His original draft of the ordinance contained five important articles:[1] Notably the map in Jefferson's draft of the committee's report to Congress included two states to be carved out of land ceded by Virginia on its western side and south of the Ohio River, in what is now Kentucky.
From a letter from Jefferson to James Madison, dated April 25, 1784: "The clause was lost by an individual vote only.
When, in 1785, the legislature refused to consider the proposal, Jefferson wrote: "We must hope that an overruling Providence is preparing the deliverance of these our suffering brethren."
In 1786, narrating the loss of the clause against slavery in the ordinance of 1784, he said: "The voice of a single individual would have prevented this abominable crime; heaven will not always be silent; the friends to the rights of human nature will in the end prevail."
This latter ordinance provided for civil liberties and public education within new territories that would be created north and west of the Ohio river, and banned slavery therein.