s, he directed me to
seek Mr. W. H. Seward, to whom he wrote a few lines, which he handed to
me. It was already ten o'clock, and when I reached Mr. Seward's house
he had left; I followed him to the Capitol, but did not succeed in
finding him until after 12 M. I handed him the General's note; he
listened attentively to what I said, and asked me to write down my
information and suggestions, and then, taking the paper I had written,
he hastily left. The note I wrote was what Mr. Frederick Seward carried
to Mr. Lincoln in Philadelphia. Mr. Lincoln has stated that it was this
note which induced him to change his journey as he did. The stories of
disguise are all nonsense; Mr. Lincoln merely took the sleeping-car in
the night train.

Equally certain also, is it, that the Rebel authorities were utterly
indifferent to the means that might be availed of to secure success to
Rebellion. Riots and arson, were among the mildest methods proposed to
be used in the Northern cities, to make the War for the Union a
"failure"--as their Northern Democratic allies termed it--while,
among other more devilish projects, was that of introducing cholera
and yellow fever into the North, by importing infected rags! Another
much-talked-of scheme throughout the War, was that of kidnapping
President Lincoln, and other high officials of the Union Government.
There is also evidence, that the Rebel chiefs not only received, but
considered, the plans of desperadoes and cut-throats looking to the
success of the Rebellion by means of assassination. Thus, in a footnote
to page 448, vol. ii., of his "Civil War in America," Lossing does not
hesitate to characterize Jefferson Davis as "the crafty and malignant
Chief Conspirator, who seems to have been ready at all times to
entertain propositions to assassinate, by the hand of secret murder, the
officers of the Government at Washington;" and, after fortifying that
statement by a reference to page 523 of the first volume of his work,
proceeds to say: "About the time (July, 1862) we are now considering, a
Georgian, named Burnham, wrote to Jefferson Davis, proposing to organize
a corps of five hundred assassins, to be distributed over the North, and
sworn to murder President Lincoln, members of his Cabinet, and leading
Republican Senators, and other supporters of the Government. This
proposition was made in writing, and was regularly filed in the
'Confederate War Department,' indorsed 'Respectfully referre