Acting as a judge in the Salem trials, Deputy Governor Danforth is determined to preside over a just proceedings. He is representing not only himself but his office within Massachusetts. As both a politician and a public servant, Danforth is keenly aware of his own reputation and his responsibility to the colony’s people.
The “sir” to whom he is responding is Reverend Hale, who has just stated: “You must pardon them,” referring to Proctor and others who continue to claim their innocence. By the time Danforth he makes this response, a dozen people have already been hanged for witchcraft. The proceedings have gained publicity not only in New England but also throughout the rest of the colonies. To change course at this point would be a serious error, Danforth believes; it would cast doubt on all of the court’s previous decisions, which had sent so many people to their deaths. Although he sees that innocent people will be killed and surmises that some of those already killed were innocent, he is resolved to continue on the established course.
https://archive.org/stream/TheCrucibleFullText/The+Crucible+full+text_djvu.txt
Judge Danforth is determined to follow the letter of the law, come what may. And that law is very clear: anyone found guilty of witchcraft must hang. With impeccable logic, then, Danforth argues that if twelve people have already been hanged for witchcraft, then those subsequently found guilty of the same offense must suffer the same fate. Bizarre as it sounds, but Danforth actually seems to think that it would be unfair to those already hanged if those convicted of the same crime escaped the gallows. That none of these alleged witches were guilty of any crime seems not to have occurred to him.
What the above quotation shows is the extent to which the Salem witch-trials have got completely out of hand. They've taken on a life of their own to the extent that no one can stop them, even if they wanted to. Not that Danforth wants to stop them, of course; his whole reputation is bound up with the trials. If he suspends them now, he'll be forever damned in the eyes of his fellow citizens. But even if he woke up one morning and suddenly developed a conscience, he wouldn't be able to stop the Salem witch-trials. The situation is now completely out of his, or anyone else's, control.
Danforth utters these words during Act Four, when the Reverends Hale and Parris are trying to get him to pardon the convicted or postpone, respectively, the hangings that are scheduled to take place that day. The people to be hanged include Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor, both of whom are still well-respected in Salem. Hale has been attempting to get them to confess; he knows they are innocent, and if they confess, they can at least save their own lives. Parris is afraid that that if these people are hanged, the citizens of Salem will riot in protest. Danforth says that it would be unjust for him to pardon these individuals or postpone their executions, because they've already hanged twelve others for the same crimes. In other words, even if they are innocent, Danforth will not call off their executions, because it wouldn't be fair to the people they have already executed.
This impacts the play as a result of the irony of Danforth's statement. It is as though he recognizes the possibility that the people scheduled to die this day are actually innocent of the crimes of which they've been convicted, and yet he—a magistrate tasked with finding justice and pursuing it—considers it to be just to commit another egregious error simply because it would be consistent with the egregious error he's already made. Obviously, the just thing to do is to punish criminals and pardon the innocent, and yet this judge will do the opposite and call it justice in order that he not "crack [God's] voice with whimpering," as he believes that he "speak[s] God's law." Danforth's ironic, not to mention tragic, justice confirms the terrible corruption of this court.
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