lt with it. It is not a matter of
argument or inference, but we know what they thought about it.

It is precisely upon that part of the history of the country that one
important omission is made by Judge Douglas. He selects parts of the
history of the United States upon the subject of slavery, and treats it as
the whole, omitting from his historical sketch the legislation of Congress
in regard to the admission of Missouri, by which the Missouri Compromise
was established and slavery excluded from a country half as large as the
present United States. All this is left out of his history, and in nowise
alluded to by him, so far as I can remember, save once, when he makes
a remark, that upon his principle the Supreme Court were authorized to
pronounce a decision that the act called the Missouri Compromise was
unconstitutional. All that history has been left out. But this part of the
history of the country was not made by the men of the Revolution.

There was another part of our political history, made by the very men
who were the actors in the Revolution, which has taken the name of the
Ordinance of '87. Let me bring that history to your attention. In 1784, I
believe, this same Mr. Jefferson drew up an ordinance for the government
of the country upon which we now stand, or, rather, a frame or draft of an
ordinance for the government of this country, here in Ohio, our neighbors
in Indiana, us who live in Illinois, our neighbors in Wisconsin and
Michigan. In that ordinance, drawn up not only for the government of that
Territory, but for the Territories south of the Ohio River, Mr. Jefferson
expressly provided for the prohibition of slavery. Judge Douglas says,
and perhaps is right, that that provision was lost from that ordinance. I
believe that is true. When the vote was taken upon it, a majority of all
present in the Congress of the Confederation voted for it; but there were
so many absentees that those voting for it did not make the clear majority
necessary, and it was lost. But three years after that, the Congress of
the Confederation were together again, and they adopted a new ordinance
for the government of this Northwest Territory, not contemplating
territory south of the river, for the States owning that territory had
hitherto refrained from giving it to the General Government; hence they
made the ordinance to apply only to what the Government owned. In fact,
the provision excluding slavery was inserted aside, passed u