The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1876-01-26
MISCELLANY.
THE MNEsTY DEBATE.

We have no sympathy with that shrinking
sentimentalsm which protests against MI
Blaine's interposition in the Amnesty debate,
or his terrible philippe against JEFF. Davis
We are told by the men who propose to bury
all memories of the war in silence as mute
as the graves of Andersonville, that it is un-
wise to renew these memories. 1t is unwise
to forget them, however rich we may be in
forgivness, They are black chapter in
history, lesson in the laws of war, and ought
to live as long as the story of the Duke of
Alva. And Mr.. Blaine, as we understand it,
is only accused of having passionately declar-
ing before God that Andersonville was an in-
famous crime and that the one man most re-
sponsible for it should stand ostracised forev.
er. That man means to come back to the
United States Senate, an insult to all the true
fealty of the nation. He oiU come back il
Mr. Randall's bill is passed, and we say with
reverence to the truth that no event could hap
pen more demoralizing. 1t would make our
great war jest and by-word, the sufferings
of our prisoners jibe. We shall forget
these things. When we do, when we permit
the central figure Of the rebellion, mean as he
is, and his very lttleness is the argument for
his amnesty, 20 come into the Capitol of the
United States as he hopes to, and will should
Randall's bill become law, we all stand dis
honored.
Tuesday Mr. Benz. II. Hill, of Georgia. re-
piled to Mr.. Blaine in a defense of Anderson
vile and of jeff. Davis. Mr.. Hill was Sem
Al r.. i
capacity he offered resolution, " That every
person pretending to be a soldier or officer of
the United States, who shall be captured on
soil of the Confederate States after the list of
January, 1868, shall be presumed to have en-
tered the territory of the Confederate States
with intent to incite instruction and to abet
murder, and that unless satisfactory proof be
adduced to the contrary before the military
court before which his trial shall be had, he
shall suffer DEATH" Mr.. Blaine faced him
with that record and Mr.. Hill did not deny it.
When asked if he made that report he only
said /" / do not know, but it is very likely"
When asked whether he was the author of
that resolution he replied II really do not
recollect." This is the man who says that
Jacksonville and Confederate prisoners brutally
handled at the North.
This is the charge made by Hill of Georgia,
Democrat, and we propose to depart from the
usual editorial impersonaity to defend the
character of the North, it's soldiery and its
citizens. We visited many of the prisons in
which Confederate soldiers were held during
the war For months it was our business to
oversee the affairs Of the prison hospitals of
Camp Chase, Columbus, Johnson's Island,
Rock Island and Camp Douglas, Chicago In
these four great PRISONS Col. johnson. now
Warden of our County JAIL commanding
Rock Island, there were about %, 600 prison.
ers. Each and all of them were fully equip
ped with every medical supply borne upon the
army list, and the deatll-rate, reported in full
with name and command every week, was less
than that of our own troops in camp or garri-
son service. OF Elmira, which Mr.. Hill in
stances as bad. we cannot speak, except that
it was commanded by Gen. b. f. Tracey, now
of Brookly, a gentleman above reproach.--
Col. johnson will remember that when an ep-
idemic of small pox broke out in his prison at
Rock Island, the correspondence of the sur
geon in charge with medical headquarters at
Columbus, Ohio, was carried on by telegraph
SO urgent was the feeling that the pestilence
must be suppressed at any cost. And it was
stamped out " within three weeks.
Mr.. Hill in his defense of Andersonville
says of some testimony taken before the Com
mittee on the Conduct of the War
But the testimony is not only co parte, but
is mutilated--ingeniously mutilated, palpably
mutil;tted, most adroitly mutilated. DIR. Jones
one of the witnesses on the Wirz trial, had
been sent by the Confederate Government to
make report as to the condition of Ander-
sonville. The report had never reached the
Confederate authorities, and in the hands of
the Judge Advocate had been mntilated. Dr.
Jones had called the attention of the Court to
the fact, one Of the suppressed statements be-
| ing that homesickness and disappointment
among the prisoners had been more destruc-
tive of life than any physical cause.
The DIR. Jones alluded to is DIR. Stephen
Jones, an old man and good man, and
moreover an able scientist and lover of the
abstract truth. He was sent to Andersonville
as a Medical Inspector, because he begged
the Confederate Secretary of War to let him
go. Arriv there, he found himself helpless
| W uO anJ ehiDs ia eho way "a iotVAins anu 30
did the next best thing and devoted some
weeks to an exhaustive study Of crowd, pois-
on and starvation, of the minimum amount of
food a man may live upon, of the effect of
horrible squalor and wretchedness in produc-
ing nostalgia, other insanities and suicides,
and made report to the Confederate Govern
ment which Mr.. Hill says never reached the