Georgia, in 1802, ceded the territory on her west to the United States, and provided that the Ordinance of 1787 should extend to the ceded territory, "the article only excepted which forbids slavery." Thus, later, Alabama and Mississippi each became a slave State.(28) (14) Jefferson's _Works_, vol. ix., 276. (15) The authorship of the admirably-drawn Ordinance has been much in dispute. Thomas H. Benton, Gov. Edward Coles, and others attribute the authorship to Jefferson; Daniel Webster and others to Nathan Dane, while a son of Rufus King claimed him to be the author of the article prohibiting slavery. Wm. Frederick Poole, in a contribution to the _North American Review_, gives much of the credit of authorship to Mr. Dane, but the chief credit for the formation and the entire credit for the passage of the Ordinance to Dr. Manasseh Cutler, _St. Clair Papers_, vol. i, p. 122. (16) On the continuing binding force of the Ordinance on States formed out of the Northwest Territory there has been some contrariety of opinion. In Ohio it was early held the Ordinance was more obligatory than the State Constitution, which might be amended by the people of the State, whereas the Ordinance could not. (5 _Ohio_, 410, 416.) But see: 10 Howard (_U. S._), 82, and 3 Howard, 589. (17) Madison of Virginia, Rufus King of New York, Johnson of Connecticut, Blount and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, and Few of Georgia were members of both bodies.--_Historical Ex._, etc., Dred Scott Case (Benton), p. 37 _n_. The Ordinance was adopted July 13, 1787; the Constitution was adopted by the Convention September 17, 1787. (18) _St. Clair Papers_, vol. i, p. 134. (19) Dunn's _Indiana_, p. 126. (20) _St. Clair Papers_, vol. i, pp 120-1, note. _Historical Ex_., etc., Dred Scott Case, pp. 32-47, etc. _Political Text Book_, 1860 (McPherson), pp. 53-4. (21) Not until 1844 did the highest court of Illinois decide (four to three) that a colored man, held as a slave by a descendant of an old French family, was free. Jarrot case (2 Gillman), 7 _Ill._, 1. (22) _St. Clair Papers_, vol. i., pp. 120, 206, and vol. ii, pp. 117-119, 318, 331. (23) Much valuable information in relation to the legal history of slavery in the Northwest has been obtained from the manuscript of "An Unwritten Chapter of Illinois," by ex-U. S. Judge Blodgett, of Chicago. (24) State _vs_. Lasselle, 1 _Blatchford_, 60. (25) Cooley's _Michigan_, pp. 136-7. (26) For an exhaustive legal history of the slavery restriction clause of the Ordinance and its effect on slavery in the Northwest Territory, see Dunn's _Indiana_, pp. 219-260. (27) _St. Clair Papers_, vol. i., p. 122, note. (28) _Political Text-Book_, 1860 (McPherson), p. 53. VI CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES