Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1870-07-19
How New York was Saved.

i ,
which il full time enough, you see.
How New York was Saved.
We publish this morning the report
of the Cuited States Senate Com
mittoe on Military Affairs on the
claim Of Colonel J. f. Jaquess for
important secret services to the gov
ernment during the rebellion, en-
bracing certain facts connected with
several distinguished politicians re-
ferred TO yesterday in our editorial
columns, and also an explanation Of
the failure of the notorious rebel
incendiary plot for the destruction Of
the shipping and some of the great
cities OF tho North. Turning to the
Herald files we find that on the night
OF the 25th Of Der, 1864, in
cendiary fire in this city were dis
covered in the Astor House, the
Belmont, Lovejoy's, the Tammany,
the Howard, the United States, the
st. Nicholas, the Metropolitan, the
Lafarge, the Fifth Avenue and the
Winter Garden theatres, and that in
every case the fire was discovered in
season to prevent any material dam
age. 1t was soon discovered that
here was rebel plot and attempt
to set the city in flames, and the fail
ure Of tho Internal machine in every
instance to do the inccndiary work
was regarded at the time as some
thing wonderful if not providential.
The explanation, however, which is
given by Colonel Jaquess reduces
this general failure to an admirable
treachery on the part Of the very
man at Richmond charged with the
revolving duty Of preparing the COM
bustible composition to be used by
the incendiaries.
According to the testimony of Col.
Jaquess we are indebted to him for
the failure of these Internal phosphor-
GUS machines to light destructive
confagration. He says that on get
ting wind Of the plot, July, 1864, he
resolved upon another visit TO Rich
mond that providing himself with
the necessary passports, beginning
with the President, he undertook
the expedition, got into Richmond
without exciting suspicion, found out
the chemist employed by the rebel
government in the manufacture of the
compound to be used in firing North
ern cities and shipping; found that
this chemist was man of culture
and refinement, had no heart for
this incendiary work, though COM
pelled to do it, persuaded him TO
neutralize the proposed incendiary
compound by some other chemicals
and that, entering heartily into the
scheme, she got up first compound
that was so very infammable that
it only had to be touched with a
match when it went off like friction
match :" that she then put up anoth-
err substance in a ball about the size
of hens egg, or larger, which was
enclosed in the outer or inflammable
substance" and that when the fire
struck the inside composition it
would sparkle and make fuss much
like damp powder, and extinguish
itself at once" This is the secret,
we are told, of the failure in every
case of those rebel incendiaries who
so mysteriously came and disappear
ed with those mysterious looking
black bags. The rebel chemist at
Richmond, in the interest of human
ity, had turned the tables against his
employers and sent these phosphoric
incendaries on a FOOLS errand.
The name of the humane Rich
mond chemist is not divulged, al
though wcnow think it may be safely
proclaimed from the housetops over
all the South without exciting any
other feeling than that of approval
of his conduct. We doubt not that
even General Breckenridge, charged
with being an active party to this
phosphorus conspiracy, guilty or not
guilty, would not hesitate to approve
the pious fraud of said humane chem
ist. If the facts are as set forth by
Colonel Jaquess that chemist deserves
a handsome pension from the gov
ernment. as we'll as the Colonel HIM
self, in addition to his indemnitication
for expenses incurred in the delicate,
dangerous and important public SER
vices recited in his testimony. Nor
have we any reason to doubt the
substantial truth of the Colonies
statements considering the confidence
reposed in him by Abraham Lincoln
from first to last, and the high char
acter for truth and veracity given
him by Senator Harlan. We are
sorry, however, that the patriotic
Colonel found nothing in Horace
Greeley but a violent temper and
raging profanity in his conversations
on that famous Niagara Falls diplo-
matte mission to Jacob Thompson
and company.
We have seldom been given a
public document which in so small o
compass has embodied such import
ant inside facts for the historian as
this brief report on the claim OF Col.
Jaquess. 1t gives us some new rev.
Citations of the impotence Of Buchan-
an, the practical loyalty of Seymour
and the weakness of Greeley in the
prosecution of the war. 1t shows
us how intimately associated were
the rebel conspiritors in Canada, not
only with the Confederate authorities
at Richmond but also with some OF
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