Amnesty. Speech of Hon. James A. Garfield, of Ohio, in reply to Hon. B. H. Hill, of Georgia, in the House of representatives

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AMNESTY.

SPE5iCH OF

Hon- James A. Garfield, of Ohio,

In Reply to

HON. B. H. HILL,

I

N THE

w

OF GEORGIA,

ousE OF -Representatives,
Wednesday, January 12, 1876.

Mr. GARFIELD. Mr. Speaker, no gentle-
man on this floor can regret more sincerely
than I do the course that the debate has
taken, e?pecially that portion which oc-
curred yesterday. To one who reads the
report of that discussion it would be difficult
to discover

THE REAL QUESTION AT ISS0E

and to learn from the Record itself the scope
and character of the pending measure. I re-
gret that neither tliespeech of the gentleman
from New York [Mr. Cox] nor that of the
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Hill] has yet
appeared in the Record. I should prefer to
quote from the full report, but, replying
now, I must quote them as their speeches
appeired in the public journals of yesterday
and to-day. But they are here, and can
correct any inaccuracy of quotation. Any
one wlio reads their speeches would not sus-
pect that they were debating a simple propo-
sition to relieve some citizens of political
and legal disabilities incurred during the
late war. For example, had I been a casual
reader and not a listener, I should say that
the chief proposition yesterday was an ar-
raignment of the administration of this Gov-
ernment during the last fifteen years. If I
had been called upon to pick out those dec-
larations in the speech of the gentleman
from Georgia [Mr. Hill] which embody the
topic of debate, I should have said they were
these :

The history of the last fifteen vears Is yet
fresh in tlie minds of the world. It is useless
to speak of the grace and magnanimity of the
Kepublican party. With the master eiislaved,
with intelligence disfranchised, with society
disordered, with States subverted, with Legis-

latures dispersed, peopa; eannot afford to talk
of grace and magnanimity. If tliat is grace
and magnanimitv, I pray God to spare the
country in the future froili such virtues.

I should say that the propositions and
arguments arrayed around that paragraph
were the center and circumference of his
theme. Let me then in a few words try to
recall the House to the actual topic of this
debate.

A gentleman on the other side of the
House, a few days ago, introduced a propo-
sition in the form of a bill to grant amnesty
to the remaining persons who are not yet
relieved of their political disabilities Under
the Constitution. That is a plain proposition
for practical legislation. It is a very im-
portant proposition. It is a proposition to
finish and complete forever the work of exe-
cuting one of the great clauses of the Con-
stitution of our country. When that bill
shall have become a law, a large portion of
the fourteenth amendment will have ceased
to be an operative clause of the Constitution.

Whenever so great and important a matter
is proposed a deliberative body should bring
to its consideration the fullest and most
serious examination. But what was pro-
posed in this case ? Not to deliberate, not
to amend, not even to refer to a committee
for the ordinary consideration given even to
a proposition to repeal the tax on matches.
No reference to anybody ; but a member of
the House, of his own motion and at his own
discretion, proposes to launch that proposi-
tion into the House, refusing the privilege
of amendment and the right to debate, ex-
cept as it miglit come from his courtesy, and
pass it, declaring, as he does so, the time

7-.

SPEECH OP HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD.

as to fall in tlieir hands to a system of treat-
ment which has resulted in reducing many
of those who have survived and been
permitted to return to us to a con-
dition, both physically and mentally,
which no langruage we can use can
adequately describe. Though nearly all the
patients now in the Naval Academy Hospital
at Annapolis and in the West Hospital in Bal-
timore liivve been under the kindest and most
Intelligent treatment for about three weeks
past, and manv of them for a greater length
of time, still 'they present literally the ap-
pearance of living skeletons, many of them
being nothing but skin and bone; some of
them are maimed for life, having neen fro-
zen while exposed to the inclemency of the
winter season on Belle Isle, being compelled
to lie on the bare ground without tents or
blankets, some of them without overcoats or
even coats, with but little tire to mitigate the
severity of the winds and storms to which
they were exposed. # * » ♦

It will be observed from the testimony that
all the witnessi'S who testify upon fliat point
state that the treatment tliev received while
confined at Columbia. South Carolina, Dalton,
Georgia, and other places, was far more hu-
mane than that thev received at Richmond,
where the authorities of the so-called Confed-
eracy were congregated, and where the power
existed, had the inclination not been want-
ins, to reform those abuses and secure to the
prisoners they held some treatment that
would bear a public comparison to that ac-
corded bv our authorities to the prisoners in
our custodv. Yonr committee, therefore, are
constrained to sav that thev can hardly avoid
the conclusion expressed by so many of our
j.f>]f,ased soldiers, that the inhuman practices
herein referred to are the result of a determi-
nation on the uart of the rebel authorities to
redncRonr soldiers in their power by priva-
tion of food and clothing and by exposure to
such a condition that those who mav survive
shall never recover so as to be able to render
anv effective service in the field.

I ani not now discussing the merits of the
cliarge at all. hut am showing that such is,
and for twelve years has continued to be,
the authoritative official cliarge of the exec-
utive department of the Government and of
a ioint committee of the two Honses. So
mncli for the responsible character of the
charge. To this I should add that this
chnrge is believed to he true by a great raa-
jnritv of the people whom we represent on
this floor.

I now inquire is this charge true?

The gentleman from Georgia denies gen-
erally the charge that atrocities were prac-
ticed upon our prisoners at Andersonville.
He makes a general denial, and asserts that
Mr. Davis did observe

THE ItUMAXK RULES OF MODERN WARFARE.

As a proof, he quotes the general order
issued hy the President of the Confederate
Government under which the prison was
to he established, an order providing that
it should he located on healthy groiind,
where there was an abundance of good
water, and trees for healthful and grate-
ful shade. Tliat is a perfect answer so far
as it goes. But I ask how that order was
executed? To whose hands was committed
the work of building the Andersonville

prison? To the hands of General Winder,
an intimate and favorite friend of Mr. Davis.
And who was General Winder? He was a
man of whom the Richmond Examiner used
these words the day he took his departure
from Richmond to assume command of the
proposed prison:

Thank God that Richmond is at last rid of
old Winder. God have mercy upon those to
whom he has been sent!

He was, as the testimony in the Wirz trial
shows, the special and intimate friend of
Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confed-
eracy, by whom he was detailed on this busi-
ness, and detailed with such a send-off as I
have read you from a paper of his own city
warmly in the interest of the rebel cause.

What next? How did General Winder
execute the order after he went there? I
turn to the Wirz trial, and read from it only
such authorities as the gentleman from
Georgia recognizes — ■

OFFICERS OF THE REBEL ARMY.

The gentleman stated yesterday that there
was nothing in this book connecting the
head of the Confederate Government with
the Andersonville atrocities. Before I am
through we will see. On the 5th day of
January, 1864, a report was made by D. T.
Chandler, a lieutenant colonel of the Con-
federate army. This report was offered in
evidence in the Wirz trial, and Colonel
Chandler was himself a witness at that
trial, and swears that the report is genuine.
I quote from page 224:

Andeksox, January 5, 1864.

Colouel; Having, in obedience to instruc-
tions of the 25th 'ultimo, carefully inspected
the prison for Fedci-al prisoners of war and
post at this place, I respectfully submit the
following report:

The Federal prisoners of war are confined
within a stockade fifteen feet high, of roughly
hewn pine logs about eight inches in diameter,
inserted five feet into the ground, inclosing, in-
cluding the recent extension, an area of live
hundred and forty by two hundred and sixty
yards. A niiling round the inside of the
stockade, and about twenty feet from it, consti-
tutes the "dead line," beyond which the pris-
oners arc not allowed to pass, and about three
and one-fourth acres near the center of the
inclosure are so marshy as to be at present
unfit for occupation, reducing the available
present area to about tweiity-three and one-
half acres, which gives somewhat less thansix
square feet to each prisoner. Even this is
being constantly reduced by the additions to
their number. A small stream passing trom
west to east through the inclosure, at about
one hundred and fifty yards from its southern
limit, furnishes the only water for washing
accessible to the prisoners. Some regimen of
the guard, the bakery, and the cook house,
being placed on the rising grounds bordering
the stream before it enters the prison, render
the water nearly unfit for use before it reaches
the prisoners. ' * * *

D. T. CHANDLER,

Assistant Adjutant and Inspector General.
Colonel R. H. Chilton, Assistant Adjutant and

Inspector General.

SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD.

Here is an official exliibit of the manner
in whicii the officer detailed by Jeff. Davis
choie tlieplace for health, with •'ruuuing wa-
ter, and agreeable shade." He chose a piece
of forest-ground that had a miasmatic marsh
in tlie heart of it and a small stream run-
ning through it; but the troops stationed
outside of the stockade were allowed to de-
file its pure water before it could reach the
stockade; and then, as if in the very refine-
ment of cruelty, as if to m.ake a mockery of
the order quoted by the gentleman from
Georgia, he detailed men

TO CUT DOWN EVERY TREE AND SHRUB

in the inclosure, leaving not a green leaf
to show where the forest had been. And
subsequently, when the burning sun of
July was pouring down its tiery heat upon
the heads of tliese men, with but six
square feet of ground to a man, a piteous
petition was made by the prisoners to Win-
der to allow these poor men to be detailed to
go outside, under guard, and cut pine from
the forest to make arbors under wliich they
could shelter themselves, and they were
answered witli all tlie loathsome brutality of
malignant hate, that they should have no
bush to shelter them; and thus, under the
fierce rays of the southern sun, they miser-
ably perished.

These last statements are made on the
authority of Ambrose Spencer, a planter of
Georgia, who resided within five miles of
Andersonville. I quote from his testimony,
(Wirz's trial, p. 359:)

Between the 1st ami 15th of December, 1863,
I went up to AlulorsouviUe with W. S. ^ inder
and four or five other yentlemeii, out of curi-
osity, to see how the prison was to be laid out.
* * * I aslcecl iiiin if he was going- to
erect barracks or shelter of any kiutl. He re-
plied that lie was not; that the ilauiued Yan-
kees Who would be p.ut in there would have
no need of tiieiii. 1 asked him why he was
cutting ilo wii all the trees, and suggested that
they woukl prove a shelter to the prisoners,
from the lieat of the sun, at least. He made
this reply, or something similar to it: "That
is just wiiat I am going to do; 1 am going to
bund a pen hero that will kill more damned
Yankees than can be destroyed in the front."
Those are very nearly his words, or equivalent
to them.

iSo much for the execution of the Presi-
dent's order to locate the prison.

But 1 am not yet done with the testimony
of Colonel Chaudler. A subsequent report
was made by him in the month of August.
He went back and re examined the horrors
of that pen, and as the result of his examin-
ation he made a report, from which I quote
the last few sentences, (Wirz's trial, p. 22,1:)
Andebsojjville, August 5, 1861.

Colonel: » * *

My iluty requires me respectfully to recom-
nieiul a change in the oflleer in the coininand
of the post, lirigadier General J. II. Winder,
and the substitution in liis place of some 011^="
who unites both energy and good judgmeii''
■with some feeling of humanity and considera"

tion for the welfare and comfort (so far as is
consistent with theirsafe-keepiiigj of tne vast
number of unfortunates piacoil Uiid(.;r liis con-
trol; some one Who at least wiil notuiivocaie ile-
Uberately and in cold biood ilic inoprioiy of
leaving them in their present coiituiion until
their number has been sutticicutiy reduced by
death to make the present arrangement suf-
tice for their accommodation; wuo will not
consider it a matter of seil-iaudation and
boasting that he has never been mside of the
stockade, a place the liorrors of wiiicu it is
difUcuit to uescribe, and wnicnisa disgrace
to civilization, the condition of whicn lie
miglit, by the exercise of a little energy and
juagment, even with the liiniietl means at liis
command, have considerably nuiiroved.

D. T. Cxl-i.:>ilJLt.ri,

Assistant Adjutant and inspeaur ueneral.
Colonel K. H. (JuiLTON, jlAAiAtu/i« AUjiuunc and

Inspector Uenerul U. iS. A., Riciiniond, Vtr-

{/I ma.

Mr. HALE, What is the date of that
report ?

Mr. GARFIELD. August 5, 1864.

Mr. Hale. How long after that was
Winder retained there in command ?

Mr. GARFIELD. 1 will come to that in a
moment.

Now, what do honorable gentlemen sup-
pose would naturally be done wilh such a
report as that ? Remember that Colonel
Chaudler was a witness before the court
that tried Wirz and reaffirmed every word
of this report. If he is living 1 would make
a pilgrimage to see him and tl.ank him for

THE HUMANITV AND TENDERNESS

with which he treated my tmloriunate com-
rades, bo anxious was he that the great crime
of Winder should be rebuked thai, lie went to
Richmond, and in person delivered his leport
to the Secretary ol \Var, a member, ol :;ouise,
of the cabinet of Jefferson Davis. If 1 am
not correct in this 1 believe there is a mem-
ber of that cabinet now on this Hour who
can correct me. Of course, being a soldier,
Colonel Chandler first delivered nis report to
the adjutant general, and that officei', Gen-
eral Cooper, on the Ibtli of August, iati4,
wrote upon the back of the report these
words :
Adjutant and Inspector General's Office,

AlKJIlSt IS, 18l)i.

Respectfully submitted to the secretary of
war. Xhe coniliLion of the prison at Ander-'
sonville is a reproach to us as a luicion. The
engineer and ordnance departments were
applied to, and authorizetl tneir issue, and 1
so telegrapheil General VVmcler. Colonel
Chandler's recommendanons are coinciiled in,

liy order Ql' General Cooper.

K, 11. CHILTON,

Assistant Adjutant and Inspector Ueneral.

Not content with that indorsement. Colo-
nel Chandler went to the office of the secre-
tary of war himself; but, the secietary be-
ing absent at tlie moment, the report was
delivered to the assistant secretary of war,
J. A. Campbell, who wrote below General
Cooper's indorsement these words :

Tliese reports show a condition of things at
Andersonville which calls very loudly for the

SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD.

^^^'^:^C^^ department, in order that

J. A. CAMPBELL,

Assistant Secretary of War.

Mr. REAGAN. Does not the gentleman
icnow that the adjutant general could only
have made such an order by direction of
the president ?

Mr. GARFIELD. I do not know what the
habit was in the confederacy. It is not so in
this Government.

Mr. REAGAN. The gentleman will allow
me to say that all persons familiar with the
business of that office know that the adju-
tant general executes direct orders madebv
the president, but has not himself authority
to make such orders.

Mr. GARFIELD. That may have been the
rule m the Confederate government- but it
was never the rule here. The Adjutant Gen-
eral of our Army signs no order except by or-
der ot the Secretary of War. The Adjutant
General IS the clerk of the Secretary of
War and the Secretary of War is in turn
the clerk of the President. But the gentle-
man from Texas [Mr Reagan] will soon see
that he cannot defend Davis by the indorse-
ment ol General Cooper. The report did not
stop witli the adjutant general. It was car-
ried up higher and nearer to Davis. It was
delivered to Assistant Secretary Campbell
who wrote the indorsement l have just
read. The report was lodged with the de-
partment of war, whose chief was one of the
confidential advisers of Mr. Davis— a mem-

'"?',°-'.l''^?^''^^ ^^"^^'^- What was done
with It/ I he record shows, Mr. Speaker
that a few days thereafter an order was
mude in reference to General Winder To
what effect ? Promoting him ! Adding to
his power "

IN THE FIELD OF HIS IXFAMY !

He was made commissary -general of all the
prisons and prisoners throughout the con-
federacy. TJiat was the answer that came as
the result of this humane report of Colonel
Chandler; and that new appointment of
Windei- came from Mr. Seddons, the Confed-
erate Secretary of war.

A MiMiBEE. By order of the President.
Mr. GARFIELD. Of course all appoii.t-
mei:ts were made by the President, lor the
gentleman from Georgia says that they ear-
ned our Con.stitution with them and hn<r^ed
3t to their bosoms. But that is not ° all
The testimony of the Wirz trial shows that
at one tune the secretary of war himself be-
came shocked at the brutality of Winder
and, in a moment of indignation, relieved
him from command. For authority upon
this subjecL I refer to the testimony of Cash-
myer, a detective of Winder's, 'who was
a witness before the Wirz court. That officer
testified that when Mr. Seddons, Secretary of

War, wrote the order relieving Winder, the
fatter walked over with it to Jefferson Davis
who immediately wrote on the back of it'
This IS entirely unnecessary and uncalled
for. ' Winder appears to have retained the
confidence and approval of Davis to the end
and continued on duty until the merciful
providence of God struck him dead in hi3
tent in the presence of the witness who c^ave
this testimony.

Now, who will deny that in the forum of
law we do trace the responsibility for these
atrocities to the man whose name is before
us to be relieved of all his political disabili-
ties ? If not, let gentlemen sliow it. Wipe
out the charge, and I will be the first man
liere to vote to relieve him of his disabili-
ties.

Winder was allowed to go on. What did
he do ? I will only give results, not details.
1 will not harrow my own soul by the revi-
val of those horrible details. There is a
group of facts in military history well worth
knowing which will illustrate the point lam
discussing. The great Napoleon did some
fighting in his time, as did his great antago-
nist the Iron Duke. In 18t'9 was fought the
battle of Talavera, in 1811 the battle of Al-
ioiT\i" ^^^^^ ^^'^ battle of Salamanca, in
1813, Vittoria, in 1815 the battles of Li-^ny
Quartre Bras, Waterloo, Wavre. and 'k^^
Orleans, and in 1854 the battles of the Cri-
mea. The number of men in the English
army who fell in battle or who were ktlled
or died of wounds received in these battles
atnouuted in the aggregate to li>,928. But
this Major-General Winder,

WITHIN HIS HOKIBLEAREN'A OF DEATH,

from April, 1864, to April, 1SG5, tumbled
into the trenches of Andersonville the dead
bodies of 12,(344 prisoners— only two hun-
dred and eighty-four less than all the Encr.
hshmen who fell in or died of wounds re-
ceived m the great battles I have named.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I have simply given
these results. Percentages pale and fade
away in the presence of such horrible facts.

THE REBEL PRISONERS AT ELMIRA.

And the gentleman from Georgia denies
the charge of atrocities at Andersonville
and charges us with greater ones. I will
give his words as they are quoted in 'the
morning papers:

Wlien the gentleman from Maine sneaks
again let him add that the atiocities ot An

' froci'ue" of'Vr* '''-'''■ V° ^onmare wUh U e
Fo,t n«? ' °^ Eln"V^- ot Fort l5onglas, or of
ft \nd^ ''^''"'m','''"' "^l^'l t''e atrocTties, both
'^L ^*'''°?"^''"*''i"'^^ Elniira. tlie Confederate
ffbllT^aK/a^iSl^ '^^^'^^"^^ ^-- '^^^ -Son^

I stand in the presence of that statement
with an amazement that I am utterly incap-
able of expressing. I look upon the serene
and manly face of the gentleiaan who ut-

I

SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD.

7

tered it and I wonder what influence of the
supernal or nether gods could have touched
him with maduess lor the moment and led
him to make that dreadful statement. I
pause; and I ask the three Democrats on this
floor who happen to represent the districts
where are located the three places named, it
there be one of them who does not know that
this charge is fearfully and awfully untrue.
LA pause.] Their silence answers me.
Ihey are strangers to me, but I know they
will repel the charge with all the energy of
their manhood.

Mr PLATT. I hold in my hand a tele-
graphic communication from

patch. I was almost daily at Elmira dur-
ing the war, and I know that Confederate
prisoners

GENERAL B. F. TRACT,

late commandant of the military post of
lilmira, and I beg permission to read that
communication.

Mr. GARFIELD. 1 will yield for that
purpose.

Mr. PLATT. The communication is as
loUows:

Brooklyn, JS^ew York, January 12,a876.
To Hon. T. C. Platt,

House of Representatives, Washington,
_,, ^ District oj'.otumbia:

hum^ntt*;^^^'''^"''^y*'^^"'^«^"ial of cruelty, in-
nrisoners?.t°''-"'^^''^'-"*^,^'^ the treatment of
flielvwMM^. "'■^- There was no suttering
nrfson Fi . r 'V«^"^separable from a military
prison. J;ir.-;t, there was no dead-line Nn
prisoner was ever shot for attempt^iu """io es
beft'ouantT'''T(':; food was ampl.?ana o°the
nen.ie.M n t^-^ ^ housaads ot dollars were ex-
Uo 1 to f hM 'l*^ purchase of vegetables, in addi-
Washfn' tnn^"V^,'"''*''°''- ^'o congressman in
daii V ro°t,w ^"'"^ better bread than was given
oftKtmo .^ ,?ml"''''- , ^ '"^ '^"'^f ^^'^s good, and
tribiit^: tr. ^ '^^'*^ "■"''• quantity as that dis-
camn TlfhM thi'T soldiers guarding the

;^,i! ' ■ *- "^^"^ remains were placed in ne-it

head'bou- 1';>""^'' ''S«^^P^i-^^te gVaves vvi h u
re«^i^^en t, ^^''';-"°'">'^- ",'^'"°' companv. and
hn^-i!^i • ' "IV^ t'""^ of ileatli. ami all were
Fourth VLv'i' 1'^'''^? ^'^■"^tery at Elmil'i!
roui til, there was no better supplied militirv

U?1 itl Ihe nt- ^"^'^^1 ''^'^^'■^ t'"--" "'i« 'O-^-
piiai in the prison amp. Fifth all the n7-i«

w'oodeirharrael'"'?'''^'^'^ quartired^ln ^n e w
F°om the time I t'^^^'^' expressly for them,
bei ^lithA? ^m'^H command, in Septem-
were ke, I om s't';"!^,^ '" the vicinity of Elmira

coineaUH.?.^o%-^^*' J^"''l' '-^"'^ ^" thV t'xtreme
inbi M-,1.. ,^ ot winter the prisoners were all
were stl, in I'.n *" 'H''^ ^"oldiers guarding them
the vf-m V n H v^^- ^ ""''^^ criticised for this in
at the H.y,i , -^'^^'y Journal, I tliink it was,
f L ^ '"^' "^y '"1 officer of our Army. Sixth
poac1^1°'^'ancr' ;-" /^'" buildings ^.ertf.ll
Seventi, t? '^"^I't scrupulously clean

not owi' i it^ mortality which prevlviled \vas
Sals or ,?,^'^"''^'"°f '*^' '''^"^ of sufficient sup-
qu\\e d\S!'t^'^!,^yjy"^°"' -^ t° other aiid
B. F. TRACY.
Late Commandani Military Post Union
Mr. WALKER, of New York. Mr. Speaker,
as the member from the district in which El-
mira Depot is located, I take pleasure in in-
dorsing every word of Colonel Tracy's dis-

UAD THE SAME CARE AND TREATMENT

that the Union soldiers had, and I Bev«r
heard a complaint, [(xreat applause 1

air. GARFIELD. Mr. Speaker, the light-
ning is our witness. From all quarters of
the Republic denials are pouring in upon
us. Since I came to the House this morn-
ing, I have received the following dispatch
h-om an honored soldier of Ohio, which tells
Its own story:

Clevela:,d, Ohio, Jani<a?-y 12, 1876— 10.33a.m.
lo General Garfield,

House of Representatives:
1 5 n^i v«l;^?'""-^' °^ Secretary of \yar I furnished
io,OM rebel prisoners at Elmira with the same
^tSl-^ofee, tobacco, coal, wood, c othhfg,
banacks, medical attendance— as were siven

buried in Eimira ceineterv. All this can be
proved by Democrats of that city

General J. J. ELWELL.
Mr. HILL. By permission of the gentle-
man from Ohio, I desire to say that there
was no purpose on my part by any of my
remarks on yesterday to charge inhumanity
upon anybody at Elmira or anywhere else
1 only read the evidence from official sources
as 1 understood it.
Mr. BLAINE. A letter in a newspaper.
Mr. HILL. Let me get through, if you
please. Do not be uneasy. Keep quiet, and
I will not hurt you. [Laughter.]

Mr. MacDOUGALL. That is what you
told us in ISGl. ^

xMr HILL. I simply say that I was read-
ing the evidence of cruelties, in the
language of that letter, "inseparable from
prison hte." Then I read of the small-pox
epidemic at Elmira and its character. But
the remark which the gentleman is now com-
menting on was not connected with any
charge of inhumanity upon any person in
the world. I wish it distinctly understood
that I meant to charge inliumanity upon no-
body I was simply speaking of those hor-
rors that are inseparable from all prison life-
and I wound tip my statement by sayiuo^
that the official reports of Secretary Stanton"
on the 19th of July, 1S(J6. affer the war was
over, gave the relative mortality of prisoners
m l<ederal hands andpriiouers in Confeder-
ate hands, and that the mortality of Con-
federate prisoners in northern prisons was
12 per cent., while the mortality of Federal
prisoners in Confederate hands was less than '
9 per cent. Now I simply said that jud-in<r
by that test there was more atrocity (if you
please to call it so)— I meant, of course, mor-
tality—in the prisons of the North than in
those of the South. Let the gentleman take
the beuefit of that statement. I simply re-
ferred to the report of Secretary Stanton.

SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD.

Mr. BAKER, of Indiana. Does the gentle-
man mean to charge that the amount of mor-
tality in Norihern prisons was owing to any
cruelty or neglect of the Federal officers ?

Mr. HILL. I do not undertake to say to
what special cause the mortality on either
side was attributable. I say it was attribu-
table to those horrors inseparable from prison
life everywhere; and I simply entered my
protest against gentlemen seeking to stir
up those old past horrors on either side to
keep alive a strife that ought to be buried.
That is all. [Applause.]

Mr. GARFIELD. I am glad to hear what
the gentleman says, and to give it more force
by contrast I quote again the words he used
as reported in the newspapers this morning :

When the gentleman from Maine addresses
the House again lot him add to it thattlie atro-
cities of Andersoiiville do not begin to com-
pare with the atrocities of Elmirji, of Fort
Douglas, or of Fort Delaware ; and of all the
atrocities, both at Andersonville and Elmira,
the Confederate government stands acquitted
from all responsibility and blame.

I refer to it to show why I could not

Mr. HILL. I have no doubt the gentle-
man's motive is good ; but he will permit
me to remind him that what he has just read
was said by me after reading Secretary
Stanton's report; and of course, while I men-
tioned prison places at the North I did not
mean to charge inhumanity upon any one as
a class.

Mr. GARFIELD. But let me say another
word to close Ihis branch of the subject.
The only authority introduced to prove the
pretended atrocity at Elmira was an anouj'-
mous letter printed in the New York Woi-lcl.
The Roman soldiers who watched at the sep-
ulchre of the Saviour of mankind attempted
to disprove his resurrection by testifying to
what happened while they were asleep. Bad
as this testimony was, it was not anonymous ;
but, in this case the testimony was
that of a shadow — an initial — nobody.
Stat nomiiiis umlira. What the substance
was we know not. But even as to this

ANONYMOUS ANUTHOKITY,

it would have been well for, the cause of
justice if the gentleman had been kind enough
toquote it all. I read, I believe, from tbe very
book from which the gentleman quoted — The
Life of Davis — a sentence omitted by him, but
which I hope be will have printed in his
speech. It is this :

The facts demonstrate that in as healthy a
location as there is in New York, with every
remedial appliance in abundance, with no
epidemic, &c.

So that even this anonymous witness tes-
tifies that we planted our Elmira prison in as
healthy a place as there was in the State of
isew York. It ought to be added that the
small-pox broke out in that prison very soon
after the date of this letter; and the mortal- '

ity that followed was very much greater than
in any other prison in the North.

How we have kept alive our vindictiveness
will be seen by the fact that Congress, at its
last session or the session before last, passed
a law making the rebel cemetery ai Elmira
a part of the national-cemetery system ; and
to-day, this malignant Administration, this
ferocious Constitution-hating and South-hat-
ing Administration is paying an officer for
tenderly caring for the inclosure that holds
the remains of these outraged soldiers !

Mr. MacDOUGALL. And a Union soldier,
Captain Fitch, is building at his own ex-
pense a monument at Elmira to the Confede-
rate dead.

Mr, GARFIELD. I did not know that.
At another place, Finn's Point, in Virginia,
we have within the past few months em-
braced another cemetery of rebel soldiers
under the law and protection of our national
cemetery system. All this out of the depths
of our wrath and hatred for our Southern
brethren ! •

Mr. HILL. Will the gentleman allow me
to say a word on that point ?

Mr. GARFIELD. Certainly.

Mr. HILL. In response to what the gen-
tleman has said, I desire to state as a fact
what I personally know, that on the last oc-
casion of decorating soldiers' graves in the
South, our people, uniting with Northern
soldiers there, decorated in harmonious ac-
cord the graves of the fallen Federals and
the graves of the fallen Confederates. It is
because of this glorious feeling that is being
awakened in the country that I protest
against the revival of these horrors about
any prison.

Mr. GARFIELD. So do I. Who brought
it here? [Cries from the Democratic side
of the House, Blaine! Blaine!] We will
see as to that. 1 wish this same fraternal
feeling could come out of the graveyard and
display itself toward the thirty or forty
maimed Union soldiers who were on duty
around this Capitol, but who have been dis-
placed by an equal number of

SOLDIERS ON THE OTHEK SIDE.

[Applause.]

There was another point which the gentle-
man made which I am frank to say I am not
now able to answer.

Mr. REAGAN. Mr. Speaker, I wish to
call attention (with the permission of the gen-
tleman from Ohio) to the exact state of facts
in reference to the allegation just made by
him. This is not the first time tlie statement
has been made that there liave been thirty or
forty crippled Federal soldiers removed from
office under this House and th^-ir places filled
by Confederate soldiers. I was shown yes-
terday morn ng by the Doorkeeper of the
House (and the information is as accessible

SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD.

to the gentleman from Ohio and all others as
to myself) a roll showing there were eighteen
Federal soldiers appointed by the Doorkeep-
er of the House during the last Congress,
while twenty-four Federal soldiers have
been appointed by the Doorkeeper of the
present Congress; while at the same time
the aggregate number of appointments al-
lowed to the Doorkeeper of the House of the
last Congress was very much larger than
that allowed to the Doorkeeper of the present
Congress. Besides that, more than three-
fourths of those appointed by the present
Doorkeeper have taken what is popularly
denominated as the iron-clad oath.

Mr. GARFIELD. I should be glad to know
that the gentleman from Texas is correct.

Mr. SOUTHARD. The gentleman from
Texas has referred to a list which I have here
before me.

Mr. GARFIELD. My time is fast running
out, and I do not want it all taken up by
these explanations; but I will hear my col-
league.

The SPEAKER. Does the gentleman from
Ohio yield?

Mr. GARFIELD. I yield to my colleague.

Mr. RANDALL. Your time will be ex-
tended.

Mr. SOUTHARD. The statement which
I have before me, and to which the gentle-
man from Texas referred, is that of the one
hundred and rifty-three appointments made
by the Doorkeeper in the last House of Rep-
resentatives, there were eighteen Union sol-
diers; while, out of the eighty-five appoint-
ments allowed to the Doorkeeper of the
present House, twenty-six Union soldiers
have been appointed. [Applause.]

The SPEAKER. These demonstrations are
entirely out of order.

Mr. .TONES, of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker,
I rise to a point of order.

The SPEAKER. The gentleman will state
it.

Mr. JONES, of Kentucky. My point is
this: I do not know whether it is a point of
order or not, but I do request that the
Speaker will in the most determined man-
ner suppress any applause in this House. I
regret this debate, and especially these de-
tails; but this applause is unbecoming the
gravity o*' the question, ho'.rever unfortu-
nately it may have come up here; and I do
request that on this side of the House there
shall be no applause of any member who
speaks for tlie South, or any demonstration
against any one speaking on that side of the
House. I hope courtesy and decorum will
be observed. [Cries of "GoodI" "Good!"]
It is unbecoming the House, and unbecom-
ing the country, and I hope it will be
stopped.

The SPEAKER. The suggestion of the
gentleman from Kentucky is well made.
These things are not in order, and the Chair
earnestly requests the House will set an
example to those outside of the bar and in
the galleries by stopping all such demonstra-
tions. And the Chair takes occasion to say
to the galleries that if these things are con-
tinued it will be his duty to have them
cleared.

Mr. GARFIELD. I regret as much as any
one the discussion of this question. I did
not intend to refer to it at all. I hope what
my colleague has presented as a statistical
table will turn out to be correct. I shall be
glad if it does. I know he thinks it is cor-
rect. However, there has been put into my
hand a statement about a single office of the
House in which the names of the old and
new rolls are given. I speak of the post-
office of the House, in which it is claimed
that while nine Union soldiers were on the
rolls during the last year,

NINE CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS

have replaced them on the roll of this
year; and that of the thirteen employes
there, but two took the oath that they had
not borne arms against the Government.
If the statement be correct which I have
had put into my hands, it would seem to
throw some shadow of doubt on what we
have just heard. But let both statements
go in together.

This is the list handed to me:

POST-OFFICE OF THE HOUSE.

The old force.— Norman Crane, Vermont; A.
M. Legg, New York, two years in Union Army;
F. A. Warden, Massachusetts, four yeurs in
Lnion Army and permaneiitiy cUsaOied at
Winchester; J. H. Faine, Ohio, was in Union
Army;0. M. Tlionias, iowa;K. P. liisliop, xMicU-
iguu, lost an arm in the Union Army; K. S.
McMichael, Wisconsin, nearly lost his sight in
the Union Army; D. B. Bradley, Wisconsin,
three years in Union Army; J. H. Lytle, New
Yorlt; W. B. Sessions, New York; J. D. Silvern,
Pennsylvania; D. F. Bishop, Pennsylvania; W.
Tudge, District of ColumDia; Cripci Palmoni,
District of Columbia.

Tlie new force.— Ueorge W. Rock, Virginia,
in Confederate army; Henry Cook, V irginia, in
Confederate army; Kichard Allen, Virginia; .S.
W. Kennedy, Virginia, in Confederate aruiy;
A. W. C. Nowlin, Virginia, in Confederatearmy;
Edward C. Sloss, Virginia; W. H. liobinson
Virginia, in Conlederdte army; J. K. l^isher'
Virginia, in Confederate army; P. S. Goodsii'
"W. B. Lowery, Virginia, in Confederate arniyi
Josepli M. Taylor, Edwin Esce, New VorKi
Thomas Kirby, Connecticut, in Union Army.i

Mr. Speaker, I was about to refer to an-
other point made by the gentleman from
Georgia in his statement of the number of
prisoners taken by us and taken by them
and the relative number of deaths. I have
this morning received from the Surgeon
General references to all the pages of official
reports on that subject, but I have not been
able, in the hurried moments of the session
since I arrived here, to examine the figures.

10

SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD.

The gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Bukchard]
has made up a part of the statement which
I am now able to present. That statement
shows that during the war

WE TOOK 476,169 PRISONERS,

while on the other side they took 188,145
prisoners from us.

This is a statement to which the Surgeon
General referred me in a note received since
I took my seat in the House this mornino-
and is in a printed report on the treatment
of prisoners of war hy the rebel authorities,
third session Fortieth Congress, page 228,'
which gentlemen can examine at their leis-
ure.

It ought to be added in this connection
that the conscription laws of the Confederate
congress forced all able-bodied citizens be-
tween the ages of seventeen and filty into
the service, while our laws limited the con-
scription to the usual military ages. This
of course, put into their army a large num-
ber of immature boys and broken-down old
men, among whom the mortality would nat-
urally be greater than in an army made up
of men of the ordinary ages.

I tui n now to another point. The gentle-
man makes another answer concerning these
atrocities.

The SPEAKER. The gentleman's hour
has expired.

Mr. HILL. I hope the gentleman from
Ohio will be permitted to go on.

There being no objection, Mr. Garfield's
time was extended indefinitely.

Mr. GARFIELD. I am very grateful for
this courtesy and will not abuse it.

The gentleman from Georgia makes an-
other answer, that whatever was suffered bv
the prisoners for at least a considerable por-
tion of the time was in consequence of our

REFUSAL TO MAKE AN EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS

because we would not give them their fresh
men in oiir prisons, and take our shadows
and skeletons that came back from theirs.

This is a part, and an important part, of a
great history, which mu .t not be omitted in
this debate; and I will very brietiy refer toils
leading points. There was much trouble abjut
the exchange of prisoners between the two
belligerents; first, because for a long time
we did not acknowledge the Confederates as
belligerents. We hoped under the ninety
days theory of Mr. Seward to get throucrh
without their recognition, but that hope
failed. Our enemies were as gallant a peo-
ple as ever drew the sword, and the fulfill-
ment of that hope was delayed for months
and lor years. But finally an arrangement
was made under which it was possible to
make a cartel for the exchange of prisoners-
and on the 22d of July, 1862, a cartel was
agreed upon between the belligerents, which

provided that within ten days after a pris-
oner was taken he should be paroled and
sent home; and whenever it was announced
by either side that a certain number was re-
heved from the parole a corresponding num-
ber should be released from ihe other side
and m that way the exchange was effected'.
Ihere were two points of delivery of pris-
oners. One was at Vicksburg. Another
was at a point near Dutch Gap, in Virf^inla
Andthe exchange went on for some" time
until a series of events occurred which in-
terrupted it. To those events I desire to
call attention for a momenf. The first in or-
der of time was a proposition which was
read before the House yesterday, and which
I incorporate here in my remarks, not for
the sake of making any personal point, but
to preserve the continuity of the history.

hill's black FLAG RESOLUTION.

In October, 1862, a resolution was intro-
duced into the Confederate Senate bv Sen-
ator Hill, of Georgia —

Tliat every person pretending to be a sol-
dier or oftieer of the l/iiitcrt States who shall
be captured on the soil of the Con edemte
states after the first of January, 18°^ shaU bl
presumed to hav,i_entered the terrUory of
the Confederate States with intent to excite
insurrection and to abet murder, and that un!

trary before tlie military court before vvhlcl,
his trial shall De had he ihail suffer death

Thatwas the first step in the complication
in regard to the exchange of prisoners of
war. riiat resolution appears to have borne
early fruits.

On the22dday of December, 1862, Jeffer-
son Davis, the man for whom amnesty is now
being asked, issued a proclamation', a copy
of which I liold in my hand. I read two
paragraphs:

First. That all commissioned officers in thp

command of said Benjamin F. But?er be do!

dw'^'V'"^ entitled to be considered as sol

vnuuj'"'^''^!''^ ^" honorable warfare, but as

pb beis and criminals deserving de:ith- ami

that they, and each of them be, whenever

captured, reserved for execution. ''^"*^"®^*-'

Mr. HILL. A reason is stated for that.

Mr. GARFIELD. The reason is in the

preamble. I am not discussing the reasons

tor this extraordinary proclamation, but its

effects upon the exchange of prisoners.

Third. That all negro slaves captured In
arms be at once delivered over to the execu
tive authorities of the respective States to"
which they belong, to be dealt with according
to the laws of saitl States i-v iumg

Fourth. That the like orders be executed in
all eases with respect to all commissioned
officers of the United States when tV^und serv-
ing in company with said slaves in in^nrrec
tion against the authorities of the different
States of this Confederacy. "imieiit

Two great questions were thus raised: first
that a certain class of oflicers, merely be-
cause they served under General Butler
should be declared not entitled to the rights
of prisoners of war, but should be put to

SPEECH OP HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD.

11

death when taken. These men were serv-
ing, not Benjamin F. Butler, but the Union.
They did not choose him as their general.
They were assigned to him ; and by this
proclamation that assignment

COXSIGNED THEM TO DEATH

at the hands of their captors. But the
second question 'was still more important.
It was an order that all men who had
been slaves and had enlisted under the
flag of the Union should be denied all the
rights of soldiers, and when captured should
be dealt with as runaway slaves under the
laws of the States where they formerly be-
longed, and that commissioned officers who
commanded them were to be denied the
rights and privileges of prisoners of war.
The decision of the Union people every-
where was that, great as was the suflferincr
of our poor soldiers at Andersonville and
elsewhere, we would never make an ex-
change of prisoners until the manhood and
the rights of our colored soldiers were ac-
knowledged by the belligerent power. And
for long weary months we stood upon that
issue, and most of the suffering occurred
while we waited for that act of justice to be
done on the other side.

To enforce this proclamation of Mr. Davis
a law was passed on the 1st of May, 1863, by
the Confederate congress, reported, doubt-
less, from the judiciary committee by the
gentleman who spoke yesterday, and in that
law the principles of the proclamation I have
just read were embodied and expanded.
Section 4 of the law reads as follows:

Sec. 4. That every white person, being- a
comnussionea officer or acting as such, who-
uuniig the present war, sl)all command
negroes or mulattoes in arms against the Con
loUerate States, or who sliall arm, train orl
giinize, or prepare negroes or mulattoes for
military service against the Confederate
States or who shall voluntarilv aid negroes
or mulattoes in any military enterprise, at-
tack, or conliict in such service, sliall be
deemed as inciting servile insurrection, and
sliall, If captured, De put to death or be other-
wise punished, at the discretion of the court.
bEC. o. Every person, being a commissioned
Officer or acting as such in the service of the
enemy, who shall during the present war ex-
cite, attenipt to excite, or cause to be excited
a servile insurrection, or who shall incite or
cause to be incited a slave to rebel, shall if
captured, be put to death or be otherwise
punished, at the discretion of the court

Sec. 7. All negroes and mulattoes who shall
be engaged m war or be taken in arms against
the Couiederate States, or shall give aid or
comfort to the enemies of the Confederate
.'^*Jl®'i*'^'^l'' ""^'2" captured in the Confeder-
ate States, be delivered to the authorities of
the btate or States in which they shall be cau-
tured, to be dealt with according to the pres-
ent or future laws of such State or States
Approved May ], 1S63

Now, Mr. Speiker, I am hereto say that
this position taken by the head of the Con-
federacy, indorsed by his congress and car-
ried into execution by his officers, was the

great primal trouble in all this business of
the exchange of prisoners. There were
minor troubles, such as claims by both sides
that paroles had been violated.' I think
General Halleck reported that a whole divi-
sion of four brigades, Stevenson's division,
which had not been properly exchanged,'
fought us at Lookout Mountain; but that
may have been a mistake. It was one of
the points in controversy. But the central
question was that of the Government of the
United States having committed itself to the
doctrine that

THE NEGKO WAS A MAN AND NOT A CHATTEL

and that being a man he had a right to
help us in fighting for the Union, and be-
ing a soldier we would perish rather than
that he should not be treated as a soldier.

To show that I am not speaking at ran-
dom I will read from a report which I hold
in my hand, a report of the Secretary of
War en the difficulty of the exchange of pris-
oners. This paper is dated August 24, liiU4.
I think it is a misprint for 1863, from what
surrounds it; but no matter as to that. It
was in August General Meredith reported:
. To my demand "that all officers command-
ing negro troops, and negro troops themselves,
should be treated as other prisoners 'of war
and be exchanged as such," mr. Ould declined
acceding remarking that they (the rebels)
vvould "die in the last ditch" before giving up
the right to send slaves back to siliverv as
property recaptured. ^

*******
I am, general, very resioectfuUy, vour obedi-
ent servant, "

S. A. MEREDITH,

Brigadier- General and Commissioner for Ex-
change. ■'

Major-General E. A. Hitchcock, Comviissioner
J or Exchange 0/ Prisoners, Washington. £>. C.

Thus it appears that in the negotiation as
late as.^he month of August, 1863, the re-
fusal of the rebel authorities to treat the
negro as a man and a soldier, prevented the
exchange of prisoners.

One other point in that connection and I
will leave this subject. I have here a let-
ter, dated March 17, 1863, written by Robert
Ould and addressed to that man of "bad
eminence," General Winder, in which Mr.
Ould, speaking of his arrangement for the
exchange of prisoners, says:

The arrangements that I have made ivork
largely in our favor. We get rid of a set of
miserable wretches and receive some of the best
material lever saw.

Now in that single line, in a communica-
tion between two men, not par nobiie fratrum
but par titrpe diaholorum, is proof tliat the
object of this outrageous treatment at An-
dersonville was to make our men so that
their exchange would be valueless to us, and
it throws light upon the charge about our
treatment of prisoners held in the North.

12

SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I return from all this
to the jlirect discussion bearing immediately
upon Jetferson Davis. It seems to me iueou-
trovertible that tlie records I have adduced
lay at liis door tlie charge of being himself
tlie author, tlie conscious author, through
his own appointed instrument, of tlie terrible
work at Andersonviile, for which the Ameri-
can people still hold him unfit to be ad-
mitted amon^ the legislators of tliis nation.

Before 1 leave that subject let me say
another word or another point. I see around
me liere a lacge number of gentlemen who
did not hesitate to take the oath of allegi-
ance to the Government of the United States,
wlio did not hesitate to ask to be relieved
of their political disabilities, and I ask if any
one of tliem, in the years they have served
here with us, has been ever taunted with
the fact that he has been thus relieved of
disabilities at his own request ? Can any
one of iliem recall a 'discourteous remark
that has ever been made here in debate be-
cause he has asked and accepted the am-
nesty of the Government ? Do you want us
to say that the remaining seven hundred and
fifty need not ask what you did ? Do the
honorable gentlemen who are here to-day
want easier terms on which the others may
come in than the terms on which they them-
selves came back ?

Mr. HILL. I desire to ask a question for
information, fori want the facts, and my re-
collection differs from that of the gentle-
man from Ohio, [Mr. Garfield.] The act of
1872, granting a partial amnesty to quite a
large number, does not, as I understand it,
make any sucli requisition as is contained
in the amendment of the gentleman from
Md,ine, [Mr. Elaine.]

Mr. GARFlliLD. The gentlema>i.is right.

Mr. HILL. It was au unconditional am-
nesty like that contained in the bill of the
gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. Ran-
dall.] It required no oath or anything of
the sort.

Mr. GARFIELD. Certainly not.

Mr. H ILL. I am very sure that it was under
that act that I was relieved. And I never
applied for any amnesty at all, but I would
not have felt it

any loss of pride had I DONE SO.

Mr. GARFIELD. Certainly not. I remem-
ber very well that we relieved a large num-
ber of soldiers in one act. But we did not
relieve those who, at the time the rebellion
broke out, held offices and commissions un-
der the Government, which they had sworn
before God they would protect and defend,
and afterward went into the rebellion. Those
are the people that we have required to ask
for amnesty.

Mr. HILL. Allow me to call the attention
of the gentlenian to a correction of his state-

ment. The act of Congress of 1872 relieved
all persons, as I understand it, from disabil-
ities who had been members of any State
Legislature, or who had been an executive or
judicial officer of any State, and relieved all
in civil or military service, or who had even
been in the Congress of the United States, ex-
cepting the Thirty-fifth or Thirty-sixth Con-
gress.

Mr. GARFIELD. The Thirty-sixth and
Thirty-seventh Congresses.

Mr. HILL. Well, one or the other. It
relieved all those who were not in Congress
at the time of secession, all members ot Stale
Legislatures, all civil and military officers,
except the lew remaining, some seven hun-
dred and fifty. You granted them relief
witliout any condition whatever.

Mr. GARFIELD. The gentleman will ob-
serve that those to whom he refers did not,
at the time the war broke out, hold commis-
sions as United States officers.

Mr. HILL. Yes.

Mr. GARFIELD. We excepted from am-
nesty all those who held in their hands a
commission from the Federal Government,
and who had sworn to bj true to their com-
mission ; and we did this because they had
added to rebellion — I must use words —

THK CRIME OF PERJURY

in the eyes of the law.

Mr. TUCKER. Will the gentleman allow
me to interrupt him ?

Mr. GARFIELU. Certaiuly.

Mr. TUCKER. Do I understand the gen-
tleman from Oliio, speaking iiere to-day of
kindness to gentlemen on this side of the
House, tosay that any man who held a commis-
sion under the United States at the time the
war broke out, and who went into secession,
was guilty of perjury '!

Mr. GARFIELD. 1 will repeat precisely
the measured words I used. I said '"the
crime of perjury in tlie eyes of the law." In
view of the fact of tiaming war, 1 do not say
those men should be regarded as ordinary
perjurers ; I never said tliat. But what will
the gentleman call it ? By what other name
does the law know it? I did not make tiie
dictionary, nor did I make the law. The gen-
tleman certainly knows me well enougli to
know that lam incapable of making a refer-
ence to any personal matter in this discus-
sion. He muxt see that I am using the word
as it is used in the law.

Mr. TUCKER. Mr. Speaker

The SPEAKER pjo tempore, (Mr. Springer
in the chair.) Does the gentleman from Oliio
yield further to the gentleman from Virgin-
ia, [Mr. Tucker .'']

Mr. GARFiELD. Certainly.

Mr. TUCKER. I do not ask to interrupt
the gentleman that i may excuse myself, but
to excuse some of the noblest men that I

SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD,

13

have ever known, and of whom the gentle
man might be proud to claim to be a peer.

Mr. '^"^ARFIELD. There were some pas-
sages in the speech of yesterday which make
me less reluctant

TO SPEAK OP BREAKING OATHS.

He said :

We chai'ge all our wrongs to tliat "higher
law"' fanaticism wliieli nevex kept a pledge or
oheyecl a law. We sought to leave the associa-
tion of those who would not keep fidelity to cov-
enant. We sought to go hy ourselves ; hut, so
far from having lost our fidelity to the Consti-
tution, we hugged it to our hosoms and car-
ried it with us. * * * But you gentlemen
who persecuted us hy your infidelities until
you drove us out of tlie Union, you who then
claimed to be the only friends of the Union,
which you had before denounced as a "league
with hell and a covenant with deatli," you who
follow up the war when the soldiers who
fought it have made peace and gone to their
homes, to you we have no concessions to
make. Martyrs owe no apology to tyrants.

There is a certain sublimity of assumption
in this which challenges admiration. Wliy
the very men of whom we are talking,
who broke their oaths of office to the nation
— when we are speaking of relieving them we
are told that they went out because we broke
the Constitution and would not be bound by
oaths. Did we break the Constitution ? Did
we drive them out ? I invoke the testimony
of Alexander H. Stephens, now a member of
this House, who, standing up in the secession
convention of Georgia, declared that there
was no just ground for Georgia's going out ;
declared that the election of a President
according to the Constitution was no justifi-
able ground for secession, and declared that
if ttnder the circumstances the South should
go o\it she would herself be committing a
gigantic wrong and would call down upon
herself the thunders and horrors of civil war.

Thus spoke Alexander H. Stephens in
18G0. Over against anything that may be
said to the contrary I place his testimony
that we did not force the South out ; that
they went out against all the protests and
the prayers and the humiliation that a great
and proud nation could make without abso-
lute disgrace.

Mr. DAVIS. Will the gentleman from
Ohio yield to me a moment?

Mr." GARFIELD. Certainly,

Mr. DAVIS. The gentleman has used a
term that touches the honor of more toen
than one in this House and in the South. I
desire, th<5refore, to ask him this question:
Whether the war did not result from a dif-
ference of views between gentlemen of the
North and gentlemen of the South with re-
gard to what was the true construction of
the Constitution? That being so, I desire
to ask him further whether the oath of fidel-
ity to the Constitution was best observed by
those people of the section which he repre-
sents, those of his own party, who declared

that there was a law higher than the Consti-
tution and declined to obey that instrument,
or by those who observed faithfully their
constitutional* obligations, and who, when
raids were made upon them, merely defended
themselves, as they understand it,

FROM UNCONSTITUTIONAL AGGRESSION ?

I wish to say further for myself and for
thoie who are here with me that, the Con-
stitution having been amended — the "higher
law" party having incorporated in that in-
strument the abolition of slav- ry and cer-
tain other features which we have now sworn
to support along with the rest of the instru-
ment— if in the future we fail to observe
that oath before high Heaven, then we may
be declared perjured; then we may be de-
clared rebels; then we may be declared
traitors.

Mr. GARFIELD. If the gentleman has
understood me he cannot fail to see that I
have not used the word in any offensive
sense, but in its plain and ordinary accepta-
tion, as used in the law. We held that the
United States was a nation, bound together
by a bond of perpetual union; a union which
no State or any combination of State*, which
no man or any combination of men, had the
right, under the Constitution, to break.
The attempt of the .South to overthrow the
Union was crime against the Government-the
crime of rebellion. It can be described by no
other name. It is so known to the laws of na-
tions. It is so described in the decisions of
the Supreme Court.

The gentleman from North Carolina calls

THE WAR ON ONE SIDE A RAID.

I will never consent to call our war for the
Union "a raid," least of all a raid upon the
right? of any human being. I admit that there
wa-* a political theory of State rights — a theory
held, I have no doubt, by gentlemen like
the gentleman of Virginia [Mr. Tucker] who
spoke a moment ago — believed in as sin-
cerely as I believe the opposite — which led
them to think it was their duty to go when
their State went. I admit that that greatly
mitigates all that the law speaks of as a vio-
lation of an oath. But I will never admit
(for history gives the lie to the statement in
every line) that the men of the Union were
making a "raid" upon the rights of the
South.

Read the Republican platform of 1856 and
of 1860. What did we contend for in those
years? Simply that slavery should not be
extended into any Territory already free.
That was all. We forswore any right or
purpose on our part in time of peace to touch
slavery in any State. We only claimed that
in the Territories, the common heritage of
all the Union, slavery should never travel
another inch; and, thank God, it no loiiirer
pollutes our soil or disgraces our civilization.

14

SPEECH OP HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD.

Now that slavery,

THE GUILTY CAUSE OF THE REBELI^ON.

is no more, and that, so far as I know-
nobody wants it restored — I do not believe
these gentlemen from the South desire its

restoration

Mr. HILL. We would not have it.
Mr. GARFIELD. They would not have
it. the gentleman from Georgia says. Then
let us thank God that in the fierce flames of
war the institution of slavery has been con-
sumed; and out of its ashes let lis hope a
better .than the fabled Phcenix of old will
arise — a love of the Union high and deep,
"as broad and general as the casing air,"
enveloping us all, and that it shall be
counted no shame for any man who is not
btill under political disabilities to say with
uplifted hand, "I will be true to it and take
the proffered amnesty of the nation." But
let us not tender it to be spurned. If it is
worth having, it is worth asking for.

And now, Mr. Speaker, I close as I began.
Foward those men who gallantly fought us
Dn the field I cherish the kindest feeling. I
'eel a sincere reverence for the soldierly
qualities they displayed on many a well-
'ought battle-field. I hope the day will
;ome when their swords and 'ours will be
jrossed over many a doorway of our chil-
Iren, who will remember the glory of their
mcestors with pride. The high qualities
iisplayed in that conflict now belong to the
vhole nation. Let them be consecrated to
he Union and its future peace and glory.

sl)all hail that consecration as a pledge and
ymbol of our perpetuity.

But there was a class of men referred to
n tlie speech of the gentleman yesterday
or whom I have never yet gained the Chris-
ian grace necessary to say the same thing.
L'he gentleman said that amid the thunder
if battle, through its dun smoke, and
,bove its roar they heard a voice from this
ide saying, "Brothers, come." I do not

know whether he meant the same thing, bu*
I heard that voice behind us. I heard that
voice, and I recollect that I sent one of those
who uttered it through our lines — a voice
owned by Vallandigham. [Laughter.] Gen-
eral Scott said, in the early days of the war,
"When this war is over, it will require all
the physical and moral power of the Gov-
ernment

TO RESTRAIN THE KAGE AND FUBY OF THE NON-
COMBATANTS."

[Laughter.] It was that non-combatant
voice behind us that cried "halloo?" to
the other side; that always gave cheer
and encouragement to the enemy in our
hour of darkness. I have never forgot-
ten and Lave not yet forgiven those Dem-
ocrats of the North whose hearts were not
warmed by the grand inspirations of the
Union, but who stood back finding fault,
always crying disaster, rejoicing at our de-
feat, never glorying in our victory. If these
are the voices the gentleman heard, I am
sorry he is now united with those who ut-
tered them.

But to those most noble meu. Democrats and
Republicans, who together fought for the
Union, I commend all the lessons of charity
that the wisest and most beneficent men have
taught.

I join you all

IN EVERY ASPIRATION

that you may express to stay in this Union, to
heal its wounds, to increase its glory, and to
forget the evils and bitternessess of the past;
but do not, for the sake of the three hun-
dred thousand heroic men who, maimed
and bruised, drag out their weary lives,
many of them carrying in their hearts hor-
rible memories of what they suffered in
the prison-pen — do not ask us to vote to put
back into power that man who was the cause
of their suffering — that man still unaneled,
unshrived, uuforgiveu, undefended. [Great
applause.]

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