GOVERNMENT
OF THE
NORTHWEST TERRITORY
[THE CONFEDERATE CONGRESS, JULY 13, 1787]
An ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States, northwest of the river Ohio.
Temporary government.
[Sec. 1.] Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled, that the said territory, for the purposes of temporary government, be one district; subject, however, to be divided into two districts as future circumstances may, in the opinion of Congress, make it expedient.
Rules of inheritance; dower; wills, conveyances, execution and recording; French and Canadian customs.
[Sec. 2.] Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, that the estates, both of resident and non-resident proprietors in the said territory, dying inestate, 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 grandchild, 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 parents’ 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 inestate, 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 herein after mentioned, estates in the said territory may be devised or adopt laws as herein after mentioned, estates in the said territory may be devised or adopt laws as herein after mentioned, estates in the said territory may be devised or bequeathed by wills 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 duly 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 Kaskaskies, Saint Vincents, and the neighboring villages, who have heretofore professed themselves citizens of Virginia, their laws and customs now in force among them, relative to the descent and conveyance of property.
Governor, term, residence, property qualifications
[Sec. 3.] 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; he shall reside in the district, and have a freehold estate therein, in one thousand acres of land, while in the exercise of his office.
Secretary, term, residence, property qualification, duties; court, members, residence, property qualification, term.
[Sec. 4.] There shall be appointed form 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, and two of whom to form a court, who shall have a common law jurisdiction, and reside in the district, and have each therein freehold estate in five hundred acres of land, while in the exercise of their offices; and their commission shall continue in force during good behavior.
Laws; adoption and publication, alteration.
[Sec. 5.] 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 shall be in force in the district until the organization of the general assembly therein, unless disapproved of by the Congress; but afterwards the legislature shall have authority to alter them as they shall think fit.
Officers of militia.
[Sec. 6.]The governor for the time being shall be commander-in-chief of the militia, appoint and commission all officers in the same, below the rank of general officers; all general officers shall be appointed and commissioned by Congress.
Civil officers, appointment, regulation.
[Sec. 7.] 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 good order in the same. After the general assembly shall be organized, the powers and duties of magistrates and other civil officers shall be regulated and defined 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.
Civil division of district, alteration.
[Sec. 8.] For the prevention of crimes and 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 form 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.
Representative government; general assembly, apportionment, qualifications; electors’ qualifications.
[Sec. 9.] 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 form 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 increase, 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 states, 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.
Representatives, term, writ of election for filling vacancy.
[Sec. 10.] 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.
General assembly, constitution, powers; legislative council, members, term, nomination and
appointment, qualifications; governor, powers.
[Sec. 11.] 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, resident in the district, and each possessed of a freehold in five hundred acres of land, and return their names to Congress; five of whom 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 authority to make laws in all cases for the good government of the district not repugnant to the principles and articles in this ordinance establish 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.
Oath; delegate to congress, election, powers.
[Sec. 12.] 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, shall 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.
Purposes of ordinance.
[Sec. 13.] 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 maybe consistent with the general interest.
Articles of compact.
[Sec. 14.] 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:
Religious freedom.
ARTICLE I. No person demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner, shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or religious sentiments, in the said territory.
Bill of rights.
ARTICLE II. The inhabitants of the said territory shall always be entitled to the benefit of the writ of habeaus 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 offenses, where the proof shall be evident or the presumption great. All fines shall be moderate; and no cruel or unusual punishment 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 person’s 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.
Education; treatment of Indians.
ARTICLE III. 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.
States a part of confederacy; apportionment of taxation; navigation rights.
ARTICLE IV. 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 acts and 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 expenses 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 theses 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 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.
States, number permitted; boundaries, alteration, prerequisites to admission, essential governmental principles.
ARTICLE V. 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 Wabash and Post Vincents, due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada; and by the said territorial line of 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 a 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 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 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.
Slavery prohibited, fugitives; resolutions repealed.
ARTICLE VI. There shall neither be slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crime, 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 the person claiming his or her labor or service, as aforesaid.
Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, that the resolutions of the twenty-third of April, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four, relative to the subject of this ordinance, be, and the same hereby repealed and declared null and void.
DONE by the United States Congress assembled, thirteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of their sovereignty and independence the twelfth.
I. Stat. 50; Approved Aug. 7, 1789
An act to provide for the Government of the Territory Northwest of the river Ohio.
Preamble.
Whereas, in order that the ordinance of the United States in Congress assembled, for the government of the territory north-west of the river Ohio may continue to have full effect, it is requisite that certain provisions should be made, so as to adapt the same to the present Constitution of the United States:
Governor’s communication to president; territorial officers, appointment and removal.
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in all cases in which by the said ordinance any information is to be given, or communication made by the governor of the said territory to the United States in Congress assembled, or to any of their officers, it shall be the duty of the said governor to give such information, and to make such communication to the President of the United States; and the President shall nominate, and by and with advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint all officers which, by the said ordinance, were to have been appointed by the United States in Congress assembled; and all officers, so appointed, shall be commissioned by him; and in all cases where the United States in Congress assembled, might, by the said ordinance, revoke any commission, or remove from any office, the President is hereby declared to have the same powers of revocation and removal.
Secretary to have powers of governor during vacancy.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That in case of the death, removal, resignation, or necessary absence of the governor of the said territory, the secretary thereof shall be, and he is hereby authorized and required to execute all the powers, and perform all the duties of the governor, during the vacancy occasioned by the removal, resignation, or necessary absence of the said governor.
I Stat. 285; Approved May 8, 1792
An act respecting the government of the territories of the United States northwest and south of the river Ohio.
Laws of the territory, printing and distribution.
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the laws of the territory northwest of the river Ohio, that have been or hereafter may be enacted, by the governor and judges thereof shall be printed, under the direction of the Secretary of State, and two hundred copies thereof, together with ten sets of the laws of the United States, shall be delivered to the said governor and judges, to be distributed among the inhabitants for their information, and that a like number of the laws of the United States shall be delivered to the governor and judges of the territory southwest of the river Ohio.
Governor and judges authorized to repeal their laws.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the governor and judges of the territory northwest of the river Ohio shall be, and hereby are, authorized to repeal their laws, by them made, whensoever the same may be found to be improper.
Secretaries’ official duties.
Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the official duties of the secretaries of the said territories shall be under the control of such laws, as are or may be in force in the said territories.
One supreme or superior judge may hold court.
Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That any one of the supreme or superior judges of the said territories, in the absence of the other judges, shall be and hereby is authorized to hold a court.
Seals for territorial offices.
Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That the secretary of state, provide proper seals for the several and respective public offices in the said territories.
Limitation act passed by governor and judges disapproved.
Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That the limitation act, passed by the governor and judges of the said territory, the twenty-eighth day of December, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, be and hereby is disapproved.
Expenses of judges on circuit.
Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That the expense incurred by John Cleves Symmes and George Turner, two of the judges of the said territory, in sending an express, and in purchasing a boat to go the circuit, in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety, shall be liquidated by the officers of the treasury, and paid out of the treasury of the United States.