Proposal and Ratification
The eighteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed
to the legislatures of the several States by the Sixty-fifth Congress, on the
18th of December, 1917, and was declared, in a proclamation of the Secretary
of State, dated the 29th of January, 1919, to have been ratified by the legislatures
of 36 of the 48 States. The dates of ratification were: Mississippi, January
8, 1918; Virginia, January 11, 1918; Kentucky, January 14, 1918; North Dakota,
January 25, 1918; South Carolina, January 29, 1918; Maryland, February 13, 1918;
Montana, February 19, 1918; Texas, March 4, 1918; Delaware, March 18, 1918;
South Dakota, March 20, 1918; Massachusetts, April 2, 1918; Arizona, May 24,
1918; Georgia, June 26, 1918; Louisiana, August 3, 1918; Florida, December 3,
1918; Michigan, January 2, 1919; Ohio, January 7, 1919; Oklahoma, January 7,
1919; Idaho, January 8, 1919; Maine, January 8, 1919; West Virginia, January
9, 1919; California, January 13, 1919; Tennessee, January 13, 1919; Washington,
January 13, 1919; Arkansas, January 14, 1919; Kansas, January 14, 1919; Alabama,
January 15, 1919; Colorado, January 15, 1919; Iowa, January 15, 1919; New Hampshire,
January 15, 1919; Oregon, January 15, 1919; Nebraska, January 16, 1919; North
Carolina, January 16, 1919; Utah, January 16, 1919; Missouri, January 16, 1919;
Wyoming, January 16, 1919.
Ratification was completed on January 16, 1919. See Dillon v. Gloss, 256 U.S.
368, 376 (1921).
The amendment was subsequently ratified by Minnesota on January 17, 1919; Wisconsin,
January 17, 1919; New Mexico, January 20, 1919; Nevada, January 21, 1919; New
York, January 29, 1919; Vermont, January 29, 1919; Pennsylvania, February 25,
1919; Connecticut, May 6, 1919; and New Jersey, March 9, 1922.
The amendment was rejected (and not subsequently ratified) by Rhode Island.