Through the legislature Georgia showed herself equally frank in expressing affection and regret for the lost cause, and equally wanting in an attitude of humility to the federal government--or at least to the dominant party in Congress. On the recommendation of the governor she rejected the Fourteenth Amendment by an almost unanimous vote, largely because of the disabilities it imposed on the leaders of the Confederacy.[48] Instead of remaining a humbly silent spectator of the controversy between the President and Congress, she boldly thanked the President for his "regard for the constitutional rights of states," and for "the determined will that says to a still hostile faction of her recent foes, 'Thus far shalt thou go and no farther. Peace, be still.'"[49] She continued to provide for the unfortunate champions of the Confederacy, characterizing this action as "a holy and patriotic duty."[50] She extended expressions of "sincerest condolence and warmest sympathy" to the illustrious state prisoner, Jefferson Davis, declaring that her "warmest affections cluster[ed] around the fallen chief of a once dear but now abandoned cause."[51] These acts and resolutions expressed through the government the spirit which was found among the people by direct observers--a spirit of submission to irresistible force, in some cases sullen, in most cases unrepentant.[52] At that time the absence of that spirit would have been extraordinary. But the public opinion of the North regarded it not as the aftermath of war, which would soon pass, but as a spirit which, if left undisciplined, would break out in another war. This belief, and the belief that the negroes were destined by the southern governments to suffer injustice and debasement, and that the ballot was their only salvation, gave rise to two corresponding purposes--to chasten the rebellious spirit of the South, and to invest the negroes with the voting franchise by force. To destroy the state governments of the South and rebuild them on a basis of negro suffrage would accomplish both these purposes. This plan was also supported for the sake of a third purpose, viz., to secure for the Republican party the votes of the negroes. There were thus three classes of men bent on abolishing the Johnson government. We may call them the Disciplinarians, the Humanitarians, and the Republican Politicians. CHAPTER III CONGRESSIONAL DELIBERATIONS AND ACTIONS CONCERNING THE JOHNSON GOVERNMENTS, ENDING IN THE RECONSTRUCTION ACTS OF 1867 When Congress met on December 4, 1865, President Johnson informed it of the measures he had taken for restoring the southern states and of the conditions he had required as necessary to restoration. He emphasized the requirement that the Thirteenth Amendment be ratified (which, as stated in Chapter I, was complied with in Georgia five days later).