Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1853-01-22

original provision restored, nearly in the words
Of Mr.. Jefferson, eight months before Mr.. Dane
made his appearance in Congress.
And perhaps it is due to the occasion, after
the foregoing exposition Of facts, to add that
the journals of Congress, so far as 1 can dis
cover from an examination Of them, do not
show that Mr.. Dane made any important mo-
ton, or took any active or prominent part in
forming the ordinance; much less so than some
of the other members, particularly Rufus King,
on whose motion Mr. Jefferson's anti-slavery
clause was in effoct restored in March, 1885,
after it had been struck out in April, 1884,
Tho journals show that Mr.. Dano served on
two Of the committees to which the ordinance
was referred, and, as he was not made chairman
of either. it is to be presumed they did not
originate with him. What he did in those
committees have no means Of knowing. He
may have been active and instrumental in
working into the ordinance his favorable pro-
visions about titles to property; and thus his
phrase may be rendered Ineligible, when he
says that he had Framed it mainly from the
laws of Massachusetts"
In speaking of the authorship, it is due to the
character, weight, and sound political orthodoxy
of the ordinance to add that it was the work
of a pre-. emincntly enlightened and distinguish.
ed southern statesman, and n great favorte
with every part of the country; that it finally
received the approving vote of every member
of Congress, except Mr.. Yates, of New York I;
and that it was afterwards submitted to and
ratified by the Legislature of Virginia without
opposition. That is, it was, by the order of
ia for it's approval, in consequence of the ordi-
nance violating a condition contained in the
deed Of cession from that state about the divis-
ion of the territory into states.
Virginia sanctioned and confirmed this de-
parturc from the terms Of cession, and as
have heard from political men of that period,
without evincing any opposition or disapproba-
ton to the anti-slavery clause, or any other
added, in further proof of the general approval
and sanction given to the ordinance, that among
the first acts of the new Congress was one
which passed without opposition, to adapt it to
the present Constitution of the United States
Thus this great measure, big with the destiny
Of states, and Of millions Of human beings,
originated with Virgnian, and received the
sanction of Virginia, both in the federal and
state councils; and Of the United States in
Congress assembled, both under the articles of
confederation and under the constitution of the
United States. To which will add, in justice
to the Old Congress, that it was the stipulation
above described that created the difficulty and
caused the great delay in the passage of the
ordinance.
In conclusion must express my regret that
Mr. Webster should have said, in one of the
best speeches he ever made in the Senate Of the
United States, that the ordinance "was drawn
dinary assertion that it was adopted by Congress
" without the slightest alteration 1 must
believe this was said under misapprehension
of the meaning of the language used by Mr..
Dane in his Digest, and without due investi-
CATION of the subject. Whatever was the cause,
or however the error was committed, coming
from such high source, and embodied as it
has beer among his greatest speeches printed
and bound volumes, it will be preserved and
handed down to posterity, when this and other
transient notices of it will have passed to obliv-
ion tho historian, like Mr.. Webster, preierring
to take the fact on the authority of a great
NAME rather than trace Il through long and
imperfectly kept journals of Congress.
As friend of Mr.. Jefferson, a native Of Viz
ginia, and for many years a resident of Illinois,
where had an opportunity of witnessing the
ordinance in operation, and participating in its
ment, and desire its publication.
EDWARD COLES.