APPENDIX,

CONTAINING THE MESSAGES OF

HIS EXCELLENCY,

RUFUS B. BULLOCK,

GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA,

To the Legislature of that State on the Occasion of the Expulsion of the Colored Members:

ALSO,

The Opinions of Distinguished Legal Gentlemen of Georgia, upon the Decision of the Supreme Court Declaring

Negroes Eligible to Office.

APPENDIX.

In order that the history of the question of the eligibility of colored citizens to office in Georgia may be complete, the argument of His Excellency Governor Bullock, presented in Messages to the House and Senate previous to the expulsion of the colored members, is here reprinted; as also the Message of His Excellency the Governor returning to the House the joint resolution referred to in the appended opinions of legal gentlemen. It is a notorious fact that a resolution pledging the Senate to abide by the decision of the Supreme Court was voted down by that body, on the 8th of February, 1869, by a vote of 12 to 20, and that the House refused to entertain a similar resolution. Hence there is no foundation for the charge that the Governor vetoed a resolution pledging the Legislature to abide by the decision of the Court.

9

ATLANTA, GEORGIA, September 9, 1868. (

To the House of Representatives:

Your committee to whom was referred the subject of the "election and eligibility of persons claiming seats" in your body, in the place of the twenty-five members by you declared ineligible upon account of color, called upon me and presented me with a report of the action of your body on the subject of such alleged ineligibility; setting forth that certain "free persons of color," therein named, from the counties mentioned, "are, under the Constitution of the State of Georgia, ineligible to seats on the floor" of your House, and further appointing a committee "to whom shall be referred the election and eligibility of persons claiming seats from the aforesaid counties." This report is as follows:

"WHEREAS, Abram Smith, of the county of Muscogee, has been declared ineligible to a seat on this floor; and whereas, Thomas W. Grimes, Jr., of said county, received the next highest number of votes cast in said county at the late election for Representatives in the General Assembly of this State, be it,

"Resolved, That the said Thomas W. Grimes, Jr., be declared a member of this body, and that the proper officer proceed immediately to swear him in.

MCDOUGALD, of Chattahoochee.