An attempt has been made to transfer from the North to the South the honor of this exclusion of slavery from the Northwestern Territory.  The journal, without argument or comment, refutes such attempts.  The cession by Virginia was made in March, 1784.  On the 19th of April following, a committee, consisting of Messrs. Jefferson, Chase, and Howell, reported a plan for a temporary government of the territory, in which was this article:  “That, after the year 1800, 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 convicted.”  Mr. Spaight of North Carolina moved to strike out this paragraph.  The question was put, according to the form then practised, “Shall these words stand as a part of the plan?” New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, seven States, voted in the affirmative; Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, in the negative.  North Carolina was divided.  As the consent of nine States was necessary, the words could not stand, and were struck out accordingly.  Mr. Jefferson voted for the clause, but was overruled by his colleagues.

In March of the next year (1785), Mr. King of Massachusetts, seconded by Mr. Ellery of Rhode Island, proposed the formerly rejected article, with this addition:  “And that this regulation shall be an article of compact, and remain a fundamental principle of the constitutions between the thirteen original States, and each of the States described in the resolve.”  On this clause, which provided the adequate and thorough security, the eight Northern States at that time voted affirmatively, and the four Southern States negatively.  The votes of nine States were not yet obtained, and thus the provision was again rejected by the Southern States.  The perseverance of the North held out, and two years afterwards the object was attained.  It is no derogation from the credit, whatever that may be, of drawing the Ordinance, that its principles had before been prepared and discussed, in the form of resolutions.  If one should reason in that way, what would become of the distinguished honor of the author of the Declaration of Independence?  There is not a sentiment in that paper which had not been voted and resolved in the assemblies, and other popular bodies in the country, over and over again.

But the honorable member has now found out that this gentleman, Mr. Dane, was a member of the Hartford Convention.  However uninformed the honorable member may be of characters and occurrences at the North, it would seem that he has at his elbow, on this occasion, some high-minded and lofty spirit, some magnanimous and true-hearted monitor, possessing the means of local knowledge, and ready to supply the honorable member with every thing, down even to forgotten and moth-eaten two-penny pamphlets, which may be used to the disadvantage of his own country.  But as