The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1865-07-01
JelTersOn la Is Is . Mora. CrImlpaI,

!
Jefferson Ia Is as a Mora. Criminal.
George W. Curtis writes in Harper's
Magazine for July:
At the time Of our writing, the most
conspicuous offender ever capitally in
dicted in this country sits alone in a
spacious casematv of Fortress Monroe,
with only a Bible upon his table, and
two silent sentinels watching him by
day, and by night Perhps, as he sits
there or PAGES the floor, he remembers
the hapless victims of AndersSnville
and Belle Isle, or recalls the long hor-
rors of the war which hiss smeared so
many lovely fields with blood In the
terrible quiet of his prison does he ever
ask himself whether it was worth
while to dare such grevious sorrow to
his country for such a cause? Does he
ever agree with himself that even if the
theory of State soYer .ignty were true,
it was not wise to assert it at such a cost
of misery, merely for the sake of per
petuating something which must sur
| pass any conceivable injustice of the
nation toward aState2 Has he never
learned that many things may be law
| full which are not eXpedient, and that
nothing but the most prolonged injus-
tice (which legal redress is hopeless is
a worse oppression than the remedy of
civil war;
Technically he is political prisoner.
As such he will be tried. But Leis also
arraigned before the conscience and
heart of his faithful fellow citizens as a
moral criminal of the worst kind.
Even fanatical candor cannot plead
that he was ignorant of the systematic
| horrors. of the Georgia prisons-the
starving, the freezing, the slow reduc-
tion of human beings to idiocy by ex-
posure, by hunger, by contact with filth
| and disease. IL was intended to weak
en- them into despair and submission,
and it had that effect 1t was also il
tended 10 compel an exchange of souI d
and efficient men for his service, and
there it failed. But the first result was
constant
Here, for instance, is a note written
in pencil from the United States mill
tary prison at Nashville, by an honest,
industrious, sober, patriotic neighbor
or the Easy Chairs, who has been a
faithful soldier of the war from the be
ginning. He says he was captured be
fore Petersburg last August, and was
sent from Richmond to Salisbury.
There he and mis- cOmrades-there were
ten thousand, in his estimate, during
the period of his mprisonment-were
starved, and starved, and starved.
They died, and died, and by scores and
hundreds took the oath to the rebels
and were placed in their ranks. He
and few others persisted as long as
he could. But hunger and weakness
and horror gradully did their work and
he succUmbed. From August until
April he had suffered more than we
can imagine, and then he yielded He
was put in the rebel ranks, and arms
placed in his hands and those of his
companions, about half an hour before
Stoneman arrived. He did not fire a
shot against his iag-nOne of them did
and they went directly over to Stone
man, but as coming from the rebel
ranks they were held as prisoners.
This is one case, and enough, but with
sllevistions-One case, not the worst,
| but how tragicaL Yet there were thou
sands and thousands like him who suf
Ifered all that he suffered, and then,
| consumed with loathsome diseases,
with broken hearts, with reeling brains,
sank into the cOnvulsive agonies of
| death, or laughed out in stark madness,
or driveled slowly on in idioey. And
they were young, and brave, and noble
men who were thus treated. They we're
| guiltless of every crime, and had done
/ nothing but defend their country. At
/ homo, far away upon Western prairies,
among New England hills, upon the
shores of the lakes, along the sea coast,
mothers, and wives and daughters sick
ened with the long suspense, the horri-
| bic suspicion Their hair whitencd,
their eyes grew dim with hopeless
watching, their cheeks thinned with
acute fear, their hearts broke also, and
they died amidst their appalled, chill
dren. So awful sorrow, 50 territ u 8
suffering, botn 10 itself and in what it
occasioned, no history records. And it
WAS the crime Of this man who now sits
alone with his Bible and the silent SEN
tinels in Fortress Monroe.
Il is vain to plead for him a. political
offender The war was little compared
with the crimes Of the war Over the
graves of the dear beloved, shot dead
upon the battlefield, We can hear and
see that political differences may come
10 war. But over the Golgothas Of Nil
len and Andersonville-oVer the spots
where the pens stood in which heroic
nen were treated as beasts are never
treated-We call murder, murder, and
crime, crime; and all murders and all
crimes are less black than these
/ Whatever the verdict of the Jury
may be upon the charge of treason
whatever the punishment, if the &C
cused be convicted as q trsitor-hOwev-
er, in case Of his executionShe may be
ranked among political victims, the
verdict of every generous heart and OF
history is sure against this man as q
criminal not less than the infamous
English Jeffreys Viewed merely as a
political leader, his whole public career
Is unlighted with a single notle action,
and his speeches will be vainly search.
ed for one generous emotion If his in
fanny in history win be singular, it will
be in every point deserved. The same
} kind OF gloomy odium that settles upC q
the name Of James IL, bat tenfolu
deeper, As he was infinitely more Grim
inal, viii gather and darken that oI
Jefferson Davis
A great addition 70 the supply Of
fruit in New York viii be made this
J year, and for years 10 come, IN the al
tention that is being paid 10 the cult
vation Of grapes. Within a few years
I thousands Of acres Of land, in Western
1 and southern New York, have been
Z conFerted into vineyards. And what il
D more remarkable, a great portion o
+ the land now used for this purpose hac
= before been considered eOmpzTatiVel,
3 useless