Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/298

264 There seems to be a strange hallucination at Washington—and a strange logic.

How can the President expect to organize governments on the plan he is pursuing! Then how can he undertake to put a governor over a State, and at the same time say that he has not the power to recognize loyal people as voters!

I deplore the course he has taken. It divides the North, and, if not arrested, will postpone the day of tranquillity and reconciliation. 

 &emsp; Well, now I know what the President wants: I am to visit the Southern States, in order to inform myself thoroughly on the conditions prevailing there, give my opinion of them to the Government and make certain suggestions. He complained of being unable to procure reliable information and, consequently, being always obliged to act in the dark. I went at once to Stanton to talk the matter over with him. Stanton s answer to my inquiry was that he considered it absolutely necessary that I accept the mission; that my report, even if it did not decide the President's course of action, would be of the most vital interest in the discussions of the next Congress; that the President could not simply put my report into his pocket; that my opinions and experiences would go to the public officially, and could not fail to have some influence. But if I declined, the President would be able later to say to the radicals: “I have acted upon the information which was at my command. I wished to send down one of your own men to enlighten me about the state of affairs and give me his advice, but he did not wish to go!”

Stanton is right. I told the President this morning that