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tempted investigation has been abandoned, and the mantle of
dignity assumed as defying or forbidding the inquiry.

Whatever the bad effects likely to flow from the cause re-
solved upon by the Committee, this minority were, and are,
powerless to prevent them. They were" overruled by a de-
cided majority of the Committee, who are presumed to reflect
the sentiments and wishes of the still more powerful majority
in the House. The undersigned can then only submit to a
power they have no means of controlling; and, abandoning all
hope of obtaining direct and positive proofs, as to the mat-
ters the Committee were commanded to inquire into, will now
proceed to examine, in the regular order of their succession,
the several points of inquiry, and to lay before the House upon
each the next best evidence the nature of the case admits of;
which they cannot and dare not omit to do,—the obligation
resting upon them being to perform their whole duty to the
best of their ability, ana as fully and perfectly as the means
allowed them, or within the reach of their power can be made
to avail to that end.

First, then, as stated in a preceding part of this report,
comes the inquiry, " Whether any, and if any, what secret po-
litical societies exist in this State?" In answer to this, the
undersigned beg leave to say, that it is a fact so universally
known and admitted, as no longer to admit of doubt or ques-
tion, that there arose in this State and country, within the
last two or three years, a political society, formidable both
in numbers and its influence upon elections, whose principles
and purposes were for a long time covered with an impene-
trable veil of secrecy, and who, bound together by secret oaths,
recognized each other by mysterious signs, grips and pass-
words, and acted always and every where in concert, and to
some common end or purpose.

This party openly assumed and became generally known
by the name of the Know Nothing party. It was not long be-
fore it became publicly known that its members had secret
places of meeting and, conference in almost every quarter of
the State and country, at which proselytes were made and
received, and where great vigilance and care were used to
prevent any thing that was done or said transpiring or com-
ing to the knowledge of the public. Secrecy continued to
shroud their principles and purposes in darkness; mystery
and novelty lent their united powers to work upon excited
curiosity, and are supposed to have won them many associ-
ates. Their successes in a number of elections alarmed the
fears and awakened the anxiety of the public; these led to
closer scrutiny and more diligent inquiry—the veil of secrecy