It was only at a later day, and at the demand of Slavery, that the validity of the great Ordinance of Freedom was called in question. Mr. Webster, in his memorable debate with Mr. Hayne in 1830, vindicated this measure in language worthy of the cause and of himself, giving to it a palm among the laws by which civilization has been advanced, and asserting its enduring character:—
“We are accustomed, Sir, to praise the lawgivers of antiquity; we help to perpetuate the fame of Solon and Lycurgus; but I doubt whether one single law of any lawgiver, ancient or modern, has produced effects of more distinct, marked, and lasting character than the Ordinance of 1787.… It fixed forever the character of the population in the vast regions northwest of the Ohio, by excluding from them involuntary servitude. It impressed on the soil itself, while it was yet a wilderness, an incapacity to sustain any other than freemen. It laid the interdict against personal servitude in original compact, not only deeper than all local law, but deeper also than all local constitutions.”[219]
Words of greater beauty and power cannot be found anywhere in the writings or speeches of our American orator. It would be difficult to declare the perpetual character of this original interdict more completely. The language is as picturesque as truthful. Deeper than all local law, deeper than all local constitutions, is this fundamental law; and such is its essential quality, that the soil which it protects cannot sustain any other than freemen. Of such a law the orator naturally proceeded to say:—
“We see its consequences at this moment; and we shall never cease to see them, perhaps, while the Ohio shall flow. It was a great and salutary measure of prevention.”[220]
In these last words the value of such a law is declared. It is for prevention, which is an essential object of all law. In this case it is the more important, as the evil to be prevented is the most comprehensive of all.
Therefore, on the authority of Mr. Webster, in harmony with reason also, do I say, that this original condition was not only perpetual in character, but beneficent also. It was beneficence in perpetuity.
Mr. Chase, in his admirable argument before the Supreme Court of the United States, in the Vanzandt case, is hardly behind Mr. Webster in homage to this Ordinance, or in a sense of its binding character. In his opinion it is a compact of perpetual obligation:—
“I know not that history records a sublimer act than this. The United American States, having just brought their perilous struggle for freedom and independence to a successful issue, proceeded to declare the terms and conditions on which their vacant territory might be settled and organized into States; and these terms were, not tribute, not render of service, not subordination of any kind, but the perpetual maintenance of the genuine principles of American Liberty, declared to be incompatible with Slavery; and that these principles might be inviolably maintained, they were made the articles of a solemn covenant between the original States, then the proprietors of the territory and responsible for its future destiny, and the people and the States who were to occupy it. Every settler within the territory, by the very act of settlement, became a party to this compact, bound by its perpetual obligations, and entitled to the full benefit of its excellent provisions for himself and his posterity. No subsequent act of the original States could affect it, without his consent. No act of his, nor of the people of the territory, nor of the States established within it, could affect it, without the consent of the original States.”[221]
According to these words, which I am sure would not be disowned by the present Chief Justice of the United States, the Ordinance is a sublime act, having for its object nothing less than the perpetual maintenance of the genuine principles of American Liberty. In form it is a compact, unalterable except by the consent of the parties, and therefore forever.
If anything in our history is settled by original authority, supported by tradition and time, it is the binding character of the Ordinance for the Government of the Northwest Territory. Nobody presumed to call it in question, until at last Slavery flung down its challenge to everything that was settled for Freedom. The great Ordinance, with its prohibition of Slavery, was not left unassailed.