conspiracy on so large a scale should have existed in embryo during four
years, and in an active form for several months, and yet have been so
well managed, that, after actual betrayal, the authorities were again
thrown off their guard, and the plot nearly brought to a head
again,--this certainly shows extraordinary ability in the leaders, and a
talent for concerted action on the part of slaves generally, with which
they have hardly been credited.

And it is also to be noted, that the range of the conspiracy extended far
beyond Charleston. It was proved that Frank, slave of Mr. Ferguson,
living nearly forty miles from the city, had boasted of having enlisted
four plantations in his immediate neighborhood. It was in evidence that
the insurgents "were trying all round the country, from Georgetown and
Santee round about to Combahee, to get people;" and, after the trials, it
was satisfactorily established that Vesey "had been in the country as far
north as South Santee, and southwardly as far as the Euhaws, which is
between seventy and eighty miles from the city." Mr. Ferguson himself
testified that the good order of any gang was no evidence of their
ignorance of the plot, since the behavior of his own initiated slaves had
been unexceptionable, in accordance with Vesey's directions.

With such an organization and such materials, there was nothing in the
plan which could be pronounced incredible or impracticable. There is no
reason why they should not have taken the city. After all the governor's
entreaties as to moderate language, the authorities were obliged to admit
that South Carolina had been saved from a "horrible catastrophe." "For,
although success could not possibly have attended the conspirators, yet,
before their suppression, Charleston would probably have been wrapped in
flames, many valuable lives would have been sacrificed, and an immense
loss of property sustained by the citizens, even though no other