but there I saw them using the identical signs themselves. I knew they would meet last night and I was very anxious to get in. Over-anxiety is a very dangerous thing. No people detect it quicker then rebels. Had I been less anxious I might have got in, but I knew if I did not get in last night I should be gone before the next weekly meeting. I risked too much. This Cooper House is an excellent place for such meetings. The room over the saloon is carpeted and is used ostensibly for a gambling room. I was in it. There are but three or four tables in it and not over a dozen chairs. To reach it you go upstairs through a dimly-lighted (ante) room. After the meeting was out I was designedly asked upstairs, which was only to mislead me. At least fifty men had just left it, smoking with heat and perspiration. When I got up there I found the proprietors and a few others leisurely playing at a game of cards. Pshaw! They did not deceive me in the least. The "Sons of Liberty" meet on Saturday night at the Cooper House, Dayton, Ohio. I have much more to write, but will give it in my next.

Truly,

E. F. H.

DAYTON, OHIO, June 27, 1864.

[Colonel J. P. SANDERSON:]

SIR: I have the honor to state that I wrote to you on yesterday, explaining to you some of my observations on affairs here. I omitted to say that the meeting at the Cooper House on Saturday night last was in all probability only a ward meeting, for that is the custom. I have not learned where the other wards meet. I know those men held a secret meeting at the Cooper House, for I overheard conversation among them which implied that they did.

On Saturday evening I called on the Honorable C. L. Vallandigham by previous invitation, but he had gone out to take tea among his friends, and I was requested to call again. This morning I called again. The front part was all closed up and looked as lonely and quiet as a tomb. The little boy came from a side door from a central part of the building and conducted me to a king of porch. Here I was seated. As I sat there numbers of men passed out of a back room and went out on the street. An old gentleman, named Higginbaugh, quite a friend to Val., and who told me he had once been arrested by the Government, and who resides about ten miles in the country, came in from the street and sat with me. Presently Mrs. V. made her appearance. She seemed very cordial. She said her husband was very busy; that he was then engaged in writing, and had company with whom he was transacting business. She remembered me. She questioned me sharply about where I was raised and where I resided. She was raised in Maryland (and I only born th it was for from my purpose to interfere with Mr. V. or his business or company; that I knew that great men were generally much annoyed, and I appeared indifferent about seeing him. I told her my object in calling this morning was to request Mr. V. to favor me with letters of introduction to some of his friends at Detroit, whither I was going for a month or two during the heat of summer, as I was a wanderer now, not being allowed to stay at home in Missouri. She said she would inform her husband, but was not sure he had any personal acquaintances there. I am to cal again this evening, and purport to leave here to-morrow for Detroit. This is only to procure letters from him, when sickness will detain me here until ready to leave for Saint Louis. Such letters would be of great service to me, but I am mistaken if he gives them. I think he will dodge by saying he knows no one there. If he does give them I can use them