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The Northwest Ordinance 1787
The Practice of History
Matthew Storms
History 411
Professor Guevara
March 16, 2013
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Background
Dating back to 16th and 17th centuries, before the United States had been
established as a nation, its land was settled and dispersed among European powers
including Spain in the South, with France and Britain in control of the North East. Great
Britain held power over of most of the coastal North East territory, while the French
were left with the inland area surrounding the Great Lakes. With no waterway to the
Atlantic and ultimately to Europe, these early French settlers sought to discover a new
waterway, or Northwest Passage. During the 1660s and 1670s the French had a period
of great expansion, and by 1673 had pushed their territory to the Mississippi River and
south almost reaching the Spanish.
Robert de la Salle, a famous French explorer, was able to greatly expand the
territory from about 1673-1689 as he was able to establish a water route from the St.
Lawrence River, through the Niagara, the Great Lakes, and across into the Mississippi.
La Salle recognized that the Mississippi River be a major asset in the control of the
“French heartland.” La Salle’s territory bordering the British at the Ohio River stayed in
French control for nearly one hundred years until the region was acquired by the newly
developed United States at the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War.
As the New Nation developed, the urge to expand westward was on the minds
of the most prominent of American leaders including Thomas Jefferson. The Land
Ordinance of 1784, written by Jefferson became the essential outline for the Northwest
Ordinance passed three years later. Its main argument was to divide the Northwest
Territory into separate states, and offered a plan for the federal government to follow.
Although Thomas Jefferson was not the only writer of the Northwest Ordinance other
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notable contributors included Nathan Dane and Rufus King, who were all members of
Continental Congress, the governing body of the United States from 1781-1789. The
Northwest Territory was to be divided and into “not less than three and not more than
five States.” In order to become a state, a division of the territory must meet three
provisions of the federal government. This document helped to greatly promote western
expansion among American settlers in the push to the Pacific Ocean.1
The Practice of History
As a historian it is good to get outside ones “comfort zone” and to explore
and research various topics in different ways. For this assignment, the class was asked
to choose a topic and research it using a single technique or source base. For my topic
I chose to research the Norwest Ordinance of 1787 because it is a huge piece of
legislation that usually over shadowed in your every day American history class.
Throughout high school and college, when discussing the history of the United States
events such as the Revolutionary War and the Civil War are reviewed thoroughly while
many events and important documents that occurred or were created during the
countries development are either left out or only touched upon. This is not the fault of
the educator, but instead the immense amount of material and the short amount of class
time in which to teach it. This legislation drafted by the Second Continental Convention
in 1787 helped to jumpstart the boom of westward expansion of the United States in a
time when the country was brand new. To understand what truly happened in the past,
historians must use various research methods to discover information that they might
1
Onuf, Peter S. Statehood and Union: A History of the Northwest Ordinance.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987. Print
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have otherwise missed. Throughout my years as a history undergrad, in research, I
have found myself drawn more to personal documents such as diaries, letters, videos,
etc. we finding out about a particular topic. To put myself outside of my “comfort zone”
it seemed appropriate to research a government document. By doing so I hoped to gain
a new understanding or view of western expansion in the United States.
Research Process and Sources
To begin my research process I wanted to go directly to the document itself to
get the best representation of the message the Second Continental Congress was
trying to portray to the people of the United States. Using any other source than the
original document could contain some kind of bias or opinion, the question of what to do
with the last that made up the Northwest Territory was a slightly controversial one. I
was able to find the original transcript of the document in part of the Yale Law School’s,
Avalon Project, which is a collection of important documents relevant to law, history,
economics, politics, and government. The document contains all 14 sections and 6
articles. It was only after reading the document in its entirety I turned to a secondary
web source put out by the Wisconsin Historical Society to help understand and
summarize the text and later what was accomplished due to the Northwest Ordinance.
With the idea of staying outside of my comfort zone in mind, this research method was
also unorthodox of my usual style. In my experience, it is always good to gain a
background on a particular piece of legislator to understand its purpose, but it was
interesting to attempt to research in a new way.
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Diving into the Document: Northwest Ordinance 1787
“Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled, that the said
territory, for the purposes of temporary government, be one district, subject,
however, to be divided into two districts, as future circumstances may, in the
opinion of Congress, make it expedient.”2
The above words are taken from section one of the Northwest Ordinance of
1787, as originally written by the Second Continental Congress and signed on July 13.
This important government document helped to establish present day Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, and Wisconsin as states. The 14 Sections and 6 Articles are aimed to charter a
government for the Norwest Territory, provide a method for admitting new states to the
union, and finally listed a bill of rights that was guaranteed to the territory and its
citizens.
In the beginning sections of the document, congress states its aims to create a
civil government within the new territory with positions including a Governor, Secretary,
and three judges. Sections 3 through 7 of the document go into detail about the
positions of the Territorial Government, and specifically the powers and responsibilities
of the appointed Governor. As the legislation continues to section 9, Congress shifts its
focus to the second stage of the ordinance, local government and its representatives.
2
United States Congress. Northwest Ordinance 1787: Section 1. The Avalon Project,
Yale University. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.
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This section describes the process of how territories will receive representatives based
on its population.3
“So soon as there shall be five thousand free male inhabitants of full age in the
district, upon giving proof thereof to the governor, they shall receive authority,
with time and place, to elect a representative from their counties or townships to
represent them in the general assembly: Provided, That, for every five hundred
free male inhabitants, there shall be one representative.”4
After the first two phases of the ordinance were complete, then a territory could officially
become a state, and in 1803 Ohio led the way by being the first in the territory to
acquire statehood.
The second part of the Northwest Ordinance consisted of 6 articles that were
aimed to work as a bill of rights guaranteed to all citizens of the new states of the
Norwest Territory. These rights included the freedom of religion, right to trial by jury,
and the right to education. The final article also abolished slavery in the territory, which
also worked as a huge step in the right direction to fully abolishing slavery in the United
States in the future.
Conclusion
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 is a document that helped to revolutionize
westward expansion of the United States as it grew from a new developing nation into
3
Wisconsin Historical Society. The Northwest Ordinance, 1787. Madison, WI. Web. 12
Mar. 2013.
4 United States Congress. Northwest Ordinance 1787: Section 9. The Avalon Project,
Yale University. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.
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the world power it has become today. Although this government document stands as
one of the most important in American history, it may still be a confusing piece of
legislature for the general public to understand without background information. To
understand historical significance and framework of the document, it is imperative that
other sources are used in the research process. Finding out more about what
influenced the document and the members of the Second Continental Congress that
wrote it should be an early step in the practice of history that we have discussed all
semester.
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Bibliography
Onuf, Peter S. Statehood and Union: A History of the Northwest Ordinance.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987. Print
United States Congress. Northwest Ordinance 1787: Section 1. The Avalon
Project, Yale University. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.
< http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/nworder.asp>
United States Congress. Northwest Ordinance 1787: Section 9. The Avalon
Project, Yale University. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.
<http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/nworder.asp>
Wisconsin Historical Society. The Northwest Ordinance, 1787. Madison, WI.
Web. 12 Mar. 2013.
< http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/tp-009/?action=more_essay>
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