The Reconstruction of Georgia

The question, what political disposition should be made of the Confederate States after the destruction of their military power, began to be prominent in public discussion in December, 1863. It was then that President Lincoln announced his policy upon the subject, which was to restore each state to its former position in the Union as soon as one-tenth of its population had taken the oath of allegiance prescribed in his amnesty proclamation and had organized a state government pledged to abolish slavery. This policy Lincoln applied to those states which were subdued by the federal forces during his administration, viz., Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana. When the remaining states of the Confederacy surrendered in 1865, President Johnson applied the same policy, with some modifications, to each of them (except Virginia, where he simply recognized the Pierpont government).

Before this policy was put into operation, however, an effort was made by some of the leaders of the Confederacy to secure the restoration of those states to the Union without the reconstruction and the pledge required by the President. After the surrender of Lee's army (April 9, 1865), General J. E. Johnston, acting under the authority of Jefferson Davis and with the advice of Breckenridge, the Confederate Secretary of War, and Reagan, the Confederate Postmaster General, proposed to General Sherman the surrender of all the Confederate armies then in existence on certain conditions. Among these was the condition that the executive of the United States should recognize the lately hostile state governments upon the renewal by their officers of their oath of allegiance to the federal Constitution, and that the people of the states so recognized should be guaranteed, so far as this lay in the power of the executive, their political rights as defined by the federal Constitution. Sherman signed a convention with Johnston agreeing to these terms, on April 18. That he intended by the agreement to commit the federal government to any permanent policy is doubtful. But when the convention was communicated for ratification to his superiors at headquarters, they showed the most decided opposition to granting the terms proposed even temporarily. The convention was emphatically disavowed, and on April 26 Sherman had to content himself with the surrender of Johnston's army only, agreed to on purely military terms.[1]

Georgia formed a part of the district under the command of General Johnston. As soon, therefore, as the news of the surrender could reach that state, hostilities there ceased. On May 3, Governor Brown issued a summons for a meeting of the state legislature to take place on May 22, in order that measures might be taken "to prevent anarchy, restore and preserve order, and save what [could be saved] of liberty and civilization."[2] At a time of general consternation, when military operations had displaced local government and closed the courts in many places, when the whole population was in want[3] through the devastation of the war or through the collapse of the Confederate currency which followed the collapse of the Confederate army,[4] the need of such measures was apparent.

The calling of the legislature incurred the disapproval of the federal authorities for two reasons. First, they regarded it as an attempt to prepare for further hostilities, and they accordingly arrested Brown, carried him to Washington, and put him in prison.[5] Second, in any case, as the disavowal of the convention of April 18 had shown, they did not intend to allow the state governments of the South to resume their regular activities at once, and accordingly the commander of the Department of the South issued orders on May 15, declaring void the proclamation of Joseph E. Brown, "styling himself Governor of Georgia," and forbidding obedience thereto.[6]