GEORGIA. 



MirAHTKttM Til I It I) M 11.11 AHY DlRTBICT ) 



y 

 . j 



t'/Kir/i.i J. "flledge- 



lionor to transmit enclosed a oopv 



-uinili^ command of this unl- 

 :i-tri.-t. Copies were sent tn \ on at the time, 

 . Millcdirevillc. 



Mutt order reads a> follows, viz. : 

 . In- clearly understood, however, tliut 

 Mills retained in ollicc shall eontine 

 \ to the performance of tlu-ir offi- 

 cial duties, and whilst holding their offices they shall 

 . influence whatever to iK-ti-r or dissuade 

 tin- ju-i>|ili- from taking un active part in reconstruct- 

 ing their State L r "Vel limelit, lllliliT t lie Act of Coil- 

 > provide I'nr the more etlieielit government 

 rein I States, and the act supplementary t i 

 I have the honor to request that you will inform 

 rly a day as possible, whether, when you 

 \ niir address to the people of Georgia, dated 

 Washington. 1). ('.. April lu, 1867, you had seen or 

 had knowledge of the enclosed order. 



I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



JOHN POPE 

 Brevet Major-General Commanding. 



In his reply, after stating that he had not 

 si-i-n tin- order nt the time of issuing his address 

 t< the people ot' Georgia, the Governor says: 



poM-d I was cxcivi-ing such freedom in the 

 publi'- i of opinion, relative to public mat- 



II -,-, ins still to be accorded to the citizens of 

 this republic, not imagining that it was abridged by 



.'lent of the speaker or writer holding office. 

 So much for the past, general, and I will only add, 

 that m future I shall do and say what I may believe 

 .ired of me by the duty to which my path of 

 uttice binds me, and this, I trust, will not involve 

 either conflict or controversy between us in the ex- 

 ecution of our respective trusts, as I think it need 

 in >t ; every thing of this character I certainly desire to 

 avoid. 



On the degree of freedom of speech expected 

 of him in his official position, Governor Jen- 

 kins was >i-t right in the following manner: 



HEADQUARTERS THIRD MILITARY DISTRICT ) 

 (QEOEGIA, ALABAMA, AND FLORIDA), V 

 ATLANTA. <;\.. A/-i/ -".', 1S07. I 

 GOVERNOR : I have the honor to acknowledge the 

 receipt of your letter of the 20th instant, in answer to 

 mine of the 17th. 



It gives me pleasure to say that your explanation- is 

 tory, so far as the past is concerned, and I cor- 

 dially concur with you in the hope that our relations 

 iu the future may be harmonious and agreeable. 

 I would content myself with this answer to your 

 lint for the following remark which it contains. 

 You sav, " I supposed I was using such freedom in 

 the public expression of opinion relative to public 

 matters as seems still to be accorded to the citizens 

 of this republic, not imagining that it was abridged 

 by the accident of the speaker or writer holding 

 ofHce." 



This expression seems to indicate that you think 

 that in some manner, either personally or officially, 

 you have been wronged by that paragraph of my 

 or.lcr which has occasioned this correspondence, and 

 that I am set-king to abridge the liberty of speech in 

 this State, in an unnecessary and oppressive manner. 

 1 trust that I may be able to disabuse your mind 

 of this ulea. It is scarcely necessary to tell you that 

 r Acts of Conu'Tos, which lam sent here to 

 _rni/c the existing State government of 

 provisional, and that the object of 

 :i/.iii'_' it at all was only that the ordinary course 

 .11 the civil tribunals, and the administra- 

 tion of the laws of the State by the customary agen- 



cies, might not be interrupted further than was neoet- 

 sary for the utri' -i f the luw of the United 



. It is not doubted that Congret - 

 legislated ti -."vermin-lit ,,i i 



out of exiMt-nce as easily a.-t: 

 provisional, and it is as little to he doul.ted ti. 



, llll\ e done BO. eould it llil\ i 



seen that the entire machinerv of the provisional 

 State government would be used to defeat the execu- 

 ti"ti of the ver\ law l.y irho I alone it has 



any existence at all. It i* very clear that Congress 

 did not intend to rt-e rmit to exist, by 



n eon.-truction acta, a powerful organization to 

 be used against their execution, nor can such UBC be 

 made of the State government of (leor^ia without 

 greatly obstructing, if not, indeed, entirely frustrat- 

 ing the performance of the duty required of me by 

 these acts. 



The existing State government was permitted to 

 stand for the convenience of the p.-opi of Georgia, in 

 the ordinary administration of the local civil laws, 

 and to that end it should be carefully confined. 



It was in this view that paragraph 3 .of my order 

 assuming command was considered, and it is not easy 

 to see how it can be regarded as oppressive or unjust. 



Holding your office by permission of the United 

 States Government, you are debarred, as I am, from 

 expressing opinions or using influences to prevent 

 the execution of the laws of the United States, or to 

 excite ill-feeling and opposition to the General Gov- 

 ernment, which is executing these Acts of Congress. 



With your personal opinions, or those of any cit- 

 izen of Georgia, or their expression within the limits 

 of the law, I have nothing to do : but the distinction 

 between personal opinion openly expressed in an 

 official capacity, and official opinion, is too nice for 

 the common understanding. 



The influence of your opinions, openly avowed, 

 must of necessity be very great with the civil officers 

 of the State in all its departments, when the tenure 

 of office is largely dependent upon your pleasure. 

 Your opinions as a private citizen^ without official 

 station, and the same opinions whilst Governor of 

 Georgia, have a very diiterent significance, and pro- 

 duce a very different ./effect. 



I only require that the civil machinery of the State 

 of Georgia be not perverted so as to frustrate the ex- 

 ecution of the laws of the United States, and for that 

 reason I exact from the civil officers that whilst they 

 retain their offices they confine themselves strictly 

 to the performance of their official duties, and not 

 use their influence to prevent the people of the State 

 from submitting to and currying out the laws of the 

 United States. 



In your address to the people of Georgia, which 

 occasioned this correspondence, you denounce the 

 Acts of Congress which I am sent nere to execute, as 

 " palpably unconstitutional " and "grievously op- 

 pressive," and advise the people, whatever may be 

 the decision of the Supreme Court of the Tinted 

 States, to take no action under those laws. Whilst 

 you counsel them not to resist by violence, you at the 

 same time, by open official denunciation of the law, 

 invite the very action which you seem to deprecate. 



It is manifestly impossible for me to pertorm the 

 duties required of me by the Acts of Congress, while 

 the Provisional Governor of the State is openly de- 

 nouncing them and giving advice to the public in bis 

 official capacity, the result of which will bo to excite 

 discontent and array the whole army of officeholders 

 in the State in opposition Ao their execution, unless, 

 indeed, the whole civil government of the State is 

 overtlirown, and the military substituted. I think 

 such a change wonld be as distasteful to the people 

 of Georgia as*it would be to me ; and yet if the civil 

 officers of the State follow the example which your 

 Excellency has set them, there will be no escape from 

 such a result. 



The third paragraph of my order imposes no r. 

 tions on you to which I am not my self subject : you 



