ticles of this Confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State; and the Union shall be perpetual. Nor shall any alteration at any time thereafter be made in any of them, unless such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the Legislature of every State."

From the date of the Declaration of Independence, and during the Revolutionary War, up to the date of the adoption of the Constitution-for twelve yearsthe whole Government of the United States was conducted under the Declaration of Independence, and the Articles of Confederation.

But the life that had been infused into the new nation; the growing legislative wants to regulate trade and commerce, and to more specifically define and establish the various branches, legislative, executive, and judicial, pressed constantly upon the minds of the leading statesmen of the times. The necessity of some change in the Articles of Confederation, to meet the altered condition of the national wants, seemed apparent. Virginia took a leading part in suggesting plans of amendment, and the calling of Conventions, to enlarge and enact modes by which the functions of the Government might be carried on by the prescribed and enacted laws of the nation.

CHAPTER IV.

PERIOD IMMEDIATELY RECEDING THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. — CESSION OF TERRITORY TO THE UNITED STATES. - ORDINANCE OF 1784.-VOTE ON THE SLAVE QUESTION.-ONE VOTE ONLY WANTED TO PROHIBIT SLAVERY.

THE period from the adoption of the Articles of Confederation to the adoption of the Constitution, forms a most important and interesting chapter in the history of America, and opens a field for speculation as to what extent the various States might legislate upon matters not specifically delegated in the Articles of Confederation. The coöperation of each of the thirteen Colonies in prosecuting the war (see Appendix for troops furnished by each), left their people but little time to reflect or mature elaborate forms of government. Some of the States, during this period, had adopted Constitutions, whilst others worked under their Colonial Charters, long after the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. (See Constitutions.)

The war had ended by the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, October 19th, 1781, and the treaty of peace was signed at Paris, November 30th, 1782. Still the British troops did not evacuate New York till November 25th, 1783. The ninth Continental Congress had adjourned from Philadelphia to Annapolis, the attendance of members being small, and little business being done until March, 1784.

What disposition should be made of the public lands claimed by the States, presented a subject of deep in

terest.

Virginia, having appointed a delegation headed by Jefferson, presented to Congress on the 1st day of March, 1784, a deed to all the territory she claimed northwest of the Ohio, which was accepted, and a motion made by Jefferson for the appointment of a Select Committee, to report a plan for its government. A Committee of three was appointed, with Jefferson at its head, which Committee reported an ordinance for the government of "the territory ceded already, or to be ceded, by individual States to the United States." The ordinance provided that this territory should be divided into States, and admitted into the Union, upon the assent of two-thirds of the States. Their temporary and permanent Governments were to be founded upon the following express conditions of the ordinance alluded to

"1st. That they shall forever remain a part of the United States of America.

"2d. That, in their persons, property and territory, they shall be subject to the Government of the United States, in Congress assembled, and to the Articles of Confederation, in all those cases in which the original States shall be so subject.

"3d. That they shall be subject to pay a part of the Federal debt contracted, or to be contracted, to be apportioned to them by Congress, according to the same common rule and measure by which apportionments thereof shall be made in the other States.

"4th. That their respective Governments shall be in Republican forms, and shall admit no person to be a citizen who holds an hereditary title.

"5th. That after the year 1800, of the Christian Era, there shall be neither Slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted to have been personally guilty.

"That all the preceding articles shall be formed into a charter of compact; shall be duly executed by the President of the

United States in Congress assembled, under his hand and the seal of the United States; shall be promulgated, and shall stand as fundamental conditions between the thirteen original States and those newly described, unalterable but by the joint consent of the United States in Congress assembled, and of the particular States within which such alteration is proposed to be made."

On April 19, 1784, the ordinance came before the Continental Congress for action, and as, under the Articles of Confederation, the votes on all questions in the Congress had to be taken by States, each State having not less than two nor more than seven, who were appointed annually by the Legislature, having the power to recall them at any time, and elect and send their successors. In acting upon any question, each State had one vote, which vote was determined by a majority of the Representatives from said State, but at least two members must vote on one side of a question before the State was entitled to a vote.

At this date, every State in the Union, except Massachusetts, had Slavery in it; for, in 1620, the institution had been introduced into the Colonies by the arrival of twenty negroes on board a Dutch ship at Jamestown, Virginia, where they were sold into Slavery. And now, after the lapse of a hundred and sixty-four years, this germ of discord had spread over the thirteen Colonies; and, although the people of Massachusetts, as early as 1621, pronounced the traffic a "heinous crime," yet this giant had reared its head amongst the sons of the Pilgrims, and stood upon the hills of New England, and, like Banquo's ghost, would not down; for one State only in the Union had abolished the institution. Massachusetts, on adopting her new Constitution, in 1780, had added a Bill of Rights, which the Supreme Court soon after decided had abolished Slavery.

Thus, after a century and a half of bondage, "Forefathers' Rock" was washed of the unholy sin, and one, at least, of the States had taken the first step to assume the high duties of fitting herself for a Republican form of Government.

Pennsylvania, too, was marching up the highway of her future greatness. The Legislature, in 1780, had passed an act of gradual Emancipation. At this time, many of the leading Statesmen of the Confederacy, in all parts of the country, were protesting against the maintenance of Slavery; and many of them felt an abiding faith in the spirit of Liberty that actuated the hearts of their countrymen in freeing themselves from English oppression, that they might see the justice of liberating their slaves; particularly so was this the case in New England.

Jefferson's Ordinance was now before Congress, and for the first time in the history of America, do we find the issue joined, and the friends of Freedom and the upholders of Slavery confronting each other upon a national question, the decision of which was of so much importance to those interested, and the results of which have been of such vital interest to the whole Republic. It is interesting at this time of our national greatness and freedom, to look back to those early days, and see with what tenacity the late rebellious States held on to the institution of Slavery.

The Ordinance being before Congress, a resolution was offered by Mr. Spaight, of North Carolina, seconded by Mr. Read, of South Carolina, that the fifth Article, the one prohibiting Slavery after the year 1800, be stricken out, the question being put in the following form: "Shall the words moved to be stricken out stand?" The ayes and noes were taken by States, as follows: Ayes-Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Rhode Island,