The clan are not all of the same grit; there are two classes. The first class keep all their designs and the extent of their plans to themselves. For this reason, all who would be willing to join us are not capable of managing our designs; and there would be danger of their making disclosures which would lead to the destruction of our designs before they were perfected. This class is what we call the grand council.

"The second class are those whom we trust with nothing except that which they are immediately concerned with. We have them to do what we are not willing to do ourselves. They always stand between us and danger. For a few dollars we can get one of them to run a negro, or a fine horse, to some place where we can go and take possession of it without any danger and there is no danger in this fellow then: for he has become the offender, and of course he is bound to secrecy. This class are what we term the strikers. We have about four hundred of the grand council, and near six hundred and fifty strikers. This is our strength, as near as I can guess. I will give you a list of their names, as I promised you, before we

part.

"The grand object that we have in contemplation is to excite a rebellion among the negroes throughout the slave-holding states. Our plan is to manage so as to have it commence everywhere at the same hour. We have set on the 25th of December, 1835, for the time to commence our operations. We design having our companies so stationed over the country, in the vicinity of the banks and large cities, that when the negroes commence their carnage and slaughter, we will have

detachments to fire the towns and rob the banks while all is confusion and dismay. The rebellion taking place everywhere at the same time, every part of the country will be engaged in its own defence; and one part of the country can afford no relief to another, until many places will be entirely overrun by the negroes, and our pockets replenished from the banks and the desks of rich merchants' houses. It is true, that in many places in the slave states the negro population is not strong, and would be easily overpowered; but, back them with a few resolute leaders from our clan, they will murder thousands, and huddle the remainder into large bodies of stationary defence for their own preservation; and then, in many other places, the black population is much the strongest, and, under a leader, would overrun the country before any steps could be taken to suppress them."

Hues. "I cannot see how the matter is made known to the negroes without endangering the scheme by a disclosure, as all the negroes are not disposed to see their owners murdered."

M. "That is very easily done; we work on the proper materials; we do not go to every negro we see, and tell him that the negroes intend to rebel on the night of the 25th of December, 1835. We find the most vicious and wickedly disposed on large farms, and poison their minds, by telling them how they are mistreated; that they are entitled to their freedom as much as their masters, and that all the wealth of the country is the proceeds of the black people's labour: we remind them of the pomp and splendour of their masters, and then refer them to their own degraded

situation, and tell them that it is power and tyranny which rivet their chains of bondage, and not their own inferiority to their masters. We tell them that all Europe has abandoned slavery, and that the West Indies are all free, and that they got their freedom by rebelling a few times, and slaughtering the whites; and convince them that, if they will follow the example of the West India negroes, they will obtain their liberty, and become as much respected as if they were white; and that they can marry white women when they are all put on a level. In addition to this, we get them to believe that the majority of the people are in favour of their being free, and that the free states in the United States would not interfere with the negroes if they were to butcher every white man in the slave-holding states.

"When we are convinced that we have found a blood-thirsty deyil, we swear him to secrecy and disclose to him the secret, and convince him that every other state and section of country where there are any negroes, intend to rebel and slay all the whites they can on the night of the 25th December, 1835, and assure him there are thousands of white men engaged in trying to free them, who will die by their sides in battle. We have a long ceremony for the oath, which is administered in the presence of a terrific picture painted for that purpose, representing the monster who is to deal with him should he prove unfaithful in the engagements he has entered into. This picture is highly calculated to make a negro true to his trust, for he is disposed to be superstitious at best. After we have sworn him, we instruct him how

to proceed, which is as follows: he is to convince his fellow-slaves of the great injustice of their being held in bondage, and learn the feelings of all he can on the subject of a rebellion, by telling them how successful the West India negroes have been in gaining their freedom by frequent rebellions.

“The plan is, to have the feelings of the negroes harrowed up against the whites, and their minds alive to the idea of being free; and let none but such as we can trust know the intention and time of rebellion until the night it is to commence; when our black emissaries are to have gatherings of their fellowslaves, and invite all in their reach to attend, with the promise of plenty to drink, which will always call negroes together. Our emissaries will be furnished with money to procure spirits to give them a few drams, when they will open their secret as follows: Fellowslaves, this is the night that we are to obtain our liberty. All the negroes in America rebel this night and murder the whites. We have been long subject to the whips of our tyrants, and many of our backs wear

the scars but the time has arrived when we can be revenged.

“There are many good white men who are helping us to gain our liberty. All of you who refuse to fight will be put to death; so come on, my brave fellows, we will be free or die.' We will have our men whom we intend for leaders ready to head those companies and encourage the negroes should they appear backward. Thus you see they will all be forced to engage, under the belief that the negroes have rebelled everywhere else as in their own neighbourhood, and

by those means every gathering or assemblage of negroes will be pushed forward, even contrary to their inclination. Those strikers will be of great use at the pinch of the game, as many of them will do to head companies, and there will be no danger in them when they are to go immediately to work, and have the prospect of wealth before them: there are many of them who will fight like Turks.

"Our black emissaries have the promise of a share in the spoils we may gain, and we promise to conduct them to Texas should we be defeated, where they will be free; but we never talk of being defeated. We always talk of victory and wealth to them. There is no danger in any man, if you can ever get him once implicated or engaged in a matter. That is the way we employ our strikers in all things; we have them implicated before we trust them from our sight.*

* Murrell spoke of the advantage he expected to derive from an English lecturer on slavery; and gave his opinion as to what would be the effect of an insurrection among the slaves of the south, as follows:-"Could the blacks effect a general concert of action against their tyrants, and let loose the arm of destruction among them and their property, so that the judgments of God might be visibly seen and felt, it would reach the flinty heart of the tyrant. We can do much at the east by working on the sympathy of the people; but when we remonstrate with a southern tyrant, he counts the cost of his slaves and his annual income, and haughtily hurls it in our teeth, and tells us the Old and New Testaments both teach him that slavery is right. We must reach the tyrant in another way. His interest must be affected before he will repent. We can prepare the feelings of most of the northern and eastern people, for the final consummation of the great work, by lecturing. Interest is the great cement that binds the few northerners who are friendly to southern tyrants; and if their cities, with all the merchandise that is in the country, were destroyed, and their banks plundered of all the specie, thousands of eastern capitalists would suffer great loss, and