Legislation that created the framework for the growth of the United States and, in doing so, helped lay the groundwork for the disputes that led to the Civil War, is honored in today’s #stampoftheday. A 3-cent stamp issued on July 13, 1937, the stamp commemorated the 150th anniversary of the passage of the Northwest Ordinance (on July 13, 1787).
The law, which was passed by the Confederation Congress (i.e. the legislative body for the U.S. before the Constitution was drafted and ratified) established the Northwest Territory, which encompassed 260,000-square-miles of lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains, between the original states and the Great Lakes to the north and the Ohio River to the south. The upper Mississippi River formed the territory’s western boundary. Pennsylvania was the eastern boundary. The British had ceded the land to the US as part of the treaty ending the Revolutionary War. As states filed competing claims for the same land, the government sought a way to bypass the confusion. Early attempts at such legislation, including measures drafted by Thomas Jefferson, failed to make it through Congress. Finally, Manasseh Cutler, a clergyman who was chaplain during the Revolutionary War who became active in a land company comprised of veterans who wanted to purchase land in the territory drafted legislation setting the groundrules for how states would be created out of the land.
Cutler, who is shown on the left side of the stamp, apparently was a shrewd and not entirely above-board operator. He supposedly influenced and won the votes of key congressmen by making them partners in his land company. In addition, by changing the office of provisional governor from an elected to an appointed position, he supposedly was able to offer the position to Arthur St. Clair, the president of the Congress.
Nevertheless, the measure had several notable elements. Adapting a proposal initially made by Thomas Jefferson a few years earlier, it called for dividing the territory into gridded townships, so that once the lands were surveyed, they could be sold to individuals and speculative land companies. Under provisions of an earlier act passed by the Confederation Congress, the minimum land sale was set at one square mile (640 acres), and the minimum price per acre was $1. And one section in each township was to be set aside for a school. These procedures, which formed the basis of American public land policy until the Homestead Act of 1862, helped ensure the orderly development of the territory.
The law also established the concept of fee simple ownership, by which ownership was in perpetuity with unlimited power to sell or give it away. This has been called the “first guarantee of freedom of contract in the United States.”
And it made it clear that the Federal government, not the various states would govern the westward expansion which would occur via the admission of new states, rather than with the expansion of existing states. In addition, it made it clear that these new states would be equal to, rather than inferior to, the older ones.
In particular, the measure called for creating three to five new states be created from the Northwest Territory. Each territory would have an appointed governor and council. When the population reached 5,000, the residents could elect their own assembly, although the governor would retain absolute veto power. When 60,000 settlers resided in a territory, they could draft a constitution and petition for full statehood. The ordinance also provided for civil liberties and public education within the new territories. After the measure passed, there was a notable influx of settlers to the territory. Among these was Rufus Putnam (pictured on the right of this stamp) who founded Marietta, Ohio, in the new territory and served as one of its first judges. In the end, the territory eventually became five U.S. states (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin) and part of a sixth (Minnesota).
Notably, the measure did not allow slavery in the territory. However, it also contained a clear fugitive slave clause as well. It’s not entirely clear why representatives from southern states agreed to this provision. It may be that wanted to limit the growth of tobacco farming in the new lands. The reasoning, if this was true, is that tobacco farming is so labor-intensive that it only could be grown profitably only with slave labor. The prohibition of slavery in the territory had the practical effect of establishing the Ohio River as the geographic divide between slave states and free states from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River (an extension of the Mason-Dixon line). It also helped set the stage for later political conflicts over slavery at the federal level in the 19th century until the Civil War.
The 1787 ordinance did lacked a strong central government to implement it. This need was addressed shortly thereafter, when the new federal government came into existence in 1789. The 1st United States Congress reaffirmed the 1787 ordinance, and, with slight modifications, renewed it through the Northwest Ordinance of 1789.
And while we certainly haven’t lived up to the ideals expressed in the law (particularly its call for fair treatment of Native Americans), it’s still impressive to see at least the stated aspirations of its backers, who wrote, in the law: “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 toward 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 authorized 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.”
Not a bad set of goals for a then-new country. Seems to me they’re worth reiterating today.
Be well, stay safe, fight for justice and work for peace.