DOCUMENT RESUME ED 290 691 SO 018 835 AUTHOR Madison, James H. TITLE Extending Liberty Westward: The Northwest Ordinance of 1787. PUB DATE May 87 NOTE 16p.; For related documents, see SO 018 828 and SO 018 836. PUB TYPE Historical Materials (060) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Civil Rights; Governance; Government (Administrative Body); Land Settlement; Slavery; *Social Studies; State Government; *State History; United States History IDENTIFIERS Bicentennial; *Indiana; *Northwest Ordinance 1787; Northwest Territories ABSTRACT The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which proviled for government of the largely unsettled frontier area north of the Ohio River and for an orderly, three-stage transition of the territories from control by national government to full and equal statehood, joins the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution to form a trinity of founding-era documents that charted the course of a new nation. The Northwest Ordinance aroused conflict in Indiana and more broadly among U.S. citizens over slavery and sectionalism, states' rights, representative government, western expansion, and individual freedom. The Indiana Territory was created in 1800, and its first governor was William Henry Harrison. Many of Harrison's fellow settlers resented their lack of a voice in government and pushed hard for transition to the seconL, semi-representative stage as promised in the ordinance. The force of numbers pushed Harrison to agree to movement to the second stage. The pattern of conflict was repeated in moving to the third stage although the conflict was more intense and enduring. A population census in 1815 counted 63,897 Hoosiers, more than enough to meet the requirements of the Northwest Ordinance for statehood. In 1816, 43 men wrote a constitution for Indiana, and on December 11, 1816, President James Madison approved statehood. The Indiana constitution of 1816 ended the controversy over slavery by making Indiana a free state. (SM) ***********************************************t*********************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original locument. * **************************************4 *************5 .**************** J. Madison/May'87 1-4 CY% Extending Liberty Westward: Cr The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 by James H. Madison James H. Madison, MA'68, PhD'72, is associate professor of history at Indiana University Bloomington, editor of the Indiana Magazine of History, and author of the recently published book, The Indiana Way: A State History. Currently he is working on a biography of Eli Lilly. "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAI HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TCLYVN S H"' y1 TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." S DCRARTMENT OF EDUCATION0.0 OV.ce duce'.onal gesearch and Improvement bc:20 EOUCAT:ONAL RESOURCES INFOrMATION r CENTER (ERIC) relhis document 11,s been reproduced as received Irom the purson or organization Jriginattrg it Miner changes have been made to improve0 reOroduCtion Qua0 lity (.7) Points of view or ogynions stater' m !hie docu-ment do not neceSsaniy represent of 2 OERI pothhon or policy J. Madison/May'87 page 1 The birth was not promising. Passed on Friday, the 13th of July, by a nation- al government that was moribund, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 nonethe- less became a fundamental doom', lt in American history. Indeed, it belongs to the near-holy trinity of founding- era documents, joining the Declaraticn of Independence and the Constitution of 1787 in charting the course of the new nation. For the frontier West es- pecially, including pioneer Indiana, the Northwest Ordinance determined the nature of government and ensured that basic American freedoms extendE4 west- ward. A Vision for Self-,overnment The immediate purpose of the North- west Ordinance was to provide for gov- ernment in the largely unsettled lands west of the Appalachian Mountains and north of the Ohio River. While there was no strong sentiment among American 3 A J. Madison/May'87 page 2 leaders to maintain the West in per- petual colonial dependency, neither was there confidence that this sparse- ly populated, undeveloped land was yet suited for representative government and statehood. Indeed, some conserva- tive Easterners feared '-hat the sort of people most likely to move west were those least "civilized" and least capable of self-government. The Ordi- nance suggested a pragmatic compromise that allowed for a transition from full control by the national govern- ment to gradual representative govern- ment and eventual statehood. It there- by posited a developmental model, one that planned for evolutionary growth toward self-government. This transition would occur in three stages, carefully delinated in the Ordinance. In the least democrat- ic, first stage a territorial governor and judges appointed by the national government would rule. When the popu- lation reached 5,000 free, adult 4 J. Madison/May,87 page 3 males, the territorial government would move to the second stage in which those men who owned 50 acres of land could elect representatives to a territorial legislature. When the total free population reached 60,000 inhabitants the territory could claim statehood and enter the Union on an equal footing with the original states. By this three-step process five states of the Northwest Territory entered the Union: Ohio (1803), Indi- ana (1816), Illinois (1818), Michigan (1837), and Wisconsin (1848). So suc- cessful was this visionary prescrip- tion for development that the model was used to create states across the Great Plains to the Pacific Ocean. William Henry Harrison: Frontier Ruler The success of the Northwest Ordi- nance over the long term should not hide the immediate conflicts it gener- ated, for in these struggles were re- 5 J. Madison/May'87 page 4 fleeted some of the basic challenges of American political life, particu- larly the tensions between liberty and order. The application of the Ordi- nance to Indiana's early history illustrates the nature of the debate. The Indiana Territory was created in 1800, as Ohio was becoming a state. Initially its boundF,ries extended west to the Mississippi River and north to the Canadian border. Its first gover- nor was William Henry Harrison. Only 27 when he assumed office, Harrison was a Virginia gentleman who had served on the frontier as early as 1794 when he fought beside General Anthony Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Harrison continued as an In- dian fighter, most notably at the Bat- tle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Even more significantly, though less bloodily, he served as a negotiator of Indian land cession treatieF by which much of Indiana passed from native to white occupancy. In addition to Indians, 6 J. Madison/May'87 page 5 Harrison's foes came to include many of his fellow settlers, most of whom approved his aggressive Indian policy but resented his undemocratic leader- ship. The nearly 6,000 pioneers who re- sided in Indiana Territory in 1800 had not elected Harrison as their gover- nor. As stipulated in the Northwest Ordinance, he was appointed by Presi- dent John Adams. And his word was law. Resenting their lack of a voice in government, Indianans pushed hard for transition to the second, semi-repre- sentative stage as promised in the Or- dinance. Harrison resisted for a time, but the force of numbers, guaranteed in 1787, pushed him to agree to move- ment to the second stage. Indiana's first elections were held in 1805, and the first General Assembly met at Vincennes that same year. The pattern was repeated in moving to the third stage, although the con- flict was more intense and enduring. 7 J. M-dison/May'87 page 6 Governor Harrison still retained large power after 1805. He could, for exam- ple, exercise an absolute veto over any territorial legislation. Opposition grew as newcomers set- tled in Indiana. The Whitewater Valley in the southeast became a hotbed of anti-Harrison feelings. Accustomed to self-rule in North Carolina, Ohio, or Pennsylvania, these westward moving pioneers demanded more democratic gov- ernment. They compared their situation to that of the revolutionary patriots, complaining in an 1811 petition to Washington that their Indiana govern- ment had a "monarchal shape." Harrison and the national government responded with concessions, but the self-styled democratic opposition remained unsat- isfied. The solution was obvious. Only the statehood promised in the Ordi- nance of 1787 would quiet the discon- tent. Hoosiers Eager for Statehood 8 J. Madison/May'87 page 7 The leader of Indiana's pro-state- hood faction was Jonathan Jennings. A newcomer from Pennsylvania, Jennings gathered around him men opposed to Harrison, men eager for statehood, and, in some cases, men hungry also for office for themselves. Harrison and his followers resisted the push for statehood, arguing that Indiana taxpayers could not afford tha costs of state government. Moreover, one of Harrison's followers asserted, there was in Indiana "a great scarcety (sic) of talents, or men of such information as are necessary to fill the respec- tive Stations, & Offices of govern- ment." The debate over statehood was not settled by measuring either wealth or talent. All that counted was popula- tion. With the defeat of the Indians and the British in the War of 1812, pioneer families poured into Indiana Territory, taking up rich, abundant land and bringing with them fundamen- 9 J. Madison/May'87 page 8 tal attachments to representive gov- ernment. A population census in 1815 counted 63,897 Hoosiers, more than enough to meet the requirements of the Northwest Ordinance. The Nineteenth State In the heat of a Corydon summer in 1816, 43 men wrote a constitution for Indiana. The majority of the elected delegates had been pro-statehood men and supporters of Jennings, whom they elected to chair the convention. A critic of the Jennings faction labeled them "empty babblers, democratic to madness," but they accomplished what they set out to do. With the experi- ence of territorial government fresh in their minds, Jennings and his asso- ciates created a government in which the elected legislature was the strongest branch, closely dependent on grassroots approval. The powers of the state governor were severely re- 10 J. Madison/May'87 page 9 stricted; he would enjoy little of the gubernatorial reach possessed by Harrison. On December 11, 1816, President James Madison approved statehood. In- diana now had a full voice in the na- tional government, including the vote of two senators in Washington, equal to that of Virginia, Massachusetts, and the other original states. Resent- ment of quasi-colonial status that may have lingered from the years before 1816 soon washed away in the waves of state and national pride that burst across Indiana. The commitment made in 1787 had been fulfilled. Slavery Is Prohibited The promise of statehood was .he most important promise made in 1787, but there were other guarantees in the Northwest Ordinance. These were con- tained i a section called the Arti- cles of Compact, which pledged that 1 J. Madison/May'87 page 10 from the beginning settlers in the West would enjoy certain fundamental freedoms and rights, many of which the new government would soon include in the Bill of Rights. The Articles of Compact guaranteed religious freedom and due process of law, including trial by jury, and it urged the en- couragement of public education and justice toward Indians. The sixth and final article stipulated that "there shall be neither slavery nor involun- tary servitude in the said territory." The articles reassured pioneers that they would take American freedoms along west with their rifles, spinning wheels, and axes. The importance of the Articles of Compact is indicated in the fact that Indiana's Constitu- tion of 1816 repeated and expanded these liberties guaranteed in 1787. The prohibition of slavery caused the most controversy in Indiana. Gov- ernor Harrison owned slaves and so did many of his prominent supporters. The 12 J. Madison/May'87 page 11 census of 1810 counted 237 slaves and 393 free blackE the territory. It is likely that _.:e lives of many of those blacks countea as free differed little if at all from those listed as slaves. Harrison's opponents soonadded Jlevery to their growing list of objections to the governor's rule. The South's peculiar institution, they asserted, was "repugnant to the ines- timable principles of a republican Government." Jennings and his sup- por* grs castigated the Harrison faction as a slaveholding aristocracy that was determined to deny represen- tative government and democracy on In- diana's frontier. This argument, com- bining antislavery with 'reedom, would ring loud in the nation's politics down to Appcnattox Courthouse. In In- diana the debate closed with the Con- stitution fo 1816, which sealed the fate of slavery in the new free-soil state. 1 3 J. Madison/May'87 An Enduring Document page 12 Two hundred years later the North- west Ordinance remains a fundamental document. Not only did it shape the history of westward settlement andstatemaking, but it enunciated princi- ples of broad and enduring signifi- cance. The Northwest Ordinance aroused conflict, immediately in Indiana in the struggles between the Harrison and Jennings factions, and more broadly in the controversies among Americans over slavery and sectionalism, states' rights, representative government, western expansion, and individual freedom. Ultimately, however, it was among America's great achievements. Today we rightly celebrate that achievement. The 1787 document promulgated one of the most generous colonial policies in the history of nations, a policy 14 J. Madison/May'87 page 13 dedicated to creating equal rather than dependent units of government. In this purpose it was radically differ- ent from British colonial policy and that of most empires. It was remark- ably optimistic in assuming that the nation would expand westward, and itencouraged that expansion by guaran- teeing that liberty and representative government would move across the moun- tains with the pioneers. At the same time, this expansion would be an or- derly process, one in which the na- tional government would remain a re- sponsible party in allowing time for the growth and maturation necessary for representative government. The framers of the Northwest Ordi- nance tied the growing West to the new nation, not with cords of imperial power but with sentiments of recipro- cal, heartfelt nationalism. From the early 19th century to the present, the people of Indiana and of th.7. Midwest have often perceived themselves as the '5 J. Madison/May'87 page 14 most patriotic and the most typical cf Americans. Such sentiments originate in part with a document approved on July 13, 1787. 16