Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 1.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[226]

Mr. Cook. Thousands of them say it--thousands of them; men of as high character as any in this House.

Mr. Blaine. I take issue upon that. There is not one who can substantiate it — not one. As for measures of retaliation, although goaded by this terrific treatment of our friends imprisoned by Mr. Davis, the Congress of the United States specifically refused to pass a resolution of retaliation, as contrary to modern civilization and the first precepts of Christianity. And there was no retaliation attempted or justified. It was refused; and Mr. Davis knew it was refused just as well as I knew it or any other man, because what took place in Washington or what took place in Richmond was known on either side of the line within a day or two thereafter.

Now we propose to meet this issue — and if we do not show by witnesses, of the most unimpeachable character, that Confederate prisoners were “cruelly treated” --that they were “deprived of the same rations that the Union soldiers had — the same food and the same clothing” --if we do not show that the Federal authorities were themselves guilty of the crimes they charged against us, then we are willing to stand before the bar of history convicted of inability to judge of the weight of evidence.

And here again our work of compilation is rendered difficult only by the mass of material at hand. We have enough to make several large volumes — we can only cull here and there a statement.

Mr. Henry Clay Dean, of Iowa, who says in his introduction, “I am a Democrat; a devoted friend of the Constitution of the United States; a sincere lover of the Government and the Union of the States” --published in 1868 a book of 512 pages, entitled Crimes of the civil war, which we respectfully commend to the perusal of those who believe that the Federal Government conducted the war on the principles of “modern civilization and the precepts of Christianity.”

We will extract only one chapter (pp. 120-141), and will simply preface it with the remark, that though some of the language used is severer than our taste would approve, the narrative bears the impress of truth on its face, and can be abundantly substantiated by other testimony: