The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1863-04-21
ssHILLsDALE; MICH TUEsDA AYyAPRIL sf;; 1853

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AY,tAPRILI2 f,,T 1868
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and somswhat tedious length 10 respect to the
oath taken w the. alleged conspiratoys.1 The
witness had made memoIandum OF the oath
with lead pencil il. a small book, in Which be
had written the word abdication, upon which
tie leaned counsel affected 10 lbe somewhat
funny, The witness said, lam not, a good
speller nor coed writer, but Mr.. Hnoer said
abductiop; 4 smadea tho memorandum, the
witness continued, on Sunday morning after
get home it was then fresh upon my mind /;
| did not make it on Saturday night simply
because was tired. l went home ia coal
train felt sleepy; Pm poor speler; arrest.
ed Huber 10 the iron foundry Of the Philadel.
phia and Reading Railroad shop a, Reading;
/ searched him to see if be had any papers on
him; | found one paper that. he had fixed for
another meetiogto to beheld, that paper is now
inlthe possession Of Sumucl NJ Young, Com
missioner at Reading; when 1 asked him
about tho organization, he said it was Con-
stitutional Union organization; said tho dollar
fee was for tn, purpose Of testing whether the
draft was constitutional or not; Mr. Huber, in
administering the oath, said you do swear, etc.
s,Qs-Was there not an obligation taken
also 10 sustain the Constitution of the United
States? Tia " sH'A.iti
Fuu Yes SIR. svr - r's's-i s-----.~s 20
Q.-Why did you not put that down in
your memorandum book I? ,,oa,l arr
A. / put down v hat thought was neces.
sary.
Cross examined by Mr.. Jones-I desire TO
fndl out whether there was anything in the
organization; il there is anything illegal in it.
/ want tho members tried honorably, and
honorably convicted they ale guilty. l live
at Reading; decline to name the party from
whom derived my information; it was given
to mo in my official capacity, and as an officer
I promised not 10 reveal my inforrner; Twill
not tell it; will tell you all he said if you
desire TO hear it. 81 3Lurd5 tsb.g5b = 81 s1oii
Mr.. Jones, No, sir, never mind that, sai,
Witness. The meeting at the house was
public and promiscuous, suppose; it was
after this tho secret meeting was held in the
barn; understand me, when he made speech
at the house,, then the parties signed then
those wko signed would 60 into secret meet
ing with those who bad before signed; when
| found they intended to go to the barn,
went there ahead of them, and secroted my
self under the straw. -si,tt- lassagc
BY Mr.. Coffey.s l am not positive they
said at tho meeting to resist the draft by
force; the obligations were spoken in English
and German,lor Pennsylvania Dutch. s8p
q. The witness was now examined ms TO the
character of the defendants. SO far as he
knew of Messrs. Iider Oxeneider and Filbert
be considered their character good; never
had any cause to suppose they would do an
illegal act; ; I certainly would not trust Huber;
my impression is from what know Of these
gentlemen, have no reason to say that
think they would violate the law, but l would
not trust Huber. Laughter.
Frederick Printz was called to the stand
On being sworn he said he lived eight miles
from Reading, he got acquainted with Huber
at meeting at the house OF Mr.. Foust; it
was on last Friday two weeks, l think; Huber
called the m setting; ii was called by private
means; his object was TO take measures to re-
sist the draft: Mr.; Huber stated this at the
public meeting; there were about 200 people
present.; he referred to the case of resistance
in Indiana, and said this was the way it
WOuII w uOud tuSTe, Ouo VI tuo
members should bo taken aud sent to Fort
Warren that he would be rescued, even if
they had to lear the Fort down; he said there
were one or two million Of men belonging to
the organization all over the South and North
and in tho army; he said they knew each
other by sight, and then stated a case of a
soldier passing On the road, who gave him the
sign aud he know him by it; he said that any
ono who paid dollar could be sworn in; he
spoke about one hour; [ saw the crowd 90
into tho barn; don't know what they did
there; sixty three dollars were paid at the
public meeting; Huber did not say what the
name OF the association was, but outsiders
called them Copperheads. Laughter.l; af-
ter the meeting l went towards the barn to
get my horse; ] was stopped by two men; l
told them / wanted to get my horse and
wagon, and they said all right, and went with
me; do not know what tho members swear
to; one Of the members told me afterwards
that they had searched the barn for spies, but
found none there was something said about a
peace convention TO settle the war. s
d Isaac S. Gerhsrt sworn. This witness was
so essentially Pennsylvania German that, an
Interpreter was called into question. A gen
tlon an well learned in pure German found
himself at loss to Interpret Pennsy ylvania
Dutch. Mr. III. III. Manderbach,- ex-Sherif
of Berks county, was called. The witness did
not throw any new light on the subject. He
knew nothing about the secret organization, /,
not being n member. We give tho following
condensed report of lis evidence: Mr.. Huber
said it was a pity that, in q country like this
tits necessary to form a secret association |;
but before two months, or hay making, ho
guessed it would be public; he then went on
to say that we ought to support the Govern
mcnt, fit was from God, for so the Scriptures
teach us; sifthe Government was from the
devil, it ought to bs trampled under- foot; bS
said that Abe Lincolp and all his Cabinet
hid robbed tie Treasury, and if there was
only one shinplaster left 10 it, they would go
in up to their elbows to get IL; he went on
and said the war was too long in operatian: a
great many people had been killed, and the
war ought to be stopped; that the last laws
that came out from Lincoln and Congress
were not favorable TO the poor man; saw
money paid to Mr.. Huber; he got a raper
Ia. h,f ba caiJ ha ba1