Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison/Caesar Rodney of Committee of House Report on petition for slavery in Indiana
Second Report on Petition of the Vincennes Convention
Mr. [Caesar] Rodney, from the committee[1] to whom were referred a letter from William Henry Harrison, President of the general convention of the representatives of the people of the Indiana Territory, also a memorial and petition from the said convention, together with the report of a former committee on the "same subject at the last session of Congress 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 the said Territory.
They do not conceive it would be proper to break in upon the system adopted for surveying and locating public lands, which experience has proved so well calculated to promote the general interest. If a preference be given to particular individuals in the present instance, an example will be set, by which future claimants will obtain the same privilege. The committee are, nevertheless, of opinion, that after those lands shall have been surveyed, a certain number of townships should be designated, out of which the claims stated in the memorial ought to be satisfied, and that, for the encouragement of actual settlers, the right of pre-emption should be secured to them.
They consider the existing regulations contained in the ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States, which requires a freehold of fifty acres as a qualification for an elector of the General Assembly, as limiting too much the elective franchise. They conceive the vital principle of a free Government is, that taxation and representation should go together after a residence of sufficient length to manifest the intention of becoming a permanent inhabitant, and to evince, by conduct orderly and upright, that a person is entitled to the rights of an elector. This probationary period should not extend beyond two years.
It must be the true policy of the United States, with the millions of acres of habitable country which she possesses, to cherish those principles which gave birth to her independence, and created her a nation, by affording an asylum to the oppressed of all countries.
One important object desired in the memorial, the extinguishment of the Indian title to certain lands, has been happily accomplished; whilst the salt spring below the mouth of the Wabash river has also been placed in a situation to be productive of every reasonable advantage.
After a careful review and an attentive consideration of the various subjects contemplated in the memorial and petition, the conmittee respectfully submit to the House the following resolutions, as embracing all the objects which require the attention of Congress at this period:
Resolved, 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 not permit the importation of slaves from foreign countries: And provided further, That the descendants of all such slaves shall, if males, be free at the age of twenty-five years, and, if females, at the age of twenty-one years.
2. Resolved, That every white free man, of the age of twenty-one years, who has resided within the Territory, two years, and within that time paid a territorial tax which shall have been assessed six months before the election, shall enjoy the right of an elector of members of the General Assembly.
3. Resolved, That in all cases of sales of land within the Indiana Territory, the right of pre-emption be given to actual settlers on the same.
4. Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, required to cause an estimate to be made of the number and extent of the claims to lands under the resolution of Congress of the 29th of August, 1788, and the law of the 3d of March, 1796, and to lay the same before this House.
5. Resolved, That provision, not exceeding one thirty-sixth part of the public lands within the Indiana Territory, ought to be made for the support of schools within the same.
6. Resolved, That it is inexpedient to grant lands to individuals for the purpose of establishing houses of entertainment, and opening certain roads.
7. Resolved, That it is inexpedient, at this time, to vest in the Legislature of Louisiana [misprint for Indiana] Territory the salt spring below the mouth of the Wabash river.
8. Resolved, That compensation ought to be made to the attorney general of the said Territory for services performed by him on behalf of the United States.
- ↑ This committee was composed of Caesar Rodney of Del., John Boyle of Ky., and John Rhea of Tenn. For petition see Nov. 22, 1802. above.