In 1789, the House of Representatives compiled a list of possible Constitutional Amendments, some of which would ultimately become our "Bill of Rights."  The House proposed seventeen; the Senate reduced the list to twelve. During this process that Senator Tristrain Dalton (Mass.) proposed an Amendment seeking to prohibit and provide a penalty for any American accepting a "title of nobility" (RG 46 Records of the U.S. Senate).  Although it wasn't passed, this was the first time a "title of nobility" amendment was proposed.

Twenty years later, in January, 1810, Senator Reed proposed another "title of nobility" Amendment (History of Congress, Proceedings of the Senate, p. 529-530).  On April 27, 1810, the Senate voted to pass the 13th Amendment by a vote of 26 to 1; the House resolved in the affirmative 87 to 3; and the following resolve was sent to the States for ratification:

Before a thirteenth State could ratify, the War of 1812 broke out with England.  By the time the war ended in 1814, the British had burned the Capitol, the Library of Congress, and most of the records of the first 38 years of government.  Whether there was a connection, between the proposed "title of nobility" Amendment and the War of 1812 is not known.  However, the momentum to ratify the proposed Amendment was lost in the tumult of war.

Then, four years later, on December 31, 1817, the House of Representatives resolved that President Monroe inquire into the status of this Amendment.  In a letter dated February 6, 1818, President Monroe reported to the House that the Secretary of State Adams had written to the governors of Virginia, South Carolina and Connecticut to tell them that the proposed Amendment had been ratified by twelve States and rejected by two (New York and Rhode Island), and asked the governors to notify him of their legislature's position. (House Document No. 76)

However, on March 10, 1819, the Virginia legislature passed Act No. 280 (Virginia archives of Richmond, "misc." file, p. 299 for micro-film):

The Delegates knew Virginia was the last of the 13 States that were necessary for the ratification of the 13th Amendment. They also knew that 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 a 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 facia 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 three-fourths 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 to 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.  Maine 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 the 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 (Researcher) has identified eleven different States or Territories that printed the Amendment in twenty separate publications over forty-one years.

And more Editions that include the 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 for 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 and 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.
 
 

In 1829, the following "note" appears on p. 23, Vol. 1 of the "New York Revised Statutes:"

It's not yet clear whether the 13th Amendment was published by 'Laws of the United States, Ist Vol.,' prematurely, by accident, in anticipation of Virginia's ratification, or as a part of a plot to discredit the Amendment by making it appear that only twelve States had ratified.  Whether the 'Laws of the United States, Vol. 1' (carrying the 13th Amendment) was re-called or made-up is unknown.  In fact, it's not even clear that the specified volume was actually printed - the Law Library of the Library of Congress has no record of it's existence.

However, because the "notes," the authors reported no further references to the 13th Amendment after the Presidential letter of February, 1818, they apparently assumed that the ratification process had ended in failure at that time.  If so, they neglected to seek information on the Amendment after 1818, or at the State level, and therefore missed the evidence of Virginia's ratification.  This opinion - assuming that the Presidential letter of February, 1818, was the last word on the Amendment - has persisted to this day.

In 1849, Virginia decided to revise the 1810 'Civil Code of Virginia' (which had contained the 13th Amendment for 30 years). It was at that time that one of the Code's Revisers (a lawyer named 'Patton') wrote to the Secretary of the Navy, Williams B. Preston, asking if this Amendment had been ratified or appeared by mistake.

Preston wrote to J.M. Clayton, the Secretary of State, who replied that this Amendment was not ratified by a sufficient number of States.  This conclusion was based upon the information that Secretary of State J.Q. Adams had provided the House of Representatives in 1818, before Virginia's ratification in 1819.  (Even today, the Congressional Research Service tells anyone asking about the 13th Amendment this same story:  That only twelve States, not the requisite thirteen, had ratified.) However, despite Clayton's opinion, the Amendment continued to be published in various States and Territories for at least another eleven years (the last known publication was in the Nebraska Territory in 1860).

Once again the 13th Amendment was caught in the riptides of American politics.  South Carolina seceded from the Union in December of 1860, signalling the onset of the Civil War.  In March, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated.

Later in 1861, another proposed amendment, also numbered thirteen, was signed by President Lincoln.  This was the only proposed Amendment that was ever signed by a president.  That resolve to amend read:

In the tumult of 1865, the original 13th Amendment was finally removed from our Constitution.  On January 31, another 13th Amendment (which prohibited slavery in Sect. 1, and ended the States' Rights in Sect. 2) was proposed.  On April 9, the Civil War ended with General Lee's surrender.  On April 14, President Lincoln (who, in 1861, had signed the proposed Amendment that would have allowed slavery and States' Rights) was assassinated.  On December 6, the "new" 13th Amendment loudly prohibiting slavery (and quietly surrendering States' Rights to the federal government) was ratified, replacing and effectively erasing the original 13th Amendment that had prohibited "titles of nobility" and "honors".
 
 

To create the present oligarchy (rule by lawyers) which we now endure, the lawyers first had to remove the 13th "titles of nobility" Amendment that might otherwise have kept them in check.  In fact, it was not until after the Civil War and after the disappearance of this 13th Amendment, that American Bar Association began to appear and exercise political power.

Since the unlawful deletion of the 13th Amendment, the newly developing Bar Associations began working diligently to create a system wherein lawyers took on a title of privilege and nobility as "Esquires" and receive the "honor" of offices and positions (like District Attorney or Judge) that only lawyers may now hold.  By virtue of these titles, honors, and special privileges, lawyers have assumed political and economic advantages over the majority of U.S. Nationals.  Through these privileges, they have nearly established a two-tiered citizenship in this Nation where a majority may vote, but only a minority (lawyers) may run for political office.  This two-tiered citizenship is clearly contrary to Americans' political interests, the Nation's economic welfare, and the Constitution's egalitarian spirit.

At the very least, this missing 13th Amendment demonstrates that two centuries ago, lawyers were recognized as enemies of the people and Nation.  Some things never change.
 
 

In his farewell address, George Washington warned of:

No doubt Washington's warning and Jefferson's ideas were dismissed as redundant by those who knew the law.  Who would have dreamed our legal system would become a monopoly against freedom when that was one of the primary causes for the rebellion against King George III?

Yet, the denial of trial by jury is now common place in our Courts, and habeas corpus, for crimes against the State, has been suspended.  (By crimes against the State, we refer to "political crimes" where there is no injured party and the corpus delicti [evidence] is equally imaginary.)

The authority to create monopolies was judge-made laws by Supreme Court Justice John Marshall, et.al. during the early 1800's.  Judges (and lawyers) granted to themselves the power to declare the "Acts" of the People "un-Constitutional", waited until their decision was grandfathered, and then granted themselves a monopoly by creating the Bar Associations.

Although Art. VI of the U.S. Constitution mandates that Executive Orders and Treaties are binding upon the States ("... and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."), the Supreme Court has held that the Bill of Rights is not binding upon the States, and thereby resurrected many of the complaints enumerated in the "Declaration of Independence," exactly as Thomas Jefferson foresaw in "Notes on the State of Virginia", Query 17, p. 161, [1784]:

Only two questions remain: Will we fight to revive our Rights? Or will we meekly submit as our last remaining Rights expire, surrendered to the Courts, and perhaps to a "New World Order"?
 
 

We have received information from a researcher in Indiana, and another in Dallas, who have found five more editions of statutes that include the Constitution and the missing 13th Amendment.

These editions were printed by:  Ohio, 1819; Connecticut (one of the States that voted against ratifying the Amendment), 1835; Kansas, 1861; and the Colorado Territory, 1865 and 1867.

These finds are important because:

1. they offer independent confirmation of Dodge's claims; and

 
2. they extend the known dates of publications from Nebraska, 1860 (Dodge's most recent find), to Colorado in 1867.

Imagine a Nation which prohibited at least some lawyers from serving in government.  Imagine a government prohibited from writing laws granting "honors" (special privileges, immunities, or advantages) to individuals, groups, or government officials.  Imagine a government that could only write laws that applied to everyone, even themselves, equally.  It would mean a government unable to pass special interest legislation, grant tax breaks to some at the expense of others, or routinely rule in favor of one class at the expense of another.  It would mean true political equality, not only between individual citizens, but even between the citizens and their government.  It would mean a government that was effectively prohibited from exploiting its own people.  It has never been done before.  Not once.  But it has been tried:  In 1810 the Congress of the United States proposed a 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that might have given us just that sort of equality and political paradise. The story begins (again) in 1983, when David Dodge and Tom Dunn discovered an 1825 edition of the Maine Civil Code which contained the U.S. Constitution and a 13th Amendment which no longer appears in the Constitution:

1. The 13th Amendment prohibiting "titles of nobility" and "honors" appeared in at least 30 editions of the Constitutions of the United States which were printed by at least 14 States or Territories between 1819 and 1867; and

 
2. This Amendment quietly disappeared from the Constitution near the end of the Civil War.

1. Was unratified and mistakenly published for almost 50 years; or

 
2. Was ratified in 1819, and then illegally removed from the Constitution by 1867.

On the other hand, if Dodge is right and the Amendment was truly ratified, the Amendment has been subverted from our Constitution.  If so, this "missing" Amendment would still be the Law, and this story could be one of the most important stories in American History.  Whatever is the answer, it's certain that something extraordinary happened to our Constitution between 1819 and 1867.
 
 

Of course, there are two sides to this issue.  David Dodge, the principal researcher, argues that this 13th Amendment was ratified in 1819 and then was subverted from the Constitution near the end of the Civil War.  U.S. Senator George Mitchell of Maine, and Mr. Dane Hartgrove (Acting Assistant Chief, Civil Reference Branch of the National Archives) have argued that the Amendment was never properly ratified and only published in error.

There is some agreement.  Both sides agree the Amendment required the support of at least thirteen States to be ratified.  Both sides agree that between 1810 and 1812, twelve States voted to support ratification.

The pivotal issue is whether Virginia ratified or rejected the proposed Amendment.  Dodge contends that Virginia voted to support the Amendment in 1819, and so the Amendment was truly ratified and should still be a part of our Constitution. Senator Mitchell and Mr. Hartgrove disagree, arguing that Virginia did not ratify.

Unfortunately, several decades of Virginia's Legislative Journals were misplaced or destroyed (possibly during the Civil War; possibly during the 1930's).  Consequently, neither side has found absolute proof that the Virginia legislature voted for (or against) ratification,

A series of letters exchanged in 1991 between David Dodge, Senator Mitchell, and Mr. Hartgrove illuminate the various points of disagreement.  After Dodge's initial report of a "missing" Amendment in the 1825 Maine Civil Code, Senator Mitchell explained that this edition was a one-time publishing error:

After examining Dodge's evidence of multiple publication of the "missing" Amendment, Senator Mitchell and Mr. Hartgrove conceded that the Amendment had been published by several States and was ratified by twelve of the seventeen States in the Union in 1810.  However, because the Constitution requires that a three-quarters vote of the States to ratify an Amendment, Mitchell and Hartgrove insisted that the 13th Amendment was published in error because it was passed by only twelve, not thirteen States.

Dodge investigated which seventeen States were in the Union at the time the Amendment was proposed, which States had ratified, which States had rejected the Amendment, and determined that the issue hung on whether one last State (Virginia) had or had not, voted to ratify.

After several years of searching the Virginia State Archives, Dodge made a crucial discovery:  In spring of 1991, he found a misplaced copy of the 1819 Virginia Civil Code which included the "missing" 13th Amendment.  Dodge notes that, curiously:

1. that they knew that they were the last State whose vote was necessary to ratify the 13th Amendment;

 
2. that they had voted to ratify the Amendment; and;

 
3. that they were publishing the Amendment in a special edition of their Civil Code as an official notice to the world that the Amendment had indeed been ratified.

Undeterred, Senator Mitchell wrote that:

Senator Mitchell remained determined to find some rationale, somewhere, that would defeat Dodge's persistence.  Although Senator Mitchell implicitly conceded that his "published by error" and "time limit" arguments were invalid, he continued to grope for reasons to dispute ratification:

This rapid national growth undoubtedly fostered national attitudes different from our own.  The government had to be filled with the euphoria of a growing Republic that expected to quickly add new States all the way to the Pacific Ocean and the Isthmus of Panama.  The government would not willingly compromise or complicate that growth potential with procedural obstacles; to involve every new State in each on-going ratification could inadvertently slow the Nation's growth.

For example, if a territory petitioned to join the Union while an Amendment was being considered, its access to statehood might depend on whether the territory expected to ratify or reject a proposed Amendment.  If the territory was expected to ratify the proposed Amendment, government officials who favored the Amendment might try to accelerate the territory's entry into the Union.  On the other hand, those opposed to the Amendment might try to slow or even deny particular territory's statehood.  These complications could unnecessarily slow the entry of new States into the Nation, or restrict the Nation's ability to pass new Amendments.  Neither possibility could appeal to politicians.  Whatever the reason, the House of Representatives resolved to ask only South Carolina, and Virginia for their decision on ratifying the 13th Amendment - they did not ask for the decisions of the four new States.  Since the new States had Representatives in the House who did not protest when the resolve was passed, it's apparent that even the new States agreed that they should not be included in the ratification process.

In 1818, the President, the House of Representatives, the Secretary of State, the four "new" States, and the seventeen "old" States, all clearly believed that the support of just thirteen States was required to ratify the 13th Amendment.  That being so, Virginia's vote to ratify was legally sufficient to ratify the "missing" Amendment in 1819 (and would still be so today).
 
 

Apparently persuaded by Dodge's various arguments and proofs that the "missing" 13th Amendment had satisfied the Constitutional requirements for ratification, Mr. Hartgrove (National Archives) wrote back that Virginia had nevertheless failed to satisfy the bureaucracy's procedural requirements for ratification:

Mr. Hartgrove implicitly conceded that the 13th Amendment was ratified by Virginia and satisfied the Constitution's ratification requirements.  However, Hartgrove then insists that the ratification was nevertheless justly denied because the Secretary of State was not properly notified with a "Certificate of Ratification."  In other words, the government's last, best argument that the 13th Amendment was not ratified boils down to this:  Though the Amendment satisfied the Constitutional requirement for ratification, it is nonetheless missing from our Constitution simply because a single, official sheet of paper is missing in Washington. Mr. Hartgrove implies that despite the fact that three-quarters of the States in the Union voted to ratify an Amendment, the will of the legislators and the people of this Nation should be denied because somebody screwed up and lost a single "Certificate of Ratification."  This "Certificate" may be missing because either:

1. Virginia failed to file a proper notice, or;

 
2. the notice was "lost in the mail"; or;

 
3. the notice was lost, unrecorded, misplaced, or intentionally destroyed, by some bureaucrat in Washington, D.C..

But most importantly, Hartgrove implies that the only remaining argument against the 13th Amendment's ratification is a procedural error involving the absence of a "Certificate of Ratification."

Dodge countered Hartgrove's procedure argument by citing some of the ratification procedures recorded for other States when the 13th Amendment was being considered.  He notes that according to the Journal of the House of Representatives, (1lth Congress, 2nd Session, at p. 241), a " letter" (not a "Certificate of Ratification") from the Governor of Ohio announcing Ohio's ratification was submitted not to the Secretary of State, but rather to the House of Representatives where it "was read and ordered to lie on the table."  Likewise, "The Kentucky ratification was also returned to the House, while Maryland's earlier ratification is not listed as having been returned to Congress."

The House Journal implies that since Ohio and Kentucky were not required to notify the Secretary of State of their ratification decisions, there was likewise no requirement that Virginia file a "Certificate of Ratification" with the Secretary of State. Again, despite arguments to the contrary, it appears that the "missing" Amendment was Constitutionally ratified and should not be denied because of some possible procedural error.
 
 

Each of Senator Mitchell's and Mr. Hartgrove's arguments against ratification have been overcome or badly weakened.  Still, some of the evidence supporting ratification is inferential; some of the conclusions are only implies.  But it's no wonder that there's such an austere sprinkling of hard evidence surrounding this 13th Amendment.  According to "The Gazette" (1/10/91), the Library of Congress has 349,402 uncatalogued rare books and 13.9 million un-cataloged rare manuscripts.  The evidence of ratification seems tantalizingly close but remains buried in those masses of un-cataloged documents, waiting to be found.  It will take some luck and some volunteers to uncover the final proof.  We have an Amendment that looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, but because we have been unable to find the eggshell from which it hatched in 1819, Senator Mitchell and Mr. Hartgrove insist that we can't ... quite ... absolutely prove it's a duck, and therefore, the government is under no obligation to concede that it's a duck.

Maybe so ....

But if we can't prove it's a duck, they can't prove it's not.  If the proof of ratification is not quite conclusive, the evidence against ratification is almost nonexistent, largely a function of the government's refusal to acknowledge the proof.  We are left in the peculiar position of boys facing bullies in the schoolyard.  We show them proof that they should again include the "missing" 13th Amendment on the Constitution; they sneer and jeer and taunt us with cries of "make us".  Perhaps we shall.  The debate goes on.  The mystery continues to unfold.  The answer lies buried in the archives.

If you are close to a State Archive or a large library anywhere in the U.S.A., please search for editions of the U.S. Constitution printed between 1819 and 1870.  If you find more evidence of the "missing" 13th Amendment. please contact:

This Article was reprinted from the "AntiShyster" of 9794 Forest Lane, Suite 159, Dallas, TX  75243 [Ph. (214)-526-2719] in the December/January 1992 and the February 1991 issues of "The Correspondent" of P.O. Box 1248, Condon, Montana  59826.