Thus, for the paltry price of a drove of hogs, was an honest man ruined,
and, for fear of detection, murdered.




CHAPTER XII.


Probably in no era of the world, and certainly never among a Christian
people, was there formed a more bold, daring, and, at the same time,
secret association, than the one whose constitution and by-laws we now
present to the reader. Composed of men of all classes and grades in
society, from the priest at the altar, the judge on the bench, the
lawyer at the bar, down to the most common felon and street thief or
pickpocket, all bound together by a solemn oath, they laboured for the
general cause of secret plunder, to the enriching of themselves at the
expense of the mass. But having previously shown how I procured my
information regarding these desperadoes, I shall leave farther comment
on their acts, for the present, to the public, before whose tribunal
they must be arraigned, and proceed at once to present their


CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS.

_Hanging Rock, Western District of Virginia,
July 12, 1798._

SECTION I.--_Art. 1._ This society shall be known by the name of the