Jonathan Harrington Green - Secret Band of Brothers
J >>
Jonathan Harrington Green >> Secret Band of Brothers
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustrations.
See 17917-h.htm or 17917-h.zip:
(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/7/9/1/17917/17917-h/17917-h.htm)
or
(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/7/9/1/17917/17917-h.zip)
Images of the original pages are available through the Making of
America collection of the University of Michigan Digital Library
Production Service. See
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;idno=AHK6233.0001.001
SECRET BAND OF BROTHERS.
A Full and True Exposition of All the Various Crimes, Villanies,
and Misdeeds of This Powerful Organization in the United States.
By the "Reformed Gambler,"
JONATHAN H. GREEN.
Author of "The Gambler's Life," "Gambling Exposed," "The Reformed
Gambler; Or, Autobiography of J. H. Green," Etc.
With Illustrative Engravings.
* * * * *
"This is a most fearful and startling exposition of crime, and
gives the true and secret history of a daring and powerful secret
association, the members of which, residing in all parts of the
country, have for a long period of years been known to one another
by signs and tokens known only to their order. This association has
been guilty of an almost incredible amount of crime. Beautifully
embellished with Illustrative Engravings, from original designs by
Darley and Croome."--_Courier._
* * * * *
[Illustration]
Philadelphia:
T. B. Peterson and Brothers,
306 Chestnut Street.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858,
by T. B. PETERSON,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
PREFACE.
The vice of gambling is peculiarly destructive. It spares neither age
nor sex. It visits the domestic hearth with a pestilence more quiet and
stealthy, but not less deadly, than intemperance. It is at once the vice
of the gentleman, and the passion of the blackguard. With deep shame we
are forced to admit that the halls of legislation have not been free
from its influence, nor the judicial bench unstained by its pollution.
It is against this vice, which is now spreading like a subtle poison
through all grades of society, that the present work is directed. The
author is not a mere theorist. He speaks from experience--dark and
bitter experience. The things he has seen he tells; the words he has
heard he speaks again. Some of these scenes curdle the blood in the
veins, even when remembered; some of these words, whenever whispered,
recall incidents of singular atrocity, and thrill the bosom with horror.
The author professes to speak nothing but the plain truth. He does not
aspire to an elegant style of writing, adorned with the ornaments of the
orator and the scholar; but to one quality may lay claim, without being
thought a vain or immodest man. He speaks with an earnest sincerity.
Whatever he says comes from his heart, and is spoken with all the
sympathy of his soul.
This work differs from all the previous works of the author. Indeed, it
is unlike any thing ever published in this country. It is not a mere
exposure of gambling, nor yet an attack on the character of particular
gamblers. It is a revelation of a wide-spread organization--pledged to
gambling, theft, and villany of all kinds. There are at the present time
existing, in our Union, certain organizations, pledged to the
performance of good works, which merit the hearty approbation of every
honest man. These are called secret societies, although their
proceedings, and the names of the officers, with minute particulars, are
published in a thousand shapes. Prominent among these beneficial orders
stand the Odd Fellows and the Sons of Temperance. But the order, whose
history is related in the following pages, differs from all these. Its
proceedings, the names of its members or its officers, and even its very
existence as a body, have hitherto been secret, and sealed from the
whole world. Besides, it is pledged to accomplish all kinds of robbery,
aye, and even worse deeds. It has, in more than one deplorable instance,
concealed its dark deeds with murder.
This order is not confined in its operations to the dark places of life.
It numbers among its members the professional man, the "respectable
citizen," the prominent and wealthy of various towns throughout the
Union; nay, it has sometimes invaded the house of God, and secured the
services of those who are ostensibly his ministers.
There is not a line of fiction in these pages. The solemn truth is told,
in all its strange and horrible interest. To the public, to the candid
of all classes, to the friends of reform, to the honest citizen, and to
the sincere Christian, the author makes his appeal.
Let not his voice of warning be unheeded. Let all be up and doing, so
that the monster may be exterminated from the face of the earth, and the
youth of the present age be saved from destruction.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE SECRET BAND OF BROTHERS.
Why this exposure is made at the present time--Who oppose reform--My
lectures--The New-Light minister--How some get rich--My opponents 9
CHAPTER II.
A DARK CONSPIRACY.
Goodrich, the gambler--His malicious conduct--Cause of it--The
Browns--Their plan to escape punishment 16
CHAPTER III.
THE CONSPIRACY IN PROGRESS.
The colonel takes medicine to bring on sickness--Ruse will not
take--Character of the administrators of justice in New Orleans--Colonel
Brown deserted by the Brotherhood--Dearborn county, Indiana, delegation
22
CHAPTER IV.
THE CONSPIRACY FURTHER DEVELOPED.
The secret correspondence brought from Canada--The Brotherhood desert
Brown--How I obtained the secret writings--Not suspected--Mrs. Brown and
the landlady---Cunningham suspected of purloining them 27
CHAPTER V.
BRIBERY AND COUNTERFEIT MONEY.
Brown's lawyer attempts to bribe me to testify falsely against
Taylor--Acquaint the deputy-marshal with the fact--Brown's ineffectual
attempts to find bail--Suspected of having removed the hid money--The
colonel's visitors 34
CHAPTER VI.
MYSTERIOUS DISCLOSURES.
His Lawrenceburgh friends--A hypocritical lecture--Further
disclosures--A searching examination--First intimation of the existence
of The Secret Band of Brothers--Colonel Brown's narrative of the
conspiracy against Taylor 42
CHAPTER VII.
DISCLOSURES CONTINUED.
The colonel resumes his narrative--The missing papers.--Fare advice 57
CHAPTER VIII.
DEATH OF COLONEL BROWN.
Conspiracy against my life--Conversation with Cunningham regarding the
mysterious papers--Death of Colonel Brown 62
CHAPTER IX.
THE SECRET BAND OF BROTHERS.
Explanatory remarks--The Grand Master of The Secret Band of
Brothers--Vice-grand Masters--Ordinary members--Objects of the
Order--Colonel Brown sacrificed lest he should betray them--Taylorites
and Brownites 66
CHAPTER X.
THE MYSTERIOUS BOX.
Anxiety about the missing papers--Cause of the hostility of the Band to
me--The papers supposed to be deposited in the United States
Court--Clerk's office broken into, and the box containing Taylor's
indictment and the spurious money stolen--Suspected--Placed in prison
for safety--The robber discovered--My release--The mysterious box--The
stranger--Conversation with Wyatt--The box opened 75
CHAPTER XI.
THE PORK TRADE, OR DRIVING THE HOGS TO A WRONG MARKET.
The trading operations of the Band--Lectures at Lawrenceburgh--The
Browns and the hog-drover 84
CHAPTER XII.
CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS OF THE SECRET BAND OF BROTHERS.
Initiation--Penalties--The Grand Masters--The secret writing--The six
qualities, Huska, Caugh, Naugh, Maugh, Haugh, Gaugh--Vocabulary of flash
words--The post-routes.--The horse-trade explained--Allowances--
Specimens of correspondence--The biter bit--A letter of introduction
with an important note--Subsequent inquiry into the case 90
CHAPTER XIII.
A CHAPTER OF AFFINITIES.
Thieves and thief-catchers--A family of five--Penitence and
Penitentiaries--The chain-driver and his gang--Lawyers' fees and
Lawyers' privileges--Our representatives 139
CHAPTER XIV.
GAMBLING EXPEDITION IN THE CHOCTAW NATION.
Character of the inhabitants on the Texas frontier in 1833--The murder
of Dr ----. Operations at Fort Towson--Edmonds and Scoggins--Robbery--
Journey to Fort Smith--The dumb negro speaks--His character of Scoggins
and Edmonds 147
CHAPTER XV.
CORRESPONDENCE CONNECTED WITH MY VISIT TO THE AUBURN PRISON, AND
CONVERSATION WITH WYATT, THE MURDERER.
1. Chaplain Morrill's letter commendatory of my visit--2. My own
account--3. My second visit--4. Mr. Gary's letter--5. Reply to the
accusations of Mr. Morrill--6. Mr. Merrill's charges--7. Vindication
from these charges--8. Further particulars relative to the life of Wyatt
_alias_ Newell _alias_ North, and a horrid murder committed near
Perrysburgh, Ohio--
Conclusion 184
Debate on Gambling 193
LOTTERIES.
Drawing of Lottery Tickets 267
Insuring Numbers, or Policy Dealing 288
Lottery Combinations, etc. 299
THE
SECRET BAND OF BROTHERS.
CHAPTER I.
In perusing the following pages, the reader will learn the history of a
class of men, who, for talent, cannot be excelled. He may startle at the
horrid features which naked truth will depict--at deeds of darkness
which, though presented to an enlightened people, may require a stretch
of credulity to believe were ever perpetrated in the glorious nineteenth
century.
It will, no doubt, elicit many a curious thought, especially with honest
men, and the "whys and wherefores" will pass from mouth to mouth in
every hamlet, village, and town, where the following recital may find a
reader or hearer. All will declare it mysterious. It is a mystery to
myself in some particulars, but in others it is not. It is strange,
passing strange, to think that such a black-hearted, treacherous band of
men, as I am about to describe, could have existed so long in a
civilized and Christian country.
With a trembling hand do I attempt to bring to light their ruling
principles, to develop a system of organized and accomplished villany.
My reasons for assuming so daring a position may seem to require an
explanation. It may be asked why I did not make this revelation before,
as far as I had knowledge, or what is the occasion of the present
exposition? To the preceding queries I will briefly reply.
First, There has been no period in my life, prior to 1846, when I could
dare to lay before the world what I contemplate doing at the present
time. It will be long remembered by many, that in August, 1842, I
renounced a profession, in which I had worse than squandered twelve
years, the sweet morning of my life. In doing so, I knew I must, of
necessity, experience deep mortification, in a personal exposure, which
would attend me through life.
Gambling, with all its concomitants, had taken full possession of my
depraved nature. Thus it was that I, like all wicked men, refused to
"come to the light," and I feared to oppose a craft so numerous as the
one of which I was a professed member. Well did I know that I was
carrying out a wrong and wicked principle. Conviction produced
reflection. After a careful deliberation of the whole subject, I
declared with a solemn oath, that, by the assistance of Almighty God, I
would renounce for ever a profession so ruinous in its every feature.
Immediately I felt the band severed, and my misgivings were scattered to
the winds. My former companions laughed at me. They scouted the idea,
that one so base as I should ever think of reformation. It moved me not.
My credit, I found, failed, after it was known that I had quit gambling.
A thousand different conjectures attended so strange a proceeding on the
part of one in my circumstances. Why should I abandon card-playing,
destroy valuable card plates, and lose their still more profitable
proceeds, return moneyed obligations, which would have secured me an
independent fortune? These things were a matter of surprise with the
cool and deliberate patrons of vice, and especially with many, who,
though they were often covered with a garb of outward morality, were
full of rottenness within. Some, who pass for moral and religious
persons, have in this thing exhibited a moral obliquity that has often
astonished me.
From a careful examination, I have learned the lamentable fact, that the
most prominent opposers of moral reforms are composed of two classes,
THE HARDENED SINNER, who makes money his god, and THE EXTREMELY
IGNORANT. Let not the reader understand, however, that I suppose there
are not ignorant rich men as well as poor--the latter have their share
of bad men, and so also have the former--but that vice and ignorance are
common to both.
In the year 1843, I commenced lecturing against the fearful vice of
gambling, for no other reason than to stay the gambler in his ruinous
course, and save the youth of our land from his alluring wiles. For this
I received IN PUBLIC the "God speeds" of ALL classes, and the prayers of
all Christians in secret. I soon learned I had much with which to
contend--opposition from directions I little anticipated. The gambler,
unfortunate man! he carried upon his countenance an expression of open
hate, indicating a deadly hostility to my reformatory movements. The
ignorant man, I found, was disposed to make his avarice the highway to
happiness. He was unwilling to favour any reform that would invade the
territory of his contracted selfishness. His reply, if he had any, would
be that stereotyped one, "such a course will have a tendency to make
more gamblers than it will cure." If his reasons were asked for such a
statement, you could get no satisfactory answer. Perhaps he would say,
"I am satisfied of the fact from my own disposition." He might as well
give a child's reason at once, and say, "CAUSE!" Such persons have
seldom heard a lecture, or read a syllable, and yet are always prating
with a great show of wisdom, but rather, in fact, of blind conceit.
Their silence would be of far more service to the cause of virtue than
their opinions. In many cases, it will be found that such persons are
not only ignorant, but dishonest.
Again, there is the rich, moral, or religious man, who takes another
position. He opposes with the declaration "his sons will not gamble:
they have such good and moral examples," &c. This is sometimes a want of
consideration, that prompts them thus to speak; with others, a secret
villany, driving them to such ultra positions, a mere tattered garment
to cover their own moral deformity. They must oppose the reformation, or
be held up to public disgrace. In nine cases out of ten, the opposer of
this class, is, or has been, a participant in the works of darkness
whose exposition he so much dreads.
Finding many disposed to act thus, and to teach their children to
imitate their own pernicious examples, I have made it a study to
demolish, if possible, the foundation of their positions. The success
attending my efforts to trace them out, assures me, that I am correct
when I affirm that two-thirds of all opposers are influenced in their
conduct by the basest of principles; one-sixth act through ignorance,
united with vice, and one-sixth are wholly ignorant and cannot be
morally accountable, if their want of information is in any way
excusable. But what may be still more startling, about one-fourth of
the whole are members of the various churches, yea, even men of this
class are found in sacerdotal robes. This fact came within my knowledge
long since. I felt it my duty to publish the same, but delayed, till I
should gain experience in defending my position. I was satisfied,
however, that the efforts of a certain New Light minister to traduce my
character and hinder my influence, must have been prompted from some of
the foregoing considerations. Would the world know who this man is? It
will be necessary to go to the very town where he lives to secure the
information. I doubt whether his name would ever have appeared in print,
but for his newspaper controversy, or in case of his death. His
unwarrantable attack put me on my guard, and caused me to search out the
ground of his base and unchristian treatment. One thing is very certain,
he is no gambler. It may not be a want of disposition, but rather a
sufficient amount of sense, to make him a proficient in the business. He
may be an ignorant dupe--a mere tool of the designing, the "cats paw" of
some respectable blackleg, who thinks to cover his own crimes, by
exciting public opinion against me, through an apparently respectable
instrumentality. But I did not wish to bandy words with him, being
impressed with the propriety of a resolution I made while a gambler,
that it is only throwing away time to attempt to account for the
different actions and opinions of weak and prejudiced minds; and
therefore I dropped the whole affair. I would have remained silent, but
for the position taken by other divines from his false and garbled
statements. Many have condemned me unheard, listening willingly to my
accusers, without hearing a word in my own defence. Not satisfied with
such an expression of their EXCESSIVE CHRISTIAN CHARITY, they have even
thrust at me through the public prints, for which, no doubt, they will
have the hearty amens of all gamblers, and it may be several dollars in
their pockets. Certain editors have joined in the same "hue and cry"
with their worthy compeers. The reasons were evident in their case. They
knew I was invading their dearest worldly interests. There were others
who only knew me from hearsay. Why should they become my enemies? It was
because I held in my possession secrets, whose exposition would make
many of them tremble. It would be to them like the interpreted
handwriting upon the wall. Hence they were ready to contribute their
talents and wealth, to sustain certain individuals as honourable men. I
could not have deemed it proper to expose "THE SECRET BAND OF BROTHERS,"
had not duty, and my obligations to society, urged me forward. The
allegiance I owe to God is paramount to all other. The result is yet to
be experienced, by the better part of the community. Heavily was the
oppressive hand of this notable brotherhood laid upon me. My soul was
sorely vexed by their daring villany.
In the county where I was bred, I have numbered, in one day, thirteen
who sustained honourable places in society, nine of whom were rich,
strangely rich in view of their facilities for acquiring wealth in a
newly settled country. Not one is a professional man. Few bear the
callous badge of industry and physical exertion upon their hands.
Several are, by an outward profession, Christians,--but invariably
opposed to all the benevolent institutions of the day and works of
reform, unless their views of what is the right course are fully met,
which are generally so extravagant as to preclude all hope of
co-operation. With these I had a severe contest. Well did they know,
there was something behind the screen which, brought to light, would
expose their villanous transactions, open the eyes of honest men, and
greatly endanger, if not destroy, their craft. That I had letters,
written by themselves, they knew--nor dare they deny it--letters which
might lead to a conviction of crime, that would raise them to a position
somewhere between heaven and earth. They may rest assured that I have
documents that place more than one thousand of them in a relative
position to law and society.
CHAPTER II.
In a previous work of mine, called "GAMBLING UNMASKED," an allusion is
made to an evident conspiracy against my life, sometime before I became
a confirmed gambler. Goodrich was the name which I gave, as the chief
actor. This same doubly refined villain, it will be remembered, by all
who have read the above work, was foremost to aid in my arrest when I
made good my escape to the Pine woods, lying back of New Orleans. The
reader will likewise recollect, that I could not, at that time, account
for such manifestations of unprecedented malignity, on the part of one
from whom I might rather expect protection than persecution. But the
secret is out, and I now have the power to give clear and truthful
explanations.
This Goodrich, who resides at the present time in or near New Orleans,
and who holds the rank of gambler-general in that city of Sodom, was an
old and advanced member of the "Secret Band of Brothers." Knowing, as he
did, that I was engaged in assisting the honest part of the community to
convict two brothers who were plotting my downfall, as a sworn member of
the above fraternity, he was solemnly bound to do all in his power to
aid in the consummation of my personal ruin. That the world might know
something of this Goodrich, (though the half cannot be told,) I gave, in
my autobiography, several incidents, in which he acted a prominent part.
What I then said will answer for an introduction.
That he was connected with an organized association of gentlemen
blacklegs will not be denied. The proof is abundant. Nor was he an
apprentice, a mere novitiate; but long schooled in vice and ripening
year by year, he swelled quite beyond the bounds of ordinary meanness,
till he became a full-grown monster of his kind. Not content to gather
riches by common roguery, he sought out the basest instrumentalities as
more congenial to his real disposition. His chief riches were obtained
by dark and murderous transactions; and had he a score of necks, with
hempen necklaces well adjusted, I doubt whether he could pay the full
forfeiture to the law.
From my first acquaintance with him at Louisville, with blood-thirsty
vigilance he sought my destruction. Here began the risings of his
malice, and this was the cause. In the year 1830, I gave information to
the city police in relation to Hyman, who, at that time, was the keeper
of a hotel. It was while at this house, that Goodrich became my
determined and implacable foe. I had been duped by two brothers, Daniel
and James Brown, who were then confined in the calaboose for passing
counterfeit money. Large quantities were also found in their possession.
I was their confidant, so far as prudence would allow them to make any
revelations. That they were guilty of the crime with which they had been
charged, no honest man could doubt, after being made acquainted with the
circumstances. Yet they would swear most stoutly, even in my presence,
that they were innocent, and that they had been deceived. I could not
but believe they were guilty, after having witnessed so many of their
iniquitous actions. Often have I been told by the wife of one of them,
that they could call to their assistance, if necessary, a thousand men.
Who they were and where they were, so ready to uphold these abandoned
men, I had, at that time, no knowledge.
At length their situation became desperate. Already had they passed one
year within the walls of a gloomy prison, without the privilege of a
trial. They were required to give bail in the sum of twenty thousand
dollars each. No satisfactory bonds could be procured. The whole
community were incensed against them. They had for a long time trampled
upon private rights and warred against the best interests of the people.
They had set at defiance all laws instituted for purposes of justice and
protection, and they could not but expect a stern rebuke from all the
friends of morality and good order. The only prospect before them, upon
a fair trial, was a sentence of twenty years to the penitentiary. This
was by no means cheering, especially to those who had lived in ease and
affluence, whose bodies were enervated by voluptuousness and hands made
tender by years of idle pleasures. Crowds were gathering to witness
their trial, and waiting in anxious suspense the issue. Disgrace, public
disgrace and lasting infamy stared them in the face. They were put upon
their last resources, and necessity became the mother of invention. They
fixed upon the following plan to extricate themselves.
Public opinion must be propitiated. An interest in their behalf must be
awakened by some manifestation that would touch the chord of sympathy. A
double part must be played. They would affect to change their
sentiments. In this they acted according to the laws of the secret
brotherhood. With them, any thing was honesty that would effect their
purposes. But to consummate their design, another object must be
secured--some innocent person must be implicated and made a scape-goat
for, at least, a part of their crimes. This game they understood well,
for they had been furnished with abundant means and instructions. It
required also deep-seated iniquity of heart, and in this there was no
lack, for they were the sublimation of depravity. They must also have
time and capital. These were easily provided, as will be seen in the
sequel. There was an individual with whom they had become acquainted in
Cleaveland, and upon whom suspicion had rested for some time. He was the
man fixed upon as their victim. Of course he was not a member of their
organized band. "Honour among thieves" forbids the selection of such a
one. It was necessary, however, that he should be somewhat of a villain.
Here also they exhibited much sagacity in the selection. It now only
remained to slip his neck into the noose that was in preparation for
themselves. All the instrumentalities being prepared to their liking,
they immediately set the infernal machinery in active operation.
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19