The Great North-Western Conspiracy in All Its Startling Details | Page 3

confirmed him
in the opinion that a divided North would not be a formidable adversary,
and that he was warranted in the firm belief that his wish to be "let
alone" would be realised. With these views, shrewd and sagacious men
established themselves early in Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois
and other States, and put the machinery in motion. The order sprung up
in various sections of the country, and treason flourished well, as
poisonous plants often show the greatest vitality. This plan was a
success. Men high in rank and station--men from every profession and
walk in life, embraced the principles of the order, and soon it could
boast of legislators, judges of the higher courts, clergymen, doctors,
lawyers, merchants and men from every avocation. Judge Bullitt, from
the Supreme bench in Kentucky, Judge Morris of the Circuit Court of
Illinois, Judd and Robinson, lawyers and candidates for the highest
State offices, Col. Walker, agent of the State of Indiana, editors of the
daily press, and men high in official station, and in the confidence of
the people, ex-Governors of States and disaffected politicians, all
seized upon this new element of power and with various motives, the
chief of which was self agrandisement at any cost, even at the cost of
our National existence-- entered with zeal upon the work of
disseminating the doctrines, and extending the organization throughout

the North and West.
The leaders gratified by success, courted the support of the
organizations they fostered till the candidates for the highest offices in
the State and Nation felt certain of obtaining election, were they but in
favor with the secret orders they aided in establishing. While the
leaders were men of cunning, many of them of intellect and education,
the rank and file was made up of different material. It not being
necessary by the tenets of the order that they should think at all, brains
were at a discount--muscle only was required--beings who would fall
into line at the word of command and follow on to an undertaking,
however desperate and criminal, without asking or thinking, or caring
for the purpose to be attained; beings who could be put in harness and
led or driven wherever and whenever it might suit their masters. Men
from the lowest walks of life were preferred. In the lower strata of the
order, social distinction was waived by the leaders, and the lowest
wretch in the order was placed on a level with judges, merchants and
politicians, at least within the hall of meeting, thus offering
inducements potent enough to make the lodge room a place of interest
and pleasure, and thus the organization thrived.
It became known of course that secret organizations of a most
dangerous class were in existence, and their fruits were easily
recognized. Our brave boys in the army were often importuned by
letters, to desert their posts and to betray their flag. Union men were
subject to annoyances that became unendurable, soldiers wives and
families were grossly insulted, soldiers visiting their homes upon
furloughs were often assaulted or murdered, quarrels upon petty
pretexts were incited, neighbors arrayed against each other, dwellings
burned by incendiaries, unoffending union men murdered, military
secrets of greatest importance betrayed, libels of the most gross and
malicious character by such papers as the Chicago Times, and by such
men as Wilbur F. Story, its editor, till at length a voice came to us from
the army in the field, which was often echoed, begging Union citizens
at home, by their love of the Union, by the love they bore their own
families, to protect the absent soldiers' wives, mothers, sisters and
firesides from the Copperheads who remained at home; they would

meet the enemy at the front, they would march fearlessly to the
cannon's belching throat, and meet death or mutilation upon the field of
battle for their Country's cause; not for themselves did they know fear
or care for danger, but when the tidings came to them from home, when
after toilsome marches, hunger and fatigue, or suffering from wounds
received in desperate engagements, when resting a brief hour, and their
eyes fell upon missives from home, from wives who bade them go and
fight for freedom, and return not with shame upon their brows, when
tender thoughts of home, of children and every "loved spot" that they
had left behind, came crowding to their minds, who shall say that they
were wanting in heroism if their faces became pale, their lips trembled
and the tears dimmed their eyes, as they read of wrongs and insults
endured from Copperheads at home, or of plots and acts by cowardly
traitors to aid the common enemy; and when their entreaty comes to us
to strike down the deadly foe at home and give protection to the