ongress to exercise authority not
delegated, "have a tendency to create disquiet and jealousy, and
ought, therefore, to receive the pointed disapprobation of this
House." After some discussion, it was finally agreed to strike out the
last clause and insert the following: "ought therefore to receive no
encouragement or countenance from this House." The call of the roll
resulted in the adoption of the amendment, with but one vote in the
negative by Mr. Thacher, of Maine, an uncompromising enemy of slavery.
The committee to whom the memorial was referred brought in a bill
during the session prohibiting American ships from supplying slaves
from the United States to foreign markets.

On the 2d of April, 1802, Georgia ceded the territory lying west of
her present limits, now embracing the States of Alabama and
Mississippi. Among the conditions she exacted was the following:

"That the territory thus ceded shall become a State, and be
admitted into the Union as soon as it shall contain sixty
thousand free inhabitants, or at an earlier period, if Congress
shall think it expedient, on the same conditions and
restrictions, with the same privileges, and in the same manner,
as provided in the ordinance of Congress of the 13th day of July,
1787, for the government of the western territory of the United
States: which ordinance shall, in all its parts, extend to the
territory contained in the present act of cession, the article
only excepted which forbids slavery."

The demand was acceded to, and, as the world knows, Alabama and
Mississippi became the most cruel slave States in the United States.

Ohio adopted a State constitution in 1802-3, and the residue of the
territory not included in the State as it is now, was designated as
Indiana Territory. William Henry Harrison was appointed governor. One
of the earliest moves of the government of the new territory was to
secure a modification of the ordinance of 1787 by which slavery or
involuntary servitude was prohibited in the territory northwest of the
Ohio River. It was ordered by a convention presided over by Gen.
Harrison in 1802-3, that a memorial be sent to Congress urging a
restriction of the ordinance of 1787. It was referred to a select
committee, with John Randolph as chairman. On the 2d of March, 1803,
he made a report by the unanimous request of his committee, and the
portion referring to slavery was as follows:

"