Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-01-26

globe, very certainly not an european
government which would not have ar
rested Mr.. Davis, or which. when it
had him in it's power, would not have
tried him for maltreatment If prisoners
ofwar, and shot him within thirty days.
France, Russia, England, Germany,
Austria, any of them would have done
it. The poor victim Writ deserved his
death, for brutal treatment of prison
ers, but always thought it
was weak movement on the part of
the Government to allow jeff Davis to
go at large, and hang Writ. Writ was
nothing in the world but laere subor-
dia.e tool, and therefore there was no
philosophy in selecting him for punish
ment. Still, I do not say that he did
not deserve it. He did really and truly
deserve it, snd he deserved no mercy.
But at the same time his execution put
me in mind of skipping the President,
superintendent and board of directors
of railroad company, in case of q
great railway accident, and hanging the
brakeman on the rear car. Laughter.
There is no proposition here to pun
ish Mr.. Davis. Nobody is asking to do
it. The time for such thing has gone
by. The statute of limitation and the
common feeling of humanity would in
tervene for his benefit. But what you
ask us to do is to declare by vote of
two thirds of both branches of Con-
gress, solemn]y, that we consider Mr..
Davis WORTHY to fill the highest Offices
in the United States, if he can get q
constituency to trust him. He is vo-
ter; he can buy and he can sell. He
can 70 and come. He is as free as any
man in the United States. There is a
long list of subordinate offices to which
he is eligible, but this proposition pro-
poses, in view of the record which have
read. to declare, by two thirds vote Of
the House, that MIR. Davis is eligible
and worthy to fill any Office up to pres
ident of the United States. For one,
or full deGberation, will not do it.
It has been frequently said, in miti-
cation of Mr.. Davis in the amnesty
matter, that men who diedin such large
numbers, Is, 200 fell victims to an cpl
demic, and died of diseases, which
could not be avoided. Now, the record
shows that out of 81, 900 men, about 33
per cent. died; that is one in three. Of
the soldiers who were encamped within
half mile of the stockade, and who
guarded it, but one man in 400 died.
Allusion was then made by Mr.. B.,
in general terms, to the atrocious prac-
tees on union prisoners, and closed by
saying:
I only see before me whose name
is presented, the man who by q
wink of his eye, by wave of his
hand, a nod of his head, could
have stopped the atrocities at An
Jacksonville. Some of us had kins-
men there; most of us had friends there;
all of us had countrymen there, and in
the name of those kinsman and friends
and countrymen, here protest, and
shall with my vote protest. against our
calling back and browning with the
honors of full American citizenship the
men who organized hatmurder. cloud
applause on the Republican side of the
house and in the galleries.
On Tuesday, Gen. BENZ. 81. Hill, of
Georgia, obtained the floor, and in re-
ply to Blaine spoke substantially as fol-
lows:
He denied the charge that jeff Davis
was responsible for the horrors of An
jacksonville, and referred to the state
ment of DR. Jones, one of the witnesses
on the Wirz trial, who had been sent
by the Confederate Government to
make report as to the condition of
Andersonville, but whose report had
never reached the Confederate authori-
ties. That report had, ia the hands of
the v-dge Advocate, been mutilated,
and Dr.. Jones had called attention Of
the Court to the fact, one of the sup
pressed statements being that home
sickness and disappointment among the
prisoners had been more destructive of
life than any physical cause.
During the whole three months of
ment, with all the means at its disposal,
had not produced single witness to
connect the name of Mr.. Davis with a
single atrocity. Even on the day of his
execution, Wirz had been offered q
Communication of his sentence if he would
] implicate Mr.. Davis, but Virus answer
to his counsel was: ''Mr. Schade, you
know that have always told you that
I do not know anything about Jefferson
Davis. He had no connection with me
as to what was done at Andersonville !;
I would not become a traitor against
him or anybody else, even to save my
life."
But, said Mr.. Hill, what poor Wirz,
within two hours of his execution,
would not say for his life, the gentle
man from Maine says to the country for
the sake of keeping his party in power.
[Sensation.I Sir, Christianity is false
hood, humanity is lie, civilization is
cheat, or the man who would not make
false charge for his life was never
guilty of wilful murder.
Hill went on to argue that on the
logic of Mr.. Blaine's speech, holding
Mr.. Davis responsible for the acts of
Winder, President Grant might be
held responsible for the acts Of Nc
Donald and Joyce, and he asked
whether Mr.. Blaine meant to establish
rule of construction that would au-
thorize the country to a1raign Presi-
dent Grant for completely in the Whis-