On the 6th of June, McKemie (Hampton being discharged, no evidence against him having been presented to the grand jury) was brought to trial before Chief Justice Mompesson, and the Associate Justices Milward and Wenham. Attorney-General Bickley, "who was rather remarkable," says Smith, "for a voluble tongue than a penetrating head or much learning," managed the proceedings in behalf of the Crown, Messrs. Nicholls, Jamison and Reignere on the part of the defendant. The indictment was that McKemie, pretending "to be a Protestant dissenting minister, contemning and endeavoring to subvert the Queen's ecclesiastical supremacy, unlawfully preached, without the Governor's license first obtained, in derogation of the royal authority and prerogative; and that he used other rites and ceremonies than those contained in the common prayer book." The indictment farther charged that the defendant, not being legally qualified to preach, did nevertheless preach and at an illegal conventicle being contrary to the form of the ecclesiastical statutes of England. Bickley insisted upon the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Queen; that it was delegated to the Governor, and hence that the latter's instructions had the force of a law. He contended also for the extension of the statutes of uniformity. Reignere, on the contrary, contended that, by the common law, preaching was no crime; that the Governor's instructions were not laws, and that the statutes of uniformity and the toleration act did not extend to the Province. Nicholls and Jamison spoke to the same effect. McKemie concluded with a speech in his own defense, which according to Smith placed "his capacity in a very advantageous light." A special verdict was advised by Chief Justice Mompesson, but the jury acquitted McKemie, who was not, however, freed from his recognizance until he had been compelled to pay all the fees of his prosecution.' The trial of Van Dam, in 1733, and of Zenger, in 1735, will be noticed in the description of the Court of Exchequer. The former, by being the means of Chief Justice Morris' removal by Cosby, on 1 For a full report of this trial, see Force's Historical Collections, vol. 4. account of his opinion that the Supreme Court had no authority to proceed in equity, contributed largely to the division of the Colony into two parties. The controversy between the two existed for many years, with the Court of Chancery as the principal bone of contention. The latter trial vindicated humble weakness and the liberty of the press against oppressive proceedings on the part of power, as well as the doctrine that truth should constitute a defense in libel, and that the jury are the judges both of the law and the fact.1 The last to be noticed is the Negro Plot. In its narrative will be found such credulity and cruelty, and such a prostration of all that appertains to a manly nature before universal fear, as have been rarely recorded. True, the acts were committed when the whole community lived in dread of the slaves; but even with the greatest allowance, it is difficult to realize how men of education and ability, of stainless reputation and moral worth, could so far warp the sanctities of law, and so far forget the common instincts of humanity, as to commit such acts, and that too without mercy or remorse. The narrative of the Plot was drawn by a participant in its excitements and a firm believer in its existence. Daniel Horsmanden was the author, then the third justice of the Supreme Court and Recorder of the city of New York. He, in connection with Chief Justice De Lancey, or Frederick Philipse, Second Justice, sat on the bench on nearly if not all the trials of those charged with this (to use his own language) "inhumane, horrible enterprize," in which trials, "so many of the wicked instruments of it were brought to justice, whereby a check has been put to the execrable malice and bloody purposes of foreign and domestic enemies, though we have not been able entirely to unravel the mystery of this iniquity; for 'twas a dark design, and the veil is in some measure still upon it." In the spring of 1741, a strange rumor began to creep through the little city of New York, numbering about ten thousand inhabitants, of whom between seventeen and eighteen hundred, men, women and children, were slaves.1 1 Gouverneur Morris declares this trial to be the germ of the American Revolution. The rumor was, that a plot existed among the slaves to burn the city and massacre the inhabitants. This received countenance, from the fact, that in 1712 an insurrection had occurred among the slaves, who had set a house in flames, and before their dispersion by the train band had put several citizens to death. The commencement of this excitement was the robbery, on the night of the 28th of February, 1741, of a house belonging to Robert Hogg, a merchant of the city of New York, of coins, medals, wrought silver, &c. Suspicion was pointed at John Hughson, the keeper of a low tavern, to which negroes were in the habit of resorting. A girl of sixteen, Mary Burton, an indented servant of Hughson, informed against the latter, who acknowledged that a portion of the goods had been brought to his house, which portion he delivered to the magistrate. 1 The city extended then from Fort George (a square with four bastions), at the present Battery, north along the east side of Broadway, as far as the present Spruce street, a little beyond the commencement of the city commons, which extended upward. Along the East river the houses were quite compact, and there were public markets at the foot of each street. The Dutch, English and French churches, and the City Hall (the latter in Wall street), were near each other, toward the upper part of the city. The winding streets were, in the summer, embowered in the foliage of the water beach and locust. The commons (the present park) were uninclosed, bounded to the east by the road to Boston (Chatham street), and by Broadway, to the west. This area, the site of an Indian village, was in early Dutch times known as the Vlachte, and was the pasturage ground of the gables scattered around a fort, known as New Amsterdam, where the kine grazed under the superintendence of a city herdsman; in it, on the 30th of July, 1673, Colve's troops formed for their march down Broadway to the successful attack on Fort James (as the fort was at that time called), then under command of Captain John Manning, and it was the scene of the executions in the Negro Plot. Valentine's Manual and History of New York. A line of palisades extended from the Hudson to the East river, about where runs the present Chambers street, with a block-house a little east of Broadway. Beyond the palisades to the north were the two Collect ponds. On the west side of Broadway was the King's Farm, and in the corner, formed by George and Frankford streets, was the grave of the patriot Leisler. A palisade also extended at the north or land side of Fort George. Another inmate of Hughson's, Peggy Kerry, who had previouly resided at one John Romme's, was also implicated by Mary in the robbery. Both Hughson and Peggy, although they denied the charge, were committed to prison. On the eighteenth March following, a fire occurred by which the Government House, the King's Chapel, the Secretary's office, the barracks and stable, all situated at Fort George, were consumed. This created alarm, and in the evening the captain of a militia company beat to arms and had over seventy men ready for service all night. This fire was followed day after day by other burnings, many of them, however, merely those of chimneys. Although the conflagration at Fort George was accounted for by Lieutenant-Governor Clarke himself, in a message to the Assembly, from the sparks of a fire-pot, carried by a plumber who that morning had repaired the gutter between the Government House and Chapel, others were most probably incendiary, and the whole lashed the community into the greatest terror. Some time previous, a Spanish vessel, a portion of its crew being negroes, had been brought to New York as a prize, and the negroes sold at vendue, having been condemned by the Court of Admiralty as slaves. Asserting themselves freemen, they complained of being thus sold. A cry was immediately raised against them as being implicated in the fires; they were imprisoned and at length the slaves of the city, as a body, became the objects of suspicion. Many were hurried off to jail, and the panic increasing, the Lieutenant-Governor, at the request of the Common Council, issued a proclamation offering one hundred pounds to any white person and a pardon (if concerned therein); twenty pounds, freedom and pardon to any slave with twenty-five pounds to his master, and forty-five pounds with pardon to any free negro, mulatto or Indian, who should discover any one concerned in the fires. Mary Burton, after this proclamation, at the session of the Supreme Court, held on the 22d April of the said year (1741), stated to the grand jury that she had heard three negroes, Cuffee, Cæsar and Prince, who were in the habit of meeting at Hughson's, talk while there of a plan to burn the town in the night, and when the white people came to extinguish it, to destroy them; that her master (Hughson) and mistress promised to aid the negroes, and when all was accomplished that Cæsar was to be Governor and Hughson King; and further, that she never saw any white persons present when the burning of the town was talked of, but her master, mistress and Peggy Kerry. The Second and Third Justices holding the court, viz., Frederick Philipse and Daniel Horsmanden, summoned the seven lawyers of the city, Messrs. Murray, Alexander, Smith, Chambers, Nicholls, Lodge and Jamison (the Attorney-General, Bradley, being indisposed), for counsel in the emergency; the term of the Supreme Court, limited to eight days, was enlarged, and the above lawyers offered their assistance in their turn at every trial of the conspirators. Every day there were examinations and confessions. Peggy Kerry at first denied all knowledge of the alleged conspiracy, but at length, Hughson, his wife Sarah, and herself, having been convicted as receivers of the stolen goods belonging to Hogg, Peggy implicated John Romme (who also kept a low tavern) and his wife, in the conspiracy, with several negroes other than Prince and Cæsar who had previously been convicted as principals in the robbery of the said goods. The latter were hanged for the robbery, denying to the last, however, any knowledge of the conspiracy, and the body of Cæsar, was hung in chains. The negroes implicated by Peggy were arrested, as was Romme's wife, but Romme absconded, although subsequently retaken. On the twenty-ninth of May, Quack (another negro implicated) and Cuffee were brought to trial for the conspiracy. The Attorney-General appeared for the prosecution, assisted by Messrs. Murray and Smith. The prisoners had no counsel. Mary Burton was the principal witness; other witnesses, among whom was Arthur Price, a thief, and two negroes, also bore evidence against the prisoners. Witnesses on their side were called, but the prisoners were convicted and sentenced to be burned at the stake. Although they had previously asseverated their innocence, while at the stake they made all the required admissions and, in compliance with the wishes of the excited populace |