So great was the opposition to Reconstruction, under these hard conditions, on the part of the white people in Georgia, that the Governor was obliged to call for the military of the United States to aid him, and finally to step aside for General Terry, who by an order from the President, dated January 4th, 1870, was authorized to resume the powers in Georgia of the commander of a military district, as provided under the Reconstruction Act of March 2d, 1867. The General found a number of members in the legislature recognized by General Meade's proclamation who could not take either of the oaths or affirmations prescribed. These he caused to be removed from their seats in very arbitrary ways. This procedure put the Republicans in the legislature in majority, and they filled these vacancies by admitting persons who had received the next highest number of votes to those cast for the expelled members in the election, and who could take one or the other of the oaths or affirmations prescribed in the Act of the 22d of December, 1869. {240} [Sidenote: Ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment by the Georgia legislature.] The legislature as thus reconstructed was approved by the military authorities, and it now proceeded to fulfil the final condition required of Georgia, viz., the ratification of the proposed Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. It also ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. This was, from a legal point of view, entirely superfluous, since the Fourteenth Amendment was, at the moment, already a part of the Constitution, as much so as any other Article, and in resuming the status of a "State" in the Union, Georgia was, of course, subject to all parts of the Constitution alike. The legislature might, with equal reason, have ratified specially any other part of the Constitution. The idea seems to have been to correct any possible defects in the ratification of this amendment which the Georgia legislature had voted on July 21st, 1868. [Sidenote: Further delay in the admission of representatives from Georgia.]