"And, Further, that it appears, from official documents on file in this department, that the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed as aforesaid, has been ratified by the legislatures of the States of North Carolina, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Maine, Louisiana, Michigan, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New York, New Hampshire, Nevada, Vermont, Virginia, Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Nebraska, and Texas, in all, twenty-nine States.
"And, Further, that the States whose legislatures have so ratified the said proposed amendment constitute three-fourths of the whole number of States in the United States.
"And, Further, that it appears, from an official document on file in this department, that the legislature of the State of New York has since passed resolutions claiming to withdraw the said ratification of the said amendment, which had been made by the legislature of that State, and of which official notice had been filed in the department.
"And, Further, that it appears from an official document on file in this department, that the legislature of Georgia has by resolution ratified the said proposed amendment.
"Now, therefore, be it known, that I, Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State of the United States, by virtue and in pursuance of the Second Section of the Act of Congress, approved the 20th day of April, 1818, entitled, An act to provide for the publication of the Laws of the United States, and for other purposes, do hereby certify that the amendment aforesaid has become valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the Constitution of the United States.
"In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the Department of State to be affixed.
"Done at the City of Washington, this 20th day of March, in the year of our Lord, eighteen hundred and seventy; and of the Independence of the United States the ninety-fourth.
Thus, as will be seen above, the ever-glorious Fifteenth Amendment became a part of the American Constitution, and the same was made known to the remotest bounds of the Republic.
"Arise, shine forth, for thy light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon thee!" Such is the language of Holy Scripture, and it expresses well the sudden outburst of the joy that filled the hearts of the entire colored race when the Fifteenth Amendment became the law of the land. Then, indeed, did the colored soldier feel that he had a country, and that he had not fought and bled in vain for the cause of freedom and the Union! Then did all colored men and women feel, indeed, that they were men and women among other full-fledged citizens of the United States! Then did they feel, in the celebrated words of Robert Burns, the Scotch poet, that "An honest man, though e'er so poor, is king of men for all that!" If the Emancipation Proclamation called forth a tremendous flood of thankfulness and gratitude, if even the fall of Richmond and the freeing of the last slave called for shouts of joy and rejoicing, much more--yea, ten times more--did the publication of the Fifteenth Amendment exercise the entire redeemed race from the very bottom of their hearts! Their forefathers had been stolen away from Africa; they had been brought here. This was their home, such as it was. They had no other country but the United States. Now, the new amendment to the Constitution had put the right to vote into their hands, the same as others--just the same as others, and they most loyally sent up a shout of joy that reached from Maine to the Rio Grande river, and that shout arose to Heaven and entered into the ears of the celestials.
