in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted to have been personally guilty." This clause was stricken out before the passage of the ordinance on the motion of Mr. Speight, of North Carolina. Mr. Benton explains the reason. The Southern States demanded that a clause should be inserted in reference to fugitive slaves, which being refused, they voted against the whole provision in reference to slavery. The first movement, then, to limit slavery was proposed by a Southern delegate. At a later period it was renewed by the South and passed by Southern votes.
July 11, 1787, Mr. Carrington, of Virginia, chairman of the committee on the Northwest Territory, submitted the report of that committee. The other members were Mr. Dane, of Massachusetts, Mr. R. H. Lee, of Virginia, Mr. Kean, of South Carolina, and Mr. Smith, of New York. A majority of this committee were Southern men.
Their report, after amendment, was adopted July 13th, and became the "Ordinance of 1787." Article sixth of this instrument is as follows: "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; provided, always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is claimed in any of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid. " There were present eight States, four Northern and four Southern. The ordinance was passed by the unanimous vote of these States, viz., Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. One individual vote was cast against it, and that by a Northern member. Mr. Yates, of New York, voted "No," but being overruled by his colleague, the vote of New York was counted "Aye," and the vote by States was unanimous.
Thus, in 1787, the provision offered by Jefferson in
