Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-09-19
THE RUTLAND HERALD
Hard Run.

IN order that our readers may see to
what pass the Greeleyites have come,
for arguments, to be used, with which
to beat Grant" we give the following
item entire as it appeared in the Courier
yesterday. Libby, of Libby, and son
of the famous Libby prison, is editing a
Grant paper in Virginia. Taking the
item or argument as true-and we know
nothing in reference to its truth or falls
ity-what of it? We suppose the idea,
intended to be conveyed, is that the son
of the owner of the notorious Libby
prison pen, in Richmond, is a Grant
man. We will not insult the intelligence
of our Republican readers, by supposing,
for an instant, that they are ignorant in
reference to this famous, or rather in
famous, prison. For all that appears he
may have been loyal man. We do
not say he was, but his loyalty or dis
loyalty had nothing whatever to do with
the prison or its use. For the informa-
ton of such and so many Democrats, as
may be misled by the Curriers' para
graph, we state that this prison, prior to
and at the breaking out of the war, was
simply tobacco warehouse, owned by
man, named Libby. On the arrival of
the first installment of Federal prison.
ers, at Richmond, the Confederate
authorities, having no suitable place in
which to confne them, sequestered this
tobacco warehouse, to be used as a pris-
on. The question of Libby's loyalty or
disloyalty, whether to our or the rebel
government, was probably never consid-
cred The rebel government, at that
time certainly as well as thereafter,
would have been quite as apt to sequester
the property of true, loyal Union man,
as of a rebel. We do not think the his
tory of the war shows that the rebels
had any particular regard to the rights
of property, in any way. They most
certainly were not over scrupulOus in
caring for the property Of Union men.
If they wanted to use property, they
used it, and did not insist upon paying
for its use, in advance, especially if the
owners proclivities were anti-rebel.
They took, as we have said, this ware
house and made most Infamous prison
pen of il. 1t was known, at the time,
as Libby's tobacco warehouse; it has
since had rather unenyiable notoriety
as 'Libby's prison." But Libby, what
ever he was politically, was simply a
tobacco merchant, and had no more to
do with the use or abuse of that particu-
lar building, as a prison, than the editor
Of the Courier or any other man. His
actions, or those of his son, have or can
have no political significance whatever.
We doubt if there is a man in Vermont
that even knows his name, or whether he
was a rebel or not. He may have been
a rebel for all we know, but he had
nothing to do with the prison or the in
humane treatment Of our prisoners, dur
ing their confinement therein. We only
speak of the fact to show to how low
depths the Greeleyite organs are COM
PEELED to descend, in order to find, what
they call, arguments against the re-elec-
ton of Gen. Grant, and, also, to show
the firm reliance they, the Greeleyites,
have upon the intelligence of the Amer
lean people. We do not wonder that
sensible Democrats are becoming dis
gusted with, and are abandoning the I'M
holy alliance, made between Cincinnati
and Baltimore, when they see the kind
of argument resorted to, in order to sus-
tain Mr.. Greeley.