232 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



they might ere this have been restored to health, 

 so that now, instead of filling an unknown grave 

 in a distant land, they would be cheering and 

 sustaining and blessing their own homesteads 

 and their own families. 



Sir, I view with horror the conduct of the 

 rebel authorities to these prisoners, and second, 

 even if second to that, I view with repugnance, 

 condemnation, and execration, the heartless, 

 cruel, and unjust indifference of our own au- 

 thorities toward the fate of these perishing 

 brave men.' 



I never heard it controverted before this oc- 

 casion that the great difficulty in the way of 

 exchanging white prisoners with the rebel au- 

 thorities was their refusal to exchange for negro 

 prisoners. On this point I will read again a 

 single clause from General Butler's letter : 



The wrongs, indignities, and privations suffered by 

 our soldiers would move me to consent to any thing 

 to procure their exchange, except to barter away the 

 honor and faith of the Government of the United 

 States which has been so solemnly pledged to the 

 colored soldiers in its ranks. 



"What was that faith? What was that 

 pledge ? What was it but simply this, that ex- 

 changes would not be entered upon by our 

 Government unless they were treated as pris- 

 oners of war with our white soldiers, and 

 unless the exchanges should extend to and 

 include negro soldiers as well as white men ? 

 I dissent entirely from the position that the re- 

 fusal of the rebel authorities to exchange a few 

 thousand, yea, all the negroes in America, if 

 they had been in captivity, should make one 

 moment's delay or obstacle in the exchange of 

 our white prisoners. The refusal to exchange 

 negro prisoners did not mitigate the sufferings of 

 those negroes. It made their condition no bet- 

 ter. It gave them no additional comforts. It 

 offered them no speedier or earlier deliverance 

 from captivity. Then, when it produced no 

 good fruits to the negro, and resulted in the 

 wasting, torturing, starving to death of our 

 white citizens in captivity, why should the lat- 

 ter dread consequence be looked upon calmly, 

 with cold indifference and apathy, in its terrible 

 consummation, by our military authorities, and 

 they not waive the condition of negro prisoners 

 being also exchanged ? " 



Mr. Howard, of Michigan, in reply, said: 

 " Mr. President, it seems to have been the effort 

 of the Opposition, in the comments which they 

 have made upon the resolution now before the 

 Senate, to make the Administration odious for 

 not having perfected and carried out a system 

 of exchange of prisoners with the rebels, and 

 in that manner to have liberated our country- 

 men in their hands as prisoners of war. In- 

 Btead of meeting the question fairly, upon its 

 own merits, and upon the facts clearly in proof 

 in the case, it seems to me they rather attempt 

 to use the occasion as one for the promotion of 

 party purposes, and for the purpose of assailing 

 the Administration. 



" I do not wish, upon such an occasion as 



this, to imitate their example. I shall take it 

 for granted that the Administration have done 

 all in their power, all that could be required of 

 them by the laws of war and by their duty to 

 their country, to establish and carry out a sys- 

 tem of exchange for the purpose of such liber- 

 ation. I will not stand here to accuse them of 

 the atrocious crime (for it would be a crime if 

 they had committed it, or if it had been com- 

 mitted) of permitting our soldiers to remain in 

 the cruel custody of the rebels for some purpose 

 other than the public good, for some purpose 

 not authorized by their duty to their country. 

 I shall presume in this discussion that the ex- 

 ecutive branch of the Government have at least 

 tried faithfully to do their duty to the country, 

 and that if they have failed in bringing about 

 this exchange and the liberation of our prison- 

 ers in rebel hands, they have innocently failed, 

 and failed upon such principles as justify their 

 conduct before their country and before the 

 world." 



Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, followed, saying : 

 " Mr. President, at the adjournment of the Sen- 

 ate yesterday, I was referring to the fact, as far 

 as I was then advised, or, indeed, as I am now 

 advised, there is not before us any official evi- 

 dence that the cruelties practised upon our 

 prisoners which are mentioned in the report of 

 the 6th of May, 1864, have been continued 

 since. I was told by the honorable member 

 from Connecticut (Mr. Foster), that he had it 

 from one who had belonged to the army, and 

 who was unfortunate enough to be captured 

 and imprisoned in one of the prisons in South 

 Carolina, that there was, to a certain extent, at 

 least, cruelty as far as cruelty consists in failing 

 to give the prisoners a sufficient ration. What 

 I meant, however, was that we have no official 

 evidence other than what is contained in the 

 report of May 5, 1864, that the outrages which 

 are hypothetically stated, though stated as facts 

 in the resolution reported by the committee, 

 have been perpetrated since that report. 



" The honorable member from Ohio (Mr. 

 Wade), who was one of the committee by whom 

 the report of May 5, 1864, was made, inter- 

 rupted me yesterday by saying that there had 

 been an antecedent report in which evidence 

 was presented to the Senate of other outrages 

 of the same description. The purpose for which ' 

 I referred to the report of May 5, 1864, is rather 

 strengthened than weakened by that fact, be- 

 cause it appears that even prior to the 5th of 

 May, 1864, the Senate, and of course the com- 

 mittee, whose business it had been to examine 

 into the facts, were advised that these cruelties 

 had been practised; and yet from that time 

 until a few days since, I am not aware that any 

 measures have been recommended by the com- 

 mittee or any member of the Senate, looking 

 to a resort to such a systein as is proposed either 

 by the resolution introduced by the honorable 

 member himself, or by the report made by the 

 committee to whom that resolution was re- 

 ferred. I suppose, Mr. President and they had 



