 Neither Stephens or Johnson, nor any of Georgia's newly-selected U.S. House delegation, were inaugurated or allowed to take their seats, as the federal government, at the time, refused to accept into the congregation persons implicated so heavily implicated with the Confederacy's secession and rebellion, or to enable them to wield federal-level political influence.Andrew Johnson's decision in August 1866 to restore the former Confederate states to the Union was criticized by the Radical Republicans in Congress, who, in March 1867, passed the First Reconstruction Act, placing the South under military occupation.Georgia, along with Alabama and Florida, became part of the Third Military District, under the command of General John Pope.