The bill for this purpose was called the Omnibus Bill. It provided that North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and also Alabama,[136] should be admitted to representation in Congress as soon as their legislatures elected under the new constitution should have ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, on condition that the provisions of that amendment regarding eligibility to office should at once go into operation in those states, and on condition that the constitution of none of them should ever be amended so as to deprive of the right to vote any citizens entitled to that right as the constitutions then stood. A special condition was imposed on Georgia; namely, that Article V., section 17, §§ 1 and 3 of her constitution be declared void by the legislature. A precedent for such a requirement was found in the act of 1821, admitting Missouri to statehood.[137] The bill gave the governors-elect in the states concerned authority to call the legislatures immediately to fulfill the required conditions.[138]
The Omnibus Bill became law on June 25, 1868. On the same day Rufus B. Bullock, the governor-elect of Georgia, issued a proclamation in accordance with the act, summoning the legislature to meet on July 4th.[139]
Now, the Reconstruction Act of July 10th, 1867, had provided as follows:
All persons hereafter elected or appointed to office in said military districts, under any so-called state or municipal authority, or by detail or appointment of the district commanders, shall be required to take ... the oath of office prescribed by law for officers of the United States.[140]
On April 15th Meade had announced that in accordance with this provision the members of the legislature to be elected on April 20th would be required to subscribe to the Test Oath. But he was later advised from headquarters, and by certain prominent members of Congress, that the persons contemplated by the act of July 19, 1867, were those elected under the Johnson government, not under the new government; and that therefore the men elected on April 20th were not “officers elected under any so-called state authority” in the sense of the act of July 19th. The eligibility of these men, he was told, was to be determined by the provisions of the new constitution and by the Fourteenth Amendment, and they were not required to take the Test Oath.[142] Meade therefore did not enforce his order. But though the new government was exempt from this one requirement of the Reconstruction Acts, it was subject to the provision which said:
... until the people of said rebel states shall be by law admitted to representation in the Congress of the United States, any civil government which may exist therein shall be deemed provisional only, and in all respects subject to the paramount authority of the United States.
Over the new state government, as over the old, Meade would exercise the powers of a district commander until the legislature by complying with the requirements of the Omnibus Act, should have made that act operative.
On June 28 Meade relieved General Ruger of the office of governor and appointed in his place the governor-elect, Bullock, whom he directed to organize the legislature on July 4.[143] When the legislature met on that day, therefore, Bullock called each house to order in turn, and under his direction as chairman the members were sworn in (by the official oath prescribed in the state constitution), and the presiding officers elected.
On July 7 the legislature informed the governor that it was organized and ready to proceed to business. Bullock, instead of replying, wrote to Meade, stating that it was alleged that a number of men seated in the legislature were ineligible to office according to the proposed Fourteenth Amendment, and hence were disqualified from holding their seats by the Omnibus Act.[144] Meade replied on July 8 that the allegation was serious, and that he would not recognize as valid any act of the legislature until satisfactory evidence should be presented that the legislature contained no member who would be disqualified from office by the Fourteenth Amendment.[145] Bullock sent Meade’s letter to the legislature, and both houses appointed committees to investigate the eligibility of every member. These committees reported on July 17. The senate committee reported that no senators were ineligible. A minority of the committee found, on evidence detailed in its report, that four were ineligible. After much debate the majority report was adopted.[146] The house committee reported that two representatives were ineligible. A minority report found three ineligible. A second minority report found that none were ineligible. The last was adopted.[147]
The conclusions of the two houses may be regarded, in view of these proceedings, with some just suspicion. Bullock in informing Meade of them expressed the opinion that the legislature had failed to furnish the “satisfactory evidence” upon which Meade had conditioned his recognition.[148] If Meade had desired to know the exact truth, he might well have accepted Bullock’s advice and ignored the reports, investigated the records of the legislators himself, and excluded those whom he found ineligible. But Meade desired only to see that the acts of Congress were complied with. “Satisfactory evidence” was evidence not logically, but formally satisfactory. Meade followed the established principle that legislative bodies are the final judges of the eligibility of their members. He considered the statement of the legislature that its members were all eligible formally satisfactory evidence that the acts of Congress were obeyed. Having this evidence, he refused to interfere further. His decision was influenced partly by reluctance to interfere more than was necessary, and partly by aversion to aiding Bullock to gain a party advantage, which he alleged to be the governor’s chief motive in urging the rejection of the reports.[149] He acted with the approval of the general of the army.[150]