Calumnies of Liberated prisoners.
--It is melancholy to read the complaints made by the
Northern prisoners who have returned home of the inhospitable treatment they received in the
Sunny South.
In a land vertebral for its kindness to strangers they anticipated a very different reception.
Having always been welcomed with warm hearts and open arms to the best place at the
Southern land they are intensely astonished that, when they undertook to save their quondam entertainers all trouble by helping themselves to whatever they had, they have not fared as well as when they left them the privilege of inviting their guests.
Their complaints are various and uttered with a plaintive yelp, like log who has gone in quest of bones and encountered a brickbat.
Corcoran, for example, who is at present occupying a commodities call in
South Carolina, is distressed that received no spiritual consolation in
Richmond.
The prisoners in New Orleans are mostly outraged that the ladies are not permitted to visit them.
Whilst others who have gone North from
Richmond have filled the incredulous ear of the
Northern multitude with the most astounding tales of the barbarities practised upon them in this city.
It is needless to say that there is not a particle of truth on these stories; and that, except the necessary restriction upon their liberty, they have seen, in all respects, as comfortable as could be expected.
They have had better food to eat than was furnished them in their own army, and they have been lodged in spacious tobacco factories, which, during the summer months, are as cool and well ventilated buildings as can be had in the city of
Richmond, and which command a fine prospect of the beautiful country which they had come to savage and despoil.
When their situation is contrasted with the horrible treatment of the
Confederate prisoners in
Columbus, Ohio, and other Northern towns, the
Federal captives have no right to be obstreperous.
Think of such a man as
Dr. Hanson Thomas, of
Baltimore, confined in one of the damp and narrow casemates of
Fortress Monroe; of
Mrs. Greenhow, driven to the borders of insanity of brutal treatment in
Washington, and of hundreds of others, peaceable citizens, not soldier taken in battle, who have been visited with similar and even worse outrages, bashed, beaten, knocked down, and in some cases murdered, and the most embittered enemy, if he possessed a particle of candor, must concede that the
Federal prisoners taken in battle have every reason to be grateful for the humanity they have received from the Confederate Government.
Instead of this, however, they no sooner set foot again on their own soil than they invent the most scandalous falsehoods about their treatment in the
South.
They admit, we believe, that they had enough to eat and drink, but they consider it barbarous that they were denied delicacies and luxuries which few of our own people can obtain for themselves.
They seem to entertain no doubt of the fact that their merits entitle them to the same kind of reception that was tendered the New York Seventh Regiment when it visited this city.--They consider it an example of flagrant injustice and partiality that we should not bestow upon the Zouaves of
Bull Run the same consideration which we tendered to the military shop-keepers of New York in a time of profound peace.
When a robber wakes you at night by his efforts to break into your dwelling, shoots various members of your family, and makes the most horrible threats against the safety and even purity of your dwelling, it is a most flagrant piece of barbarity to make him a prisoner, and put him in jail, instead of offering him the honors of your mansion, giving him the best room, making haste to furnish him with spiritual consolation, and not forgetting those spirituous appliances which gentlemen of his profession never fail to appreciate.
In like manner, those heroes of the handcuff and halter, who came all the way from New York and
New England with the avowed purpose of destroying our lives, robbing us of our property, and perpetrating crimes worse than death upon helpless women, ought to be lodged at the
Spotswood House, or Exchange, instead of tobacco factories, be fed upon venison and oysters and champagne, visited by the ladies, have the benefit of clergy, and be caressed, petted, soothed, and solaced in every conceivable manner for the melancholy disappointment on the 21st of July, and various other occasions, of their cherished plans for the extermination of the
Southern race, the spoliation of Southern property, and the defilement of every Southern hearthstone.
We are in favor of humanity to prisoners, even under the aggravating circumstances of provocation to their annihilation which the infamous Lincoln Government is furnishing every day. But beyond the strict requirements of civilized warfare we should not be inclined to travel very far with the most uncivilized of enemies.
They should not be permitted any of the luxuries which they claim except those of a spiritual sort, which, it must be confessed, they stand more in need of than any others.
In charity to their souls, which are in greater peril than their bodies, we would let them have as many clergymen as they desire.
It would, moreover, be an excellent school of practice for those of our young divines who intend to become missionaries among the Camanche, Pawnees, and Barbarians.
A clergyman who could reclaim a New York Zouave might have no difficulty in evangelizing a whole continent of cannibals, and would soon eclipse the fame of
St. Francis Xavier.
