Passage of the Northwest Ordinance (1785)

The Land Ordinance of 1785, passed by the Confederation Congress, established the method for selling land in the Northwest Territory to private citizens. It specified that each township should set aside land to be rented out in support of public schools. The ordinance was later supplemented and in some respects superseded by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which built on its school-land provision. The passage year 1785 is corroborated by the supplied passages; the specific month and day of passage rest on the legacy record and are not confirmed by retrieved passages.

Episodes

Background and detail

Background. The Land Ordinance of 1785 described how the Confederation Congress would sell land to private citizens. It followed the Land Ordinance of 1784, which declared that states would one day be formed within the region. The 1785 ordinance specified that each township should set aside land that would be rented out to support public schools.

Provisions. The ordinance established the mechanism for selling land to private citizens. It mandated that each township set aside land for public schools. The later Northwest Ordinance of 1787 built on this provision when it stipulated that schools and the means of education should forever be encouraged. The ordinance was part of the legislative framework for the Northwest Territory.

Legacy. The Land Ordinance of 1785 was supplemented and in some respects superseded by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The 1787 ordinance built on the 1785 ordinance's provision for township land set aside for public schools. The 1785 ordinance is distinct from the 1787 ordinance, which created the Northwest Territory.

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Sources

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.