Editing Northwest Ordinance (section)

==Effects==
[[File:United States 1789-08-1790-04.png|thumb|upright=1.05|Map of
territories of the United States as it was on August 7, 1789, when the Northwest Territory was organized]]

===Land ownership===
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established the concept of [[fee simple]] ownership by which ownership was in perpetuity, with unlimited power to sell or give it away. That was called the "first guarantee of freedom of contract in the United States."<ref>
{{cite book |title      = The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else
 |last       = De Soto
 |first      = Hernando
 |year       = 2000
 |publisher  = Basic Books
 |isbn       = 978-0465016143
 |url-access = registration
 |url        = https://archive.org/details/mysteryofcapital00soto
}}
</ref>

===Abolition and transfer of state claims===
{{Main|State cession}}
Passage of the ordinance, which ceded all unsettled lands to the federal government and established the [[public domain (land)|public domain]], followed the relinquishing of all such claims over the territory by the states. The territories were to be administered directly by Congress, with the intent of their eventual admission as newly created states. The legislation was revolutionary in that it established the precedent for new lands to be administered by the central government, albeit temporarily, rather than under the jurisdiction of the individually-sovereign original states, as under the Articles of Confederation. The legislation also broke colonial precedent by defining future use of the natural navigation, transportation and communication routes. It did so in a way that anticipated future acquisitions beyond the Northwest Territories and established federal policy.<ref name="Nat&WatRes">''The Nation and its Water Resources'', Leonard B. Dworsky, Division of Water Supply and Pollution Control,  United States Public Health Service, 167 pp., 1962. [https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/8415 Chapters 1–6]</ref> Article 4 stated: "The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and [[Saint Lawrence River|St. Lawrence]], and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said territory as to the citizens of the United States, and those of any other States that may be admitted into the confederacy, without any tax, impost, or duty therefor."

===Admission of new states===
The most significant intended purpose of the legislation was its mandate for the creation of new states from the region. It provided that at least three but not more than five states would be established in the territory and that once such a state achieved a population of 60,000, it would be admitted into representation in the Continental Congress on an [[equal footing]] with the original thirteen states. The first state created from the Northwest Territory was [[Ohio]] in 1803, and the remaining territory was renamed [[Indiana Territory]]. The other four states were [[Indiana]], [[Illinois]], [[Michigan]], and [[Wisconsin]]. A portion (about a third) of what later became [[Minnesota]] was also part of the territory.

===Education===
{{Main|College Lands}}
The 1787 ordinance encouraged education, stipulating that "Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."  This built on the 1785 ordinance, which had specified that each township should set aside land that would be rented out to support public schools.<ref>{{cite journal|journal= Indiana Magazine of History|title=Public Education in the Old Northwest: 'Necessary to Good Government and the Happiness of Mankind'|author=Carl F. Kaestle|jstor=27791140|date=March 1988|volume=84|issue=1|pages=60–74}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.prrac.org/the-american-right-to-education-the-northwest-ordinance-reconstruction-and-the-current-challenge/|title=he American Right to Education: The Northwest Ordinance, Reconstruction, and the Current Challenge|author=Derek W. Black|journal=Poverty and Race Journal|date=22 March 2021|issue=1|volume=30|pages=5–6}}</ref> In 1786, [[Manasseh Cutler]] became interested in the settlement of western lands by [[American pioneers to the Northwest Territory]]. The following year, as agent of the [[Ohio Company of Associates]], which he had been involved in creating, he organized a contract with Congress whereby his associates, former soldiers of the Revolutionary War, might purchase {{convert|1,500,000|acre|ha|abbr=on}} of land at the mouth of the [[Muskingum River]] with their Certificate of Indebtedness. Cutler also took a leading part in drafting the Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest Territory, which was finally presented to Congress by Massachusetts delegate [[Nathan Dane]]. For the smooth passage of the Northwest Ordinance, Cutler bribed key congressmen by making them partners in his land company. By changing the office of provisional governor from being elected to appointed, Cutler was able to offer the position to the president of Congress, Arthur St. Clair.<ref>McDougall, Walter A. ''Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585–1828''. (New York: Harper Collins, 2004), p. 289.</ref>

In 1797, settlers from [[Marietta, Ohio|Marietta]] traveled upstream via the [[Hocking River]] to establish a location for the school and chose [[Athens, Ohio|Athens]] for its location directly between [[Chillicothe, Ohio|Chillicothe]] and Marietta.  Originally named in 1802 as the American Western University, the school never opened. Instead, [[Ohio University]] was formally established on February 18, 1804, when its charter was approved by the Ohio General Assembly. Its establishment came 11 months after Ohio was admitted to the Union. The first three students enrolled in 1809. Ohio University graduated two students with bachelor's degrees in 1815.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=786|title=Ohio University|publisher=Ohio History Central: An Online Encyclopedia of Ohio History|access-date=December 31, 2009}}</ref>

===Establishment of territorial government===
While the population of free, male inhabitants of a territory was less than 5,000, there would be a limited form of government: a governor, a secretary, and three judges, all being appointed by Congress. The governor, appointed for a three-year term and given a "freehold estate therein, in one thousand acres of land," would be the commander-in-chief of the militia, appoint magistrates and other civil officers, and help create and publish laws. The secretary, appointed for a four-year term and given a similar freehold estate as the governor but of five hundred acres, would be in charge of keeping and preserving the acts and laws passed by the territorial legislatures, keep the public records of the district, and transmit authentic copies of such acts and proceedings every six months to the secretary of the Continental Congress. Three judges, who would be appointed indefinitely "during good behaviour" and be given the same freehold as the secretary, would be in charge of helping the governor create and pass acts and laws and in making official court rulings.<ref>{{cite web |title=Northwest Ordinance |url=http://loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/northwest.html |date=July 13, 1787 |pages=335–337 |website=Library of Congress |department=Primary Documents in American History |access-date=March 7, 2019}}</ref>

Once the population of a territory reached 5,000 free, male inhabitants, it would receive the authority to elect representatives from counties or townships to a territorial general assembly. For every 500 free males, there would be one representative until there were 25 representatives. Then, Congress would control the number and proportion of the representatives from that legislature. No male could be a representative unless he was a [[citizen of the United States]] for at least three years or lived in the district for three years and owned at least 200 acres of land within the same district. The representatives would serve for a term of two years. If a representative died or was removed from office, a new one would be elected to serve out the remaining time.<ref>{{cite web |title=Northwest Ordinance |url=http://loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/northwest.html |date=July 13, 1787 |pages=337–338 |website=Library of Congress |department=Primary Documents in American History |access-date=March 7, 2019}}</ref>

===Establishment of natural rights===
The [[Natural rights and legal rights|natural rights]] provisions of the ordinance foreshadowed the [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]], the first ten amendments to the [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chardavoyne |first1=David G. |editor1-first=Paul |editor1-last=Finkelman
| editor2-last  = Hershock | editor2-first = Martin J. |title=The history of Michigan law |series=Ohio University Press series on law, society, and politics in the Midwest |year=2006 |publisher=Ohio University Press |location=Athens |isbn=978-0-8214-1661-7 |oclc=65205057 |chapter=The Northwest Ordinance and Michigan's Territorial Heritage |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jjSD45-P2_YC&pg=PA13 |quote=Its provisions established a structure of government that encouraged settlement of that vast region and provided those settlers a startling set of civil rights that presaged the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights }}</ref> Many of the concepts and guarantees of the Ordinance of 1787 were incorporated in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In the Northwest Territory, various legal and property rights were enshrined, [[Toleration|religious tolerance]] was proclaimed, and since "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." The right of ''[[habeas corpus]]'' was written into the charter, as were [[Freedom of religion in the United States|freedom of religion]] and bans on excessive fines and [[cruel and unusual punishment]]. [[Jury trial|Trial by jury]] and a ban on [[Ex post facto law|''ex post facto'' laws]] were also rights that were recognized.

===Prohibition of slavery===
{{blockquote|'''Art. 6.''' There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided, always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid.<ref>{{cite web|title=Northwest Ordinance; July 13, 1787|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/nworder.asp|work=Avalon Project|publisher=Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School|access-date=February 17, 2014}}</ref>}}

At the time, no one claimed being responsible for this article. Sometime later, [[Nathan Dane]] of Massachusetts claimed he wrote it, and Manasseh Cutler told his son [[Ephraim Cutler]] that he wrote it. Historian [[David McCullough]] discounts Dane's claim because Dane was not a good writer.<ref>David McCullough, "The Pioneers," Simon and Schuster, New York, pp. 29–30{{ISBN?}}</ref> The language of the ordinance prohibits slavery<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/opinion/sunday/anti-immigration-laws-black-pioneers.html|title=Opinion {{!}} When Anti-Immigration Meant Keeping Out Black Pioneers|last=Cox|first=Anna-Lisa|date=2019-09-20|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-09-21|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> but also contains a clear fugitive slave clause.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/pss/3122644 |page=345|jstor=3122644 |title=Slavery and the Northwest Ordinance: A Study in Ambiguity |last1=Finkelman |first1=Paul |journal=Journal of the Early Republic |date=1986 |volume=6 |issue=4 |doi=10.2307/3122644 }}</ref> An attempt to add limited slavery to the proposed constitution of Ohio in 1802 was defeated after a major effort led by Ephraim Cutler, who represented Marietta, the town founded by the Ohio Company.<ref>McCullough, pp. 144–147</ref>

Efforts in the 1820s by proponents of slavery to legalize slavery in two of the states (Illinois and Indiana) created from the Northwest Territory failed, but an "[[indentured servant]]" law allowed some slaveholders to bring slaves under that status who could not be bought or sold.<ref>David Brion Davis and Steven Mintz, ''The Boisterous Sea of Liberty'', 2000 p. 234</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/pss/3123523 |jstor=3123523 |title=Evading the Ordinance: The Persistence of Bondage in Indiana and Illinois |last1=Finkelman |first1=Paul |journal=Journal of the Early Republic |date=1989 |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=21–51 |doi=10.2307/3123523 }}</ref> Southern states voted for the law because they did not want to compete with the territory over tobacco as a commodity crop since it was so labor-intensive that it was grown profitably only with slave labor. Also, slave states' political power would be merely equalized since there were three more slave states than there were free states in 1790.<ref>Marcus D. Pohlmann, Linda Vallar Whisenhunt, [https://books.google.com/books?id=XbzhWvjCxc0C&q=ordinance ''Student's Guide to Landmark Congressional Laws on Civil Rights''], Greenwood Press, 2002, pp. 14–15</ref>

The [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]], ratified in 1865, which outlawed slavery throughout the United States, quotes verbatim from Article 6 of the Northwest Ordinance.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/articles/4/essays/124/fugitive-slave-clause|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120421180046/http://www.heritage.org/constitution#!/articles/4/essays/124/fugitive-slave-clause|url-status=unfit|archive-date=April 21, 2012|title=Guide to the Constitution|website=www.heritage.org|access-date=2019-09-21}}</ref>

===Effects on Native Americans===
In two parts, the Northwest Ordinance mentions the [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] within the region. One pertains to the demarcation of counties and townships out of lands that the Indians were regarded as having lost or relinquished title:

{{quotation|Section 8. For the prevention of crimes and injuries, the laws to be adopted or made shall have force in all parts of the district, and for the execution of process, criminal and civil, the governor shall make proper divisions thereof; and he shall proceed from time to time as circumstances may require, to lay out the parts of the district in which the Indian titles shall have been extinguished, into counties and townships, subject, however, to such alterations as may thereafter be made by the legislature.<ref>[http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=8&page=transcript Transcript of the Northwest Ordinance – 1787. ''An Ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio'']. Section 8. Retrieved March 21, 2014.</ref>}}

The other describes the preferred relationship with the Indians:

{{quotation|Article III.  Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and, in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity, shall from time to time be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them.<ref>[http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=8&page=transcript Transcript of the Northwest Ordinance – 1787. ''An Ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio'']. Section 14, Article 3. Retrieved March 21, 2014</ref>}}

Many Native Americans in Ohio who were not parties refused to acknowledge treaties signed after the Revolutionary War that ceded lands north of the Ohio River inhabited by them to the United States. In a conflict sometimes known as the [[Northwest Indian War]], [[Blue Jacket]] of the [[Shawnee]]s and [[Little Turtle]] of the [[Miami people|Miamis]] formed a confederation to stop white expropriation of the territory. After the Indian confederation killed more than 800 soldiers in two battles, the worst defeats ever suffered by the United States in conflicts with Indigenous nations, U.S. President [[George Washington]] assigned General [[Anthony Wayne]] command of a [[Legion of the United States|new army]], which eventually defeated the confederation and allowed [[European Americans]] to continue to settle the territory.