Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-06-22

prison. withsat trial and without hanging
his body on that sour apple tree, the Re-
publican press SO often boasted was pre-
pared for him, has renewed the charge
against DAVIS of inhuman treatment of
Federal prisoners of war, and the more
silly of the newspaper press of that party,
including the Journal of this city, have
dished up these horrors In every shape and
torn Imaginable. h91ks d5 ,hi
From a source which the Negro Suffrage
sheets must admit to be responsible, for 1t
comes from one of their ablest stump-ora-
tor9 these oQtragesa are chargeable to BEN.
F. BUTLER, EDWIN NJ. STANTON and other
leading Republicans, who refused to ex7
change prisoners when ordered to so to do.
fkho Wing, as they did. from the deVastated
condition of the South, they had no food
even for their soldiers in the field. The men
who prevented this exchange had made
4 the most common medicines 5sof abso-
flutely necessary for the sick soldiers in
prison, articles contraband of war, and be-
cause the South refused to treat GEN. BUT
LER as a man entitled to respect, the SOL
diers of the Eederaf army, when taken pris-
ing and medicine-thus the innocent being
made to suffer for the guilty. :
When General BUTLER was brought into
Ohio last fall, to make speeches, he endeay-
ored to throw on General GRANT the odium
Justly due to those whose efiminal conduct
doomed the Union soldiers to starve or die
of disease, without food or medicine to, al
lay their tortures. $40 =
Mr.. FRED. HAssAuREK, of Cincinnati, late
Minister to Ecquador, and the principal
stump orator of the late Negro Suffrage
Convention in this city, feelingly alive
to BUFFERS ISLANDERS, wrote and pub
lished in the .Holksblatt OF Cincinnati, of
which he is the editor, the articles which
we give below: s-
Iuintroducing this, the Cincinnati Com
n,ercial of October 18th of last year, says:
"General Buffers share in the responsi-
bility OF preventing the exchange of pris-
oners during the war with the Southern
rebels, under the false pretense of desire
/ TO protect negro soldiers, is the subject of
an editorial article in yesterdays Tolks-
| blatt q translation of which appears in
another column. In addition to that which
is documentary in this matter. Mr.. Has
saurek, the editor of the Volksbldtt, has
personal knowledge of that whereof he
writes, having visited james River, while
Butler was in command, with credentials
from President Lincoln, to obtain the re-
lease of his brother, Colonel Markbreit.
then suffering the horrors of imprisonment
| in the dungeon of Libby" @tt fffB
From the Volksblatt. Oct. 1s, 1861
THE EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS AND GEN.
= :. ERAL BUTLER.
| General Butler, of Big Bethel and Fort
Fisher notoriety, in his speech at Hamilton.
OHIO, again attempted to make Gen. Grant
responsible for the failure to effect timely
exchange of our prisoners. General But
| ler evidently intended to kill two birds
! with one stone. In the first place, it is an
easy task to attack General Grant, whose
high official position prevents him from en-
terIng upon newspaper controversy. 1t
is not for the General of the United States
army to disc uss in public prints personal
question with General Butler. Hence But
Ter may VI n ure to publish any one-sided
assertion or MISREPRESENTATION without run
ming the risk of reply. He may play the
game of shooting without being shot at
u very comfortable and safe display OF the
well-know q heroism of the Knight of Fort
Fisher.
| Besides, by this and other attacks on
General Grant. the magnanimous Butler
expects to attain still another object. But
Her (the astute Thersites of the Union par
ty, who we trust VIII soon meet with his
Achilles), is a candidate for the Presiden-
cy. Itis his interest to impair the popu
larity OF other candidates as much as pos
sible, and, at the same time. to keep him
self nrominoatlg before the public, by
tcreating sensation from Time tfrne--
And now it happens that General Grant
has been named quite frequently as a
Union candidate for the Presidency. Grant
might become dangerous to- Butler Hence
the latter seeks an opportunity to assail
General Grant, whose position and the con-
siderations due to it have rendered him de-
fenseless against such attacks AN officer
who, by the rules of official propriety, is
forbidden to explain or to reply, maybe
attacked with much greater safety than
Fort Fisher with its ugly guns and its gar
rison. ksE Es
We shall not express an opinion on the
exchange question in general. But with
reference to that branch of 1T in the settle
ment of which one of the publishers of
this paper was personally concerned, we
are prepared to take issue with General
Butler, and to support our statements by
official documents and witnesses of unim-
| peachable veracity. We refer to that un-
fortunate class of prisoners Aof' war
who were kept in close confinement or
in irons, either as hostages, or for purposes
of retaliation, or for other reasons. These
martyrs at ,Andersonvilles or Salisbury.
And that their sufferings lasted four or
five months longer than would have been
necessary, must be ascribed to the the arbi-
| trary Interference, reckless vanity, arro-
gance, and stubbornness of General But
Ter. This allegation we are prepared to
prove. .ss-Ei sst o. s5iz .4.-fT
But before presenting the facts we must
refer to another erroneous statement of Mr.
| Butler. Mr.. Butler seems to have worked
| himself into the belief that he was Com
missioner of Exchange. This is not so.
No such appointment had ever been con.1
ferred on General Butler. The real Com
missioner of Exchange was Major General
Z. A. Hitchcock, to whom, under the d.
rection of the War Department, this part
of the service had been confided. Colonel
| (noW General) Mulford was under his or
ders, rs "Assistent Agent of Exchange
| When .at first owing to some questions
which had arisen after the capture of
Vicksburg) the exchange OF prisoners had
come to dead lock, Mr.. Butler thought
that this would be good chance to bring
/ himself prominently before the public.
His friends, therefore, overran the Presi
dent and the War Department, and urged
| that General Butler had plan by which
exchanges might be resumed if he were
allowed to make the experiment.
To give Butler the opor tunity he asked
for, Mr.. Stanton sent for General Hitch
cock, and asked him whether he had any
objection to granting General Butler the
authority to make his experiment. GEN
eral Hitchcock replied that if General But
Ter thought he could accomplish more, he
| (Hitchcock) was willing to resign. Mr..
stanton replied that the Government did
not wish Mr.. Hitcheock's resignation. on
the contrary. that it was the intention that
i General Hitchcock should remain at the
head of the Bureau of Exchange. The
Government merely intended to give Mr.
Butler the opportunities so persistently
u l. Sc