“WHITEWASHING” BY THE PRESIDENT.
Remarks in the Senate, on a Message of President Johnson on the Condition of the Southern States, December 19, 1865.
December 19th, a message was read from President Johnson with regard to the condition of the Southern States, which was represented as “more promising than, in view of all the circumstances, could well have been expected.” The President said:—
“From all the information in my possession, and from that which I have recently derived from the most reliable authority, I am induced to cherish the belief that sectional animosity is surely and rapidly merging itself into a spirit of nationality, and that representation, connected with a properly adjusted system of taxation, will result in a harmonious restoration of the relations of the States to the National Union.”
Accompanying the message was a report to the President by Lieutenant-General Grant, who had recently made a tour of inspection through several of the States lately in rebellion, where he said, “I am satisfied that the mass of thinking men of the South accept the present situation of affairs in good faith.” In this spirit the report speaks of the “universal acquiescence in the authority of the General Government”; it declares that “the good of the country and economy require that the force kept in the interior, where there are many freedmen, should all be white troops,”—that “the presence of black troops, lately slaves, demoralizes labor, both by their advice and by furnishing in their camps a resort for the freedmen for long distances around,”—that “the citizens of the Southern States are anxious to return to self-government within the Union as soon as possible”; and it adds, that “they are in earnest in wishing to do what they think is required by the Government, not humiliating to them as citizens.”
Nothing was said in the message or the report of the condition of the freedmen, or of the continued denial of their rights.
Both these documents were read at length by the Secretary of the Senate. A report by Major-General Carl Schurz was also communicated; but this was not read. It was understood that this report was elaborate, and that it set forth the condition of the freedmen. Mr. Sumner, ascertaining that it accompanied the message, said: “If it is there, I think it had better be read.”