134 The Winning of the West 



the government of the Northwestern Territory. He 

 commented upon and explained this proclamation, 

 stating that under it the President had appointed 

 the Governor, the Judges, and the Secretary of the 

 new Territory, and that he himself, as Governor, 

 would now appoint the necessary county officers. 



The remarkable feature of this address was that 

 he read to the assembled officers in each county, 

 as part of the law apparently binding upon them, 

 Article 6 of the Ordinance of 1787, which provided 

 that there should be neither slavery nor involuntary 

 servitude in the Northwestern Territory. 1 It had 

 been expressly stipulated that this particular provi- 

 sion as regards slavery should not apply to the 

 Southwestern Territory, and of course Blount's 

 omission to mention this fact did not in any way 

 alter the case; but it is a singular thing that he 

 should without comment have read, and his listeners 

 without comment have heard, a recital that slavery 

 was abolished in their territory. It emphasizes the 

 fact that at this time there was throughout the 

 West no very strong feeling on the subject of 

 slavery, and what feeling there was, was if anything 

 hostile. The adventurous backwoods farmers who 

 composed the great mass of the population in Ten- 

 nessee, as elsewhere among and west of the Alle- 

 ghanies, were not a slave-owning people, in the 

 sense that the planters of the seaboard were. They 



1 Blount MSS., Journal of Proceedings of William Blount, 

 Esq., Governor in and over the Territory of the United States 

 of America South of the River Ohio, in his executive depart- 

 ment, October 23, 1790. 



