Which states ratified the 16th Amendment first and what was the ratification timeline?
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Executive summary
The Sixteenth Amendment was proposed by Congress in mid‑1909 and reached the constitutional threshold of three‑quarters of state legislatures in early February 1913, with certifying proclamations following later that month [1] [2]. Ratification required 36 of the 48 states then in the Union and was completed with state legislatures acting through a staggered timeline from 1909 to February 3, 1913; Secretary of State Philander C. Knox formally proclaimed adoption on February 25, 1913 [3] [2] [1].
1. The proposal and the legal bar that prompted it
Congress passed and transmitted the proposed Sixteenth Amendment during the 61st Congress in July 1909 as a direct response to the Supreme Court’s Pollock decision and the political fight over tariffs and federal revenue, formally submitting language that would authorize income taxation without apportionment on July 2–16, 1909 [1] [2] [4]. The political backstory matters because conservative leaders who proposed the amendment expected it would fail at the state level, a miscalculation that set the stage for the rapid ratification campaign that followed [5] [1].
2. The ratification threshold and the overall timeline
Under Article V, three‑quarters of the states then existing—36 of 48—had to ratify the measure, and that numeric target was reached in the winter of 1913 after a multi‑year state‑by‑state process running roughly from 1909 to February 3, 1913 [3] [6]. The National Archives and the Library of Congress record that the amendment was ratified February 3, 1913, and Secretary of State Knox issued a proclamation on February 25, 1913, formally declaring it part of the Constitution [1] [2].
3. Which states finished the job first — the decisive last ratifiers
Contemporary official accounts and later Congressional histories single out Delaware, Wyoming, and New Mexico as approving the amendment around February 3, 1913; one of those state ratifications was the thirty‑sixth needed to meet the constitutional requirement and thereby completed ratification [5] [7] [3]. Multiple authoritative sources note that ratification was “completed on February 3, 1913, when the legislature of the thirty‑sixth state (Delaware, Wyoming, or New Mexico) approved the amendment,” reflecting how the final tally depended on the sequencing of those state legislative acts [3].
4. How many states ultimately ratified and dissenting votes
Although ratification was legally completed with 36 states in February 1913, a total of 42 of the 48 states later ratified the amendment, while several states formally rejected it (Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Utah are cited as having rejected the amendment at the time) — a detail tracked in congressional and archival records [5] [3] [8]. The historical record therefore reflects both rapid early acceptance and pockets of contemporary resistance among state legislatures [3].
5. Post‑ratification disputes and why the timeline matters today
A separate line of controversy — not supported by mainstream legal scholarship but persistent among tax‑protester movements — questions the technical validity of the amendment’s ratification sequence or text; courts and government records have rejected those claims and reaffirmed the amendment’s valid adoption and later certification [8] [1]. The precise timeline — proposed in July 1909, state ratifications across 1909–1913, legal completion by February 3, 1913, and federal certification on February 25, 1913 — is important because it anchors later policy changes (notably the Revenue Act of 1913) and the end of the Pollock‑era limits on federal income taxation [1] [6] [4].
6. Limits of the available reporting and where it stops
Primary sources in the provided reporting give robust dates for proposal, completion, and federal certification and identify the states tied to the final ratifications, but the supplied materials do not include a complete sequential list of every state and the exact calendar date each one acted; therefore a full day‑by‑day ratification grid is not reconstructed here from these sources alone [5] [7] [3]. For a complete state‑by‑state chronology, the National Archives, the House History Office, and the Library of Congress provide archival ratification tables and original state legislative acts that fill those gaps beyond the present reporting [1] [7] [3].