SPEECHES IN THE SENATE, ON A JOINT RESOLUTION ADVISING RETALIATION,
JANUARY 24 AND 29, 1865.
January 18th, Mr. Howard, of Michigan, from the Committee on
Military Affairs, reported the following joint resolution.
“JOINT RESOLUTION, advising Retaliation for the Cruel
Treatment of Prisoners by the Insurgents.
“_Whereas_ it has come to the knowledge of Congress
that great numbers of our soldiers, who have fallen as
prisoners of war into the hands of the insurgents, have
been subjected to treatment unexampled for cruelty in the
history of civilized war, and finding its parallels only
in the conduct of savage tribes,--a treatment resulting
in the death of multitudes by the slow, but designed,
process of starvation, and by mortal diseases occasioned
by insufficient and unhealthy food, by wanton exposure of
their persons to the inclemency of the weather, and by
deliberate assassination of innocent and unoffending men,
and the murder in cold blood of prisoners after surrender;
and whereas a continuance of these barbarities, in contempt
of the laws of war, and in disregard of the remonstrances
of the national authorities, has presented to us the
alternative of suffering our brave soldiers thus to be
destroyed, or to apply the principle of retaliation for
their protection; Therefore,
“_Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled_, That
in the judgment of Congress it has become justifiable and
necessary that the President should, in order to prevent
the continuance and recurrence of such barbarities, and
to insure the observance by the insurgents of the laws of
civilized war, resort at once to measures of retaliation;
that in our opinion such retaliation ought to be inflicted
upon the insurgent officers now in our hands, or hereafter
to fall into our hands, as prisoners; that such officers
ought to be subjected to like treatment practised towards
our officers or soldiers in the hands of the insurgents,
in respect to quantity and quality of food, clothing,
fuel, medicine, medical attendance, personal exposure,
or other mode of dealing with them; that, with a view
to the same ends, the insurgent prisoners in our hands
ought to be placed under the control and in the keeping
of officers and men who have themselves been prisoners
in the hands of the insurgents, and have thus acquired a
knowledge of their mode of treating Union prisoners; that
explicit instructions ought to be given to the forces
having the charge of such insurgent prisoners, requiring
them to carry out strictly and promptly the principles of
this resolution in every case, until the President, having
received satisfactory information of the abandonment by the
insurgents of such barbarous practices, shall revoke or
modify said instructions. Congress do not, however, intend
by this resolution to limit or restrict the power of the
President to the modes or principles of retaliation herein
mentioned, but only to advise a resort to them as demanded
by the occasion.”
January 23d, Mr. Wade, of Ohio, moved to proceed with its
consideration, when the following passage occurred.