Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-11-05
0bIo oS5tate,s'rll.rart,
'Fhe Exchn nnge of Prisoners.

The Richmond Examiner has an able arti-
Gle concerning the exchange OF prisoners
during the war. ltsays: h' -.
"Our thoughts have been brought back
to this painful and irritating topic by Cen
eral Butler, who, it seems, has a standing
quarrel with General Granton hissubject
in which, however, lie meets but scant SYM
pathy from the public. Into this contro-
versy it is not our present business to en-
ter. Non nos tGntdS cOD.pOnereS Mes. LeaV-
lug General Grant to encounter all along
the wrath of this fierce champion, once so
securely bottled up not a hundred miles
| from hence, this ingenious inventor OF cap
turing fortresses by marine conclusion,
and this ayant courier of the coming i'm
peachment,' we merely make one or two
remarks, which are sufficiently obvious
from General Buffers harangue. If he is
| to be believed, and belief in him constitutes
the latest Radical faith and persuasion
then the South is guiltless in this matter.
Butler, the aratar of the loyal millions,
tells us that he wanted to exchange, but
was peremptorily forbidden by superior
authority. This clears our skirts. The
| Confederacy was ready, and General But
| Ter was ready; but his unfortunate luck
prevailed, and he was bottled up again inst
| as he was about to issue forth, for the first
tiuIe in his life, in the guise of humanity.
Gen. Grant, startled and surprised at his
coming to the front IN such a questionable
guise, might well cry out Come in any
other shape but that Secondly, Butler
states that. as a good officer, he, yielding
ready obedience to his superior, wrote an
argument Extensively put to the Confeder-
| ate Commissioners so that they should
stop all further offers of exchange
| al hn, l,a hot a mn la1
| The exchange was to be stopped, and an
offensive argument written so as to stop
all further Oifers'-no matter how fair
from the Southern Government 1t seems
to have bsen feared, according to Gen. But
| Ter, that if the negotiations went on court
| eously the COnfederates would make some
new proposition so liberal in its terms that
every man at the North would cry shame il
it were not accepted; and, accordingly, an
| insulting dispatch was semitic close the bu-
siness and yet throw on the Richmond au-
thorities the OIuls Of the failure. The in
genuity OF this proceeding does not atone
for its questionable morality. The poor
fellows yet surviving. who fingered so long
at AndersonYlle, on the one side, and Ell
mira on the other, will hardly feel called
upon to admire the subtle intellect of the
lawyer hero who so cOOlly payed them as
the mere pawns in game where life and
death were the fOrfeits. Strange to say
that General Butler appears entirely uu-
conscious of the fact that to leopard the
lives and comfort of ninety thousand mer
of both armies, contrary to his deliberate
convictions, was an atrOcious crime. liz
does not see this, but tells us with actual
exultation and relish that he prosttuted hi'
pen to SO insincere service. Such are thu
morals of the new Radical leader, aud such
is the new civilization which we are eX'
pected to admire and initiate"