ds.'

"'Our meeting was full of warmth and friendly greetings, having been
friends for many years in Ohio prior to my leaving the State. We were
all seated, and after some general conversation between the Secretary
and myself, the President remarked that he had sent for me, and on my
presenting myself he had sent for the Secretary of War for the purpose
of having a full conference in reference to the situation in the rear of
the army out West, and that from my letter to him he did not know of any
one who could give him that information better than myself.

"'By the way,' said he, 'what about your nephew, Anderson? He must be
a glorious fellow and a good soldier. Of course, you have received the
commission that the Secretary and I sent you for him?'

"'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
b