It's even more embarrassing that the Magnolia State didn't officially ratify the amendment until now, almost 150 years after Congress voted for it.
Back in '95 the state never properly notified the U.S. Archivist about the ratification, so it was never official.
This apparent clerical blunder wasn't spotted until Dr. Ranjan Batra, an associate professor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, saw "Lincoln" and wondered what happened when the states voted on ratification.
The right paperwork was filed and on February 7, 2013 Mississippi officially ratified the 13th Amendment.
"It was long overdue," admitted Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann.
No kidding.
1 comment:
Since I am the person who, in 1994, alerted all African-American Mississippi legislators that Mississippi had not ratified the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution–and since I am the person who furnished all of them with the draft language for the concurrent resolution and asked them to introduce it in the 1995 legislative session and secure its passage–I would like to add some information which has been overlooked in the past several days. As for Mr. Dick Molpus and his employees, the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office DID mail out copies of Mississippi’s Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 547 back in 1995 to addressees in Washington, D.C.
I KNOW this because Vice-President in 1995 Al Gore received HIS copy of it and it is printed in full–verbatim–in the U.S. Senate’s portion of the Congressional Record on October 24, 1995, and was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary in that body.
Furthermore, then-Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich likewise received HIS copy of it, and it is summarized in the U.S. House of Representatives’ portion of the Congressional Record on December 5, 1995 and was likewise referred to the Committee on the Judiciary in that body.
Additionally, U.S. Representative Bennie G. Thompson inserted into the Congressional Record on September 13, 1995, a statement acknowledging the adoption of S.C.R. No. 547.
I cannot imagine what might have happened to any transmittal by Mr. Molpus or his staff which would have been addressed to the Archivist of the United States back in 1995 but, clearly, Mr. Molpus and his staff did their due diligence 18 years ago as evidenced by the fact that Messrs. Gore and Gingrich obviously got THEIR copies of S.C.R. No. 547 during that year.
There is case law (namely the 1939 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Coleman v. Miller) stipulating that it is Congress which ultimately determines if a state legislature’s ratification of a federal constitutional amendment is proper, timely, and valid.
The National Archives (under Public Law 98-497) functions as merely a custodian of the documents and does not make such determinations–other than simply to declare that the required number of state legislative ratifications has become known to the federal government.
If Congress were to disagree with the National Archives in such a matter, then it is Congress’ opinion that would prevail in such a dispute, according to Coleman v. Miller.
On top of that, as I read Federal Register Director Charles A. Barth’s letter of February 7, 2013, I construe it to mean that the Mississippi Legislature’s action in 1995–not what has happened in the past few weeks–is what made Mississippi’s ratification of the 13th Amendment official.
True, when I composed the draft resolution in 1994, I did include a reference to the Public Law, and to the Archivist of the United States, but receipt by Congress of S.C.R. No. 547 was by far more pressing.
Thank you,
GREGORY WATSON
Austin, Texas
Monday, February 25, 2013
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