from which their commissary was but illy and scantily supplied, together
with a desire on the part of the Southern people, to let the people of the
North see what invasion meant, to make them feel and see the destruction
and desolation following our army of invasion, determined the Richmond
government, in 1863, to send its agents to the Canadas, well supplied with
money, to endeavor to foment discord, and to intensify the dissatisfaction
already existing in certain political circles, with the government, to
such an extent that it could be made available for their own uses and
purposes. Knowing that thousands of their soldiers were confined at
Johnston's Island, and Camp Douglas near Chicago, almost within twelve
hours' travel of Canada, it was the great object of the rebel government
to release those prisoners of war, and in the mean time having stirred up
and excited a formidable conspiracy in the North, particularly in the
North-West, having in view the subversion of the government, and the
securing of material aid and assistance to the rebels, and those rebel
prisoners being released through the instrumentality of the rebels from
Canada and those of the Northern sympathizers who could be induced to join
in the expeditions for that purpose, the conspiracy was to culminate all
over the North--but principally in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky,
Missouri and New York, and effect the release of the prisoners of war
confined in the various prisons in those States. The prisoners at all
these places being released, were to form a nucleus around which all the
dissatisfied people of the Northern States could rally, and endeavor to
maintain themselves and their cause here in the North, and by rallying in
formidable numbers, to cause the withdrawal of so many troops from the
field in front, to establish peace at home, that it would materially
change the whole character of the war, and remove the seat of war from the
cotton States to the Northern States--Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri.
Upon the withdrawal of the troops in any considerable numbers from the
front, was to follow the advance of the rebel armies into Kentucky,