the General Government, which did not desire it, but wished to annihilate
the Southern people, they could have materially affected the then coming
Presidential election in the North, and perhaps elected a Democratic
president, who would have added to the disasters then affecting the
country--general and complete ruin. The election of such a man as Gen.
McClellan, at such a time, and professing such principles as actuated the
Democratic party at that time, would have insured to the South her
independence, rather than further war and a dismemberment of the Union.
All this these parties professing to represent Southern opinion well knew,
and had they been successful, would have reaped a rich political reward.
Having endeavored to give a correct outline of the characters of the rebel
leaders in Canada, and the different spheres in which they acted, it is
now necessary to give some idea of the different classes of individuals
who were led by such men, and prompted by them to undertake the many
hair-brained expeditions, which they first plotted and started. These
persons are rightfully and very expressively divided into four different
and distinct classes: 1st. The Rebels. 2d. The skedadlers. 3d. Refugees.
4th. Bounty jumpers and escaped criminals. The term rebel is applied only
to persons who have been or are connected with the rebel army, and they
again are subdivided into two classes; first, those rebels who have gone
to Canada as a means of escape to the South; and, secondly, those who,
having been accustomed to easy and luxurious living in times of peace, and
having become thoroughly disgusted with service in the army, where they
were subjected to strict military discipline, sought in Canada an asylum
from compulsory service of both parties. 2d. Skedadlers, as they are
called, are those persons who having been drafted, or seeing a possibility
of it, in the United States army, had fled to Canada to avoid the service.
This class consisted mostly of fast young men, having either their own or
the pockets of their parents well lined, and accustomed to live without
labor of any kind, were not disposed to take a part on either side which