Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/313

DELAWARE COUNTY. 289 tions is levied and paid to the treasurers, to meet the expenses of the organizations ; that the moneys thus collected are paid out, under the direction of a committee, to purchase materials for dresses, masks, arms and ammunition for the Indians, and to pay the expenses of their subsistence and entertainment, when called out, as well as to meet the expenses of law suits, and litigations ; and, where there is a surplus in the treasury, to pay the Indians for their time spent in the service to which they are devoted. That 1000 or more persons have enrolled themselves and taken the prescribed oath, as Indians, within the single county of Delaware, while a much larger number have become members of the anti-rent associations, and that the obligations assumed [toward each other, certainly by the Indians, if not by the members of the associations also, strongly imply, if they do not expressly enjoin, efforts on the part of those at liberty, to rescue those under arrest, and in the custody of the law, for acts performed as Indians, or as members of an asso- ciation, and in furtherance of the objects of those organizations. " That, since the murder of the under sheriff Steele, in the manner before related, the proceedings of the authorities and citizens of the county of Delaware have been marked by a most praiseworthy vigilance and energy, to arrest and bring to justice these resisters of the law and disturbers of the peace of the county ; that many arrests have been made, and fifty or more prisoners are now confined in the county jail, either awaiting examinations, or committed to answer to charges of crime, some twenty or more of whom are charged as principals or accessories in this murder. " It may be added, too, that individuals, and assemblages of men, have, within the period mentioned, frequently appeared in the public highways ; in the fields, woods, and other places in the county, and sometimes in the face of the sheriff and his officers, both disguised and armed, in open violation of 25 I..