Editing Northwest Ordinance (section)

===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."