us that "Mr. Lemen was a born anti-slavery leader, and had proved himself such in Virginia by inducing scores of masters to free their slaves through his prevailing kindness of manner and Christian arguments." Concerning the cession of Virginia's claims to the Northwest Territory, Jefferson is thus quoted, from his letter to Robert Lemen: "Before any one had even mentioned the matter, James Lemen, by reason of his devotion to anti-slavery principles, suggested to me that we (Virginia) make the transfer, and that slavery be excluded; and it so impressed and influenced me that whatever is due me as credit for my share in the matter, is largely, if not wholly, due to James Lemen's advice and most righteous counsel."[5]

Before this transfer was effected, it appears that Jefferson had entered into negotiations with his young protégé with a view to inducing him to locate in the "Illinois country" as his agent, in order to co-operate with himself in the effort to exclude slavery from the entire Northwest Territory. Mr. Lemen makes record of an interview with Jefferson under date of December 11, 1782, as follows: "Thomas Jefferson had me to visit him again a short time ago, as he wanted me to go to the Illinois country in the Northwest after a year or two, in order to try to lead and direct the new settlers in the best way, and also to oppose the introduction of slavery into that country at a later day, as I am known as an opponent of that evil; and he says he will give me some help. It is all because of his great kindness and affection for me, for which I am very grateful; but I have not yet fully decided to do so, but have agreed to consider the case." In May, 1784, they had another interview, on the eve of Jefferson's departure on his prolonged mission to France. Mr. Lemen's memorandum reads: "I saw Jefferson at Annapolis, Maryland, to-day, and had a very pleasant visit with him. I have consented to go to Illinois on his mission, and he intends helping me some; but I did not ask nor wish it. We had a full agreement and understanding as to all terms and duties. The agreement is strictly private between us, but all his purposes are perfectly honorable and praiseworthy."[6]

Thus the mission was undertaken which proved to be his life-work. He had intended starting with his father-in-law, Captain Ogle, in 1785, but was detained by illness in his family. December 28, 1785, he records: "Jefferson's confidential agent gave me one hundred dollars of his funds to use for my family, if need be, and if not, to go to good causes; and I will go to Illinois on his mission next spring and take my wife and children."

Such was the origin and nature of the so-called "Jefferson-Lemen Secret Anti-Slavery Compact," the available evidence concerning which will be given at the conclusion of this paper.[7] The anti-slavery propaganda of James Lemen and his circle constituted a determining factor in the history of the first generation of Illinois Baptists. To what extent Lemen co-operated with Jefferson in his movements will appear as we proceed with the story of his efforts to make Illinois a free State.

The "Old Dominion" ceded her "county of Illinois" to the National domain in 1784. Jefferson's effort to provide for the exclusion of slavery from the new Territory at that date proved abortive. Consequently, when James Lemen arrived at the old French village of Kaskaskia in July, 1786, he found slavery legally entrenched in all the former French possessions in the "Illinois country." It had been introduced by Renault, in 1719, who brought 500 negroes from Santo Domingo (then a French possession) to work the mines which he expected to develop in this section of the French Colonial Empire.[8] It is a noteworthy fact that slavery was established on the soil of Illinois just a century after its introduction on the shores of Virginia. When the French possessions were taken over by Great Britain at the close of the colonial struggle in 1763, that country guaranteed the French inhabitants the possession of all their property, including slaves. When Col. Clark, of Virginia, took possession of this region in 1778, the State likewise guaranteed the inhabitants the full enjoyment of all their property rights. By the terms of the Virginia cession of 1784 to the National Government, all the rights and privileges of the former citizens of Virginia were assured to them in the ceded district. Thus, at the time of Lemen's arrival, slavery had been sanctioned on the Illinois prairies for sixty-seven years. One year from the date of his arrival, however, the Territorial Ordinance of 1787 was passed, with the prohibition of slavery, as originally proposed by Jefferson in 1784.[9] Thus it would seem that the desired object had already been attained. By the terms of the famous "Sixth Article of Compact," contained in that Ordinance, it was declared that "there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said Territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the accused shall have been duly convicted." This looks like a sweeping and final disposition of the matter, but it was not accepted as such until the lapse of another fifty-seven years. But neither Jefferson nor his agents on the ground had anticipated so easy a victory. Indeed, they had foreseen that a determined effort would be made by the friends of slavery to legalize that institution in the Territory. Almost at once, in fact, the conflict commenced, which was to continue actively for thirty-seven years. Like the Nation itself, the Illinois country was to be for a large part of its history "half slave and half free"—both in sentiment and in practice.

Two attempts against the integrity of the "Sixth Article" were made during Gov. St. Clair's administration. The trouble began with the appeals of the French slave-holders against the loss of their slaves.[10] As civil administration under the Territorial government was not established among the Illinois settlements until 1790, both the old French inhabitants and the new American colonists suffered all manner of disabilities and distresses in the interval between 1784 and 1790, while just across the Mississippi there was a settled and prosperous community under the Spanish government of Louisiana. When, therefore, the French masters appealed to Gen. St. Clair, in 1787, to protect them against the loss of the principal part of their wealth, represented by their slaves, he had to face the alternative of the loss of these substantial citizens by migration with their slaves to the Spanish side of the river. And, in order to pacify these petitioners, St. Clair gave it as his opinion that the prohibition of slavery in the Ordinance was not retroactive, and hence did not affect the rights of the French masters in their previously acquired slave property. As this view accorded with the "compact" contained in the Virginia deed of cession, it was