Cover of 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. — Text and Context

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. — Text and Context

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In Category - Modern Nations

Authors: Green, J. H. (Jonathan Harrington), 1812- Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2006 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Organized crime -- United States -- History -- 19th century; Gambling -- United States -- History -- 19th century; Gambling and crime -- United States -- History -- 19th century Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Words 84,215

Reading time 367 min

Text sections 10

This digital edition of 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. — Text and Context is described by source-level measurements including 84,215 words, 6 hr 7 min estimated reading time, and 10 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 22.9 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Organized crime -- United States -- History -- 19th century,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #17917

J. H. Green's 1858 exposé of a secret criminal fraternity blends firsthand testimony, moral condemnation, and sensational detail. The author, a self-styled 'Reformed Gambler,' draws on his underworld experience to document gambling, counterfeiting, and violence across the antebellum United States.

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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

Goodrich, the gambler--His malicious conduct--Cause of it--The Browns--Their plan to escape punishment 16

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

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

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

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

DISCLOSURES CONTINUED.

The colonel resumes his narrative--The missing papers.--Fare advice 57

DEATH OF COLONEL BROWN.

Conspiracy against my life--Conversation with Cunningham regarding the mysterious papers--Death of Colonel Brown 62

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

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

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

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

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

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

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--

Debate on Gambling 193

Drawing of Lottery Tickets 267

Insuring Numbers, or Policy Dealing 288

Lottery Combinations, etc. 299

SECRET BAND OF BROTHERS.

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.

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J. H. Green, writing under the moniker 'The Reformed Gambler,' opens his 1858 exposé with a preface that frames gambling as a 'pestilence more quiet and stealthy, but not less deadly, than intemperance.' He insists he speaks from 'dark and bitter experience' and claims to tell only 'the plain truth,' disavowing any elegance of style in favor of 'earnest sincerity.' This rhetorical posture—part confession, part moral crusade—shapes the entire work.

The text that follows is a hybrid of memoir, crime report, and reformist tract. Green recounts conversations with informants, such as a 'dumb negro' who feigned deafness to overhear criminal plots, and describes violent episodes like the beating death of a counterfeiter on an island. His narrative voice oscillates between personal anecdote and sweeping indictment, often embedding quoted dialogue and corroborating details from other witnesses.

The Author's Self-Fashioning as a Reformed Gambler

Green repeatedly emphasizes his transformation from participant to expositor. In the preface he writes that he 'speaks from experience—dark and bitter experience,' and he presents his work as a weapon against a vice that 'spares neither age nor sex.' This conversion narrative lends moral authority to his revelations, but it also creates a tension: Green must prove his insider knowledge while distancing himself from the criminal world. He does so by citing specific episodes—like the Auburn prison visit referenced in a letter to the Tribune—where he is vouched for by others. The result is a persona that is both penitent and authoritative, a former insider who now serves the public good.

Dialogue as Evidence: The Dumb Negro Informant

One of the most striking passages in the excerpts involves a conversation with a man who 'had been deaf and dumb, in order to find out what was going on.' Green reports the informant's claim that members of the secret band are 'all true to each other as steel itself' and that he could 'find friends at every turn.' The dialogue is rendered in direct speech, giving the account an immediacy that feels like transcribed testimony. Green then corroborates the story by noting that later, at a wood-yard, he overheard a workman describe a skeleton 'tied to a tree'—the remains of a man whipped to death for passing counterfeit money. This layering of reported speech and physical evidence is a recurring structural device in the book.

Violence and Vigilante Justice in the West

Green's narrative is punctuated by accounts of extralegal punishment. He mentions that in 1841, citizens in one county 'turned out and put to death, by shooting and drowning, some forty or fifty villains.' The counterfeiter Jeffries is stripped, tied to a tree, and beaten to death by river boatmen. These episodes are presented as both evidence of the band's reach and as cautionary tales. Green does not explicitly endorse vigilantism, but he records it without sustained moral commentary, letting the brutality speak for itself. The setting—river islands, wood-yards, the 'western country'—reinforces a sense of a frontier where law is absent and retribution is swift.

The Texture of the Underworld: Signs, Tokens, and Secrecy

Throughout the excerpts, Green emphasizes the secret fraternity's use of 'signs and tokens known only to their order.' The informant tells him that members are 'scattered among the different tribes of Indians' and that 'all are true to each other as steel itself.' This language of hidden brotherhood echoes contemporary fears of secret societies, from the Masons to the Know-Nothings. Green's exposé feeds on that anxiety by promising to reveal the inner workings of a 'powerful organization' that has 'for a long period of years' operated undetected. The book's subtitle—'A Full and True Exposition of All the Various Crimes, Villanies, and Misdeeds'—advertises a comprehensive unmasking, and the text delivers a steady stream of names, places, and incidents designed to convince the reader of its authenticity.

Green's Secret Band of Brothers is best approached as a document of antebellum moral panic and sensational journalism. Its value lies less in its factual reliability than in the vividness of its anecdotes and the earnestness of its reformist voice. Readers should weigh Green's claims against other sources, but the book offers a rare glimpse into the rhetorical strategies of a 19th-century exposé, where personal testimony, reported dialogue, and graphic violence combine to produce a compelling, if suspect, portrait of a criminal underworld.

There’s something poignant about Green’s certainty, that he could name every vice and still sound lonely in his warnings. It reminds me of the quiet devotion in The Story of the Guides — Key Ideas to Explore, where loyalty feels less like a choice and more like a slow weight carried without complaint. Both leave me a little wistful. Secret Band of Brothers feels like a door left ajar, and I keep glancing back.