The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1876-02-24
War and Prisoners of War,

Inc IrOS. Aye Is terribly exercised ABOUT
the statement that we last week published
from Mr.. Frost concerning his experience
at Andersonville. 1t replies in nearly five
columns of the space of that valuable
sheet, consisting of extracts from books
written to sell-and the more horrors. of
course the better they sold-and editorial
comments in the usual swash-buckler STYLE
of that paper. We let all that pass for the
present for what it is worth
The trouble about the discussion of this
and kindred matters is that people don't
always consider that this all refers to war
and its accompaniment. War is cruelty
always. 1t means the shooting, manning
and death of men, the burning OF houses.
cities end towns, the laying waste of coun-
tries, the capture and Imprisonment of
men.
Prison life everywhere is one Of suffer-
ing, mental and physical. All writer's from
the earliest time to the present, have de-
picted the woes of those held in prison.
In early days the practice of war was to
kill those captured. And even since
more human policy has spared their lives,
there has never been war which was not
accompanied by loud complaints of the
ill-treatment of those made prisoners,
even among the most enlightened nations
This is true of all wars in modern Europe
During the career of Napoleon, especially
in the contests with England. there was
bitter complaint, on either side The
French charged that the English built Il
prison on a bleak and barren moor, swept
by Atlantic gales, in a damp and unhealthy
spot, and there confined 10000 prisoners,
who died rapidly from disease and de-
spair.
The English accounts of the revolution
airy war in this country, charge upon the
rebels Of 1776 that they starved prisoners
of war, which probably has some SEM
blance of truth, inasmuch as the rebels
were pretty short themselves. We all
know that prisoners taken by the English
| were crowded into prisons in New York
| city and into the Jersey hulk, and died by
hundreds and thousands from disease and
confinement The last war with England
beginning in 1912, was like unto the first
in this respect The British newspapers
| complained of the bad treatment OF their
prisoners in confinement in America. The
! English authorities sent the Americans
| who fell into their hands, to Dartmoor,
which resembled Andersonville in many
respects. 1t was an enclosure OF 80 acres,
with its walls, sentries, dead-line. short
rations, firing upon prisoners and large
| mortality.
1t will be seen that what are called
prison outrages are the usual accompani-
meht of all wars. The thing which has
| been is the thing which shall be. in that
respect. There are always fellows in
every army who like to magnify them
! selves INTO martyrs of endurance-those
''perlous pityer5 of themselves. rs En-
erson calls them and to excite wonder
| by reciting what they profess to have
gone through, and that class abounded in
the late civil war.
| The refusal of the federal authorities to
exchange prisoners was the real cause of
most of the suffering and the real blame
lies with the Republican party. Ii rebels
were to blame, let the adm inistration
| purge its own ranks of the rebels it con
tains, before it assails Democrats. There
are scores of them in seats in Congress.
in the public service, and lowering about
the White House, under the patronage of
| Grant-all of whom upheld the confeder-
acy and its acts.
In the course of its article, the Age in
dulges in sneers at Mr.. Frost. We hayn't
seen him since its publication, but have no
! doubt that he feels the same contempt tor
the Age that every honorable person does
for a paper that urged men to enlist, and
then abuses them after they get back, be-
cause they don't continue to follow its lead
| The personal war record of the editor of
the Age isn't such that he can afford to do
| that.