Governor Johnson now had no motive for delaying the reorganization of the State government, as it was only a month until his inauguration as Vice-President. He thereupon gave force to the action of the Convention by a proclamation ordering a vote of the people to be taken in the mode prescribed by the Convention. The election was held on February 22d, and resulted in 25,293 for, 48 against. On February 25th, Johnson issued a second proclamation declaring the amendment ratified, and ordering an election for Governor and Legislature. The second election occurred on the 4th of March. W. G. Brownlow, the candidate for Governor, received 23,352 votes against 35 scattering. The legislative candidates received the same number of votes as the election was by general ticket. In the presidential election of 1860 the vote of the State was 145,000. Johnson therefore held that Tennessee had fulfilled the 10 per cent. requirement of Lincoln’s amnesty proclamation. He issued a final proclamation in which he attempted to set the stamp of legality upon the newly elected Governor and Legislature. The energies of the new State government were immediately directed toward securing the continued ascendancy of the Union party. This was at first an easy matter, as one of the new amendments to the Constitution had given the Legislature the power of determining the suffrage qualifications. The Legislature convened on the 2d of April. On the 7th Brownlow was inaugurated. His message contained the following brief reference to the all-important question of the franchise: “While I would not recommend you to give way to the impulse of vengeance any more than to the appeals of sympathy and pity, I would urge you to guard the ballot-box faithfully and effectually against the approach of treason, no matter in what character it may come.”[10]