Secret Band of Brothers | Page 6

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.
The first thing to be done was to change the direction of public opinion
as to the real perpetrator. It must be called off from the persons who
were now so hotly pursued, and put upon a different scent. The agents
were at hand--The Secret Band of Brothers. These "dogs of war" were
let loose, and simultaneously the whole pack set up their hideous yell
after the poor fellow previously mentioned. Many of them being
merchants and holding a respectable relation to society, and most of
them being connected with the different honourable professions, their
fell purpose was the more easily accomplished. A continual excitement
was thus kept up, by breathing forth calumny and denunciation against
one who, however guilty of other things, was innocent of the thing laid
to his charge. At the same time, the ears of the principal bank-officers
were filled with words of extenuation and sympathy toward the two
brothers. Their former high respectability was adduced. That they were
guilty was not denied, but they had been misled and seduced.
Intimations were given that the name of the real villain who had caused
their ruin would be given, provided they would ease off in their
prosecution already in progress. And then it would be such a glorious
thing to secure the prime-mover.
By these fair and seemingly sincere pretensions, they soon kindled
relentings in the hearts of the prosecutors. How could it be otherwise?
for "they were all honourable men." Several of the individuals who
assisted in maturing the plan were men of commanding influence, in
the very town where I was bred. I had abundant opportunities to know
them. A proposition was finally made through them by the instructions
of the officers, that, as the brothers knew their guilt was fully
established, it would have a tendency to mitigate their sentence, if they
would expose the head man, by whose knavery many extensive
property-holders were threatened with total bankruptcy. This was the
precise position at which the secret band of brothers had been aiming.
The next step was to secure, if possible, the younger brother as "state's
evidence" against the appointed victim of Cleaveland notoriety, whom,
for the sake of convenience, I will designate by his name, Taylor.

He was a man of extraordinary abilities and gentlemanly deportment.
He and the two brothers were mutual acquaintances. They had been
accomplices, no doubt, in many a deed of darkness. But as "the devil
should have his due," I am bound to exculpate him from any
participation in the alleged crime. That he was innocent in this affair I
have the fullest evidence. I was solicited by the pettifogger, (I will not
say lawyer,) for the brothers, to take a bribe for perjury, and swear poor
Taylor guilty of giving me five hundred dollars of counterfeit money,
which money he would place in my hands. Of this fellow, I will speak
in another chapter. The younger brother was now to declare himself
and brother as having been seduced by Taylor.