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 /■2~^Ce 
 
 AMNESTY. 
 
 SPE5iCH OF 
 
 Hon- James A. Garfield, of Ohio, 
 
 In Reply to 
 
 HON. B. H. HILL, 
 
 I 
 
 N THE 
 
 w 
 
 OF GEORGIA, 
 
 ousE OF -Representatives, 
 Wednesday, January 12, 1876. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. Mr. Speaker, no gentle- 
 man on this floor can regret more sincerely 
 than I do the course that the debate has 
 taken, e?pecially that portion which oc- 
 curred yesterday. To one who reads the 
 report of that discussion it would be difficult 
 to discover 
 
 THE REAL QUESTION AT ISS0E 
 
 and to learn from the Record itself the scope 
 and character of the pending measure. I re- 
 gret that neither tliespeech 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 
 appeired in the public journals of yesterday 
 and to-day. But they are here, and can 
 correct any inaccuracy of quotation. Any 
 one wlio 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. Hill] which embody the 
 topic of debate, I should have said they were 
 these : 
 
 The history of the last fifteen vears Is yet 
 fresh in tlie minds of the world. It is useless 
 to speak of the grace and magnanimity of the 
 Kepublican party. With the master eiislaved, 
 with intelligence disfranchised, with society 
 disordered, with States subverted, with Legis- 
 
 latures dispersed, peopa; eannot afford to talk 
 of grace and magnanimity. If tliat is grace 
 and magnanimitv, I pray God to spare the 
 country in the future froili 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- 
 cuting 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 miglit come from his courtesy, and 
 pass it, declaring, as he does so, the time 
 
 7-. 
 
SPEECH OP HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 
 
 as to fall in tlieir hands to a system of treat- 
 ment which has resulted in reducing many 
 of those who have survived and been 
 permitted to return to us to a con- 
 dition, both physically and mentally, 
 which no langruage we can use can 
 adequately describe. Though nearly all the 
 patients now in the Naval Academy Hospital 
 at Annapolis and in the West Hospital in Bal- 
 timore liivve been under the kindest and most 
 Intelligent treatment for about three weeks 
 past, and manv of them for a greater length 
 of time, still 'they present literally the ap- 
 pearance of living skeletons, many of them 
 being nothing but skin and bone; some of 
 them are maimed for life, having neen fro- 
 zen while exposed to the inclemency of the 
 winter season on Belle Isle, being compelled 
 to lie on the bare ground without tents or 
 blankets, some of them without overcoats or 
 even coats, with but little tire to mitigate the 
 severity of the winds and storms to which 
 they were exposed. # * » ♦ 
 
 It will be observed from the testimony that 
 all the witnessi'S who testify upon fliat point 
 state that the treatment tliev received while 
 confined at Columbia. South Carolina, Dalton, 
 Georgia, and other places, was far more hu- 
 mane than that thev received at Richmond, 
 where the authorities of the so-called Confed- 
 eracy were congregated, and where the power 
 existed, had the inclination not been want- 
 ins, to reform those abuses and secure to the 
 prisoners they held some treatment that 
 would bear a public comparison to that ac- 
 corded bv our authorities to the prisoners in 
 our custodv. Yonr committee, therefore, are 
 constrained to sav that thev can hardly avoid 
 the conclusion expressed by so many of our 
 j.f>]f,ased soldiers, that the inhuman practices 
 herein referred to are the result of a determi- 
 nation on the uart of the rebel authorities to 
 redncRonr soldiers in their power by priva- 
 tion of food and clothing and by exposure to 
 such a condition that those who mav survive 
 shall never recover so as to be able to render 
 anv effective service in the field. 
 
 I ani not now discussing the merits of the 
 cliarge at all. hut am showing that such is, 
 and for twelve years has continued to be, 
 the authoritative official cliarge of the exec- 
 utive department of the Government and of 
 a ioint committee of the two Honses. So 
 mncli for the responsible character of the 
 charge. To this I should add that this 
 chnrge is believed to he true by a great raa- 
 jnritv of the people whom we represent on 
 this floor. 
 
 I now inquire is this charge true? 
 
 The gentleman from Georgia denies gen- 
 erally the charge that atrocities were prac- 
 ticed upon our prisoners at Andersonville. 
 He makes a general denial, and asserts that 
 Mr. Davis did observe 
 
 THE ItUMAXK RULES OF MODERN WARFARE. 
 
 As a proof, he quotes the general order 
 issued hy the President of the Confederate 
 Government under which the prison was 
 to he established, an order providing that 
 it should he located on healthy groiind, 
 where there was an abundance of good 
 water, and trees for healthful and grate- 
 ful shade. Tliat is a perfect answer so far 
 as it goes. But I ask how that order was 
 executed? To whose hands was committed 
 the work of building the Andersonville 
 
 prison? To the hands of General Winder, 
 an intimate and favorite friend of Mr. Davis. 
 And who was General 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 has been sent! 
 
 He was, as the testimony in the Wirz trial 
 shows, the special and intimate friend of 
 Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confed- 
 eracy, by whom he was detailed on this busi- 
 ness, and detailed with such a send-off as I 
 have read you from a paper of his own city 
 warmly in the interest of the rebel cause. 
 
 What next? How did General Winder 
 execute the order after he went there? I 
 turn to the Wirz trial, and read from it only 
 such authorities as the gentleman from 
 Georgia recognizes — ■ 
 
 OFFICERS OF THE REBEL 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 
 January, 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 himself a witness at that 
 trial, and swears that the report is genuine. 
 I quote from page 224: 
 
 Andeksox, January 5, 1864. 
 
 Colouel; Having, in obedience to instruc- 
 tions of the 25th 'ultimo, carefully inspected 
 the prison for Fedci-al prisoners of war and 
 post at this place, I respectfully submit the 
 following report: 
 
 The Federal prisoners of war are confined 
 within a stockade fifteen feet high, of roughly 
 hewn pine logs about eight inches in diameter, 
 inserted five feet into the ground, inclosing, in- 
 cluding the recent extension, an area of live 
 hundred and forty by two hundred and sixty 
 yards. A niiling 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 
 inclosure are so marshy as to be at present 
 unfit for occupation, reducing the available 
 present area to about tweiity-three and one- 
 half acres, which gives somewhat less thansix 
 square feet to each prisoner. Even this is 
 being constantly reduced by the additions to 
 their number. 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 water for washing 
 accessible to the prisoners. Some regimen of 
 the guard, the bakery, and the cook house, 
 being placed on the rising grounds bordering 
 the stream before it enters the prison, render 
 the water nearly unfit for use before it reaches 
 the prisoners. ' * * * 
 
 D. T. CHANDLER, 
 
 Assistant Adjutant and Inspector General. 
 Colonel R. H. Chilton, Assistant Adjutant and 
 
 Inspector General. 
 
SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 
 
 Here is an official exliibit of the manner 
 in whicii the officer detailed by Jeff. Davis 
 choie tlieplace for health, with •'ruuuing wa- 
 ter, and agreeable shade." He chose a piece 
 of forest-ground that had a miasmatic marsh 
 in tlie 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 m.ake a mockery of 
 the order quoted by the gentleman from 
 Georgia, he detailed men 
 
 TO CUT 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 tiery heat upon 
 the heads of tliese men, with but six 
 square feet of ground to a man, a piteous 
 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 wliich they 
 could shelter themselves, and they were 
 answered witli all tlie 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 trial, p. 359:) 
 
 Between the 1st ami 15th of December, 1863, 
 I went up to AlulorsouviUe with W. S. ^ inder 
 and four or five other yentlemeii, out of curi- 
 osity, to see how the prison was to be laid out. 
 * * * I aslcecl iiiin if he was going- to 
 erect barracks or shelter of any kiutl. He re- 
 plied that lie was not; that the ilauiued Yan- 
 kees Who would be p.ut in there would have 
 no need of tiieiii. 1 asked him why he was 
 cutting ilo wii all the trees, and suggested that 
 they woukl prove a shelter to the prisoners, 
 from the lieat of the sun, at least. He made 
 this reply, or something similar to it: "That 
 is just wiiat I am going to do; 1 am going to 
 bund a pen hero that will kill more damned 
 Yankees than can be destroyed in the front." 
 Those are very nearly his words, or equivalent 
 to them. 
 
 iSo 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 Chaudler. 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 he made a report, from which I quote 
 the last few sentences, (Wirz's trial, p. 22,1:) 
 Andebsojjville, August 5, 1861. 
 
 Colonel: » * * 
 
 My iluty requires me respectfully to recom- 
 nieiul a change in the oflleer in the coininand 
 of the post, lirigadier General J. II. Winder, 
 and the substitution in liis place of some 011^=" 
 who unites both energy and good judgmeii'' 
 ■with some feeling of humanity and considera" 
 
 tion for the welfare and comfort (so far as is 
 consistent with theirsafe-keepiiigj of tne vast 
 number of unfortunates piacoil Uiid(.;r liis con- 
 trol; some one Who at least wiil notuiivocaie ile- 
 Uberately and in cold biood ilic inoprioiy of 
 leaving them in their present coiituiion until 
 their number has been sutticicutiy reduced by 
 death to make the present arrangement suf- 
 tice for their accommodation; wuo will not 
 consider it a matter of seil-iaudation and 
 boasting that he has never been mside of the 
 stockade, a place the liorrors of wiiicu it is 
 difUcuit to uescribe, and wnicnisa disgrace 
 to civilization, the condition of whicn lie 
 miglit, by the exercise of a little energy and 
 juagment, even with the liiniietl means at liis 
 command, have considerably nuiiroved. 
 
 D. T. Cxl-i.:>ilJLt.ri, 
 
 Assistant Adjutant and inspeaur ueneral. 
 Colonel K. H. (JuiLTON, jlAAiAtu/i« AUjiuunc and 
 
 Inspector Uenerul U. iS. A., Riciiniond, Vtr- 
 
 {/I ma. 
 
 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 ? 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. 1 will come to that in a 
 moment. 
 
 Now, what do honorable gentlemen sup- 
 pose would naturally be done wilh such a 
 report as that ? Remember that Colonel 
 Chaudler was a witness before the court 
 that tried Wirz and reaffirmed every word 
 of this report. If he is living 1 would make 
 a pilgrimage to see him and tl.ank him for 
 
 THE HUMANITV AND TENDERNESS 
 
 with which he treated my tmloriunate com- 
 rades, bo anxious was he that the great crime 
 of Winder should be rebuked thai, lie went to 
 Richmond, and in person delivered his leport 
 to the Secretary ol \Var, a member, ol :;ouise, 
 of the cabinet of Jefferson Davis. If 1 am 
 not correct in this 1 believe there is a mem- 
 ber of that cabinet now on this Hour who 
 can correct me. Of course, being a soldier, 
 Colonel Chandler first delivered nis report to 
 the adjutant general, and that officei', Gen- 
 eral Cooper, on the Ibtli of August, iati4, 
 wrote upon the back of the report these 
 words : 
 Adjutant and Inspector General's Office, 
 
 AlKJIlSt IS, 18l)i. 
 
 Respectfully submitted to the secretary of 
 war. Xhe coniliLion of the prison at Ander-' 
 sonville is a reproach to us as a luicion. The 
 engineer and ordnance departments were 
 applied to, and authorizetl tneir issue, and 1 
 so telegrapheil General VVmcler. Colonel 
 Chandler's recommendanons are coinciiled in, 
 
 liy order Ql' General Cooper. 
 
 K, 11. CHILTON, 
 
 Assistant Adjutant and Inspector Ueneral. 
 
 Not content with that indorsement. Colo- 
 nel Chandler went to the office of the secre- 
 tary of war himself; but, the secietary be- 
 ing absent at tlie moment, the report was 
 delivered to the assistant secretary of war, 
 J. A. Campbell, who wrote below General 
 Cooper's indorsement these words : 
 
 Tliese reports show a condition of things at 
 Andersonville which calls very loudly for the 
 
SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 
 
 ^^^'^:^C^^ department, in order that 
 
 J. A. CAMPBELL, 
 
 Assistant Secretary of War. 
 
 Mr. REAGAN. Does not the gentleman 
 icnow that the adjutant general could only 
 have made such an order by direction of 
 the president ? 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. I do not know what the 
 habit was in 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 madebv 
 the president, but has not himself authority 
 to make such orders. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. That may have been the 
 rule m the Confederate government- but it 
 was never the rule here. The Adjutant Gen- 
 eral of our Army signs no order except by or- 
 der ot 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 [Mr Reagan] will soon see 
 that he cannot defend Davis by the indorse- 
 ment ol General Cooper. The report did not 
 stop witli the adjutant general. It was car- 
 ried up higher and nearer to Davis. It was 
 delivered to Assistant Secretary Campbell 
 who wrote the indorsement l 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- 
 
 '"?',°-'.l''^?^''^^ ^^"^^'^- What was done 
 with It/ I he record shows, Mr. Speaker 
 that a few days thereafter an order was 
 mude in reference to General Winder To 
 what effect ? Promoting him ! Adding to 
 his power " 
 
 IN THE FIELD OF HIS IXFAMY ! 
 
 He was made commissary -general of all the 
 prisons and prisoners throughout the con- 
 federacy. TJiat was the answer that came as 
 the result of this humane report of Colonel 
 Chandler; and that new appointment of 
 Windei- came from Mr. Seddons, the Confed- 
 erate Secretary of war. 
 
 A MiMiBEE. By order of the President. 
 Mr. GARFIELD. Of course all appoii.t- 
 mei:ts were made by the President, lor the 
 gentleman from Georgia says that they ear- 
 ned our Con.stitution with them and hn<r^ed 
 3t to their bosoms. But that is not ° all 
 The testimony of the Wirz trial shows that 
 at one tune 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 subjecL 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 
 fatter 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 hi3 
 tent in the presence of the witness who c^ave 
 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 ? If not, let gentlemen sliow it. Wipe 
 out the charge, and I will be the first man 
 liere to vote to relieve him of his disabili- 
 ties. 
 
 Winder was allowed to go on. What did 
 he do ? I will only give results, not details. 
 1 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 point lam 
 discussing. The great Napoleon did some 
 fighting in his time, as did his great antago- 
 nist the Iron Duke. In 18t'9 was fought the 
 battle of Talavera, in 1811 the battle of Al- 
 ioiT\i" ^^^^^ ^^'^ battle of Salamanca, in 
 1813, Vittoria, in 1815 the battles of Li-^ny 
 Quartre Bras, Waterloo, Wavre. and 'k^^ 
 Orleans, and in 1854 the battles of the Cri- 
 mea. The number of men in the English 
 army who fell in battle or who were ktlled 
 or died of wounds received in these battles 
 atnouuted in the aggregate to li>,928. But 
 this Major-General Winder, 
 
 WITHIN HIS HOKIBLEAREN'A OF DEATH, 
 
 from April, 1864, to April, 1SG5, tumbled 
 into the trenches of Andersonville the dead 
 bodies of 12,(344 prisoners— only two hun- 
 dred and eighty-four less than all the Encr. 
 hshmen who fell in or died of wounds re- 
 ceived m 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 REBEL PRISONERS AT ELMIRA. 
 
 And the gentleman from Georgia denies 
 the charge of atrocities at Andersonville 
 and charges us with greater ones. I will 
 give his words as they are quoted in 'the 
 morning papers: 
 
 Wlien the gentleman from Maine sneaks 
 again let him add that the atiocities ot An 
 
 ' froci'ue" of'Vr* '''-'''■ V° ^onmare wUh U e 
 Fo,t n«? ' °^ Eln"V^- ot Fort l5onglas, or of 
 ft \nd^ ''^''"'m','''"' "^l^'l t''e atrocTties, both 
 '^L ^*'''°?"^''"*''i"'^^ Elniira. tlie Confederate 
 ffbllT^aK/a^iSl^ '^^^'^^"^^ ^-- '^^^ -Son^ 
 
 I stand in the presence of that statement 
 with an amazement that I am utterly incap- 
 able of expressing. I look upon the serene 
 and manly face of the gentleiaan who ut- 
 
I 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 
 
 7 
 
 tered it and I wonder what influence of the 
 supernal or nether gods could have touched 
 him with maduess lor 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, it 
 there be one of them who does not know that 
 this charge is fearfully and awfully untrue. 
 LA pause.] Their silence answers me. 
 Ihey 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 
 
 patch. I was almost daily at Elmira dur- 
 ing the war, and I know that Confederate 
 prisoners 
 
 GENERAL B. F. TRACT, 
 
 late commandant of the military post of 
 lilmira, and I beg permission to read that 
 communication. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. 1 will yield for that 
 purpose. 
 
 Mr. PLATT. The communication is as 
 loUows: 
 
 Brooklyn, JS^ew York, January 12,a876. 
 To Hon. T. C. Platt, 
 
 House of Representatives, Washington, 
 _,, ^ District oj'.otumbia: 
 
 hum^ntt*;^^^'''^"''^y*'^^"'^«^"ial of cruelty, in- 
 nrisoners?.t°''-"'^^''^'-"*^,^'^ the treatment of 
 flielvwMM^. "'■^- There was no suttering 
 nrfson Fi . r 'V«^"^separable from a military 
 prison. J;ir.-;t, there was no dead-line Nn 
 prisoner was ever shot for attempt^iu """io es 
 beft'ouantT'''T(':; food was ampl.?ana o°the 
 nen.ie.M n t^-^ ^ housaads ot dollars were ex- 
 Uo 1 to f hM 'l*^ purchase of vegetables, in addi- 
 Washfn' tnn^"V^,'"''*''°''- ^'o congressman in 
 daii V ro°t,w ^"'"^ better bread than was given 
 oftKtmo .^ ,?ml"''''- , ^ '"^ '^"'^f ^^'^s good, and 
 tribiit^: tr. ^ '^^'*^ "■"''• quantity as that dis- 
 camn TlfhM thi'T soldiers guarding the 
 
 ;^,i! ' ■ *- "^^"^ remains were placed in ne-it 
 
 head'bou- 1';>""^'' ''S«^^P^i-^^te gVaves vvi h u 
 re«^i^^en t, ^^''';-"°'">'^- ",'^'"°' companv. and 
 hn^-i!^i • ' "IV^ t'""^ of ileatli. ami all were 
 Fourth VLv'i' 1'^'''^? ^'^■"^tery at Elmil'i! 
 roui til, there was no better supplied militirv 
 
 U?1 itl Ihe nt- ^"^'^^1 ''^'^^'■^ t'"--" "'i« 'O-^- 
 piiai in the prison amp. Fifth all the n7-i« 
 
 w'oodeirharrael'"'?'''^'^'^ quartired^ln ^n e w 
 F°om the time I t'^^^'^' expressly for them, 
 bei ^lithA? ^m'^H command, in Septem- 
 were ke, I om s't';"!^,^ '" the vicinity of Elmira 
 
 coineaUH.?.^o%-^^*' J^"''l' '-^"'^ ^" thV t'xtreme 
 inbi M-,1.. ,^ ot winter the prisoners were all 
 were stl, in I'.n *" 'H''^ ^"oldiers guarding them 
 the vf-m V n H v^^- ^ ""''^^ criticised for this in 
 at the H.y,i , -^'^^'y Journal, I tliink it was, 
 f L ^ '"^' "^y '"1 officer of our Army. Sixth 
 poac1^1°'^'ancr' ;-" /^'" buildings ^.ertf.ll 
 Seventi, t? '^"^I't scrupulously clean 
 
 not owi' i it^ mortality which prevlviled \vas 
 Sals or ,?,^'^"''^'"°f '*^' '''^"^ of sufficient sup- 
 qu\\e d\S!'t^'^!,^yjy"^°"' -^ t° other aiid 
 B. F. TRACY. 
 Late Commandani Military Post Union 
 Mr. WALKER, of New York. Mr. Speaker, 
 as the member from the district in which El- 
 mira Depot is located, I take pleasure in in- 
 dorsing every word of Colonel Tracy's dis- 
 
 UAD THE SAME CARE AND TREATMENT 
 
 that the Union soldiers had, and I Bev«r 
 heard a complaint, [(xreat applause 1 
 
 air. GARFIELD. Mr. Speaker, the light- 
 ning is our witness. From all quarters of 
 the Republic denials are pouring in upon 
 us. Since I came to the House this morn- 
 ing, I have received the following dispatch 
 h-om an honored soldier of Ohio, which tells 
 Its own story: 
 
 Clevela:,d, Ohio, Jani<a?-y 12, 1876— 10.33a.m. 
 lo General Garfield, 
 
 House of Representatives: 
 1 5 n^i v«l;^?'""-^' °^ Secretary of \yar I furnished 
 io,OM rebel prisoners at Elmira with the same 
 ^tSl-^ofee, tobacco, coal, wood, c othhfg, 
 banacks, medical attendance— as were siven 
 
 buried in Eimira ceineterv. All this can be 
 proved by Democrats of that city 
 
 General J. J. ELWELL. 
 Mr. HILL. By permission of the gentle- 
 man from Ohio, I desire to say that there 
 was no purpose on my 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 1 understood it. 
 Mr. BLAINE. A letter in a newspaper. 
 Mr. HILL. Let me get through, if you 
 please. Do not be uneasy. Keep quiet, and 
 I will not hurt you. [Laughter.] 
 
 Mr. MacDOUGALL. That is what you 
 told us in ISGl. ^ 
 
 xMr HILL. I simply say that I was read- 
 ing the evidence of cruelties, in the 
 language of that letter, "inseparable from 
 prison hte." 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 inhumanity upon any person in 
 the world. I wish it distinctly understood 
 that I meant to charge inliumanity upon no- 
 body I was simply speaking of those hor- 
 rors that are inseparable from all prison life- 
 and I wound tip my statement by sayiuo^ 
 that the official reports of Secretary Stanton" 
 on the 19th of July, 1S(J6. affer the war was 
 over, gave the relative mortality of prisoners 
 m l<ederal hands andpriiouers 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 jud-in<r 
 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 beuefit of that statement. I simply re- 
 ferred to the report of Secretary Stanton. 
 
SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 
 
 Mr. BAKER, of Indiana. Does the gentle- 
 man mean to charge that the amount of mor- 
 tality in Norihern 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. GARFIELD. I am glad to hear what 
 the gentleman says, and to give it more force 
 by contrast I quote again the words he used 
 as reported in the newspapers this morning : 
 
 When the gentleman from Maine addresses 
 the House again lot him add to it thattlie atro- 
 cities of Andersoiiville do not begin to com- 
 pare with the atrocities of Elmirji, of Fort 
 Douglas, or of Fort Delaware ; and of all the 
 atrocities, both at Andersonville and Elmira, 
 the Confederate government stands acquitted 
 from all responsibility and blame. 
 
 I refer to it to show why I could not 
 
 Mr. HILL. I have no doubt the gentle- 
 man's motive is good ; but he will permit 
 me to remind him that what he has just read 
 was said 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 Ihis branch of the subject. 
 The only authority introduced to prove the 
 pretended atrocity at Elmira was an anouj'- 
 mous letter printed in the New York Woi-lcl. 
 The Roman soldiers who watched at the sep- 
 ulchre of 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 nomiiiis umlira. What the substance 
 was we know not. But even as to this 
 
 ANONYMOUS ANUTHOKITY, 
 
 it would have been well for, the cause of 
 justice if the gentleman had been kind enough 
 toquote it all. I read, I believe, from tbe very 
 book from which 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 New York, with every 
 remedial appliance in abundance, with no 
 epidemic, &c. 
 
 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 
 isew York. It ought to be added that the 
 small-pox broke out in that prison very soon 
 after the date of this letter; and the mortal- ' 
 
 ity that followed was very much greater than 
 in any other prison 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 ai 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 inclosure 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 Point, 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 ! • 
 
 Mr. HILL. Will the gentleman allow me 
 to say a word on that point ? 
 
 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, that 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 I 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, Blaine! Blaine!] We will 
 see as to that. 1 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 
 
 SOLDIERS ON THE OTHEK SIDE. 
 
 [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 tlie statement 
 has been made that there liave been thirty or 
 forty crippled Federal soldiers removed from 
 office under this House and th^-ir places filled 
 by Confederate soldiers. I was shown yes- 
 terday morn ng by the Doorkeeper of the 
 House (and the information is as accessible 
 
SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 
 
 to the gentleman from Ohio and all others as 
 to myself) 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 know 
 that the gentleman from Texas is correct. 
 
 Mr. SOUTHARD. The gentleman from 
 Texas has referred to a list which I have here 
 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 yield? 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. I yield to my colleague. 
 
 Mr. RANDALL. Your time will be ex- 
 tended. 
 
 Mr. SOUTHARD. The statement which 
 I have before me, and to which the gentle- 
 man from Texas referred, is that of the one 
 hundred and rifty-three appointments made 
 by 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. .TONES, 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: I 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 o*' the question, ho'.rever 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 tlie South, or any demonstration 
 against any one speaking on that side of the 
 House. I hope courtesy and decorum will 
 be observed. [Cries of "GoodI" "Good!"] 
 It is unbecoming the House, and unbecom- 
 ing the country, and I hope it will be 
 stopped. 
 
 The SPEAKER. The suggestion of the 
 gentleman from Kentucky is well made. 
 These things are not in order, and the Chair 
 earnestly requests 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 occasion 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 that of the thirteen employes 
 there, but two took the oath that they had 
 not borne arms against the Government. 
 If the statement be correct which I have 
 had put into my hands, it would seem to 
 throw some shadow of doubt on what we 
 have just heard. But let both statements 
 go in together. 
 
 This is the list handed to me: 
 
 POST-OFFICE OF THE HOUSE. 
 
 The old force.— Norman Crane, Vermont; A. 
 M. Legg, New York, two years in Union Army; 
 F. A. Warden, Massachusetts, four yeurs in 
 Lnion Army and permaneiitiy cUsaOied at 
 Winchester; J. H. Faine, Ohio, was in Union 
 Army;0. M. Tlionias, iowa;K. P. liisliop, xMicU- 
 iguu, lost an arm in the Union Army; K. S. 
 McMichael, Wisconsin, nearly lost his sight in 
 the Union Army; D. B. Bradley, Wisconsin, 
 three years in Union Army; J. H. Lytle, New 
 Yorlt; W. B. Sessions, New York; J. D. Silvern, 
 Pennsylvania; D. F. Bishop, Pennsylvania; W. 
 Tudge, District of ColumDia; Cripci Palmoni, 
 District of Columbia. 
 
 Tlie new force.— Ueorge W. Rock, Virginia, 
 in Confederate army; Henry Cook, V irginia, in 
 Confederate army; Kichard Allen, Virginia; .S. 
 W. Kennedy, Virginia, in Confederate aruiy; 
 A. W. C. Nowlin, Virginia, in Confederatearmy; 
 Edward C. Sloss, Virginia; W. H. liobinson 
 Virginia, in Conlederdte army; J. K. l^isher' 
 Virginia, in Confederate army; P. S. Goodsii' 
 "W. B. Lowery, Virginia, in Confederate arniyi 
 Josepli M. Taylor, Edwin Esce, New VorKi 
 Thomas Kirby, Connecticut, in Union Army.i 
 
 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. 
 
10 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 
 
 The gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Bukchard] 
 has made up a part of the statement which 
 I am now able to present. That statement 
 shows that during the war 
 
 WE 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 mornino- 
 and is in a printed report on the treatment 
 of prisoners of war hy the rebel authorities, 
 third session Fortieth Congress, page 228,' 
 which gentlemen can examine at their leis- 
 ure. 
 
 It ought to be added in this connection 
 that the conscription laws of the Confederate 
 congress forced all able-bodied citizens be- 
 tween the ages of seventeen and filty into 
 the service, while our laws limited the con- 
 scription to the usual military ages. This 
 of course, 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 tui n now to another point. The gentle- 
 man makes another answer concerning these 
 atrocities. 
 
 The SPEAKER. The gentleman's hour 
 has expired. 
 
 Mr. HILL. I hope the gentleman from 
 Ohio will be permitted to go on. 
 
 There being no objection, Mr. Garfield's 
 time was extended indefinitely. 
 
 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 suffered bv 
 the prisoners for at least a considerable por- 
 tion of the time was in consequence of our 
 
 REFUSAL TO MAKE AN EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS 
 
 because we would not give them their fresh 
 men in oiir 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 brietiy refer toils 
 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 throucrh 
 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 months 
 and lor 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 and 
 sent home; and whenever it was announced 
 by either side that a certain number was re- 
 heved from the parole a corresponding num- 
 ber should be released from ihe other side 
 and m that way the exchange was effected'. 
 Ihere were two points of delivery of pris- 
 oners. One was at Vicksburg. Another 
 was at a point near Dutch Gap, in Virf^inla 
 Andthe 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 momenf. 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 of the history. 
 
 hill's black FLAG RESOLUTION. 
 
 In October, 1862, a resolution was intro- 
 duced into the Confederate Senate bv Sen- 
 ator Hill, of Georgia — 
 
 Tliat every person pretending to be a sol- 
 dier or oftieer of the l/iiitcrt States who shall 
 be captured on the soil of the Con edemte 
 states after the first of January, 18°^ shaU bl 
 presumed to hav,i_entered the terrUory of 
 the Confederate States with intent to excite 
 insurrection and to abet murder, and that un! 
 
 trary before tlie military court before vvhlcl, 
 his trial shall De had he ihail suffer death 
 
 Thatwas the first step in the complication 
 in regard to the exchange of prisoners of 
 war. riiat resolution appears to have borne 
 early fruits. 
 
 On the22dday of December, 1862, Jeffer- 
 son Davis, the man for whom amnesty is now 
 being asked, issued a proclamation', a copy 
 of which I liold in my hand. I read two 
 paragraphs: 
 
 First. That all commissioned officers in thp 
 
 command of said Benjamin F. But?er be do! 
 
 dw'^'V'"^ entitled to be considered as sol 
 
 vnuuj'"'^''^!''^ ^" honorable warfare, but as 
 
 pb beis and criminals deserving de:ith- ami 
 
 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 
 
 tor this extraordinary proclamation, but its 
 
 effects upon the exchange of prisoners. 
 
 Third. That all negro slaves captured In 
 arms be at once delivered over to the execu 
 tive authorities of the respective States to" 
 which they belong, to be dealt with according 
 to the laws of saitl States i-v iumg 
 
 Fourth. That the like orders be executed in 
 all eases with respect to all commissioned 
 officers of the United States when tV^und serv- 
 ing in company with said slaves in in^nrrec 
 tion against the authorities of the different 
 States of this Confederacy. "imieiit 
 
 Two great questions were thus raised: first 
 that a certain class of oflicers, 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 
 
SPEECH OP HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 
 
 11 
 
 death when taken. These men were serv- 
 ing, not Benjamin F. Butler, but the Union. 
 They did not choose him as their general. 
 They were assigned to him ; and by this 
 proclamation that assignment 
 
 COXSIGNED THEM TO DEATH 
 
 at the hands of their captors. But the 
 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 the 
 rights and privileges of prisoners of war. 
 The decision of the Union people every- 
 where was that, great as was the suflferincr 
 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 justice to be 
 done on the other side. 
 
 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: 
 
 Sec. 4. That every white person, being- a 
 comnussionea officer or acting as such, who- 
 uuniig the present war, sl)all command 
 negroes or mulattoes in arms against the Con 
 loUerate States, or who sliall arm, train orl 
 giinize, or prepare negroes or mulattoes for 
 military service against the Confederate 
 States or who shall voluntarilv aid negroes 
 or mulattoes in any military enterprise, at- 
 tack, or conliict in such service, sliall be 
 deemed as inciting servile insurrection, and 
 sliall, If captured, De put to death or be other- 
 wise punished, at the discretion of the court. 
 bEC. o. Every person, being a commissioned 
 Officer or acting as such in the service of the 
 enemy, who shall during the present war ex- 
 cite, attenipt 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. All negroes and mulattoes who shall 
 be engaged m war or be taken in arms against 
 the Couiederate States, or shall give aid or 
 comfort to the enemies of the Confederate 
 .'^*Jl®'i*'^'^l'' ""^'2" captured in the Confeder- 
 ate States, be delivered to the authorities of 
 the btate or States in which they shall be cau- 
 tured, to be dealt with according to the pres- 
 ent or future laws of such State or States 
 Approved May ], 1S63 
 
 Now, Mr. Speiker, I am hereto 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 troubles, 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 WAS 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- 
 dom I will read from a report which I hold 
 in my hand, a report of the Secretary of 
 War en the difficulty of the exchange of pris- 
 oners. This paper is dated August 24, liiU4. 
 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 negro 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) 
 vvould "die in the last ditch" before giving up 
 the right to send slaves back to siliverv as 
 property recaptured. ^ 
 
 ******* 
 I am, general, very resioectfuUy, vour obedi- 
 ent servant, " 
 
 S. A. MEREDITH, 
 
 Brigadier- General and Commissioner for Ex- 
 change. ■' 
 
 Major-General E. A. Hitchcock, Comviissioner 
 J or Exchange 0/ Prisoners, Washington. £>. C. 
 
 Thus it appears that in the negotiation as 
 late as.^he 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 
 eminence," General Winder, in which Mr. 
 Ould, speaking of his arrangement for the 
 exchange of prisoners, says: 
 
 The arrangements that I have made ivork 
 largely in our favor. We get rid of a set of 
 miserable wretches and receive some of the best 
 material lever saw. 
 
 Now in that single line, in a communica- 
 tion between two men, not par nobiie fratrum 
 but par titrpe diaholorum, is proof tliat 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. 
 
12 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, I return from all this 
 to the jlirect discussion bearing immediately 
 upon Jetferson Davis. It seems to me iueou- 
 trovertible that tlie records I have adduced 
 lay at liis door tlie charge of being himself 
 tlie author, tlie conscious author, through 
 his own appointed instrument, of tlie terrible 
 work at Andersonviile, for which the Ameri- 
 can people still hold him unfit to be ad- 
 mitted amon^ the legislators of tliis nation. 
 
 Before 1 leave that subject let me say 
 another word or another point. I see around 
 me liere a lacge number of gentlemen who 
 did not hesitate to take the oath of allegi- 
 ance to the Government of the United States, 
 wlio did not hesitate to ask to be relieved 
 of their political disabilities, and I ask if any 
 one of tliem, 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 iliem 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 ? 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 came back ? 
 
 Mr. HILL. I desire to ask a question for 
 information, fori want the facts, and my re- 
 collection differs from that of the gentle- 
 man from Ohio, [Mr. Garfield.] The act of 
 1872, granting a partial amnesty to quite a 
 large number, does not, as I understand it, 
 make any sucli requisition as is contained 
 in the amendment of the gentleman from 
 Md,ine, [Mr. Elaine.] 
 
 Mr. GARFlliLD. The gentlema>i.is right. 
 
 Mr. HILL. It was au unconditional am- 
 nesty like that contained in the bill of the 
 gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. Ran- 
 dall.] It required no oath or anything of 
 the sort. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. Certainly not. 
 
 Mr. H ILL. I am very sure that it was under 
 that act that I was relieved. And I never 
 applied for any amnesty at all, but I would 
 not have felt it 
 
 any loss of pride had I DONE SO. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. Certainly not. I remem- 
 ber very 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 gentlenian 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 ot Stale 
 Legislatures, all civil and military officers, 
 except the lew remaining, some seven hun- 
 dred and fifty. You granted them relief 
 witliout 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 bj true to their com- 
 mission ; and we did this because they had 
 added to rebellion — I must use words — 
 
 THK CRIME OF PERJURY 
 
 in the eyes of the law. 
 
 Mr. TUCKER. Will the gentleman allow 
 me to interrupt him ? 
 
 Mr. GARFIELU. Certaiuly. 
 
 Mr. TUCKER. Do I understand the gen- 
 tleman from Oliio, speaking iiere to-day of 
 kindness to gentlemen on this side of the 
 House, tosay that any man who held a commis- 
 sion under the United States at the time the 
 war broke out, and who went into secession, 
 was guilty of perjury '! 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. 1 will repeat precisely 
 the measured words I used. I said '"the 
 crime of perjury in tlie eyes of the law." In 
 view of the fact of tiaming war, 1 do not say 
 those men should be regarded as ordinary 
 perjurers ; I never said tliat. But what will 
 the gentleman call it ? By what other name 
 does the law know it? I did not make tiie 
 dictionary, nor did I make the law. The gen- 
 tleman certainly knows me well enougli to 
 know that lam incapable of making a refer- 
 ence to any personal matter in this discus- 
 sion. He muxt see that I am using the word 
 as it is used in the law. 
 
 Mr. TUCKER. Mr. Speaker 
 
 The SPEAKER pjo tempore, (Mr. Springer 
 in the chair.) Does the gentleman from Oliio 
 yield further to the gentleman from Virgin- 
 ia, [Mr. Tucker .''] 
 
 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 
 
SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD, 
 
 13 
 
 have ever known, and of whom the gentle 
 man might be proud to claim to be a peer. 
 
 Mr. '^"^ARFIELD. There were some pas- 
 sages in the speech of yesterday which make 
 me less reluctant 
 
 TO SPEAK OP BREAKING OATHS. 
 
 He said : 
 
 We chai'ge all our wrongs to tliat "higher 
 law"' fanaticism wliieli nevex kept a pledge or 
 oheyecl a law. We sought to leave the associa- 
 tion of those who would not keep fidelity to cov- 
 enant. We sought to go hy ourselves ; hut, so 
 far from having lost our fidelity to the Consti- 
 tution, we hugged it to our hosoms and car- 
 ried it with us. * * * But you gentlemen 
 who persecuted us hy your infidelities until 
 you drove us out of tlie 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 deatli," you who 
 follow up the war when the soldiers who 
 fought it have 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 sublimity of assumption 
 in this which challenges admiration. Wliy 
 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. Did we break the Constitution ? Did 
 we drive them out ? I invoke the testimony 
 of Alexander H. Stephens, now a member of 
 this House, who, standing up in the secession 
 convention of Georgia, declared that there 
 was no just ground for Georgia's going out ; 
 declared that the election of a President 
 according to the Constitution was no justifi- 
 able ground for secession, and declared that 
 if ttnder the circumstances the South should 
 go o\it 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 
 18G0. 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 against 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 toen 
 than one in this House and in the South. I 
 desire, th<5refore, to ask him this question: 
 Whether the war did not result from a dif- 
 ference of views between gentlemen of the 
 North and gentlemen of the South with 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 UNCONSTITUTIONAL AGGRESSION ? 
 
 I wish to say further for myself and for 
 thoie who are here with me that, the Con- 
 stitution having been amended — the "higher 
 law" party having incorporated in that in- 
 strument the abolition of slav- ry and cer- 
 tain other features which we have now sworn 
 to support along with the rest of the instru- 
 ment — if in the future we fail to observe 
 that oath before high Heaven, then we may 
 be declared perjured; then we may be de- 
 clared rebels; then we 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 held that the 
 United States was a nation, bound together 
 by a bond of perpetual union; a union which 
 no State or any combination of State*, 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 Government-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 Court. 
 
 The gentleman from North Carolina calls 
 
 THE WAR ON ONE SIDE A RAID. 
 
 I will never consent to call our war for the 
 Union "a raid," least of all a raid upon the 
 right? 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 loiiirer 
 pollutes our soil or disgraces our civilization. 
 
14 
 
 SPEECH OP HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 
 
 Now that slavery, 
 
 THE GUILTY CAUSE OF THE REBELI^ON. 
 
 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 says. Then 
 let us thank God that in the fierce flames of 
 war the institution of slavery has been con- 
 sumed; and out of its ashes let lis hope a 
 better .than the fabled Phcenix 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 
 btill 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. 
 Foward those men who gallantly fought us 
 Dn the field I cherish the kindest feeling. I 
 'eel a sincere reverence for the soldierly 
 qualities they displayed on many a well- 
 'ought battle-field. I hope the day will 
 ;ome when their swords and 'ours will be 
 jrossed over many a doorway of our chil- 
 Iren, who will remember the glory of their 
 mcestors with pride. The high qualities 
 iisplayed in that conflict now belong to the 
 vhole nation. Let them be consecrated to 
 he Union and its future peace and glory. 
 
 sl)all hail that consecration as a pledge and 
 ymbol of our perpetuity. 
 
 But there was a class of men referred to 
 n tlie speech of the gentleman yesterday 
 or whom I have never yet gained the Chris- 
 ian grace necessary to say the same thing. 
 L'he gentleman said that amid the thunder 
 if battle, through its dun smoke, and 
 ,bove its roar they heard a voice from this 
 ide saying, "Brothers, come." I do not 
 
 know whether he meant the same thing, bu* 
 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 RESTRAIN THE KAGE AND FUBY OF THE NON- 
 COMBATANTS." 
 
 [Laughter.] It was that non-combatant 
 voice behind us that cried "halloo?" to 
 the other side; that always gave cheer 
 and encouragement to the enemy in our 
 hour of darkness. I have never forgot- 
 ten and Lave not yet forgiven those Dem- 
 ocrats of the North whose hearts were not 
 warmed by the grand inspirations of 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 meu. 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 you all 
 
 IN EVERY ASPIRATION 
 
 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 still unaneled, 
 unshrived, uuforgiveu, undefended. [Great 
 applause.] 
 

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