Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-02-10

been extended to far already, and should
lead our Senators to pause before ex-
tending it further until satisfactory
proofs of repentance for the past are
furnished It is well to call to mind,
at this time, that Andersonville was
not PRISON, but a tract Of forest of
about twenty acres, cleared off and en-
closed as a stockade without the least
shelter from storms, or shade from the
burning sun; the only water for drink
ing or other purposes little brook
running through the stockade after
having first passed through the rebel
camp short distance above, serving
as sewer for said camp, thus causing
diseases of the most fearful nature
amongst our soldiers. The return of
the starving, manned and idiotic pris-
oners from that horrible pen is of too
recent date to require repeating here.
The well-known systematic course of
the Confederacy to weaken our army,
by reducing the prisoners to such a
state that their service would no long
er be of any benefit to their country,
is too we'll established for any amnes-
tied traitor to undertake to make the
loyal people of the country believe the
treatment of our prisoners, was merely
the necessary result of a state of war.
[ wish to correct statement made
in my last, that one of the Chairman
ships of Speaker Kerr's Committees
was from the New England States, I
was led into this by typographical
error, in printing Me. for Mo. There
is not Craftsmanship from the New
England States, New Jersey, Michi-
gan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa. Kan
sas, Nebraska, California, Nevada or
Oregon, though Virginia has three,
Missouri has five, Kentucky four,
Georgia, North Carolina and Tennes-
see each have two. The ex-rebel and
ex-slave states with a population of
13.677,615 have twenty-four chair
manships and the loyal states with a
population of 24,238,046 have only
twenty three chairmanships, The
Craftsmanship of the Committee on
Commerce is given to West Virginia
which has no commerce. Ten of the
chairmen of committees were in the
Confederate service in some capacity.
There must be some reason for this
partiality for those who were in sym
pathy with, or took an active part in
trying to destroy our noble govern
ment is it the result of the demands
of the southern wing of the democrat
ic party, that they shall control the
wheels of Government the same as If
they had made no unsuccessful effort
to destroy it?
Upon an examination of the Con
| gressionaI Directory, which gives a
short sketch Of the lives of each mem.
Der, as furnished by himself, [ find
forty-six of them recorded as worth,
of commemoration, that they were
either in the military or legislative ser
vice of the Confederacy. Mr.. Morri-
son who is Chairman of Committee OF
Ways and Means, is evidently asham.
ed of his services in the Union army,
as he does not consider it worthy Of
of being mentioned, and taken in con-
nection with the fact chat he has ap-
pointed as clerk of his committee a
person who named his son J. Wilkes
Booth after the assassin of President
Lincoln, | should think he we'll might
be.
Was this course necessary for him
to obtain the leadership of the House
controlled by southern democrats Is
there loyal person in the country,
who at the close Of tie war, would
have thought it possible for the demo
cracy, upon their first accession to
power, to have appointed any one to
Office that rejoiced at and wishes to
commemorate in his family the assas.
sination of President Lincoln? What
a contrast to the democracy of Gen.
Washington, Gen. Jackson, Silas
Wright and Gen Dix. Do northern
democrats admire the spectacle +? Has
the doctrine of state-rights, which il
was to be hoped had been forever ST.
fenced in its practical application up
on the field of battle, got to be fought
over again in our legislative halls?