That the Reconstruction Acts required communities not states to ratify a constitutional amendment did not affect their legality. That an amendment depended for its validity on such ratification might make the amendment void (though even from this result there is a means of escape in the theory of relation, to be mentioned later), but that would not affect the act requiring the ratification. That this requirement was not made with the exclusive purpose of obtaining votes for the passage of the amendment is shown by a resolution introduced into the House of Representatives on July 21, 1867, which reads: _Resolved_, That in ratifying amendments to the Constitution of the United States ... the said several states ... are wholly incapable either of accepting or rejecting any such amendment so as to bind the loyal states of the Union, ... and that when any amendment ... shall be adopted by three-fourths of the states recognized by the Congress as lawfully entitled to do so, ... the same shall become thereby a part of the Constitution.[81] What virtues the Reconstruction Acts had besides legal regularity will be discussed later. CHAPTER IV THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF POPE AND MEADE In the Third Military District, of which Georgia was a part, the Reconstruction Acts were administered from April 1, 1867, to January 6, 1868, by General Pope, and from January 6 to July 30, 1868, by General Meade.[82] The present chapter will describe, first, the manner in which these men conducted the political rebuilding of Georgia, and second, the manner in which they governed during this process. On April 8 Pope issued his first orders regarding the registration of voters. The three officers commanding respectively in the sub-districts of Georgia, Florida and Alabama were directed to divide the territory under them into registration districts, and for each of these to appoint a board of registry consisting as far as possible of civilians.[83] On May 2 the scheme of districts for Georgia was published. The state was divided into forty-four districts of three counties each, and three districts of a city each. For each district the names of two white registrars were announced, and each of these pairs was ordered to complete the board by selecting a negro colleague. The compensation of registrars was to be from fifteen cents to forty cents for every name registered, varying according to the density or sparseness of the population. It was made the duty of registrars to explain to those unused to the enjoyment of suffrage the nature of this function. After the lists were complete they were to be published for ten days.[84]