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Show 178 'rilE ORDINANCE OF 1787. shall be admitted by Hs delegates into the Congress of tho U nitcd States, on an equal footing with tho original States in all respects whatever; and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and State government: Provided the constitution and government so to bo formed shall be republican, and in conformity to the principles contained in th ese articles ; uno, so far as it can be conf:iislent with the general interest of tho confederacy, such admission sha11 be allowed at an earlier period, and when thoro may be a less number of free inhabitants iu the State than sixty thousand. .A.H.TIOLE 6. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the saiu territory, otherwise than in punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully clu.imetl in any one of tho original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed an<l couvoyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid. Be it ordained by the authority aforesai<l, rrhat the resolutions of tho 23d of .April, 1784, rolativo to the subject of this ordinance, be and the same arc hereby repealed, anti declared null on<l voi<l. Done by the United States in Congress assembled the thirteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord 17 87, and of the sovereignty and independence the twelfth. CII.AS. TllOMPSON, Secretary. CIIAP'l'ER V. 1'UE 1:3J,AVE 'l' ItADE. . IN Congress, Friday, Feb. 12, ] 790, the following memo· r1ul of the P enusylvu.nia Society for promoting tho aboli· tion of slavery, tho relief of free negroes unlawfully held in bondage, and tho improvement of the condition of tho .Afri· can race, was presented nu<lrcad. * This memorial respectfully showoth, that from a rcgn.rd for tho happiness of mankind, an assoc ia.Lion was form e<l severn] years siuco in this State, by a number of her citizens ~f. various religious denominations, fur promoting tho u.bo~ Ition of slavery, and for the relief of tlw:e unlawfully held In bou<lagc. A just and ncuto c:onccption of tho true principles of liberty as it Rp road through the lund, produced accessions to thoiL' numbers, mo.ny fri en<ls of their cause, and a lcgislaLive co-operation with their views, whi ch by tl~e blessing of Divine Proviucnco, have been successfully du·ected to tho reli eving from bondage a largo number of their fellow-creatures of tho Africau raco. ':rhey have also tho satisfaction to observe, that-in consequence of that spirit of philanthropy and gcnnioe liberty which is generally ui[u sing its beneficial infiuenco,- similar institutions arc forming at home and abroad. 1'hat mankind arc all formed by tho same Almighty Being, alike objects of his care, and equally assigned for tho * It will be noticed that this was the flrHt Congt·ess assemblod under the Constitution, and was the first action taken by that body on the subject. (179) |