re
than that it was a military organization in favor of the Union, and to
be ready on call for any emergency.

"If the President had attempted to carry out his scheme, and any
movement had been made from either Baltimore or Richmond, or from any
part of any State, the first prisoner would have been the President. The
Secretary of War determined that his Department should not go into the
hands of any one who would be subservient to any set of conspirators, or
the President, who was to be at the head of them.

"I returned home the next day full of alarm for our country. I greatly
feared another scene of blood and desolation. I was so worried over the
situation that my family thought me ill.

"Gen. Anderson returned that night from Indianapolis, and Henry from
near Fayette. I told the General what I had seen and learned. When I
told him how the gentleman in charge of the secret forces in Washington
seemed to feel, and that he would make the President a prisoner the
first thing if any move was made, he remarked:

"'That is the way to do it! Cut off the head the first blow, and the
body will soon die.'

"Things went on in this way for a time. The President had copies of
telegrams given him from the telegraph office, which were sent from
different parts of the country, tendering the services of different
organizations of soldiers to the General of the Army. He also discovered
in some way that he would be in danger should he attempt the use of
force.

"The House of Representatives now presented articles of impeachment
against him. This alarmed his co-conspirators, and the embryo rebellion
collapsed.

"I have no doubt that if the President at that time had had a General
of the Army and a Secretary of War who could have been used by him to
further his and his co-conspirators' schemes, within ninety days from
the time when I first went to Washington, as stated, this country would
have been plunged into another bloody rebellion with an unscrupulous,
courageous and desperate man at the head of it, and at the same time
in possession of the Capital of the Nation. The country has never known
what it escaped and what it owes to those men--the Secretary of War and
the General of the Army and his Chief of Staff--for standing as they did
against these machinations."

"Uncle Daniel," said Dr. Adams, "why was this matter kept so profoundly
secret?"

"There were two reasons: First, the country was easily excited at the
time, and