tely stricken out. Every northern state voted
to retain Mr. Jefferson's fifth article of compact, and its rejection,
which was regarded at the time, as a public calamity, was soon seen to
be a piece of good fortune. Timothy Pickering, writing to Rufus King,
nearly a year later (March 8, 1785), says: "I should indeed have
objected to the period proposed (1800) for the exclusion of slavery;
for the admission of it for a day, or an hour, ought to have been
forbidden. It will be infinitely easier to prevent the evil at first,
than to eradicate it, or check it, at any future time. To suffer the
continuance of slaves till they can be gradually emancipated, in
states already overrun with them, may be pardonable; but to introduce
them into a territory where none now exist, can never be forgiven. For
God's sake, let one more effort be made to prevent so terrible a
calamity."

Mr. King, eight days later, moved, in Congress, to attach an article
of compact to Mr. Jefferson's ordinance, in the place of the one
stricken outs in substantially the words that stand in the Ordinance
of 1787: "That there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude in any of the states described in the resolve of Congress of
April 23, 178-." The matter was referred to a committee; but was never
taken up and acted on. If Mr. King's resolution had passed, it would
have excluded slavery from Kentucky, Tennessee, and all the Western
territories.

[13] George Keith, a Quaker, about the year 1693, printed a pamphlet
in which he charged his own religious denomination, "that they should
set their negroes at liberty, after some reasonable time of service."
Samuel Sewall, Judge of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, in 1700,
printed a tract against slavery, entitled, "The Selling of Joseph, a
Memorial," which he gave to each member of the General Court, to
clergymen, and to literary gentlemen with whom he was acquainted. This
tract is reprinted in Moore's "Notes on Slavery in Massachusetts," p.
83. These were the earliest publications on slavery in this country.
Dr. Franklin having mentioned Keith's pamphlet, says: "About the year
1728 or 1729, I myself printed a book for Ralph Sandyford, another of
your friends in this city, against keeping negroes in slavery; two
editions of which he distributed gratis. And about the year 1736, I
printed another book on the same subject for Benjamin Lay, who also
professed being one of your friends, and he distributed t