The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1876-01-22

i
changes would have had that effect without
any corresponding benefit. ?
Mr.. Hill then quoted letter from Junius
Henri Browne in the New York Tribune, to
the effect that General Butler had stated ia
9 speech at Lowell, Massachusetts, that he
had been prompted by Mr.. Stanton to put
forward the negro question in order to COM
plicate the exchange Of prisoners, Mr..
Brownies comment upon it being that Mr..
Stanton was the digger of the unnamed graves
which crowded the vicinity of every Southern
prison with never-to-be forgotten horrors.
Mr.. Hill then proceeded to sum up his ar
gument and said What have we proved9
have proved that the Federal authorities broke
the cartel deliberately. have proved that
they refused to reopen that cartel when ap-
preached by Mr.. Stephens as commissioner
solely on the ground of humanity. have
proven that they made medicine contraband
of war, and thereby left MS to the dread ne
cesslty Of supplying prisons with such medi-
cine as could be impfovised in the Confader-
acy. ! have proved that they refused TO allow
the surgeons oftheir own arms to accompany
their prisoners to the South. / have proved
that the Confederate authorities proposed to
return your sick and wounded without an
equivalent in August, 1864, and that you never
deigned to reply until December, 1864.
have proved that your high officers in com
mand gave as reason why they would NOT
exchange prisoners, that It would be humane
to the prisoners but cruelty to the soldiers in
the field. 1t twas part Of your military pol.
icy to let your prisoners suffer, rather than that
the Confederacy should have an increase Of
its military force. / have also proved that
with all the horrors which you have made
such noise about as occurring at Anderson
vile, greater horrors occurred in the prisons
where you held our troops, aad that the per.
centage of death was three per cent greater
among our prisoners in your hands than among
your prisoners in our hands. When the gen
tleman from Maine rises again to give birth
to that unmitigated eifusion of genius without
fact to sustain it, in which he says: Sand
here before my God, measuring my words,
knowing their full intent aud import, declare
that neither the deeds Of the Duke Of AIya in
the Low Countries, nor the massacre of Saint
Bartholomew, nor the thumb-screws and en-
gines Of torture of the Spanish Inquisition,
begin to compare in atroeity with the hideous
crime Of Andersonville. Let him add to il:
"And the atrocities Of Andersonville do not
beginto compare with the atrocities Of Elmira,
of Fort Douglas, or of Fort Delaware And
ofiall the atrocities, both at Andersonyille
and Elmira, the Confederate Government
stands acquitted from all responsibility and
blame.
Mr. Hill then quoted from the speech made
by Jefferson Davis to the Confederate sol.
diers, after the retreat of General Mcclellan
from before Richmond, in which he said that
the crowning glory of the soldiers was their
humanity to the wounded and the prisoners
who had fallen into their hands. He also re-
ferred to the fact that the Richmond Exassi-
ner (which Mr.. Blaine had quoted yesterday
as authority against Mr.. Davis had stated
that the humanity and generosity of jefferson
Davis would inevitably ruin the Confederacy.
The gentleman from Maine had introduced
that witness to prove Mr.. Davis guilty Of in
humanity, and yet the witness said that the
humanity and generosity of Davis would ruin
the Consederacy.
Those of us who were there at the time
know it to be the fact. One of the most per.
sistent charges brought by the Richmond En-
aminer and some others against Mr.. Davis
was his humanity. Over and over again has
Mr.. Davis been heard to say, when applied
to to retaliate for the horrors inflicted on our
prisoners Il quote his very language,) ssThe
inhumanity of the enemy TO our prisoners can
be no Justification for disregard by us Of the
rules of civilized warfare and Christianity.
Therefore. he persisted in it, and this paper
cried out against him that he would ruin the
Confederacy. But, why bring up such sub
ject? War is always horrible. War always
brings hardships, death, sorrow, ruin, devas
tation And he Is unworthy to be considered
statesman, looking to the pacifcation Of
the country, who will parade the horrors in
separable from war for the purpose Of keeping
up the strife which produced those horrors.
My message to the gentleman from Maine is
this: There are no Confederates in this House,
there are no Confederate ambitions, de-
sires or purposes in this House, but the
South is here, and here she intends
to remain. Enthusiastic demonstrations on
the Democratic side and in the galleries. |
Let fanaticism do its worst. Let it pass it's
nullifying acts, trample on the Constitution,
abnegate the pledges of the fathers, incite
raids on our people, multiply in6delities
until they shall be like the stars Of heaven, or
the sands of the ea-shore---without number
but know this, that for all your iniquities
the South will never again seek remedy in
the madness of another secession. [Renewed
applause. We are here. We are in our
fathers house. Our brothers are our com
panions, and we are at home, thank God.
Enthusiastic applause.l
We come to CRAFTY no vengeance, to retail
late no wrongs, to resent no. past insults, to
reopen no strife. We come with patriotic
purpose, to do whsteverin our political power
shall be to restore an honest, economical and
constitutional administration Of the Govern.
ment We come charging on the Union no
wrong to us. The Union never wrcnged the
South. The Union has been an unmixed
blessing to every section, 70 every State, to
every man Of every color, in America. We
charge all our wrongs to that sshigher law
fanaticism, which never kept pledge or
obeyed a law. We sought to leave the asso-
citation Of those who would not keep fidelity
to covenant. We sought to go by ourselves;
but. 50 far from having lost our fidelity to the
Constitution, we hugged il to our boaom and
carried it with US. Brave Union men Of the
North, followers Of Webster and Fillmore, Of
Cass and Douglass, you who fought for the
Union for the sake ofthe Union, you who ceas.
ed to 6ght when the battle was ended and the
sword was sheathed, With you we have no
an atral W., rnIf xyn.x =. Al - = !.