The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1865-02-10

HNMEDrArR ExCmAN0E. On oPB.
CaAL RETALIATION.

VIAL - - 81 - = hVtNs
After Salisbury became receptacle for
re yular prisoners Of VA. lit was silent like
tn. tomb. It sent back no echo. No
man VAS exchanged from it T; few escaped.
We used to long-O how earnestly =
that some intelligent end Trustworthy
voice might 90 up to the North, and tell
the condition Of those dying prisoners
After our escape, when il seemed impos.
sible that We could oil survive the trials
and perils which environed us, We promis.
ed each other, repeatedly and solemnly,
that if any one of US did live TO regain
home and freedom, he should give to the
matter his earliest and most earnest eff
forts.
We have endeavored, under the solem-
mites Of an oath, to give the plain. simple
facts, without exaggerating or coloring,
to the Government and the public. That
the rebels are deliberately killing our men
by hunger and cold. when they have an
abundance OF corn and fuel, are truths
which cannot be denied. When the
prisoners went there, they we're newly
captured, and. like the most of our SOL
diers in the field, young men 10 robust
health. Yet. seventy days later we left
them dying ct the rate of thirteen per
ceut monsh-a mortality which in forty
eight hours would depopulste any city in
the world and send its inhabitants flying
from it as from pestilence And my as
sociste, Mr.. Browne. who had the very
besrfaclities for knowing. testiGes that
out of an average Of nearly eight thou
sand prisoners there were NOT at any thine
Eve hundred we'll men-an estimate which
the rebel surgeons frequently and emphat-
ically confirmed, in my own hearing.
Mr.. Lincoln's wellknown kindness oil
heaK makes him reluctant TO adopt meas
ures of severity. But surely it cannot be
possible that his strong sense Of justice
and his peculiarly logical mind, accept for
0 moment the monstrous proposition
"We cannot as nation afford to do any
inhuman and unchristian thing; therefore
ne must shut our ears to tbe agopizng
cry which comes up from SO many South
ern prisoners"
The power is in our hands We hold
the long end of the lever. We have an
excess Of prisoners. by at least fifteen OF
twenty thousand. We can exchange maa
for man. and yet retain rebels enough to
insure the good treatment of sny captives
black or white. whom they may take here
after. If exchange is imprscticable, We
can compel them to stop this atrocious
and systematic barbarity. Ifauy man be
lieves that we can "afford" to be inhu-
man and unchristian to the last extent,
toward those who year our uoform and
follow our flag and fight our battles, but
cannot afford to exercise the ieas. severi
ty toward men whose hands are red with
the bood of our bravest and best-ip
short, that Humanity and Christianity re.
quire us to coanive at the murder of our
own soldiers, then may God mend hi.
understanding
Ii is vety easy for well-fed and we'll
clothed Senators, in their own chamber
to rise up from their cushioned chairs and
talk about Humanity and Christianity. |
with they could be prisoners themselves
long enough to look at this subject from
the other side. wish they could i've
awhile among the daily end night horrors.
which for sixty days surrounded us, and
burned into cur memories like hot iron.
l wish they could look in o those foul pens
al Salisbury, which by peryersion
OF the Eaglish tongue are called hos.
pitals; where our poor fellows are crowd
ed upon the cold, naked. filthy floors,
without one word of sympathy DR. one lear
of affection; without even that degree of
warmth and cleanliness which VIE give TO
our dumb beasts and see their wasted
forms, and their sad, pleading eyes.
wish they could wakel, at any hour Of the
night, and hear. on al sides. far and near
tina. terrible "hack," hack" "hack," in
whose pneumonia tone almost every pris-
oner seems to be coughing his life away.
! wish they could look on the dead car,
with its rigid forms, piled upon each other
like hogs-the stark, swaying a rms-the
white, CHASTITY faces. with their droppe d
jaws and their staring, stony eyes-as il
rattles along, bearing away its precious
freight, to be thrown into trenches and
covered Nth little earth. think a few
hours in the stiffness of that garrison. en-
livened by no hilarity or athletic game.
broken by no sound of laughter or OF
song, would change their view of the
matter.
| say nothing of the deliberate murder.
which are SO frequent, because they are
kindness itself compared with this diving
BY inches, while the body grows weaker
and weaker, and the morbid. vacant. des.
parisg mind preys upon itself until the
lamp OF life goes out If there ia no earv
relief in store FOR those Salisbury prison.
ers, believe. before God. i, wonld he !.
mercy to them il their keepers. suv morn.
ing, we're to draw them up in line and
shoot them. to the last man.
Several remedies are inaugurated or suo.
gested ; let us see if they are adeouats
ones.
II Is proposed to send Commissioners
to the rebels to investigate and s'uniust''
the matter. But, in SALISBURY, al least.
they are acting systematically and with :
well-defned purpose. They don't want
to adjust il. The ink is hardly arv on
the paper. in which the Richmond Gov.
eromsnt refused to allow Com missioner.