The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1876-02-25
eMisreHantnus.
TO THE SURVIVORS OF REBEL PRIS-
ON PENS.

On PENS.
Jefferson Davis, in letter dated New
Orleans. Louisiana, January 20, 1876,
and addressed to the Honorable James
Lyons, Petersburg, Virginia, makes a
defiant denial of the arraignment made
by the Honorable James G. Blaine, of
Maine, and by General James A. Gar
field, of Ohio, of his direct and personal
responsibility for the cruel treatment of
the Union soldiers who were prisoners of
war to the Confederacy of which Mr..
Davis was President. He goes further,
and, like Mr.. Benjamin y. Hill, Repre-
sentative in the Forty-fourth Congress,
from Georgia, who was also a member of
the Confederate States Senate, from the
the same State, the rebel ex President
denies altogether that unnecessary suf-
fering ensued among, or unjustifiable
harshness or cruelty was practiced
against, those of our soldiers who were
so unfortunate as to be prisoners within
the pens of Andersonville, Florence,
Salisbury, Belle Isle, and Tyler, or in
the tobacco warehouses of Libby and
Castle Thunder. The denial is bold
and sweeping one. Its audacity rises to
sublImity. 1t not only denies but ac-
cuses. The Union is assailed as having,
through its officials and policy, treated
the Confederate prisoners in its hands as
bad or worse than our men were used at
Andersonville, Belle Isle, and elsewhere.
1t is also charged with causing the suf-
ferings of the latter by the policy it pur-
sued of refusing to exchange.
Now, as to one part of Mr.. Jefferson
Davis denial and counter-accusation,
there is a direct and unassailable method
of obtaining evidence. The survivors
of the rebel prison pens still remain
among US. Those of Andersonville
formed an association which is still in
existence. We call upon every man
who was captured and confined by the
Confederates during the civil war for
slavery and disunion to at once give to
the public brief and direct account of
his personal experiences. Let each man
write to the nearest Republican paper a
simple statement of his name, regiment,
rank, date of capture, length of confine-
ment, when exchanged, the treatment
he himself received as to food, shelter,
medical care, &C., as well as to the action
Of those in charge. Avoid all rhetoric,
denounce no one, give as far as practi-
cable the names of Confederate officers,
&C., in command; also, any special in
stances as to others known to the sur
vivors, the details of which are readily
subs.antiable.
With regard to the treatment of rebel
prisoners in the northern entrepots,
there is as direct method of obtaining
reliable testimony. Officers who were
in command of such prisons are still
living, as are also soldiers who were
stationed thereat. Their evidence will
be of value. In every place where such
prisoners existed local sanitary and
Christian associations existed, the mem-
bers of which busted themselves in car
ing for the sick and wounded, and in
visiting the prisons and camps. Repu-
table citizens at Elmira, Rock Island,
Chicago, Columbus, and elsewhere know
the facts. Let them give their testimony.
The honor of ones country should be
sacred. We who fought for liberty and
union surely have as vital an interest in
that honor as the men who compelled
us to fight by their mad attempt to per
petuate slavery and destroy the Union.
Let Us have the facts.
Bear in mind that the object of such
communications is not partisan but his
torical. Two civilizations or systems of
government have been and still are on
trial. This question of Andersonville
and its attendant horrors belong to the
trial. The case has been reopened, and
the verdict once solemnly rendered is
now challenged. A cloud of witnesses
are still living. Let them give the facts
Communications can also be sent to the
Office of the Republic, Washington, D.
c., if writers do not desire to send to
their county or other journals. Let
every man respond, and at once. The
good name of the Union is sought to be
assailed, and feculent treason seeks
historical vindication by these audacious
falsehoods.