In this form and with this content the bill was returned to the House. Here it was again debated, off and on, until June 24th, when it was
The final restoration
of Georgia to her
Federal relations.
The Senate disagreed to the bill in this form and with these contents, and asked for a conference committee. The House agreed and appointed members. The conference committee agreed upon the bill as perfected by the House with the addition to the second section of these words: "And nothing in this or any other Act of Congress shall be construed to affect the term to which any officer has been appointed or any member of the general assembly elected, as prescribed by the constitution of the State of Georgia." Both the Senate and the House accepted and concurred in the recommendations of the committee, and the bill, as thus perfected, became law on the 15th day of July, 1870. This bill terminated the era of Reconstruction legislation by Congress, and at the next session of Congress, the session of 1870-71, the Senators and Representatives from Georgia were admitted to their seats, the Senate admitting those chosen to that body in July of 1868, Messrs. Hill and Miller. The attempt of Governor Bullock to prolong the terms of the members of the legislature and of the officers of the "State" government was decidedly disapproved of by President Grant's Administration, and an election was held for members and county officers and for Representatives in Congress in December of 1870. The white residents of the "State" stood well together, and carried the election by a large majority against the Republicans. So soon as the result was known Governor Bullock, whose term had still two more years to run, abandoned his office and left the "State," and Georgia was thus early rescued from negro domination, or rather "carpet-bag" domination through negro suffrage. Her harder experiences during the years from 1868 to 1870 had worked out to her advantage, in that it brought the respectable and capable portion of her white citizens together earlier than was the case in the other reconstructed Commonwealths similarly situated.
From the point of view of a sound political science the imposition of universal negro suffrage upon the Southern communities, in some of which the negroes were in large majority, was one of the
Negro rule in the
South from the point
of view of political
science and
ethnical principle.
Opposition to military government in time of peace was an ingrained principle of the American people, and there was a large part of people of the North, nearly all adhering to the Republican party, who believed that manhood suffrage was the true principle of a sound political science. And it was thought that the only way of creating "States" in the South which would sustain the Republican party was by giving the negro the suffrage. It is not surprising, then, that they adopted the course which they did. There was a third alternative, as has already been pointed out, viz., the placing of these communities under Territorial civil government and keeping them there until the spirit of loyalty to the Nation was established and the principle and practice of civil equality among all citizens was made thoroughly secure. But, as has been said, the idea that these communities were "States" of the Union, notwithstanding their rebellion against the United States and their attempted secession from the Union, seemed to prohibit the following of this course, the only true and sound course. And so these unhappy communities were given over, as sham "States" of the Union, to the rule of the ignorant and vicious part of their population, to be sustained therein by the military power of the Nation, under the excuse that that part alone was loyal.
A period of darkness now settled down upon these unhappy communities blacker and more hopeless than the worst experiences of the war. The conduct of the men who now appeared upon the scene as the creators of the new South was so tyrannic, corrupt, mean and vulgar as to repel the historian from attempting any detailed account of their doings, and incline him to the vaguest outline. Moreover it is most difficult to fix upon reliable facts in this period of confusion and political night, illuminated only by the lurid gleams of passion and hatred. It is best for the North, best for the South, best for the whole country, and best for the world that this terrible mistake of the North and this terrible degradation of the South should be dealt with briefly and impersonally, and that lessons of warning should be drawn from these experiences, instead of multiplying criminations and recriminations in regard to them.