belief to all peaceable and orderly persons. The second
provided for trial by jury, the writ of habeas corpus, the privileges of
the common law, and the right of proportional legislative
representation. The third enjoined that faith should be kept with the
Indians, and provided that "schools and the means of education" should
forever be encouraged, inasmuch as "religion, morality, and knowledge"
were necessary to good government. The fourth ordained that the new
states formed in the Northwest should forever form part of the United
States, and be subject to the laws, as were the others. The fifth
provided for the formation and admission of not less than three or more
than five states, formed out of this northwestern territory, whenever
such a putative state should contain sixty thousand inhabitants; the
form of government to be republican, and the state, when created, to
stand on an equal footing with all the other States.

The sixth and most important article declared that there should never be
slavery or involuntary servitude in the Northwest, otherwise than for
the punishment of convicted criminals, provided, however, that fugitive
slaves from the older States might lawfully be reclaimed by their
owners. This was the greatest blow struck for freedom and against
slavery in all our history, save only Lincoln's emancipation
proclamation, for it determined that in the final struggle the mighty
West should side with the right against the wrong. It was in its results
a deadly stroke against the traffic in and ownership of human beings,
and the blow was dealt by southern men, to whom all honor should ever be
given. This anti-slavery compact was the most important feature of the
ordinance, yet there were many other features only less important.

Importance of the Ordinance.

In truth the ordinance of 1787 was so wide-reaching in its effects, was
drawn in accordance with so lofty a morality and such far-seeing
statesmanship, and was fraught with such weal for the nation, that it
will ever rank amongst the foremost of American state papers, coming in
that little group which includes the Declaration of Independence, the
Constitution, Washington's Farewell Address, and Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation and Second Inaugural. It marked out a definite line of
orderly freedom along which the new States were to advance. It laid deep
the foundation for that system of widespread public education so
characteristic of the Republic