Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/462

 states, by an act, passed by an almost unanimous vote, securing freedom to all persons born in that state after the fourth of July next following; the children of slave parents to become free, males at twenty-five, and females at twenty-one — a law which gave great satisfaction to Governor Bloomfield, who had been from the beginning a zealous member of the New Jersey society for the abolition of slavery. A new effort was also made in Pennsylvania to hasten the operation of the old act for gradual abolition, by giving immediate freedom to all slaves above the age of twenty-eight years; but this attempt failed as before.

In January, 1805, a proposition was brought before congress by Sloan, of New Jersey, that all children born of slaves within the District of Columbia, after the ensuing fourth of July, should become free at an age to be fixed upon. This proposition was refused reference to the committee of the whole, by a vote of sixty-five to forty-seven, and was then rejected, seventy-seven to thirty-one.

At the session of 1805-6, the renewed African slave-trade with South Carolina being carried on with great vigor, the question of a tax on slaves imported was again revived by Sloan. After some debate, in which the blame of the traffic was bandied about between South Carolina, by which the importation was allowed, and Rhode Island, accused of furnishing ships for the business, a bill was ordered by a decided majority. But the subject was passed over to the next session, when it would be competent for congress to provide for abolishing the trade altogether.

At the same session, the original memorial from Indiana, to suspend temporarily the operation of the sixth article of the ordinance of 1787, with several additional memorials of like purport, was again referred by the house to a select committee, whereof Mr. Gamett, of Virginia, was chairman, who, on the 14th of February, 1806, made a report in favor of the prayer of the petitioners, as follows:

"That, having attentively considered the facts stated in the said petition and memorials, they are of opinion that a qualified suspension, for a limited time, of the sixth article of compact between the original states and the people and states west of the river Ohio, would be beneficial to the people of the Indiana territory. The suspension of this article is an object almost universally desired in that territory.

"It appears to your committee to be a question entirely different from that between slavery and freedom; inasmuch as it would merely occasion the removal of persons, already slaves, from one part of the country to another. The good effects of this suspension, in the present instance, would be to accelerate the population of that territory, hitherto retarded by the operation of that article of compact, as slave-holders emigrating into the western country might then indulge any preference which they might feel for a settlement in the Indiana territory, instead of seeking, as they are now compelled to do, settlements in other states or countries permitting the introduction of slaves. The condition of the slaves themselves would be much ameliorated by it, as it