CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



227 



the United States, as the head of the military 

 authority of the United States, would take it 

 into his hands promptly, and apply such rem- 

 edy as the rules of war suggest. I have always 

 entertained that hope, and I have not dismissed 

 it yet, although I confess that I do feel a little 

 disappointed that no step whatever has heen 

 taken to punish the atrocious violations of the 

 laws of war practised upon our prisoners in 

 the hands of the insurgents." 



The resolutions were referred to the Com- 

 mittee on Military Affairs. 



On January 23d a joint resolution advising re- 

 taliation for the cruel treatment of prisoners, 

 was considered. The resolution was thus ex- 

 plained in the official report : " As it has come 

 to the knowledge of Congress that great num- 

 bers of our soldiers who have fallen as prison- 

 ers of war into the hands of the insurgents 

 have been subjected to treatment unexampled 

 for cruelty in the history of civilized war, and 

 finding its parallels only in the conduct of sav- 

 age tribes a treatment resulting in the death 

 of multitudes by the slow but designed process 

 of starvation, and by mortal diseases occasioned 

 by insufficient and unhealthy food, by wanton 

 exposure of their persons to the inclemency of 

 the weather, and by deliberate assassination of 

 innocent and unoffending men, and the murder 

 in cold blood of prisoners after surrender ; and 

 as a continuance of these barbarities, in con- 

 tempt of the laws of war and in disregard of 

 the remonstrances of the national authorities, 

 has presented the alternative of suffering our 

 brave soldiers thus to be destroyed, or to apply 

 the principle of retaliation for their protection ; 

 the resolution declares that, in the judgment of 

 Congress, it has become justifiable and neces- 

 sary that the President should, in order to pre- 

 vent the continuance and recurrence of such 

 barbarities, and to insure the observance by the 

 insurgents of the laws of civilized war, resort 

 at once to measures of retaliation ; that, in the 

 opinion of Congress, such retaliation ought to 

 be inflicted upon the insurgent officers now in 

 our hands, or hereafter to fall into our hands as 

 prisoners ; that such officers ought to be sub- 

 jected to like treatment practised toward our 

 officers or soldiers in the hands of the insur- 

 gents, in respect to quantity and quality of 

 food, clothing, fuel, medicine, medical attend- 

 ance, personal exposure, or other mode of deal- 

 ing with them ; that, with a view to the same 

 ends, the insurgent prisoners in our hands 

 ought to be placed under the control and in the 

 keeping of officers and men who have them- 

 selves been prisoners in the hands of the insur- 

 gents, and have thus acquired a knowledge of 

 their mode of treating Union prisoners; that 

 explicit instructions ought to be given to the 

 forces having the charge of such insurgent 

 prisoners, requiring them to carry out strictly 

 and promptly the principles of this resolution 

 in every case, until the President, having re- 

 ceived satisfactory information of the abandon- 



ment by the insurgents of such barbarous prac- 

 tices, shall revoke or modify those instructions. 

 Congress do not, however, intend by this reso- 

 lution to limit or restrict the power of the 

 President to the modes or principles of retalia- 

 tion herein mentioned, but only to advise a re- 

 sort to them as demanded by the occasion." 



Mr. Hendricks, of Indiana, said : '' I am very 

 free to say, without fully examining this sub- 

 ject, that the remedy for the unfortunate con- 

 dition of the prisoners, suggested by the Sen- 

 ator from Ohio in this joint resolution, is not 

 such a one as I had hoped to see come from 

 him, and especially from the Administration. I 

 think there is another remedy, and that is the 

 exchange of our prisoners. "We have nearly 

 two to their one. I believe it is in the power 

 of the Administration to bring our imprisoned 

 soldiers home again, and in a very short time 

 restore them to their friends and families. 



"I am free to say I do not feel that the 

 condition of my friends in the Southern prisons 

 will be made any better, and they made any 

 happier, by seeing some men in our prisons 

 here in the North starved to death. If we 

 could inflict the punishment that is suggested 

 by the Senator upon the officers in the South- 

 ern army who have contributed to the misfor- 

 tunes of which he complains, I would agree 

 with him ; but here in our Northern prisons are 

 many men who entered into this war in the 

 Southern army against their wish, conscripted, 

 compelled to obey the demands of a govern- 

 ment de facto, having no part nor lot, no con- 

 nection whatever with the wrongs that are in- 

 flicted upon our soldiers in the Southern pris- 

 ons; and now we propose to retaliate upon 

 them, individually, and starve them to death, 

 because the Senator says some of our friends in 

 Southern prisons have been starved! Reach 

 the men that are in fault; strike them if we 

 can ; but where is the propriety, where is the 

 Christianity of starving a man to death against 

 whom we can lay no fault, except that per- 

 haps he has been compelled to obey the de- 

 mands of the rebel government a government, 

 as was illustrated with great power by the 

 Senator from Vermont, not now in his seat, 

 (Mr. Collamer), de facto, which the people 

 down there for the time being had to obey ? " 



Mr. Wade, of Ohio, followed, urging the res- 

 olution, and said: "If this resolution will not 

 tend to effect the purpose designed by us, it 

 should not pass. No one is more sensible than 

 I am that for mere vindictive purposes we 

 ought not to pass a measure like this. My im- 

 pression, however, is that it will have a' very 

 useful effect ; it will have the effect to relieve 

 thousands upon thousands who are now in 

 Southern prisons, and treated with such hard- 

 ship that they are dying all over the Southern 

 country. 



"Retaliation has, in all ages of the world, 

 been a means of bringing inhuman and savaira 

 foes to a sense of their duty, and has frequently 

 had the effect to promote the objects of justice. 



