Still the President was not satisfied with it. He thought that any control whatever of the Senate over dismissal from office was not warranted by the Constitution, and he regarded the attempt of the Senate to cling to any shadow of such a power as a personal affront to himself. In his first annual Message, that of December 6th, 1869, he earnestly recommended the total repeal of the Tenure-of-Office Acts, and declared them both unconstitutional, and inconsistent with "a faithful and efficient administration of the Government." His recommendation was probably an effective warning to Congress against any attempt to hamper him by claiming any power under them to control his dismissals and suspensions, but they still remained on the statute book for nearly two decades longer. The glaring inconsistency of a bare and bald repeal of the Acts was too great even for the partisan Congress. It was willing to make them practically null and void, but it wanted a shadow with which to cover its nakedness. At any rate, the position taken by President Grant toward them was a complete vindication of President Johnson's views concerning them, and, in no small degree, of his deeds also. At the date of this Message all of the Southern communities had completed the acts required by Congress {235} for their restoration as "States" of the Union, but the result of the elections held in Mississippi were not known in Washington. The President simply expressed the hope that the constitutions submitted in these communities to the voters would be ratified, and "thus close the work of Reconstruction." As we have seen, the elections resulted as the President hoped, and these communities were restored, on the basis of the "State" constitutions adopted, to their proper federal relations. [Sidenote: The facts in the Georgia case.]