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282 HISTORY OF abetted the organization, now came out openly in it,s opposition, while those, who trembled at the revelations which a court of inquiry would draw out, fled degraded outlaws to evade the vigilance of the officers of the law. Some settlements were almost entirely deserted by the male portion of the population, crops were left unharvested, farms and farm work were neglected, and a sad picture, far surpassing any thing which distrainment for rent could ever produce, was everywhere presented.
