ACTION BY THE STATES Prior to 1933 there existed no legislation on the subject of conventions in the States under article V of the Constitution; but at the time of the communication of the proposed amendment to the Governors of the States by the Secretary of State, the legislatures of numerous States were in regular session; others met in special session; during the year 1933 statutes were enacted" in forty-three States (all except Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and North Dakota) providing for action upon the proposed amendment; those enactments are of varied forms; some are general, covering similar future cases; others are limited to the proposal then pending; and in respect of the methods of selection of delegates to the convention, of the apportionment (e.g., "State-wide" or by districts), of the numbers of such delegates (e.g., 3 in New Mexico, 329 in Indiana), of the dates of meeting, of instructions from the electorate, and of other matters, there is diversity of substance as among them. During the year 1933, pursuant to State statutes (of forty-three States) to which reference has been made, conventions met in thirty-eight States of the Union; thirty-seven of those conventions ratified the twenty-first amendment to the Constitution; one convention (in South Carolina) rejected it; under the statute of North Carolina the electorate (on November 7, 1933) voted for convention delegates but also voted by a large majority (293,484 to 120,190) against the holding of a convention; the laws enacted in four States (Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and South Dakota) made provision for the choice of convention delegates in 1934. It will be observed that pursuant to section 160, title 5, United States Code (quoted above, p. 3), official notice of the action in the various States is to be given to the Secretary of State; the papers evidencing such action are of various forms but similar in substance; they are too voluminous to be here set forth at length; in general they are signed by officers of the convention (sometimes by all delegates present), authenticated under the great seal of the State, and contain the text of the resolution of ratification (or rejection) and reference to other procedure (such as statute, • One of those statutes, that of Wyoming, of February 18, 1933, preceded the proposed amendment; the other dates (1933) are: Alabama, March 28; Arizona, March 18; Arkansas, March 24; California, April 21; Colorado, August 10; Connecticut, April 10, May 5; Delaware, April 11; Florida, June 7; Idaho, March 11; Illinois, April 28; Indiana, March 8; Iowa, April 10; Kentucky, September 7; Maine, March 31; Maryland, April 5; Massachusetts, April 20; Michigan, March 11; Minnesota, April 13; Missouri, April 13; Montana, March 17; Nebraska, May 1; Nevada, March 25; New Hampshire, May 6; New Jersey, March 23; New Mexico, March 13, 15; New York, April 6; North Carolina, May 9; Ohio, March 23; Oklahoma, July 18; Oregon, March 15; Pennsylvania, May 3; Rhode Island, April 7; South Carolina, May 9; South Dakota, March 8; Tennessee, March 31; Texas, May 16; Utah, March 21; Vermont, March 22; Virginia, August 28; Washington, March 20; West Virginia, March 10, April 12; Wisconsin, March 6. executive proclamation, election of delegates, organization, et cetera). In no case did the proceedings of a convention continue beyond the day of its meeting. Prior to December 2, 1933, papers evidencing ratification of the proposed amendment by conventions in thirty-two States had been received at the Department of State; and the Department had then also been informed that the convention which met in Texas on November 24, 1933, had ratified the proposed amendment and that the authenticated papers were in the mail (they were received at the Department on December 4); it was, moreover, common knowledge that conventions would meet in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Utah on December 5, 1933, and that the conventions in these three States would also ratify, bringing the total number of ratifying States to thirty-six, the requisite three fourths of the whole number. On Saturday, December 2, 1933, the Acting Secretary of State sent the following telegram to the Governor of Ohio (and identic telegrams, mutatis mutandis, to the Governors of Pennsylvania and Utah): Will you please request the Secretary of State of Ohio to send me as soon as possible after action by the Convention to be held in Ohio on December 5, 1933, a telegram in substantially the following language signed by him as Secretary of State of Ohio BEGINS You are hereby officially notified that on December 5, 1933, a convention duly held in the State of Ohio ratified on behalf of the said State the proposed Amendment to the Constitution of the United States providing for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, and the duly authenticated papers evidencing the action of said Convention are being forwarded to you ENDS Under the respective relevant statutes of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Utah, the Secretary of State of the State was the official charged with the duty of notifying the Secretary of State of the United States of the action of the State convention. On December 5, 1933, at 12:55 p.m., the Department of State received a telegram from the Honorable Richard J. Beamish, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, giving official notice that the convention in Pennsylvania had at 12:50 p.m. on that date ratified the proposed amendment to the Constitution. Duly authenticated papers further evidencing the action of the convention in Pennsylvania were thereafter received in triplicate originals by the Department of State. One of those three originals was received at the Department at 3:45 p.m., on December 5, 1933, having been transmitted from Harrisburg by airplane piloted by an officer of the Pennsylvania National Guard Air Squadron. At 3:50 p.m., on December 5, 1933, the second original, which a patrolman of the Pennsylvania State Highway Patrol had brought to Washington by motorcycle, was received at the Department. The third original of the authenticated papers from Pennsylvania was received at the Department by registered mail on December 6, 1933. At 2:53 p.m. on December 5, 1933, the following telegram was received at the Department from the Secretary of State of Ohio: Hon WILLIAM PHILLIPS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Acting Secretary of State Washington DC You are hereby officially notified that on December 5 1933 a convention duly held in the State of Ohio ratified on behalf of the said state the proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States providing for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment and the duly authenticated papers evidencing the action of said Convention are being forwarded to you. GEORGE S MYERS Forthwith upon receipt of the telegram (at 2:59 p.m.) the message was verified by a telephone conversation had with the Secretary of State of Ohio by an official of the Department of State. The authenticated papers further evidencing the action of the convention in Ohio were received in the Department by registered mail and special delivery on December 7, 1933. Information of the action of the convention in Ohio was given directly to the President by the Secretary of State of Ohio in a telegram received at the White House on December 5, 1933. At 5:35 p.m., on December 5, 1933, the following telegram was received at the Department from the Secretary of State of Utah: Hon WILLIAM PHILLIPS STATE HOUSE, SALT LAKE CITY UTAH, Acting Secretary of State, Washington DC Dec 5-33 You are hereby officially notified that on December 5 1933 a Convention duly held in the state of Utah ratified on behalf of the said state the proposed Amendment to the Constitution of the United States providing for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment at 3.32% p.m and the duly authenticated papers evidencing the action of said Convention will go forward to you by air mail at 1.15 a.m. Wednesday December 6th. MILTON H WELLING, As first received, the time of action by the convention of the State of Utah, as stated in the telegram, was given as 3:32 p.m.; but within a few minutes (5:47 p.m.) this was corrected to 3:321⁄2 p.m. It is to be remembered that 3:321⁄2 p.m. in Utah (Mountain Standard Time) is 5:321⁄2 p.m. in Washington (Eastern Standard Time). The quoted telegram from the Secretary of State of Utah was verified at 6:00 p.m. by a telephone conversation had by an official of the Department of State with the Secretary of State of Utah and continued also with the Honorable Ray L. Olson, the President of the convention in Utah. Information of the action of the convention in Utah was given directly to the President by the Governor of Utah in a telegram received at the White House at 5:40 p.m. on December 5, 1933. The duly authenticated papers further evidencing the action of the convention in Utah were received at the Department of State by airmail on December 7, 1933. On December 7, 1933, the Department of State received the following notification of the action of the convention in South Carolina on December 4, 1933, rejecting the twenty-first amendment to the Constitution: BE IT RESOLVED by the Delegates duly elected and assembled in this Convention of South Carolina for the purpose of ratifying or rejecting the proposed Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution of The United States that the said Twenty-first Amendment be, and the same hereby is rejected. RESOLVED, further, that the Original of this Resolution duly signed by the President of this Convention and attested by the Secretary be filed with the Secretary of State of the State of South Carolina, and a certified copy be filed with the Secretary of State of the United States at Washington, D.C. Done in Convention in Columbia on the fourth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and thirty-three. HENRY N. SNYDER, President of the Convention. Attest: W. W. SMOAK, Secretary of the Convention. On December 6, 1933, a convention in the State of Maine ratified the twenty-first amendment to the Constitution. The duly authenticated papers evidencing the action of the convention in Maine were received at the Department of State by mail on December 8, 1933. CERTIFICATE OF THE ACTING SECRETARY OF STATE The certificate required by section 160, title 5, United States Code (quoted above, p. 3), was signed by the Acting Secretary of State at 6:37 p.m., December 5, 1933, as follows: William Phillips Acting Secretary of State of the United States of America. TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, GREETING: KNOW YE, That the Congress of the United States, at the second session, seventy-second Congress begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday, the fifth day of December, in the year one thousand nine hundred and thirty-two, passed a Joint Resolution in the words and figures as follows: to wit JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is hereby proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by conventions in three-fourths of the several States: "ARTICLE "Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed. "Sec. 2. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited. "Sec. 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress." And, further, that it appears from official notices received at the Department of State that the Amendment to the Constitution of the United States proposed as aforesaid has been ratified by conventions in the States of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. |