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.”