CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



231 



who have fought for the Government and who 

 have fallen into this misfortune hecause they 

 were engaged in the public service ; and the 

 Senator from Iowa says we shall not consider 

 this obligation which we owe to the soldier 

 who has fallen into this misfortune, because we 

 can make a military profit by leaving him to 

 die in a Southern prison. I am glad that senti- 

 ment has found no response from any other 

 Senator in this body." 



Mr. Henderson, of Missouri, in relation to the 

 exchange of prisoners, said : " While upon this 

 subject, Mr. President, I may refer to the mat- 

 ter of the exchange of prisoners, which is also 

 embraced in the amendment which I propose 

 to offer. I do not desire to reflect on the War 

 Department, hecause perhaps the "War Depart- 

 ment has done all within its power to release 

 our prisoners and ameliorate their condition; 

 hut it seems to me that it is high time the Con- 

 gress of the United States should look into the 

 matter. According to reports, there are some 

 fifty or fifty-five thousand soldiers of ours who 

 are prisoners in Southern prisons. "What has 

 been of late years the course of civilized nations 

 in relation to prisoners taken in battle? Has it 

 not been immediately to exchange or parole 

 them? It unquestionably has been. I know 

 that the English Government, in the war of 

 the Eevolution, said that prisoners could not 

 be exchanged with rebels ; but the British au- 

 thorities soon got over that. They found that 

 it was necessary to make exchanges. Why not 

 let us come boldly to the proposition, and make 

 these exchanges at once ? During that war our 

 privateersmen were seized, and the English 

 authorities declared that they were guilty of 

 piracy, and should not be exchanged. Have 

 we not done the same thing during this war ? 

 In the early part of the war we convicted rebel 

 privateersmen in Philadelphia of piracy; but 

 we were compelled afterward to abandon that 

 policy and to exchange them. Then, if we our- 

 selves have yielded the proposition that the 

 rebels are belligerents and we ought certainly 

 to yield it at once, magnanimously, as becomes 

 a great nation why shall we not proceed to 

 exchange? In 1862, I find that a cartel was 

 agreed upon, which used this language : 



"The stipulations and provisions to be of binding 

 obligation during the continuance of the war, it mat- 

 ters not which party may have the surplus of prison- 

 ers, the great principles involved being, first, an 

 equitable exchange of prisoners man for man, officer 

 for officer, or officers of higher grade exchanged for 

 officers of lower grade, or for privates, according to 

 the scale of equivalents ; second, that privateersmen 

 and officers and men of the different services may be 

 exchanged according to the same scale of equiva- 

 lents ; third, that all prisoners, of whatever arm of 

 the service, are to be exchanged or paroled in ten 

 days from the time of their capture, if it be practica- 

 ble to transfer them to their own lines in that time ; 

 if not, as soon thereafter as practicable ; 



" Remember, this is the agreement we our- 

 selves entered into with the rebel authorities in 

 1862. 

 fourth, that no officer, soldier, or employ6 in tho 



service of either party is to be considered as ex- 

 changed and absolved from his parole until his equiv 

 alcnt has actually reached the lines of his friends ; 

 fifth, that the parole forbids the performance of field, 

 garrison, police, guard, or constabulary duty. 



"lam told that some misunderstanding on 

 this subject has arisen between our Govern- 

 ment and the Confederate authorities ; but even 

 in that agreement there was a provision of this 

 character : 



And in case any misunderstanding shall arise in 

 regard to any clause or stipulation in the foregoing 

 articles, it is mutually agreed that such misunder- 

 standing shall not interrupt the release of prisoners 

 on parole as herein provided, but shall be made the 

 subject of friendly explanations, in order that the 

 object of this agreement may neither be defeated nor 

 postponed. 



"Why has not this cartel been carried out? 

 Why is it that our prisoners have not been ex- 

 changed within the ten days, or as soon there- 

 after as practicable, as required by the cartel? 

 Can exchanges not be effected now ? I do not 

 know. I confess that I am not familiar with 

 the conduct of the War Department on the sub- 

 ject, and therefore I am not qualified to speak ; 

 but it seems to me that it is worthy of inves- 

 tigation on the part of the Senate to ascertain 

 why these exchanges have not been made. 

 There are thousands of our men dying in pris- 

 ons, I care not how well the rebel authorities 

 may treat them. And I care not how well we 

 may treat prisoners in our hands, we know that 

 thousands of them must die. We cannot give 

 them the comforts that we ought to do ; it is 

 utterly impossible. How many rebel prisoners 

 have we now ? Perhaps sixty or seventy thou- 

 sand. W^hy not, then, proceed to exchange ? 



" It was stated some time ago that an objec- 

 tion was presented on the part of the rebels to 

 exchanging, in consequence of the fact that 

 they declined to exchange negro troops. Why 

 not proceed with the exchanges until we come 

 to that difficult question ? And now I submit 

 to the Senate that whenever we arrive at that 

 point in exchange, how is it possible that the 

 rebels can refuse to exchange ? They will not 

 do it." 



Mr. Davis, of Kentucky, said : "I ask you, 

 sir, and I ask the Senate, if the refusal of the 

 rebel authorities to exchange for a few hundred 

 negroes was any justification, any excuse, any 

 palliation even, for our military authorities in 

 not exhausting every means of exchange or 

 parole and any other mode whatever by which 

 these brave and perishing men might be de- 

 livered from their horrible captivity and its in- 

 evitable death. I say to-day that if the subject of 

 exchanges had been taken up honestly, earnestly, 

 and in good faith by our Government and our 

 military authorities eighteen months ago, more 

 than twenty thousand gallant and true men 

 who have died in these dreary prisons would 

 have been restored to their country, their friends, 

 their families; and with all the comforts of 

 home, and all the attentions of mother, wife, 

 and daughter, which they would have received, 



