Northwest Territory
For other geographical names that use the term Northwest
, see Northwest. For the Canadian territory, see Northwest Territories. |
Northwest Territory |
The
Northwest Territory, also known as the
Old Northwest and the
Territory North West of the Ohio, was a governmental region within the early
United States and is still sometimes (as the
Northwest) considered a geographical region; the term "Pacific Northwest" disambiguates it from the regular Northwest. Passed by the
Continental Congress on
July 13,
1787, the
Northwest Ordinance provided for the administration of the territories and set rules for admission as a state. On
August 7,
1789, the
U.S. Congress affirmed the Ordinance with slight modifications under the
Constitution. The territory included all the land of the United States west of
Pennsylvania and northwest of the
Ohio River. It covered all of the modern states of
Ohio,
Indiana,
Illinois,
Michigan, and
Wisconsin, as well as the northeastern part of
Minnesota. The area covered more than 260,000 square miles (673,000 km²)
European exploration of the region began with French
fur traders in the seventeenth century. The French explorer
Jean Nicolet was the first recorded entry into the region in 1634. The French exercised control from a number of widely separated posts throughout the region.
France ceded the territory to
Britain in the
Treaty of Paris (1763) which ended the
French and Indian Wars.
However, facing armed opposition by Native Americans (see
Pontiac's Rebellion), the British issued the
Proclamation of 1763 which prohibited white settlement west of the
Appalachian Mountains in an attempt to appease the Native Americans. But this action angered American colonists interested in expansion and was a contributing factor to the
American Revolution.
Britain ceded the area north of the Ohio River and west of the Appalachians to the United States at the end of the
American Revolutionary War with the
Treaty of Paris (1783), but the British continued to maintain a presence in the region for many years. In the
Jay Treaty of 1795, British subjects agreed to leave the
Great Lakes region, but that treaty was never fully implemented. The United States' claim to the region was not fully realized until the 1814
Treaty of Ghent, which ended the
War of 1812.
Several states (
Virginia,
Massachusetts,
New York, and
Connecticut) had competing claims on the territory. Other states, such as
Maryland, refused to ratitify the
Articles of Confederation so long as these states were allowed to keep their western territory, fearing that those states could continue to grow and tip the balance of power in their favor under the proposed system of federal government. As a concession in order to obtain ratification, these states ceded their claims on the territory to the U.S. government: New York in 1780, Virginia in 1784, Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1785. So the majority of the territory became public domain land owned by the U.S. government. Virginia and Connecticut reserved the land of two areas to use as compensation to military veterans: The
Virginia Military District and the
Connecticut Western Reserve. In this way, the United States included territory and people outside any of the states.
The
Land Ordinance of 1785 established a standardized system for surveying the land into saleable lots, although Ohio had already been partially surveyed several times using different methods, resulting in a patchwork of land surveys in Ohio. The rest of the Northwest Territory was divided into roughly uniform square townships and sections, which facilitated land sales and development.
Difficulties with Native American tribes and with British trading outposts presented continuing obstacles for American expansion until military campaigns of
Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne against the Native Americans culminated with victory at the
Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and the
Treaty of Greenville of 1795.
Jay's Treaty, in 1794, temporarily helped to smooth relations with British traders in the region, where British citizens outnumbered American citizens throughout the 1780s. Ongoing disputes with the British over the region was a contributing factor to the
War of 1812. Britain irrevocably ceded claim to the Northwest Territory with the
Treaty of Ghent in 1814.
When the territory was created, it was inhabited by about 45,000
Native Americans and 2,000 traders, mostly
French and
British. Officially, American settlement began at
Marietta, Ohio on
April 7,
1788.
Arthur St. Clair formally established the government on
July 15, 1788 at Marietta. His original plan called for the organization of five initial counties:
Washington (Ohio east of the
Scioto River),
Hamilton (Ohio between the Scioto and the
Miami Rivers),
Knox (Indiana and eastern Illinois),
St. Clair (Illinois and Wisconsin), and
Wayne (Michigan).
On
July 41800, the
Indiana Territory was carved out, reducing the Northwest Territory to the size of Ohio, to prepare for statehood. The Northwest Territory went out of existence when Ohio was admitted as a state on
March 1,
1803.
Main article: Northwest Ordinance
At first, the
territory had a modified form of
martial law. The
governor was also the senior
army officer within the territory and he combined
legislative and
executive authority. But, a
supreme court was established, and he shared legislative powers with the
court.
County governments were organized as soon as the
population was sufficient, and these assumed local
administrative and
judicial functions.
Washington County was the first of these, at
Marietta in 1788.
Hamilton County at
Cincinnati followed in 1790. (These areas later became part of
Ohio.)
As soon as the number of
settlers exceeded 5,000, the Territorial Legislature was to be created, and this happened in 1798. The full mechanisms of
government were put in place, as outlined in the
Northwest Ordinance. A
bicameral legislature consisted of a
House of Representatives and a Council. The first House had 22
representatives, two
elected by each county. The House then nominated 10 citizens to be Council members. The
nominations were sent to the
U.S. Congress, which
appointed five of them as the Council. This
assembly became the
legislature of the Territory, although the Governor retained
veto power.
Article VI of the Articles of Compact within the Northwest Ordinance prohibited the owning of
slaves within the Northwest Territory. However, territorial governments evaded this law by use of indenture laws[
1]. The Articles of Compact prohibited legal discrimination on the basis of religion within the territory.
The
township formula created by
Thomas Jefferson was first implemented in the Northwest Territory through the
Land Ordinance of 1785. The square surveys of the Northwest Territory would become a hallmark of the midwest, as
sections, townships, counties (and states) were laid out scientifically and land was sold quickly and efficiently (although not without some speculative aberrations).
Arthur St. Clair was the Territory's only governor. The original supreme court was made up of
John Cleves Symmes,
James Mitchell Varnum, and
Samuel Holden Parsons. There were three Secretaries:
Winthrop Sargent (
July 9,
1788-
May 31,
1798);
William Henry Harrison (
June 29,
1798-
December 31,
1799); and
Charles Willing Byrd (
January 1,
1800-
January 15,
1803).
|
U.S. territorial growth as of 1790. Map courtesy of the U.S. Dept. of the Interior. |
In 1798, the territory became eligible to send a non-voting delegate to the
U.S. Congress.The Assembly elected this representative.Representatives were:
*
William Henry Harrison 1799-1800
*
William McMillan 1800-
1801*
Paul Fearing 1801-1803
*
Northwest Ordinance*
Northwest Indian War*
State cessions*
Southwest Territory*
Midwestern United States*
Illinois-Wabash Company*
Zane's trace*
Illinois Country*
Illinois Territory*
Facsimile of 1789 Act*
The Territory's Executive Journal*
Maumee Valley Heritage Corridor
