The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-04 00:00:00

THE UNITED STATES.

(From the Times Correspondent.)
SARATOGA, July 21.
Unless the statements which are issued every day
concerning the health of Mr. Davis are very false,
it is not likely that he will remain much longer a
cause of contention among the Northern people. His
health is said to be fast failing, and the rigorous nature
of his imprisonment daily reduces his chances of re-
covery. He is not allowed to see any one, except
the man who brings him his food, and occasionally
a doctor. All books are denied him, except the
Bible, and he is not permitted to receive letters, or
to write any, even to his own counsel. A sentinel
is stationed in his room, so the papers say, and one
informant states, with the attention to details which
is characteristic of his class, that the prisoner does
nothing but smoke, that he " combs his hair regu-
larly, that he eats little, and sleeps pretty soundly."
Particulars such as these seem to be received with
approbation by the public, for as the time of Mr.
Davis's trial draws nearer the interest which is felt
in its result increases. It was thought that by post-
poning the event public opinion in the North would
soften towards Davis, bat there is no indication of
such a change ; on the contrary, circumstances are
always occurring which strengthen the general de-
sire to see the heaviest of punishments fall upon his

head. Nothing will satisfy a very large portion of
the people but Mr. Davis's life. Even the most mo-

Berate men express a feeling of anxiety lest the Go-

vernment should be contented with his banishment.

This eager craving for vengeance on an individual,
notwithstanding the awful visitation which has
fallen upon the entire South, and which might
seem enough to appease the demands of the most
vindictive, may appear very reprehensible to the
people in England, but it is not so unreasonable
as it looks at a distance. Not only can it be ex-
plained, but justified ; it does not arise from party
passion, but from the remembrance of deeds which
are more horrible than the English public can have
any idea of, and it is constantly fed by new proofs
of barbarity perpetrated upon Federal prisoners.
If there is any bitterness entertained by the
Northern people towards the South—and very
rarely indeed have I seen evidences of it—it springs
from the same cause which makes them talk of

Davis as of a being scarcely human. That cause is
the incredible and infamous treatment which the
Northern captured soldiers received in Southern

prisons.
The evidence upon which the charges of cruelty
rest is overwhelming and unanswerable. A Sanitary
Commission was appointed by the Government to
inquire into the circumstances, and the members of
it examined a great many men who had been pri-

soners in the South, some of whom were at death's
door when they told their story. The testimony
has been published by official sanction., and photo-
graphs of a few of the prisoners are prefixed to the
narrative. Photographs do not lie, and these pic-

tures of living skeletons, covered with horrible sores
and wounds, speak for themselves. But still more
painful witnesses against the prisons of the South
are to be met with in almost every village in the
presence of poor young fellows who have returned
in a state of idiocy, or paralysed, or eaten up with
sctavy. A wretched object was pointed out to me
the other day. There were still the traces of a robust
and strong man about him, but he was physically a
wreck, and his mind was utterly gone. When it is
considered that at Andersonville the Confederates
put the Northern prisoners on a piece of land without
even a tent to cover them, that a tropical sun beat
down upon their heads, and that they had not food
enough given them to keep a dog alive, it cannot
cause surprise that mind and body alike broke down.
It is a fact, and an awful one to realise, that around
that prison field of Anders mville 15,000 Northern
soldiers, taken captive, lie buried. Fever and star-
vation laid them all low. In the regular prisons,
where at least shelter from heat or cold was pro-
vidod, the men were huddled together, so that it
was almost impossible to breathe in the rooms.
'When they went to the windows to get a little fresh
air they were shot down from outside by the senti-
nels. This crime is proved to have been committed
in scores of cases. The evidence, as I have said, is
before the world ; the Southern leaders do not at-
tempt to contradict it. They only say they did as
well as they could, and all one's wishes and hopes
would lead one to believe them. But here again,
unfortunately, the evidence is too strong in disproof
of their words. At Libby, close to Davis's house,
the prisoners were literally starving. Their friends
in the North heard of this, and sent them boxes of
provisions. These boxes were stored in sheds directly
in front of the prison, so that the men could see
them from their windows, but the authorities refused
to distribute them. The prisoners died from hunger
in the sight of plenty. The Southern defence is that
this was a retaliatory measure, used becaused there
had been a complaint about the treatment of South-
ern men in the North. But it is proved beyond all
doubt—and every Confederate soldier, private or
officer, who is questioned on this subject admits it
--that in the Northern prisons no distinction what-
ever was made between Federal and Confederate ;
both were carefully looked after, and always had
proper clothing and food.
When a Northern prisoner was carried South it
was common to strip him of every trinket he pos-
sessed, and in many instances to take his clothes
from him. " They even took our coats from us,"
deposed Franklin Dismore, of the Bth 'Tennessee
Cavalry, " and part of us had to lie there on the
floor in our shirt sleeves." And the same man
stated—his words being confirmed by numerous
others—" many a man just fell dead walking round
trying to keep himself warm, or as he was lying on
the floor died during the night; and if you looked
out of a window a sentinel would shoot you. They
shot some five or six of our boys who were looking
out." Colonel Dahlgren was shot at a window in
this way and buried naked. A man who- saw the
body swore that the little finger was cut off in order
to get at a ring which Colonel Dahlgren had worn
upon it. A doctor who had seen upwards of 6,000
paroled men stated that they were all in a half
famished condition when they came to him, and the
lightest diet was almost too much for them at first.
The grief in bereaved families for those who fell in
battle is slight compared with that which is felt by
mothers who know that their sons perished slowly
and miserably of hunger and disease. "It is very
easy for you Englishmen to talk about mercy and
forgiveness," said a lady, talking of this subject,
" but lickw would you have felt towards the Russians
if they had starved and murdered 15,000 of your
soldiers in one prison ?" It is this feeling which ex-
tends through every class of society in the North.
To condemn it without weighing the circumstances
which produce it is to do less than justice to a people
who are ready to shake hands with every Southern
man, and to help him with money, provided he was
not a leader among them. As a body the Northern
people are impatient to be friends with the South.
It is only against the leaders that they bear animo-
sity, and it is chiefly concentrated upon the head of
Davis ; for lie lived within a stone's throw of Libby
Prison, whence the corpses of starved men were
daily carried out in large numbers. It may be
asked, did Davis or General Lee know of the man-
ner in which Southern prisoners were treated? The
North believe they did, and,
hther evereforerepulsive it
, as I have
said, the cry for their lives, ow
may sound, is not a cry raised without provocation.
It is not the wild clamour of a mob; and it is so far
deep and general that I believe the Government will
have to resist the whole force of public opinion in
the North if Mr. Davis is to save his life. " If,"
says a writer who truly reflects the views of the
people on this subject, " General Lee had been de-
termined not to have prisoners starved or abused,
does any one doubt that he could have prevented
these things ? Nobody doubts it." And so of Davis :
—" The chief of a so-called Confederacy who could
calmly consider among his official documents incen-
diary'plots for the secret destruction of ships, hotelS,
and cities full of peaceable people is a chief well
worthy to preside over such cruelties ; but his only
just title is President of Assassins, and the whole
civilised world should make common cause against
such a miscreant." I do not know whether this
argument and this language will be deemed conclu-
sive or satisfactory in England; they are certainly
held to be so here, and, after all, it is in America
that Mr. Davis is to be tried. His friends might

se worse fate befall him than his death in Fortress
Monroe.
Among innumerable other circumstances which
denote the state of extreme poverty into which the
South has fallen is the appearance of favourite
watering-places at this season of the year. Sara-
toga is one of the towns which in former years was
half filled with families who came from the South to
escape the heat and fevers of summer. There is now
not a single Southern man or woman in it, and only
the presence of visitors from the Northern cities
saves the place from being quite deserted. Of all the
mineral springs in the country this at Saratoga is
accounted the best, and it is the chief inducement
for people to come to the spot. There is one
picturesque drive to a lake, where little children
and others can look at trout swimming in a pond,
and afterwards eat fried potatoes, which is thought to
be a very rare and choice dish in these parts. The
people turn out from the large hotels—the best of
them, the "United States," was burnt down before the
season began—and drink the water, looking rather
unhappy and discontented afterwards, but professing
to derive great benefit from it. Afterwards they
have no resource but to lounge about the verandahs,
or that " chamber of horrors" which is known in
American hotels as the " ladies' parlour," and which
always realises a stranger's wildest idea of cheerless-
ness
and discomfort. The Americans like it, but a
foreigner requires to be educated up to that mark.
The standard amusement among the men is the game
of " faro," played at a very sumptuous gaming-house
here, the manager of which discoursed very plea-
santly to me the other night concerning what he was
pleased to call his " profession." He seemed to be
not a little exalted at the recollection of his career,
and took occasion to lament the war in very splen-
did language, as having deprived him of some of his
best customers. This was altogether a very impos-
ing man, and, like everybody else, an intense poli-
tician. In these " crack" American gaming-houses
the greatest extravagance characterises all the ar-
rangements, a supper being provided for the visi-
tors free of expense, and everything done that is
possible to inspire them with a patient love of " faro."
There is also a theatre at Saratoga, with scenery and
every requisite for a dramatic performance, except
actors There were performers, but no actors.
Here, too, there is a church and a newspaper. This
exhausts the list of attractions at Saratoga. Time
would hang heavily with the visitors if they were
all English people ; but they are very sociable and
friendly among each other and to strangers, inter-
mingling with great freedom and unconstraint, and
not above amusing themselves by dancing at the
close of the day. The charm of a visit to Sara-
toga to inhabitants of New York must partly con-
sist in the journey thither. The journey up the
beautiful and ever-varied Hudson, in a steamer
which is as large as an English hotel, and much
more luxuriously fitted up, is in itself worth the
trouble of getting at the springs. From Albany, a
thriving place with all the outward appearance of a
pleasant Engl'sh country town, the way is less
pleasant, as the abominable railway cars, with their
crowds of tobacco chewers and gossips whom no one
can suppress, have to be resorted to. Newport and
Saratoga are the two most popular haunts of the
well-to-do holiday maker, Niagara being usually
visited only in a very hurried manner. People stay
there long enough to get wet through and change
their clothes, and then they return home.