The question of Federal control in the Territories seems not to have been directly before the convention which framed the original Constitution; and hence it is not recorded that the “thirty-nine,” or any of them, while engaged on that instrument, expressed any opinion on that precise question.

In 1789, by the first Congress which sat under the Constitution, an act was passed to enforce the ordinance of 1787, including the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern Territory.  The bill for this act was reported by one of the “thirty-nine”—­Thomas Fitzsimmons, then a member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.  It went through all its stages without a word of opposition, and finally passed both branches without ayes and nays, which is equivalent to a unanimous passage.  In this Congress there were sixteen of the thirty-nine fathers who framed the original Constitution.  They were John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman, William S. Johnson, Roger Sherman, Robert Morris, Thomas Fitzsimmons, William Few, Abraham Baldwin, Rufus King, William Paterson, George Clymer, Richard Bassett, George Read, Pierce Butler, Daniel Carroll, and James Madison.

This shows that, in their understanding, no line dividing local from Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, properly forbade Congress to prohibit slavery in the Federal territory; else both their fidelity to correct principle, and their oath to support the Constitution, would have constrained them to oppose the prohibition.

Again, George Washington, another of the “thirty-nine,” was then President of the United States and as such approved and signed the bill, thus completing its validity as a law, and thus showing that, in his understanding, no line dividing local from Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in Federal territory.

No great while after the adoption of the original Constitution, North Carolina ceded to the Federal Government the country now constituting the State-of Tennessee; and a few years later Georgia ceded that which now constitutes the States of Mississippi and Alabama.  In both deeds of cession it was made a condition by the ceding States that the Federal Government should not prohibit slavery in the ceded country.  Besides this, slavery was then actually in the ceded country.  Under these circumstances, Congress, on taking charge of these countries, did not absolutely prohibit slavery in them.  But they did interfere with it—­take control of it——­even there, to a certain extent.  In 1798 Congress organized the Territory of Mississippi.  In the act of organization they prohibited the bringing of slaves into the Territory from any place without the United States, by fine, and giving freedom to slaves so brought.  This act passed both branches of Congress without yeas and nays.  In that Congress were three of the “thirty-nine” who framed the original Constitution.  They were John Langdon, George Read, and Abraham Baldwin.  They all probably voted for it.  Certainly they would have placed their opposition to it upon record if, in their understanding, any line dividing local from Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution, properly forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in Federal territory.