The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-09-04
Grant AND THE EXCHANGE QUESTION


than a weak answer But at length few OF
them. holder OF with different views of dis
erection, laid hold of it with the boastful
declaration that they would disarm it OF all
its dangerous points. But they were impaled
on these very points, and they are now tioun-
deripp like SO many sharks with hooks in
their outlets.
One of the papers which undertook this
fatal task is the Springfield Republican. 1t
is compelled to admit, in the outset that
Gen. Grant was responsible for the suffering
and mortality, in 1854, among the Federal
prisoners at Andersonville and Belle Isle for
official evidence, such as would be conclusive
before the highest and most scrupulous
tribunal, clearly shows that it was in
General Grants power to empty those
prisons in full time to prevent
the melancholy scenes which ensued This
he could have done in two ways-frst, by
accepting the Confederate proposit on to
exchange man for man, paroling the excess on
either side; second, by providing timely and
adequate transportation for sick and wounded
prisoners which the Confederate authorities
offered to the United States government with
out equivalents in return. He also refused
to notice Commissioner Guilds offer to receive
surgeons, food, clothing and medicine from
the federal lines to be used exclusively for the
benefit of federal prisoners. His reason for
this course was stated by himself. in an Off
cial letter written in the early part Of 1864,
thus:
I f-1u
| Hitchcock. IL is hard on our men held in South
erD prisons not to exchange them, but IL Is human
iiy those left in the ranks to fight our battles.
Every man released on parole or otherwise be-
comes az active soldier against at once, either
| directly or indirectly. II we commence system
| of exchange which liberates all prisoners taken,
we will have TO fight on until the South is exter-
| minated. Ii we hold those caught they amount to
no more than dead men. At this particular time,
| 10 release all rebel prisoners North would insure
shermsn's defeat and would compromise our
safety here.
t---I-o. l--:-;>-. GAs. Grant which nm
| deniably led to the death, by starvation and
sickness, of several thousand Federal prison
ers-the Radical papers have said not less
| than thirteen thousand at Andersonville
alone-the Springfield Republican advances
defense, the miserable lameness of which
may be judged by the following paragraph:
1t was a great responsibility that Gen. Grant
then took. The decision to which he came was
one that could not but be invldious. and any COM
| mander less resoute and devoted would have
| shrank from il. IL was, and Is, fully justified by
the highest considerations Of the case; but from
the standpoint OF the prisoners themselves II could
hardly tail 10 seem cruel and unjust. There are
some duties that are harsh. There are acts of
high necessity that involve great sacrifices to
many deserving persons. War IS cruel business
at best and sometimes even its greatest hsrdships
| han To he To m t.
The Republican may well say that, in COM
ing to this decision, Gen. Grant took great
responsibility, for it was without precedent in
the history of civilized nations. The act,
logically followed out on both sides, would
have introduced into the contest all the need.
less cruelties and aggravations of savage war.
fare. The only light in which the Republican
pretends to present it for justification is that
of "high necessity" as military expedient
and it is precisely in this light that it is seer
to be most atrocious. For in repudiating the
cartel of exchange, an institution established
by the mutual consent of civilized nations t.
mitigate the horrors of war, Gen. Gram
assumed that the Confederate enemy would
persistently adhere to the humane observance
OF code which he had peremptorily dis
carded. His plea of humanity to thos,
left in the ranks" is totally fallacious, mas
much as an equal exchange would not hav,
changed the relative numbers of the opposing
armies. The whole merit of the expedient
if it had any, could have consisted in nothing
else than the calculation that the Confed
crate authorities would sacrifice militar
| IL l. IL r .osI
reversing the course of the federal comman
der; that they would, indeed, permit the Con
federacy to be clogged and exhausted by al
accumulation of prisoners, and exposed t
fatal disaster in the field, rather than violat
usages of war which the other belligerent ha'
deliberately blown to the winds. In thi
Gen. Grant paid singular tribute to the su
perior civilization and humanity of his enemy
But, even as an embodiment of a heartles
military expediency, he had no warrant i
the circumst noes for deciding as he did
For the moment he revealed the purpose
treat his own prisoners as g no more tina
dead men, and to embarrass the Confedel
acy with over crowded prison camps, the Cor
federate authorities had a perfect right to tres
their prisoners as "no more than dead men,
and to disembarrass themselves in the mat
ter of guarding and feeding prisoners in an
manner which they might deem fit
Gen. Grant, in Short when he repudiate
for the purpose indicated the cartel of e,
change, trampled upon the only institution
of civilized warfare which guarantees mere
| to caysta-eS- e-vrr,iv-s--ft-vus rautunUunr
| proclaiming emo quarter" and it is onl
strange that Andersonville did not illustrat
its deadly significance to a still more terribl
, extent The death of prisoners for whicl
! that unfortunate scapegoat, Wirz, was hanged
was decreed by Grant. wirz, at the wors
was only Grants executioner.
We have dwelt thus upon this theme, in ordt
D to present it in an aspect in which the pres
0 has generally omitted to view it, but whic
S is by far the most important of ALL whetht
T looked at from an ethical or merely militar
y stand point. There can be no doubt, upon
! thorough review of General Grants condut