Jefferson Banished slavery.
The facts are these: Congress accepted this cession and directed
Jefferson, of
Virginia,
Chase, of
Maryland, and
Howard, of
Rhode Island, to prepare a form of government for this northwest territory.
Their report, in the hand writing of
Jefferson, contained a prohibition of slavery after the year 1800.
On motion of
Mr. Speight, of
North Carolina, to strike out this prohibition, all
New England, New York,
New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, voted ‘aye.’
Virginia,
Maryland,
South Carolina voted ‘no;’
North Carolina divided.
By the vote of a solid North, the prohibition was struck out. Afterwards, nemine contradicente, was passed the ordinance of 1787; reduced to writing, it would seem, by
Nathan Dane, as amanuensis.
The mechanical office discharged by the medium of transcription, sent to the rear, we are told, all
Greek, all Roman fame.
In the succeeding generation a great orator exclaims: how divine in the donee, in the grantee, the recipient!
Virginians said—‘we will deny ourselves the right to go with our own property (purchased largely from you), upon our own soil.’
This has the aspect of a ‘self—denying ordinance.’
Virginia chose the sacrifice of self, crowned with thorns by the beneficiaries; rather than the sacrifice which crowns itself with place, power, profit—the sweet sacrifice of others.
She was solicitous to give to freedom a spacious empire from a heart more spacious.
Webster's praise commemorates a difference of ideals—a difference between the name and the reality.
