Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 29.djvu/143

 Report, of History Committee, of (1 rnd ('<nnp C. V. 127

slightest pretexts; that friends at the North were, in many instances, refused the privilege of clothing- their nakedness or feeding them when they were starving; and that these outrages were often perpe- trated not only with the knowledge, but by the orders of E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War of the United States.

And (7) That the sufferings of prisoners on both sides were caused by the failure to carry out the terms of the Cartel for exchange, and for this failure the Federal authorities were alone responsible.

These propositions are stated substantially in the language em- ployed by Dr. Jones, and although twenty-five years have since elapsed, they have never been controverted in any essential particu- lar, as far as we have heard or known. Our people owe Dr. Jones a debt of gratitude for this able and effective vindication of their course in this important matter, which they can never repay.

As to the treatment of Mr. Davis whilst a prisoner:

Captain Charles M. Blackford, of Lynchburg, Va., in an article read before the Virginia Bar Association at its meeting at Old Point, in 1900 (the facts of which article were taken entirely from the official records of the Federal Government), showed in a masterly manner that this treatment was the refinement of cruelty and cowardice on the part of the Federal authorities, and such as should bring the blush of shame to the cheek of every American citizen who was in sympathy with, or a participant in, those acts. Our people owe Captain Blackford a debt of gratitude also for this article. It can be found in the printed reports of the Virginia Bar Association for 1900. Ten thousand copies of it were ordered by the Association to be printed for distribution. (See ante, pp. 45-81.)

As we said in our last report, it will doubtless be asked by some, who have no just conception of the motives which actuate us in mak- ing these reports, why we gather up and exhibit to the world these records of a bitter strife now ended more than a third of a century ? Does it not, they ask, only do harm by keeping alive the smoulder- ing embers of that conflict ? We reply to all these enquries, that such is not our intention or desire. ' But the four years of that war made a history of the people of the North and of the people of the South, much of which has been written only by historians of the North. In this history, all the blame concerning the war has been laid on the peo- ple of the South, and the attempt made to ' ' consign them to infamy. ' ' There were two sides to the issues involved in that war, and the his- torians of the North, with the superior means at their command,