Term of service; vacancies, how filled. Constitution of the legislative bills. and two years' residence in the district, shall be necessary to qualify a man as an elector of a Representative. 10. The Representatives thus elected shall serve for the term of two years; and in case of the death of a Representative, or removal from office, the Governor shall issue a writ to the county or township for which he was a member, to elect another in his stead, to serve for the residue of the term. 11. The General Assembly, or Legislature, shall consist of the power; vacancies Governor, Legislative Council and a House of Representatives. how filled; Governor's assent to The Legislative Council shall consist of five members, to continuo in office five years, unless sooner removed by Congress; any three of whom to be a quorum. And the members of the Council shall be nominated and appointed in the following manner, to wit: As soon as Representatives shall be elected, the Governor shall appoint a time and place for them to meet together, and when met, they shall nominate ten persons, resident in the district, and each possessed of a freehold in five hundred acres of land, and return their names to Congress; five of whom Congress shall appoint and commission to serve as aforesaid; and whenever a vacancy shall happen in the Council, by death or removal from office, the House of Representatives shall nominate two persons, qualified as aforesaid, for each vacancy, and return their names to Congress; one of whom Congress shall appoint and commission for the residue of the term. And every five years, four months at least before the expiration of the time of service of the members of Council, the said house shall nominate ten persons, qualified as aforesaid, and return their names to Congress; five of whom Congress shall appoint and commission to serve as members of the Council five years, unless sooner removed. 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, having 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. Oath of office; gress. 12. The Governor, Judges, Legislative Council, Secretary, and Delegate to Con- 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 a right of debating, but not of voting, during this temporary government. 13. 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 periods as may be consistent with the general interest: pact. It is hereby ordained and declared by the authority aforesaid, Articles of comThat 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 I. ship. No person demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner Religious wor shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or religious sentiments, in the said Territory. ARTICLE II. beas corpus; compensation taken for public to affect private The inhabitants of the said Territory shall always be entitled to The writ of hathe benefits of the writ of habeas corpus, and of the trial by jury; bail; fines; of a proportionate representation of the people in the Legislature, for property and of judicial proceedings according to the course of the common service; laws not law. All persons shall be bailable, unless for capital offenses, contracts. where the proof shall be evident, or the presumption great. All fines shall be moderate; and no cruel or unusual punishments shall be inflicted. No man shall be deprived of his liberty or property, but by the 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 compensation 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 have force in the said Territory, that shall in any manner what Education; In dians. States to remain part of Confede expenses of Gov ernment; navi gable waters. ever interfere with or affect private contracts or engagements, bona fide, and without fraud, previously formed. ARTICLE III. 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. ARTICLE IV. The said Territory, and the States which may be formed therein, racy; debts and 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 apportionments thereof shall be made on the 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 these 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 the 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 inhabtants 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, impost, or duty therefor. ARTICLE V. formed in the dary of western State; eastern mitted into the Union; proviso. There shall be formed in the said Territory not less than three, States, how to be nor more than five States; and the boundaries of the States, as territory; bounsoon as Virginia shall alter her act of cession, and consent to the State; middle same, shall become fixed and established as follows, to wit: the State; when adwestern 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 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 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 to the principles contained in these articles; and, so far as it can be consistent with the general interests 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. There shall neither be slavery nor involuntary servitude in the slavery prohibsaid Territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crime, whereof ited; proviso. the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is Resolutions repealed. 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, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four, relative to the subject of this ordinance, be and the same are hereby repealed and declared null and void. 1 Story's Laws of U. B., p. 32, eh. 8. Governor to make communi dent of the United States. President and AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TERRITORY IN CONGRESS, AUGUST 7, 1789. WHEREAS, In order that the ordinance' of the United States in Congress assembled for the government of the territory northwest of the river Ohio, may continue to have full effect, it is requisite that certain provisions should be made, so as to adapt the same to the present Constitution of the United States: SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Reprecation to Presi- sentatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in all cases in which by the said ordinance any information is to be given, or communication made, by the Governor of the said Territory, to the United States in Congress assembled, or to any of their officers, it shall be the duty of the said Governor to give such information, and to make such communication to the President of the United States; and the President shall nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint all officers which, by the said ordinance, were to have been appointed by the United States, in Congress assembled; and all officers, so appointed, shall be commissioned by him; and, in all cases where the United States, in Congress assembled, might by the said ordinance revoke any commission, or remove from any office, the President is hereby declared to have the same powers of revocation and removal. Territorial offi cers. President to commission and remove. In case of death, removal, etc., execute the pow SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That in case of the death, the Secretary to removal, resignation, or necessary absence of the Governor of the ers of Governor said Territory, the Secretary thereof shall be and he is hereby authorized and required to execute all the powers and perform all during the vacancy. 1 See act of 1800, ch. 41, act of 1802, ch. 40, act of 1804, ch. 80. |