Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-02-23
JeR. Davis Letter.

| OF Mr.. Garfield of responsibility for the
Andersonville atrocities, and has written
long letter 10 exculpaie himself. which.
II is safe to say, his friends by this time
are wishing be never had written. His
whole letter is made mp ofmiserable quib-
bic and defence. He devotes its contents
to Mr.. Blaine, who only made charges.
He gives no attention to Mr. Garfield,
who prored the charges by Confederate
testimony The burden of these charg 8
was the fact that inhuman atrocItaes were
perpctratcd at Andersonville under his
sanction, knowledge and approval and
that he promoted the man Ult0 foerpetrated
/ them to a station where he could have in
creased opportunities for cruelty. This
damning charge he does not meet; there
Is nothing in his letter disproving the An.
dersonville crueltles. Every fact remains
unconlroverted. The letter is not even
creditable to his own intelligence or to
his estimate Of the intelligence of his own
people. He begins with vehement de-
NAL OF the fact that there were any afro
cities Before he is halt through he is
seeking to break the force of the charge
with wretched bubble; and he closes
with the affirmation that he is not re-
spon.ible for them This is ingenious
even for jeff Davis, but the sophistry
will not avail him. 1t is altogether too
transparent. lie himself in denying the
atrocities has admitted them, and the fact
of his personal responsibility for them he
has not met at all Against his aflirma-
ton stand The official Confederate records,
cited by Mr. Garfield, to which he makes
no allusion whatever. His own orders
and Endorsements and letters give the lie
direct TO his letter.
The quirk with which Jefferson Davis
sesks to shift the responsibility for these
atrocities is the same that Ben Hill used,
and which has been the convenient apol-
ogy of Southern politicians and the South
ern press for some time past, namely, that
Grant and Lincoln were responsible in re-
fusng to exchange prisoners This bubble
was met by Mr.. Garfield, and completely
refuted with two great facts. First, the
Confederate authorities refused TO recog-
nize the colored Union soldiers as soldiers
at all They held and treated them as
slares and the officers of the colored
troops were regarded as felons, to be pun
ished with death when taken In the Sec
ond place, when they made the PROPOSE
ton to exchange, they held between 70, 900
and $4,000 Of our captive soldiers, who
had already been reduced to skeletons by
starvation and inhu,nan barbarity OF treat
ment They had brought them 10 such q
dreadful condition that they never could
re. enter the service again. The most they
could do would be to crawl home, many
10 die. These wrecks of men they sought
to exchange for an equal number of their
own prisoners, who were in good health,
who were robust and well fed, and who
were able to return to the ranks again i'm
media,ely and do as much rebel service as
ever. They made this proposition at a
time when the Southern Confedcracy was
lettering 10 its fall. 1t was in the very
throes Of dissolution. BY this exchange
they would have been relieved of $4,000
skeletons and human wrecks, and added
to their army 1000 fresh, strong troops,
with which they might have repaired their
falling fortunes, and pc. haps have event
ually triumphed At least they would
have been able 10 protract the war and
entail fresh miseries and the loss
81 tens of thousands of lives upon the
country. And all this time they refused
to give up any colorcd soldiers as
prisoners Of war These were either
maSsacred or reduced to slavery. JeiT s
wretched bubble will not hold. Its alb
surdity in Ben Hills case was too thor
oughly ventilated and exposed by Mr.
Garfield to be of any service TO Jefferson
Davis. He stands now where he stood
before he wrote his lctter-ihe author Of
the ADdersonvillc atrocities, and proved
AS such by the official records of the Con
felerate Government, which he docs not
pretend to deny, and to not one of which
does he make any allusion.
That Jefferson Davis knows he was the
author of these atrocities Is manifest from
| the whole tone of his lettr. His hatred
of the North has not abated a whit in
| malignity. He scouts the amnesty which
| the Confederate members OF the House
| and the Northern dough-iaces seek To
| thrust upon him. He follows in the
wake of 'ioomhs, and taun,s tho Northern
| people in the following impudcnt Ian
| cuage: 1.-The indictment was finally
| Quashed on no application of mine, nor
| have ever evadCd or avoided trial upon
/ any charge the General Government mi ght
| choose To bring against me, and have no
| view OF the future which makes 1t deSira-
| bic 10 me to be included in an amnesty
! bill" Notwithstanding this insulting
! declaration, there Is no reason to hope
! that his Confederate friends Will not n
| tinue To demand that he shall be am
nestled. and that the Northern dough-
| faces will not continue TO get down on
! their knees aud beg him to pardon them
and come back to the Senate. 1t is too
/ late now His own letter has settled the
case II will not help him in the North
| with Union men. 1t is full of embarrasS-
ment for southern men, and places them
in position more awNwsrd tian ever. In
the hands OF Mr. Blaine snd Nj Garfield
it is more dangerous Weapon even than