The rebel policy and system towards the Federal prisoners, along the
entire line, without exception, from Virginia to Texas, was one of
stupendous atrocity. It was one of the most inhuman and monstrous that
hate and tyranny ever invented. It was no less derogatory to human
character than defiant to the principles of Christianity; but Christianity
was unknown there. The gods of worship were the deities of the dark ages,
and the fancied garlands of flowers that decorated their statues were
nothing more than wreaths of cyprus leaves. This stockade was the epitome
and concentration of all earthly misery, to which the Bastile and the
Inquisition offer but feeble comparisons, as prototypes, as models, as
ideas, for the destruction of human life.
In this we recognize the perversion of the natural sentiments after two
centuries of crime, the defiance of all honorable law, "the barbarism of
slavery."
What can we, in extenuation, ascribe to recklessness, what to ignorance?
"There is," says the eloquent Rousseau, "a brutal and ferocious ignorance,
which springs from a bad heart and a false spirit. A criminal ignorance,
which extends itself even to the duties of humanity; which multiplies
vices, which degrades reason, debases the soul, and renders man like the
beasts."
These men destroyed the strength, the lives of thousands, by stealthy
means, and excused their consciences by the reflections of perverted
nature: as Timour said to his victims, "It is you who assassinate your own
souls!"