The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1876-02-18
THE LETTER OF DAVIS.
From the Toledo Commercial.

| lrrOm tne Toledo commercial.
II the statements made in the recent
letter of Jefferson Davis are to be re-
lied on, he was n most humane creature.
aud none the atrocities with which he
has been charged can be laid at his door.
fall that he says be true, he is indeed a
much abused and villified man, and de-
serves the commisseration of mankind.
But the weight of the testimony seems
to be against him. The evidence of
those who are entitled to just as much
respect is against him. The testimony
OF those who were as ardent in their de-
votion to the Confederate cause, and as
relentless in their opposition to the sue
cess of the Union arms as he, is over
whelmiDgly against him.
In reply to Mr.. Davis's assertion that
the mortality of the Confederate prison.
ers in Union hands was in greater pro-
portion than that of Union soldiers in
rebel prisons, Mr.. Warren l.. Goss,
President of the National Union of An
dersohville Survivors, makes a state
ment in which he shows the total cap
lures of soldiers and citizens by the Con-
federates to have been 1SS, 145. of
these it is estimated that about one half
were actually confined in prisons. The
number of deaths occurring in prisons
was SO, 4OI, making the mortality 1884
per cent. of the number imprisoned, and
about 1888 per cent. of the entire
number captured. The Union forces
captured total of 476, 169 prisoners, of
which 327, $40 were actually confined.
OF this number there was mortality of
Is 12 per cent, while on the total num-
ber of captures the percentage was 81 3.
Mr.. Goss also shows in his statement
that according to the official report of
the Confederate Inspector of Prisons,
Lieut.. Col. ID. t. Chandler, who is
favorably indorsed by the Confederate
Assistant Secretary of War, recommen-
dations were actually made to Davis
Cabinet to replace Gen. Winder COM
mandant at Andersonville, with some
one more humane, and the only notice
taken thereof by Davis was to promote
Winder to the position of Commissary
General of all the Confederate prisons.
Let Confederate authority further tes-
tify. Mr.. Pollard, the biographer of
Davis, will take the stand.
No one for a moment will question the
statement that Pollard was as intensely
bitter and uncompromisIng as any rebel
in the entire South, and he gives very
different estimate of the character of
Davis from that which this man would
have the North believe. In his letter
Davis declares that 'the prisoners of
Andersonville cannot fail to remember
how willing | was to restore them to
their homes and to the comforts of
which they were in need" Pollard, in
his life of the rebel chieftan, relates one
instance where at Richmond ''for forty
eight hours nearly 1000 prisoners were
without mouthful of food" Pollard
claims that Commissary Northrop was
guilty of the atrocities charged to Wirz,
and was responsible for whatever lack
of food occurred among prisoners after
the spring of 1864. In regard 20 the
agency of Davis in the matter, this
Southern biographer says:
mo one ever accused him of cruelty;
but if he employed such cruel and in
competent agents as Northrop, eontinu-
ing to employ them after repeated ex-
posures of unworthiness, it is but fair
that he should suffer something of re-
sponsibility for the abuses we have des-
cribed. The President of the
Southern Confederacy is to be blamed,
not lightly, for continuing in his employ
ment such agents as Winder and North
rop, each a favorite creature, the last
extravagantly so, and both of them re-
peatedly brought to his attention as in-
competent and scandalous officers"
But here is the unkindest cut of all.
This biographer, notwithstanding every
pulsation of his heart beat in sympathy
with the rebel cause, as a historian,
charges Davis with attempting to take
revenge for Sherman and Sheridan's
method OF carrying on the war lin a
secret, eowardly, and indiscriminate
way, by promoting or countenancing
conspiracies TO burn houses and rob
banks. to fire upon transports, taking
the risk of involving innocent persons,
and to destroy, under cover of night, the
shelters of women and children" Yet
this man talks of ''the demands of truth"
the public welfare" kindly SYM
pathy," Virtue" and humanity" as
though he was not stranger alike to
their meaning and influences. Out
upon all such.