allowed him the privilege of the city, and required him to report at his office every day, until witnesses could be summoned against him.

Blanchard was kept at Cairo four days, when all the witnesses which had been summoned against him having appeared, an examination was had before General Prentiss.

The charges preferred were, that he had spoken disrespectfully of President Lincoln, discouraged enlistment, and attempted to raise a company to burn Big Muddy Bridge.

To the first charge he pleaded "guilty," but denied the others. Witnesses were examined who swore that his conversation had a tendency to discourage enlistments.

Whereupon General Prentiss sent him in charge of a lieutenant to the United States Marshal at Springfield, Illinois.

The Marshal refused to receive him, and returned him under guard to General Prentiss at Cairo. He was then immediately liberated by the General and sent home, where he remained, continuing the practice of the law until his second arrest.

In the latter part of July, 1863, while walking the streets of Murphysboro', he was accosted by a man in the uniform of a captain of volunteers, who inquired if his name was Blanchard. Being answered in the affirmative, the captain requested him to accompany him to the hotel, which he did. Upon entering the bar-room of the hotel he was surrounded by five men, having muskets with fixed bayonets.

The captain then informed him that he had been ordered by the United States Marshal to arrest and convey him to Centralia on the next day; that it was a very unpleasant duty to perform, but he was bound to obey "orders.

Upon signifying his readiness to accompany the officer he was allowed an hour in which to prepare for his departure.

At the expiration of that time, all being in readiness, he was taken in a carriage to Carbondale, and thence to De Soto, on a hand-car. Here the captain allowed him to remain on parole over night, to meet him at the train at six o'clock in the morning. He met the officer punctually and went

with him to Centralia. While in the custody of this officer, Captain Howard, he was treated in the most gentlemanly manner. At Centralia he was delivered over to one Major Board, Deputy United States Marshal, who immediately confined him in a room with some ten or twelve other prisoners, to await the arrival of the Springfield train.

When the train was heard approaching, handcuffs were produced, the prisoners driven into one corner of the room, surrounded by a squad of soldiers with fixed bayonets, and handcuffed like convicted felons. They were then placed in a private car and taken to the camp at Springfield, where they were detained for two days.

After the expiration of two days, United States Marshal D. S. Phillips appeared, took Dr. Blanchard, and several others, and put them on a train and started for Washington; ! where, on their arrival, they were immediately consigned to the Old Capitol prison.

Here he remained for six weeks. Mr. Wood, the superintendent of the prison, generally treated his prisoners well, with the exception of fare. After he had been incarcerated about three weeks, the Illinois prisoners (about twenty in number) were placed in a room to themselves, and allowed to buy their own provisions.

From that period until the Illinois prisoners were discharged, they passed their time as well as men could who were kept in close confinement.

After having been imprisoned for six weeks, Blanchard, in company with five others, was taken before the Judge Advocate, when the following conversation ensued:

JUDGE ADVOCATE. What is your name?

ANSWER. Israel Blanchard.

JUDGE ADVOCATE. Where are you from?

ANSWER. From Illinois.

JUDGE ADVOCATE. What are you in prison for?

ANSWER. I do not know.

The Judge then arose, went to a desk, and took out a

bundle of papers, and after looking over them, again turned to the prisoners:

JUDGE ADVOCATE. Do you belong to the Knights of the Golden Circle?

ANSWER. I am not acquainted with any such organization. JUDGE ADVOCATE. Have you ever belonged to any secret organization?

ANSWER. I have belonged to the Odd Fellows, and the Sons of Temperance, and I once joined something that was called the Know-Nothings.

JUDGE ADVOCATE. I do not mean that: do you belong to any political organization.

ANSWER. I do: I belong to the Democratic organization.
JUDGE ADVOCATE. Where do you meet?

ANSWER. We usually meet at the Court House, in Murphysboro', Illinois.

JUDGE ADVOCATE. Do you meet at night, or in the daytime? ANSWER. Sometimes we meet at night, and sometimes in daytime.

JUDGE ADVOCATE. Do you have any secret signs or passwords by which you are admitted?

ANSWER. We have none.

JUDGE ADVOCATE. What do you do there when you meet? ANSWER. We appoint committees for different purposes, attend to our own political business, and concoct measures to beat the Republicans at the election.

JUDGE ADVOCATE. Were you, in June last, at a meeting of the Golden Circle, near Pinckneyville, Perry County, Illinois?

ANSWER. I was not; I have not been in Perry County in two years, except to pass through it on the cars.

QUESTION BY BLANCHARD. Judge, I would like to see those papers, or would like to have you tell me who has made complaint against me, and what the charges are?

ANSWER BY JUDGE ADVOCATE. We have made it a rule not to let prisoners see the papers filed against them, nor to tell them who made complaint against them, or what the charges are, as it might lead to unpleasant consequences hereafter.

This ended the examination, and he was immediately dis

charged, without knowing why he was arrested and imprisoned, what the charges were against him, or who made them, if any were ever made. He was furnished with transportation, and permitted to return home.

Arriving at home, he was immediately nominated by the Democratic party for State Senator, for the Third Senatorial District of the State of Illinois, and was in the following November elected by 3,000 majority.

On the first Monday of January, 1864, he took his seat in the State Senate, and served the people well and faithfully during that stormy session of the Illinois Legislature. After the close of the session, in March, 1864, he returned to his home at Murphysboro', Illinois, where he is busily engaged in the practice of his profession, and still continues to be a sterling advocate of the principles of Liberty and Free Gov

ernment.

A

DENNIS HICKEY.

MONG the many other victims of despotism confined in Fort Lafayette was a poor Irishman, named Dennis Hickey.

He was apprehended in his potato patch, in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He was not permitted to go to his house in order to procure a decent suit of clothes; but was taken in his dirty and torn shirt and pants, and crownless old strawhat, and lodged in Fort Lafayette as a political prisoner. Poor fellow he seemed to feel that he was like a "cat in a strange garret." The idea that this poor laboring-man could be dangerous to an Administration with nearly a million of soldiers, seemed more like one of Lincoln's jokes than a reality. The charge against him was, that he would not turn informer upon his Democratic neighbors.

It seems that some Republicans in his neighborhood wished to find evidence that certain Democrats in that locality had discouraged enlistments. They wanted Dennis Hickey to tell what he knew about them. "I did not come to this country to turn informer," was his indignant answer; and for this honest, manly, Irish sentiment he was seized, and consigned to Fort Lafayette.

The other prisoners sympathized deeply with poor Dennis, and contributed from their own clothing to dress him in a decent suit until he could supply himself from home. After some six weeks of confinement in the Fort, without any trial, Dennis was discharged upon taking the oath, or as it was called in the Fort, "kissing Lincoln's great toe."

The following letter, written by Mrs. Dennis Hickey to her husband, while he was a prisoner in Fort Lafayette, reveals the position and honest character of poor Hickey, and