Ohio History Journal

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THE ORDINANCE OF 1787

THE ORDINANCE OF 1787.

 

SOME INVESTIGATIONS AS TO THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE

FAMOUS SIXTH ARTICLE.

 

 

COL. W. E. GILMORE, CHILLICOTHE.

Senator Roberts, of Pennsylvania, in the great debate over

the bill for the admission of Missouri to the Union, in 1820,

characterized the Ordinance of 1787 as "that immortal Ordinance

which, with its elder sister, the Declaration of American Inde-

pendence, will shed eternal and inextinguishable lustre over the

annals of our country."

Daniel Webster, in a speech upon the Foote Resolution

(1829), said: "We are accustomed to praise the law-givers of

antiquity; we help to perpetuate the fame of Solon and Lycur-

gus; but I doubt whether one single law of any law-giver, an-

cient or modern, has produced effects of more distinct, marked

and lasting character than the Ordinance of 1787."

Salmon P. Chase, in his preface to his Statutes at Large of

Ohio, says of it: "Never in the history of the world did a meas-

ure of legislation so accurately fulfill, and yet so mightily exceed,

the expectation of the legislators."

"Whatever," said Senator George F. Hoar in his magnificent

oration at the Marietta Centennial Celebration, "whatever of

these gifts nature has not given, is to be traced directly to the

institutions of civil and religious liberty the wisdom of your

fathers established; above all in the great Ordinance of 1787.

'The spirit of the Ordinance pervades all these States' (of the

Northwest). Here was the first human government under which

absolute civil and religious liberty has always prevailed. Here,

no witch or wizard was ever hanged or burned. Here, no heretic

was ever molested. Here, no slave was ever born or dwelt.

"When older States and nations, where the chains of human

bondage have been broken, shall utter the proud boast, 'with a

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