Smith, Chambers, Nichols, Lodge, and Jameson.  All the lawyers were present except the attorney-general.  By the act of 1712, “for preventing, suppressing and punishing the conspiracy and insurrection of negroes and other slaves,"[247] a justice of the peace could try the refractory slaves at once.  But here was a deep, dark, and bloody plot to burn the city and murder its inhabitants, in which white persons were implicated.  This fact led the learned judges to conclude it wise and prudent to refer this whole matter to the Supreme Court.  And the generous offer of the entire bar of New-York City to assist, in turns, in every trial, should remain evermore an indestructible monument to their unselfish devotion to their city, the existence of which was threatened by less than a score of ignorant, penniless Negro slaves!

By the testimony of Mary Burton, Peggy Carey stood convicted as one of the conspirators.  She had already languished in jail for more than a month.  The judges thought it advisable to examine her in her cell.  They tried to cajole her into criminating others; but she stoutly denied all knowledge of the fires, and said “that if she should accuse anybody of any such thing, she must accuse innocent persons, and wrong her own soul.”

On the 24th of April, Caesar Varick, Prince Auboyman, John Hughson, his wife, and Peggy Carey were arraigned for felony, and pleaded not guilty.  Caesar and Prince were first put on trial.  As they did not challenge the jury, the following gentlemen were sworn:  Messrs. Roger French, John Groesbeck, John Richard, Abraham Kipp, George Witts, John Thurman, Patrick Jackson, Benjamin Moore, William Hammersley, John Lashiere, Joshua Sleydall, and John Shurmer.  “Guilty!” as charged in the indictment.  They had committed the robbery, so said the jury.

On the 3d of May one Arthur Price, a common thief, was committed to jail for theft.  He occupied a cell next to the notorious Peggy Carey.  In order to bring himself into favor with the judges, he claimed to have had a conversation with Peggy through the hole in the door.  Price says she told him that “she was afraid of those fellows” (the Negroes); that if they said any thing in any way involving her she would hang every one of them; that she did not care to go on the stand again unless she was called; that when asked if she intended to set the town on fire she said no; but she knew about the plot; that Hughson and his wife “were sworn with the rest;” that she was not afraid of “Prince, Cuff, Caesar, and Fork’s Negro—­not Caesar, but another,” because they “were all true-hearted fellows.”  This remarkable conversation was flavored throughout with the vilest species of profanity.  Notwithstanding this interview was between a common Irish prostitute and a wretched sneak-thief, it had great weight with the solemn and upright judges.

In the midst of this trial, seven barns were burnt in the town of Hackinsack.  Two Negroes were suspected of the crime, but there was not the slightest evidence that they were guilty.  But one of them said that he had discharged a gun at the party who set his master’s barn on fire, but did not kill any one.  The other one was found loading a gun with two bullets.  This was enough to convict.  They were burnt alive at a stake.  This only added fuel to the flame of public excitement in New York.