Besides following the two policies of suppressing resistance and protecting freedmen, Meade used his power to a great extent simply in the interest of the general welfare. Public peace and order seemed threatened on the eve of the April election. Orders issued on April 4 expressed the belief that there existed a concerted plan, extending widely through the Third District and apparently emanating from a secret organization, to overawe the population and affect elections. Both military and civil officers were ordered to arrest publishers of incendiary articles and to organize special patrols.[121] Troops were distributed so as to command the parts chiefly in danger,[122] and the frequent resignation of office by sheriffs occasioned the order that no more resignations would be permitted, but that the sheriffs must retain their offices and execute the law.[123] By way of benevolent despotism, Meade, at the request of the convention, suspended the operation of the bail process and of the writ of _capias satisfaciendum_, and promulgated the provisions of the new constitution for the relief of debtors until the constitution should become law.[124] Likewise he gave special orders in eight or ten cases suspending trails, releasing prisoners, and otherwise preventing hardship or failure of justice. Whereas Pope had convened one military court, Meade convened six,[125] and before these thirty two cases were tried. Meade appointed about seventy state officers and removed about twenty. These facts show that the two administrations we are considering were alike in policy, and that in action Meade's was the more vigorous. Nevertheless, while Pope was disliked, Meade, thanks to a more attractive character, enjoyed a certain popularity. * * * * * Such was the process by which the Disciplinarians, the Humanitarians, and the Republican Politicians hoped to gain their respective purposes. What were the results of the process by the end of the administration of Meade? For the Disciplinarians they were not encouraging. Military government was received not as discipline but as bullying. The spirit which reconstruction was designed to quell was only embittered; for to those who entertained it reconstruction was not the chastening of the nation, but the domineering of a political party, which it was hoped and believed would soon lose its ascendency.[126]