Before the election came off, however, a bill was introduced into Congress, and passed the House of Representatives, and was making its way, a little more slowly, but surely, through the Senate, which authorized the election of "State" officers and legislators in the communities suffering reconstruction at the same time that the vote should be taken upon the ratification of the new constitutions and by the same electors. Congress had not a whit more power to {153} do this than the commanders, and the President knew this well enough, but he gave no instructions to Meade, and so the commander permitted the voting for "State" officers and legislators at the same election that the vote was taken upon the question of the ratification of the constitution and by the same electors. But the registered voters refrained from voting upon the question of ratification in sufficient numbers to reduce the vote to several thousand less than half the registration. The proposed constitution was thus rejected under the provision of the Reconstruction Acts which required a vote exceeding the half of the registration, as well as a majority of that vote, for ratification. The "State" government chosen at this same election was thus in the air. [Sidenote: The statute of Congress changing the proportion of votes to registration in the ratification of a constitution.] The Senate now passed the House bill providing that the approval of a majority of those voting, no matter what the proportion of the vote to the registration might be, should be regarded as a sufficient ratification of the proposed "State" constitutions for the communities suffering reconstruction; and although this Act was passed more than a month after the vote on the constitution was taken in Alabama, and although, furthermore, General Meade reported that a majority of the registered voters had not voted on the question of ratification, and that he interpreted this to mean that a majority of the registered voters did not want the constitution, yet Congress, as we shall see later, applied this new law of March 11th to the Alabama election which had taken place in the first days of the preceding February. [Sidenote: Criticism of the statute.]