administration, and to express his confidence in this Order to remedy all
the evils of the administration, and that we should very soon--"in sixty
days," have the power, and yet on several occasions he expressed the
belief that McClellan would not be elected. No one, not even the most
stupid in the first degree of the Temple, could fail to understand how the
Copperheads were to have the reins of the General Government in sixty
days, and yet that the party could not hope for success at the polls. A
man named William Hull, connected with the Order, rebuked such speeches in
unqualified terms, and as a consequence drew down upon himself the odium
of the Order. Mr. Hull expressed himself in favor of compliance with the
Constitution and the laws, and of the Union. His denunciations of the
rebels excluded him from the confidence of the leaders, who began to
regard him as a "dangerous man," and expressed the belief that he would
turn against them, and therefore required watching. Mr. Hull was a man of
good common sense, and made several Union speeches in the Order, which
confirmed the suspicion that had been expressed by some, that he was a spy
and detective, and it was said it would be far better to _put him out of
the way_, or in other words to kill him, lest he might betray them, and
further as the time of the election was so near at hand, it was voted by
the Sons of Liberty to destroy all their records, so that in case of
arrest no documentary evidence could be brought against them. While the
motion was pending, Mr. Richard T. Semmes, one of the prisoners tried at
Cincinnati, moved an amendment, that the names of members be retained, so
that in case any one should betray the Order they might be known and hung,
but it was not deemed safe to preserve the record, and most of the
memoranda was destroyed, but for the edification of the members, we will
add that we have on deposit in Chicago an entire and correct list of
names of the Chicago, and most of the prominent Temples, and it may be
deemed expedient to publish it hereafter; this will be determined by the
general behavior of the members themselves.