CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
The rebellion of the slave-holding states, and the attempt to establish a separate government by force of arms, was solely in the interest of the institution of slavery. The Southern Confederacy was to rest on this institution as its corner-stone. By the establishment of the Confederacy it was intended to end, forever, the agitation of this question, and establish the system of human slavery as one of the permanent institutions of the world. And all this in the nineteenth century of the Christian era! Preparatory to this the pulpit and the press had been suborned, the Christian conscience of the country had been debauched, and the doctrine that slavery was a Divine institution was taught, and accepted as true, by one-half of the American people.
A doctor of divinity, or even a common preacher, who could prove this to his own satisfaction, and that of his hearers, at once achieved popularity, and had his great learning and ability heralded by the secular press throughout the South land. Neither was this kind of preaching confined to the South. It found a distinct and earnest echo in many places in the North. It was argued, and no doubt sincerely believed, that slavery was the best condition for securing the happiness and welfare of the African race--the condition in which the negro could be most useful to the world; that his condition had been greatly improved by his transplantation from a heathen land and the environments of barbarism to a Christian land and civilized and Christian environments; and that subjection to a higher and superior race was necessary to his deriving the highest benefit from the change. Slavery, it was taught, was a patriarchal institution, and that it was only through it that the highest ideal of human civilization could be attained. It was natural that a people whose judgment had crystalized around such opinions as these should be intolerant of opposition, as they had closed the door to discussion on this question; and so for several generations a contrary opinion was not tolerated, or allowed to find expression, in the slave-holding states. The agitation of this question, in its moral aspects, by constantly increasing numbers of earnest, able men in the North, at last led to the organization of a political party opposed to this institution, and the question of slavery thus became a political question.
The friends of the institution instinctively recognized the danger that thus confronted them, and began to strengthen their fences by most stringent measures to repress discussion and shut out the light. This was a tacit admission that they felt themselves unable to stand before the world in argument. It may be laid down as an axiom, that whenever a political party forecloses discussion on any subject, but more especially on a great moral issue, it is not only on the wrong side of that issue, but has an intuitive perception of that fact.
It may also be accepted as an axiom, that the more inconsistent a man's attitude is on any great moral question the more intolerant will he be of opposition. Not only were the most stringent laws passed to prevent the discussion of the institution of slavery in its moral aspects in the Southern States, but also the most lawless and violent measures were resorted to, so that it was as much as a man's life was worth to undertake to make a public argument against slavery in a slave-holding state, and even to be found earnestly opposed to the institution in sentiment was to put personal safety in jeopardy. The making of this question a political question tended largely to de-sectionalize it. No party could hope to succeed, as a National party, without the vote of the South, and this could only be secured by concessions to the demands of the slave holders in the interest of that institution; and so the party that was willing to concede the most to their demands became the dominant party in the nation. Thus the leading Democratic politicians, all over the North, became the staunch advocates of slavery; and we all know with what blind confidence, and fierce determination, the masses follow their political leaders. The culmination of the contest over this question, resulting in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency by a party openly opposed to slavery, caused its friends to take their appeal from the ballot box to the sword; and this appeal found those who were the friends of the institution from political party considerations scattered all over the North in quite formidable numbers, constituting an enemy in the rear of our armies that gave to the administration of President Lincoln no little anxiety and embarrassment, making it necessary for him, as early as September, 1862, to proclaim martial law and suspend the writ of _habeas corpus_ in respect to all persons in the United States who were found to be actively disloyal, and engaged in efforts to aid the rebellion. The following is a copy of his proclamation:--
GENERAL ORDERS NO. 141.
WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 1862.
The following Proclamation by the President is published for the information and government of the Army and all concerned:
_By the President of the United States of America._
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas it has become necessary to call into service not only volunteers but also portions of the militia of the States by draft, in order to suppress the insurrection existing in the United States, and disloyal persons are not adequately restrained by the ordinary processes of law from hindering this measure and from giving aid and comfort in various ways to the insurrection: Now, therefore, be it ordered: First, That during the existing insurrection, and as a necessary measure for suppressing the same, all rebels and insurgents, their aiders and abettors, within the United States, and all persons discouraging volunteer enlistments, resisting militia drafts, or guilty of any disloyal practice affording aid and comfort to rebels against the authority of the United States shall be subject to martial law, and liable to trial and punishment by court-martial or military commission. Second, That the writ of _habeas corpus_ is suspended in respect to all persons arrested, or who are now, or hereafter during the rebellion shall be, imprisoned in any fort, camp, arsenal, military prison, or other place of confinement, by any military authority, or by sentence of any court-martial or military commission. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
"By the President, "WILLIAM H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_.
By order of the Secretary of War, "L. THOMAS, _Adjutant General_."
"Official."
This disloyal element was rendered much more formidable by the fact of its perfect combination, through secret, oath-bound organizations under the names of Knights of the Golden Circle and Order of American Knights. These secret orders no doubt had their origin in the South, preparatory to secession and war; but after the war had been commenced it was chiefly in the North that they were useful to the rebel cause, and it was through these that the assassination of the President-elect was to have been accomplished at Baltimore when on his way to the Capital in 1861, and thus his inauguration as President was to have been prevented. We thus see the desperate character of the political leaders of the rebellion, who were ready to frustrate the expressed will of the people by resorting to assassination. We need not think strange that a rebellion which was ready to resort to such means in its incipiency should finally expire under the weight of this infamy.
By these secret organizations, the enemies of the government, wherever they might be, possessed the means of a secret recognition amongst their members. And under whatever circumstances they might be placed, the obligations of their oath afforded them confidence and security. They constituted a brotherhood, and by their secret grips, signs, passwords, etc., they had a guarantee of unity of sentiment and of purpose, and of faithfulness to each other and to the obligations of their oath.
These organizations were regarded as allies by the rebel government, and were counted on as a valuable factor to secure the success of its arms. This element in the North kept itself in constant communication with the rebel government and the rebel armies, and thus, in a large degree, filled the place of spies in giving information. To furnish facilities for communication with its friends in the North, as also for various other purposes in aid of the rebel cause, the Confederate Government sent a number of its ablest civilians to Canada, at an early period of the war, as its secret agents, who established their headquarters at Montreal. This cabal consisted of the following persons: Jacob Thompson, who had been Secretary of the Interior under Buchanan's administration; Clement C. Clay, who had been a United States Senator from Alabama; Beverly Tucker, who had been a Circuit Judge in Virginia; George N. Sanders, William C. Cleary, Prof. Holcomb, George Harper, and others. Of these, Thompson, Tucker, and Clay seem to have held semi-official positions, and we will designate them as Davis's Canada Cabinet. The others named, as also others unnamed above, appear to have acted as aids, in a subordinate capacity, in the execution of their plots. They all claimed to be acting as agents of the Rebel Government upon their oaths on the trial for the extradition of the St. Alban's raiders.
The proclamation of martial law and suspension of the writ of _habeas corpus_ in September, 1862, had the effect of restraining the open, active efforts of these secret disloyal organizations to cripple the resources at Mr. Lincoln's command for suppressing the rebellion, inasmuch as any such efforts were met by arrest, military trial, and imprisonment; yet, inasmuch as they created a necessity for a military police at all important points in the North, they felt that they were still rendering valuable service to the rebellion by thus weakening the force at the front; and whilst it was necessary to conduct their operations with much more secrecy, their organizations were not disbanded. They went on to effect a complete military organization, thoroughly officered and drilled, and in many cases armed, holding themselves ready to take the field in any emergency that might arise that would justify so bold a measure. The Canada Cabinet watched over these organizations with great interest, and directed their operations, and by many schemes sought to bring about an emergency that would enable them to bring this army, which they had hidden away in secrecy, into the field of active operations for the success of their cause. The officers of these secret military organizations were chosen from the local political leaders in the different localities where they existed, and kept themselves in communication with the Canada Cabinet, and through this medium the Confederate Government was kept informed of their strength, organization, plans, and purposes. So bold and active did they become, in spite of the efforts of the military police for their suppression, that the government finally found it necessary, through its secret service department, to possess itself of a thorough knowledge of these organizations, and in this way was enabled to capture the arms and munitions of war which had been secured and were hidden away in secrecy by them, and also to arrest the leading officers of these organizations in several states. Whilst by these means these treasonable combinations were seriously crippled, they were unchanged in animus and still struggled to maintain their existence. They kept themselves in communication with the Canada conspirators, and ready to co-operate with them for the success of their schemes should the conditions become sufficiently promising to justify them in declaring themselves openly.
It was in the summer of 1864 that Jacob Thompson, according to the testimony before the Commission, declared that he had his friends all over the Northern States, who were willing to go to any length in order to serve the cause of the South. Jefferson Davis's Canada Cabinet kept up a constant correspondence with their chief, through secret agents who travelled directly through the states, and even through the city of Washington.
So potent was the aid of secret signs, grips, pass-words, etc., as a means of recognition, and so universally were the members of these secret orders diffused over the country, that they could go anywhere. Should one agent find it necessary to stop his task for fear of detection, another would take it up; and where men could not go, women went, to carry communications. The Canada Cabinet was well supplied with money by the government at Richmond, and in this department of the service Jacob Thompson seems to have been Secretary of the Treasury. He kept his deposits largely in the Ontario Bank of Montreal, and his credits there arose from Southern bills of exchange on London. The object of the writer in this introductory chapter has been to place clearly before his readers the formidable character of the conspiracy, which, with the President of the Confederacy at its head, and organized by his Canada Cabinet, was intended to throw the loyal North into a state of chaotic confusion and bring to the aid of their sinking cause the disloyal element all over the North, by a series of assassinations which would leave the nation without a civil and military head and without any constitutional way of electing another President, and at the same time would deprive the armies of the United States of a lawful commander. This was the last card of the political leaders of the rebellion, the last desperate resort to retrieve a cause that had been manifestly lost in open warfare. It may seem like temerity in the writer to make such a charge involving a total disregard of the laws of civilized warfare, and such utter moral depravity on the part of these conspirators, and to claim for their wicked project the approval of Jefferson Davis, but the evidence in the possession of the government and adduced before the Commission, it will be seen, fully justified the government in making this charge. The persons brought before the Commission, though in full sympathy in sentiment with their employers, were merely the tools and hired assassins of the Canada Cabinet, acting under the advice and sanction of their chief. I shall now proceed to bring before my readers the denouement of their plot, and, from the evidence given before the Commission, show that the origin, scope and purpose of the conspiracy have been truly indicated above.