By keeping off the main roads and avoiding the towns, Calhoun had no trouble in making his way back into Tennessee. He had been gone nearly a month, and was glad to see his old command, who gave him a royal welcome. He was showered with questions as to where he had been, but to each and every one he would laugh and say, “Be glad to tell you, boys, but can’t.” “Thought you had deserted us,” said his scouts. “Not till death,” replied Calhoun. “I was on a secret mission. The General knows where I was.” “It’s all right then, but mark my word, there will be some deviltry going on shortly,” one of them remarked, sagely. As General Breckinridge was greatly interested, Calhoun did not make his report until that General could meet with Morgan. Then Calhoun gave a detailed account of all he had seen and heard. He was listened to with breathless attention. “His report agrees perfectly with all I have heard,” remarked Breckinridge, much pleased. “I have had a dozen different agents in the North, and they all agree.” “But you have not given us your own conclusions, Lieutenant,” said Morgan. “It might seem presumptuous in me,” answered Calhoun. “By no means; let us hear it,” replied both generals. Calhoun, thus entreated, gave the conclusions he had formed, not from what had been told him by the leaders of the Knights of the Golden Circle, but from his own observations. He was listened to with evident interest. “Your conclusions seem to be at utter variance with all that was told you, and every fact given,” said Breckinridge. “You admit that dissatisfaction in the Democratic party is almost universal over the way the war is being conducted; you say that we have not been deceived regarding the numbers of the Knights of the Golden Circle, that there are eighty thousand of the order in Indiana alone, of whom forty thousand are armed; as you know, every member of that order has taken an oath not to take up arms against the South; that they believe in states’ rights; that they will resist by force the tyranny of the Federal government; and yet you say it is your belief that if General Morgan should invade the state, not a hand would be raised to help him. I cannot understand it.” “I will try to make myself plain,” said Calhoun. “The Democratic party is sick and tired of the war, and want it stopped. They believe we can never be whipped, and in that they are right. But they love the Union, revere the old flag. They indulge the vain hope that if the war were stopped, the Union might be restored. We know how foolish that hope is. I speak of the rank and file. Many of their leaders are notoriously disloyal, but they deceive the people with fine words. They make the party believe that if the Republican party were only defeated, things would be as they were.