The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1865-08-10
From the Atlantic Monthly for Jaly.
THE. CHICAGO CONSPIRACY.

the country was startled by the publication o
Report from the Judge Advocate of the
United States, disclosing the existence of g
widespread conspiracy at the West, which
had for its object the overflow of the Union
The conspiracy, the Report stated had q
military organization, with commander-in-
chief, general and subordinate officers, and
100000 enrolled members, all bound to a
blind obedience TO the orders of their supe-
riors, and pledged to take up arms against
any government found waging war aginst a
people endeavoring to establish govern
ment Of their own choice
The organization, ii was said, was in every
way hostile TO the Union, and friendly to the
so-called Confcderacy, and its ultimate OBJ
jccts were ''rising in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois
and Kentucky, in cooperation with the rebel
forces which vas to invade the last-named
State"
Startling and Incredible as the report
ecemed, it told nothing but the truth, and it
did not tell the whole truth. Ii omitted to
.tate that the organization was planned in
Richmond that its operators were directed
by Jacob Thompson, who was in Canada for
that purpose aud that wholesale robbery, ar
son and midnight assassination were among
its designs
The point marked out for the first attack
was Camp Douglas, at Chicago. The 5000
rebel soldiers confined there, being liberated
and armed, were to be joined by the Cana
dian refugees and Missouri Butternuts"
engaged iu their release, and 5000 and more
members of the reasonable order resident in
Chicago This force, of nearly 10000 men
would he n nucleus about which the consp-
rators in other parts of Illinois could gather;
and being joined by the prisoners liberated
from other camps, and members ofthe order
fror, other States, would form an army
hundred thousand strong. Sc fully had eve
rything been forcseen and provided for, that
the leaders expected 10 gather and organize
this vast body of men within a fortnight!
The United States could bring into the field
no forces capable of withstanding the pro-
grcss of such an army. The consequences
would be that the whole character of the
war would be changed-its thcater would
be shifted from the border to the heart of the
free States; and southern independence, and
the beginning at the North Of that process of
disntegration so confidently counted on by
the rebel leaders at the outbreak Of hostlll-
ties, would have followed.
What saved the nation from being drawn
into this whirl pool of ruin! Nothing but the
cool brain, sleepless vigilance and wonder
fu Sagacty of one man-a young officer new
,r read Of in the wspapers-removed from
field duty because of disability, but commits
stoned, very believe, by Providence itself
10 ferret out and foil this deeper-laid, wider
spread and more diabolical conspiracy than
any that darkens the page of history. 9th
er men-and women, too-were instrument
tai in dragging the dark iniquity TO light:
but they failed 10 fathom its full enormlty,
and 10 discover Its point Of outbreak. He did
thai; and he throtlled the tiger when about
70 spring, and so deserves the lasting graft
tode Of his country. How he did IT propse
10 tell in this paper. II is a marvellous tale;
il will read more like romance than history;
but, calling to mind what good man once
said 10 me, Write the truth let people
doubt ii if they will" shall narrate the
kcts.
There is nothing remarkable in the ap-
pearance Of this young man. Nearly SIX
feet high, he has an erect military carnage,
frank, manly face, and looks every inch a
toldier-such a soldier as would stand up all
day in a square hand-to-band fight with an
open enemy: but the keenest eye would de-
tect in him no indication of the crafty ge-
MUS which delights 10 follow the wIndings
Of wickedness when burrowlng IN the DARK
But il not a Fouche or Vidocq, he is cef-
sainls on able man: for, in section where
able men are as plenty as appie-biosSon's
IN June, he was cnOSen W iSP'
district in the State Senate, and, enter
ing the army as subaltern officer rose
before the battle of Perryvllle, to the com
mand of regiment At that battle rebe
bullet entered his shoulder and crushed th'
bones of his right elbow. This disabled hin
for field duty, and so it came about that h
assumed the light blue of the veterans and Of
the second day of May 1864, succeede
Gen. Orme in command Of the military pos
at Chicago.
When fairly settled in the low w-roofe
shanty which stands, sort of mute sentf.
over the front gateway of Camp Dougia
tAe new commandant, as was natural, looi