Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 2.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

“ [310] and order the arrest of a citizen of Ohio. I can touch the bell again, and order the arrest of a citizen of New York. Can the Queen of England, in her dominions, do as much?” Seward makes all law subservient to the exigencies of war, and the constitution and laws, State and Federal, are disregarded. That article of the constitution which declares that “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law” is of none effect. Those who took solemn oaths to obey the constitution and laws do not scruple to violate their oaths, and perjure themselves. This Government, these apostles of liberty, these tenderhearted lovers of the nigger, who shudder at the bare idea of the African's fancied wrongs, do not hesitate to cast into dungeons, in open day, without accusation or form of trial, any one of their white fellow countrymen or countrywomen whom they may suspect of want of fealty to their arbitrary domination. As a proof of it, the Old Capitol and Carroll Prison, near by, Fort Warren, Fortress Monroe, Fort McHenry and others are used for confining, without trial or charges, hundreds of excellent Northern citizens. My thoughts wandered, too, to my last visit to Washington, with arms in my hands, under General Early. Certainly the vicissitudes of war are passing strange! At 8 o'clock we were summoned down stairs to the mess-room, where we breakfasted on a slice of baker's bread, one and a half inches thick, and a cup of weak tea. At 10 o'clock I went to “Surgeon's call,” and got some liniment for my leg. The long exposure in the cold on the wharf yesterday did not benefit my wound. At 2 o'clock we went to dinner, and found in each plate a small piece of beef, with a smaller piece of pork, and a slice of bread. We had no supper. Two meals per day are all we are allowed. The narrow hall in front of our room is paced night and day by a sentinel, and the door kept locked. The sentinel will allow only one prisoner to attend nature's calls at a time, and on one's leaving the room, shouts to the next sentinel, “All is right, no. 9.” Guards are in every hall, and at every stairway, and so much noise is made posting and relieving guards every two hours, calls of sentinels and clanking of arms, that sleep is of short duration and very unsatisfactory.