Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1864-01-28


to suspend all exchange Of prisoners until
the rebels would exchange the white officers
for negro troops who had been captured by
them The President was represented as
refusing to take that position, because, first
there were not many prisoners OF the class
of officers of negro corps, and it would be
unjust to the more numerous class OF white
prisoners who were not in that category. -
Second, the white officers who undertook TO
command negro forces got quicker promo
ton than if they had remained or joined
the service in white corps Third, those
officers knew this hazard of their service
before they assumed it, by the previous
threats of jeff Davis and the rebel author
tiles, published in the newspapers
Every person will concede that the Uni
ted States authorities, having enlisted ne
gro soldiers, whether rightfully or wrong
fully, are bound to make all reasonable eff
forts to protect them as captives but not by
continuing white men in prison where they
arc in a pcrishing condition for want of raj
ment and food, and many Of them are dying
of diseases thereby engendered If this
protraction Of their sufferings, this loss of
health and mortality of many of the white
captives, would prolong the lives or give in
creased health and strength or comforts to
seeming pretext, for those who give the
first place in their sympathies to that race,
for white men to be continued in torture,
and even to die by starvation, for their
good. But when the protraction of the
suiferings of the white prisoners brings no
alleviation of the negroes, what is the mo-
tive with our authorities to continue them?
1t is? that the wasting forms the waning
health, and the dying groans OF our heroic
white captive soldiers in Libby create NOR
al force TO conStrain the rebel authorities to
! deliver from captivity at the same time the
prisoners of both races. If the rebels. in
| this matter, violate the uSages of modern
warfare. punish them, and not citizens and
white men, who volunteeree in the cause of
the Union, the Constitution and the laws,
and-who are so unfortunate as to be prison
| erS.
If the officials who thus continue them
in miserable captivity could be sent to take
their places, / would not interpose word
of objection. But, according to my con-
ception Of justice, humanity and policy, |
insist that early and energetic efforts should
have been made, and should now continue
: to be made for their exchange. If every
man in captivity from our armeswere white,
and the rebel authorities were willing to ex-
change for part, and not for ALL those that
could be should be delivered from such hor
t rid captivity. Our government shoult
make every effort sor the liberation of all
but failing as to part, II. would be cruel IN
Justice to decide that others should remail
until their captors would consent that al
should go forth. Brave and magnanimou
men would never ask that their companion
n in prison should be held there to languisl
and die because they could not get out, bu
in the realization Of its horrors, and the no
bleness of their own heart, they would eX
claim, ''let all who can go free.
= This is another point of collision in tn
, war between the two races that has beel
| slowly arising for many years, that was dcs
tined, in the ordinary course OF events, t.
+ increase in extent and fierceness, and 1anat
les and demagogucs are recklessly urgin!
forward, even though it should become
more demoniac in its character. The aboli
= tionists are the original architects Of thi
f great civil war. Slavery and property il
African slaves was established by the prac
tice of the civilized world, upheld by tn
laws of nations, protected by the laws 0
the original thirteen States, and recognize,
+ by the Federal Constitution, and where i
existed in any State, declared by Mr.. Lin
, coin himself to be outside of the pale Of hi
authority as President, and also of Con
gress. The people ofone State had no righ
| to assail slavery in another State, becaus
: the subject belonged exclusively to tn
! State and its people. But some of the pee
] pie Of the free States, as far back as lS3.
: began to agitate against slavery in othe
{ States. They established newspapers t
\ labor in that work. They proclaimed, n
Union with shareholders y They denounce
/ the Constitution, because it recognized sls
g very and gave some protection to the OWL
V ers OF that property, as :. covenant wit
: death and an agreement with he'll. y They
5 the Constitution for its overthrow, an
+ were impelled, by their malignant and frer
zicd hate of it, publicly to burn a copy {
@. it. The glorious ensign of the Unite
Il States, the creation Of the Constitution
$ they scoffcd and denounced as hauntir
@ lie. BY sermons, lectures, and public a,
!, dresses in tracts and treaties, in the fam
:. ly circle, the school house ond the pupi
l.. by printing and pictorial representation
e they circulated thousands of flagitious falls
10 hoods against slave holders. With daril
: impiety they declared that ''if the Bib
IS recognized slavery it was not their Bible !;
y God sanctioned slavery He was not the
b. God. ;"
Ia The original abolitionists, and many
,r their new converts, now boldly declare
j. negro equality; and their most eloquent o
: ator goes the whole figure, ''libcrty, equa
y ity, brotherhood, and amalgamation. y III
e President, in public speech in this city, {
n the occasion OF great rejoicing for IL
e great and important successes Of our arm
,fI on the Mississippi, said
,e Eighty odd years since, the 4th of Jul
c for the first time i'll the world, a union boo
" ofrepresentatiyes declared, as self eyidel
d truth, that all men were created equal. "
= Another Of our Presidents, fifty yea
= afterwards, was called from the stage of e
- istencc, and on the same day of the mont
as and now on this 4th day of July just pa
10 sed, when gigantic rebellion risen in t
of land, precisely at the bottom of which is
i effort to overthrow that principle, that
A. men are created equal, we have a surrend
y of one of their most powerful positions a
rv powerful armies, forced upon them til
of very day.
re And more recently, at the conservation
te a Soldiers Cemetery, at Getteysburg,
in spoke to the same effect upon the point
If equality. So he, too, has not only sure
: dered constitutional and legal slavery to t
nj aboitionists, but has declared publicly
he white and negro and universal equality.
he Equality loithom an,dlgamatiOn IS inlpOs
We bic. But ! venture this opinion, that a
M amalganation he may declare for will be ii
he oretical Indeed have yet to learn Il