Northwestern Territory

“ On May 25, 1785, the Continental Congress passed an ordinance disposing of lands in the Northwestern Territory, by which it was decreed that: “There shall be reserved Lot No. 16 of every township for the maintenance of public schools within said township.” ”

“ It is well known that Ohio was the first of the new States formed out of the great Northwestern territory to experience that most liberal policy, on the part of the Federal Government, which not only enjoined upon the Territorial Legislature the encouragement of learning, but made munificent grants of land for the uses of education. ”

“ Probably there were not more than three thousand white people in the territory when this treaty was signed, and these were principally wandering French traders; very few of them cultivators of the soil. In 1778 Virginia conquered the northwest from Great Britain, and erected the entire territory into a county, by the name of Illinois. Soon after the close of the War of the Revolution, in the year 1787, the United States established in the same region its first provincial government, and gave it the above title, which in common parlance was known as the “Northwestern Territory.” ”

“ Popularly it signified the old Northwestern Territory—including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin—until about the time of the Civil War. In the decade following the war, Illinois and Iowa were largely in the minds of men who spoke of the Northwest. From 1870 to 1880, Iowa, Kansas, northern Missouri, and Nebraska constituted the most stirring and favored region—the Northwest par excellence. But the past decade has witnessed a remarkable development in the Dakotas ”

“ Two decades hence no man will question the quality of Northwestern civilization. If the East is losing something of its distinctive Americanism through the influx of foreign elements and the decay of its old-time farming communities, the growth of the Northwest, largely upon the basis of New England blood and New England ideas, will make full compensation. ”

“ This committee will further all they can an intelligent understanding of the subject to the end that the works affecting the Northwest may be speedily completed, and it confidently relies upon the support of the entire Northwestern country in its efforts to bring about a condition which will result in such enormous and continuing benefits to all the people. ”

“ The Ordinance's arrangement for expansion included opening settlement of the area known as the Northwest Territory, providing civil government, and ensuring settlers the protection of Common Law under territorial government until permanent State governments could be created. ”

“ The Indians, who foresaw the inevitable extension of white settlement, wished for a Territorial government in order to sell lands to better advantage. The Wyandots, led by their half and quarter bloods, in 1851-52 petitioned Congress to establish a Territory, with no success. A Territorial Delegate, Abelard Guthrie, was chosen in October, 1852. A bill to organize Nebraska Territory passed the House February 2, 1853, but did not reach a vote in the Senate. ”

“ And there was reason for the masterful politicians of the cotton country to watch the Northwestern frontier. Michigan had become a State in 1837, Iowa and Wisconsin in 1846, and Minnesota was to enter the [Pg 199] Union in 1858. There were four Territories, Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon, and Washington, that might be admitted at any time. California was growing powerful, and she was already lost to slavery if not to the South. And a free State was likely to be formed in Colorado. ”

“ The period of territorial government was one of growth along all lines. Trouble with the Indians, increase of population, development of industrial life, and the various needs of a growing community, made many drafts upon the new government. It was not long before the largeness of the territory made a division desirable. The peeple north of the Columbia, separated from those to the south by geographical boundaries, and possessing interests of their own, voted to request the formation of the Washington Territory. ”

“ There are many disadvantages and positive grievances entailed by the territorial form of government, in that, in the acquisition of new territory by the United States, the consideration of congress must inevitably be given to the remodeling and improvement of the whole system. The noble principle enunciated in the Kansas-Nebraska Act is a step in advance, and may be regarded as an evidence of the encouragement that is in the future in this respect. ”

“ Yea, verily, the Old South has sorely needed historians of its own.
Virginia gave seven Presidents and many illustrious statesmen and warriors to the nation. She gave Patrick Henry, the war-trumpet of the Revolution, Washington, its sword, and Jefferson, its mouth-piece. When independence and white-winged peace came to the colonies, she gave to the Union that vast Northwest Territory, out of which have been carved the great States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. [New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut also ceded their claim to this territory.] ”

“ Priority of occupation was a far better claim than priority of discovery. Hence, the government must encourage actual settlement on the Oregon. Two isolated bills that Douglas submitted to Congress are full of suggestion, when connected by this thought: one provided for the establishment of the territory of Nebraska; [203] the other, for the establishment of military posts in the territories of Nebraska and Oregon, to protect the commerce of the United States with New Mexico and California, as well as emigration to Oregon. ”

“ It is a truth so plain as to need no argument, that during all these earlier years the whole effort of the fur traders had been to deceive all nationalities as to the value of the Northwestern country. ”

“ In going westward, the region we are traversing beyond the Pennsylvania boundary gradually changes 404 from coal and iron to a rich agricultural section. As we move away from the influence of the Allegheny ranges, the hills become gentler, and the rolling surface is more and more subdued, until it is smoothed out into an almost level prairie, heavily timbered where not yet cleared for cultivation. This was the Northwest Territory, first explored by the French, who were led by the Sieur de la Salle in his original discoveries in the seventeenth century. ”

“ Broadly speaking, then, the real problem of the Northwestern frontier after 1850 was: how to put more and ever more men of capacity, endurance, strength, and adaptability into the upper Mississippi and Red River valleys, men who first break up the prairie sod, clear the brush off the slopes, drain the marshes, build the railroads, and do [81] the thousands and one hard jobs incident to pioneer life, and then turn to the building of factories and towns and cities. ”

“ The three agencies, agriculture, banking, and the carrier, are most important in our part of the country. Upon the wisdom and energy with which they are conducted, upon their coöperation each with the other, and upon the wise and fair treatment accorded them by the public through the forces of Government, depend their success and the continued growth and success of our great Northwestern country.
The American Northwest is a great empire, very young but very strong and full of opportunity for the best kind of human endeavor. ”

“ Moreover, the South was now jealous of the expanding Northwest, and her leaders were growing more hostile toward the idea of free lands for the Northwestern settlers.
Douglas and his friends in both houses of Congress worked out a new policy during the years 1845 to 1850. It was to induce the Federal Government to give large tracts of public land to the Northwestern States on condition that they be given again by the States to railroad corporations as aids to the building of new lines. ”

“ The Northwest Ordinance was remarkable in that it was framed for a territory that had practically no white population and which, in a sense, did not belong to the United States at all. Back in 1768 Sir William Johnson's Treaty of Fort Stanwix had made the Ohio River the boundary between the white and red races of the West. Nobody at the close of the Revolution supposed that this division would be adhered to; the Northwest had not been won for purposes of an Indian reserve. ”

“ Such are especially Delaware, Maryland, Western Virginia, Kentucky, Western North Carolina, Eastern, and to some extent, Middle Tennessee, Northern Georgia, Northern Alabama, and Missouri. An important object would have been, had the power of the North proved inadequate to do more, to secure this territory within the boundary of the new North, and upon such terms as to give strength and new impetus to the freedom-loving sentiment there extant. ”

“ Our right to Oregon, up to the fifty-fifth degree of north latitude, is quite clear and our people will occupy that territory forthwith, and then Congress will limp along after them, carrying our laws to them. In the mean time, villages, towns and cities will rear their spires along the rivers, the stage driver’s horn and the steam boat’s bell will be heard there. ”

“ Stupid as our English cousin sometimes shows himself, he cannot fail to perceive the advantages of the new route, and has promptly embraced them. The people of Minnesota are becoming well acquainted with the residents of the country on their northern boundary. Many of the Northwestern politicians are studying the policy of "annexation." ”

“ Instead, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, in explicitly providing for population-based representation of those living in the Northwest Territory in their territorial legislatures, clearly implied that, as early as the year of the birth of our federal system, the proper basis of legislative representation was regarded as being population. ”

“ They propose boldly and at once to acknowledge the Southern Confederacy and demand that the Northwest dissolve all further relations with New England. When they have passed this measure in Indiana, they expect Ohio and Illinois to follow suit.
"Their secret order which covers my State with a network of lodges, whose purpose is the withdrawal of the Northwestern States from the Union, has obtained a foothold in the army camps inside the city of Washington itself——"
The President rose with quick, nervous energy and paced the floor. ”

“ The most potent single element of population in the Northwest is of New England origin, although more than half of it has found its way into Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas, by filtration through the intermediate States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois. ”

“ Quite a delegation was present at Washington city who favored the division of Washington territory, which then included all of Idaho and Montana west of the Rocky mountains, extending as far south as the northern line of California and Nevada. ”

“ And yet in important historical ideals—in the process of expansion, in the persistence of agricultural interests, in impulsiveness, in imperialistic ways of looking at the American destiny, in hero-worship, in the newness of its present social structure—the Old Northwest has much in common with the South and the Far West.
Behind her is the old pioneer past of simple democratic conditions, and freedom of opportunity for all men. Before her is a superb industrial development, the brilliancy of success as evinced in a vast population, aggregate wealth, and sectional power. ”

“ An amicable settlement, however, was brought about and the present boundary between Washington and British Columbia was fixed.
A petition was sent to Congress praying for closer relationship in the Union, and in 1853 the Territory of Oregon was organized. The flux of immigration fast settled the attractive sylva on the Sound and the rolling prairies east of the Cascades. The Territory being too large, and the country north of Columbia was sliced off and made to struggle for itself. ”

“ In March Congress formed the new Territory of Washington out of the northern half of what was then Oregon, being the territory extending from the Columbia River and the 46th parallel northward two hundred and fifty miles to the British Possessions and the 49th parallel, and from the crest of the Rocky Mountains westward six hundred miles to the Pacific, an area larger than New England and New York combined. ”

“ For the most part, the men who built up the West beyond the Mississippi, and who are now leading the agitation, [4] came as pioneers from the old Northwest, in the days when it was just passing from the stage of a frontier section. For example, Senator Allen of Nebraska, president of the recent national Populist Convention, and a type of the political leaders of his section, was born in Ohio in the middle of the century, went in his youth to Iowa, and not long after the Civil War made his home in Nebraska. ”

“ That portion of the Northwest coast which was long known as the "Oregon territory" enjoys the distinction of having been fathered by more men with a greater variety of purposes and ambitions than any other of the family of commonwealths under the United States flag. First, there were the English and the American explorers, Gray and Vancouver, and Lewis and Clark, in the employ of their respective companies or governments, whose acts formed the foundation of opposing claims to the northwest, and particularly the region drained by the Columbia River. These form a class by themselves. ”