7                                           

strument of " undisguised tyranny "from which very strong
declarations it is apparent that the secret associations that
have come to the knowledge of the Executive, are even more
formidable in the apprehension of the Executive than the
ominous aspects of the slavery question, with all its threat-
ened and actual assaults upon the integrity of our national
confederacy.

The House upon receiving the communication of these
startling and important disclosures from the chief magistrate
of the State hastened, to give them the attention due, as well
to the high source from which they were made as to the in-
trinsic gravity of the peril they seemed to menace, and, at
once, organized the select committee to investigate the facts,
and to report such measures as in their judgment the emer-
gency of the case might demand.

For the purpose of this investigation the committee was
invested with extraordinary powers, appropriate to the nature
of the inquiry submitted to them, and the danger of the crisis
which the Executive had called upon the Legislature to
avert. Besides conferring upon the committee the authority
to send for persons and papers, the House also directed them
to invite the aid of the Executive, and to request of the Gov-
ernor such further information as his vigilance over the pub-
lic safety, and his means of detecting the progress of these
conspirators, might enable him to add to the important dis-
coveries he had already made.

The committee promptly responding to the anxiety natural
to the House, and to the people of the State, upon the recep-
tion of intelligence so unexpected and so full of cause for seri-
ous apprehension, lost no time in availing themselves of the
privilege they were invited to use, by an application to the
Governor for a more explicit disclosure of the character and
proceedings of the secret societies to which his message
alluded; they accordingly addressed a letter to him, through,
their chairman, respectfully soliciting his assistance to their
proposed investigation, by imparting whatsoever he might
be able to communicate as necessary for their guidance in the
preliminaries of their inquiry. The committee were gratified
to receive an immediate reply from the Governor, in which