Passage of the Land Ordinance of 1784

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson, as delegate from Virginia, proposed that the states relinquish their particular claims to all territory west of the Appalachians and that the area be divided into new states of the Union. The Congress of the Confederation modified the proposal and passed it as the Land Ordinance of 1784, which declared that states would one day be formed within the region and established the example that would become the basis for the Northwest Ordinance three years later. The legacy record titles the measure the 'Ordinance of Governance' and records an occurrence date of 23 April 1784; neither the title nor that date is supported by the supplied passages, which identify the measure only as the Land Ordinance of 1784 and give no day of passage.