July 28, 1868

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Secretary Seward unconditionally certifies the Fourteenth Amendment

Seward had already issued a certificate eight days earlier — but it contained an 'if.' The 28 July certificate removed the reservation.

28 July 1868: the certificate without a condition

In Washington on 28 July 1868, Secretary of State William H. Seward issued the final certificate declaring that the Fourteenth Amendment had been adopted and had become valid as part of the Constitution. He acted under Congress's concurrent resolution of 21 July, which declared the amendment ratified and directed him to promulgate it.

The certificate named 31 ratifying states — the 30 listed by Congress plus Georgia — more than the three-fourths that Article V requires.

Why the first certificate had an 'if'

Ohio and New Jersey had attempted to withdraw ratifications they had already given, and whether a state could rescind before final adoption was unsettled. That doubt is why Seward's certificate of 20 July was conditional.

Congress declared the amendment valid and treated both states as having ratified it, while Alabama's and Georgia's later ratifications removed the practical numerical doubt.

Four dates, one amendment

The Fourteenth Amendment therefore carries four dates that are easily conflated: 9 July, when the state count probably reached the threshold; 20 July, the conditional certificate; 21 July, Congress's declaration; and 28 July, the unconditional certification.

What the last of them produced was an official federal certificate directing publication and declaring the amendment valid for all purposes as part of the Constitution.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 3 sources 3 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

July 28 is securely dated as Seward's unconditional certification, but many authorities date constitutional ratification to July 9, when the probable twenty-eighth ratification was obtained. The distinction is between reaching the Article V threshold and later federal certification.
Whether a state could rescind a ratification before final adoption was disputed; Seward's July 20 certificate was therefore conditional. Congress treated Ohio and New Jersey as ratifying states, and later ratifications supplied an undisputed margin.