ction
of cruel or unusual punishments, and enjoins the encouragement of
schools and the means of education.

The Ordinance has not only stood, unaltered, as the charter of
government for the Northwest Territory, but its clause respecting
slavery was incorporated into most of the acts passed prior to the
Rebellion providing for territorial governments.

Historically, it will stand as the great _Magna Charta_, which, by
the prescient wisdom of our fathers, dedicated in advance of the
coming civilization the fertile and beautiful Northwest, with all
its possibilities, for all time, to freedom, education, and liberty
of conscience.

Frequent efforts to rescind or suspend the clause restricting
slavery were made, especially after Indiana Territory was formed
in 1800.

At the adoption of the Ordinance some slaves were held in what is
now Indiana and Illinois by immigrants from Southern States.
Slavery also existed at the Vincennes, Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and
other French settlements, where it had been planted under the
authority of the King of France while the territory was a part of
the French possessions. The Government of Great Britain authorized
the continuance of slavery when the territory was under its
jurisdiction. Indians as well as black men were held as slaves in
the French settlements.(19)

Immigrants and old inhabitants favorable to slavery united in
memorials to Congress asking a suspension of the article prohibiting
slavery. The first of these was reported on adversely by a committee
of Congress, May 12, 1796. Governor William Henry Harrison,
December, 1802, presided, at Vincennes, over a meeting of citizens
of the Indiana Territory, at which it was resolved to make an
effort to secure a suspension of this article. A memorial was
drawn up, which Governor Harrison, with a letter of his own favoring
it, forwarded to Congress. They were referred to a special committee,
of which John Randolph, of Virginia, was chairman.

He, March 2, 1803, reported:

"That it is inexpedient to suspend, even for a limited time, the
operation of the sixth article of the compact between the original
States and the people and States west of the river Ohio."

Adding, by way of reason, that:

"The rapid population of the State of Ohio sufficiently evinces,
in the opinion of your committee, that the labor of slaves is not
necessary to promote the growth and settlement of the colonies in
that region."

This did not end th