Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1864-10-01

Grand Coun.if ofthe State OF K entucky.
or rather Of Acting Grand Secretary by
the appointment Of the chiefoEhe Of
the State, Judge Bullitt, do not know
whether We have any such officer there
at the present time or not; but If so, /
presume that I stiil hold the position.
At that meeting Mr.. Dodd opened abe
meeting with the remark that We wanted
70 define the politics Of the Order. II ii
had any. Committees were appointed
Eohe Of them for the purpose Of consider
ing the question of military organiza-
ton of the Order, aud another on Demo
cratic Education. There was also a
committee appointed to examine into q
fseeret discovery made short time pre-
vioasly by one Of the members Of the
Order, that would be of benefit to the
Order. There were some other commit
tees appointed besides these. Then the
case of Mr.. Coffin was brought before the
meeting, and discussed at length, The
discussion was open to al the members
ct the Council; it was about various
things that Coffin had done for the bene-
Ct Of the Government, and it was ulti-
mately emphstieally decided that he
should be murdered There was to be a
meeting at Hamilton, 0hi5, on the next
day, and it was supposed that Cofiin
would be there Dodd called upon the
meeting for volunteers to undertake the
| job Of putting him out the way, aud want
ed to know who would 90 with him. The
only man who responded at all was 4
fellow iron Evansville, who said he knew
Coffin well, but was sorry that he could
not 60, That closed the proceedings
for the morning, think. This meeting
vas from about 10 o'clock, a. m. until
IL m, when the Council adjourned S;ntil
evening At, the evening session tAe
eomm mmistees reported 10 favor Of a mill.
tary organization of the Order, including
the arming Of members, the seizing Of
the arsenals, and the releasing Of the
rebel prisoners in the various military
prisons throughout this and the adioining
States, The coumittee we're DR.. Bowles,
MilligaR, aud DIR Gatiing, and the other
TWO of the five do not remember. There
was difference Of opinion In tbS man
nsr in which the means should be rails
ed for carrying out the plan recon mend.
| ed BY the committee. Some PROPOSED
that = tax should be raised By a general.
voluuteer subscription, while others
thought II best that each man should
arm himself
After much discussion il was decided
that each man should arm himself as he
shoaght advisable, or as be might be
able. There was some resolutions
reported on the subject Of edu-
cation. / do not know whether they
were oEerruled OF not am not sure
whether this affair Of going to Hamilton
vas not put Ell until the evening session.
Il was finally disposed Of either in the
morning or 10 the evening Mr. Dodd
volunteered 70 60 to Hamilton for the
| purpose Of disposing OF Mr. Coffin II
be was there, and called for some one TO
90 With him. Not man responded, as
have said, except Mr. Mcbride / met
Mr, Dodd and DR.. Rowles In The esen.
ing at Hamilton, after the speaking was
ever. They asksd me III had seen Cof
I'm. / told them that did not knew Mr..
Coffin when | Jaw him, They said they
had hunted for him all day and could not
find him. This was on the 10Th day Of
June. Mr.. Dodd, Err Bowles and myself
and | think Mr.. Ailligan, was on the
same train. There we're four of as in the
party, | an sure. AT the meeting in Ia
dianaPolis on the morning and evening
Of the l4th Of June, speeches were made
in the council, the subject matter Of
which was the oppression and tyranny
OF the present Government The Gov
ernment was denounoed as tyrannical,
aud il was asserted that the only way to
resist it was By force Of arms. 1t was
asserted that our liberties we're gore and
that they never could be regained to Us
IN any other manner than by an appeal
to arms; that was declared to be what
the order was for-she overthrow of
the Government, and the recovery ofou
liberties by an uprising Of this Order
There was no definite time set
for this uprising it was TO. abs
set at the meeting of the Supreme Goun-
ell at Chicago, on the lst Of Jalyai The
| uprising was to be general, the arsenals
were to be seized, and the Confederate
prisoners released and srmed With the
arms taken from the arsenais. This
seixiug Of the aFsenals and the arming
of Confederate prisoGsrs was to be done
by the members Of this Order. sThe ar
senals mentioned a1s those located IN
IsdisEa, Ohio, and Illinois. That At
Rock Island, / think, was suggested.
| Johnsons Island was also mentioned.
and all the prisoners 80 released were to
| be armed with the arms taken from the
arsenals in Ohio, Indiana, and at Frank
fort, Kentucky. There was no oalcu.
lation given Of the members of the SOM
of Liberty ia Indiana; but before that /
had understood the Order to number
| IS, 600 men IL this State. The statist-
les contained in the reports Of the off.
GERS were very imperfect, aud in conse-
quences nothing like a correct estimate
could be made. From the best OF my
judgment world say that the members
| 10 the State Of Indiana would numb
6O.0O0 men at any rate Illinois was
said TO number more than that; Mis-
souri, was stated TO be almost unanimous.
We never got any definite report from
| Ohio. | did not, at that time, learn
what further vas to be done. DR.. Bowles
told me that be bad his command divided
into regiments and eompabies, and all
| the officers appointed, except for one
district; and that in a few days, he was
going TO appoint the officers for that dis
triet snd perfect the organization there.
The plan of organization vas ali
fixed, but no definite place of reDdez,
vous had been yet appointed.
s This was told to me previous to thi.
meeting. | vas told they we're drilling
constantly at any "saatehed time tbes
could get Personally ] do not kuos
i,anytbing of the military organization o.
this body; | never met with them te
drill Dodd did not tell me anything o.
this at that time, and what / have re
lated is about all saw Of The Order ~
to that time After the meeting o
which have spoken, next saw DR.
Bovles in Louisville, Kentucky, if an
not mistaken. Nj, Dodd never saw q
|, any place only here, and at that ens
J time at Hamilton, Ohio. At the time
) saw DR.. Bowles at Louisville, be wa
. there for the purpose of experimenting
a,1 a-rfa1ufuv ~ sha unarnbaru of -,