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To: Non-Sequitur; capitan_refugio
[capitan_kerryfugio #97] It was a principle of American law that the legislature could bar slavery from any territory, before there was a Constitution.

[Nonsense #98] It's amazing how quickly they toss 'states rights' out the window when it suits their agenda, isn't it?

It is amazing what a vivid imagination can do. Here a vivid imagination has brought to life a whole new historical "principle of American law."

At the time the Constitution was adopted, there was no territory belonging to the United States other than that called the Northwest Territory. The Constitution gave authority to make needful rules and regulations to administer the territories, not territories generically, but the territories, the Northwest Territories, the only territories in existence.

LINK

Northwest Ordinance; July 13, 1787

An Ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio.

* * *

Art. 5. There shall be formed in the said territory, not less than three nor more than five States; and the boundaries of the States, as soon as Virginia shall alter her act of cession, and consent to the same, shall become fixed and established as follows, to wit: The western State in the said territory, shall be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio, and Wabash Rivers; a direct line drawn from the Wabash and Post Vincents, due North, to the territorial line between the United States and Canada; and, by the said territorial line, to the Lake of the Woods and Mississippi. The middle State shall be bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash from Post Vincents to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct line, drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami, to the said territorial line, and by the said territorial line. The eastern State shall be bounded by the last mentioned direct line, the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the said territorial line: Provided, however, and it is further understood and declared, that the boundaries of these three States shall be subject so far to be altered, that, if Congress shall hereafter find it expedient, they shall have authority to form one or two States in that part of the said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan. And, whenever any of the said States shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants therein, such State shall be admitted, by its delegates, into the Congress of the United States, on an equal footing with the 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 be formed, shall be republican, and in conformity to the principles contained in these articles; and, so far as it can be consistent with the general interest of the confederacy, such admission shall be allowed at an earlier period, and when there may be a less number of free inhabitants in the State than sixty thousand.

Art. 6. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the 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 claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid.

Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the resolutions of the 23rd of April, 1784, relative to the subject of this ordinance, be, and the same are hereby repealed and declared null and void.

Done by the United States, in Congress assembled, the 13th day of July, in the year of our Lord 1787, and of their soveriegnty and independence the twelfth.

This territory was ceded by Virginia with the condition that slavery not be permitted. Pursuant to the cession agreement with Virginia, the legislature was prohibited from permitting slavery in the ceded territory.

Slavery was not forbidden to induce Blacks migrate there and settle. Slavery was forbidden to keep Blacks out.

104 posted on 10/27/2004 3:28:57 AM PDT by nolu chan (What's the frequency?)
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To: nolu chan
This territory was ceded by Virginia with the condition that slavery not be permitted. Pursuant to the cession agreement with Virginia, the legislature was prohibited from permitting slavery in the ceded territory.

Besides the points you make, there are a couple of other interesting things to note about the NWO:

1. The Article IV clause on fugitive slaves is incorporated into the statute, and not by reference only. This means the antislavery statutes of the Northern States in the old NWT were in conflict with the NWO.

2. The NWO creates provisions for the States that are to be created, and calls them States, even before they had sufficient inhabitants to apply for admission to the Union. This appears constitutionally problematic.

116 posted on 10/27/2004 8:05:04 AM PDT by lentulusgracchus ("Whatever." -- sinkspur)
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To: nolu chan
The Northwest Territory (note spelling - Northwest Territories is part of Canada) was organized by Congress in 1787. Not only Virginia (1784), but New York (1780-81), Connecticut (1785), and Massachusetts (1784) ceded claims for the lands northwest of the Ohio River.

Nor were these the "only" unorganized territory of the United States at the time the Constitution was adopted. South Carolina had in 1787 ceded its claims to the United States of the strip of land north of the lands claimed by Georgia, and south of the lands claimed by North Carolina, to the Mississippi River. There is was also the issue of North Carolina's cession of its claims to lands "over the mountains" to the Mississippi River. North Carolina ceded those lands to the United States (to help the cash-strapped Congress raise money through land sales) in June 1784. This sale immediately led to the "provisional State of Franklin" movement in August. In November of 1784 North Carolina purported to repeal its cession, but the legality of doing so remained in contention until 1790, when North Carolina again ceded the land, making the issue moot.

The Northwest Ordinance was foresighted legislation, in that it anticipated the expansion of the jurisdiction of the United States and paved the way for admission of new states. It addressed issues which would lead to the admission of both Tennessee and Kentucky (outside of the Territory), as well as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin (within the Territory).

Ray Allen Billington, in Western Expansion: A History of the American Frontier, notes that the individual states were unable to properly administer the western claims. "Congressmen realized that the West would be satisfied only with the same rights and privileges under the central government that the East enjoyed. those could be granted only by erecting trans-Appalachian territories into states, to be admitted to the Union on terms of full equality with the original states."

125 posted on 10/27/2004 1:48:29 PM PDT by capitan_refugio
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