148 years after
the 13th Amendment was ratified by most states in the US, lawmakers
in the Mississippi watched the movie “Lincoln”. After seeing the movie, these
lawmakers looked up historical accounts of Mississippi’s 13th amendment.
Lawmakers soon realized that
the amendment was ratified after three-fourths of the states backed it in 1865.
However, Mississippi was among the states that rejected the 13th amendment. In 1995 lawmakers
voted to get the amendment ratified. But the problem was the state never sent
official word to the U.S. archivist, and therefore the ratification was never
recorded.
How can we avoid situations like this in the future? Is it too hard
to ratify the constitution in the United States? How can we, the United States,
make it so important amendments, like the 13th amendment, is
ratified by all states?
I agree! I was also really shocked when I heard that Mississippi was only just now ratifying the 13th amendment. I think that since the United States was in such upheaval at that time that the fact that Mississippi never sent word to the U.S. archivist just fell through the cracks. Hopefully the government keeps better track of things like that in the future, but it does bring up the interesting issue of checking on things such as if all states have really ratified all the amendments.
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