The power of Congress to deal with the admission of new States was not only denied at the time, but its alleged want of such power was one of the principal reasons which were said to require a revision of the federal system. It does not appear that the subject of legislation on the rights or condition of persons attracted particular attention; nor do we know, from anything that has come down to us, that the clause relating to slavery was stricken from Mr. Jefferson's resolve in 1784, upon the special ground of a want of constitutional power to legislate on such a question. But Mr. Jefferson has himself informed us, that a majority of the States in Congress would not consent to construe the Articles of Confederation as if they had reserved to nine States in Congress power to admit new States into the Union from the territorial possessions of the United States; and that they so shaped his measure, as to leave the question of power and the rule for voting to be determined when a new State formed in the territory should apply for admission.[276] It seems, also, that although the power to frame territorial governments, to organize States and admit them into the Union, was assumed in the Ordinance of 1787, the Congress of the Confederation never acted upon the power so far as to admit a State.[277] Finally, we are told by Mr. Madison, in the Federalist, that all that had been done in the Ordinance by the Congress of the Confederation, including the sale of lands, the organization of governments, and the prescribing of conditions of admission into the Union, had been done "without the least color of constitutional authority";[278]--an assertion which, whether justifiable or not, shows that the power of legislation was by some persons strenuously denied.[279]