547 Sheet – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:

JACOB LEISLER

Jacob Leisler was seized and thrown into prison, along with his son-in-law and several of his adherents. The prisoners were immediately brought to trial before a special court of oyer and terminer. Six of the inferior insurgents were convicted of high treason and subsequently reprieved. Leisler and Milborne denied the governor's power to institute a tribunal for judging his predecessor and vainly appealed to the king. The trials proceeded before a tribunal erected for the purpose of giving the sanctions of the law to the determinations of power.

Joseph Dudley, the chief justice, had been expelled from Boston by the same general revolution to which Leisler owed his elevation. How could the latter expect a favorable appreciation of his conduct from a tribunal erected by his enemies and occupied by an exasperated antagonist? Refusing to plead to the charge against him, Leisler was convicted by the jury and condemned to death, along with Milborne, as a rebel and a traitor.

The governor hesitated to destroy the men who first raised the standard of William of Orange and Protestantism. "Certainly never greater villains lived," he wrote, but he "resolved to wait for the royal pleasure, if by any other means than hanging he could keep the country quiet." However, the enemies of Leisler were bent on his death. They invited Sloughter to a feast, and when his reason was drowned in his cups, he was prevailed upon to sign the death warrant. Before he recovered his senses, the prisoners were executed.

DOUGLAS JOSEPH (1650-1720)

Born in Massachusetts, Douglas Joseph was a judge at the time of the revolution in 1689, when he was imprisoned and sent to England with Andros. He was appointed Chief Justice of New York in 1690 and subsequently served as Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Wight and as a member of Parliament. He returned to Boston in 1702 as Governor of Massachusetts. No citizen of New England enjoyed so many public honors and offices. He was a learned man and, in private life, was amiable, dignified, and elegant in his manners. However, his conduct at the trial of Leisler is a blot on his character and was the ground of severe charges against him in England. He died in Roxbury, Massachusetts.