The National tribune., 1909-03-25

feat, and would compromise our safety
here"
Taken in connection with all the facts
| this letter does credit to Gen. Grants
sagacity and humanity. The letter was
written late in the war. after the great
operations of Grant, Sherman, Sheri-
dan. Meade and Thomas had filed the
| prisons in the North to overflowins
with Confederates. The operations had
reached that stage when the Confeder-
acy was clearly toppling to its fall and
everyone could see that a few more
vigorous blows would bring about its
ruin. 1t would have been the hight of
military folly to give the Confederates
100000 fresh, well-rested, well-fed.
well-clothed men to put in front of the
victorious armies Of Grant, Sherman,
Sheridan and Thomas. Grant knew
entirely too well from sad experience
how little the Confederates would re-
gard their paroles, especially in that
emergency. The men he had captured
at Vicksburg had, in defiance of their
paroles, been put back in the army. and
came near comprising the destruction
of the Army of the Cumberland at
Chickamauga. Grant would have been
unworthy his reputation as a General
if ne had allowed such a thing to hap
pen again in thS moment when he
Sherman, Seridan and Thomas had the
CcEfederacy by the throat and its death
thrUes were apparent. From first to
last Gen. Grant went to the extreme
{ generosity and military prudence in
>--ering to exchange man for man, but
he resolutely and very properly refused
to release the surplus to be put back
into the Confederate army.
AS to Capt. Wirz, Mr.. Jewell says:
Capt. Wirz died for a crime-cer-
tainly cruelty-of which, not he, but
Secretary Stanton was guilty. No one
denies or attempts to deny that Fed
eral soldiers suffered terribly and many
died in Andersonville and other South
ern prisons That part is true. But
it is not true that Capt WirZ or the
Richmond authorities, or anyone in the
South, caused this suffering and death,
or permitted it. or could help 1t if they
would. 1t could not be helped. Our
own men, we repeat, starved. sickened
and died for want of proper food and
medicines. The South did the best it
could for those Federals."
This is in absolute contradiction, alb
solute defiance of all known facts and
history. Let us try once more to put
in the most concrete form these facts;
First. Even if our Government re-
fused to exchange, this gave no sort of
warrant for the South's abuse OF the
unhappy men who fell into their hands.
Every Government has the most abso-
Lutte right to refuse an exchange for
any reason or no reason. This does
not justify in the least the ill-treatment
of prisoners. and all the abuse of Mr..
Stanton is wicked ranting. Refusal to
exchange is one Of the most usual fea-
lures in war. 1t generally happens in
every war. During the Revolution the
exchange was stopped. and the British
inflicted terrible abuse upon the prison
ers they captured. which has been q
blemish on the British escutcheon to
this day. On the other hand. Gen. Wash
ington sent his prisoners far into the
back country at Winchester. Va, Car
were well taken care of. A large pro-
portion of them went out to work for
the farmers and remained there. A
great many of the families of the Shen-
andoah Valley and Pennsylvania are
descended from these prisoners of war.
Second. 1t is not true that the South
ern Confederacy could not have done
re A
great deal of the mortality of the pris-
oners was due to lack of shelter and
fire. There was an abundance of tim
ber around the prisons which the pris-
oners themselves would have converted
into shelters If they had been allowed
TO. and they would have willingly cut
the wood to keep themselves warm.
Third. Capt Wirz was not hanged for |
any part in carrying out the policy of
the Southern Confederacy toward its |
prisoners of war. He was tried on the |
charge of personal acts contrary to the |
Avs and usages of war. These were
so conclusiveIy proved by the testimony |
IF 229 witnesses that the court which |
.ried him not only found him guilty on
every charge and specification, but went |
beyond this, and pronounced him guilty |
IN number of things which had not |
been charged against him. The court |
which tried him was composed of some
If the most eminent men in the country, /
Ind its findings are beyond question.
lie was convicted and hanged for
.rimes contrary to the laws of war
precisely as we hanged guerrillas. rob-
,ers, rayishers and men who took
Ldvantage Of the state of war to COM
nit private murder and other crimes.
He does not belong to the class of reg
liar soldiers of the Southern Confed-
,racy. but to that of QuantrelI, Sue
and other red-handed crimi-
lals of the war. This fact alone shows
low gIaring is the course Of the Daugh-
ers of the Confederacy. They have
IS little excuse for their fatuous course
IS would any other who attempted to
aise monument to John Wilkes Booth
n Guiteau.
Alas! that it should be SO. We have
oOlSeG ,IpOn Gov Marshall of Indiana |