The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-10-26

Palladium. May IT. 1911. in its &c.
A. r. Edition The original copy
has been lost.
A conspiracy to kidnap and murder
Governor Morton, in order that the
. Democratic Secretary of State, next
in succession in our form of govern.
nfent, might become the head of this
commonwealth and thus throw In
diana in the columns of the Secession
states, sounds, to the present day,
more like fiction than fact, but this
little incident in the history OF the
wildly recalled by the Hon. Isaac
Jenkinson, of this CITY, although then
! resident of Fl. Wayne where he
published and edited the Gazette.
The trials for treason" as they
were called which were held in In
dianapolis before a Military Commits
sion, specially convened by the mill
tary authorities of the District of In
diana, for the purpose of bringing Har-
rison H. Dodd, of Indianapolis. and
other men high in the councils of the
Order OF American Knights or Sons of
Liberty before the bar for reasonable
acts, created great furore at the
time, although recollection of this
phase of civil war history as related
to Indiana is but vague.
THE knights of the Golden Circle
To ho
present generation of the secret So
cieties in the North formed to aid the
Rebellion, but the '"Sons of Liberty
was equally as powerful and it was to
the members Of this order in Indiana
that was accredited the plot to make
away" with Governor Morton and put
Indiana in the ranks of the supporters
of the lost cause"
Gen. Bennett Judge.
General Thomas W. Bennett, one of
the picturesque figures of that and
a later day-General Bennett then liv-
ing in Liberty having afterward be-
come a citizen of Richmond where he
was several times Mayor and where
he and his charming wife were con-
spicuous politically and socially-was
a member of the commission which
arraigned Dodd and other principals
who included VIM. A. Bowles, of In
diana, Joshua F. Bullitt. of kentucky,
Richard Barrett, of Missouri, and An
drew Humphreys, Horace Heffron,
Lambden P. Milligan and Stephen
Horsey, also of Indiana, on the gener'
al charge of conspiracy against the
United States government with num-
Der of minor specific charges.
1t might be interesting to state that
Brevet Brigadier General Silas Col
grove, the United States Volunteers.
and whose home was in Winchester,
was also member of the commission
appointed to try the prisoners, and
that commission was detailed by Or
der of Brevet Major General Alvin P.
Hovey, afterwards Governor, the per-
sonnal of the body, in addition to Cen
erals Colgrove and Bennett being
made up Of: Colonel William E. Nc
Lean, 43 Infantry; Colonel John T..
Wilder, 18th Infantry; Colonel Thorn
as I. Lucas, 10Th Infantry; Col. Charles
D. Murray, 89th Infantry; Colonel
Benjamin Spooner, S3d Infantry; Col
onel Richard P. DeHart, 128th Infan-
try; Colonel Ruben Williams, 18th In
fantry; and Colonel Albert Heash,
Tooth Infantry, all of the Indiana Vol
unteers. With Colonel Ambrose A.
Stevens of the Veteran Reserve Corps;
Colonel Andel D. Wass, of the Goth
Infantry; Massachusetts Volunteers,
and Major Henry L. Burnett, Judge
Advocate of the Ohio and Northern
Department, as Judge advocate.
Not the least interesting was the
appointment of the celebrated Ben
Pitman, as stenographer, or 'phono-
graphic reporter" as he was called to
take down the proceedings. Mt. Pit
man being able to apply the rules of
his own celebrated system of short
hand to the recording of this famous
case
New Historical Fact.
That the Southerners expected and
did form a coalition of their own
under the name of the Confederacy,
is, of course, matter of world his
tory, but that it was the carefully Or
ganized plan of these secret orders
to form a North Western Confeder-
acy," which would be friendly to the
Southern Confederacy, but inimical to
New England, is not one with which
the public at large is acquainted.
Such, however, was the purpose OF
the leaders OF these reasonable Or
ders, although the rank and file were
not invariably aware of the ultimate
purpose of their organization. A
great mass of evidence was brought
out in these trials, which ended in the
conviction of the principals and their
sentence to be hanged.
Great pressure being brought to
bear on Andrew Johnson for commute
ton to imprisonment for life, was sue
cessful to the latter end. but at the
moment of Johnson's act the Supreme
Court of the United States to which
the case had been appealed, decided
that the Military commission had no
power to act legally and the case and
prisoners were dismissed.
The most Interesting phase of these