The Republican journal., 1876-01-20
Tile EXCHANGE OLE PRISONERS.

interrupted in 1868, and that the Federal author
ity refused to continue the exchange of prison.
ers; and alluded to the fact of Alexander Ii. |
stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy.
having been commissioned by President Davis, |
IN July. 1868, to come to Washington and con-
suit with the Federal authorities in regard to
the exchange Of prisoners quoting Davis let
ter to stephens, that his mission was simply
one of humanity and had no political aspect.
Eat when stephens appealed to Admiral Lee
for permission TO 90 up to Washington on the
steamer Torpedo Lee returned him this an
swer:
THE request of Alexander H. stephens is
inadmis>ible. GIDEON WELLES,
Secretary of the Navy"
The next effort in the same direction was
made i'll January, 1864, when Robert Ould,
Confederate Agent of Exchange, wrote to the
Federal Agent of Exchange, proposing, in view
of the difficulties attending the release of prs-
onerS. that surgeons of the army each side
should be allowed TO attend their own soldiers
while prisoners in the hands of the enemy. and
should have charge of their nursing and medi-
cine and PROVISIONS which proposition was re-
iected
70 the letter from Mr.. Ould 10 our Commits
Sloner or Exchange in 1864, proposing that
each side should send surgeons to their own
wounded, that these surgeons should carry
medicine to the prisoners, that they should
nurse and treat them, and be also commission
ed As commissioners of subsistence, and pro-
vide them with clothing and everything that
was needed for their comfort, no reply was
ever received. In August. 1864, there were
two more propositions The cartel had been
broken by the Federals under certain pre-
fences. In 1861. the prisoners We're accumu-
latlnS on both sides to such an extent Mr. Ould
made another proposition to waive every OBJ
Jrctlon and agree to whatever terms The Fed
rral Government would demand, and to renew
the exchange, man for man and officer foG Off
rcr. Just rs the Federal Government might pre-
scribe, That proposition was also rejected.
Al
HOME.
In the same month of August, 1864, finding
that the Federal Government would never eX-
change pris ,ners, nor agree TO sending sur
icons to The prisoners on each side, and the
Confederate Government finding itself with an
increasing number of prisoners on hand, il
was proposed TO send to the Federal Govern
ment the sick and wounded prisoners without
equivalent
The Confederate Government officially pro-
posed III August, 1864, that if the Federal Gov
rrnment would send steamers and passports to
savannah the Confederate Government would
return the sick and wounded prisoners on its
hands without an equivalent. The proposition
which WAS communicated to the Federal atl-
thorIt1eS IN August, 1864, was not answered till
December, lS64, when some ships We're sent to
savannah. The record will show that the chief
suffering and the chief mortality at Anderson
VILE was between August and December, lSG4
we sought to allay that suffering by asking you
TO take your prisoners off our hands without an
equivalent, aud without asking you to return a
man for them, and YOU refused to do it.
HE MAGNANINIITY OF FEDERAL SOLDIERS.
MI. Hill went on to quote series of resolu-
tons passed by the Federal prisoners at Ander-
Nonvllle on the 2Sth of September, 1864, in
which all due praise is given to the Confederate
Government for attention paid to them, and in
which it Is said that the sutierings which they
endured Were not caused Intentionally by the
force OF circumstances. Commenting upon
that resolution, Hill said; Brave men are al
ways honest, and true soldiers never SANDER.
| would believe the statements of those gallant
soldiers at Andersonville, a. contained in that
resolution, in preference to the whole tribe of
Republican politicians" daughter on the
Democratic side.)
What can be said Of the people who could re-
jeet such appeals from their own soldiers, and
vet, eN en III response to that appeal for succor,
did not come Why, he continued, were all
these appeals resisted : Why did the federal
authorities refuse to allow their own surgeons
to attend upon their own soldiers when prison
ers OF war, and to carry them medicine and
comforts Why did the Federal Government
refuse to exchange prisoners. man for man and
officer for officer Why did it refuse to stand
up TO It's own solemn engagement, made il 1862
for the exchange of prisoners Who is III
fault There must be
REASON For THIS GREAT ATRoCGTY.
And that is the next point to which wish to
call the attention if the House. Listen to the
reason: The New York Tribune, i'll 1864, re-
Ierring TO occurrences which | have related,
says; Il suppose YOU would believe the Trb-
nne IN 1854, even if you do not believe it now J
Laughter
':ln August the rebels offered to renew the ex-
change man for man. Gen. Grant then telegraph
ed the following important order 1T is hard on
our men held in Southern prisons not to exchange
them bu is humane hose left i'll the ranks
night our battles. Every man released parole or
othtrWlse becomes an active soldier against al
system OF exchange which ibrates all prisoners
j. externinaed, If we hold those caught they count
Tor no more than dead men, AT this particular time,
TO release all the rebel prisoners North would
sure Shern;tns defeat, and compromise safety
here
Mr. Garfield of Ohio asked Mr.. Hill from
what book he was reading.
Mi Hill replied that the volume from which
ne was reading was the Life of jefferson Da-
Nls. (DerisNe laughter on the Republican
side.l He asked Mr.. Garfield whether he
would say that the telegram was moi true
Mr. Gartield-I have not said a word about
The telegram. merely asked you what the
Mr. IIl-'rhc extract in the book is taken
from the New York Tribune of 1864 but there
Is Cen Grants testimony before the Committee
on The Conduct of the War, taken on the llth
OF February, 1850, You believe him. don't
YOU Iaughter.)
Mr. Hill here read Gen Grants testimony be-
Tore the committee, explaining the reason why
he was opposed TO the exchange of prisoners,
and which was in effect the same rs was given
III the telegram quoted from The Tribune one
sentence beng in these words: >
81 did deem it advisable or lust to reinforce
The enemy, and an immediate resumption of ex
changes wonld have had that effect without any
responding benefit"
Mr.. Hill then quoted q letter from .Junus
Henri Browne in the New York Tribune, to
The effect that General Butler had stated in
~peeeh At Lowell, Mass, that he had been
prompted by Mr. stanton to put forward the
negro question IN order to compIjcarc The eX-
change of prisoners, Mr.. Brownies comment
upon 1t being that Mr.. Stanton was the digger
Of the unnamed graves which crowded the vi
'lnltE OF every southern prison with neycr-to-
he forgotten horrors.
MIR. HILLS SUMMING Up.
MI. I'M then proceeded to sum up his argr-
ment, and said What have we proved: | have |
proved that the Federal authorities broke the |
cartel deliberately. | have proved that they |
refused to reopen that cartel when approached |
by Mr.. Stephens Commissioner solely on |
The ground of humanity. | have proven that |
they made medicine contraband OF war and !
thereby left us to the dread necessity of sup |
plying prisoners with such medicine as could !
be improvised in the Confederacy. | have
proved that they refused to allow the surgeons |
OF their own army to accompany their own |
prisoners to the South
l have proved that the Confederate author- |
lies proposed to return your sick and wounded |
without any equivalent in August, 1864, and |
that you never delgned to reply till December |
1864. have proved that your high officers iu |
command gave as a reason why they did not |
exchange prisoners, that it would be hum ane |
TO the prisoners but cruel to the soldiers in the
field 1T was part OF your military policy to |
let your prisoners suffer rather than that the |
Confederacy should have an increase of its mil
itary force. ] have also proved that with all
the horrors which you have made such a noise
about occurring at Andersonvile, greater
horrors occurred in the prisons where YOU
held our troops, and that the Der centage of |
death was 3 per cent. greater among our pris-
oners in your hands than among your prison.
ers in our hands.
The gentleman from Maine rises again to
give birth to that unmtigated effusion of geil-
Jus without fact to sustain it. IN which he
says: And here before my God, measuring
my words, knowing their fun intent and i'm
port, i declare that neither the deeds of the
Duke OF Alva in the Low Countries, nor the
massacre of Saint Bartholomew, nor the thumb
screws and engines of torture of the Spanish