Among these men were some of the most wily and determined enemies of the Union whom secession had begotten, and their presence so near our Northern frontier was felt to be full of danger, as it was known they were prepared for any desperate enterprise. Their leaders, George N. Sanders, Beverly Tucker, Jacob Thompson, and men of like proclivities, spared no efforts to organize plots against the United States, in defiance of the neutrality of the country in which they resided, and, strange to say, the local authorities seemed indifferent to these attempts to abuse the right of asylum. In the latter part of 1863 a plot was set on foot by Sanders and his associates, under instructions from the government at Richmond, to release twenty-five hundred rebel officers imprisoned on Johnson's Island, in Lake Erie, who, in conjunction with a body of rebels in Canada, were to attack and destroy Buffalo and other lake cities. The American Consul-General at Montreal, having received timely notice of this plot, laid the details before the Governor-General of Canada, by whom they were communicated on November 11th to the United States Government. The prompt measures taken by the latter to guard against the danger prevented the execution of the plot. The British Government, however, seems to have taken no measures to arrest and punish the participators in this transaction. But though baffled in this attempt, the secessionists in Canada relaxed in no degree their efforts to harass the border towns of the United States. On the afternoon of October 19, 1864, a body of forty well-armed men, headed by one Young, suddenly attacked the village of St. Albans, in Vermont, fifteen miles from the Canadian frontier, and, after robbing the banks of over two hundred thousand dollars, and firing upon the defenceless and thoroughly astounded inhabitants, one of whom was mortally wounded, rode off to Canada, where nearly the whole gang was subsequently arrested. They were brought before the Court of Quarter Sessions at Montreal, and discharged by Justice Coursol on the ground of a want of jurisdiction. Subsequently, on being tried before the Superior Court of Lower Canada, they were all discharged. The St. Albans banks recovered a portion of the money stolen from them, but the United States Government received no reparation for this incursion upon their territory from a friendly state.

In September, 1864, John Y. Beall, an officer in the rebel army, organized in Canada a force for the purpose of a raid on the lakes, and succeeded in capturing and destroying two steamboats owned by citizens of the United States. In the succeeding December he was arrested near the suspension bridge over the Niagara River, in the State of New York, for attempting to throw a passenger train from Buffalo off the railroad track, which act he claimed to have perpetrated by virtue of his commission from the rebel government. He was tried and executed as a pirate, spy, and murderer, on Governor's Island, New York, on February 24th, 1865.

As if the attempt to rob defenceless towns, and murder their inhabitants, or to throw railroad trains off the track, were not sufficiently infamous, the Canadian refugees now organized a plot to fire the principal hotels of the city of New York. The attempt was made on the night of November 25th, and, if successful, might have resulted

in a frightful sacrifice of property and life; but fortunately, it was committed to timid and unskilful hands, and the fires kindied by them were soon extinguished. Captain Robert C. Kennedy, of the rebel service, was subsequently arrested in Detroit for complicity in this plot, and was tried and executed at Fort Lafayette, in New York Harbor, on March 24th, 1865.

Similar to the exploit of Beall on the lakes was that of a party of disguised rebels, who, embarking on the passenger steamer Chesapeake, at New York, on December 19th, 1863, murdered one of the officers, and carried the vessel into a Nova Scotian port. She was subsequently restored to her owners, but her piratical captors, like so many of their associates in British America, went unwhipped of justice. Finally, to cap the climax of horrors, we have to record the attempt, fortunately abortive, of a Dr. Blackburn, to introduce into the United States the yellow fever, by means of infected clothing brought from Bermuda. This, like the other acts just related, was done in the interest of the rebel Confederacy, by men claiming to act as Confederate soldiers, and indicated a lack of moral principle, which, for the sake of civilization, it is to be hoped was rare among the inhabitants of the seceded States, or their sympathizers.

CHAPTER LXXVII.

Peace Negotiations at Fortress Monroe.-Their Fruitless Issue.-Second Inauguration of Lincoln.-His Address.-Rejoicings at the Prospect of Peace.-Assassination of Lincoln.-The Public Mourning.-Funeral Procession.-Character of Lincoln.Booth, the Murderer, Pursued and Shot.-Trial and Execution of his Accomplices.Inauguration of Andrew Johnson as President.-Amnesty Proclamation.-Plan for Reconstruction.-Pursuit and Capture of Davis.--Capitulation of Generals Taylor and Kirby Smith.—Termination of the War and Disbanding of the Armies.-The National Debt.-Concluding Reflections.

WITH the opening of 1865, the air was filled, as it had been often before, with rumors that the rebels were anxious to negotiate for peace, and in order that no opportunity might be lost to effect a consummation so devoutly wished for by all classes of the people, Mr. Lincoln authorized Secretary Seward to proceed to Fortress Monroe, and there confer with Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, the rebel Vice-President, R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, and J. A. Campbell, of Alabama, who had been designated by Jefferson Davis as commissioners to act in behalf of the Confederacy. The President's instructions were conveyed to Mr. Seward in the following terms:—

"EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON,

"Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State:

"You will proceed to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, there to meet and informally confer with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, on the basis of my letter to F. P. Blair, Esq., of January 18, 1865, a copy of which you have. You will make known to them that three things are indispensable, to wit: First, the restoration of the national