without delay the effective strength, equipments, etc., etc. of each company. You will please, therefore, make out the report for the company you command and send it to me without the least delay; you and your subaltern officers constitute the company committee. I have here drawn a form for your guide.
It was signed by Thomas P. Spierin, and a postscript was added, "N.B. Confine your return to Union men only."[1]
With this letter was published a form for reports from the company officers as to the munitions they could rely upon. In the list were mentioned many tools and implements which might be used as weapons, among which were "battle-axes and butcher knives." These seemed particularly to delight the fancy of the Nullifiers for purposes of ridicule and scorn. The "exclusive friends of peace and order," as the Nullifiers termed their opponents, were now said to have been guilty of unpardonable deceit, for while publicly adopting resolutions in their convention favoring resort to the court of appeals, professing nothing but peace, seeming to have given up all idea of military organization, they were secretly organizing a force to be armed with guns, bayonets,
- ↑ Mercury, May 21, 1834; Messenger, May 21, 28.
