Time: Sun Nov 03 06:47:12 1996
To: libertylaw@www.ultimate.org
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: Northwest Ordinance
Cc: 
Bcc: 

At 01:21 AM 11/3/96 -0800, you wrote:
>I believe that it was Paul who was 
>under the impression that the Northwest
>Ordinance was the first Land Ordinance. 
>It was not. Also check out the attachment
>from the Broadsides Collection of the
>Library of Congress (Continental Congress)
>on cessions by the States and whether they
>included jurisdiction. (I'm not sure whether
>the Act meant that no more cessions of 
>jurisdiction were needed or repudiated 
>any that had been made.) What do you think?


I don't believe I said, or implied, that
it was the first Land Ordinance, although
Marcia does have a much better grasp of
the history details here (as usual). :)

My reason for mentioning it was its use of
the phrase "Citizen of one of the United States",
and this at approximately the same time as the
U.S. Constitution was being penned.  Here,
the meaning of "United States" is clear in
context, because "one of" must be referring to 
a member of the Union of several States, not
to the federal government.

I am also led to believe, based on a modest 
amount of reading, that the Northwest Ordinance
was considered to be a model piece of legislation.
Would that we could say that about more of the
Acts of our Congress.  Sigh ...  Mark Twain,
where are you when we need you?

Thanks, Marcia, for your consistently high quality
input here.  Please do carry on.  Yes.

/s/ Paul Mitchell


>
>The first "Northwest Ordinance" written in 1784 by a committee
>under the guidance of Thomas Jefferson, envisioned an
>organization of the western lands into 16 "territories," each to
>be to be admitted "into the Congress of the United States, on an
>equal footing with the said original states" as soon as its
>population equaled that in any of the existing States.  In the
>interim, all free adult males would be provided a democratic
>self-government according to any State constitution and including
>a delegate to Congress. The ordinance also stipulated that new
>states "in no case, shall interfere with the primary disposal of
>the soil by the United States in Congress assembled," and also
>"that no tax shall be imposed on lands the property of the United
>States." The original ordinance was provisional on cession of all
>the western land claims and was never put into effect, being
>superceded by later versions.
>
>The U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785 required a survey of the land of
>the Northwest Territory (north of the Ohio River, between the
>Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River,) into townships
>and lots.  The Ordinance also directed that all springs and mines
>be noted and reserved "one third part of all gold, silver,
>copper, or lead mines, to be sold or disposed of as Congress
>should afterwards direct."  
>
>A "lot" was set as the smallest division of land for sale at a
>price of no less than $1/acre in specie (no credit.) Half of the
>land could be sold in 640 acre sections, but the other half had
>to be sold in quarter townships, which usually went to
>speculators. The system prevented frontiersmen from buying the
>land, for no frontiersman needed or could afford a whole section.
>With many Congressional seats occupied by speculators, the system
>was self-serving, promoting large sectional sales at eastern
>auctions that could be parcelled out in smaller tracts on credit. 
>It was anticipated that the Territory would be divided into 3-5
>states when sufficiently populated. The eastern Congress reasoned
>that only fewer and larger western states would protect the
>seaboard's economic interest from being overwhelmed by western
>votes. 
>
>In 1786, Indians attacked traders and settlements in the Ohio
>country. The Iroquois renounced their treaty and threatened war
>if their lands were occupied. Throughout Kentucky, a hue and cry
>arose for George Rogers Clark to save the northwest. Two
>expeditions were planned. One from Ft. Steuben to destroy Indian
>villages on the upper Wabash and the Miami, and another along the
>Great Miami River into Shawnee country. The men mutinied in the
>first expedition, but the second destroyed ten towns and crops.
>The Indians held two conferences in 1786-7, repudiating the
>treaties of Ft. Stanwix, Ft. McIntosh and Ft. Finney and
>declaring that the Ohio would be the boundary between the tribes
>and frontier. 
>
>Congress reacted by passing the Ordinance of 1786, setting up an
>Indian Department after the English model with superintendents
>for the areas north and south of the Ohio to bar unlicensed
>traders and secure fair prices for furs. A provision was also
>added to the Ordinance dealing with personal rights guaranteeing
>habeas corpus and trial by jury. Meanwhile, beginning in 1785,
>the surveying team had begun work on the base line or
>"Geographer's Line" of the "Seven Ranges." By 1787, four ranges
>were laid out and Congress decided to throw the area open to
>settlement at once. The first sales at New York were
>disappointing and buyers few. Purchases were small and usually at
>the $1 minimum. The sale saw a profit of only $176,090 in
>depreciated currency. 
>
>The Constitution of the United States was written in 1787, and
>ratified by eleven States by September 1788; although the new
>government was not inaugurated until March 4, 1789. James Madison
>had included provisions for equality in the first draft of the
>new Constitution: "If admission be consented to, new states shall
>be admitted on the same terms with the original states." A
>faction lead by Governor Morris of New York and Elbridge Gerry of
>Massachusetts advocated a plan to limit the number of new states
>so that they would never outnumber the older states or to admit
>new states on a less than equal basis. Madison insisted that "the
>Western States neither would nor ought to submit to a union which
>degraded them from an equal rank with the other States." (2
>Madison, "Journal of the Debates in the Convention which Framed
>the Constitution, 274 - Hunt's ed. 1908.) A compromise resulted
>in the neutral statement: "New states may be admitted by Congress
>into this Union."  
>
>Congress also included the provision under Article VI of the
>Constitution that "All debts contracted and engagements entered
>into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be valid
>against the United States under this Constitution, as under the
>Confederation."  Although the Article IX of the Articles of
>Confederation provided that"...no state shall be deprived of
>territory for the benefit of the United States," the qualified
>deeds of Cession by the State Legislatures had been executed as a
>voluntary act and survived as a valid pre-existing contract
>between the States and the United States under the new clause.
>
>The "Northwest Ordinance of 1787" was a restatement of prior
>ordinances. Conditional on consent to an alteration of Virginia's
>previous Act of cession of western land claims to the United
>States, the "Territory North West of the Ohio" was recognized as
>one large temporary district with provisions that it should be
>carved into not than three nor more than five Territories. (The
>so-called "Northwest Territory" comprised the present-day states
>of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.) 
> 
>  
>
>Attachment Converted: I:\ATTACH\P2
>
      


Return to Table of Contents for

Supreme Law School:   E-mail