Ratification of the 14th Amendment took just over two years, from congressional proposal on June 13, 1866, to Secretary of State William Seward’s final certification on July 28, 1868. The process required approval by 28 of the then-37 states and became one of the most contested amendment fights in American history: ten former Confederate states rejected it outright in 1866, Congress responded by making approval a condition for readmission to the Union under military rule, and two Northern states tried to rescind their earlier “yes” votes before the count was complete.
Why an Amendment Was Needed
The immediate legal target was the Supreme Court’s 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which held that Black people, enslaved or free, could not be citizens of the United States. The 13th and 14th Amendments were designed to overturn it directly.1National Archives. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
After the Civil War, Southern states moved quickly to restrict the freedom of formerly enslaved people through Black Codes. Mississippi made it a crime for Black workers to leave an employer before their labor contract expired, authorized any citizen to arrest and return them, barred Black residents from owning firearms without a special license, and criminalized unemployment as vagrancy. South Carolina required Black residents seeking to work as artisans or shopkeepers to obtain a judicial license and classified all Black laborers as “servants” under the law.
Congress had already passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to counteract these laws, but many members doubted whether the Constitution gave the federal government sufficient power to enforce it. Writing citizenship, due process, and equal protection directly into the Constitution, along with an explicit congressional enforcement power, was meant to settle the question in a form no ordinary legislature could later repeal.
Congressional Proposal and the Numbers Required
Article V requires a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress to propose an amendment, followed by ratification by three-fourths of the state legislatures.2Congress.gov. ArtV.1 Overview of Article V, Amending the Constitution The 14th Amendment cleared both houses comfortably. The House passed it on May 10, 1866, by 128 to 37. The Senate approved it on June 8, 1866, by 33 to 11. The House agreed to the Senate’s changes on June 13 by a vote of 120 to 32, and the proposal went out to the states on June 16, 1866.3Library of Congress. 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Primary Documents in American History
With 37 states in the Union, the three-fourths threshold worked out to 28 ratifications.4National Archives. 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868)
Southern Rejection and Presidential Opposition
Northern and Western legislatures moved to approve the amendment quickly. The former Confederacy did the opposite. Ten of the eleven seceded states rejected it in 1866, and President Andrew Johnson actively encouraged them to do so. Johnson opposed the amendment and the wider Reconstruction agenda, favoring readmission of the Southern states without civil rights conditions.
Tennessee was the exception. It ratified in July 1866, and that vote made it the only former Confederate state readmitted to the Union without being placed under military governance.5United States Senate. The Civil War: The Senate’s Story Tennessee’s early compliance spared it the occupation and political upheaval that the other ten states would soon face.
The Reconstruction Acts Forced the Issue
With ratification stalled well short of 28, Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 over Johnson’s vetoes. The acts divided the remaining ten former Confederate states into five military districts, each commanded by a high-ranking Army officer.6Library of Congress. Reconstruction: A Resource Guide They also set three conditions for a state to regain congressional representation: hold a constitutional convention, draft a new state constitution providing for Black male suffrage, and ratify the 14th Amendment.5United States Senate. The Civil War: The Senate’s Story
Military commanders oversaw voter registration, supervised the election of convention delegates, and had authority to remove state officials who obstructed the process. The choice put to each state was blunt: approve the amendment or remain under military rule without seats in Congress. Within roughly a year, the former Confederate states began reversing their earlier rejections and ratifying.
Whether this counts as coerced ratification has been argued ever since. Critics at the time, and some scholars since, said requiring states to approve an amendment as a condition of readmission undermined the voluntary character of Article V. Supporters countered that the Southern states had forfeited ordinary treatment by waging war on the Union and that Congress had every right to set the terms of their return.
The Ohio and New Jersey Rescissions
As the count neared 28, ratification hit a different kind of obstacle. Ohio and New Jersey, both of which had already ratified, passed legislative resolutions attempting to withdraw their approval.7Constitution Annotated. ArtV.4.2.2 Effect of Prior Rejection of an Amendment or Rescission of Ratification The question had no clear answer in the constitutional text: can a state take back a ratification before the amendment is officially adopted?
Article V is silent on rescission. It says how to ratify but nothing about reversal. Congress resolved the dispute politically rather than judicially. When it declared the amendment ratified, it counted both Ohio and New Jersey, treating their rescissions as legally meaningless.
The Supreme Court later addressed the broader question in Coleman v. Miller (1939), suggesting that whether a state may rescind is a political question for Congress, not the courts.7Constitution Annotated. ArtV.4.2.2 Effect of Prior Rejection of an Amendment or Rescission of Ratification A federal district court in 1981 took the opposite view, arguing that a rescission before three-fourths of states have acted should count as current state sentiment, but that ruling was vacated as moot and set no binding precedent. The technical question remains unresolved, but the practical precedent from 1868 has held: once a state says yes, Congress treats it as final.
Oregon added a footnote by rescinding several months after the amendment had already been declared adopted. Because Oregon acted after the fact, its rescission raised different issues and had no effect on the amendment’s validity.
Certification on July 28, 1868
Secretary of State William Seward handled the final steps. On July 20, 1868, he issued a conditional proclamation acknowledging that the required number of states had ratified but noting the rescission attempts by Ohio and New Jersey. The hedging reflected genuine legal uncertainty about how to count those two states.
Congress was not interested in ambiguity. On July 21, 1868, it passed a concurrent resolution declaring the 14th Amendment part of the Constitution and directing Seward to issue a definitive proclamation.8U.S. Government Publishing Office. Constitution, Jefferson’s Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 112th Congress The resolution listed 28 ratifying states by name, including Ohio and New Jersey.
Seward complied on July 28, 1868, issuing the final certification that officially added the amendment to the Constitution.4National Archives. 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868) From that date, its protections became enforceable in federal courts.
What Ratification Established
The fight over ratification did more than add citizenship and equal protection to the Constitution. It reshaped the balance between federal and state authority. Section 5 of the amendment gave Congress explicit power to enforce its provisions through legislation, a deliberate shift that would later ground major civil rights statutes. And the ratification process itself set two precedents that still shape amendment politics: Congress can impose conditions on states seeking full participation in the Union, and Congress, not the courts, decides whether a state’s attempted rescission counts. Neither rule is written in Article V. Both were established in the two years between June 1866 and July 1868.