Page:Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln, v6.djvu/38

16 SPEECHES [Feb. 27

on that question. Of these, Roger Sherman, Thomas Mifflin, and Hugh Williamson voted for the prohibition, thus showing that, in their under- standing, no line dividing local from Federal authority, nor anything else, properly forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in Federal territory. The other of the four, James McHenry, voted against the prohibition, showing that for some cause he thought it im- proper to vote for it.

In 1787, still before the Constitution, but while the convention was in session framing it, and while the Northwestern Territory still was the only Territory owned by the United States, the same question of prohibiting slavery in the Territory again came before the Congress of, the Confederation ; and two more of the "thirty- nine" who afterward signed the Constitution were in that Congress, and voted on the ques- tion. They were William Blount and William Few ; and they both voted for the prohibition — thus showing that in their understanding no line dividing local from Federal authority, nor any- thing else, properly forbade the Federal Govern- ment to control as to slavery in Federal territory. This time the prohibition became a law, being part of what is now well known as the ordinance of '87.

The question of Federal control of slavery 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