New-York daily tribune., 1865-09-27
MIR. BENJAMIN,s LETTER.

(London) Times on the treatment of Union
prisoners, though tho letter is not worth, even
to the Rebels, the space it occupies. The ques-
ton which Mr.. Benjamin discusses is not the
one TO which the attention of both continents
has been directed. The most remarkable thing
about his letter is what it does not say. 1t
opens with this sentences: II find on ar.
rival in England that public attention is direct
ed afresh to the accusation made by the Federal
authorities that prisoners of war were cruelty
treated By the Confederates. We expect,
therefore, to find wholesale denial of these
charges, but the letter contains none, and
turns on a quite different point The main
allegation in it is that We are responsible
for the sufferings of tho Union prisoners
because we stopped the exchange. Mr..
BENJAMIN shows his usual lawyer-like and
unscrupulous adroitness in thus endeavoring to
change the issue, but he will not succeed. We
decline to be drawn into discussion on mat
ter that is wholly incidental and has nothing to
do with the merits of the case. We can afford
to admit-though we do not, for it is not true
that in that endless tauglc of discussions about
exchange, the Rebels were right and we wrong
But admitting it for arguments sake, Mr.
BENJAMIN cannot 90 to the jury with any better
chance on the general issue than before. LIS
Ilea is an evasion, and the world at large to
which he appeals makes rather too numerous
a panel, and has too long time to deliberate
on It's verdict, to be cheated in the end by the
arts of reckless advocate.
Two other points Mr. Benjamin brings for
ward incidentally. Aware of the impression
made here and in Europe by the photographs oil
returned prisoners which the Congressional
Committee published, he refers those cases to
the agreement for exchanging sick and disabled
prisoners. and says these men were simply ema'
ciated by disease. Like the other, this defense
is lawyers trick. Mr.. Benjamin knows that
those were photographs of men emaciated. not
in consequence of ordinary disease, but in con-
sequence of starvation. They were dying from
want of food. They testified themselves that they
were the victims Of starvation. The surgeons
testified that the maladics under which these men
were prostrated were such as starvation, ana
starvation only. could produce. Where they
were not too far gone, they were restored oy
food and stimulants. They required no medi'
cine; they required nutriment The proper
answer. therefore, to Mr.. Benjamin is: True,
these men were exchanged under sick and
wounded cartel but they were well men
whom you made sick by intentional, system
atized starvation in order to compel the gen
eral resumption OF an exchange. That IL
the point which the ex-Confcderate Secretary
of State must meet or admit in his next efiusior
in the congenial columns of The Times.
We do not wonder that Mr.. Benjamin ha'
chosen to eyade the real question, and that Will
the Wirz evidence in print he hesitates 10 pS,.
= what little reputation he may still have in En-
gland, by point blank denial of proved facts
From beginning to end his letter shows how hi
feels the pressure Of the evidence. In thi'
country he has no character to lose, but he u
to live abroad the remainder Of his life, and is
anxious not to fall into immediate disgrace in
Europe. And yet from beginning to end hi
letter is an unconscious confession by the
weight it seeks to lay Oh the argument about
exchange. As soon as we had an excess of pris.
oners, says Mr.. Benjamin, we refused to con-
tinue the exchange, " thus subjecting their [our]
own men to the terrible suiicrings glanced
at by Col. Fremantlc in order to embarrass Gen.
Lees movements" Again: "Others must Judge
of the'humanity and justice Of the policy which
consigned hundreds Of thousands [sicl OF
wretched men to captivity apparently hopelers;
but | can testify unhcsitatingly to its sagacity
and efficacy, and to the pitiless sternness with
which il was executed" Really Mr.. Ben.
jamin needs TO take but one more step in his
practicings upon the credulity Of British
public. Let him assert in The Times that An.
dersonville, and Libby, and Belle Isle were un-
der control of the Federal authorities, and that
Mr.. Stanton was the Secretary Of War who re-
fused food TO the Union prisoners, who kept
them without shelter in Winter or Summer, and
murdered them in pestlential marshes. That
will make out a case which otherwise must fail
What Mr.. Benjamin says about the Dabgren
expedition is sufficiently considered in Lieut.
Wise's letter, which We also reprint.
THE MISSISSIPPI FREEDMEN.