The  minority  endeavored  to  provide  an  educational  qualifi
cation  for  voters,  but  universal  suffrage  was  adopted  with
disfranchising  clauses  as  to  ex-Confederates,  and  the  con
stitution  went  on  to  provide  also  that  debts  due  before
June  i,  1865,  should  be  null  and  void.  This  was  to  prove
a  stumbling  block,  for,  when  the  instrument  was  sent  up  to
Congress  for  approval,  the  clause  was  an  obstacle  to  recog
nition,  and  the  act  admitting  the  six  southern  States  to
representation  in  Congress  provided  for  the  expunging  of
the  provision.  The  act  of  Congress  of  June  25,  1868,  pro
vided  "the  State  of  Georgia  shall  only  be  entitled  and  ad
mitted  to  representation  upon  this  further  fundamental  con
dition  :  that  the  first  and  third  subdivisions  of  section  seven
teen  of  the  fifth  article  of  the  constitution  of  said  State,  ex
cept  the  proviso  to  the  first  subdivision,  shall  be  null  and
void,  and  that  the  general  assembly  of  said  State  by  solemn
public  act  shall  declare  the  assent  of  the  State  to  the  fore
going  fundamental  condition."

The  legislature  chosen  contained  in  the  Senate  an  equal
number  of  Conservatives  and  Republicans,  while  in  the
House  the  Conservatives  were  largely  in  the  majority.
