Part 4

Say not that I err, because here at his funeral, seeking to do him honor, I exhibit him bravely standing front to front with executive power wielded by a President instigated by Jefferson Davis, and then again bravely standing front to front with executive power wielded by the gentle hand of Abraham Lincoln. In the first case it was to save an outraged people; in the other it was to vindicate the powers of the people of the United States in Congress assembled to provide guaranties and safeguards against the wickedness and perjury which had deluged his beloved country with blood. Say not that I err, because now, at his funeral, anxious that his best actions should not be forgotten, I commemorate this championship. He is dead, but the good he has done cannot die. And hereafter faithful Senators, struggling with executive power, will catch a new inspiration from his example. A bishop of the Church tells us that “all is not over, while there is a man left to reprove error and bear testimony to the truth; and a man who does it with becoming spirit may stop a prince or senate when in full career, and recover the day.”[18] Where this spirit has been shown, where an honored associate has earned this title to fame, I insist that it shall be made known.

“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.”

SEVERAL SENATORS. It is very long.

MR. SUMNER. At any rate, we can begin it.

THE PRESIDENT _pro tempore_. The reading of the report of General Carl Schurz is called for. It will be read, if there be no objection.

MR. JOHNSON [of Maryland]. I have no objection to the reading of the report; I should like to hear it; but the reading will take a good while, and it can all be printed in a day or two.

MR. SUMNER. Let the reading be begun.

MR. JOHNSON. I submit to the Senator from Massachusetts that the printing of it, perhaps, will answer every purpose. It is a very long report, I see; at least, it seems to be so. I have, personally, not the slightest objection to its being read.

MR. SUMNER. It is a very important document. The Senate will remember, that, when the report was made on the condition of Kansas, every word of it was read at the desk.[19] Now the question before the country is immeasurably more important than that of Kansas. We have a message from the President which is like the whitewashing message of Franklin Pierce with regard to the enormities in Kansas. Such is its parallel. I think the Senate had better at least listen to the opening of Major-General Schurz’s report.

MR. JOHNSON. I have no objection, if the Senate think they have time to listen to it; but I did not expect to hear any assault, direct or indirect, upon the President at this time.

MR. SUMNER. No assault at all.

Mr. Johnson then said: “I have seen nothing in the message which would warrant a reflection that any improper purpose had actuated the President in sending it here. He does not mean, as I suppose, to whitewash anybody who has offended.”

The Secretary proceeded to read the introductory paragraphs of General Schurz’s report, in which he states through what portion of the South he travelled, the points at which he stopped, his facilities for obtaining information, and the order in which the results of his observation would be detailed.

Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, “would much prefer to read this document in print,” and he moved to dispense with its further reading.

Mr. Sumner replied:--

I shall not object, if the Senator from Ohio thinks it proper, on this important occasion, to dispense with the reading. In my judgment the Senate cannot listen to anything of more consequence than this accurate, authentic, most authoritative report with regard to the actual condition of things in the States lately in rebellion. Here is an eminent citizen, lately a major-general in the army of the United States, sent by the President on a special mission to visit those States and to report upon their condition. The visit has been made,--not a hasty one, like that of General Grant, for instance, or of other officers or citizens, but a sojourn occupying time, extending through different States,--and the results are recorded in a careful document. Now, Sir, if the question were trivial, if it were transitory, I should think the Senator was right; but, if he persists in his motion, I shall not oppose it.

Mr. Sherman insisted upon his motion, and said: “It is unusual to read documents in this way.” Mr. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, called attention to a remark of Mr. Sumner, which he thought he ought “to qualify at least, if not altogether retract.” The objectionable remark was then stated. “Speaking of the message just received from the President of the United States, he said that it was like the whitewashing message of Franklin Pierce, to cover up the transactions in Kansas.… Now, Mr. President, I think the Senator from Massachusetts must have let fall that expression without due consideration”; and he concluded by saying: “I believe, Sir, certainly I think I ought to believe, that the honorable Senator from Massachusetts will at least modify or qualify, if he does not wholly retract, this strong expression.”

Mr. Sumner followed:--

MR. PRESIDENT,--I have nothing to retract, nothing to modify, nothing to qualify. In former days there was one Kansas suffering under illegal power; there are now eleven Kansases suffering as that one; therefore, as eleven is more than one, so is the enormity of the present time more than the enormity in the day of Franklin Pierce.

Mr. Dixon, of Connecticut, said: “A charge has been directly made here by the Senator that the President has sent in a whitewashing report.… When such a charge as that is brought in the Senate, I think it calls for some notice, and I take the liberty, with all my respect for the Senator from Massachusetts, to deny that there is anything in that report of a whitewashing character.” Mr. Doolittle spoke again: “I was not pained because the honorable Senator differed from the President; I knew he differed from the President on this question; but I was pained, and I confess very much disappointed, to hear that Senator, as I should be to hear any other Senator on the floor of the Senate, question the truth, the integrity, or the patriotism of the President, however much he might disagree with me in opinion.”

Mr. Sumner spoke again:--

MR. PRESIDENT,--I am sorry that I have given pain to honorable friends. I certainly did not intend it. They suggest that a question has been raised as to the policy of the President. I have raised no such question, and have expressed no opinion in regard to it. The Senator from Wisconsin dwells on that point, and reminds the Senate that the policy of the President was not in question. I knew it was not in question, and therefore I expressed no opinion upon it; for, when I speak here, I try to speak directly to the question. There was then no question on the policy of the President. Had there been, I should have been ready to meet it. At the proper time I shall meet it fully, plainly, unequivocally, I trust, as becomes a member of this body.

The only question, then, was on the character of the document just read; and that I exhibited, compendiously, as whitewashing; and then my honorable friends rise, one after the other, and, like two lexicographers, proceed with a definition of “whitewash.” I do not accept their definition. I intended no such thing as either the Senator from Connecticut or the Senator from Wisconsin attempted to impute. I have no reflection to make on the patriotism or the truth of the President. Never, in public or in private, have I made any such reflection, and I do not begin now. When I spoke, it was of the document read at the desk. I characterized it as I thought I ought.

My memory goes back in this Chamber further than that of many about me. I remember that other scene, when a whitewashing message came from Franklin Pierce. We all at that time called it whitewashing; and I am not aware that any one, even on the other side, undertook to play the part that my honorable friends from Wisconsin and Connecticut undertake to perform. The message was so called because we all felt that it was whitewashing; and I undertook at once, to-day, on listening to the document read at the desk, to characterize it precisely as the patriotic party of 1856 characterized the message of Franklin Pierce.

Mr. Dixon added, that, if Mr. Sumner had said that he did not intend his remarks in an offensive tone, but considered “whitewashing” a polite and proper word to apply to the message of the President, he should have accepted his explanation. Mr. Trumbull expressed a hope “that this unprofitable debate might cease.” Mr. Fessenden remarked: “This is a mere matter of definitions, and it ought to be referred to some maker of dictionaries.”

The motion of Mr. Sherman prevailed without a division, and the message and accompanying documents were ordered to be printed.

The report of General Schurz was a remarkable document, founded on an official visit, at the appointment of President Johnson, and with its accompanying papers occupied more than a hundred pages.[20] It bristled with testimony, not only from his own observation, but from that of generals and other officers on the spot. “An utter absence of national feeling”; “an entire absence of that national spirit which forms the basis of true loyalty and patriotism”; “although the freedman is no longer considered the property of the individual master, he is considered the slave of society,” with the notion “that the elevation of the blacks will be the degradation of the whites”; “the practice of corporal punishment is still continued to a great extent”; “the habit is so inveterate with a great many persons as to render, on the least provocation, the impulse to whip a negro almost irresistible”; “the maiming and killing of colored men seems to be looked upon by many as one of those venial offences which must be forgiven to the outraged feelings of a wronged and robbed people”; “the number of murders and assaults perpetrated upon negroes is very great”: these are words of General Schurz. The accompanying testimony supplies fearful details. All this was painfully inconsistent with the message of the President and the report of General Grant.

* * * * *

The marked effect of this incident shows the sensitive condition of the public mind. The word “whitewashing” became a text for the press on opposite sides. The interest also found expression in letters.

* * * * *

Wendell Phillips, the orator, always sympathizing with every earnest word for Human Rights, wrote from Boston:--

“Glorious! just the truth, and just the time and place to speak it, was your graphic and most effective description of the President’s message. I say this, not that you need confirmation, but because, hearing the clamor against you, it seems right you should have the ‘cheers’ as well as the ‘hisses.’”

Rev. Justin D. Fulton, a successful Baptist preacher, wrote from Boston:--

“Before I can begin my sermon, I want to send you my thanks for your noble stand in the Senate of the United States against the President and for the country. Last Sabbath, in the great congregation, I publicly thanked God that you used the word ‘whitewashing.’ The same thing I did in Albany; the same thing I do now.”

Hon. Thomas Russell, Judge of the Superior Court, and afterwards Collector of the port of Boston, wrote from Boston:--

“I only write to thank you heartily for your courage and fidelity. I would say, ‘Go on,’ but that is needless.”

Edward W. Kinsley, a merchant, who never forgot the claims of Human Rights or of personal friendship, wrote from Boston:--

“I know you are too busy to read any letter from me; but I cannot let the day pass without thanking you for the course you are taking in the Senate this session. Thank God, we have one man on the watch-tower who will not slumber or sleep.”

Hon. Samuel E. Sewall, the able lawyer and Abolitionist, wrote from Boston:--

“I do not know any man who is doing so much for the country, in the present crisis, as you are by your speeches and writings. We are all here watching the course of Congress with the deepest anxiety.”

Nathaniel Moody, always on the side of Humanity, wrote from Chelsea, Massachusetts:--

“Permit me, as one of your constituents, to thank you for the noble stand you have taken in regard to Reconstruction, which I regard of quite as much importance as was the persistent prosecution of the war just brought to a successful conclusion. I did expect no less from you, considering your former great efforts in the true cause of Humanity.”

Mrs. John Davis, widow of Mr. Sumner’s first colleague in the Senate, wrote from Worcester, Massachusetts:--

“We hope the whitewashing is over, and that common sense, to say nothing of justice, will resume the sway.”

Rev. George N. Richardson wrote from Westborough, Massachusetts:--

“You are bearing yourself so bravely and faithfully in behalf of a cause very dear to me, that it is the impulse of my heart to thank and bless you.”

Rev. Richard S. Storrs, the eminent Congregational clergyman, wrote from Braintree, Massachusetts:--

“It must be a great satisfaction to you to know that you have the unlimited confidence and sympathy of your constituents; and I am sure you have the approval of all loyal men and _angels_, while struggling against the devices of the arch enemy of God and man.”

Rev. J. R. W. Sloane, a pastor of the Presbyterian Church, wrote from New York:--

“To yourself and Thaddeus Stevens the nation is now looking as the defenders of Truth and Justice. Thanks for your just rebuke of the President’s ‘whitewashing’ message. The statements of this paper are directly in the face of what I know to be the state of things in the South. I rejoice that it did not pass unrebuked.”

E. Burt wrote earnestly from Cleveland, Ohio:--

“Thanks be to our Heavenly Father, dear Sir, that there are no Brookses in Congress this year, to raise their canes over any man’s head. Now, Sir, my prayer is, that God may give you strength to do your duty this year, as no other man in or out of Congress can do it; for no other man has shown up the barbarism of Slavery like yourself. Sir, when but a few days ago you asked the reading of Carl Schurz’s report, and it was not granted, my blood started with such a rush in my veins that I could hardly contain myself. ‘What!’ said I, ‘has it come to this, after the loss of so many of the most valuable lives of our dear countrymen, so much of blood and treasure?’”

Thomas D. Hoxsey wrote from Paterson, New Jersey:--

“You have to fight your old battle over again, and I only hope and trust that you may have the physical health to stand firm where your late speeches place you.”

Colonel Wentworth Higginson, who served so well at the head of colored troops, and does such honor to American literature, in a letter from Newport, Rhode Island, thanking Mr. Sumner for speeches, added, “especially that one word _whitewashing_, which was the best speech of all.”

* * * * *

These brief utterances illustrate the sentiment beginning to prevail. The issue with the President, already foreseen, had come.

ENFRANCHISEMENT AND PROTECTION OF FREEDMEN.

ACTUAL CONDITION OF THE REBEL STATES.

SPEECH IN THE SENATE, ON A BILL TO MAINTAIN FREEDOM IN THOSE STATES, DECEMBER 20, 1865.

On the day after the “whitewashing” incident, Mr. Sumner seized an opportunity of setting forth the actual condition of the States lately in rebellion, and the duty of Congress with regard to them. He took the floor on a bill, introduced by his colleague, Mr. Wilson, “to maintain the freedom of the inhabitants in the States declared in insurrection and rebellion by the Proclamation of the President of the first of July, 1862,” and spoke as follows.

MR. PRESIDENT,--When I think of what occurred yesterday in this Chamber, when I call to mind the attempt to whitewash the unhappy condition of the Rebel States, and to throw the mantle of official oblivion over sickening and heartrending outrages, where Human Rights are sacrificed and Rebel Barbarism receives a new letter of license, I feel that I ought to speak of nothing else. Years ago, in the days of Kansas, I stood here when one small community was surrendered to the machinations of slave-masters. I stand here again, when, alas! an immense region, with millions of people, is surrendered to the machinations of slave-masters. Sir, it is the duty of Congress to arrest this fatal fury. Congress must dare to be brave; it must dare to be just. I shall not be diverted from the question before the Senate, although, in unfolding the necessity of present legislation for the protection of freedmen, I shall be led necessarily and logically to speak of the condition of the Rebel States.

All must admit that the bill of my colleague is excellent in purpose. It proposes nothing less than to establish Equality before the Law, at least so far as civil rights are concerned, in the Rebel States. This is done simply to carry out and maintain the Proclamation of Emancipation, by which the Republic is solemnly pledged to “maintain” the emancipated slave in freedom. Here is our pledge: “The Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and _maintain the freedom of said persons_.” The pledge is without limitation in space or time. It is as extended and as immortal as the Republic itself. Does anybody call it vain words? I trust not. To that pledge we are solemnly bound. Wherever our flag floats, as long as time endures, we must see that it is sacredly observed.

The performance of this pledge cannot be intrusted to another; least of all can it be intrusted to ancient slave-masters, embittered against the slave. It must be performed by the National Government. The power that gave freedom must see that freedom is maintained. This is according to reason. It is also according to examples of history. In the British West Indies we find this teaching. Three of England’s greatest orators and statesmen, Burke, Canning, and Brougham, at successive periods united in declaring, from experience in the British West Indies, that whatever the slave-masters undertook to do for their slaves was always “arrant trifling,” and that, whatever might be its plausible form, it always wanted “an executory principle.”[21] More recently the Emperor of Russia, when ordering Emancipation, declared that all efforts of his predecessors in this direction had failed, because left to “the spontaneous initiative of the proprietors.” I might say much more on this head, but this is enough. I assume that no such blunder will be made by us,--that we shall not leave to the old proprietors the maintenance of that freedom to which we are pledged, and thus break our own promises and sacrifice a race.

* * * * *

Elsewhere I have alluded to Emancipation in Russia.[22] But the example is worthy our deepest study, unless we purposely reject history. All know that in 1861 the Emperor by solemn proclamation gave freedom to upward of twenty-three million serfs; but it is not generally known by what supplementary provisions this freedom was assured.

I have in my hands an official copy of this great act, published at St. Petersburg, by which it is declared that the serfs, after an interval of two years, are “entirely enfranchised.”[23] Under this Proclamation, a new set of local magistrates is constituted, with “special court” and “justices of the peace” in each district, to superintend the working of the Proclamation, and to examine on the spot all questions arising from Emancipation. The provision is not unlike our Bureau of Freedmen, which is vindicated by this example.

The good work did not stop here. The Emperor did not leave the freedmen without protection, handed over to the tender mercies of former owners. By a careful series of “Regulations” accompanying the Proclamation, prepared with minutest care, and divided into chapters and sections, their rights are secured beyond question. A copy of this remarkable document shows it to be a model for generous imitation.