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 HON. BENJAMIN H. HILL 
 
 O F GEORGIA, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 GENERAL AMNESTY BILL. 
 
 Delivered in the House of Representatives January 11 , 1876 . 
 
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 WASHINGTON: 
 
 CUNNINGHAM & BRA9HEARS PRINTERS. 
 
 1876 , 
 

 
 
 
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 SPEECH. 
 
 The House having under consideration the bill (H. R. No. 214 ) to remove th*. • 
 
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4 
 
 man from Maine has moved a reconsideration of the vote by which it was rejected, 
 avowing his purpose to be to offer an amendment. The main purpose of that 
 amendment is to except from the operation of the bill one of the citizens of this 
 country, Mr. Jefferson Davis. 
 
 He alleges two distinct reasons why he asks the House to make that exception. 
 I will state those reasons in the gentleman’s own language. First, he says that 
 “Mr. Davis was the author, knowingly, deliberately, guiltily, and willfully, of the 
 gigantic murder and crime at Anderson ville.” That is a grave indictment. He 
 then characterizes in his second position what he calls the horrors of Andersonville. 
 And he says of them : 
 
 And I hear, before God. measuring my words, knowing their full extent and import, declare that 
 neither the deeds of the Duke of Alva in the Low countries, nor the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, 
 nor the thumb-screws and engines of torture of the Spanish Inquisition, begin to compare in 
 atrocity with the hideous crimes of Andersonville. 
 
 Sir, he stands before the country with his very fame in peril if he, having made 
 such charges, shall not sustain them. Now I take up the propositions of the gentle- 
 man in their order. I hope no gentleman imagines that I am here to pass in eulogy 
 upon Mr. Davis. The record upon which his fame must rest has been made up, and 
 he and his friends have transmitted that record to the only judge who will give him 
 an impartial j udgment — an honest, unimpassioned posterity. In the meantime, no 
 eulogy from me can help him, no censure from the gentleman can damage him, and 
 no act or resolution of this House can affect him. But the charge is that he is a 
 murderer, and a deliberate, wilful, guilty, scheming murderer of “thousands of our 
 fellow-citizens.” Why, sir, knowing the character of the honorable gentleman 
 from Maine, his high reputation, when l heard the charge fall from his lips I thought 
 surely the gentleman had made a recent discovery, and I listened for the evidence 
 to justify that charge. He produced it ; and what is it? To my utter amazement, 
 as the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Kelley] has well stated, it is nothing on 
 earth but a report of a committee of this Congress, made when passions were at 
 their height, and it was known to the gentleman and to the whole country eight 
 years ago. 
 
 Now, I 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 and 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 ot an Englishman not to be condemned until he shall be confronted 
 with the witnesses against him. But that is not all. The testimony produced by 
 the gentleman is not only ex parte , not only exclusively the production of enemies, 
 or at least taken by them and in the midst of passion, but the testimony is mutilated, 
 ingeniously mutilated, palpably mutilated, most adroitly mutilated. Why, sir, one 
 of the main witnesses is Dr. Joseph Jones, a very excellent gentleman, who was 
 called upon to give his testimony in what is called the Wirz trial, and which is pro- 
 duced before this House and attention called to it by the gentleman. The object of 
 the gentleman was to prove that Mr. Davis knew of these atrocities at Anderson- 
 ville, and he calls the attention of the House to the report of this committee, and 
 thanks God that it has been taken in time to be put where it can neither be contradicted 
 nor gainsaid, as a perpetual guide to posterity to find out the authors of these crimes. 
 
 One of the most striking and remarkable pieces of evidence in this whole report 
 is found in the report made by Dr. Jones, a surgeon of fine character, and sent to 
 Andersonville by the confederate authorities to investigate the condition of that 
 prison. That gentleman made his report, and it is brought into this House. What 
 is it? The first point is as to the knowledge of this report going to anjr of the 
 authorities at Richmond. Here is what Dr. Jones says : 
 
 I had just completed the report, which I placed in the hands of the judge advocate, under orders 
 from the Government, when the confederacy went to pieces. That report never was delivered to 
 t he surgeon general, and I was unaware that anyone knew of its existence until I received orders 
 jrom the United States Government to bring it and deliver it to this court in testimony. 
 
 Now, he was ordered by the United States Government, the first time this report 
 ever saw the light, to bring it and deliver it on the trial of Wirz. In accordance with 
 that order he did bring it and deliver it to the Judge-Advocate-General. And when 
 the report itself, or that which purported to be the report, was presented to him 
 while he was a witness he discovered that it was mutilated, and he asked permission 
 to state that fact. Hear what he says on that subject : 
 
 I beg leave to make a statement to the court. That portion of my report which has been read 
 is only a small part of the report. The real report contains the excuses which were given by the 
 
5 
 
 
 officers present at Andersonville, which I thought it right to embody with my report. It also con- 
 tains documents forwarded to Richmond by Dr. White and Dr. Stevenson, and others in charge of 
 the hospitals. Those documents contained important facts as to the labors of the medical depart- 
 ment and their efforts to better the condition of things. 
 
 All that part of the report is suppressed , and with that suppression this magnifi- 
 cent receptacle of truth is tiled away in the document-room for the information ot pos- 
 terity. 
 
 The committee ask him : 
 
 Question. Are your conclusions correctly stated in this extract? 
 
 Answer. Part of my conclusions are stated — not the whole. A portion of my conclusions, 
 and also my recommendations, are not stated. 
 
 Q. Wt-11, touching the subject of exchange? 
 
 A. Yes, sir; the genera difficulties environing the prisomrs and the' r officers. 
 
 Q. What became of your original report? 
 
 A. This is my original report. 
 
 That is, he had there the extract as far as it went. 
 
 Q. Did you make this extract yourself ? 
 
 The committee seem to suspect that he was the man that simply made the extract 
 and brought it before the committee. Now, here is his answer : 
 
 I ‘did not. My original re port is in the hands of the judge-advocate. I delivered it into his 
 hands immediately upon my arrival in Washington. 
 
 And this committee of Congress to which the gentleman refers absolutely tells 
 us that this mutilated report was the one introduced in evidence against this man 
 Wirz, and it is the one incorporated in this book. 
 
 Now I want to call attention to another extract from that original report — a part 
 not included in this book. There are a great many such omissions ; I have not been 
 able to get all of them. 
 
 Dr. Jones in Ills report is giving an account of the causes of the sickness and 
 mortality at Anderson ville ; and he says, among other things : 
 
 Surrounded by these depressing agents, the postponement of the general exchange of prisoners 
 and the constantly receding hopes of deliverance through the action of their own Government, de- 
 pressed their already desponding spirits and destroyed those mental and moral enei’gies so neces- 
 sary for a successful struggle against disease and its agents. Homesickness and disappointment, 
 mental depression and distress, attending the daily longing for an apparently hopeless release, are. 
 felt to be as potent agencies in the destruction of these prisoners as the physical t causes of actual 
 disease. 
 
 Ah! why that homesickness, that longing and the distress consequent upon it, 
 and its effect in carrying those poor, brave, unfortunate heroes to death? 1 will 
 tell this house before I am done. 
 
 Now, sir, there is another fact. Wirz was put on trial, but really Mr. Davis was 
 the man intended to be tried through him. Over one hundred and sixty witnesses' 
 were introduced before the military commission. The trial lasted three months. The 
 whole country was under military despotism ; citizens labored under duress ; and 
 quite a large number of confederates were seeking to make favor- with the powers of 
 the Government. Yet, sir, during those three months, with all the witnesses they 
 could bring to Washington, not one single man ever mentioned the name of Mr. 
 Davis in connection with a single atrocity at Anderson ville or elsewhere. The 
 gentleman from Maine, with all his research into all the histories of the Duke of Alva 
 and the massacre of St. Bartholomew and the Spanish inquisition, has not been able 
 to frighten up such a witness yet. 
 
 Now, sir, there is a witness on this subject. Wirz was condemned, found guilty, 
 sentenced to be executed ; and T have now before me the written statement of his 
 counsel, a northern man and a Union man. He gave this statement to the country, 
 and it has never been eolitradicted. 
 
 Hear what this gentleman says : 
 
 On the night before the execution of the prisoner Wirz a telegram was sent to the northern 
 press from this city stating that Wirz had made important disclosures to General L. C. Baker, the 
 well-known detective, implicating Jefferson Davis, and that the confession would probably be 
 given to the public. On the same evening some parties came to he confessor of Wirz, Rev Father 
 Boyle, and also t > me as his counsel, one «f them iuforming me that a high Cabinet officer wished to 
 assure Wirz that if he would implicate Jefferson Davis with atrocities committed at Andersonville 
 his sentence would be commuted. The messenger requested me to inform Wirz of this. In pres- 
 ence of Father Boyle I told Wirz next morning what had happened. 
 
 Hear the reply : 
 
 Captain Wirz simply and quietly replied: “Mr. Schade, you know that 1 have always told you 
 that I do not know anything about Jeiierson Davis. He had no connection with me as to what 
 was done at Andersonville. I would not become a traitor against him or anybody else even to 
 save my life.” 
 
 Sir, what Wirz, within two hours of his execution, would not say for his life the 
 gentleman from Maine says to the country to keep himself and his party in power. 
 
6 
 
 Christianity is a falsehood, humanity is a lie, civilization is a cheat, or the man who 
 would not make a false charge for his life was never guilty of wilful murder. 
 
 He who makes a charge must produce his witnesses. They must be informed 
 witnesses. They must be creditable witnesses. The gentleman from Maine makes 
 his charge, but produces lio witnesses. He says that men sent by Jefferson Davis 
 to Andersonville were his officers, executing his orders, commissioned by him, and 
 he therefore charges Mr. Davis with these atrocities by inference. It was only when 
 the gentleman reached that portion of his argument that I thought I began to dis- 
 cover the real purpose of his movement. I will not charge him with it, but a sug- 
 gestion came immediately to my mind. 
 
 What was the proposition which the gentleman proposes to establish? It is 
 that those high in authority are to be charged with the sins and treacheries of their 
 agents, commissioned by them and acting under their orders. Is the gentleman 
 artfully — I beg pardon — under the cover of the prejudice and passion against Jef- 
 ferson Davis, seeking to assault President Grant? If Jefferson Davis sent Gen- 
 eral Winder to Andersonville, why President Grant sent McDonald and Joyce to 
 St. Louis. [Laughter.] Nay, more, sir; is not the very secretary of the White 
 House, the private confidential secretary, indicted to day for complicity in these 
 frauds? Does the gentleman want to establish a rule of construction by which he 
 can authorize the country to arraign General Grant for complicity in the whisky 
 frauds? [Laughter.] 
 
 Sir, is General Grant responsible for the Credit Mobilier? Was he a stock- 
 holder in the Sanborn contracts? Was he copartner in the frauds upon this Dis- 
 trict ? With all his witnesses, the gentleman never can find a single man who was 
 confidential secretary to Mr. Davis and charged with complicity in crime, that Mr. 
 Davis ever indorsed any man as fit for office who was even gravely charged with 
 any complicity in fraud. Yet the gentleman’s President, as I understand it, 
 absolutely sent to the Senate of the United States for confirmation to a high office 
 the very man who stood charged before the country with the grossest pecula- 
 tions and frauds in this District, and that, too, after these charges were made and 
 while the investigation was pending. 
 
 Sir, I am neither the author nor the disciple of such political logic. And I will 
 not, nor would I for any consideration, assume the proposition before this House 
 to punish an enemy which would implicate the President of the United States in 
 the grossest frauds. Yet if the gentleman’s proposition be true, General Grant, 
 instead of being entitled to a third' Presidential term, is entitled to twenty terms 
 in twenty penitentiaries. But, sir, he is not guilty. The argument is false. It 
 is a liberupon the American rule of law and English precedent. You cannot find 
 its precedent anywhere in any civilized country. I acquit General Grant of com- 
 plicity in the whisky frauds and revenue frauds, and the facts acquit Mr. Davis of 
 complicity in any atrocity anywhere. 
 
 How, Mr. Speaker, I pass from the construction of that question to the real facts 
 about Andersonville. First, I want to call the attention of the House to the law 
 of the Confederate Government on the subject ^of the treatment of prisoners. I 
 read from the act of the Confederate Congress on that subject; it was very simple, 
 and directed — 
 
 The rations furnished prisoners of war shall be the same in quantity and quality as those fur- 
 nished to enlisted men in the army of the Confederacy, 
 
 That was the law; that was the law Mr. Davis approved, and that was the law 
 that he,- so far as his agency was concerned, executed. 
 
 The gentleman in his speech has gone so far as to say that Mr. Davis purposely 
 sent General Winder to Andersonville to organize a den of horrors and kill Fed- 
 eral soldiers. I do not quote exactly his language, but L know it is “to organize 
 a den of horrors;” but I am sure I cannot use any language more bitter than the 
 gentleman used himself . Therefore the next thing 1 shall read is the order given 
 for the purpose of locating this prison at Andersonville, or wherever it should be 
 properly located. The official order for the location of the stockade enjoins that 
 it should be in a “healthy locality, .with, plenty of pure water, with a running 
 stream, and, if possible, with shade trees, and in the immediate neighborhood of 
 grist and saw mills.” That does not look like the organization of a d’en of horrors 
 to commit murder. That was the official order. That was not all These pris- 
 oners at Andersonville were not only allowed the rations measured out to Confed- 
 erate soldiers both in quantity and quality in every resepect, but they were allowed 
 also to buy as much outside as they desired; a privilege, I am reliably informed, 
 which was not extended to many of the Confederate prisoners. I do. not know 
 bow this is. 
 
1 
 
 I do not wish to charge it if the facts were otherwise. But in the book which the 
 gentleman from Maine himself produces we find this testimony, given by a Union 
 soldier. He says : 
 
 We never had any difficulty in getting vegetables; we used to buy almost anything that we 
 wanted of the sergeant who called the roll mornings and nights. His name was Smith, I think: 
 he was Captain Wirz’s chief sergeant . We were divided into messes, eight in each mess; my 
 mess used to buy from two to four bushels of sweet potatoes a week, at the rate of $15 Confed- 
 erate money per bushel. 
 
 They got $20 of Confederate money for $1 of greenbacks in those days. 
 
 Turnips were bought at $20 a bushel We had to buy our own ooap for washing our own 
 persons and clothing; we bought meat and eggs and biscuit. There seemed to be an abundance 
 of those things; they were in the market constantly. That sergeant used to come down with a 
 wagon-load of potatoes at a time, bringing twenty or twenty-five bushels at a load sometimes. 
 
 Now, sir, Mr. Davis himself alluded to that privilege which was allowed to 
 the Federal soldiers. The Confederate authorities not only allowed them to par 
 chase supplies as they pleased outside, in addition to the rations allowed them by 
 law — the same rations allowed to Confederate soldiers — but lie says: 
 
 By an indulgence perhaps unprecedented, we have even allowed the prisoners in our hand < to 
 he supplied by their friends at home with comforts not enjoyed by the men who captured them in 
 battle, 
 
 The Confederate Government gave Federal prisoners the same rations the Con- 
 federate soldiers in the field received. Federal prisoners had permission to buy 
 whatever else they pleased, and the Confederates gave their friends at home per- 
 mission to furnish them the means to do so And yet, Mr. Speaker, it is true 
 that, in spite of all these advantages enjoyed by these prisoners, there were hor- 
 rors, and great horrors, at Andersonville. What were the causes of those hor- 
 rors? The first was want of medicine. That is given as a cause by Dr. Jones in 
 his testimony; that is given by this very Father Hamilton, from whom the 
 gentleman from Maine read. In the very same testimony which the gentleman 
 read Father Hamilton says: 
 
 I conversed with Dr, White with regard to the condition of the men, and he told me it was not 
 in his power to do anything for them: that he had no medicine, and could not get any, and that he 
 was doing everything in his power to help them. 
 
 Now, how was it that medicines and other essential supplies could not be ob- 
 tained? Unfortunately they were not in the Confederacy. The Federal Govern- 
 ment made medicine contraband of war. And I am not aware that any other 
 nation on the earth ever did such a thing before — not even the Duke of Alva, sir. 
 The Confederate Government, unable to introduce medicine according to its right 
 under the laws of nations, undertook to run the blockade, and whenever possible 
 the Federal Navy captured its ships and took the medicines. Then, when no 
 other resource was left, when it was suspected that the women of the North — the 
 earth’s angels, God bless them — would carry quinine and other medicines of that 
 sort, so much needed by the Federal prisoners in the South, Federal officers were 
 charged to capture the women and examine their petticoats, to keep them from 
 carrying medicines to Confederate soldiers and to Federal prisoners, and they were 
 imprisoned. Surely, sir, the' Confederate Government and the southern people 
 are not to be blamed for a poverty in medicines, food, and raiment enforced bj^ the 
 stringent war measures of the Federal Government — a poverty which had its in- 
 tended eifect of immeasurable distress to the Confederate armies, although it inci- 
 dentally inflicted unavoidable distress upon the Federal prisoners in the South. 
 
 The Federal Government made clothing contraband of war. It sent down its 
 armies and they burned up the factories of the South wherever they could find 
 them, for the express purpose of preventing the Confederates from furnishing 
 clothing to their soldiers, and the Federal prisoners of course shared this depriva- 
 tion of comfortable clothing. It was the war policy of the Federal Government 
 to make supplies scarce. Ur. Jones in his testimony and Father Hamilton in his 
 testimony, which I will not stop to read to the House, explained why clothing 
 was so scarce to Federal prisoners. 
 
 Now then, sir, whatever horrors existed at Andersonville, not one of them could 
 be attributed to a single act of legislation of the Confederate Government or to a 
 single order of the Confederate Government, but every horror of Andersonville 
 grew out of the necessities of the occasion, which necessities were cast upon the 
 Confederacy by the war policy of the other side. The gentleman from Maine said 
 that no Confederate prisoner was ever maltreated in the North. And when my 
 friend answered from his seat “a thousand witnesses to the contrary in Georgia 
 alone,” the gentleman from Maine joined issue, but as usuaDproduced no testi- 
 
8 
 
 m©ny in support of his issue. I think the gentleman from Maine is to be ex- 
 cused. For ten years unfortunately he and his have been reviling the people 
 who were not allowed to come here to meet the reviling. Now, sir, we are face 
 to face, and when you make a charge you must bring your proof. The time has 
 passed when the country can except the impudence of assertion for the force of 
 argument or recklessness of statement for the truth of history. 
 
 Now, sir, I do not wish to unfold the chapter on the other side. I am an Amer- 
 ican. I honor my country, and my whoie country, and it could be no pleasure to 
 me to bring forward proof that any portion of my countrymen have been guilty 
 of wilful murder or of cruel treatment to poor manacled prisoners. Nor will I 
 make any such charge. These 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 Elmira, and lie says : 
 
 The winter of 1864-1865, was an unusually severe and rigid one, and the prisoners arriving 
 from the Southern States during this season were mostly old men and lads, clothed in attire suit- 
 able only to the genial climate of the South. I need not state to you that this alone was ample 
 cause for an unusual mortality among them. The surroundings were of the following nature, 
 namely: narrow, confined limits, but a few acres in extent — 
 
 And Anderson ville, sir, embraced twenty-seven acres. 
 
 and through which slowly flowed a turbid stream of water, carrying along with it all the excre- 
 inental filth and debris of the camp; this stream of water, horrible to relate, was the only source of 
 supply, for an extended period, that the prisoners could possibly use for the purpose of ablution 
 and to slack their thirst from day to day; the tents and other shelter allotted to the camp at Elmira 
 were insufficient and crowded to the utmost extent; hence small-pox and other skin diseases raged 
 through the camp. 
 
 Here I may note that, owing to a general order from the Government to vaccinate the prisoners, 
 my opportunities were ample to observe the effects of spurious and diseased matter, and there is 
 no doubt in my mind but that syphilis was ingrafted in many instances; ugly and horrible ulcers 
 and eruptions of a characteristic nature were, alas! too frequent and obvious to be mistaken, 
 small-pox cases were crowded in such a manner that it was a matter of impossibility for the sur- 
 geon to treat his patient individually; they actually laid so adjacent that the simple movement of 
 one would cause his neighbor to cry out in an agony of pain. The confluent and malignant type 
 prevailed to such an extent and of such a nature that the body would frequently be found one con- 
 tinuous scab . 
 
 The diet and other allowances by the Government, for the use of the prisoners were ample, yet 
 the poor unfortunates were allowed to starve, 
 
 Now, sir, the Confederate regulations authorized ample provisions for Federal 
 prisoners, the same that was made for Confederate soldiers, and you charge that 
 Mr. Davis is responsible for not having those allowances honestly supplied. The 
 United States made provisions for Confederate prisoners, so far as rations were 
 concerned, for feeding those in Federal hands; and yet what says the surgeon? 
 k ‘They were allowed to starve.” 
 
 But "why ?” is a query which I will allow your readers to infer and to draw conclusions there- 
 from. Out of the number of prisoners, as before mentioned, over three thousand of them now lay 
 buried in the cemetery located near the camp for that purpose— a mortality equal if not greater 
 than that of any prison in the South. At Andersonville, as I am well informed by brother-officers 
 who endured confinement there, as well as by the records at Washington, the mortality was twelve 
 thousand out of, say, forty thousand prisoners. Hence it is readily to be seen that the range of 
 mortality was no less at Elmira than at Andersonville. 
 
 Mr. PLATT. Will the gentlemen allow me to interrupt him a moment to ask 
 him where he gets that statement ? 
 
 Mr. HILL. It is the statement of a Federal surgeon published in the- New York 
 World. 
 
 Mr. PLATT. I desire to say that I live within thirty-six miles of Elmira, and 
 that those statements are unqualifiedly false. 
 
 Mr. HILL. Yes, and I supposed if one rose from the dead the gentleman would 
 not believe him. 
 
 Mr. PLATT. Does the gentleman say that those statements are true? 
 
 Mr. HILL. Certainly I do not say that they are true, but I do say that I 
 believe the statement of the surgeon in charge before that of a politician thirty-six 
 miles away. Now will the gentleman believe testimony from the dead? The Bible 
 says, a The tree is known by its fruits.” And, after all, what is the test of suffer- 
 ing of these prisoners North and South? The test is the result. Now I call the 
 attention of gentlemen to this fact, that the report of Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of 
 War — you will believe him, will you not? — on the 19th of July, 1866 — send to the 
 Library and get it — exhibits the fact that of the Federal prisoners in confederate 
 hands during the war, only 22,576 died, while of the confederate prisoners in Federal 
 hands 26,436 died. And Surgeon-General Barnes reports in an official report — I 
 suppose you will believe him — that in round numbers the confederate prisoners in 
 Federal hands amounted to 220,000, while the Federal prisoners in confederate hands 
 
9 
 
 * 
 
 amounted to 270,000. Out of the 270,000 in confederate hands 22,000 died, while of 
 the 220,000 confederates in Federal hands over 26,000 diet!. The ratio is this : More 
 than 12 per cent, of the confederates in Federal hands died, and less than 9 percent, 
 of the Federals in confederate hands died. What is the logic of these facts according 
 to the gentleman from Maine ? I scorn to charge murder upon the officials of north- 
 ern prisons, as the gentleman has done upon confederate prison officials. I labor to 
 demonstrate that such miseries are inevitable in prison life, no matter how humane 
 the regulations. I would scorn, too, to use a newspaper article, unless it were signed 
 by one who gave his own name and whose statement, if not true, can be disproved, 
 and I would "believe such a one in preference to any politician over there who was 
 thirty-six miles away from Elmira. That gentleman, so prompt to contradict a 
 surgeon,, might perhaps have smelled the small pox but he could not see it, and I 
 venture to say that if he knew the small-pox was there he would have taken very 
 good care to keep thirty-six miles away. He is a wonderful witness. He is not 
 even equal to the mutilated evidence brought in yesterday. But. sir, it appears 
 from the official record that the confederates came from Elmira, from Fort Delaware 
 and from Rock Island, and other places with their fingers frozen off, with their toes 
 frozen off, and with teeth dropped out. 
 
 But the great question is behind. Every American, North or South, must lament 
 that our country has ever impeached its civilization by such an exhibition of horrors 
 on any side, and I speak of these things with no degree of pleasure. God knows if 
 1 could hide them from the view of the world I would gladly do it. But the great 
 question is, at last, who was responsible for this state of things? And that is really 
 the only material question with which statesmen now should deal. Sir, it is well 
 known that, when the war opened, at first the authorities of the United States 
 determined that they would not exchange prisoners. The first prisoners captured 
 by the Federal forces were the crew of the Savannah, and they were put in chains 
 and sentenced to be executed. Jefferson Davis hearing of this, communicated 
 through the lines, and the confederates having meanwhile also captured prisoners, 
 he threatened retaliation in case those men suffered, and the sentences against the 
 crew of the Savannah were not executed. Subsequently our friends from this way 
 —I believe my friend before me from New York [Mr. Cox] was one — insisted that 
 there should be a cartel for the exchange of prisoners. In 1862 that cartel was 
 agreed upon. In substance and briefly it was that there should be an exchange of 
 man for man and officer for officer, and whichever held an excess at the time of 
 exchange should parole the excess. This worked very well until 1863. I am going 
 over the facts very briefly. 
 
 Mr. STARKWEATHER. I do not wish, and none on this side wishes to inter- 
 rupt the gentleman. I believe he has spoken over his hour. We desire that he shall 
 speak as long as he chooses, but we wish to have a free discussion and want a little 
 time on this side. 
 
 The SPEAKER. The gentleman from Georgia has not exhausted his hour yet. 
 
 Mr. HILL. T was reciting briefly the facts. In 1863 this cartel was interrup- 
 ted; the Federal authorities refused to continue the exchange. Now commenced 
 a history which the world ought to know, and which I hope the House will grant 
 me the privilege of stating, and I shall do it from official records. This, I say 
 frankly to the gentlemen on the other side, was in truth one of the severe t blows 
 stricken at the Confederacy, this refusal to exchange prisoners in 1863 and con- 
 tinued through 1S64. The Confederates made every effort to renew the cartel. 
 Among other things, on the 2d of July, 1863, the Vice-President of the Confed- 
 eracy, the gentleman to whom the gentleman from Maine [Mr Blaine] alluded the 
 other day in so complimentary terms, Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, was absolutely 
 commissioned by President Davis to cross the lines and come to Washington to con 
 suit with the Federal authorities, with a broad commission to agree upon any cartel 
 satisfactory to the other side for the exchange of prisoners. Mr. Davis said to him, 
 i, ‘Your mission is simply one of humanity, and has no political aspect. ” Mr. 
 Stephens undertook that work. What was the result ? I wish to be careful, and 
 I will state this exactly correctly. Here is his letter : 
 
 Confederate States Steamer Torpedo, 
 
 In James River, July 4, 1863. 
 
 Sir: ^\s military commissioner, I am the bearer of a communication in writing from Jefferson 
 Davis, commander-in-chief of the land and naval forces of the C nfederates States, to Abraham 
 Lincoln, Commander-in-chief of the land and naval lorces of the United States. H’on Robert Ould, 
 Confederate States agent of exchange, accompanies me as secretary , for the purpose of delivering 
 the communication in person and conferring upon the subject to which it relates. I desire to pro- 
 ceed to Washington in the steamer Torpedo, commanded by Lieutenant Hunter Davidson, of the 
 
10 
 
 I 
 
 Confederate States navy, no person being on board but Hon. Mr. Ould, myself, and the boat’s 
 officers and crew. 
 
 Yours, most respectfully. 
 
 ALEX. H. STEPHENS. 
 
 To S. H. Lee, Admiral. 
 
 This was directed to S. H. Lee, admiral. Here is the answer: 
 
 Acting Rear-Admiral S. It. Lee, Hampton Roads : 
 
 The request of Alexander H. Stephens is inadmissible. * * * 
 
 GIDEON WELLES, Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 You will acknowledge that Mr. Stephens’ humane mission failed. The Con- 
 federate authorities gave to that mission as much dignity and character as possible. 
 They supposed that of all men in the South Mr. Stephens most nearly had your 
 confidence. They selected him to be the bearer of messages for the sake of hu- 
 manity in behalf of the brave Federal soldiers who were unfortunately prisoners 
 of war. The Federal Government would not even receive him; the Federal au- 
 thorities would not hear him. 
 
 What was the next effort? After Mr. Stephens’ mission failed, the commis- 
 sioner for the exchange of prisoners, Colonel Ould, having exhau ted all his ef- 
 forts to get the cartel renewed, on the 24th January. 1864, wrote the following 
 letter to Major-General E. A. Hitchcock, agent of exchange on the Federal side : 
 
 Confederate States of America, War Department., 
 
 Richmond , Virginia , January 24, 1864. 
 
 Sir: In view of the difficulties attending the exchange and release <>i prisoners, I propose 
 th*t all such on either side shall be atteia 'e i by a proper numb' r of their own urgeons, who. un- 
 der rules to be established, shall be permitted to take charge of their health and comfort. I also 
 propose that these surgeons shall act as commis-aries, with p wer to receive and dis ribute such 
 contributions of money, food, clothing, and medi ines as may be forwarded for the relief of the 
 prisoners. I further propose that these surgeons shall be seiecied by their own government, and 
 that they 6hall have full liberty, at any and ab times, throngs the agents of exchange, to make 
 reports not only of their own acts, but of any matters relating t the w li'are of the prisoners 
 Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 ROBERT OULD, Agent of Exchange. 
 
 Major-General E. A. HITCHCOCK, Agent of Exchange. 
 
 The SPEAKER. The hour of the gentleman ha- expired. 
 
 Mr. RANDALL I move the gentleman from Georgia be allowed to proceed. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. I do not object; but before the gentleman from Georgia pastes 
 from the subject upon which he is now speaking. I would be glad io know 
 
 The SPEAKER. If there be no objection the gentleman from Georgia will 
 have leave to proceed. 
 
 There was no objection. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. I believe the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Hill] was a mem- 
 ber of the Confederate Senate. I find in a historical book of some authenticity 
 of character teat in the Confederate Congtess, Senator Hill, of Georgia, 
 introduced the following resolution, relating to prisoners. 
 
 Mr. HILL. You are putting me on trial now, are you? Go ahead. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. This is the resolution. 
 
 That every person pretending to be a soldier or officer of the United 3 tat s who shall be captured 
 on the soi of the Confederate States after the 1st day of January, 18 3, shall be presumed to have 
 entered the territory of the Confederat ; Stites with the intent to incite insurrection and abet 
 murder; and. unless satisfactory proof be adduced to the contrary before the military court 
 before which the trial shall be had, shall suffer death. This section shall continue in force until 
 the proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln, dated at Washington on the 22d day of September, 
 1862, shall be rescinded, and the policy therein announced shall be abandoned, and no longer. 
 
 Mr. HILL. I will say to the gentleman from Maine very frankly that I have 
 not the slightest recollection of ever hearing that resolution before. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. The gentleman does not deny, however, that he was theau 
 thor of it? 4 
 
 Mr. HILL. I do not know. My own impression is that I was not the author; 
 but I do not pretend to re*collect the circumstances. Jf the gentleman can give 
 me the circumstances under which the resolution was introduced, they might re- 
 call the ipatte • to my mind. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. Allow me to read further : 
 
 October 1, 1862— The judiciary committee of the confederate congress made a report and of- 
 fered a set ot resolutions upon the subject of President Lincoln’s proclamation, from which thef 1- 
 lowing are extracts: 
 
 2. t- very white person who shall act as a commissioned or non commissioned officer command- 
 ing negroes or mulattoes against the Confederate States, or who shall arm, organize, train, or 
 prepare negroes or mulattoes for military service, or aid them in any military enterprise against 
 the Confederate States, shall, if captured, suffer death. 
 
 3. Every commissioned or non-comraissioaed officer of the enemy who shall incite slaves to re- 
 
11 
 
 bellion, or pretend to give them freedom tinder the aforementioned act of Congress and proclama- 
 tion, by abducting or causing them to be abducted or inducing them to abscond, shall, if captured; 
 suffer death. 
 
 Thereupon Senator Hill, of Georgia, is recorded as having offered the resolu- 
 tion I have read. 
 
 Mr. HILL. I was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. And this resolution came directly from that committee ? 
 
 Mr HILL. It is very probable that, Jike the Chairman of the Committee on 
 the Rules at the last session, I may have consented to that report. [Langhter.] 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. The gentleman then admits that he did make that report ? 
 
 Mr. HILL. I really do not remember it. I think it very likely. 
 
 A Member, (to Mr. Blaine.) What is the book? 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. The book from which I have read is entitled “Republicanism 
 in America,” by R. Guy McClellan. It appears to be a book of good credit and 
 authenticity. I merely want it settled whether the gentleman from Georgia was 
 or was not the author of that resolution. 
 
 Mr. HILL. I say to the gentleman frankly that I really do not remember. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. The gentleman does not say he was not the author. 
 
 Mr. HILL. I do not. I will say this; I think I was not the author. Possibly 
 I reported the resolution. It refers in terms to “pretended,” not real soldiers. 
 
 Mr. BLAINE. I thought that inasmuch as the gentleman’s line of argument 
 was to show 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 
 any such thing. He thought he would divert me from the purpose of my argu- 
 ment 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 relation to the subject now 
 under discussion, but which grew out of the peculiar relation of the Southern 
 S'atestoa population then in servitude — a population which the Confederate Gov- 
 ernment feared might be incited to insurrection — and measures were doubtless 
 proposed which the Confederate Government may have thought it proper to take 
 to protect helpless women and children in the South from insurrection. But I 
 shall not allow myself to he diverted by the gentleman to go either into the history 
 of slavery or of domestic insurrection, or, as a friend near me suggests, “John 
 Brown’s raid.” I know this, that if I or any gentlemen on the committee was 
 the author of that resolution, which I think more than probable, our purpose was 
 not to do injustice to any man, woman, or child North or South, but to adopt 
 what we deemed stringent measures within the laws of war to protect our wives 
 and children from servile insurrection and slaughter while our brave sons were in 
 the front. That is all, sir. 
 
 But, sir, I have read a letter from the Confederate Commissioner of exchange, 
 written in 1864, proposing that each side send surgeons with the prisoners; that 
 they nurse and treat the prisoners; that the Federal authorities should send as 
 many as they pleased; that those surgeons be commissioned also as commissaries 
 to furnish supplies of clothing and food and evervthfng else needed for the com- 
 fort of prisoners. 
 
 Now, sir, how did the Federal Government treat that offer? It broke the cartel 
 for the exchange of prisoners; it refused to entertain a proposition, even when 
 Mr. Stephens headed the commission, to renew it; and then, sir, when the Confede- 
 rates proposed that their own surgeons should accompany the prisoners of the re- 
 spective armies, the Federal authorities did not answer the letter. No reply was 
 ever received. 
 
 Then, again, in August, 1864, the Confederates made two more propositions. I 
 will state that the cartel of exchange was broken by the Federal authorities for cer- 
 tain alleged reasons. Well, in August, 1864, prisoners accumulating on both sides 
 to such an extent, and the Federal Government having refused every proposition 
 from the Confederate authorities to provide for the comfort and treatment of these 
 prisoners, the Confederates next proposed, in a letter from Colonel Ould, dated 
 the 10th of August, 1864, waiving every objection the Federal 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 Federal Government should prescribe. Yet, sir, 
 the latter rejected that proposition. It took a second letter to bring an answer to 
 that proposition. 
 
 UNIVERSITY 05 
 ILLINOIS LI3RARY 
 
12 
 
 Then, again, in that same month of August, 1864, the Confederate authorities 
 did this: Finding that the Federal Government would not exchange prisoners at 
 all, that it would not let surgeons go into the Confederacy; finding that it would 
 not let medicines be sent into the Confederacy; meanwhile the ravages of war con- 
 tinuing and depleting the scant supplies of the South, which was already unable to 
 feed adequately its own defenders, and much less able to properly feed and clothe 
 the thousands of prisoners in Confederate prisons, what did the Confederates pro- 
 pose? They proposed to send the Federal sick and wounded prisoners without 
 equivalent. Now, sir, I want the House and the country to understand this: that 
 in August, 1864, the Confederate Government officially proposed to Federal au- 
 thorities that if they would send steamships or transportation in any form to Sa- 
 vannah, they should have rheir sick and wounded prisoners without equivalent. 
 
 That proposition, communicated to the Federal authorities in August, 1864, wa& 
 not answered until December, 1864. In December, 1864, the Federal Government 
 sent ships to Savannah. Now, the records will show that the chief suffering at 
 Andersonville was between August and December. The Confederate authorities 
 sought to avert it by asking the Federal Government to come and take its prisoners 
 without equivalent, without return, and it refused to do that until four or five 
 months had elapsed. 
 
 That is not the only appeal which was made to the Federal Government I now 
 call the attention of the House to another appeal. It was from the Federal priso- 
 ners themselves. They knew as well as the Southern people did the mission of 
 Mr. Stephens. They knew the offer of January 24, for surgeons, for medicine and 
 clothing, for comforts and food, and for provisions of every sort. They knew that 
 the Confederate authorities had ottered to let these be sent to them by their own 
 Government They knew that had been rejected. They knew of the offer of 
 August 10, 1864. They knew of the other offer, to return sick and wounded with- 
 out an equivalent. They knew ail these offers had been rejected. Therefore 
 they held a meeting and passed the following resolutions; and I call the attention 
 of the gentlemen on the other side to these resolutions. I ask if they will not be- 
 lieve the surgeons of their hospitals; if they will not believe Mr. Stanton’s report, 
 if they will not believe Surgeon-General Barnes’s report, I beg from them to know 
 if they will not believe the earnest, heart-rending appeal of those starving, suffer- 
 ing heroes? Here are the resolutions passed by the Federal prisoners the 28th of 
 September, 1864. 
 
 Resolved, That while allowing the Confederate authorities all due praise for the attention paid to 
 our prisoners, numbers of our men are daily consigned to early graves, in the prime of manhood, 
 far from home and kindred and this is not caused intentionally by the Confederate Government, 
 but by the force of circumstances. 
 
 Brave men are always honest, and true soldiers never slander. They say the 
 horrors they suffered were not. intentional, that the Confederate Government had 
 done all it could to avert them. Sir, I believe this testimony of gallant men as 
 being of the highest character, coming from the sufferers themselves. 
 
 They further resolved : 
 
 The Prisoner is obliged to go without shelter, and in a great portion of cases without medi- 
 cine. 
 
 Resolved , .That whereas in the fortune of wav it was our lotto become prisoners. We have 
 suffered patiently, and are still willing to suffer, if by so doing we can benefit the country; but 
 we would most respectfully beg to say that we are not willing to suffer to further the ends of any 
 
 S arty or clique to the detriment of our own honor, our families, and our country- And we would 
 eg this affair be explained to uw, that we may continue to hold the Government in the respect 
 which is necessary to make a good citizen and soldier. 
 
 Was this touching appeal heeded? Let any gentleman who belonged to the 
 “ clique or party” that the resolutions condemn answer for his party. 
 
 Now, sir, it was in reference to that state of things, exactly that Dr Jones re- 
 ported, as I have already read to the House, in his report which was mutilated be- 
 fore that Committee of Congress and in the trial of Wirz — it was in consequence * 
 
 of that very state of things that Dr. Jones said that depression of mind and de- 
 spondency and home-sickness of these poor prisoners carried more to their graves 
 than did physical causes of disease. That was not wonderful at all- 
 
 But Mr. Speaker, why were all these appeals resisted? Why did the Federal 
 authorities refuse to allow their own surgeons to go with their own soldiers, and 
 carry them medicine and clothing and comfort and treatment? W by? Why did 
 they refuse to exchange man for man and officer for officer? Why did they refuse 
 to stand up to their own solemn engagements, made in 1862, for the exchange of 
 prisoners? Who is at fault ? There must be a reason for this. That is the next 
 point to which I wish to call the attention of the House. Sir, listen to the reading. 
 
IS 
 
 The New York Tribune, referring to this matter in 1864, said — I suppose you wtli 
 believe the Tribune in 1864, if you do not believe it now: 
 
 In August the rebels offered to renew the exchange man for man. General Grant th 0 n tele- 
 graphed the following important order: It is hard on our men held in southern prisons” not to 
 exchange them, but it Is humanity to those left in the ranks to fight our battles. Every man re- 
 leased on parole or otherwise becomes an active soldier against us at once, either directly or in • 
 directly. If we commence a system of exchange which liberates all prisoners taken, we will 
 have to fight on till the whole South is exterminated* If we hold those caught, they amount to 
 no more than dead men. At this particular time to release all rebel prisoners North would is 
 sure Sherman’s defeat and would compromise our safety here. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. What date is that? 
 
 Mr. HILL. Eighteen hundred and sixty- four. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. What date m that year? 
 
 Mr. HILL. Ido not note the day or month. I have read the telegram which 
 is taken from the New York Tribune, after August, 1864. 
 
 Here is General Grant’s testimony before the Committee on the exchange of 
 prisoners, February 11, 1865. You believe him, do you not? 
 
 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 exchange sound 
 men for such men. 
 
 That was the question propounded to him. His answer was: 
 
 Answer. There never has been any such reason as that. That has been a reason for making 
 exchanges. I will confess that if our men who are prisoners in the South were really well taken 
 care of, suffering nothing except a little privation of liberty, then, in a military point of view, it 
 would not be good policy for us to exchange, because every man they got back is forced right into 
 the army at once, while th d is not the case with our prisoners when we receive them; in fact, the 
 half of our returned prisouers will never go into the Army again, and none of them will until after 
 they have had a furlough of thirty or sixty days Still, the fact of their suffering as they do is a 
 reason for making this exchange is rapidly as possible. 
 
 Q. And never has been a reason for not making the exchange? 
 
 A, It never has. Exchanges having been suspended by reason of disagreement on the par of 
 agents of exchange on both sides before I came in command of the armies of the United States, and 
 it then being near the opening of the spring campaign I did not deem it advisable or just to the 
 men who had to fight our battles to reinforce the enemy with tbir y or forty thouasnd disciplined 
 troops at that time. An immediate resumption of exchange would have had that effect 
 withou giving us corresponding benefits. The suffering said to exist among our pris- 
 oners South was a powerful argument against the course pursued, and so I felt it. 
 
 There is no disputing the fact that, with the knowledge that his prisoners were 
 suffering in the South, he insisted that the exchange should not be renewed,, be- 
 cause it would increase the military power of the enemy. Now, that may have 
 been a good military reason. I do not quote it for the purpose of reflecting upou 
 General Grant in the slightest. I am giving the facts of history. I insist that the 
 Confederacy shall not be. held responsible for the results of the war x>oliey of the 
 Federal Government, especially when the record proves that the Confederate 
 authorities made every possible effort to avert these results. Nor do I allege inhu- 
 manity on the part of General Grant or the Federal Government. I give you the 
 facts, and I have given you General Grant’s interpretation of those facts. Let the 
 world judge. 
 
 Now, sir, we have other authority upon that subject. Here is a letter by Ju- 
 nius Henri Browne. 1 do not know the gentleman. He signs his name to the 
 letter. He writes like a scholar. He is a northern gentleman, and I am not 
 aware that his statement has ever been contradicted. Now, what does he say: 
 
 New York, August 8, 1866. 
 
 Moreover, General Butler, in his speech at Lowell, Massachusetts, stated positively 
 that he had been ordered by Mr. Stanton to put forward the negro question to complicate 
 and prevent the exchange.' * * * Every one is aware that when the exchange 
 
 did take place not the slightest alteration had occurred in the question, and that our 
 prisoners might as well have been released twelve or eighteen months before as at the 
 resumption of the cartel, which would have saved to the Republic at least twelve or fif- 
 teen thousand heroic lives. 
 
 That they were not saved is due alone to Edwin M. Stanton’s peculiar policy and dog- 
 ged obstinacy; and, as I have remarked before, he is unquestionably the digger of the un- 
 named graves that crowd the vicinity of every southern prison with historic and never to 
 be forgotten horrors. 
 
 That is the testimony of a northern man against Mr. Stanton: And he goes on: 
 
 I regret the revival of this painful subject, but the gratuitous effort of Mr. Dana to 
 relieve the Secretary of War from a responsbiilty he seems willing to bear, and which 
 merely as a question of policy independent of all considerations of humanity must be re- 
 garded as of great weight, has compelled me to vindicate myself from the charge of mak 
 fng grave statements without due consideration. 
 
 Once for all, let me declare that I have never found fault with any one because I was 
 detained in prison, for I am well aware that that was a matter in which no one but myself 
 and possibly a few personal friends would feel any interest; that mv sole motive for im- 
 peaching the Secretary of War was that the people of the loyal North might know to 
 
 
14 
 
 wnom. they were indebted tor the cold-blooded and needless sacrifice of their fathers and 
 brothers, their husbands and their sons. 
 
 I understand that Mr. Browne is a contributer to Harper’s Monthly, and was 
 then. The man, so he tells you, who was responsible for these atrocities at An- 
 derson ville , was the late Secretary of War, Mr. Stanton. 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, what have I proven? I have proven that the Federal au- 
 thorities broke the cartel for the exchange of prisoners deliberately; I have pro- 
 ven that they refused to re-open that cartel when it was proposed by Mr. Stephens, 
 as a commissioner, solely on the ground of humanity; T have proven that they 
 made medicine contraband of war, and thereby left the South to the dreadful ne- 
 cessity of treating their own prisoners with such - medicine as could be improvised 
 in the Confederacy; I have proven that they refused to allow surgeons of their 
 own appointment, of their own Army, to accompany their prisoners in the South, 
 with full license and liberty to carry food, medicine, and raiment, and every com- 
 fort that the prisoners might need; I have proven that when the Federal Govern- 
 ment made the pretext for interrupting the cartel for the exchange of prisoners, 
 the Confederates yielded every point and proposed to exchange prisoners on the 
 terms of the Federal Government, and that the latter refused it; I have proven that 
 the Confederates then proposed to return the Federal sick and wounded without 
 equivalent in August, 1864, and never got a reply until December, 1864; 1 have 
 proven that high Federal officers gave as the reason why they would not exchange 
 prisoners that it would be humanity to the ^prisoners but cruelty to the soldiers in 
 the field, and therefore it was a part of the Federal military policy, to let Federal 
 prisoners suffer rather than that the Confederacy should have an increase of its 
 military force, and the Federal Government refused it, when by such exchange it 
 would have received more prisoners than it returned to the Confederates. 
 
 Now, what is the answer to all this? Against whom does the charge lie, if there 
 are to be accusations of any, for the horrors of Andersonville? 
 
 Mr. BRIGHT. What was the percentage of deaths in the prisons? 
 
 Mr. HILL. I have already given it. I have proved also that, with ail the hor- 
 rors at Andersonville, the gentleman from Maine has so ostentatiously paraded, and 
 for an obvious partisan purpose of exciting upon this floor a bitter sectional discus- 
 sion, from which his party, and perhaps himself, may be the beneficiary, greater 
 s offerings occurred in the prisons where Confederate 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 Confederates. And I need 
 not state the contrast between the needy Confederacy and the abundance of Fed- 
 eral supplies and resources. 
 
 Now, sir, when the gentleman rises again to give breath to that effusion of un- 
 mitigated genius without fact to sustain it, in which he says: 
 
 And I here, before God, measuring my words, knowing their full extent and import, de- 
 clare that neither the needs of the Duke of Alva in the Low Countries, nor tne mas- 
 sacre of saint Bartholomew, nor the thumb screws and engines of torture of the Spanish 
 Inquisition, begin to compare in atrocity with the hideous crime of Andersonville. 
 
 Let him add that the mortality at Andersonville and other Confederate prisons . 
 falls short by more than 3 per cent, the mortality in Federal prisons. 
 
 Sir, if any man will reflect a moment lie will see that there was reason why the 
 Confederate Government should desire exchange of prisoners. It was scarce of food, 
 pinched for clothing, closed up with a blockade of its ports; it needed troops; its 
 ranks were thinning. 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, it is proper that I should read one or two sentences from 
 the man who has been arraigned as the vilest murderer in history. After the bat- 
 tles around Richmond, in which McClellan was defeated, some ten thousand pris- 
 oners fell into the hands of the Confederacy. Victory had perched upon its stand- 
 ard, and the rejoicing naturally following victory was heard in the ranks of the 
 Confederate army, Mr. Davis went out to make a gratulatory speech. Now, 
 gentlemen of the House, gentlemen of the other side, if you are willing to do jus 
 tice, let me simply call your attention to the words of this man that then fell from 
 his lips in the hour of victory. Speaking to the soldiers, he said: 
 
 You are fighting for all that is dearest to man; and, though opposed to a foe who dis- 
 regards many of the usages of civilized war, your humanity to the wounded and prisoners 
 was a fit and crowning glory to your valor. 
 
 Above the victory, above every other consideration, even that victory which 
 they believed insured protection to their homes and families, he tells them that at 
 last their crowning glory was their humanity to the wounded and prisoners who 
 bad fallen into their hands. 
 
16 
 
 The gentleman from Maine yesterday introduced the Richmond Examiner as a 
 witness in his behalf. Now it is a rule of law that a man cannot impeach his own 
 witness. It is true the Examiner hated Mr. Davis with a cordial hatred. The 
 gentleman could not have introduced the testimony of perhaps a bitterer foe to 
 Mr. Davis. Why did it hate him? Here are its reasons: u The chivalry and hu- 
 manity of Jefferson Davis will inevitably ruin the Confederacy.” That is your 
 witness, and the witness is worthy of your cause. You introduced the witness to 
 prove Mr. Davis guilty of inhumanity, and he tells you that the humanity of Mr, 
 Davis will ruin the confederacy. That is not all. In the same paper it says: 
 “The enemy have gone from one unmanly cruelty to another.” Recollect, this is 
 your witness. “The enemy have gone from one unmanly cruelty to another.” 
 Encouraged by their impunity till they are now and have for some time been inflict- 
 ing on the people of this country the worst horrors of barbarous and uncivilized 
 war.” Yet in spite of all this the Examiner alleged “Mr. Davis in his dealing 
 with the enemy was as gentle as a sucking dove.” 
 
 Mr. GARFIE LD. What volume is that ? 
 
 Mr. HILL. The same volume, page 531, and is taken from the Richmond Ex- 
 aminer — the paper the gentleman quoted from yesterday. And that is the truth. 
 Those of us who were there at the time know it to be the fact. One of the persis- 
 tent charges brought by that paper and some others against Mr. Davis was his 
 humanity. Over and over again Mr. Davis has been heard to say, and I use his 
 very language, when applied to to retaliate for the horrors inflicted upon our 
 prisoners, “ The inhumanity of the enemy to our prisoners can be no justification 
 for a disregard by us of the rules of civilized war and of Christianity.” Therefore 
 he persisted in it, and this paper cried out against him that it would ruin the con- 
 federacy. 
 
 I am sure I owe this House an apology for having detained it so long ; I shall 
 detain it but a few moments longer. After all, what should men do who really 
 desire the restoration of peace and to prevent the recurrence of the horrors of war ? 
 How ought they to look at this question? Sir, war is always horrible ; war always 
 brings hardships; it brings death, it brings sorrow, it brings ruin, it brings devasta- 
 tion. And he is unworthy to be called a statesman, looking to the pacification of 
 this country, who will parade the horrors inseparable from war for the purpose of 
 keeping up the strife that produced the war. 
 
 I do not doubt that I am the bearer of an unwelcome message to the gentleman 
 from Maine and his party. He says that there are confederates in this body, and 
 that they are going to combine with a few from the North for the purpose of con- 
 trolling this Government. If one were to listen to the gentleman on the other 
 side he would be in doubt whether they rejoiced more when the South left the 
 Union, or regretted most when the South came back to the Union that their fath- 
 ers helped to form, and to which they will forever hereafter contribute as much of 
 patriotic ardor, of noble devotion, and of willing sacrifice as the constituents of 
 the gentleman from Maine. O, Mr. Speaker, why cannot gentlemen on the other 
 side rise to the height of this great argument of patriotism? Is the bosom of the 
 country always to be torn with this miserable sectional debate whenever a presi- 
 dential election is pending? To that great debate of half a century before seces- 
 sion there were left no adjourned questions. The victory of the North was abso- 
 lute, and God knows the submission of the South was complete. But, sir, we have 
 recovered from the humiliation of defeat, and we come here among you and we ask 
 you to give us the greetings accorded to brothers by brothers. We propose to join 
 you in every patriotic endeavor and to unite with you in every patriotic aspiration 
 that looks to the benefit, the advancement, and the honor of every part of our com- 
 mon country. Let us, gentlemen of all parties, in this centennial year indeed have 
 a jubilee of freedom. We divide with you the glories of the Revolution and of the 
 succeeding years of our national Ike before that unhappy division — that four years’ 
 night of gloom and despair — and so we shall divide with you the glories of all the 
 future. 
 
 ’* Sir, my message is this : There are no confederates in this House; there are now 
 no confederates anywhere ; there are no confederate schemes, ambitions, hopes, de- 
 sires, or purposes here. But the South is here, and here she intends to remain. 
 [Enthusiastic applause.] Go on and pass your qualifying acts, trample upon the 
 Constitution you have sworn to support; abnegate the pledges of your fathers, in- 
 cite raids upon our people, and multiply your infidelities until they shall be like 
 the stars of heaven or the sands of the seashore, without number ; but know this, 
 for all your iniquities the South will never again seek a remedy in the madness of 
 
 v 
 
 5 
 
 f 
 
16 
 
 another secession. [Continued applause.] We are here; we are in the house of 
 our fathers, our brothers are our companions, and we are at home to stay, thank 
 God. [Much applause.] 
 
 We come to gratify no revenges, to retaliate no wrongs, to resent no past insults, 
 to re-open no strife. We come with a patriotic .purpose to do whatever in our po- 
 litical power shall lie to restore an honest, economical, and constitutional adminis- 
 tration of the Government. We come charging upon the Union no wrongs to us. 
 The Union never wronged us. The Union has been an unmixed blessing to every 
 section, to every State, to every man of every color in America. We charge all our 
 wrongs upon that “ higher law’' fanaticism, that never kept a pledge nor obeyed a 
 law. The South did seek to leave the association of those who, she believed, would 
 not keep fidelity to their covenants ; the South sought to go to herself ; but, so far 
 from having lost our fidelity for the Constitution which our fathers made, when we 
 sought to go we hugged that Constitution to our bosoms and carried.it with us. 
 
 Brave Union men of the North, followers of Webster and Fillmore , of Clay 
 and Cass, and Douglass — you who fought for the Union for the sake of the Union; 
 you who ceased to fight when the battle ended and the sword was sheathed — we 
 have no quarrel with you, whether Republicans or Democrats. We felt your 
 heavy arm in the carnage of battle; but above the roar of the cannon we heard 
 your voice of kindness, calling, “Brothers, come back!” And we bear witness to 
 you this day that that voice of kindness did more to thin the Confederate ranks and 
 weaken the Confederate arm than did all the artillery employed in the struggle. 
 We are here to co-operate with you; to do whatever we can, in spite of all our sor 
 rows, to rebuild the Uniou; to restore peace; to be a blessing to the country, and 
 to make the American Union what our fathers intended it to be: the glorv of 
 America and a blessing to humanity. 
 
 But to you, gentlemen, who seek still to continue strife, and who, not satisfied 
 with the sufferings already endured, the blood already shed, the waste already 
 committed, insist that we shall be treated as criminals and oppressed as victims, 
 only because we defended our convictions — to you we make no concessions. To 
 you who followed up the war after the brave soldiers that fought it had made peace 
 and gone to their homes — to you we have no concessions to offer. Martyrs owe no 
 apologies to tyrants. And while we are ready to make every sacrifice for the 
 Union, even secession, however defeated and humbled, will confess no sins to 
 fanaticism, however bigoted and exacting. 
 
 Yet, while we make to you no concession, we come even to you in no spirit of 
 revenge. We would multiply blessings in common for you and for us. We have but 
 one ambition, and that is to add our political power to the patriotic Union men of 
 the North in order to compel fanaticism to obey the law and live in the Union ac 
 cording to the Constitution. We do not propose to compel you by oaths, for you 
 who breed strife only to get office and power will not keep oaths. 
 
 Sir, we did the Union one great wrong. 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 to be seized 
 and rent and torn by the men who had denounced it as “ a covenant with hell and 
 and a league with the devil.” We ask you, gentlemen of the republican party, to 
 rise above all your animosities. Forget your own sins. Let us unite to repair the 
 evils that distract and oppress the country. Let us turn our backs upon the past, 
 and let it be said in the future that he shall be the greatest patriot, the truest pa- 
 triot, 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 in the galleries.] 
 
 c