Governor Marcus Lawrence Ward of New Jersey, a Republican, issued a proclamation on this day calling for a special session of the state legislature to consider ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This session convened on September 10, 1886 and the next day ratified the amendment with all eleven Republicans in the state Senate voting in favor and the ten Democrats there refusing to cast a ballot. The margin in the lower house was thirty-four to twenty-four in favor. A Democratic-controlled state legislature rescinded the ratification in early 1868 during a dispute with the United States Congress and New Jersey did not officially ratify the Fourteenth Amendment until March 2003. (By John Osborne)
"New Jersey," The American Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1866 (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1873), 539-540.
