INSIDE VIEW OF A LODGE OF THE SONS OF LIBERTY IN CHICAGO--OPEN
EXPRESSIONS OF TREASON--SIGNS OF THE TIMES--WAITING FOR REBEL
VICTORIES--THE GREAT PEORIA PEACE MEETING--WHISKEY, TREASON AND
GUNPOWDER.
Prior to July 1864, the information of the public or the authorities, in
respect to the aims, intents and objects of the organized bands of home
traitors, was very meagre and indefinite, for it was no easy task for
detectives or loyal citizens to enter the portals of the Temples.
True, enough had transpired at the investigations, and before military
commissions in different sections of the country, to awaken a painful
interest and unceasing vigilance on the part of loyal men. So well were
these organizations guarded, that vigilance committees of their members
were appointed with imperative instructions to report the names of all
civic officers and detectives in the employment of the United States and
Provost Marshals, and all persons, by whomsoever employed, who should
attempt to obtain the secrets of the Order. So complete was the
organization, that lists of names were reported and read at the weekly
meetings, and the following day the names and descriptions of such
officers were thoroughly circulated and reported to the brethren in
other cities and towns, and as well might a belled cat hope to invade
the precincts of rats and attain success, as for such a "spotted"
individual to gain access to the Temples of American Knights and Sons
of Liberty. Not a change was made on the police, not an increase
or decrease of Provost guards, not a change of even the location of
artillery in Camp Douglas, no change, however minute of interest to the
rebels, was made but that it was reported and discussed within these
nests and dens of treason.
It was attempted on several occasions by parties of loyal men, to ferret
out and secure the secrets of the Order, but as well might an attempt
have been made to possess the secrets of the Council of Ten, by the
officers of the governments of Europe; it was almost impossible, and yet
the developments upon the recent trials show conclusively, that had the
task not been effected, the most terrible results would have ensued.
With the desire to aid the Government to the extent of individual
ability, it was not strange that when opportunity occurred, whereby
all might be known, and that knowledge applied to the benefit of our
bleeding country, that any loyal man would have availed himself of
it, at any hazard. The writer found such opportunity, and waiving
all personal considerations, undertook the task, trusting in God for
success, and conscious that all good men would approve the motive, and
that if for a time, reproach and calumny should cloud his reputation, or
if perchance the assassin's hand should execute the sworn purpose of
the Order, as the penalty for surrendering them to the hands of our
Government, the time would surely come when the motives and the acts
would find that approval in the hearts of all honest men, as it did in
his own. Confiding the information accidentally obtained to W.H. Rand,
Esq., of Chicago, a gentleman whose patriotism and whose reputation
needs no encomiums, he immediately advised the expediency of conference
with the State Executive, and to the honor of Governor Richard Yates, it
should be said, he fully realized the importance of acquiring reliable
information of the plots of the secret ally of Jeff. Davis. By Governor
Yates an introduction was given to Brig.-Gen. Paine, then in command of
the department, and again full and unqualified approval of the course
thus far taken, was expressed, with the urgent request to follow up
every avenue of information in this direction. Gen. Paine issued an
introduction to Col. B.J. Sweet, whom he declared to be a "model man
and a model officer in every respect," and in whom all confidence in so
commendable a cause might be reposed. How nobly, how wisely and how well
that gallant officer discharged his trust, all who have observed his
course will concede, and that man whose heroism at the memorable battle
of Perryville, and on other battle fields, will ever be held in grateful
remembrance by his countrymen, has added new lustre to his name, and
the hearty benedictions which will ever be invoked for the defender of
Chicago--the noble Col. Sweet--attest the satisfaction and joy of the
people, to know that his services in this most difficult and hazardous
undertaking are appreciated by the General Government, and the star upon
his shoulder will glitter brighter as time wears on, and Copperheads
live only in history, an evidence of how low men may sink in the scale
of morality, and a warning to all future time. For the writer to have
hesitated in a course of duty so plain, and yet so distasteful would
have been criminal, cowardly, and unworthy of an American citizen. The
advantage gained was followed up unremittingly, by day and by night, for
many weary months, regardless of all professional duties and personal
considerations. It was at the outset found highly necessary, if not
indispensable, to have the concurrence of one good, loyal man of marked
qualification--one who was discreet, who had experience upon police
duties, who was prompt, energetic, persevering, patient, fearless,
and withal a strictly honest man, a citizen whose reputation was above
reproach; that man was found; he was Robert Alexander. After brief
consideration, Mr. Alexander gave to the writer his hearty and earnest
concurrence. Nothing was left undone by him that could further
the hazardous undertaking, and personal gratitude for his ready
acquiescence, which we tender to him, will meet with a ready response
in the hearts of all good citizens. It is now Thursday evening in July
1864. We will now ask the reader to go again with us up those long,
tedious flights of stairs to the outer rooms of the "temple" of the Sons
of Liberty in Chicago. We left the room before with the remembrance of
only a hole six inches in diameter for a full sized Copperhead to crawl
through, but we shall have better success this time. Advancing to the
aforesaid door, and giving three distinct raps, the slide, which we find
covers the hole from the inside, is moved up, and a live, full-grown
Copperhead peers through the orifice. "We whisper the word "Peace," or
"Peoria," or whatever the monthly pass-word is, and the door is open,
and we find ourselves within the vestibule of the temple, surrounded by
a little group going through the preliminary exercises of initiation. We
see the candidate and sponsors, with hands uplifted, and listen to the
very poor reading of an officer, from the ritual, and giving the new
comer his first dose of States' sovereignty and secession. This is so
mystified and clouded with high-sounding words that the poor devil nods
at every time the reader stops for breath, or to expectorate tobacco
juice, and the ceremony is concluded, and the candidate, respectable
for the good clothes which he wears this night as a rarity, follows
his conductor to another door, where he hopes for admission, the only
impression on the candidate being, that his right arm is weary from
being elevated so long, and that he is coming rapidly into good
fellowship with men of high judicial standing, who propose to give
Abolitionists and Lincoln particular "hell under the shirt tail." Again
they knock and are challenged by an inside guardian, who lectures the
newly fledged Son, who having nodded sufficiently, is conducted to the
Ancient Brother in the West, so that the _Son_, reversing the order of
nature, begins rising in the West. The "Ancient Brother" is a better
reader, for here we find _brains_ for the first time, as it is the
leaders, as we have already said, who do all the thinking, unless,
perchance, the simple wretches find themselves in Camp Douglas, where
they begin thinking for themselves. While the Ancient Brother is reading
to the attentive comer, now happy in the thought that he has taken
himself in out of the _draft_, let us survey the sanctum sanctorum; but
first let us advance to the centre of the hall, where we find a piece
of dirty oil cloth the size of a door mat, and stepping upon this,
with body erect and turning our back upon the Ancient Brother, we find
ourselves facing the Grand Seignior, who, on our first introduction, is
Judge Morris; we salute, which we do by applying the palm of our right
hand to the lips, then turning the hand to his seigniorship and bringing
our left hand across the breast, which salutation being returned by the
Grand Seignior, who sits upon a raised platform and wields a gavel, we
take seats wherever our sense of cleanliness will permit, and where we
hope there may be no traveling minute messengers conveying ideas from
one man's head to another. On the north side of the room is another
platform and desk, where a guardian sits and addresses the candidate,
who is supposed to lose his way and to be set right by this guardian,
and even if the candidate is thoroughly sober he may be excused for
losing his way, for it is a matter of much doubt whether he was ever in
such a labarynth of words as he has just heard from the Ancient Brother,
who, having given the man some pretty strong obligations, to endorse and
support the policy of Jeff. Davis, together with an intimation that if
he ever exposes any of the secrets, he may expect to suffer all sorts
of penalties, and told him to fancy he had just received an acorn,
the emblem of the order--he now sits down quietly in the pleasant
consciousness that "we have got one more good voter on our side." The
guardian of the North having put the new _Son_ on his way, he appears in
the East, reflecting his effulgence all around. The Grand Seignior now
rises from his seat, drops his gavel and explains the mysteries of the
initiation, giving him another dose of secession, about as much as the
poor fellow can carry; tells him how to challenge a brother, concluding
by giving the grand sign of distress, which is by raising the right hand
and calling out "_Ocoon_" three times, which he says is made up of the
name of _Calhoun_, whose name is mentioned with great reverence. Thus
closes the ceremony of initiation. "Considerations for the good of the
Order" being the next order of business, speeches are made by some of
the older heads to make the new one feel at home. This "feast of reason
and flow of soul" over, other business is transacted, and the temple
is closed, the Grand Seignor occasionally expressing a few words of
caution, saying that but few members must be present at the meetings at
_this_ hall, as the presence of too great numbers will excite suspicion
and lead to arrest. The next weekly meeting similar events occur, but
_new faces_ appear at every meeting, that is to say, the greater number
of members who were present last week are absent this week, and others
take their places. The Chicago _Times_, however, is well represented at
most of the important meetings. There were about two thousand members of
the Sons of Liberty in "good and regular standing" in Chicago alone,
at the time they were let down. By careful arrangements we were able to
have reports from the different temples throughout the most important
points in the Northwest, and carefully noted the chief business and
obtained the list of members, all of which has been as carefully placed
in the hands of the authorities of the War Department, and months ago
much of the information was imparted to Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, in
command of the Northern Department, who was pleased to express his
highest appreciation of the services rendered, and a desire to have
the investigation thoroughly made, that indisputable facts might be
obtained, that truth and justice might be promoted and the interest of
the country thereby protected. So thorough and searching has been the
investigation that _every_ man of any note in this order, in almost
every locality where this moral cancer has existed, is known and may
consider himself in future upon his good behavior. It was the policy of
the Sons of Liberty, which they observed as far as it was possible for
them to do, to obtain positions of trust in the army, upon the police,
in the courts, in railway offices and telegraph stations, in the office
of Provost Marshals, post-offices, departments of government, both local
and general, indeed, so completely did they carry out this plan, that
they made their boasts that they were represented upon all the railroads
running out of Chicago, and it was not an unusual thing for them to
report matters of the various departments just mentioned. One member
of the Chicago Order, as appeared in evidence before the military
commission, traveled over the North wherever he desired, on the pass
of a Provost Marshal in Indiana, his business being to aid in the
organization of Temples in the different sections of the West. So
rapidly did they increase in numbers, that Judge Morris estimated the
number in Illinois alone at 80,000 members.
It was a rule of the organization, that its members should all be well
armed and skilled in the use of weapons. The rapidity of increase in
numbers, rendered them conscious of their strength, and they became
openly defiant and talked treason upon the corners of our streets, and
wherever little groups of people assembled. The mob spirit was excited,
and all were ready for mischief whenever opportunity offered; and while
all were bound to wait submissively till their leaders should give the
signal for revolution, still many were restless and impatient for the
hour to come, and hoped that they would not long have to wait. The
suppression of the Chicago _Times_ was an auspicious moment for them,
and they made capital of it. They were never tired of talking of
Vallandigham, and while that worthy staid in Canada he was very
serviceable to the Order, as John Rogers was of more service to the
church dead than while living. Vallandigham made an excellent martyr and
an accomplished exile, but as an active member at home, old Doolittle,
or Charles W. Patten, or James A. Wilkinson, or J.L. Rock, or Obadiah
Jackson, Jr., Esq., or even Mrs. Morris herself, was worth two just like
him. Why he could not have staid in Canada for the good of the cause, we
cannot understand. What a Mecca was Windsor, and how great was Mahomet,
but alas, when the great, the Hon. Clement Vallandigham relapsed into
the three-cent fourth-class lawyer, in the little one horse city of
Dayton, "what a fall was there my countrymen." No more pilgrimages, no
more dinners with the great exile, no more texts of "arbitrary arrests"
to preach from, that could draw as Val used to draw.
The reception of the news of a victory by the rebels, was always an
occasion of rejoicing among the Sons and Knights, and in the exuberance
of their joy they shouted their treason in all sorts of places, and at
all seasons. They assumed to be peace men, and yet were always ready for
a quarrel. It became evident to all who kept posted in politics, that
there would be a wide division between the different wings of the
Democracy at the coming National Convention, and a most determined
effort was to be made by the Peace faction, to control the action of
the Convention, and long before the assembling of that body, newspaper
strife had commenced between them, and it was hoped, and so it proved,
that like the Kilkenny cats, they devoured each other. With Peace in
their mouths and contention in their hearts, the "unterrified" resolved
upon a great meeting, to be held in Peoria. It was a "big thing."
The Chicago delegation took for the calumet of peace several boxes of
fire-arms, so that if opportunity offered they might conquer a peace.
Whiskey and gunpowder were other elements of that meeting, and as the
escape of gas in petroleum wells, so noisy for a time, finally subsides,
so after the ebullition at Peoria, Brig.-Gen. Walsh, and all the Chicago
delegates, returned home, bringing with them their fire arms, without
breaking bulk, and these weapons were carefully deposited, where they
could instantly be obtained at the time of the uprising.