The power here referred to was that conferred by Article III., section 1, of the state constitution;
The election for members of the general assembly shall begin on Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every second year ... but the general assembly may by law change the time of election, and members shall hold until their successors are elected and qualified.
The constitutional term of the present legislature (except of one-half of the senators, who held four years) would expire in November, 1870. But this section of the constitution, Butler pointed out, would enable the legislature to postpone the election and perpetuate its power. This grave danger he proposed to remove by the clause of his bill above quoted. In order to prevent the legislature from prolonging its tenure forever, he proposed, not to forbid prolongation, but to allow it for two years.
I also propose [he said] by this [clause] to give to the present State officers of Georgia a two years’ term of office in that state as a state in this Union.
That Congress should pose as the defender of the people of Georgia against a usurping legislature, and at the same time by the guaranty of its approval encourage that legislature to double its constitutional term—this was a conception of political genius which, independently of its realization, should make Butler immortal.
The moderate Republicans of the House of Representatives were willing, for the sake of settling doubt, to pass a bill declaring Georgia restored, but were decidedly opposed the scheme to use the bill as a means of prolonging the tenure of the Georgia Radicals. An amendment to Butler’s bill, known as the Bingham amendment, was offered, to the following effect:
... neither shall this act be construed to extend the official tenure of any officer of said state beyond the term limited by the constitution thereof, dating from the election or appointment of such officer.[250]
The bill with this amendment passed the House by a large majority on March 8.[251]
In the Senate the necessity of any bill and the propriety of the Bingham amendment were warmly debated for some weeks. Then the so-called Drake amendment was offered. It provided that whenever the legislature or governor of any state should inform the President of the existence within that state of associations organized for the purpose of obstructing the law and doing violence to persons, then the President should send troops to that state, declare martial law, suspend the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus, and take such other military measures as he saw fit, and should levy the cost of the expedition on the people of the state.[252] The propriety of grafting this general measure on a special bill like the present should not be discussed, it was said, in view of the pressing necessity of passing it in some way, no matter how.[253] The debate thus complicated continued until April 19, when the bill went to the committee of the whole. There, the night being far spent, two entirely new amendments were suddenly offered. One commanded Georgia to hold a general election in the present year; the other declared that the existing government of Georgia was still “provisional” and provided that the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 should continue to be enforced there. These amendments were adopted by the committee. The Drake amendment was also adopted. Finally, the entire bill as it came from the house was stricken out.[254] Thus transformed so that, as a Senator said, “it would not be recognized by the oldest inhabitant,” the bill was passed by the Senate.[255]
The House of Representatives did not take up the bill again until June 23. On June 24 it decided to insist on the passage of the bill substantially as before passed.[256] As a result of the conference following, the Senate yielded to the House. The bill became law on July 15, 1870. It said: