Isaac N. Arnold

“ I pray our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavements and leave only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. ”

“ Voluntary associations, composed of the best men and women of the republic, were organized all over the loyal states, and all the people, with generous and patriotic liberality, placed in the hands of this commission, and in those of a kindred association called the Christian Commission, money, medicines, food, clothing, wine, fruit, and every delicacy for the hospitals; secular and religious reading, trained nurses, and everything which could contribute to the welfare and relieve the wants of the soldiers. ”

“ The colored man, too, seeing all uniting for him, is inspired with vigilance and energy and daring to the same end. Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he not obtain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps towards it, than by running backward over them? Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be, as the egg to the fowl; we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it. Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the national constitution. ”

“ But Senator Sumner replied: "We cannot be cruel, or barbarous, or savage, because the rebels, whom we are meeting in war, are cruel, barbarous, and savage." He quoted Dr. Lieber as saying: "If we fight with Indians, who slowly roast their prisoners, we cannot roast in turn the Indians whom we may capture." When reports of these barbarities, and the official report of the committee on the conduct of the war, were brought to the attention of Mr. Lincoln, and he was urged to retaliate in kind, he said: "No, I never can. I can never starve men like that." ”

“ Edward Everett, speaking, however, of the conduct of the rebels at Andersonville and elsewhere, said: "You have no more right to starve than to poison a prisoner of war." Senator Chandler advocated retaliation in kind, declaring that Sumner's "sublimated humanitarianism would not do for 'these accursed rebels.'" McDougall, of California, a man of rare eloquence and genius, spoke against the resolution, comparing the proposal with the wild outrages and cruelties of the French Revolution, and which had no parallel save in the barbarities of the dark ages. ”

“ Among them were the great organizations for the relief, health, and comfort of the soldiers, known as the Sanitary and Christian Commissions. These organizations were novel, and indicate an advance in humanity and civilization; they relieved war of half the horrors and of much of the suffering incident to its destruction of human life. The tenderness and sympathy of the President with all forms of suffering was apparent in all his life, and the stern soldiers of the war often regarded his humane spirit as a weakness. ”

“ Lincoln one as zealous as himself to carry out his humane purposes. The project was to organize a commission of the most intelligent, highly respected, and best citizens of the country, whose special duty it should be, in connection with the regular medical officers of the army, to look after and improve the sanitary condition of the soldiers, including their food and their medical and surgical treatment. ”

“ With a power of organization rivalling that which organized armies, with a tireless energy and executive ability which knew no pause nor rest, many noble women and especially the widows, mothers, and sisters of soldiers who had been killed, consecrated their time and sacrificed their lives to these noble and patriotic purposes. ”

“ Lincoln said: "The black soldier shall have the same protection as the white soldier. If the reports relative to this massacre [at Fort Pillow] are substantiated, retribution will be surely given." [5] In accordance with the order of the President, certain rebel prisoners were, in 1864, placed at hard labor on the Dutch Gap Canal, in retaliation for certain negro soldiers captured by the rebels and employed at work in the trenches of the rebels at Fort Gilmer. ”

“ These proceedings he regarded as preliminary, and subject to the action and approval of Congress, before the new state government should be entitled to representation in Congress or to vote in the electoral college. He treated the Confederates as public enemies; all acts of the Confederate government, and of the rebel states while in rebellion, were void, and these organizations were to be overthrown and subjugated, and the territory from which they were expelled to be governed, until otherwise provided, by martial law. ”

“ He issued a proclamation declaring that negro troops and their white officers would, if captured, not be treated as prisoners of war, but would be turned over to state authority for punishment, and that all free negroes captured with arms should be sold into slavery. In reply to this, the President issued an order directing "that for every soldier of the United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be executed ”

“ It is unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. Still the question is not whether the Louisiana government is quite all that is desirable. ”

“ To the great Northwestern Fair held at Chicago in September, 1863, he sent the original draft of the proclamation of emancipation, to be sold for the benefit of the soldiers, as has already been stated.
The women of the nation, in every social position, were the most active and efficient agents in these enterprises. ”