New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-01-16

inspect tn0 AnOer6Onv1II0 pr,Bsrx. which
was by Adjutant General Cooper sunn itted
tina: the condition Of that prison vas.u re.
prosch to the Corfederacy, 60 ,ha1 tn
knowledge Of it's horrors had thus neem
brought home to the political family Of
jefferson Davis But the answer to Cojumsl
Chambers report was the issuing Of sn or
der few days afterward promoting General
Winder to be commissary general Of al
prisons and prisoners throughout the Con-
federacy, and when the coEmandine.
general OF the army subsequently removed
Winder, Davis revoked the orae, Of "a
mOval, aud Endorsed on it that Il was en-
tlrely upcalIed for. The British arm Y hal
lost in ten Of the great battles oS Napoie conn
war, including Waterloo, not qui,e 1900
men; but this Major General Winder, with
in his terrible pit Of death, from April, 1854.
to April. 1865, pitched into the awful .renek
dead bodies Of his prisoners to the number
of Il, GA
As to Mr.. Hill's comparison of the atroci-
ties of Elmira and Andersonvile he chal-
lenged any Democratic member from thu
neighhorhoo1 of Eimira, Camp Douglas or
Folt Delaware, to rise and say that any
inhumanity had been praeticed there. No
Democrat doing so, he denounced The assee-
ton as feariully and awfuliy untrue
Mr.. Platt read q telegram received BY
him from +. +. Tracy, late commander Of
the military post of Eimira, stating that The
facts justified him (Platt) yesterday N hs
denial of inhumanity or neglect 10 the treat
ment OF prisoners at Elmira.
MIR Walker rose on the Democratic sido
of the House, and, stating that he lived
within seventeen miles Of EIuira, iudnrsed
the statements in the telegram. fApl lAuse
on Republican eide.
Mr.. Hill disclaimed any purpose N his
remarks yesterday of charging inhaUlanity
on anybody about Elmira or anywhere else,
He had only read Yesterday the letter IRON
the New York World as evidence Of cruel
ties inseparab!e from prison lite. and he had
wound up the statement by saying that
official records showed the relative NOR
tally to be greater among Southern prison
ers at the North than among Nor thern
prisoners at the South.
A mem ber-DO you charge that the NOR
tally among the Confederate prisoners
at the North was owing to cruelty!
Mr.. Hill do not undertake 10 say 10
what the mortality on either side of tho
line was attributable. / say tina. it was
from prison lite anywhere, and / intended
my point to be against striving 70 work mp
these horrors ofthe past, and to keep a1ives
strife which ought to be buried. ZAP
Mr.. Garfield remarked that, even on tho
testimony of the anonymous letter read yes
terday BY Hill, the post of Elmira had been
be found in the State OF New York. He
called attention to the fact that the place in
which Confederate prisoners who had died
at Eimira were buried had heen incl0eed
and cared for by an administration which
had been characterized by the gentleman
from Georgia as malignant, fer ocious, con-
s.itution- batting and South-hatipg.
L. IL
of decorating the graves in the South the
Southern people united with the Northern
soldiers, and decorated in harmonious &C.
cord the graves Of the fallen federa]s and
fallen Confederates, and it was beca use Of
that glorious feeling that he protested
against the renewal of such horrors. TAp-
plause
here! [Chorus from Democratic members:
Blaine! Blaine. Blaine"]
Mr.. Garfield said he wished that some
fra:erDal feeling cOuld follow the forty
manned Union soldiers who had recently
lost their places about the House.
A discussion ensued on that point. which
developed the statement on the one side,
that whereas out of $50 subordinate posi-
tons in the last House. Onlv eighteen
were filed by Union soldiers. There were,
ont of eighty five subordinate positions in
the present House, twenty-six filed by
UDion soldiers, and the statement on the
other side that in the House postofEce nine
CHion soldiers had been dismissed, and
their places d!led by nine Confederate SOL
diers.
Mr.. Garfield, passing from that point,
proceeded to discuss the question of the ex-
change OF prisoners, TO relate it's history,
anG to detail the causes for the interruption
of exchange. He showed thai the central
point of the difficulty was in the determine
ton of the Confederate government and
people to exclude from the common rules
of war the officers and men of the negro
regiments. while, on the other hand, the
government of the Union had committed
itself to declare that the negro was man
and not chattel. and that, being man, he
had right to help fight for the Union, and
being soldier. the government was bound
to see TO it that he was treated like
soldier. He also quoted a passage from .
from Major Ould, Confeder-
ate agent of exchange, TO G neral Winder,
to the effect that the arrangement: for ex-
change worked largely in their favor, q
they got lid of the most miserable wretches
and received back some Of the best materi-
al he had ever seen. Commenting on that
letter, he referred to it as an exhibition,
not between par noble .trahrtm, but
between par diabol4m. Tue object of
the outrageous treatment Of prisoners at
Union soldiers so that when exchanged they
be valueless. 1t seemed incontrOvertible
that the record adduced on that subject
was true, and Jefferson Davis having been
the conscious author of that terrible work
at Andersonville. the American people still
hold him unfit to be admitted among the
Legislators Of the nation.
In the course of some further remarks,
Mr.. Garfield, having refert nee to the army
and navy officers who had gone into the re-
bellion, he said that they had added to
their other crimes that Of perjury il the eye
OF the law. The word was caught at and
resented by Mr.. Tucker, who said it re-
Elected on some of the noblest men, with
whom the gentleman from Ohio might be
proud to be classed as peer. Mr. G arfeld
explained that he had merely said that :
these men were, in the eve of the law,
guilty of perjury. He himself had not made
the law or dictionary.
He concluded his speech with perora.
ton in which he thanked God for peace,
and for the fact that in the awful aame of
war slavery had been burned to death.
The West Point Academy,