The National tribune., 1906-11-08

rial for fuel and shelter could have
been had merely for the trouble of
cutting it down. They will tell her
that in the midst of what was then one
of the richest agricultural sections i'll
the Southern ConfeGcrlCy men starved
TO death by the thousands for want OF
even a sufiicicncy OF such coarse food
as is thrown to the pigs and cattle.
They will tell her that more than 10000
men, according to the testimony of the
Surgeon-GeneraI of the Confederacy,
were rotting to death from scurvy,
which could at any time have been ar
rested by wagonload Of green stuff
from any of the neighborng fields. She
will find, if she examines the County
records at AmericuS, presentation by
the Grand Jury of Sumter County of
the dangers to the health of the people
of the entire County from the stencil
arising from the rotting 20 death and
dying OF SO many thousands of human
beings. She will also find in the records
of the rebellion and in other official
papers of the Southern COnfederacy a
proposition from the Surgeon-General
of the Confederacy, which was carried
out, that commission of medical men
be sent to Andersonville to study scien-
tifically the effects upon the human
frames of an immense mass of men
crowded together closer than stock is
ever allowed to be for shipment, and
he Nv
wholesome packing of living human
beings like dead fish in a crate.
Mrs. Hull says with cheerful conf
dence:
Il do not believe any of us knew how
ignorant we were of the history of that
period until we went into this matter,
as We have been obliged to do in order
to give an answer for the faith that
was in u.s."
Is it possible that all these undoubt-
ed facts have come under her consid-
published to the world and commented
upon? No matter with what sophistry
writer's and speakers have deluded the
Southern people in regard to Ander-
sonville, these facts alone will overbear
anything that she can possibly urge.
They will stand up far above all spe-
ciai pleading that may be made with
regard to exchange. etc, horrible,
black, shameful monster of deliberate
iniquity that never can be explained
away or in the least degree palliated.
Mrs. Hull, as We have said before is
living in the midst of those who must
have seen all these things with their
own eyes. There must be around her
men yet living who We're boys then
and stood on the perches of the stock
ade, gun in hand. to overlook for hours
every day all these horrors and to exc
cute their cruel orders to fire upon any
of those unhappy men who came near
the dead line. She has no excuse for
being ignorant of things which, if pub
lished to the world, would blast with
infamy the memory of the Southern
Confederacy and put a lasting blemish
upon all that may be said in praise of
the courage, the unselfishness and the
devotion of the men who fought for
the Lost Cause. The story If fully told
would make every Confederate soldiers
cheek redden with shame that he was
part of cause that could be guilty
of savagery disgracing negroes in the
heart of Africa. 1t would be an en-
during illustration of the brutalizine
effects of slavery, and more than any
thing else tear aside the glamor with
which that institution has been invest
ed, and show in its odious nakedness
all it's horrible tendencies in the degra-
dation of those who practiced it.
Mrs. Hull and her associates doubt
less started their movement out of a
spleeny desire to irritate the loyal peo-
pie of the country. Before she takes
any further steps she should consider
well the possibilities of bringing out,
from the testimony of those around
her and of the Confederate records
themselves, facts that will injure the
fair fame of the South far more than
anything that it's bitterest enemies can
Go.