The governor was appalled at the rise of “the democratic spirit” and said it “needs to be checked” immediately. “The elements of which society here is composed” could never rule themselves, he warned London. They were fatally flawed humans, with a “low estimate placed on everything which can distinguish a man from his fellows.” Most galling to Denison was that the political pot was being stirred by the Irish rebels—his prisoners—“attempting to sow dissension among the people of this Colony.”
