in case of attack or capture. The most recent of these signals represented to have been adopted is a five-pointed copper star, worn under the coat, which is to be disclosed upon meeting an enemy, who will thus recognize in the wearer a sympathizer and an ally. A similar star of German silver, hung in a frame, is said to be numerously displayed by members or their families in private houses in Indiana, for the purpose of insuring protection to their property in case of a raid or other attack; and it is stated that in many dwellings in that State a portrait of John Morgan is exhibited for a similar purpose. Other signs are used by members, and especially the officers, of the order in their correspondence. Their letters, when of an official character, are generally conveyed by special messengers, but when transmitted through the mail are usually in cipher. When written in the ordinary manner a character at the foot of the letter, consisting of a circle with a line drawn across the center, signified to the member who received it that the statements as written are to be understood in a sense directly the opposite to that which would ordinarily be conveyed. It is to be added that the meetings of the order, especially in the country, are generally held at night and in secluded places, and that the approach to them is carefully guarded by a line of sentinels, who are passed only by means of a special countersign, which is termed the "picked. "

VI. - ITS WRITTEN PRINCIPLES.

The "declaration of principles" which is set forth in the ritual of the order has already been alluded to. This declaration, which is specially framed for the instruction for the great mass of members, commences with the following proposition:

All men are endowed by the Creator with certain rights, equal as far as there is equality I the capacity for the appreciation, enjoyment, and exercise of those rights.

And subsequently there is added:

In the divine economy no individual to the human race must be permitted to encumber the earth, to mar its aspects of transcendent beauty, nor to impede the progress of the physical or intellectual man, neither in himself nor in the race to which he belongs. Hence, a people, upon whatever plane they may be found in the ascending scale of humanity, whom neither the divinity within them nor the inspirations of divine and beautiful nature around them can impel to virtuous action and progress on ward and up ward, should be subjected to a just and humane servitude and tutelage to the superior race until they shall be able to appreciate the benefits and advantages of civilization.

Here, expressed in studied terms hypocrisy, is the whole theory of human, bondage - the right of the strong, because they are strong, to despoil and enslave the weak, because they are weak! The languages of earth can add nothing to the cowardly and loathsome baseness of the doctrine as thus announced. It is the robber's creed, sought to be nationalized, and would push back the hand on the dial plate of our civilization to the darkest periods of human history. It must be admitted, however, that it furnishes a fitting corner stone for the government of a rebellion, every fiber of whose body and every throb of whose soul is born of the traitorous ambition and slave pen inspirations of the South. To these detestable tenets is added that other pernicious political theory of State sovereignty, with its necessary fruit, the monstrous doctrine of secession - a doctrine which, in asserting that in our federative system a part is greater than the whole, would compel the General Government, like a Japanese slave, to commit hari-kari whenever a faithless or insolent State should command it to do so. Thus,