Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1866-04-05


ment free-born American citizens
were to be cruelty hunted down,
plunged into filthy prison houses, and
even deprived in some Instances of
! life itself, for daring to entertain and
express Union sentiments, and TO
maintlin a quiet and peacesble, but
stubborn and infexible loyalty to
the government of their fathers; IN
der which government all rights OF
person and property were to be set
at naught and trampiad under foot,
and even the boasted right of peace
able State secession to be formally
and deliberately denied; and the
long venerated slaveholding rights,
for the defense and maintenance o:
which this unwise and wasting ~eF
had been projected; wese n the
fourth year of that very war, upon
che eropnd OF sailiLz<y necessity. de-
clared By dokasatical executive
sescrift, subject q be violated, and
even aBregated, It the pleasure OF
the great central agency in Rich
mond, which nolouger held itselfre-
sponsible to either God or man for
its official acts.
GEN. HINDNAH.
This man, as his swn formal re
port to the Wa< Department evi-
denced, finding, as he said, that the
very comprehensive provisions oftne
conscription law were not quite com
prehensive enough to suit his pur
poses, deliberately amplifed them by
proclamation; declared martial law
throughout Arkansas and the north
ern portion of Texas, and demanded
the services of all whom he had
thus Illegally and tyrannically en-
braced in his own widesweeping con
scription list. All who refused to
obey his mandate, as he expressly
confesses, were apprehended, sub
juct to trial by a military court sp-
pointed at the instant of Hindman
himself, and when convicted, as o
considerable number were, of an Of
fense which he unblushing acknowl-
edges in this same report were Who'll
ly unknown to the law of the land.
he had them executed, and, going
even beyond the internal Jeffreys
himself in barbarity, he, as he also
ostentatiously declares in that same
report, took care to be present to
witness the dying agOnies of his
yictims.
GEN. BRAGG.
This military commander first set
the example of proclaiming martial
law, which he did repeatedly, aud
upon the most unsatisfactory pre-
texts. 1 assert what l know to be
true-charged to be true on more
than one occasion in the Confederate
Congress,-and now stand prepared
to establish. by the most irrefutable
proof that he deliberately put to
deatts. on repeated occasions, with
.sut shelesst show of Illegal authority
(sven such authority az the legal
regulations exisIIng under the Con
federate government recognized. as
meritorious and valiant soldiers as
he had under his command. He
evinced on all occasions. while he
commanded the Army of Tennessee,
an utter disregard of all the estab-
lished principles of constitutional
freedom, committed such eXcesses as
Sylla or a Marius would scarcely
have ventured upon, and yet, in spite
of all that could be done, his removal
from command could not be effected
until the Confederate cause had be-
come well nigh utterly hopeless.
JAMES A. seldom, SECRETARY OF WAR.
Mr.. Davis retained this man in the
office of Secretary of War, amid con-
tinual indications of popular indigna-
ton and disgust, from month to
month and from year to year; nor
would he have been at last seen TO
vacte the official position which he
had so long deeply dishonored, but
for the undeniable fact that / had
directly charged him, upon recorded
testimony, that is to say, upon the evi
.dences supplied by the books of his
own Department. of having caused
to be paid to himself, bv his own of
fetal subordinates, forty dollars per
bushel for his whole crop of wheat
for the year 1864, while he was, by
the instrumentality of foreijie impress
n,ent, compelling the farmers Of North
Carolina, Georgia, and other States,
to yield up their wheat to the gov
ernment officials at the inadequate
price of from seven to nine dollars in
Confederate paper. made this eX
position in the last speech which i
delivered in the Confederate Con
gress. Mr.. Seddon resigned the De
partment of War the very next day.
AS chairman of special cohmittee
of the Confederate Congress, organ
lied at my own instance, for the pur-
pose of inquiring into cases Of illegal
imprisonme ent, / obtained from the
superintendent of the prison-house
in Richmond, under the official sane
llOu VI tuc 1SCp Cpai b'nChSO VI " % ASSSi';
u grim and shocking catalogue OF
several hundred prisoners then in
confinement therein, not one of whom
was charged with anything but sus
pected political infidelity, and this,
too, not upon oath in single in
stance. Before could take proper
steps to procure the discharge of
these unhappy men, the second sus-
pension of the wit of liberty occur
red, and i presume that such OF them
as did not die in Jail remained there
until the fall of Richmond in the
hands of the Federal forces.
1t is a notorious and undeniable
fact, that Mr.. Seddon, as the incum-
bent of the War Department. didhac-
tually interfere, in the most rude aud
unfeeling manner, to prevent the pas
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