Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1865-02-03
Butter on tho Exchange Of Prisoners.

Buffer on the Exchange of Prisoners,
General Butler IN his Report at Lowell,
Massachusetts, makes statement in re-
gard to the exchange of prisoners, which
puts new phase upon the whole subject.
1t has been generally supposed that the
failure to effect an exchange was due to the
fsct that Rntler insisted upon certain tech
nicsl arrangements in regard SO the black
troops, which the rebels would not admit
Butler now puts the entire responsibility
upon General Grant, The statement
which he makes is SO important that we
must quote the explanation at length.
After stating his determination, after his
appointment as Commissioner of Exchange,
to insist on the rights of the negro soldier,
he thus states his plan:
Having settled all else however, had determine
ed to bring about system of special exchanges un.
til should Te-eive all the white men held 10y the
rebels, and should give them an equal number in
exchange, ana thus all our white soldiers would be
liberated. When tho exchange, man for man, had
given Us all our white soldiers in their prisons,
there would still remain about fifteen or twenty
thousand rebel prisoners in our hauus, and only
about five hundred negro soldiers in theirs. Ar
irving at that point, proposed TO say to tho Con-
federates, Eve are willing to take thessfive hun
dred men and give equal numbsr of your SOL
diers II the ebels refuse that offer and still hold
our negroe soldiers in bondage and at labor, de-
sign to say TO them "lfyCu do not deliver me those
men, like other prisoners Of war, and if YOU work
those five hundred / will work your fifteen thou
sand, and as Napoleon built the canal OF Laus RedOe
with forty thousand Austrian prisoners of war, so
will this Government build the ship canal. We
want to connect the Mississippi river with the
lakes by the labor of this rebel prisoners in our
hands" Ny word for it, if that stand had been
taken, we should never have built much canal, be-
when afterVard the rebels set some Of my ne
gro soldiers work the fOrtifica ions and put
an equal number Of Virginia reserves at work in
Dutch Gap, IN retaliation, tho negroes were Instant
y taken out Of trenches and treated prisoners of
war. reported the points of agreement between
myself the rebel agent TO the Secretary Of War;
and asked for power to adjust the otter questions
difference, SO to have the question Of enslaving
negro soldiers stand alone, be dealt with hy it
self; ard that the whole power of the United states
should be eXerted to do Justice TO those who had
fought the battles Of the country and heen captur-
ed in its service The whole subject referred by
the secretary Of War to the Lieutenant General
Commanding, who teiegraphed me on the l4th Of
April, 1864, in substance Break off all negotia-
tions on the subject of exchange till further or
ders." And therefore, all negotiations were broken
off, save that special exchange of sick and wound
cd on either side went on. On the 10th Of April,
received another telegram Of General Grant, order
ing " not another man be given to the rebels" To
that answered, on The same day Z" Lieutenant
General Grants instructions shall be implicitly
Obeyed. 1 assume you do not mean to stop the
special exchange Of the sick and wounded now
going on" To this received reply in substance:
Do not give the rebels single able-bodied man /"
Butler discloses that the letter he wrote
to Ould during the summer, defending the
rights of the negro troops, was written un-
der the instructions of General Grant and
was designed mot for the exchange of
prisoners but for the purpose of preventing
it and furnishing a ground on which we
could fairly stand. This is certainly a
most singular revelation and demands ex-
PLANTATION to the country either by Gen.
Grant or from Secretary Stanton. If the
representation thus made is correct, Cen
ersl Grant is responsible for the fact that
no exchange has been made. His mo-
tive, of course, must have been to pre-
vent the stsengthening of the rebel army
to the extent of $4,000 able-bOdied men.
1,ut even this does not satisfy the country
of the necessity ofsuch spOlicy as that eK-
planned by Butler.