Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II GOVERNMENT OP EARLY ACQUISITIONS ON THE MAINLAND Northwest and Southwest Territories. The problem of the government of territory not comprehended within the boundaries of an individual State but belonging to the nation as a whole first arose through the cession to the Federal Government by the original thirteen States of lands stretching to the westward as far as the Mississippi River, the possession of which was conferred upon them by the treaty of 1783. This cession by the different States took place during the years from 1781 to 1802. The territory thus transferred to the Federal Government was from the start divided into two large areas: the one lying north and the other south of the Ohio River and both having for their western boundary the Mississippi River. They were designated, respectively, as The territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio and The territory of the United States south of the River Ohio, but were usually known simply as The Northwest Territory and The Southwest Territory. Before these cessions were completed the Continental Congress addressed itself to the question of their government. In 1783 it appointed a committee, of which Thomas Jefferson was chairman, to report a plan for fixing the relations between the territory ceded and to be ceded and the Confederation and for providing a scheme of government for it. On April 23,1784, the day that Virginia made its cession, Mr. Jefferson reported on behalf of this committee a scheme of government which was known as Jefferson's Ordinance or Ordinance of 1784. The plan thus proposed did not meet the approval of Congress in all respects and was discussed for several years. Final agreement was reached on July 3, 1787, on which day was adopted the famous Northwest Or...
