quite probable you may have seen before. Having originated in Michigan and been reproduced in Boston it can hardly be doubted that it has already secured a wide circulation. The subject is not new to me. It was the occasion of a correspondence between the Secretary of State and myself as early as December last. I thought it reasonable to suppose at the close of that correspondence that the matter would cease to attract notice. This expectation not having been realized and the offensive charge alleged to be basedupon a document the original of which "is now in the State Department at Washington" having been revived and extensively published, will you do me the favor to introduce in the Senate a resolution calling for the correspondence to which I have referred.

It will strike you I am sure both upon public and personal grounds that such imputations should not be permitted thus to circulate unchallenged, especially when an answer to them at least so far as I am concerned has been for months upon the files of the first Department of the Government.

I am, very truly, your friend, &c.,

FRANKLIN PIERCE.

[Inlcosure-Editorial extract from the Boston Journal, March 22, 1862.]

TREASONABLE PLOT IN MICHIGAN.

The Detroit Tribune publishes a curious document revealing an attempt in that State last fall to organize a league for the purpose of overthrowing the Federal Government. This object is plainly avowed in a secret circular, which declares the purpose of the movement to be "to rise and unite if necessary with the a--- [army] of the S--- [South], overrun the N---[North] like a hurricane, sweeping the A--- [Administration] into eternity, or at least driving them into complete and unconditional submission. " The document is dated October 5, 1861, and says the league is doing a noble work in Maryland and among the soldiers at Fort Monroe, and that "President P--- [President Pierce] in his passage has drawn many brave and influential men to the league. " The Tribune says the original of the document is now in the State Department at Washington, and that it led to the arrest and imprisonment of several persons in Fort Lafayette. It was discovered that secret organizations exited in many towns in Michigan and in numerous places in Canada West.

Resolution adopted by the U. S. Senate March 26, 1862.

Resolved, That the Secretary of State be directed to transmit to this body copies of any correspondence which may have taken place between Honorable William H. Seward, Secretary of State, and Honorable Franklin Pierce, ex-President of the United States, having reference to a supposed conspiracy against the Government, and all other papers relating to the same. *

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*The original resolution was introduced by Senator Latham and was the occasion of considerable discussion. After being amended it passed in the above form. For full proceedings of the Senate in this matter see Congressional Globe for March 27, 1862, pp. 1370-1371.

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80 R R-SERIES II, VOL II