The Great North-Western Conspiracy in All Its Startling Details | Page 7

for a time
won the prestige of victors upon fields of blood, knowledge of their
sincerity of purpose and the extent of their carefully collected resources
at length came to every loyal man in the country, and vigorous
measures, corresponding to the necessity, were at once devised, the
effects of which are now seen in the capture of Richmond and the
surrender of Lee.

Earlier than this date in the progress of the struggle, however, it became
manifest that the wheel of fortune would eventually turn against the
cause of the South in consequence of her comparative weakness to
contend against a power so amply provided with the material of war as
the government at Washington. Then it was that the project of
enlarging the area of the rebellion, first fell upon the Southern mind as
indispensable to their cause, now fast becoming desperate in the
extreme. Hurried raids into border northern states gave to the prowess
of southern arms but momentary eclat, and little or no enduring
strength was added to the stability of the Richmond government,
beyond the plunder obtained in the line of march. On the contrary,
these raids, instead of being evidence of the power of the South to
maintain the standard of independence, were looked upon by the
military chieftains of the North, without apprehension further than the
demoralization, consequent upon the particular neighborhoods and
districts thus invaded. In fact each recurring raid gave additional
grounds for the confident belief on the part of the North, that the
downfall of the rebellion was but a question of time, much sooner to be
solved than many people of both sections supposed. These symptoms
of the distress of the cause meantime did not escape the sagacity of the
leaders of the rebellion, and as an expedient remedy, the plan of
secretly organizing traitors in the northern states was determined upon
as early as 1862, by the political representatives and agents of the
confederate states, the attempt, character and success of which project
will be the subject of the next chapter.

CHAP. III.
ARENA OF THE REBELLION EXTENDED--SECRET
ORGANIZATION--PLAN OF FORMATION--KNIGHTS OF
GOLDEN CIRCLE--TRANSPORTS ON THE RIVERS
BURNED--EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES--SUPREME COUNCIL IN
NEW YORK--DEGREES OF THE ORDERS.
As above intimated, early in 1862 the Richmond Government foresaw
the necessity of bringing to its aid the hitherto comparatively dormant

resources of treason in the Northern States, and the enlargement of the
arena of the Rebellion. Raids having ominously failed in their design to
arouse the lethargic spirits of Northern sympathizers and advocates, to
rush to the standard of the misguided South, it was immediately
determined to prolong the war, at least, to the date of the next
Presidential election, and then through the agencies of secret
organization and equipment, seize upon the excitement of the people in
a hotly contested election, to force a rebellion against the
administration elect in the North, as had been done in the South in
1860.
The executive part of this object was at once given into the hands of
such trustworthy men, both North and South, as were deemed suitable
to the enterprise, and the work of secret political organization was
vigorously begun in Northern Missouri and Kentucky, from thence it
gradually spread, until it was firmly rooted in the political tenets of the
minority party in the States of Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, New York,
and portions of other adjoining States.
Much dissimilarity existed in the operative structure and formation of
the various organizations, from time to time thus instituted. To give the
public a full and complete description of these organizations, would be
foreign to the writer's time, space and purpose, but in order that some
record of their character may be made, a general description of each in
its order in point of time, with a reference to the features in which
radical dissimilarities appear, would seem indispensible to the poor
perfection sought to be obtained by the author of these sketches.
Upon the discovery by Southern leaders that their cause must fail
unless "fire in the rear" was at once instigated in the North, the Order of
the Knights of the Golden Circle, an old Southern institution, was
infused with life, and began its pilgrimage Northward, one additional
creed having been ingrafted upon it.
It will be remembered that this Order was originally composed of the
wealthiest planters, merchants and professional men of the South, and
had for its sole object the inculcation of treason against the United
States. It was simply an institution to educate the Southern mind to the

required standard of rebellion. But when the Order was introduced into
the North, it was found feasible to give it a double capacity, first that of
an educational capacity, and second that of an incendiary capacity,
which comprised the destruction of