The unsettled condition of the negro population suggested to Pope the possibility that many negroes would lose their right to vote by change of residence. He therefore ordered on August 15 that persons removing from the district where they were registered should be furnished by the board of registry with a certificate of registration, which should entitle them to vote anywhere in the state.[85]
The election for deciding whether a constitutional convention should be held, and for choosing delegates in case the affirmative vote prevailed, was ordered to begin on October 29 and to continue three days. Registrars were ordered to revise their lists during the fortnight preceding the election, to erase names wrongly registered, and to add the names of persons entitled to be registered. The boards of registry were to act as judges of election, but registrars who were candidates for election were forbidden to serve in the districts where they sought election.[86]
The election was to occupy the last three days of October. On October 30 Pope extended the time to the night of November 2, in order to give the negroes ample opportunity to vote, which in their inexperience they might otherwise fail to do.[87]
After the election the following figures were announced:[88]
| Number of registered voters in Georgia | 188,647 |
| Of these the negroes numbered | 93,457 |
| " the white men[89] | 95,214 |
| Number of votes polled | 106,410 |
| " " for a convention | 102,283 |
| " " against a convention | 4,127 |
The delegates elected were ordered to meet in convention on December 9th.[90] On that day the convention met in Atlanta. Its business was not completed until the middle of March in the following year. The constitution which it framed more than met the demands of the Reconstruction Acts. A single citizenship was established for all residents of the state, in language borrowed from the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution.[91] Legislation on the subject of social status of citizens was forever prohibited.[92] The electoral right was given to all male persons born or naturalized in the United States who should have resided six months in Georgia.[93] Electors were privileged from arrest (except for treason, felony or breach of the peace) for five days before, during, and for two days after, elections, and the legislature was ordered to provide such other means for the protection of electors as might be necessary.[94] Other provisions presumably acceptable to northern sentiment were the prohibition of whipping as a penalty for crime,[95] and the command that the legislature should create a system of public schools free to all children of the state.[96]
By an ordinance of the convention, made valid by being embodied in military orders, April 20, 1868, was appointed for the submission of the new constitution to popular vote, and also for the election of members of Congress and officers of the new state government.[97] This election resulted in the adoption of the constitution by a majority of 17,699 votes, and in the election of a governor (Rufus B. Bullock by name), a legislature, and a full delegation to the lower house of Congress.[98] The remaining requirement of the Reconstruction Acts was that the new legislature convene and ratify the Fourteenth Amendment. This transaction will be reserved for the next chapter.
General Pope was inspired by the ideas and emotions from which reconstruction had sprung. He was an ardent friend of the reconstruction measures. He was convinced of the importance of suppressing the old political leaders in his district. He held with enthusiasm the optimistic views prevalent in the North regarding the negroes. Their recent progress in “education and knowledge,” he said, was “marvellous,” and if continued, in five years the intelligence of the community would shift to the colored portion.[99] The purport of his orders, the didactic style in which they are couched, the declarations of his principles which frequently accompany these orders, indicate the spirit in which he administered the office of military governor.
Most of the official acts of Pope concerned either the enforcement of obedience and the suppression of disobedience to the letter and spirit of the Reconstruction Acts, or the protection and promotion of the present interests of the freedmen.