New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-08-25
PRISON FATALITY.


AT the conclusion of the recent war the
mind of the Northern people was Kept IN |
state of constant turmoil by the exaggerated
stories Of interested parties in reference to
the eruelties praotoed upon prisoners of war
n +be So,7tb. When the ghost of the muir
dared Banauo arose before the startled vision
! ~ +ba entity Macbeth, the criminal who had
! conspired and procured the death of the vir-
tuous Thane anticipated the charge which
his own conscience justified by exclaiming, in
the agony of his fright, "Shake not thy CORY
locks at me- thou canst not say / did it,"
With like eager haste certain parties at
the North, who probably were not guiltless
themselves of many attractions against the
laws of war and of humanity, were very will
ing to divert public attention from their own
case by exciting public clamor against their
late adversaries, even at the risk of immola-
ting the innocent on the altar of their
unappeased hatred. The press, the stump
mad the pulpit teemed with eloquent appeals
to the darkest passions of the human heart,
and urged that vengeance be wreaked upon
all who had been in any way concerned with
the direction Of the Southern prisons.
alt was in vain that few conservative presses,
a few orators and few of the followers of the
prince of peace appealed to the softer feelings
of the human heart and sought to stay the
unreasonable tide of Northern passion. 1t
was in vain that the feeble utterances of a
rnanac1ed press at the South sought to reply
to the fury Of the awakened Northern blast
Tt was insvain to urge the effects of climate !;
the difficulties Of supply the refusal of the
United States authorities to make equitable
exchanges the impossibiity of preventingthe
effects of disease amongst congregated men.
Reason and remonstrance were alike drowned
amid the fury Of awakened 8passion; and the
only response was blood blood In obedi-
enee to the blind dictates Of popular fury the
so-called department Of justice collected such
evidence as was necessary for conviction.
| The developments which have recently come
I to light in reference to the mode pursued to
manufacture case against Mr.. Davis, will
doubtless serve as fair example of the pre-
tensions of this remarkable bureau to attain
the ends ofiustice by legitimate means.
ALI that is dark in the Judicial history Of
1 lil6 BttoIT-11 bLLtu ID Ill bIlG otutCL1d-
mean chambers of the inquisition would seem
just and holy compared with the means which
seem to have been resorted to to procure con-
| viction in the case of Mr.. Davis. From Mr..
Hollis action in his case we may reasonably
infer the measures he took to procure convic-
/ ton in others, where it was an object to cater
to adiseased public sentiment or to crafty
personal resentment.
We do not complain that legal steps should
have been taken by the government to hold
really guilty parties accountable for viola
ton of the laws of civilized warfare. But
that policy is not to be commended which
administers partial justice or inficts a wrong
in the name of justice. There was, doubtless,
much suffering in Southern prisons, Many
of us can also testify to unusual and unneces-
sary privations in the prisons Of the North.
1t was urged by the insensate clamor that
recently resounded through the North, that
the hardships inflicted in the Southern prisons
were the result of settled design that the
mortality amongst the Union prisoners was SO
great as to be accounted for only on the sup
position that the prisoners were poisoned,
killed, neglected and starved. If their argu-
ments were just, what inference must such
persons draw from the following statement,
which we copy from an exchange:
In reply to resolution of the House Of Rep
resentatiEes calling upon the secretary of war for
the number OF prisoners OF either side held and
that died during the war he makes the following
report: Number Of Union prisoners South, $780,
$40; number of rebel prisoner North, 100000
number Of Union prisoners died, 22,576; number
of rebel prisoners died, q, 1876,
If out Of 10000 prisoners 1000 deaths
could have occurred in siczly climate only
in consequence of unusual cruelties what
unheard of practices must have been re-
sorted to to have oceasioned out of only
100000 Confederate prisoners confined in a
proyerbially salubrious climate, the much
greater fatality Of 26, 600? The proposition
is a very plain one. Either the allegations Of
unusual cruelty brought againt those in
charge Of the Southern prisons are uniust--or
if they be just, the still greater fatality
amongst the Confederate prisoners would
compel us to conclude that the keepers of
Northern prisons were such monsters of
cruelty that human nature must be shocked
at the contemplation of the enormities which
they perpetrated, One Of these differences
must necessarily result from the figures pre-
sented in the report Of the secretary Of war
and the radicals must be compelled to take
one or the other horn Of the dilemma.