The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-02-09
THE NEBRASKA Brnr-rHE AaeuxEsr-Eo 4.
AN APPEAL.

Mr.. Douglas labors in the second portion of hi
speech to recommend his views to the people
on grounds of policy. "When," he asks, g have
you succeeded in excluding Slavery by act Of
Congress from one inch of the American soil
You may tell me that you did it in the
| Northwest Territory, by the Ordinance of 1887
l will show you by the history of the country
that you did not accomplish any such thing
You prohibited Slavery there by law, but you
did not exclude it in fact Illinois was part
of the Northwest Territory. With the excep-
ton of few French and white settlements it
was vast wilderness filed with hostile saw
| ages, when the Ordinance Of 1887 was adopt
| ed. Yet, sir when Illinois was organized into
Territorial Government it established and
protected Slavery, and maintained it in spite CT
your Ordinance, and in defiance of its express
| prohibition. 1t is curious fact, that so long
as Congress said the Territory of Illinois should
not have Slavery, she actually had it and on
the very day when you withdrew your Con-
gressional prohibition, the people of Illinois of
their own free will and accord, provided for g
| system of emancipation. Thus you did not
succeed in Illinois Territory with your Ordi-
nance, or your Wilmot Proviso, because the
people there regarded it as an invasion of their
rights. They regarded it as usurpation on
the part of the Federal Government They
regarded it as yiolative of the great principles
of elf-government, and they determined that
they would never submit even to have freedom,
80 long as you forced it upon them"
If We have read history Alright, this is an en-
tire Misrepresentation. That some Of the old
French settlers, or their descendants, nominaly
civilized, may have held a few slaves in Kas-
kaskia, and that kind of Slavery, under the
form of indentured service may stealthily have
got foothold in the Northwest Territory, is not
denied but these were facts so limited, so
clearly exceptional, as to prove nothing against
the efficacy of positive prohibition. Taken in
connection with another fact which Mr.. Doug
las overlooks-the repeated and strenuous ex-
ertions made to obtain repeal or suspension Of
the Ordinance of 1887, for the express pur-
pose of introducing Slavery into the Territory
they demonstrate not only it's sufhciency, but
its necessity, as q safeguard against the inroads
of that evil
Let US advert to few facts in the history of
the Northwest Territory. About the time of its
division into two portions, a memorial was pre-.
scented to the Assembly of Ohio Territory, in
in 1899, by officers Of the Virginia line on Cont
mental establish nent in the war of the Revolu-
ton, praying for permission to remove with
their slaves to their military bounty lands, be-
tween the Scioto and the Little Miami rivers.
The prayer Of the petition being unequivocally
prohibited by the Ordinance the Legislature
had no discretion in the case. Their only
course was to reject the petitions The histo-
rian adds-had the application been granted,
the result would have been great accession of
wealth, strength, and intelligence; but the
public feeling against Slavery was such, that
the request would have been denied by unani-
nous vote, had the Legislature possessed the
power of granting it. And why? Because,
the pioneers of Ohio were freemen, hard-work-
ing men, trained to habits of selfreliance and
Slavery had not, up to that time, been able to
effect Judgement on one. foot of its soil. I'M
migrants from slave States had not ventured
from those States and settle there were thor
oughly Ant. Slavery. Thus the policy of posi-
tive prohibition by Congress had accomplished
its work.
During the nine years from 1900 to 1909
what are now the States of Indiana and Illinois
constituted the Territory of Indiana. 1t was
in this portion of the original Northwest Terri
tory that few slaves were held by the old
French settlers, descendants of the colony
planted by La Sale and Father Hennepin,
more than century before the passage Of the
Ordinance of 1887 J, and that, owing to the
large proportion of settlers from the slave
States, species of Slavery, under the form of
indenture. secured a limited existence. And it
was here that the greatest efforts were made
to break down the restriction imposed by Con-
grsss on the introduction of Slavery.
In 1903, memorial was presented to Con-
gress, accompanied by report of the proceed
ings of Convention of the People of Indiana,
INCLUDING, of course, Illinois held at Vincennes,
the object of which was to obtain a suspen-
sion, as to that Territory, of the Anti Slavery
provso of the Ordinance Of 1887. The me-
mortal having been referred to Committee of
which Randolph, Of Virginia, was chairman,
on adverse report was soon submitted. The
Committee deemed it highly dangerous and
inexpedient to impair provision wisely cal
culated to promote the happiness and prosperi
ty of the Northwestern country, and to give
strength and security to that extensive from
tier, and held that in the salutary operation CT
this sagacious and benevolent restraint the in
habitants of Indiana would, at no distant day,
find ample remuneration for temporary priva-
ton of labor and immigration" At the next
session, this report, with the papers which had
given rise to it, was referred to q new commit
tee, of which Rodney, Democratic Repre-
sentative of Delaware, was chairman. This
time, a report was made in favor Of q qualified
suspension of the prohibition of Slavery, so as
to admit for ten years the introduction of
slaves born within the United States, their de-
scendants to be free, males at the age of twen-
ty FIVE and females at twenty-one."
Congress declined to act upon the report,
and in 1907, when efforts to suspend the Ordi-
nance were renewed and similar report was
made, it persisted in this course; so that the
Pro-Slavery movement was at length aban-
doned
These facts show, that had the question
been left to the few settlers in the Territory,
Slavery would have been introduced and estab-
hshed in the country, now known as Indiana
and Illinois, but that the Ordinance of 1887