This was simply a guerilla raid, organized on neutral territory, not for the purpose of engaging in open and honorable warfare against an armed foe, but to burn and plunder the property of unarmed people, who were non-combatants engaged in the pursuits of peaceful life. Young's commission, however, enabled him to defeat the demand for his extradition, as he was not captured until he had regained that neutral territory on which, in violation of the law of nations, his expedition had been organized. It is easy to see from this where the sympathies of the Canadian court that tried this case lay. Pending this trial for extradition, Clay became very uneasy for fear the commission conferred by him on Young might not prove a sufficient protection, and so he sent Richard Montgomery, who was in the employ of the United States in its department of secret service, and who had so well wormed himself into the confidence of the Canada Cabinet as to be employed by them on this mission, with a letter to James A. Seddon, the rebel secretary of war, urging him by every consideration he could think of to give a direct sanction to Young's act, and to demand in the name of the Confederate government that he should be released.
This letter was carried to Richmond by Montgomery, after having been exhibited to the Secretary of War of the United States. I refer to this as showing the status of Montgomery with these agents of the Confederate government in Canada, and as evidence of his having gained their entire confidence; and so he was in a position to be a witness, before the Commission, as being informed of their plans and of their doings. In response to this argument and earnest appeal of Clay, the rebel government shouldered the responsibility of the St. Albans raid, and shielded the raiders against extradition. The following is a copy of Lieutenant Young's instructions from the rebel government:—
Confederate States of America,
War Department,
Richmond, Va., June 16th, 1864.To Lieutenant Bennett H. Young:—
Lieutenant:—You have been temporarily appointed first lieutenant in the provisional army for special service. You will proceed without delay to the British Provinces, where you will report to Messrs. Thompson and Clay for instructions.
You will, under their direction, collect together such Confederate soldiers who have escaped from the enemy, not exceeding twenty in number, as you may deem suitable for the purpose, and will execute such enterprises as may be entrusted to you.
You will take care to commit no violation of the local law, and to obey implicitly their instructions.
You and your men will receive from these gentlemen transportation and the customary rations and clothing, or commutation therefor.
James A. Seddon,
Secretary of War.Va. June 16th.
Here we have the response to Clay's letter, and everything fixed up for the defense of Young and his men after the act had been committed, the papers being antedated to meet the requirements of the case.
During the progress of this trial for the extradition of the raiders, Thompson, Clay, Tucker, and Sanders necessarily held a kind of professional intercourse with the counsel representing the United States. Sanders, on one occasion, became full of self-importance, as also, probably, of whiskey, when his discretion forsook him, and he gave vent to the vaunting and boasting of a braggadocio. He said this raid was not the last that would occur, but it would be followed by the depleting of many other banks and the burning of other towns on the frontier, and that many Yankee sons of —— (using a coarse and vulgar expression) would be killed. He said they had their plans perfectly organized, and men ready to sack and burn Buffalo, Detroit, New York, and other places, and had deferred them for a time, but would soon see the plans wholly executed; and any preparations that could be made by the government to prevent them, would not, though they might delay them for a time. He claimed to be acting as the agent of the Confederate government, and we have seen that it assumed the responsibility. Several other raids of like character were planned, but were prevented by preparations which the government was enabled to make by being informed of them in advance by persons engaged in its secret service, or by other friends in Canada, who, being in the confidence of the conspirators, became informed as to their plans.
These plans involved a warfare against non-combatants; a war, as we shall see, of poisoning reservoirs, of burning towns and cities by wholesale; a war of the destruction of men, women, and children; burning of hospitals, churches, and private dwellings; a war for the destruction of life and property; in short, a war against humanity. The City of New York came in for a large share of their consideration. The destruction of the Croton dam was an enterprise that seemed very desirable to them, and for which they planned; and had the rebel armies been able to keep the field a little while longer, this would no doubt have been attempted and perhaps accomplished. The poisoning of the reservoirs supplying the city with water seemed very desirable to them, and was much discussed. This was one of the hobbies of the infamous Dr. Blackburn and a Mr. M. A. Pallen of Mississippi, who had been a surgeon in the rebel army. They had made a calculation of the capacity of the reservoirs supplying the city, and had calculated the amount of poison required to make an ordinary draught of water fatal to life. Amongst the poisons they had considered arsenic, strychnine, and prussic acid as available. Blackburn thought the project feasible. Thompson feared it would be impossible to collect so large a quantity of poisonous matter without exciting suspicion and leading to the detection of the parties engaged in it. Pallen and others thought it could be managed in Europe. This matter was fully and freely discussed in June, 1864, by Blackburn, Pallen, Thompson, Sanders, and Cleary.
The moral question involved in the destruction, by poison, of the entire population of the American commercial metropolis,—men, women, and children,—did not enter into their thoughts; it was, in fact, a scheme dear to their hearts; the difficulties attending its accomplishment were the only things that gave them any trouble.
This is that same Dr. Blackburn who, with the approbation of Thompson and his gang, made an effort in the summer of 1864 to spread pestilence in Washington City, and in other cities occupied by federal troops, as far south as could be reached, by means of clothing infected with yellow fever and with small-pox.
Conover testified to this positively and circumstantially as one of their many wicked schemes to spread consternation over the North, and so demoralize the people that they would be willing to make peace on any terms.
As this last scheme is so monstrous in character that it can only be believed on the fullest proof, I give the testimony of Godfrey Joseph Hyams before the Commission, in full.