The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-05-25
The Torture Of Jefferson Davis.

ceived during his incarceration in Fortress
Monroe has been such as to break down his
constitution, and to put him, after twelve
months OF protracted suffering, in imminent
peril of death.
Upon the recommendation of the Secretary Of
the Treasury, the President of the United States
recently ordered the Post Surgeon at Fortress
Monroe to make a careful and thorough report
upon che condition of Mr.. Davis health That
report has been made, and is now published. It
cannot be read by any honorable and right
minded American, no matter what his sectional
feelings or his political opinions may be, with
out q siCken1ng sensation of shame for his coun-
try, and burning flush of indignation against
the persons who have prostituted their, official
positions to infict upon the American name an
inetlaceable brand of disgrace by the want On
and wicked torture of an invalid lying a helpless
prisoner in the strongest fortress in the Union.
The report of Post Surgeon Cooper is all the
more damning that 1t is perfectly calm and tor
NAL in tone, and that 1t deals only with the
strictly medical aspect of the investigation which
its author was ordered to make. We hear
nothing, for example, from Surgeon Cooper of
the stories which have been repeated over and
over again, in all varieties of tone, but with q
singular consistency in the main details by cor
respondents OF all shades OF opinion, in regard
to the petty insults heaped upon Jefferson Davis
in the routine OF his daily life The refusal, by
express military orders, OF the common courte.
sizes and sim pest decencies of life to man who
for four years, welded the resources of eleven
belligerent states against the whole power of
the Union, while 1t would be unspeakatly dis
graceful to the authorities perpetrating it, might
be OF very little consequence either to the health
or the spirits of the captive at whom it was
aimed. man of strong and selGsustained
character might be annoyed, indeed, at finding
himself in the hands OF prosecutors so paltrv
but they would scarcely be able to disturb his
digestion or his sleep.
The American people, should these stories
prove to be true, will have a serious account to
settle with the functionarles who could thus
misrepresent and belittle them in the ewes of
Chrlstendom and OF history. But the crying
result of Surgeon Cooper's report, the result
which demands the most prompt and emphatic
expression possible of the popular indignation,
If we are not to be written down all of us ms
accOmpices in the vile transactions which it
reveals is this, that the health of Jefferson
Davis, which was notoriously poor at the time
OF his capture, has been Systematically broken
down by a cruel and deliberate perseverance, in
apply ing to him one OF the worst toItures known
to humanity.
Here are the fatal words in which the truth s
told. After describing the general prostration
OF the prisoners physique, Surgeon Cooper
says:-
''Slight noises, which scarcely perceptible to
man N L bust heath, eau q aim much pa H. the de-
scnption of the sensation being of one 1ayed and
having every sentlent nerve exposed to the waves
Of sound. Want OF sleep has been great and almost
the principal cause of his nervous eXcitabIlty This
has been produced by the tramp of the creakIng
boots OF the sentnels on post round the prison
aud the reheval OF the guard at the expiration of
Every two hours, which almost invariably wakens
HIM. Prisoner Davis states that he has scarcely
time since his confinement Means have been taken,
by placing mating on the floors tor the sentinel to
walk on, to alleviate this source of disturbance, but
with only partial success HIS vita condition is low,
and he has but little recuperat1ve orce Should he
BE- attacked by any OF the severe forms of disease
which the tde-water region Oh Virginia is subject,
l. with reason, fear for the Iosut,o
In very minute and horrible treatise on the
to1tures practised by the Inquisition, an Italian
writer tells us that certain Grand lnquisitor
at Rome, famous for his skill at iangllng Gods
work in the human body, pronounced this spe.
clal fo1m OF torment the torment by insomnia
to be 1.-The most exquisite and victorious of ali
he had ever essayed." No picture in all that
oread gallery of imperial madness and misery
which SuetOnius has bequeathed to us, is so
fearful as his portralture OF Callgula, roaming
through the vast halls of the palace of the
Caesars, night after night, with blood-snot
eyes, sleepless, and driven on by sleeplessness
TO insanity.
And in what light are we, this triumphant
American people OF the nineteenth century, to
appear before posterity weighted with the
damniDg image of our most Conspicuous enemy
thus tied by us to tae stake and tortured by u.s.
with worse than lr dian tortures, unto death?
We make, and seek to make, no party issues
with any man OF men on this matter. 1t Is the
honor, the humanity, the Christianity the civi-
involved. Since the eloquent pen of Mr.. Glad
stone, near score OF years ago, concentrated
the Indignation OF the civilized world upon the
barbarous treatment inflicted by the Bourbon
rulers of Naples upon Baron Poerio and his
tellow-captives, there has been no such reVe
laton as this of the brutality to which men
may be tempted by political passion; and 1t
is intolerable that the scandals of Ischia
and San Elmo should be paralleled in the
sacred name OF liberty, within the walls
OF Fortress Monroe We abstain purposely
from discussing the nature and extent of the
political ofenses for which Jefferson Davis
has thus been made to suffer. For we are un.
willing to believe that any man can be found,
even In the ranks OF the most extreme OF the
Radical party, who would dare import such
discussion into the case. Thaddeus Stevens
could shock the moral sense OF mankind by I
demanding the ''penitenhary OF help for mil
lions OF his fellow count-ymen; but even Thad-
deus Stevens, we prefer to think, would shrink !
from condensing that vast and inclusive
anathema into practical and downright torture
OF a single human being When Lafayette was
suffering the extremes o cruelty IN the Austrian
dungeons OF OlmutZ, Edmund Burke, trans
ported by blind rage against the French Re-
voluhon, could respond 20 an appeal in behalf
OF the injured and high-souled victim by eX-
claiming in his place in Parliament 81 would
not debase my humanity by supporting an ap-
plication in behalf OF such a horrd rulfan ~
But is ii for moment to be supposed that the
most ianatical member OF an American Congress,
which assumes TO itself a special philanthropy,
and sits in the year 1866, can be found to initiate
The savage blgotry of an eXasperated British
TOY yalist in the year 1884?
II the members OF the Congressional majority
at WASHINGTON are not weaker and more wicked
men than the sternest of their political oppo.
nents would willingly believe them to be, they
will compel prompt exposure of the authors
OF This shameful thing, prompt exposure, and
a punishment as prompt The President has
bfo 1utu IN har Foot nil