As Lincoln sadly told Frederick Douglass, “if once begun, there was no telling where [retaliation] would end.” Execution of innocent southern prisoners—or even guilty ones—would produce Confederate retaliation against northern prisoners in a never-ending vicious cycle. In the final analysis, concluded the Union exchange commissioner, these cases “can only be effectually reached by a successful prosecution of the war.” After all, “the rebellion exists on a question connected with the right or power of the South to hold the colored race in slavery; and the South will only yield this right under
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