... It is hereby declared that the state of Georgia is entitled to representation in the Congress of the United States. But nothing in this act contained shall be construed to deprive the people of Georgia of the right to an election for members of the general assembly of said state, as provided for in the constitution thereof.[257]
One would suppose that this act of July 15 should close the chapter; that it recognized Georgia as a state, and that henceforth all peculiar relations between Georgia and the federal government were at an end. The Georgia Radicals were able to avoid this conclusion. In a message to the legislature on July 18 the governor said that according to the act of March 2, 1867, the federal military power was to remain until the state was not only entitled to representation but actually represented in Congress. Section 5 of that act contained this language:
When ... any one of said rebel states shall have [fulfilled all requirements], said state shall be declared entitled to representation in Congress, and Senators and Representatives shall be admitted therefrom ... and then and thereafter the preceding sections of this act shall be inoperative in said state.
Hence, the military authority, said Bullock, would continue in Georgia until the following December. But he informed the legislature that it might proceed with legislation, since Terry had informed him that he would allow it.[258]
The Radicals in the legislature took advantage of the theory announced by the governor to make one last attempt at prolongation of power. On July 26 a resolution was offered in the upper house to this effect: That the authority of the United States was still paramount in Georgia; that no offence ought to be offered to Congress by an apparent denial of this fact; that therefore no election should be held in the state until Congress had fully recognized its statehood by receiving its representatives.[259] On July 29 the senate adopted a resolution similar to this, but the lower house rejected it by a few votes.[260] With the failure of this attempt, the Reconstruction Acts ceased to operate in Georgia, either in fact or in any one’s theory.
At the next session of Congress a delegation from Georgia composed of men elected in December, 1870, was seated in the House of Representatives.[261] In the Senate, Farrow and Whitely, elected by the legislature in February, 1870, presented credentials. They were referred to the judiciary committee, which reported adversely. It recommended that Hill, elected in 1868, be seated, and reported that Miller, elected with Hill, would be entitled to a seat except that he was unable to take the Test Oath required of members of Congress by the act of July 2, 1862.[262] Since this committee had decided in January, 1869, that the Georgia legislature was not legally organized in 1868, and in March, 1870, that its organization in January of that year was also illegal, and since therefore the election of Hill and Miller and that of Farrow and Whitely were both illegal, the committee had to decide the question: To which of these illegal elections ought we to give de facto validity? It decided in favor of the earlier one on grounds of equity. The Senate adopted the committee’s opinion. The Test Oath act was suspended in favor of Miller by a special act of Congress, and he and Hill were sworn in, in February, 1871.[263]
Thus, after federal intervention had been imposed in 1865 and apparently withdrawn in the same year, again imposed in 1867 and again apparently withdrawn in 1868, and yet again imposed in 1869, it was now withdrawn for the last time, and Georgia was completely restored to statehood.