THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF POPE AND MEADE

In the Third Military District, of which Georgia was a part, the Reconstruction Acts were administered from April 1, 1867, to January 6, 1868, by General Pope, and from January 6 to July 30, 1868, by General Meade.[82] The present chapter will describe, first, the manner in which these men conducted the political rebuilding of Georgia, and second, the manner in which they governed during this process.

On April 8 Pope issued his first orders regarding the registration of voters. The three officers commanding respectively in the sub-districts of Georgia, Florida and Alabama were directed to divide the territory under them into registration districts, and for each of these to appoint a board of registry consisting as far as possible of civilians.[83] On May 2 the scheme of districts for Georgia was published. The state was divided into forty-four districts of three counties each, and three districts of a city each. For each district the names of two white registrars were announced, and each of these pairs was ordered to complete the board by selecting a negro colleague. The compensation of registrars was to be from fifteen cents to forty cents for every name registered, varying according to the density or sparseness of the population. It was made the duty of registrars to explain to those unused to the enjoyment of suffrage the nature of this function. After the lists were complete they were to be published for ten days.[84]The unsettled condition of the negro population suggested to Pope the possibility that many negroes would lose their right to vote by change of residence. He therefore ordered on August 15 that persons removing from the district where they were registered should be furnished by the board of registry with a certificate of registration, which should entitle them to vote anywhere in the state.[85]

The election for deciding whether a constitutional convention should be held, and for choosing delegates in case the affirmative vote prevailed, was ordered to begin on October 29 and to continue three days. Registrars were ordered to revise their lists during the fortnight preceding the election, to erase names wrongly registered, and to add the names of persons entitled to be registered. The boards of registry were to act as judges of election, but registrars who were candidates for election were forbidden to serve in the districts where they sought election.[86]

The election was to occupy the last three days of October. On October 30 Pope extended the time to the night of November 2, in order to give the negroes ample opportunity to vote, which in their inexperience they might otherwise fail to do.[87]

After the election the following figures were announced:[88]

The delegates elected were ordered to meet in convention on December 9th.[90] On that day the convention met in Atlanta. Its business was not completed until the middle of March in the following year. The constitution which it framed more than met the demands of the Reconstruction Acts. A single citizenship was established for all residents of the state, in language borrowed from the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution.[91] Legislation on the subject of social status of citizens was forever prohibited.[92] The electoral right was given to all male persons born or naturalized in the United States who should have resided six months in Georgia.[93] Electors were privileged from arrest (except for treason, felony or breach of the peace) for five days before, during, and for two days after, elections, and the legislature was ordered to provide such other means for the protection of electors as might be necessary.[94] Other provisions presumably acceptable to northern sentiment were the prohibition of whipping as a penalty for crime,[95] and the command that the legislature should create a system of public schools free to all children of the state.[96]

By an ordinance of the convention, made valid by being embodied in military orders, April 20, 1868, was appointed for the submission of the new constitution to popular vote, and also for the election of members of Congress and officers of the new state government.[97] This election resulted in the adoption of the constitution by a majority of 17,699 votes, and in the election of a governor (Rufus B. Bullock by name), a legislature, and a full delegation to the lower house of Congress.[98] The remaining requirement of the Reconstruction Acts was that the new legislature convene and ratify the Fourteenth Amendment. This transaction will be reserved for the next chapter.

General Pope was inspired by the ideas and emotions from which reconstruction had sprung. He was an ardent friend of the reconstruction measures. He was convinced of the importance of suppressing the old political leaders in his district. He held with enthusiasm the optimistic views prevalent in the North regarding the negroes. Their recent progress in “education and knowledge,” he said, was “marvellous,” and if continued, in five years the intelligence of the community would shift to the colored portion.[99] The purport of his orders, the didactic style in which they are couched, the declarations of his principles which frequently accompany these orders, indicate the spirit in which he administered the office of military governor.

Most of the official acts of Pope concerned either the enforcement of obedience and the suppression of disobedience to the letter and spirit of the Reconstruction Acts, or the protection and promotion of the present interests of the freedmen.

In assuming command he announced that in the absence of special orders all persons holding office under the state government would be permitted to retain their positions until the expiration of their terms. Their successors, however, were to be appointed by Pope alone; no elections should be held in the state except those required by Congress. The general expressed the hope that no necessity for interference in the regular operation of the state government would arise. It could arise, he said, only from the failure of state tribunals to do equal justice to all persons.[100] A few weeks later he announced that this necessity would also arise if any state officer interfered with or opposed the reconstruction measures; such an officer, it was “distinctly announced,” would be deposed.[101] Governor Jenkins, on April 10, had issued a letter to the public, advising them to abstain from registering and voting under the Reconstruction Acts. Pope had excused him with a lecture, and then issued the order referred to, to make clear that no more advice of that sort from state officers would be permitted.[102] Opposition to reconstruction by state officers was declared to include also the awarding of state printing to newspapers which opposed reconstruction, and it was ordered that thereafter the state’s patronage should be given only to loyal papers.[103] Another measure to the same end was the order that no state court should entertain any action against any person for any acts done under the military authority.[104] But while opposition by state officers was thus dealt with, freedom of public opinion was emphatically declared. The declaration accompanied a public reprimand administered to the post commander at Mobile for interference with a newspaper.[105]

The careful consideration for the needs of the freedmen shown in the general’s method of forming the boards of registry, in his instructions to the registrars, in his provision of certificates of registration to migrating citizens, and in his extension of the time of election, has been pointed out. Of a similar character was the warning to employers that any attempt to prevent laborers from voting, or to influence their votes by docking wages, threats, or any other means, would be severely dealt with.[106]

In his first general orders, as we have said, Pope warned the judiciary against racial prejudice. It was probably disregard of this warning which caused the removal of about a dozen judges, justices of the peace, and sheriffs.[107] In the interest of equal justice, Pope also ordered that grand and petit jurors should be selected impartially from the lists of voters registered under the Reconstruction Acts.[108] Besides this general protection, individual relief was given by release from arrest, mitigation of the conditions of confinement, reduction of fines, and other special dispensations.[109] The method of securing justice mentioned in the Act of March 2, 1867, namely by ordering the trial of cases by military commissions, was employed by Pope only once.[110]

Such was the administration of Pope. Its influence on the personnel of the state government was large, but was exercised only slightly through removal, chiefly through appointment to fill vacancies. Pope removed about fifteen state officers (almost all of whom were the judicial officers mentioned in the preceding paragraph). He filled about two hundred vacancies.[111] It is significant that a great number of these were caused by resignation. His acts of interference with the action of state officers were few, and with all his zeal for the success of reconstruction, he favored freedom of speech. Nevertheless, his opinions and his personal character, combined with such interference as he did practice, served to gain for him the dislike of the people and the rather unjust reputation of a petty tyrant.

Though Meade lacked Pope’s zealous enthusiasm for reconstruction, yet he held much the same opinion as his predecessor regarding the duties with which he was charged. Like Pope, he forbade the bestowal of public patronage on anti-reconstruction newspapers.[112] Like Pope, he thought it his duty to depose state officers who opposed the execution of the Reconstruction Acts. When he assumed command he found the convention at loggerheads with the governor and the state treasurer. The convention had levied a tax to pay its expenses, and pending the collection of it had directed the treasurer to advance forty thousand dollars.[113] The treasurer (Jones by name) declined to do this except on a warrant from the governor, according to the regular practice. Meade requested Jenkins to issue the warrant. Jenkins refused, on the ground that the act would violate the state constitution under which he held office, and that even if it were authorized by the Reconstruction Acts (which he denied), that was an authorization contrary to the Constitution of the United States, upon which he would not act.[114] Thereupon, on January 13, 1868, Meade issued an order by which the governor (designated as the “provisional governor”) and the treasurer (also designated as “provisional”) were removed and Brigadier-General Ruger and Captain Rockwell “detailed” to act as governor and treasurer respectively.[115] For this act the convention rewarded Meade with a resolution of gratitude.[116] Before the end of the same month the state comptroller and the secretary of state were also removed for obstructing reconstruction,[117] and later the mayor and the entire board of aldermen of Columbus shared the same fate.[118]

Toward the freedmen General Meade assumed the attitude of his predecessor. He made similar rules to protect them, in voting, from coercion by employers.[119] On the other hand, observing that too frequent enticement of negroes to political meetings was disturbing industry, he announced that interference of this sort with the rights of employers by political agitators would meet with the same punishment as interference with the rights of freedmen.[120]

Besides following the two policies of suppressing resistance and protecting freedmen, Meade used his power to a great extent simply in the interest of the general welfare. Public peace and order seemed threatened on the eve of the April election. Orders issued on April 4 expressed the belief that there existed a concerted plan, extending widely through the Third District and apparently emanating from a secret organization, to overawe the population and affect elections. Both military and civil officers were ordered to arrest publishers of incendiary articles and to organize special patrols.[121] Troops were distributed so as to command the parts chiefly in danger,[122] and the frequent resignation of office by sheriffs occasioned the order that no more resignations would be permitted, but that the sheriffs must retain their offices and execute the law.[123] By way of benevolent despotism, Meade, at the request of the convention, suspended the operation of the bail process and of the writ of capias satisfaciendum, and promulgated the provisions of the new constitution for the relief of debtors until the constitution should become law.[124] Likewise he gave special orders in eight or ten cases suspending trails, releasing prisoners, and otherwise preventing hardship or failure of justice. Whereas Pope had convened one military court, Meade convened six,[125] and before these thirty two cases were tried. Meade appointed about seventy state officers and removed about twenty.

These facts show that the two administrations we are considering were alike in policy, and that in action Meade’s was the more vigorous. Nevertheless, while Pope was disliked, Meade, thanks to a more attractive character, enjoyed a certain popularity.

Such was the process by which the Disciplinarians, the Humanitarians, and the Republican Politicians hoped to gain their respective purposes. What were the results of the process by the end of the administration of Meade?

For the Disciplinarians they were not encouraging. Military government was received not as discipline but as bullying. The spirit which reconstruction was designed to quell was only embittered; for to those who entertained it reconstruction was not the chastening of the nation, but the domineering of a political party, which it was hoped and believed would soon lose its ascendency.[126]

For the Humanitarians reconstruction had produced written laws regarding equality of civil and political rights, which were deemed a subject of congratulation. Outside the laws they would have found less encouragement. The kindness of the white people toward the negroes had been changed to apprehension by the events of 1865. When the advent of negro suffrage brought the carpet-baggers to the South to marshal the negro voters for their own benefit, and when these men began to disturb the negroes by organizing them into mysterious Union Leagues and giving them indigestible ideas of their rights, apprehension became alarm. Negroes seized property of all kinds—including even plantations—by violence, supposing this to be one of their new rights. Already they had raised a new terror by crimes against white women, hitherto unknown. Some thoughtful men believed that the best defence against the dangers apprehended from the disturbed black population was kindness and friendly influence.[127] That opinion was not heard after the arrival of the carpet-baggers; its methods were then seen to be inadequate. Secret organizations were formed by white men for protection against the negroes. These organizations, which sowed the seed of a subsequent harvest of crime, at first included men of the best character and of the highest standing.[128] Thus reconstruction, together with its written laws, had produced conditions which made the net Humanitarian results doubtful, at least for the moment.

For the Republican Politicians reconstruction did not produce in Georgia all that was to be desired. When the enterprise was first launched some of the white men, though offended, favored accepting the inevitable and endeavoring to elect good men to the constitutional convention and to the new state government.[129] Others, carried further by their anger, determined to take no part in elevating the negroes and debasing their heroes. Prominent among these, as we have said, was Governor Jenkins. These men stayed at home on October 29, 1867, contemptuously ignoring the “bogus concern called an election,” which occurred on that day.[130] Many of these latter, by the time the “motley crew assembled at Atlanta” had finished its labors, decided to follow the example of the former. A convention met at Macon on December 5, 1867, formed a party, the Georgia Conservatives, named a ticket, with John B. Gordon at the head, and began a powerful campaign for the defeat of negroes and adventurers at the April election.[131] To make an active fight was recognized as a better course than to stand in ineffectual scorn.[132] As a result the sweeping victory expected by the Republican Politicians did not occur in Georgia. A Republican governor was elected; but in the state senate the seats were equally divided between the Republicans and the Conservatives, in the state house of representatives the Conservatives obtained a large majority, and of the seven Congressmen elected three were Conservatives.[133]