Were the legal procedures prescribed in the Constitution itself, adhered to when ratifying the fourteenth amendment?

The passage of the Fourteenth Amendment - as just as its provisions may be - is a stain upon the American system of constitutional governance. It was not passed by three fourths of the States as required by the Constitution. Only 21 states legally ratified it (it would have required 28), as certain states were under the duress of military occupation and its legislators appointed by foreign governments rather than by an election of the citizen populous.