edu.govt.taxes, Northwest Ordinance
buc...@exis.net
While what follows was only intended to apply to what eventually became
five states, Ohio, Ind., Ill., Michigan, Wiscon., but the Ordinance kept
getting extended, meaning the basic formula for forming organizing a
territory. setting up govt, petitioning Congress to join the union, etc was
followed by all the future states, except, maybe, those that joined in the
20th century. Though, they too might have followed that formula.
(1) the basis of our real estate laws and how each territory was to be
organized. BTW the spot where the surveying America, as outlined below
began in my hometown. East Liverpool, Ohio, on the Penna state line and
banks of the Ohio River.
(2) how the future states were to be created and brought into the union.
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(1)
MAY 20, 1785
Friday, MAY 20, 1785.
Congress assembled. Present as yesterday.
Congress proceeded in the third reading of the Ordinance for
ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands in the western territory, and
the same being gone through, was passed as
follows:
An Ordinance for ascertaining the mode of disposing of Lands in the
Western Territory.
Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled, that the
territory ceded by individual States to the United States, which has been
purchased of the Indian inhabitants, shall be disposed of in the following
manner:
A Surveyor from each state shall be appointed by Congress, or a
committee of the States, who shell take an Oath for the faithful discharge
of his duty, before the Geographer of the United States, who is hereby
empowered and directed to administer the same; and the like oath shall be
administered to each chain carrier, by the surveyor under whom he acts.
The Geographer, under whose direction the surveyors shall set,
shall occasionally form such regulations for their conduct as he shall deem
necessary; and shall have authority to suspend them for misconduct in
Office, and shall make report of the same to Congress, or to the Committee
of the States; and he shall make report in case of sickness, death, or
resignation of any surveyor.
The Surveyors, as they are respectively qualified, shall proceed to
divide the said territory into townships of six miles square, by lines
running due north and south, and others crossing these at right angles, as
near as may be, unless where the boundaries of the late Indian purchases
may render the same impracticable, and then they shall depart from this
rule no farther than such particular circumstances may require; and each
surveyor shall be allowed and paid at the rate of two dollars for every
mile, in length, he shall run, including the wages of chain carriers,
markers, and every other expense attending the same.
The first line, running north and south as aforesaid, shall begin
on the river Ohio, at a point that shall be found to be due north from the
western termination of a line, which has been run as the southern boundary
of the state of Pennsylvania; and the first line, running East and West
shall begin at the same point, and shall extend throughout the whole
territory. Provided, that nothing herein shall be construed, as fixing the
western boundary of the state of Pennsylvania.
The geographer shall designate the townships, or fractional parts of
townships, by numbers progressively from south to north; always beginning
each range with number one; and the ranges shall be distinguished by their
progressive numbers to the westward. The first range, extending from the
Ohio to the lake Erie, being marked number one. The Geographer shall
personally attend to the running of the first east and west line; and shall
take the latitude of the extremes of the first north and south line, and of
the mouths of the principal rivers.
The lines shah be measured with a chain; shall be plainly marked by
chaps on the trees, and exactly described on a plat; whereon shall be noted
by the surveyor, st their proper distances, all mines, salt springs, salt
licks and mill seats, that shall come to his knowledge, and all water
courses, mountains and other remarkable and permanent things, over and near
which such lines shall pass, and also the quality of the lands.
The plate of the townships respectively, shall be marked by
subdivisions into lot. of one mile square, or 840 acres, in the same
direction as the external lines, and numbered from 1 to 36; always
beginning the succeeding range of the lots with the number next to that
with which the preceding one concluded. And where, from the causes before
mentioned, only a fractional part of 8 township shall be surveyed, the
lots, protracted thereon, shall bear the same numbers as if the township
bad been entire. And the surveyors, in running the external lines of the
townships, shall, at the interval of every mile, mark corners for the lots
which are adjacent, always designating
the same in a different manner from those of the townships.
The geographer and surveyors shall pay the utmost attention to the
variation of the magnetic needle; and shall run and note all lines by the
true meridian, certifying, with every plat, what was the variation at the
times of running the lines thereon noted.
As soon as seven ranges of townships, and fractional parts of
townships, in the direction from south to north, shall have been surveyed,
the geographer shall transmit plate thereof to the board of the Treasury,
who shall record the same with the report, in well bound books to be kept
for that purpose. And the geographer shall make similar returns, from time
to time, of every seven ranges as they may be surveyed. The Secretary at
War shall have recourse thereto, and shall take by lot therefrom, a number
of townships and fractional parts of townships, as well from those sold
entire as from those sold in lots, as will be equal to one seventh part of
the whole of such seven ranges, as nearly as may be, for the use of the
late Continental Army; and he shall make a similar draught, from time to
time, until a sufficient quantity is drawn to satisfy the same, to be
applied in manner hereinafter directed. The board of treasury shall, from
time to time, cause the remaining numbers, as well those to be sold entire,
as those to be sold in lots, to be drawn for, in the name
of the thirteen states respectively, according to the quotas in the lest
preceding requisition on all the states; provided, that in case more land
then its proportion is allotted for sale, in any state, at any
distribution, a deduction be made therefor at the next.
The board of treasury shall transmit a copy of the original plate,
previously noting thereon, the townships, and fractional parts of
townships, which shall have fallen to the several states, by tbs
distribution aforesaid, to the Commissioners of the loan office of the
several States, who, after giving notice of not less than two nor more than
six months, by causing advertisements to be posted up at the court houses,
or other noted places in every county, and to be inserted in
one newspaper, published in the states of their residence respectively,
shall proceed to sell the townships, or fractional parts of townships, at
public vendue, in the following manner, viz: The township, or fractional
part of a township, N 1, in the first range, shall be sold entire; and N 2,
in the same range, by lots; and thus in alternate order through the whole
of the first range. The township, or fractional part of a township, N 1, in
the second range, shall be sold by lots; and N 2, in the same range,
entire; and so in alternate order through the whole of the second range;
and the third range shall be sold in the same manner as the first, and the
fourth in the same manner
as the second, and thus alternately throughout all the ranges; provided,
that none of the lands, within the said territory, be sold under the price
of one dollar the acre, to be paid in specie, or loan office certificates,
reduced to specie value, by the scale of depreciation, or certificates of
liquidated debts of the United States, including interest, besides the
expense of the survey and other charges thereon, which are hereby rated at
thirty six dollars the township, in specie, or certificates as aforesaid,
and so in the same proportion for a fractional part of a township, or of a
lot, to be paid at the time of sales; on failure of which payment, the said
lands shall again be offered for sale.
There shall be reserved for the United States out of every
township, the four lots, being numbered 8, 11, 28, 29, and out of every
fractional part of a township, so many lots of the same numbers as shall be
found thereon, for future sale. THERE SHALL BE RESERVED THE
LOT N 16, OF EVERY TOWNSHIP, FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF
PUBLIC SCHOOLS, WITHIN SAID TOWNSHIP (Emphasis mine); also one
third part of all gold, silver, lead and copper mines, to be sold, or
otherwise disposed of as Congress shall hereafter direct.
When any township, or fractional part of a township, shall have
been sold as aforesaid, and the money or certificates received therefor,
the loan officer shall deliver a deed in the following terms:
The United States of America, to all to whom these presents shall
come, greeting:
Know ye, That for the consideration of_____ dollars, we have
granted, and hereby do grant and confirm unto the township, (or fractional
part of a township, as the case may be) numbered____in the range____
excepting therefrom, and reserving one third part of all gold, silver, lead
and copper mines within the same; and the lots Ns 8, 11, 28, and 29, for
future sale or disposition, AND THE LOT N 16, FOR THE MAINTENANCE
OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS (emphasis mine). To have to the said____ his heirs and
assigns for ever; (or if more than one purchaser, to the said_____ their
heirs and assigns forever as tenants-in Common.) In witness whereof, (A.
B.) Commissioner of the loan office, in the State of___ hath, in conformity
to the Ordinance passed by the United States in Congress assembled, the
twentieth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred
and eighty five, hereunto set his hand, and affixed his seal, this day of
in the year of our Lord and of the independence of the United States of
America
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(2)
JULY 13, 1787
IN CONGRESS (meeting in New York)
(Those words capitalized are words that were added by debate in Congress,
and other means, since the last reading of this proposed bill.)
FRIDAY, JULY 13,
Congress assembled present as yesterday.
According to Order the Ordinance for the government of the
territory of the United States North West of the river Ohio was read a
third time and passed as follows
An Ordinance for the government of the territory of the United
States North West of the river Ohio.
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 set future circumstances
may in the Opinion of Congress make it expedient.
Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, that the estates both
of resident and non resident proprietors in the said territory dying
intestate shall descend to and be distributed among their children and the
descendants of a deceased child in equal parts; the descendants of a
deceased child or grand child to take the share of their deceased parent in
equal parts among them; and where there shall be no children or descendants
then in equal parts to the next OF kin in equal degree and among
collaterals the children of a deceased brother or sister of the intestate
shall have in equal parts among them their deceased parent's share and
there shall in no case be a distinction between kindred of the whole and
half blood; saving in all cases to the widow of the intestate her third
part of the real estate for life, and one third Part of the personal
estate; and this law relative to descents and dower shall remain in full
force until altered by the legislature of the district. And until the
governor and judges shall adopt laws as hereinafter mentioned estates in
the said territory may be devised or bequeathed by mills in writing signed
and sealed by him or her in whom the estate may be, being of full age, and
attested by three witnesses, and real estates may be conveyed by lease and
release or bargain and sale signed, sealed and delivered by the person
being of full age in whom the estate may be and attested by two witnesses
provided such wills be duly proved and such conveyances be acknowledged or
the execution thereof duty proved and be recorded within one year after
proper magistrates, courts and registers shall be appointed for that
purpose and personal property may be transferred by delivery saving however
to the French and Canadian inhabitants and other settlers of the
Kaskasakies, Saint Vincents and the neghbouring villiage who have
heretofore profesed themselves citizens of Virginia, their laws and customs
now m force among them relative to the descent and conveyance of property.
Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid that there shall be
appointed from time to time by Congress a governor, whose commission shall
continue in force for the term of three years, unless sooner revoked by
Congress: reside in the district and have a one thousand acres of land
while in the. There shall be appointed from time to time by Congress a
secretary whose commission shall continue in force for four years, unless
sooner revoked; he shall reside in the district and have a freehold estate
therein in five hundred acres of land while in the exercise of his office;
It shall be his duty to keep and preserve the acts and laws passed by the
legislature and the public records of the district and the proceedings of
the governor in his executive department and transmit authentic copies of
such acts and proceedings every six months to the Secretary of Congress.
There shall also be appointed a court to consist of three judges any two of
whom to form a court, who shall have a common law jurisdiction and reside
in the district and have each therein a freehold estate in five hundred
acres of land while in the exercise of their offices, and their commissions
shall continue in force during good behaviour.
The governor, and judges or a majority of them shall adopt and
publish in the district such laws of the original states criminal and civil
as may be necessary and best suited to the circumstances of the district
and report them to Congress from time to time, which laws shah be in force
in the district until the organization of the general assembly therein,
unless disapproved of by Congress; but afterwards the legislature shall
have authority to alter them as they shall think fit.
The governor for the time being shall be Commander in chief of the
militia, appoint and commission ah officers in the same below the rank of
general Officers; All general Officers shall be appointed and commissioned
by Congress.
Previous to the Organization of the general Assembly the governor
shall appoint such magistrates and other civil officers in each county or
township, as he shall find necessary for the preservation of the peace and
order in the same. After the general Assembly shall be organized, the
powers and duties of magistrates and other civil officrs shall be appointed
by the said Assembly; but all magistrates and other civil officers not
herein otherwise directed shall during the continuance of this temporary
government be appointed by the governor.
For the prevention of crimes end injuries the laws to be adopted
or made shall have force in all parts of the district and for the
execution of process criminal and civil, the governor shall make proper
divisions thereof, and he shall proceed from time to time as circumstances
may require to lay out the parts of the district in which the Indian
titles shall have been extinguished into counties and townships subject
however to such alterations as may thereafter be made by the legislature.
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 representatives 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 and so on progressively with the number of free male
inhabitants shall the right of representation encrease until the number of
representatives shall amount to twenty five after which the number and
proportion of representatives shall be regulated by the legislature;
provided that no person be eligible or qualified to act as a
representative unless he shall have been a citizen of one of the United
States three years and be a resident in the district or unless he shall
have resided in the district three years and in either case shall likewise
hold in his own right in fee simple two hundred acres of land within the
same; provided also that a freehold in fifty acres of land in the district
having been a citizen of one of the state and being resident in the
district; or the like freehold and two years residence in the district
shall be necessary to qualify a man as an elector of a representative.
The representatives thus elected shall serve for the term of two
years and in case of the death of a representative or removal from office
the governor shall issue a writ to the county or township for which he was
a member, to elect another in his stead to serve for the residue of the
term.
The general assembly or legislature shall consist of the governor,
legislative council and a house of representatives. The legislative council
shall consist of five members to continue in office five years unless
sooner removed by Congress any three of whom to be a quorum and the members
of the council shall be nominated and appointed in the following manner, to
wit; As soon as representatives shall be elected, the governor shall
appoint a time and place for them to meet together, and when met they shall
nominate ten persons residents in the district and each possessed of a
freehold in five hundred acres of Land and return their names to Congress;
five of whom Congress shall appoint and commission to serve as aforesaid;
and whenever a, vacancy shall happen in the council by death or removal
from office, the house of representatives shall nominate two persons
qualified as aforesaid, for each vacancy, and return their names to
Congress, one of whom Congress shall appoint and commission for the residue
of the term, and every five years, four months at least before the
expiration of the time of service of the Members of Council, the said house
shall nominate ten persons qualified as aforesaid, and return their names
to Congress, five of whom Congress shall appoint and commission to serve as
Members of the council five years, unless sooner removed. And the Governor,
legislative council, and house of representatives, shall have the authority
to make laws in all cases for the good government of the district, not
repugnant to the prinicples and Articles in this Ordinance established and
declared. And all bills having passed by a majority in the house, and by a
majority in the council, shall be referred to the Governor for his assent;
but no bill or legislative Act whatever, shall be of any force without his
assent. The Governor shall have power to convene, prorogue and dissolve the
General Assembly, when in his opinion it shall be expedient.
The Governor, Judges, legislative Council, Secretary, and such
other Officers as Congress shall appoint in the district shall take an
Oath or Affirmation of fidelity, and of Office, the Governor before 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, shah 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 Government.
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,
It is hereby Ordained and declared by the authority aforesaid, That
the following Articles shall be considered as Articles of compact between
the Original States and the people and States in the said territory, and
forever remain unalterable, unless by common consent, to wit:
Article the First. No person demeaning himself in a peaceable and
orderly manner shell ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or
religious sentiments in the said territory.
Article the Second. The Inhabitants of the said territory shall
always be entitled to the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus, and of the
trial by Jury; of a proportionate representation of the people in the
legislature, and of judicial proceedings according to the course of the
common law; all persons shall be bailable unless for capital offences,
where the proof shall be evident, or the presumption great; all fines shall
be moderate, and no cruel or unusual punishments shall be inflicted; no man
shall be deprived of his liberty or property but by the judgment of his
peers, or the law of the land; and should the public exigencies make it
necessary for the common preservation to take any persons 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.
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 States of America, subject to the Articles of Confederation, and
to such alterations therein as shall be constitutionally made; and to all
the Actsand Ordinances of the United States in Congress Assembled,
conformable thereto. The Inhabitants and Settlers in the said territory,
shall be subject to pay 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 Congress, 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. No 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 Mississippi
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.
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 Mississippi, 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 Mississippi. The
middle state shall be bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash from post
Vincents to the Ohio; by the Ohio, by 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 lake Michigan; and whenever any of the said States shall have
sixty thousand free Inhabitants therein, such State shall be admitted by
its Delegates into the Congress of the United States, on an 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.
Article the sixth. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude in the said territory otherwise than in the punishment of crimes,
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; provided always that any
person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully
claimed in any one of the original states, such fugitive may be lawfully
reclaimed and conveyed to person claiming his or her labor or service as
foresaid.
Be it Ordained by the Authority aforesaid, that the Resolutions'
of the 23rd of April 1784 relative to the subject of this ordinance be, and
the same are hereby repealed and declared null and void.
'Done &c.
Study Guide for Vouchers
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/studygd4.htm
Historical Data Against "Vouchers"
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/vouchist.htm
**********************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
"Dedicated to combatting 'history by sound bite'."
Now including a re-publication of Tom Peters
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE HOME PAGE
and
Audio links to Supreme Court oral arguments and
Speech by civil rights/constitutional lawyer and others.
Page is a member of the following web rings:
The First Amendment Ring--&--The Church-State Ring
Freethought Ring--&--The History Ring
American History WebRing--&--Legal Research Ring
**********************************************
buc...@exis.net
The concern for higher education as a public commitment on state and
national levels, however, survived in the Confederation Congress and among
a small band of revolutionary statesmen. It found expression in the several
proposals submitted to Congress for a national university as well as in the
plans to regulate the sale and settlement of western lands. The Ordinance
of 1787 wedded these concerns to the desire of New England settlers to find
in their new homes educational institutions for their children. The sales
contrict between the Ohio Company and the Board of Treasury, signed on
October 27, 1787, incorporated these sentiments in an enforceable legal
document that explicitly referred to two townships "to be given perpetually
for the purposes of an university . . . . " A precedent was set that
remained a potent example for subsequent legislation under the Federal
Constitution of 1789.
As developments in the nineteenth century would show, the revolutionary
power of the sentiments expressed in the Northwest Ordinance left their
most enduring imprint on religious and curricular matters. Federal support
for higher education encouraged those who, like Jefferson, opposed the
spread of sectarianism and religious bigotry in higher education. It
reminded Americans that they could ill afford to let their common
commitment to republican principles and democratic procedures be undermined
by sectarian rivalry and intolerance.
In Ohio the two public universities remained the state's stepchildren. The
Ohio University at Athens, originally incorporated as the American Western
University on January 2, 1802, and rechartered under its new name on
February 18, 1804, was directed by trustees who were selected and could be
replaced only by the legislature itself. Even though the governor served on
the board ex officio, however, the legislature did no more than enforce the
collections of taxes owed the university on its lands. In 1843 legislators
made matters worse when, ignoring the increasing market value of these
lands, they disallowed their re-evaluation. The Miami University at Oxford,
chartered on February 17, 1809, received its first financial support from
the state when the legislature agreed to pay the tuition fees of Civil War
veterans. While the Ohio University had to wait until 1877 for its first
state appropriation, annual state payments for Miami only began in 1885.
Not until 1896 did Miami share the state mill levy with its sister
institution in Athens
In Indiana, too, the state's institution for higher education had to learn
to live within its income from land sales and from tuition payments.
Originally chartered by the territorial legislature as Vincennes University
on November 29, 1806, it was to admit Indian children and, with the help of
a lottery, open a college for women students. The expected funds, however,
failed to materialize, and only a grammar school operated from 1811 to
1818. This school was reopened in 1823 and became known as the Knox County
Seminary.
( The Development of Public Universities in the Old Northwest, by Jurgen
Herbst, pp 97. Northwest Ordinance, Essays on its formulation, Provisions
and Legacy, edited by Fredick D. Williams Michigan State University press.
(1988) )
buc...@exis.net
Does the Northwest Ordinance prove that the First Amendment did not
separate church and state?
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/nwo1.htm
The Northwest Ordinance: Course of Debate
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/nwo1785.htm
The History of First Sentence of Article III of the Northwest Ordinance
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/nwo1a.htm
The Northwest Ordinance does not violate the First Amendment
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/nwo1b.htm
Northwest Ordinance did not require schools to teach religion
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/nwo1b1.htm
The Northwest Ordinance did not provide non-preferential aid to the public
school
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/nwo1b2.htm
The first sentence of Article III of the Northwest Ordinance was a preamble
with few enforceable legal consequences
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/nwo1b3.htm
The Northwest Ordinance cannot be read as a commentary on the First
Amendment
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/nwo1c.htm
The framers of the Northwest Ordinance had no desire to aid religion
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/nwo1e.htm
R. Freeman Butts on Minor v. Ohio
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/nwobutt.htm
A note on "civilizing" the "American Indian"
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/nwoind.htm
============================================================
susupply
<buc...@exis.net>
the guy who claims he never ever engages in argument, but just sticks to the
facts,
wrote in message news:3vcfbtsljmeek2qcm...@4ax.com...
> Does the Northwest Ordinance prove that the First Amendment did not
> separate church and state?
> http://members.tripod.com/~candst/nwo1.htm
In which we will find the dancing to be exquisite:
<< The first sentence of Article III of the Northwest Ordinance was a
preamble with few enforceable legal consequences
<< We have already noted that the first sentence of the Northwest Ordinance
neither required the teaching of religion in the public schools, nor
provided religious aid to the schools. So what was the first sentence of
Article III all about? Why did the framers put the sentence in if it didn't
do anything? >>
[As Ivler would say, this is the "falicy" of assuming your conclusion].
<< The answer, in our mind, is fairly simple: the first sentence of Article
III was a preamble to the rest of the Article and, rather than having some
enforceable legal content, it's purpose was to simply express an attitude of
concern on the part of the federal government to provide for public
education, and to encourage the civilization of the American Indians.
[by providing for religious education, jalison?]
<< Indeed, the whole of Article III is framed in such general language that
many historians believe the Article had little substantive meaning. >>
What is this sentence that dare not speak its name? Well, read it and weep,
jal, Melody, J.M. et al:
<< 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. >>
"Necessary to good government"! "Forever be encouraged"!
Yes, such general language.
Patrick
buc...@exis.net
and social institutions, some governmental intervention was necessary. In
its failure to provide a mechanism for enforcement, Article VI must be
compared and contrasted to other parts of the Ordinance. Article III, for
example, declared that "schools and the means of education shall forever be
encouraged." But it neither required that schools be built nor did it
provide an enforcement mechanism. In this way Article III and Article VI
are similar. But the substance of the Articles was so different that in one
an enforcement mechanism was unnecessary while in the other it was vital.
A requirement that schools be built, or a declaration of what governmental
body should do so, was unnecessary because for more than a century public
schools had been built by local communities in America. Americans knew what
schools were and knew how to build them, but few Americans had any
experience with dismantling an entrenched social system that provided
wealth for those who had political power at the expense of those who lacked
all power. The education clause could be implemented by those who would
benefit from the clause, but those people who would most directly benefit
from Article VI were prohibited from participating in the political
process, and thus could not insure the implementation of the Article.
Finally, both the creation of public schools and the abolition of slavery'
would have financial costs. While the Ordinance of 1787 provided no funds
for either object, the Land Ordinance of 1785 had provided that one lot in
each township would be reserved "for the maintenance of public schools
within the said township. 1129 Thus, the national government had committed
financial resource to the education provisions of Article III but not the
-
prohibition of slavery required by Article VI.
( Slavery and Bondage in the "Empire of Liberty" Paul Finkelman Northwest
Ordinance, Essays on its formulation, provisions and Legacy, Edited by
Frederick D. Williams, Michigan State University Press. (1988) p 75)
buc...@exis.net
About the same time the Continental Congress was debating elements of the
Land ordinance of 1785, the foundation of the eventual Northwest Ordinance.
The following took place during those debates.
APRIL 23, 1785.
Congress assembled. Present as yesterday.
Congress proceeded in the consideration of the Ordinance for
ascertaining the mode of disposing of Lands in the Western Territory. An
on motion of Mr. [David] Howell, seconded by Mr. [Hugh] Williamson, . . .
Congress resumed the consideration of the Ordinance under debate
yesterday: . . .
The following paragraph in the Ordinance being under debate: "
There shall be reserved the central Section of every Township, for the
maintenance of public Schools; and the Section immediately adjoining the
same to the northward, for the support of religion. The profits arising
therefrom in both instances, to be applied for ever according to the will
of the majority of male residents of full age within the same." A motion
was made by Mr. [Charles] Pinckney, seconded by Mr. [Williaml Grayson, to
amend the paragraph by striking out these words, "for the support of
religion;" and in their place to insert, "for religious and charitable
uses." On which it was moved by Mr. [William] Ellery, seconded by Mr.
[Melancton] Smith, to amend the amendment by striking out the words
"religious and," so that it read "for charitable uses. "
And on the question, shall the words moved to be struck out of the
amendment, stand? the yeas and nays, being required by Mr. [Charles]
Pinckney,
NEW HAMPSHIRE, AY DELAWARE, AY
Mr. Foster, ay Mr. Vining, ay
Long, ay
Bedford, ay
MASSACHUSETTS, AY MARYLAND, NO
Mr. Holten, ay Mr. McHenry, no
King, ay J.
Henry, no
RHODE ISLAND, NO Hindman, ay
Mr.Ellery, no VIRGINIA, AY
Howell, no Mr. Monroe, ay
CONNECTICUT, NON-VOTE Lee, ay
Mr. Johnson Grayson,
ay
NEW YORK, DIV. NON-VOTE NORTH CAROLINA, NON-VOTE
Mr. Smith, no Mr.
Williamson, ay
Haring, ay Sitgreaves, no
PENNSYLVANIA, AY SOUTH CAROLINA, NON-VOTE
Mr. Gardner, ay Mr. Pinckney, no
W. Henry, ay GEORGIA, NON-VOTE
Mr.
Houstoun, ay
So the question was lost, and the words were struck out.
And thereupon, the motion of Mr. [Charles] Pinckney for the
amendment was withdrawn.
A motion was then made by Mr. [William] Ellery, seconded by Mr.
[Melancton] Smith, to strike out the following words in the foregoing
paragraph: [and the section immediately
adjoining the same to the northward, for the support of religion, the
profits arising therefrom in both instances, to be applied for ever
according to the will of the majority of male residents of full age within
the same." A division of the motion was called for by Mr. [Rufus] King: And
on the
question, shall the former pert stand? namely, "and the section immediately
adjoining the same to the northward, for the support of religion." The yeas
and nays being required
by Mr. [Melancton] Smith and Mr. [Rufus] King,
NEW HAMPSHIRE, AY DELAWARE, AY
Mr. Foster, ay Mr. Vining, ay
Long, ay
Bedford, ay
MASSACHUSETTS, AY MARYLAND, NO
Mr. Holten, ay Mr. McHenry, no
King, ay J.
Henry, no
RHODE ISLAND, NO Hindman, ay
Mr.Ellery, no VIRGINIA, AY
Howell, no Mr. Monroe, ay
CONNECTICUT, NON-VOTE Lee, ay
Mr. Johnson Grayson,
ay
NEW YORK, DIV. NON-VOTE NORTH CAROLINA, NON-VOTE
Mr. Smith, no Mr.
Williamson, ay
Haring, ay Sitgreaves, no
PENNSYLVANIA, AY SOUTH CAROLINA, NON-VOTE
Mr. Gardner, ay Mr. Pinckney, no
W. Henry, ay GEORGIA, NON-VOTE
Mr.
Houstoun, ay
So the question was lost, and the words were struck out.
A motion was then made by [Mr. Melancton] Smith to strike out
the following words "and the section to religion."
NEW HAMPSHIRE, AY DELAWARE, AY
Mr. Foster, ay Mr. Vining, ay
Long, ay
Bedford, ay
MASSACHUSETTS, AY MARYLAND, NO
Mr. Holten, ay Mr. McHenry, no
King, ay J.
Henry, no
RHODE ISLAND, NO Hindman, ay
Mr.Ellery, no VIRGINIA, AY
Howell, no Mr. Monroe, ay
CONNECTICUT, NON-VOTE Lee, ay
Mr. Johnson Grayson,
ay
NEW YORK, DIV. NON-VOTE NORTH CAROLINA, NON-VOTE
Mr. Smith, no Mr.
Williamson, ay
Haring, ay Sitgreaves, no
PENNSYLVANIA, AY SOUTH CAROLINA, NON-VOTE
Mr. Gardner, ay Mr. Pinckney, no
W. Henry, ay GEORGIA, NON-VOTE
Mr.
Houstoun, ay
Words are struck out.'
A motion was made by Mr. [William Samuel] Johnson, seconded by Mr. [Rufus]
King, farther to amend the paragraph by inserting after the word "Schools,"
the following words,"And the Sections immediately adjoining the same to
·the northward, for charitable uses;" so that the paragraph read thus;
"There shall be reserved the central Section of every Township, for the
maintenance of public Schools; and the section immediately adjoining the
same to the
northward, for charitable uses. "' And on the question to agree to this
amendment, the yeas
and nays being required by Mr. ~William Samuel Johnson,
NEW HAMPSHIRE, AY DELAWARE, AY
Mr. Foster, ay Mr. Vining, ay
Long, ay
Bedford, ay
MASSACHUSETTS, AY MARYLAND, NO
Mr. Holten, ay Mr. McHenry, no
King, ay J.
Henry, no
RHODE ISLAND, NON-VOTE Hindman, ay
Mr.Ellery, no VIRGINIA,
AY
Howell, ay Mr. Monroe, ay
CONNECTICUT, NON-VOTE Lee, ay
Mr. Johnson Grayson, ay
NEW YORK, NO NORTH CAROLINA,
NON-VOTE Mr. Smith, no
Mr. Williamson, ay
Haring, no Sitgreaves, no
PENNSYLVANIA, NON-VOTE SOUTH CAROLINA, NON-VOTE
Mr. Gardner, ay Mr. Pinckney, no
W. Henry, no GEORGIA,
NON-VOTE
Mr.
Houstoun, ay
So the question was lost.
(SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Journals of the Continental Congress, Vol. 28, pp
291-296)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 27, 1785
The Bill for Genl. Assesst. Has produced some fermentation below the
mountains and a violent one beyond them. The contest at the next Session on
this question will be a warm and precarious one.
(SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Excerpt of letter written by James Madison to
Thomas Jefferson, April 27, 1785. The Republic Of Letters, The
Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison 1776-1826. Edited
by James Morton Smith. Volume I, 1776-1790. W. W. Norton & Company. N.Y.
(1995) pp. 355, 369)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 29, 1785
James Madison wrote a letter to James Monroe a bit irate because he had
learned that the Continental Congress had briefly considered passing a bill
that would have included using public funds to support religious schools in
the various townships that were being
created by what would become the Northwest Ordinance (land ordinance of
1785) that had been under debate. (that aspect of that ordinance was voted
down)
Madison wrote:
----- ------- ------- -------- ---------
TO JAMES MONROE.
Orange May 29 1785.
DEAR Sir,--Your favor of May -- came to hand a few days ago. . . It
gives me much pleasure to observe by 2 printed reports sent me by Col.
Grayson that, in the latter Congress had expunged a clause contained in the
first for setting apart a district of land in each Township for supporting
the Religion of the majority of inhabitants. How a regulation so unjust in
itself, foreign to the Authority of Cong", so hurtful to the sale of the
public land, and smelling so strongly of an antiquated Bigotry, could have
received the countenance of a Committee is truly matter of astonishment. In
one view it might have been no disadvantage to this State in case the Gen'
Assess' should take place, as it would have given a repellent quality to
the new Country in the estimation of those whom our own encroachments on
Religious Liberty would be calculated to banish to it. But the adversaries
to the assess' begin to think the prospect here flattering to their wishes,
The printed Bill has excited great discussion and is likely to prove the
sense of the Comunity to be in favor of the liberty now enjoyed. I have
heard of several Counties where the late representatives have been laid
aside for voting for the Bill, and not of a single one where the reverse
has happened. The Presbyterian Clergy too who were in general friends to
the scheme, are already in another tone, either compelled by the laity of
that sect, or alarmed at the probability of further interferences of the
Legislature, if they once begin to dictate in matters of Religion,
I am, Dr Sir, Yours affecly.
James Madison
The letter herewith inclosed is from Mrs. Carr sister of Mr. Jefferson.
(SOURCE OF INFORMATION: The Writings of James Madison, Edited by Gaillard
Hunt, Volume II, 1783-178,7 G P Putnam/s Sons, New York London 1901, pp
143- 145)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
buc...@exis.net
Even before the federal constitution was ratified, the story
of the federal government's involvement with schools began with the
Ordinance of 1785, which was passed by the congress established under the
Articles of Confederation. The ordinance specified how property lines in
the western territory should "be measured with a chain ... plainly marked
by chaps on the trees, and exactly described on a plat, whereon shall be
noted ... all mines, salt-springs, salt-licks, and mill-seats." The
document stipulated that land should be divided into townships, each six
miles square and subdivided into 36 lots each a mile square. In
businesslike fashion, it established the terms of the deed between the
United States and citizens buying lands from the public domain. One clause
linked the congressional ordinance explicitly to schooling: "There shall be
reserved the lot No. 16, of every township, for the maintenance of public
schools, within the said township." The intention of the framers was that
the land would be sold to settlers and the income from the sales would be
used to support the school.
Two years later, the Confederation Congress passed the Ordinance of
1787. This measure went further than its predecessor by setting the rules
for governing the territory northwest of the Ohio River. The ordinance
stipulated a plan for a governor, general assembly, and courts for each
territory to be created from that immense wilderness. It established the
procedure whereby each might become a state. Between the existing states of
the Confederation and the new ones, the ordinance proclaimed a compact that
prohibited slavery and guaranteed religious freedom and basic legal rights
like those later embodied in the Bill of Rights. Laying down fundamental
conditions for building new states, the ordinance also included a sentence
asserting that "religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary to good
government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education
shall forever be encouraged."
During the first century of the new nation, Congress granted more
than 77 million acres of the public domain as an endowment for the support
of public schools. In times of pressing national debt, congressional
leaders were eager to sell the western lands owned by the federal
government; land speculators persuaded Congress to include subsidies for
schools as an inducement to attract settlers.
The tracts ceded to states for the support of public schools grew
steadily over the years. In 1841, Congress passed an act that granted
500,000 acres to eight states, later increased to make grants to a total of
nineteen states, to be used for "internal improvements." A majority of
these states devoted all or part of the income from these lands to the
schools. In 1848, Congress approved the policy of reserving two lots, 16
and 36, for the support of schools when it established the territorial
government of Oregon. In 1850, California was the first state to receive
both lots, amounting to 5.5 percent of the public domain in the state. The
desert states of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico-where much of the land had
little value-each received four sections per township for the support of
public schools.
The federal government also granted money, such as distributions of
surplus federal revenue and reimbursements for war expenses, to the states.
Though Congress rarely prescribed that such funds be used only for schools,
education constituted one of the largest expenses of state and local
governments, and so they used federal monies for this purpose. Moreover,
Congress awarded a certain percentage of proceeds from the sale of U.S.
lands within the borders of the new state; the amount ranged from 3 to 10
percent, with most states receiving 5 percent. Twelve states, all of them
west of the Mississippi except Wisconsin, decreed in their constitutions
that income from this fund should flow to the common school fund.
On the surface, the legal and constitutional framework of the new
nation gave federal authorities little say over the financing and
governance of public schools. In the beginning, writing constitutions in
the new territories came to regard the grants as fundamental to statehood.
Many of these leaders hoped that the federal largesse might one day provide
full support for the common schools. In some territories the income from
federal lands granted to the states and then leased or sold to settlers
constituted the only source of state funding. In nearly every state, the
availability of the land grants served to generate revenue for public
institutions.
The dark We of they story is that vast sums were lost through
corruption or mismanagement. States like Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois found
it difficult to realize profits from the lands for use in establishing
public schools. Learning from experience, Congress and state constitutions
began to specify prices and conditions of sale for the lands sold to
support schools. The states created supposedly inviolate common school
funds to be allocated to local districts. To receive this money, local
educators were expected to comply with state regulations about the length
of the school term and teacher qualifications.
The gradual evolution toward state control of federal land grants
was more the result of pragmatic experience than the outcome of deliberate
educational policy. Partly because of a strong commitment to states' rights
in the period before the Civil War, Congress stopped short of trying to
control the management of education grants, even when states were abusing
the terms under which they received the grants. In Illinois, for example,
the legislature diverted the funds intended for schools to other purposes.
State officials refused to make the required reports to the U.S. Treasury.
In retaliation, the federal government refused to make payments. Congress
resolved the dispute by repealing the requirement that states make reports.
As years went by, state constitutions in the West became specific
about such bureaucratic matters. The educational provisions that regulated
land grants expanded along with other language controlling the
establishment of schools. Indirectly, the federal government provided
leverage to states for centralizing control over schools. By the end of the
nineteenth century, Congress itself began to set the terms for the sale of
lands to support schools in the enabling acts of new states. It went so far
as to require several new states-Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and
Washington-to establish free, non-sectarian public school systems as a
condition for admission to the union and receipt of the land grants.
After the mid-century, congressional grants became more generous
and controls over the disposition of land more strict. Citizens in the
northwestern states, profiting from the mistakes of governments to the
east, creatively conserved and used the funds from land sales for the
public good instead of private gain. In states west of the Mississippi,
roughly 10 percent of the school budgets came from the sale of public land
granted for school purposes. This was far less than a full subsidy of
public education, but it was also far from negligible.
The procedure of drafting a constitution and then gaining
congressional approval for statehood prompted the citizens of the
territories to think systematically about public schools. The act of
constructing a frame of government, and of recognizing the place of
education in that structure, gave leaders the opportunity to make choices
among the policies that had been tried in other states. The newer states
could borrow from the experiences of the older ones. In this way, citizens
shaped and reinterpreted a living constitutional tradition, embodied in the
federal and original state constitutions.
The organization of American education grew more complex as public
institutions and the society as a whole expanded in the nineteenth century.
Constitutional provisions on schools reflected this growing complexity. In
the earlier documents, idealistic preambles and brief treatments of federal
land grants seemed enough when settlers were building only log schools in
the wilds of the Midwest. By contrast, when territorial assemblies in the
sparsely populated far Northwest states created constitutions, they wrote
elaborate new bureaucratic structures into their educational provisions.
They were trying to reflect the best examples of institution-building in
their time.
Although more attuned to administrative detail than leaders in the
early years, these educational policy makers also continued to reflect the
ideology that had fueled nearly a century of effort to create common
schools as an essential feature of American government. In 1874, a group of
seventy seven college presidents,and city and state superintendents of
schools issued a statement that described this process of institutional
development:
As a consequence of the perpetual migration from the older sections
of the country to the unoccupied Territories, there are new states in all
degrees of formation, and their institutions present earlier phases of
realization of the distinctive type that are presented in the mature growth
of the system as it exists in the thickly-settled and older States. Thus
States are to be found with little or no provision for education, but they
are rudimentary forms of the American State, and are adopting, as rapidly
as immigration allows them to do so, the type of educational institutions
already defined as the result of American political and social ideas.
While the educational provisions of constitutions of the original
states changed but little, new states aspired to incorporate the most
up-to-date public school systems. They wanted to show themselves to be
enlightened and civilized as they joined the union of states. Accordingly,
they wrote more and more elaborate provisions for education into their
state constitutions.
They codified the institutional structures that had developed
through statutory law in the older states, such as state boards of
education, county and state superintendents, and teacher training
institutions. Turning against earlier traditions of religious instruction,
many prohibited sectarian instruction in public schools and any public aid
to schools affiliated with religious groups. Some constitutional
conventions in the South after the Civil War mandated compulsory school
attendance in their constitutions, even though their states had only
recently established a common school system. An expanding nation composed
of dozens of newly added states became a country in which the new states
could copy from the old and the old were challenged to innovate to match
the progress achieved by younger peers.
Like the land ordinances of the 1780s, state constitutions in the
nineteenth century became much more than documents designed to attract new
residents and win statehood. They were strategies for achieving organized
social life-a political system, a rule of law, a structure of governance,
and adequate financial incentives for creating institutions such as public
schools. Similar to the town and city plats of the developers, but for an
entire system of government, these documents promised that the state on the
periphery would one day match the ideal of statehood most admired by its
predecessors. Reflecting upon this process during the California
constitutional convention of 1849, a delegate quoted the view of Robert J.
Walker, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, who argued:
Each state is deeply interested in the welfare of every other; for the
representatives of the whole regulate by their votes the measures of the
Union, which must be the more happy and prosperous in proportion as its
councils are guided by more enlightened views, resulting from the more
universal diffusion of light, knowledge, and education.
In this process of forming new states, Congress played a subdued
role, setting the terms for territorial government, shaping the
requirements for admission in the enabling acts, approving the new
constitutions, then granting vast amounts of federal land to stimulate
improvements, including public schools, in the fledgling societies on the
frontier.
Nowhere is the perceived importance of schooling more Political
Ideology apparent than in the language used to describe it in state Public
Schooling constitutions. A striking feature of the educational clauses in
nineteenth-century state constitutions is their idealistic tone. With the
exception of language in the declarations of rights, no other sections
contained so much exhortation to virtue. None of the other parts of
government received such broad justifications phrased in the political
discourse of the eighteenth century. Sections on the legislative branch did
not extol the virtues of representative government, nor those on the
judiciary the glories of justice. Clauses on suffrage, militia,
corporations, revenue, and divisions of the executive branch were plain and
businesslike. In contrast, the high-flown justifications of the common
school declared public education to be a shared value. It was a fundamental
guarantee built into government. Like those other guarantees embedded in
the declarations of rights, it was a common good above the squabbles of
political party or sect.
. The Ohio constitution of 1802 reflected this belief by including a
provision for schooling in the declaration of rights itself. Such idealism
about education entered into the debates of constitutional conventions with
an intensity that often reconciled extreme political differences. To mark a
moment of concord between jousting Whigs and Democrats in the Illinois
constitutional convention of 1847, a delegate said, "As the soul rises into
immortality when the body falls into decay and perishes, so does the cause
of education rise in splendor and grandeur above all party schemes and
factions."
In ascribing such importance to public schooling, the framers of
state constitutions were consciously developing a connection between
education and democracy. A resonant political argument, this connection
went back to the rhetoric of the nation's founding fathers. "The business
of education has acquired a new complexion by the independence of our
country," wrote Benjamin Rush, a Pennsylvanian who signed the Declaration
of Independence and served as an articulate spokesman for republican ideas,
in 1786. "The form of government we have assumed," he continued, "has
created a new class of duties to every American." Rush thought it necessary
to establish "nurseries of wise and good men," a system of education from
common schools through colleges, to ensure the survival of the republic.
(Education for a Republic: Federal Influence on Public Schooling in the
Nations First Century, David Tyack and Thomas James.This Constitution Our
Enduring Legacy. American Political Science Association, American
Historical Association. Congressional Quarterly, Inc. (1986) p 148-155)
buc...@exis.net
That version evolved into the 1785 version which in turn evolved into the
July 1787 version passed by the Cont. Congress and passed again by the
First Federal Congress under the authority of the Constitution in the
summer of 1789.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like the declaration of independence, like the constitution that binds
these states together, its language is simple and unostentatious. But how
comprehensive is its spirit! Flow potent are its truths The west tells its
present effect, and the future shadows forth yet mightier results. Its
impress is upon our character, and upon our legislation. There it must
remain as long as the Saxon race inherits the soil.
Jordon Pugh on the Northwest Ordinance, 1844.
The spine of the first volume of the United States Code (U.S.C.) suggests
that it contains only the first six titles of the laws of the United
States. Also included in that volume, however, are the Declaration of
Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Northwest Ordinance, and
the Constitutions Of these documents, the Northwest Ordinance is the least
familiar. One commentator has speculated that "[e]very citizen of this
republic who has passed through the schools of any of the states vaguely
recollects, perhaps painfully, his instruction concerning this momentous
document ; but even this modest assessment is probably optimistic. For its
part, Volume One of the U.S.C. does virtually nothing to educate its users
on the subject, and so most of those who notice the Ordinance there are
probably unsure about why it appears where it does, right before the text
of the Constitution.
On July 13, 1787, while the Federal Convention was drafting the
Constitution in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress in New York' enacted
an ordinance to govern territory that the states had ceded to the national
government. This document, most often referred to today as the Northwest
Ordinance set the pattern for territorial governance and state making that
was ultimately applied to thirty-one of the fifty states.(8) Since its
passage the Ordinance has received much praise. Most of the
enthusiasm has focused either on the provision promising the communities in
the territory statehood on an equal footing with the original thirteen
states. or on the provision in the "articles of compact" section
prohibiting slavery. Other material in the "articles of compact" section
has received favorable attention as. well, such as the provisions promoting
education, ensuring religious liberty, and encouraging good relations with
Native Americans.
(8). See James A. Curry et al., Constitutional Government: The American
Experience 81 (1989); see also Carter, supra note 4,. at 22 (noting that
the pattern applied to the Northwest Territory also applied largely to the
Southwest Territory and to the territories of Mississippi. Orleans.
Louisiani-Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, and Florida); Eblen. supra note 5,
at 241 ("[I)ts provisions were to lay the foundation for the government of
the thirty-one public Lands states and Hawaii."). For the Southwest
Ordinance and other legislative progeny of the Northwest Ordinance, see
Frederick E. Hosen. Unfolding Westward in Treaty and Law: Land Documents in
United States History from the Appalachians to the Pacific, 1785-1934, a 45
(Southwest Ordinance) 59-80 (Mississippi Territorial Act), 84-.89 (Missouri
Territorial Act), 188-97 (Oregon Territorial Act), 197-203 (Minnesota
Territorial Act) (1988).
Today the area that was [originally] governed by the Northwest Ordinance
is occupied by the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois. Wisconsin, Michigan.
and part of the State of Minnesota.
(The Northwest Ordinance as a Constitutional Document, Denis P. Duffey.
Columbia Law Review, Vol 95, May 1995, No.4, p 929-30)
buc...@exis.net
picture of frontier society in the articles of compact section. The
Northwest Territory, as contemplated by the Ordinance, would be a land in
which slavery was prohibited, religious pluralism was tolerated, education
was promoted, and native Americans were either befriended or battled in
congressionally-back wars, as circumstances required.
buc...@exis.net
susupply
<buc...@exis.net>
digging his grave ever deeper,
wrote in message news:5hhhbt0fujrmop7mh...@4ax.com...
>
> Even before the federal constitution was ratified, the story
> of the federal government's involvement with schools began with the
> Ordinance of 1785, which was passed by the congress established under the
> Articles of Confederation. [snip]
> Laying down fundamental
> conditions for building new states, the ordinance also included a sentence
> asserting that "religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary to good
> government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of
education
> shall forever be encouraged."
Ah, yes. There is that, isn't there? Do you ever worry about being seen as
a trifle inconsistent, jalison?
> During the first century of the new nation, Congress granted more
> than 77 million acres of the public domain as an endowment for the support
> of public schools.
Public schools in which children read from the Bible. Is this jalison's way
of announcing he's become a born again accomodationist?
[snip]
> In 1841, Congress passed an act that granted
> 500,000 acres to eight states, later increased to make grants to a total
of
> nineteen states, to be used for "internal improvements." A majority of
> these states devoted all or part of the income from these lands to the
> schools.
Again, these were schools in which religion and morality were taught. As
Horace Mann was only too glad to tell everyone. From Mann's report to the
board of education in Massachusetts (1848):]
" Our system earnestly inculcates all Christian morals; it founds its morals
on the basis of religion; it welcomes the religion of the Bible; and in
receiving the Bible it allows it to do what it is allowed to do in no other
system, to speak for itself."
I snip the rest of the evidence jalison was kind enough to provide for the
tradition of federal government support of religion in the public schools.