Mr. Wickliffe, of Kentucky. It is a miserable policy to muster runaway blacks into service. If twenty million of freemen cannot suppress a rebellion of six millions of white men, let the acknowledgment at once be made.
July 9th. On the 4th of July President Davis, dressed in full regimentals, after the ceremony of a mock trial, was hung in effigy in west Philadelphia.
A prisoner, attached to a Virginia regiment, was taken sick last night, and carried from the barracks to the hospital at 9 o’clock, and was buried at 10 o’clock. Quick work!
I shall have been here a week the day after to-morrow. We are so closely confined that it seems like a month on account of the “weary, lagging hours.” A fellow prisoner says he has been here a month, and he has to write 1862 every day, so as not to forget it, for it appears like 1863.
July 10th. One of the modes adopted here, in order to tantalize us, is to tell us we “are to be paroled or exchanged to-morrow.” This once had the effect to fill the prisoners with the roseate hues of hope, but disappointment had so often been the result of such announcements, that we no longer listen to them with credit.
The Yankees certainly do not desire the release of Colonel Corcoran, nor have they ever desired it. His confinement appeals too strongly to the Irish to volunteer, and about this time particularly volunteers are much needed.
Mr. Fessenden, of Maine, said in the Senate yesterday, “There is another thing I think a great mistake, and that is the attempt to deceive the people by calling a defeat “a great strategic movement.”” He thought the people should be trusted, and told the whole truth as to what was wanted by the country. Deal with them honestly, and every true Northern heart will respond, deal with enemies as enemies, and friends as friends. It is folly to hesitate to tell the people of this country exactly what the state of things is. He had been amused by seeing a call upon the different Governors for 300,000 troops, which simply meant that the President and Government thought they would want more troops. The enemy knows this, everybody knows it, then why not tell the truth?
Mr. Rice, Senator from Minnesota, said: “The time had come when we must either recognise the Southern Confederacy, or speedily put it down—use all the means in our power to do so. Must we, when the rebels resort to all sorts of means, fail from any sickly notions, and refrain from using all the means in our power to meet and suppress the rebellion? He would not hesitate for a moment to vote for any measure that would put the rebellion to an end.”
Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, was in favor of fighting the battle to a successful issue, and drafting if necessary, but he agreed with the Senator from Maine that this style of rose-water must cease, that it would be better to tell the whole truth to the people, and not attempt to deceive them. It seemed as if we had an organized system of lying in this country. “He thought the censorship of the press had been a great disadvantage.”
Most of the articles in the newspapers in reference to the war are simply malicious falsehoods, the creation of base minds and evil hearts.