Keowee Courier

THE ANDERSON PRISONERS.—We clip the following extract from the Washington correspondence of the Cincinnati Commercial:

Some further facts have recently come to light respecting Secretary Stanton's connection with the case of the four South Carolinians found guilty by a military commission of the murder of three Maine soldiers in October, 1865. It appears that the sentence of two of them was commuted by Gen. Sickles; that Secretary Stanton, in view of the opinion held by the Supreme Court relative to the legality of military trials since the close of hostilities, recommended the commutation of the death sentence. The other two, who, he says he believes were the murderers, were properly tried before a military tribunal, justly convicted; but it did not seem to him proper to recommend their execution, in view of the opinion which he knew was held by the Supreme Court. He recommended the confinement of the prisoners at the Tortugas, but afterward changed the recommendation to Fort Delaware. He consulted no one but General Townsend as to the proper place of imprisonment, and recommended Fort Delaware because he thought it on the whole the best of the military prisons for that purpose. He never for a moment anticipated that the civil courts would interfere with them there. When the writ of habeas corpus was issued, he instructed the officer to make the proper returns, and decline to deliver up the prisoners. He does not state what orders, if any, were sent to the officers by the Attorney-General, at the instance of the President, nor does he say anything about the influence brought to bear upon the President to secure the removal of the prisoners from the Tortugas to Fort Delaware.