PRISONERS' HEALTH AFFECTED.

AFTER Mr. Wood's return from Richmond, he. promised to have the Western prisoners, who had been under subjection for nearly three months, released. We were all suffering more or less from the confinement and bad treatment to which we had been compelled to submit. In my own case, my health was failing rapidly, so visibly so that two physicians who were in the room with me became alarmed at my situation. They voluntarily made an examination of me, and the following is the result:

PHYSICIAN'S CERTIFICATE.

This will certify that we, the undersigned, physicians and surgeons, having carefully examined Mr. Dennis A. Mahony, a prisoner of State, now confined in the Old Capitol Prison at Washington, D. C., do hereby affirm it as our professional opinion, that the bad health of Mr. Mahony is the result of continued confinement; and further, we believe the disease which he is now suffering from (namely, incipient paralysis) is aggravated by his imprisonment, and that a protraction of it will continue to

affect him injuriously, and thereby endanger his

life.

THOMAS T. ELLIS,

M. D. and M. R. C. L. S.
JOHN I. MORAN, M. D.

In presence of A. D. DUFF.

This had no effect on the tyrants who held us in subjection. Indeed there is good reason to believe that they would have been glad had death taken us, out of their hands, instead of being obliged to let⚫ us go at large again. This presumption is more than warranted by the imposition of the conditions referred to in the following statement of these prisoners as the condition on which they were at last released.

CONDITIONS OF RELEASE OF SOME OF THE POLIT ICAL PRISONERS.

On the 10th of November Superintendent Wood, of the Old Capitol, presented to Messrs. Judge Duff, of Benton, Illinois, Judge Mulkey, of Cairo, Illinois, David Sheward, of Fairfield, Iowa, and D. A. Mahony, of Dubuque, Iowa, these being all who were left of the Prisoners of State, with a paper saying that he was directed by the Judge-Advocate, Turner, to say to those prisoners that they could not be released till they signed it, and agreed to comply with its requirements. After Mr. Wood left the prison, the paper was examined by the parties interested, and also by their fellow-prisoners. It was, as will be seen by the copy of it included in these observations, an oath, both of allegiance to the Government and an obligation not to prosecute the Federal or State officers concerned in the arrest and imprisonment of those four persons. The first impulse and determination of all was to refuse to take this or any other oath as a condition of their release, but on reflection and after a more considerate examination of the oath, proposed to be taken, and at the urgent solicitation of other prisoners who hoped by the discharge or the Prisoners of State to have the way opened for their early release, it was reluctantly decided to comply with the proposed terms. There was no other objection made to taking the proposed

oath of allegiance than that it might be inferred from the taking of it that those who might do so, would be thereby admitting that they had violated the allegiance which was due from them to the Government, and that the taking of a new oath would be construed as a restoration of these persons to their condition of citizens, just as if they had done anything to forfeit their rights and condition as such. But on reflection they came to the conclusion that they would prefer to take an oath of allegiance, as by doing so the tyrants who had imprisoned them on the pretence of disloyalty, would have no good ground to stand on to justify their

course.

So, too, did they come to the conclusion that, by taking an oath of allegiance, they would place themselves in a better condition to have damages for their illegal imprisonment, than if they went into court without that evidence of their loyalty. But the other portion of the obligation to prosecute the tyrants who had caused their arrest and imprisonment was a stumbling-block. What! swear away one's rights, and that, too, for the benefit of those who had injured us most outrageously, flagrantly, violently! But after this ebullition of indignation, Judgment said, will not the imposition of such an obligation on us be the best evidence that we have been here for three months the innocent and injured victims of Lincoln's despotism? and will it not also prove that the tyrants who are used to subject us to this despotism know themselves to be guilty of an offense for which we have redress against them? So said Common Sense. But admitting this to be so, how can we obtain any redress, if we forswear our rights to seek for it? The conclusion come to was, that if the Government protected its officers in the commission of crime, there would be still left the remedy which nature gave to every sentient

being to protect and defend himself, and to obtain redress for injuries inflicted on him. With such conclusions, and being urged to it not only by their fellow-prisoners, but also by Superintendent Wood, who made a personal appeal to some of us, these four persons-Messrs. Duff, Mulkey, Sheward, and myself took the obligation referred to.

Judge

Superintendent Wood told the prisoners, and the Judge Advocate reiterated the same thing, that this obligation was exacted because certain persons who had been released commenced suits for damages against the officers of the Government. Turner went so far in this matter as to say to Judge Mason, counsel for Messrs. Mulkey and Sheward, that suits had been commenced in their behalf, and gave Judge Mason this as a pretext, lie as it was, that these prisoners should not be released. Nor did it appear that there was any foundation for the assertion that any one had commenced suits for redress, but even if they had done so, why should that fact affect the rights of others? If the officers sued were not amenable in any way, what harm could befall them from being sued by discharged prisoners? If guilty, why should they not suffer the consequences of their criminality and injustice?

But the fact was, that Judge Advocate Turner, the Secretary of War, and the other tyrants and villains who had been concerned in these arrests and imprisonments knew that they had done wrong, and they caught at any means which they thought would shield them from the consequences. Hence the imposition of the oath referred to on certain prisoners of state.

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The following paper was drawn up by fellowprisoners of the gentlemen referred to; appended to which is a copy of the obligation exacted of them on their being released.