Washington, D.C., _December_ 18, 1865.



REPORT OF CARL SCHURZ ON THE STATES OF SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA, ALABAMA,
MISSISSIPPI, AND LOUISIANA.

Sir: When you did me the honor of selecting me for a mission to the States
lately in rebellion, for the purpose of inquiring into the existing
condition of things, of laying before you whatever information of
importance I might gather, and of suggesting to you such measures as my
observations would lead me to believe advisable, I accepted the trust with
a profound sense of the responsibility connected with the performance of
the task. The views I entertained at the time, I had communicated to you
in frequent letters and conversations. I would not have accepted the
mission, had I not felt that whatever preconceived opinions I might carry
with me to the south, I should be ready to abandon or modify, as my
perception of facts and circumstances might command their abandonment or
modification. You informed me that your "policy of reconstruction" was
merely experimental, and that you would change it if the experiment did
not lead to satisfactory results. To aid you in forming your conclusions
upon this point I understood to be the object of my mission, and this
understanding was in perfect accordance with the written instructions I
received 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 informed
you, before leaving the north, that I could not well devote more than
three months to the duties imposed upon me, and that space of time proved