Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 37.djvu/251

Rh During the session, 1875-6, of the Congress of the United States, a bill was introduced to grant universal amnesty to all persons engaged on the Southern side in the late war between those States. Mr. Blaine, now the Senator from the State of Maine, urged upon the House that the bill should by name exclude the Honorable Jefferson Davis, President of the late Southern Confederacy, from the intended beneficial relief of the proposed legislation, for the reason that Mr. Davis had conducted the war in a manner not permitted by the rules of civilized nations, especially in the treatment of prisoners. Mr. Blaine's speech was very violent, and intended to further increase any unfriendly feeling which may yet exist against Mr. Davis, and, as there was no cause for personal animosity between them, it was thought, and regretted, by many people of both political parties in America that Mr. Blaine's purpose was simply to promote partisan objects. The letter of Chief Justice Shea was published in the New York Tribune, the leading organ of the Republican party in America, and is so generally accepted as an authentic and full refutation of those charges, reiterated at this late day by Mr. Blaine, that we think it advisable to publish it in a form more durable than that afforded by the pages of a daily newspaper, and likewise bring it within reach of all those who are interested in the truth of an important episode in the late American struggle; and about which there has been so much