given to the testimony. Even the _National Intelligencer_, at Washington,
passed lightly over the affair, and deprecated the publication of
particulars. The Northern editors, on the other hand, eager for items,
were constantly complaining of this reserve, and calling for further
intelligence. "The Charleston papers," said the Hartford _Courant_ of
July 16, "have been silent on the subject of the insurrection; but
letters from this city state that it has created much alarm, and that two
brigades of troops were under arms for some time to suppress any risings
that might have taken place." "You will doubtless hear," wrote a
Charleston correspondent of the same paper, just before, "many reports,
and some exaggerated ones." "There was certainly a disposition to revolt,
and some preparations made, principally by the plantation negroes, to
take the city." "We hoped they would progress so far as to enable us to
ascertain and punish the ringleaders." "Assure my friends that we feel in
perfect security, although the number of nightly guards, and other
demonstrations, may induce a belief among strangers to the contrary."

The strangers would have been very blind strangers, if they had not been
more influenced by the actions of the Charleston citizens than by their
words. The original information was given on May 25, 1822. The time
passed, and the plot failed on June 16. A plan for its revival on July 2
proved abortive. Yet a letter from Charleston, in the Hartford _Courant_
of Aug. 6, represented the panic as unabated: "Great preparations are
making, and all the military are put in preparation to guard against any
attempt of the same kind again; but we have no apprehension of its being
repeated." On Aug. 10, Gov. Bennett wrote the letter already mentioned,
which was printed and distributed as a circular, its object being to
deprecate undue alarm. "Every individual in the State is interested,
whether in regard to his own property, or the reputation of the State, in
giving no more importance to the transaction than it justly merits." Yet,