The Carolinas and Georgia. Policy of to western lands. Schouler's United States, I, 108-113. Ordinance of 1785. Fiske's Critical Period, 196-198; Howard's Local Constitutional History, 135. thus reserved were used for educational purposes in Connecticut; in 1800 she ceded her rights of jurisdiction in this tract to the United States. South Carolina (1787) abandoned her claim to a little strip twelve miles wide lying just south of North Carolina. North Carolina (1790) ceded her claim to jurisdiction over what is now Tennessee, but she had already granted away most of the land. Finally, in 1802, Georgia followed the other states, and ceded her claims to the vast tract between her present western boundary and the Mississippi River. Long before this, by the treaty of 1783, Great Britain had abandoned her right to this whole western region. 173. The National Domain.—In suggesting that the states should transfer their claims to the United States, Congress (1780) had also proposed that the western lands should be "disposed of for the common benefit and be formed into distinct republican states, which shall become members of the federal union." Congress and the states seem to have agreed to regard this land as national property, to be used for national purposes, and its possession by the United States as a whole worked powerfully for the continuance of union. In the pre-revolutionary days, the crown had the disposal of ungranted lands within the empire; Congress regarded itself as the successor to the crown, and accordingly undertook the management of the public domain of the United States. In 1785, after the New York and Virginia cessions, but before the Massachusetts and Connecticut cessions, the Congress of the Confederation passed an ordinance, or law, for the government of the territory north and west of the Ohio River. This Ordinance provided for the ultimate formation of several new states. When formed, these states were to have republican governments and be admitted to the Confederation. The Ordinance originally contained a clause prohibiting slavery after the year 1800, in the western country north of the thirty-first parallel, but this had been omitted before the final vote; its origin may be directly traced to Jefferson. Little was done to organize the terri 1787] The National Domain 225 tory under this Ordinance; but the cession by Connecticut. (1786) again brought the matter to the attention of Congress. Meantime, a New England land and emigration. society had endeavored to induce emigration to the territory, but had failed because settlers would not leave their homes in the East without direct guarantees of civil rights in the new settlements they were to found west of the Alleghanies. The society urged the matter upon Congress, which replied by passing the Ordinance of 1787, the most important piece of general legislation of the Confederation epoch. Ordinance cal Period, Local Constitutional This Ordinance applied only to the territory northwest of the Ohio and provided for the ultimate formation of from three to five states out of that territory; but, as a matter of fact, part of a sixth state- Minnesota - was also included in this region. In the first instance, Congress was to appoint the governor, judges, and military officers of the new territory; the governor and the judges were to possess legislative powers, subject to the veto of Congress. As soon, however, as the free male inhabitants of full age should number five thousand, they should elect delegates to a House of Representatives. This body, with a governor and ments, No. 4. History, Old South MacDonald's Docu Importance of the Ordinance. council appointed by Congress, formed the territorial Assembly; it possessed full legislative power, provided the laws were not contrary to certain conditions laid down in the Ordinance; and the Assembly could appoint a delegate to Congress, who, however, had no vote in that body. Whenever the population should increase to sixty thousand, the territory, or a portion of it, might be admitted to the Confederation on a footing of equality with the original states. Settlers in this new region were guaranteed civil rights, as, for example, the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus, trial by jury, bail, and moderate fines and punishments; laws impairing the obligation of prior contracts were forbidden, education was encouraged, and proper treatment of the Indians secured. The three most important provisions of the Ordinance are those which provided for the equal distribution of the property of persons dying without a will, prohibited the molestation of any person on account of religion, and forbade slavery absolutely and forever except as a punishment for crime, with a provision for the restoration of fugitive slaves. This Ordinance was in reality a form of constitution for colonies to be planted on the national domain: it provided for them colonial governments on terms similar to those which the colonists had claimed for themselves before 1776; it guaranteed equal rights to the settlers; and provided for their admission to full political rights as soon as their numbers justified an expensive form of government. For the first time in the history of modern times, colonists and dwellers. in the home land were to regard one another as equals. As the United States has acquired new land, territories have been organized on this model, with the omission in many cases of the clause relating to slavery. The new communities formed on the national domain have been termed territories and states. The use of these words, with the liberality of the policy outlined above, has disguised the fact that during the present century the United States has been the greatest and most successful colonizing power in the world. 1787] Social Progress of the Ordinance. 227 The question of the power of Congress to pass this Ordi- Legality nance has given rise to much discussion: southern writers generally have held that it was void and of no effect; but the matter is really of little importance, as the first Congress under the Constitution re-enacted it. The precise nature of the Ordinance has also been disputed; but usually it has been held that it was in the nature of a contract between Congress and the people of the several states, which could not be changed except with the consent of both parties to it. cal Period, 69-89. Slave emancipation. Fiske's Critical Period, 174. Social Progress, 1780-89. - The liberal and en- Social lightened provisions of the Ordinance of 1787 as to the progress, 1780-89. distribution of estates, freedom of religion, and abolition of Fiske's Critislavery were the outcome of a great social movement which began before the Revolution and continued long after it. Old barriers were everywhere swept away: in 1777 the people of Vermont, in their constitution, declared against slavery; in 1780 John Adams wrote the words of the Massachusetts Bill of Rights, which declared that "all men are 71-76. born free and equal," and three years later the Massachusetts Supreme Court interpreted this clause to mean that no person could be legally held as a slave in that commonwealth; and (1780) Pennsylvania adopted a system of gradual emancipation. Indeed, when the Constitution went into effect (1788), of all the states north of Mason and Dixon's line New York and New Jersey alone had not taken measures to free the slaves within their limits. During this period (1783-89) all the states except South Carolina and Georgia had restricted or abolished the slave trade from abroad and from neighboring states. As to the growth of liberal ideas in the settlement of religious questions, similar progress had been made: most of the state constitutions declared for complete religious freedom; in many states, however, Roman Catholics were still excluded from office, and in Massachusetts the dissenting faiths found it practically impossible to obtain the rights which the constitution of that state seemed to allow them. Laws against the Roman Catholics, which had been on the Growth toward religious freedom. Fiske's Criti cal Period, 76-87. The franchise liberalized. Fiske's Critical Period, 69-71. Relations with Great Britain, 1783-89. Fiske's Critical Period, 119-133, 138142. statute books of the colonies since the seventeenth century, were repealed, and the Episcopal Church was disestablished in Virginia and Maryland. The evangelical faiths were organized on a national basis, and bishops were secured by the Episcopalians, the Methodists, and the Roman Catholics. The conditions on which the franchise was conferred were also made more liberal: many states substituted a qualification resting on the payment of a tax for the much higher property qualification of the colonial period. Laws designed to encourage the formation of great estates by giving to the eldest son of a deceased parent the whole, or the larger part, of the property were either greatly modified or entirely repealed. In fact, from the point of view of the student of the history of society, this period was one of great progress; in other respects it was the most distressful period in the nation's history. 175. Foreign Relations, 1783-89.-No sooner was peace declared, than the British merchants flooded the American markets with goods of all descriptions. These found a ready sale, for every one was looking forward to the future with hopefulness. Gold and silver were exported in large quantities to pay for these commodities. Instead of doing everything possible to place it in the power of the people of the new nation to pay for goods already bought and to continue the purchase of British commodities, the government of Great Britain enforced against them all the commercial regulations which in the earlier time had been directed against foreigners. Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress had no power to make counteracting regulations, and, having nothing to give in return, could not compel the British government even to enter into negotiations for a commercial treaty. In all this, the British government proceeded in strict accordance with its rights, although the inexpediency of its actions is clear; but in other respects, it violated the known rules of international law. The treaty of peace of 1783, for instance, required the British to evacuate all military posts held by their forces within the limits of the new states, and not to take |