INCOMPLETE RESTORATION.

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power in a state, they could not present a more revolting mockery of all that is honorable and respectable in the conduct of human affairs. The knaves and their sympathizers, North and South, complain that the tax-payers, the men of character and intelligence in South Carolina and other states, finally overthrew, by unfair and by violent means, the reign of scoundrelism, enthroned by ignorance. If ever revolutionary methods were justifiable for the overthrow of tyranny and robbery, assuredly the carpet-bag domination in South Carolina called for it. Only scoundrels and hypocrites will pretend to deplore the result.

Nominally North and South Carolina were restored to their full Federal relations on June 25, 1868,- nearly eight years after they had so violently severed them. They passed under the rod, but were not yet through the defile. The act of Congress of that date imposed as conditions for rehabilitation: first, that the state constitution should never be amended so as to deprive any citizen or class of citize is of the right to vote who were then entitled to vote; second, that the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States should be ratified; and third, that no person who would be ineligible to office under that amendment should be eligible for state office. The President vetoed the bill that made these conditions, but it was passed over the veto on the above date. The vote in the House was, yeas IOS, nays 31. North Carolina ratified the amendment on July 4, 1868, and South Carolina five days after. This action included the required guarantees for the colored vote and exclusion from office, and established the right to full restoration in the Union, but it was not until many years after, as the foregoing sketch shows, and subsequent chapters set forth, that this right was allowed free exercise. The Republican party did not concede it until the year 1877, of Electoral Count memory, and then only in part in local affairs.

CHAPTER XXIX.

RECONSTRUCTION IN THE THIRD MILITARY DISTRICT.

GENERAL POPE IN COMMAND — REGISTRATION AND CONVENTION IN GEORGIACONFLICT BETWEEN GOVERNOR JENKINS ́AND GENERAL POPE-RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION – GOVERNOR BULLOCK INAUGURATED - COLORED MEMBERS EXPELLED FROM THE LEGISLATURE-MILITARY INVESTIGATION-THE EXPELLED RE-ADMITTED – THE AMENDMENTS RATIFIED -FINANCIAL CONDITION - FLIGHT OF BULLOCK -THE ELECTION LAW OF 1870- ALABAMA — REMOVAL OF MUNICIPAL OFFICERS — REGISTRATION - MOB IN MOBILE-THE CONVENTION-THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTION OBNOXIOUS - FAILURE OF RATIFICATION BY THE PEOPLE - STATE ADMITTED NOTWITHSTANDING - THE LEGISLATURE – STATE INDEBTEDNESS FLORIDA REGISTRATION-CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION-DIVISION OF THE REPUBLICANS INTO TWO FACTIONS—UNITY RESTORED, AND A CONSTITUTION VOTED - A MILITARY OFFICER ACTS AS TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN OF THE CONVENTION CHARACTER OF THE CONSTITUTION - ELECTION OF GOVERNOR REED -CHARGES OF FRAUD IN THE ELECTION-ADMISSION OF THE STATE INTO THE UNION-THE LEGISLATURE-PROPOSED IMPEACHMENT OF GOVERNOR REED - JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS — THE IMPEACHMENT ABANDONED - NEW IMPEACHMENT PROPOSED-bribeRY, CORRUPTION, AND FRAUD CHARGED AGAINST THE GOVERNOR-VOTE AGAINST IMPEACHMENT-ACTS OF USURPATION-LEGISLATIVe legerdEMAIN – REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE "COUNTED IN" THE OSBORN RING A THIRD ATTEMPT AT IMPEACHMENT ALSO FAILS THE DEMOCRATS REGAIN CONTROL OF THE STATE-FINANCIAL

I

CONDITION.

T has already been stated that Georgia, Alabama, and Florida formed the Third military district under the Reconstruction acts, and that Maj.-Gen. John Pope was assigned to the command of it. He announced from his headquarters at Montgomery, Alabama, on April 1st, that he had assumed the command of the district; and that the sub-districts of Georgia and Alabaina would remain under the commanders then on duty. He further announced that the civil officers in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, if they administered justice impartially and faithfully, would, unless otherwise directed in special cases, be allowed to retain their offices until the expiration of their terms of service. He expressed the hope that no necessity would arise for the interposition of military authority in the civil administration.

GEORGIA UNDER MILITARY RULE.

509

Civil officers would be required to adhere strictly to their official duties, and to refrain from using any influence whatever tending to deter or dissuade others from uniting in the work of reconstruction. He ann nced, also, that no elections to fill vacant offices would be held pending the period of reconstruction; and that such vacancies would be filled under app tment by the commanding general. On April 8, 1867, the commanding general issued directions to the sub-district commanders of the three states for a registration of the voters. As these directions were necessarily conformable to the acts of Congress and similar to those set forth in preceding chapters, it is needless to recite them here.

The result of the registration in Georgia gave 192,235 names of persons entitled to vote for delegates to the constitutional convention: 96,262 were white, and 95,973 were colored. The vote for a convention was 102,282, and the vote against it was 4,127. As might be inferred, the largest part of the vote was cast by the colored men; probably few of them failed to exercise the privilege on that, their first opportunity. Only 36,500 of the votes were cast by the whites. Of the 166 delegates chosen on the same day, 133 were white, and thirty-three were colored. The convention met on the 9th of December, 1867, at Atlanta, and it remained in session until the 23d, without entering upon the work of framing a constitution. This time was spent in passing ordinances of a legislative character, and among them one for the stay of executions for the sale of property. The convention memorialized Congress for the repeal of the cotton tax, and on the 23d it adjourned until the Sth of January, 1868.

General Pope, who had been applied to by citizens to exercise his authority in stopping the sale of property under execution, gave an answer which does him great honor. It contrasts favorably with the high-handed course of other military commanders. He said: "I know of no conceivable circumstance that would induce me to interfere by military orders with the great business of the state, or with the relation of debtor or creditor under state laws, except perhaps in individual cases, where very manifest injustice had been done. The only military orders which I have issued, or intend to issue, in this district are such as I consider necessary to the execution of the Reconstruction acts."

Charles J. Jenkins, who was elected governor by the white people on President Johnson's plan of reconstruction, set himself in opposition to the Reconstruction acts of Congress. He endeavored to have their constitutionality tested by an appeal to the Supreme Court. This course was in conflict with the general order of the commander, which forbade all state officials to attempt to thwart the measures of Congress. The governor's attention was called to the subject by General Pope, who informed him in respectful and even regretful language, that it would be necessary for him either to conform to the order or to resign. The governor consented to conform. The next

year he was removed by General Meade, the successor of General Pope, for refusing to issue an executive warrant on the treasurer of the state for $40,ooo, to pay he members of the constitutional convention. General Meade acted in accordance with the requirements of the Reconstruction acts, but he trea 1 Governor Jenkins with marked courtesy.

The constitution framed by the convention guaranteed equal rights and privileges to all citizens, without distinction of race or color, abolished and forever excluded slavery, and declared that Georgia should ever remain a part of the American Union. These were essential conditions of restoration to the Union. The constitution also provided for universal suffrage, including the classes that were excluded from registration and the right to vote for delegates to the convention. There is no full statement of the vote on the ratification of the constitution. The majority was 17,699. In the gubernatorial election, Bullock, the Republican candidate, received 83,146 votes, against 76,099 for the gallant John B. Gordon, the Democratic candidate.

General Meade, Feb. 22, 1868, issued a general order for carrying into effect the resolutions of the convention forbidding imprisonment for debt. No distinction was drawn in the resolutions, nor in the general order, between ordinary cases of inability to pay, and those characterized by fraudulent concealment of goods and chattels.

At the close of the session, a resolution was adopted by a majority of 102 to twenty-six, asking Congress to remove the political disabilities of all the citizens of the state. The governor-elect, Mr. Bullock, was appointed provisional governor in place of General Ruger, by General Meade, pending the decision of Congress upon the question of re-admitting the state to its "practical relation" to the Union. The legislature met on the 4th of July, at which time the governor was inaugurated. The senate consisted of fortyfour members, and was equally divided between the two parties. The house of representatives consisted of 102 Democrats and seventy-three Republicans. The senate contained three colored men, and the house twentyfive.

Congress, by act of June 25, 1868, required the legislature of Georgia, as conditions of restoration to the Union, to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and to abrogate a clause of the state constitution which forbade the courts to entertain suits for debts contracted prior to the first day of June, 1865. This act also prescribed as a primary condition of re-admission, that no change should ever be made in the constitution. whereby any citizen or class of citizens already entitled thereunder should be deprived of the right to vote. All these conditions were finally complied with.

The legislature expelled all the colored members from both branches of that body. This scandalous proceeding was attempted to be justified on the ground that Article XI. declared valid all acts passed by any legislative

INCREASE OF THE STATE DEBT.

511

body, sitting in the state as such, since the nineteenth day of January, 1861, including the laws known as the Code of Georgia, and the acts amendatory thereto as passed since that time, which said code and acts were embodied in the printed book known as Irwin's Code; except such of those legislative acts as might be inconsistent with the supreme law therein recognized, viz., the Constitution of the United States.

The consequences of this conduct were the refusal of Congress to admit the state to representation, and its re-subjection to military rule. The governor was authorized by Congress to require of the members who had been elected to the legislature, a test oath to the effect that they had not held office before the war, and afterwards participated in the rebellion. The negro members were all re-admitted, and twenty-one white men were excluded by a military commission of investigation. At the first session, the Fifteenth Amendment to the National Constitution was rejected, for the Democratic majority had not only thrown out twenty-eight colored members, but had admitted as many white men of their own party to the vacant seats, they having received the next highest number of votes; thus they had deprived the negroes of the right to be represented, as well as the right to act as representatives. Under the act of Congress remanding the state to military control, Bullock and his friends turned the tables on their opponents, and admitted to seats twenty-one Republicans in place of the twenty-one Democrats who were pronounced disqualified, for participation in the rebellion. These changes gave decided majorities to the Republicans in both houses, and both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were ratified.

Brief as was its rule, the improvised Republican party in Georgia managed to run up the public debt to three or four times the amount that had been contracted prior to its accession to power. The state-as it may be said in view of its resources was almost free from debt at the beginning of the war. The bonded debt is stated at $1,718,750, in 1861. The interest on the debt was $105,890. This is the statement of the American Annual Encyclopædia for 1871. Mr. Poland's committee of investigation states that the debt of Georgia in 1860 was $3,170,000, and that it amounted to $5,706,500 in 1865. The debt incurred in aid of the rebellion was $15,104,726; but this, of course, was repudiated. The same authority states the debt in 1868 at $6,544,500, when Bullock's Republican administration was inaugurated. The debt and liabilities of the state, in 1872, are given as follows: Debt,

Contingent and prospective liabilities for railroads,

$8,618,750 30,000,000

Mr. Angier, the treasurer, who was a northern-born Republican, makes a statement showing that the contingent debt was even greater than is stated above. He charges Bullock with having issued $6,000,000 of state bonds for which there was no need, and for the use of which he seems to have