The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-09-04
The Refusal to Exchange Prisoners

RICHMOND, september 8, 1868.
To the Editors of the Dispatch:
Conference.-The Dispatch few days
ago published a letter of S. A. Meredith,
who STYLES himself % late Brigadier-General
and United States Commissioner Of Tx
change" The letter was originally pub
lished in the Buffalo Commercial advertiser.
This United States Commissioner is not
Brigadier- General Solomon A. Meredith, Of
Indiana, as the Hon. Garrett Davis, of Ken
lucky, supposed in his remarks, in the Uni
ted States Senate, upon retaliation in Janu-
ary, 1865, but Sullivan A. Meredith, for
merly of Philadelphi He is more COM
monty, and will add more aptly, known as
"Sully Meredith -; but, like a verb Of the
class intransitiue, he can only "sully"
himself. No man who knows him well
would ever get angry at anything he says
or writes. lie is such an ass. He was Uni
ted States Commissioner of Exchange once,
and lest for that reason his letter might i'm
pose upon somebody, l have determined,
notwithstanding its grossness, to reply to it.
If he had not once occupied that official
position l never would have noticed his
scurrility.
Hear him: " Another insuperable OBJ
stacle to returning exchanges was in the
matter of paroles. Mr.. Ould had some 49,
600 or 10000 which he claimed as valid.
Most if not all Of those paroles were taken
by guerillas, bushwhackers, and detached
commands in the West. No possession was
ever had, no delivery was ever made, and
no rolls were ever furnished. On the cap
ture of town by a rebel cavalry raid the
command remained long enough to take the
paroles of unarmed citizens there, and then
decamped, leaving the paroled men behind,
and forwarding the paroles to Richmond.
And the rebels had the assurance to require
the United States Government to exchange
prisoners legitimately captured IN battle
for such paroles as these"
To show how utterly untruthful this
Sully is, will give an extract from an Off
cial letter which wrote to him on Novem-
Der 81, 1868, in relation to these very pa
roles. 1t is as follows:
81 will not claim the paroles of citizens.
All the paroles which | will produce will be
those of Federal soldiers in actual service
at the time Of capture. Twill show the par
ticular locality where the parties were cap
tured, the command to which they belonged,
the command which captured them, and the
precise date of each transaction. | will
accompany the presentation with such full
and particular evidence as will enable you
to verify the truth of the case by your own
records, and the statements OF your own
officers and soldiers"
Now, whether Sully forgot the other day,
in Buffalo, that he had received such letter,
or purposely falsifed the fact, know not.
1t is, perhaps, charitable to infer that he
had forgotten, as that is habit Of his. |
recollect one case when he was acting as
United States Commissioner, in which he
failed to claim certain credits to which he
was entitled, and / took occasion to refresh
his memory. If he wishes the particulars,
and asks for them in more polite language
than he uses in his letter, will give them
to him.
Sully is scarcely more accurate in his
citation Of the other causes of the suspen-
sion of the cartel" 1t is utterly untrue
either that l made illegal declarations OF
exchange " or that all prisoners paroled
by the United States authorities were i'm
mediately returned to active duty in the
rebel army" 1t was the practice Of the
agents of exchange on both sides to declare
exchanges when equivalents were given
either in prisoners or paroles. The fifth
article of the cartel provided that each
party, upon the discharge of prisoners of
the other party, is authorized to discharge
an equal number Of their own officers and
men from parole, furnishing at the same
time to the other party a list Of their prison
ers discharged, and of their own officers and
men relieved from parole, thus enabling
each party to relieve from parole such of
their own officers and men as the party may
choose"
Whenever l delivered prisoners out of
hand, or discharged Federal troops from
their paroles, | had, under this article of
the cartel, the right to declare exchanges to
that extent and did SO declare. Never
in any one instance did 60 beyond that. l
always promptly notified the Federal agent
of the exchange. Surely had the right 70