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CHAPTER XXIII.

PEACE DEMOCRACY.

UST out from Chicago, at "Camp Douglas," were 5000 Confederate prisoners. The officer in command allowed some of the captives to visit acquaintances and friends in the city on their parole. He organized them in companies to keep the camp clean and distribute provisions. The Confederates were ready to do all that was required. The guards were few in number, and belonged largely to the invalid corps. They had seen service, but were not sufficiently hardy to enter upon a campaign.

The War Department appointed Colonel J. B. Sweet to command the post. In view of the sufferings of Union soldiers at Andersonville, he thought it wise to curtail the privileges that had been enjoyed by the prisoners. No longer were they allowed to visit the city. They were permitted to write letters to their friends, which were left unsealed, that Colonel Sweet might see they contained nothing contraband. It occurred to him it would be well to hold one of the letters over the flame of a lamp, when lo and behold, writing between the lines appeared. He read about a "celebration" that was to be held in Chicago. (') He determined to keep his own counsel, and make further discoveries about any society or organization planning a celebration.

Detectives, disguised as Confederate prisoners, soon learned that something was to be done in connection with the assembling of the Democratic Convention. It was known that the "Sons of Liberty" were making preparations to resist the Government in enforcing the draft ordered by the President. The leaders were in communication with Thompson and Clay in Canada. It was discovered that a large number of "Sons of Liberty" were preparing to attend the convention, and that an attempt was to be made to release the prisoners. (2)

The railroad trains from Canada, Ohio, Southern Indiana, and IlliAug. 28, nois, entering Chicago, were filled with passengers. Some were 1864. delegates to the Democratic Convention, but the great majority were on their way to the city for a far different purpose-to act in

concert with the Confederate prisoners for their release. The movement was well understood in Richmond. Among the passengers from Canada were men holding commissions signed by Jefferson Davis as officers in the Confederate service, who were to take command of the prisoners. Their fare and the expenses of the motley crowds of "Sons of Liberty" were paid by Thompson and Clay with money from the Confederate treasury. "Men commanded by Mr. Vallandigham," says a Confederate writer, "had been intrusted with the necessary funds for perfecting county organizations. Arms had been purchased in the North by the aid of professed friends in New York. (') Alliances, offensive and defensive, had been made with peace organizations, and though we were not misled by the sanguine promises of our friends, we were confident that with any sort of co-operation on their part success was possible. During the excitement that always attends a great political convention, increased, as we supposed it would be, by the spirit of opposition to the Administration, we felt that we would be free to act unobserved, and that we could move with promptness and effect upon Camp Douglas. With 5000 prisoners there, and over 7000 at Springfield, joined by the dissatisfied elements in Chicago and through Illinois, we believed that we would have a formidable force, which might be the nucleus of more important movements. . . . Arms were ready, and information had been conveyed to the prisoners of our intention. Chicago was thronged with people from all sections of the country, and among the vast crowd were many officers of the secret organizations on whom we relied for assistance.”(*)

Had we been guests at the Richmond House, in Chicago, we should have seen one room carefully guarded. All who asked to be admitted were closely scrutinized. The Confederate officers and the "Sons of Liberty were holding a conference. A large number of the "Sons" had arrived, but they were not organized for action.

"As day after day passed," wrote an editor of one of the Chicago newspapers, "the crowd increased till the whole city seemed alive with a motley crew of blear-eyed, whiskey-blotched vagabonds, the very excrescence and sweepings of the slums and sinks of all the cities of the nation. I sat at my window and saw the filthy stream of degraded humanity swagger along to the wigwam on the lake shore, and wondered how our city could be saved from burning and plunder, and our wives and daughters from a far more dreadful fate. They talked loudly about the convention, cursed Abraham Lincoln, and praised Vallandigham. They swaggered through the streets, lounged at the corners, drank a

great deal of whiskey, and yelled with delight at the mention of the name of Jefferson Davis." (')

The conspirators reconnoitred Camp Douglas, and beheld vigilant sentinels pacing their beats. Cannon were planted to sweep every avenue of approach. The soldiers guarding the prisoners were veterans who had faced death on the battle-field. The Confederates holding commissions from Jefferson Davis saw that an unorganized mob could accomplish little against a body of disciplined troops, and wisely abandoned an attempt to release the prisoners.

Colonel Sweet was cognizant of all their plans. Very quietly he increased the force guarding the camp, and was prepared for whatever might happen.

The Democratic Convention assembled. The delegates came with high expectations. It was called to order by Mr. August Belmont, of

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New York. "Four years of misrule," he said, "by a sectional, Aug. 29, fanatical, and corrupt party have brought our country to the verge of ruin. . . . The inevitable result of the re-election of Mr. Lincoln must be the utter disintegration of our whole political and social system and bloodshed and anarchy, with the great problem of liberal progress and self-government jeopardized for generations to come."

Horatio Seymour, Governor of New York, was elected president of the convention. "The Administration," he said, "will not let the shedding of blood cease, even for a little time, to see if Christian charity or the wisdom of statesmanship may not work to save the country. They will not listen to a proposal of peace which does not offer that which the Government has no right to ask. . . . We are determined that the party which has made the history of our country, since its advent to power, seem like some unnatural and terrible dream, shall be overthrown."

The platform of the party was prepared by Mr. Vallandigham. "The Constitution," it read, "has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material prosperity of the country injured. Justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of all the States, that at the earliest possible moment peace may be restored."

The name of George B. McClellan was presented as a candidate for the Presidency. From the hour of his removal as commander of the Army of the Potomac a portion of the Democratic Party had selected him as the man who would be most likely to defeat the re-election

of Mr. Lincoln. The peace wing of the party opposed his nomina tion. "He is a tyrant!" shouted Mr. Harris, delegate from Maryland. "He it was who initiated the policy by which our liberties were stricken down. He is the assassin of State rights, the usurper of liberty; and if nominated will be beaten, as he was at Antietam."

"You have arraigned Lincoln," said Mr. Long, of Ohio, "for interfering with the freedom of speech, the freedom of elections, and of arbitrary arrests; and yet you propose to nominate a man who has been guilty of the arrest of the Legislature of a sovereign State. He has suspended the writ of habeas corpus, and helped to enforce the odious

Emancipation Proclamation of Lincoln, the instrument of a corrupt and tyrannical administration."

McClellan was almost unanimously nominated. George H. Pendleton, of Ohio, was selected as candidate for Vice-president. While the convention was resolving that the war was a failure, the troops under General Sherman were making the movement which compelled the Confederates to evacuate Atlanta, and the flag of the Confederacy, which had waved above Fort Morgan in Mobile Bay, was giving place to the Stars and Stripes. No cheers rent the air when the delegates heard the news. The convention adjourned, not sine die, but to meet again, if need be, to act in relation to whatever might happen.

The events of the hour were dissipating the gloom which a few days before had settled over the country. The flashing of Sherman's guns at Atlanta and Farragut's in Mobile Bay, like lightning on a sultry evening in midsummer, cleared the atmosphere. The invincible host entering the Confederate stronghold in Georgia was the promise of final victory. At Petersburg, upon the receipt of the news, the cannon of the Army of the Potomac hurled a salute of shot and shell into the Confederate trenches. President Lincoln issued a proclamation to the country. "The signal successes," he said, "that divine Providence has vouchsafed call for a devout acknowledgment to the supreme Being in whose hands are the destinies of nations." He recommended the following Sunday as a day of thanksgiving to God. In behalf of the people he tendered the thanks of the nation to Farragut and Sherman, and all the officers, soldiers, and sailors who had achieved the victories. He directed that national salutes should be fired from all arsenals and navy-yards. So it came about that at the hour of noon the Peace Democrats of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, who were saying the war had failed, were compelled to hear in the thunder of the salutes the reply of loyal people to the Chicago declaration.

The first important speech of the campaign on the Republican side was made by Secretary Seward to the citizens of Auburn, N. Y. Sept. 3, Who can vouch," he asked, "for the safety of the country against the rebels during the interval which must elapse before the new Administration can constitutionally come into power?"

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He was talking of the possibility of McClellan's election. It was a simple and natural inquiry, but the Peace Democrats distorted the utterance into a threat. They said Mr. Seward represented the President, and it was the intention of Mr. Lincoln to hold on to the office.

"It is a threat," said Governor Parker, of New Jersey, "that in case