The other of the four--James
M'Henry--voted against the prohibition, showing that, for some
cause, he thought it improper to vote for it.[8]
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 Territories 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 question. They were William Blount and William Few[9]; and
they both voted for the prohibition--thus showing that, in their
understanding, no line dividing local from federal authority, nor
anything else, properly forbade the Federal Government 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.[10]
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.
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