Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-01-08

oohaiiy Sulity was auOpteu Dy congress Win no
change except the omission of the postponement of
its operation until $780, and the Introduction of the
clause in regard to fugitiyes.
\ Thus the ordinance, conceived, draughted, and
introduced by Mr.. Jefferson, was the instrument
that ultimately became with the alterations pointed
out, the great fundamental statute of very large
i portion of the United States Can any one, who
compares the plan proposed by Mr.. Jefferson with
the plan ordinance as adopted by Congress- doubt
to whom in justice the credit of authorship beongs
Especially can any friend and admirer of that provi
sion of the ordinance which prohibits the liberation
OF slavery, and prevents its extension and proonga
ton in our country, withhold from the great author
of the Declaration of American Independence the
further and kindred honor of being the author Of the
ordinance Of 1887 can he prefer the ordinance,
as adopted by Congress, which confined the inhibi-
ton OF slavery to the territory northwest of the
river Ohio, to the plan of Mr.. Jefferson, which con-
templated excluding slavery from all territory,
wherever situated which had been or should be ae-
| quired by the cession of individual States to the
United States
Some of the thorough and uncompromsing adj
vocates Of freedom may think the anti-slavery
clause, as drawn by Mr. Jefferson, was improved by
Congress making the ordinance take effect from its
passage, rather than from the year 1900 But many
Of them would think differently if they were aware
that slavery existed, and was tolerated by law, in
the territory coded by Virginia, and that the plan
OF government, as drawn by Mr.. Jefferson had re-
ference to the existence Of slavery and was intend
cd to abolish it, well as to provide by compact for
its perpetual inhibition. AS is well known, Mr..
Jefferson was in favor.of prospective and gradual
abolition OF slavery in Virginia; and it is fair to
presume that the same motives which led him to
favor that mode Of putting end to personal bond
age In Virginia made him propose it for the terri
| fnr hac. -, IL IL Il -
information have been able to obtain from the old
inhabitants of that part Of the country, there were
then more than one thousand slaves, several hun
dred OF which were removed by their masters across
the Mississippi to the then Spanish province of
Louisiana. Col. Auguste Chouteau, at that time
the most intelligent and wealthy man of that part
of the country, told me that he and all the large
Shareholders in Kaskaskia and the " American bot
tom, were induced by the passage of the ordinance
to remove across the river and settle in ST. Gene
We've and st. Louis, in which latter town, by the
way, there were then only about eight or ten huts
occupied by what were called voyagers
| But it has been said, in disparagement of Mr..
Jefferson's plan, that it was in the form of resolu
tons; and it may be that Mr. Dane meant in saving
he formed the ordinance, that he metamorphosed
resolutions into sections or be it resolved into be
it ordained. BY this mode of reasoning the men,
bers OF the committee to whom were referred the
Constitution of the United States to revise the style
and arrange and give proper form to the different
articles and resolutions which had been agreed to by
the Convention would be entitled to be called the
authors of the Constitution; with this difference
IN favor OF such claim on their part, that they
had been present and aided in the Convention from
the beginning, whereas Mr.. Dane did not take his
seat in Congress until November II, 1855, more
than eighteen months after the ordinance had been
conceived and brought forth by its great author
and been adopted by Congress, with certain altera
tons; the principal one of which, on motion of
Mr., King, had been in effect cancelled and the orr
gnal 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 can discover from an exam-
nation of them, do not show that Mr. Dane made
any important motion, or took any active or promi-
nent part in forming the ordinance much less 50
than some of the other members, particularly Rufus
King on whose motion Mr.. Jeifcrson's anti-slavery
clause was in effect restored in March, 1855, after
it had been struck out in April, 1884 The Journals
show that Mr.. Dane served on two of the commit
tees to which the ordinance was referred and as he
was not made chairman of either it is to be pre-
sumed 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 work
ing into the ordinance his favorable provisions about
titles to property and thus his phrase may be rem
dered 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 pre-
eminently enlightened and distinguished Southern
statesman, and great favorite with every part of
the country; that it finally received the approving
vote of every member of Congress, except Mr. Yates
of New York and that it was afterwards submitted
to and ratified by the Legislature of Virginia with
out opposition. That is it was, by the order Of Con-
gress, laid before the Legislature of Virginia for its
approval, in consequence of the ordinance violating
condition contained in the deed of cession from
that State about the division of the territory into
States. Virginia sanctioned and confirmed this de-
parture from the terms of cession, and, as have
heard from political men of that period, without
evincing any opposition or disapprobation to the
anti-savery clause or any other part of the ordi-
nance. And it should here be 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 des-
tiny of States, and of millions Of human beings,
originated with Virginian, and received the sane
ton of Virginia, both in the Federal and State
Councils and of the United States in Congress as
sembled, 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 1T was the stipulation above described that Gre