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 Rnok .g. 5R7 
 
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 V 
 
 Jefferson Davis —Amnesty. 
 
 N THE House of 
 
 -Representatives, 
 Monday, January 10, 1876. ""^J^ 
 
 The House having under consideration the bill [H. R. 214] to remove the disabilities 
 imposed bv the third sectiou of the fourteenth article of the Amendment of the Con- 
 Btitution of the United States, the pending question being on the motion of Mr. Blaine 
 to reconsider the motion by which the bill was repealed. 
 
 ^- 
 
 MR. BLAINI 
 
 ^i 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I rise to a privileged 
 question. I move to reconsider tbe vote 
 which has just been declared. I pro- 
 pose to debate that motion, and now give 
 notice that if the motion to reconsider is 
 agreed to it is my intention to otter the 
 amendment which has been read several 
 times. I will not delay the House to have it 
 read again. 
 
 EVERY TIME THE QUESTION OF AMNESTY 
 
 has been brought before the House by a 
 gentleman on tliat side for the last two Con- 
 gresses, it has been done with a certain 
 flourish of magnanimity which is an impu- 
 tation on iliis side of the Hou.<e, as though 
 the Republican party which has been in 
 charge of the Government for the last twelve 
 or fourteen years had been bigoted, narrow, 
 and illiberal, and as though certain very 
 worthy and deserving gentlemen in the 
 Southern States were ground down to-day 
 under a great t\ ranny and oppression, from 
 which the hard-heartedness of this side of 
 the House cannot possibly be prevailed 
 upon to relieve them. 
 
 If I may anticipate as much wisdom as 
 ought to ch iracterize tliat side of the House, 
 this may be the last time that amnesty will 
 be discussed in the American Congress. I 
 therefore desire, and under the rules of the 
 House, with no thanks to that side for the 
 privilesjje, to place on record just what the 
 Republican party has done in this matter. 
 I wish to place it there as an imperishable 
 record of liberality, and laige-mindedness, 
 and magnanimity, and mercy far beyond 
 any that has ever been shown before in the 
 world's history by conqueror to conquered. 
 
 With the gentleman from i'ennsylvania, 
 [Mr. Randall,] I entered this Cougresa in 
 
 the midst of the hot flame of war, l?l¥6Tfi' me 
 Union was rocking to its foundations, and 
 no man knew whether we were to liave a 
 country or not. I think the gentleman from 
 Pennsylvania would have been surprised 
 when he and I were novices in the Thirty- 
 eighth Congress if he could have foreseen 
 before our joint service ended we should 
 have seen sixty-one gentlemen, then iu arms 
 against us, admitted to equal privileges with 
 ourselves, and all by the grace and magna- 
 nimity of the Republican party. Wlien the 
 war ended, according to the universal linage 
 of nations, the Government, then umier the 
 exclusive control of the Republican pari y, 
 had the right to determine what should bti 
 the political status of the people who had 
 been defeated in war. Did we inaugurite 
 any measures of persecution ? Did we set 
 forth on a career of bloodshed and vengeance t 
 Did we take property ? Did we pruhihit a.'/y 
 man all his civil rights ? Did we take from 
 him the right he enjoys to-day to vote? 
 
 Not at all. But instead of a genera', and 
 sweeping condemnation the Republicf.n par- 
 ty placed in the fourteenth amendment to 
 the Constitution only this exclusion ; ai'ler 
 considering the whole subject it ended iu 
 simply coming down to this ; 
 
 That no p(nsoi) shall be a Senator or Kepre- 
 sentative in Congress, or elector of President 
 and Vice-l'residiMit, or liolil any olMce, civil or 
 military, under the I'uiled States, or under 
 any State, who, hiiving previously taken an 
 oath as a member of Congress, or as :ui ollicer 
 of the Unitetl Slates, , or as u ujeniher ol" any 
 State Legislature, or us an executive or jiuli- 
 cial ofliccr of anv State, to support the Consti- 
 tution of the United States, shall have engaged 
 in Insiu'rectiou or rebellion against the sanu:;, 
 or given aid or conifurt to the enemies there- 
 of. But Congress may, by a vote of two-tjilrtla 
 of each Uoriso, remove such 'lisH,i>iiity, 
 
SPEECH OF HON. J. 0. BLAIWE. 
 
 It ha» been variously estimated that this 
 sectiou at the time of its original, iiisertiou 
 in the Constitution included somewhere from 
 fourteen to thirty thousand persons ; as 
 nearly as I can gather together the facts of 
 tliocase.it included ahout eighte«u thousand 
 men in the South. It let go every man of the 
 hiiudreds of thousands — or milli(>ns if you 
 please— who had been engaged in the attempt 
 to destroy tfeis Government, and only held 
 those under disability who in addition to 
 revolting had violated a special and peculiar 
 and personal oath to support the Constitu- 
 tion of the United Stated. It was limited to 
 that. 
 
 Well, that disability was hardly placed 
 upon the South until we began in this hall 
 and in the other wing of the Capitol, when 
 tliere were more than two-thirds Republicans 
 In both branches, to remit it, and the very 
 first bill took that disability otf from 1,578 
 citizens of the Sc)uth ; and the next bill took 
 it otf' from 3,5l.Hi gentlemen — by wholesale. 
 Many of the gentlemen on this floor ^ame in 
 for grace and amnesty in those two bills. 
 After these bills specifying individuals had 
 passed, and others, of smaller numbers, 
 which I will not recount, the Congress of the 
 United States in 1872, by two-thirds of both 
 branches, still being two-thirJ,s Republican, 
 passed this general law : 
 
 That all political disabilities imposed by the 
 tliird section of the fourtcenlh article of 
 anienclnien<sof the Constitution oftlie Ihiited 
 States are hereby removeil from all persons 
 whouisoever,except Senators ami Uepreseuta- 
 tives of the Tliirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh 
 Congresses, otnc^ers in the judicial, niilitary, 
 and naval service of the United Slates, heads 
 of dei)artinents, and foreign ministers of the 
 United States. 
 
 Since that act passed a very considerable 
 ntimber of the gentlemen which it still l«ft 
 unilor disability have been relieved specially, 
 by name, in separate acts. But 1 believe, 
 Mr. Speaker, in no single instance since the 
 act of May 22, 1872, have the disabilities 
 been taken from any man except upon his 
 respectful petition to the Congress of the 
 United States that they should be removed. 
 And 1 believe in no instance, except one, 
 have they been refused upon the petition 
 being presented. I believe in no instance, 
 except one, has there been any other than a 
 ananimous vote. 
 
 Now, I find there are widely varying 
 opinions in regard to the number 
 
 THAT AKE STILL UNDKR DISABILITIES IN THE 
 SOUTH. 
 
 I have had occasion, by conference with 
 the Department of War and of the Navy, 
 and with the assistance of some records 
 which I have caused to be searched, to be 
 able to state to the House. I believe with 
 more accuracy than it has been stated hith- 
 .jrto, iiiit the number of gentlemen in the 
 
 South slill under disabilities. Those who 
 were officers of the United States army, edu- 
 cated at its own expense at West Point and 
 who joine'd the rebellion, and are still in- 
 cluded under this act, number, as nearly a.'i 
 the War Depaitmeut can figure it up, 325; 
 those in the Navy about 295. Tiiose under 
 the other heads. Senators and Representa- 
 tives of the Thirty-sixth an(i Thirty-seventh 
 Congresses, officers in the judiciary service 
 of the United States, heads of departments, 
 and foreign ministers of the United States, 
 make up a number somewhat more difficult 
 to state accurately, but smaller in the aggre- 
 gate. The whole sum of the entire list is 
 alwut — it is probably impossible to state it 
 with entire accuracy, and I do not attempt 
 to do that — is about 750 persons now under 
 disabilities. 
 
 I am very frank to say that in regard to 
 all these gentlemen, save one, 1 do not know 
 of any reason why amnesty should not bo 
 granted to them as it ha.s been to many others 
 of the same class. I am not here to argue 
 against it. The gentleman from Iowa [Mr. 
 K.^sson] suggests "on their application." I 
 am coming to that. But as 1 have said, see- 
 ing in this list, as I have exaiuined it with 
 some care, no gentleman to whom I think 
 there would be any objection, since amnesty 
 has already become so general — and I am not 
 going back of that question to argu'i it — I am 
 in favor of granting it them. But in the ab- 
 sence of this respectful form of application 
 which since May 22, 1872, has become a sort 
 of common law as preliminary to amnesty, I 
 simply wish to put in that they shall go be- 
 fore a United States Court, and in open 
 court with uplifted hand, swear that they 
 mean to conduct themselves as good citizens 
 of the Unitnd States. That is all. 
 
 Now, gentlemen may say that this is a, 
 foolish exaction. Possibly it is. But some- 
 how or other I have a prejudice in favor of 
 it. And there are some petty points in it 
 that appeal as well to prejudice as to con- 
 viction. For one I do not want to impose 
 citizenship on any gentleman. If I am cor- 
 rectly informed, and I state it only on ru- 
 mor, there are some gentlemen in this list 
 who have spoken contemptuously of the idea 
 of their taking citizenship, and have spoken 
 still more contemptuously of the idea of their 
 applying for citizenship. I may st;ite it 
 wrongly, and if I do I am willing to be cor- 
 rected, but I understand that Mr. Robert 
 Toombs has, on several occasions, at water- 
 ing places both in this country and in Europe, 
 stated that lie 
 
 WOULD NOT ASK, THE UNITED STATES FOR CITI- 
 ZENSHIP. 
 
 Very well, we can stand it about as well 
 as Mr. Robert Toombs can. And if Mr. Rob- 
 ert Toombs is not prepared to go into a court 
 
SPEECH OP HON. J. 0. BLAINE. 
 
 of the United States and swear that he means 
 to be a good citizen, let him stay out. 1 do 
 not think that tlie two houses of Congress 
 'should convert themselves into a joint con- 
 vention for the purpose of embracing Mr. 
 Robert Toombs and gushingly request him 
 to favor us by coming back to accept of all 
 the honors of citizenship. That is t)ie whole. 
 All I ask is that each of these gentlemen 
 shall show his goo<i faith by coming forward 
 and taking the oath which you on that side 
 of the House and we on this side of the 
 House and all of us take and gladly take. 
 It is a very small exaction to make as a pre- 
 liminary to full restoration to all the rights 
 of citizenship 
 
 In my amendment, Mr. Speaker, I have 
 excepted .TefFerson Davis from its operation. 
 Now, I do not place it on the ground that Mr. 
 Davis was, as he has been commonly called, 
 the head and front of the rebellion, because 
 on that ground I do not think the exception 
 would be tenable. Mr. Davis was just as 
 guilty, no more so, no less so, than thou- 
 sands of others who have already received 
 the benefit and grace of amnesty. Probably 
 he was far leas efficient as an enemy of the 
 United States : probal)ly he was far more use- 
 ful as a disturber of the councils of the 
 Confederacy than many who have already 
 received amnesty. It is not because of any 
 particular ami special iamage tliat he above 
 others did to the Union, or because he was 
 piMsonally or especially of consequence, that 
 1 except hiin. But I except him on this 
 ground : that he was the author, knowingly, 
 deliberately, guiltily, and willfully, of the 
 gigantic murders and crimes at Anderson- 
 Tille. 
 
 A Member. And Libby. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. Lihby pales into insignifi- 
 cance before Andersonville. I place it on 
 that ground, and 1 iielieve to-day, that so 
 rapidly does one event follow on I he heels of 
 another in the rapid age in which we live, 
 that even those of us wlio were contempo- 
 raneous with what was transpiring there, 
 and still less those whohave grown up since, 
 fail to remember the gigantic crime then 
 committed. 
 
 Sir, since the gentleman from Pennsylva- 
 nia [Mr. Randall] introduced this bill last 
 month I have taken occasion to reread some 
 of the 
 
 HISTORIC CRPELTIES OF THE WORIJ). 
 
 1 have read over the details of those atro- 
 cious murders of the Duke of Alva in the 
 Low Countries which are always mentioned 
 with a thrill of horror throughout Christ- 
 endom. I h;ive read the details of the 
 massacre of Saint Bartholomew, that stand 
 out in history ms one of those atrocities be- 
 yond imiginatiou. I have read anew the 
 horrors untold and unimaginable of the Span- 
 
 ish Inquisition. And I here before God, 
 measuring my w'lrds, knowing their full 
 extent and import, declare that neither the 
 deeds of the Duke of Alva in the Low Coun- 
 tries, nor the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, 
 nor the thumb-screws and engines of torture 
 of the Spanish Inquisition begin to compare 
 in atroaity with the hideous crime of Ander- 
 sonville. [Applause on the floor and in the 
 galleries.] 
 
 Mr. ROBBINS, of North Carolina. That 
 is an infamous slander. 
 
 The SPEAKER. If such demonstrations 
 are repeated in the galleries the Chair will 
 order them to be cleared. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. Thank God, Mr. Speaker, 
 that while this Congres.=i was under differ- 
 ent control from that which exists here to- 
 day, with a Committee composed of both 
 sides and of both branches, that tale of hor- 
 ror was placed where it cannot be defied or 
 gainsaid. 
 
 I hold in my hand the story written out by 
 a committee of Cf ngress. I state that Wind- 
 er, who is dead, was sent to Andersonville 
 with a full knowledge ot his previous atroci- 
 ties; that these atrocities in Richmond were 
 so fearful, so terrible, that Confederate par- 
 pers, the Richmond Examinfr for one, stated 
 when he was gone that, '"Tbank God, Rich- 
 mond is rid of his presence." We in the 
 North knew from returning skeletons what 
 he had accomplished at Belle Isle and Libby, 
 and fresh from those accomplishments he 
 was sent by Mr. Davis, against the protests 
 of others in the Confederacy, to construct 
 this den of horrors at Andersonville. 
 
 Now, of course it would be utterly beyond 
 the scope of the occasion and beyond the 
 limits ot my hour for me to go into details. 
 But. in jirraigning Mr. I /avis I undertake 
 here to say that I will not ask any gentle- 
 man to take the testimony of a single Union 
 soldier. I ask them to take only the testi- 
 mony of men who themselves were engaged 
 and enlisted in the Confederate cause. And 
 if that testimony does not entirely carry out 
 and justify the declaration I have made, 
 then I will state that I have been entirely in 
 error in my reading. 
 
 AWvr detailing the preparation of that 
 prison, the arrangements made with hideous 
 cruelty for the victims, the report which I 
 hold in my hand, and which was concurred 
 in by Democratic members as well as Repub- 
 lican members of Congress, stales this — and 
 I beg members to hear it, for it is far more 
 impressive than anything I can say. After, 
 I say, giving full details, the report states: 
 
 Thesubsequentliistory of Andersonville has 
 stiirlled iiud shockt'd 1 lie world with 
 
 A TALK OF HORUOK, Of WOE, AND DEATH 
 
 before unheard and uiiknowti to civilization. 
 No pt-n can descrllie, no jiuiiiter sketcli, no 
 imagination comprehend it.i fearful and un- 
 
SPEECH OF HON. J. G. BLAINE. 
 
 ulterable Iniquity. It would seem as if the 
 coiieeiitrateil inatliiess of eartli ami hell had 
 found its liiial lodj^inent in the breast of those 
 wlio inaugurated the rebellion and controlled 
 the jiolicy of the Confederate govern me at, and 
 that the prison at Andersoiiville had been se- 
 lected for ihe most teriible human sacrilice 
 which the world hatl ever seen. Into its nar- 
 row walls were crowiletl thirty-five thousEmd 
 enlieiied me)i, many of them the bravest and 
 best, thii most devoted and heroic of those 
 gi'and armies whicli carried tlie rtag of their 
 country to liiial victory. For long and weary 
 mouihs here they sutl'ered, maddened, were 
 murdered, anil died. Here they lingered, un- 
 aheltered from the burning rays of a tropical 
 sun by day, and droncliing anVl deadly ilews 
 by night, inoverystageof mentaland physical 
 disease, hungered, emaciated, starving, mad- 
 dened; festering with unhealed wounds;gnawed 
 bytlie ravages of scurvy and gangrene; with 
 swollen liml) and distorted visage; covered 
 with vermin wliieh they had no power to ex- 
 tirjjale; exposeit to tlie tloodin'; rains wiiich 
 droi'e them tlrowniug from the miserable 
 holes in whicli, like swine, they burrowetl; 
 pareiuid wiih thirst and mad with hunger; 
 racked witli pain or prostrated with the weak- 
 ness of tlissolution; with naked limbs and 
 matted hair; nil liy with smoke and miad;soiled 
 with the very excrement from which their 
 weakness would not permit them to escape; 
 eaten by the gnawing worms which their own 
 wounds had engeiidoreil; with no Ijeil but the 
 earth: no coveiing save the cloud or the sky; 
 these men, these heroes, born in the image of 
 God, tliuseroucliing and writhing in their ter- 
 riljk^ toil ure and calculating barljarity, stand 
 forth iu history as a monument of thesurpass- 
 ing horrors Of Andersonville as it shall be seen 
 and read in all future lime, realizingin thestud- 
 ied torments of their jirison-house the ideal of 
 Uauie's Inferno and Milton's ilell. 
 
 I undertake to say, from reading the tes- 
 timony, that that is a moderate description. 
 I will read but a single paragrapli from the 
 testimony of Rev. VVilliam John Hamilton, 
 a mau 1 believe who never was in the North, 
 a Catholic priest at Macou. He is a South- 
 ern mau and a Democrat and a ( 'atliolic 
 priest. And when you unite those three qual- 
 ities in one man yon will not find much 
 testimony that would be strained in favor of 
 tile iiepnblican party. [Laughter.] 
 
 This man ha(i gone to Andersonville on a 
 mission of mercy to the men of his own 
 faith, to administer to them the rights of 
 his church iu their last moments. Tliat is 
 why he happened to be a witness. I will 
 read his answer under oath to a question 
 addressed to him in regard to the bodily 
 condition of the prisoners. He said : 
 
 Well, as 1 said before, when I went there I 
 was kept so busily engaged in giving the sa- 
 crament to the ({ying men that l could not 
 observe much; but of course 1 could not keep 
 my eyes closed as to what 1 saw there. 
 
 I SAW A GHKATMANV MBN PEKFKCTLT NAKED. 
 
 Their clothes had been taken from them, 
 as otlier testimony shows — 
 walking about the stockade perfectly nude; 
 they sei!mi'il to have lost all regaril for del- 
 icacy, shame, moralty, or anything else. 1 
 would freqnt-ntly have to creep on luv hands 
 and knees into the holes that the men had 
 burrowed in the ground, and stretch my self out 
 alongside of tli(;iii»to hear tlndr confessions. 
 I found theui almost living In vermin in thoao 
 
 holes; they could not be inany other condition 
 but a filthy one, because they got no soap and 
 no change of clothing, and were there all 
 huddled up together. 
 
 Let me read further from the sam-i witness 
 another specimen : 
 
 The first person 1 conversed with on enter- 
 ing thestoelcade was acountryrnan of mine, a 
 member of the Catholic churcli, wlio recog- 
 nized me as a clergyman. 1 think his name 
 was Farrell. He was from the north of tre- 
 laiid. He came toward me and introduced 
 himself. He was quite a boy; I do noL think, 
 judging from his appearance, that he could 
 have Ijeen more than sixteen years old. L 
 fountl him withouta hat and without any cov- 
 ering on his feet, and without jacket or coat. 
 He LOUl me that his shoes hail been taken 
 from him on the battle-field. 1 found tlie boy 
 sutleriug very much from a wound on his 
 right foot; in fact the foot was split open like 
 an oyster; and on inquiring the cause they 
 toldmoit was from exposure'lo the sun in the 
 stockade, and not from any wound received 
 in battle. 1 took oil" my boots and gave him a 
 pair of socks to cover ills fe.'t and lold him I 
 would bring him some clothing, as 1 e.tpecied 
 to return to Andersonville the loliowiug 
 week. I had to return to Macon to get 
 another priest to take my jiiace on .Sunday. 
 When 1 returned on the following week, on 
 inquiring for this man Farrell, his companions 
 told me he haa stepped across the dead-line 
 and requested the guards to shoot him. He 
 was not insane at the time I was conversing 
 with him 
 
 Now Mr. Speaker, I do not desire to go 
 into such horrible details as these for any 
 purpose of arousing bad feeling. 1 wish 
 only to say that th*) man wlio administered 
 the atfairs of that prison went there by order 
 of Mr. Davis, was sustained by him; and 
 this William John Hamilton, from whose 
 testimony I have read, states here that he 
 went to Greneral Howell Cobb, commau ling 
 that department, and asked that intelligeuoe 
 as to the condition of atfairs there be trans- 
 mitted to the Confederate government at Rich- 
 mond. For the matter of that, there are a 
 great many proofs to sliow that Mr. Davis 
 was thoroughly informed as to liie condition 
 of affairs at Amiersouville. 
 
 One word more and I shall lay aside thi.s 
 Ijook. When the march of General Sher- 
 man, or some other invasion of that portion 
 of the country, was under way, there was 
 danger, or supposed danger, that it might 
 come into the neighborhood of Anderson- 
 ville ; and the following order — to which I 
 invite the attention of the. House — a regular 
 military order — order No. 13, dated, head- 
 quarters Confederate dtatt-s military prison, 
 Andersonville, July 27, 1S64, was issued by 
 Brigadier-General John H. Winder: 
 
 The officers on duty and in charge of the 
 battery of Florida artillery at the lime will, 
 upon receiving notice that the enemy have 
 approached within seven miles of this post, 
 
 OPEN FIBE UPON THKSrOCKADB WITU OBArB-SHOT 
 
 without reference to the situation beyond 
 these lines of ilefense. 
 
 No^r, here were the«ie 35,000 poor, help- 
 less, naked, starving, sickened, dying ineu. 
 
SPEECH 09 HON. J. G. BLAlNf. 
 
 This Catholic priest states that h« begged 
 Mr. Cobb to represent tliat if they could not 
 exchaage those men, or could not relieve 
 theiu iu any other way, they should be taken 
 to the Union lines iu Florida and paroled; 
 for they were shadows, they were skeletons. 
 Yet it was declared by a regular order of 
 Mr. Davis' officer that if the Union forces 
 should come within seven miles the battery 
 of Florida artillery should open fire with 
 grape-shot on these poor, helpless men, 
 without the slighest possible regard to what 
 was going on outside. 
 
 Now I do not arraign the Southern people 
 for this. God forbid. that i should charge 
 any people with sympathizing with such 
 things. Thei'e were many evidences of 
 great uneasiness among the Southern peo- 
 ple about it ; and one of the great crimes of 
 Jefferscn Davis was that besides conniving 
 at and producing that condition of things, 
 he concealed it from the Southern people. He 
 labored not only to conceal it, but to make 
 false statements about it. We have obtained, 
 atnd have now in the Congressional Library, 
 a complete series of Mr. Davis' messages — 
 the ollicial imprint from Richmond. I have 
 looked over them, and I li,ave here an extract 
 from his message of No*«»fmber 7, 1864, at 
 the very time that these horrors were at 
 their acme. Mark you, when those horrors 
 of which I have read specimens were at 
 their extremesi verge of desperation, Mr. 
 Davis sends a 
 
 MESSAGE TO THE C0NFEDERA.TE CONGRESS 
 
 at Richmond, in which he says : 
 
 The solicitude of the Government for the 
 relief of our captive fellow-citizens has known 
 no abatement, but litis on the contrary been 
 still more <leeply evoked by the additional 
 sufferings to which they have been wantonly 
 subjected by deprivation of adequate food, 
 clothing, and fuel, which Ihev were not even 
 permitted to purchase from the prison sutler. 
 
 And he adds that the — 
 
 Enemy attempted to excuse their barbarous 
 treatment by the unfounded allegation that 
 it was retaliatory for like conduct on our part. 
 
 Now I undertake here to say that there is 
 not a Confederate soldier now living who 
 has any credit as a man in his community, 
 and who ever was a prisoner in the hands of 
 the Union forces, who will say that he ever 
 was cruelly treated ; that he ever was de- 
 prived of the same rations that the Union 
 soldiers had — the same food and the same 
 clothing. 
 
 Mr. COOK. Thousands of them say it — 
 thousands of them ; men of as high character 
 as any iu this House. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. I take issue upon that. 
 There is not one who can substantiate it — not 
 one. As for measures of retaliation, although 
 goaded by this terrific treatment of our 
 friends imprisoned by Mr. Davis, the Senate 
 gf the United States specifically refused to 
 
 pass a resolution of rftaliatiun, as contraiy 
 to modern civilization and the liist ]irec<pts 
 of Christi.inity. And there was no retalia- 
 tion attempted or justified. It was n fused ; 
 an<l Mr. Davis knew it was refused ju t as 
 well as I knew it or any other man, because 
 what took place in \\ ashington or what U" k 
 place in Kiclimond was known on eitlier side 
 of the line within a day or two thereafter. 
 Mr. Speaker, this is 
 
 NOT A PROPOSITION TO PUNISH JEFFERSON DAVIS. 
 
 There is nobody attempting that. I will very 
 frankly say that I myself thought the indict- 
 ment of Mr. Davis at Richmond, under the 
 administration of Mr. Johnson, was a weak 
 attempt, for he was indicted only for that 
 of which he was guilty in common with all 
 others who went into the Confederate move- 
 ment. Therefore, there was no particular 
 reason for it. But I will undertake to say 
 this, and, as it may be considered an extreme 
 speech, I want to say it with great delibera- 
 tion, that there is not a government, a civi- 
 lized government, on the face of tlie globe — 
 I am very sure there is not a European gov- 
 ernment—that would not have arrested Mr. 
 Davis, and when they had him in their power 
 would not have tried him for maltreatment 
 of the prisoners of war and shot him within 
 thirty days. France, Russia, England, Ger- 
 many, Austria, any one of them would have 
 done it. The poor victim Wirz deserved his 
 death for brutal treatment, and murder of 
 many victims, but I always thought it was a 
 weak movement on the part of our Govern- 
 ment to allow Jefferson Davis to go at large 
 and hang Wirz. I confess I do. Wirz was 
 nothing in the world but a mere subordinate, 
 a tool, and there was no special reason for 
 singling him out for death. I do not say he 
 lid not deserve it — he did richly, amply, 
 tuUy. He deserved no mercy, but at the same 
 time, as I have often said, it seemed like 
 skipping over the president, superintendent, 
 and board of directors in the case of a great 
 railroad accident and hanging the brakeman 
 of the rear car. [Laughter.] 
 
 There is no proposition here to punish 
 .fefferson Davis. Nobody is seeking to do it. 
 That time has gone by. The statute of limi- 
 tations, common feelings of humanity, will 
 supervene for his benefit. But what you 
 ask us to do is to declare by a vote of two- 
 thirds of both branches of Congress that we 
 consider Mr. Davis worthy to fill the highest 
 offices in the United States if he can get a 
 constituency to indorse him. He is a voter; 
 he can buy and he can sell ; he can go and 
 he can come. He is as free as any man in the 
 United States. There is a large list of sub- 
 ordinate offices to which he is eligible. This 
 bill proposes, in view of that record, that 
 Mr. Davis, by a two-thirds vote of the Sen- 
 ate and a two-thirds vote of the House, be 
 
SPEECH OP SON. BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 declared eligible and worthy to fill any office 
 up to the Presidency of the United States. 
 For one, upon full deliberation, I will not do 
 it. 
 
 One word more, Mr. Speaker, in the way 
 of detail, which I omitted. It has often been 
 said in mitigation of Jefferson Davis in the 
 Audersouville matter that the men who died 
 there in such large numbers (I think the 
 victims were about fifteen thousand) fell prey 
 to an epidemic, and died of a disease which 
 could nut be averted. The record shows 
 
 THAT OUT OK 35,000 MEN ABOUT '63 PER CENT. 
 DIED, 
 
 that is, one in three, while of the soldiers 
 encamped near by to take care and guard 
 them only one man in four hundred die<i ; 
 that is, within half a mile only one in four 
 hundred died. 
 
 As to the general question of amnesty, Mr. 
 Speaker, as I have already said, it is too late 
 to debate it. It has gone by. Whether it 
 has in all respects been wise, or whether it 
 has been unwise, I would not detain the 
 House here to discuss. Even if I had a strong 
 conviction upon that question, I do not know 
 that it would be productive o-f any great good 
 to enunciate it ; but, at the same time, it is 
 a very singular spectacle that the Repul)li- 
 cin parry, in possession of the entire Grov- 
 ernmeut, have d diberately called back into 
 political power the leading men of the South, 
 every one of whom turns up its bitter and 
 relentless and malignant; foe ; and to-day, 
 
 from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, tha 
 very men who have received this amnesty 
 are as busy as they can be in consolidating 
 into one compact political organization 
 
 THE OLD SLAVE STATES, 
 
 just as they were before the war. We see the 
 banner held out blazoned again with the in- 
 scription that with the united South and a 
 very few votes from the North this country 
 can be governed. I want the people to un- 
 dei'stand that is precisely the movement ; 
 that that is the animus and the intent. I do 
 not tliink ofiering amnesty to the seven hun- 
 dred and fifty men who are now without it will 
 hasten or retard that movement. I do not 
 think the granting of amnesty to Mr. Davis 
 will liasten or retard it, or that refusing it 
 will do either. 
 
 1 hear it said, "Wo will lift Mr. Davis 
 again into great consequence by refusing 
 amnesty." That is not for me to consider ; 
 1 only see before me, when his name is pre- 
 sented, a man who by a wink of his eye, by 
 a wave of his hand, by a nod of his head, 
 
 COULD HAVE STOPPKD THE ATKOCITY AT ANDEtt- 
 SONVILLE. 
 
 Some of us had kinsmen there, most of lis 
 had friends there, all of us had countrymen 
 there, and in the name of those kinsmen, 
 friends, and countrymen I here protest, and 
 shall with my vote protest, against their 
 calling back and crowning with the honors 
 of full American citizenship the man who 
 organized that murder. 
 
 3PEE0H OF HON. BENJAMIN H. HILL, 
 
 OP GEORGIA, 
 
 lu llie House of ReDresentatives, Tuesday, JaniiaiT 11, 1876. 
 
 Mr. HILL said: 
 
 ♦ »»»»♦«*» 
 
 I arlvance directly to that portion of the 
 gentlernun's ar/Lfument which relates to tlie 
 qnestion before tlie House. The gentleman 
 from Pennsylvania [Mr. Randall] lias pre- 
 sented to this House, anel he asks it to adoyit, 
 a bill on the subject of amnesty which is jn-e- 
 cisely tlie same us the bill passed in this 
 House by the gent lem;i:i's own party, as I un- 
 derstand it, at the hist session of Conjjress. 
 The gemU'imm from Alaine bus moved a 
 reconsi<ier:irion of the vote by which it was 
 reject('<l, avowing iiis pnriiose to he to otter 
 an luiiendmeut. The uv.un purpose of that 
 amendiuciit is to excevU from theoperation of 
 the bill one of the citizens of this country, Mr. 
 Jelferson Davis. 
 
 He ailefce.s two distinct reasotis why he 
 asks the House to make that exception. 1 
 will state those reasons in the gentleman's 
 own language. First, he says, "Mr. Davis was 
 the a\itiror, knowinglv, deliberately, guiltilj', 
 and wdlfully, of the gigantic murder and 
 crime at Aiuiersonville." That is a grave in- 
 dictment. H(! then characLtn-izes in his sec- 
 ond position what he calls the horrors of An- 
 dersonville. 
 ««**♦»»♦»*» 
 
 8ir, he stands befoi-e the country witli his 
 very fame in peril If he, having inade such 
 cUaryes, shall not sustain them. Xow 1 take 
 
 J lUUUUUJj 
 
 up the propositions of the gentleman in 
 their or<ler, I hope no gentleiuitn imag- 
 ines that 1 am here to pass in euiogv upon 
 Mr. Davis. » # ♦ » ♦ \i^^^ ^^^ 
 charge is that he isa murderer, ami a deliber- 
 ate, willful, guilty, scheming mnrflerer of 
 "thousands of our fellow citizens." Why, sir, 
 knowing the character of the honorable gen- 
 tleman trom Maine, his high reputation, when 
 1 heard the charge fall from his lips, 1 thought 
 surely tlie gentleman had made a recent (lis- 
 covery, and I listened for the evidence to jus 
 tify tiiat charge. He protiuced it; and what 
 was it? To mv utter amazement, as the gen- 
 tleman from Pennsylvania (Mr Kbllkv) has 
 well stated it is nothing on earth but a report 
 of a committee of this Congross, made when 
 passions were at their height, and it was 
 known to the gentleman and to the whole 
 countrv eight years ago. 
 
 Now,"l say first, in relation to that testimony, 
 that it is exclusively ex parte. It was taken 
 when the gentleman who is now put upon 
 trial by it before the country was imprisoned 
 ancl in chains, without a hearing and without 
 an opportunity to be heard. It was taken by 
 enemies. It was taken in the midst of fury 
 and rage. If there is anything in Anglo-Saxon 
 law which ought to be considered sacred, it is 
 the high privilege of an Englishman not to l)e 
 condemned until he shall be confronted with 
 the witnesses against him. But that is not uM, 
 
SPSEOH OF HON. BEKJAMIN U..MILL. 
 
 ^^^'?"Y-."foreu«'mie' o It least lakJn by 
 proiluctioii or eumiiies, oi u but the testi- 
 
 ?hen., ana in VjfX d in Je^ousl y mutikUed, 
 ^r^^',.?^ "?,m Kte.\ Tosr adroitly mu- 
 
 ^?t1,rtion called to it^by the^geutl^e.nan.^ 
 
 autuovitios to i^'ve^^ugate the «on^^^^^^^^ 
 
 Jones says: „ ,„,„,i tho report, wbieti I 
 "1 had just coTTiple^ted tbe repo'^^ ^^ 
 
 ^'"'■l-' hcV leave to mak« a statement tx. the 
 
 xiie ',',,,, tiip oHicers present at Anuei- 
 ^"i^^body with my report It a^o^^^^l 
 I'^^.^-'wiuie d Dr "teven.on, and other. 
 
 ?{;f;ii::;u^r^le;^t^!«nr;^:^:\^eiretr.rt.to 
 better the condition of thuisrs. 
 
 SresUor^'i^'e'^yonrconclu.ions correctly 
 
 ''V'':l\'^v"'">art'ofmvconelnMonsarest,ated 
 
 not Cwho^e A portion of my conclnBions 
 
 Xiu" "auo my recommenUatioas, are not 
 
 -^■^H^^(:^li^c^rl,V;^u^^^gIi:alreportr- 
 \ urriiiq is ,nv ori^'inal report. 
 That fs he imd there the extract as far as It 
 
 ^f/'^'^Oid von make this extract yourself T" 
 ^•he comSee seem to suspect t\.Ht he was 
 
 the man that simply m?'^« * ® ^^J^w here 
 brou"-ht it before the committee. Mow, ncie 
 
 JMV^.u'not.^ My original r;eport is in the 
 
 ^Aud'^lmf committee of Congress to which 
 th'e'ent. 'man defers ar.solntely tells us that 
 VlUsHnntilated report was the o"« 'ntroduce I 
 In evidence iiP^i-Jst this man VV uz, and It is 
 
 ^''^o"rT^rn7to'ca?."aU^nti<l;r,'oanotherex- 
 
 p'anv snoh omissions; 1 have not been able to 
 « Dr^'jonei'Tn his report, is giviuif an account 
 
 ^Arrrif^e^^ l-a^^fenrys?ri"^oY-^ 
 *H>4urrounded by these depressing agents 
 
 Government depressed then .^^'^ '^f'^,' >','■( f^Pand 
 ing spirits, and '^esti'oyed thos.. nientiu an i 
 niSr./; energies so necessa^jo^s^^ 
 
 f,^^: a^adi^:pi::;l;^n;n^ mental .lepre^ 
 sion an.l distress, '{tt^n'l'^^VJh. 'ie ire leU tl 
 for an apparently l"?P«lf^%\fi'^,testruclion of 
 ^^^ ^^IL^^""^ '^^^^^ Of ac. 
 tual disease." »»»«♦»* 
 
 Ifnder military 'lespotism; cim«>;«^,X" of 
 under duress; and MUite a huge numue^ 
 Confederates were seeking to make lavui 
 
 w°th the powers of the ^^or'.'Vnf all tl.t 'wit'- 
 during tliose three months, wUli all the wu 
 nesses they could bring to Wash ngton "Ol 
 or,e single man ever mentioned the name oi 
 Ml^ Davis in connection with a single atiocity 
 at Andersonville or «l>^.ewhere ^,,,,,ect 
 
 ■wr.vir «ir there is a witness on this snnjei-L. 
 
 sB£ss3r=i!f^:;^|So?r^r 
 
 ment to the country, and It has never 
 
 mmimm 
 
 ?onv?Ue his sentence would be. eoniimited 
 The'^messenger vequosted me to ^J^fomi Wue 
 
 ^i^^^ex^ml^r^l^'^.^I^i^a^-P^-^-" 
 ^,^1^ ^I^'rslmply a^d quieUy i^ied: 
 
 1 'ine as'to wilat was done ^t And^^^ >^- J. 
 ' would not become a traitor a^'","^^ 
 anybody el«e even to save my life! 
 ^1-, wViat Wirz, ^^thin two .hours of his ^ x 
 
 renerson Davis to Andersonville ^ "f ' *^ 
 With these atrocities b J inference. ^ ^ , 
 
SPEECH Ob' HON. BilNJAMIN H. HlLL. 
 
 of tlie Confederat«i Congress on that subject; 
 It wa.H very simple, and directed: "The nitions 
 fumitshed prisoners fiC war shall hf the same 
 lu ipiaiitity and quality as tliose furnislied to 
 enlisted men in tlie ariuy of tlie Cout'ederacy.'' 
 
 Tliat was the jaw; that was the law Mr. 
 Davis aj)i)rovt;d, and that wastlie law that he, 
 so far as Ills agency was concerned, executed. 
 
 Tlie gentleman in his siieech has gone so far 
 as lo say that Mr. Liavis iiui-posely sent Gen- 
 eral Wiiulcrto Andersoiiville to organize a 
 den or Iioitois and kill Federal soldiers. 1 do 
 not (J note exactly his langnage, Imt I know it 
 is ''to organize a den of horroi's;"' hut lam 
 yiire I eahiiot use any laiiftua^vs more hitter 
 tliaii the gentleman liseil liimself. 1'lierefore 
 the next thing I will read is the order given 
 for tiK' jmrpose of locating this prison at An- 
 ciersonville, or wherever it should he properly 
 located. The oflieinl order for the location of 
 tlie slocl,;ale enjoins that it should he in a 
 "health \' locality, \\itli plenty of tiure water, 
 with a r'linaing stream, and, if possilile, with 
 shade trees, and in tlie immediate neiglihor- 
 IkxxI oi grisi and saw mills." That does not 
 jook like the organization of a den of horrors 
 to comniil murder. Tliat was the ollleial or- 
 der. That was not all. These prisoners at 
 Aiiderr.'OnviIle were not only allowed the 
 rations nieasure<l out to Uoiifederale soldiers, 
 holli In i|iiantiiy and quality in every re- 
 .speet. hut they were allowed also to buy as 
 Timeh ontsiileas they desirt^d; a privile"ge, I 
 am relialily informed, which was not ex- 
 tended to many of the Confederate prisoners. 
 1 do not know liow that is. 
 *********** 
 
 T!ie Confederate Government gave Federal 
 prisoners the same rations that Confederate 
 soldiiT>< in the iield received. Federal ])rison- 
 ers hud iierinission to buy whatever else tliey 
 jjleasfd, and the Confederates gave their 
 friemlsat lionie permission to furnish them 
 the means to do so. And \'e1. Mr. Speaker, it 
 jslriiethat, in siiite of all these advantages 
 enjoyed by these prisoners, there were lior- 
 rors, and" grt^at horrors, at Andersonville. 
 What w ere the causes of those liorrors? The 
 thsi w as want of medicdne. » * * 
 
 Now, how was it that medicines and other 
 essential supplies could not be obtained? Un- 
 fortunately they were not in the Confederacy. 
 The Federal Government made medicine coii- 
 trahand of war. 
 
 The Feileral Government made clothing con- 
 traband of war. It sent down its armies and 
 they burned up the faetoiMrs of the South 
 wherever they could lind them, for the ex- 
 piess purpose of preventing the Confederates 
 from (urnishing clothes to their soldiers, and 
 the Federal prisoners of eoui-seshareil this de- 
 privation of comfortable clothing. It was 
 the \var policy of the Federal Government to 
 make sii|)i>lies scarce. * * * 
 
 Now, then, sir, wliatevei- horrors existed at 
 AndeisouviIli\ not one of them could be at- 
 tnibuted loa single act of legislation of the 
 Confederate (i!o\'eriiment. or to a single order 
 of the Confederate Cxovernment, Ijut every 
 honor of Ainlersonville grcnv out of the neces- 
 sities of the occasion, which iiecessiti(^s were 
 cast upon the (Jonfetleraey by the war policy 
 of the other side. The gen"tlenian from iVIaine 
 said that no Con fi'derate prisoner was ever 
 iiialtreated in the North. And when my frienil 
 answered from his seat "a thousand witnesses 
 to the cond'aryin Georgia aloi\e," the gentle- 
 man from Maine joined issue, but as usual pro- 
 dne-'d no test itiiony in su |iport of his Issue. 1 
 tiiiiik the gentlenran from .Maine is tolie ex- 
 cused. For ten years unfortunately he and his 
 hav(^ been n^viling the people wlio were not 
 allo\\ed tocome liere to meet the reviling. 
 Now, sir, we are face to face, and when you 
 make u charge you must bring ycmr proof. 
 Thfc tluie lias passed wheu the couutry can ac- 
 
 cept the impudence of assertion for the force 
 of argument, or recklessness of statement for 
 the truth of history. 
 
 Now, sir, 1 do notVlsh to unfolil the chapter 
 on the other siile. I an'ian American. Ihonor 
 my country, and my whole country, and it 
 could be no pleasure "to me to bring forward 
 proof that any portion of my countrymen 
 have been guilty of willful mur(ler or ofcruel 
 treatment to poor manacled prisoners. Nor 
 will I make any sucli charge. Tiiese horrors 
 are inseparable, many of them and most of 
 them, from a state of war. I hold in my hand 
 a letter written by one who was a surgeon at 
 the prison at Flmira, and he says: 
 
 "The winter of 1*)4. 1S(!5, was "an unusually 
 severe an<l rigid one, and the prisoners arriv- 
 ing from the Southern States during this sea- 
 son were mostly old men and lads, clothed in 
 attire suitable" only tothegmiial climate of 
 the South. I need not state to you that this 
 aloni! was ample cause for an unusual mortal- 
 ity among them. The suiroumlings were of 
 the following nature, namely: narrow, con- 
 fined limits, but a few acres in "extent" — 
 
 And Andersouville, sir, embraced twenty- 
 seven acres — 
 
 "and through which slowly flowed a turhid 
 stream of water, carrying along with it all tlie 
 excremcntal filth and debris of the cauiii; this 
 stream of watei-, horrible to relate, was the 
 only source of supply, for an extemled period, 
 that the prisoners could possibly use for the 
 jmrpose of ablution and to slake their thirst 
 from day to day; the tents and other shelter 
 allotted to the camp at Klmira were insutli- 
 cient ami crowded to the utmost extent; 
 hence small-pox and other skin diseases raged 
 through the camp. 
 
 "Here 1 inav note that, owing to a general 
 order from the Government to vaccinate the 
 prisoners, my opportunities were ample to 
 observe tlie elfects of spurious and diseased 
 matter, and there is no doubt in my mind l;ut 
 that syphilis was ingrafted in man5"' instances; 
 ugly and horriljl- ulcers and eruptions of a 
 characteristic nature were, alas! too fre- 
 quent and obvious to be mistaken. Small-pox 
 cases were ciowc^ed in sucli a manner that it 
 was a matter of imi^ossibility for the surgeon 
 to treat his pat lent individually; they actually 
 laiil so adjacent that the simi>l(; movement of 
 one would cause bis nciiihbor to ci-y out in an 
 agony of pain. The continent and malignant 
 type )iievail(Hl to such an extent and of sneh 
 a nature that the body would freixuenlly be 
 found one continuous seal). 
 
 "The diet and other allowances by the Gov- 
 ernment for the use of the prisoners wei'e am- 
 ple, yet the poor unfortunates were allowed 
 to starve." 
 
 Now, sir,the Confederate regulations author- 
 izetl ample provision for Federal prisoners, 
 the same that was inad(! for Confederate sol- 
 diers, and you charge that Mr. Davis is respon- 
 sible for not ha\ing those allowances hon- 
 estly suiiplied. The United States made pro- 
 vision for Confederates jirisoners, so far as ra- 
 tions were concerned, for feeding those in 
 Federal hands; and yet ^\ hat says the sur- 
 geon? "They were allowed to starve." 
 
 "I!ut 'why?' is a cfnery which 1 will allo<V 
 your readers to infer auil to draw conclusions 
 theri'fiom. t»ut of the nundier of prisoners, 
 as before mentioned, viver three *l)ou.san<l ot 
 them now lay bviried in this cemetery located 
 near the cani)) for tliat purpose — a inoitaiity 
 ecjual if not greater t lian that of any jirisou in 
 the South. At Andersouville, as 1 am well in 
 fornieil by lirother ollieers who endured con- 
 Jiuenient then?, as well as by the records at 
 Washington, the mortality \vas twelve thou- 
 sand out of, say, foity thousand ]>risoners. 
 iience it is readily to be seen that the range 
 of mortality was "no less at Elmira tlmu at An- 
 dersouville." 
 
gpy.ficfi (3f fioM. lmjamin h. mill. 
 
 j'Mr. ri,AT'r AVili llKjyciiileman allow iiio 
 to iiili^i riipt iiim a iiioiuent toask him where 
 be fi(!ts tliat statement? 
 
 ]\fr. UILL. It iM the statement of a Federal 
 surgeon publislied in tlie New York ITorW. 
 
 Mr. I'l.ATT. I desire to say that 1 live 
 within tliirty-six miles of Klmira, and that 
 those stateuients are unqualifledlj- false. 
 
 Mr. HILL. Yos, and I suppose if one rose 
 tVoin the dead the gentleman would not be- 
 lieve him. 
 
 Mr. I'LATT. Does the gentleman say that 
 those statements are true? 
 
 Mr. IHLL. Ceitainly I do not say that they 
 are true, Imt I do say that I believe tlie state- 
 ment ol* the snrgeoii in charge before that of a 
 politician thirty-sixmilesaway. ♦ * * Now 
 I call the attention of gtMitlenien to this fact, 
 that the report of Mr. Stanton, the Secretary 
 of War— you will believe him, will you not? — 
 on the iOth of July, 18(;i) — send to the Library 
 and get it— exhibits the fact that of the Fed- 
 eral prisoners in Confederate hands during the 
 war only 2-2,.57() died, while of the Confederate 
 prisoners in Federal hands 2(!,436 died. And 
 Surgeon-General IJarnos reports, in an otticial 
 reixirt — 1 suppose you will uelieve him — that, 
 in round numbers, the Confederate prisoners 
 ill Federal hands amounteil to 'iiO.OUO, while 
 the Federal prisoners in Confederate 
 hands amounted to 270,IX>0. Out of 
 the 270.000 in Confederate hands 22- 
 000 died, while of the 220,000 Confed 
 erates in Federal hands over 2(>,000 died. 
 The ratio is this: More than 12 per cent, of 
 the Confederates in Federal hands died, and 
 less than 9 i)er cent, of the Federals in Con- 
 federate hands died. ^ hat is the logic of 
 these facts according to the gentleman from 
 Maine? 1 scorn to charge murder upon tlie 
 officials of northern prisons, as the gentleman 
 has done upon Confederate prison officials. 1 
 labor to demonsl rate that such miseries are 
 inevitable in prison life, no matter how hu- 
 mane the regulations. 
 
 ♦ #*#»•♦«♦» 
 
 But the great question is behind. Every 
 American, North or South, must lament that 
 our country has ever im])eachofl its civiliza- 
 tion by such an exhibition of horrors on any 
 side, and I speak of these thino;s Avith no de- 
 gree of pleasure. God knows if I could hide 
 them from the view of the world I would 
 gladly do it. i'.nt the greatquestiou is, at last, 
 who was responsilile for this state of things? 
 And that is really the only material question 
 with which statesmen now shoulfl deal. Sir, 
 it is well known that, when the war opened, 
 at first the authorities of the United States 
 determined that tliey would not exchange 
 prisoners. The first" prisoners captured by 
 the Federal forces were the crew of the Sav- 
 annah, and they were put in chains and sen- 
 tenced to be executed. Jefferson Davis liear- 
 ingofthis, comnlunicated through the lines 
 and the Confederates having meanwhile also 
 captured prisoners, he threatenefl retaliation 
 in ease those men sutfered, and the sentences 
 avainst the crew of the Savannah were not 
 executed. Subsequently ourfriends fromthis 
 way, * * » insisted tiiat there should be a 
 cartel for the exchange of prisoners. In 18(i2 
 that (!art(d was agree^l upon. In substance 
 and briefly it was that there should be an ex- 
 change of niau for man and officer for officer, 
 and whichever held an excess at the time of 
 exehangc should iiarole the excess. This 
 worked" very w ell until 1803. 
 ♦ »**♦*»♦*»» 
 
 In lS63tbis cartel was interrupted; the Fed- 
 eral iiutlioriti(;s refused to eonlinne the ex- 
 change. * » » * This I say frankly to the 
 gentlemen on the other side, was in truth one 
 of the severest blows stricken at the Con- 
 federacy, this refusal to exchange prisoners 
 In 1803 and continued through 1864. The 
 
 Confederates made every effort to renew the 
 cartel. Among other things, on the 2d of 
 July, 18fi:5, the Vice-President of the Confed- 
 eracy, the gentleman to whom the gentleman 
 from Maine, (Mr. Ulaink,) alluded the other 
 day in so complimentary terms, Mr. Alexander 
 H. "Stephens, was absolutely conimissioned i)y 
 President Davis to cross the lines and come to 
 Washington to consult with the Federal au- 
 thorities, with a broad commission to agree 
 upon any cartel satisfactory to the other side 
 for the e"xchange of prisoners. Mr. Davis said 
 to him, "Y'our mission is simplx' one of hu- 
 manity, and has no politieal aspect." Mr. 
 Stephens undertook that work. What was 
 the result? I wish to be careful, and 1 will 
 state this exactly correctly. Here is bis letter: 
 
 CONFEDEKATK STATES StBA.MEII TORI'UDO, 
 
 In James Ilivtsr, July -1, h^OS. 
 
 Str: As military commissioner, 1 am the 
 hearer of a comniunicatlon in writing from 
 Jetlerson Davis, Comman<Ier-iii-Chief of the 
 ■land and naval forces of the Confederate 
 States, to Abraham Lincoln, Comnian<ler-in- 
 Chief of the land and naval forces of the 
 United States. Hon. Kobert Ould, Confed- 
 erate Statesagent of exchange, accompanies 
 me as secretary, for the purpo>-e of deliver- 
 ing the comni'unieation in pi'i-son and con- 
 ferring upon the subject to whieh it relates. 
 I desire to proceed to Washington in the 
 steamer Torpedo, conimande<l by Lieutenant 
 Hunter Davidson, of the Confederate States 
 navy, no person lieing on board but Hon. Mr. 
 Oulil, myself, and the botit's officers and, crew. 
 Yours, most respectfully. 
 A LUX. H. Stkfuens. 
 To S. H. Leb, Admiral. 
 
 This was directed to S. H. Lee, admiral. 
 Here is the answer : 
 Acting Ivcar-Admiral f^.Tl.f.-aT:,H(impfonRoads: 
 
 The request of Alexander II. Stephens is in- 
 admissible. * * * 
 
 Gideon Wei,ls, 
 Seoretary of Nary. 
 
 You will acknowledge that Mr. Stephens' 
 humane mission failed. The Confederate au- 
 thorities gave to that mission as much dig- 
 nitv and cliaraeter as possible. » * » The 
 Federal Government would not even receive 
 him ; the Federal authorities would not hear 
 him. 
 
 What was the next eflbrt? After Mr. Ste- 
 phens" mission failed, and after the com- 
 missioner for the exchange of prisoners. Colo- 
 nel Ould, havingexhaustedallhisetlortsto get 
 the cartel renewed, on the 21th Januai-y, 18(i4, 
 wrote the following letter to Major-General E. 
 A. Hitchcock, agent of exchange on the Fed- 
 eral side. 
 
 Confederate States of AsrEKiCA, 
 
 vVAn Dkpautmf.nt, 
 RK!HM0nd, Vtrointa, .lanuary 24, 1864. 
 
 Str: In view of the present dithenlties at- 
 tending the exchange :ind release of prison- 
 ers, I propose that all such on either side shall 
 be attended by a proper number of their own 
 surgeons, ^ho, nuiler rules to be estal>lisbed, 
 shall be permitted to take charge of their 
 health and comfort. I also propos<' that these 
 surgeousshallactascommissaries, with power 
 to i-eceive and distribute such conti ibntions 
 of money, food, clothing, and medicines, as 
 may lie forwarded for the reliid" of the i»rison- 
 ers. I further propose that these surgeons 
 shall be selected bv their own Goveiniiient, 
 and that they shall have full liberty, at any 
 and all times, through the agiMils of exchange, 
 to make reports, not only of their own acts, 
 but of any matters relating to the welfare of 
 the i)risoners, 
 
 Uespectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 liOHKltT OVILD, 
 
 Atrent of Exchange. 
 Major General E. A. HiTcncocK, 
 
 Agent of Exchange. 
 
10 
 
 Si»jbSich op son. beKjamin h. hill. 
 
 The SPEAKER. TheUourof thegeutleman 
 lias oxplrert, 
 
 Mr. JtANDALL. Imove tliegcntleinanfrom 
 Gcoi-fjia Vie allowed to proceed. » » * » * 
 
 There was no objection. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. I believe the jfentlemaii from 
 Georgia [Mr. Hill] wa.s a menilier of the Con- 
 federate Senate. I And in a historical book of 
 gome authenticity of character that in the 
 Confederate Congress, Senator Hill, of Geor- 
 gia, introduced the following resolution, relat- 
 lug to prisoners 
 
 Mr. HILL. Vou are putting me on trial 
 now, are yon ? Go ahead. 
 
 Mr. IJLAINE. This is the resolution : 
 
 "That every rier.son pretending to he a sol- 
 dier or ottlcer of the United States who shall 
 be capinred on the soil of the Confederate 
 States after the 1st day of January, lSfi3, shall 
 be presumed to have entei-ed the territory of 
 the Con fcflerate States with tlie intent to in- 
 cite insurrection and abet murder: and, un- 
 ie.ss satisfactoi-y proof be. adduei^d to the con- 
 trary before the military court before which 
 the trial shall be had, shall surfer death. Thi.s 
 section .sjliall continue in force -until the proc- 
 lamation issued by Abraham Lincoln, dated 
 at Washington on the '2-2d day of Septemlwr, 
 186-2, shall be rescinded, ami the policy tlierein 
 announced shall bo abainloned, and no lon- 
 ger." 
 
 7r-»**-»-»*.»# 
 
 Mr. HILL. » » » My own Impression 1« 
 that I was not the author; but Ido not pie- 
 tend to recollect the circumstance.^. If the 
 gentleman can give me the circumstances un- 
 der which tlie resoUition was int reduced they 
 might recall the matter 1o inv mind. 
 
 Mr. BLA IN E. Allow me to' read further: 
 
 "Octolier 1, 18(i'2.— The judiciary Committee 
 of the Confederate Congress made a report and 
 offered a set of resolutions upon tUesubject of 
 President Lincoln's proclamation, from which 
 the following are extracts : 
 
 "2. Every white person who shall act as m, 
 commissioned or non-coommissioned officer, 
 commanding negroes or mulattoes against the 
 Confederate States, or who shall arm. organ- 
 ize, train or prepare negroes or mulattoes tor 
 military service, or aid them In any military 
 enterprise against the Confederate States, 
 shall, if captured, sutfer death. 
 
 "a. Every commissioned or non-commis- 
 sioned officer of the enemy who shall incite 
 slaves to rebellion, or pretend to give tliein 
 freedom under the aforementioned actof Con- 
 gress and proclamation, by abducting or caus- 
 ing them to be abducted or inducing them to 
 aljscond. shall, if captured, snITer death." 
 
 Thereupon Senator Hill, of Georgia, is re- 
 corded as having offered the resolution 1 have 
 read. 
 
 Mr. HILL. I was chairman of the Judiciary 
 Committee of the Senate. 
 
 Mr. BL.\INE. And this resolution came di- 
 rectly from that committee? 
 ■**** •* * * * * 
 
 Mr. HILL. I say to the gentleman frankly 
 that I really do not remember. 
 
 Mr. BLAfNE. The gentleman does not say 
 he was not the author-. 
 
 Mr. HILL. Idonot. Iwillsaythis: I think 
 I was not the author. Possibl j-"l reported t he 
 resolution. It refers in terms to "pretendeil," 
 not real soldiers. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. I thought that inasmuch as 
 the gentleman's line of argument was to sliow 
 the character of the Confederate policy, this 
 might aid him a little in calling up the facts 
 pertinent thereto. [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 Mr. HILL. With all due deference to the 
 gentleman, I reply he did not think anv such 
 thing. He thought he woubl <iivert me from 
 the purpose of my argument and break its 
 force by—. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. Oh, no. 
 
 Mr. HILL. He thought he would get up a 
 discussion about certain measures presented 
 In the Confederate Congress having no rela- 
 tion to the subject now under discussion, l)ut 
 which grew out of the peculiar relation of the 
 Southern States to a population then in servi- 
 tude — a population which the Confederate 
 Government feared might be incited to insur- 
 rection — and measui-es were doubtless pro- 
 posed which the Confederate Government 
 may have thought It proper to take to pro- 
 tect helpless women aad children in the South 
 from insurrection. 
 
 * * * * * * ■* *-* 
 
 But, sir, I have read a letter from the Con- 
 federate Commissioner of Exchange, written 
 in 1964, proposing th.at each sidesend surgeons 
 with the prisoners ; that they nurse and treat 
 the prisoi\ers ; that the Federal authorities 
 should send as many as they pleased ; that 
 those surgeons be commissioned also as com- 
 missaries to furnish supplies of clothing and 
 food and everything else needed for the com- 
 fort of prisoners. 
 
 Now, sir, how did the Federal Government 
 treat that offer? No reply was ever re- 
 ceived. 
 
 Then, again, the Confederates made two 
 more proijositions. I will state thatthe cartel 
 of exchange was broken by the Federal au- 
 thorities for certain alleged reasons. * * 
 » * » The Confetlerates next proposed, 
 in a letter from Colonel Ould, dated the lOth of 
 August, ISi'A, waiving every objection the 
 Feileral Government had made, to agree to 
 any and all terms to renew the exchange of 
 prisoners, man for man, and officer for officer, 
 as the Fc(ieral Government should prescribe. 
 Yet, sir, the latter rejected that proposition. 
 It took a second letter to bring an answer to 
 that jiroposition. 
 
 Then, again. In that same month of August, 
 13G4, the Confederate authorities did this : * 
 
 * * They proposed to send the Federal 
 sick and wounded prisoners without equiva- 
 lent. * ♦ * That proposition, com- 
 municated to the Federal authorities in Au- 
 gust, 1864, was not answeretl until December, 
 1864. In De(H>mber, 1864, the Federal Govern- 
 ment sent ships to Savannah. Now, the re- 
 cords will show that the chief suffering at 
 Andersonville was between August and De- 
 cember. Tne Confederate authorities sought 
 to avert It by asking the Federal Government 
 to come and take its prisoners without equiva- 
 lent, without return, and it refused to do that 
 until four or live months had elapsed. 
 *■*■*■ ** * *■*-)*• 
 
 Now, sir. It was in reference to that state of 
 things exactly that Dr. Jones reported, as I 
 have already read to the House, in his re- 
 port which was mutilated before that Commit- 
 tee of Congress and in the trial of Wlrz — it 
 was in consequence of that very state of things 
 that Dr. Jones said that depression of mind 
 and despondency and home-sickness of these 
 lioor prisoners carried more to their graves 
 than did physical causes of disease. That 
 was not won(\erful at all. 
 
 But, Mr. Speaker, why were all these ap- 
 peals resisted? *********** 
 
 Who is at fault? There must be a reason for 
 this. That is the next pouit to which I wish 
 to call the attention of the House. 
 ■* ■* ■* *•»*** * 
 
 Here is General Grant's testimony before 
 the committee on theexchange of prisoners, 
 February 11, 18«5. You believe him, do you 
 nof 
 
 ' Question. It has been said that we refused 
 to exchange prisoners because we found ours 
 starved, diseased, and unserviceable when we 
 received them, and did not like to cxchangre 
 sound men for such men." 
 
SPEECfi OP IfON. BENJAMIN fi. HILL. 
 
 11 
 
 Thai was the question propounded to him. 
 His answer was: 
 
 "Answer. There never has been any such 
 reason as that. That lias been a reason for 
 making exchanges. 1 will confess that If our 
 men who are prisoners in the Soutn wei-e I'e- 
 ally well taken care of, sutfeiing nothing ex- 
 cept a little privation of lilx^rlf, then,in a 
 military point of view, it would not be good 
 policy for us to exchange, becaua*^ every man 
 they get back is forced right into the army t 
 once, while that is not the ca.se with our pris- 
 oni'i-s M hen we receive them; in fact, the half 
 of our returned prisoners will iiever go into 
 the army again, and none of them will until 
 after they liavt- had a furloufih of thirty or 
 si.Yty days. Still, the fact of their suttering as 
 they do is a reason foruiakiiig tUia exchange 
 as rapidly as possible. 
 
 ''Q. Aiid never has been a reason for not 
 making the excliange? 
 
 "A. it never luis. Exchanges having been 
 suspended by reason of disagreement on 
 the part of agen ts of exchange on bot h sides 
 before I came into command of the armies of 
 the United States; and it Then being near the 
 opening of the spring camjiaign I diil not 
 deem it advisaljle oi' just to the men who had 
 to tighl our battles to re-enforee tlie enemy 
 with thirty or forty thousand tliscipliued 
 troops at that time. An immediate resump- 
 tion of exchanges would iiavo had that etfect 
 without giving us corresiionding , benefits. 
 The sutlering said to exist among our prison- 
 ers South was a powerful argument against 
 the cour.se pursued, and so 1 felt it." 
 
 There is no disputiua: the factthat, with tlie 
 knowledge that his prisoners were suffering 
 in the South, he insisted that the exchange 
 should not be renewed, because it would in- 
 crease the military powerof the enemy. Now 
 tliat may have been a good military rcasoTi. I 
 do not (|UOte it foi' the purpose of reflecting 
 upon General Grant in the slightest. 1 aiii 
 giving the facts of history. * * * i give 
 you the facts, and 1 liave g'iven you General 
 Grant's interpretation oftho.se facts. Let the 
 world judge. 
 
 ******** 
 
 Against whom does the charge lie, if there 
 are to be accusations of any, for the liorrors of 
 Andersonville? 
 
 Mr. JLJlilGllT. What was the percentage of 
 deaths in the prisons? 
 
 Mr. iilLL. 1 have already given it. I have 
 proved also that, with allthe horrorsat Anfl«r- 
 sonville, * * * greater sull'erings occurred 
 in the prLsons where Contederate soldiers were 
 confined, and that the percentage of death was 
 3 per cent, greater among Confederate troops 
 in Federal hands than among Federal soldiers 
 held by the Confedfrales. And I need not 
 state the contrast between the needy Confed- 
 eracy and the abuntlance of Federal" supplies 
 and resources. 
 
 -X- ******* 
 
 Sir, if any man will rfflect a, moment ne will 
 see that there was reason whythe Confederate 
 governmentshould de8ireexchang<! of prison- 
 ers, it wass(Mrceof food, pinched foi' clothing, 
 closed up with a blockade of its ports; it needed 
 troop.s; its ranks were thinning. 
 
 Now, Ml'. S (leaker, it is jiroper that I should 
 read one or two senltnices from the man who 
 lias IxMMi ai'iaigned as 1 he v lest murderer in 
 histoi-y. Aitei- lli(^ bailies around Uichmond, 
 in which iNleClellan was defeated, some ten 
 tliousaiKl prisoners fell into the hands of the 
 Confederacy, \ictory had pei'Cheil upon its 
 standard, andtlie lejoicingnaturally follow- 
 ing victory was lieiird in the ranks of the 
 Confederate army. Mr. l)avis went out to 
 make agratulalory sjieech. Now, gentle- 
 men ofilie House, gentlemen of the othcM'side, 
 if you are willing to do Justice, let ine simply 
 call your attention totiae' worda of this man 
 
 that then fell from liis lips in the hour of 
 victory. Speaking to the BOldier.s, he said: 
 
 "You are flgliting for all that is dearest to 
 man, and thou{|h opposed to a foe who disre- 
 gards many ot the usagf^s of civilized war, 
 your humanity to the wounded and the pris- 
 oners was a flt and crowning glory of your 
 valor." 
 *** « ** *** 
 
 The gentleman from Maine yesterday Intro- 
 duceti the Richmond Examiner as a witness 
 in his behalf. Now, it is a rule of law that a 
 man cannot im]->each his own witness. It is 
 true that the Examiner hated Mr. Davis with 
 a cordial hatred. The gentleman could not 
 have introduced the testimonv of perhaps a 
 bitterer foe to Mr. Davis. Whv did It liate 
 him? Here are its reasons: "The chivalry 
 and hunumity of JetTerson Davis will inevita- 
 l>ly ruin the Confederacy." That is your wit- 
 ne^ss, and the witness is worthy of your cause. 
 * * * That is not all. In the same paper it 
 says: "The enemy have gone from one un- 
 manly cruelty to another. Encouraged by 
 their impunity till they are now and have for 
 some time been inflicting on the people of this 
 country the worst horrors of barliarous ami 
 uncivilized war." Yet in spite of all this the 
 Exaininer alh^ged "Mr. Davis in his dealing 
 with the enemy was as gentle as a sucking 
 dove." 
 
 ***»*»#• 
 
 I do no doubt that I am the beann' of unsvel- 
 come tnessages to the gentleman from iMaine 
 and his party. He says that there are Confed- 
 erates in this body, arid that they are going to 
 comi>ine with a few from the North for the 
 purpose of controlling this Government. If 
 one wereio listen to the gentlemen on the 
 other side he would be in doubt whether they 
 rejoiced more when the South lett the Union, 
 or regrcLtod most when the South came back 
 to the Union that their fathers helped to form, 
 and to which they will forever hereafter con- 
 tribute as much of patriotic ardor, of noble 
 devotion, and of willing sacrifice as the con- 
 stituents of the gentleman from Maine. O. 
 Mr. Speaker, why cannot gentlemen on the 
 other side rise to the height of this great ar- 
 gument of patriotism ? Is the bosom of the 
 country always to be torn with this miserable 
 sectional debal,e whenevera Presidential elec- 
 tion is pending? To that great debate of half 
 a century before secession there were left iio 
 adjourned questions. The victory of the 
 North was absolute: and God knows the sub- 
 mission of the South was complete. But, sir, 
 we have recovered from the humiliatio'i of 
 defeat, and we come here among you and we 
 ask you to give us the greetings accorded 
 to brothers by brothers. * * » 
 
 S^ir, my message is this: There are no Con- 
 federates in this House; there are now no Con- 
 fcilerates anywhere; there are no Confederate 
 schemes, ambitions, hopes, desires, or pur- 
 poses here. Uut the South is here, and here 
 she intends to remain. [ Knthusiastic ap- 
 plause.] Go on and pass your qualifying acts, 
 trauiple upon the Constitution you have 
 sworn to support, abnegate the pledges of 
 vonr fathers, incite rage upon our people, and 
 inultiply vour infidelities until they shall be 
 like the'stars of heaven or the sands of the 
 seashore, without number: but km)w this, for 
 all vovir iniquities the South will never agaui 
 seek a remedy in the madness of another se- 
 cession. [Coiitinued applause.] We are here; 
 we are in the house of our fathers, our broth- 
 ers are our companions, and we are at home to 
 stay, thank God. [Much applause.] 
 
 *■ » * We come charging upon the Union 
 no wi-ongs to us. The Union nt^ver wronged 
 us. The Union has been an uninixeit lilessing 
 to «very section, to every State, to every 
 man of "every color in America. We charge 
 all our wrongs upon that "higher la^'' 
 
12 
 
 S^]e:]^cia o:^ fiON. JaMKs a. (iAfiMiSLD. 
 
 lUiiaticisuj that never kept a pledge nor 
 obeyed a law. The Soutli did seek to leave 
 tlie assooiatioii of those who, she believed, 
 woald not iceep lideliiy to their covenants; 
 the South sought to go" to herself; but, so far 
 from having lost our fidelity to the Constitu- 
 tion which our fathers nia<lo, when we sought 
 to go, we hugged tluit Constitution to our 
 bosoms and carried it witli us. 
 ********* 
 Sir, we did the Union one great wron^. The 
 Union never wronged the .south ; but we of 
 the South did to the Union one great wrong ; 
 and we come, as far as we can, to repair it. 
 
 We wronged the Union grievously when we 
 left it lobe seized and rent and torn by the 
 men who haddenouiieed itasa "covenant with 
 liell and a league with the devil." Wo ask 
 you, gentlemeu of the llepublican party, to 
 rise above all your animosities. Forget your 
 own sins. Let'us unite to repair the evils that 
 distract and oppress the country. I^et us turn 
 our backs ui)on tlie past, and lei it be said in 
 the future that lie shall be the greatest pa- 
 triot, tliQ traest patriot, the noblest patriot 
 who shall do most to repair the wrongs of the 
 past and promote the glories of the future 
 [Applause on the floor and iu the galleries.] 
 
 AMNESTY-MR. HILL, GEORGIA. 
 
 Ill tlie House of Rejreseiilaliyes, January 12, 18?6. 
 
 MR. GARFIELD: 
 
 Mr. Speaker, no gentleman on this floor 
 can regret more sincerely than I do the 
 cour?e that the debate has taken, ospecially 
 that portion which occurred yesterday. To 
 one who reads the report of that discussion 
 it would be difficult to discover 
 
 THE REAL QUESTION AT ISSUE 
 
 and to learn from the Record itself the scope 
 and character of the pending measure. I re- 
 gret that neither llie speech of the gentleman 
 from New York [Mr. Cox] nor that of the 
 gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Hill] has yet 
 appeared in the Record. I should prefer to 
 quote from the full report, but, replying 
 now, I must quote them as their speeches 
 appeared in the public journals of yesterday 
 and to-day. But they are here, and can 
 correct any inaccuracy of quotation. Any 
 one who reads their speeches would not sus- 
 pect that they were debating a simple propo- 
 sition to relieve some citizens of political 
 and legal disabilities incurred during the 
 late'war. For example, had I been a casual 
 reader and not a listener, I should say that 
 the chief proposition yesterday was an ar- 
 raignment of the administration of this Gov- 
 ernment during the last fifteen years. If I 
 had been called upon to pick out those dec- 
 larations in the speech of the gentleman 
 from Georgia [Mr. IIill] which embody the 
 topic of debate, I should have said they were 
 these : 
 
 The history of the last fifteen years is yet 
 fresh in the minds of the world. It is useless 
 tospealc of the grace and magnanimity of the 
 Republican party. With the master enslaved, 
 with intelligence disfranchised, with society 
 disordered, with States subverted, with Legis- 
 latures dispersed. peoi>Ie cannot atford to talk 
 of grace and magnanimity. If that is grace 
 and magnaniraitv, 1 pray God to spare the 
 country in the future from such virtues. 
 
 I should say that the propositions and 
 arguments arrayed around that paragraph 
 were the center and circumference of his 
 theme. Let me then in a few words try to 
 recall the House to the actual topic of this 
 debate. 
 
 A gentleman on the other side of the 
 House, a few days ago, introduced a propo- 
 sition in the form of a bill to grant amnesty 
 to the remaining persons who are not yet 
 relieved of their political disabilities under 
 the Constitution. That is a plain proposition 
 for practical legislation. It is a very im- 
 portant proposition. It is a proposition to 
 finish and complete forever the work of exe- 
 ctitiug one of the great clauses of the Con- 
 stitution of our country. When that bill 
 shall have become a law, a large portion of 
 the fourteenth amendment will have ceased 
 to be an operative clause of the Constitution. 
 
 Whenever so great and important a matter 
 is proposed a deliberative body should bring 
 to its consideration the fullest and most 
 serious examination. But what was pro- 
 posed in this case ? Not to deliberate, not 
 to amend, not even to refer to a committee 
 for the ordinary consideration given even to 
 a proposition to repeal the tax on matches. 
 No reference to anybody ; but a member of 
 the House, of his own motion and at his own 
 discretion, proposes to launch that proposi- 
 tion into the House, refusing the privilege 
 of amendment and the right to debate, ex- 
 cept as it might come from his courtesy, and 
 pass it, declaring, as he does so, the time 
 has come to do justice to an oppressed 
 people. 
 
 Under circumstancea like these, Mr. Speak- 
 er, a large number of geiitlemen on this 
 floor felt they had a right, under the rtiles 
 of the House and in the forum of justice and 
 fair dealing, an undoubted right to deliber- 
 ate on the proposition; that it should be 
 open for amendment and debate. Every 
 expression on this side of the House showed 
 that we were earnestly in favor of so closing 
 this last act in the drama of war so far as it 
 relates to disabilities ; that it should be 
 closed forever — 
 
 CLOSED IN OOOD FAITH 
 
 and with good feeling. We deeply regretted 
 that the attempt was made to cut us off from 
 
SPSECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD, 
 
 13 
 
 deliberatiou and ameiidment, and w« there- 
 lore thi-fW ourselves back upon our rights ; 
 and it is by virtue of tliose rights that we 
 debate this question to-day. 
 
 The genlleiiian from Maine [Mr. Blaine] 
 offered a criticism on the bill. Ue suggested 
 that there were two points in wbicli it 
 ought to be changed. One was tJial the 
 seven hundred and fifty persona who are 
 .still forbuMen to hold office under tlie Gon- 
 stitutioii should have free and absolute am- 
 ne-ty whenever tiny declare by taking the 
 oath of allegiance in open court that they 
 want it ; that, like < Jod's mercy and j>erfect 
 pardon, amnesty should be granted by ask- 
 ing for it. It was suggested that we should 
 follow the rule that we have followed hith- 
 erto in all cases similarly situated. Tliat 
 was tile lirst point. 
 
 .\uuther point was suggested, that there 
 is one per.son, and only one, who ought to 
 be excepted from the operation of the pro- 
 posed law. Now tiiat may have been wise 
 or it may have been unwise, a.s a matter of 
 slatesmansliip, but it was a question deserv- 
 ing debate, deliberation, and answer. 
 
 Tlie proposition of the gentleman from 
 IVnn.svUaniM [Mr. Randall] is an affirma- 
 tive cue, and should be supported by affirma- 
 tive reasons. If we allege any reason against, 
 >ve ought to be answered. Two allegations 
 have been mad»< : tirst, tliat there ought to 
 be an oaili of allegiance before a court ; and, 
 second, that one man ought to bo excepted. 
 How liave these propusilions been met? 
 Ho V liave these suggestions been answered ? 
 The first response v.'as a speech full of bril- 
 liani witand personalities. It wa- like jok- 
 ing at a funeral to joke on such an occasion. 
 They have been answered, in the second 
 place, by the speech of yesterday, which 
 arraigns not the Kepublican party alone, but 
 arraigns twenty-five millions of people, ar- 
 raigns the history of the Republic for fifteen 
 years, anaigns everything that isgloriousin 
 its record and high and woilhy in its 
 achievement. I was deeply pained tliat 
 such an arraignment should have been made 
 on iiuch a subject. If the gentleman had 
 confined himself to a reply to the argument 
 which had been offered to show why the ex- 
 ception should be made, it would have been 
 a response pertinent to the subject-matter in 
 controversy. 
 
 While I o<!cnpy the attention of the House. 
 I shall endeavor to confine -myself to the 
 (question and lo the speecli of the gentle- 
 man from Georgia, [Mr. Hill.] 
 
 Let me say in the outset that, so far as I 
 am per.soually concerned, I have never voted 
 against any proposition to grant amnesty to 
 any human being who has asked for it at the 
 bar of the House. Furthermore, I appeal to 
 gentlemej) ou the other side wlio have been 
 
 with me in this Hall many years, whether at 
 any lime they have found me truculent in 
 spirit, unkind in tone or feeling toward 
 those who fought against us in th^^ late war. 
 Twelve years ago this very month, standing 
 in this place, I said this: 
 
 "l BELIEVE A TRUCE 
 
 could be struck today between the rank and 
 file of the hostile armies now in the field. I 
 believe they could meet and shake hands 
 together, j<»yfiil over returning peace, each 
 respecting the courage and manhood of the 
 other, and each better able to live in amity 
 than before the war." 
 
 I am glad to repeat word for word wliat 
 I said that day. For the purposes of this 
 speech I will not even claim the whole 
 ground which the Government assumed to- 
 ward the late rebellion. For the sake of the 
 present argument, I will view the position 
 of those who took up arms against the Gov- 
 ernment in 
 
 THK LIGUT LEAST OFFKNSITK TO THEM. 
 
 Leaviug out of sight for the moment the 
 question of slavery, which evoked so much 
 passion, and which was th ' producing cause 
 of the late war, there weresiill two opposing 
 political theories which met in conflict. 
 Most of the Southern statesmen believed 
 that their first obedience was due to their 
 State. We believed that the allegiance of 
 an American citizen was due to the National 
 Government, not by the way of a State Capi- 
 tal, but in a direct line from his own heart 
 to the Government of the Union. Now, 
 that question was submitted to the dreadful 
 arbitrament of war, to the court of last re- 
 sort — a court from which there is no appeal, 
 and to which all other powers must bow. 
 To that dread court the great question was 
 carried, and there the right of a State to se- 
 cede was put to rest forever. For the sake 
 of peace and union I am willing to treat 
 our late antagonists as I would treat liti- 
 gants in other courts, who, when they have 
 madn> their appeal and the final judgment is 
 rendered, pay the reason^ible ciSts and bow 
 to its mandates. But our question to-day 
 is not that, yet is closely connected with it. 
 When we liave made our arguments and the 
 court has rendered judgment, it may be 
 that in the course of the proceedings the 
 court has used its discretion to disbar 
 some of its counsellors tor malpractice, for 
 unprofessional conduct. In such a case, a 
 luotion may be made to restore the disbarred 
 members. Applying this illustration to the 
 present case, there are seven hundred and 
 fi'ty people who are j et disbarred before the 
 highest authority of the Republic, the Con- 
 stitution itself. The proposition is to offer 
 again the privileges of official station to 
 these people; and we are all agreed as to 
 •jvery human being of theu^ save one. 
 
14 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. JAME!? A. GAREIELB. 
 
 I do not object to Jefferson Davis because 
 he was a couspicnou3 leader. Wliatever we 
 may believe theologically, I do not believe 
 in the doctrine of vicarious atonement in 
 politics. Jefferson I )avis was no more guilty 
 for taking up arms than any other man who 
 went into the rebellion with equal intelli- 
 gence. But this is the question: In the 
 high court of war di'l he practice according 
 to its well-known laws — the laws of nations? 
 Did he, in appealing to war, obey the laws 
 of war ; or did he so violate those laws that 
 justice to those wlio suffered at his hands 
 demands tijat he be not permitted to come 
 back to his old privileges in the Union? 
 1'hat is the whole question; audit is as plain 
 and fair a question for deliberation as was 
 ever d<-bated in this House. 
 
 Now, 1 wish we could discuss it without 
 any passien — without passionate thoughts, 
 such as We heard yesterday. The words 
 were eloquent, for the gentleman from Geor- 
 gia well knows how to utter passionate 
 thoughts with all the grace and eloquence 
 of speech. 
 
 What answer has been made to the allega- 
 tions of the gentleman from Maine to the rea- 
 sons he offered why a full amnesty should 
 not be offered to Jefferson Davis? The gen- 
 tleman from Georgia denies, and so also ap- 
 parently did the gentleman from New York, 
 [Mr Cox,] the authenticity of 
 
 THE CHAKGES 0F"XTK0CITIES AT ANDEKS05VILLE. 
 
 The gentleman from New York [Mr. Cox] 
 spoke of the committee from whose report 
 the gentleman fr( 111 Maine [Mr. Blaine] read 
 as a 'immlfug committee '" The gentleman 
 from Georgia [Mr. Hill] spoke of it as an 
 ex parte and partisan committee — a committee 
 that wrote and reported oat of its fury and 
 rage. Now, Mr. Speaker, 1 am unwilling 
 that this case shall turn u])on the mere au- 
 thority of a committee, liowever high; but I 
 want to say now, without arguing the 
 merits, that whethf^r the charge was just or 
 unjust, it was a charge made by the Govern- 
 ment of the United States. 1 mean to plac*» 
 the responsibility of the charges on the high 
 ground of the authority of the Government, 
 which no self-respecting man can call trivial 
 and unworthy of his serious atte;itiou. 
 
 On the 4th day of May, 1864, the Secre- 
 tary of War, speaking by the authority of 
 the executive (iepartraent of the National 
 Government, addi'essed a communication to 
 a committee of Congress, which I will read. 
 It is found in a volume of reports of com- 
 mittees of the first session of the Thirty- 
 eighth Congress, volume 1, 1863-'64, and is 
 as follows: 
 
 War DEPARTME?fT, 
 
 Washtngton Citt, Mop 4, 1864. 
 Sir: I have the honor to submit to you a re- 
 
 froit made to thi.s Department by" Colonel 
 JotTman, Commissary General of Prisoners, in 
 
 regard to tlieconditioii of Union soldier* who 
 Imve until williln a lewdavs been ))risoners of 
 war at Kichmonil, iiiiil would respectfully re- 
 qu(>.it tliat vour committee immediately pro- 
 ceed to Anuupolis to take testimony there 
 and examine with their own eyes the condi- 
 tion of those wlio have been returned from 
 rebel captivity. The enormity of the crime 
 committed by the rebels toward our prisoners 
 for the last several months is not known or 
 realized by our people, and cannot but fill 
 with horror the civilized world when the facts 
 are fully revealed. There appears to have 
 been a deliberate system of savage and bar- 
 barous treatment and starvation, the result of 
 which will be that few, if any, of the prison- 
 ers that have been in their hands during the 
 ])ast wi-nter will ever again be in a condition 
 to render any service or even to enjoy life. 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 EDWIN M. STANTOX, 
 Secrclnry of War. 
 Hon. B. F. Wade, Cliairman of Joint Commit- 
 tee on Conduct of the War. 
 
 On the receipt of this letter a joint com- 
 mittee of the two Houses, known as the 
 Committee on the Conduct of the War, was 
 sent to Annapolis, to hold their sessions in 
 the presence of the thousands of returned 
 prisoners who had just been landed, and us 
 the result of their deliberatious, and after 
 taking testimony on the spot from officers 
 and men who had just returned, they re- 
 ported not only their opinions, but the tes- 
 timony in ."ull, in the volume which 1 hold 
 in my hand. That committee was composed of 
 
 REPnBLlCANS AND DEMOCRATS, 
 
 and its report is unanimous. The Democrats 
 on the committee were among the foremost 
 members af the ^^enate and House. One of 
 them was Mr. Odell, of New York, a gentleman 
 not now living, who was one of the best men 
 that party has had on the floor of this House 
 since I have been a member. Another was 
 Senator Harding, of Oregon. That commit- 
 tee made an elaborate report, from which I 
 will read a few paragraphs: 
 
 The evidence proves beyond all manner of 
 doubt a determination on the part ol the rebel 
 autlioiities, deliberately and pcrsi.'stenlly 
 practiced loralongtime past, losulyect those 
 of our soldiers who have been so nntojiunate 
 as to fail in their hands to a system of treat- 
 ment which has resulted in reducing many 
 of those WHO have survJveti and been 
 permitted to return to us to a con- 
 (.litioii, l)Oth physically an<t mentally, 
 which no language "we can use .can 
 adequately descrilje. Though nearly all iho 
 piitieuts now in the Naval Academy" Hospital 
 at Annapolis and in tlic West Hospital in Bal- 
 timore have been under tlie kindest and mo.-5t 
 intelligent treatment for about three weeks 
 past, and many ot them for a greater length 
 of time, still they present literally the ap- 
 pearance of living skeletons, many of them 
 Ijeing nothing .but skin and bone; some of 
 them are lUiumed for life, having I >een fro- 
 zen while exposed to the inclemency of the 
 winter season on Belle Isle, being compelled 
 to lie oil the liare ground without tents or 
 blankets, some of them without overcoats or 
 even couts, with but little fire to mitigate the 
 severity of the winds aiul storms to which 
 they were exposed. » * » » 
 
 It will be observ<.'d from the testimony that 
 all the witnesses who testify upon that point 
 
SPEECH OP HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 
 
 15 
 
 state that the treatment they receirecl while 
 ooiiflned at Columbia, South Carolina, Dal ton, 
 Georgia, and other places, was far morv* im- 
 mane than that they received at Ricliinond, 
 where the authoritlvs of the so-called Confed- 
 eracy were congregated, and where tlu) power 
 existed, had tlio inclination not l>cen want- 
 Inj;, to reform those abuses and secure to the 
 prisoners they held some treatment that 
 would ht'ar a public comparison to tliai ac- 
 corded by our auMiorifies to tlie prisioners In 
 our custody. Vour committee, tliarefore, aj"e 
 constrained to say that tliev can hardly avoid 
 tlie coneinslon ex]>reSvSed i)y so many of our 
 r(dcas(>tl soldiers, iliat the Inhuman practices 
 herein reterred to are the result of a determi- 
 nation on tlie part of the rebel authorities to 
 ri!iluce our soldiers in their power by j>riva- 
 tion of food and clothing and by exposure to 
 such a condition that tlioso who may survive 
 shall never recover so as to l)e able lo rentier 
 any ellectlve service in the field. 
 
 i am not now discussing the merits of the 
 charge at all, but am showing that such is, 
 and for twelve years has continued to be, 
 the autlioritative oilieial charge of the exec- 
 utive department of the (irovernment and of 
 a joint committee of the two Houses. So 
 uiiicli for the responsible character of tlie 
 charge. To this I should add that tliis 
 oliarge is believed to be true by a great ma- 
 jority of the people whom we represent on 
 this rioor. 
 
 I now inquire is this charge true? 
 Tht' gentleman from tieorgia denies gen- 
 erally the c^liarge that atrocities were prac- 
 ticed upon our prisoners at Andersonville. 
 He makes a general denial, and asserts that 
 Mr. Davis did observe 
 
 THE HOMANE RULES OF MODERN WARFARE. 
 
 As a proof, he quotes the general order 
 issued by tlie President of the Confederate 
 (government under which tlie prison was 
 to be established, an order providing that 
 it shoitld be located on healthy ground, 
 where there was an abundance of good 
 water, ami trees for healthful and grate- 
 ful shade. Tliat la a perfect answer so far 
 as it goes. But 1 ask how that order was 
 executed? To whose hands was committed 
 tlie work of building the Andersonville 
 prison? To the hands of (reneral Winder, 
 an intimate and favorite friend of Mr. Davis. 
 And who was Creneral Winder? He was a 
 man of whom the Richmond Examiner used 
 these words the day he took his departure 
 from Richmond to assume command of the 
 proposed prison: 
 
 Thank God that Richmond is at last rid of 
 old Winder. God have mercy upon those to 
 whom he ha.") been senti 
 
 He was, as the testimony in the Wirz trial 
 shows, the special and intimaie friend of 
 .Jefferson l>avis, the President of the Confed- 
 eracy, by whom he was detailed on this busi- 
 ness, and detailed with siK^h a send-off as I 
 have read you from a paper of his own city 
 warmly in fhe interest of the rebel cause. 
 
 What next? How did (ieneral Winder 
 execute the order after h« went there? I 
 
 turn to the Wirz trial, and read from it only 
 such authorities as the gentleman from 
 fjreorgia recognizes — 
 
 OFFICERS OF THE RKI3EL ARMY. 
 
 The gentleman stated yesterday that there 
 was nothing in this book connecting the 
 head of the Confederate Government with 
 the Andersonville atrocities. Before I am 
 through we will see. On the 5th day of 
 Janiiary, 1864, a report was made by D. T. 
 Chandler, a lieutenant colonel of the Con- 
 federate army. This report was offered in 
 evidence in the Wirz trial, and Colonel 
 Chandler was Jiimself a witness at that 
 trial, and swears tliat the report is genuine. 
 I quote from page 2J4: 
 
 Anderson, January 5, 1864, 
 Colonel: Having, in obedience to instruc- 
 tions of th(^ ■i')tli ultimo, carefully inspected 
 the prisoi\ for Kctloral prisoners of war and 
 post at this place, 1 respectfully submit the 
 following r<*port: 
 
 The Fed(nal prisoners of war are confined 
 within a stocltade flfleen feet high, of rt)ughiy 
 hewn pinclogs abouleightinciies in diutneter, 
 inserted five feet into the ground, inclosing, in- 
 cluding the recent extension, an area of Ave 
 liundred and forty by two hundred and sixty 
 yards. A i-ailiiig round the inside of the 
 stockade, and about twenty feet from it, consti- 
 tutes the "dead line,'" beyond which the pris- 
 oners arc not allowed to pass, and about three 
 and one-fourth acres near the center of the 
 inclosui'e aie so marshy as to be at prt^sent 
 unlit for occupation, reducing the available 
 present area to about twenty-three and one- 
 half acres, which gives somewhat less Miansix 
 square feet to eacli ])risoner. Even this is 
 being constantly reduced by the additions to 
 their niniiTifr. A small stream passing trom 
 west to east through the inclosure, at about 
 one hundred and fifty yards from its southern 
 limit, furnishes the only vvater for washing 
 accessilile to the prisoners. Some regimen of 
 tlte guard, the bake>y. and The cookhouse, 
 being placed on the rising grounds bordering 
 the strt'am before it enters the prison, render 
 the water nearly unfit foruse before it reaches 
 the prisoners. ' * * * 
 
 I). T. CHANDLER, 
 Assistant Adjutant and Jn.ipector General,. 
 Colonel R. fl. Chilton, Assistant Adjutant and 
 Inspector General. 
 
 Here is an official exhibit of the manner 
 in which the officer detailed by Jeff. Davis 
 chose the place for health, with "running wa- 
 ter, and agreeable shade." He chose a piece 
 of forest-ground that had a miasmatic marsh 
 in the heart of it and a small stream run- 
 ning through it; but the troops stationed 
 outside of the stockade were allowed to de- 
 file its pure water before it could reach the 
 stockade; and then, as if in the very refine- 
 ment of cruelty, as if to make a mockery of 
 the order quoted by the gentleman from 
 Georgia, he detailed men 
 
 TO CPT DOWN EVERY TREE AND SHRUB 
 
 in the inclosure, leaving not a green leaf 
 to show where the forest had been. And 
 subsequently, when the burning sun of 
 July was pouring down its lifry heat upon 
 the heads of these men, with but six 
 square feet of ground to a man, a piteous 
 
16 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 
 
 petition was made by the prisoners to Win- 
 der to allow these poor men to be detailed to 
 go outside, under guard, and cut pine from 
 the forest to make arbors under which they 
 could shelter themselves, and they were 
 answered with all the loathsome brutality of 
 malignant hate, that they should have no 
 bush to shelter them; and thus, under the 
 fierce rays of the southern sun, they miser- 
 ably perished. 
 
 These last statements are made on the 
 authority of Ambrose Spencer, a planter of 
 Georgia, who resided within five miles of 
 Andersonville. I quote from his testimony, 
 (Wirz's tiial, p. 359:) 
 
 Between the 1st and 15th of Decemberj 18C3, 
 1 went up to Andersonville witliW. S. ' inder 
 and four oi- live otiier geutlemeu, out of curi- 
 osity, to see liow the prison was to bo laid out. 
 * * * 1 aslvod him if he was going to 
 erect barracks or shelter of any kind, lie re- 
 plied that he was not; that the damned Yan- 
 kees who wouUl be put iu there would have 
 no need of llioin. 1 asked him why he was 
 cutting down all the trees, and suggested tliat 
 they wouUl prove a shelter to tlie prisoners, 
 froiu tiie Ileal of the sun, at least, lit; made 
 this reply, or tsomething simiUirto it: "Ttiat 
 is just what lam going to do; 1 am going to 
 buUd a pen here that will kill more daniiied 
 Yankees ihan can be destroyed in the fiont." 
 Those are very nearly his words, orequivaleut 
 to them. 
 
 So much for the execution of the Presi- 
 dent's order to locate the prison. 
 
 But 1 am not yet done with the testimony 
 of Colonel Chandler. A subsequent report 
 was made by him in the month of August. 
 He went back and re examined the horrors 
 of that pen, and as the result of his examin- 
 ation be made a report, from which I quote 
 the last few sentences, (VVirz's trial, p. 227:) 
 Andkrsonvillk, August 5, 18t>i. 
 Colonel: * » » 
 
 My duty requires me respectfully to recom- 
 lueild a change iu the officer iu the comuiund 
 of the post, iirigadier General J. 11. Winder, 
 and tlie substituuion in liis place of some on » 
 who unites boili energy and good judgment 
 with some feeling of humanity and cousidcra- 
 ti( n for the welfare and comfort (so far as is 
 consistent with theirsafe-kceping) ofthe vast 
 number of unfortunates piacetl under his con- 
 trol; souie one who at least will nota<lvoeatedc- 
 libei'ately and in cold blood the propriety of 
 leaving them in their present condition until 
 their number has been sufficiently reduced by 
 deiith to makefile present arrangement suf- 
 fice for their accommodation; who will not 
 consiiler it a matter of selt-laudation and 
 boasting that he has never been inside of the 
 stockade, a place the horrors of which it is 
 ditHcult to describe, and which is a disgrace 
 to civilization, the conilition of which he 
 might, by tlie exercise of a little energy and 
 judgment, even with the limited means at his 
 command, have consideraVily improved. 
 
 D. T.'CHANDLKR, 
 Ass-iHant Adjutant and Inspector General. 
 (jOlonel 11. 11. CuiLTOJ*, Assistant Adjutant and 
 ^Inspector (Jeneral C. S. A., Richmond, Vir- 
 ginia. 
 
 Mr. HALE. What is the date of that 
 report ? 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. August 5, 1864. 
 
 Mr. HALE. How long after that was 
 Winder retained there in command f 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. I will come to that in a 
 moment. 
 
 Now, what do honorable gentlemen sup- 
 pose would naturally be done with such a 
 report as that ? Remember that Colonel 
 Chandler was a witness before the court 
 that tried Wirz and reaffirmed every word 
 of this report. If he is living I would make 
 a pilgrimage to see him and thank hini for 
 
 THE HUMANITY AXD TEiVPERNESS 
 
 with which he treated my unfortunate com- 
 rades. So anxious was he that the great crime 
 of Winder should be rebuked that he went to 
 Richmond, and in person delivered his report 
 to the Secretary of War, a member, of course, 
 of the cabinet of Jeflerson Davis. If I am 
 not correct In this I believe there is a mem- 
 ber of that cabinet now on this floor who 
 can correct me. Of course, being a soldier, 
 Colonel Chandler first delivered his report to 
 the adjutant general, and that officer, Gen- 
 eral Cooper, on the ISth of August, 1864, 
 wrote upon the back of the report these 
 words : 
 
 Adjutant and Inspector Gsneral's Office, 
 
 Auyvst 18, 1864. 
 
 Respectfully submitted to the secretary of 
 war. The condition of the prison at Ander- 
 sonville is a reproach to us as a nation. The 
 engineer and ordnunce departments were 
 applied to, and authorized their issue, and I 
 so tolegraphed General Winder. Colonel 
 Chandler's recommendations are coincided in. 
 
 By order of General Cooper. 
 
 It. II. CIIILTOX, 
 
 Assistant Adjutant and Inspector General. 
 
 Not content with that indorsement. Colo- 
 nel Chandler went to the oflice of the secre- 
 tary of war himself; but, the secr-tary be- 
 ing absent at the moment, the report was 
 delivered to the assistant secretary of war, 
 .1. A. Campbell, wlio wrote below General 
 Cooper's indorsement these words : 
 
 These reports show a condition of things at 
 Andersonville wiiich calls very loudly for the 
 interposition ofthe departmeiit, in order that 
 a change be made. 
 
 J. A. CAMPBELL, 
 Assistant Hecrelary of War. 
 
 Mr. REAGAN. Does not the gentleman 
 know that the adjutant general could only 
 have made ^uch an order by direction of 
 the president ? 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. I do not know what the 
 habit was iu the confederacy. It is not so in 
 this Government. 
 
 Mr. REAGAN. The gentleman will allow 
 me to say that all persons familiar with the 
 business of that office know that the adju- 
 tant general executes direct orders made by 
 the president, but has not himself authority 
 to make such orders. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. That may have been the 
 rule in the Confederate government; but it 
 was never the rule here. The Adjutant Gen- 
 eral of o\xr Arnty signs no order except by or- 
 
8P IBCH OF BON. JAMES A. QAHITIELD. 
 
 17 
 
 der of the Secretary of War. The Adjutant 
 General is the clerk of the Secretary of 
 War, and the Secretary of War is in turn 
 the clerk of the President. But the gentle- 
 man from Texas [Mk Reagan] will soon see 
 that he cannot defend Davis by the indorse- 
 ment of General Cooper. The report did not 
 stop with the adjutant general. It was car- 
 ried up higher and nearer to Davis. It was 
 delivered to Assistant Secretary Campbell, 
 who wrote the indorsement I have just 
 read. The report was lodged with the de- 
 partment of war, whose chief was one of the 
 confidential advisers of Mr. Davis — a mem- 
 ber of his official family. What was done 
 with it t The record shows, Mr. Speaker, 
 that .a few days thereafter an order was 
 made in reference to General Winder. To 
 what effect ? Promoting him ! Adding to 
 his power 
 
 IN THE FIELD OF HIS INFAMY ! 
 
 He was made commissary-general of all the 
 prisons and prisoners throughout the con- 
 federacy. That was the answer that came as 
 the result of this humane report of Colonel 
 (handler; and that new appointment of 
 W inder came from Mr. Seddons, the Confedr 
 erate secretary of war. 
 
 A Member. By order of the President. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. Of course all appoint- 
 ments were made by the President, for the 
 gentleman from Georgia says that they car- 
 ried our Constitution with them and hugged 
 it to their bosoms. But tbat is not all. 
 The testimony of the Wirz trial shows that 
 at one time the secretary of war himself be- 
 came shocked at the brutality of Winder, 
 and, in a moment of indignation, relieved 
 him from command. For authority upon 
 this subject I refer to the testimony of Cash- 
 myer, a detective of Winder's, who was 
 a witness before the Wirz court. That officer 
 testified that when Mr. Seddons, Secretary of 
 War, wrote the order relieving Winder, the 
 latter walked over with it to .Jefferson Davis, 
 who immediately wrote on the back of it, 
 "This is entirely unnecessary and uncalled 
 for." Winder appears to have retained the 
 confidence and approval of Davis to the end, 
 and continued on duty until the merciful 
 providence of God struck him dead in his 
 tent in the preseijf e of the witness who gave 
 this testimony. 
 
 Now, who will deny that in the forum of 
 law we do trace the responsibility for these 
 atrocities to the man whose name is before 
 us to be relieved of all his political disabili- 
 ties f If not, let gentlemen show it. Wipe 
 out the charge, and I will be the first man 
 here to vote to relieve him of his disabilities. 
 
 Winder wafs allowed to go on. What did 
 he do ? I will only give results, not details. 
 I will not harrow my own soul by the revi- 
 val of those horrible details. There is a 
 
 group of facts in military history well worth* 
 knowing which will illustrate the poi)'*. Jam 
 discussing. The great Napoleon did some 
 fighting in his time, as did his great sutago- 
 nist, the Iron Duke. In 1809 was fought the 
 battle of Talavera, in "1811 the battle >>f Al- 
 buera, in 1812 the battle of Salamanca, in 
 1813, Vittoria, in 1816 the battles of Lgny, 
 Quartre Bras, Waterloo, Wavre, and New 
 Orleans, and in 1854 the battles of tht Cri- 
 mea. The number of men in the English 
 army who fell in battle or who were killed 
 or died of wounds received in these battles 
 amounted in the aggregate to rj,928. But 
 this Major-General Winder, 
 
 WITHIN HIS HORIBLE ARENA OF DEATH, 
 
 from April, 1864, to April, 1865, tumbled 
 into the trenches of Andersonville the dead 
 bodies of 12,644 prisoners — only two hun- 
 dred and eighty-four less than all the Eng- 
 lishmen who fell in or died of wounds re- 
 ceived in the great battles I have named. 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, I have simply given 
 these results. Percentages pale and fade 
 away in the presence of such horrible facts. 
 
 THE EEBEL PRISONERS AT KLMIRA. 
 
 And the genth'man from Georgia denies 
 the charge of atrocities at Andersonville 
 and charges us with greater ones. I will 
 give his words as they are qitoted in the 
 morning papers: 
 
 When the gentleman from Maine speaks 
 again let him afld that the atrocities of An- 
 dersonville do not begin to compare with the 
 atrocities of Elmira, of Fort Uou^his, or of 
 Fort Delaware, and of all the atrocities, both 
 at ^Nndersonvllle and Elralra, the Confederate 
 government stands acquitted from all respon- 
 slbility and blame. 
 
 I stand in the presence o/ that statement 
 with an. amazement that I am utterly incap- 
 able of expressing. I look upon the serene 
 and manly face of the gentleman who ut- 
 tered it and I wonder what influence of the 
 supernal or nether gods could have touched 
 him with madness for the moment and led 
 him to make that dreadful statement. I 
 pause; and I ask the three Democrats on this 
 floor who happen to represent the districts 
 where are located the three places named, if 
 there be one of them who does not know that 
 this charge is fearfully and awfully untrue. 
 [A pause.] Their silence answers me. 
 They are strangers to me, but I know they 
 will repel the charge with all the energy of 
 their manhood. 
 
 Mr. PLATT. I hold in my hand a tele- 
 graphic communication from 
 
 GENERAL B. F. TRAl T, 
 
 late commandant of the military post of 
 Elmira, and I beg permission to read that 
 communication. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. I will yield for that 
 purpose. 
 
 Mr. PLATT. The communication la ag 
 follows: 
 
18 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GAKFTEI.I). 
 
 Brookltn, Ntsw Tobk, January 12, 1876. 
 To Don. T. C. Platt, 
 
 House 0/ Representativet, Washington, 
 
 District of tolumbia: 
 The facts lustlfy your denial of cruelty, lii- 
 humaalty, "or neglect in the treatment of 
 prison ers at F''*Ura. There was no aufferlng 
 there wbich Is uot inseparable from a military 
 prison. First, there was no dea'1-llne. No 
 prisoner was ever Kbot for attempting to es- 
 cape. Second, the food was ample ami of the 
 hest quality. Thousands of dollars were ex- 
 pended In the purchase of vegetables, in addi- 
 tion to the .'irmy ration. No congres.'^man In 
 Washington eats better bread than was given 
 dally to the prisoners. Thebeef was good, and 
 of the same quality and quantity as that dis- 
 tributed to oar own soldiers giiarillng the 
 camp. Third, the dead were not buried In 
 trenches, but the remains were placed in neat 
 coffins and buried in separate graves, with a 
 head-board bearing the name, company, and 
 regiment, and time of death, and all were 
 buried In the public cemetery at Klmira. 
 Fourth, there was no better supplied military 
 hospital in the United States than the hos- 
 pital In the prison -^amp. Fifth, all the pris- 
 oners were comfortiibly ((uartered in new 
 wooden barracks, built expressly for them. 
 From the time I took command, in Septem- 
 iK-r, all the saw-mills in the vicinity of Elmira 
 were kept constantly runnins; to supplv lum- 
 ber for buildings, ' Ac. The barracks for 
 prisoners were first built, and In the extreme 
 cold weather of winter the prisoners were all 
 in barracks, while the soldiers guarding them 
 were still in tents. I was criticised for this in 
 the Army and Navy Journal. 1 think it was, 
 at the time, by an officer of our Army. Sixth, 
 the camp and all the buildings were well 
 
 goliced, and kept scrupulously clean, 
 evcnth. the mortality which prevailed was 
 not owing to neglect or want of sufficient sup- 
 plies or medical attention, but to other and 
 quite dilferent causes. 
 
 n. F. TRACY. 
 Ijate Commnndant Military Post Union. 
 Mr. WALKER, of New York. Mr. Speaker, 
 as the member from the district in which El- 
 ipira Depot is located. I take pleasure in in- 
 dorsing every word of Colonel Tracy's dis- 
 patch. I was almost daily at Elmira dur- 
 ing the war, and I know that Confederate 
 prisoners 
 
 HAD THB BA.ME CARK AND TREATMENT 
 
 that the Union soldiera had, and I never 
 heard a complaint. [Qreat applause.] 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. Mr. Speaker, the light- 
 ning is oar witness. From all quarter^ of 
 the Republic denials 5we pouring in upon 
 as. Since I came to the House this morn- 
 ing, I have received the following dispatch 
 from an honored soldier of Ohio, which tells 
 its own story:' 
 
 CLKVET.AK D. Ohio. January 12, 1876—10.33 a. m. 
 To Qknbrai, Garti n.D, 
 
 Hoiitf, of RepresentaHves: 
 
 By authority of Secretary of War I ftirntshed 
 15.0OO rebel prfscoers at Elmira with the same 
 rations — cotTee, tobacco, coal, wood, clothing, 
 barrackB, medical attendance — as^ were given 
 to our own soldiers. The dead were decently 
 burled in Eimlra cemetery. All this can be 
 proved b> Democrats of t hat citv. 
 
 General J. j'. KLWBLL. 
 
 Mr. HILL. By permission of the g^'Utle- 
 mau from Ohio, I desire to say that thore 
 
 was no purpose on ray part by any of my 
 remarks on yesterday to charge inhumanity 
 upon anybody at Elmira or anywhere else, 
 1 only read the evidence from official sources 
 as I understood it. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. A letter in a newspaper. 
 
 Mr. HILL. Let me got through, if you 
 please. I^o not be uneasy. Keep quiet, and 
 I will not- hurt you. [Laughter.] 
 
 Mr. MacDOUQALL. That is what you 
 told us in 1861. 
 
 Mr. HILL. I simply sSLy that I was read- 
 ing the evidence of cruelties, in the 
 language of that letter, "inseparable from 
 prison life." Then I read of the small-pox 
 epidemic at Elmira and its character. But 
 the remark which the gentleman is now com- 
 menting on was not connected with any 
 charge of inhtimanity upon any person in 
 the world. I wish it distinctly understood 
 that I meant to charge inhumanity upon no- 
 body. I was simply speaking of those hor- 
 rors that are inseparable from all prison life; 
 and I wound up my statement by saying 
 that the official reports of Secretary Stanton, 
 on the 19th of .July. 18(36, after the war was 
 over, gave the relative mortality of prisoners 
 in Federal hands and prisoners in Confeder- 
 ate hands, and that the mortality of Con- 
 federate prisoners in northern prisons was 
 12 per cent., while the mortality of Federal 
 prisoners in Confederate hands was less than 
 9 per cent. Now I simply said that judging 
 by that test there was more atrocity (if you 
 please to call it so) — I meant, of course, mor- 
 tality — in the prisons of the North than in 
 those of the South. Let the gentleman take 
 the benefit of that statementi I simply re- 
 ferred to the report of Secretary Stanton. 
 
 Mr. BAKER, of Indiana. Does the gentle- 
 man mean to charge that the amount of mor- 
 tality in Northern prisons was owing to any 
 cruelty or neglect of the Federal officers ? 
 
 Mr. HILL. I do not undertake to say to 
 what special cause the mortality on either 
 side was attributable I say it was attribu- 
 table to those horrors inseparable from prison 
 life everywhere; and I simply entered my 
 protest against gentlemen seeking to stir 
 up those old past horrors on either side to 
 keep alive a strife that ought to be buried. 
 That is all. [Applause.]* 
 
 Mr. GAR.F1ELD. I am glad to hear what 
 the gentleman says, and to giveitinore force 
 by contrast I quote again the words he used 
 as reported in the newspapers this morning : 
 "When the gentleman from Maine addresses 
 thellouse again let hlraadd to it thatthe atro- 
 cities of AndersonvDlo do not begin to com- 
 pare with the atrocities of Elmira, of Fort 
 Douglas, or of Fort Delaware : and of all the 
 atrocities, both at Andcrsonville and Elmira, 
 the Confederate government ."tantls acquitted 
 from all rpspouslblllty and blame. 
 
 I refer to it to show why I could not 
 
 Mr. HILL. I have no doubt the gentle- 
 
SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 
 
 19 
 
 man's motive is good ; but he will permit 
 me to remind him that what he has just read 
 was sai>-i by me after reading Secretary 
 Stanton's report; and of course, while I men- 
 tioned prison places at the North I did not 
 mean to charge inhumanity upon any one as 
 a class. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. But let me say another 
 word to close this branch of the subject. 
 The only authority introduced to prove the 
 pretended atrocity at Elmira was an anony- 
 mous letter printed in the New York World. 
 The Roman roldiers who watched at the sep- 
 ulchre uf the Saviour of mankind attempted 
 to disprove his resurrection by testifying to 
 what happened while they were asleep. Bad 
 as this testimony was, it was not anonymous ; 
 but in ■ this case the testimony was 
 that of a shadow— an initial — nobody. 
 Stat no/tnnis umbra. What the substance 
 was we know not. But even as to this 
 
 AKONYMOPS ANUTHOKITY, 
 
 it would have been well for the cause of 
 justice if the gentleman had been kind enough 
 to quote it all. I read, I believe, from the very 
 book from whi^h the gentleman quoted — The 
 Life of Davis — a sentence omitted by him, but 
 which I hope be will have printed in his 
 speech. It is this : 
 
 The facts demonstrate that in as healthy a 
 location as there is in Xew York, with every 
 remedial appliance iu abundance, with no 
 epidemic, ifec. 
 
 So that even this anonymous witness tes- 
 tifies that we planted our Elmira prison in as 
 healthy a place as there was in the State of 
 New York. It ought to be added that the 
 small-pox broke out in that prison very soon 
 after the (late of this letter; and the mortal- 
 ity ihat followed was very much greater than 
 in any other pri.son in the North. 
 
 How we have kept alive our vindictiveness 
 will be seen by the fact that Congress, at its 
 last session or the session before last, passed 
 a law making the rebel cemetery at Elmira 
 a part of the national-cemetery system ; and 
 to-day, this malignant Administration, this 
 ferocious Constitution-hating and South-hat- 
 ing Administration is paying an officer for 
 tenderly caring for the inclosuro that holds 
 the remains of these outraged soldiers ! 
 
 Mr. MacDOUGALL. And a Union soldier. 
 Captain Fitch, is building at his own ex- 
 pense a monument at Elmira to the Confede- 
 rate dead. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. I did not know that. 
 At another place, Finn's P(jjml, in Virginia, 
 we have within the past few months em- 
 braced another cemetery of rebel soldiers 
 under the law and protection of our national 
 cemetery system. All this out of the depths 
 of our wrath and hatred for our Southern 
 brethren 1 
 
 Mr. IllLL. Will the gentleman allow me 
 te say a word on that point f 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. Certainly. 
 
 Mr. HILL. In response to what the gen- 
 tleman has said, I desire to state as a fact 
 what I personally know, th.at on the last oc- 
 casion of decorating soldiers' graves in the 
 South, our people, uniting with Northern 
 soldiers there, decorated in harmonious ac- 
 cord the graves of the fallen Federals and 
 the graves of the fallen Confederates. It is 
 because of this glorious feeling that is being 
 awakened in the country that 1 protest 
 against the revival of these horrors about 
 any prison. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. So do I. Who brought 
 it here? [Cries from the Democratic side 
 of the House, Blaihk 1 BlaikeI] W^i will 
 see a.s to that. I wish this same fraternal 
 feeling could come out of the graveyard, and 
 display itself toward the thirty or forty 
 maimed Union soldiers who were on duty 
 around this Capitol, but who have been dis- 
 placed by an equal number of 
 
 SOLDIKKS ON THE OTHBB 8IDK. 
 
 [Applause.] 
 
 There was another point which the gentle- 
 man made which I am frank to say I am not 
 now able to answer. 
 
 Mr. REAGAN. Mr. Speaker, I wish to 
 call attention (with the permission of the gen- 
 tleman from Ohio) to the exact state of facts 
 in reference to the allegation just made by 
 him. This is not the first time the statement 
 has been made that there iiave been thirty or 
 forty crippled Federal soldiers removed from 
 oike under this House and their places filled 
 by Confederate soldiers. I was shown yes- 
 terday morning by the Doorkeeper of the 
 House (and the information is as accessible 
 to the gentleman from Ohio and all others as 
 to mysrlf) a roll showing there were eighteen 
 Federal soldiers appointed by the Doorkeep- 
 er of the House during the last Congress, 
 while twenty-four Federal soldiers have 
 been appointed by the Doorkeeper of the 
 present Congress; while at the same time 
 the aggregate number of appointments al- 
 lowed to the Doorkeeper of the House of the 
 last Congress was very much larger than 
 that allowed to the Doorkeeper of the present 
 Congress. Besides that, more than three- 
 fourths of those appointed by the present 
 Doorkeeper have taken what is popularly 
 denominated as the iron-clad oath. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. I should be glad to.lmow 
 that the gentleman from Texas is correct. 
 
 Mr. SOUTHARD. The gentleman trom 
 Texas has referred to a list which I have bere 
 before me. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. My time is fast running 
 out, and I do not want it all taken up by 
 these explanations; but I will hear my col- 
 league. 
 
 The SPEAKER, Does the gentleman from 
 Ohio yieldf 
 
20 
 
 SPKECH OF HOW. JAMBS A. GARFIELDo 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. 1 yield to my colleague. 
 
 Mr. RANDALL. Your time will he ex- 
 tended. 
 
 Mr. SOUTHARD. The statement which 
 I hare before me, and to which the gentle- 
 man from Texas referred, is that of the one 
 hundred and fifty-three appointments made 
 oj the Doorkeeper in the last House of Rep- 
 resentatives, there were eighteen Union sol- 
 diers; while, out of the eighty-five appoint- 
 ments allowed to the Doorkeeper of the 
 present House, twenty-six Union soldiers 
 have been appointed. [Applause.] 
 
 The SPEAKER. These demonstrations are 
 entirely out of order. 
 
 Mr. JONES, of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, 
 I rise to a point of order. 
 
 The SPEAKER. The gentleman will state 
 it. 
 
 Mr. JONES, of Kentucky. My point is 
 this: 1 do not know whether it is a point of 
 order or not, but I do request that the 
 Speaker will in the most determined man- 
 ner suppress any applause in this House. I 
 regret this debate, and especially these de- 
 tails; but this applause is unbecoming the 
 gravity of the question, however unfortu- 
 nately it may have come up here; and I do 
 request that on this side of the House there 
 shall be no applause of any member who 
 speaks for the South, or any demonstration 
 against any one speaking on that side of the 
 House. I hope courtesy and decorum will 
 be observed. [Cries of "Good!" "GoodI"] 
 It is unbecoming the House, and unbecom- 
 ing the country, and I hope it wiU be 
 stopped. 
 
 The SPEAKER. The suggestion of the 
 gentleman from Kentucky is well made. 
 These things are not in order, and the Chair 
 earnestly requetsts the House will set an 
 example to those outside of the bar and in 
 the galleries by stopping all such demonstra- 
 tions. And the Chair takes occasiou to say 
 to the galleries that if these things are con- 
 tinued it will be his duty to have them 
 cleared. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. I regret as much as any 
 one the discussion of this question. I did 
 not intend to refer to it at all. I hope what 
 my colleague has presented as a statistical 
 table will turn out to be correct. I shall be 
 glad if it does. I know he thinks it is cor- 
 rect. However, there has been put into my 
 hand a statement about a single office of the 
 House in which the names of the old and 
 new rolls are given. I speak of the post- 
 office of the House, in which it is claimed 
 that while nine Union soldiers were on the 
 rolls during the last year, 
 
 NINE CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS 
 
 have replaced them on the roll of this 
 year; and tlxat of the thirteen employes 
 there, but two took the oath that thej had 
 
 not borne arms against the Qovernmeni. 
 If the statement be corie(!i which 1 have 
 had put into my hands, it would seom to 
 throw some shadow of doubt on what wt 
 have ju.-t heaid. But let both statements 
 go in together. 
 
 This is the list handed to me: 
 
 PCST-OPPICB OP THK HOUSE. 
 
 The old force.— Normau Crane, \'ermont; A. 
 M. I^egg, New York, two yen is in Union Army; 
 F. A. Warden, Massachusetts, four years in 
 Union Army and pertaanently disabled at 
 Winchester; J. H. Paine, Ohio, was in Union 
 Army; O.M. Thomas, Iowa: It. V. '<lsliop, Mich- 
 igan, lost au arm In the Union Army; R. S. 
 McMichael, Wisconsin, nearly lost his sight In 
 the Union Army; D. i^. Bradley, Wisconsin, 
 three vears in Union Army; J. H. Lytic, New 
 Yorlc; \V. li. Sessions, New" York; J. L). Severn, 
 PennsyWania; U. F. IJishop, Pennsylvania; W. 
 Tudge, Uislrici of Goluiubia; Cripti Palmoni, 
 District of Columbia. 
 
 The now force. — George W. Rock, Virginia, 
 in Confederate army; Henry Coo.k, Virginia, in 
 Confederate army; Richard" Allen, Virginia; S. 
 W. Kennedy, Virginia, in Confederuto array; 
 A. W. C. Nowlin, Virgi)iia. in Confederate army; 
 Edwartl C. Sloss, Virginia; W. H. Robinson, 
 Virginia, in Confederate army; J. K. Fishar, 
 
 Virginia, in Confederate army; P. 8. Goodsil, 
 W. B. Lowcry, Virginia, in Confederate army; 
 Joseph M. Taylor, Edwin Esle, New York; 
 
 Thomas Kirby, Connecticut, in Union Army. 
 Mr. Speaker, I was about to refer to an- 
 other point made by the gentleman from 
 Georgia in his statement of the number of 
 prisoners taken by us and taken by them 
 and the. relative number of deaths. I have 
 this morning received from the Surgeon 
 General references to all the pages of official 
 reports on that subject, but I have not been 
 able, in the hurried moments of the session 
 since I arrived here, to examine the figures. 
 The gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Borchard] 
 has made up a part of the statement which 
 I am now able to present. That statement 
 shows that during the war 
 
 WK TOOK 476,169 PRISONERS, 
 
 while on the other side they took 188,145 
 prisoners from us. 
 
 This is a statement to which the Surgeon 
 General referred me in a note received since 
 I took my seat in the House this morning, 
 and is in a printed report on the treatment 
 of prisoners of war by the rebel authorities, 
 third session Fortieth Congress, page 228, 
 which gentlemen can examine at their leis- 
 ure. 
 
 It ought to bt* added in this connection 
 that the conscription laws of the Confederate 
 congress forced all able-bodied citizens be- 
 tween the ages of seventeen and fifty into 
 the service, wbile our laws limited the con- 
 scription to the usual military ages. This, 
 of coitrse, put into their army a large num- 
 ber of immature boys and broken-down old 
 men, among whom the mortality would nat- 
 urally be greater than in an army made up 
 of men of the ordinary ages. 
 
 I turn now to another point. The gentle- 
 
S?EECH OF HON. JAMES A. (JARFIELD. 
 
 ii 
 
 man mak^s another answer concerning these 
 atrocities. 
 
 The SPEAKER. Ths gentleman's hour 
 has expired. 
 
 Mr. HILL. I hope the gentleman from 
 Ohio will be permitted to go on. 
 
 There being no objection, Mr. Gabfibld's 
 time was extended indefiuitelj. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. I am very grateful for 
 this courtesy and will not abuse it. 
 
 The gentleman from Georgia makes an- 
 other answer, that whatever was suflFered by 
 th«» prisoners for at least a considerable por- 
 tion of the time was in consequence of our 
 
 KEFUSAL TO MAKE AN KXCHANGK OF FHISONERS, 
 
 because we would not give them their fresh 
 men in our prisons, and take our shadows 
 and skeletons that came back from theirs. 
 
 This is a part, and an important part, of a 
 great history, which mu^t not be omitted in 
 this debate; and I will very briefly refer to its 
 leading points. There was much trouble abjut 
 the exchange of prisoners between the two 
 belligerents; first, because for a long time 
 we did not acknowledge the Confederates as 
 belligerents. We hoped under the ninety 
 days theory of Mr. Seward to get through 
 without their recognition, but that hope 
 failed. Our enemies were as gallant a peo- 
 ple as ever drew the sword, and the fulfill- 
 ment of that hope was delayed for mouths 
 and ror years. But finally an arrangement 
 was made under which it was possible to 
 make a cartel for the exchange of prisoners; 
 and on the '22d of July, 1862, a cartel was 
 agreed upon between the belligerents, which 
 provided that within ten days after a pris- 
 oner was taken he should be paroled aud 
 sent home; and whenever it was announced 
 by either side that a certain number was re- 
 lieved from the parole a corresponding num- 
 ber should be released from ihe other side, 
 and in that way the exchange was effected. 
 
 There were two points of delivery of pris- 
 oners. One was at Vicksburg. Another 
 was at a point near Dutch Gap, in Virginia. 
 And the exchange went on for some time 
 until a series of events occurred which in- 
 terrupted it. To those events I desire to 
 call attention for a moment. The first in or- 
 der of time was a proposition which was 
 read before the House yesterday, and which 
 I incorporate here in my remarks, not for 
 the sake of making any personal point, but 
 to preserve the continuity ot the history. 
 
 kill's black FLAG RESOLUTION. 
 
 In Octobor, 1862, a resolution was intro- 
 duced into (he Confederate Senate by Sen- 
 ator Hill, of Georgia — 
 
 That every person pretending to be a, eol- 
 (iler or officer of the United States who shall 
 be captured on the soil of tbe Coufederato 
 States iifter the first of January, lS(i3, shall be 
 presuaied to liave entered the territory of 
 itae Cou federate States with iBiteBt to excite 
 
 Insurrection and to abet murder, and that un- 
 less satisfactory proof be adduced to the con- 
 trary before the military court before which 
 his trial shall be had he shall sutTer death. 
 
 That was the first step in the complication 
 in regard to the exchange of prisoners of 
 war. That resolution appears to have borne 
 early fruits. 
 
 On the 22d day of December, 1862, Jeffer- 
 son Davis, the man for whom amnesty is now 
 being asked, issued a proclamation, a copy 
 of which I hold in my hand. I read two 
 paragraphs: 
 
 First. That all commissioned oftlcers In the 
 command of said Benjamin F. Butler be de- 
 Glared not entitled to be considered as sol- 
 diers engaged In honorable warfare, but as 
 robbers and criminals deserving death; and 
 that they, and each of them be, whenever 
 captured, reserved for execution. 
 
 Mr. HILL. A reason is stated for that. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. The reason is in the 
 preamble. I am not discussing the reasons 
 for this extraordinary proclamation, but its 
 effects upon the exchange of prisoners. 
 
 Third. That all negro slaves captured In 
 arms be at once ilelivered over to tlie execu- 
 tive autliorltles of the respective Stales to 
 which theybelonf?, to be tlealt with according 
 to the laws of saiil Stales. 
 
 Fourth. That the like orders be executed In 
 all cases with respect to all commissioned 
 ofhcers of the United Slates when found .-terv- 
 Ing in company with said slaves in insurrec- 
 tion against the authorities of the ditTorent 
 States of this Confederacy. 
 
 Two great questions were thus raised: first, 
 that a certain class of officers, merely be 
 cause they served under General Butler, 
 should be declared not entitled to the rights 
 of prisoners of war, but should be put to 
 death when taken. These men were serv- 
 ing, not Benjamin V. Butler, but the Union. 
 They did not choose him as their general. 
 They wei'e assigned to him ; and by this 
 proclamation that assignment 
 
 CONSIGNED THEM TO DEATH 
 
 at the hands of their captors. But th« 
 second question was still more important. 
 It was an order that all men who had 
 been slaves and had enlisted under the 
 flag of the Union should be denied all the 
 rights of soldiers, and when captured should 
 be dealt with as runaway slaves under the 
 laws of the States where they formerly be- 
 longed, and that commissioned officers who 
 commanded them were to be denied tha 
 rights aud privileges of prisoners of war. 
 The decision of the Union people every- 
 where was that, great as was the suffering 
 of our poor soldiers at Andersonville and 
 elsewhere, we would never make an ex- 
 change of prisoners until the manhood and 
 the rights of our colored soldiers were ac- 
 knowledged by the belligerent power. And 
 for long weary months we stood upon that 
 issue, and most of the suffering occurred 
 while we waited for that act of juatic* to bo 
 done on the other nide. 
 
22 
 
 SPEECH OP HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 
 
 To enforce this proclamation of Mr. Davis 
 a law was passed on the 1st of May, 1863, by 
 the Confederate congress, reported, doubt- 
 less, from the <judiciary committee by the 
 gentleman who spoke yesterday, and in that 
 law the principles of the proclamation I have 
 just read were embodied and expanded. 
 Section 4 of the law reads as follows: 
 
 Seo. 4. That every white person, being a 
 commissioned officer or acting as such, wlio- 
 durlng the present war, snail command 
 negroes or mulattoes In arms against the Con, 
 federate States, or who shall arm, train, or- 
 ganize, or prepare negroes or mulattoes for 
 military service against the Confederate 
 States or who shall voluntarily aid negroes 
 OS" mulattoes In any military enterprise, at- 
 tack, or conflict in such service, shall be 
 deemed as Inciting servile Insurrection, and 
 shall, If captured, he put to death or be otlier- 
 wise punished, at the discretion of the court. 
 
 Sbo. 5. Every jierson, being a commissioned 
 officer or acting as such in the service of the 
 enemy, who Bliall during the pi-esent war ex- 
 cite, attempt to excite, or cause to be excited, 
 a servile Insurrection, or who shall Incite or 
 cause to be Incited a slave to rebel, shall, If 
 captured, be put to death or be otherwise 
 punished, at the discretion of the court. 
 
 Sec. 7. Ail negroes and mulattoes who shall 
 be engaged In war or be taken in arms against 
 the Confederate States, or shall give aid or 
 comfort to the enemies of the Confederate 
 States, shall, when captured In the Confeder- 
 Rtto States, be delivered to the authorities of 
 the State or States in which they shall be cap- 
 tured, to be dealt with according to the pres- 
 ent or future laws of such State or States. 
 
 Approved May 1, 1863. 
 
 Now, Mr. Spe^iker, I am here to say that 
 this position taken by the head of the Con- 
 federacy, indorsed by his congress and car- 
 ried into execution by his officers, was the 
 great primal trouble in all this business of 
 the. exchange of prisoners. There were 
 minor tronblfts, such as claims by both sides 
 that paroles had been violated. I think 
 General Halleck reported that a whole divi- 
 sion of four brigades, Stevenson's division, 
 which had not been properly exchanged, 
 fought us at Lookout Mountain; but that 
 may have been a mistake. It was one of 
 the points in controversy. But the central 
 question was that of the Government of the 
 United States having committed itself to the 
 doctrine that 
 
 THE NEGKO WA.8 A MAN AND NOT A CHATTEL, 
 
 and that being a man he had a right to 
 help us in fighting for the Union, and be- 
 ing a soldier we would perish rather than 
 that he should not be treated as a soldier. 
 
 To show that I am not speaking at ran- 
 dona I will read from a report which I hold 
 in my hand, a report of the Secretary of 
 War on the difficulty of the exchange of pris- 
 oners. This paper is dated August 24, 1804. 
 I think it is a misprint for 1863, from what 
 surrounds it; but no matter as to that. It 
 was in August General Meredith reported: 
 
 To my demand "that all officers command- 
 ing uegro troops, and negro troops themselves, 
 should be treated as other prisoners of war, 
 
 and be exchanged as such," Mr. Ould declined 
 acceding, remarking that they (the rebels) 
 would "die in the last ditch" before giving up 
 the right to send slaves back to slavery as 
 property recaptured. 
 
 »♦*»*»♦ 
 
 I am, general, very respectfully, your obedi- 
 ent servant, 
 
 S. A. MEREDITH, 
 Brisfadier- General and Cotnmis.noner for Ex- 
 change. 
 Major-General E. A. Hitchcock, Cornmigsioner 
 /or Exchange 0/ Prisoners, Washington,!). O. 
 
 Thus it appears that in the negotiation, as 
 late as the month of August, 1863, the re- 
 fusal of the rebel authorities to treat the 
 negro as a man and a soldier, prevented the 
 exchange of prisoners. 
 
 One other point in that connection and I 
 will leave this subject. I have here a let- 
 ter, dated March 17, 1863, written by Robert 
 Ould and addressed to that man of "bad 
 Hmineuce," General Winder, in which Mr. 
 Ould, speaking of his arrangement for the 
 exchange of prisoners, says: 
 
 The arrangements that I have made work 
 largely in our favor. We gel rid of a set of 
 miserable wretches and receive some o/ che best 
 material lever saw. 
 
 Now in that single line, in a communica- 
 tion between two men. not par nobile fratrum 
 but par turpe diaholorum, is proof that the 
 object of this outrageous treatment at An- 
 dersonville was to make our men so that 
 their exchange would be valueless to us, and 
 it throws light upon the charge about our 
 treatment of prisoners held in the North. 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, I return from all this 
 to the direct discussion bearing immediately 
 upon Jefferson Davis. It seems to me incon- 
 trovertible that the records I have adduced 
 lay at his door the charge of being himself 
 the author, the conscious author, through 
 his own appointed iustrumeut, of the terrible 
 work at Andersonville, for which the Ameri- 
 can people still hold him unfit to be ad- 
 mitted amonjf the legislators of this nation. 
 
 Before I leave that subject let me say 
 another word or another point. I see around 
 me here a large number of gentlemen who 
 did not hesitate to take the oath of allegi- 
 ance to the Government of the United States, 
 who did not hesitate to ask to be relieved 
 of their political disabilities, and I ask if any 
 one of them, in the years they have served 
 here with us, has been ever taunted with 
 the fact that he has been thus relieved of 
 disabilities at his own request^ Can any 
 one of them recall a discourteous remark 
 that has ever been made here in debate be- 
 cause he has asked and accepted the am- 
 nesty of the Government f Do you want us 
 to say that the remaining seven hundred and 
 fifty need not ask what you did ? Do the 
 honorable gentlemen who are here to-day 
 want easier terms on which the others may 
 come in than the terms on which they them- 
 selves oaiae back f 
 
S?KECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD, 
 
 23 
 
 Mr. HILL. I desire to ask a question for 
 iaformatiou, for I want tlie facts, and my r*- 
 ooUection differs from that of the gentle- 
 man from Ohio, [Mr. Oarfikld.] The.act of 
 1872, granting a partial amnesty to quite a 
 large number, does not, as I understand it, 
 make any such requisition as is contained 
 in the amendment of the gentleman from 
 Maine, [Mr. Blaink.] 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. The gentleman is right. 
 
 Mr. HILL. It waR an unconditional am- 
 nesty like that contained in the bill of the 
 gentleman from Pennsylyania, [Mr. Ran- 
 dall.] It required no oath or anything of 
 the sort. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. Certainly not. 
 
 Mr. HILL. I am very sure that it was under 
 that act that I was reliered. And I neTer 
 applied for any amnesty at all, but I would 
 not have felt it 
 
 ANY LOSS OF PRIDK HAD I DONE 80. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. Certainly not. I remem- 
 ber Tery well that we relieved a large num- 
 ber of soldiers in one act. But we did not 
 relieve those who, at the time the rebellion 
 broke out, held offices and commissions un- 
 der the Government, which they had sworn 
 before God they would protect and defend, 
 and afterward went into the rebellion. Those 
 are the people that we have required to ask 
 for amnesty. 
 
 Mr. HILL. Allow me to call the attention 
 of the gentleman to a correction of his state- 
 ment. The act of Congress of 1872 relieved 
 all persons, as I understand it, from disabil- 
 ities who had been members of any State 
 Legislature, or who had been an executive or 
 judicial officer of any State, and relieved all 
 in civil or military service, or who had even 
 been in the Congress of the United States, ex- 
 cepting the Thirty-fifth or Thirty-sixth Con- 
 gress. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. The Thirty-sixth and 
 Thirty-seventh Congresses. 
 
 Mr." HILL. Well, one or the other. It 
 relieved all those who were not in Congress 
 at the time of secession, all members of State 
 Legislatures, all civil and military officers, 
 except the few remaining, some seven hun- 
 dred and fifty. You granted them relief 
 without any condition whatever. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. The gentleman will ob- 
 serve that those to whom he refers did 'not, 
 at the time the war broke out, hold commis- 
 sions as United States officers. 
 
 Mr. HILL. Yes. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. We excepted from am- 
 nesty all those who held in their hands a 
 commission from the Federal Government, 
 and who had sworn to be true to their com- 
 mission ; and we did this because they had 
 added to rebellion — I must use words — 
 
 THK CKIMK OV PERJURY 
 
 In th« eyes of the law. 
 
 Mr. TUCKER. Will the gentleman allow 
 me to interrupt him ? 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. Certainly. 
 
 Mr. TUCKER. Do I understand the gen- 
 tleman from Ohio, speaking here to-day of 
 kindness to gentlemen on this side of the 
 House, to say that any man who held a commis- 
 sion under the United States at the time the 
 war broke eut, and who went into secession, 
 was guilty of perjury ? 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. I will repeat precisely 
 the measured words I used. I said "the 
 crime of perjury in the eyes of the law." In 
 view of the fact of flaming war, I do not say 
 those men should be regarded as ordinary 
 perjurers ; I never said that. But what will 
 the gentleman call it ? By what other name 
 does the law know it f I did not make the 
 dictionary, nor did I make the law. The gen- 
 tleman certainly knows me well enough to 
 know that I am incapable of making a refer- 
 ence to any personal matter in this discus- 
 sion. He must see that I am using the word 
 as it is used in the law. 
 
 Mr. TUCKER. Mr. Speaker 
 
 The SPEAKER pro tempore, (Mr. Springer 
 in the chair.) Does the gentleman from Ohio 
 yield further to the gentleman from Virgin- 
 ia, [Mr. T0CKER f J 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. Certainly. 
 
 Mr. TUCKER. I do not ask to interrupt 
 the gentleman that I may excuse myself, but 
 to excuse some of the noblest men that I 
 have ever known, and of whom the gentle- 
 man might bo proud to claim to be a peer. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. There were some pas- 
 sages in the speech of yesterday which make 
 me less reluctant 
 
 TO SPEAK OF BREAKINO OATHS. 
 
 He said : 
 
 We charge all our wrongs to that "higher 
 law" fanaticism which never kept a pledge or 
 obeyed a law. We sought to leave the associa- 
 tion of those who would notkeep fidelity to cov- 
 enant. We sought to go by ourselves ; but, so 
 far from having lost our fiaellty to the Consti- 
 tution, we hugged It to our bosoms and car- 
 ried It with us. » * * But you gentlemen 
 who persecuted us by your infidelities until 
 you drove iis out of the Union, you who then 
 claimed to be the only friends of the Union, 
 which you had before denounced as a "league 
 with hell and a covenant with death," you who 
 follow up the war when the soldiers wlio 
 fought It nave made peace and gone to their 
 homes, to you we have no concessions to 
 make. Martyrs owe no apology to tyrants. 
 
 There is a certain snblimity of assumption 
 in this which challenges admiration. Why 
 the very men of whom we are talking, 
 who broke their oaths of office to the nation 
 — when we are speaking of relieving them we 
 are told that they went out because we broke 
 the Constitution and would not be bound by 
 oaths. 1 'id we break the Constitution f Did 
 we drive them out f I invoke thr- testimony 
 of Alexander H. Stephens, now a member of 
 this Houao, who, standing up in the secession 
 
24 
 
 gPSMOH OF HON. JAMIS A. aARflSLD. 
 
 convention of Georgia, declared that there 
 was DO just ground for Georgia's going out ; 
 declared that the election of a President 
 according to the Constitution was no justifl 
 able ground for secession, and declared that 
 if under the circnmstances the South should 
 go out she would herself be committing a 
 gigantic wrong and would call down upon 
 herself the thunders and horrors of civil war. 
 
 Thus spoke Alexander H. Stephens in 
 1860. Over against anything that may be 
 said to the contrary I place his testimony 
 that we did not force the South out ; that 
 they went out a'gainst all the protests and 
 the prayers and the humiliation that a great 
 and proud nation could make without abso- 
 lute disgrace.' 
 
 Mr. DAVIS. Will the gentleman from 
 Ohio yield to me a moment? 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. Certainly. 
 
 Mr. DAVIS. The gentleman has used a 
 term that touches the honor of more men 
 than one in this House and in the South. I 
 desire, therefore, to ask him this question: 
 Whether the war did not result from a dif- 
 ference of views between gentlemcu * the 
 ' North and gentlemen of the South witu re- 
 gard to what was the true construction of 
 the Constitution? That being so, I desire 
 to ask him further whether the oath of fidel- 
 ity to the Constitution was best observed by 
 those people of the section which he repre- 
 sents, those of his own party, who declared 
 that there was a law higher than the Consti- 
 tution and declined to obey that instrument, 
 or by those who observed faithfully their 
 constitutional obligations, and who, when 
 raids were made upon them, merely defended 
 themselves, as they understand it, 
 
 FROM DNCONSTITETTIONAL .\OORES8I0N ? 
 
 I wish to gay further for myself and for 
 those who are here with me that, the Con- 
 stitution having been amended — tlie "higher 
 law" party having incorporated in that in- 
 strument the abolition of slavery and cer- 
 tain other features wLicb we have now sworn 
 to support along with the rest of the instru- 
 ment — if in the future we fail to observe 
 that oath bi fore high Heaven, then we may 
 be declared perjured; then we may be de- 
 clared rebels; then w«j may be declared 
 traitors. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. If the gentleman has 
 understood me he cannot fail to see that I 
 have not used the word in any offensive 
 sense, but in its plain and ordinary accepta- 
 tion, as used in the law. We hold that the 
 United States M'as 8 nation, bound together 
 by a bond of perpetual union; a union which 
 uo State or any combination of States, which 
 no man or any combination of men, had the 
 right, under the Constitution, to break. 
 The attempt of the South to overthrow the 
 Union was crime against the Govornment~the 
 
 crime of rebellion. It can be described by no 
 other name. It is so known to the laws of na- 
 tions. It is so described in the decisions of 
 the Supreme ' ourt. 
 
 The j^entleman from North Carolina calls 
 
 THE WAS ON ONE SIDE A RAID. 
 
 I Will never consent to call oar war for the 
 Union 'a raid,'' least of all a raid upon the 
 rights of any human being. I admit that there 
 wa- a political theory of State rights — a theory 
 held, I have no doubt, by gentlemen like 
 the gentleman of Virginia [Mr. Tucker] who 
 spoke a moment ago — believed in as sin- 
 cerely as I believe the opposite — which led 
 them to think it was their duty to go when 
 their State went. I admit that that greatly 
 mitigates all that the law speaks of as a vio- 
 lation of an oath. But I will never admit 
 (for history gives the lie to the statement in 
 every line) that the men of the Union were 
 making a "raid" upon the rights of the 
 South. 
 
 Read the Republican platform of 1856 and 
 of 1860. What did we contend for in those 
 years? Simply that slavery should not be 
 extended into any Territory already free. 
 That was all. We forswore any right or 
 purpose on our part in time of peace to touch 
 slavery in any State. We only claimed that 
 in the Territories, the common heritage of 
 all the Union, slavery should never travel 
 another inch; and, thank God, it no longer 
 pollutes our soil or disgraces our civilization. 
 
 Now that slavery, 
 
 THE O0ILTT CAtTSB OT THE REBELLION. 
 
 is no more, and that, so far as I know 
 nobody wants it restored — I do not believe 
 these gentlemen from the South desire its 
 restoration 
 
 Mr. HILL. We would not have it. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. They would not have 
 it, the gentleman from Georgia aays Then 
 let us thank God that in the tierce flames of 
 war the institution of slavery has been con- 
 sumed; and out of its ashes let us hope a 
 better than the fabled Phoenix of old will 
 arise— a love of the Union high and deep, 
 "as broad and general as the casing air," 
 enveloping us all, and that it shall be 
 counted no shame for any man who is not 
 still under political disabilities to say with 
 uplifted hand, "I will be true to it and take 
 the proffered amnesty of the nation." But 
 let us not tender it to be spurned. If it is 
 worth having, it is worth asking for. 
 
 And now, Mr. Speaker, I close as I began. 
 Toward those men who gallantly fought us 
 on the field I cherish the kindest feeling, i 
 feel a sincere reverence for the soldierly 
 qualities they displayed on many a well- 
 fought battle-field. I hope the day will 
 come whan their swords and ours will be 
 crossed over many a doorway of our chil- 
 dren, who will remember the glorj of their 
 
6PEE0H OF HON. JAMCS Q. Hh&TSH. 
 
 26 
 
 ancestors with pride. Th# high qualities 
 displayed in that conflict now belong to the 
 whole nation. Let them be consecrated to 
 the Union and its future peace and glory. 
 I shall hail that consecration a» a pledge and 
 symbol of our perpetuity. 
 
 But there was a class of men referred to 
 in the speech of the gentleman yesterday 
 for whom I have never yet gained the Chris- 
 tian grace necessary to say the same thing. 
 The gentleman said that amid the thunder 
 of battle, through its dun smoke, and 
 above its roar they heard a voice from this 
 side saying, "Brothers, come." I do not 
 know whether he meant the same thing, but 
 I heard that voice behind us. I heard that 
 voice, and I recollect that I sent one of those 
 who uttered it through our lines — a voice 
 owned by Vallandigham. [Laughter.] Gen- 
 eral Scott said, in the early days of the war, 
 "When this war is over, it will require all 
 the physical and moral power of the Gov- 
 ernment 
 
 TO SESTRAIN THE KASB AND FFKY OF TH» NON- 
 COMBATANTS." 
 
 [Laughtor. ] It was that non-combatant 
 voice behind us that cried "halloof" to 
 the other side; that always gave cheer 
 and encouragement to the enemy in our 
 
 hour of darkness. I have never forgot- 
 ten and have not yet forgiven those Dem- 
 ocrats of the North whose heart» were not 
 warmed by the grand inspirations ef the 
 Union, but who stood back finding fault, 
 always crying disaster, rejoicing at our de- 
 feat, never glorying in our victory. If these 
 are the voices the gentleman heard. I am 
 sorry he is now united with those who ut- 
 tered them. 
 
 But to those most noble men, Democrats and 
 Republicans, who together fought for the 
 Union, I commend all the lessons of charity 
 that the wisest and most beneficent men have 
 taught. I join yon all 
 
 IK KVKBT A8PIKATI0K 
 
 that you may express to stay in this Union, to 
 heal its wounds, to increase its glory, and to 
 forget the evils and bitternessess of the past; 
 but do not, for the sake of the three hun- 
 dred thousand heroic men who, maimed 
 and bruised, drag out their weary lives, 
 many of them carrying in their hearts hor- 
 rible memories of what they suffered in 
 the prison-pen — do not ask us to vote to put 
 back into power that man who was the cause 
 of their suffering — that man atill unaneled, 
 nnshrived, nnforgiven, undefended. [Great 
 applause.] 
 
 THE SHADOW OF A DEAD CONFEDERACY. 
 
 In tlie House of Eepresentatlyes, Jan. 13, 1876. 
 
 MR. BLAINE: 
 
 Mr. Spbakkr, before proceeding with 
 the remarks which I shall address to 
 the question before the House, I desire 
 to aay that in the discussion on the point of 
 order that was raised just prior to the ad- 
 journment last evening I did not intend to 
 be understood an^ hope no gentleman an- 
 derstood me as implying that the honorable 
 Speaker intended in any way to deprive me 
 of the right to speak. I did not so under- 
 stand the Speaker, nor did I understand it 
 to be the motive or object of the gentleman 
 from Pennsylvania [Mr. Randall.] I say 
 this much in justice to myself and in justice 
 to the honorable incumbent of the chair. 
 
 From the tone of the debate on the oppo- 
 site side of the Chamber, Mr. Speaker, one 
 would certainly imagine that the Repul)lican 
 party, as represented in Congress, was try- 
 ing to inflict some new punishment or add 
 some fresh stigma to the name of Jefferson 
 Davis, as well indeed as to lay some addi- 
 tional burden on those other citizens of the 
 Soiitli who are not yet fully amnestied. It may 
 therefore not be unprofitable just to recall 
 to the attention of the House the precise 
 question at issue, and how it came here, and 
 who it was that brought it here. 
 
 [ The gentleman from Pennsylvania Intro- 
 duced a bill to confer special honor on .Jef- 
 ferson Davis ; for what honor can be higher 
 than the full panoplied citizenship of the Uni- 
 ted States of America f He has lost it by his 
 crimes, and the gentleman from Pennsylva- 
 nia proposes in hot haste, without debate, 
 without amendment, to drag every gentle- 
 man up to say "Aye" or "No" upon a bill 
 declaring him to be entitled how and hence- 
 forth to all the rights and all the honors of 
 American citizenship. From that we dis- 
 sent. We did not bring the question here, 
 We are not seeking to throw any fresh ele- 
 ment of an inflammatory kind into any discus- 
 sion or difi'erence that may be between two 
 jiarties or two sections, and whatever of that 
 kind has grown from this discussion lies at 
 the door of the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
 and those who stand with him. 
 
 Remember, Mr. Speaker, it is no proposi- 
 tion to punish but a proposition to honor, 
 and while we disclaim any intention or d esire 
 to punish Jefferson Davis, we resist the 
 proposition to honor him. And right here, 
 as a preliminary matter, I desire to address 
 myself for a moment to the constitutional 
 point suggested by the honorable gentlsm&n 
 
26 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. J AME8 Q. BLAINl. 
 
 from Massachusetts, [Mr. Sbklte,] who ad- 
 dressed the House last evening. He sees 
 and appreciates the magnitude of the crime 
 laid at the door of Jeflferson Davis, and he 
 clearly pointed oat that neither the gentle- 
 man from New York nor the gentleman from 
 Georgia had palliated or dared to palliate 
 the crimes with which I charged him. But 
 he is bothered by the scruple that because 
 we are permitted to punish for participancy 
 in in3urre>tion or rebellion we cannot make 
 any discrimination or distinction. Why, the 
 honorable gentleman must have forgotten that 
 this is precisely what we have been doing ever 
 since the disability was imposed. We first 
 removed the disabilities from the least offen- 
 sive class ; then in the next list we removed 
 those next in order of guilty participancy, 
 and so on, until in 1872 we removed the 
 disability from all, except the Army and Na- 
 vy oflBcers, members of Congress, and heads 
 of Departments. Why, sir, are we not as 
 much justified to day in excepting Jefferson 
 Davis as we were in l!^72 in excepting the 
 seven hundred and fifty of whom he consti- 
 tutes one f Therefore I beg to say to my 
 honorable friend, whose co-operation I crave, 
 that that point is res adjudicata by a hun- 
 dred acts upon the statute-book. We are 
 entirely competent to do just what la pro- 
 posed in my amendment. 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, on the question of the 
 treatment of our prisoners and on the great 
 question as to who was to blame- for break- 
 ing exchange, the speech of the honorable 
 gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Gakfibld] has 
 left me literally nothing to say. He ex- 
 hausted the subject. His speech was un- 
 answerable, and I undertake to say that as 
 yet no gentleman has answered one fact that 
 he alleged — no gentleman in this House can 
 answer one fact presented by him. I shall not 
 therefore at any length dwell upon that. 
 But in connection with one point in history 
 there is something which I should feel it my 
 duty, not merely as a member of the Repub- 
 lican party which upheld the administration 
 that conducted the war, but as a citizen of 
 the American Union, to resist and resent, 
 and that is, the allegations that were made 
 in regard to the manner in which Confeder- 
 ate prisoners were treated in the prisons of 
 the Union. The gentleman from Georgia 
 says : 
 
 1 have also proved that with all the horrors 
 you have made such a noise about asoecurrhig 
 at Anderson ville, greater horrors occurred In 
 the priaons where our troops were held. 
 
 And I could not but admire the "our" 
 and tlie "your" with which the gentleman 
 conducted the whole discussion. It ill com- 
 ported with his later prefession of Unionism. 
 It was certainly flinging the shadow of a 
 de;id Conlederacy a long way over the dial 
 ef the Nation*! House of RopresentativeB; 
 
 and I think the gentleman from New York 
 fell into a little of the same line. Of that I 
 shall speak again. The gentleman from 
 Georgia goes on to say that — 
 
 The atrocities of Andersonvllle do not begin 
 to compare with the atroclllea of Elmlra, 
 of Camp Doughis, of Fort Deln ware : und of all 
 the atrocities both at Andersonvllle and at 
 Elmlra the Confederate authorities stand ac- 
 quitted. 
 
 Mr. HILL. I certainly said no such thing. 
 I stated distinctly that I brought no charge 
 of crime against anybody. But I also stated 
 distinctly that according to the geutleman'g 
 logic that result followed. 
 
 Mr. -BLAINE. But that is not the report- 
 ed speech at all. 
 
 Mr. HILL. I stated distinctly that I waa 
 following the gentleman's logic. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. I am quoting the gentle- 
 man's speech as he delivered it. I quote it 
 as it appeared in the Daily Chronicle and the 
 Associated Press report. I do not pretend 
 to be bound by the version which may ap- 
 pear hereafter, because I observed that the 
 gentleman from New York [Mr. Cox] spoke 
 one speech and published another, [great 
 laughter,] and I suppose the gentleman 
 from Georgia will do the same. 1 admiit 
 that the gentleman has a difficult role to 
 play. He has to harmonize himself with the 
 great Northern Democracy and keep him- 
 self in high line as a Democratic candidate 
 for Senator from Georgia; and it is a very diffi- 
 cult thing to reconcile the two. [Laughter.] 
 The "barn-burner Democrats" in IS.'iS tried 
 very hard to adhere to their anti-slavery 
 principles in New York and still support the 
 Pierce administration : and Mr. Greeley, 
 with that inimitable humor which he pos- 
 sessed, said that they found it a very hard road 
 to straddle, like a militia general on parade 
 on Broadway, who finds it an almost impos- 
 sible task to follow the music and dodge the 
 omnibuses. [Laughter.] Xnd that is what 
 the gentleman does. The gentleman tries 
 to keep step to the music of the Union and 
 dodge his fire-eating constituency in Georgia. 
 [Great laughter.] 
 
 Then here is another quotation: 
 
 We know our prisoners suffered In Federal 
 hands, and we know how If we chose to tell. 
 Thousands of oiir poor men came home from 
 Fort Delaware and other places with their 
 fingers frozen off, with their toes froxen off, 
 with their teeth fallen out. 
 
 Mr. HILL. The gentleman will allow me 
 to answer. I said that these things were 
 necessary incidents of the horrors of all 
 prisons. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. But the gentleman states 
 that that was a fact ? I do not understand 
 him to back down from that assertion f 
 
 Mr. HILL. No, sir. I saw it with my own 
 eyes. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. Now, the gentlsmao from 
 
8J»X]£CH OV SON. JAMES G. BLAIK£. 
 
 27 
 
 th« Elmira district, [Mr, Walker,] and I 
 honor him for il, was not h«ild in ieash as 
 hib colleague from Now York [Mr. CoxJ was 
 by party fidelity and Southern sympathy, 
 and came out like a man and vindicated his 
 constituents. The gentleman from Georgia 
 makes this charge of ill-treatment of Con- 
 federate prisoners at Camp Douglas. 
 «•»*«■♦♦♦ 
 
 Now Mr. Speaker, I desire to call attention 
 to the remajrk of the gentleman from New 
 York, who, as 1 said, delivered one speech 
 and published another. 
 
 Mr. COX. I did not change anything in 
 my speech or in my colloquy with yon. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. The gentleman will hare 
 time to answer. I gay the gentleman from 
 New Y'ork delivered one speech and printed 
 another. 
 
 Mi. cox. Go on with your talk; you are 
 getting used up on this side. [Laughter.] 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. The gentleman from New 
 York stated that "he had it on the authority 
 of sixty and odd gentlemen here, many of 
 them haying been in the service of the Con- 
 federacy during the war, that no order was is- 
 sued at anytime in the South relative to pris- 
 oners who were taken by the South as to ra- 
 tions or clothing that did not apply equally to 
 their own soldiers, and that any ex parte 
 statements taken by that humbug committee 
 on the conduct of the war could not contro- 
 vert the facts of history " The gentleman 
 therefore stands up here aa denying the 
 atrocities of Andersonville. He seconds the 
 gentleman from Georgia and gives the weight 
 of whatever may be attached to his word to 
 denying that fact. Now, the gentleman him- 
 self did not always talk so. I have here a 
 debate that occurred on the 2lst of December, 
 1864, in which, while the proposition was 
 pending in the House for retaliation, the 
 gentleman, then from Ohio, said: 
 
 This resolution provides for Inflicting upon 
 the rebel prisoners who may be In our hanUa 
 the same uihwniane, barbarous, horrible treat- 
 ment which has been Infllctea upon our sol- 
 diers held as prisoners by the rebels. 
 
 Now, Mr, Speaker — 
 
 Continued the enraged gentleman at that 
 time — 
 
 It does not follow that because the rebels have 
 made brute* and fieridn of themselves that we 
 should do likewise, 
 
 Mr. COX. That is good sense. 
 
 Mr, BLAINE. "There is," he says, "a 
 certain law of retaliation in war, I know; 
 but," continued the gentleman, "no man 
 will stand up here and say, after due delib- 
 eration, that he would reduce these prison- 
 ers thrust into our hands into the same con- 
 dition exhibited by these skeletons, these 
 pictures, there anatomies brought to our at- 
 tention and laid upon the desks of members 
 of Congress." Then the gentleman says: 
 "It do«B not follow because our prisoners 
 
 j are tr«>ated in the way represented, and no 
 j doubt truthfully rei)reseulrtd." Thatiswhat 
 the gentleman said in 1864; but when a 
 solemn committee of Congress, made up of 
 honorable gentlemen of both sides of ,the 
 House, bring in exactly the statements 
 which verify all this, then the gentleman 
 states "that the authority was a humbug 
 committee." 
 
 Mr. COX rose. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. Wait; you will hare plenty 
 of time, 
 
 Mr. COX. I did not get up to interrupt 
 the gentleman. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. Now the gentleman Ukes 
 his side among the great defenders of An- 
 dersonville, and states there has been noth- 
 ing made out against Andersonville except 
 upon ex parte statements. 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, while I do not wish to 
 be interrupted, I would like, by & nod, if 
 the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. HillJ will 
 be good enough to tell me — for he is a well- 
 practiced lawyer and I am not one at all; 
 and when witnesses are in doubt they are 
 allowed time to reflect and refresh their 
 memory — I ask him to tell me after reflection 
 whether he recollects having introduced 
 this resolution into the Confederate Senate. 
 
 Mr. HILL. Which? 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. The following : 
 
 Senator 11111, of Georgia, introduced the fol- 
 lowiug resolution in the Oonfeilerate (Jongress 
 . in Octobur, 18bi : "That every person pretend- 
 ing to be a soldier or officer of the United 
 States who shall be captured on the soil of the 
 Confederate States after the first day of .Janu- 
 ary, 186a, shall be presumed to have entered 
 the territory of the Confederate Status with 
 Intent to Incite iusarrection and to abet mur- 
 der : and, unless satLnfactory proof be adduced 
 to tne contrary before the military court bo- 
 fore which the trial shall be had, he shuU suf- 
 fer death. And this section sha^l continue in 
 force until the proclamation issued by Abra- 
 ham Lincoln, datad Washington, September 
 2-1, 1872, shall be rescinded," 
 
 Did the gentleman introduce that resolu- 
 tion f 
 
 Mr, HILL. Do you want an answer ? 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. Yes, 
 
 Mr. HILL, I will say this : I state pre- 
 cisely and frankly, as I stated to the gentle- 
 man day before yesterday, that I do not re- 
 collect being the author of that resolution. 
 I have no doubt the resolution was intro- 
 duced, and I will state this : that at the 
 time there was a belief in the Confederacy — 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. I did not yield for a speech. 
 I only wanted to know that. * * * * 
 
 Mr. Speaker, what does this mean ? What 
 did the gentleman from Georgia mean when, 
 from the committee on the judiciary, he 
 introduced the following : 
 
 •2. Every white person who shall act as a 
 commissioned or non-conimlasioned officer, 
 coiniiKiiidlng negroes or niiilattoes against 
 the Confr'd.riite otates, or who shall arm, or- 
 ganize, train, or prepare negroen or malattOM 
 
28 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. JAMES G. BLAINE. 
 
 for tnllltary service, or aid them In any mili- 
 tary enterprise apalnst the Confederate States 
 shall. If captured, suffer death. 
 
 3. Every couiml^loued or non-commlsslon- 
 ed officer of the enemy who shall incite slaves 
 to rebellion, or pi>etend to give them freedom, 
 under tbe aforementioned act of Congress and 
 proclamation, by abducting, or causing them 
 to be abducted, "or inducing them to abscond, 
 shall, if captured, sutler death. 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, 1 have searched some- 
 what, but in vain, for anything iu the 
 world that rivals this. I did find, and have 
 here in my minutes, the proclamation of 
 Valmeseda, the Captain-General of Cuba, 
 who was recalled by Spain because of his 
 atrocious cntelties to the inhabitants of that 
 island ; and the worst tiling in all the atro- 
 cities laid to his charge was that ho pro- 
 claimed "that every man or boy over fifteen 
 years found away from his house, not being 
 able to give a satisfactory reason therefor, 
 should suflfer death.'" lie copied it from the 
 resolution of the gentleman from Georgia. 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, I hold iu my hand a 
 copy of the Atlanta Consiiiulion, printed on 
 the 24th of January, 1 875. We are told that 
 all these allegations against Jefi"ersou Davis 
 should be forgiven because they are all of 
 the dead past. 
 
 We are told that we should not revive 
 them, that there should be nothing in the 
 world brought up in any way to disturb the 
 beautiful serenity of the Centennial year, 
 and that to make any allusion to them what- 
 ever is to do an unwelcome and unpatriotic 
 act. The very last declaration we have 
 from Jefferson Davis authentically, in the 
 life which the gentleman from Georgia held 
 the other day as a text book, reads thus : 
 
 Time will show, however, the amount of 
 truth In the prophecy of Jefferson Davis- 
 Says the biographer, made in reply to the 
 remark that the cause of the Confederacy 
 was lost. Mr. Davis said : 
 
 It appears so, but the principle for which we 
 contended is bound to reassert itself, though it 
 viuy be ut another time and in another fornv. 
 
 Now 1 have here, of the date of January 
 24, 1875, a speech by Hon. B. H Hill, in 
 the Atlanta Constitution, and it is said to 
 have been the "grandest speech" he ever 
 delivered. 
 
 Mr. HILL. Oh, that is a mistake. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. The gentleman says it is a 
 mistake. I know he has delivered some 
 very grand speeches, but the editor charac- 
 terizes this as the grandest of them all. I 
 quote from him : 
 
 Fellow-citizens, I look to the contest of 1876 
 not only as the most important that ever oc- 
 curred in American history, but as the most 
 important In the history of the world ; for if 
 the people of the country cannot be aroused 
 to give au overwheliniug vote ugalusl this 
 Kepu Oilcan party It will perpetuate Itself in 
 power in the United States by precisely the 
 »a,me means that the President has taken in 
 LoulMiaan, ana the pcf>ple will bejpowerless to 
 
 frevent It except they go to war. [Applause.! 
 f we fall with the ballot-boi In 18/G by reason 
 Offeree, a startling question will present it- 
 self to tlie -American people. I triist we will 
 not fall. 1 hope the Northern people have 
 had a sulHcieut subsidence of passion to see 
 this question fairly. 
 
 Then the gentleman goes on to say — 
 
 If we must have war — 
 why his voice is always for war. 
 
 Mr. HILL. Never, never ! 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. The gentleman says — 
 
 If we must have war ; If we cauBot preserve 
 this Constitution and constitutional Govern- 
 ment by the ballot; if force is to defeat the 
 ballot ; if the war must come— God forbid that 
 It should come — but if it must come; If folly, 
 if wickedness, if Inordinate lovo of power 
 shall decree that America must save her Con- 
 stitution by blood, let it come; 1 am ready. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 Mr. HILL. Will the gentleman allow m« 
 one word ? 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. Not now. There will be 
 plonty of time. And then the gentleman 
 said in another speech of May 12 : 
 
 He impressed upon the colored men of the 
 country the truth thut, If the folly and wick- 
 edness were consumiiutted in war, they would 
 be the greatest sutferers. If peace was pre- 
 served they were safe, but as sure as one war 
 had freed them, just as sure another wh.t 
 would re-enslave them. 
 
 Now that was pi ocisely the kind of talk 
 we had here by folios and reams before the 
 rebellion. Oh, yes; you were for war then, 
 The gentleman iu his speech says that the 
 Union now is an unmixed blessing, providing 
 the Democratic party cau rule it, but that if 
 the Republican party must rule it he is for 
 war. Why, that is just what Jefferson Da- 
 vis said in 1861. 
 
 I have here very much more of the same 
 kind. I have been supplied with very 
 abundant literature emanating from the gen- 
 tleman, more, indeed, than I have had time 
 to read. He seems to have been as volumin- 
 ous as the Spanish Chroniclers. In one 
 speech he says : 
 
 I must say a word about this list of dlsabiHt- 
 ties removed. 1 woTild rather see my name 
 recorded in the Georgia penitentiary than to 
 find It on a list of the removal of disabilities. 
 Why, my friends, do j'ou not know that when 
 j'ou go to that Congress and ask for a removal 
 of disabilities you aflmlt that you are a traitorT 
 
 Mr. HILL. What do you read from f 
 Mr. BLAINE. From a report in a Cincin- 
 nati Daily Gazette, giving an account of a 
 great meeting in 1868, at which Howell Cobb, 
 Robert Toombs, and the Hop B. H. Hill 
 made speeches. And there the gentleman 
 declared that he would rather have his 
 name on the list of the Georgia penitentiary 
 than on a list of the removal of disabilities. 
 Mr. Speaker, I do not desire to stir up 
 more needless ill-blood, but the gentleman 
 from Ohio [Mr. Gakfield] yesterday, appar- 
 ently without much thought, spoke of a 
 olasa of men iu the Southern States who had 
 
SPEECH OS' HON. JAMES (J. BLAINE. 
 
 committed perjury, and I would like to ad- 
 dress the gentleman & question that he can 
 answer when he gets the floor. 
 
 Mr. HILL. Will you not allow me to an- 
 swer it now f 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. No, sir; not now. Suppose 
 you inaugurate a great war if the Republi- 
 can party retains power, and you and all 
 these gentlemen who sympathize with you 
 upon this floor, and who had taken an oath 
 to bear true allegiance to the Government of 
 the United States, and that you took that 
 oath without mental reservation, then revolt 
 against the coantry; what would that be ? 
 Would it have any relatic^a to perjury f 
 
 But, Mr. Speaker, you see the effect of the 
 speeches of the gentleman from Georgia. 
 They are very tremendous down there. The 
 very earth quakes under him. One of his 
 organs says : 
 
 We assert without fear of contradiction that 
 Mr. Hill In his liltter d enunciation of scala- 
 wags and carpet-baggers has deterred thou- 
 sands of them from entering the ranks of the 
 radical pai'ty. They ilare not do so for fear of 
 social ostracism, and to-day the white popu- 
 lation of Georgia are unanimous lu favor of 
 the Democratic party. 
 
 And when he can get the rest of the 
 States to the same standard he is for war. 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, the gentleman cannot, 
 by withholding liis speech here and revising 
 it and adapting it to the northern Democracy, 
 erase his speeches in Georgia. I have quoted 
 from them. I have quoted from Democratic 
 papers. There is no accusation that there is 
 any perversion in Republican papers or that 
 he was misrepresented. But the gentleman 
 deliberately states that in a certain contin- 
 gency of the Republican party having power 
 he is for war; and I undertake here to say 
 that, in all the mad, hot wrath in the Thirty- 
 sixth Congress that precipitated the revolt 
 in this country there is not one speech to be 
 found that breathes a more determined re- 
 bellion against lawful authority or a guiltier 
 readiness to resist it than the speech of the 
 gentleman from Georgia. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I have not much time left. 
 I said briefly in my first speech that God 
 forbid I should lay at the door of the South- 
 ern people, as a people, these atrocities. I 
 repeat it. I lay no such charge at their 
 door. Sir, I have read in this "ex /:)ar^e hum- 
 bug report" that there were deep movements 
 among the Southern people about these atroc- 
 ities; that there was a profound sensibility. 
 I know that the leading oflicers of the Con- 
 federacy protested against them; I know that 
 many of the subordinate officers protested 
 againrit them. I know that an honorable 
 gentleman from North Carolina, now repre- 
 senting his State in the other end of the Cap- 
 itol, protested against them. But I have 
 searched the records in Tain to find that the 
 
 gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Hill] protested 
 against them. They were known to the 
 Confederate Congress; they were known at 
 the doorway of your Senate and along the 
 corridors of your Capitol. The honorable 
 and venerable gentleman in my eye at 
 this moment who served in the Confed- 
 erate Congress, and who had before served 
 in the Senate of the United States, himself 
 brought them to the attention of the Confed- 
 erate Congress, and I class him with great 
 gladness among those whose humanity was 
 never quenched by the fires of the rebellion. 
 I allude to Hon. Henry S. Foote. 
 
 My time is running and I have very little 
 left. I confess — and I say it to the gentle- 
 man from Georgia with no personal unkind- 
 ness — I confess that my very blood boiled, 
 if there was anything of tradition, of memo- 
 ry, of feeling, it boiled, when I heard the 
 gentleman, with his record, which I have 
 read, seconded and sustained by the gentle- 
 man from New York, arraigning the admin- 
 istration of Abraham Lincoln, throwing ob- 
 loquy and slander upon the grave of Edwin 
 M. Stanton, and demanding that Jefferson 
 Davis should be restored to full citizenship 
 in this country. Ah ! that is a novel spec- 
 tacle; the gentleman from Georgia does not 
 know how novel ; the gentleman from New 
 York ought to know. The gentleman from 
 Georgia does not know and he cannot know 
 how many hundred thousands of northern 
 bosoms were lacerated by his course. 
 
 Mr. HILL. I never said it, Mr. Blaink ; 
 you are mistaken. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. Oh, no; you accused the ad- 
 ministration of Mr. Lincoln with breaking 
 the cartel and violating the honor of the 
 Government, and a thousand other things; 
 the speech as published in the papers show 
 it. And as soon as he made it the gentle- 
 man from New York run to him in hot haste 
 to congratulate him, sympathizing, I sup- 
 pose, with the assault. 
 
 Mr. HILL. Upon that subject I read 
 nothing but published letters and docu- 
 ments, and of northern origin at that. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. I repeat, that proposition 
 strikes — I might say almost terror into north- 
 ern hearts; that here, in an American Con- 
 gress, the gentleman who offered that reso- 
 lution in the Confederate Congress, who in 
 his campaign for a seat in this House comes 
 here breathing threatenings and slaughter, 
 who comes here telling you that in a certain 
 contingency he means war, advising his 
 people to be ready for it — that gentleman, 
 profaning the very altar of patriotic liberty 
 svith the speech that sends him here, ar- 
 raigning the Adminiatratiou that conducted 
 the war and saved tlie Union — that gentle- 
 man asks us to join wilii him in pa^iing the 
 last full measure of honor that an Amerioan 
 
80 
 
 8?KSCH OF HON. JAMES Qt. BLAINIS. 
 
 Congress can pay to tha arch «nemy of th,« 
 Union, the arch-fiend of the rebellion. 
 
 Suppose Jefferson Davis is not pardoned ; 
 suppose he is not amnestied. Oh I you can- 
 notTiave a centennial year without that I No 
 man on this side has ever intimated that 
 Jefferson iJavis should be refused pardon on 
 account of any political crimes ; it is too 
 late for that ; it is because of a personal 
 crime. 
 
 If yon ask that there may be harmonious 
 and universal rejoicing over every forgiven 
 man, release all your criminals ; set free 
 every man who has been sentenced for piracy 
 or for murder by your United States courts ; 
 proclaim the jubilee indeed 
 
 Mr. HEREFORD. And the whisky con- 
 victs ! 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. Mr. Speaker, that reminds 
 me of one thing which in the haste and pres- 
 sure of my hour I might have forgotten. The 
 gentleman from Georgia aimed to be very 
 humorous about General Grant, and said 
 that the logic which I had presented the 
 other day in regard to Jefferson Davis made 
 General Grant responsible for McDonald and 
 Joyce. The gentleman might have thought 
 that he was witty, but I could not see it. 
 Mr. HILL. I know you could not. 
 Mr. BLAINE. It was not so witty as the 
 remarks of the gentleman from New York, 
 [Mr. Cox.] It was more grim. If Jefferson 
 Davis, the moment the crimes of Anderson- 
 ville had been brought to his attention, had 
 arraigned the offenders with all competent 
 autliority, and had issued an order that ''no 
 guilty man should escape," there would be 
 some little consistency in tlie gentleman's 
 position. It was therefore ill-conceived lev- 
 ity, and in very bad taste, for the gentleman 
 to introduce General Grant's name in that 
 connection. 
 
 But I am authorized, if the gentleman 
 desires it — not authorized especially to men- 
 tion it here, but I mention it on the author- 
 ity of General Grant, whom the gentleman 
 from Georgia impugned in connection with 
 
 the exchange of prisoners 
 
 Mr. HILL. No, sir. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. To say that one thing touch- 
 ing the exchange of prisoners was that the 
 Davis government observed no honor in re- 
 gard to it; and General Grant states that the 
 brigade of Carter L. Stephenson, that was 
 dislodged at Chattanooga, was made up of 
 paroled prisoners from Vicksbxirg, and 
 that Stephenson himself was one of them. 
 He states that the paroled prisoners of one 
 day in front of his line Vere taken the next. 
 But in stating this he was careful to say 
 that, as to Lee and the two Johnstons and 
 Pemberton. and the other leading Confed- 
 erate generals, their word was honor itself; 
 but that for the Davis executive govern- 
 
 ment there was no honor in it — none what- 
 ever. The gentleman has got enough of 
 General Grant by this time, I hope. 
 
 Now in regard to the relative number of 
 prisoners that died in the North and the 
 South respectively, the gentleman under- 
 took to show that a great many more pris- 
 oners died in tlie hands of the Union author- 
 ities than in the hands of the rebels. I have 
 had conversations with surgeons of the Army 
 about that, and they say that there were 
 a large number of deaths of rebel prison- 
 ers, but that during the latter period of the 
 war they came into our hands very much 
 exhausted, ill-clad, ill-fed, di.^^eased, so that 
 they died in our prisons of diseases that 
 they brought with them. And one eminent 
 surgeon said, without wishing at all to be 
 quoted in this debate, that the question was 
 not only what was the condition of the pris- 
 oners when they came to us, but what it was 
 when they were sent back. Our men were 
 taken in full health and strength; they came 
 back wasted and worn — mere skeletons. The 
 rebel prisoners, in largo numbers, were, 
 when taken, emaciated and reduced ; and 
 General Grant says that at the time such 
 superhuman efforts were made for exchange 
 there were 90,000 men that would have re- 
 enforced your armies the next day, prisoners 
 in our hands who were in good health and 
 ready for fight. This consideration sheds 
 a great deal of light on what the gentleman 
 states. 
 
 The gentleman from Illinois [Mr. HuRt, 
 but] puts a letter into mv hands. I read it 
 without really knowing what it may show: 
 Confedsrjltk States of Ambrtoa, 
 
 War DBrABTMKNT, 
 
 Itichrnond, Virginia, March 21, 18C3. 
 My Dear Sir : If the exigencies of our army 
 require the use of trains for the traTisportatlon 
 of corn, pay no regard to the Yankee prison- 
 ers. I wouUi rather they should starve than 
 our own people nuffer. 
 
 I suppose 1 can safely put it In writing: "Let 
 thert\ suffer." The words are memorable, and 
 It is fortunate that lu this case they can be 
 applleil properly and without the intervention 
 of a lying quartermaster. 
 
 Very truly, your faithful friend, 
 
 ROBERT OULD. 
 Colonel A. C. Mysrs. 
 
 That is a good piece of literature in thin 
 connection. Mr Ould, I believe, was the 
 rebel commissioner to exchange. When 
 the gentleman from ^^eorgia next takes the 
 floor I want him to state what excuse there 
 was for ordering the Florida artillery, in 
 case General Sherman's army got within 
 seven miles of Andersonville, to fire on that 
 stockade. 
 
 Mr. HILL. That was just to keep your 
 Army from coming. That is all. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. Upon this point letters 
 have flowed in upon me — letters which, 
 without pretending to any extraordinary 
 
8?1KCH qf HON. JAMMS O. BLAINB. 
 
 81 
 
 teBderness, I say in this presence I could 
 not rejid without unbecoming emotion. 
 
 Mr. HILL. Will the gentleman allow me 
 to say 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. I have a letter which states 
 that at AndiTsonrille they had stakes put 
 up with tlag.'^ in order that the line of fire 
 might be properly directed from the battery 
 of Florida artillery. 
 
 Mr. HILL. Oh, that is not so. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. There is that order. 
 
 Mr. HILL. That is said to be a forgery. 
 I do not know whether it is genuine or not. 
 You have the records ; we hare not ; you 
 will not let us see them. You merely say 
 what they are. Let us see the whole of 
 them. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. Let us take one single 
 case. I suppose the gentleman would deny 
 that they ever used bloodhounds at Ander- 
 Bonville. 
 
 Mr. HILL. Oh, no ; though I do not my- 
 self know the fact. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. Did the gentleman ever 
 hear of Colonel James H. Fannin, of the first 
 Georgia reserves, who was on duty at An- 
 dersonville f 
 
 Mr. HILL. Oh, yes. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. He says "that Surgeon 
 Turner, the owner of the dogs, belonged to 
 the first regiment of reserves of my company. 
 Then he goes on to tell how the dogs were 
 obtained and how used ; and here is one of 
 the returns made by Wirz : 
 
 Twenty-ftve men more escaped during the 
 month, but they.were taken by the dogs before 
 the dally returns were made out. 
 
 The gentleman is a very able lawyer — 
 
 Mr. JONES, of Kentucky. Has not the 
 time of the gentleman from Maine expired f 
 
 The SPEAKER pro tempore, (Mr. Hoskins 
 in the chair.) The time of the gentleman 
 from Maine has not expired. 
 
 Mr. HANCOCK. He commenced ten min- 
 utes before one o'clock. 
 
 Mr. JONES, of Kentucky. I ask that the 
 flfty-seventh rule of the House be read. I 
 should like to have it read, because the gen- 
 tleman from Maine is constantly violating 
 the rules of this House. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. In what respect f 
 
 The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentle- 
 man from Kentucky is out of order, 
 
 Mr . JONES, «f Kentucky. I rise to a point 
 of order. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. I hope it will not bo taken 
 out of my time. 
 
 The SPEAKER pro tejnpore. The Speaker 
 of the House set the dial exactly at the time 
 the gentleman from Maine commenced his 
 speech, showing exactly when his hour will 
 expire, and the present occupant of the 
 chair when that time is reached will notify 
 the House. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. How much time have I 
 leftr 
 
 The SPEAKER pro tempore. About two 
 minutes. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. The gentleman ia inconsist- 
 ent. I should like to get him to admit 
 something. He does not deny that blood- 
 hounds were used at Andersonville. 
 
 Mr. HILL. I understood they were ; I 
 do not know ; farm dogs, not bloodhounds. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. Here are four or five 
 Georgia witnesses. I conclude in the two 
 minutes left me by saj'ing that in all the 
 evidence I have adduced I have never asked 
 to bring in one piece of Union testimony ; 
 the whole of it is from Confederate prisoners. 
 
 Why, Mr. Speaker, the administration of 
 Martin Van Buren, that went down in a pop- 
 ular convulsion in 1840, had no little of 
 obloquy thrown upon it because it had ven- 
 tured to hunt the Seminoles in the swamps 
 of Florida with bloodhounds. 
 
 A Member. No bloodhounds there. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. Blood thirsty dogs were 
 sent after the hiding savages, and the civili- 
 zation of the nineteenth century and the 
 Christian feeling of the American people 
 revolted at it. And I state here, and the 
 gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Hill] cannot 
 deny it, that upon the testimony of witness- 
 es as numerous as would require me all day 
 to read bloodhounds were used ; that large 
 packs of them were kept, and Georgia officers 
 commanded them ; that they were sent -after 
 the poor unfortunate, shrinking men who 
 by any accident could get out of that horri- 
 ble stockade. I state, sir, tliat the civiliza- 
 tion of the world stands aghast at what was 
 done at Andersonville. And the man who 
 did that was sustained by JeflFersou Davis, 
 and promoted. Yet the gentleman pays that 
 was analogous to General Grant sending 
 McDonald to the penitentiary. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, in view of all these facta I 
 have only to say that if the American Con- 
 gress, by a two-thirds vote, shall pronounce 
 JeflFersou Davis worthy to be restored to the 
 full rights of American citizenship, I can 
 only vote against it and hang my head in 
 silence, and regret it. [Applause.] 
 
PRACTICABLE AMNESTY. 
 
 Ifl tlie House nf RepresentatlTes, Jan. U, 1878. 
 
 MR: BLAINE 
 
 Mr. St-kakeb, the o>)ject of this aide of th« 
 House is not to become obstnictlve, Is not to 
 delay legislation by those means with ^rhlch 
 in ( bo last Congress we were made so familiar. 
 We bave no desire to filibuster, although the 
 clvil-rlKhts bill, which was designed to give 
 the rijlits of manhood to the colored nieni- 
 bers, was ordered to be reported regularlj 
 from a oommlttee, and tor seventeen consec- 
 utive Monday mornings filibustering cut otT 
 the chance to report it; and one of th« chief 
 parliamentarv glories ofmv honorable friend 
 froiu PennsylvHnia [Mr. IIa^jdai.l] was that 
 by extreme iise of this power he prevented 
 the consideration of that bill. We design no 
 sucli process. We simply desire to have a vote 
 upon the question whether .Jefferson Davis 
 shall be Included In this general amnesty; and 
 in addition to thut, if my friend from Massa- 
 chusetts. [Mr. l*.AKKf?,];who smiles with that 
 winsome smile to which I am always ready to 
 respond, will allow me. he will observe that 
 m\- amendment ie V>etter than his in another 
 rt'si>ect. I will read it in the original terms 
 in which 1 offered It : 
 
 "That all persons now under disabilities Im- 
 posed by the fourteenth amendment to the 
 Conatltutlon of the United States, with the 
 exception of JiWerson Duvls, late President 
 of the so-called (Confederate States, shall be 
 relieved of such disabilities upon their ap- 
 pearing before any juilge of the United States 
 and faking and supscribing, in open court, the 
 following oath, d>ily attested:" 
 
 Now the gentlemen's amendment maJces it 
 necessary that an oath be talcen In any court 
 In any St'ate, a court of probate for instance— 
 anv small court. I think that this is a miatter 
 with which the Uj^lted States Is dealing. It is 
 a governmental,^ atter between the Govern- 
 Doent of the Unlfr^i! States and some of its err- 
 ing children. They are coming back to the 
 United Stateslo be feclothed and rehabilitated 
 with the full rights and glories of American 
 citizenship. 1 think tliat important transac- 
 tion should becognlzable only in courts of the 
 United States, in that respect 1 claim that iny 
 amendment Is tictter than that of the gentle- 
 man from Massachusetts. As te the oath pro- 
 posed in tlie two amendments, there Is no dif- 
 ference between them, or if there Is any dif- 
 ference It is merely verbal.' 
 
 I hold In my hand a letter which I endeav- 
 ored to have this morning the poor prlTilege 
 of reading, and which 1 could not get, but 
 again under the rules of the House, always be- 
 neficent; and which I have no doubt will al- 
 ways 1)6 beneficent as administered by the 
 honorable occupant of the chair, I have that 
 privilege. This morning I received a letter 
 which I commend to gentlemen from the 
 South. With that fascinating elO(nunce which 
 my friend from Massachusetts [Mr. Banks] 
 possesses, he called yourattention to thegreat 
 value in this centennial year of having noQian 
 in the length and breadth "of the land under 
 the slightest politics] disabilities, and why ex- 
 
 cept poor Jefferson Davis! I have here a let- 
 ter written to me without any request, and, so 
 far as 1 knew, without any "expectation that 
 it would be uiade public; but 1 aui sure that 
 even if It be a private letter the gentleman 
 writing it will pardon me for reading it. It is 
 as follows: 
 
 "RALEieH, North Caroliwa, 
 
 '^' January 12, 1876. 
 
 "My Dear Sir: I observe there is excitement 
 In the House on the amnesty proposition. 
 
 "In 1870 1 was impeached and removed from 
 office as Governor of this State solely because 
 of a movement which I put on foot accoiding 
 to the Constitution and the law to suppress 
 the bloody Ku Rlux This was done by the 
 Democrats of this State, the allies anil the 
 echoes of Northern Democrats. I was also 
 disqualified by the judgment of removal from 
 holding oftlce in this State. The Democratic 
 It-gislature of this State and its late constitu- 
 tional convention were appealed to in vain by 
 my friends to remove this disability. The 
 late convention, in which the Democrats had 
 one majority by fraud, refused by a strict par- 
 ty vole to remove my disabilities thus im- 
 posed ; and 1 am now the only man In North 
 Carolina who cannot hold office. 
 
 "I think these facts should be borneinmind 
 when the Democrats in Congress clanior for 
 relief to the late insurgent leaders. Pardon 
 the liberty I have taken in referring to this 
 matter, and believe me, trulv, your friend, 
 "W. W. HOLDEN. 
 
 "Hon. -JAXBa G. Blainb." 
 
 Now, gentlemen, what have you to say to 
 that? It is purely a political Impeachment; 
 not prosecution, ' but persecution; perae- 
 cutlon of a man for opinion's sake. And 
 it Is to-day within the design of the Dem- 
 ocratic party to remove Governor Ames, of 
 Mississippi, from his chair by impeachment, 
 and to disqualify him from holding office. The 
 legislation proposed here has this end, that 
 two friends of the Union, one a Union man of 
 North Carolina, and the other as gallant a 
 Union sold.'er as ever tied sash around his 
 body, are to be disfranchised and disabled 
 meii, and poor JelTerson Davis is to be let free 
 to enjoy the Centennial at Philadelphia. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 »»♦»» # » ♦ ♦ 
 
 Now 1 wish to make this proposition that 
 I may bring my bill before the House by 
 unarUmous consent, and 1 will yicbl to any 
 gentleman to move an amendment to it. "I 
 will give to that side of the House all 1 have 
 asked for this side. Now, If it he the ease that 
 gentlemen will refuse that proposition, then 
 it is because they do not want any bill passed. 
 I am for a practicable amnesty. I am for an 
 amnesty that will go through. 
 
 Mr. KOBin.NS, of North Carolina. I object. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. Now, Mr. Speaker, 1 will end 
 this matter, which 1 have within my power. 
 I withdraw the motion to reconsider. 
 
 ih S, 'J2 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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