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The Legislature of New York ratified it January 10, 1867.

The Legislature of Ohio ratified it January 11, 1867; and the Legislature of the same State passed a resolution in January, 1868, to withdraw its consent to it.

The Legislature of Illinois ratified it January 15, 1867.

The Legislature of West Virginia ratified it January 16, 1867.
The Legislature of Kansas ratified it January 18, 1867.
The Legislature of Maine ratified it January 19, 1867.

The Legislature of Nevada ratified it January 22, 1867.

The Legislature of Missouri ratified it on or previous to January 26, 1867.

The Legislature of Indiana ratified it January 29, 1867.

The Legislature of Minnesota ratified it February 1, 1867.
The Legislature of Rhode Island ratified it February 7, 1867.
The Legislature of Delaware rejected it February 7, 1867.
The Legislature of Wisconsin ratified it February 13, 1867.
The Legislature of Pennsylvania ratified it February 13, 1867.
The Legislature of Michigan ratified it February 15, 1867.
The Legislature of Massachusetts ratified it March 20, 1867.
The Legislature of Maryland rejected it March 23, 1867.
The Legislature of Nebraska ratified it June 11, 1867.
The Legislature of Iowa ratified it April 3, 1868.
The Legislature of Arkansas ratified it April 6, 1868.
The Legislature of Florida ratified it June 9, 1868.
The Legislature of Louisiana ratified it July 9, 1868.
The Legislature of Alabama ratified it July 14, 1868.

Now, therefore, be it known that I, William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, in execution of the aforesaid act and of the aforesaid concurrent resolution of July 21, 1868, and in conformance thereto, do hereby direct the said proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, to be published in the newspapers authorized to promulgate the laws of the United States; and I do hereby certify that the said proposed amendment has been adopted, in the manner herein before mentioned, by the States specified in said concurrent resolution, namely, the States of Connecticut, New Hampshire, Tennessee, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, New York, Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia, Kansas, Maine, Nevada, Missouri, Indiana, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, and also by the

Legislature of the State of Georgia, the States here specified being more than three-fourths of the States of the United States; and I do further certify that the said amendment has become valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the Constitution of the United States.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the Department of State to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States the ninety-third. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

This fourteenth amendment was reported to the House of Representatives April 30th, 1866, by Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, from the Joint Select Committee on Reconstruction of the Government of the Southern States.

On May 10th, Mr. Stevens demanded the previous question on its passage; the demand was seconded by a vote of 85 to 57; the main question was then ordered by a vote of 84 to 79; and the joint resolution passed by a vote of 128 yeas (all Republicans) to 37 nays (Democrats, 32-Republicans, Latham, Phelps, Rousseau, Smith, and Whaley).

In the Senate on June 8th, the amendment as amended passed by a vote of 33 yeas (all Republicans) to 11 nays (Democrats 7— Republicans 4, Messrs. Cowan, Doolittle, Norton, and Van Winkle).

In the House, the amendment as amended by the Senate passed June 13th, by a vote of 138 yeas (all Republicans) to 36 nays (all Democrats).

On June 16th the amendment was deposited in the State Department; and, on the same day, a certified copy was sent by the Secretary of State to all the Governors.

The Federal Constitution does not specify how, or by whom, the announcement shall be made of the adoption of these amendments. In the United States Supreme Court, in the case of Hollingsworth v. Virginia, 3 Dallas 378, it was decided, and the question was then and there settled, that a resolution passed by two-thirds of both Houses of Congress, proposing an amendment to the Constitution, is not required to be presented to the President for his approval,

the Court unanimously deciding that the amendment (11th) had been "constitutionally adopted."

"The case of amendments is evidently a substantive act, unconnected with the ordinary business of legislation, and not within the policy or terms of investing the President with a qualified negative on the acts and resolutions of Congress. Ibid.-Attorney-General Lee.

Judge Chase in the same case, said: "the negative of the President applies only to the ordinary cases of legislation. He has nothing to do with the proposition or adoption of amendments to the Constitution."

If the proposition to amend the Constitution be a substantive act, "unconnected with the ordinary business of legislation," then the ratification of that amendment by a State Legislature is also a substantive act, and cannot be modified or repealed.

The effect of this ratification is prescribed by the Constitution: when made by three-fourths of the State Legislatures, their jurisdiction ceases, and "by the potential direction of the Constitution, it becomes valid to all intents and purposes, as part thereof." The first ten required no formal announcement.

The Joint Resolution of Congress, calling upon President Washington for information concerning the fate of the eleventh, no doubt brought out the following formal announcement from his successor, President Adams:

"Gentlemen of the Senate, and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

I have an opportunity of transmitting to Congress a report of the Secretary of State, with the copy of an act of the Legislature of the State of Kentucky, consenting to the ratification of the amendment of the Constitution of the United States proposed by Congress in their resolution of the second day of December, 1793, relative to the suability of States. This amendment having been adopted by three-fourths of the several States, may now be declared to be a part of the Constitution of the United States.

"United States, January 8th, 1798."

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"JOHN ADAMS.

"Notice was given of the adoption of the twelfth amendment, September 25th, 1804, by James Madison, pursuant to the provisions of an act passed in conjunction with the amendment, which

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cause

instructed the Secretary of State forthwith to cause a notification thereof to be made to the Executive of every State," and to " the same to be published in at least one of the newspapers printed in each State in which the laws of the United States are annually published."

Secretary Seward's proclamation of December 18th, 1865, will be found in exact compliance with the second section of the act of April 20th, 1818, requiring the Secretary of State to promulgate the amendments to the Constitution to which he refers, which reads as follows:

"Whenever official notice shall have been received at the Department of State that any amendment which heretofore has been, or hereafter may be proposed to the Constitution of the United States has been adopted according to the provisions of the Constitution, it shall be the duty of the said Secretary of State, forthwith, to cause the said amendment to be published in the said newspapers authorized to promulgate the laws, with his certificate specifying the States by which the same may have been adopted, and that the same has become valid to all intents and purposes as a part of the Constitution of the United States."

It may be said there is no limit to the time for the ratification of an amendment. Its validity depends not upon the "official seal," (this attaches merely to the Secretary's certificate,) but if adopted by the States the amendment is a part of the Constitution.

In other words, an amendment cannot die, rather "it may walk the earth like Ahasuerus, safe at least from any legal quietus, never losing a friend, and waiting patiently for the conversion of its enemies, until the tally of its supporters is full."

IMPORTANCE OF ADHERING TO RULES.

THE Confusion which must arise from any irregularity in the mode of putting amendments, is often exemplified at public meetings, where fixed principles and rules are not observed; and it would be well for persons in the habit of presiding at meetings of any description, to make themselves familiar with the rules of Parliament, in regard to questions and amendments, which have been tested by long experience, and are found as simple and efficient in practice, as they are logical in principle.1

Mr. Onslow, the ablest among the Speakers of the House of Commons, used to say: "It was a maxim he had often heard when he was a young man, from old and experienced members, that nothing tended more to throw power into the hands of Administration, and those who acted with the majority of the House of Commons, than a neglect of, or departure from, the rules of proceeding: that these forms, as instituted by our ancestors, operated as a check and control on the actions of the majority, and that they were, in many instances, a shelter and protection to the minority, against the attempts of power." "

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After a legislative assembly meets, and until it adopts rules, and orders, it is governed, and its proceedings regulated by the common parliamentary law;3 and when it has adopted rules and orders of its own, it is governed by them in all cases to which they apply, and in all other cases to which the rules and orders are not applicable, by rules drawn from the common parliamentary law.* The best rule for deciding of questions of right between both

1 May 180.

22 Hats. 171; 3 Ibid. 25, note. 46 Parl. Reg. 28.

3 J. of H., 27th Cong. 1st Sess. 36, 52. 4 Cong. Globe 99; 11 Ibid. 341. 4 C. L. & P. 793, 1423.

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