"dispose of the latter. " He adds that prior to the meeting he himself conveyed from Judge Bullitt, at Louisville, to Bowles and Dodd, at Indianapolis, special instructions to have Coffin "put out of the way," "murdered" - "at all hazards. " The opinion is expressed by Colonel Sanderson, under date of June 12 last, that "the recent numerous cold-blooded assassinations of military officers and unconditional Union men throughout the military district of North Missouri, especially along the western border," is to be ascribed to the agency of the order. The witness Pitman represents that it is a part of the obligation or understanding of the order "to kill officers and soldiers whenever it can be done by stealth," as well as loyal citizens when considered important or influential persons. And she adds that while at Memphis during the past summer she knew that men on picket were secretly killed by members of the order, approaching them in disguise.

In this connection may be recalled the wholesale assassination of Union soldiers by members of the order and their confederates at Charleston, Ill., in March last, in regard to which, as a startling episode of the rebellion, a full report was addressed from this office to the President, under date of July 26 last. This concerted murderous assault upon a scattered body of man, mostly unarmed, apparently designed for the mere purpose of destroying as many lives of Union soldiers as possible, is a forcible illustration of the utter malignity and depravity which characterize the members of this order in their zeal to commend themselves as allies to their fellow-conspirators at the South.

Eleventh. Establishment of a Northwestern Confederacy. In concluding this review of some of the principal specific purposes of the order, it remains only to remark upon a further design of many of its leading members, the accomplishment of which they are represented as having deeply at hear. Hating New England, and jealous of her influence and resources, and claiming that the interests of the West and South, naturally connected as they are though the Mississippi Valley, are identical, and actuated further by an intensely revolutionary spirit as well as an unbridled and unprincipled ambition, these men have made the establishment of a Western or Northwestern Confederacy, in alliance with the South, the grant aim and end of all their plotting and conspiring. It is with this steadily in prospect that they are constantly seeking to produce discontent, disorganization, and civil disorder at the North. With this in view they gloat every reverse of the armies of the union, and desire that the rebellion shall be protracted until the resources of the Government shall be exhausted, its strength paralyzed, its currency hopelessly depreciated, and confidence everywhere destroyed. Then, from the anarchy which, under their scheme, is to ensue, the new confederacy is to arise, which is either to unite itself with that of the South, or to form therewith a close and permanent alliance. Futile and extravagant as this scheme may appear, it is yet the settled purpose of many leading spirits of the secret conspiracy, and is their favorite subject of thought and discussion. Not only is this scheme deliberated upon in the lodges of the order, but is openly proclaimed. Members of the Indiana Legislature, even, have publicly announced it, and avowed that they will take their own State out of the Union and recognize the independence of the South. A citizen captured by a guerrilla band in Kentucky last summer records the fact that the establishment of a new confederacy as the deliberate purpose of the Western people was boastfully asserted by these outlaws, who also assured their prisoner that in the event of such establishment there would be "a greater rebellion than ever!" Lastly, it is