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
The arrest of General Walsh and others, and the discovery of a great
number of revolvers, etc., all loaded and ready for use, and the rather
unpleasant discovery that the Brigadier-General had actually employed a
Government detective to go to his house and give instructions in making
cartridges, were _rather_ mortifying to the order, and when it appeared
that the Chairman of the Vigilance Committee, whose province was to take
the balance of the arms, which we learned were in Walsh's barn, and with
all possible haste remove them to a place of safety, and the Chairman
(who makes this record for the edification of his constituents), deemed
the safest place he could find the retired locality of Camp Douglas, and
if the inquisitive eyes of Gen. Sweet, and his grasping propensities,
should take possession of all the valuable carbines, Enfield rifles,
muskets and revolvers, let them moderate their wrath, and find
consolation in the thought that in their last hour it will be a pleasant
reflection that all those bristling warlike implements fell into the
hands of men who will not put them to base uses.
When it was announced, with all confidence, that beneath the hay
in Charley Walsh's barn was a large number of firearms that must be
speedily removed, a new idea of the value of ladies' hoops burst upon
the world (not "The Wide-Wide World,") but the few who were present when
James L. Rock, one of the editors of the Chicago _Times_ announced
that his wife (and Mr. Rock ought to know), and some other ladies could
quickly remove these weapons by concealing them under their hoops,
Colonel Sweet, with his usual gallantry, spared the ladies the
inconvenience and trouble, and removed them quite as well and as
quickly.
After the first arrests, other followed, but after a time many of these
worthies were liberated, not because of their innocence; and they may
now one and all consider themselves on their good behavior.
After the first arrests, the hall of the "Temple" in Chicago was
deserted. It was not thought to be exactly _safe_, and meetings were
held occasionally wherever they could find a place of safety, where it
was morally certain Gen. Sweet would not know of their gatherings or of
their business, and where it would be a dead secret forever; and they
one and all swore that whoever had exposed them to the Government
_should die by assassination_. This was their fixed purpose, and when
suspicion fastened upon Hull, no less than three persons _volunteered_
to do the deed, those men were Lewis C. Morrison, old Felton, the
Outside Guardian, and, by his own confession, detective of the order,
and James L. Rock, one of the editors o the Chicago _Times_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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