I do not consider myself an unnecessary alarmist, but when I see the whole of the lower orders bound to each other by an oath which they observe inviolably, when I see these persons every night patrolling the country breaking open houses, seizing arms, levying contributions, and committing horrible outrages with perfect impunity, when I find the terror of the name of ribbon man to be greater than that of the law, and that no magistrate has yet found one individual bold enough or honest enough to give information to conviction of these miscreants, and yet that they sit quietly down without making any exertions, seeing all this I cannot but consider the law and the power of the country to be in the hands of a rebellious rabble, who if left much longer unchecked will attempt to declare themselves openly the lords and masters of the land.