Ordinance of 1787

Foremost among the laws enacted by her General Assembly after Virginia's declaration of independence from British rule was her celebrated statute prohibiting the slave trade. This act was passed in 1778—thus antedating by thirty years the like action of Great Britain. By this law, it was provided, "that from and after the passing of this act no slaves shall hereafter be imported into this commonwealth by sea or land, nor shall any slaves so imported be sold or bought by any person whatsoever." The statute imposed a fine of one thousand pounds upon the person importing them for each slave imported, and also a fine of five hundred pounds upon any person buying or selling any such slave for each slave so bought or sold. The crime of bringing in slaves is still further guarded against by a provision which declares that every slave "shall upon such importation become free."^[23] Of this act, Mr. Ballagh, in his History of Slavery in Virginia, says, "Virginia thus had the honor of being the first political community in the civilized modern world to prohibit the pernicious traffic."^[24]

VIRGINIA'S CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST

Next in the sequence of great events linked with this subject was the work of her sons in the preparation and adoption of the ordinance for the government of the northwest territory. This imperial domain from which have been created the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin had been conquered by her soldiers, led by her son, George Rogers Clark, acting under a commission of her Governor, Patrick Henry, and her Council.^[25] "Virginians," says Mr. Bancroft, "in the service of Virginia." Virginia claimed the country as comprised within the limits fixed by her colonial charter. Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York also asserted claims, but, as John Fiske declares, "It was Virginia that had actually conquered the disputed territory."^[26] And again he writes, "Virginia gave up a magnificent and princely territory of which she was actually in possession."^[27] When, by the valor of her sons, Virginia had won the land from the English and the Indians, she silenced the murmurings of sister states and consummated the efforts for union by formally relinquishing the great domain to the common weal.

The day that Virginia's deed of cession, March the first, 1784, was accepted by the Continental Congress, Mr. Jefferson reported his bill—the Ordinance of 1784. This measure was one of far reaching importance in that it provided not only for many of the governmental needs of this great territory, but declared that after the year 1800, slavery should never exist in any portion of the vast domain west of a line drawn north and south between Lake Erie and the Spanish dominions of Florida. Had this clause been retained in the ordinance, slavery would have been excluded not only from the five states created out of the northwest territory but from the country south of it and from which were subsequently formed the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi.

This provision of the ordinance, however, failed of adoption—the votes of six states being recorded in its favor, one less than the requisite majority. Mr. Jefferson's colleagues present, Hardy and Mercer, refused to join him in voting for this novel enactment. Its failure was a matter of profound regret to its author. In a letter to M. de Munier, Mr. Jefferson wrote:

"The voice of a single individual of the state which was divided, or one of those which were of the negative, would have prevented this abominable crime from spreading itself over the new country. Thus we see the fate of millions unborn hanging on the tongue of one man and Heaven was silent in that awful moment."^[28]

ORDINANCE OF 1787

This ambition of Mr. Jefferson was not destined to complete defeat. Three years later, the now celebrated Ordinance of 1787 was enacted into law. "No one was more active," says Mr. Fiske, "in bringing about this result than William Grayson of Virginia, who was earnestly supported by Lee."^[29]

Mr. Bancroft says:

"Thomas Jefferson first summoned Congress to prohibit slavery in all the territory of the United States; Rufus King lifted up the measure when it lay almost lifeless on the ground, and suggested the immediate instead of the prospective prohibition; a Congress composed of five Southern States to one from New England and two from the Middle States, headed by William Grayson, supported by Richard Henry Lee, and using Nathan Dane as scribe, carried the measure to the goal in the amended form in which King had caused it to be referred to a committee; and, as Jefferson had proposed, placed it under the sanction of an irrevocable compact."^[30]

VIRGINIA CONFIRMS ORDINANCE OF 1787

The ordinance as passed contained many provisions in addition to those set out in Virginia's deed of cession. It was necessary, therefore, that Virginia should by proper enactment reaffirm her deed. The General Assembly of Virginia at its next session accordingly passed an act fixing for all time the validity of both deed and ordinance.^[31] Mr. Bancroft says:

"A powerful committee on which were Carrington, Monroe, Edmund Randolph and Grayson, successfully brought forward the bill by which Virginia confirmed the ordinance for the colonization of all the territory then in the possession of the United States, by freemen alone."^[32]

Thus the old commonwealth which had won the land from England and the Indians bore a foremost part in the legislative work by which slavery was forever excluded from the empire north of the Ohio River.

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[23]	Hening's Statutes, Vol. IX, p. 471.

[24]	History of Slavery in Virginia, Ballagh, p. 23.

[25]	Life of Patrick Henry, W. W. Henry, Vol. I, p. 583.

[26]	Critical Period of American History, Fiske, p. 191.

[27]	Idem, p. 195.

[28]	Writings of Jefferson, Ford, Vol. IV, p. 181.

[29]	Critical Period of American History, Fiske, p. 205.

[30]	History of United States, Bancroft, Vol. VI, p. 290.

[31]	Hening's Statutes, Vol. XII, p. 780.

[32]	History of United States, Bancroft, Vol. VI, p. 291.