involuntary servitude in the
said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof
the party shall have been duly convicted."

But it has been, with much force, claimed by those who denied the
binding character of this Ordinance, that as it was an act of the
old Congress under the Articles of Confederation, and established
a territorial form of government, not in all respects in conformity
with the Constitution, it was necessarily superseded by it.

This view was general on the meeting of the First Congress (1789)
under the Constitution, but the Ordinance, so dear to the hearts
of Jefferson and other lovers of liberty, was early attended to.

On August 7, 1789, the eighth act of the First Congress, embodying
a long explanatory and declaratory preamble, was passed, and approved
by President Washington. This act in effect re-enacted the Ordinance
of 1787, adapting and applying it, however, to the Constitution by
requiring the Governor of the Northwest Territory to report and
become responsible to the President of the United States, instead
of to Congress as originally provided.(16)

The territory which the ordinance governed was in area 260,000
square miles, and included what is now the great states of Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, with, in 1890, 13,471,840
inhabitants.

The Ordinance is a model of perfection. It was the only great act
of legislation under the Articles of Confederation. There is
evidence that, as some members of the Congress that enacted the
Ordinance were at the same time members of the Convention that
framed the Constitution,(17) there was much intercommunication of
views between the members of the two bodies, especially on the
slavery clause of the Ordinance. It is probable that the clause
of the Constitution respecting the rendition of slaves, as well as
other provisions, was copied from the Ordinance.(18)

Upon the surpassing excellence of this Ordinance, no language of
panegyric would be extravagant.

It is a matchless specimen of sagacious forecast. It provides for
the descent of property, for the appointment of territorial officers,
and for extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious
liberty by securing religious freedom in the inhabitants. It
prohibits legislative interference with private contracts, secures
the benefit of the writ of _habeas corpus_, trial by jury, and of
the common law in judicial proceedings: it forbids the infli