And the governor, legislative council and house of representatives shall have authority to make laws, in all cases, for the good government of the district, not repugnant to the principles and articles in this ordinance established and declared.

And all bills passed by a majority in the house, and by a majority in the council, shall be referred to the governor for his assent, but no bill or legislative act whatever shall be of any force without his assent. The governor shall have power to convene, prorogue, and dissolve the general assembly when, in his opinion, it shall be expedient.

The governor, judges, legislative council, secretary, and such other officers as congress shall appoint in the district, shall take an oath or affirmation of fidelity and of office, the governor before the president of congress, and all other officers before the governor.

As soon as a legislature shall be formed in the district, the council and house, assembled in one room, shall have authority, by joint ballot, to elect a delegate to congress, who shall have a seat in congress, with the right of debating, but not of voting during this temporary government.

And for extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which form the basis whereon these republics, their laws and constitutions are erected; to fix and establish those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions and governments which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said territory; to provide, also, for the establishment of states, and permanent government therein, and for their admission to a share in the Federal councils on an equal footing with the original states, at as early a period as may be consistent with the general interest

It is hereby ordained and declared by the authority aforesaid, That the following articles shall be considered as articles of compact between the original states and the people and states in the said territory, and forever remain unalterable, unless by common consent, to wit:

ARTICLE 1. No person demeaning himself in a peaceable, orderly manner, shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or religious sentiments, in the said territory.

ART. 2. The inhabitants of said territory shall always be entitled, to the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus, and of the trial by jury; of a proportionate representation of the people in the legislature; and of judicial proceedings according to the course of the common law. All persons shall be bailable, unless for capital offenses where the proof shall be evident or the presumption great.

All fines shall be moderate; no cruel or unusual punishment shall

he inflicted.

No man shall be deprived of his liberty or property, but by judgment of his peers, or the law of the land; and, should the public exigencies make it necessary, for the common preservation, to take any person's property, or to demand his particular services, full com

pensation shall be made for the same. And, in the just preservation of rights and property, it is understood and declared, that no law ought ever to be made, or to have force in the said territory, that shall, in any manner whatever, interfere with, or affect, private contracts, or engagements, bona fide and without fraud, previously formed.

ART. 3. Religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights and liberty, they never shall be invaded, or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars, authorized by congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity, shall, from time to time, be made, for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them.

ART. 4. The said territory, and the state which may be formed therein, shall forever remain a part of this confederacy of the United States of America, subject to the Articles of Confederation, and to such alterations therein as shall be constitutionally made, and to all the acts and ordinances of the United States in congress assembled conformable thereto.

The inhabitants and settlers in the said territory shall be subject to pay a part of the federal debts, contracted, or to be contracted, and a proportional part of the expenses of government, to be apportioned on them by congress according to the same common rule and measure by which apportionment thereof shall be made on other states; and the taxes for paying their proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the district, or districts, or new states, as in the original states, within the time agreed upon by the United States in congress assembled. The legislatures of those districts, or new states, shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by the United States in congress assembled, nor with any regulations congress may find necessary for securing the title in such soil to bona fide purchasers. No tax shall be imposed on lands, the property of the United States, and in no case shall non-resident proprietors be taxed higher than residents. The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said territory as to the citizens of the United States, and those of any other states that may be admitted into the confederacy, without any tax imposed, or duty therefor.

ART. 5. There shall be formed in the said territory not less than three nor more than five states, and the boundaries of the states, as soon as Virginia shall alter her act of cession, and consent to the same, shall become fixed and established as follows, to wit:

The Western state in the said territory shall be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio and Wabash rivers, a direct line drawn from

the Wabash and Port Vincents due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, and by said territorial line to the Lake of the Woods and Mississippi.

The Middle state shall be bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash, from Port Vincents to the Ohio, by a direct line drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami to the said territorial line. The Eastern state shall be bounded by the last-mentioned direct line, the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the said territorial line.

Provided, however, and it is further understood and declared, That the boundaries of these three states shall be subject so far to be altered that, if congress shall hereafter find it expedient, they shall have authority to form one or two states in that part of the said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan, and when any of the said states shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants therein, such state shall be admitted, by its delegates, into the congress of the United States, on an equal footing with the original states, in all respects whatever, and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and state government; Provided, the constitution and government so to be formed shall be republican, and in conformity to the principles contained in these articles; and so far as it can be consistent with the general interest of the confederacy, such admission shall be allowed at an earlier period, and when there may be a less number of free inhabitants in the state than sixty thousand.

ART. 6. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; Provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original states, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor, or service, as aforesaid.

Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the resolutions of the twenty-third of April, seventeen hundred and eighty-four, relative to the subject of this ordinance, be, and the same are hereby, repealed and declared null and void.

Adopted July 13, 1787.

ACT ESTABLISHING THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY.

AN ACT

For the amicable settlement of limits with the State of Georgia, and authorizing the establishment of a government in the Mississippi Territory.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America in congress assembled, That the president of the United States be, and he hereby is, authorized to appoint three commissioners; any two of whom shall have power to adjust and determine with such commissioners as may be appointed under the legislative authority of the State of Georgia, all interfering claims of the United States and that state, to territory situate west of the river Chattahoochee, north of the thirty-first degree of north latitude, and south of the cession made to the United States by South Carolina: And also to receive any proposals for the relinquishment or cession of the whole or any part of the other territory claimed by the State of Georgia, and out of the ordinary jurisdiction thereof.

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That all the lands thus ascertained as the property of the United States, shall be disposed of in such manner as shall be hereafter directed by law; and the net proceeds thereof shall be applied to the sinking and discharging the public debt of the United States, in the same manner as the proceeds of the other public lands in the territory northwest of the river Ohio.

SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, That all that tract of country bounded on the west by the Mississippi; on the north by a line to be drawn due east from the mouth of the Yasous to the Chattahoochee river; on the east by the river Chattahoochee; and on the south by the thirty-first degree of north latitude, shall be, and hereby is constituted one district, to be called the Mississippi Territory; and the president of the United States is hereby authorized to establish therein a government in all respects similar to that now exercised in the territory northwest of the river Ohio, excepting and excluding the last article of the ordinance made for the government thereof by the late congress on the thirteenth day of July one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and by and with the advice and consent of the senate to appoint all the necessary officers therein, who shall respectively receive the same compensation for their services, to be paid in the same manner as by law established for similar officers in the territory northwest of the

river Ohio; and the powers, duties and emoluments of a superintendent of Indian affairs for the southern department, shall be united with those of governor: Provided always, that if the president of the United States should find it most expedient to establish this government in the recess of congress, he shall nevertheless have full power to appoint and commission all officers herein authorized; and their commissions shall continue in force until the end of the session of congress next ensuing the establishment of the government.

SEC. 4. Be it further enacted, That the territory hereby constituted one district for the purpose of government, may at the discretion of congress be hereafter divided into two districts, with separate territorial governments in each, similar to that established by this act.

SEC. 5. Be it further enacted, That the establishment of this government shall in no respect impair the right of the State of Georgia, or of any person or persons either to the jurisdiction or the soil of the said territory, but the rights and claims of the said state and of all persons interested, are hereby declared to be as firm and available, as if this act had never been made..

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That from and after the establishment of the said government, the people of the aforesaid territory, shall be entitled to and enjoy all and singular the rights, privileges and advantages granted to the people of the territory of the United States, northwest of the river Ohio, in and by the aforesaid ordinance of the thirteenth day of July, in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, in as full and ample a manner as the same are possessed and enjoyed by the people of the said last-mentioned territory. SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That from and after the establishment of the aforesaid government, it shall not be lawful for any person or persons to import or bring into the said Mississippi territory, from any port or place without the limits of the United States, or to cause or procure to be so imported or brought, or knowingly to aid or assist in so importing or bringing any slave or slaves, and that every person so offending, and being thereof convicted before any court within the said territory, having competent jurisdiction, shall forfeit and pay, for each and every slave so imported or brought, the sum of three hundred dollars; one moiety for the use of the United States, and the other moiety for the use of any person or persons who shall sue for the same; and that every slave, so imported and brought, shall thereupon become entitled to, and receive his or her freedom.

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the sum of ten thousand dollars be, and hereby is appropriated, for the purpose of enabling the president of the United States to carry into effect the provisions. of this act; and that the said sum be paid out of any monies in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.

Approved April 7, 1798.

(1 U. S. Statutes at Large, 549.)