St. Clair and Wayne 353 



provided for trial by jury, the writ of habeas cor 

 pus, the privileges of the common law, and the 

 right of proportional legislative representation. 

 The third enjoined that faith should be kept with 

 the Indians, and provided that "schools and the 

 means of education" should forever be encouraged, 

 inasmuch as "religion, morality, and knowledge" 

 were necessary to good government. The fourth 

 ordained that the new States formed in the North 

 west should forever form part of the United States, 

 and be subject to the laws, as were the others. The 

 fifth provided for the formation and admission of 

 not less than three or more than five States, formed 

 out of this Northwestern territory, whenever such 

 a putative State should contain sixty thousand in 

 habitants; the form of government to be republi 

 can, and the State, when created, to stand on an 

 equal footing with all the other States. 



The sixth and most important article declared 

 that there should never be slavery or involuntary 

 servitude in the Northwest, otherwise than for the 

 punishment of convicted criminals, provided, how 

 ever, that fugitive slaves from the older States 

 might lawfully be reclaimed by their owners. This 

 was the greatest blow struck for freedom and 

 against slavery in all our history save only Lin 

 coln's emancipation proclamation, for it deter 

 mined that in the final struggle the mighty West 

 should side with the right against the wrong. It 

 was in its results a deadly stroke against the traffic 

 in and ownership of human beings, and the blow 



