Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-01-04
FIFTY YEARS AGO
In. THE STAR

In, luU OldN
In The Star of December o, 1853. is
brief dispatch from Fort Monroe,
dated the day previous.
Exchange Of stating that the Confed-
p;.. crate government refused
ASoes' any further exchange Of
prisoners unless the United States aban-
doned all questions which it had been
pressing regarding the treatment Of pris-
oners and especially unless the Confed-
crate laws regarding officers and soldiers
of negro troops were recognized. The
Star. commenting on this dispatch. said:
The rebel authorities are deliberately
forcing on the government of the United
States the repulsive necessity Of treating
all the rebel prisoners in our hands pre-
cisely as they may hereafter treat ours
who may be in their hands. Recent &C.
ton in their so-called congress seems to
be encouraging JEFF Davis & Co. in their
present course. It is imperatively neces-
sary that We should not accede to their
demand that the positions taken by their
exchange commissioner. Robert Ould, are
correct; not only because they are not
correct, but also because to adopt them
will be to deprive the cause of the mainte-
nance Of the Union of its current signal
advantage arising from the so great ex-
cess Of prisoners now in our possession.
We need hardly add that this govern
ment will not, as it should not, consent
to waive the obligation resting upon it
to protect its colored soldiers falling into
the hands of the rebels, as it protects all
others of the country's soldiers similarly
situated. The silly imperiousness of the
refusal Of JEFF Davis & Co. to negotiate
upon this subject with Maj. Gen. Butler
is Of a piece with their entire course
with reference to the exchanges Of pris-
oners. and goes far to illustrate the entire
impracticability of all their conduct in the
matter rendered necessary, perhaps, by
the desperate condition generally of their
AFFAIRS. They must improvise new army
or the rebellion will speedily succumb.
and they therefore not only resort to
this expedient Of getting into their ranks
without equivalent exchange the large ex-
cess OF their soldiers now in Union pris-
ons and on parole in the SOUTH but also
to their recently adopted policy of fore
:lng every man now in their ranks to re-
main there for the war without reference
to the term for which he may have indi-
vidually volunteered or been conscripted;
of holding all substitutes in their service
on their own account without regard to
their individual exemption under interna-
uonal law, and of conscripting every
man who has SO far furnished a substi-
tute Their conduct on all these points,
we repeat. is of a piece, and means that
they are desperately put to it. indeed to
make show of substantial resistance for
a few months longer
At the same time that the north was
thus congratulating itself on the diff
culties experienced by the
payment OF Confederacy in maintain
p.r,4;. ing its armies numerically
the north was having diff
ficulties of it's own. Congress had stop
ped the payment of additional bounties,
and on this subject The Star of Decem-
Der 80, 1863. printed the following:
THE manner in which the recent action
of Congress. stopping the payment Of the
additional bounty $500 accorded by the
government recruits, will work is yet a
very grave and important question. The
bounty SO paid comes altogether out Of
the fund contributed by those who avail
themselves of the $500 exemption clause.
The application of these bounties by the
authorities to secure the re-eni1stment
of veterans proved most efficacious Each
such recruit is worth to the cause in the
field twice as much as any exempt never
having seen service. whose $500, as ap-
piled by the government, induced the vet
eran to re-enlist. That ceasing to offer
the governments $500 additional bounty
will stop the re-enlistment of veterans
after the 9Th proximo when this order
goes into effect seems to be almost GER
tain. unless in interpreting the new law
the authorities shall decide that the
twenty millions of dollars it appropriates
for the procurement of substitutes is de-
signed to enable them to accomplish pre-
cisely the object they have of late been
the exemption fund. Unless such be the
Interpretation given to the law, it strikes
us the exemption law will be useful only
to put money into the national Treasury.
Thnt is II will fail to procure an adj
ditional soldier, neither lessening the
number of eXempts nor increasing the
number subject to draft. Nor, again. will
it secure the services of single man not
subject to military duty, or whose lot
it may not have been to be drafted"
X =
President Lincoln held the usual New
Year reception at the White House jan
uary 1, 1864. An i'm
White House mense crowd gathered
to pay respects to the
Reception. chief executive and many
persons were disappointed. In The Star
of that date is an account of interesting
incidents at the White House. the fol-
lowing particularly suggesting stirring
scene:
"A lady, unattended by any one, being
anxious to gain admittance at the White
House and finding herself unable to edge
through the immense crowds. struck upon
a novel idea and threw open one Of the
large windows leading from the portico
to the ante-room and crawled in upon all
fours greatly to the amusement Of the
crowd. She was soon followed by large
crowd of men and boys, but the police
finding the leak, soon shut down on
them. AS usual. upon such occasions.
tleman had his pocket picked of a wallet
containing two or three hundred dollars
in greenbacks'
IN another part of The Star Of the
same issue is a description of the gen.
eral observance of the day, in part, as
follows:
1.-THE year 1854 opens with bright skies
overhead. but rather muddy underfoot.
The streets are crowded. however, mud
or no, and at the present time of writing
all the Indications are that the day will
be very joyously observed. The prac-
tice of keeping open house. which has
lately fallen into some disuse, seems to
have been fully revived this year. The
superintendent of police this morning
made the following details for special