HON. ANDREW DUNCAN DUFF

ON. ANDREW DUNCAN DUFF, was born in the State

of Illinois, in 1820, and has resided in Franklin County, in that State, since 1825. Of him it may be truly said, "he has been the architect of his own fortune," for, in the year 1836, he was left an orphan boy, destitute of means, and without education. In 1845, he was married to Miss Mary Eliza Powell. In 1847, he commenced the study of law in the office of Hon. W. A. Denning, then President Judge of the Third Judicial Circuit of Illinois; but shortly after, the Governor of the State having called for four regiments of volunteers, to be commissioned during the war with Mexico, young Duff enlisted as a private, and served with great distinction under Colonel E. W. B. Newly, until the close of the war.

After his return from Mexico, he resumed the study of the law in the office of Judge Denning, and was admitted to the bar in 1850. He soon attained a high standing and reputation at the bar, and after having filled many offices of honor and trust, both by election and appointment, with great satisfaction and credit, he was, in 1861, elected Judge of the Twenty-sixth Judicial Circuit of Illinois, then composed of Williamson, Franklin, and Saline Counties, for the term of six years. In the same year he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention of Illinois, and took a prominent part as Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary. In order to defeat the re-election of Judge Duff to the bench, the district was attempted to be changed. Franklin County was stricken from the district, and other counties added. But the Supreme Court set aside the proceedings as illegal and void, and Judge Duff, having received a renomination,

was again elected by a large majority, although the district gone Republican the year before.

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Judge Duff, after his re-election to the bench, established a law-school in Benton, Illinois, which is now in a flourishing condition. He is deservedly popular, is a good jurist, and an able speaker and writer. At the time of his arrest and imprisonment, his family consisted of a pious and Christian wife, a son eight years of age, and three daughters still younger. Judge Duff himself is in communion with the Church, and is in all respects a high-toned and Christian gentleman.

On Monday, August 11, 1862, Judge Duff commenced the August term of the Williamson County Circuit Court, at Marion, twenty miles south of Benton, the place of his residence. On Thursday evening, August 14, two United States Detectives, named Scott and Woodruff, arrived in Marion, from Cairo. Scott was an Englishman, and possessed some of the traits of a gentleman. Woodruff was in appearance the embodiment of villany. In the evening, after the adjournment of court, Scott, who was personally acquainted with Judge John H. Mulkey, of Cairo, privately communicated to him their business, which was to arrest him (Judge Mulkey,) Hon. Wm. J. Allen, then a member of Congress from the Ninth District; John A. Clemenson, State's Attorney for the Twenty-sixth Judicial Circuit; and Judge A. D. Duff, the President Judge of said Circuit, and several other prominent gentlemen of that section of the State.

The gentlemen, on learning the facts, and knowing the arbitrary power then existing, had an interview with Detective Scott, and informed him that he might consider them prisoners; that they would be ready at 12 o'clock M., the following day, to accompany him to Cairo. This proved satisfactory to him. At 10 o'clock A.M., on Friday, the 15th inst., Judge Duff adjourned the court, leaving a large amount of both criminal and civil business unfinished.

They reported at the hotel, according to the arrangement of the day previous, and soon after started for Cairo, in

charge of the two detectives; at which place they arrived about sundown the same evening.

The party were taken before Major J. W. Merrill, Provost Marshal, who required them to report to him the next day at 9 o'clock A.M. They were given the freedom of the city on parole, but were required to report in person once a day at the Marshal's office, until further orders. The most painful case among these arrests was that of Dr. Bundy, (whose case is elsewhere narrated,) the foreman of the grand jury, who was torn from the unfinished grave of his departed child, and not even allowed to pass his house to give a partng word of advice to his disconsolate wife and the heartbroken mother, in that afflicting hour of bereavement and death. The officer, who took them into custody, exhibited no writ or warrant for Judge Duff's arrest, nor, indeed, for any of the others, as no affidavit had then been made against any of the party.

The Judge was arrested, as Officer Scott said, on informa tion contained in a letter from Frankfort, at which place, he, on the 21st of the preceding July, had made a speech. This accurate and truthful letter stated it was made on the 28th. This statement was made in the presence of the Hon. Wm. J. Allen, Judge Mulkey, and others. Judge Duff then inquired of the officer, what part of the speech was considered disloyal. In reply he said, "that he" (the Judge)" was charged with exposing frauds perpetrated on the Government, and that such exposition tended to discourage enlistments." Judge Duff said, that "he would plead guilty of that, if it was the charge, as he regarded it as the proudest day of his life, to be arrested for pleading for even-handed justice, and common honesty, in the use, management, and distribution of the people's money; and for publicly denouncing the thieves and villains who were robbing a tax-ridden people. Henceforth, he felt that his arrest had been determined on by the great sanhedrim or conclave of public plunderers at Springfield." On the way to Cairo, the officers informed him that they

uld have to go back to Franklin County, for proof against

him. These proofs were the ex-parte affidavits afterward Įroduced.

On Monday morning, the officers left Cairo for the purpose of obtaining the evidence. They went to Frankfort and Benton, and there took the affidavits of four or five persons, who were the bitter partisan enemies of the Judge. The affidavits consisted of garbled and ex-parte statements of what the affiants had heard him say in different speeches, commencing in September, 1861, and running through the whole of his speeches, from that time, until the Frankfort speech, made but a few weeks previously. These affidavits contained nothing more than could be found in almost all the Democratic speeches of that period. As the officers were returning to Cairo, they found at Big Muddy Bridge, eighty miles distant, a vile wretch, named George Meyers, who was willing to swear to anything. This was the man so long looked for. Connovers, the future outgrowth of the war, were not so plenty then as at a subsequent period. He was conducted to Carbondale, seven miles distant, and there, with a Republican named Dudding for an amanuensis, the following affidavit was drawn up at night, and reported as sworn to before a Justice of the Peace of Perry County, Illinois.

George Meyers, Sergeant of Captain Creed's company, stationed at Big Muddy Bridge, in Jackson County, Illinois, aged twenty-three years, being duly sworn, deposes and says:

"I am a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle, and have visited two meetings of that order in Williamson County. The first was on the night of the 10th of July, at the school-house, about six or seven miles from Marion, at which I was initiated by a person who was termed the 'Worthy Chief.' A man named William Andrews went with me; on which occasion, they took a book and read to me the laws, which were, as near as I can recollect: We are not to take up arms either for or against the United States, but we will bear true allegiance to those who may be members of the Golden Circle, and that we shall not take up arms against them, but be one, under a solid body.' This I was sworn to under penalty of death. I was not to allow it to be

known that I belonged to the order, except to those whom I knew to be members. I was then shown the sign and passwords.

"The second meeting was held about three miles from Blairsville, in Williamson County. Judge Duff was there, and seven or eight other speakers. Judge D. addressed the members, and said that regiment No.- (giving a number which I do not recollect,) was to keep still for a few days, and they would have a great deal to do at home, as they would have to carry out what a third party had laid out to be done against Union men, as soon as the volunteers should have left. Several others addressed the meeting. From the conversation, I understood the members were expecting arms from Missouri. There were 300 persons present.

(Signed)

his

GEORGE MEYERS."

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This affidavit was an unmitigated falsehood from beginning to end. It contained no semblance of truth, as will be seen in the sequel. Furthermore, it was illegal. Judge Duff proposed to the Marshal to bring Meyers to Cairo, and to satisfy himself of the truth of the statement, by an examination, privately or otherwise. He wished to show, at the same time, that this falsifier could not tell a word about his antecedents, personal appearance, age, complexion, or height, and further, he offered to bear the expenses of the trip. This proposition the Marshal refused, in defiance of the explicitly worded sixth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which says: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right .... to be confronted with the witnesses against him;" and also of the ninth section of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the State of Illinois, which reads as follows: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused hath a right to be heard by himself or counsel, to demand the nature and cause of the accusation against him, TO MEET THE WITNESSES FACE TO FACE. Our readers will here perceive, that the Constitution of the United States and that of the State of Illi nois, were violated by this one act. The Judge then said