“'Yes I thanks to you, Mr. President. He is improving very fast. His wound will soon be well, and he will then be ready for the field again.'
“'Tell him,' said the President, 'that I will watch his career with great interest. Coming from where he does, he must have good metal in him to face his friends and relatives in taking the stand he has.'
“'Yes, sir,' said I; 'he is a true man, and his wife, though a Southern woman, is one of the noblest of her sex, and as true a patriot as ever lived.'
“'Your family are nearly all soldiers, I believe, Mr. Lyon,' said the Secretary.
“'Yes, Mr. Secretary; I had seven sons—five are in the army, one was killed at the battle of the Gaps, and the seventh is on his way from St. Paul to join it. God knows I have some interest in our success, and I will go myself at any time should it be necessary.'
“'The President here interrupted:
“'No, Mr. Lyon, you must not. You have done enough. If this Government cannot be saved without the eighth one of your family putting his life in peril at your age, it cannot be saved. We will accept no more recruits from the Lyon family.'
“'The President then asked me to give to the Secretary and himself the situation in the West as nearly as I could, and especially in Indiana.
“I proceeded to state the situation—the bitterness of the opposition to the Administration, as well as to the war, then being manifested by the anti-war party, or, in other words, by the Democratic party as an organization; the organized lodges of the Golden Circle, their objects and designs, the influence they were to bring to bear, how they were to operate and in what directions, the jealousies they were to engender between the officers of the East and the West; the fact that they were to release prisoners and to destroy towns and cities in the North, should it become necessary.
“The President and Secretary both listened with grave attention, and seemed to fully comprehend the situation.