September had seen these two attempts on the lakes. The next step was the famous St. Albans raid, when Confederates descended from Canada into Vermont, and in a half hour tried to fire the town, robbed the banks, shot at the citizens, and were gone again, leaving consternation in their wake. The whole frontier was aroused by this time. The citizens of the lakes became alarmed for their business and commerce, fearing that such attempts would paralyze trade. The convention of 1817 with Great Britain had limited the naval force on the lakes of each of the two nations to three armed vessels, neither fleet to be increased without six months’ notice to the other power. On October 24, four days after the St. Albans raid, the British were notified that the United States would now deem themselves at liberty to increase the armament within six months if in their judgment the condition of affairs should require it. Congress in December authorized the construction of six revenue cutters on the lakes, but the war was fortunately drawing to a close and no further action was taken. The Canadian officials made up their minds that there should be no more open raids to cast reproach on the neutrality of their government, but the Confederates were becoming more desperate as the end of the struggle drew near. They had not given up their hopes in Chicago, but now set the night of election day, November 8, for an attempt on Camp Douglas. The plan of the leaders, as they afterwards confessed, was to attack Camp Douglas, releasing the prisoners, to seize the polls, and stuff the boxes until the city, county, and state were for McLellan, the Democratic candidate, and finally to “utterly sack the city, burning and destroying every description of property, except what they could appropriate for their own use and that of their Southern brethren--to lay the city waste and carry off its money and stores to Jefferson Davis’s dominions.” Colonel Sweet, commanding at Chicago, was warned of this plan by United States detectives so early that he was able to break up the conspiracy without open bloodshed. When, on November 6, the city began to fill up with suspicious characters, especially the leaders of the August gathering, and it became evident that the Confederate sympathizers would soon outnumber the small garrison at Camp Douglas, Colonel Sweet caused the arrest of Colonel St. Leger Grenfell and fourteen other Confederate officers, and also the heads of the “Sons of Liberty.” This completely broke up the conspiracy.