The first attempt at balancing power between a central government and the 13 new states — the Articles of Confederation — was flawed and unable to fulfill the dream of creating the first republic since the glory days of Rome.

With a weak central government restricted from levying taxes and dealing effectively with conflicts between the states, and with no executive or judicial branch, the new United States of America would be forced to call a constitutional convention in 1787 to address the flaws of the Articles. However, while the issue of western lands had created friction between the states since the Revolutionary War, the passage of the Northwest Ordinance (1787) is often considered the most significant legislation of the pre-constitutional nation.

During the time of the Revolution, the lands west of the 13 colonies were claimed by several of the colonies with no clear lines of demarcation. While Virginia and New York would cede their claims after 1780, tiny Connecticut refused to give up its access to the Western Reserve along Lake Erie. In the years following the Peace of Paris (1783), the issues of control and the possibility of creating additional states required compromise and a series of legislative solutions.

The first attempt to address the western lands, drafted by Thomas Jefferson and passed by Congress in 1784, divided the lands of the Ohio Valley, later called the Northwest Territory, into several self-governing districts. Each district was entitled one representative to Congress after its population exceeded 20,000, and it could apply for statehood when it attained a population equal to the least-populous state of the original 13.

Questions about boundaries prompted the second law, the Ordinance of 1785. More specific guidelines were needed. The lands would be subdivided using a rectangular grid system, and a process for creating a township from the granted land, a square area measuring six miles square, was included. The township would then be subdivided into 36 smaller squares of land available by grants to individuals and families.

One of the 36-square-mile tracts was required to be set aside for a school, the first mandating of government-supported schools. The legal language used in the legislation would be duplicated in land grants across the young nation as it expanded westward until the creation of the Homestead Act of 1862, including the specific directions on survey techniques.

For example: “The lines shall be measured with a chain; shall be plainly marked by chaps on the trees; and exactly described on a plat, whereon shall be noted by the surveyor, at their proper distances, all mines, all springs, all salt licks, and mill seats that shall come to his knowledge and all water-courses, mountains, and other remarkable and permanent things over and near which such lines shall pass, and also the quality of the lands.”

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 finalized the process for self-government and admission of new states. Redrafting guidelines from the earlier legislations, each district would now be governed by a governor and judges appointed by Congress until it boasted a population of 5,000 free adult males. Once that threshold had been met, the district became a territory and could form its own legislative body. The legislation mandated that the Northwest Territory would eventually be divided into no fewer than three and no more than five states. Upon obtaining a population of 60,000, the territory could apply for statehood.

An interesting paragraph in the legislation caused extensive congressional debate but was ultimately affirmed: “There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, 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…”

Additionally, civil liberties and religious freedom would be protected while the native peoples in the region were protected and education was again promoted by the Northwest Ordinance:

“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; the lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent…”

“…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…”

New states were eventually created — Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and a portion of Minnesota. Promises were made. Slavery was prohibited.

But the debate would continue as the new nation attempted to govern itself.