With great sagacity the issue was chosen—an issue which could unite all states East and West, which were north of the slave line, and which could strike a blow at Southern supremacy on its most vulnerable point the institution of slavery.
Public sentiment had already undergone important changes with regard to this institution. The inexorable operation of the laws of nature had made slavery sectional. It now remained to force the division of political parties on the same sectional line.
All the original thirteen States had been partners in the introduction and existence of slavery and its protection by the Constitution; each section taking such part as best suited the peculiar interests and characteristics of its people. The Northeastern States took the commercial part, and were largely instrumental in the slave trade, for the reason that they were the chief commercial section. Thus they became the carriers for imported slaves as for other articles of merchandise. The Southern States furnished the market and were the buyers. The slave trade and the institution of slavery had been reprobated by good men of all sections from the time of the revolution. The sentiments of Washington, Jefferson and other Southern leaders are well known.
The first movement to exclude slavery from the territories came from the South. (See Journals of Congress; Benton s Thirty Years, vol. 1; Donaldson s Public Domain.) March 1, 1784, Mr. Jefferson submitted to Congress his famous plan for the government of the Northwest Territory, being the same day on which Congress accepted the cession of Virginia. This plan, with a few amendments, was adopted April 23d, and became "The Ordinance of 1784." The ordinance, as offered by Mr. Jefferson, contained the clause: "That after the year 1800 of the Christian era there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States (formed out of Northwest Territory) otherwise than
