348 The Winning of the West 



soil is rich they only possess the capacity of acquir 

 ing value under labor. All their value arises from 

 the labor done on them or in their neighborhood, 

 except that it depends also upon the amount of labor 

 which must necessarily be expended in transporta 

 tion. 



It is the fashion to speak of the immense oppor 

 tunity offered to any race by a virgin continent. In 

 one sense the opportunity is indeed great; but in 

 another sense it is not, for the chance of failure is 

 very great also. It is an opportunity of which ad 

 vantage can be taken only at the cost of much hard 

 ship and much grinding toil. 



It remained for Congress to determine the condi 

 tions under which the settlers could enter the new 

 land, and under which new States should spring up 

 therein. These conditions were fixed by the famous 

 Ordinance of 1787; one of the two or three most 

 important acts ever passed by an American legisla 

 tive body, for it determined that the new Northwest 

 ern States, the children, and the ultimate leaders, 

 of the Union, should get their growth as free com 

 monwealths, untainted by the horrible curse of negro 

 slavery. 



Several ordinances for the government of the 

 Northwest were introduced and carried through 

 Congress in 1784-86, but they were never put into 

 operation. In 1784, Jefferson put into his draft of 

 the ordinance of that year a clause prohibiting slav 

 ery in all the Western territory, South as well as 

 North of the Ohio River, after the beginning of the 



