were able to have reports from the different temples throughout the most
important points in the Northwest, and carefully noted the chief business
and obtained the list of members, all of which has been as carefully
placed in the hands of the authorities of the War Department, and months
ago much of the information was imparted to Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, in
command of the Northern Department, who was pleased to express his highest
appreciation of the services rendered, and a desire to have the
investigation thoroughly made, that indisputable facts might be obtained,
that truth and justice might be promoted and the interest of the country
thereby protected. So thorough and searching has been the investigation
that _every_ man of any note in this order, in almost every locality where
this moral cancer has existed, is known and may consider himself in future
upon his good behavior. It was the policy of the Sons of Liberty, which
they observed as far as it was possible for them to do, to obtain
positions of trust in the army, upon the police, in the courts, in railway
offices and telegraph stations, in the office of Provost Marshals,
post-offices, departments of government, both local and general, indeed,
so completely did they carry out this plan, that they made their boasts
that they were represented upon all the railroads running out of Chicago,
and it was not an unusual thing for them to report matters of the various
departments just mentioned. One member of the Chicago Order, as appeared
in evidence before the military commission, traveled over the North
wherever he desired, on the pass of a Provost Marshal in Indiana, his
business being to aid in the organization of Temples in the different
sections of the West. So rapidly did they increase in numbers, that Judge
Morris estimated the number in Illinois alone at 80,000 members.

It was a rule of the organization, that its members should all be well
armed and skilled in the use of weapons. The rapidity of increase in
numbers, rendered them conscious of their strength, and they became openly