The National tribune., 1906-02-22
THE MONUMENT TO CAPT. wIRz.

people of the Nation in the movement
started by the Daughters of the Con-
federacy to erect a monument to
Capt. WirZ, of AndersoBvil1e infamy.
This is particularly unfortunate at a
time when everyone else is doing his
or her best to allay the animosities and
hatreds engendered by the war. The
action of the Daughters has the look
of devilish malignity. 1t recalls the
old tales of mythology where the God
dess of Discord with her heart canker-
ing at the sight of the loving harmony
of the other gods and goddesses, con-
jures her baleful brain for some device
to set them at strife.
The colossal tragedy of Anderson
vile, Belle Isle. Salisbury and Libby is
the one wholly indefensibie. inexcusa-
BILE thing in the history of the so-called
Southern Confederacy. There never
can be any paIliation for 1t. The wan
tonness of the horror can be in no man
ner obscured or diminished. The ut
most that can be done is to think of it
as little as possible. This the Daugh-
ters of the Confederacy are determined
the country shall not do. They come
out to glorify the principal. the one
figure in the war which is associated
with it's most pitiable and criminal
phase, and for which they, as adherents
60
blush before the civilized world.
For all else that was done in the
name of the Southern Confederacy
there can be some excuse or justifica-
ton. They can say with reason that
the provisions of the Constitution were
50 equivocal that they found warrant
for secession, and for the doing of mill
tary acts that would make that seces-
sion prevail. That they were utterly
wrong in this is emphatically the ver-
dict of the whole civilized world. Yet
they believed they We're right at the
time, and what they did might have
been an honest mistake, though it was
one of colossal calamity. which. had il
been successful, would have wrought
unspeakable detriment to humanity.
There can be no such excuse for their
treatment of the Union prisoners. This
was a display of barbarism worthy OF
the most brutal ages of humanity. II
harked back to a time when men were
savages and it was the logical accom-
paniment, or one might say the result
of the civilization which approved the
tearing away from their homes in
Africa of shipload after shipload of un-
happy negroes to bring them to this
country to wear out their lives in un-
requited toll for their captors and pur-
chasers.
Men who had sanctioned thai
nefarious practice would be capable OF
| unfortunate Union soldiers in Belle
| Isle, Salisbury, Andersonville and Camp
Tyler
The plea put forward by the Daugh.
ters that the Government was responsi.
BILE for these horrors because it refused
| TO exchange prisoners is absurd ever
| for women to make The policy of the
| Government with regard to exchange!
had absolutely nothing to do with the
| case. The Confederates were bound
| to treat their prisoners with humanity
regardless of anything else. We have
seen this illustrated by the heather
nation Japan, which has received the
| worlds praise for the kindly generosity
| it displayed toward the Russians whom
| il captured and without retaliation fol
the barbarities well known to have
been practiced upon the Japanese pris
oners.
The interruption of the exchange
was caused by the grossest bad faith o
the Southern Confederacy as to thu
prisoners paroled at Viclsburg anC
| Port Hudson, and our Government
stood ready to continue the exchange
whenever the Confederacy gave sign
of abiding by its engagements. Blu
! this, as we have said before, is OUTSIDE
the real matter Our Government hac
the most absolute right to refuse ex
change for any reason, and this did no
| give the slightest justification to sh
Southern Confederacy for torturing t
death the unfortunate. soldiers who fel
into its hands.
The prisoners of war were deIiber
ately starved in country aboundin
in supplies, and where Sherman foun
ample food for his great army of so,
900 men in his triumphant march t
the sea.
The Daughters also say that Wir
was made a martyr because he refuse
to implicate Jefferson Davis. This
quite as absurd as the previous pretex
The culpability of Jefferson Davis 70
the systematic cruelties to the prison
ers was completely established withou
asking a single question of Capt. Wir;
The reports to Jefferson Davis from tn
Inspectors sent thither by the Confed
crate War Department, furnished a
the proof that vas needed for tha
, Capt. Wirz was hanged very justly fo
what his instructions implied. He wa
not hanged for the starvation of pri:
oners nor for their confinement with
out shelter or means of cleanliness 1
that awful pen. He was hanged bt
a cause in addition to this he had She
/, and killed men, had stamped the live
Z out of men, and committed other vo
= untary cruelties that deserved dealt
All this is fully established by the ev
y dence educed upon his trial, and