The Daily Cincinnati Republican, And Commercial Register

From the Ohio Sun.

Having, for some years past, heard it said that Gen. Harrison favored the introduction of Negro Slavery into Indiana Territory whilst he was Governor, we, a few days since, resolved to know how far the charges were true; and accordingly wrote to a friend, in whose statements we could place the utmost confidence, to know the truth as established by documentary evidence. Our friend sends us the following under date of the 25th Sept. 1836.

By Ordinance of Congress of 17th July, 1787 for the Government of the Northwestern Territory, it was authorised that the Governor and Judges, or a majority of them, shall adopt and publish in the district, such laws from the original states as shall be necessary for the Government of the Territory. I send the following:

LAWS for the Government of Indiana Territory:

A law concerning servants, adopted from the Virginia code, and published at Vincennes, the 22d day of September, 1803, by William Henry Harrison, Governor, Thomas T. Davis, and Henry Vanderburgh, Judges in and over said Territory

Sec. 1. All Negroes and Mulattoes [and other persons not citizens of the United States of America] who shall come into this territory under contract to serve another, shall be compelled to perform the same, specifically during the time thereof.

Sec. 2. The said servant shall be provided for by the master with wholesome and sufficient food, clothing, and lodging.

Sec. 3. The benefit of said service shall be assignable by the master to any person being a citizen of the territory.

Sec. 4. Any servant being lazy, disorderly, or guilty of misbehaviour to his master or his master's family, shall be corrected by stripes, on an order from a justice of the peace in the county where he resides, and all contracts between master and servant shall be void.

Sec. 10. All free men convicted of any minor offence shall be fined in a sum at the discretion of the court, and servants convicted of such offences shall receive thirty-nine lashes well laid on at the

WHIP.

WM H HARRISON,
Gov
Thomas T. Davis, Henry Vanderburgh,
Judges

A copy: Attest: John Badollet, Sec'y

Laws of Indiana Territory, 1807

It shall and may be lawful for any person being the owner or possessor of any negroes or mulattoes of and above the age of 15 years, and owing service and labor as slaves in any of the States and Territories of the United States, or for any citizen of said States or Territories purchasing the same, to bring the said negroes or mulattoes into this Territory.

JESSE B. THOMAS,
Speaker of the House of Reps.
B. CHAMBERS,
Pres. of the Council.
Approved Sept. 17, 1807.
WILLIAM H. HARRISON."

We have no comments to make on the above;— our pen could not make the picture one shade blacker; and for the honor of our state we could wish that it were not so black as it is. Add to this, his support of a law in this state which went to offer free white men at sheriff sale as slaves for a term, to those who would pay fines in which they might be immersed; and you are presented with a picture too hideous for a Nero's taste. Can it be that a man who would extend negro slavery over the fair West—the asylum and the place of retreat for the unfortunate and oppressed of every clime and country; that portion of our happy country, where the hardy sons of the heroes of '76 become the possessors of the soil rescued from British rule. We say can it be that such a man is to receive the suffrages of those free men now proudly treading the soil his policy and principles would have had teeming with myriads of slaves. Freemen of Ohio and Indiana, it is for you to answer!