Between the Lines Part 17

In 1862 Quinn was arrested on charge of blockade running but was released without trial. He stated to Lewis that he was guilty but the government was not smart enough to prove it.

I again caused the arrest of Quinn on Sept. 8, 1864, on an order from General Stevenson, commanding at Harper's Ferry, on the charge of running negroes away from Va., on forged pa.s.ses.

General Stevenson also ordered search for pa.s.ses. I also caused the arrest of a negro named Andrew Jackson, who stated that Quinn tried to get him in the army as a subst.i.tute, and also that he did not go to the Provost Marshal for a pa.s.s but that Quinn sent another negro.

As to his being treated brutally: When arrested he was intoxicated, and two or three times called the officers names, whereupon the officers struck him, once only. My first acquaintance with Quinn was when I was a.s.sistant Provost Marshal at Fort McHenry.

He claims that he is a British subject and not amenable to our laws.

I am, Colonel, Very respy. your obdt. servt, H. B. SMITH, Lt. & Chief.

FILE XXII.

The great fraud attempted in the Presidential election of 1864, wherein the misplacing of a single letter led to its detection, and may be said to have saved our nation from disruption--Involving Governor Seymour and Adjutant General Andrews--Arrest of Ferry, Donohue and Newcomb, one of the most successful kidnappings on record.

The Presidential election of 1864 was then upon us, and indeed it was most momentous. The issue was to determine the life of this Union. Mr.

Lincoln was renominated, and General George B. McClellan was nominated to run against him. And quite fittingly, Horatio Seymour, who was to have been leader of secession in the North (according to my information), who had lent his whole influence towards obstruction, was made chairman of the convention that nominated McClellan.

A resolution of the convention read:

"Resolved, that this Convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of the American people, that after four years of failure to restore the Union by experiment of War * * * the public welfare demands that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities."

In the convention Mr. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, said:

"The delegates from the West were of the opinion that circ.u.mstances may occur between noon of to-day and the 4th of March next (inauguration day) which will make it proper for the Democracy of the Country to meet in Convention again."

What could he have referred to? Solve the riddle if you can. Ponder on a "Northwestern Confederacy"; the Sons of Liberty, and the seizure of their arms; and also on Lincoln's a.s.sa.s.sination, only a few days after March 4th, 1865.

All of this leads me to what I am about to tell about that election, wherein the same influences that failed with bullets to disrupt the Union were now trying to accomplish the same purpose with ballots.

I will not charge McClellan with disloyalty, yet I can not help asking why did he lend his name to the disloyal movement? There were disloyal Northerners, but not one of them voted for Lincoln.

I do not claim that all who voted for McClellan were disloyal, but that all the disloyal, including all blockade-runners and bounty jumpers, voted for him.

On the 21st of April, 1864, a law was enacted in New York State called "an act to enable the qualified electors of this State, absent therefrom in the military service of the United States, in the Army or navy thereof, to vote."

This law provided for a power of attorney appointing a proxy who would present his (the soldier's) sealed envelope, addressed to the election inspectors in his home or residence district. The ballot was to be in a sealed envelope, and to be opened only by the inspectors; this envelope was to be enclosed in another, outer envelope addressed to his proxy.

The outer envelope was to contain also the power of attorney for the proxy to so present the sealed ballot.

And now I will tell you how merely the misplacing of the letter "L"

betrayed one of the greatest crimes of the period, entirely defeated its perpetration, and helped to save our Union.

On Thursday afternoon, October 20th, 1864, General Wallace came to my office with Mr. Orville K. Wood, of Clinton county, New York.

Mr. Wood had a blank or partly blank doc.u.ment which he had found in possession of a soldier from his county. It was a blank power of attorney, such as were provided for voting under the law of April 21st, 1864. The jurat was signed in blank:

C. G. Arthur Lieut. 11th U. S. Cavl.

--and their conclusion was that this officer may have signed a number of such papers in blank, and pa.s.sed them out, to be used by any soldier, perhaps to facilitate voting; an illegal act in itself; but upon examination I p.r.o.nounced the officer's signature a forgery. My conclusion was based on the fact of the letter "l" in "Cavl." I a.s.sumed that no officer of cavalry, more especially in the regular service, would abbreviate in any way other than Cav. or Cavy.

General Wallace saw the force of my reasoning, and a new light was thrown on the matter.

Had the one letter "l" been absent I should have concluded as General Wallace and Mr. Wood had, i. e., that the fact of such a doc.u.ment, entirely blank except the officer's jurat, being in public hands, was a wrong merely laying the officer liable for having attached his name to a blank paper.

The point then was to find out where the work was done. Mr. Wood had visited the New York State agency office in Fayette Street and I arranged for him to go there again the next morning (Friday), he to tell the representative, Mr. Ferry, that some friends would call to be a.s.sisted in preparing their votes. We agreed that my name would be "Phillip Brady," from West Chazy, Clinton County, New York.

Friday morning I equipped myself as became a private soldier, in a uniform much worn and shabby. One of my men, Mr. Babc.o.c.k, accompanied me, he was similarly attired. We provided ourselves with "2 hour"

pa.s.ses from the Camden Street Hospital, and sicker looking convalescents never were seen outside of a hospital. When we arrived at Ferry's office we appeared much exhausted. Mr. Wood introduced me, and then I insisted on Mr. Ferry's reading my pa.s.s so that he would know exactly who I was; I told him I wanted to vote for Mr. Lincoln, because he was the soldier's friend.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LUCIUS F. BABc.o.c.k]

He went in an adjoining room and brought out one of the same powers of attorney that Mr. Wood had shown me the day before, for me to sign; the jurat was executed and the ink was not yet dry on it. To give myself more time to examine, I hesitated in signing my name, I was so sickly (?) and weak, I had Mr. Ferry help guide my hand. I had by this time located Mr. "Arthur" in the next room.

Mr. Ferry then discovered he had no Lincoln ballots, but said he expected them from the printer. He volunteered, if I would leave it to him, to put in a proper ticket, and mail it for me, to which I consented. I told him I did not know when I might get another pa.s.s.

Ferry gave me a plug of tobacco and a pair of socks, to ill.u.s.trate, I suppose, the Empire State's interest in her volunteers.

Babc.o.c.k then went through the same process, which gave me all the time needed to survey the surroundings, whereupon we left.

Mr. Wood remained, but came out afterwards and met me by appointment, on Charles Street. He was startled at the condition of affairs in the State Agent's office, where a corps of men were engaged in forgery, and did not want to return there, but was persuaded to go back and put in the day. The character and magnitude of the crime prompted us to great secrecy.

The next day (Sat.u.r.day) General Wallace went to Washington. A Cabinet meeting was held to consider the election frauds.

Next morning (Sunday), the following order was issued by General Wallace, personally, and is in his handwriting:

Headquarters, Middle Department, 8th Army Corps.

Baltimore, Md., Oct. 23, 1864.

Lt. Col. John Woolley, Provost Marshal.

You will immediately arrest the following persons: M. J.

Ferry, Ed. Donohue, Jr., and such clerks, a.s.sistants, &c., as they may have in the office of the New York State Agency in Baltimore. You will also seize and take into your possession all books, papers, letters, &c., which you may find on the persons or in the rooms and baggage of the persons above named.

The prisoners you will take to the City jail and confine them separately, allowing no visitor to have communication with or the prisoners to have communication in any manner with each other.

LEW WALLACE, Major General Commanding.

(You will also station a guard at the door of the office of said Agency. L. W.)

Upon my request to be allowed to conduct the arrests and seizures in my own way, the General ran a pen through the words that are bracketed.

It was my desire to kidnap the parties, so that warning might be given to other places, such as Washington, Harper's Ferry and City Point, to look out for similar crimes, to accomplish which it was desirable to leave behind each person, at his home or office, a reasonable excuse for his absence for a few days, and to keep the State Agency office open to callers.