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diff --git a/35559.txt b/35559.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6854b56 --- /dev/null +++ b/35559.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4583 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Reconstruction of Georgia, by Edwin C. Woolley + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Reconstruction of Georgia + Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, Vol. 13, No. 3, 1901 + +Author: Edwin C. Woolley + +Release Date: March 12, 2011 [EBook #35559] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + + +3 + +THE RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA + + + + + STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC LAW + + EDITED BY THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE OF + COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY + + VOLUME XIII] [NUMBER 3 + + + THE RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA + + + BY EDWIN C. WOOLLEY, Ph.D. + + + New York + THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS + THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, AGENTS + LONDON: P. S. KING & SON + 1901 + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + CHAPTER I + Presidential Reconstruction 9 + + CHAPTER II + The Johnson Government 16 + + CHAPTER III + Congress and the Johnson Governments--The Reconstruction + Acts of 1867 24 + + CHAPTER IV + The Administrations of Pope and Meade 38 + + CHAPTER V + The Supposed Restoration of 1868 49 + + CHAPTER VI + The Expulsion of the Negroes from the Legislature and + the Uses to which this Event was applied 56 + + CHAPTER VII + Congressional Action Regarding Georgia from December, + 1868, to December, 1869 63 + + CHAPTER VIII + The Execution of the Act of December 22, 1869, and the + Final Restoration 72 + + CHAPTER IX + Reconstruction and the State Government 87 + + CHAPTER X + Conclusion 109 + + Bibliography 111 + + + + +LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS + + +A. A. C. = American Annual Cyclopaedia. + +B. A. = Address of Bullock to the people of Georgia, a pamphlet dated +1872. + +B. L. = Letter from Bullock to the chairman of the Ku Klux Committee, +published in Atlanta in 1871. + +C. G. = Congressional Globe. + +C. R. = Report of the State Comptroller. + +E. D. = United States Executive Documents. + +E. M. = Executive Minutes (of Georgia). + +G. O. D. S. = General Orders issued in the Department of the South. + +G. O. H. = General Orders issued from the headquarters of the army. + +G. O. M. D. G. = General Orders issued in the Military District of +Georgia. + +G. O. T. M. D. = General Orders issued in the Third Military District. + +H. J. = Journal of the Georgia House of Representatives. + +H. M. D. = United States House Miscellaneous Documents. + +J. C., 1865 = Journal of the Georgia Constitutional Convention of 1865. + +J. C., 1867-8 = Journal of the Georgia Constitutional Convention of +1867-8. + +K. K. R. = Ku Klux Report (Report of the Joint Committee of Congress on +the Conditions in the Late Insurrectionary States, submitted at the 2d +session of the 42d Congress, 1872). + +M. C. U. = Milledgeville _Confederate Union_. + +M. F. U. = Milledgeville _Federal Union_. + +R. C. = Reports of Committees of the United States House of +Representatives. + +R. S. W. = Report of the Secretary of War. + +S. D. = United States Senate Documents. + +S. J. = Journal of the Georgia Senate. + +S. L. = Session Laws of Georgia. + +S. R. = United States Senate Reports. + +S. O. M. D. G. = Special Orders issued in the Military District of +Georgia. + +S. O. T. M. D. = Special Orders issued in the Third Military District. + +U. S. L. = United States Statutes at Large. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION + + +The question, what political disposition should be made of the Confederate +States after the destruction of their military power, began to be +prominent in public discussion in December, 1863. It was then that +President Lincoln announced his policy upon the subject, which was to +restore each state to its former position in the Union as soon as +one-tenth of its population had taken the oath of allegiance prescribed in +his amnesty proclamation and had organized a state government pledged to +abolish slavery. This policy Lincoln applied to those states which were +subdued by the federal forces during his administration, viz., Tennessee, +Arkansas and Louisiana. When the remaining states of the Confederacy +surrendered in 1865, President Johnson applied the same policy, with some +modifications, to each of them (except Virginia, where he simply +recognized the Pierpont government). + +Before this policy was put into operation, however, an effort was made by +some of the leaders of the Confederacy to secure the restoration of those +states to the Union without the reconstruction and the pledge required by +the President. After the surrender of Lee's army (April 9, 1865), General +J. E. Johnston, acting under the authority of Jefferson Davis and with the +advice of Breckenridge, the Confederate Secretary of War, and Reagan, the +Confederate Postmaster General, proposed to General Sherman the surrender +of all the Confederate armies then in existence on certain conditions. +Among these was the condition that the executive of the United States +should recognize the lately hostile state governments upon the renewal by +their officers of their oath of allegiance to the federal Constitution, +and that the people of the states so recognized should be guaranteed, so +far as this lay in the power of the executive, their political rights as +defined by the federal Constitution. Sherman signed a convention with +Johnston agreeing to these terms, on April 18. That he intended by the +agreement to commit the federal government to any permanent policy is +doubtful. But when the convention was communicated for ratification to his +superiors at headquarters, they showed the most decided opposition to +granting the terms proposed even temporarily. The convention was +emphatically disavowed, and on April 26 Sherman had to content himself +with the surrender of Johnston's army only, agreed to on purely military +terms.[1] + +Georgia formed a part of the district under the command of General +Johnston. As soon, therefore, as the news of the surrender could reach +that state, hostilities there ceased. On May 3, Governor Brown issued a +summons for a meeting of the state legislature to take place on May 22, in +order that measures might be taken "to prevent anarchy, restore and +preserve order, and save what [could be saved] of liberty and +civilization."[2] At a time of general consternation, when military +operations had displaced local government and closed the courts in many +places, when the whole population was in want[3] through the devastation +of the war or through the collapse of the Confederate currency which +followed the collapse of the Confederate army,[4] the need of such +measures was apparent. + +The calling of the legislature incurred the disapproval of the federal +authorities for two reasons. First, they regarded it as an attempt to +prepare for further hostilities, and they accordingly arrested Brown, +carried him to Washington, and put him in prison.[5] Second, in any case, +as the disavowal of the convention of April 18 had shown, they did not +intend to allow the state governments of the South to resume their regular +activities at once, and accordingly the commander of the Department of the +South issued orders on May 15, declaring void the proclamation of Joseph +E. Brown, "styling himself Governor of Georgia," and forbidding obedience +thereto.[6] + +The federal army now took control of the entire state government. +Detachments were stationed in all the principal towns and county seats, +and the commanders sometimes removed the civil officers and appointed +others, sometimes allowed them to remain, subject to their direction. +Military orders were issued regarding a wide range of civil affairs, such +as school administration, sanitary provisions, the regulation of trade, +the fixing of prices at which commodities should be sold, etc.[7] The +provost marshal's courts were further useful, to some extent, as +substitutes for the state courts, whose operations were largely +interrupted.[8] Directions to the officers of the Department admonished +them that "the military authority should sustain, not assume the functions +of, civil authority," except when the latter course was necessary to +preserve the peace.[9] This admonition from headquarters, issued after the +President's plan for reinstating Georgia in the Union had been put into +operation, reflects his desire for a quick restoration of normal +government. + +President Johnson announced his policy toward the seceded states in his +proclamation of May 29, 1865, regarding North Carolina. By it a +provisional governor was appointed for that state, with the duty of making +the necessary arrangements for the meeting of a constitutional convention, +to be composed of and elected by men who had taken the oath of allegiance +prescribed by, the President's amnesty proclamation of the same date, and +who were qualified voters according to the laws of the state in force +before the war. The proclamation did not state what the President would +require of the convention, but we may mention by way of anticipation that +his requirements were the revocation of the ordinance of secession, the +construction of a new state government in place of the rebel government, +the repudiation of the rebel debt, and the abolition of slavery within the +state. The provisional governor was further authorized to do whatever was +"necessary and proper to enable [the] loyal people of the state of North +Carolina to restore said state to its constitutional relations to the +federal government."[10] + +For each of the states subdued in 1865, except Virginia, a provisional +governor was appointed by a similar proclamation. On June 17, James +Johnson, a citizen of Georgia, was appointed to the position in that +state.[11] On July 13th, he issued a proclamation providing for the +election of the convention. Delegates were distributed on the basis of the +legislature of 1860; the first Wednesday in October was set for the +election, and the fourth Wednesday in the same month for the meeting of +the convention.[12] Next, the provisional governor undertook the task of +securing popular support to the programme of restoration. To encourage +subscription to the amnesty oath (a prerequisite to voting for delegates +to the convention) he removed the disagreeable necessity of taking it +before the military authorities by directing the ordinary and the clerk of +the Superior Court of each county to administer it.[13] He made many +speeches throughout the state urging the citizens to take the amnesty +oath, to enter earnestly into the election of the convention, and to +submit quietly to the conditions imposed by the President. + +His efforts were very successful. This was partly due to the place he held +in public estimation. He was a lawyer widely known and universally +respected. It was also partly due to the attitude of Governor Brown. +Brown, after a confinement of several weeks in prison at Washington, +secured an interview with President Johnson, and satisfied the President +that his object in calling the legislature was simply public relief, that +he had no intention to prolong the war, but calmly submitted to the fact +that his side was defeated.[14] This explanation and the spirit displayed +were so satisfactory to Johnson that Brown was released, and permitted to +return to Georgia. His return, remarked Johnson, "can be turned to good +account. He will at once go to work and do all he can in restoring the +state."[15] This prediction proved correct. The war governor of Georgia +became the type of those Secessionists who practised and counseled quiet +acceptance of the terms imposed by the conqueror, as the most sensible and +advantageous course. On June 29th he issued an address to the people of +Georgia, resigning the governorship, and advising acquiescence in the +abolition of slavery and active participation in the reorganization of the +state government according to the President's wishes.[16] The assumption +of this attitude by Brown grieved and offended some of his fellow +Secessionists. But the majority shared his opinion. The provisional +governor was welcomed, and his speeches approved on all sides.[17] The +result was that the convention which met on October 25th was a body +distinguished for the reputation and ability of its members. + +The convention was called to order by the provisional governor, and chose +as permanent chairman Herschel V. Johnson.[18] Then a message from the +provisional governor was read, suggesting certain measures of finance and +other state business requiring immediate action, suggesting also certain +alterations in the state judiciary, but especially pointing out the chief +objects of the convention, viz., the passage of those acts requisite for +the restoration of the state.[19] These measures the convention quickly +proceeded to pass. On October 26th it repealed the ordinance of secession +and the ordinance ratifying the Confederate constitution;[20] by paragraph +20 of article I. of the new constitution it abolished slavery in the +state; and on November 8th, the last day of the session, it declared the +state debt contracted to aid the Confederacy void.[21] The convention +provided for a general state election on the following November 15th, and +to expedite complete restoration, anticipated the regular work of the +legislature by creating congressional districts, in order that Georgia's +representatives might be chosen at that election.[22] + +One thing now remained to be done before the President would withdraw +federal power and leave the state to its own government, viz., +ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment. The legislature elected on +November 15th assembled on December 4th.[23] The provisional governor, +according to the President's directions,[24] laid the Thirteenth Amendment +before it. The Amendment was ratified on December 9th.[25] After this the +provisional governor was relieved, the governor elect was inaugurated +(December 14th), and the President sent a courteous message of recognition +to the latter.[26] + +Thus the President, having reconstructed the state government, had +restored Georgia to statehood so far as its internal government was +concerned. There remained only the admission of its representatives to +Congress to complete the restoration. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE JOHNSON GOVERNMENT + + +From the conduct of the state governments formed in Georgia and the other +southern states under the direction of President Johnson, the public +opinion of the North drew conclusions regarding three things; the +disposition of the people represented by those governments toward the +emancipated slaves, their attitude toward the cause for which they had +fought, and their feeling toward the power which had subdued them. This +chapter treats the Johnson government of Georgia from the same points of +view. + +Whatever may have been the prevailing disposition of the white people +toward the slaves while slavery flourished, shortly before the close of +the war that disposition was characterized by benevolence and gratitude. +In spite of the opportunities of escape, and of plunder and other +violence, offered by the times, the slaves had acted with singular +faithfulness and devotion.[27] The gratitude of their masters even went so +far as to propose plans for the general education of the negroes.[28] + +The close of the war and the advent of emancipation produced a change in +the conduct of the negroes, which in time produced a change in the +attitude of the white people. The negroes, from the talk which they heard +and did not understand, and from their ignorant imaginations, conceived +strange ideas of emancipation. They supposed it meant governmental +bounty, idleness, and wealth. They abandoned their work, wandered about +the country, collected in towns--in short, manifested a general +restlessness and demoralization. This caused alarm and apprehension among +the white people. There were other causes of friction between the two +races. Many negroes, on discovering that they were free, assumed what are +known as "airs;" and then as now, among things intolerable to a southern +white man a "sassy nigger" held a curious pre-eminence. The airs of the +negro and the wrath of the white man were both augmented by officious +members of the Freedmen's Bureau. Moreover, because the negroes had gained +by the humiliation of the South, they received a share of the venom of +defeat. Another element of discord was furnished by a particular part of +the white population, the so-called poor whites. These saw in the new +_proteges_ of the United States not only a rival laboring class, but a +menace to their social position, and hence assumed an attitude of jealousy +and hatred. Such were the conditions favorable to social disturbance which +followed emancipation. In the latter part of 1865 they had already begun +to produce their natural result. Violent encounters between negroes and +white men (in which the latter were almost always the aggressors) were +noticeably frequent.[29] + +To this social demoralization was added economic distress and perplexity. +The devastation of the war had fallen with especial severity upon Georgia. +Worse still, the people seemed unable to repair the damage or to return to +productive activity. Planters seemed unable to adapt themselves to the new +economic conditions. Slavery, the system which they understood, was gone; +they used the new system with little success, all the less because of the +restlessness of the negroes. + +Such were the conditions and dangers with which the Johnson government had +to deal as it best could. It was believed by northern statesmen that the +situation would be mastered by enfranchising the negroes and investing +them with a citizenship exactly equal to that of white persons.[30] The +Georgia constitution of 1865 made it clear that the Georgia law-makers +were not disciples of that school. That constitution confined the +electoral franchise to "free white male citizens."[31] It ordered the +legislature at its first session "to provide by law for the government of +free persons of color," for "guarding them and the state against any evil +that may arise from their sudden emancipation," and "for the regulation of +their transactions with citizens;" also "to create county courts with +jurisdiction in criminal cases excepted from the exclusive jurisdiction of +the Superior [county] Court, and in civil cases whereto free persons of +color may be parties," and to make rules "prescribing in what cases their +testimony shall be admitted in the courts."[32] + +The legislation enacted in 1866 in the interest of the public peace and +order consisted of-- + +1. An apprentice law. By this it was made the duty of the judges of the +county courts to bind out minors whose parents were dead or unable to +support them as apprentices until the age of twenty-one. A master +receiving an apprentice under this law was to teach him a trade, furnish +him food, clothes, and medicine, teach him habits of industry, honesty, +and morality, teach him to read the English language, and govern him with +humanity. On default of any of these requirements a master was to be +fined. The judge having charge of this law might, on application from an +apprentice or an apprentice's friend, dissolve the contract on account of +cruelty on the part of the master. An apprentice at the end of his term +was entitled to an allowance from the master "with which to begin life." +The amount was left to the master's generosity, but if he offered less +than $100 the apprentice might complain to the court, which should then +fix the amount.[33] + +2. A vagrancy law. Vagrancy was defined in the usual language of our +criminal codes. The penalty was heavier than these usually provide, +because the need of suppressing the vice was more urgent than usual. A +vagrant might be fined or imprisoned at the discretion of the court, or +sentenced to labor on the public works for not more than one year; or he +might, at the discretion of the court "be bound out to some person for a +time not more than one year, upon such valuable consideration as the court +may prescribe."[34] + +3. Alterations in the penal laws. These alterations were of two +contrasting kinds. The penalty for burglary in the night, arson, horse +stealing and rape was changed from long imprisonment[35] to death,[36] +which, however, might be in every case commuted to life imprisonment.[37] +On the other hand, several hundred crimes, including all the species of +larceny except that mentioned above, were reduced from felonies to +misdemeanors, and the penalties from imprisonment in the penitentiary to +fine, imprisonment in the county jail, or whipping, at the discretion of +the court.[38] This mitigation of punishment was made in consideration of +the negroes' ignorance of the nature of their offences, due to the fact +that these had before been punished by their masters and not by the law. +Probably the capacity of the penitentiary was also considered. + +To facilitate the transition from the old labor system to the new by +remedying in some degree the instability of the labor supply, the +legislature made it a crime to employ any servant during the term for +which he had contracted to work for another, or to induce a servant to +quit the service of an employer before the close of the period contracted +for.[39] + +Regarding the civil rights and relations of the negroes the following +legislation was passed: + +1. A law in these words: + + That persons of color shall have the right to make and enforce + contracts; to sue, be sued; to be parties and give evidence; to + inherit; to purchase, lease, sell, hold and convey real and personal + property; and to have full and equal benefit of all laws and + proceedings for the security of person and estate; and shall not be + subject to any other or different punishment, pain or penalty for the + commission of any act or offence than such as are prescribed for + white persons committing like acts or offences.[40] + +2. A provision, implied in the law above quoted, that negroes were to be +held competent witnesses in all courts in cases, civil or criminal, +whereto persons of color should be parties.[41] + +3. Certain provisions for establishing among the negroes the regular +relations between husband and wife, parent and child, in place of the +irregular relations which had prevailed under slavery.[42] + +4. The prohibition of marriage between negroes and white persons.[43] + +This last provision, and also the exclusion of the testimony of negroes +from cases whereto a colored person was not party, are of social rather +than legal importance, since their effect was to separate the two races, +but not to deprive the negroes of the equal protection and benefit of the +law. They were like the school law, which provided that only "free white +inhabitants of the state" were entitled to instruction in the public +schools.[44] + +The Johnson government thus assigned to the negroes a position of +political incapacity, social inferiority, but equality of civil rights. +This plan was very remote from that in favor in the North, but it is not +thereby condemned. As to the measures of the Johnson government for +remedying industrial distress and guarding against social dangers, we +search them in vain for the inhuman harshness to the negroes which they +were reputed to embody. This legislation of Georgia was more favorable to +the negroes than that of the other Johnson governments. But the North +looked at the conquered South as a whole, and if the difference of the +laws of Georgia from those of other states was noticed, it was quickly +forgotten. To northern public opinion the scheme for the treatment of the +negroes embodied in the Georgia laws, even if its mildness had been +recognized, would have been a cause of indignation. This was the +consummate hour of a humanitarian enthusiasm sprung from forty years of +anti-slavery agitation, and now intensified by the passions of the war. In +such an hour a plan which frankly denied to the negroes political and +social equality was looked upon as an offence against justice and +humanity. The Georgia law-makers had sought for a plan to meet immediate +necessities, not a plan for the elevation of the black race. To demand +that Georgia, stricken and menaced as she was, should pass by the needs of +the present and enter upon a vague scheme of philanthropy, was +unreasonable. It was just as unreasonable to conclude from the course +which Georgia took, that the black race in Georgia would be forever held +down, or that positive encouragement would be withheld as time went on. +Nevertheless the public opinion of the North made this demand and drew +these conclusions. + +Having stated the attitude of the Johnson government to the emancipated +slave, we next come to its attitude toward the fallen Confederacy and +toward the federal government. And with reference to this subject the +following facts are to be noticed: + +1. Almost the first act of the constitutional convention was to vote a +memorial to the President in behalf of Jefferson Davis.[45] + +2. The convention, instead of declaring that the ordinance of secession +was an act of illegality and error, and was null and void, laconically +declared it "repealed."[46] + +3. The convention anticipated the function of the legislature in order to +provide pensions for the wounded Confederate soldiers and for widows of +the dead.[47] + +Through the legislature Georgia showed herself equally frank in expressing +affection and regret for the lost cause, and equally wanting in an +attitude of humility to the federal government--or at least to the +dominant party in Congress. On the recommendation of the governor she +rejected the Fourteenth Amendment by an almost unanimous vote, largely +because of the disabilities it imposed on the leaders of the +Confederacy.[48] Instead of remaining a humbly silent spectator of the +controversy between the President and Congress, she boldly thanked the +President for his "regard for the constitutional rights of states," and +for "the determined will that says to a still hostile faction of her +recent foes, 'Thus far shalt thou go and no farther. Peace, be +still.'"[49] She continued to provide for the unfortunate champions of +the Confederacy, characterizing this action as "a holy and patriotic +duty."[50] She extended expressions of "sincerest condolence and warmest +sympathy" to the illustrious state prisoner, Jefferson Davis, declaring +that her "warmest affections cluster[ed] around the fallen chief of a once +dear but now abandoned cause."[51] + +These acts and resolutions expressed through the government the spirit +which was found among the people by direct observers--a spirit of +submission to irresistible force, in some cases sullen, in most cases +unrepentant.[52] At that time the absence of that spirit would have been +extraordinary. But the public opinion of the North regarded it not as the +aftermath of war, which would soon pass, but as a spirit which, if left +undisciplined, would break out in another war. + +This belief, and the belief that the negroes were destined by the southern +governments to suffer injustice and debasement, and that the ballot was +their only salvation, gave rise to two corresponding purposes--to chasten +the rebellious spirit of the South, and to invest the negroes with the +voting franchise by force. To destroy the state governments of the South +and rebuild them on a basis of negro suffrage would accomplish both these +purposes. This plan was also supported for the sake of a third purpose, +viz., to secure for the Republican party the votes of the negroes. There +were thus three classes of men bent on abolishing the Johnson government. +We may call them the Disciplinarians, the Humanitarians, and the +Republican Politicians. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +CONGRESSIONAL DELIBERATIONS AND ACTIONS CONCERNING THE JOHNSON +GOVERNMENTS, ENDING IN THE RECONSTRUCTION ACTS OF 1867 + + +When Congress met on December 4, 1865, President Johnson informed it of +the measures he had taken for restoring the southern states and of the +conditions he had required as necessary to restoration. He emphasized the +requirement that the Thirteenth Amendment be ratified (which, as stated in +Chapter I, was complied with in Georgia five days later). + + It is not too much to ask [he said], in the name of the whole people, + that, on the one side, the plan of restoration shall proceed in + conformity with a willingness to cast the disorders of the past into + oblivion; and that, on the other, the evidence of sincerity in the + future maintenance of the Union shall be put beyond any doubt by the + ratification of the proposed amendment.... The amendment to the + Constitution being adopted, it would remain for the states ... to + resume their places in the two branches of the national + legislature.[53] + +That Congress was not entirely pleased with the President's course; that +it did not agree with him considering the adoption of the Thirteenth +Amendment, the most that could be asked of the southern states, and that +it did not intend to give effect to his last suggestion, soon became +apparent. In the Senate, on the day on which the President's message was +read, Sumner offered resolutions to the effect that before the southern +states should be admitted to representation in Congress they must +enfranchise "all citizens," establish systems of education open to negroes +equally with white people, and choose loyal persons for state and +national offices.[54] The resolutions concluded: "That the states cannot +be precipitated back to political power and independence, but they must +wait until these conditions are in all respects fulfilled."[55] + +The House of Representatives, after organizing, immediately proposed to +the Senate a joint committee to "inquire into the condition of the states +which formed the so-called Confederate States of America, and report +whether they, or any of them, are entitled to be represented in either +house of Congress." The Senate accepted the proposal, and on December 13 +the committee was formed.[56] + +Five months passed before the committee reported. During that interval +Congress took no action determining the question at issue. A vast number +of bills and resolutions was introduced proposing various modes of +treatment for the southern states and various theories regarding their +status, which are interesting to the historian, but all of which fell by +the way. The Freedmen's Bureau Bill, if it had become law during this +period, would have implied that in the opinion of Congress the late +Confederate States were simply territory of the United States and not +states in the Union.[57] But this bill failed to be repassed over the +President's veto.[58] The Civil Rights Bill, which became law on April 9, +1866, made it a crime to discriminate against any person on account of his +race or color under the alleged authority of any state law or custom, gave +the federal judicial authorities power to arrest and punish any person +guilty of this offense, and also gave the federal courts jurisdiction +over any case before a state court in which such discrimination was +attempted.[59] This law created entirely new relations between federal and +state authority, but since it was passed as an act to enforce the +Thirteenth Amendment,[60] and applied to all states alike, it committed +Congress to no declaration regarding the status of the southern states. + +The joint committee made its long-expected report on April 30, 1866.[61] A +great number of witnesses had been examined regarding conditions in the +South, whose testimony fills a large volume and purports to be the basis +of the committee's report. The committee thought that since the Johnson +governments had been set up under the military authority of the President +and were merely instruments through which he had exercised that power in +governing conquered territory, they were not regular state governments. +This belief was confirmed by the fact that the existing state +constitutions had been framed by conventions acting under the constant +direction of the President, and also by the fact that they had not been +submitted to the people for adoption. The Johnson governments then were +not state governments at all, and so could not send representatives to +Congress. + +The committee appealed less to this constitutional argument than to +arguments of policy. It was willing to grant the "profitless abstraction" +that the southern states still remained states. The people of those states +had waged war on the United States. Though subdued, they were defiant, +disloyal, and abusive. They showed no disposition to abate their hatred +for the Union or their affection for the Confederacy. To accord to such a +people entire independence, taking no measures for security from future +danger; to admit their representatives to Congress; to allow conquered +enemies "to participate in making laws for their conquerors;" to turn over +to the custody of recent enemies the treasury, the army, the whole +administration--this would be madness unexampled. + +For these reasons the committee recommended a joint resolution and two +bills. The resolution proposed an amendment to the Constitution forbidding +any state to abridge the civil rights of citizens of the United States, or +to deny to any person the equal protection of the laws, providing that a +state which withheld the electoral franchise from negroes should suffer a +deduction from its Congressional representation, and providing that until +1870 all adherents to the Confederacy should be excluded from voting for +members of Congress and for Presidential electors. The first of the two +bills was to enact "that whenever the above recited amendment [should] +have become a part of the Constitution of the United States, and any state +lately in insurrection [should] have ratified the same, and [should] have +modified its constitution and laws in accordance therewith," then its +representatives might be admitted to Congress. The second bill was to make +ineligible to office under the United States men who had been prominent in +the service of the Confederacy. + +A minority of the committee took issue with the majority on both its legal +and its political views. The states under consideration, said the +minority, had never gone out of the Union; therefore, being states of the +Union, Congress could not lawfully deprive them of their rights as states. +That the Johnson governments were only the machinery of military +occupation, set up by the conquering general, was denied. + + We know [said the minority report] that [the southern states] have + governments completely organized, with legislative, executive, and + judicial functions. We know that they are now in successful + operation; no one within their limits questions their legality, or is + denied their protection. How they were formed, under what auspices + they were formed, are inquiries with which Congress has no concern. + +A state is under no restriction as to the mode of altering its +constitution; if it chooses to receive assistance from the President, or +any one else, the validity of the amended constitution is not affected. + +To the statement of the majority regarding the disposition of the southern +people, the minority opposed the high authority of General Grant. In an +official report he had said: + + I am satisfied that the mass of thinking men of the South accept the + present situation of affairs in good faith.... [They] are in earnest + in wishing to do what they think is required by the government ... + and if such a course was pointed out they would pursue it in good + faith. + +The right way in which to deal with the southern people was, then, to +conciliate them, as the President had tried to do, not to perpetuate their +hostility. + +If Congress adopted the program recommended by the majority, said the +minority, it would repudiate its own solemn declaration made in 1861, + + that this war is not waged upon our part in any spirit of oppression, + nor purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or + established institutions of those states, but to defend and maintain + the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union, with + all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several states + unimpaired.[62] + +The proposed provisions regarding ineligibility would dishonor the +government by annulling the pardons granted by the President. Further, the +program contradicted itself, since it proposed to treat the southern +communities as states, in submitting a constitutional amendment to them, +while at the same time imposing on them conditions to which a state could +not lawfully be subjected. + +After a debate of which these two opposing reports are a convenient +summary, Congress adopted the program of the committee. The joint +resolution, changed into a form embodying the present Fourteenth +Amendment, was passed on June 13, 1866.[63] The two bills proposed were +taken up, but Congress adjourned without bringing them to a final vote, +leaving the South to be regulated during the recess by the Civil Rights +Act, and by an act, passed over the President's veto on July 16, embodying +in a less drastic form the provisions of the Freedmen's Bureau Bill which +had failed in February.[64] + +When Congress met in December, 1866, the same voluminous mass of +reconstruction proposals and declaratory resolutions appeared in both +houses as at the last session. But the denunciation of the President and +of the Johnson governments was more emphatic in these bills and +resolutions, as well as in the debates. Sumner proposed a resolution to +this effect: + + That all proceedings with a view to reconstruction originating in + executive power are in the nature of usurpation; that this usurpation + becomes especially offensive when it sets aside the fundamental + truths of our institutions; that it is shocking to common sense when + it undertakes to derive new governments from the hostile populations + which have just been engaged in armed rebellion, and that all + governments having such origin are necessarily illegal and void.[65] + +Another resolution proposed that the committee of the House on territories +be instructed to take steps for organizing the districts known as +Virginia, North Carolina, etc., into states. Cullom said in a speech: + + During the last session of this Congress we sent to the country a + proposed amendment to the Constitution.... The people of the rebel + states by their pretended legislatures are treating it with scorn and + contempt.... It is time, sir, that the people of the states were + informed in language not to be misunderstood that the people who + saved this country are going to reconstruct it in their own way, the + opposition of rebels to the contrary notwithstanding.[66] + +Another fact which appeared prominently in the speeches and resolutions of +this session was the growing fear, real or assumed, that freedmen and +loyal persons in the South were in mortal danger. Bills for their +protection were introduced by the dozen. + + Shall we shut our eyes [said a speaker] to the abuse and murders of + loyal men in the South, and the continued destruction of their + property by wicked men, and give them no means of protection?[67] + +Stevens exclaimed that the United States would be disgraced + + unless Congress proceed[ed] at once to do something to protect these + people from the barbarians who [were] daily murdering them; who + [were] murdering the loyal whites daily, and daily putting into + secret graves not only hundreds but thousands of the colored + people.[68] + +At first the lower house resumed its consideration of the bills +recommended at the last session by the joint committee. But early in +February, 1867, these were dropped in favor of a new bill. This was the +Reconstruction Bill which became law on March 2. It provided that the +South should be divided into five districts, each to comprise the +territory of one or more of the southern states. The President should +assign to each district a military officer not below the rank of +brigadier-general, and should detail for his use a sufficient military +force. The duties of these officers should be "to protect all persons in +their rights of person and property, to suppress insurrection, disorder +and violence, and to punish, or cause to be punished, disturbers of the +public peace and criminals." To this end they might either allow local +courts to exercise their usual jurisdiction or organize special military +courts, for the procedure of which a few general regulations were provided +in the bill. Until the states should be by law restored to the Union, the +governments existing in them were declared "provisional only, and in all +respects subject to the paramount authority of the United States, at any +time to abolish, modify, control or suspend the same." + +In section 5 of this bill were stated the conditions upon which the +southern states might regain their places in the Union. In each of them a +constitutional convention should be elected. For members of this +convention all male "citizens" of the voting age should vote, except those +excluded from office by the pending Fourteenth Amendment. These were +forbidden to sit in the convention or to vote for delegates. The +convention thus formed should frame a new constitution, which should give +the franchise to all persons qualified to vote for delegates by the +present bill. The constitution should be submitted to the people of the +state for ratification, and to Congress for approval. When these should +have been received, and when the legislature elected under the new +constitution should have ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, then Congress +should pass an act admitting the reconstructed state to Congressional +representation, and the present law should cease to operate in that +state.[69] + +The principle of this bill was the same as that of the reconstruction +measures first undertaken at the suggestion of the joint committee, namely +the punishment of an enemy. The debate in the House was opened by a +felicitous quotation from Vattel on the public law applicable to the case +of a conquered enemy.[70] The punishment here provided was, however, more +severe than that first proposed. The former program was designed to offer +to the states the alternative of adopting the Fourteenth Amendment or +remaining out of the Union and under the Freedman's Bureau--which was, +indeed, regarded as a very obnoxious alternative. But the present bill +required them not only to ratify the amendment, but to adopt new +constitutions, elect new governments, enfranchise the negroes, and +disfranchise their most prominent and respected citizens; and meanwhile +imposed upon them not simply a bureau, to interfere in individual cases, +but the virtually absolute rule of a military governor. + +This bill was passed over Johnson's veto on March 2, 1867. On March 23 a +supplementary act was passed, providing means for executing section 5 of +the preceding act. The initiative in calling the constitutional +conventions, instead of being left to the states, to be exercised or not, +as they chose, was now assigned to the military governor. He, with the +assistance of such boards of registry as he might create, was directed to +register all persons qualified to vote for delegates. He should then fix +the number of delegates and arrange the plan of representation, set the +day for election and summon the convention.[71] + +A third reconstruction act was passed on July 19, 1867. It is unnecessary +to discuss it, since it was only explanatory of the acts of March 2 and +23, and added nothing which needs mention here to their provisions.[72] + + * * * * * + +Were the Reconstruction Acts constitutional? Since the Supreme Court has +failed, either voluntarily or otherwise, to decide every case brought +before it depending upon this question,[73] reasoning is not rendered idle +by authority. The Supreme Court has indeed expressed a definite opinion on +the subject, but has given no decision. + +The opinion referred to was expressed in the case of Texas _versus_ +White.[74] The Court said: + + These new relations [namely, those created by the civil war] imposed + new duties upon the United States. The first was that of suppressing + the rebellion. The next was that of re-establishing the broken + relations of the states with the Union. The authority for the + performance of the first had been found in the power to suppress + insurrection and to carry on war; for the performance of the second, + authority was derived from the obligation of the United States to + guarantee to every state a republican form of government. + +This the Court considered good authority for the passage of the +Reconstruction Acts. Most of the advocates of the acts based them upon +this theory. + +Now, upon that clause of Article IV., Section 4, of the Constitution which +says: "The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a +republican form of government," the _Federalist_ remarks: + + It may possibly be asked whether [this clause] may not become a + pretext for alterations in the state governments without the + concurrence of the states themselves.... But the authority extends no + further than to a _guarantee_ [the _Federalist's_ italics] of a + republican form of government, which supposes a pre-existing + government of the form which is to be guaranteed.[75] + +The intention of the clause, says the _Federalist_ in the same paper, is +simply to guard "against aristocratic or monarchic innovations." To one +not interested in establishing the constitutionality of the Reconstruction +Acts, it seems indisputable that the clause is rightly interpreted by the +_Federalist_. Story accepts this interpretation as a matter of course.[76] +Cooley groups the clause with that which forbids the states to grant +titles of nobility.[77] If this interpretation is correct, then the +guarantee clause gives no authority for destroying a state government of a +republican form and substituting another. + +There is, however, a constitutional basis for the Reconstruction Acts. It +is the war power of Congress. + +If a section of the people of a stale rebel against the government, the +resulting contest is not a war, in the sense of international law. But as +it may assume the physical character of a war, so it may call into +existence the rights and customs incident to war. Upon this principle the +federal government acquired the rights of war in the contest of +1861-1865.[78] Now the rights of war do not end with military operations; +one of these rights is the right of the victorious party, after an +unconditional surrender, to occupy the territory of the defeated party, to +govern or punish the people as it sees fit. If the United States +government acquired the rights of war, this right was included. The close +of a war is not simultaneous with the cessation of fighting. The surrender +of the southern armies was an important incident in the civil war; it was +not the end. If the federal government had the rights of war before this +incident, it had them after. + +The United States government might therefore say to the persons composing +the military power which it had subdued: As the terms of war, you are to +be governed by military government. If the persons against whom this +sentence is assumed to have been pronounced formed the majority of the +population of a state, one result of the sentence would be to suspend +independent state government. The United States government might choose +another punishment. It might say to the lately hostile persons: We forbid +you to participate in the federal government. If the persons so sentenced +form the majority of the population of a state, that state can send no +representatives to Congress while the sentence remains. These sentences +might be imposed permanently or only until such time as the people +sentenced should fulfil certain demands--hold certain conventions, pass +certain laws, adopt certain resolutions in certain ways. The federal +government can thus effect through its war powers what it cannot effect +through any power to interfere directly with a state government. It had no +right to reconstruct the government of Maine in 1865, because Maine had no +body of people over whom the federal government could exercise war powers. +It had the right to reconstruct the government of Georgia, because +nine-tenths of the people of Georgia were lawfully at its mercy as a +conqueror. + +Even if it be admitted, however, that the federal government had the power +described, it may still be argued that the Reconstruction Acts are not +legally justified. A conqueror has a right to govern a conquered people as +he pleases and as long as he pleases; he also has a right to alter his +mode of treatment and substitute another mode. But after he has imposed +certain terms as final, after the requirements of these terms have been +complied with, after he has restored the conquered people to their normal +position and rights and has unmistakably terminated the relation of +conqueror to conquered--then his rights of war are at an end. It may be +argued that this was the case when the Reconstruction Acts were passed. It +may be argued that in December, 1865, the federal government had, through +the President, terminated its capacity as a conqueror, and could regain +that capacity only by another war; that after that termination it had no +more power to reconstruct Georgia than to reconstruct Maine. + +This argument is irrefutable if we assume that the President had full +power to act for the federal government in the disposition of the defeated +Secessionists, and that therefore his acts of 1865 were the acts of the +federal government. In case of an international war, which is closed by a +treaty, the President may (if supported by the Senate) act finally for the +federal government, and estop that government (so far as international law +is concerned) from further action. But at the close of a civil war he +cannot exercise his diplomatic power. The disposition of the defeated +people in this case falls to the legislative branch of the government. + +If the President had pardoned a great majority of the Secessionists, that +fact perhaps might have legally estopped Congress from passing the +Reconstruction Acts. These acts were a war punishment, and a pardon cuts +off further punishment.[79] But the total number of persons who received +amnesty under the proclamation of May 29, 1865, was 13,596,[80] which was +of course only a small fraction of the Secessionist population. + +The passage of the Reconstruction Acts may thus be regarded, from a legal +point of view, as simply the substitution of one method of treating the +defeated enemy for another. The change was from mildness to harshness. It +was doubly bitter to the defeated enemy, after he had been led to believe +that his punishment was over, to be subjected to a worse one. But these +are not legal considerations. + +That the Reconstruction Acts required communities not states to ratify a +constitutional amendment did not affect their legality. That an amendment +depended for its validity on such ratification might make the amendment +void (though even from this result there is a means of escape in the +theory of relation, to be mentioned later), but that would not affect the +act requiring the ratification. That this requirement was not made with +the exclusive purpose of obtaining votes for the passage of the amendment +is shown by a resolution introduced into the House of Representatives on +July 21, 1867, which reads: + + _Resolved_, That in ratifying amendments to the Constitution of the + United States ... the said several states ... are wholly incapable + either of accepting or rejecting any such amendment so as to bind the + loyal states of the Union, ... and that when any amendment ... shall + be adopted by three-fourths of the states recognized by the Congress + as lawfully entitled to do so, ... the same shall become thereby a + part of the Constitution.[81] + +What virtues the Reconstruction Acts had besides legal regularity will be +discussed later. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF POPE AND MEADE + + +In the Third Military District, of which Georgia was a part, the +Reconstruction Acts were administered from April 1, 1867, to January 6, +1868, by General Pope, and from January 6 to July 30, 1868, by General +Meade.[82] The present chapter will describe, first, the manner in which +these men conducted the political rebuilding of Georgia, and second, the +manner in which they governed during this process. + +On April 8 Pope issued his first orders regarding the registration of +voters. The three officers commanding respectively in the sub-districts of +Georgia, Florida and Alabama were directed to divide the territory under +them into registration districts, and for each of these to appoint a board +of registry consisting as far as possible of civilians.[83] On May 2 the +scheme of districts for Georgia was published. The state was divided into +forty-four districts of three counties each, and three districts of a city +each. For each district the names of two white registrars were announced, +and each of these pairs was ordered to complete the board by selecting a +negro colleague. The compensation of registrars was to be from fifteen +cents to forty cents for every name registered, varying according to the +density or sparseness of the population. It was made the duty of +registrars to explain to those unused to the enjoyment of suffrage the +nature of this function. After the lists were complete they were to be +published for ten days.[84] + +The unsettled condition of the negro population suggested to Pope the +possibility that many negroes would lose their right to vote by change of +residence. He therefore ordered on August 15 that persons removing from +the district where they were registered should be furnished by the board +of registry with a certificate of registration, which should entitle them +to vote anywhere in the state.[85] + +The election for deciding whether a constitutional convention should be +held, and for choosing delegates in case the affirmative vote prevailed, +was ordered to begin on October 29 and to continue three days. Registrars +were ordered to revise their lists during the fortnight preceding the +election, to erase names wrongly registered, and to add the names of +persons entitled to be registered. The boards of registry were to act as +judges of election, but registrars who were candidates for election were +forbidden to serve in the districts where they sought election.[86] + +The election was to occupy the last three days of October. On October 30 +Pope extended the time to the night of November 2, in order to give the +negroes ample opportunity to vote, which in their inexperience they might +otherwise fail to do.[87] + +After the election the following figures were announced:[88] + + Number of registered voters in Georgia 188,647 + Of these the negroes numbered 93,457 + " the white men[89] 95,214 + Number of votes polled 106,410 + " " for a convention 102,283 + " " against a convention 4,127 + +The delegates elected were ordered to meet in convention on December +9th.[90] On that day the convention met in Atlanta. Its business was not +completed until the middle of March in the following year. The +constitution which it framed more than met the demands of the +Reconstruction Acts. A single citizenship was established for all +residents of the state, in language borrowed from the Fourteenth Amendment +to the federal Constitution.[91] Legislation on the subject of social +status of citizens was forever prohibited.[92] The electoral right was +given to all male persons born or naturalized in the United States who +should have resided six months in Georgia.[93] Electors were privileged +from arrest (except for treason, felony or breach of the peace) for five +days before, during, and for two days after, elections, and the +legislature was ordered to provide such other means for the protection of +electors as might be necessary.[94] Other provisions presumably acceptable +to northern sentiment were the prohibition of whipping as a penalty for +crime,[95] and the command that the legislature should create a system of +public schools free to all children of the state.[96] + +By an ordinance of the convention, made valid by being embodied in +military orders, April 20, 1868, was appointed for the submission of the +new constitution to popular vote, and also for the election of members of +Congress and officers of the new state government.[97] This election +resulted in the adoption of the constitution by a majority of 17,699 +votes, and in the election of a governor (Rufus B. Bullock by name), a +legislature, and a full delegation to the lower house of Congress.[98] The +remaining requirement of the Reconstruction Acts was that the new +legislature convene and ratify the Fourteenth Amendment. This transaction +will be reserved for the next chapter. + + * * * * * + +General Pope was inspired by the ideas and emotions from which +reconstruction had sprung. He was an ardent friend of the reconstruction +measures. He was convinced of the importance of suppressing the old +political leaders in his district. He held with enthusiasm the optimistic +views prevalent in the North regarding the negroes. Their recent progress +in "education and knowledge," he said, was "marvellous," and if continued, +in five years the intelligence of the community would shift to the colored +portion.[99] The purport of his orders, the didactic style in which they +are couched, the declarations of his principles which frequently accompany +these orders, indicate the spirit in which he administered the office of +military governor. + +Most of the official acts of Pope concerned either the enforcement of +obedience and the suppression of disobedience to the letter and spirit of +the Reconstruction Acts, or the protection and promotion of the present +interests of the freedmen. + +In assuming command he announced that in the absence of special orders all +persons holding office under the state government would be permitted to +retain their positions until the expiration of their terms. Their +successors, however, were to be appointed by Pope alone; no elections +should be held in the state except those required by Congress. The general +expressed the hope that no necessity for interference in the regular +operation of the state government would arise. It could arise, he said, +only from the failure of state tribunals to do equal justice to all +persons.[100] A few weeks later he announced that this necessity would +also arise if any state officer interfered with or opposed the +reconstruction measures; such an officer, it was "distinctly announced," +would be deposed.[101] Governor Jenkins, on April 10, had issued a letter +to the public, advising them to abstain from registering and voting under +the Reconstruction Acts. Pope had excused him with a lecture, and then +issued the order referred to, to make clear that no more advice of that +sort from state officers would be permitted.[102] Opposition to +reconstruction by state officers was declared to include also the awarding +of state printing to newspapers which opposed reconstruction, and it was +ordered that thereafter the state's patronage should be given only to +loyal papers.[103] Another measure to the same end was the order that no +state court should entertain any action against any person for any acts +done under the military authority.[104] But while opposition by state +officers was thus dealt with, freedom of public opinion was emphatically +declared. The declaration accompanied a public reprimand administered to +the post commander at Mobile for interference with a newspaper.[105] + +The careful consideration for the needs of the freedmen shown in the +general's method of forming the boards of registry, in his instructions to +the registrars, in his provision of certificates of registration to +migrating citizens, and in his extension of the time of election, has been +pointed out. Of a similar character was the warning to employers that any +attempt to prevent laborers from voting, or to influence their votes by +docking wages, threats, or any other means, would be severely dealt +with.[106] + +In his first general orders, as we have said, Pope warned the judiciary +against racial prejudice. It was probably disregard of this warning which +caused the removal of about a dozen judges, justices of the peace, and +sheriffs.[107] In the interest of equal justice, Pope also ordered that +grand and petit jurors should be selected impartially from the lists of +voters registered under the Reconstruction Acts.[108] Besides this general +protection, individual relief was given by release from arrest, mitigation +of the conditions of confinement, reduction of fines, and other special +dispensations.[109] The method of securing justice mentioned in the Act of +March 2, 1867, namely by ordering the trial of cases by military +commissions, was employed by Pope only once.[110] + +Such was the administration of Pope. Its influence on the _personnel_ of +the state government was large, but was exercised only slightly through +removal, chiefly through appointment to fill vacancies. Pope removed about +fifteen state officers (almost all of whom were the judicial officers +mentioned in the preceding paragraph). He filled about two hundred +vacancies.[111] It is significant that a great number of these were caused +by resignation. His acts of interference with the action of state officers +were few, and with all his zeal for the success of reconstruction, he +favored freedom of speech. Nevertheless, his opinions and his personal +character, combined with such interference as he did practice, served to +gain for him the dislike of the people and the rather unjust reputation of +a petty tyrant. + +Though Meade lacked Pope's zealous enthusiasm for reconstruction, yet he +held much the same opinion as his predecessor regarding the duties with +which he was charged. Like Pope, he forbade the bestowal of public +patronage on anti-reconstruction newspapers.[112] Like Pope, he thought +it his duty to depose state officers who opposed the execution of the +Reconstruction Acts. When he assumed command he found the convention at +loggerheads with the governor and the state treasurer. The convention had +levied a tax to pay its expenses, and pending the collection of it had +directed the treasurer to advance forty thousand dollars.[113] The +treasurer (Jones by name) declined to do this except on a warrant from the +governor, according to the regular practice. Meade requested Jenkins to +issue the warrant. Jenkins refused, on the ground that the act would +violate the state constitution under which he held office, and that even +if it were authorized by the Reconstruction Acts (which he denied), that +was an authorization contrary to the Constitution of the United States, +upon which he would not act.[114] Thereupon, on January 13, 1868, Meade +issued an order by which the governor (designated as the "provisional +governor") and the treasurer (also designated as "provisional") were +removed and Brigadier-General Ruger and Captain Rockwell "detailed" to act +as governor and treasurer respectively.[115] For this act the convention +rewarded Meade with a resolution of gratitude.[116] Before the end of the +same month the state comptroller and the secretary of state were also +removed for obstructing reconstruction,[117] and later the mayor and the +entire board of aldermen of Columbus shared the same fate.[118] + +Toward the freedmen General Meade assumed the attitude of his predecessor. +He made similar rules to protect them, in voting, from coercion by +employers.[119] On the other hand, observing that too frequent enticement +of negroes to political meetings was disturbing industry, he announced +that interference of this sort with the rights of employers by political +agitators would meet with the same punishment as interference with the +rights of freedmen.[120] + +Besides following the two policies of suppressing resistance and +protecting freedmen, Meade used his power to a great extent simply in the +interest of the general welfare. Public peace and order seemed threatened +on the eve of the April election. Orders issued on April 4 expressed the +belief that there existed a concerted plan, extending widely through the +Third District and apparently emanating from a secret organization, to +overawe the population and affect elections. Both military and civil +officers were ordered to arrest publishers of incendiary articles and to +organize special patrols.[121] Troops were distributed so as to command +the parts chiefly in danger,[122] and the frequent resignation of office +by sheriffs occasioned the order that no more resignations would be +permitted, but that the sheriffs must retain their offices and execute the +law.[123] By way of benevolent despotism, Meade, at the request of the +convention, suspended the operation of the bail process and of the writ of +_capias satisfaciendum_, and promulgated the provisions of the new +constitution for the relief of debtors until the constitution should +become law.[124] Likewise he gave special orders in eight or ten cases +suspending trails, releasing prisoners, and otherwise preventing hardship +or failure of justice. Whereas Pope had convened one military court, Meade +convened six,[125] and before these thirty two cases were tried. Meade +appointed about seventy state officers and removed about twenty. + +These facts show that the two administrations we are considering were +alike in policy, and that in action Meade's was the more vigorous. +Nevertheless, while Pope was disliked, Meade, thanks to a more attractive +character, enjoyed a certain popularity. + + * * * * * + +Such was the process by which the Disciplinarians, the Humanitarians, and +the Republican Politicians hoped to gain their respective purposes. What +were the results of the process by the end of the administration of Meade? + +For the Disciplinarians they were not encouraging. Military government was +received not as discipline but as bullying. The spirit which +reconstruction was designed to quell was only embittered; for to those who +entertained it reconstruction was not the chastening of the nation, but +the domineering of a political party, which it was hoped and believed +would soon lose its ascendency.[126] + +For the Humanitarians reconstruction had produced written laws regarding +equality of civil and political rights, which were deemed a subject of +congratulation. Outside the laws they would have found less encouragement. +The kindness of the white people toward the negroes had been changed to +apprehension by the events of 1865. When the advent of negro suffrage +brought the carpet-baggers to the South to marshal the negro voters for +their own benefit, and when these men began to disturb the negroes by +organizing them into mysterious Union Leagues and giving them +indigestible ideas of their rights, apprehension became alarm. Negroes +seized property of all kinds--including even plantations--by violence, +supposing this to be one of their new rights. Already they had raised a +new terror by crimes against white women, hitherto unknown. Some +thoughtful men believed that the best defence against the dangers +apprehended from the disturbed black population was kindness and friendly +influence.[127] That opinion was not heard after the arrival of the +carpet-baggers; its methods were then seen to be inadequate. Secret +organizations were formed by white men for protection against the negroes. +These organizations, which sowed the seed of a subsequent harvest of +crime, at first included men of the best character and of the highest +standing.[128] Thus reconstruction, together with its written laws, had +produced conditions which made the net Humanitarian results doubtful, at +least for the moment. + +For the Republican Politicians reconstruction did not produce in Georgia +all that was to be desired. When the enterprise was first launched some of +the white men, though offended, favored accepting the inevitable and +endeavoring to elect good men to the constitutional convention and to the +new state government.[129] Others, carried further by their anger, +determined to take no part in elevating the negroes and debasing their +heroes. Prominent among these, as we have said, was Governor Jenkins. +These men stayed at home on October 29, 1867, contemptuously ignoring the +"bogus concern called an election," which occurred on that day.[130] Many +of these latter, by the time the "motley crew assembled at Atlanta" had +finished its labors, decided to follow the example of the former. A +convention met at Macon on December 5, 1867, formed a party, the Georgia +Conservatives, named a ticket, with John B. Gordon at the head, and began +a powerful campaign for the defeat of negroes and adventurers at the April +election.[131] To make an active fight was recognized as a better course +than to stand in ineffectual scorn.[132] As a result the sweeping victory +expected by the Republican Politicians did not occur in Georgia. A +Republican governor was elected; but in the state senate the seats were +equally divided between the Republicans and the Conservatives, in the +state house of representatives the Conservatives obtained a large +majority, and of the seven Congressmen elected three were +Conservatives.[133] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE SUPPOSED RESTORATION OF 1868 + + +The passage of the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 determined the course of +reconstruction, but did not stop discussion. When Congress met in +December, 1867, the acts passed continued to be attacked and defended and +new bills to be introduced and dropped. But the plan as adopted remained +untouched, with one exception. + +One of the reasons given by the joint committee on reconstruction for +abolishing the Johnson governments was that the Johnson constitutions had +not been ratified by popular vote, and therefore did not rest upon the +consent of a majority of the people. To avoid a like defect in the new +governments the act of March 23 had provided that the new constitutions +should be regarded as adopted only if a majority of the registered voters +took part in the vote on the question of adoption. At its next session +Congress repented of this provision; it was now seen to involve the risk +that the opponents of reconstruction in the southern states would defeat +the new constitutions by the plan of inaction. This risk should be +avoided, since the adoption of a state constitution probably meant the +election of a Republican state government, and hence of Republican +Senators, as well as Republican Congressional Representatives and +Republican Presidential Electors in November, 1868. These advantages would +be lost if the new constitutions were defeated. Therefore, by an act which +became law on March 11, 1868, the reconstruction legislation was amended +so as to provide that elections held under that legislation should be +decided by a majority of the votes cast. This act also adopted as part of +the general scheme two expedients already employed by Pope in the Third +District. That is to say, it provided that any registered voter might vote +in any election district in his state, provided he had lived there ten +days, and that the elections should be "continued from day to day."[134] + +Aside from these alterations, Congress allowed reconstruction to complete +its course according to the first plan. Within the first six months of +1868 North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida, besides +Georgia, had adopted new constitutions. According to the Act of March 2, +1867, two more steps would complete the process for these states; namely, +the ratification by their legislatures of the Fourteenth Amendment, and +the declaration "by law" (provided Congress approved the constitutions) +that they were entitled to representation in Congress.[135] Congress now +decided, instead of waiting for the ratification of the amendment, to pass +the declaratory law at once, which should operate as soon as the +ratification should have occurred. By this method one act would suffice +for all the states which had adopted constitutions. + +The bill for this purpose was called the Omnibus Bill. It provided that +North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and also +Alabama,[136] should be admitted to representation in Congress as soon as +their legislatures elected under the new constitution should have ratified +the Fourteenth Amendment, on condition that the provisions of that +amendment regarding eligibility to office should at once go into +operation in those states, and on condition that the constitution of none +of them should ever be amended so as to deprive of the right to vote any +citizens entitled to that right as the constitutions then stood. A special +condition was imposed on Georgia; namely, that Article V., section 17, Sec.Sec. +1 and 3 of her constitution be declared void by the legislature. A +precedent for such a requirement was found in the act of 1821, admitting +Missouri to statehood.[137] The bill gave the governors-elect in the +states concerned authority to call the legislatures immediately to fulfill +the required conditions.[138] + +The Omnibus Bill became law on June 25, 1868. On the same day Rufus B. +Bullock, the governor-elect of Georgia, issued a proclamation in +accordance with the act, summoning the legislature to meet on July +4th.[139] + +Now, the Reconstruction Act of July 10th, 1867, had provided as follows: + + All persons hereafter elected or appointed to office in said military + districts, under any so-called state or municipal authority, or by + detail or appointment of the district commanders, shall be required + to take ... the oath of office prescribed by law for officers of the + United States.[140] + +On April 15th Meade had announced that in accordance with this provision +the members of the legislature to be elected on April 20th would be +required to subscribe to the Test Oath. But he was later advised from +headquarters, and by certain prominent members of Congress, that the +persons contemplated by the act of July 19, 1867, were those elected under +the Johnson government, not under the new government; and that therefore +the men elected on April 20th were not "officers elected under any +so-called state authority" in the sense of the act of July 19th. The +eligibility of these men, he was told, was to be determined by the +provisions of the new constitution and by the Fourteenth Amendment, and +they were not required to take the Test Oath.[142] Meade therefore did not +enforce his order. But though the new government was exempt from this one +requirement of the Reconstruction Acts, it was subject to the provision +which said: + + ... until the people of said rebel states shall be by law admitted to + representation in the Congress of the United States, any civil + government which may exist therein shall be deemed provisional only, + and in all respects subject to the paramount authority of the United + States. + +Over the new state government, as over the old, Meade would exercise the +powers of a district commander until the legislature by complying with the +requirements of the Omnibus Act, should have made that act operative. + +On June 28 Meade relieved General Ruger of the office of governor and +appointed in his place the governor-elect, Bullock, whom he directed to +organize the legislature on July 4.[143] When the legislature met on that +day, therefore, Bullock called each house to order in turn, and under his +direction as chairman the members were sworn in (by the official oath +prescribed in the state constitution), and the presiding officers elected. + +On July 7 the legislature informed the governor that it was organized and +ready to proceed to business. Bullock, instead of replying, wrote to +Meade, stating that it was alleged that a number of men seated in the +legislature were ineligible to office according to the proposed Fourteenth +Amendment, and hence were disqualified from holding their seats by the +Omnibus Act.[144] Meade replied on July 8 that the allegation was serious, +and that he would not recognize as valid any act of the legislature until +satisfactory evidence should be presented that the legislature contained +no member who would be disqualified from office by the Fourteenth +Amendment.[145] Bullock sent Meade's letter to the legislature, and both +houses appointed committees to investigate the eligibility of every +member. These committees reported on July 17. The senate committee +reported that no senators were ineligible. A minority of the committee +found, on evidence detailed in its report, that four were ineligible. +After much debate the majority report was adopted.[146] The house +committee reported that two representatives were ineligible. A minority +report found three ineligible. A second minority report found that none +were ineligible. The last was adopted.[147] + +The conclusions of the two houses may be regarded, in view of these +proceedings, with some just suspicion. Bullock in informing Meade of them +expressed the opinion that the legislature had failed to furnish the +"satisfactory evidence" upon which Meade had conditioned his +recognition.[148] If Meade had desired to know the exact truth, he might +well have accepted Bullock's advice and ignored the reports, investigated +the records of the legislators himself, and excluded those whom he found +ineligible. But Meade desired only to see that the acts of Congress were +complied with. "Satisfactory evidence" was evidence not logically, but +formally satisfactory. Meade followed the established principle that +legislative bodies are the final judges of the eligibility of their +members. He considered the statement of the legislature that its members +were all eligible formally satisfactory evidence that the acts of Congress +were obeyed. Having this evidence, he refused to interfere further. His +decision was influenced partly by reluctance to interfere more than was +necessary, and partly by aversion to aiding Bullock to gain a party +advantage, which he alleged to be the governor's chief motive in urging +the rejection of the reports.[149] He acted with the approval of the +general of the army.[150] + +He notified the governor that the legislature was legally organized from +the date of the adoption of the reports (July 17).[151] Bullock +transmitted this message to the legislature on July 21. On that day both +houses ratified the Fourteenth Amendment and declared void the sections of +the constitution required to be so declared by the Omnibus Act.[152] + +As soon as the legislature had performed these acts Georgia was, +presumably, according to the acts of Congress, a state of the Union. On +July 22 Meade directed all state officers holding by military appointment +to turn over their offices to those elected or appointed under the new +government.[153] On July 28 orders issued from the headquarters of the +army stating that the general commanding in the Third Military District +had ceased to exercise authority under the Reconstruction Acts, and that +Georgia, Florida and Alabama no longer constituted a military district, +but should henceforth constitute an ordinary military circumscription--the +Department of the South.[154] On July 22 Bullock, who had up to that time +been governor by military appointment, was inaugurated in the regular +manner and became governor under the state constitution.[155] On July 25, +the seven congressmen-elect from Georgia were seated in the House of +Representatives.[156] The Georgia Senators would doubtless have been +seated at this time if they had arrived before the close of the session; +but they were elected by the legislature on July 29,[157] two days after +Congress adjourned.[158] In view of Georgia's compliance with the +Reconstruction Acts and the Omnibus Act, and in view of the various +official recognitions that that compliance was complete, there could now +be no doubt that her reconstruction was accomplished and her statehood +regained. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE EXPULSION OF THE NEGROES FROM THE LEGISLATURE AND THE USES TO WHICH +THIS EVENT WAS APPLIED + + +When the Georgia Republicans, or Radicals, as they were locally called, +found that instead of a sweeping victory they had won only a governorship +hemmed in by a hostile legislature, an effort was made, as we have said, +to improve their position through the interference of Meade. Meade refused +to aid them. When, a short time afterwards, federal power, on which they +had hitherto relied, was completely withdrawn, they seemed left to make +the best of an uncomfortable position without any assistance. At this +point a god appeared from the machine. + +In the state senate there were three negroes, in the lower house +twenty-five.[159] Their presence was an offense. It was an offense not +merely to the Conservative members. Some of the Republicans entertained +Conservative sentiments and principles, but supported reconstruction +simply in order to hasten the liberation of the state from Congressional +interference.[160] To them as well as to the Conservatives "negro rule" +was obnoxious. Negro rule, so far as it consisted in negro suffrage, was +established by the constitution. But negro office-holding was not so +established expressly. As early as July 25, 1868, the question, whether +negroes were eligible to the legislature, was raised in the state +senate.[161] + +Legally considered, the question had two sides, each supported by eminent +lawyers. For the negroes it was argued that Irwin's Code, which was made +part of the law of the state by the constitution,[162] enumerated among +the rights of citizens the right to hold office.[163] Negroes were made +citizens of equal rights with all other citizens by the new +constitution.[164] Therefore they had the right to hold office. It was +true that the constitution did not grant the right to hold office to the +negroes expressly, as it granted the right to vote; but in view of the +fact that the convention which made the constitution was elected by 25,000 +white and 85,000 colored men, and that that constitution was adopted by +35,000 white and 70,000 colored men, it would be absurd to suppose that +the intent of that instrument was to withhold office from the +negroes.[165] On the other side, it was argued that the right to hold +office did not belong to every citizen, but only to such citizens as the +law specially designated, or to such as possessed it by common law or +custom. Irwin's Code could not be cited to prove that negroes had the +right, because that law had been enacted before the negroes had been made +citizens, and the word _citizens_ in it referred to those who were +citizens at that time. As the negro had no right to hold office because he +was a citizen, and as he could not claim the right from common law or +custom, he could obtain it only by specific grant of law. There was no +such grant. The argument for the negro was made by the Supreme Court of +the state in 1869, the opposing argument by one of the justices of that +court in a dissenting opinion.[166] + +Such were the legal aspects of the question, which were of course less +important than the political and the emotional aspects. The legislature +passed upon the issue in the early part of September, 1868, by declaring +all the colored members ineligible, and admitting to the vacated seats the +candidates who had received respectively the next highest number of +votes.[167] If there was some legal ground for unseating the negroes, +there was none for seating the minority candidates. It was done on the +authority of the clause in Irwin's Code which said: + + If at any popular election to fill any office the person elected is + ineligible, ... the person having the next highest number of votes, + who is eligible, whenever a plurality elects, shall be declared + elected.[168] + +But this clause is found under the title "Of the Executive Department," +and under the sub-head "Regulations as to All Executive Offices and +Officers." Under the next title "Of the Legislative Department," there is +no such provision. + +For a legislature to unseat some of the elected members because on not +untenable legal grounds it finds them ineligible, is not unusual. But the +act of the Georgia legislature could not, under the circumstances, be +regarded in the ordinary way. It showed strong racial prejudice. It was a +startling breach of the system which reconstruction had been designed to +institute, committed the very moment after the federal government withdrew +its hand. It fixed on Georgia at once the earnest and unfavorable +attention of northern public opinion. This fact enabled the Georgia +Republicans to bring the federal government again to their assistance. + +Their leader, Governor Bullock, at the next session of Congress (December, +1868), presented a letter to the Senate, saying that Georgia had not yet +been admitted to the Union. She had not been admitted by the Omnibus Act, +for that act provided that she should be admitted when certain things had +been done, and those things had not been done. By the Reconstruction Act +of July 19, 1867, all persons elected in Georgia were required to take the +Test Oath. The members of the present legislature had never taken it. +Therefore the action which that body had taken on July 21st, regarding the +Fourteenth Amendment, was not a ratification by a legislature formed +according to the Reconstruction Acts; it was simply a ratification by a +body which called itself the legislature. Hence the Omnibus Act had not +yet gone into effect as to Georgia, and Georgia was not yet entitled to +representation in Congress.[169] + +If this argument was valid in the winter of 1868, it must also have been +valid in the preceding summer. Yet in July Bullock had made no objection +to being inaugurated as governor of Georgia, on the ground that Georgia +had not become a state. He had not refused on that ground to issue on +September 10th a commission to Joshua Hill, reciting that he had been +regularly elected to the Senate of the United States by the legislature of +the state, and signed "Rufus B. Bullock, governor."[170] The argument was +an afterthought, not advanced until the expulsion of the negroes created a +favorable opportunity for a hearing. It conflicted with the declarations +and acts of the military authorities, and of the House of Representatives, +but the sentiment aroused by the expulsion of the negroes was considered +strong enough to sustain a repudiation of those declarations and acts. + +Direct appeal to this sentiment was the auxiliary to the above argument. +Bullock's letter to the Senate was accompanied by a memorial from a +convention of colored men held at Macon in October. It said that there +existed in Georgia a spirit of hatred toward the negroes and their +friends, which resulted in the persecution, political repression, +terrorizing, outrage and murder of the negroes, in the burning of their +schools, and in the slander, ostracism and abuse of their teachers and +political friends. Of this the act of the legislature was an instance and +an evidence. The aid of the federal government was implored.[171] + +Similar charges had been made, it will be remembered, in the debates of +1866 and 1867. Now, however, they began to be urged with an earnestness +and persistence altogether new. So conspicuous is this fact in the debates +in Congress that a southern writer ironically remarks: "From this time +forth the entire white race of the South devoted itself to the killing of +negroes."[172] The rest of this chapter will be devoted to considering how +much truth there was in the reported abuse of negroes and "loyal" persons. + +We stated in Chapter II. that after the war a bitter jealousy and +animosity toward the negroes arose among the lower class of the white +population, and in Chapter IV. that the restless conduct of the negroes +under the influences of reconstruction filled the upper class with such +alarm that they formed secret organizations in self-defence. This +practice, at first supported and led by good men of the higher class, +simply for defence, soon fell into the hands of the poor white class, the +criminal class, and the turbulent and discontented young men of all +classes, and became an instrument of revenge, crime and oppression. The +change, however, was not a complete transformation. A great deal of the +whipping inflicted upon negroes was _bona fide_ chastisement for actual +misdemeanors. This mode of punishment was the natural product of the +transition from the old social conditions, when the negroes were +disciplined by their masters, to the new conditions.[173] But besides +these acts of correction many outrages were committed upon negroes, and +also upon white men, simply from malice or vengeance, or other private +motive.[174] These outrages included some homicides.[175] The testimony of +credible contemporaries belonging to both political parties agrees that +the Ku Klux Klan and similar organizations were used only to a very small +extent for political purposes.[176] + +How many of these corrective or purely vicious acts were perpetrated upon +negroes? Democrats of that time commonly said that the number was +insignificant, that the peace was as well kept in Georgia as in any +northern state, and that statements to the contrary were invented for +political purposes.[177] The number was, indeed, greatly exaggerated by +Republicans, as some of the Republicans themselves admitted.[178] Making +allowance for the warping of the truth in both directions, and considering +the statements of the moderate Republicans,[179] and the admissions of +some of the Democrats,[180] remembering also the recent disbandment of the +army and the disturbed conditions of society, we must conclude that the +attacks on negroes, made by disguised bands and otherwise, were very +numerous. + +The friends of the negroes also fared badly. Philanthropic women who came +from the North to teach in the negro schools were almost invariably +treated with contempt and avoided by the white people.[181] This was due +partly to the lingering bitterness of the war and partly to the connection +of the negro schools with the Freedmen's Bureau. This institution, the +office of which was to set up strangers, from a recently hostile country, +to instruct the southern people in their private affairs, was in itself +odious. It was rendered more odious by the want of intelligence and tact, +and even of honesty, which is said to have frequently characterized its +officers. That the hatred thus aroused should be visited upon true +philanthropists who were connected with the Bureau was unfortunate, but +inevitable. As for the political friends of the negroes, the "loyal" men, +or in other words the white men who supported reconstruction, they were +habitually treated by the Conservative press and by Conservative speakers +with violent invective. Conservative editors and orators neither engaged +in nor recommended the slaughter or outrage of Radicals, but by +continually voicing furious sentiments, they furnished encouragement to +action of that sort by men of less intelligence and self-control.[182] + +The accounts of lawlessness and persecution in Georgia, though +exaggerated, undoubtedly had a substantial foundation. Whether this fact +was a good argument for renewed interference in the state government by +Congress is another question. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +CONGRESSIONAL ACTION REGARDING GEORGIA FROM DECEMBER, 1868, TO DECEMBER, +1869 + + +On December 7, 1868, the credentials of Joshua Hill, one of the Senators +elected by the Georgia legislature in the previous July, were presented in +the United States Senate. Immediately the letter of Governor Bullock and +the memorial of the negro convention were also presented. These documents, +seconded by a speech from a Senator dwelling on the fact that Georgia was +under "rebel control," secured the reference of Hill's credentials to the +committee on the judiciary.[183] This committee on January 25, 1869, +recommended that Hill be not admitted to the Senate.[184] + +The reason for this recommendation, said the committee's report, was that +Georgia had failed to comply with the requirements of the Omnibus Act, and +so was not yet entitled to representation in Congress. The failure here +referred to was not that alleged by Bullock--that the members of the +legislature had not taken the Test Oath--but the failure of the two houses +to exclude persons disqualified by the Fourteenth Amendment. The Omnibus +Act had provided that Georgia should be entitled to representation in +Congress when her legislature had "_duly_" ratified the Fourteenth +Amendment. The word _duly_ meant _in a certain manner_--namely, the manner +required by the rest of the act. The failure to exclude the disqualified +members was a departure from this manner. + +We saw in Chapter V. that each of the committees appointed by the Georgia +legislature in July to investigate the eligibility of members was divided, +that both houses voted that all were eligible in the face of detailed +evidence to the contrary, that the decision of the lower house +contradicted the majority of its committee, and that Meade accepted the +decision rather for the sake of convenience and finality than because it +was indisputably correct. On these facts and on some independent +investigation the Senate judiciary committee based its belief that the +legislature had failed to obey the Omnibus Act in this respect. + +Trumbull, of this committee, submitted a minority report. He admitted that +the decision of the legislature may have been incorrect. But he protested +that if the United States government intended to regard the presence of +half a dozen ineligible members in a body of two hundred and nineteen as +entirely vitiating the action of the legislature, it should have taken +this stand at first. If at first it had, through its representative, +Meade, overlooked the irregularity as a trifle, it seemed only just to +continue to overlook it, and not to make it now the occasion for +augmenting the turmoil in the state by fresh interference. + +But the majority rejoined that there were very good reasons for not +overlooking the irregularity. It was not a mere trifling departure from +the letter of the act of Congress, it was a violation of the spirit of +that act. "The obvious design" of the Omnibus Act "was to prevent the new +organization from falling under the control of enemies of the United +States." The expulsion of the negroes showed that that design had been +frustrated and that the government was under "rebel control;" it showed a +"common purpose to ... resist the authority of the United States." +Moreover, the "disorganized condition of society" in the state made it +necessary for the federal government to intervene again in Georgia, not +only to vindicate its law, but to preserve order. + +The protest of Trumbull is significant as an early sign of the growth +within the Republican party of an opposition to the prolongation of +Congressional interference with the southern state governments. + +The report of the judiciary committee was not acted upon, and thus the +Senate avoided a categorical decision. But Hill was not admitted. A number +of bills relating to Georgia were introduced; a bill "to carry out the +Reconstruction Acts in Georgia" by Sumner,[185] a bill to repeal the act +of June 25, 1868, in so far as it admitted Georgia, and to provide for a +provisional government in that state, by Edmunds,[186] and others. All of +these soon lapsed. + +Meanwhile, in the House of Representatives the committee on reconstruction +had been instructed to examine the public affairs of Georgia and to +inquire what measures ought to be taken regarding the representatives of +Georgia in the House.[187] Many citizens of Georgia, black and white, +testified before the committee.[188] Among them Governor Bullock was +conspicuous, advocating the enforcement of the Test Oath qualification--a +fact which aroused great indignation in the state. + +The doubtful position in which Georgia now hung raised the question, what +should be done with her electoral votes in February, 1869? Congress had +passed a joint resolution on July 20, 1868, to the effect that none of the +states affected by the Omnibus Act should be entitled to vote in the +Electoral College in 1869 unless at the time for choosing electors it had +become entitled to representation in Congress.[189] As February 10, the +day for counting the votes, approached, it was considered desirable, in +order that the ceremony might pass off smoothly, that the Senate and the +House should agree by a special rule what should be done with Georgia's +votes. Now, the Senate could not agree to a rule declaring that the votes +should be counted, for that would imply that the state had become entitled +to representation in Congress, and the Senate had refused to admit Hill. +But the House could not concur in declaring that the votes should not be +counted; for that would imply that the state had not become entitled to +representation in Congress, and the House had admitted seven +Representatives from the state. It was therefore agreed by a concurrent +resolution passed February 8, that at the count of the electoral votes, in +case the Georgia votes should be found not to affect the result +essentially (which it was well known would be the case), then the +presiding officer should make the following announcement: + + Were the votes presented as of the state of Georgia to be counted, + the result would be for ---- for President of the United States, -- + votes; if not counted, for ----, for President of the United States, + -- votes; but in either case ---- is elected President of the United + States; + +and a similar announcement of the votes for Vice-President.[190] +Accordingly, on February 10, amid the wildest uproar, caused by the +blunders of a perplexed chairman and the violent protest of a group of +Representatives, led by Butler, against the execution of the special rule, +which had been rushed through the House without their knowledge, it was +announced that the electoral vote was as follows: + + For Grant and Colfax + Including Georgia's votes 214 + Excluding Georgia's votes 214 + + For Seymour and Blair + Including Georgia's votes 80 + Excluding Georgia's votes 71 + +and that in either case Grant and Colfax were elected.[191] + +On March 5, the first day of the forty-first Congress, the House of +Representatives was able to get rid of the Georgia Representatives on a +technicality. The same delegation which had represented Georgia since +July, 1868, appeared again to finish its supposed term. Their credentials +failed to state to what Congress they had been elected, but authorized +them to take seats in the House of Representatives according to the +ordinance of the Georgia constitutional convention passed March 10, 1868. +Now, this ordinance provided that all the public officers who should be +elected on April 20 should enter on their duties as soon as authorized by +Congress or by the general commanding the military district, but should +continue in the same as long as they would if elected in the November +following.[192] These Congressmen, then, were elected to serve as if +elected in November, 1868, that is, they were elected members of the +forty-first Congress. But they had already served several months in the +fortieth. If they should serve through the forty-first they would exceed +the constitutional term. The convention of Georgia could make the first +term of all state officers longer than the regular term subsequently to +obtain; it could not so lengthen the term of members of the Congress of +the United States. The credentials were referred to the committee of +elections, and the House was thus relieved of the presence of the Georgia +representatives, which would have been an embarrassment in the subsequent +proceedings.[193] + +Several bills relating to Georgia were then introduced, which, though they +were not advanced very far, are worth noticing.[194] Their titles indicate +the purpose "to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment." Now, the Fourteenth +Amendment consists principally of prohibitions on states; it could not be +enforced in Georgia unless Georgia was a state. Georgia had (it was +assumed) admitted to her legislature men subject to the disqualifications +of the Fourteenth Amendment, and had excluded men from the legislature on +the ground of color, thus denying the equal protection of the laws to +citizens. The latter act had been done after the Fourteenth Amendment went +into effect (July 28, 1868[195]), the former before, but its effect +continued. If Georgia was a state, then, she had violated the amendment, +and Congress might correct these two acts by virtue of its power to +enforce the amendment. If Georgia was not a state, she had not violated +the Fourteenth Amendment, but her acts were subject to correction by +Congress, because her government was "provisional only." If, therefore, +Congress proposed to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment in Georgia, it +acknowledged that Georgia was a state, and so debarred itself from any +interference not necessary to enforce that Amendment. If it proposed to +interfere simply as with a provisional government, there was no such +limitation. + +The bills of the first session of the forty-first Congress proposed to +enforce the Fourteenth Amendment. To secure the enforcement of the +disqualification clause they provided that each member of the legislature +should be required to take an oath saying that he was not disqualified by +the amendment, and that those who did not so swear should be excluded. To +secure equal rights to the colored legislators they provided that all +persons elected to the legislature (according to General Meade's +announcement of the result of the election of 1868) who should take the +test oath required should be admitted, and that the expulsion of the +negroes should be declared void. The federal military authority was to +assist in executing these measures if requested by the governor. These +measures, it will be observed, were only such as might legally be taken +regarding Massachusetts if it violated the Fourteenth Amendment. + +At the next session of Congress, beginning in December, 1869, the policy +of enforcing the Fourteenth Amendment was abandoned for the alternative +policy of legislating for a provisional government. The reason for the +change was an emergency in which the Republican Politicians found +themselves. In the previous February Congress had passed the joint +resolution proposing the Fifteenth Amendment. By December it seemed +certain that the number of ratifying states would fall short of the +required three-fourths by just one, unless Congress could prevent it.[196] +Georgia furnished the means of preventing it. In March her legislature had +rejected the proposed amendment.[197] It could now be forced to ratify and +thus complete the necessary majority. Georgia must then be treated not as +a state which had violated the Fourteenth Amendment, but as a provisional +organization subject to the uncontrolled will of Congress. A bill was +accordingly prepared containing the same provisions as the bills of the +preceding session, but adding this clause: "That the legislature shall +ratify the Fifteenth Amendment before Senators and Representatives from +Georgia are admitted to seats in Congress." In accordance with its +different legal basis the bill was entitled: "An act to promote the +reconstruction of the state of Georgia." + +Little need be said of the manner in which this bill was passed. The +usual partisan abuse prevailed on both sides. The Democrats made a +remarkable opposition, led by Beck of Kentucky.[198] The Republicans were +aided by a message from President Grant urging the intervention of +Congress,[199] by the report of the reconstruction committee on affairs in +Georgia,[200] and by a report from General Terry, who was stationed in the +Department of the South, alleging that disorder was rampant in Georgia and +the need of further military government by federal authority +imperative.[201] Terry's superior officer, General Halleck, added a +postscript to Terry's report to the effect that Terry was mistaken, that +the disorder in Georgia was much less than was commonly believed, and that +federal interference was highly inadvisable.[202] Aided by the report and +undeterred by the postscript, the Republicans discoursed of "rebel +control" and "murder" with unprecedented effect. Butler said that Congress +must act instantly; if action on the bill is postponed, he said, "the rest +of the Republican majority of that state may be murdered, even during +Christmas week, when the Son of God came on earth to bring peace and good +will to man."[203] + +The bill became law on December 22, 1869.[204] Congress thus decided at +last to adopt the opinion of the Senate judiciary committee, that Georgia +had not become a state through the Omnibus Act. General Meade, in +declaring the contrary, had been mistaken. Bullock, in calling himself +governor, had been mistaken. The House of Representatives, in admitting +members sent from Georgia, had been mistaken; they were _de facto_ +members, but had no legal right there.[205] The legal basis of the act of +December 22 was then the same as that of the original Reconstruction Acts. + +The question which had been raised in the debates on these acts--What +legal effect could the action of a body not the legislature of a state +have on the adoption of an amendment to the constitution?--was raised +again here. Some of the Republicans argued that such action could have no +effect and should not be required.[206] Under these circumstances there +was a more earnest effort than any heretofore made to defend such a +requirement. It was answered: True, the body which will ratify the +amendment in Georgia will not be a state legislature at the time; but it +will later become a state legislature, and then by relation the +ratification will be imputed to the state legislature and will thus have +legal effect. Relation, an operation known to private law, had been +applied to constitutional law in several previous cases, in order to give +to acts done by the legislatures of territories the same effect as if they +had been done after statehood was obtained.[207] The ratification by +Georgia would be valid by relation.[208] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE EXECUTION OF THE ACT OF DECEMBER 22, 1869, AND THE FINAL RESTORATION + + +Before relating the manner in which the act of December 22, 1869 (which we +shall call the Reorganization Act), was executed, we must mention its +provisions in more detail than we did in the last chapter. It first +"authorized and directed" the governor by proclamation to summon +"forthwith" all persons elected to the legislature in April, 1868, +according to Meade's announcement of the result of the election then +held,[209] to meet in special session "on some day certain." The act +continued: + + and thereupon the said general assembly shall proceed to perfect its + organization in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the + United States, according to the provisions of this act. + +When the legislature was assembled, every person claiming to be a member +should take a test oath prescribed in the act, to the effect that he had +never been a member of Congress or of a state legislature, nor held any +civil office created by law for the administration of any general law of a +state, or for the administration of justice in any state, or under the +laws of the United States, nor served in the military or naval forces of +the United States as an officer, and thereafter engaged in or supported +hostilities against the United States; each person should take this oath +or else an oath (also prescribed _verbatim_) that he had been relieved +from disability by Congress according to section 3 of the Fourteenth +Amendment. The exclusion on the ground of color of any person elected and +otherwise qualified, the act declared "would be illegal and +revolutionary," and was "prohibited." The act directed the President to +use force in executing the act upon application from the governor. + +The process ordered by the act seems simple and obvious, but the general +of the army deduced much from it not apparent on its face. This act, he +reasoned, implies that the Georgia government is provisional, and has +never ceased to be so since March 2, 1867. And in that case the act of +March 2, 1867, has never ceased to operate as to Georgia, since by its own +terms it is to remain in force in each "rebel state" until each +respectively has been "by law admitted to representation in the congress +of the United States." Georgia has not been so admitted, since she did not +comply with the Omnibus Act. Therefore the Reconstruction Acts are still +in force in Georgia, and the general orders of July 28, 1868, declaring +the Third Military District abolished were a mistake. Accordingly those +orders were countermanded by the general of the army on January 4, 1870, +and General Terry, a prominent advocate, as we have seen, of the revival +of military government in Georgia, was placed in command of the remnant of +the Third Military District.[210] + +The War Department's deduction from the Reorganization Act of authority to +institute again the system of the Reconstruction Acts came a month or two +later under the consideration of the Senate judiciary committee, and was +pronounced a gratuitous perversion of the act last passed. That act +implied, to be sure, that the Georgia government was provisional; but it +was plainly intended not to revive but to supersede the former regulations +regarding that government. The purpose of the Reorganization Act was +simply that the legislature should reorganize itself and ratify the +Fifteenth Amendment. To this purpose military government had no relation. +The Reconstruction Acts had not expired according to their own provisions +as to Georgia, it was true, but they had been repealed by the +Reorganization Act. This was further proved by the latter's provision that +military force should be used "upon the application of the governor." The +Reorganization Act, said the committee, "invokes military action in what +it provides shall be done, and no more."[211] Unfortunately this opinion +was delivered some time after the theory which it demolished had been in +practical operation. + +Terry, having received the _role_ of military governor, played it as the +true heir to the power of his great predecessors. He removed from office +three sheriffs and a county ordinary and appointed successors.[212] He +intervened in eight private controversies and composed them with a strong +hand.[213] In two cases before the state courts he substituted his command +for the regular process.[214] Still more apparent was the official +character which he had assumed, in his conduct toward the legislature. +Possessing the power wielded by Pope and Meade, he could issue any orders +he pleased to that body. For this reason, and because he was in sympathy +with them, the Georgia Republicans ardently embraced and tenaciously clung +to the theory that he was not a mere assistant in executing the +Reorganization Act, but a military governor under the Reconstruction Acts. + +On December 22, 1869, Governor Bullock issued his proclamation (which he +signed "Rufus B. Bullock, Provisional Governor"), summoning the men +elected to the legislature in 1868 to meet in Atlanta on January 10 +following.[215] This duty, besides that of calling on the President for +aid if he saw fit, was the only one expressly entrusted to Bullock by the +Reorganization Act. Another one, however, was deduced by the following +process of reasoning: The legislature can do nothing before its members +are qualified according to the act. Since it can do nothing, it cannot +even organize itself. But it is the purpose of the act that the +legislature be organized. Therefore some one else must be intended to +organize it. This duty naturally belongs to the governor, since the +cognate duty of convening the body is imposed on him. In accordance with +this reasoning, Bullock appointed a temporary clerk for each house, who +should call the house to order and preside until all the members should be +qualified or declared disqualified, by taking or failing to take one of +the test oaths of the Reorganization Act.[216] This appointment of Bullock +rested not only upon the reasoning stated above, but upon the approval of +Terry, who, whether the reasoning was correct or not, could do, or order +to be done, to the legislature anything he chose.[217] + +When the legislature convened on January 10, each house was called to +order by its temporary clerk, who proceeded to call the roll of names +announced by Meade after the election of 1868, for the administration to +each person of one of the required test oaths. On the same day the upper +house completed the roll call and the swearing in of members, and effected +a permanent organization. A Republican (Conley) was elected president by a +large majority. On assuming the chair he delivered an oration, the spirit +of which may be perceived from the following sentence: "The government has +determined that in this republic, which is not, never was, and never can +be, a democracy--that in this republic Republicans shall rule."[218] + +Far different was the course of events in the lower house. When that house +assembled it found one Harris in the chair. Forgetting that his +appointment had been indorsed by Terry and that he was, therefore, the +virtual agent of a military governor who had the power to do anything he +chose to the legislature, the Conservatives raised objection to his +presiding and attempted to elect a temporary chairman in the usual way. +This attempt precipitated a violent scene in the house, but was +unsuccessful. Harris kept his seat and ordered the roll call for the +swearing in of members to proceed. The names of seventy-eight persons were +called and as many of these as were present were sworn in. At this point, +the journal records, "the clerk _pro tem._ announced that the house would +take a recess" until the next day. This the house did.[219] On January 11 +and 12, the same proceedings occurred, the swearing in continuing until it +was suspended and the house adjourned by the "clerk _pro tem._"[220] + +Without the theory that the Reconstruction Acts were still in force these +proceedings in the lower house would have constituted the plainest +illegality. But if Terry was a military governor and Harris his agent, +they were legal. Though the Senate judiciary committee later declared this +a false interpretation of the law, yet it was the official interpretation +of the War Department, as we saw by the order appointing Terry.[221] The +War Department had a right to decide what the Reorganization Act, which it +was to aid in executing, meant. Its decision, whatever its character, was +never officially overruled. Therefore the proceedings in the legislature +were officially regular. + +Before the legislature met, the Conservative papers had published an +article by a state judge on the meaning of the first test oath of the +Reorganization Act. It concerned especially the phrase: "any civil office +created by law for the administration of any general law of a state." It +was argued that there were many state offices not included in this +phrase--among them those of mayor, alderman and state librarian. Since +these offices were not "for the administration of any general law," but +only for that of special or local law, former occupants of them who had +supported the Confederacy could take the present test oath.[222] This +construction would give an advantage to the Conservatives. To counteract +it, Bullock applied to the attorney general for an official +interpretation. That officer (Farrow by name) responded with a very +reasonable opinion. He admitted that officers with merely local functions +were not included in the phrase in question, but pointed out that many +municipal officers had the powers of a justice of the peace. In such cases +they were charged with the administration of general law and were included +in the phrase. The state librarian, said Farrow, executed general law and +was included.[223] + +After the swearing in of members had gone on in the house of +representatives, as we have said, it was believed by the Radicals that +some Conservatives were acting upon the judge's interpretation and +disregarding the attorney general's, and that others had sworn or intended +to swear falsely who were debarred even by the former. Ordinarily, if a +man intends to swear falsely to a test oath there is no way of preventing +him. In the existing state of public opinion, prosecution for perjury +after the oath of office was taken was impossible. But Georgia had a +military governor. By issuing orders he could prevent men whom he believed +ineligible from swearing and could unseat those whom he believed to have +sworn falsely. This Terry decided to do. + +On January 13 he detailed a board of soldiers to investigate the cases of +twenty-one members elect whose eligibility was questioned.[224] This +board sat for two weeks, and found five men ineligible[225] and eleven +eligible.[226] Terry accordingly forbade the five, and ordered the eleven, +to be sworn in. The remaining five of the twenty-one, together with +nineteen others, confessed ineligibility by filing with Bullock +application for the removal of their disabilities by Congress. These also +Terry forbade to be sworn in.[227] The actions and the decision of the +board of inquiry were pronounced fair and honorable even by the +Conservatives.[228] The nineteen applications for Congressional grace were +said to have been procured by the Radicals through intimidation and +fraud.[229] If the applicants were in fact ineligible but intended +nevertheless to take the oath, then we must admire the cleverness of the +Radicals in dissuading them, by whatever means they did it. If they used +intimidation and fraud, their means were no worse than the end sought by +their victims--the frustration of a law by perjury. On the other hand, if +nineteen Conservatives who were eligible were induced by Radicals to +petition for the removal of ineligibility, the fact may excite disapproval +of the Radicals, but hardly pity for the Conservatives. + +On January 13, when the board of inquiry was appointed, the "clerk _pro +tem._" of the lower house, by order of Bullock countersigned by Terry, had +declared the house adjourned till January 17, to await the decision of the +board.[230] On the 17th the house met and listened to the reading of two +orders from Bullock indorsed by Terry; the one directing the state +treasurer to issue fifty dollars to each member of the house, the other +ordering the house to adjourn till January 19.[231] On the 19th the house +met, and after one man had been sworn in was adjourned in the same manner +till the 24th.[232] On the 24th it met and after two men had been sworn in +was again adjourned by order of the governor.[233] On the morning of the +25th it met and was adjourned till afternoon. In the afternoon it was +adjourned as soon as it had met till the next day. To the countersignature +of Terry in this case was added the promise that this was the last +adjournment of the series, since the board had now rendered so much of its +decision as related to members of the lower house. The house was therefore +ordered to swear in, on the next day, all the remaining members elect +except those found or confessed ineligible, and to elect its permanent +officers.[234] On January 26 this order was complied with; the Radical +candidate for chairman was elected by a large majority, and the +redoubtable "clerk _pro tem._," having presided for the last time, +retired.[235] + +The reorganized legislature on February 2 complied with the remaining +requirements of the Reorganization Act by ratifying the Fifteenth +Amendment. On the advice of Bullock it also repassed the resolutions of +July, 1868, required by the Omnibus Act. This was not necessary to +re-admission. It is true, the requirements of the Omnibus Act had, by the +hypothesis of the Reorganization Act, never been "duly" fulfilled. But the +Omnibus Act had been superseded by other legislation, which made new +requirements and did not renew the old. The renewal of the unfulfilled +requirements had been discussed in Congress and rejected.[236] +Nevertheless, the resolutions were passed gratuitously.[237] + +The Omnibus Act had definitely said that Georgia should be "entitled and +admitted to representation in Congress as a state of the union when the +legislature" had complied with the conditions mentioned in the act. The +Reorganization Act was not so definite. It said; "The legislature shall +ratify the Fifteenth Amendment ... before Senators and Representatives +from Georgia are admitted to seats in Congress." This might be construed +as granting title to representation as a state as soon as the Fifteenth +Amendment should be ratified, or as merely requiring the ratification and +making no definite provision as to restoration but leaving that subject to +be provided for by another act. The latter construction was adopted by the +Georgia Radicals, since it prolonged the tenure of their military +governor. It followed from this construction that the state government was +still "provisional" and could not proceed with its business like a regular +state government. So after electing United States Senators (the election +of July, 1868, being regarded as invalid,[238] and the present election +probably being designed to become valid by relation), the legislature +adjourned until April 18, to await Congressional action.[239] In April +Congress had taken no action, and the legislature, after sitting a +fortnight, took another recess of two months.[240] Meantime the theory of +military government had been faithfully observed. Though the legislature +was only provisional, it could legislate with Terry's permission. It +passed a stay law on February 17, and asked Terry to enforce it.[241] On +May 2 it passed revenue and appropriation acts,[242] but not before Terry +had informed it through the governor that he would allow those acts to +have the validity of regularly issued military orders.[243] + + * * * * * + +Whatever may have been the merits of the construction of the +Reorganization Act adopted by the War Department, it is certain that the +proceedings taken under it greatly astonished those who had passed the +act. On January 19 the House of Representatives adopted a resolution +requesting the general of the army to inform it by what authority three +United States soldiers were acting as a committee in the legislature of +Georgia.[244] On February 4 the Senate asked for official information +regarding the proceedings had under the Reorganization Act.[245] The facts +disclosed in response to this request created such surprise that the +Senate directed the judiciary committee to inquire and report whether the +act had been complied with.[246] The answer of the committee, as we saw in +the early part of the chapter, was that the act had been misconstrued and +violated. The appointment of presiding officers by the governor, the acts +of those officers, the revival of the military governorship, and in +particular the interference of Terry in the organization of the +legislature--these, said the committee, were wholly unlawful. But though +unlawful they had resulted in no substantial injustice, since all the men +debarred by Terry were undoubtedly ineligible. And in any case a general +state election was approaching, so that if any injustice had been done it +would soon be righted. For these reasons the committee recommended that +Congress undertake no more legislation for Georgia, but admit her +representatives to each house as soon as possible.[247] + +The committee believed that the Reorganization Act was to be construed as +a law entitling Georgia to representation in Congress as soon as she had +ratified the Fifteenth Amendment. This opinion was held by many +Republicans, who had followed Trumbull's example and who appeared from +this time on as opponents of further Congressional interference in the +South. The radical Republicans, however, led by Butler--those Republicans +characterized by a Republican paper of the time as "the screeching wing" +of the party[248]--insisted that Georgia must be admitted, as the first +Reconstruction Act had said, "by law," and that no law to that effect had +been passed. The reason why this argument was urged was that the passage +of a new act for restoring the state would give an opportunity to annex +other provisions besides the declaration of restoration. The particular +provisions designed to be annexed were for the purpose of prolonging the +term of the present state government. + +On February 25 Butler introduced the bill to admit Georgia.[249] One of +its sections was as follows: + + That the power granted by the constitution of Georgia to the general + assembly to change the time of holding elections ... shall not be so + exercised as to postpone the election for members of the next general + assembly beyond the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in the + year 1872. + +The power here referred to was that conferred by Article III., section 1, +of the state constitution; + + The election for members of the general assembly shall begin on + Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every second year ... + but the general assembly may by law change the time of election, and + members shall hold until their successors are elected and qualified. + +The constitutional term of the present legislature (except of one-half of +the senators, who held four years) would expire in November, 1870. But +this section of the constitution, Butler pointed out, would enable the +legislature to postpone the election and perpetuate its power. This grave +danger he proposed to remove by the clause of his bill above quoted. In +order to prevent the legislature from prolonging its tenure forever, he +proposed, not to forbid prolongation, but to allow it for two years. + + I also propose [he said] by this [clause] to give to the present + State officers of Georgia a two years' term of office in that state + as a state in this Union. + +That Congress should pose as the defender of the people of Georgia against +a usurping legislature, and at the same time by the guaranty of its +approval encourage that legislature to double its constitutional +term--this was a conception of political genius which, independently of +its realization, should make Butler immortal. + +The moderate Republicans of the House of Representatives were willing, for +the sake of settling doubt, to pass a bill declaring Georgia restored, but +were decidedly opposed the scheme to use the bill as a means of prolonging +the tenure of the Georgia Radicals. An amendment to Butler's bill, known +as the Bingham amendment, was offered, to the following effect: + + ... neither shall this act be construed to extend the official tenure + of any officer of said state beyond the term limited by the + constitution thereof, dating from the election or appointment of such + officer.[250] + +The bill with this amendment passed the House by a large majority on March +8.[251] + +In the Senate the necessity of any bill and the propriety of the Bingham +amendment were warmly debated for some weeks. Then the so-called Drake +amendment was offered. It provided that whenever the legislature or +governor of any state should inform the President of the existence within +that state of associations organized for the purpose of obstructing the +law and doing violence to persons, then the President should send troops +to that state, declare martial law, suspend the privileges of the writ of +_habeas corpus_, and take such other military measures as he saw fit, and +should levy the cost of the expedition on the people of the state.[252] +The propriety of grafting this general measure on a special bill like the +present should not be discussed, it was said, in view of the pressing +necessity of passing it in some way, no matter how.[253] The debate thus +complicated continued until April 19, when the bill went to the committee +of the whole. There, the night being far spent, two entirely new +amendments were suddenly offered. One commanded Georgia to hold a general +election in the present year; the other declared that the existing +government of Georgia was still "provisional" and provided that the +Reconstruction Acts of 1867 should continue to be enforced there. These +amendments were adopted by the committee. The Drake amendment was also +adopted. Finally, the entire bill as it came from the house was stricken +out.[254] Thus transformed so that, as a Senator said, "it would not be +recognized by the oldest inhabitant," the bill was passed by the +Senate.[255] + +The House of Representatives did not take up the bill again until June 23. +On June 24 it decided to insist on the passage of the bill substantially +as before passed.[256] As a result of the conference following, the Senate +yielded to the House. The bill became law on July 15, 1870. It said: + + ... It is hereby declared that the state of Georgia is entitled to + representation in the Congress of the United States. But nothing in + this act contained shall be construed to deprive the people of + Georgia of the right to an election for members of the general + assembly of said state, as provided for in the constitution + thereof.[257] + +One would suppose that this act of July 15 should close the chapter; that +it recognized Georgia as a state, and that henceforth all peculiar +relations between Georgia and the federal government were at an end. The +Georgia Radicals were able to avoid this conclusion. In a message to the +legislature on July 18 the governor said that according to the act of +March 2, 1867, the federal military power was to remain until the state +was not only entitled to representation but actually represented in +Congress. Section 5 of that act contained this language: + + When ... any one of said rebel states shall have [fulfilled all + requirements], said state shall be declared entitled to + representation in Congress, and Senators and Representatives shall be + admitted therefrom ... and then and thereafter the preceding sections + of this act shall be inoperative in said state. + +Hence, the military authority, said Bullock, would continue in Georgia +until the following December. But he informed the legislature that it +might proceed with legislation, since Terry had informed him that he would +allow it.[258] + +The Radicals in the legislature took advantage of the theory announced by +the governor to make one last attempt at prolongation of power. On July 26 +a resolution was offered in the upper house to this effect: That the +authority of the United States was still paramount in Georgia; that no +offence ought to be offered to Congress by an apparent denial of this +fact; that therefore no election should be held in the state until +Congress had fully recognized its statehood by receiving its +representatives.[259] On July 29 the senate adopted a resolution similar +to this, but the lower house rejected it by a few votes.[260] With the +failure of this attempt, the Reconstruction Acts ceased to operate in +Georgia, either in fact or in any one's theory. + +At the next session of Congress a delegation from Georgia composed of men +elected in December, 1870, was seated in the House of Representatives.[261] +In the Senate, Farrow and Whitely, elected by the legislature in February, +1870, presented credentials. They were referred to the judiciary +committee, which reported adversely. It recommended that Hill, elected in +1868, be seated, and reported that Miller, elected with Hill, would be +entitled to a seat except that he was unable to take the Test Oath +required of members of Congress by the act of July 2, 1862.[262] Since +this committee had decided in January, 1869, that the Georgia legislature +was not legally organized in 1868, and in March, 1870, that its +organization in January of that year was also illegal, and since therefore +the election of Hill and Miller and that of Farrow and Whitely were both +illegal, the committee had to decide the question: To which of these +illegal elections ought we to give _de facto_ validity? It decided in +favor of the earlier one on grounds of equity. The Senate adopted the +committee's opinion. The Test Oath act was suspended in favor of Miller by +a special act of Congress, and he and Hill were sworn in, in February, +1871.[263] + +Thus, after federal intervention had been imposed in 1865 and apparently +withdrawn in the same year, again imposed in 1867 and again apparently +withdrawn in 1868, and yet again imposed in 1869, it was now withdrawn for +the last time, and Georgia was completely restored to statehood. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +RECONSTRUCTION AND THE STATE GOVERNMENT + + +In the preceding chapters we have mentioned the immediate effect of +reconstruction upon social conditions. To its immediate effects upon +political conditions, in other words to the character and conduct of the +new state government, which have been mentioned only incidentally, we +shall now give a more direct and consecutive consideration. + +With reference to the political reforms of reconstruction the white men of +Georgia formed three distinct parties. There were those who favored them, +either on their ethical and political merits or (more often) as a means of +attaining political power otherwise unattainable. They were called +Scalawags, Carpet-baggers and Radicals, of which terms we shall adopt the +last. There were those unalterably opposed to them, called Rebels by their +critics and Conservatives by themselves. There were, thirdly, those who +supported them not upon their merits, which they doubted, but because they +saw the state at the mercy of a conqueror and believed that, bad as the +measures were, it was better to accept them quickly than to make a vain +resistance, which could only prolong the social and commercial +disturbances in the state, and which might occasion the administration of +a still worse dose. This group embraced many of the commercial class, +which was especially large in Georgia, and one of the men prominent in +former politics, namely Governor Brown. They were classed by the +Conservatives with the basest of Radicals, but we shall call them the +Moderate Republicans. The admixture of this group with the Radical party +had important consequences. Differing from their party in principle and +allying themselves with it to bring peace to the state, when the peace of +the state seemed secure, they sometimes adhered to their principles rather +than to their party. It is true, many of them became so interested in the +great game of politics then going on that they played it for its own sake, +but some party splits of importance occurred. + +The first fruit of the policy of negro enfranchisement and rebel +disenfranchisement was the constitutional convention of 1867-68. It was +stated in the latter part of Chapter IV. that in the election for members +of this convention many Conservatives declined to take part. For this +reason the Radicals obtained a predominance in the convention which they +did not retain in the state government after the Conservatives decided to +fight. The convention, in fact, was extremely Radical. The constitution +which it framed shows the thoroughness with which it entered into the +Humanitarian reforms. The speeches and resolutions show that a close +sympathy with the Republican party and a bitter antagonism to the +Conservatives were entertained by most of the members. The temporary +chairman, Foster Blodgett, in his opening speech, mentioned the +suspicious, hostile and contemptuous attitude of the Conservatives toward +the convention. He said: + + They may stand and rail at us and strive to distract us from our + patriotic labors; but we are engaged in a great work ... we are + building up the walls of a great state.[264] + +Parrot, the permanent chairman, said: + + Many of us come here from amongst a people who have spurned us and + spit upon us ... the enemies of the convention are watching with + envious eyes to see whether we shall be able to meet public + expectation.... We should form a state government for an unwilling + people based upon the soundest principles ... and in governing them + rescue human liberty from the grave, and prevent them from trampling + us under foot. + +On the other side, he said: + + The Republican party of the nation is waiting with intense anxiety + the movements of this body. Our friends will soon be able to + determine whether we shall be a burden upon them ... or aid them in + the great work of restoring our state.[265] + +When Governor Jenkins brought suit against Stanton on behalf of the state, +the convention declared the action unauthorized and in the name of the +people of Georgia demanded that the suit be dismissed.[266] On December +17, 1867, a resolution was passed, asking Pope to appoint, in lieu of +Governor Jenkins, a provisional governor, and asking that the person +appointed be Rufus B. Bullock.[267] Unsuccessful here, the convention +tried again on January 21. It requested Congress to allow it to vacate the +governorship and all other offices now filled by men unfriendly to +reconstruction and to fill them with new appointees.[268] These two last +named resolutions suggest not only Radical sentiment, but also Radical +organization in the convention. + +The attitude of the convention toward the military authorities was most +cordial. On December 20, a reception was given to Pope. The general made a +speech and received an ovation.[269] Resolutions of friendship and +gratitude were voted him on his departure.[270] Meade, on his arrival, +received resolutions of welcome,[271] and resolutions of friendly import +on various other occasions.[272] Meade did not entirely reciprocate this +cordiality. + +Toward Congress the convention was not only cordial; it was almost filial. +Not only was the United States government eloquently thanked for its +magnanimity,[273] but it was appealed to by the convention as a kind +parent by a child confident of favor. It was petitioned to appropriate +thirty million dollars to be loaned on mortgage to southern +planters;[274] to loan a hundred thousand dollars to the South Georgia and +Florida railroad,[275] and "to make a liberal appropriation" for building +the proposed Air Line railroad.[276] + +The constitutional convention of 1865 had met on October 25, and adjourned +on November 8, thus completing its work in fourteen days. This dispatch, +as well as the style of its resolutions and of the speeches of its +members,[277] had marked it as a body where good taste, decorum and public +spirit prevailed. + +The reconstruction convention met on December 9, 1867, and continued in +session (excepting a recess from December 24 to January 7), until March +11, 1868. The first article of the new constitution on which the +convention took action was reported on January 9.[278] Before that time +many resolutions and ordinances were introduced. Most of them related to +"relief" (such as suspension of tax collections, homestead exemption, stay +of execution for debt, etc.), or to the pay and mileage of delegates, and +only rarely was anything said about the constitution. On December 16 the +more conscientious members secured the appointment of a committee to +inquire whether the convention had power to do any business besides frame +a constitution.[279] This committee did not discuss the law of the +question, but recommended on moral grounds a resolution to this effect: + + That all ordinances or other matter ... already introduced and + pending are hereby indefinitely postponed; and in future no ordinance + or other matter ... not necessarily connected with the fundamental + law shall be entertained by this convention [except relief + legislation]. + +This report met with vigorous opposition. It was saved from the table by +two votes. But it was adopted.[280] The contemporary Conservative press +describes the convention as very infamous and very disgusting.[281] It +contained thirty-three negroes, and the transactions recorded in the +official journal show that it was composed largely of men of low +character. + +Hence, to many of the delegates, framing the constitution was only a minor +incident of the convention, and the main part of that work was left to a +small number of men. Their work shows intelligence and ability. Moreover, +in the records of the convention there are not wanting traces of that +undoubted public spirit which animated many of the supporters of +reconstruction--the honest desire to repair and develop the material +welfare of the state. This spirit is evident in the speeches we have +cited, and in some of the resolutions. + +We have stated how the campaign of 1868 resulted in giving the +governorship to the Republicans and a majority of twenty-nine in the +legislature to the Conservatives; how Governor Bullock tried to reduce +that majority through Meade, and how Meade refused his aid; and how the +majority was more than doubled by the expulsion of the negroes and the +seating of the minority candidates. From that time to the reorganization +of the legislature in 1870, the most remarkable fact in the state politics +was the hostility between the governor and the legislature. + +After the expulsion of the negroes, the lower house asked the governor to +send it the names of the candidates who at the election had received the +next highest vote to the persons expelled. The governor sent the names and +with them a long protest against the expulsion of the negroes.[282] The +house, on hearing the message, adopted a tart resolution, reminding the +governor that the members of each house were "the keepers of their own +consciences, and not his Excellency."[283] A similar message to the upper +house in response to a similar request provoked a similar resolution, +which was defeated by two votes.[284] + +It will be remembered that in December, 1868, and January, 1869, the +governor urged upon Congress, through his letter presented in the Senate +and through his testimony before the Reconstruction Committee, the theory +that Georgia had not yet been restored. On January 15, 1869, he urged the +same view upon the legislature. He advised it to reorganize itself by +summoning all men elected members in 1868, requiring each to take the Test +Oath, excluding only those who should not take it, and thus constituted to +repass the resolutions required by the Omnibus Act. If the legislature did +not do this, it must submit to Congressional interference.[285] This +message apparently caused the legislature some apprehension. It adopted a +joint resolution to the effect that it desired the question of the +eligibility of negroes to office to be determined by the supreme court of +the state. The governor sent this resolution back with one of his +admirably keen and powerful messages. He said that Congress had two +grievances against the present legislature; that it had admitted members +disqualified by the Fourteenth Amendment, contrary to the Omnibus Act, and +that it had expelled twenty-eight negroes. The present resolution, +intended to appease Congress, ignored the first grievance and proposed no +remedy for the second; therefore it was meaningless and absurd.[286] + +On January 21, 1869, the state treasurer, Angier, in response to an +inquiry from the house of representatives regarding the affairs of his +department, intimated that the governor had drawn money from the treasury +under suspicious circumstances.[287] Thus began the feud between the +governor and the treasurer which continued during the rest of Bullock's +term. Angier's report was referred to the committee on finance. The +majority of the committee reported that the governor's acts had been +irregular but in good faith. The minority reported that his acts were +culpable and his explanations inadequate, and concluded: "The facts herein +set forth develop the necessity for further legislation for the security +of the treasury."[288] This report the house adopted by a large +majority.[289] + +Another index of the relations between the governor and the legislature is +furnished by the governor's message submitting the proposed Fifteenth +Amendment. It opened thus: + + It is especially gratifying to learn, as I do from the published + proceedings of your honorable body, that senators and representatives + who have heretofore acted with a political organization which adopted + as one of its principles a denunciation of the acts of a Republican + Congress ... should now give expression to their anxious desire to + lose no time in embracing this opportunity of ratifying one of the + fundamental principles of the Republican party ... and I very much + regret that the preparation necessary for a proper presentation of + this subject to your honorable body has necessarily caused a short + delay, and thereby prolonged the suspense of those who are so anxious + to concur.[290] + +The radicals probably desired the rejection of the amendment, since it +would furnish another strong argument to Congress in favor of reorganizing +the legislature. Hence, the Radical governor, as his message shows, did +not do his best to induce the legislature to ratify, and probably some +Radical members for the same reason voted against the amendment or +refrained from voting for it. It was defeated in the lower house on March +12,[291] and in the upper on March 18.[292] + +In the last chapter we saw that Terry excluded five men from the +legislature because the board of inquiry had found them ineligible, and +excluded nineteen others because they had failed to take the required +oath, and had applied to Congress for removal of disabilities. It is safe +to assume that all of these twenty-four men were conservatives. Nineteen +of them had been elected to the lower house, five to the senate.[293] +Immediately after organization, on advice of Bullock and with the sanction +of Terry, the senate gave the five vacated seats to the minority +candidates,[294] and the house gave fourteen of its vacated seats to the +minority candidates.[295] The result was that the Republicans secured a +majority in each house.[296] The Republican control thus secured remained +uninterrupted for the remainder of 1870. Perfect accord now existed +between the governor and legislature, and in the quarrel between Bullock +and Angier, which went on with increased acerbity in the press and before +a congressional committee,[297] the legislature proceeded to transfer its +support to the governor.[298] + +But Republican supremacy was in danger. It was threatened by the Moderate +Republicans. J. E. Bryant, a Republican, prominent in the state politics +since the beginning of the new _regime_, in testifying before the +Reconstruction Committee in January, 1869, had advocated reorganization of +the legislature, but had opposed any other interference, especially the +restoration of military government.[299] He and other Republicans who +shared his opinion were disgusted with the proceedings of Bullock and +Terry. As early as January 12, 1870, there were reports that the Radicals +were apprehensive of a combination between the Moderate Republicans and +the Conservatives.[300] Probably the strenuous efforts of the Radicals to +take and make every possible advantage for themselves in the +reorganization is partly accounted for by this apprehension. On February +2, Bryant caused to be entered on the journal of the house of +representatives a protest denouncing the reorganization proceedings as +illegal.[301] Shortly afterwards he published a statement of his position. +He said that he was a Republican, but was opposed to the corrupt ring +which controlled the party in Georgia.[302] From this time on the papers +frequently referred to the alliance between the followers of Bryant and +the Conservatives as the salvation of the state.[303] + +The Radical majority was not quite strong enough to pass a resolution +declaring that there should be no election in 1870, as was attempted in +August of that year.[304] But it was strong enough to pass an election law +very favorable to the Radical party. It changed the date of the election +from the regular time in November to December 22, and following the +example set by General Pope in 1867, provided that it should continue +three days. It established a board of five election managers for each +county, three to be appointed by the governor and senate, and two by the +county ordinary. It provided that the board should have "no power to +refuse the ballot of any male person of apparent full age, a resident of +the county, who [had] not previously voted at the said election." Also it +said: "They [the managers] shall not permit any person to challenge any +vote."[305] Another act was passed, calculated to prevent the loss of +Republican votes through disqualification of negroes for non-payment of +taxes. It declared the poll tax levied in 1868, 1869 and 1870 +illegal.[306] + +At the election thus provided for were to be chosen a new legislature +(except half of the senators, who held four years) and Congressmen. To +what extent the Republicans availed themselves of the advantages offered +by the election law we do not know. At any rate, the Conservatives +obtained two-thirds of the seats in the legislature, and five of the seven +seats in Congress.[307] + +This result meant trouble for the governor, whose term ran to November, +1872. His efforts to secure Congressional interference, his conduct in +January, 1870, and the accusations of extravagance, corruption, and other +crimes continually made by an intemperate press, had raised public +indignation to a high point. It was certain that when the new legislature +met it would investigate the charges, and it was hoped that the governor +would be impeached.[308] The time of reckoning had been postponed, +however, by the prudence of the outgoing legislature, which had provided +that the next session of the legislature should begin, instead of in +January, the regular time set by the constitution,[309] on the first +Wednesday in November, 1871.[310] + +The first Wednesday in November, 1871, was November 1. On October 23, the +governor recorded in the executive minutes that he resigned his office, +for "good and sufficient reasons," the resignation to take effect on +October 30.[311] He then quietly left the state. The fact that he had +resigned was kept secret until October 30.[312] + +In case of a vacancy in the office of governor, the constitution directed +the president of the senate to fill the office.[313] On October 30, +therefore, Conley, the president of the senate at its last session, +hastened to be sworn in as governor.[314] By resigning just before the +meeting of the incoming Conservative legislature, Bullock had thus +cleverly prolonged Republican power, while at the same time resigning. The +question whether under the constitution the governor's office should not +be filled by the president of the newly-organized senate, was raised by +the papers.[315] But Conley was by common consent left in possession of +the office. Though, as he said in his first message to the +legislature,[316] "a staunch Republican," he was not personally +unpopular.[317] Moreover, the legislature intended to furnish a successor +very soon. + +On November 22, a bill was passed ordering a special election for governor +for the remainder of the unexpired term, to be held on the third Tuesday +in December.[318] The authority for this act was found in the following +provision of the constitution: "The general assembly shall have power to +provide by law for filling unexpired terms by a special election."[319] +Conley vetoed the bill, on the ground that the section of the constitution +quoted empowered the legislature to make general provisions for filling +unexpired terms, not to make special provision for single cases.[320] The +bill was passed over his veto. + +Although Republican power was now doomed in a few weeks, and although +resistance to a legislature which could easily override his vetoes was +futile, yet Conley stubbornly continued to offer obstructions to the +legislature at every possible point up to the very day when his successor +was inaugurated.[321] He exhibited a courage and a political efficiency +worthy of his predecessor, but accomplished nothing. He was able, however, +to help his friends by means of the pardoning power. Several prominent +Republicans were indicted at this time for various acts of public +malfeasance. On the ground that in the existing state of public excitement +these men could not obtain a fair trial, Conley ordered proceedings +against several of these to be discontinued.[322] + +On January 11, 1872, the returns from the special election were sent to +the legislature by Conley, under protest,[323] and James M. Smith was +declared elected. On January 12, Smith was inaugurated. Conley assisted at +this ceremony, thus yielding the last inch of Republican ground.[324] + +Reviewing the events recorded from the beginning of this chapter, we +observe that the period of reconstruction in Georgia was not a period when +a swarm of harpies took possession of the state government and preyed at +will upon a helpless people. The constitutional convention of 1867-68 +forebodes such a period, but when the Conservatives rouse themselves, from +that time on the stage presents an internecine war between two very well +matched enemies. This struggle is usually represented as between a wicked +assailant and a righteous assailed. That it was a struggle between +Republicans and Democrats is much more characteristic. In such a contest +mutual vilifying of course abounded, and it is not to be supposed _a +priori_ that the vilifying of one party was more truthful than that of the +other. + +It is often vaguely said that reconstruction resulted in government by +carpet-baggers. John B. Gordon, the Conservative candidate for governor +who was defeated by Bullock, expressed before a Congressional committee in +1870 the belief that there were not more than a dozen men holding offices +in Georgia who had recently been non-residents. He further said that the +judges appointed by the Republican governor were entirely +satisfactory.[325] + +The reconstruction government is charged with having imposed such heavy +taxes that as a result the people were impoverished, industry was checked, +and many plantations went to waste. During the decade before the war the +law provided that a tax should be annually levied at such a rate as to +produce $375,000, provided the rate should not exceed one-twelfth of one +per cent.[326] The revenue law of 1866 provided that a tax should be +levied at such a rate as to produce $350,000.[327] Owing to the vast +destruction of property during the war, this necessitated a higher rate +than that before the war. The law of 1867 ordered a levy at such a rate as +to raise $500,000.[328] This law, made by the Johnson government, before +reconstruction began, was continued by the legislature in the four +following years.[329] In 1870 the rate of assessment was two-fifths of one +per cent.[330] This rate was much higher than the one prevailing before +the war, but this misfortune cannot be charged to reconstruction, since +the reconstruction government merely followed the example of the Johnson +government. + +That the reconstruction _regime_ did not do the economic harm often +attributed to it is shown by the fact that during that _regime_ the value +of land and of all property in the state steadily increased, as appears +from the following table: + + ASSESSED VALUATION. + + Land. Town and Total + City Property. Property. + + 1868[331] $79,727,584 $40,315,621 $191,235,520 + 1869[332] 84,577,166 44,368,096 204,481,706 + 1870[333] 95,600,674 47,922,544 226,119,519 + 1871[334] 96,857,512 52,159,734 234,492,468 + +Nevertheless, the reconstruction government spent the public money +extravagantly. This fact is shown by a comparison of the expenditures of +the state under Bullock's administration and under that of his +predecessor. Such a comparison, it is true, has been employed to prove the +contrary. Governor Bullock was wont to rebut charges of extravagance by +showing that the state spent more under Jenkins' administration than under +his, in proportion to the time occupied by each.[335] This was true, as +the following figures show:[336] + + Gross expenditures in 1866 and 1867 $3,223,323.46 + Average annual expenditure during these years 1,601,661.73 + Gross expenditures from August 11, 1868, to Jan. 1, 1870 2,260,252.15 + Gross expenditures in 1870 1,444,816.73 + Gross expenditures in 1871 1,476,978.86 + Average annual expenditure during this period 1,554,614.32 + +A comparison of gross expenditures, however, is of no significance unless +the sums contrasted represent payments for the same purposes. Under the +earlier administration the government undertook large expenditures for the +relief of destitute persons, especially of wounded soldiers and the +relicts of soldiers.[337] This accounts for the remarkable size of the +amounts credited to "special appropriations" in the report for 1866 and +1867. Under Bullock's administration the government spent nothing for +these purposes. For a fair comparison of the economy of the Johnson +government and the reconstruction government, it is necessary to compare +the amounts which they spent respectively for the same objects. Their +payments for the more important administrative purposes are shown in the +following table:[338] + + +----------------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ + | | 1866. | 1867. | 1868. | 1869. | + +----------------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ + |Civil Establishment |$20,771.66|$75,222.44|$50,373.72|$85,666.41| + |Contingent Fund | 6,128.62| 15,430.74| 10,059.06| 19,968.16| + |Printing Fund | 1,021.75| 16,114.90| 20,452.96| 7,673.38 | + |Special Appropriations|304,955.05|879,897.77|210,916.11|261,097.37| + +----------------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ + + +----------+----------+ + | 1870. | 1871. | + +----------+----------+ + |$77,851.77|$78,365.21| + | 38,284.44| 20,296.95| + | 60,011.78| 20,000.00| + |260,442.05|806,419.08| + +----------+----------+ + +These figures show that almost all the annual expenditures of Bullock's +administration, aside from "special appropriations," were well above those +of the preceding administration, and that the payments from the printing +fund, especially in 1870, and from the contingent fund in 1870, were so +large as to convict the administration of great extravagance. + +The reconstruction legislature was reproached because of its large _per +diem_--nine dollars. This _per diem_ was established by the Johnson +government,[339] and is, therefore, not a charge against reconstruction. +But the other expenses of the legislature fully corroborate the charges of +extravagance made against it. This is shown by the following table:[340] + + +-----+---------------------+-------------+-------------------+ + | | Length of Session. | Total |Average Expenditure| + | | |Expenditure. | per month. | + +-----+---------------------+-------------+-------------------+ + | | Dec. 4 to Dec. 15. | | | + |1865 | Jan. 15 to March 13.| | | + | and | Nov. 1 to Dec. 14. | $121,759.75 | $33,207.18 | + |1866.| ------------------- | | | + | | 3-2/3 months.| | | + +-----+---------------------+-------------+-------------------+ + |1867.| No session. | | | + +-----+---------------------+-------------+-------------------+ + |1868 | July 4 to Oct. 6. | | | + | and | Jan. 13 to March 18.| $446,055.00 | $84,161.33 | + |1869.| ------------------- | | | + | | 5-3/10 months.| | | + +-----+---------------------+-------------+-------------------+ + | | Jan. 10 to Feb. 17. | | | + | | Apr. 18 to May 4. | | | + |1870.| July 6 to Oct. 25. | $526,891.00 | $95,798.32 | + | | ------------------- | | | + | | 5-1/2 months. | | | + +-----+---------------------+-------------+-------------------+ + +The state debt created by the reconstruction government was of two kinds; +direct and contingent. When the reconstruction government went into +operation the state debt was $6,544,500.[341] The reconstruction +government incurred a bonded debt of $4,880,000.[342] This includes bonds +to the amount of $1,880,000 which were issued to a railroad in exchange +for its bonds to a greater amount and bearing interest at the same rate. +This amount, therefore, was not a burden on the state, provided the +railroad remained solvent; though in form a direct, it was virtually a +contingent liability. Further, $300,000 of the money borrowed was used to +pay the principal of the old debt. Deducting these two sums, we find that +the burden of direct debt was increased by $2,700,000. + +Contingent debt was incurred by the indorsement of railroad bonds. In 1868 +the state offered aid of this kind to three railroad companies,[343] in +1869 to four,[344] and in 1870 to thirty.[345] The state offered to +indorse the bonds of each of these companies to the amount, usually, of +from $12,000 to $15,000 per mile, sometimes more and sometimes less. If +all the roads had accepted the full amount of aid offered, the state would +have become contingently liable for about $30,000,000.[346] But only six +roads accepted, and the contingent liability thus created was +$6,923,400.[347] The laws offering the aid involved little risk to the +state; they made substantial progress in construction and substantial +evidence of soundness conditions precedent to indorsement, and secured to +the state a lien on all the property of each road in case it defaulted. +The indorsement of railroad bonds is not a reproach to the reconstruction +government. The great policy of that government, when it was sufficiently +free from partisan labors to have a policy, was to repair the prosperity +of the state, and the construction of railroads was an important means to +this end.[348] + +The worst stain on the reconstruction government is its management of the +state railroad. The Western and Atlantic Railroad, owned and operated by +the state until 1871, was placed under the superintendence of Foster +Blodgett by the governor in January, 1870.[349] Thenceforth hundreds of +employees were discharged to make room for Republican favorites; important +positions were filled by strangers to the business; the receipts were +stolen,[350] or squandered in purchases made from other Republicans at +monstrous prices; and the road suffered great dilapidation.[351] + +The preferred object of the Conservative abuse in the reconstruction +government was Governor Bullock. We have seen that he was remarkably +powerful as well as remarkably active in promoting the interests of his +party. He was abused for that. For the extravagance of the state +government the governor was held largely responsible. He was abused for +that. But he was further accused of fraud in financial matters. + +Although this charge has never been established, the public had some +excuse for believing it at the time. As a result of the quarrel between +the governor and the treasurer, the governor ordered the bankers who were +the financial agents of the state to hold no further communication with +the treasurer after June 3, 1869, but to communicate only with the +governor.[352] The effect upon the public was an impression of great +confusion and irregularity in the finances. The treasurer's reports could +not give a complete account of state moneys, and the governor was not +careful to inform the public of the condition of that part of the finances +over which he had assumed control. Moreover, the governor and the +treasurer kept up a constant interchange of accusation and insinuation in +the newspapers. In another way the governor put himself in an unfortunate +light. In his letter to the Ku Klux Committee his statements regarding his +bond transactions were so vague as to give the impression (rightly or +wrongly) of a desire to conceal something.[353] The same laxity of +statement appears in Conley's statement of the use to which the bonds +issued by Bullock had been put.[354] His sudden resignation and departure +on the eve of a threatened investigation seemed to confirm the evidence of +his guilt. + +But though he did not keep the public informed, it has never been +established that his accounts were wrong. He spent money freely, and in +some cases without authority;[355] but none of his accusers has ever +proved that he spent any without regular and correct record by the +comptroller. And though he issued bonds perhaps in excess, he issued none +without proper registration in the comptroller's records.[356] His +apparent efforts to conceal facts do not prove fraud; a sufficient motive +would be furnished by desire to conceal the extravagance of his +administration. Furthermore, he has been positively acquitted of the +charge of fraud. In 1878 he returned to Georgia, and the courts proceeded +to give him "a speedy and public trial." Of his many alleged crimes, +indictments were secured for three. One indictment was quashed.[357] Upon +the other two the verdict was "not guilty."[358] His resignation was +explained in a letter to his "political friends," published on October 31, +1871.[359] He said that he had obtained evidence of a concerted design +among certain prominent members of the incoming legislature to impeach +him (as they could easily do, with the immense Conservative majority), and +instal as governor the Conservative who would be elected president of the +senate. To resign and put the governorship in the hands of a Republican +who could not be impeached was the only way to defeat this "nefarious +scheme." This explanation was of course ignored by Bullock's enemies when +it was made; but in view of the lack of evidence that he was guilty of any +fraud, and in view of the positive evidence to the contrary, there is now +no reason to doubt it. + +The governor made extraordinary use of the pardoning power. According to a +statement sanctioned by him, he pardoned four hundred and ninety-eight +criminals, forty-one of whom were convicted or accused of murder, +fifty-two of burglary, five of arson, and eight of robbery.[360] The +leader of the Conservative party at that time, B. H. Hill, emphatically +declared in a public statement that the governor had no worse motive than +"kindness of heart."[361] + +To sum up the case against the reconstruction government, we have seen +that it was extravagant, that it mismanaged the state railroad, and that +it pardoned a great many criminals. It was not guilty of the enormities +often associated with reconstruction; but it was a government composed of +men who obtained political position only through the interference of an +outside power--it was the product of a system conceived partly in +vengeance, partly in folly, and partly in political strategy, and imposed +by force. It was hated partly for what it did, but more for what it was. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +CONCLUSION + + +A Confederate veteran recently remarked amid great applause at an assembly +in Atlanta that there never was a conqueror so magnanimous as the North, +for within six years from the surrender of the southern armies she had +allowed the South to take part in her national councils. Nevertheless, +within those six years the Congressional Disciplinarians gave the South a +discipline which she will never forget. It did not result in permanent +estrangement between the North and the South, for sectional bitterness +seems extinct. But whether there was any profit in it--whether, in case +the South never again attempts to secede, that happy omission will be due +to reconstruction--may be doubted. + +Was there a clearer gain from the humanitarian point of view? We have seen +that at the close of the war a spirit of gratitude and philanthropy +prevailed among the most influential of the southern white people as +regards the negroes. Instead of allowing this spirit to develop and in the +course of time to produce its natural results, the North, believing that +suffrage was essential to the negro's welfare and progress, forced the +South to enfranchise him, by reconstruction. This caused the negro untold +immediate harm (since reconstruction was a contributary cause of +Kukluxism), and delayed his ultimate advance by giving the friendly spirit +of the white people a check in its development from which it has not yet +recovered. + +From the point of view of the Republican Politicians, reconstruction at +first succeeded, but later proved a mistaken policy. By it they lost the +support of the southern white men who had been opposed to secession. These +formed a large party in Georgia. The victory of the federal arms had the +nature of a party victory for them. They would have added their strength +to the Republican party. Reconstruction, with its threat of negro +domination, drove them into the Democratic party, where they still remain. +For a time this loss was made good by negro votes, but not long. + +Without reconstruction there would have been no Fifteenth Amendment. But +the good will and philanthropy of the people among whom the negro lives, +which reconstruction took away, would have brought him more benefit than +the Fifteenth Amendment. Without reconstruction there would have been no +Fourteenth Amendment. But a long line of decisions of the Supreme Court +has determined that the Fourteenth Amendment did not achieve the +nationalization of civil rights--an end which might justify reconstruction +as a means. In short, reconstruction seems to have produced bad +government, political rancor, and social violence and disorder, without +compensating good. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY. + + +PUBLIC RECORDS AND DOCUMENTS. + +_Of the United States Government._ + + Congressional Globe. + Public Documents. + Statutes at Large. + Supreme Court Reports. + Military orders in the archives of the Department of War. + Correspondence in the same archives. + Correspondence in the archives of the Department of State. + Unpublished records in the same archives. + +_Of the Government of Georgia._ + + Journal of the constitutional convention of 1865. + Journal of the constitutional convention of 1867-8. + Journals of the legislature. + Reports of the four committees appointed by the legislature in December, + 1871 to investigate respectively-- + The management of the state railroad. + The lease of the same road. + The official conduct of Governor Bullock. + The transactions of Governor Bullock's administration relating to + the issue of state bonds and the indorsement of railroad bonds. + These reports were published in Atlanta in 1872. + Session Laws. + Supreme Court Reports. + Reports of the State Comptroller. + Executive minutes in the archives of the state in Atlanta. + Minutes of the Fulton County Superior Court in the office of that court + in Atlanta. + + +NEWSPAPERS. + + Atlanta _New Era_. + Atlanta _Constitution_. + Milledgeville _Federal Union_ (during the war called the _Confederate + Union_). + Savannah _News_. + Savannah _Republican_. + + +CONTEMPORARY PAMPHLETS. + + A letter from Rufus B. Bullock to the chairman of the Ku Klux committee, + Atlanta, 1871. + Address of the same to the people of Georgia, dated October, 1872. + Letter from the same "to the Republican Senators and Representatives who + support the Reconstruction Acts," Washington, May 21, 1870. + + +HISTORICAL WORKS AND COMPENDIA. + + _American Annual Cyclopaedia_. New York. + Avery, I. W., _History of Georgia_. New York, 1881. + Bancroft, F. A., _The Negro in Politics_. New York, 1885. + Clews, Henry, _Twenty-eight Years in Wall Street_. London, 1888. + Cox, S. S., _Three Decades of Federal Legislation_. Providence, 1886. + Dunning, W. A., _The Civil War and Reconstruction_. New York, 1898. + Fielder, H., _The Life and Times of Joseph E. Brown_. Springfield, + Mass., 1883. + Hill, B. H., Jr., _The Life, Speeches and Writings of Benjamin H. Hill_. + Atlanta, 1891. + Lalor, J. J., _Cyclopaedia of Political Science_. New York, 1893. + Articles on Reconstruction, Georgia, and Ku Klux. + Poor, H. V., _Manual of the Railroads of the United States_. New York, + published yearly. + Sherman, W. T., _Memoirs_. New York, 1875. + Stephens, Alex., _The War between the States_. Philadelphia, 1868-70. + Taylor, Richard, _Destruction and Reconstruction_. New York, 1893. + _Tribune Almanac_. New York. + Wilson, Henry, _History of the Reconstruction Measures_. Hartford, 1868. + + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] Alex. Stephens, _The War Between the States_, vol. ii, p. 623; W. T. +Sherman, _Memoirs_, vol. ii, pp. 346-362. + +[2] M. C. U., May 9, 1865. + +[3] See the account of the gigantic relief operations of the federal army, +A. A. C., 1865, p. 392. + +[4] M. C. U., May 9, 1865. + +[5] Letter from Joseph E. Brown to Andrew Johnson, dated May 20, 1865, in +the Department of War, Washington. Brown was arrested on May 10. On May 8, +upon surrendering the state troops to the federal general Wilson, he had +been paroled. (The parole paper is in the above mentioned archives.) Hence +the arrest was a violation of his parole. When Wilson entered into the +parole engagement he had not been informed how his superiors would regard +the summoning of the legislature. Immediately afterward he probably +received orders from the central authorities to arrest Brown. He preferred +obeying orders to observing his engagement. + +[6] G. O. D. S., 1865, no. 63. + +[7] See G. O. D. S., 1865, _passim_. Also Savannah _Republican_, May 1, 2, +3, etc., 1865. + +[8] Savannah _Republican_, July 4, 1865. See also James Johnson's +proclamation of July 13, 1865, M. F. U. of same date. + +[9] M. F. U., July 25, 1865. + +[10] U. S. L., vol. 13, 760. The provisional governorship, it may be +remarked, was characterized by the Secretary of War as "ancillary to the +withdrawal of military force, the disbandment of armies, and the reduction +of military expenditure by provisional [civil organizations] to take the +place of armed force." The salaries of the provisional governors were paid +from the army contingencies fund. See S. D., 39th Congress, 1st session, +no. 26. + +[11] U. S. L., vol. 13, p. 764. + +[12] M. F. U., July 13, 1865; A. A. C., 1865, p. 394. + +[13] M. F. U., August 15, 1865; A. A. C., _loc. cit._ + +[14] Letter from Brown to Johnson, dated May 20, 1865, archives of the +Department of War, Washington. + +[15] Letter from Johnson to Stanton dated June 3, 1865, in same archives. + +[16] M. F. U., July 11, 1865. + +[17] M. F. U., July 18. Savannah _Republican_, July 1 and 3. + +[18] J. C., 1865, p. 3. + +[19] J. C., 1865, p. 8. + +[20] _Ibid._, pp. 17, 18. + +[21] _Ibid._, p. 234. The ordinance to this effect was passed only after a +hard fight, and after a telegraphic warning from the President that if it +failed the state would fail of restoration. See S. D., 39th Congress, 1st +session, no. 26, p. 81. + +[22] J. C., 1865, pp. 18 and 28. + +[23] S. J., 1865-6, p. 3. + +[24] S. D., 39th Congress, 1st session, no. 26, p. 95. + +[25] S. L., 1865, p. 313. + +[26] M. F. U., December 19 and 26, 1865. + +[27] See Jenkins' message to the legislature, M. F. U., December 19, 1865. + +[28] K. K. R., vol. 6, p. 320 (testimony of John B. Gordon). + +[29] Report of Carl Schurz on conditions in the South, made in December, +1865. S. D., 39th Congress, 2d session, no. 2. + +[30] Report of Carl Schurz on conditions in the South, made in December, +1863. S. D., 39th Congress, 2d session, no. 2. + +[31] Art. v, sect. 1, Sec. 1. + +[32] Art. ii, sec. 5, Sec. 5. + +[33] S. L., 1865-66, p. 6. + +[34] S. L., 1865-66, p. 234. + +[35] Before, the maximum penalty for rape, arson, and burglary in the +night had been imprisonment for 20 years, and for horse stealing +imprisonment for 5 years. + +[36] S. L., 1865-66, p. 232; 1866, p. 151. + +[37] _Ibid._, 1866, p. 150. + +[38] _Ibid._, 1865-66, p. 233. + +[39] S. L., 1866, p. 153. + +[40] _Ibid._, 1865-66, p. 239. + +[41] _Ibid._ + +[42] _Ibid._, p. 240. + +[43] _Ibid._, 241. + +[44] S. L., 1866, p. 59. + +[45] J. C., 1865, p. 16. + +[46] _Ibid._, p. 17. + +[47] _Ibid._, 137. + +[48] S. L., 1866, p. 216. For the governor's message and the report of the +committee to which the amendment was referred, see A. A. C., 1865, p. 352. +For a further expression of public opinion, see Atlanta _New Era_, October +19, 1866. + +[49] S. L., 1865-66, p. 315. + +[50] S. L., 1865-66, p. 14, and S. L., 1866, p. 143. + +[51] S. L., 1866, p. 219. + +[52] Report of Carl Schurz above cited. + +[53] C. G., 39th Congress, 1st session. Appendix, p. 1. + +[54] One of the Senators elect from Georgia had been Vice-President of the +defunct Confederacy. + +[55] C. G., 39th Congress, 1st session, p. 2. + +[56] R. C., 39th Congress, 1st session, vol. ii, p. iii. + +[57] C. G., 39th Congress, 1st session, appendix, p. 82. + +[58] C. G., 39th Congress, 1st session, p. 915. + +[59] U. S. L., vol. 14, p. 27. + +[60] Trumbull's speech, C. G., 39th Congress, 1st session, p. 474. + +[61] R. C., 39th Congress, 1st session, vol. ii. + +[62] Senate resolution (by Andrew Johnson), C. G., 37th Congress, 1st +session, pp. 243, 265; House resolution (by Crittenden), _ibid._, pp. 209, +222. + +[63] U. S. L., vol. 14, P. 358. + +[64] _Ibid._, p. 173. + +[65] U. S. Senate Journal, 39th Congress, 2d session, p. 21. + +[66] C. G., 39th Congress, 2d session, p. 814. + +[67] _Ibid._ + +[68] C. G., 39th Congress, 2d session, p. 251. + +[69] U. S. L., vol. 14, p. 428. + +[70] C. G., 39th Congress, 2d session, p. 1076. + +[71] U. S. L., vol. 15, p. 2. + +[72] _Ibid._, p. 14. + +[73] Mississippi _versus_ Johnson, 4 Wallace, 475; Georgia _versus_ +Stanton, 6 Wallace, 51; _Ex parte_ McCardle, 6 Wallace, 324, and 7 +Wallace, 512. + +[74] 7 Wallace, 700. + +[75] The _Federalist_, no. 43. + +[76] Story on the Constitution, chap. 41 (4th edition). + +[77] Cooley on the Constitution, p. 23 (4th edition). + +[78] Prize Cases, 2 Black, 687. + +[79] _Ex parte_ Garland, 4 Wallace, 333. + +[80] Archives of the Department of State, Washington. + +[81] C. G., 39th Congress, 2d session, p. 615. For other expressions of +the same doctrine, see Cullom's speech, _ibid._, p. 814; Sumner's +resolutions, C. G., 39th Congress, 1st session, p. 2; Sumner's +resolutions, C. G., 40th Congress, 2d session, p. 453. + +[82] G. O. H., 1867, no. 18 and 104; 1868, no. 55; G. O. T. M. D., 1867, +no. 1; 1868, no. 3 and 108. + +[83] G. O. T. M. D., 1867, no. 5. + +[84] _Ibid._, 1867, no. 20. + +[85] G. O. T. M. D., 1867, no. 50. + +[86] _Ibid._, 1867, no. 69. + +[87] _Ibid._, 1867, no. 83. + +[88] _Ibid._, 1867, no. 89. Also see Pope's Report, in R. S. W., 40th +Congress, 2d session, vol. i, p. 320. + +[89] There is a slight inaccuracy in the official figures. + +[90] G. O. T. M. D., 1867, no. 89. + +[91] Georgia Constitution of 1868, art. i, sec. i. + +[92] _Ibid._, art. i, sect. xi. + +[93] _Ibid._, art. ii, sect. ii. + +[94] _Ibid._, art. ii, sect. vii, Sec. 10. + +[95] _Ibid._, art. i, sect. xxii. + +[96] _Ibid._, art. vi, sect. i. + +[97] G. O. T. M. D., 1868, no. 39 and 40. + +[98] _Ibid._, no. 76, 90 and 93. Also, E. D., 40th Congress 2d session, +no. 300. + +[99] Pope's Report in R. S. W., 40th Congress, 2d session, vol. i, p. 320. + +[100] G. O. T. M. D., 1867, no. 1. + +[101] G. O. T. M. D., 1867, no. 10. + +[102] For the correspondence between Jenkins and Pope see A. A. C., 1867, +p. 363. + +[103] G. O. T. M. D., 1867, no. 49. + +[104] _Ibid._, 1867, no. 45. + +[105] _Ibid._, 1867, no. 28. + +[106] _Ibid._, 1867, no. 69. + +[107] S. O. T. M. D., 1867, _passim_. + +[108] G. O. T. M. D., 1867, no. 53. + +[109] S. O. T. M. D., 1867, no. 92, 100, 104. + +[110] _Ibid._, 1867, no. 263. + +[111] These figures are compiled from the special orders of the Third +Military District. + +[112] G. O. T. M. D., 1868, no. 22. + +[113] Ordinance of Dec. 20, 1867, J. C., 1867-8, p. 564. + +[114] Avery, _History of Georgia_, p. 378. + +[115] G. O. T. M. D., 1868, no. 8. Meade acted with the greatest courtesy, +and the relations between him and the officers remained friendly. See +Meade's letter to Jenkins, A. A. C., 1867, p. 367. The removal of the +treasurer was a formality to preserve the appearance of due discipline; +Jones was allowed to retain the money then in the treasury, and to use it +in paying the state debt and other expenses of the state government. See +his report to the legislature, Sept. 18, 1868; H. J., 1868, p. 359. + +[116] J. C., 1867-8, p. 581. + +[117] G. O. T. M. D., 1868, no. 12 and 17. + +[118] S. O. T. M. D., 1868, no. 112. + +[119] G. O. T. M. D., 1868, no. 39 and 57. + +[120] _Ibid._, 1868, no. 58. + +[121] _Ibid._, 1868, no. 51. + +[122] _Ibid._, 1868, no. 54. + +[123] _Ibid._, 1868, no. 57. + +[124] _Ibid._, 1868, no. 27 and 37. + +[125] G. O. T. M. D., 1868, no. 27, 55, 99, 123, 136, and 148. + +[126] M. F. U., Oct. 29, 1867. + +[127] Atlanta _New Era_, Nov. 16, 1866; March 13, 1867; March 19, 1867. + +[128] Testimony of John B. Gordon, K. K. R., vol. 6, p. 308. + +[129] Atlanta _New Era_, March 13, 16 and 30, 1867. + +[130] M. F. U., Oct. 29 and Nov. 5, 1867. + +[131] A. A. C., 1868, p. 309. + +[132] Testimony before the reconstruction committee, H. M. D., 40th +Congress, 2d session, no. 52, p. 26. See also M. F. U., March 10 and 17, +1867. + +[133] Tribune Almanac for 1869, p. 78. + +[134] U. S. L., vol. 15, Public Laws, p. 41. + +[135] See sects. 5 and 6. + +[136] The vote in Alabama on the adoption of the constitution resulted in +favor of adoption; but less than half of the registered voters voted, and +the vote was taken before the passage of the act of March 11, 1868, above +mentioned. Excuse was found by the Republican leaders for waiving this +irregularity. C. G., 40th Congress, 2d session, p. 2463. + +[137] C. G., 40th Congress, 2d session, p. 2859 (Trumbull's speech). + +[138] U. S. L., vol. 15, Public Acts, p. 73. + +[139] S. J., 1868. p. 3. + +[140] The Iron Clad or Test Oath, to the effect that the person swearing +had never borne arms against the United States, or in any way served the +Confederacy. U. S. L., vol. 12, p. 502. + +[141] G. O. T. M. D., 1868, no. 61. + +[142] S. R., 40th Congress, 3d session, no. 192, p. 38. See also C. G., +41st Congress, 1st session, p. 594. + +[143] G. O. T. M. D., 1868, no. 98. + +[144] S. R., 40th Congress, 3d session, no. 192, p. 7. + +[145] _Ibid._ See also H. J., 1868, p. 25. + +[146] S. J., 1868, p. 34. + +[147] H. J., 1868, pp. 36, 44. + +[148] S. R., 40th Congress, 3d session, no. 192, p. 8. + +[149] S. R., 40th Congress, 3d session, no. 192, p. 38. + +[150] _Ibid._ + +[151] _Ibid._, p. 13. + +[152] H. J., 1868, p. 52. + +[153] G. O. T. M. D., 1868, no. 103. + +[154] G. O. H., 1868, no. 55. + +[155] H. J., 1868, p. 57. + +[156] C. G., 40th Congress, 2d session, pp. 4472, 4499, 4500. + +[157] H. J., 1868, p. 104. + +[158] C. G., 40th Congress, 2d session, p. 4518. + +[159] A. A. C., 1868, p. 312. + +[160] The most prominent of these was Ex-Governor Brown. He went as a +delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1868, but in a speech +there declared his opposition to the granting of political power to the +negro. Avery, _History of Georgia_, p. 385. + +[161] S. J., 1868, p. 84. + +[162] Constitution of 1868, Art. xi, Sec. 3. + +[163] Irwin's Code, 1868, Sec. 1648. + +[164] Art. i, sec. 2. + +[165] This ingenious argument of intent was made by Bullock. H. J., 1868, +p. 300. + +[166] White _versus_ Clements, Georgia Reports, vol. 39, p. 232. + +[167] H. J., 1868, pp. 242, 247. S. J., 1868, pp. 278, 280. + +[168] Irwin's Code, 1868, Sec. 121. + +[169] C. G., 40th Congress, 3d session, p. 3. + +[170] _Ibid._, p. 2. + +[171] C. G., 40th Congress, 3d session, p. 3. + +[172] Richard Taylor, _Destruction and Reconstruction_. + +[173] K. K. R., vol. 6, p. 93 (testimony of Augustus R. Wright); p. 274 +(testimony of Ambrose R. Wright); p. 236 (testimony of J. H. Christy); p. +818 (testimony of J. E. Brown). + +[174] _Ibid._, vol. 7, pp. 812, 818 (testimony of J. E. Brown); p. 786 +(testimony of B. H. Hill). + +[175] _Ibid._, vol. 6, pp. 21 (testimony of C. D. Forsythe), 118 +(testimony of Aug. R. Wright); vol 7, pp. 988 (testimony of Linton +Stephens), 1071. + +[176] _Ibid._, vol. 6, pp. 426, 440 (testimony of J. H. Caldwell), 108 +(testimony of Aug. R. Wright); vol. 7, p. 818 (testimony of J. E. Brown). + +[177] _Ibid._, vol. 6, p. 344 (testimony of J. B. Gordon). + +[178] C. G., 41st Congress, 2d session, p. 1929 (Trumbull's remarks). + +[179] Report of committee on reconstruction, H. M. D., 40th Congress, 3d +session, no. 52, pp. 12 (testimony of Akerman), 27 (testimony of J. E. +Bryant). + +[180] K. K. R., vol. 6, p. 107 (testimony of Aug. R. Wright). + +[181] K. K. R., vol. 7, p. 838 (testimony of C. W. Howard). + +[182] This statement is corroborated by the testimony of B. H. Hill, K. K. +R., vol. 7, p. 767. + +[183] C. G., 40th Congress, 3d session, p. 2. + +[184] S. R., 40th Congress, 3d session, no. 192. + +[185] C. G., 40th Congress, 3d session, p. 27. + +[186] _Ibid._, p. 144. + +[187] _Ibid._, pp. 10 and 674. + +[188] H. M. D., 40th Congress, 3d session, no. 52. + +[189] U. S. L., vol. 15, Public Laws, p. 257. + +[190] C. G., 40th Congress, 3d session, pp. 934, 976. A precedent for this +rule was found in the similar treatment of Missouri's electoral vote in +1821. + +[191] C. C. 40th Congress, 3d session, pp. 1057, ff. + +[192] G. C., 1867-8, p. 567. + +[193] C. G., 41st Congress, 1st session, pp. 16, 18. The committee of +elections reported on Jan. 28, 1870, that the Georgia representatives were +not entitled to seats in the 41st Congress, having sat in the 40th. R. C., +41st Congress, 2d session, no. 16. + +[194] C. G., 41st Congress, 1st session, pp. 8, 263, 591. + +[195] U. S. L., vol. 15, appendix, p. xii. + +[196] W. A. Dunning, _The Civil War and Reconstruction_, pp. 226-228, 243. + +[197] S. J., 1869, p. 806; H. J., p. 610. + +[198] C. G., 41st Congress, 2d session, p. 251. + +[199] _Ibid._, p. 4. + +[200] H. M. D., 40th Congress, 3d session, no. 52. + +[201] S. D., 41st Congress, 2d session, no. 3. + +[202] _Ibid._ Halleck's annual report of Nov. 6, 1869, speaks to the same +effect. R. S. W., 1869, abridged edition, p. 70. + +[203] C. G., 41st Congress, 2d session, p. 246. + +[204] U. S. L., vol. 16, Pub. Laws, p. 59. + +[205] C. G., 41st Congress, 2d session, p. 1710 (Lawrence's speech). + +[206] _Ibid._, pp. 165 (Carpenter's speech) and 208 (Conkling's speech). + +[207] C. G., 41st Congress, 2d session, p. 2062. + +[208] _Ibid._, p. 1710 (Lawrence's speech). + +[209] G. O. T. M. D., 1868, no. 90. + +[210] G. O. II., 1870, no. 1. This and other documents relating to Terry's +administration are published in E. D., 41st Congress, 2d session, no. 288. + +[211] S. R., first Congress, 2d session, no. 58. + +[212] G. O. M. D. G., 1870, no. 2, 14, 16, 17. + +[213] S. O. M. D. G., no. 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 14, 17. + +[214] _Ibid._, no. 10 and 11. + +[215] H. J., 1870, p. 3. + +[216] S. J., 1870, p. 3; H. J., p. 7. + +[217] H. J., p. 17. + +[218] S. J., 1870., p. 26. + +[219] H. J., 1870, p. 3. + +[220] _Ibid._, pp. 19 and 21. + +[221] See also a letter from Sherman to Terry, published in K. K. R., vol. +i, p. 311. + +[222] Judge Cabaniss in Atlanta _Constitution_, Jan. 8, 1870. + +[223] H. J., 1870, p. 9. + +[224] G. O. M. D. G., 1870, no. 3 and 4. + +[225] _Ibid._, no. 9 and 11. + +[226] _Ibid._, no. 9. + +[227] _Ibid._, no. 9 and 11. + +[228] Atlanta _Constitution_, Jan. 27, 1870. + +[229] C. G., 41st Congress, 2d session, p. 1926 (Trumbull's speech). + +[230] H. J., 1870, p. 22. + +[231] H. J., 1870, p. 23. + +[232] _Ibid._, p. 25. + +[233] _Ibid._, p. 26. + +[234] G. O. M. D. G., 1870, no. 10. + +[235] H. J., 1870, p. 33. + +[236] C. G., 41st Congress, 2d session, p. 208. + +[237] S. J., 1870, p. 74; H. J., p. 74. + +[238] See Bullock's message, H. J., 1870, p. 52. + +[239] H. J., 1870, p. 95. + +[240] _Ibid._, pp. 113, 156. + +[241] H. J., 1870, p. 106. + +[242] _Ibid._, p. 140. + +[243] _Ibid._, p. 121. + +[244] C. G., 41st Congress, 2d session, p. 576. For Sherman's reply see E. +D., 41st Congress, 2d session, no. 82. + +[245] C. G., 41st Congress, 2d session, p. 1029. + +[246] _Ibid._, p. 1128. + +[247] S. R., 41st Congress, 2d session, no. 58. + +[248] Chicago _Tribune_, Dec. 7, 1868. + +[249] C. G., 41st Congress, 2d session, pp. 1570, 1704. + +[250] C. G., 41st Congress, 2d session, p. 1770. + +[251] _Ibid._ + +[252] _Ibid._, p. 1988. + +[253] C. G., 41st Congress, 2d session, p. 2091. + +[254] _Ibid._, pp. 2820, ff. + +[255] _Ibid._, p. 2829. + +[256] _Ibid._, p. 4747. + +[257] U. S. L., vol. 16, Public Laws, p. 363. + +[258] H. J., 1870, p. 181. + +[259] S. J., 1870, vol. ii, p. 29. + +[260] _Ibid._, p. 50; H. J., p. 343. + +[261] C. G., 41st Congress, 3d session, pp. 527, 530, 678, 703, 1086. + +[262] S. R., 41st Congress, 3d session, no. 308. + +[263] C. G., 41st Congress, 3d session, pp. 871, 1632. + +[264] J. C., p. 14. + +[265] J. C., pp. 16, 17. + +[266] _Ibid._, p. 587. + +[267] _Ibid._, pp. 49, 53. + +[268] _Ibid._, p. 581. + +[269] _Ibid._, p. 75. + +[270] _Ibid._, p. 63. + +[271] _Ibid._, p. 84. + +[272] _Ibid._, pp. 581, 594. + +[273] _Ibid._, p. 68. + +[274] J. C., p. 583. + +[275] _Ibid._, p. 593. + +[276] _Ibid._, p. 591. + +[277] See J. C., 1865, p. 201 (speech of H. V. Johnson). + +[278] J. C., 1867-8, p. 90. + +[279] _Ibid._, p. 39. + +[280] _Ibid._, p. 47. + +[281] M. F. U., Dec. 24, 1867, Jan. 7, Jan. 14, 1868. + +[282] H. J., 1868, p. 294. + +[283] H. J., 1868, p. 303. + +[284] S. J., 1868, p. 326. + +[285] H. J., 1869, p. 5. + +[286] _Ibid._, p. 228. + +[287] H. J., p. 54. + +[288] _Ibid._, p. 260. + +[289] _Ibid._, p. 265. + +[290] H. J., 1869, p. 575. + +[291] _Ibid._, 1869, p. 618. + +[292] S. J., p. 806. + +[293] G. O. M. D. G., 1870, no. 9 and 11. + +[294] S. J., 1870, p. 39. + +[295] H. J., pp. 34, 40, 84, 88. + +[296] The complexion of the legislature when composed of the men elected +in April, 1868, was as follows: + + Senate. Lower House. + +-------------+-------+------------+ + | Republicans | 22 | 73 | + |Conservatives| 22 | 102 | + +-------------+-------+------------+ + +After the colored members were expelled and their seats given to the +minority candidates, it was as follows: + + Senate. Lower House. + +-------------+-------+------------+ + | Republicans | 19 | 48 | + |Conservatives| 25 | 127 | + +-------------+-------+------------+ + +After the reorganization of 1870 it was as follows: + + Senate. Lower House. + +-------------+-------+------------+ + | Republicans | 27 | 87 | + |Conservatives| 17 | 83 | + +-------------+-------+------------+ + +The figures in the second and third tables are based upon the changes +produced only by the official transactions referred to. Perhaps some +slight corrections might be made on account of accidental circumstances, +such as the non-attendance or death of a few members. + +[297] See K. K. R., vol. 6, p. 149; vol. 7, p. 1062. + +[298] H. J., 1870, p. 156. + +[299] H. M. D., 40th Congress, 3d session, no. 52, p. 27. + +[300] Savannah _News_, Jan. 12, 1870. + +[301] H. J., p. 50. + +[302] M. F. U., Feb. 15, 1870 + +[303] M. F. U., Jan. 25, 1870. + +[304] H. J., p. 343. + +[305] S. L., 1870, p. 62. + +[306] _Ibid._, p. 431. + +[307] Tribune Almanac, 1871, p. 75. + +[308] M. F. U., March 14, 8871; Atlanta _Constitution_, Oct. 26 and 31, +1871. + +[309] Art. iii, sect. i, Sec. 3. + +[310] S. L., 1870, p. 419. + +[311] E. M., 1870-74, p. 197. + +[312] See entry of the secretary of state, _ibid._ + +[313] Art. iv, sect. i,Sec. 4. + +[314] E. M., 1870-74, p. 198. + +[315] Atlanta _Constitution_, Nov. 3, 1871. + +[316] S. J., 1871, p. 17. + +[317] Atlanta _Constitution_, Nov. 2, 1871. + +[318] S. L., 1871, p. 27. + +[319] Art. iv, sect. i, Sec. 4. + +[320] H. J., 1871, p. 179. + +[321] For vetoed bills see S. L., 1871 and 1872, pp. 12, 15, 18, 27, 68, +74. See also _ibid._, p. 260, and H. J., 1872, p. 25. + +[322] E. M., 1870-74, p. 277 (pardon of V. A. Gaskill); Minutes of Fulton +County Superior Court, vol. J, p. 404 (pardon of F. Blodgett). + +[323] H. J., 1872, p. 25. + +[324] _Ibid._, p. 31. + +[325] K. K. R., vol. 6, p. 327. + +[326] Digest of tax laws, 1859, p. 11. + +[327] S. L., 1865-66, p. 253. + +[328] _Ibid._, 1866, p. 164. + +[329] _Ibid._, 1868, p. 152; 1869, p. 159. + +[330] B. L., p. 11. + +[331] C. R., 1870 (printed in S. J., 1870, part ii, p. 83). + +[332] C. R., 1870. + +[333] C. R., April, 1871. + +[334] C. R., April, 1872. + +[335] B. L., p. 9; B. A., p. 42. + +[336] Report of state treasurer Jones, published in H. J., 1868, p. 361; +R. C., 1870; R. C., April, 1871; R. C., April, 1872. + +[337] S. L., 1865-1866, pp. 12 and 14; _ibid._, 1866, pp. 10, 11, 143. + +[338] Compiled from the financial documents above cited. + +[339] S. L., 1865-66, p. 250. + +[340] Compiled from the financial reports above cited. + +The enemies of reconstruction were fond of placing the state expenses of +Bullock's administration in juxtaposition with those before the war. +Contrasts truly horrible could thus be produced. But it was not a fair +comparison, for the expenses in such circumstances as prevailed after the +war and after the social revolution would naturally be larger than before. +The expenses of many states besides those which enjoyed reconstruction +increased largely after the war. _E.g._ the records of Pennsylvania show +that "Expenses of Government" were-- + + In 1857 $423,448.89 + 1858 399,888.36 + 1860 404,863.41 + 1866 668,909.63 + 1867 802,878.58 + 1868 845,539.89 + 1869 804,730.17 + 1870 826,069.25 + +Pennsylvania Executive Documents, Auditor's Reports, for the years named. +In Massachusetts the "Ordinary Expenses" were-- + + In 1857 $1,236,204.26 + 1858 1,008,620.50 + 1859 999,899.76 + 1860 1,193,896.41 + 1866 6,877,720.85 + 1867 5,953,003.31 + 1868 5,908,678.48 + +Massachusetts Public Documents for the years named. + +[341] C. R., 1870. + +[342] C. R., April, 1871, p. 14; C. R., April, 1872, p. 17; B. L., p. 13; +Conley's message to the legislature, Jan. 11, 1872 (quoted in B. A., p. 6, +and in K. K. R., vol. i, p. 141). + +Of these bonds 3,000, representing a debt of $3,000,000, were issued under +a law of Sept. 15, 1870 (S. L., 1870, p. 10), authorizing the governor to +issue bonds for various purposes without specified limit as to amount. The +rest were issued under an act of Oct. 17, 1870 (omitted from the session +laws, see Conley's message just cited), authorizing the governor to issue +to the Brunswick and Albany railroad state bonds to the amount of +$1,880,000 in exchange for bonds of the railroad to the amount of +$2,350,000. + +In addition to the bonds already mentioned, bonds to the amount of +$600,000 were issued under acts of 1868 (S. L., 1868, pp. 14 and 138.) +These were not sold and were returned to the possession of the state +during Bullock's administration (Angier's statement, K. K. R., vol. 6, p. +162). Also, before the issue of $3,000,000 mentioned, bonds to the amount +of $2,000,000 were issued (Conley's message cited). These were +hypothecated with several bankers in New York. Some of them, amounting to +$500,000, were returned and cancelled during Bullock's administration +(Conley's message). The rest, amounting to $1,500,000, remained in the +hands of the bankers. Conley stated, in January, 1872 (message cited), +that these bonds had been replaced by bonds of a later issue and canceled +during Bullock's administration, and had therefore ceased to be a claim +against the state. This statement conflicts with three facts. 1. The +bankers who held these bonds refused to return them after their alleged +cancellation. 2. One of these bankers sold the bonds which he held after +their alleged cancellation (Henry Clews, _Twenty-eight Years in Wall +Street_, p. 277). 3. The legislature of Georgia repudiated these bonds in +1872, which would have been unnecessary if they had been cancelled. It +seems probable, therefore, though not certain, that this $1,500,000 should +be added to the debt incurred by the reconstruction government. + +[343] S. L., 1868, title xvii. + +[344] _Ibid._, 1869, title xv. + +[345] _Ibid._, 1870, title xi, division vii. + +[346] Angier's statement, K. K. R., vol. i, p. 129. + +[347] Conley's message above cited. + +[348] It is to be remarked, however, that four of the roads whose bonds +the state had guaranteed became bankrupt before 1874. See Poor's Railroad +Manual for 1873-4, pp. 432 and 582; and for 1874-5, p. 426. + +[349] E. M., 1870-74, p. 449. + +[350] See the case of Hoyt, Minutes of Fulton County Superior Court, vol. +I, pp. 371, 445. + +[351] Report of the investigating committee of the legislature appointed +in Dec., 1871. Its report was printed in Atlanta in 1872. It is bitterly +partisan, but a minority report made by a Republican admits, with humorous +resignation, that the charges are true. + +[352] A. A. C., 1869, P. 305. + +[353] See K. K. R., vol. i, pp. 137 and 138. The statements are on pp. 11 +and 12 of the letter as published in Atlanta in 1871. + +[354] See Conley's message cited. + +[355] In the latter part of 1868 and in 1869 the governor paid to a +certain H. I. Kimball $54,500 from the treasury. He paid this to be used +in furnishing a building which was at that time occupied as the state +capital. (Bullock's statement, B. A., p. 29.) There was no law authorizing +this payment, nor was the state under any obligation to make it. The state +bought the building in 1870 by an act of the legislature which provided +that the $54,500 should be counted as part of the price. Thus Bullock's +advance was ratified by the state. (S. L., 1870, p. 494.) This, however, +does not change the character of the act. + +[356] See C. R., April, 1871, and April, 1872. Bullock was accused of +indorsing the bonds of three railroads contrary to law. In the case of two +of these (the Cartersville and Van Wert, or Cherokee railroad, and the +Bainbridge, Cuthbert and Columbus railroad) he refuted the charge beyond +contradiction in his address to the public of 1872. In the case of the +third (the Brunswick and Albany railroad) he admitted that he had indorsed +bonds before the road had complied with the conditions required by law, +but said that he did it for the public good. (B. A., pp. 39-41.) + +[357] Atlanta _Constitution_, Jan. 3, 1878; Minutes of the Fulton County +Superior Court, vol. N, p. 261. + +[358] _Ibid._, pp. 263, 273. + +[359] Atlanta _New Era_, Oct. 31, 1871. Printed as an appendix to B. A. + +[360] Appendix to B. L. (printed in K. K. R., vol. 7, p. 825). + +[361] K. K. R., vol. 7, pp. 767 and 780. + + + + +STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC LAW + +EDITED BY THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. + + +VOLUME I, 1891-2. Second Edition, 1897. 396 pp. + +Price, $3.00; bound, $3.50. + +1. 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The Economic Theory of Risk and Insurance. By Allan H. Willett, Ph. D. +Price, $1.50. + + +VOLUME XV, 1901. + +Civilization through Crime. By Arthur Cleveland Hall. [_Ready in July._] + + +The set of thirteen volumes (except that Vol. II can be supplied only in +unbound nos. 2 and 3) is offered bound for $43. + +For further information apply to + +Prof. EDWIN R. A. SELIGMAN, Columbia University, or to THE MACMILLAN +COMPANY, New York, London: P. S. KING & SON, Orchard House, Westminster. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. + +Footnote 141 appears on page 51, but there is no corresponding marker on +the page. + +Punctuation has been corrected without note. + +The following misprints have been corrected: + "consitutional" corrected to "constitutional" (page 12) + "conventton" corrected to "convention" (page 12) + "repudiaation" corrected to "repudiation" (page 12) + "and and" corrected to "and" (page 14) + "attitnde" corrected to "attitude" (page 22) + "acording" corrected to "according" (page 59) + "admendment" corrected to "amendment" (page 83) + "we we" corrected to "we" (page 87) + "reconstructien" corrected to "reconstruction" (page 91) + "circumsances" corrected to "circumstances" (page 93) + "expeditures" corrected to "expenditures" (page 101) + "iuterchange" corrected to "interchange" (page 106) + "hfs" corrected to "his" (page 107) + "polictical" corrected to "political" (page 108) + +Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and +hyphenation have been retained from the original. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Reconstruction of Georgia, by Edwin C. 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