J.B.

McMaster, _History of the People of the United States_, II, 359; J.F.

Rhodes, _History of the United States_, I, 19.] The central government of the United States during the Revolution and the Confederation was little concerned with slavery problems except in its diplomatic affairs, where the question was merely the adjustment of property in slaves, and except in regard to the western territories.
Proposals for the prohibition of slavery in these wilderness regions were included in the first projects for establishing governments in them.
Timothy Pickering and certain military colleagues framed a plan in 1780 for a state beyond the Ohio River with slavery excluded; but it was allowed to drop out of consideration.

In the next year an ordinance drafted by Jefferson was introduced into Congress for erecting territorial governments over the whole area ceded or to be ceded by the states, from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi and from Canada to West Florida; and one of its features was a prohibition of slavery after the year 1800 throughout the region concerned.

Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress could enact legislation only by the affirmative votes of seven state delegations.