claimed that the new confederacy is already organized; that it has a "provisional government,"officers, departments, bureaus, &c., in secret operation. No comment is necessity to be made upon this treason, not now contemplated for the first time in our history. Suggested by the present rebellion, it is the logical consequence of the ardent and utter sympathy therewith which is the life and inspiration of the secret order.

VIII. - THE WITNESSES AND THEIR TESTIMONY.

The facts detailed in the present report have been derived from a great variety of dissimilar sources, but all the witnesses, however different their situations, concur so pointedly in their testimony that the evidence which has thus been furnished must be accepted as of an entirely satisfactory character. The principal witnesses may be classified as follows:

First. Shrewd, intelligent men, employed as detectives, and with a peculiar talent for their calling, who have gradually gained the confidence of leading members of the order, and in some cases have been admitted to its temples and been initiated into one or more of the degrees. The most remarkable of these is Stidger, formerly a private soldier in our army, who, by the use of an uncommon address, though at great personal risk, succeeded in establishing such intimate relations with Bowles, Bullitt, Dodd, and other leaders of the order in Indiana and Kentucky as to be appointed grand secretary for the latter State, a position the most favorable for obtaining information of the plans of these traitors and warning the Government of their intentions. It is to the are fidelity of this man, who has also been the principal witness upon the trial of Dodd, that the Government has been chiefly indebted for the exposure of the designs of the conspirators in the two States named.

Second. Rebel officers and soldiers voluntarily or involuntarily making disclosures to our military authorities. The most valuable witnesses of this class are prisoners of war, who, actuated by laudable motives, have of their own accord furnished a large amount of information in regard to the order, especially as it exists in the South, and of the relations of its members with those of the Northern section. Among these, also, are soldiers at our prison camps, who, without designing it, have made known to our officials, by the use of the signs, &c., of the order, that they were members.

Third. Scouts employed to travel through the interior of the border States, and also within or in the neighborhood of the enemy's lines. The fact that some of these were left entirely ignorant of the existence of the order, upon being so employed, attaches an increased value to their discoveries in regard to its operations.

Fourth. Citizen prisoners, to whom, while in confinement, disclosures were made relative to the existence, extent, and character of the order instances, upon becoming intimate with the witness, initiated him into one of the degrees.

Fifth. Members of the order, who, upon a full acquaintance with its principles, have bee appalled by its infamous designs, and have voluntarily abandoned it, freely making down their experience to our military authorities. In this class may be placed the female witness, Mary Ann Pitman, who, though in arrest at the period of her disclosures, was yet induced to make them for the reason that, as the says, "at the last meeting which I attended they passed an order which I consider