this aider, shall ever be kept sacred and inviolate. To all
this you pledge your lives, your fortunes, and your sacred
honors, so help you God, and keep you steadfast."

Of this order there were and are in Maryland, State and
subordinate councils, and lodges in various quarters, the
members of which take, or have taken, and assumed upon
themselves, according to the rank or degree they hold or
held in the order, one, two, or all the above recited oaths or
obligations, as this minority are advised and believed would
have been shown, by full and perfectly reliable oral proof,
had the Committee summoned before them and examined on
oath the witnesses named to them for that purpose...This
minority, then, feel well-warranted in answering the first
branch of the inquiries enjoined upon the Committee, which
is, "Whether any, and if any, what secret political societies
exist in this State?" by saying that, according to the best
evidence the nature of the case will admit of,—under the re-
stricted exercise of the powers confided to them, resolved
upon by the majority of the Committee,—there was and is
a secret political society in this State styled the Know No-
thing society or order, and latterly sometimes called and
titling itself the American Party.

The second point of inquiry enjoined upon the Committee
was, " Whether any political society, secret or open, is known
to encourage or pursue purposes which tend to the subver-
sion of the well established and deeply cherished principles of
our government ?"

To this the response at once occurs, that there are no bet-
ter " established" nor more "deeply cherished principles of
our government, State or national, than those of civil and re-
ligious liberty and equality amongst its citizens—principles
which have been over and over again declared and proclaimed
to be fundamental by the first settlers of this State, by the
sages and patriots who led us triumphantly through our rev-
olutionary struggle, by those who framed and those who
adopted the federal constitution, as well as those who or-
ganized and adopted the constitution of Maryland, and until
very recently, cherished in the hearts and nourished in the
devoted affections of the whole American people. But, sad
to say, when we turn to the oaths and obligations just
quoted, we find there set forth as part and parcel of those
oaths and obligations, several stipulations and provisions at
war with these sacred principles, and which, if carried out,
not only tend to the subversion of, but actually subvert those
principles ! See the stipulation or sworn pledge in the oath
of the first degree, not to vote nor give influence for any men,
2

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