All summer the leaders of the movement tried to get their Northern sympathizers to move, but the “Sons of Liberty” set as the first possible time for action the 29th of August, the date of the meeting of the National Democratic Convention in Chicago. At this time, and under the guise of politics, large numbers of men could be introduced into the city without suspicion and it was hoped that the sentiment of the convention would be one of strong disaffection to further prosecution of the war. Captain Hines, one of the leading agents of the Confederacy, and sixty picked men were ready to head the movement; arms had been brought into the city, and the prisoners had been notified to be ready; but the rank and file of the prospective army did not materialize. The government had got wind of the project and had sent extra troops to the city. These amounted to only a thousand men, but the convention was not so rabid in its opposition as had been hoped, and when it came to the moment the “Sons of Liberty” were not ready to strike the decisive blow, and the leaders were soon convinced that the time was not ripe. They could not count on a sufficiently large number of Northwestern men for their support, and without them they could do nothing. The next step in the programme of the disappointed Commissioners was to capture the war steamer _Michigan_, the only armed vessel on the lakes, which was now at Sandusky, and to release the Confederate prisoners on Johnson’s Island within that inlet. The Camp Douglas scheme had been to march southward through Illinois to the support of the Southern army. The present plan was to go by steamer from Sandusky to Cleveland, capture that city, and proceed through Ohio to Virginia. The plot was worked out to its last detail. Every signal was arranged. There were conspirators in the city and on the island, and even on the gunboat itself. But the plan was disclosed by a spy to the lieutenant-colonel at Detroit, who telegraphed an instant warning to the commander of the _Michigan_, and Cole, the leader in this part of the plan, was taken. Mr. Beall, who was to bring men from Canada, received no word of this misadventure, but proceeded to execute his share of the scheme. To disarm suspicion the first of his party, a Mr. Burley, took passage on the steamer _Philo Parsons_, a merchant vessel plying between Detroit and Sandusky. Mr. Beall and two others embarked at Sandwich on the Canadian side of the river, and sixteen men came on at Amherstburg. This last party embarked in worn and ragged garments, passing as tramps who had gone to Canada to better their fortunes, but without success. Their only baggage was one great old-fashioned trunk tied with ropes. After the steamer left Kelley’s Island, outside Sandusky Bay, Beall announced to the mate in a loud voice that he hereby took possession of the boat in the name of the Confederate States. As he spoke his followers opened the trunk and pulled out a formidable array