OHIO'. 



601 



session was embodied in a joint resolution re- 

 scinding the action of the Legislature of 1867, 

 by which the fourteenth amendment to the 

 Constitution of the United States was ratified. 

 This subject was brought forward before the 

 inauguration of Governor Hayes* and in his 

 inaugural address that official alluded to the 

 subject, deprecating any action of the kind 

 contemplated. " I submit," said he, " that 

 nothing has occurred which warrants the 

 opinion that the ratification, by the last General 

 Assembly, of the fourteenth amendment to 

 the Constitution of the United States .was not 

 in accordance with the deliberate and settled 

 convictions of the people. That amendment 

 was, after the amplest discussion, upon an 

 issue distinctly presented, sanctioned by a 

 large majority of the people. If any fact 

 exists which justifies the belief that they ^ow 

 wish that the resolution should be repealed, by 

 which the assent of Ohio was given to that 

 important amendment, it has not been brought 

 to the attention of the public." But the majority 

 in the General Assembly appear to have enter- 

 tained a different opinion from that of the 

 chief executive of the State, and the following 

 resolutions were passed and forwarded to 

 Washington, where, on the 31st of January, 

 they were submitted to the Senate and by that 

 body laid upon the table. 



Whereas^ on the llth day of January, A. D. 1867, the 

 following joint resolution was adopted by the Gen- 

 eral Assembly of the State of Ohio, to wit: 



Whereas, the General Assembly has received official 

 notification of the passage by both Houses of the 

 Thirty-ninth Congress of the United States, at its 

 first session, of the following proposition to amend 

 the Constitution of the United States, by a constitu- 

 tional majority of two-thirds thereof, in the words 

 following, to wit : 



[The words of the fourteenth constitutional 

 amendment are recited at length.] 



Whereas^ three-fourths of the Legislatures of the 

 States comprising the United States are required to 

 give assent to the said proposed amendment to the 

 Constitution of the United States before it becomes a 

 part thereof: Therefore, 



Resolved, lyy th% General^ Assembly of the State of 

 Ohio. That we hereby ratify, on behalf of the State 

 of Ohio, the above recited proposed amendment to 

 the Constitution of the United States. 



Resolved, That certified copies of the foregoing 

 preamble and resolution be forwarded by the Gov- 

 ernor of Ohio to the President of the United States, 

 to the Presiding Officer of the United States Senate, 

 and the Speaker of the United States House of Rep- 

 resentatives. 



And whereas no amendment to the Constitution of 

 the United States is valid until duly ratified by three- 

 fourths of all the States composing the United States, 

 and, until such ratification is completed, any State has 

 a right to withdraw her assent to any proposed 

 amendment : 



_ And whereas several distinct propositions are com- 

 bined in the same proposed amendment, several of 

 which are already fully provided for in the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States, and to which no person or 

 party objects : Therefore, 



Beit resolved, ly the General Assembly of the State of 

 Ohio, That the above recited resolution be, and the 

 same is hereby, rescinded, and the ratification, on be- 

 half of the State of Ohio, of the above-recited pro- 



posed amendment to the Constitution of the United 

 States, is hereby withdrawn and refused. 



Resolved, That copies of the foregoing preamble 

 and resolution, certified to by the Speaker of the 

 House of Representatives and the President of the 

 Senate, be forwarded to the President of the United 

 States, to each of our Senators and Representatives 

 in Congress, and to each of the Governors of the re- 

 spective States. 



Resolved. That the President of the United States 

 be respectfully requested to cause to be forwarded to 

 the Governor of Ohio any and all papers on file in 

 the executive department at Washington, certifying 

 the ratification by the General Assembly of Ohio of 

 said proposed constitutional amendment, and that 

 the Presiding Officer of the United States Senate and 

 the Speaker of the United States House of Represen- 

 tatives be requested to return to the same officer any 

 certificate that may have been filed with them, or 

 either of them, on the subject of said ratification. 



JOHN F. FOLLETT, 

 Speaker of the House of Representatives, 



J. C. LEE, President of the Senate. 

 ' January 15, A. D. 1868. 



Several Kepublican members of the Legisla- 

 ture entered protests against this action, and it 

 was moved that these protests be forwarded to 

 Washington also ; but this proposition was re- 

 jected by a strict party vote. 



At a later period in the session, another 

 resolution of the General Assembly of Ohio 

 was presented to the Senate of the United 

 States by Mr. Sherman, one of the Senators 

 from that State, who asked that it be read, and 

 then allowed to lie on the table. It was, he 

 said, rather an extraordinary resolution, but he 

 felt it to be his duty to present it. This was a 

 " Joint Eesolution protesting against the recon- 

 struction acts of Congress, and against the 

 passage of certain bills " then pending before 

 that body, and instructing the Senators and 

 requesting the Representatives from Ohio " to 

 vote for the repeal of the former, and against 

 the passage of the latter ; " and was in these 

 words : 



Whereas, the Congress of the_ United States has 

 enacted laws and is now considering measures which-, 

 if enacted into laws, are, in the opinion of this Gen- 

 eral Assembly, in direct conflict with the plainest 

 provisions of the Constitution : Therefore, 



Be it resolved, 1. That this General Assembly does 

 protest against the acts of Congress commonly called 

 the reconstruction acts, because the same are subver- 

 sive of the rights of the States, the liberty and pros- 

 perity of the people, and the constitutional powers of 

 the executive and judicial departments of the Federal 

 Government, and our Senators in Congress are here- 

 by instructed, and our Representatives in Congress 

 requested, to vote for the repeal of all said acts. 



2. That this General Assembly does protest against 

 the passage of the bill now pending in Congress 

 requiring the concurrence of two-thirds of the judges 

 of the Supreme Court of the United States to pro- 

 nounce an act of Congress unconstitutional, because 

 said proposition is plainly unconstitutional, and is 

 an attempt to destroy the judicial department of the 

 Government. 



3. And this General Assembly does also protest 

 against the passage of the bill now pending in Con- 

 gress, to take from the Supreme Court and other 

 courts of the United States jurisdiction in cases 

 arising* under said reconstruction acts, because said 

 bill proposes to deny to the people any redress for 

 wrongs and injuries they may_ suffer, to destroy the 

 just and necessary powers of the judicial tribunals, 



