The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-02-10

sponsible to no one, and at liberty to do
as he pleases with the American people,
who were all born to do his bidding, or go
to jail in default thereof He says to one
come, and he comes, and to another 60,
and he goes. Before the termination of
the present Congress, he will be taught
different lesson.
1t is reported here, and the name of a
Union Congressman is used 10 connection
with the report, that when, not long since,
committee waited upon the Gear of the
War Office to request him to Use nis best
efforts to secure an exchange of prisoners,
he replied in the staggering tone pecu-
liarly bis, "I,l be id if / am going to
exchange healthy men for skeletons. I"
Mark the personal pronoun elbow sig
nifcantly it is inserted as if it was tor him
to say whether the brave men who have
fallen into the hands of the rebels should
die of starvation or be released from the
slow, but certain death that awaits them
as if the only tenure by which the patri-
otto sons of the North held their lives was
his dictun, If he said this, and l am
confident from the source got it that he
did, he ought simply to be tried by court
martial and shot. No man is fit to live in
the North, much less to be an officer OF
the Government, who wants to see our
soldiers pine away and die in Southern
prisons because they are skeletons. How
ever, a move has been made in the right
direction. The veil is about to be lifted,
and if the people will only wait a short
time they will have all the facts of this
petty tyrant before them in an official
form. Perhaps it's disloyal to say all this,
but little faint of disloyalty is justi6able
in contemplating such man as Stanton.
We published the other day an interest.
ing discussion in the House of Represent
atives at Washington, upon the mysteries
of the Old Capitol Prison. This discus
sion was conducted almost exclusively by
Republicans, like DAVIS, of Maryland, GAR
FIELD, of Ohio, and KAssoN, of Iowa, and
ended in the passage of resolution nearly
unanimously, for an Investigation into the
affairs and management of the institution
named. On this subject we quote the fol-
lowing interesting statements by Wash
ington correspondent of one of our ex-
changes:
As fair sample of hundreds of cases,
the facts of which are well known here,
and susceptible of incontrovertable proof,
may state briefly, the case of Col. Gus
tavus A. Smith, of Illinois. The colonel
raised choice regiment in his State, and
accompanied it to the field. In hard
fought battle, whilst bravely leading his
men, he was wounded by piece of shell,
which crushed his skull. BE was brought
to this city, and shortly after bis arrival,
and whilst lying in critical condition, was
arrested and incarcerated in the Old Gap
itOl Prison. No charges were ever pre-
ferred against him, and he could get no
satisfactory reply to inquiries about the
cause of his arrest. He remained in pris-
on seventy-tw days, all that time attend
ed by an army surgeon, who was endeav-
oring, with the aid of silver plate, to
patch up the broken skull of the patriotic
colonel.
Singular as it may seem, whilst thus in
generated, he was renominated by the
President (who does not appear to have
been aware Of his imprisonment, for pro-
motion to the position of Brigadier Gen
eral, and bis was included in list of one
hundred names sent to the Senate for con
tirmatiOn, but, discovering that, under the
limit fixed by the law regulating the num-
Der of Brigadier Generals, but sixty-eight
OF the one hundred could be then allowed,
the list was sent back, that the excess of
names might be struck off,
In the meantime and whilst the list was
in course OF revision, Col. Smith was re-
leased from imprisonment, and only then
learned of his intended promotion. He
called on the Secretary of War and de-
manded an explanation of his arrest, what
for, etc. Mr.. Stanton would not give him
any satisfaction, but remarked: {" 1t is all
over now, Colonel; you are released !;
We can't help it now; We can only say, we
are sorry it hapened," etc.
Col. Smith name was not sent to the
Senate, in the revised list of nominations
for Brigadier General
Col. Schriiner, of the 10th New York
Heavy Artillery, is now imprisoned in
Carroll Prison. He was incarcerated
early in September last, and has remained
in prison ever since. No charges of any
kind have been preferred against him, al
though his wife and his attorney have
begged the Department to make known
Ills offence, if any there be
Col. Friedman, of Philadelphia, YVES in.
generated slxty-four days, and discharged
after the manner of Col. Smith.
And so l ought to go { =. until you would
have formidable list of unlawful VIOLA
tions of the rights of citizens. The cases
l have named are those of military men.
Much more aggravated are the two or
three hundred cases of civilians, respecta-
bic merchants of this city and elsewhere
who have been arrested and are now, and
have been for. months some of them, in
the PRISONS | have named, upon military
order, and upon charges cognizable and
punishable only in the civil courts Of the
United States.
DeDnrture of Gen. Mcclellan for En-.