Resumption of military
government in Georgia.
The legislature as thus reconstructed was approved by the military authorities, and it now proceeded to fulfil the final condition
Ratification of the
Fifteenth Amendment by
the Georgia legislature.
This purified legislature now elected United States Senators, both of them Republicans, of course. All these things were done in the latter
Further delay in
the admission of
representatives
from Georgia.
This language was at once taken to mean that Congress would undertake to empower the legislature of Georgia to extend the terms of the members of the Georgia legislature and of the Governor, elected in April of 1868, by two years, on the ground that the "State" government of Georgia was still provisional, and would so remain until the passage of this Act, and that these terms would, therefore, not really begin until the passage of this Act. The conservative Republicans as well as the Democrats repudiated this interpretation of the powers of Congress to extend, or to authorize the "State" legislature to extend, the terms of the members of the legislature and of "State" officers as an unprecedented usurpation. Some of them repudiated the idea that there could be a provisional "State" government, and declared that any further legislation in regard to the reconstruction of Georgia was unnecessary, since the Act of June 25th, 1868, had restored Georgia to her position as a "State" of the Union, along with North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida, upon certain conditions, all of which Georgia had fulfilled, just as the others had done, and since all the others had been admitted to the enjoyment of all of their rights and privileges as "States" of the Union without any further legislation than the Act of June 25th, 1868.
There is no doubt that the Butler amendment meant, and was intended by its author to mean, just what was charged by the conservatives. General Butler at last acknowledged and avowed it, and attempted to justify it. But he was unable to rally a majority to sustain it, and he withdrew it in the face of an amendment offered by Mr. Bingham on the 7th, which provided that nothing contained in the bill should be construed either to vacate any of the "State" offices in Georgia, or to extend the terms of the present holders of them beyond the time provided in the "State" constitution, or deprive the people of Georgia of the right under their "State" constitution of electing members of their legislature in the year 1870.
This amendment was passed on the 8th of March, and the bill as thus amended was passed by the House of Representatives, and sent to the Senate on the same day. It was immediately referred to the Judiciary Committee of that body and on the next day, the 9th, it was reported back to the Senate by this committee, without amendment. The Senate now considered it in committee of the whole from this time to April 19th, and when it was reported to the Senate it had been changed to a bill which declared the existing government of Georgia to be provisional and subject to the provisions of the Reconstruction Acts of 1867; ordered an election in Georgia on the 15th day of November, 1870, for members of the "State" legislature as provided for in the "State" constitution of 1868; ordered the assembly of this legislature on the 13th of December, 1870, and its organization preparatory to the admission of the "State" to representation in Congress; declared that the powers and functions of the members of the existing legislature should cease on the 13th day of December, 1870; and made it the duty of the President of the United States, in case of domestic violence in any municipality in the "State," reported to him by the legislature or Governor of the State, to suppress by military power such domestic violence, and "to exercise all such powers and inflict such punishments as may by the laws, or the rules and articles of war be exercised or inflicted in case of insurrection or invasion." The Senate concurred in the recommendations of the committee of the whole, and added a provision repealing that part of the Act of March 2d, 1867, which prohibited the organizing of any militia force in Georgia.