the president of Congress, and all other officers before the governor. As soon as a legislature shall be formed in the district, the council and house assembled, in one room, shall have authority, by joint ballot, to elect a delegate to Congress, who shall have a seat in Congress, with a right of debating, but not of voting during this temporary govern

ment.

And for extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which form the basis. whereon these republics, their laws and constitutions are erected; to fix and establish those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions, and governments, which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said territory: to provide also for the establishment of states, and permanent government therein, and for their admission to a share in the federal councils on an equal footing with the original states, at as early periods as may be consistent with the general interest:

ment of the

It is hereby ordained and declared, by the au- This is an thority aforesaid, That the following articles shall acknowledgbe considered as articles of compact between the principle of original states, and the people and states in the said limited deterritory, and forever remain unalterable, unless by common consent, to wit:

Article the first. No person, demeaning himself

mocracy.

in a peaceable and orderly manner, shall ever be Freedom of molested on account of his mode of worship or worship first religious sentiments, in the said territory.

time in the United

Article the second. The inhabitants of the said States. territory, shall always be entitled to the benefits of See Magna Charta, 36, 39, the writ of habeas corpus, and of the trial by jury; 40. of a proportionate representation of the people in This article the legislature, and of judicial proceedings accord- was copied ing to the course of the common law. All persons Constitution shall be bailable, unless for capital offences, where of the United the proof shall be evident, or the presumption great. was the outAll fines shall be moderate; and no cruel or unusual growth of

into the

States. It

turbance throughout the country.

the trade dis- punishments shall be inflicted. No man shall be deprived of his liberty or property, but by the judg ment of his peers, or the law of the land, and should the public exigencies make it necessary, for the common preservation, to take any person's property, or to demand his particular services, full compensation shall be made for the same. And in the just preservation of rights and property, it is understood and declared, that no law ought ever to be made, or have force in the said territory, that shall in any manner whatever interfere with, or affect private contracts or engagements, bona fide, and without fraud previously formed.

The first recognition after the

Revolution that public

education

was the duty of government.

There seems no doubt

that the

Northwest

Territory

ered to be an

Article the third. 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 never shall be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorised 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.

Article the fourth. The said territory, and the states which may be formed therein, shall forever remain a part of this confederacy of the United was consid- States of America, subject to the articles of conintegral part federation, and to such alterations therein, as shall of the United be constitutionally made; and to all the acts and States, subordinances of the United States in Congress asject to the limitations, sembled, conformable thereto. The inhabitants and enjoying and settlers in the said territory, shall be subject to the privipay a part of the federal debts, contracted or to be contracted, and a proportional part of the expences of government, to be apportioned on them by Con

leges of the

Articles of Confederation.

gress, according to the same common rule and measure, by which apportionments thereof shall be made on the other states; and the taxes for paying their proportion, shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the district or districts or new states, as in the original states, within the time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled. The legislatures of those districts or new states, shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by the United States in Congress assembled, nor with any regulations Congress may find necessary for securing the title in such soil to the bona fide purchasers. tax shall be imposed on lands the property of the United States; and in no case shall non-resident proprietors be taxed higher than residents. The navigable waters leading into the Missisippi and 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.

No

Article the fifth. There shall be formed in the said territory, not less than three, nor more than five states; and the boundaries of the states, as soon as Virginia shall alter her act of cession, and consent to the same, shall become fixed and established as follows, to wit: The western state in the said territory, shall be bounded by the Missisippi, the Ohio and Wabash rivers; a direct line drawn from the Wabash and Post Vincents due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada; and by the said territorial line to the lake of the Woods and Missisippi. The middle state shall be bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash from Post Vincents to the Ohio; by the Ohio, by a direct line drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami, to the said territorial line, and by the

said territorial line. The eastern state shall be bounded by the last mentioned direct line, the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the said territorial line: provided however, and it is further understood and declared, that the boundaries of these three states, shall be subject so far to be altered, that if Congress shall hereafter find it expedient, they shall have authority to form one or two states in that part of the said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of The Colonial lake Michigan. And whenever any of the said status of the states, shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants Northwest Territory therein, such state shall be admitted, by its delewas intended gates, into the Congress of the United States, on an to be tempo- equal footing with the original states, in all respects whatever; and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and state government: provided the constitution and government so to be formed, shall be republican, and in conformity to the principles contained in these articles; and so far as it can be consistent with the general interest of the confederacy, such admission shall be allowed at an earlier period, and when there may be a less number of free inhabitants in the state than sixty thousand.

rary.

This article

did not completely dedicate the

Article the sixth. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof Northwest to the party shall have been duly convicted: provided freedom,

since slaves then in the territory

could be held so long as they lived, but it was practically an anti-slavery clause.

always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labour 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 labour or service as aforesaid.

Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the resolutions of the 23d of April, 1784, relative to the subject of this ordinance, be, and the same are hereby repealed and declared null and void.

CONTEMPORARY EXPOSITION

DANE (1787)

New York, July 16, 1787. DEAR SIR: I am obliged to you for yours of the 11th inst. With pleasure I communicate to you what we are doing in Congress, not so much from a consciousness that what we do is well done, as from a desire that you may be acquainted with our proceedings. We have been much engaged in business for ten or twelve days past, for a part of which we have had 8 states. There appears to be a disposition to do business; and the arrival of R. H. Lee is of considerable importance. I think his character serves at least in some degree, to check the effects of the feeble habits and too [tardy?] modes of thinking in some of his countrymen. We have been employed about several objects - the principal ones of which have been the Government inclosed, and the Ohio Purchase. The former you will see is completed, and the latter will be probably completed to-morrow. We tried one day to patch up M. S. P. systems of W. Govern't. Started new ideas, and committed the whole to Carrington, Dane, R. H. Lee, Smith, and Kean. We met several times, and at last agreed on some principles, at least Lee, Smith and myself. We found ourselves rather pressed; the Ohio Company appeared to purchase a large tract of the Federal lands about 6 or 7 millions of acres; and we wanted to abolish the old system, and get a better one for the Government of the country- and we finally found it necessary to adopt the best system we could get. All agreed, finally, to the inclosed, except A. Yates. He appeared in this case, as in most others, not to understand the subject at all. I think the number of free inhabitants, 60,000, which are requisite for the admission of a new State into the Confederacy, is too small; but, having divided the whole territory into three States, this number appeared to me to be less important. Each State, in the common course of things, must become important soon after it shall have that number of inhabitants. The Eastern State of the three will probably be the first, and more important than the rest, and will, no doubt, be settled chiefly by Eastern people; and there is, I think, full