had the desired effect. It brought an order for the relief of the colored Union prisoners, and an explanatory letter from Lee to Grant, to which the following is Grant's reply: HEADQUARTERS Armies of the United States, "General R. E. LEE, C. S. A., 'Commanding Army Northern Virginia. "General: Understanding from your letter of the 19th, that the colored prisoners, who are employed at work in the trenches near Fort Gilmer, have been withdrawn, I have directed the withdrawal of the Confederate prisoners employed in the Dutch Gap canal. "I shall always regret the necessity of retaliating for wrongs done our soldiers; but regard it my duty to protect all persons received into the army of the United States, regardless of color or nationality. When acknowledged soldiers of the Government are captured they must be treated as prisoners of war, or such treatment as they receive will be inflicted upon an equal number of prisoners held by us. "I have nothing to do with the discussion of the slavery question; therefore decline answering the arguments adduced to show the right to return to former owners such negroes as are captured from our army. "In answer to the question at the conclusion of your letter, I have to state that all prisoners of war falling into my hands shall receive the kindest treatment possible, consistent with securing them, unless I have good authority for believing any number of our men are being treated otherwise. Then, painful as it may be to me, I shall inflict like treatment on an equal number of Confederate prisoners. Hoping that it may never become my duty to order retaliation upon any man held as a prisoner of war, I have the honer to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, "U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant General." . THE SO-CALLED LIBERAL MOVEMENT How and When it Originated-The Grand Hobby-Attempt to Split the It is a great mistake to suppose that the schism created and engineered by a dozen individuals, and dignified by the name of the "Great Liberal Movement," originated in any disaffection growing out of the administration of the government by President Grant. The movement had its origin before ever Grant was nominated for President by the Chicago Convention of 1868. Its germ was the theory of Free Trade, which so disturbed some of its more ardent advocates in the early Spring of 1868, that they would then have been very glad to disrupt the Republican party and scatter to the four winds the glorious record of that patriotic organization, with all the beneficent measures then in the womb of that party's future, for the sake of an opportunity to air themselves upon their favorite hobby of Free Trade, or, as they had then just begun to call it, Revenue Reform. This was the way it was done: THE GAME IN 1868. Early in 1868, the impeachment of Andrew Johnson came on. The American Free Trade League, comprising among its members the editors of the Chicago Tribune, New York Evening Post and Chicago Evening Post, as well as all the prominent Democratic journals, and numbering the papers specified among the most valued and industrious of its organs, was then just fairly launched in its active campaign work, and, under the leadership of Mahlon Sands and the editors above named, was beginning a vigorous warfare in behalf of its vital theory. It was soon perceived that the conviction and removal of Andrew Johnson would leave in the Presidential Chair, for the remaining ten months of Johnson's term, the Hon. Benjamin F. Wade, then President pro tem of the Senate. Now, Wade was a staunch Protectionist, as indicated by his votes in the Senate, and the Free Traders immediately saw that it would never do to have him occupying the Presidential Chair, with an almost certainty of being made the Republican candidate for Vice-President at Chicago, in May. Accordingly, we saw the Chicago Tribune and Evening Post suddenly veer about, a few days after the Senate took the trial of Johnson in hand, and enjoin moderation upon the Senate as earnestly as they had demanded a red-hot prosecution from the House a fortnight or so before. Fortunately for their cause, there were really some very weak points in the impeachment of Johnson, which presented a good excuse for such Senators as chose, from one motive or another, to vote for acquittal. One of these was Lyman Trumbull, of Illinois, who had, we have no doubt, honest scruples about the propriety of removing Johnson by force. Nevertheless, Trumbull lacked backbone, and there is no telling what he would have done, but for the stiffening up which he received from home. Letters from Horace White, and from one other newspaper knight (since deceased) whose support was important, assured Trumbull that he would be sustained by the (then) most influential of the home newspapers of Republican name. Sustained by such assurances, Trumbull, to the surprise of the country, voted "nay" on the question of Johnson's conviction. Of the Republican Senators, Grimes, Fessenden, Ross, Henderson, Van Winkle and Fowler voted with him-part of them certainly from conscientious motives. By their votes Johnson was acquitted, and Ben Wade was kept out of the Presidential Chair. AT THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. Now for the next act in the drama. The reve nue "Reformers," though they had exorcised their bete noir from the place of authority, still were not happy. There was still a high tariff majority in Congress, and was likely to be, at least in the Senate, for many years-perhaps until the anxious "Reformers" had, to quote the thought of Sidney Smith, wrapped their taxed shrouds about them, and lain down in taxed coffins to their final rest. There seemed little prospect of bringing about the Free Trade millenium so long as the Republican party continue to sit, like Mordecai, at the king's gate. The Democratic party was better material, as Free Trade had been one of the vital dogmas of the Democrats, in their virtuous days. But the Democrats had a war record which would damn them to all eternity, if they should have the temerity to keep fighting under their old colors. To cleave a slice off from the Republican party and work it over into a grand hash along with the cold meats of the Democracy, was the problem of Messrs. Sands, White, et al. The National Republican Convention of 1868 assembled. It was the hope of the agitators that a split might be brought about through a bolt, organized on one of three pretexts, viz: 1. The nomination of Wade for Vice President. 2. The adoption by the Convention of a resolution sharply censuring the seven Republican Senators who voted against convicting Johnson. 3. The refusal of the Convention to adopt a resolution, presented by Carl Schurz, in favor of the speedy enfranchisement of the Rebels. |