Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1863-04-18
SIGNS, PASSWORDS AND GRIPS.


--------=
If there is any person who has any doubt
rs to Il secret political organization for the
express purpose OF resisting the laws. he
NAV remove it all by reading the following
evidence elected yesterday before Nj. Chas.
Heazett the United States Commissioner.
The arrest Of the parties named below was
known to very few persons outside the law
officers whose services, it was supposed,
would hc required. The great mass Of peo-
pie. moving along Chestnut street and Fifth
yesterday, little dreamed that such proceed
ings, rs somewhat detailed below, were pro-
crossing in the United States Commissioner 5
Office. 1t was wise thing, perhaps, that
caution was used by The authorities 10 pre-
vent undue excitement. The prisoners had
been in this city from the evening previous,
but as the affair was prudently kept a pro-
found secret from indiscriminating gentle
men OF the press, the great public were no
less the wiser, and there was less Likelihood
to ripple the stream of justice as it flows in
its quiet stiffness from the fountain Of au-
thority. 1t was not until after two o'clock,
yesterday afternoon, that the public became
aware that something was up, from the fact
that'a tcegraphic despatch had been receiv-
ed from Reading, Pa, that several hundred
men, some of them armed, had reached that
place to effect n rescue of prisoners supposed
to be at that place. 1t also being stated
that prisoners the crowd were in search of
to rescue them from the law authorities, had
becn taken TO Philadelphia, the rescuers
made n suggestion to come to Philadelphia
10 rescue them here. Everything being un-
satisfactory in regard to the movements of
the rioters, it was deemed advisable To pre-
pare for any emergency that might arise, no
matter what, nor where il came from. Chief
Ru9glcs, very quietly, ordered reserve of
police to report forthwith at the Central
Station, and to come in small parties, so as
not to awaken any suspicion. In very short
time squads of police reported, and not hav
ing anything particular to do, passed their
time in examining certain muskets, and go
ing through drill The provost guard also
had their drill in the State-houSe yard, and
cavalry corps were trying the mettle of
their horses in the northwestern part of the
city. The Hon. j. Clancy Jones, eX mem
Der of Congress, in alluding to the reported
rot ut Reading, said last evening at the
hearing, that the assemblage had yielded to
wiser counsel, and it was not likely they
would come to Philadelphia. We breathed
free then. 1t will be seen in the following
that il is deliberated plotted that Abraham
Lincoln, the President of United States,
snail be abducted and that a Northwestern
Confederacy is contemplated; that the So
ciety boasts of very great numbers in the
North, the South, the West, and in the army;
that a deserting soldier was recognized by
the signs and grips, understood by the mem
bers only, and that five deserters were res
cued from the military authorities in the
State of Indiana. 1t will also be seen that
Mr. Lyon, a detective of the United States,
and now deputy provost marshal at Reading,
Pennsylvanis, came very near being struck