The earliest Congress under the Constitution attests this mood. One of its first acts was to accept the Ordinance of Freedom for the Northwestern Territory, thus ratifying the prohibition of Slavery in all _existing_ territory. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this act as a national landmark, especially when we consider that on the list of those who sanctioned it were men fresh from the National Convention, and therefore familiar with the Constitution which it framed. The same Congress entertained the question of Slavery in other forms,--sometimes on memorials duly presented, and then again in debate. Virginia was heard by her Abolition Society denouncing Slavery as "not only an odious degradation, but an outrageous violation of one of the most essential rights of human nature, and utterly repugnant to the precepts of the Gospel."[148] There was another petitioner, whose illustrious services at home and abroad entitled him to speak with authority rather than with prayer. It was none other than Benjamin Franklin. After a long life of various effort,--representing his country in England during the controversies that preceded the Revolution,--returning to take his great part in the Declaration of Independence,--then representing his country in its European negotiations,--then again returning to take his great part in the formation of the National Constitution, while all the time his life was elevated by philosophy and the peculiar renown he had won,--this Apostle of Liberty, recognized as such in the two hemispheres, whose name was signed to the Declaration of Independence, was signed to the Treaty of Alliance with France, was signed to the Treaty of Independence with Great Britain, was signed to the National Constitution, now set this same name to another instrument, a simple petition to Congress. At the age of eighty-four, venerable with years, and with all the honors of philosophy, diplomacy, and statesmanship,--a triple crown never before enjoyed,--the patriot sage comes forward, as President of the Abolition Society of Pennsylvania, and entreats Congress "that it would be pleased to countenance the restoration of Liberty to those unhappy men who alone in this land of Freedom are degraded into perpetual bondage,"--and then again, in concluding words, "that it would _step to the very verge of the power vested in it for discouraging every species of traffic in the persons of our fellow-men_."[149] Shortly after this prayer the petitioner descended to his tomb, from which he still prays that Congress _will step to the very verge of the power vested in it to DISCOURAGE Slavery_; and this prayer, in simple words, proclaims the National policy of the Fathers. Not encouragement, but discouragement of Slavery,--not its _nationalization_, but its _denationalization_, was their rule. [148] Weld, Power of Congress over the District of Columbia, p. 29. [149] Annals of Congress, 1st Cong. 2d Sess., col. 1198.