hesitated in a course of duty so plain, and yet so distasteful would have
been criminal, cowardly, and unworthy of an American citizen. The
advantage gained was followed up unremittingly, by day and by night, for
many weary months, regardless of all professional duties and personal
considerations. It was at the outset found highly necessary, if not
indispensable, to have the concurrence of one good, loyal man of marked
qualification--one who was discreet, who had experience upon police
duties, who was prompt, energetic, persevering, patient, fearless, and
withal a strictly honest man, a citizen whose reputation was above
reproach; that man was found; he was Robert Alexander. After brief
consideration, Mr. Alexander gave to the writer his hearty and earnest
concurrence. Nothing was left undone by him that could further the
hazardous undertaking, and personal gratitude for his ready acquiescence,
which we tender to him, will meet with a ready response in the hearts of
all good citizens. It is now Thursday evening in July 1864. We will now
ask the reader to go again with us up those long, tedious flights of
stairs to the outer rooms of the "temple" of the Sons of Liberty in
Chicago. We left the room before with the remembrance of only a hole six
inches in diameter for a full sized Copperhead to crawl through, but we
shall have better success this time. Advancing to the aforesaid door, and
giving three distinct raps, the slide, which we find covers the hole from
the inside, is moved up, and a live, full-grown Copperhead peers through
the orifice. "We whisper the word "Peace," or "Peoria," or whatever the
monthly pass-word is, and the door is open, and we find ourselves within
the vestibule of the temple, surrounded by a little group going through
the preliminary exercises of initiation. We see the candidate and
sponsors, with hands uplifted, and listen to the very poor reading of an
officer, from the ritual, and giving the new comer his first dose of
States' sovereignty and secession. This is so mystified and clouded with
high-sounding words that the poor devil nods at every time the reader