Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1863-07-23

leaders Of toe class must be sent At 10 ruscs
ioosa To jail as priscueTs Of war
Nor was any leuity shown in East Tennessee to
fled the State In proclamation addressed . to
the disaffected people of East Tennessee" by Col.
w. NJ. Churchwell, Provost Marshal at Knoxville,
it is ordered under date Of April %, 1862, that all
refugees who fail to return to their homes and ac-
ceIt the amnesty fired on condition Of " laying
down their arms and acting as loyal citizens, shall
" have their wives and children sent to their in
Ke, lucky, or beyond the Confederate State lines,
al their own erpeaSe" 1t is added that the fami-
lies of all males who shall leave after the date of this
proclamation will be sent immediately after them.
The women and children must be taken care of by
husbands and fathers, either in East Tennessee or
in the Lii coin Government Such were the {" ten
der mercies" of the Confcd,r tie military authori-
ties and such their respect for the right of domicl
of noffensivc women and children who had hus-
bands or fathers in exile for their loyalty to the
National Government
Ia the face Of such an exhibition We submit that
Gen Davis should make some public recantation of
his past policy before he proceeds to arraign the
Federal authorities on the charge of "iuhumani
ty" For the credit of the nation it is to be hoped
that neither party to this contest will permit it to
degenerate into " violent and rcmorseless rcvolu-
tion ry struggle"
Ia regard to the third of Gen. Davis's COM
plants, VIC not sufficiently apprzed of the facts
involved to express any opinion. II unarmed pri-
soners have been put to death by military au-
thorities we not aware of the time or place
where such transactions have occurred. The cir
cunlstanccs attending tho>cxecution # Confederate
officers for the alleged offence of recruiting in Ken
lucky arc not known to us, but VIC are free to say
that if this was the only offence alleged and proved
against them VIC should regard their execution as
adcporablc military error. That Gen Burnside un-
der whose administration these executions are said
to have occurred, would Willingly commit 0,aaa-
ri crime, will be believed BY mono who know him.
We believe it will be found that other charges were
alleged and substantiatcd against these officers 1t
is we'll known to US that our military authorities
have not heretofore held the offence of /" recruit
ing for the nsurgent service in Loyal States to
be punishable with death. We recall the case of
Capt VIM. Clark, of the Thirty y-scventh Virginia
Regiment, who, with number Of Maryland re
cruits," was arrested in the month Of August last
by squad of United States cavalry in St Mary's
county. The whole party were lodged in the Old
Capitol prisoners of war, but Capt. Clark was
not executed, or even put on trial, so far as we
ever heard.
But whatever may be the errors, or even the occa-
sional excesses, committed by imprudent or reck-
less officers on one side or the other, we shall
hope that neither party 10 this war will deem
it necessary to proceed to the dread extremity of
invoking the Ter aionis, whose cruel blows fall on
the heads not Of the guilty but the innocent If
this fountain of blood be once unseaed, who can
foresee the nameless horrors to which it may lead