The Great North-Western Conspiracy in All Its Startling DetailsAyer, I. Winslow
History
The Great North-Western Conspiracy in All Its Startling Details
Ayer, I. Winslow
Knights of the Golden Circle; Northwestern Conspiracy, 1864
Sunday evening came. Our citizens worshiping in the churches, or in
peaceful repose in their own residences, little knew of the imminent
peril to which they were exposed, or of the gathering of their fellow
citizens in the Invincible Club Hall to arrange the details which, if
successful, would bring ruin, desolation and death to thousands of our
unsuspecting people. Up the entrance to the hall, cautiously crept the
members of the order, peering behind them, and advancing one by one,
or in groups of two or three, till they reached the hall. The door was
guarded by a sentinel, so that intrusion was out of the question. At
nine o'clock, the assemblage was called to order by Obadiah Jackson,
Jr., Esq., the Grand Seignior. Patrick Dooley, Secretary, was in his
place on the right of the Grand Seignior. The meeting was large, and
a more desperate looking collection of men have rarely assembled in a
convention in our city. Such desecration of the evening of the Sabbath
has never before been witnessed here. After the opening of the meeting,
one of the members took early occasion to remark substantially, that it
must have been noticed by all present, as well as himself, that the city
was full of strangers, and that he had noticed many of them were dressed
in butternut clothes, and had good reason to believe that they were
Abolitionists in disguise; that it was advisable to watch them, it being
his confident opinion that they had come to the city for the purpose of
fraudulently voting the Abolition ticket; and the speaker was proceeding
in this strain, much to the amusement of the members of the higher
degree, to whom the men in butternut clothes were no strangers. The
speaker had scarcely taken his seat, when James A. Wilkinson, Past Grand
Seignior, rose and stated that the suspicious looking persons were "our
friends," and that he himself had brought a company of sixty of them to
the city, and that they were entitled to every attention, as they would
do good service for "us," and stated that he was going back for more.
The strangers who were the subject of discussion, were from the counties
in the Southern part of the State, and all bore the same general
appearance of vagabonds, cut-throats, felons, bounty-jumpers and
deserters. They had all seemed to appear simultaneously in our city,
unheralded even to the "Sons," and their advent was as much a subject of
remark, as would have been a shower of toads and tadpoles. They did not
take up their quarters at respectable hotels and private houses, but
sneaked away stealthily to the lowest dens of vice, and resorts of
criminals unwhipped of justice. They came to help perform infamous work,
and had a part of the price of their guilt upon their persons, or had
already invested it for the poorest quality of intoxicating liquors.
They had been collected together from the various country towns in the
Southern part of the State, where they had been in training under the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account