Learn how the U.S. Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance to outline settlement of the Northwest Territory
Settlement of America's western lands began with the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.
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Public Domain videoWilliam Jennings Bryan's “Cross of Gold” speech, given at the Democratic National Convention, Chicago, July 8, 1896.
Transcript
NARRATOR: The Northwest Territory--stretching from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi . . . from the Great Lakes to the lower Ohio . . . land won from England in the Revolutionary War--a treasure no nation had ever before possessed so easily.
Back in the East, Congress was faced with the problem of how to develop this vast empty land. By what means was it to be made a part of the new United States of America? Some even argued that it could not be done. No nation had ever before faced the problem of developing a territory of this size and making it an integral part of a democracy.
[Music in]
The answer was the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 . . . an act of fundamental importance . . . ranking with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution in the development of America. This new and revolutionary concept of how to make new territories a part of the Union . . . assured the people who were willing to brave this wilderness that they were not just colonizers dependent upon eastern states and eastern government.
In time they would hold elections and send their own delegates to Congress. When sixty thousand people had settled in an area, they could take steps toward becoming full-fledged states, enjoying the same rights as the people of the already-established states of the Union.
[Music out]
Back in the East, Congress was faced with the problem of how to develop this vast empty land. By what means was it to be made a part of the new United States of America? Some even argued that it could not be done. No nation had ever before faced the problem of developing a territory of this size and making it an integral part of a democracy.
[Music in]
The answer was the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 . . . an act of fundamental importance . . . ranking with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution in the development of America. This new and revolutionary concept of how to make new territories a part of the Union . . . assured the people who were willing to brave this wilderness that they were not just colonizers dependent upon eastern states and eastern government.
In time they would hold elections and send their own delegates to Congress. When sixty thousand people had settled in an area, they could take steps toward becoming full-fledged states, enjoying the same rights as the people of the already-established states of the Union.
[Music out]