the task, trusting in God for success, and conscious that all good men
would approve the motive, and that if for a time, reproach and calumny
should cloud his reputation, or if perchance the assassin's hand should
execute the sworn purpose of the Order, as the penalty for surrendering
them to the hands of our Government, the time would surely come when the
motives and the acts would find that approval in the hearts of all honest
men, as it did in his own. Confiding the information accidentally obtained
to W.H. Rand, Esq., of Chicago, a gentleman whose patriotism and whose
reputation needs no encomiums, he immediately advised the expediency of
conference with the State Executive, and to the honor of Governor Richard
Yates, it should be said, he fully realized the importance of acquiring
reliable information of the plots of the secret ally of Jeff. Davis. By
Governor Yates an introduction was given to Brig.-Gen. Paine, then in
command of the department, and again full and unqualified approval of the
course thus far taken, was expressed, with the urgent request to follow up
every avenue of information in this direction. Gen. Paine issued an
introduction to Col. B.J. Sweet, whom he declared to be a "model man and a
model officer in every respect," and in whom all confidence in so
commendable a cause might be reposed. How nobly, how wisely and how well
that gallant officer discharged his trust, all who have observed his
course will concede, and that man whose heroism at the memorable battle of
Perryville, and on other battle fields, will ever be held in grateful
remembrance by his countrymen, has added new lustre to his name, and the
hearty benedictions which will ever be invoked for the defender of
Chicago--the noble Col. Sweet--attest the satisfaction and joy of the
people, to know that his services in this most difficult and hazardous
undertaking are appreciated by the General Government, and the star upon
his shoulder will glitter brighter as time wears on, and Copperheads live
only in history, an evidence of how low men may sink in the scale of
morality, and a warning to all future time. For the writer to have