For a proposed amendment to be added to Constitution two-thirds of the members of Congress must vote for it and three fourths of the states must approve of it.

At the time the amendment was proposed in 1810 there were only 17 states and ratification would have required the approval of 13 states.

When Virginia became the 13th state to ratify the amendment, four new states had joined the Union. With 21 states the amendment required 16 states to approve of it. Since only 13 states ratified the amendment, the proposed amendment failed to be approved in the 16 states that were required for ratification