ers. The following are the remarks and certificates of the Secretary of State of the United States: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State of the United States: To all to whom these presents may come, Greeting: Whereas, the Congress of the United States, on or about the sixteenth of June, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, passed a resolution, which is in the words and figures following, to wit: "Joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States. "Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of both houses concurring) that the following article be proposed to the legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said legislatures, shall be valid as part of the Constitution, namely:" (See Art. XIV., above.) And whereas, by the second section of the act of Congress, approved the twentieth of April, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, entitled "An act to provide for the publication of the laws of the United States, and for other purposes," it is made the duty of the Secretary of State forthwith to cause any amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which has been adopted according to the provisions of the said Constitution, to be published in the 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; And whereas, neither the act just quoted from, nor any other law, expressly or by conclusive implication, authorizes the Secretary of State to determine and decide doubtful questions as to the authenticity of the organization of State legislatures, or as to the power of any State legislature to recall a previous act or resolution of ratification of any amendment proposed to the Constitution; And whereas, it appears from official documents on file in this department that the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed as aforesaid, has been ratified by the legislatures of the States of Connecticut, New Hampshire, Tennessee, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, New York, Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia, Kansas, Maine, Nevada, Missouri, Indiana, Min nesota, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Iowa; And whereas, it further appears from documents on file in this department that the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed as aforesaid, has also been ratified by newly constituted and newly established bodies, avowing themselves to be and acting as the legislatures, respectively, of the States of Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama; And whereas, it further appears from official documents on file in this department that the legislatures of two of the States first above. enumerated, to wit, Ohio and New Jersey, have since passed resolutions, respectively, withdrawing the consent of each of said States to the aforesaid amendment; And whereas, it is deemed a matter of doubt and uncertainty whether such resolutions are not irregular, invalid, and, therefore, ineffectual for withdrawing the consent of the said two States, or of either of them, to the aforesaid amendment; And whereas, the whole number of States in the United States is thirty-seven, to wit: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Oregon, Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, and Nebraska; And whereas, the twenty-three States first hereinbefore named, whose legislatures have ratified the said proposed amendment, and the six States next thereafter named, as having ratified the said proposed amendment by newly constituted and established legislative bodies, together constitute three-fourths of the whole number of States in the United States: Now, therefore, be it known that I, William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, by virtue and in pursuance of the second section of the act of Congress, approved the twentieth of April, eighteen hundred and eighteen, herein before cited, do hereby certify that, if the resolutions of the legislatures of Ohio and New Jersey, ratifying the aforesaid amendment, are to be deemed as remaining of full force and effect, notwithstanding the subsequent resolutions of the legislatures of those States, which purport to withdraw the consent of said States from such ratification, then the aforesaid amendment has been ratified in the manner hereinbefore mentioned, and so has be come 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 twentieth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, and of the independence of the United States of America the ninety-third. [L. S.] WILLIAM H. SEWARD, WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State of the United States: To all to whom these presents may come, Greeting: Whereas, by an act of Congress, passed on the twentieth of April, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, entitled “An act to provide for the publication of the laws of the United States, and for other purposes," it is declared that, whenever official notice shall have been received at the Department of State that any amendment which heretofore has been and 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 |