Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/208

184 them without astonishment, nor with honor suffer the House to sit any longer;" and he accordingly dissolved it. In 1741, Clarke, again endeavoring to bring the Assembly to his views, took occasion to charge upon them a settled purpose or desire of independence, a charge which the Assembly denied, and no doubt correctly, for, however tenacious the colonists were of what they held to be their just rights and privileges, there is no probability whatever that at that time there was any idea of a formal severing the connection with the mother country. Clarke at last yielded to the necessity of the case, and accepted such grants as the Assembly chose to make.

In this year, a delusion, not so famous as the Salem witchcraft, but, in proportion, quite as sanguinary, occurred in New York, commonly known as the "Negro Plot." The frequent occurrence of fires, most of which were evidently caused by design, first excited the jealousy and suspicion of the citizens. Terrified by danger which lurked unseen in the midst of them, they listened with eager credulity to the declaration of some abandoned females, that the negroes had combined to burn the city, and make one of their number governor. Many were arrested and committed to prison. Other witnesses, not more respectable than the first, came forward; other negroes were accused, and even several white men were designated as concerned in the plot.

When the time of trial arrived, so strong was the prejudice against the unhappy black men, that every lawyer in the city volunteered against them, and Chief Justice Delancey exerted the influence of his high station against them. Ignorant and unassisted, nearly all who were tried were condemned. Fourteen were burned, eighteen were hung, and seventy-one were transported. Of the whites two were convicted, and suffered death.

All apprehension of danger having subsided, many began to doubt whether there was really any plot at all. None of the witnesses were persons of credit; their stories were extravagant, and often contradictory; and the project was such as none but fools or madmen would form. The two white men were respectable; one had received a liberal education, but he was a Roman Catholic, and the prejudice against these was too violent to permit the free exercise of reason. Some of the accused were doubtless guilty of setting fire to the city; but the proof of the alleged plot was not sufficiently clear to justify these judicial murders, which disgrace the annals of New York.

In 1743, George Clinton, a younger son of the Earl of Lincoln, was sent over as governor of the colony. One oi his earliest measures confirmed the favorable accounts which had preceded him, of his talents and liberality. To show his willingness to repose confidence in the people, he assented to a bill limiting the duration of the present and all succeeding Assemblies. The House manifested its gratitude by adopting the measures he recommended for the defence of the province against the French, who were then at war with England. In