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- Title
Federalism, Republicanism, and the Northwest Ordinance.
- Authors
Hill, Robert S.
- Abstract
The North west Ordinance, enacted by the Congress of the Confederation on 13 July 1787, addressed in its own way the two crises facing the Framers in Philadelphia: the crisis of the Union and the crisis of republican government. It gave government to the Northwest Territory, which had been created for the sake of the Union and with an eye to the security of republicanism. That territory was destined to be a matrix of new states, equal members of the Union and republican inform. The working out of those principles, commanded by the Declaration and foreshadowing the Constitution, is traced from Jefferson's plan of 1784 to the Ordinance of 1787. The uncultivated and intractable character of the frontiersman, making his attachment to the Union and his capacity for self-government dubious, presented a special problem. It is seen how the Northwest Ordinance, establishing government, procuring certain social and economic conditions, and inducing proper habits and opinions, sought to make the expansion of the Union an extension of republicanism.
- Subjects
UNITED States; PUBLIC lands; FEDERAL government; REPUBLICANISM; LAND settlement; LAND tenure; REAL property; LAND use; FARM management
- Publication
Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 1988, Vol 18, Issue 4, p41
- ISSN
0048-5950
- Publication type
Article