HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
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a number from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. At this meeting a Committee was appointed to prepare a plan of organization for a National Grand Council, which was carried out at Cleveland, Ohio, on the 20th of May following-the constitution, ritual and signs of the Illinois organization being adopted with slight modifications. The revised obligation -taken upon the Bible, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States-bound members of the League to "support, protect and defend the Government of the United States and the flag thereof, against all enemies, foreign and domestic," and to ''bear true faith and allegiance to the same"; to "defend the State against invasion or insurrection"; to support only "true and reliable men" for offices of trust and profit; to protect and defend worthy members, and to preserve inviolate the secrets of the order. The address to new members was a model of impressiveness and a powerful appeal to their patriotism. The organization extended rapidly, not only throughout the Northwest, but in the South also, especially in the army. In 1864 the number of Councils in Illinois was estimated at 1,300, with a membership of 175,000; and it is estimated that the- total membership, throughout the Union, was 2,000,000. The influence of the silent, but zealous and effective, operations of the organization, was shown, not only in the stimulus given to enlistments and support of the war policy of the Government, but in the raising of supplies for the sick and wounded soldiers in the field. Within a few weeks before the fall of Vicksburg, over $25,000 in cash, besides large quantities of stores, were sent to Col. John Williams (then in charge of the Sanitary Bureau at Springfield), as the direct result of appeals made through circulars sent out by the officers of the "League." Large contributions of money and supplies also reached the sick and wounded in hospital through the medium of the Sanitary Commission in Chicago. Zealous efforts were made by the opposition to get at the secrets of the order, and, in one case, a complete copy o
