Page:Debates in the Several State Conventions, v1.djvu/361

Rh At the second session of the fourth Congress, on the 2d of March, 1797, the following resolution was adopted:—

"Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President be requested to adopt some speedy and effectual means of obtaining information from the states of Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and South Carolina, whether they have ratified the amendment proposed by Congress to the Constitution concerning the suability of states; if they have, to obtain the proper evidence thereof.

"Approved, March 2, 1797.

At the second session of the fifth Congress, the following message from the President of the United States was transmitted to both houses:—

From a report of the secretary of state, made under the direction of President Adams, on the 28th December, 1797, it appeared that the states of Connecticut, Maryland, and Virginia, had ratified the amendment; that New Jersey and Pennsylvania had not ratified it; South Carolina had not definitely acted upon it. No answers had been received from Kentucky and Tennessee.

"I have an opportunity of transmitting to Congress a report of the secretary of state, with a copy of an act of the legislature of the state of Kentucky, consenting to the ratification of the amendment of the Constitution of the United States proposed by Congress, in their resolution of the second day of December, 1793, relative to the suability of states. This amendment having been adopted by three fourths of the several states, may now be declared to be a part of the Constitution of the United States.

", January 8, 1798.JOHN ADAMS."

At the first session of the eighth Congress, the following amendment was proposed by Congress to the state legislatures:—

"At the First Session, begun and held at the City of Washington, in the Territory of Columbia, on Monday, the seventeenth of October, one thousand eight hundred and three. "Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, two thirds of both houses