The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-01-14
WHO Is RESPONSIBLE?

| ~ WOuAu O0 WCA ~ SAO koooAOAo 0AN -
sentiments kindled during the war could
subdued.. It would be we'll for the country
the time had already come when nothin
should be remembered of that mournful col
f1ct but the deeds of the heroes who, o
either side, illustrated its history. The da
will surely come when the fame of the me
whose acts shed glory on the cause OF -
conquerers, and the fame Of the men VIII
brought senown to the cause of the van
pushed will be the common heritage OF a.
Americans. Whether that day is close Q
hand, or whether it is to be deferred to dis
tant future, is to be proved by the name
in which the country treats Mr.. Blaine
attempt to stimulate to renewed activity tn
sectional antagonisms and the partisan pref
dices which it is the first and the highest dut!
of the statesman to discourage and repress
If party leader can gain popularity snd
strengthen his position as candidate for the
Presidency by the reiteration of charges like
those which Mr.. Blaine brought against Mr..
Davis, and by implication against the people
of the South, it will be an indication that the
North still regards its success not as guar
antee of a permanent union Of the States, Blu.
as conquest Of people who are still to be
considered as enemies. Mr.. Blaine can not
be surprised that charges like these are bit
teriy resented.
No impartial man will condemn the people
of the South, or their representatives in Con-
gress, for manifesting, by the warmth and en-
phasis Of their denials, their profound sense
of the injustice which is practiced toward
them in this revival of accusations which
they know to be false, and which they believe
to bs made with a full knowledge of their
falsity. To defend MI. LAWS agains. the
charge that he ordered or connived at the ill.,
treatment of Federal prisoners would be
superhuous. The attempt to connect him
coiled with damaging effect upon its authors,
and the effort to show that he was guilty of
any conduct such as that attributed to him by
Mr.. Blaine was so conspicuously absurd that
it was at once abandoned.
But since Mr. Blaine insists on reviving
the policy of elimination, it is time to show
that for what he calls the horrors of Ander-
'onville," not the Confederate Government,
but the Federal Government, which he then
and the President whom he is now
rying to supersede, are mainly responsible.
4 men died of starvation at Andersonville it
vas because the Confederacy, harried by Fed
'ral armies, devastated by Sherman and Sheri-
lan-its cities burned by one. its hsrvests
rodden down and destroyed by the other
vas unable to furnish food even to its own
oldiers. The Federal prisoners at Anderson
lille were no nearer to starvation than the
women and children of Atlanta and Columbia
fter the fiery track of Sherman army had been
lrawn across Georgia and the Carolinas, or
han the inhabitants of the Shenandoah VAL
ey, after Sheridan had consigned their har-
'ssts to the flames, or than the barefooted
oldiers of Early and of Hood, when they
truggled through that dreadful winter which
losed the war. If men died for want of
medicines at Andersonville, it was because
he Federal Government, in violation of the
ustoms of civilized nations and of the claims
# humanity, made medicines contraband of
var so that some of the most necessary
emedies were worth more than their weigh. |
q gold. If prisoners were taken to
and strictly guarded there,
was because the Federal Government
rganized expeditions for thsir release like
hat Of Dahlgren against Richmond, with |
riders to burn and pillage and destroy. In
hort, the suffsrings Of Federal prisoners in
he South were the necessary consequence Of
he persistent refusal of the Federal authori- |
les to continue the exchange, and of series
f measures and of acts on the part of the
federal Government such as civilization has
and civilized nations have, for
wo hundred years, renowned. 1t is grim |
aockery for Republican leader to boast OF |
be moderation of the Republican party,
'hen the history of that party shows that
n the conduct of the war against the
outh it exhibited a ferocity unpar-
lleled in modern warfare, and a
hameless disregard of the rules and Gus
oms which enlightened nations have hith-
rto observed. Henry Nv sent medicines and
BOD to the sick and starving people Of Paris
'hen he was besieging their city. The Re-
ublican party made food and medicines con-
raband Of war. All Europe, and even Eng
and herself, denounced Mariborough's cana
align of fire and sword in the Palatinate
meridian coolly reports the burning of 1900
arms and mills in the Shenandoah Valley
nd Sherman announces the destruction of
ltlanta as one of the main points of his plan.
let Mr.. Blaine read the history OF
he war again, and then deliver another
arangue on the "horrors of Andersonville,
nd the rights of humanity. Let him read
be history of the war again, and then declare
n his honor whether Mr.. Davis, upon whose