GEOEGIA. 



317 



of the military authority to preserve the peace at the 

 polls at any election that may be held in any of the 

 States ; 



And wJiereas, This duty has become the more im- 

 perative from the existing political excitement in the 

 public mind, from the recent organization of civil 

 government, and from the fact that Congress has by 

 statute prohibited the organization of military forces 

 in the several States of this department : it is there- 

 fore 



Ordered, That the several district commanders 

 will, as soon as practicable, on the receipt of this 

 order, distribute the troops under their commands as 

 follows: ******** 



In the District of Georgia : 

 One company 16th Infantry, to Albany. 

 One company 16th Infantry, to Columbus. 

 One company 16th Infantry, to Macon. 

 One company 16th Infantry, to Augusta. 

 One company 16th Infantry, to "Washington, 



Wilkes County. 



One company 16th Infantry, to Americus. 

 One company 16th Infantry, to Thomas ville. 

 One company (C) 5th Cavalry, to Athens. 



The company at Savannah to be re*enforced, should 

 occasion require, by such number of the men at Fort 

 Pulaski as can be spared from the post. * * 



Detachments, when necessary, may be made to 

 points in the vicinity of each post ; but in no case, 

 nor on any pretext whatever, will detachments be 

 sent without a commissioned officer, who will be 

 fully instructed by his post commander. 



The troops will be considered as in the field, and 

 supplied with the necessary camp equipage ; the 

 men to be furnished with common tents, if prac- 

 ticable, and, if not practicable^, with shelter tents. 

 Commanding officers are permitted to hire quarters, 

 temporarily, when it can be done for reasonable 

 rates: but this will not preclude the necessity of 

 carrying tents, as the commands, in all cases, must 

 be in readiness to move at the shortest notice, with 

 all supplies required for their efficiency. 



District commanders will instruct post command- 

 ers in their duties, and the relative position of the 

 civil and military powers. They will impress on post 

 commanders that they are to act in aid of and coopera- 

 tion with, -and in subordination to the civil author- 

 ities ; that they are to exercise discretion and judg- 

 ment, unbiassed by political or other prejudices ; that 

 their object should be exclusively to preserve the 

 peace and uphold law and order, and they must be 

 satisfied such is the object of the civil officer calling 

 on them for aid ; that they must in all cases, where 

 time will permit, apply for instruction to superior 

 authority, out they must at all hazards preserve the 

 peace, and not be restrained _ by technical points 

 when, in their conscientious judgment under the 

 rules above set forth, it is their duty to act. Post 

 commanders, on being notified of the proposed hold- 

 ing of political meetings, may send an officer, and, if 

 necessary, a detachment, to watch the proceedings 

 and see that the peace is preserved. 



To the people of the several States composing 

 the department, the major-general commanding ap- 

 peals that they will cooperate with him and the civil 

 authorities in sustaining law and order, in preserv- 

 ing the peace and avoiding those scenes of riot and 

 bloodshed, and the wanton destruction of property 

 and life, which have already, in some instances, been 

 enacted in the department. He urges abstinence 

 from all inflammatory and incendiary appeals to the 

 passions; discountenancing the keeping open of 

 liquor-shops on days of political meetings and of 

 election ; the abstaining from carrying arms, and as- 

 serting the individual right of construing laws by 

 force of arms. No just cause is ever advanced by 

 resort to violence. Let there be charity and forbear- 

 ance among political opponents, whatever may be 

 the result ; let each good citizen determine that all 

 who, under the law, have the right to the ballot shall 



exercise it undisturbed. If there are disputed points 

 of law, let them^ be referred to the courts, and let 

 not mobs, or political clubs, or other irresponsible 

 bodies, construe and undertake to execute the law. 

 This appeal is made in the earnest hope that the 

 major-general commanding can rely on the good 

 sense and correct judgment of the mass of the peo- 

 ple, and that he will not be compelled to resort to 

 the exercise of the power with which he is intrusted, 

 and which he will most reluctantly employ. But he 

 thinks it his duty to. make known that, so far as 

 the power under his command will admit, he will 

 not permit the peace to be broken, and that he will 

 not be restrained in the conscientious discharge of 

 his duty by technicalities of laws made when the 

 present anomalous condition of affairs was neither 

 anticipated nor provided for. 



By order of Major-General MEADE. 

 B. C. DBUM, Assistant Adjutant-General. 



The Democratic Executive Committee issued 

 an address, dated on the 26th of September, in 

 which they disclaimed emphatically all inten- 

 tion of encouraging any but peaceable and law- 

 ful means of attaining the objects of the party, 

 one of which was declared to be to test before 

 the proper legal tribunal the constitutionality 

 of the reconstruction acts. With regard to col- 

 lision and conflict with the blacks, they employ 

 the following emphatic language : 



We counsel and exhort our people to forbear all acts 

 of violence upon the colored race even to endure 

 provocations, which they would not tolerate under 

 other circumstances. They are ignorant, and are led 

 on by designing white men, to make threats, and 

 commit acts of indiscretion, for the purpose of pro- 

 ducing collisions between them and the white people 

 and to resist them by violence will be to enable 

 their white leaders to accomplish their object. For 

 this, and other reasons, we counsel the utmost for- 

 bearance which can be exercised. 



We advise our people to accord to the freedmen all 

 the rights and privileges which the present laws se- 

 cure to them. Withhold from them no right to which 

 they are entitled. Let them not be obstructed in the 

 exercise of any privilege which the laws give them. 

 Under our present laws, they are entitled to the right 

 of suffrage. Let them enjoy it freely, voluntarily, 

 and without molestation. On the day of the approach- 

 ing election, to avoid conflicts, the polls should 

 not be, and will not be, occupied by one" race to 

 the exclusion of the other ; but arrangements will be 

 made whereby all who are legally entitled to vote 

 shall exercise that privilege, and we believe that our 

 people have the magnanimity to see to it that no 

 freedman who is entitled to the right of suffrage shall 

 be debarred from his free exercise of that right. This 

 is our counsel and advice, and we trust and believe 

 that it will be heeded. 



The close of the address is in these words : 

 Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state 

 or persuasion, religious or political peace, commerce, 

 and honest friendship with all nations, entangling al- 

 liances with none ; the support of the State govern- 

 ments in all their rights, as the most competent ad- 

 ministration for our domestic concerns, and the surest 

 bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies ; the pres- 

 ervation of the General Government in its whole 

 constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our peace 

 at home and safety abroad ; a zealous care of the 

 rights of election by the people ; a mild and safe cor- 

 rective of abuses, which are lopped by the sword of 

 revolution, where peaceable remedies are unprovided ; 

 absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, 

 the vital principle of republics, from which there is 

 no appeal but to force, the vital principle and imme- 

 diate parent of despotism ; a well-disciplined militia, 



