REPORT OF CARL SCHURZ ON THE STATES OF SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA, ALABAMA,MISSISSIPPI, AND LOUISIANA.
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Sir: When you did me the honor of selecting me for a mission to the Stateslately in rebellion, for the purpose of inquiring into the existingcondition of things, of laying before you whatever information ofimportance I might gather, and of suggesting to you such measures as myobservations would lead me to believe advisable, I accepted the trust witha profound sense of the responsibility connected with the performance ofthe task. The views I entertained at the time, I had communicated to youin frequent letters and conversations. I would not have accepted themission, had I not felt that whatever preconceived opinions I might carrywith me to the south, I should be ready to abandon or modify, as myperception of facts and circumstances might command their abandonment ormodification. You informed me that your "policy of reconstruction" wasmerely experimental, and that you would change it if the experiment didnot lead to satisfactory results. To aid you in forming your conclusionsupon this point I understood to be the object of my mission, and thisunderstanding was in perfect accordance with the written instructions Ireceived through the Secretary of War.
These instructions confined my mission to the States of South Carolina,Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and the department of the Gulf. I informedyou, before leaving the north, that I could not well devote more thanthree months to the duties imposed upon me, and that space of time provedsufficient for me to visit all the States above enumerated, except Texas.I landed at Hilton Head, South Carolina, on July 15, visited Beaufort,Charleston, Orangeburg, and Columbia, returned to Charleston and HiltonHead; thence I went to Savannah, traversed the State of Georgia, visitingAugusta, Atlanta, Macon, Milledgeville, and Columbus; went throughAlabama, by way of Opelika, Montgomery, Selma, and Demopolis, and throughMississippi, by way of Meridian, Jackson, and Vicksburg; then descendedthe Mississippi to New Orleans, touching at Natchez; from New Orleans Ivisited Mobile, Alabama, and the Teche country, in Louisiana, and thenspent again some days at Natchez and Vicksburg, on my way to the north.These are the outlines of my journey.
Before laying the results of my observations before you, it is proper thatI should state the modus operandi by which I obtained information andformed my conclusions. Wherever I went I sought interviews with personswho might be presumed to represent the opinions, or to have influenceupon the conduct, of their neighbors; I had thus frequent meetings withindividuals belonging to the different classes of society from the highestto the lowest; in the cities as well as on the roads and steamboats I hadmany opportunities to converse not only with inhabitants of the adjacentcountry, but with persons coming from districts which I was not able tovisit; and finally I compared the impressions thus received with theexperience of the military and civil officers of the government stationedin that country, as well as of other reliable Union men to whom a longerresidence on the spot and a more varied intercourse with the people hadgiven better facilities of local observation than my circumstancespermitted me to enjoy. When practicable I procured statements of theirviews and experience in writing as well as copies of official or privatereports they had received from their subordinates or other persons. It wasnot expected of me that I should take formal testimony, and, indeed, suchan operation would have required more time than I was able to devote toit.
My facilities for obtaining information were not equally extensive in thedifferent States I visited. As they naturally depended somewhat upon thetime the military had had to occupy and explore the country, as well asupon the progressive development of things generally, they improved fromday to day as I went on, and were best in the States I visited last. It isowing to this circumstance that I cannot give as detailed an account ofthe condition of things in South Carolina and Georgia as I am able to givewith regard to Louisiana and Mississippi.
Instead of describing the experiences of my journey in chronologicalorder, which would lead to endless repetitions and a confused minglingof the different subjects under consideration, I propose to arrange myobservations under different heads according to the subject matter. Itis true, not all that can be said of the people of one State will applywith equal force to the people of another; but it will be easy to makethe necessary distinctions when in the course of this report they becomeof any importance. I beg to be understood when using, for the sake ofbrevity, the term "the southern people," as meaning only the people ofthe States I have visited.
CONDITION OF THINGS IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE CLOSE OF THE WAR.
In the development of the popular spirit in the south since the close ofthe war two well-marked periods can be distinguished. The first commenceswith the sudden collapse of the confederacy and the dispersion of itsarmies, and the second with the first proclamation indicating the"reconstruction policy" of the government. Of the first period I can statethe characteristic features only from the accounts I received, partly fromUnionists who were then living in the south, partly from persons that hadparticipated in the rebellion. When the news of Lee's and Johnston'ssurrenders burst upon the southern country the general consternation wasextreme. People held their breath, indulging in the wildest apprehensionsas to what was now to come. Men who had occupied positions under theconfederate government, or were otherwise compromised in the rebellion,run before the federal columns as they advanced and spread out to occupythe country, from village to village, from plantation to plantation,hardly knowing whether they wanted to escape or not. Others remained attheir homes yielding themselves up to their fate. Prominent Unionists toldme that persons who for four years had scorned to recognize them on thestreet approached them with smiling faces and both hands extended. Men ofstanding in the political world expressed serious doubts as to whether therebel States would ever again occupy their position as States in theUnion, or be governed as conquered provinces. The public mind was sodespondent that if readmission at some future time under whateverconditions had been promised, it would then have been looked upon as afavor. The most uncompromising rebels prepared for leaving the country.The masses remained in a state of fearful expectancy.
This applies especially to those parts of the country which were withinimmediate reach of our armies or had previously been touched by the war.Where Union soldiers had never been seen and none were near, people wereat first hardly aware of the magnitude of the catastrophe, and strove tocontinue in their old ways of living.
Such was, according to the accounts I received, the character of thatfirst period. The worst apprehensions were gradually relieved as day afterday went by without bringing the disasters and inflictions which had beenvaguely anticipated, until at last the appearance of the North Carolinaproclamation substituted new hopes for them. The development of thissecond period I was called upon to observe on the spot, and it forms themain subject of this report.
