The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-09-29
the EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS
The Mendacity Of Dana and
Stanten Exposed.
The Useless Martyrdom Of Federal
Soldiers Fastened on the Sec
rotary Of War.
Another Card from Junius II. Browne

From the N. Y. Tribune, 10th.
At the risk of obtaining the reputation of
"great American card-Writer," feel com.
PEELED BY the statement Of the editor-in-chief
of Aug. 1S, and of Gen. e. A. Hitchcock in the
Washington Chr0nicle of Aug. %, respecting
the responsibility Of Secretary Stanton for the
useless martyrdom OF our prisoners Ot-War in
the South, once more and for the last time
hope, TO refer TO the painful subject. III 4
Mr.. Dana, alluding to my statement in the
Tribune Of the 11th nit. says: I'd.
"What Mr.. Browne has complained of, and
what he still complains OF, is that Mr.. Stanton
would not make exchanges unless our negro
soldiers, then In the power of the rebels as
prisonerssof war, were included. According to
Mr.. Browne, Mr.. Stanton ought to have aban-
doned every effort to rescue this class of sol.
diers from the tortures which the wolfish hate
of Jefferson Davis and Gen. Lees subordinates
were inflicting upon them"
Il is so gross and apparently so willful and
deliberate MEASUREMENT of my remarks that
/ hesitate in this place to apply to It the only
epithet 1t deserves. ] never alluded to the ne.
gro soldiers at all, for it seems they have moth.
ing to do with the question, inasmuch as the
exchange, 50 far as had ever ascertained, was
resumed without any reference to them. In
deed, it was of that complained; and chal-
lenge either Mr.. Dana or Gen. Hitchcock to
show that "when exchanges were finally re-
sumed, the black as well as white soldiers
were included" It is easy enough, at this late
day, to say so; but no information of the kind
has ever been given to the public officially or
when the exchange did take place, not the
slightest alteration had occurred in the ques-
ton, and that our prisoners might as well have
been released twelve or eighteen months be-
fore as at the resumption of the cartel
If there be any facts corroborative of the
position assumed by Mr.. Dana or Gen. Hitch.
cock. let them be given, and Secretary Stanton
which no one would be more glad than to see
him acquitted. - f.7.a sg
Having been prisoner in Castle Thunder at
Richmond, and in the military penitentiary at
Salisbury, where all the black soldiers were con-
fined, and having far better means of knowing
than either the late Assistant Secretary of War
or the General, can state that there were
never at any time over 300 Of them at the
highest in captivity and the idea that such
handful Of men, whatever their color, should
be made pretext for holding 80, 900 or O,OO0
other soldiers, who were perishing by hundreds
daily from systematic cruelty on the part of
the rebels, is too outrageous and absurd for
comment.
1t is calculated that from 10000 to 10000
brave men were sacrificed by their long con.
fiuement, and that, forsooth, for the protection
OF 300, certainly not more brave nor more
loyal, nor more deserving, and who altar all
were not benefited in the least by the tremen.
dous sacrifice.
It would have BEEN source of great conso-
lation to those 800 defenders of the Republic
to have suffered for some purpose-for some
advantage to the common cause but Secreta-
ry Stanton decreed that all they endured
should not rebound either to their own benefit
or that of the country at large.
Moreover, at least six months before the ex.
cnange was made, the rebels repeatedly offered
to exchange man for man, and leave the bal
ance, which at that time amounted to 10000
or 30, 600 prisoners in our favor. in our hands,
to insure the faithful carrying out OF any agree
ment that might be made between the United
States and the insurgents. Tnis certainly
would have guaranteed protection to the 800
blacks and yet the proposition, often as it
was made, was never accepted or even appar-
emily entertained by Secretary Stanton.
I am weary of this avoidance of the main
issue. speak and have spoken only for the
tens Of thousands Of brave soldiers that Secre.
tary Stanton permitted to perish without max
ing an effort for their deliverence.
y +
JUNIUs HENRI BROWNE.
The Tribune Office, Sept. S, 1865.