208 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



Fourteenth Amendment. To offset the known influence which those 

 included in the disabling clause had had in the Southern legislatures 

 rejecting the amendment, a proviso was added to the section exclud- 

 ing them from membership in the Constitutional Conventions to be 

 convened in pursuance to the act. 



The passage of this act on March 2nd, 1867, insured the victory 

 of Congress and the enforced ratification of the amendment. From 

 the strictly legal point of view, it might well be doubted whether 

 such a ratification could be held to be constitutional, but the prac- 

 tical experience of following years convinced the South that they 

 held in their hands an instrument which would neutralize the effects 

 of the amendment. Terrorism proved to be the logical sequel to 

 enforced ratification. 



Even with the impetus which the Reconstruction Act was sup- 

 posed to give to the adoption of the amendment, the ratifications 

 dragged on slowly. Ohio and New Jersey had ratified the amend- 

 ment but later reconsidered their action and repealed their ratifica- 

 tion resolutions. For a time it looked as if their action would 

 seriously complicate matters. Secretary Seward on July 20th, 1868, 

 issued a proclamation concerning the amendment in which he showed 

 plainly his doubt as to the effect of their action. ('> If this ratifica- 

 tion was to be considered legal in spite of their later repeal measures, 

 the requisite two-thirds majority had already been secured and the 

 amendment could be considered in effect. Otherwise a final proc- 

 lamation would have to await further action from dilatory states. 

 The large working Republican majority of Cojigress settled the ques- 

 tion on the following day by passing a resolution affirming that the 

 first resolutions of these states could not be repealed. 



Seward accepted this interpretation and one week later, July 

 28th, 1868, he issued the proclamation which declared the Fourteenth 

 Amendment an integral part of the Constitution. 



(1) McPherson, History of the Reconstruction, p. 379. 



