“Calling,” says Mr. Colfax, “upon the President one morning in the
winter of 1863, I found him looking more than usually pale and
careworn, and inquired the reason. He replied, with the bad news he
had received at a late hour the previous night, which had not yet been
communicated to the press,--he had not closed his eyes or breakfasted;
and, with an expression I shall never forget, he exclaimed, ‘How
willingly would I exchange places to-day with the soldier who sleeps on
the ground in the Army of the Potomac.’”
And yet, in the face of such evidence, showing how the great sympathy
and sorrow of the late President took hold upon the very roots and
springs of his nature, there are not found wanting assertions that he
showed a criminal indifference to the sufferings of our prisoners at
Libby, Andersonville, and other places; and, in proof of this, it is
stated that there is no record of his ever alluding to the subject in
any of his public addresses or messages. The questions involved in the
suspension of the exchange of prisoners are difficult of decision.
Whoever was the cause of this, certainly has a fearful responsibility.
That it was the President’s fault, I do not believe. When the reports,
in an authentic form, first reached Washington of the sufferings of the
Union prisoners, I know he was greatly excited and overcome by them.
He was told that justice demanded a stern retaliation. He said to his
friend Mr. Odell, with the deepest emotion: “_I can never, never starve
men like that!_” “_Whatever others may say or do, I never can, and
I never will, be accessory to such treatment of human beings!_” And
although he spoke with the deepest feeling at the Baltimore Fair of
the Fort Pillow massacre, and pledged retaliation, yet that pledge was
never carried into execution. It was simply impossible for Mr. Lincoln
to be cruel or vindictive, no matter what the occasion. In the serene
light of history, when party strife and bitterness shall have passed
away, it will be seen that, if he erred at all, it was always on the
side of mercy and magnanimity.