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WHEN THE BOYS COME HOME.
THERE'S a happy time coming
When the boys come home, There's
a glorious day coming
When the boys come home. We will
end the dreadful story Of this treason dark and gory In a sun-burst of glory
When the boys come home.
The day will seem brighter
When the boys come home ; For our
hearts will be lighter
When the boys come home.
Wives and sweet-hearts will press
them
In their arms, and caress them,
And pray God to bless them, When the boys come home.
The thinned ranks will be
proudest
When the boys come home,
And their cheer will ring the
loudest
When the boys come home. The full
ranks will be shattered,
And the bright arms will be
battered, And the battle-standards tattered,
When the boys come home.
Their bayonets may be rusty
When the boys come home, And
their uniforms dusty
When the boys come home; But all
shall see the traces Of battle's royal graces
In the brown and bearded faces
When the boys come home.
Our love shall go to meet them
When the boys come home,
To bless them and to greet them
When the boys come home. And the
fame of their endeavor Time and change shall not dissever From the nation's
heart forever
When the boys come home.
JOHN HAY.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON.
FURTHER PROOFS OF REBEL
INHUMANITY.
EVIDENCES of the inhuman
treatment of our prisoners by the Confederate authorities at
Richmond continue
to multiply. We give on the
preceding page two illustrations which afford
indubitable proof on this point. These illustrations are made from photographs
taken in the United States General
Hospital, Division No.1, Annapolis, Maryland,
under charge of Dr. Z. VANDERKIEFT. They represent two of the unfortunate
prisoners as they appeared upon their return from the Richmond prisons. Dr.
ELLERSLIE WALLACE, in sending the photographs, writes as follows :
These two pictures are what may
be called good specimens of the bad cases which are brought to the hospital from
the prisons and Belle Isle. They are from the worst of the cases, and these
worst cases form a numerous body. Both are dead.
Out of one hundred bad cases
brought in by boat on May 2 thirty have since died. Dr. VANDERKIEFT said they "
died from the effects of neglect and cruel treatment a, the hands of the enemy."
Dr. V. is an honorable, upright, and warm-hearted gentleman. The question is
asked, "Is the condition of the originals of these pictures entirely due to
starvation, or is there not some disease which has reduced them?" I answer this
by giving the statements of two of the men, which are, with only a little
variation of time and place, the statements of very many —of all, in fact, whom
I questioned. The various ones whom I did question were in different parts of
the hospital, had been brought in at different times, and could have had no
collusion with each other in answering my questions.
I take from my note-book first
the statement of Corporal W. M. SMITH, aged 22 years, Company D, Eighth Regiment
Kentucky Infantry:
"I was captured in September,
1863 ; was on Belle Isle six days and nights without shelter. They took away my
blanket and gum-cloth. It rained two or three days. I lay at night in the cold
dew and frost. While in prison, after leaving Belle Isle, in December, I got
small-pox. I wore the same summer clothes in which I was captured; I lay on the
floor; I never had any thing to sleep on or any cover. After I got well of the
small-pox I had to wash my clothes, for I had worn them all the time. I came in
to this hospital in the same clothes. Diarrhea came on in February."
This poor fellow was so shriveled
that his face looked like that of an ape. It was seamed and wrinkled and in
folds. I bad his picture taken ; he asked me for one; I promised it to him, and
inquired what he wanted it for. He trembled, choked with emotion, calmed
himself, again quivered, and, as the, tears gushed from his eyes, said, " To
send it home to my mother." I rejoiced when I found that the picture was a
failure, for a sight of that face in a picture, I really believe, might have
killed his mother, or turned her brain.
Another statement, that of
Private JACKSON BROSHERS, aged 20, Company D, Sixty-fifth Regiment Indiana
Mounted Infantry, is as follows:
" I was captured December 16,
1863; was two months on Belle Isle; had a piece of a tent over me, but it was
full of holes, and the water came through. A good many had no shelter at all; I
don't know how many. They took from me my hat and cap, and gave me an old jeans
rag hat. They took my overcoat, two blankets, and gum blanket. I had meat but
three times on Belle Isle. I think it was mule meat, for I never saw such
looking meat, and never tasted any of the same queer taste. I never had enough
to eat while I was on Belle Isle; my ration. was not near enough to satisfy my
hunger. I got thinner and weaker every day, until in two months my stomach gave
out ; and then the weakness came on, oh, so bad ! Well, I had to eat my ration
or starve; so I chewed and nibbled it off and on as I could. Then in the last
month of my imprisonment diarrhea came on. I came into this hospital on March
24, 1864. I am getting stronger and heavier every day. My weight was about 185
pounds. My height is 6 feet 1 inch."
This man (BROSHERS), who thus
weighed originally 185 pounds, I carried down stairs in my arms and weighed. He
was 3 1/4 months in the rebels' hands, and had never been sick in his life. He
weighed on May 10,1864, 108 1/2 pounds, and he had then been eight weeks in the
enjoyment of abundant nutriment, with stimulation and every excellent care in
the United States hospital. What must he have weighed when he first came from
prison?
I saw one young man who had ben a
prisoner in the hands of the rebels for (I think) seven months. He had been
released about a month before I saw him. Upon his entrance into the hospital the
nurse and the surgeon both
assured me that his forearm was
so thin that it was transparent between the bones when held up to the sunlight.
Certain it is that I have ever seen a more emaciated human form, whether alive
or dead, and yet he said that he was gaining flesh and strength every day. What
must he have been one month before I saw him? For at this time he could not
change his position in bed without assistance. His stomach was in such condition
from starvation, not from disease, that when he was first admitted he was fed on
milk, a teaspoonful every fifteen or twenty minutes. It was all that he could
bear without vomiting. The kind and earnest efforts put forth day and night in
his behalf failed to do more than support him for a time. He died shortly after
I left Annapolis—died of inanition.
The daily ration of these men in
the prisons and on
Belle Isle was, first, a piece of corn bread made of unbolted
corn meal, dark and heavy. Its size is five inches long, four inches wide, and
one inch and a half thick. I have seen these rations brought here as specimens.
Second, as a further ration, they generally have two ounces of meat three times
a week. Sometimes not nearly as often. A very few had two ounces of meat once
every day. When sick with diarrhea they have the same rations, with the addition
of bean soup, coarse and dark, ill-tasted and repulsive.
The process of these men's
depletion is perfectly plain. Under the combined effects of bad and deficient
food their "stomach gave out;" then came indigestion, loss of appetite, nausea,
weakness ; then diarrhea, and often congestion of the lungs of atonic character,
the result of impoverished blood and deficient powers of circulation. So they
suffer, and hence they die, or are returned to the care of those for whom, for
whose country, for whose honor, as for themselves and their own, they have been
thus sorely afflicted.
HARPER'S WEEKLY.
SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1864.
TO
CORRESPONDENTS.
WE have received the following
official decision from the Post-office Department at
Washington:
"In reply to your letter of
yesterday, I have to state that the 24th sec. of the Postal Law of 1863
authorizing Book Manuscripts to be sent at printed rates of postage can not be
so construed as to include articles for Newspapers and Magazines; but must be
confined to Book Manuscripts alone. I am, etc., ST. JOHN B. L. SKINNER,
"Acting 1st Asst.
Postmaster-General."
Section 26 of the Law prescribes
" that if any matter on which by law postage is required to be prepaid at the
mailing office shall reach its destination without such prepayment, double the
prepaid rates shall be charged and collected on delivery."
The Publishers of HARPER'S
MAGAZINE and HARPER'S WEEKLY must therefore give notice to Correspondents that
all communications sent to them by mail must be prepaid at the rates of letter
postage—i. e., three cents for every half ounce; and that communications upon
which extra postage is charged will not be taken from the Post-office. —Also,
that when the return of MSS. by mail is desired, the full amount for postage
should be inclosed. Where this is not done, the amount sent will be affixed ;
but in that case the writers will be charged at the Post-office double rates—i.
e., six cents per half ounce.
They suggest that, where
possible, all MSS. weighing more than four ounces should be sent by express
rather than by mail.
THE
CLEVELAND CONVENTION.
THE action of the Cleveland
Convention gratified every Copperhead and rebel in the country and every foreign
enemy. Its ostensible motive was dissatisfaction with the Administration, but
its chief inspiration was the desire of personal revenge. It was the work partly
of angry and intriguing, partly of impracticable men. That some of the chief
actors in its proceedings have especial personal reasons of dissatisfaction with
the Administration is well known ; and that Messrs. PARKER PILLSBURY and STEPHEN
S. FOSTER represent in their opinions any great multitude of the people, or that
they are by temperament or training or popular sympathy fitted to be leaders in
such a crisis as this, nobody familiar with their careers, sincere as each of
them doubtless is, can possibly believe. The only name of practical importance
connected with the Convention was that of LUCIUS ROBINSON, the Controller of the
State of New York, and one of its most honored and honorable citizens, and his
letter was read in silence, his suggestions disregarded, and the work the
Convention assembled to do was done. It came to nominate
General FREMONT, and it
nominated him. His friends announced in advance that
Mr. LINCOLN should have no
chance in the Convention, and, making a puerile and base insinuation, declared
that if he sent any of his minions to interrupt the proceedings the consequences
should be upon their own heads. Refusing to verify credentials the assembly
resolved itself into a mass meeting, and assuming to speak for the American
people, made its nominations, baptized itself the Radical Democracy, and
adjourned.
It is indisputable that any
number of citizens have a perfect right to meet and express their opinions, and
nominate candidates for any office. But it is no less indisputable that at a
moment of extreme national peril the practical union of all faithful citizens is
a high moral necessity, and that calmness, forbearance, and patience are
imperative patriotic duties. When, therefore, a practicable and usual method of
ascertaining the general popular wish is opened—when all voters who wish the
unconditional maintenance of the Government by every efficient means, including
the overthrow of Slavery, if that shall be deemed essential, are invited to send
representatives of their views to a Convention, then every citizen who wishes to
maintain that unity, and who knows that his private preference must, by the
highest necessity, yield to the general conviction, will abide by the action of
that Convention. If he is of opinion that the policy of the Government is weak
or slow he will do what he can to impress the public mind with his views. But,
failing to succeed, he will not do all that
he can to change that policy for
one which, by giving the Presidency to the friends of rebels, substitutes
treachery for weakness, and which, instead of slowly defending the right makes
haste to yield to the wrong.
The Cleveland Convention was
called by men who despaired of controlling the Union Convention at Baltimore.
When they saw that the overpowering tendency of popular preference was for Mr.
LINCOLN, they denounced the Baltimore Convention as packed, and called another
to meet a week previously and nominate another candidate, with the intention of
saying that the nomination at Baltimore, after a Union candidate was in the
field, was a willful schism and distraction of the Union party. Was this a loyal
and honorable action, or was it an indication that personal passion was stronger
than patriotism? Were the gentlemen who met at Cleveland really the
representatives of the great mass of the Union men of the country ? Was the
response to the call before the meeting general, unanimous, enthusiastic ? Is
the response to its action the hearty amen of the nation? The call was welcomed
by three classes : some, but by no means all, of the extreme abolitionists ; by
the few who are morbidly angry with the Administration ; and by the friends of
the rebels, who hope to divide the Union vote and thereby secure the success of
the Copperhead candidate. Thus the World, the Herald, and Mr. WENDELL PHILLIPS
united in approving the call. Mr. PHILLIPS'S letter was read with enthusiasm to
the Convention, while Mr. ROBINSON'S was heard in silence. Now there is no
question that the united Union vote would triumphantly prevail in November.
There may be a question whether it can be divided and yet the victory be
secured. Mr. PHILLIPS and his friends take this chance ; and if
McCLELLAN should
be elected he will owe the heartiest thanks to Mr. PHILLIPS and the Cleveland
Convention.
If it be asked why should not the
friends of Mr. LINCOLN give way to those of General FREMONT, the reply is one of
fact ; namely, that every sign shows Mr. LINCOLN to be, upon the whole, the
candidate most acceptable to the great mass of the Union party. If this were not
so, if this were not known to be the truth, why should the Copperhead journals
so lustily cheer Mr. PHILLIPS and his Cleveland friends ? It is because they
hope and ardently pray that these gentlemen may do what Mr. BIRNEY'S friends did
in 1844. They elected Mr.
POLK by drawing off just enough votes in one State
from Mr. CLAY. Can the better part of the Cleveland gentlemen really wish to
draw off enough votes from Mr. LINCOLN to elect the Chicago candidate? Four
years ago, when Mr. LINCOLN was nominated, Mr. PHILLIPS denounced him as " the
slavehound of Illinois," because he thought that, in some way, he acquiesced in
the Fugitive Slave Law. By what name does Mr. PHILLIPS expect to be known if he
helps to put this Government into the power of Copperheads and rebellious
slaveholders ?
The Presidential question, like
every other question in politics, is one of expediency, not of abstract,
absolute right. In the conduct of human affairs we must do what we can, upon a
fair estimate of the facts. And will any sagacious, unbiased man deliberately
say that he thinks it more practicable to elect General FREMONT than Mr. LINCOLN
?
A BAD MEANS TO A GOOD END.
THE Secretary of State has
written a letter explaining his action in the ARGUELLES case. He says that our
laws make the slave-trade piracy, and in our treaty with Great Britain we pledge
ourselves to urge upon all Powers the duty of putting a stop to the traffic.
There is no treaty of extradition between Spain and the United States, and the
surrender of ARGUELLES was made, he says, in pursuance of the law of nations.
There is, indeed, he adds, no obligation to return a criminal without a treaty,
but a nation is never bound to furnish asylum to criminals against the human
race ; and if the comity of return without treaty might ever be properly
practiced, he thinks it was in such a case as that of ARGUELLES.
Now that ARGUELLES was a criminal
of the worst kind no one who has read the facts of the case as stated will deny;
and we shall all admit that it was very desirable that, the accusation being
true, he should be sent home to Cuba to be tried and punished. If there ever
were a case in which a man might be summarily seized and secured without form of
law, this, if correctly stated, was the case. But the Secretary has only to ask
himself whether he would have treated in the same way a pirate who was accused
of burning a Spanish ship at sea, and who had escaped to this country, to
perceive that the act is not to be allowed. His excuse shows, what was not
doubted, the purity of his motive ; and it proves conclusively that there ought
to be an extradition treaty with Spain ; but it does not prove that any officer
of the Government is authorized arbitrarily to imprison and deport from the
country a person who may or may not be the person who may or who may not have
committed a crime with which he is charged against the laws of another country
with which we have no understanding upon the subject. The Sul-
tan of Turkey never exercised a
more absolute despotism.
The slave-trade being the foul
crime that it is, and the Spanish Government being, as this case shows, so very
anxious to lay hands upon offenders, and the seat of the offense of sale being
so near us, the true answer for the Secretary to give the Spanish Government
would have been the proposal for an extradition treaty. That would have covered
this case and all others. It would have shown to Spain that we did not wish to
harbor her most infamous criminal and would have allowed no opportunity for the
expression of a general alarm that the guarantees of personal liberty had become
less sacred in the stress of the war.
If for any reason an extradition
treaty is impracticable, then a law of Congress prescribing the method in which
the surrender of criminals shall be made is the other alternative. But if
neither course is adopted the extradition of such persons is impossible, because
the American people will not submit, and ought not to submit, to the exercise of
an arbitrary power which would astonish Russia and justify Austria. We repeat
that we do not for a moment forget that in this instance the power was used for
a most humane and laudable purpose. But at another time, and in other hands, its
exercise might be inconceivably disastrous.
PUBLIC CONFIDENCE.
THE good sense of the Secretary
of War in issuing daily bulletins of the campaign can not be too highly
commended. It is another proof of the fact that we have settled down to war in
earnest, and that the country wishes to know only the truth. The good result of
the system is seen in the deaf ear which we all turn to the mere rumors of the
street and bulletin boards, and in the question universally asked upon every
fresh statement, " Is that official?"
This happy result is greatly
enhanced by the public confidence in the perfect truthfulness of the reports of
Generals
GRANT and
SHERMAN. There is no rhetorical clap-trap in them. General
GRANT drives the enemy to cover, and he does not instantly telegraph that he is
pushing them to the wall; he says only, "it is no decisive advantage," and the
country is calm because the General is. General SHERMAN tells what he has done,
not what he is going to do, and the country, looking at the map, is satisfied.
Every body understands that the
task before GRANT and SHERMAN is, as the President says, one of magnitude and
difficulty. In the case of GRANT it is easy to see that the work would have been
easier could he have beaten
LEE upon the Rapidan or at
Spotsylvania, because
then he would have been spared the necessity of besieging Richmond. Yet great
and difficult as the task is, there is a public tranquility which springs from
profound confidence in him and in the ultimate success of the cause. There are
people who occasionally shake their heads and whisper, " Dear me, if GRANT
should fail !" Well, if he should, who could put another army in the field first
? And as for spirit, for resolution, the mind of the country was never so firmly
fixed in its purpose of suppressing the rebellion at any cost as it is at this
moment.
THE
VOTE UPON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.
THE, difference between
statesmanship and partisanship was never more conspicuously shown than in two
late events. In England the disfranchisement of the laboring classes has long
been a source of anxiety, and seemed to threaten the peace of the future. In
America the slavery of the negro race has complicated our public affairs until
we are engaged in civil war. Yet Mr. GLADSTONE, a member of the British Cabinet,
and by birth and sympathy of the governing class in England, does not hesitate
to propose that provision shall be made for a great enlargement of the
franchise; and he does it upon the grounds of justice and expediency. The men to
whom he proposes to give a vote are, he contends, just as fitted for it as those
who already have it ; and then he declares that the inevitable agitation of the
question ought to be anticipated and prevented by wise concessions. This is Mr.
GLADSTONE'S position ; and he is, consequently, more honored and powerful in
England today than ever before.
Now in our own country we have
the always perplexing and exasperating question of slavery. Whatever its moral
excellence as a system may be, there is no doubt that while men are men it will
excite the most angry disturbances in peace, as it has hitherto; disturbances
and differences which have ended in war. The fundamental law of the land
provides a perfectly plain method of emancipation, and of consequent removal of
this source of vital irritation. In the very presence of the terrible mischief
it has occasioned it might be thought that every legislator, from the highest
motives of expediency, would favor its lawful, constitutional disappearance. And
vet fifty-five American representatives, facetiously calling themselves
Democrats, or friends of equal rights and fair play, voted against the simple
proposition to ask the people of the coun- (Next
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