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 colonies in
that region. That this labor--demonstrably the dearest of
any--can only be employed in the cultivation of products more
valuable than any known to that quarter of the United States;
that the committee deem it highly dangerous and inexpedient to
impair a provision wisely calculated to promote the happiness and
prosperity of the northwestern country, and to give strength and
security to that extensive frontier. In the salutary operations
of this sagacious and benevolent restraint, it is believed that
the inhabitants of Indiana will, at no very distant day, find
ample remuneration for a temporary privation of labor and of
emigration."

After discussing the subject-matter embodied in the memorial from the
territory of Indiana, the committee presented eight resolves, one of
which related to the subject of slavery, and was as follows:

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

Congress was about to close its session, and, therefore, there was no
action taken upon this report. At the next session it went into the
hands of a new committee whose chairman was Caesar Rodney, of Delaware,
who had just been elected to Congress. On the 17th of February, 1804,
Mr. Rodney made the following report:

"That taking into their consideration the facts stated in the
said memorial and petition, they are induced to believe that a
qualified suspension, for a limited time, of the sixth article of
compact between the original States and the people and States
west of the river Ohio, might be productive of benefit and
advantage to said territory."

After discussing other matters contained in the Indiana petition, the
committee says, in reference to slavery:

"That the sixth article of the ordinance of 1787, which
prohibited slavery within the said territory, be suspended in a
qualified manner for ten years, so as to permit the introduction
of slaves born within the United States, from any of the
individual States: _provided_, that such individual State does