The Great North-Western Conspiracy in All Its Startling Details

The Great North-Western
Conspiracy In All
by I.
Windslow Ayer

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Title: The Great North-Western Conspiracy In All Its Startling Details
Author: I. Windslow Ayer
Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8543] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on July 21, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT
NORTH-WESTERN CONSPIRACY ***

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THE GREAT NORTH-WESTERN CONSPIRACY IN ALL ITS
STARTLING DETAILS.
The Plot to plunder and burn Chicago--Release of all Rebel
prisoners--Seizure of arsenals--Raids from Canada--Plot to burn New
York--Piracy on the Lakes--Parts for the Sons of Liberty--Trial of
Chicago conspirators--Inside views of the Temples of the Sons of
Liberty--Names of prominent members.
ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS OF LEADING CHARACTERS,
ETC., ETC.
By I. WINSLOW AYER, M.D.
[Illustration: I. WINSLOW AYER, M.D.]

INTRODUCTION.
The trial before the Military Commission in Cincinnati, just concluded,
was in many respects one of the most remarkable events of the war.
The investigation has elicited testimony of the most startling character,
showing conclusively to the minds of all reasonable men who have
given to it careful, earnest attention that there was a most formidable,
deep and well arranged conspiracy, which, but for timely discovery and
judicious action, would have resulted most disastrously, not only to the
particular cities and towns specified and doomed to destruction, but to
the whole country. None can contemplate the danger through which we
have passed without a shudder and without a recognition of the hand of
a merciful Providence who has guided our beloved country in its
darkest hours and who has crowned our struggles for liberty and union
with glorious victory.
To have proclaimed to the public, even a few short months ago, that a
scheme had been concocted in Richmond, of so vast and formidable a
character, so insidious in its operations, so complete in its details that it
had found favor and support in all the great cities and towns in Illinois,
Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Iowa, and sections of other States
that scarcely a village was exempt from its corruption, that it numbered
in its ranks more traitors in the aggregate than the number of brave men
in the combined armies of the gallant Grant and Sherman, and that all
who had thus united recognised but one common cause--the destruction
of our country, the defeat and humiliation of our people, and the
triumph of the Rebellion--the author of such a proclamation would
have been written down a madman or a fool, by most persons in the
community; and yet the developments before the military tribunal have
established the fact, to the eternal infamy of all who were leagued in
the conspiracy.
As the trial opened, and the charges if the indictment were made public,
all sympathisers with the conspiracy affected to disbelieve its existence,
and raised their eyes and hands to Heaven, in pious horror, and prayed
that justice might be meted out to the accused, who were, they claimed,
the best of citizens, the most devout Christians, the most zealous

patriots, the most earnest advocates of law and order, and that their
accusers might be shunned of all good men forever. To this prayer the
accused will scarce utter the response, Amen! Even some good, careful,
honest Union men, astonished at the startling revelations, refused, for a
time, to believe that there was any truth in the allegations against the
prisoners; by degrees, however, as corroborative evidence accumulated,
the truth was forced upon their minds, and there are now few persons of
ordinary intelligence and candor, who have not been able to discover
that "there was something in it, after all," and that we have been
Providentially saved a most terrible disaster.
But the investigation has been lengthy,