Editing Articles of Confederation (section)

===Accomplishments===
{{Further|Admission to the Union#Articles of Confederation}}
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Nevertheless, the Confederation Congress did take two actions with long-lasting impact. The [[Land Ordinance of 1785]] and [[Northwest Ordinance]] created territorial government, set up protocols for the [[admission to the Union|admission of new states]] and the division of land into useful units, and set aside land in each township for [[public domain (land)|public use]]. This system represented a sharp break from imperial colonization, as in Europe, and it established the precedent by which the national (later, federal) government would be sovereign and expand westward—as opposed to the existing states doing so under their sovereignty.{{sfn|Satō|1886|p=352}}

The [[Land Ordinance of 1785]] established both the general practices of land surveying in the west and northwest and the land ownership provisions used throughout the later westward expansion beyond the [[Mississippi River]]. Frontier lands were surveyed into the now-familiar squares of land called the [[township]] (36 square miles), the [[Section (United States land surveying)|section]] (one square mile), and the quarter section (160 [[acre]]s). This system was carried forward to most of the States west of the Mississippi (excluding areas of [[Texas]] and [[California]] that had already been surveyed and divided up by the [[Spanish Empire]]). Then, when the [[Southern Homestead Act of 1866|Homestead Act]] was enacted in 1867, the quarter section became the basic unit of land that was granted to new settler-farmers.

The [[Northwest Ordinance]] of 1787 noted the agreement of the original states to give up [[state cession|northwestern land claims]], organized the [[Northwest Territory]] and laid the groundwork for the eventual creation of new states. Although it did not happen under the articles, the land north of the [[Ohio River]] and west of the (present) western border of Pennsylvania ceded by [[Massachusetts]], [[Connecticut]], [[New York (state)|New York]], [[Pennsylvania]], and [[Virginia]], eventually became the states of [[Ohio]], [[Indiana]], [[Illinois]], [[Michigan]], and [[Wisconsin]], and the part of [[Minnesota]] that is east of the Mississippi River. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 also made great advances in the abolition of slavery. New states admitted to the union in this territory would never be slave states.

No new states were admitted to the Union under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles provided for a blanket acceptance of the [[Province of Quebec (1763–1791)|Province of Quebec]] (referred to as "Canada" in the Articles) into the United States if it chose to do so. It did not, and the subsequent Constitution carried no such special provision of admission. Additionally, ordinances to admit [[State of Franklin|Frankland]] (later modified to Franklin), [[Kentucky]], and [[Vermont Republic|Vermont]] to the Union were considered, but none were approved.