves miserably deceived." |
