Mr. HALE. In offering these 2 resolutions upon the same subject, I ask the attention of the house for a few minutes while I briefl state the facts upon which they are founde. This is a matter affecting directly only a very humble individual, a citizen of the State of Connecticut, who served for some years as a grivate in a volunteer regiment of the State of NewYork. Indirectly I think it affects the rights and privileges of every citizen of the U.S., and particularly of every soldier, whether in the regular or volunteer service. I have here upon my table 2 memorials, which I propose to present today under the rule for reference to the ComMilAffrs, bearing upon the subject. One of them is a memorial of the party immediately interested, Dorence Atwater, setting forth the faets in his case, and asking that this Congress may afford him proper relief. The other is a me morial of a arge number ofhighly respectable citizens of the town of'ferryville, Connecticut, his own residence and native place, setting forth their knowledge ofhis character, certifying him to be ayoung man of the highest standing and integrity, morally and intellectually, and setting forth the facts of his case as they have learned them and asking the action of Congress upon it. The facts of his case are very briefly these: Dorenee Atwater, at the age of 17 years, in 1801, enlisted in a rewiment of NewYork volunteers. He served dbwn to the month of August, 1863, at which time he was taken pris oner at Hagerstown, Maryland. during the pursuit of the rebel army on its retreat from Get tysburg. He remained a prisoner in the hands of the rebels for 22 months, several months after his term of enlistment bud expired. During his confinement at. Anderson ville he was etailed as clerk in the office of the rebel surgeon of the risen. It there became his duty to kee wrat. was called “the dead list, ” the recor of those who died in the Andersonville prison. This record he kept for many months, during which time the deaths amounted to over 12,000. The idea occurred to him while he was there kecing those records that the information afforded by that list would be of the highest value and importance to the citizens of the North, the relatives and friends of those soldiers who were there dying by 100s and 1000s. At the risk of his life, he succeeded in making a complete copy of that dead roll, and when he was paroled e secreted it on his person and brought it through the lines with him to the parole camp at Annapolis. It appears that, subsequently, some of the officers of one of the staff depts in Washin ton, learnin that Atwater had such a list, ca led upon him to enter into negotiations for the surrender of the list to the Government. He did enter into such negotiations, and finally upon urgent application and against his own wrsh (he desiring simply to publish this list for the benefit of those who were anxious concerning the fate of their relatives and friends in the rebel prison) he l entered into an agreement with a bureau officer in this city to surrender these rolls to the government, as he affirms, on 3 conditions: 1st, that he was to receive $300; 2nd, that he was to be appointed to a clerkship in the War Dept; and 3rd, that these rolls when copied by the Dept should be returned to him. The record of the evidence before the court martial that afterward tried him shows that there is no conflict between him and the officer with whom this bargain was made, exceptupon one point, the officer stating the agreement to have been that he was to receive a copy of the rolls and not the original an entirely imma terial point so far as regards the merits of the case. Atwater surrendered the papers, received the $300, and also received the clerkship, he being obliged for that purpose to enlist anew in the general service of the Army. He remained for some monthsin that service. From time to time he called upon the officers of the Dept to return to him his rolls. He received answers from time to time that they were not copied, or that the Dept was not then prepared to part. with them. He finally received a direct and decided answer that the Dept would not deliver to him either the rolls or a copy of them, according to the agreement set.forth in his own memorial and in the testimony of the officers before the court murtial. Those officers took the responsibility of directly repudiating their own agreement, and without right or color of right retaining the rolls from him. To that he of course submitted, for he had no alternative. I ought to remark here that these copies which were furnished by Atwater were the 1st information afforded to the anxious people of the North're arding the fate of those prisoners who had died in Andersonville prison. Afterward, the original records were in part, but not fully, captured by our armies; but the only complete list we have ever had is At water’s list. Some months after Atwater was detailed to go to Andersonville with a party under the command of a quartermaster of the Army, for the purpose of marking the graves of the U.S. prisoners buried there. The original copy of the roll made by Atwater was taken with that party to be used at Ander sonvillc. Those rolls there came into his hands in the ordinary course of his duty in identifying and marking the graves. When the duties of that party at.Andersonvillc were completed, the rolls remained in his bands; they were not called for there. Without being questioned he put them in his trunk and brought them to Washington. After he arrived in Washington, on the 1st inquiry that was made in regard to the rolls, he avowed their possession, statin that he claimed to own them, that they were is under the agreement of the Dept. He simply put himself on his rights, claiming his own property. In his whole comduct there was not the 1st trace of secrecy, of fraud, of felonious intent, from beginning to end. I should add that they had been already copied by the Dept. For this act this young man was arrested by order of an officer of a staff dept; in this city, committed to the Old Capitol prison, afterward brought to trial before a court martial, and by that court martial, on the facts which I have here detailed and the record of that court martial Imyself have read and examined on these facts he was convicted of the crime of larceny, sentenced to confinement in a State prison in NewYork for a term of years, to refund the $300, to give back hispapers, and lose all pay and allowances due him from the U.S. He was)ut in chains in this city as a felon and carriedI through its streets, taken to Auburn prison, in the State of NewYork, and confined there in a cell and in the garb of a felon. And I say, on my reputation asa law yer and a man, thatit is impossible any intelli gent man can read the record of that court martial without saying it is a case of the grossest and most monstrous cruelty and in'ustiee that ever op ressed any human being. fhis would seem to)e sufficient to call for an inquiry in this case of Atwater, but there are other and subsequent facts which I apprehend call for the vigorous interposition of this House. Atwater was subsequently discharged from prison under a general order discharging pris oners convicted by courts martial, but still remained with the brand of a felon upon him. These memorials to which I have referred came to my hands several weeks ago. Before presenting them to congress I deemed it my duty to seek for redress mm the military and executive authorities of the nation. I caused a copy of Atwater’s memorial to be transmit ted to the POTUS, with the request that the Judge Advocate General of the Army might be called upon to re'exam inc the case and report whether, in his opinion, the facts proved before the court murtial against Atwater justified his conviction. A copy of the charge and proceedings was laid before the President for the purpose of asking him to take such action as shoal in some little degree tend to redress the great wrong this young man had suffered. Sir, I have reason to believe that the Judge Advocate General did examine that record. I have reason to believe, in returning his opinion together with a copy of the proceedings, be certified that, in bisjudgment, the evidence before the court martial was insufficient to sustain the charge of felony, and that it. was a proper case in which a special pardon should issue, stating, as its ground, the insufficiency of the evidence on which he was convicted. I have reason to believe that. another fact existed in this case, which, if true, is a most remarkable one. After the head of the Bureau of Military Justice had made his report and decision certifying that justice and right on titled this man substantially to the abrogation of his sentence, to restoration to his position among honest men, to be relieved from the odium and disgrace of a felon’s name, I have reason to believe that another military officer of this city, an officer high in rank, the head of a military bureau, that he dared that he dared, sir, I use the word deliberately to interfere by submitting a paper in the teeth of the recommendation of the proper head of the Bureau of Military Justice to urge that jus tice be not done this man. On what ground? That Atwater, after his discharge from prison, after the end of his term of service in the Army, had presumed to make publications which reflected on the character of a subor dinate of his bureau.