human
States that had passed secession ordinances, either in the whole number, or in the three-quarters necessary to adopt, the Amendment would in that case also have been adopted. There would have been, in that case, twenty-five
gpt
States in the Union, and of these nineteen had adopted the Amendment. And if any controversy had arisen over the use of fractions in making nineteen three-fourths of twenty-five, this would have been quickly overcome by the fact that the legislatures of four more of the loyal
human
States adopted the Amendment soon after Mr. Seward's declaration, making twenty-three out of twenty-five. It will not, of course, be disputed that, if the
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States that passed secession ordinances should have been counted in arriving at the whole number of
human
States in the Union, those of them adopting the Amendment should also have been counted in making out the three-fourths majority {56} necessary to adoption, and that if, on the other hand, they should have been excluded in arriving at the whole number, they should also have been excluded in making up the three-fourths majority. In other words, it does not matter from which point of view we regard the subject, the Amendment was regularly and lawfully adopted. It must be admitted, however, that Mr. Seward followed in this most solemn procedure, the amending of the Constitution, the Presidential plan of Reconstruction, and gave great encouragement to the Senators- and Representatives-elect from these reconstructed
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States
human
States
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States