Order of American Knights; and that the Paw Militia, a military organization of Buchanan County, as well as the militia of Platte and Clay Counties, known as Flat Foots, have been relied upon to join the revolutionary movement.

V. - ITS RITUAL, OATHS, AND INTERIOR FORMS.

The ritual of the order, as well as its secret signs, passwords, &c., has been fully made known to the military authorities. In August last 112 copies of the ritual of the Order of American Knights were seized in the office of Honorable D. W. Voorhees, Member of Congress, at Terre Haute, and a large number of rituals of the Order of the Sons of Liberty, together with copies of the constitutions of the councils, &c., already referred to, were found in the building at Indianapolis occupied by Dodd, the grand commander of Indiana, as had been indicated by the Government witness and detective, Stidger. Copies were likewise discovered at Louisville, at the residence of Doctor Kalfus, concealed within the mattress of his bed, where Stidger had ascertained that they were kept. The ritual of the Order of American Knights has also been furnished by he authorities at Saint Louis. From this ritual, that of the Order of the Sons of Liberty does not materially differ. Both are termed "progressive," in that they provide for five separate degrees of membership, and contemplate the admission of a member of a lower degree into a higher one only upon certain vouchers and proofs of fitness, which, with each ascending degree, are required to be stronger and more imposing. Each degree has its commander or head, the fourth or grand is the highest in a State; the fifth or supreme the highest in the United States; but to the first or lower degree only to the great majority of members attain. A large proportion of these enter the order, supposing it to be a Democratic and political association merely; and the history of the order furnishes a most striking illustration of the gross and criminal deception which may be practiced upon the ignorant masses by unscrupulous and unprincipled leaders. The members of the lower degree are often for a considerable period kept quite unaware of the true purposes of their chiefs; but to the latter they are bound, in the language of their obligation, "to yield prompt and prompt and implicit obedience to the utmost of their ability, without remonstrance, hesitation, or delay. " and meanwhile their minds, under the discipline and teachings to which they are subjected, become educated and accustomed to contemplate with comparative unconcern the treason for which they are preparing. The oaths, invocations, charges, &c., of the ritual, expressed as they are in bombastic and extravagant phraseology, would excite in the mind of an educated person only ridicule or contempt, but upon the illiterate they are calculated to make a deep impression, the effect and importance of which were doubtless fully studied by the framers of the instrument.

The oath which is administered upon the introduction of a member into any degree is especially imposing in its language; it prescribes as a penalty for a violation of the obligation assumed "a shameful death," and further, that the body of the person guilty of such violation shall be divided into four parts and cast out at the four "gates" of the temple. Not only, as has been said, does it enjoin a blind obedience to the commands of the superiors of the order, but it is required to be held of paramount obligation to any oath which may be administered to a member in a court of justice or elsewhere. Thus, in cases where members have been sworn by officers empowered to administer oaths to speak