{242} There is no doubt that the Butler amendment meant, and was intended by its author to mean, just what was charged by the conservatives. General Butler at last acknowledged and avowed it, and attempted to justify it. But he was unable to rally a majority to sustain it, and he withdrew it in the face of an amendment offered by Mr. Bingham on the 7th, which provided that nothing contained in the bill should be construed either to vacate any of the "State" offices in Georgia, or to extend the terms of the present holders of them beyond the time provided in the "State" constitution, or deprive the people of Georgia of the right under their "State" constitution of electing members of their legislature in the year 1870. This amendment was passed on the 8th of March, and the bill as thus amended was passed by the House of Representatives, and sent to the Senate on the same day. It was immediately referred to the Judiciary Committee of that body and on the next day, the 9th, it was reported back to the Senate by this committee, without amendment. The Senate now considered it in committee of the whole from this time to April 19th, and when it was reported to the Senate it had been changed to a bill which declared the existing government of Georgia to be provisional and subject to the provisions of the Reconstruction Acts of 1867; ordered an election in Georgia on the 15th day of November, 1870, for members of the "State" legislature as provided for in the "State" constitution of 1868; ordered the assembly of this legislature on the 13th of December, 1870, and its organization preparatory to the admission of the "State" to representation in Congress; declared that the powers and functions of the members of the existing legislature should cease on the 13th day of December, 1870; and made it the duty of the {243} President of the United States, in case of domestic violence in any municipality in the "State," reported to him by the legislature or Governor of the State, to suppress by military power such domestic violence, and "to exercise all such powers and inflict such punishments as may by the laws, or the rules and articles of war be exercised or inflicted in case of insurrection or invasion." The Senate concurred in the recommendations of the committee of the whole, and added a provision repealing that part of the Act of March 2d, 1867, which prohibited the organizing of any militia force in Georgia. [Sidenote: The final restoration of Georgia to her Federal relations.]