John B. Perry to Richard Yates

Tamaroa Ill May 18th/61

His Excellency

The Hon Richard Yates

Dear Sir

Knowing full well - your zeal for the extermination of treason from our State I have consented at the request of a few friends to make a few plain statements which if necessary can be confirmed by proof concerning the figuring and movements of one William E. Smith whom we have suspected for some time past of Disloyalty to the Union

The said Smith is a physician and has resided in this and an adjoining County for some twenty years or more. He has a Brother living in Florida and also one in Tenessee both of whom are rank Secessionists The one that resides in Tenessee has been a member of Congress from that State and is now engaged as we learn by the papers in using all his influence to carry the State out of the Union. I make the above statements to show Dr Smith's facilities for cooperation with traitors expecting that the facts which will follow will also

prove that while he has the means of such cooperation he does not lack the disposition to use those means

Then as to the facts Immediately suceeding the Election of Mr Lincoln to the Presidency and the Secession of South Carolina Dr Smith was among the first of a very few men in this part of the State who justified that act arguing that every Southern State ought to and would secede and if they did that it would be to the interest of all that part of this State, lying South of the Ohio & Mississippi Rail Road to unite its destiny with the Southern Confederacy and but a short time ago he stated it as his confirmed beleif that Southern Illinois would pursue that course. However since the people of this part of the State have come out so unanimously for the Union he has been more cautious in his language or at least more careful as to whom he talked with but he did a few days since venture to advise a friend with whom he had been on terms of intimacy that if he wished to gain honor and

be respected by his posterity to go with the South. Lately he he has been seen here but seldom what he has been doing we can not tell but we do know that he has been riding over the Southern counties being in those places most frequently when disaffection to the Government is most prevalent and in intercourse with those men who are suspected of disloyalty On the 16th of this month the day when the Regiment for this district went into camp at Anna he was there but was watched very closely From Anna he went over into Western Kentucky where he was last heard from He travels in a conveyance of his own and is consequently much harder to keep track of than if he travelled by rail. But knowing the man as we do and his capacity for doing great harm we cannot but fear that his present secret movements bode no good to the country

And that while the present state of facts would not perhaps justify his immediate arrest yet we feel that the interests of the State and more especially of this portion of the

State demand that his movements be strictly and carefully watched. Our principal object in making the foregoing statements is that if in your opinion the facts would warrant it an efficient and trust-worthy detective may be put upon his track and if as we fear he is engaged in any treasonable enterprise he may be brought to justice. It has been for some time past and is now the settled opinion of almost all the Union men in this portion of the Country that there was in existence right here among us a deep laid plot against the Government. What was the exact nature of that scheme we have no means of knowing but from the character and sentiments of the men who were suspected of being privies to it we feel certain that it betided no good to the State and General Government And while we trust that the universal uprising of the people here in support of the Government has prevented the execution of the plot yet we sometimes fear that the serpent is only

Scotched and not killed.

We do not fear Dr Smiths influence among those who are able to inform themselves in regard to the true condition of the Country. But he is powerful for evil among the illiterate and those who depend upon what they hear from others for their information It is with this class that he has been secretely and slyly working. We learned this but a few days since from a man whom the Dr had thus deceived and led away who when he was taken out privately and conversed with in regard to the source of his information confessed that it was Dr Smith

It is also currently reported that the Dr has a brotherinlaw in Missippi who is a Colonel in the Confederate Army. All of his relatives that we know anything of reside in the South and he has repeatedly declared that if there was a war he should fight with the south. The above is a statement of about all the facts that have come to our knowledge that we are certain can be confirmed

by proof. I give them for what they are worth and will only say in conclusion that if I am mistaken in my suspicions in regard to the Dr that he has been deeply wronged for I hold my beleif in common with all who know him and have watched his movements for the past few months

I remain your

most obedient Servant

John B Perry

John B. Perry -

Tamaroa

Perry Co -

In regard to Secessionist in his County -