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GEORGIA. 



GEORGIA. The State of Georgia was duly 

 readmitted to its place in the Union by an Act 

 of Congress, in the year 1868, and its constitu- 

 tion, with certain changes, was approved by 

 that body. The Legislature subsequently ex- 

 pelled from* their seats all its colored members 

 (see AMERICAN ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA for 1868), 

 and it was claimed by the most earnestusup- 

 porters of the reconstruction acts that, by so 

 doing, it had violated the guarantees req ired 

 of the State by Congress. No person exhibited 

 a more decided disapproval of the course which 

 had been pursued in the General Assembly than 

 Rufus B. Bullock, the Governor of the State. 

 No sooner had Congress assembled on the 7th 

 of December, 1868, than that official submitted 

 a communication in which he declared that 

 " the laws under which the State of Georgia 

 was to have been admitted to representation 

 in Congress have not been fully executed;" 

 and proceeded to give his reasons for making 

 this statement. The government, he said, was 

 merely provisional at the time of the assem- 

 bling of the Legislature in 1868, and the law, 

 therefore, required " that such persons only as 

 were eligible under the reconstruction acts 

 should be permitted to participate in the neces- 

 sary provisional legislation precedent to recog- 

 nition as a State." He continued in the fol- 

 lowing strain : 



The fact, however, is, that all the candidates for the 

 General Assembly who had received the highest num- 

 ber of votes were, without regard to their eligibility 

 under the law, permitted to take seats in the provis- 

 ional legislative body, and to participate in the organ- 

 ization and the legislation thereof having first been 

 simply invited to take an oath prescribed in the new 

 constitution, which constitution had not at that time 

 become, and, under law could not then be, of force. 



The result of this failure to execute the law has 

 been a defeat of the purposes which Congress had in 

 view when passing the acts these purposes having 

 been the establishment of a loyal and republican 

 State government, affording adequate protection to 

 life and property, the maintenance of peace and good 

 order, and the free expression of political opinion. 



The wise discernment displayed by Congress, in 

 requiring by its legislation that none but those who 

 were loy_al should participate in the establishment of 

 a provisional government which was thereafter to be 

 clothed with the rights and immunities of a State in ' 

 the Union, charged with the care and protection of 

 the lives and property, and the civil and political 

 rights of its citizens^ is made the more apparent by 

 the consequences which have ensued from this failure 

 in the entorcement of that legislation. 



I would, therefore, respectfully invite the attention 



of your honorable body to this subject, and ask that 



uch steps be taken as may to you seem wise and 



r lor the obtaining of full information in relation 



icreto ; and to the end that loyalty may be protected 



and promoted by the enforcement of the laws enacted 



by the representatives of the American people. 



This subject received the immediate atten- 

 tion of both Houses of Congress. Senator 

 Pomeroy, of Kansas, introduced a bill into the 

 benatp providing for the reassembling of the 

 Constitutional Convention of Georgia which 

 had adjourned for one year, subject to being 

 ailed together if Congress should require any 

 thing further in relation to reconstruction 



this convention then to be required to insert 

 in the constitution a qualification for holding 

 office in the State which should not be in con- 

 flict with the fourteenth amendment of the 

 Federal Constitution. After some discussion 

 as to the effect of the omission of the conven- 

 tion to make any provision on the subject of 

 office-holding, this bill was referred to the Ju- 

 diciary Committee. In the House of Repre- 

 sentatives the whole subject went to the Re- 

 construction Committee, who took a large 

 amount of testimony with regard to the state 

 of affairs in Georgia. It was contended on 

 the one hand that the laws were not faithfully 

 executed by the officers of the State, and that 

 they were resisted by the people ; that the col- 

 ored people, and persons belonging to the Re- 

 publican party, especially those coming from 

 the North, were abused and ill-treated ; and, 

 finally, that the people did not show a desire 

 for peace and union. On the other hand, Hon. 

 Nelson Tift, one of the representatives of 

 Georgia in Congress, obtained the testimony 

 of over one hundred persons, mostly judges of 

 courts, mayors of cities, and other officials, to 

 the effect that the laws of the State were faith- 

 fully executed, and were not resisted by the 

 people ; that the treatment of blacks and North- 

 ern white men was kind and conciliatory ; and 

 that there was a universal desire for peace and 

 restoration to the Union. 



On being asked his opinion as to what should 

 be done, Governor Bullock said that there should 

 be a literal execution of the reconstruction 

 acts, and, in his opinion, these acts required 

 the organization of the Legislature to be made 

 by the admission of those only who could take 

 the test-oath, or had been relieved of their disa- 

 bilities by Congress. This, he said, would re- 

 store the colored members, and place the Legis- 

 lature of the State in the hands of loyal men, 

 and then "after the adoption by such a body 

 of the fundamental condition, precedent to the 

 State's admission to the Union, under the act 

 of June 25th, all members eligible under the 

 State constitution and the fourteenth amend- 

 ment would be admitted, and no further action 

 by Congress would be necessary." 



While the subject was still in the hands 

 of the Reconstruction Committee, the Hon. 

 Nelson Tift submitted to that body a long 

 statement regarding the condition of affairs in 

 Georgia, which was intended to combat the 

 position taken by Governor Bullock in his first 

 communication to that committee, and his sub- 

 sequent testimony. He declared that the laws, 

 of Congress for the reconstruction and admis- 

 sion of Georgia had been complied with in every 

 particular. In proof of this, he referred to the 

 election for delegates to the convention to form 

 a constitution, the meeting and action of that 

 convention, the adoption of the constitution, 

 and the election of officers by the people, the 

 organization of the Legislature, the striking out 

 of certain sections of the constitution in accord- 

 ance with the expressed will of Congress, the 



