1860] at cooper union
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signed the original instrument may be fairly called our fathers who framed that part of the present government. It is almost exactly true to say they framed it, and it is altogether true to say they fairly represented the opinion and senti- ment of the whole nation at that time. Their names, being familiar to nearly all, and accessible to quite all, need not now be repeated.
I take these "thirty-nine," for the present, as being "our fathers who framed the government under which we live." What is the question which, according to the text, those fathers under- stood "just as well, and even better, than we do now" ?
It is this : Does the proper division of local from Federal authority, or anything in the Con- stitution, forbid our Federal Government to con- trol as to slavery in our Federal Territories?
Upon this, Senator Douglas holds the affirma- tive, and Republicans the negative. This affirma- tion and denial form an issue; and this issue — this question — is precisely what the text declares our fathers understood "better than we." Let us now inquire whether the "thirty-nine," or any of them, ever acted upon this question ; and if they did, how they acted upon it — how they ex- pressed that better understanding. In 1784, three years before the Constitution, the United States then owning the Northwestern Territory, and no other, the Congress of the Confederation had before them the question of prohibiting slavery in that Territory ;* and four of the "thirty-nine" who afterward framed the Con- stitution were in that Congress, and voted
- The bill was reported by Thomas Jefferson. It pro-
hibited slavery after 1800 above the parallel of 31° north latitude. It failed to pass by one vote.
