Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-07-09
A Step In the Right Direction.

A step has been taken by the Government
which will meet with the hearty approval OF
all its earnest supporters, and which is decid-
ly indicative of an advance movement. We
allude to the order of Secretary Stanton
transferring to General Foster commanding
the Department of the South, An accordance
with his request, five rebel Generals to be
treated precisely as the rebel General in COM
mand of Charleston, has notified Foster he
had been treating five Union General officers
at that place. While this act savers of
cruelty, it is the right principle, and in the
end, we doubt not, will be calculated to
bring about the result which should be
sought by all men, namely, the conducting of
the war upon what is known as a civilized
basis. With all their boosted chivalry, the
Southern rebels have from the outset shown
a disposition to trample upon the recognized
laws of war. The butchery of negro prison
ers in plain contravention of every rule of
warfare, except as practised among savages,
and of every principle of humanity, has
virtually placed the Confederates beyond the
recognition of all Christian people, until the
act is disclaimed by their authorized leaders
Far as some civilized governments have gone
in recognizing the negro as property, they
have never yet held that he may be murdered
with impunity. This is proposition which
the rebel government of the South has alone
sought to establish.
From the commencement of the struggle,
the Southern leaders have INDUCED in an i'm
mense amount of the most cruel bravado
On the other hand, the loyal people of the
North have exhibited regard for the laws
of humanity which has amounted to a shrink
ing from some of the sterner duties imposed
by the necessities of war. The rebels have,
h.n al fhor1 fhn san1
of war Would authorize, while the upholders
of the Union have gone as far the other way
in the indulgence of an unexpected clemency.
The difference has been manifested especially
in the treatment of prisoners of war. Not
merely has this been the case with negro
troops in the Federal service falling into reb-
ell hands, but the barbarities practiced upon
white men at Libby prison and Belle Island,
aRd more recently at Charleston, show in
most horrid contrast with the indulgence that
has been lavished upon rebel prisoners
wherever and whenever placed by the for
tunes of war in Union hands. Justice de-
mands that the inequality should cease. A
Northern man is entitled to the same respect
when prisoner of war, as a Southern man,
and it is the imperative duty of our high
military authorities to assert the proposition
in practical form. The course of Secretary
Stanton in this regard will meet with univer-
sal approval. While the leaders of the Union
armies have won golden opinions from all
men of sound intelligence, by the humanity
which on all occasions they have displayed,
even in many instances to the sacrifice of the
security of their own followers, the time has
clearly come when the claims of justice should
be held paramount, and forbearance in en-
forcing the laws of war to their last letter has
ceased to be a yirtue.-NiSSoari Democrat.