It was in its results a deadly stroke against the traffic in and ownership of human beings, and the blow was dealt by southern men, to whom all honor should ever be given.

This anti-slavery compact was the most important feature of the ordinance, yet there were many other features only less important.
Importance of the Ordinance.
In truth the ordinance of 1787 was so wide-reaching in its effects, was drawn in accordance with so lofty a morality and such far-seeing statesmanship, and was fraught with such weal for the nation, that it will ever rank amongst the foremost of American state papers, coming in that little group which includes the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Washington's Farewell Address, and Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and Second Inaugural.

It marked out a definite line of orderly freedom along which the new States were to advance.

It laid deep the foundation for that system of widespread public education so characteristic of the Republic and so essential to its healthy growth.
It provided that complete religious freedom and equality which we now accept as part of the order of nature, but which were then unknown in any important European nation.

It guaranteed the civil liberty of all citizens.