Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-03-11
THE STATUS OF GEORGIA.

Gen. Grant Opposes she RemitIIng O
the State 10 Military Govern
ment.
| We clip from the Washington cores
pondence of the Baltimore Gazette, the
subjoined very interesting report of the
interview of Gen. P. NJ. B. Young o.
Georgia, with Gen. Grant, upon the
status of Georgia:
Mr.. Boutwell,, Chairman of the Com
mittee on Reconstruction, had given no>
tice that he would, on Saturday morning
last, call for vote on the bill annulling
the present State government Of Georgia.
1t was well known what the result would
be. Georgia would be RENTED to q
military despotism and her privileges as
a State in the Union scattered to the
winds.
The Hon. Pierce Young determined
in the last resort to appeal to the Presi-
dent elect, and for this purpose he sought
and obtained an interview with Gen.
Grant on Friday last. The General re-
ceiVed him cordially and listened earn,
estly to his statement Mr.. Young spoke
of the impending danger to the State of
Georgia if Mr.. Boutwell, carried out his
programme, aud explained how Gov.
Bullock had defeated the effort made by
the State of Georgia to submit to the
Supreme Court of that State the question
as to the right of freedmen TO hold office
the only question now at issue between
the State and Congress an issue,
too, which Congress had Just surrendered
in the proposed constitutional amend
ment.
Gen. Grant promptly answered that no
one could deny the fact that Georgia was
a State in the Union and now entitled to
representation in both branches of Con-
gress ; that Congress had, by solemn en-
actments, declared this fact, and that it
was no more in the power OF Congress
now to remit Georgia TO state of militia
ry government than it was for Congress
to annul the State government of New
York or Massachusetts, He said he could
never sanction any action on the part of
Congress which contemplated an inter-
ference with the State government Of
Georgia, and that he would take occasion
to communicate with the chairman of the
committee on reconstruction.
Mr.. Young then alluded to what he
considered the fixed purpose of the dom~
inant party in Congress, as regards Geor-
gia and the other Southern States, when
Gen. Grant interrupted him by saying
that he hoped it was perfectly understood
that he had been elected the President of
the country, asd not the President of a
political party, and as the National Exec
utive he should consider and protect, as
far as his constitutional powers enabled
him, the rights and interests of all sec
tons.
That this pledge will be faithfully OBJ
served finds an earnest in the fact that
when the Reconstruction Committee
met on Saturday morning, the 2Sth
ult., Mr.. Boutwell,, instead Of calling for
a vote on his bill, annulling the State
government Of Georgia, announced, to
the great surprise of his Radical col
leagues, that he had concluded to let the
bill go over to the next Congress without
further action on the part of the CONS
mittee. This unexpected turn in events
seems to warrant the belief that the dis
chairman, who, by the by,
has some cabinet aspirations, had re-
ceiVed a revelation from some quarter
which influenced his action. The inter-
view, as given above, between the GeOr>
gia Representative and General Grant
may furnish the explanation.