The Northwest Ordinance

The Northwest Ordinance outlined the process by which the territory between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers could be admitted as states to the United States of America.¹ A group of legislators led by Massachusetts representative Nathan Dane were the primary authors of the Ordinance. The Confederation Congress—which operated under the Articles of Confederation, the country’s first governmental system—ratified the document on July 13, 1787, just a few months before the creation of the American Constitution.²

Great Britain had barred its Anglo-American colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains. Now that the United States had access to this land—which Native Americans retained sovereignty over—a debate ensued over whether states or the national government would hold title to the land. The Northwest territory was expansive, as William Faden’s 1793 map entitled The United States of North America: with the British territories and those of Spain according to the treaty of 1784 illustrates. Some expressed concerns that acquiring more territory could weaken the nation’s collective power if individual states held title.³ Those residing in states that bordered the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys, such as Pennsylvania and Virginia, sought land rights to facilitate the geographical expansion of their state, which would translate into an expansion of state power. Eastern states with no western border claims argued that the land should belong to the national government to prevent being overpowered by westward expanding states.⁴ Land speculators likewise favored the national government holding title so they could buy tracts of that land and resell it at a higher price.

It was ultimately decided that the federal government would be the claimant, but there were conflicting ideas over what the next steps should be. Congress deemed seizing the land for the United States a priority so the country could pay back Revolutionary War veterans. These ambitions neglected the fact that the land rightfully belonged to Native Americans.⁵

A plan Thomas Jefferson created in 1784 for adding states to the Union preceded the Northwest Ordinance but had too many issues to be implemented.⁶ Jefferson’s scheme allowed prospective states to govern themselves throughout the process and set the standard for achieving statehood as reaching a population equal to the smallest of the original thirteen states.⁷ He envisioned ten new states, as depicted in Henry Pursell’s 1784 A Map of the United States of N. America. Wariness still remained about newly-admitted states being able to overpower or rebel against established ones, especially considering that, under Jefferson’s plan, new states were free to govern themselves without federal oversight before the admittance vote, which required approval from nine of the original thirteen states.⁸ Due to these issues, Jefferson’s ordinance was never put into action.⁹

The Northwest Ordinance was written as the Constitution was being drafted.¹⁰ The Ordinance was loosely based on Jefferson’s 1784 plan but included changes that both alleviated the concerns surrounding his original idea and incorporated points of consensus the Constitutional Convention had reached. First, the Northwest territory would be divided into three to five states, a number judged not substantial enough to overpower existing states.¹¹ The plan had three stages with cautionary measures. In the first stage, Congress would appoint a governor, a secretary, and three judges to govern the proposed state.¹² Once the districts had five thousand free adult males, the populace could elect their own representatives but remained under the control of the congressionally-appointed governor.¹³ Finally, once the area had a population of sixty thousand free adult males, it would be admitted as a state.¹⁴ Additionally, the Ordinance created a list of considerations for those involved in the process of awarding statehood, such as granting the people of the Northwest Territory rights of religious freedom, habeas corpus, and trial by jury.¹⁵

While the Ordinance urged people of the United States and prospective states to treat Natives Americans fairly and acknowledged that their land was not to be taken without consent, western settlers typically did not abide by these strictures.¹⁶ Another area of contention in the Northwest Ordinance was its declaration that the Northwest Territory would be free from slavery. That the new Northwest states were free states fueled growing tensions regarding the expansion of slavery that would culminate in the Civil War.¹⁷

In all, this document fundamentally shaped the development of the United States. The Northwest Ordinance allowed for the creation of states in the newly acquired Northwest Territory and laid the foundation for the future admittance of states to the Union. However, the Ordinance set westward expansion on a violent course as Native Americans defended themselves and their land. Additionally, the Ordinance’s declaration that the new states would not have slavery intensified tensions over the issue of slavery.

Banner image credit: William Faden’s 1793 map entitled The United States of North America: with the British territories and those of Spain according to the treaty of 1784

Bibliography

Duffey, Denis P. “The Northwest Ordinance as a Constitutional Document.” Columbia Law Review 95, no. 4 (1995): 929–68.

Horsman, Reginald. “The Northwest Ordinance and the Shaping of an Expanding Republic.” The Wisconsin Magazine of History 73, no. 1 (1989): 21–32.

Onuf, Peter S. Statehood and Union: A History of the Northwest Ordinance. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1987.