LETTER FROM COL. DAVIS TO MR. PRIZER.

BEFORE CHARLESTON.

MORRIS ISLAND, November 9, 1863.

Mr. Prizer, Editor of the Bucks County Intelligencer :

You take a strange interest in my welfare.  You are sorely

troubled about my remaining in service ; and in the last num-

ber of your newspaper you strongly advised me to “resign and

return home.”  You have not always been satisfied with merely

recommending me to leave the service, but at times you have

gone further.  Do you remember the copy of the Democrat you

sent to General Hunter last summer, on which you wrote :

“This paper is owned and published by Colonel W. W. H.

Davis, 104th P. V., now at Beaufort, S. C. !” but you forgot

to sign the name “ Enos Prizer,” at the bottom.  You marked

two articles, which you thought exceedingly “ copperish,” one

criticising the Administration and the other the General.  You

and the “ patriotic citizens” who aided you intended to do me

a secret injury, and no doubt you looked for my dismissal to

follow, but you signally failed.  It is a difficult matter for a

man who does a dirty trick to cover up his tracks,  General

Hunter, if not a brilliant commander, is an honest old soldier,

and scorned this mean act, so he handed me the paper and let

the pussy out of the bag.  This was a deliberate attempt to

stab me in the back, and you know the opinion held of assassins. 

This is not the only time you have been willing to help me to

“resign.”  You and those “patriotic citizens’ tried a similar

game at the War Department, with equal success.  If you have,

any charges to make against me, prefer them openly like a man,

and quit using the stiletto.  Give yourself no further trouble

about my resignation, for I am not only willing to remain in the

service but desire to see you in it likewise.  Don’t be alarmed

about my consistency, I beg of you, for as long as I am willing to,

risk that you should be satisfied.  You seem equally excercised

in mind about my “loyalty,” and inquire in perfect amazement,

what “confidence in my professions, but in my practice.  I

offer deeds of evidence of my loyalty.  I have shown my wil-

lingness to shed my blood in the cause, while you have so far,

only shed bottles of ink.  In the future, when our children

shall be asked where their fathers served the country in this

great struggle, while mine can answer with pride, three years in

the army, yours, unless you change profession into practice,

can only respond, in the office of the Bucks County Intelligencer.

You are likewise much exercised in mind about the probabil-

ities of my promotion—but this should not trouble you, inas-

much as you and those “patriotic citizens” have sworn that it

shall not be, and no doubt you have the power to prevent it.—

I have never asked promotion, and therefore am not disap-

pointed in not getting it.  I have asked but one favor of the War

Department, permission to take my brigade to the Penin-

sula, which was granted me.  Whether the Administration

promotes me or not, I cannot be made to forget my duty to the

country.  I have exercised the authority of a Brigadier for

nearly eighteen months of this war; and few other Colonels

can boast of having commanded a body of ten thousand men. 

Whether or no I am in favor with our political rulers, it is

proved that I possess to some extent, the confidence of my mil-

itary superiors.

Mr. Prizer, it is my deliberate, but reluctant conviction, that

you are not only my political, but my personal enemy, for your

persistent warfare upon me can be explained upon no other

ground.  You commenced your attacks when I was in the three

months’ service.  The 104th had hardly reached Washington, in

the fall of 1861, when you renewed them, coupled with un-

friendly insinuations toward the regiment, and they have been

continued.  Even if I deserve your ill-will, my regiment cer-

tainly does not; and yet when did you ever have a kind word

for the 104th Pennsylvania Volunteers?  The “ course of the

Democrat ” is a shallow pretence for your hostility to me.—

Whatever you may think wrong in that paper rests with Dr.

Mendenhall, its editor and publisher, except what has appeared

over my own signature.  It has not been my organ, nor spoken

for me since I left it, more than two years ago.  You, as an

editor, know that in leaving my paper in the charge of a gentle-

man in whom I had confidence, I was bound in good faith, to

place its management entirely in his hands, since I expected to

be so far removed that my interference might prove an injury

rather than a benefit, while in no way relieving him of the re-

sponsibility he assumed.  Though owner of the paper, with the

exception of my right to the profits, for all practical purposes it

passed out of my hands.  At the close of my service I shall re-

take it, holding Dr. Mendenhall responsible for the condition in

which I may find it; and then when I am EDITOR, as well as

Proprietor, I shall be ready to be held responsible for the

sentiments of the paper.  I do not know a political newspaper

anywhere which is conducted just to suit my notions, and for

whose sentiments I should like to be held responsible.  Had I

been so disposed, I might have taken my name from the Dem-

ocrat, when I vacated the Editorial chair, and given the public

to believe I had sold the establishment; which would have been

a deception and a fraud.  I preferred to act what I believed to

be a more honest part.

Mr. Prizer, I believe this to be a war to crush the Rebellion

and restore the Union, and for no other purpose.  For this the

army is fighting.  When these ends shall be accomplished there

should be peace; and all rightful means taken to reconcile the

conflicting elements and restore harmony to the country.  If

negro slavery goes down in the struggle, I shall not be one to

sorrow over its fall.  I believe slavery already to have received

its death-blow.  Viewing the question as a soldier and not as

a politician, I believe it would be wicked indeed to protract

this war, which has already cost so many valuable lives, and

brought sorrow to so many families, because some may think

thus to hasten the end of the “institution.”  There are some

people after they kill a snake, who can never wait until sun-

down for the tail to stop squirming.

I hail with pleasure the late call of President for volun-

teers, knowing better than the stay-at-home patriots possibly

can, the importance of filling up the thinned ranks of our reg-

iments now in the field, in order that our recent successes may

be vigorously followed up, and the war brought to a speedy and

permanent end.  Under this call it seems to me that the duty

of yourself and fellow partisans is as plain as day.  You must

volunteer.  If you and they do step forth to sustain the Gov-

ernment after your loud professions of loyalty, to whom can it

look for support?  A man who will not make good his own sen-

timents by action is a mere pretender to patriotism.  The ob-

ligation is stronger on you and your party, because you question

the loyalty of every man who don’t vote your ticket.  From the

six thousand who voted for Mr. Curtin in Bucks county, you

should raise one good regiment at least.  I believe it to be the

duty of all men to respond to the President, but more partic-

ularly those who have been so loud-mouthed in their patriotism. 

Lip-service will not fill up the ranks of the army, nor close the

war.

Mr. Prizer, I desire you to publish this letter in the Intel-

ligencer, and send a copy to the Secretary of War and General

Hunter.                                                     W. W. H. DAVIS.

                                       Colonel 104th P. V., Con’g Brigade.

MR. PRIZER’S REPLY TO COL. DAVIS.

Col. Davis, you are much mistaken about my taking a

strange interest in your welfare.  I am not sorely trou-

bled about your remaining in the public service.  I only

claim the right, as one of the editors of a public journal,

to criticize your official conduct and show the inconsistency

between your course as an officer of the army of the United

States and editor and proprietor of the Doylestown Dem-

ocrat.

I did not send a copy of the Democrat to Gen. Hunter,

nor to the War Department, as you allege, but I fully ap-

provod of having the attention of the commander of the

Department of the South and the Secretary of War called

to certain editorial articles published in your paper, as

did many thousand of other citizens of Bucks county, who

were utterly disgusted at the disloyal course of the Dem-

ocrat, and who very properly held you responsible for the

publication of these articles.  It was right that the Gov-

ernment should be apprised of the true character of a

newspaper owned and published by an officer in the army,

who at  that very time was seeking promotion.  Judging

from the tone of your letter, you must have felt ashamed

of your own paper when it reached Gen. Hunter. 

Some time during last winter, when it was understood

that you were asking to be appointed a brigadier general,

I deemed it my duty to make the War Department ac-

quainted with the real character of the Democrat, in

order that the appointing powers might understand your

case and act accordingly.  The articles to which I en-

deavored to call the attention of the Secretary of War

were most disgraceful—aiming at the disruption of the

Government, and encouraging resistance on the part of

the people to the measures adopted by the President for

suppressing the rebellion.  I believed that no man who

permitted a newspaper to be used as you did was deserv-

ing of promotion. I acted openly and above board, and

was not afraid to attach my name to what I wrote in op-

position to your promotion.  There was no underhand

work about it.  It would have afforded me much more

pleasure to have urged your promotion, had I thought you

were worthy of it.  I believe that the injudicious course

of the Democrat was the sole cause of your failure to be

appointed a brigadier general.

I have always been ready to give you full praise for

your conduct in the field as an officer of the army, and

have tried hard to believe that you were influenced by

patriotic motives when you drew your sword in defence

of our noble Government, which traitors are endeavoring

to destroy.  While you offer, as evidence of your loyalty,

your deeds in the field, which traitors are endeavoring

to destroy.  While you offer, as evidence of your loyalty,

your deeds in the field, which you think your children

can refer to in after years with feelings of pride, it will

be a source of regret to many that you will leave behind

you so dark a record as the files of the Doylestown Dem-

ocrat, during those “ three years” that you served in the

army, will unfold.  While my children many not be afforded

an opportunity to speak of my taking any part in the

field in the great struggle now going on for the mainten-

ance of free government, I hope they will never be ena-

bled to charge their father with “shedding bottles of

ink” in assailing the Government and taking sides with

its deadly enemies in time of war.  I hope that they will

never hear anything worse said of the Bucks County Intelli-

gencer, by upholding the Government in its hour of trial;

and exposing to the utmost of his ability the wicked

designs of rebels and traitors.

I am not your personal enemy, nor did I or the paper

with which I am connected attack you when in the three

months’ service, for the reason that you did your whole

duty like a brave and consistent soldier.  You had no

more devoted friend than myself during that period.—

During your absence on that occasion, you took care that

the Democrat squared with your professions of loyalty

and love for the Union.  Its editors were then of the

right stripe, and in spirit and tone everything that a

Union-loving man could have desired.  I have not written

nor published any unfriendly insinuations against the

104th Regiment.  On the other hand, the editors of the

Intelligencer have always taken special pride in nothing the

gallant deeds of these brave men.  You know very well

that they have had many kind words for the 104th, and

even spoken favorably of its commanding officer.

And now I come to the chief point of difference between

us.  I hold you responsible for the course of the Demo-

crat, and so do thousands of others in this county.  You at-

tempt to place that responsibility upon another, and as-

sert that the paper is not your organ, neither does it ex-

press your own political views.  You are the sole owner

and publisher of the Democrat, and enjoy exclusively the

profits of the concern.  It is your property—absolutely

under your control, and whatever appears in its columns

necessarily compromise yourself.  I am not ignorant of

the fact that you do control the paper, and frequently

give directions relative to its management, which is all

right and proper.  I also know, that while it is not possi-

ble for you to supervise every editorial article which may

appear in its columns, it is within your power to control

the general tone of the paper.  You fail to do this, and

ought not complain if you are held to a strict accounta-

bility for what is published editorially or otherwise in

the Democrat.  Without meaning to show any disrespect to

the gentlemen who is entrusted with the management of

the business of the Democrat establishment, I am con-

strained to regard you as the responsible editor and pub-

lisher of that paper.  You cannot be permitted to shirk

that responsibility, however much you may desire to do

so.

For the past two years the Democrat has meanly and

bitterly assailed every measure of the Government in-

tended for the suppression of the rebellion.  It has done

all that it could do toward encouraging resistance to the

prompt payment of taxes, rendered necessary for the

support of our armies in the field, by representing the

National tax law as odious, oppressive and unjust.  It

has again and again declared that the war for the preser-

vation of the Union was merely an “Abolition” war,

waged solely for the benefiting negroes.  It has discouraged

volunteering, and denounced the Conscription act, ren-

dered necessary to raise soldiers to reinforce our armies,

as a most tyrannical and outrageous measure.  That the

enforcement of this act was not generally resisted in the

upper end of the county was not the fault of the Dem-

ocrat.

You say that you “believe this to be a war to crush the

rebellion and restore the Union, and for no other pur-

pose.”  Why then do you permit it to be denounced in

your own newspaper as a “perverted war”—waged

solely for the benefit of the negro?  You declare that you

hail with pleasure the late call of the President, yet in a

newspaper bearing at its head your own name as publisher

and proprietor, you denounced this very call of the Presi-

dent, and pretty plainly intimated to “Democrats” that

they were not wanted in the army, and advised them not

to volunteer.  The people cannot fail to notice these in-

consistencies on your part.  You boast about the part you

have taken in this war.  There are thousands of people,

the most of whom were formerly your sincere friends, who

believe that the course pursued by the Democrat—in as-

sailing the measures intended for the suppression of the

rebellion, and in misrepresenting the objects of the war,

in denouncing the tax bill, and in encouraging resistance

to the enforcement of the draft—has done ten times more

harm than the good you will be able to do with your

sword, in turning back the armed traitors in the field. 

You think that I ought to volunteer under the late call of

the President; and inasmuch as you specially invite me

to individually assist in filling up the ranks of our thinned

regiments in the field, I will do so, provided you will

also take a musket and enter the ranks with me.  You

think that one regiment of volunteers at least ought to be

raised from the six thousand men in Bucks county who

voted for Gov. Curtin.  I have no doubt that these men

would be much more inclined to volunteer were it not that

the men who voted for Woodward hold off to a man, under

the advice given them in the columns of your own news-

paper.  The war for the preservation of the Union is for

the benefit of all classes of people, of every shade of poli-

tics, and the men who voted for Curtin are under no

stronger obligations to volunteer than those who voted

for somebody else.  You know very well that those ap-

proving of the measures of the President and claiming to

be most anxious to have this wicked rebellion speedily

suppressed, have done their full share toward filling up

the ranks of our armies and looking after the welfare of

our brave soldiers in the field.  It is hardly necessary for

me to refer to the conduct of men in this county claiming

to be “Democrats,” last summer, when troops were called

for to defend our State from invasion.  They laughed and

jeered at the call for volunteers, and said let the “ Black

Republicans” go, “Democrats” were not going to volun-

teer.  And your own Doylestown Democrat sustained

and encouraged them in this mean business!  Nor did

“Democrats” respond to the urgent calls for volunteers. 

They stood off, and the volunteering was confined almost

exclusively to those whom you refer to as having been so

“loud-mouthed in their professions of Patriotism.”  You

also know that the Democratic strongholds of Bucks county

have furnished very few volunteers for the army.

I would be much pleased if Bucks county could furnish

her quota of troops under the late call of the President

without resorting to drafting; but if volunteers are not

soon forthcoming we may expect to have another draft. 

Many people believe that drafting is the fairest way of

obtaining soldiers—that it treats all classes of people

alike.  But if another draft must be resorted to to fill our

quota, I trust the Democrat—your own newspaper—

will permit it to be made, without encouraging resistance

to the law of Congress, on the part of those who may hap-

pen to be drafted.                                       ENOS PRIZER.