The Situation at the Moment of Grant's Accession to Power--The Georgia Question--The Attitude of the New President toward Reconstruction--The Virginia Case--Grant's Message to Congress of April 7th, 1869, and His Proclamation of May 14th--Ratification of the Virginia Constitution and Election of "State" Officers under it--The Restoration of Virginia to Her Federal Relations--Ratification of the Mississippi Constitution and Election of "State" Officers and Legislative Members under it--The Restoration of Mississippi to Her Federal Relations--Ratification of the Texas Constitution and Election of "State" Officers and Legislative Members under it--Restoration of Texas to Her Federal Relations--Grant and the Tenure-of-Office Act--Congress and the Tenure-of-Office Act after Grant's Accession to the Presidency--The Modification of the Tenure-of-Office Act--The President's Dissatisfaction with the Measure--The Facts in the Georgia Case--New Conditions Imposed on Georgia--The Final Restoration of Georgia to Her Federal Relations--Negro Rule in the South from the Point of View of Political Science and Ethnical Principle. [Sidenote: The situation at the moment of Grant's accession to power.] At the moment of Grant's accession to power, four of the Southern communities were still denied recognition as "States" upon the floor of Congress. Three of the four had not yet adopted "State" constitutions, viz.: Virginia, Mississippi and Texas; and the fourth, Georgia, the representatives from which to the lower House of Congress had been admitted in December of 1868, was still unrepresented in the Senate, for the reason that the legislature of Georgia, after electing United States Senators, {223} had rejected the negro members-elect of that body on the ground that negroes were not eligible to legislative seats in Georgia. [Sidenote: The Georgia question.] When the news of this procedure reached Washington, the Senate held back from admitting the Senators-elect from Georgia to seats and did not admit them during the last session of the Fortieth Congress; and at the opening of the Forty-first Congress, on March 4th, 1869, the day of Grant's inauguration, one of the first acts of the respective Houses was to refuse admittance to the representatives from Georgia to _either House_, and to refer their credentials to the Committee of each House on Elections. [Sidenote: The attitude of the new President toward Reconstruction.]