GEORGIA. 



399 



ment. In their present position, misrepresented 

 by enemies and misunderstood by friends at the 

 North, members were in doubt as to what 

 might be the purport of the despatch from, the 

 President of the United States; and when it 

 was ascertained to be only a congratulatory 

 recognition of their late action, the general 

 feeling of relief was too manifest to escape the 

 notice of the most casual observer. I have not 

 before so sensibly realized what it is to be a 

 subjugated, conquered people. If many hoped 

 and expected that the despatch brought the 

 President's recognition of the reorganization of 

 the State Government, with his authorization 

 of its perfection, by the inauguration of the Gov- 

 ernor elect of the people, not a few entertained 

 apprehensions that the communication might be 

 adverse and of more serious import. If the 

 hopes of the first were disappointed, neverthe- 

 less all were relieved by the knowledge that 

 nothing worse had come from "Washington, and 

 the evidence of that feeling at the close of the 

 reading of the brief missive might have been 

 discerned, not only in the expression of every 

 countenance in that hall, but, as I imagined, by 

 the freer respiration which followed." 



On the 10th the Provisional Governor sent a 

 despatch to Washington, asking to be relieved 

 from his duties, and that the Governor-elect 

 might be allowed to enter upon his office. The 

 President sent the following in reply : 



"WASHINGTON, December 11. 

 J. Johnson, Provisional Governor; 



The Governor-elect will be inaugurated, which will 

 not interfere with the Provisional Governor. You 

 will receive instructions in a few days with regard to 

 being relieved. Why can't you elect a Senator? I 

 would issue no commissions to members of Con- 

 gress : leave that for the incoming Governor. We 

 are under obligations to you for the noble, efficient, 

 and patriotic manner in which you have discharged 

 the duties of Provisional Governor, and you will be 

 sustained by the Government. 



ANDREW JOHNSON, President. 



The inauguration of Governor Jenkins took 

 place on December 14th. In his address he 

 presented the following views of the results of 

 the war and the position of the freedmen : 



In the recent remodelling of their Constitution, the 

 people of Georgia have acknowledged the Constitu- 

 tion, laws, and treaties of the United States as the Su- 

 preme Law. This means something more than yield- 

 ing of the contest, or an overture for restoration. It 

 implies fidelity to the supreme law in all future legis- 

 lative, executive, and judicial action, and in all future 

 movement of the people enmasse. It implies a recog- 

 nition of duty to and interest in the whole country, 

 as well as to and in the State of Georgia. It is of 

 course predicated upon a reciprocal obligation on the 

 part of those to whom this pledge is renewed. 



The institution of slavery the principal source of 

 discord in the past has been effectually eradicated 

 from our social and political systems. It can never 

 again disturb the harmony of our national delibera- 

 tions, without which the Federal Union must be a 

 curse instead of a blessing. If the whole people, 

 repressing all promptings of sectional feelings and 

 interest, will faithfully observe and obey the Federal 

 Constitution, coming events may lift the veil which 

 now covers recent demonstrations of Providence, and 

 disclose to their rectified vision, in striking contrast, 



ruin caused by human folly and renovation wrought 

 by divine wisdom. 



Let not our people yield to discouragement, in view 

 of the tardy progress of reconstruction, or of the 

 suspicion and distrust so palpably manifested toward 

 them. Sustained by conscious rectitude, let them 

 maintain with calm and resolute dignity the position 

 they have taken, and await the result. A tempest of 

 unsurpassed fury has swept over the land. The ele- 

 ments do not subside into their normal quiet instan- 

 taneously with the lull of the wind, the sleep of the 

 lightning, and the hush of the thunder. The smoke 

 of an hundred battles does not vanish in a moment. 

 But the atmosphere will clear ere long; those who 

 cannot now see how men who recently fought with 

 such desperation against the United States, can so 

 soon become its real citizens, will then look at us 

 through a ~ectified medium. It will occur to them 

 that valor and truth are twin sisters, born of magna- 

 nimity, whose womb never did nor never will con- 

 ceive treachery. They will then remember and ap- 

 preciate the historical fact, that the State now re- 

 turning never confederated against the United States, 

 until each for herself had m open day, and in the 

 hearing of all mankind, declared herself separate 

 from that power. And although they will still hold 

 that act wrong in principle and void in fact, they will 

 find in it no taint of duplicity. They will look in vain 

 through all the sanguinary traces of war for the trail 

 of the serpent. In due time consistency will com- 

 mand confidence, and sincerity, like the diamond of 

 the first water, will assuredly win its own recognition. 

 Then our too suspicious judges will marvel less at 

 our approved fealty, than at their own tardiness in 

 discerning it. 



Be the process of reconstruction long or short, 

 when consummated, our attitude will and must be 

 that of strict fidelity to the Union, of equality with 

 our associates, and of dignity sustained by our inner 

 sense of unviolated integrity. 



Respecting the freedmen, he said : 



It is undoubtedly true that during all the years of 

 his enslavement he has been marvellously kind, pro- 

 foundly content with his condition ; and what shall 

 be said, of his deportment during the last half decade 

 of .sad memories? Whilst you strong men were in 

 the tented field, far away from unprotected wives 

 and children, he cultivated their*lands, tended their 

 households, and rendered all servile observances as 

 when surrounded by the usual controlling agencies. 

 And since the fiat of emancipation, which he neither 

 forced nor implored, although sometimes unsettled 

 in his purpose, and inconstant in his service by con- 

 tract (the natural results of a transition so sudden 

 and so thorough), I take you all to witness that in 

 the main his conduct has been praiseworthy beyond 

 all rational expectation. Tell me not of instances of 

 insubordination as a slave, and of indecorum as a 

 freedman, that have transpired in certain localities 

 or characterized particular individuals. These are 

 exceptional cases, the general rule being quite other- 

 wise. Do our own race render unvarying obedience 

 to the mandates of law? Are our own offspring 

 through the years of minority always subordinate to 

 parental authority ? Shall, then, the less cultivated 

 African be held to a stricter accountability or be 

 judged by a higher standard of moral rectitude? 

 Tell me not the race is ungrateful. The assertion is 

 against the truth of tradition and experience. I here 

 declare that, in my judgment, their fidelity in the 

 past, and their decorum under the distressing in- 

 fluences of the present, are without a parallel in his- 

 tory, and establish for them a claim upon our favor- 

 ing patronage. As the governing class, individually 

 and collectively, we owe them unbounded kindness, 

 thorough protection, incentives by moral suasion, by 

 appeals to their interest, and by just legal restraint 

 to do right, that they may do well. Their rights of 

 person and property should be made perfectly secure 



