The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1875-12-29
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corresponac6ce Sew York Times.


Correspondents New York Times
NIAGARA Falls, Nov. 30.--A casual visit
to this now lonely and deserted resort has re-
minded me Of very curious and rather start
ling episode of the War, which was narrated
to me here some three years age by gentle
man who held prominent and confidential
position on General Dix's staff while the latsor
was in command in New York. This gentle
man is now, or was quite recently, a resident
of Batavia. send you his name with this,
and asow my own confidence in the perfect
truth of his story. 1t is one of the hundreds
Of unwritten chapters of the secret history Of
the War, which, if published, might give a
iiew aspect to many important features of the
great struggle. At pages 864-5 of Greeley's
American Conflict, Vol. 2, may be fornd
that authors account of the famous peace re-
gotiations of the Summer of 1864 at Niagara
Falls. At page 6e7 following, relating to the
outside scenes at the Democratic National
Convention at Chicago. is the following Ian
guagc, sd pertinent to the subject Of this letter
that it becomes its almost necessary intrcduc-
ton
None can say how many of the vast gather
ing who yelled assent to such utterances knew
that they were surrounded and mixed up
with Rebel officers fresh from Canada, Rko
had been sent Here expressly to cooperate
with certain domestic traitors, high in Office in
the secret organization aforesaid, in tile sud-
den mssstering of force, mainly Of "Ameri-
can Knights" locally known as "Illini ~,
which should first liberate the 900 Rebel
captives then held in Camp Douglas near
that city thence rushing with rapidly avg
mentcd numbers to the achievement of a
similar success at the prison camp near In
championships raising the siege Of Rich
mond and Atlanta by ga fire in the rear -
but that such conspiracy had for weeks ex-
listed that many. III Chicago were HEARTILY
engaged in it and that but for the extraor-
| binary astutcnoss, vigilance, and energy of
Col. b. j. Sweet, then in command over Camp
Douglas, there would have been at least a
desperate attempt to execute the bloody pro-
grammc-are facts which rest upon testimony
too positive, and drawn from too many indie
| pendent sources to be distrusted.
In foot-note the author says still further
on the same subject
ton the consprators had prepared for outbreak on
! the day of the Presidential election, etc.
The story of my informant, itself record
of personal experience, convulsively shows
that the plans of the rebel conspirators had at
that time another object, and one well calcu-
lated to throw the whole North into constcr-
nation and dismay. The scheme happily
failed, but its success might have led to
another and very different result of the war
than that which Providence touchsafed us.
My informant shall tell his story In his own
words:
Early in June, 1867, and before anything
had got into the newspapers about peace ne
gotiations at Niagara, privsto intelligence
reached Gen. Dix's headquarters at New York
of a gathering Of eminent rebels 1t the Cliff
ton House. Secret dispatches from Rich
mond-and it is a fact not generally known
that week rarely passed without our being
| furnished with such-=had forsonie time fore
Swallowed that something of Importance was
being concocted in Canada against the natio-
nal cause. Many men in official and semi
official positions Id tho Confederacy were
known to have repaired thitlief, and the air
of Richmond@so our spies reported-was full
of intimations of "good news from Canada"
These intmations were afterwards partially
justified by the piracies upon the lakes the
attempt to burn New York, the infected
clothing" plot, the attempted release of re-
bel prisoners, etc. Strange to say, the dark
est and most hideous item of the whole list
of objects of the border conspiracy has never
been put in print. There were reasons, as
you shall hear, Fol- sHpprcssing it, as far as
that was possible during the war (; There can
be none now that know Of Gen. Dix be-
ing ignorant Of the designs of the Rebels In
that quarter, and appreciating the Importance
of securing trustworthy intelligence OH the
subject; dispatched me to discover all could
III my own way:
went to Niagara, afidz-n 1itizen's clothes
of course crossed the river and put Up at the
Clifton House. There stayed until the So
called "peace negotiations were finished,
and until had learned the real object of the
assemblage of Confederates tbore. Many
met whom had known in former years, but
| III SO happened bIdb baW nO ohC wiz huOW Vi
my officials connection with Gen. Dix. 4 was
thus enabled to find out all that any man Of
ordinary acuteness could have discovered,
whose mind was not led astray by the flimsy
pretext Of "pcace negotiations" That this
subject was mere pretext intended solely as
a mask to the real designs of the Rebel &c M
missioners, p I have positive and certain know
ledge. The letter to Horace Greeley Up 664,
stAmerican Conflict" Vol. ~, the solemn
consultations with him at the Clifton, the I'LL
ing of our papers with columns of stuff about
these negotiations, and the impossible peace
they we're thought to promise, were all art
fully-contrived adjuncts, intenoed to lead tho
attention of the people away from tho real
object of the conspiracy. The "Commis-
sionersn certainly succeeded in that, If in
nothing else. And IL we may judge from
Greeley's remarks on the subject in Vol. 2 Of
his book, PIP. O64-5, he left Niagara after his
Intellectual closetings with Messrs. Clay, Hol-
combe, and Saunders in the belief that he had
been talking with men whose bona flde OBJ