460
Defending the Constitution
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 Post Vincents
due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada;
and by the 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 Post Vincents to the Ohio; by the Ohio, by a direct line drawn due
north from the mouth of the Great Miami, to the said territorial line, and
by the said territorial line. The eastern States 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 whenever 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 with 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.
Article the sixth. 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
23rd of April, 1784, relative to the subject of this ordinance, be, and the
same are hereby repealed and declared null and void.