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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



of the Confederate government, so called, have re- 



Suc/2. And oe it further resolved, That when it shall 

 be proved to the satisfaction of the President of the 

 United States that the Confederacy have changed 

 their treatment of Federal prisoners for better or for 

 worse, it shall be his duty to change the treatment 

 of Confederate prisoners in like manner. 



SEC. 3. And be it further resolved, That if any offi- 

 cer or officers having such prisoner or prisoners in 

 charge shall fail to comply with and rigidly can-T- 

 out the provisions of the foregoing resolutions, such 

 officer or officers so offending shall be immediately 

 dismissed the service, and subject to such further pun- 

 ishment as a court-martial snail in their discretion 

 see fit to inflict. 



Mr. Lane, of Indiana, said : " There are now 

 about forty-five thousand Union prisoners in 

 rebel prisons. We have about double that num- 

 ber of rebel prisoners in our hands. Those 

 forty-five thousand men, a great army of them* 

 selves, are reduced by starvation to a state of 

 utter helplessness, and if they remain in those 

 prisons can never render active service again in 

 our armies. Those of them who escape the 

 slow tortures of death by starvation, return 

 emaciated and feeble, and unfit for service. 

 Our system is, as Christian men should do, to 

 feed, and clothe, and provide for their men 

 when prisoners in our hands. Every one we 

 send back to them is in a condition of efficiency 

 far greater than he was when he entered our 

 prisons. Then you see the effect. We returned 

 last month some fifteen thousand rebel prison- 

 ers in excellent condition, having been fed and 

 fattened upon Government rations ; and we re- 

 ceived wrecks, skeletons in their stead, shock- 

 ing to our common humanity. Measures of 

 mercy having failed, it is time we resorted to a 

 different system a system of strict retaliation 

 marked by justice in every feature. I think 

 the people demand it. They have with great 

 patience borne all these things in the hope that 

 by merciful treatment we still might bring these 

 felons and traitors to their senses ; but all these 

 measures have failed. Now I propose, first, 

 that all the camps of rebel prisoners shall be 

 placed under the command of officers who have 

 endured the hardships of Southern captivity, 

 who know what the Southern rations have been ; 

 and, second, that we shall mete out to them 

 the same treatment meted out to us." 



Mr. Wade, of Ohio, followed, saying: "Nearly 

 a year ago the committee on the conduct of the 

 war were instructed to inquire into the condition 

 of our prisoners as they returned from Southern 

 prisons. The committee immediately entered 

 upon that work. We took somewhere about a 

 hundred depositions of the victims of this inhu- 

 manity from the rebel States. We also took 

 the testimony of a great many surgeons and 

 medical men who testified as to what their 

 treatment had been ; and showed beyond a pos- 

 sible doubt, that thousands of our men had suf- 

 fered the most lingering and inhuman death by 

 means of starvation and exposure. The speci- 

 mens that were returned whom we saw, and 

 whose testimony we took, were on the verge 



of the grave, and some of them dying as we 

 took their testimony. We embodied our ob- 

 servations in a report, a report that has not 

 been pretended to be gainsaid or denied by any- 

 body. 



" I understood, when we went forth to take 

 that testimony, that it was to enlighten the Ex- 

 ecutive as to the exact facts in regard to this 

 matter; that the inhumanity was so great, it 

 shocked the sense of mankind to such a degree, 

 that the Executive, like everybody else, was 

 unwilling to believe that such a thing could ex- 

 ist at this age of the world ; and I understood 

 also, that if the testimony proved the facts to 

 be as alleged, the Executive had promised us 

 that he would take the most energetic means 

 of retaliation, and endeavor in that way to pre- 

 vent it. It has run on from that day to this. 

 I have constantly hoped and wished and be- 

 lieved that as this reiterated evidence came 

 to our knowledge day after day, and month 

 after month, it would stir those in authority to 

 do something. But, sir, all is silent ; I see no 

 movement anywhere. I felt it, therefore, in- 

 cumbent upon me even to endeavor to wake 

 up the country to a sense of our responsibility, 

 to endeavor to do something in behalf of these 

 brave suffering men who have gone forth with 

 a spirit of patriotism and self-denial unparal- 

 leled, and have been too long overlooked. 



" I was still further impelled to do this when 

 I saw how easily the sympathies of our people 

 were aroused in behalf of these accursed rebels, 

 unrepentant, so far as I know, living in cities 

 we have lately conquered. The hearts of our 

 population seem moved in their behalf. I do 

 not object to it. They are sending provisions 

 by the ship-load to relieve these rebels who 

 have caused all this misery to our men, and 

 who, if they are suffering, are suffering justly, 

 in consequence of their own crimes. Near by 

 these very cities are now lingering in these in- 

 fernal dens our brave men starving to death, 

 tortured to death by exposure and ill treat- 

 ment ; and yet I do not hear of ship-loads of 

 provisions and comforts going to them. Yes, 

 sir, perhaps within ten miles of the very place 

 where these things are to be distributed lie our 

 poor, brave men, suffering all that malignity, 

 barbarity, and brutality can inflict upon men ; 

 and yet we find our people moving in behalf of 

 those who have brought this misery on the 

 country, and compelled us to sacrifice the best 

 of our men in such a cause." 



Mr. Howard, of Michigan, said : " During the 

 last session, when it was before us in some form 

 I do not now recollect what I expressed a 

 disposition myself to bring in a measure the 

 object of whicbnvas to resort to the rule of re- 

 taliation for the purpose of restraining the in- 

 surgents henceforth from the practise of such 

 barbarities upon our prisoners in their hands; 

 but on further consideration of the subject, and 

 on consulting with my friends about it, I 

 thought it best to let it pass by for the present, 

 but always in the hope that the Executive of 



