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Ratification Found
The Delegates knew Virginia was the last of the 13 States that were
necessary for the ratification of the 13th Amendment. They also knew there were powerful
forces allied against this ratification so they took extraordinary measures to make sure
that it was published in sufficient quantity (4,000 copies were ordered, almost triple
their usual order), and instructed the printer to send a copy to President James Monroe as
well as James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. (The printer, Thomas Ritchie, was bonded. He
was required to be extremely accurate in his research and his printing, or he would
forfeit his bond.)
In this fashion, Virginia announced the ratification: by publication and dissemination of
the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution.
There is question as to whether Virginia ever formally notified the Secretary of State
that they had ratified this 13th Amendment. Some have argued that because such
notification was not received (or at least, not recorded), the Amendment was therefore not
legally ratified. However, printing by a legislature is prima facie evidence of
ratification.
Further, there is no Constitutional requirement that the Secretary of State, or anyone
else, be officially notified to complete the ratification process. The Constitution only
requires that threefourths of the states ratify for an Amendment to be added to the
Constitution. If three-quarters of the states ratify, the Amendment is passed. Period. The
Constitution is otherwise silent on what procedure should be used to announce, confirm, or
communicate the ratification of amendments.
Knowing they were the last state necessary to ratify the Amendment, the Virginians had
every right announce their own and the nation's ratification of the Amendment by
publishing it on a special edition of the Constitution, and so they did.
Word of Virginia's 1819 ratification spread throughout the States and both Rhode Island
and Kentucky published the new Amendment in 1822. Ohio first published in 1824. Main
ordered 10,000 copies of the Constitution with the 13th Amendment to be printed for use in
the schools in 1825, and again in 1831 for their Census Edition. Indiana Revised Laws of
1831 published the 13th Article on p. 20. Northwestern Territories published in 1833. Ohio
published in 1831 and 1833. Then came the Wisconsin Territory in 1839; Iowa Territory in
1843; Ohio again, in 1848; Kansas Statutes in 1855; and Nebraska Territory six times in a
row from 1855 to 1860.
So far, David Dodge has identified eleven different states or territories that printed the
Amendment in twenty separate publications over forty-one years. And more editions
including this 13th Amendment are sure to be discovered. Clearly, Dodge is onto something.
You might be able to convince some of the people, or maybe even all of them, for a little
while, that this 13th Amendment was never ratified. Maybe you can show them that the ten
legislatures which ordered it published eighteen times we've discovered (so far) consisted
of ignorant politicians who don't know their amendments from their ... ahh, articles. You
might even be able to convince the public that our forefathers never meant to
"outlaw" public servants who pushed people around, accepted bribes or special
favors to "look the other way." Maybe. But before you do, there's an awful lot
of evidence to be
explained.