1840

Daniel Call, joint editor of the general index to the Virginian law authorities (1790-1819) dies.

Missouri publishes the 13th Amendment.

1841

March 4, 1841

William Henry Harrison becomes President. A Virginia planter, he serves in the Army from 1791 to 1798, when he becomes Secretary of the Northwest Territory, and its delegate to Congress. He later serves as Governor of the Indiana Territory from 1801 to 1811, and as a General in the War of 1812.

April 4, 1841

President Harrison dies after just 30 days in office. John Tyler becomes president. Tyler is an attorney from Virginia, and a strict constitutionalist. He has served in the Virginia House of Delegates 3 times - from 1811-1816, 1823-25, and from 1839-1840. He has also served in the House of Representaives from 1817 to 1821, as Governor of Virginia twice, in the U.S. Senate, and, of course, as Vice President.

Missouri publishes the 13th Amendment.

1842

Iowa publishes the 13th Amendment.

1843

Iowa Territory publishes the 13th Amendment.

1845

March 3, 1845

Congress contracts an official collection of federal laws, this time with Little & Brown of Boston, called "The United States Statutes at Large". The edition shows that only 12 amendments had been adopted. No current member of the House of Representives from Virginia was serving in that state's government at the time of ratification of the original 13th Amendment.

March 4, 1845

James Polk becomes President. An attorney from North Carolina, Polk has served in the Tennessee Legislature, and in the House of Representatives. He served as Speaker of the House 1835-1839, then became Governor of Tennessee.

June 8, 1845

Andrew Jackson dies at the Hermitage in Nashville, Tennessee.

September 10, 1845

Justice Joseph Story, whose own books have been published by Little and Brown, and upon whom they have relied for reference, dies, never having altered his belief that the 13th Amendment had not been ratified.

Missouri publishes the 13th Amendment again.

Judge John Coalter, revisor of the the Virginia Codes of 1819, died.

1846

Georgia again publishes the 13th Amendment.

1848

Ohio again publishes the 13th Amendment.

February 23, 1848

John Quincy Adams dies in Washington, D.C.

1849

February 2, 1849

Former Senator Benjamin Watkins Leigh, dies. He was Editor of the 1819 Virginia Codes (Statutes at Large), Delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829 and 1830, and Official Reporter of the Virginia State Court of Appeals until 1841.

March 4, 1849

Zachary Taylor becomes President of the United States. Taylor, from Kentucky, is a career soldier, veteran of the Mexican War, and a resident of Louisiana with large holdings in Mississippi. Though a staunch anti-secessionist, his only son becomes a Confederate General.

June 15, 1850

President James Polk dies.

Virginia revises the 1819 'Civil Code of Virginia' (which had contained the 13th Amendment for 30 years). At this time one of the Code's Revisers (a lawyer named 'Patton') writes to the current Secretary of the Navy, William Ballard Preston, asking if this amendment had been ratified or appeared by mistake. Preston, a Virginia native, was the son of former Virginia Governor James Patton Preston, nephew of John Floyd, also a Virginia Governor, and cousin to John Buchanan Floyd - yet another Virginia Governor. If this weren't enough, William Ballard Preston had himself been twice a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, a member of the Virginia Senate, and a Virginia member of the House of Representatives. If he did not have an answer to the query, he was certainly in a position to find out. No record of his reply is known.

1850

July 9, 1850

President Taylor dies, and Millard Fillmore becomes President of the United States. An attorney from New York, he has served in various state offices, then in the House of Representatives. He became Comptroller of New York, but left the post to become Vice President of the United States in 1848.

1853

March 4, 1853

Franklin Pierce becomes President of the United States. An attorney from New Hampshire, he has served in that state's legislature. He is also a Mexican War veteran who has served both as Representative and Senator for his state in the 1830's.

1855

The 13th Amendment is included with the Kansas Statutes.

Nebraska Territory publishes the 13th Amendment.

1856

Nebraska Territory publishes the 13th Amendment.

1857

March 4, 1857

James Buchanan becomes President of the United States. Trained in law, he serves 5 times in the House as Representative from Pennylvania. He further serves as Minister to Russia, Senator from Pennsylvania for 10 years, Secretary of State under Polk, and Minister to Great Britain.

Nebraska Territory publishes the 13th Amendment.

1858

Nebraska Territory publishes the 13th Amendment.

1859

Nebraska Territory publishes the 13th Amendment.