Chapter XXVI: Section 6: Territorial Government

[Sidenote: The Northwest Territory.] [Sidenote: The Ordinance of 1787.] The Constitution provided for the admission of new states to the Union, but it does not allow a state to be formed within another state. A state cannot "be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress." Shortly before the making of the Constitution, the United States had been endowed for the first time with a public domain. The territory northwest of the Ohio River had been claimed, on the strength of old grants and charters, by Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Virginia. In 1777 Maryland refused to sign the Articles of Confederation until these states should agree to cede their claims to the United States, and thus in 1784 the federal government came into possession of a magnificent territory, out of which five great states--Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin--have since been made. While the Federal Convention was sitting at Philadelphia, the Continental Congress at New York was doing almost its last and one of its greatest pieces of work in framing the Ordinance of 1787 for the organization and government of this newly acquired territory. The ordinance created a territorial government with governor and two-chambered legislature, courts, magistrates, and militia. Complete civil and religious liberty was guaranteed, negro slavery was prohibited, and provision was made for free schools.[30]

[Footnote 30: The manner in which provision should be made for these schools had been pointed out two years before in the land-ordinance of 1785, as heretofore explained. See above, p. 86.]

[Sidenote: Other territories and their government.] In 1803 the enormous territory known as Louisiana, comprising everything (except Texas) between the Mississippi River and the crest of the Rocky Mountains, was purchased from France. A claim upon the Oregon territory was soon afterward made by discovery and exploration, and finally settled in 1846 by treaty with Great Britain. In 1848 by conquest and in 1853 by purchase the remaining Pacific lands were acquired from Mexico. All of this vast region has been at some time under territorial government. As for Texas, on the other hand, it has never been a territory. Texas revolted from Mexico in 1836 and remained an independent state until 1845, when it was admitted to the Union. Territorial government has generally passed through three stages: first, there are governors and judges appointed by the president; then as population increases, there is added a legislature chosen by the people and empowered to make laws subject to confirmation by Congress; finally, entire legislative independence is granted. The territory is then ripe for admission to the Union as a state.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT.

1. What is the constitutional provision for admitting new states?

2. What states claimed the territory northwest of the Ohio river? On what did they base their claims?

3. Why was this territory ceded to the general government?

4. What states have since been made out of this territory?

5. What was the Ordinance of 1787?

6. What were the principal provisions of this ordinance?

7. Give an account of the Louisiana purchase?

8. Give an account of the acquisition of the Oregon territory.

9. Give an account of the acquisition of the remaining Pacific lands.

10. How came Texas to belong to the United States?

11. How much of the public domain has been at some time under territorial government?

12. Through what three stages has territorial government usually passed?