The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-20
THN nAsN 0E GE0RGLA-

Jnht OF Jne bbhJuS Oh OeOERlas Inc OomO-
cratic party in that State had manifested the
utmost bad faith, taking advantage of their
superiority in point of numbers to
oust all the regularly elected colored
members of the State Legislature, and
winding up their reactionary career by re-
jecting the, fifteenth amendment. Without
much needless delay both branches of Con-
gress passed o bill which provided for oon-
vening the old Legislature, its organization
to be effected by summoning all
persons who had, according to
the proclamation of General Meade,
dated June 25, 1868, been elected mem
bers, and excluding all persons ineligible
under the fourteenth amendment. This
Legislature was to be regarded as provisional
until the further action of Congress, and it
was required also to ratify the fifteenth
amendment before the representatives
of the State should be admitted to
their seats. The bill passed finally on the
22d of December, and in January the Legis-
lature assembled, the organization being
completed on the Sd of February, in tho in
terest of the radicals, several members de-
clared ineligible being unseated in both
houses, and their places supplied by the can
didates who had received the next highest
number of votes, three new members of the
Senate and nineteen of the House being thus
smuggled into these bodies. The fifteenth
amendment was also promptly ratified on the
same day.
This was the beginning, and in many re-
spects it was bad enough. But the tribula-
of 80 - a
February 25 General Butler reported from
the Reconstruction Committee bill for the
restoration of the State to representation in
Congress on precisely the same conditions as
were required in the cases of Virginia and
Mississippi. This bill was recommitted, but
was reported back by General Butler on the
Sd of March, and passed by the House on the
Sth, with the following amendment, offered
by Mr.. Bingham and known generally as the
Bingham proviso:-
Neither shall this act be construed to extend the
Official term OF any ofcer OF said State beyond the
term limited by the Constitution thereof dating
from the election or appointment OF such ofiicer;
nor to deprive the people OF Georgia OF the right
under their Constitution, to elect Senators and Re-
1885, but said election shall be held In the year 1870
either on the day named in the Constitution of said
State or such other day as the present Legislature
There was terrific fight over this amend
ment, Mr.. Bingham urging its necessity on
the ground that the effect of the original bill
would have been to perpetuate the present
State Government and Legislature for two
years longer. The amendment passed finally
by vote of ia to 70, all the Democrats
voting in favor of it, and such Republicans
as favored the views of Bingham and Farms
worth. On the final passage of the bill the
vote stood 152 to 55, divided strictly by party
lines, and including in the affirmative Gene
raj Butler, the leader of the opposition to the
Bingham proviso, who explained that he
voted afirmatively because he desired the
ratification of the fifteenth amendment, and
would not be found voting with the Demo-
cracy on party issue.
Then the Senate took the question up, and
kept hammering away at it until two o'clock
this morning. The first square vote of i'm
portance in which this body INDUCED was on
the 14th of April, when an amendment
offered by Senator Williams, striking out the
Bingham proviso and inserting a provision
that the next election for members of the
Legislature shall be held in November, 1872,
was rejected by bare majority of one vote
"a yeas to 25 nays-Senator Revels whose
maiden speech had been an earnest appeal
in favor of extending the term of the present
government, being absent from the capital
on a lecturing tour. Another week was then
given to buncombe speeches, and last night
at half past IL o'clock the voting commenced,
winding up at o'clock this morning, at
which hour the bill as it came from the
House was so modified that, as Senator Sum-
ner remarked, it would not be recognized by
''the Oldest inhabitant" 1t passed finally in
the shape of substitute for the whole bill,
present government of the State provisional,
constitutes it the Third Military District, and
provides for an election for members of the
Legislature on the 18th of November next.
This substitute was first passed as an amend
ment by vote of SO to %, and afterwards
in the shape of substitute by vote of 80
to %, all the Democrats and the Republican
opponents of the Bullock regime favoring it.
Before the business was wound up an amend
ment was carried, by a vote of 32 to 26, which
authorizes the President to suppress violence
in the State and still another, by vote of
4S to 8, which provides for calling into SER
vice the militia of the State AS thus doc
tored up, the bill passed finally by a vote of
27 to %, the opponents of the Bingham
proviso generally voting against it.
The action of the House upon the bill is
problematical, but it is to be hoped that it
will be prompt and decisive, whether favor