B. Cardiveau Letter to Arthur St. Clair

              [written in another hand in corner]1789 
[written in another hand] June 30 
Danville June 30 th [superscript] 1789 ./. 
Sir 
I take the liberty to address Your Excellency in behalf 
of a people who look up to you as their natural protector & benevolent 
Father.  The honor I have of a personal acquaintance with you [tear] 
Excellency inspires me with the confidence that, to offer you an 
opportunity of relieving the distress of your fellow creatures, is [ter] 
afford to your feeling heart the highest qualification it may be c[tear]able 
of enjoying.  I need not, therefore, make any apology for troubling - 
Your Excellency on this occasion. 
During my stay in New-York I took notice to the 
President & several other members of the late Congress, of a Resolve 
passed in the year 1787 con[tear]ning the Western federal territory, the 
object of which was to [tear] slavery in that country.  I then foresaw 
the evil conseq[tear] iews of this Act, as it can, would produce 
among the in[tear] Illinois, & communicated my fears to the 
Gentleman in Con[tear] strating at the same time against the 
illegailty of an Ex post [tear] law, the operation of which would deprive 
a considerable number of citizens of their property, acquired & enjoyed 
long before they were under the Dominion of the United States.  I would 
have presented a Memorial on the subject, but was told it were needless, that 
it would be mentioned in Congress, & it would not bear the smallest difficulty: 
and as I had already troubled that Honorable Body with a number of - 
Petitions & Memorials, I refrained from a sense of decency, presenting this one 
for which I thought there was no [tear]ccasion.  Sensible of the justice of m[tear] 
reclamations, the Gentlemen remarked that the intention of the obnoxio[tear] 
Resolve had been solely to prevent the future importation of slaves into [tear] 
federal country; that it was not meant to affect the rights of the ancient 
inhabitants; and promised me to have a clause inserted in it explanatory of