almost irreparable disaster upon the Union arms, which event both they and
the Copperheads with them, were not only wishing to take place, but
confidently expecting every day; that they with Hines and others were
going home with some delegates to the Convention, where they could live
quietly and work to a great advantage. On the fourth day of the
Convention, the men and officers were paid various sums from twenty to one
hundred dollars, and it was left to their option whether they would go to
Southern Illinois, Indiana, or return to Canada. Some fifteen or twenty
went to Canada, and about fifty went to Southern Illinois and Indiana.
Thus ended the first attempt to release the rebel prisoners of war at Camp
Douglas. It was certainly a bold movement, both on the part of the rebels,
who exposed themselves to such great risk of suffering a disgraceful and
ignominious death, and the citizens who aided them in their nefarious
designs. But it seemed that an angel of an all-seeing Providence stretched
its protecting wings over the fair city, which was doomed by the rebels
and their friends at the North first to see and feel the demoralizing
influence of an insurrectionary force. What expression, or what degree of
contempt is most appropriate for the citizens connected with these rebel
efforts;--persons owing a true and faithful allegiance to the Government,
yet aiding and abetting its public enemies, persons who while professing a
common fealty with their fellow citizens, would welcome to their homes
incendiaries, and incite them to murder and plunder those very fellow
citizens, and compel them to suffer all the horrors of a cruel warfare! No
epithets that human ingenuity could heap upon them would be too harsh, or
too undeserved, no contempt too humiliating for a people so devoid of
honesty and all the qualities essential to render them prosperous and
happy.