ve; the slaves of the French villagers, and
of the few American slaveholders who had already settled round them,
were not disturbed in their condition. But all further importation of
slaves, and the holding in slavery of any not already slaves, were
prohibited. The prohibition was brought about by the action of the Ohio
Company. Without the prohibition the company would probably not have
undertaken its experiment in colonization; and save for the pressure of
the company slavery would hardly have been abolished. Congress wished to
sell the lands, and was much impressed by the solid worth of the
founders of the association. The New Englanders were anxious to buy the
lands, but were earnest in their determinating to exclude slavery from
the new territory. The slave question was not at the time a burning
issue between North and South; for no Northerner thought of crusading to
destroy the evil, while most enlightened Southerners were fond of
planning how to do away with it. The tact of the company's
representative before Congress, Dr. Cutler, did the rest. A compromise
was agreed to; for, like so many other great political triumphs, the
passage of the Ordinance of 1787 was a compromise. Slavery was
prohibited, on the one hand; and on the other, that the territory might
not become a refuge for runaway negroes, provision was made for the
return of such fugitives. The popular conscience was yet too dull about
slavery to be stirred by the thought of returning fugitive slaves into
bondage.

Land Purchase.

A fortnight after the passage of the ordinance, the transaction was
completed by the sale of a million and a half acres, north of the Ohio,
to the Ohio Company. Three million and a half more, known as the Sciato
purchase, were authorized to be sold to a purely speculative company,
but the speculation ended in nothing save financial disaster. The price
was nominally seventy cents an acre; but as payment was made in
depreciated public securities, the real price was only eight or nine
cents an acre. The sale illustrated the tendency of Congress at that
time to sell the land in large tracts; a most unwholesome tendency,
fruitful of evil to the whole community. It was only by degrees that the
wisdom of selling the land in small plots, and to actual occupiers, was
recognized.

Together with the many wise and tolerant measures included in the famous
Ordinance of 1787, and in the land Ordinance of 1785, there were one or
two wh