gress, on the 16th of June, 1866. On the 21st of July, 1868, Congress adopted and transmitted to the Department of State a concurrent resolution declaring that "the legislatures of the States of Connecticut, Tennessee, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, New York, Ohio, Illinois, West Vir ginia, Kansas, Maine, Nevada, Missouri, Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, South Carolina, and Louisiana, being three-fourths and more of the several States of the Union, have ratified the fourteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States, duly proposed by twothirds of each House of the Thirty-ninth Congress: Therefore Resolved, That said fourteenth article is hereby declared to be a part of the Constitution of the United States, and it shall be duly promulgated as such by the Secretary of State." The Secretary of State accordingly issued a proclamation, dated the 28th of July, 1868, declaring that the proposed fourteenth amendment had been ratified, in the manner hereafter mentioned, by the legislatures of thirty of the thirty-six States, viz: Connecticut, June 30, 1866; New Hampshire, July 7, 1866; Tennessee, July 19, 1866; New Jersey, September 11, 1866, (and the legislature of the same State passed a resolution in April, 1868, to withdraw its consent to it ;) Oregon, September 19, 1866; Vermont, November 9, 1866; Georgia rejected it No. vember 13, 1866, and ratified it July 21, 1868; North Carolina rejected it December 4, 1866, and ratified it July 4, 1868; South Carolina rejected it December 20, 1866, and ratified it July 9, 1868; New York ratified it January 10, 1867; 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;) Illinois ratified it January 15, 1867; West Virginia, January 16, 1867; Kansas, January 18, 1867; Maine, January 19, 1867; Nevada, January 22, 1867; Missouri, January 26, 1867; Indiana, January 29, 1867; Minnesota, February 1,1867; Rhode Island, February 7, 1867; Wisconsin, February 13, 1867; Pennsylvania, February 13, 1867; Michigan, February 15, 1867; Massachusetts, March 20, 1867; Nebraska, June 15, 1867; Iowa, April 3, 1868; Arkansas, April 6, 1868; Florida, June 9, 1868; Louisiana, July 9, 1868; and Alabama, July 13, 1868. Georgia again ratified the amendment February 2, 1870. Texas rejected it November 1, 1866, and ratified it February 18, 1870. Virginia rejected it January 19, 1867, and ratified October 8, 1869. The amendment was rejected by Kentucky January 10, 1867; by Delaware February 8, 1867; by Maryland March 23, 1867; and was not afterward ratified by either State. ARTICLE XV. SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. SECTION 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. United States v. Reese et al., 92 U. S., 214; United States v. Cruikshank et al., 92 U. S., 542; Ex parte Yarborough, 110 U. S., 651. The fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed to the legislatures of the several States by the Fortieth Congress on the 27th of February, 1869, and was declared, in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated March 30, 1870, to have been ratified by the legislatures of twenty-nine of the thirty-seven States. The dates of these ratifications (arranged in the order of their reception at the Department of State) were from North Carolina, March 5, 1869; West Virginia, March 3, 1869; Massachusetts, March 9-12, 1869; Wisconsin, March 9, 1869; Maine, March 12, 1869; Louisiana, March 5, 1869; Michigan, March 8, 1869; South Carolina, March 16, 1869; Pennsylvania, March 26, 1869; Arkansas, March 30, 1869; Connecticut, May 19, 1869; Florida, June 15, 1869; Illinois, March 5, 1869; Indiana, May 13-14, 1869; New York, - March 17-April 14, 1869, and the legislature of the same State passed a resolution January 5, 1870, to withdraw its consent to it ;) New Hampshire, July 7, 1869; Nevada, March 1, 1869; Vermont, October 21, 1869; Virginia, October 8, 1869; Missouri, January 10, 1870; Mississippi, January 15-17, 1870; Ohio, January 27, 1870; Iowa, February 3, 1870; Kansas, January 18-19, 1870; Minnesota, February 19, 1870; Rhode Island, January 18, 1870; Nebraska, February 17, 1870; Texas, February 18, 1870. The State of Georgia also ratified the amendment February 2, 1870. 9504 -3 RATIFICATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION. The Constitution was adopted by a Convention of the States September 17, 1787, and was subsequently ratified by the several States, in the following order, viz: Delaware, December 7, 1787. Pennsylvania, December 12, 1787. New Jersey, December 18, 1787. Georgia, January 2, 1788. South Carolina, May 23, 1788. New Hampshire, June 21, 1788. Virginia, June 26, 1788. New York, July 26, 1788. North Carolina, November 21, 1789. Rhode Island, May 29, 1790. The State of Vermont, by convention, ratified the Constitution on the 10th of January, 1791, and was, by an act of Congress of the 18th of February, 1791, "received and admitted into this Union as a new and entire member of the United States of America." 34 RATIFICATIONS OF THE AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. The first ten of the preceding articles of amendment, (with two others which were not ratified by the requisite number of States,) were submitted to the several State Legislatures by a resolution of Congress which passed on the 25th of September, 1789, at the first session of the First Congress, and was ratified by the Legislatures of the following States: New Jersey, November 20, 1789. North Carolina, December 22, 1789. The acts of the Legislatures of the States ratifying these amendments were transmitted by the governors to the President, and by him communicated to Congress. The Legislatures of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Georgia, do not appear by the record to have ratified them. The eleventh article was submitted to the Legislatures of the several States by a resolution of Congress passed on the 5th of March, 179.†, at the first session of the Third Congress; and on the 8th of January, 1798, at the second session of the Fifth Congress, it was declared by the President, in a message to the two Houses of Congress, to have been adopted by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the States, there being at that time sixteen States in the Union. The twelfth article was submitted to the Legislatures of the several States, there being then seventeen States, by a resolution of Congress passed on the 12th of December, 1803, at the first session of the Eighth Congress; and was ratified by the Legislatures of threefourths of the States, in 1804, according to a proclamation of the Secretary of State dated the 25th of September, 1804. The thirteenth article was submitted to the Legislatures of the several States, there being then thirty-six States, by a resolution of Congress passed on the 1st of February, 1865, at the second session of the Thirty-eighth Congress, and was ratified, according to a proclamation of the Secretary of State dated December 18, 1865, by the Legislatures of the following States: Illinois, February 1, 1865. Rhode Island, February 2, 1865. Michigan, February 2, 1865. Maryland, February 3, 1865. New York, February 3, 1865. West Virginia, February 3, 1865. Maine, February 7, 1865. Kansas, February 7, 1865. Massachusetts, February 8, 1865. Missouri, February 10, 1865. |