[Footnote 106: "Narrative," p. 302.]
[Footnote 107: "Advance and Retreat," by J. B. Hood, pp. 98-116.]
[Footnote 108: Johnston's "Narrative," p. 346.]
[Footnote 109: Mr. Seddon, ex-Secretary of War, in a letter written to me on the 10th of February, 1879, states, in regard to his interview with General Lee, that it was held after the determination had been made "to remove General Johnston from his command at Atlanta," and says of the purpose of the interview with General Lee: "It was designed merely to secure General Lee's estimate of qualifications in the selection of a successor for the command.">[
[Footnote 110: Mayor Calhoun's Petition to General Sherman, September 11, 1864.]
[Footnote 111: "Advance and Retreat," by General J. B. Hood; letter of
General Beauregard to President Davis, p. 278, et seq.]
CHAPTER XLIX.
Exchange of Prisoners.—Signification of the Word "loyal."—Who is the Sovereign?—Words of President Lincoln.—The Issue for which we fought.—Position of the United States Government.—Letters of Marque granted by us.—Officers and Crew First Prisoners of the Enemy.—Convicted as "Pirates."—My Letter to President Lincoln.— How received.—Act of Congress relating to Prisoners.—Exchanges, how made.-Answer of General Grant.—Request of United States Congress.—Result.—Commissioners sent.—Agreement.—Disputed Points.—Exchange arranged.—Order to pillage issued.—General Pope's Order.—Proceedings.—Letter of General Lee relative to Barbarities.—Answer of General Halleck.—Case of Mumford.—Effect of Threatened Retaliation.—Mission of Vice-President Stephens.—A Failure.—Excess of Prisoners.—Paroled Men.—Proposition made by us.—No Answer.—Another Arrangement.—Stopped by General Grant.— His words, "Put the Matter offensively."—Exchange of Slaves.— Proposition of Lee to Grant.—Reply of Grant.—Further Reply.—His Dispatch to General Butler.—Another Proposition made by us.—No Answer.—Proposition relative to Sick and Wounded.—Some exchanged.—The Worst Cases asked for to be photographed.— Proposition as to Medicines.—No Answer.—A Final Effort.— Deputation of Prisoners sent to Washington.—A Failure.— Correspondence between Ould and Butler.—Order of Grant.—Report of Butler.—Responsibility of Grant for Andersonville.—Barbarities of the United States Government.—Treatment of our Men in Northern Prisons.—Deaths on Each Side.
Perhaps there was no question in the treatment of which the true character and intentions of the Government of the United States was so clearly exposed as in the exchange of prisoners. That we should dare to resort to arms for the preservation of our rights, and "to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity," was regarded by our enemies as most improbable. Their aspirations for dominion and sovereignty, through the Government of the Union, had become so deep-seated and apparently real as to cause that Government, at its first step, to assume the haughtiness and imperiousness of an absolute sovereign. "I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort," said President Lincoln, in the first proclamation, calling for seventy-five thousand men. The term "loyal" has no signification except as applied to the sovereign of an empire or kingdom. In a republic the people are the sovereign, and the term "loyal" or its opposite can have no signification except in relation to the true sovereign. To say, therefore, that the agent of the sovereign people, the representative of the system they have organized to conduct their common affairs, composed the real sovereign, and that loyalty or disloyalty is of signification in relation to this sovereign alone, is not only a perversion of language, but an error, that leads straight to the subversion of all popular government and the establishment of the monarchical or consolidated form. The Government of the United States is now the sovereign here, says President Lincoln in this proclamation, and loyalty consists in the maintenance of that sovereignty against all its foes. The sovereignty of the people and of the several and distinct States, in his mind, was only a weakness and enthusiasm of the fathers. The States and the people thereof had become consolidated into a national Union. "I appeal," says President Lincoln, "to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our national Union."
The Confederate States refused thus "to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of a national Union." They not only refused to aid, but they took up arms to defeat the consummation of such a monstrous usurpation of popular rights and popular sovereignty. It was evident that, if no efforts for a rescue were made, the time would soon come when the rights of all the States might be denied, and the hope of mankind in constitutional freedom be for ever lost. This was the usurpation. This lay at the foundation of the war. Every subsequent act of the Government was another step in the same direction, all tending palpably to supremacy for the Government of the United States, the subjugation of the States, and the submission of the people.