Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-04-13
The pennsylvania Arrests.

The arrest of several members of a trea-
sonable society in Reading, Pa, last week,
throws some light on the plans of the ultra
peace conspirators; and reveals the fact that
with some of them war with the government
is quite as much an object as peace with the
rebels. The arrested conspirators, including
the ringleader of their gang, were quietly re-
moved to Philadelphia before their confeder-
ates knew of their arrest; and the full extent
of their guilt had been disclosed before any
violent measures could be devised to prevent
the disclosure.
1t appears that this society, whatever its
name was, had about eighty members, bound
by a secret oath, known to each other by
signs and grips, and connected by utilization
with other societies throughout the country,
Boosting membership of from one to two
million men. For the sake of greater secu-
rity they met at late hour in the night, in I'M
usual places, in barns or at the private houses
of the members. Their object primarily was to
excite disaffection against the government,
by encouraging desertion, by resisting taxes,
and by preparing to resist the expected con-
scription. They also contemplated the alb
duction of president Lincoln by force if nee
essary, and the erection ultimately of north
western confederacy.
There is no doubt now of the existence of
such conspiracies, which should be crushed
wherever they appear with strong hand. But
they have not now-they never had a shadow
of the power for evil of which they shameless
ly boast. In preparing the way for the re-
bellion of the slave states the order of the
Golden Circle was a most efficient instrument
tality. But in the loyal states it has never
prospered for an hour. In Missouri and
Kentucky it is at once a crime and disgrace
to belong to the order. In Illinois and Indi-
ana, where they presumed upon the active
sympathy of the entire democratic party
and the liberation of all who were
not democrats, every plan of theirs,
whether in subtle suggestion or bold
declaration of disloyalty, signally, ignomin-
iously failed. They came into Connecticut,
where for a little while they were received
with open arms but when the time came for
the people to express their opinion, they con-
demned the consplrators with the emrh~-i' or
.judi0iai decision. twill ne the same in Penn
sylvana. The decency and self-respect of
civilized communities revolts instinctively,
peremptorily against them.
The publishedaccounts of their dark lantern
orgies, and the fears of many loyal people
have given them a notoriety which they never
deserved. Copperheadism, open or secret,
has no chance of success in communities
which are at least half civilized. The spirit
of the republican system is at war with it.
The mystery and obscurity in which it tries
to shroud its conspiracy is an evidence at
once of its guilt and its weakness. No hon
orable cause, conscious OF its integrity, and in
spired by its inherent power, need ever clothe
itself in robes of midnight and eclipse. The
experience of all republican governments
we might say the experience of all govern
ments unqualifedly- shows that secret polit-
ical organizations contain the elements of
their own destruction, fatal, swift and sure.
If they are secret because they are criminal,
and do not dare to brave the indignant repro
baton of honorable men, then their day of
judgment and condemnation is so much the
nearer to them. For snch conspirators there
will be no friendly rocks and mountains to
which they can fly, when the country has its
final reckoning with men who have sought its
destruction.