“He, however, very suddenly changed his views as to the proper treatment for the leaders of the rebellion. Instead of wishing them tried and punished, as formerly, he thought a portion of Congress should be tried and punished. He turned his back on his Union friends and made the leading rebels and their sympathizers of the North his confidants. Jefferson Davis and all those under arrest for treason were, under his new programme, released. He denounced leading Republicans as conspirators and traitors. He was cajoled by every conspirator of the late rebellion. Finally the visits of certain men from Maryland and Virginia became so frequent that it aroused a suspicion in the minds of the Secretary of War and the Chief of Staff to the General of the Army, and very soon this suspicion extended to the General himself that a new conspiracy was being organized. The General was led to believe this, first, on the ground that the President at one time wanted all the leading men who had been paroled by the General arrested and tried by the U. S. Court in Virginia. This the General of the Army had resisted in such a manner as to cause quite a coolness between the two. The same men that he at one time desired to see hanged had now become his companions, confidential friends and advisers. “Information was received about this time, through a source that could not be doubted by the Secretary of War nor by the General of the Army, of a programme which had been agreed upon by the President and certain rebels claiming that their States were sovereign, were States now as ever, with all their rights--that of representation included. The President determined to issue his proclamation for an election of Senators and Members of the House of Representatives from all the States lately in rebellion, and if they came to Washington claiming their seats, and should not be admitted by the Republican majority, he would organize a Congress with the Southern members and the Northern Democrats, and as President would recognize them as the Congress of the United States and send his messages and communications accordingly. If the Republicans resisted he would disperse them by force, and thereby make them the rebels against the lawful Government, as he claimed, and in that way turn it over to its enemies and their sympathizers, with himself as their chief instead of Mr. Davis, holding the Capital and all the Government archives. If he could induce the General of the Army to obey his orders he could carry out this scheme; if not, he would get rid of the General and try and find some other officer upon whom he could rely. To be prepared in case he could not use the Commander of the Army, a force was to be organized in Maryland and Virginia, which was to sweep down upon Washington and take possession before outside forces could be organized against the President's authority, using in connection with this force such of the army as would obey him. He tested the General