Page:Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison Vol. 1.djvu/131

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HARRISON: MESSAGES AND LETTERS
93

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.