Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Louisiana

I have a strange question; that needs to be prefaced first.

1st preface;

This came up because a friend of mine was telling me that the 16th amendment was not legally ratified. I looked into it and found; he is technically correct, a number of states did not follow state laws, procedures, etc. The general opinion seems to be that the intentions was to pass the amendment, even if it was not �technically� done correctly. So because the spirit was to ratify, we consider/take it as ratified.

2nd preface;

If the criteria for passing an amendment is that the states intended to pass the law, why is the 13 amendment not: "If any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive, or retain any title of nobility or honour,�or shall without the consent of Congress, accept and retain any present, pension, office, or emolument of any kind whatever, from any Emperor, King, Prince, or foreign Power,�such person shall cease to be a citizen of the United States, and shall be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under them, or either of them."

There are many arguments made about how this was not ever ratified; and again I did my research and while it was not �technically� ratified, it was actual �in spirit� past by enough states to ratify it.

Before you give me the argument/answer that even though it was ratified by 13 states it was not enough, because by that time more states had been added. The �new � states in question actually included this �amendment� in there constitution at that time, so the �spirit/intention� was clearly in favor of this amendment. Yet this amendment is not in our constitution because �as various law site say� it was never legally ratified.

My question:

Isn't the US government �having its cake, and eating it too�. If the criteria for ratification is the spirit/intent, we should have a different 13th amendment. If the criteria is in fact �Legal� ratification then we should not have the 16th amendment. Can you please provide my the legal justification for what seems to me to be a paradox.

It should be noted: I don't really mind paying tax's or lawyers serving in government. I just want to know the legal justification for a double standard.

1 Answer from Attorneys

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