entered the heads of malcontents at the North to establish a Northwestern
Confederacy, it was speedily chased away by the more promising schemes of
the arch traitor late of Richmond. It is to collect facts already
elicited, and to give further information, and with a hope of aiding the
cause of the Union so sacred and dear to us all, that the writer has
yielded to the oft-repeated requests of his friends to present a connected
and concise history of the Northwestern Conspiracy.

THE AUTHOR.




CHAP.I.


SECRET SERVICE TO SECURE SUCCESS OF SOUTHERN ARMS--STATE SOVEREIGNTY--THE
GENERAL PURPOSES OF SECRET POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS--RECOLLECTIONS THAT CAN
NEVER DIE--VOICES FROM OUR BRAVE SOLDIERS AT THE FRONT, BESPEAKING OUR
PROTECTION FOR THEIR WIVES, CHILDREN, PARENTS AND HOMES FROM NORTHERN
COPPERHEADS--CHARACTER OF THE LEADERS OF THE DIFFERENT SECRET ORDERS.

The signal potency of secret organizations at the South prior to the
secession of States, and indeed the only really effective machinery by
which an attempt at disunion by the people could have been made to appear
possible, early in the great struggle engaged the earnest attention of the
Southern leaders. Knowing as they did that had the question of secession
been primarily an open one, for free discussion, that the masses of the
people would have rejected the proposition with deserved scorn and
indignation, and hung the ambitious adventurers who dared propose the