Marc Liebman's Blog, page 9

Jim Blythe Veterans Impact Show

Marc and former Vietnam POW Dave Carey, Captain USN (retired) talk about the significance of the Declaration of Independence and how it was disseminated so everyone in the Thirteen Colonies would know what it said.

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President Washington’s Letter About Religious Freedom

The first 16 words of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution – Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof – were written by Alexander Hamilton and are clear. There will be no government-sponsored religion in the new United States of America.

During the deliberations by the members of the Constitutional Convention, many wanted to use the document to establish a religion sponsored/supported by the new central government. Proponents pointed to the benefits of the English model in which the Anglican Church is the “official” religion of Great Britain and France where the official religion was Catholicism.

Opponents of this position, namely Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, were vehemently opposed to a state-sponsored religion. They pointed out that state-sponsored religions often restricted citizens’ freedom to practice another religion or none at all.

Studying history gave them many reasons not to enable a state-sponsored religion to be chosen. Four examples helped make their case. One was the expulsion of Jews from Spain via the Alhambra Decree in March 1492 which was the culmination of 300 years of Spanish policy toward their Jewish population. Another was Edward I’s edicts of expulsion of England’s Jewish population in 1290. They were prohibited from returning until Cromwell took power during the English Civil War.

Protestants were not immune. They only had to look at France’s treatment of the Huguenots who were forced to leave France. Some came to Canada, many dispersed into Prussia and the Netherlands. Fearful that the Catholic Church was losing members to Protestant sects, the Vatican launched a series of Counter-Reformations during the Middle Ages.

My point is that the Founding Fathers, as students of history, were all familiar with what went on in the past and wanted to make a clean break, i.e., there would be no “official” religion in these United States.

However, Washington, who was present during the deliberations of the members of the Constitutional Convention wanted to make his views clear while president. In fact, he put his views as president in a tersely written letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island on August 18th, 1790.

Washington wrote in the third paragraph of the 340-word letter – The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

While the diction and writing style of the 1790s make this cumbersome to read, Washington’s view is clear in the last sentence of the third paragraph. At the time, he was in Rhode Island to generate support for what became the Bill of Rights. However, the importance of his words has grown as an unambiguous signal to the world that in the United States, we will not tolerate religious bigotry of any kind. Once ratified, the Bill of Rights became a beacon of hope to those who were oppressed all over the world.

1772 Painting by Charles Willson Peale of George Washington in his colonel’s uniform of the Virginia Militia.

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The First Presidential Veto

The drafters of the U.S. Constitution set the original membership of the House of Representatives at 65 which was an arbitrary number based on the number of members in the Continental Congress. However, one can assume that as the country grew, there should be more than 65 Representatives.

The guidance was in the Constitution which stipulated the number would be adjusted after the first “enumeration,” a fancy word for a census was taken. Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution states that the actual enumeration shall be made after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years in such manner as they shall by law direct.

It is now 1792, and the Census of 1790 was complete, letting Congress set about laying the ground rules for apportionment, i.e., how many Representatives each state will have. The Constitution makes it clear that each state will have two Senators and at least one Representative.

The next sentence in Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 states the number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one Representative.

One would think that how the number of representatives would be easy to calculate. It wasn’t.

While the debate on apportionment went on, the United States Congress approved two new states. Vermont entered the union in March 1791 and Kentucky in June 1792.

The first attempt at an apportionment bill was sent to President Washington on March 26th, 1792, for signing into law. He vetoed it on April 5th, 1792, making it the first bill ever vetoed by a president.

Washington’s rationale for sending it back to Congress was that it was not a true representation of each state’s population. The original bill established the number of potential Representatives at 120 which would be divided by the 15 states, i.e. each state would receive up to eight.

After speaking with Hamilton, Edmund Randolph, Henry Knox and Thomas Jefferson, Washington decided the bill was unconstitutional and vetoed it.

The House and Senate sent back a second version in which each state would receive one Representative for every 33,000 persons. In other words, each district in a state must have a minimum number of 33,000 people. Washington signed the on April 14th, 1792, bill because it followed what he believed the drafters of the Constitution intended. Those states with larger populations would have more Representatives than those with fewer citizens.

In the Apportionment Act of 1792, which took effect 11 months later in March 1793, there was no requirement for the geographic size of each district. Its only stipulation was that each district must have 33,000 folks living within its boundaries. The formula led to 106 districts that participated in the 1796 Presidential Election, the first that took place after the Apportionment Bill of 1792 was signed.

The Apportionment Bill of 1792 left the design of the districts up to the individual states because the Tenth Amendment states the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people.

So, with the formula for each district size now established, the state legislators and governors were left to establish the geographic boundaries of each district. Let the gerrymandering begin.

Map shows the Congressional Districts during the 1796 elections. The different colors represent those that support the Federalists (brown) and Democratic-Republicans (green).

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Washington’s Actions Help Start the Seven Years’ War

While the 1748 Treaty of Aix la Chapelle ended the War of Austrian Succession, none of the belligerents were happy. Once again, the major powers of Europe – Austria-Hungary, France, Great Britain, Prussia, Spain, and Russia – began jockeying to create new alliances.

France emerged with an alliance with Austria-Hungary and Russia. England and Prussia became military partners. Spain joined France and Austria-Hungary.

Control of North America and the Indian subcontinent was at stake. The winners could expand empires and individuals could make fortunes.

England had a string of 13 colonies along the Atlantic coast. France controlled Canada and had begun to move south into land claimed as part of Britain’s Pennsylvania and Virginia colonies.

In December 1753, Virginia’s Royal Governor, Robert Dinwiddie, sent newly commissioned Virginia militia Major George Washington and a small party of men to ask the French to leave their settlement at The Forks of the Ohio, a place we now call Pittsburgh. The French commander – Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre – read Dinwiddie’s note and politely told Washington that the French were not leaving, and Dinwiddie’s note should have been sent to the French Governor General of Canada. Without orders from his boss, Saint-Pierre would not leave.

Dinwiddie’s promoted Washington to Lieutenant Colonel and ordered him to raise a regiment of militia. At the same time, Dinwiddie ordered William Trent to take a small group of men to the Forks of the Ohio and build a fort before the French did the same. When Trent left with 36 men, Dinwiddie hadn’t gotten approval for this campaign from either the Virginia House of Burgesses or the British parliament.

The French sent 800 men under the command of Claude-Pierre Pécaudy de Contrecoeur to build a fort at the same location where Trent had started work. Trent and his men were sent back to Virginia by the French who began building Fort Duquesne in April 1754.

Hearing this, Governor Dinwiddie ordered Washington to take the 160 men he’d recruited and force the French to leave. His orders, which were not approved by either Parliament or the Foreign Office, were to act on the defensive, but in case any attempts are made to obstruct the works or inter our settlement by any persons whatsoever, you are to restrain all offenders and in the case of resistance to make prisoners of or ill and destroy them.

As Washington moved west with his small force, Trent and his men as well as other recruits joined his unit along with native Americans under the command of Tanacharison who had agreed to help. Trent said the French force was about 1,000 men (it numbered about 600). Washington stopped and built Fort Necessity to await further instructions from Dinwiddie. His fort was at Great Meadows which is near Union, PA, and about 40 miles SE of Pittsburgh.

Washington did not know that Contrecoeur’s orders forbade him to attack the British unless it was in response to an English attack. He sent Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville and 35 other French Canadians to deliver an order for the British to leave what he now believed was sovereign French territory.

Tanacharison’s scouts found the French-Canadians and after scouting the French-Canadian position, Washington decided to attack. The Virginians killed nine of the Canadians and captured the rest in a 15-minute skirmish.

When they learned of their loss, French sent a force to take Fort Necessity. Washington was heavily outnumbered and agreed to withdraw.

As part of his surrender, Washington was forced to sign a document in French that Washington could not read. In it, he admitted to ordering the assassination of de Jumonville and the other French Canadians who were killed. This document in the French archives directly contradicts statements by others who were there during the 15-minute-long skirmish and its aftermath. Their reports say Washington treated his enemies with dignity and fairness.

After months of fruitless negotiations with the French over the two incidents, the Seven Years War began when British took Acadia (Nova Scotia) from the French in June 1755. Shortly afterwards, Major General Edward Braddock led an army to capture Fort Duquesne. We all know how that turned out.

Reconstructed Fort Necessity at the National Battlefield.

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The Democratic-Republican Party Conundrum of the Election of 1808

The United States of America had been an independent country for 25 years. Its population, according to the Constitutionally mandated census of 1800, was 5,308,483 and growing fast. Two years later, the 1810 Census documented the U.S. population as 7,239,881, an increase of 36.4%!!!

In 1788, when George Washington was elected our first president, 13 states could cast 69 electoral votes. In 1808, there were 175 electoral votes from 16 states.

By 1808, the Federalist Party, which had its primary strength in New England, was on its last legs. It was now a minority party, having lost seats in both the House and the Senate in the 1802, 1804, and 1806 elections. Yet, the Federalists still wanted to hold the presidency.

Unlike today, where the contending presidential candidates and their running mates compete for your vote, back then, the man with the second most electoral votes became your vice president, even if he was from a different party. And states were allowed to split their electoral votes.

James Madison, Jefferson’s Secretary of State, chose George Clinton, the Governor of New York, as his preferred running mate. However, both Clinton and James Monroe, then the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and Clinton also sought the top job as the Democratic-Republican Party candidate.

Federalist Charles Pickney won the nomination of the Federalist Party. At the time, he was the U.S. Ambassador to France, and he chose a former ambassador to the United Kingdom as his running mate.

Back in 1808, one could run for several national offices at the same time. Clouding the presidential election picture were the men running for VP – Democratic-Republicans George Clinton, James Monroe, Jefferson’s Secretary of War, Henry Dearborn, and Senator John Quincy Adams who had left the Federalists, the party of his father, John Adams.

The primary election issue was the economy. The Embargo Act of 1807 was an attempt by the Jefferson Administration to force Britain to change its economic policies. It failed horribly and caused the U.S. economy to contract by five percent. (See Blog Post #172 dated 8/7/2022, The Tale of Ograbme – https://marcliebman.com/the-1807-tale-of-ograbme/ ).

The states hit hardest by the Embargo Act of 1807, a.k.a. the Non-Importation Act of 1807, were those in New England who protested that the act reflected Jefferson’s love for France. This issue, along with the continued impressment of seamen by the Royal Navy and British Army support of Native Americans in the Northwest Territories were the major issues of the election.

Jefferson’s shadow hung over the election. As one of the leaders of the American Revolution, Jefferson was still immensely popular and campaigned hard for Madison and Clinton.

Madison carried 12 states and won handily with 122 electoral votes when all the votes were cast. Pickney/King garnered only 47. Two of North Carolina’s and two of Maryland’s electoral votes were cast for Pickney/Rufus.

George Clinton became Madison’s Vice President. Neither Madison, Dearborn, nor John Quincy Adams had a role in Madison’s first administration. Interestingly, two of the candidates Madison defeated – James Monroe and John Quincy Adams – later became presidents.

Map shows the distribution of electoral votes from the 1808 Election courtesy of the National Atlas of the United States.

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Madison Used Tariffs to Force the British to Change Their Trade Policies

The French Revolutionary Wars (1792 – 1802) and the Napoleonic War (1803 – 1815) were godsends for the American economy. At the end of the American Revolution, the economy of the new United States was in tatters. Today, some economists say it was a deep recession, others a depression.

Complicating matters was the country didn’t have the governmental mechanisms/procedures/policies we have today to coax the economy forward. The Articles of Confederation didn’t give the Continental Congress the power to act, and then, once the new Constitution was ratified, there was a steep learning curve as the three branches of government figured out how to govern.

Before the Revolutionary War, England was our largest trading partner. During the eight years of the War for Independence, American businessmen were forced to find markets for their goods elsewhere. It was tough sledding.

The economic difficulties forced American businessmen to do what they have always done. Adapt, improvise and overcome. The U.S. economy slowly began to shift from a purely agrarian one to one in which manufacturing was beginning to grow, particularly in the northern states.

Economically, socially and politically, France was sliding toward chaos that became the French Revolution. Neither could Spain. The Dutch economy wasn’t large enough.

Once Europe erupted in war, the U.S. had what the war-torn countries desperately needed – food and raw materials needed to sustain the belligerent’s war efforts. The U.S. economy grew ~300% between 1792 and 1800.

Slowly but steadily during the the 23 years Europe was consumed by war, U.S. manufacturing grew. By 1815, 20% of the workforce in the northern states – primarily Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont – was employed by manufacturing. In the southern states – Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia – only eight percent of the workers were in factories.

Nonetheless, the Treaty of Ghent which ended the War of 1812 left many leaders in the U.S. government uneasy. They still didn’t trust the British merchants who were flooding the growing U.S. economy with manufactured goods at cut-rate prices. U.S. manufacturers couldn’t compete. In his constitutionally required annual address on December 5th, 1815, James Madison suggested Congress issue tariffs to protect emerging U.S. manufacturing firms and their technology.

Even though the tariffs would raise costs to businessmen in the southern states, they agreed to support them because they were confident they could absorb the added costs for what they bought from British suppliers. A three-year time limit on the tariffs made the bill palatable to all sides.

So, what was taxed? Fabrics from India were hit with a $.25/yard tariff, and items such as manufactured iron goods, leather, paper, furniture, and hats were taxed at 30%.

Known as the Dallas Tariffs after Madison’s Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Dallas, they had the desired effect. The British changed their trade policies when they realized that their economic growth and prosperity was tied to that of the U.S.

The tariffs also encouraged the British negotiate the Rush-Bagot Treaty of 1817 (See 11/12/23 Blog Post – https://marcliebman.com/demilitarizing-the-u-s-canadian-border/ ) and the Treaty of 1818 which established the U.S./Canadian border on the 49th, parallel from the Western end of the Great Lakes to the Pacific.

1813 Charles William cartoon of James Madison punching John Bull

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The Beginning of the Interstate Highway System

The Eisenhower Administration is credited with creating the U.S. Interstate Highway System in 1956, but the concept of building and maintaining roads by the Federal Government has its roots in the years before the American Revolution. It started in the 1740s when a group of speculators known as the Ohio Company of Virginia received a grant for a tract of land in Ohio.

To sell the land to settlers, they needed a road so the families could reach their new property. In 1741, the Ohio Company of Virginia began surveying a road from Fort Cumberland, the northernmost navigable point of the Potomac, to the French trading post at Fort Duquesne, where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet. That land is now known as Pittsburgh.

After the Seven Years’ War, which we call the French and Indian War, broke out in 1756, the British launched an expedition under General Edward Braddock to build a road from Fort Cumberland to Fort Duquesne.

Members of the Virginia militia did most of the engineering, surveying, and construction work on this ill-fated expedition. Besides George Washington, many of the leaders of the Continental Army – Charles Lee, Horatio Gates – distinguished themselves in the battle that ended in Braddock’s defeat and retreat.

On March 29th, 1806, Congress passed the Cumberland Road Act, which authorized the Federal government to turn the path and wagon tract known as the Braddock Road into a real road. The road, now known as the Cumberland Road, was supposed to go from Fort Cumberland to the Mississippi River.

Construction began in 1811 and ultimately reached Vandalia, Illinois, when construction stopped due to a lack of funds caused by the Financial Panic of 1837. At the time, Vandalia was the capital of Illinois!

The Cumberland Road is significant because it is the first road project funded by the Federal government and provided a road from the East Coast of the U.S. well into the interior. In 1835, the cost of maintaining the two-lane gravel road was transferred to the states through which it passed – Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

By passing this act in 1806, Congress established a precedent for a series of bills that would lead the U.S. to create a network of highways that connected the coasts to inland cities not on navigable rivers.

The original Cumberland Road was renamed the National Road by the bill and still exists today as U.S. 40. In 1976, the National Road was designated as a National Civil Engineering Landmark, and in 2002, it was named The Historic National Road. All along the road, there are historic markers, bridges and other landmarks.

Image is a map of the planned route of the National Road as envisioned in 1806.

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First Payroll Deductions by the Federal Government

No, the first payroll deductions didn’t start withholding for Social Security in January 1937 or income tax, which started in 1943 with quarterly payments. They began when President John Adams signed The Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen on July 16th, 1798.

Earlier, in March 1798, the Congress authorized the use of force against France which had, in 1796 begun issuing letters of marque to allow privateers seize U.S. ships. Thus, beginneth the Quasi War with France which lasted officially between July 7th, 1798, and September 20th, 1800, with the signing of the Convention of 1800.

Back in 1798, there was no Veterans Administration or any government entity in the new United States to provide care for sailors who were disabled in the service of their country. Remember, this act was passed almost four years after the Navy Act of 1794, which established the modern U.S. Navy.

Adams was very cognizant of the risks of serving on square-rigged ships. Estimates vary, but most historians put Patriot casualties from the American Revolution at 6,800 KIA, 6,100 WIA, and another 17,000 who died from disease. However, some experts put the total dead at 75,000! Add in another 130,000 who died from smallpox, and it is a very big number.
Another reason behind the bill was that it was a recruiting tool, i.e., we – the government – will take care of you if you become sick or disabled in the service of your country. Pensions after so many years of service were already in place.

The Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen requires the ship’s captain, master, or owner to deduct 20 cents/month from the pay of each member of the crew. The second part of the act states that failure to comply will result in fines and loss of license. In other words, the ship cannot either load or unload cargo in a U.S. port.
Section three of the act requires those who collect the deductions must deposit the funds with the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury on a quarterly basis.

In the fourth section, the President of the United States is directed to use the collected funds to create hospitals and infirmaries in U.S. ports. The fifth section of the act authorizes the President to appoint directors who will report to him on how the funds are being used.

This act was used as justification/precedent for later legislation that deducts money from our salaries and wages.

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Congress Asserts Control Over the Northwest Territories

In just a few years, the Congress of the Confederation passed two major pieces of legislation – the Land Ordinances of 1784 and 1785 to set the guidelines on how Congress wanted the land surveyed and governed. (See 4/28/24 Post – Land Ordinance of 1785 Facilitates Public Schools – https://marcliebman.com/land-ordinance-of-1785-facilitates-public-schools/ and 4/21/24 Post – Rules of Engagement for Statehood – https://marcliebman.com/rules-of-engagement-for-statehood/).

Members of the Congress soon realized they didn’t go far enough in settling land claims and establishing who would govern the land ceded to the United States by Great Britain in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. Some states (GA, NC, VA) wanted all the turf from the Atlantic to the Mississippi.

Thomas Jefferson campaigned to get his home state of Virginia to relinquish its claim to set an example for the other states. He wanted to divide the Northwest Territories into 10 rectangular states named Cherronesus, Sylvania, Assenisipia, Illinoia, Metropotamia, Polypotamia, Pelisipia, Washington, Michigania, and Saratoga.

While not rejecting Jefferson’s idea, some members—George Washington and James Monroe—urged the Congress of the Confederation to establish a committee to make recommendations on the borders of states that would be created within the Northwest Territory. What passed on July 13t, 1787, is known as the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.

Understand that while the Congress of the Confederation was debating this bill, the Constitution Convention was in full swing. Within two months of passing of the Land Ordinance of 1787, the Convention would present a document for ratification. Almost immediately after the Constitution was ratified in 1788, newly sworn-in President George Washington urged that the First U.S. Congress re-affirm the Land Ordinance of 1787.

In 1789, Congress passed a newer, stronger version known as the Northwest Ordinance of 1789. The two prior ordinances and the Northwest Ordinance established the precedent that the central government had sovereignty over the lands acquired via the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

The Northwest Ordinance of 1789 is one of the most important pieces of legislation ever passed by either the Congress of the Confederation or its successor, the U.S. Congress. First, it established the concept that once an individual purchased a piece of land, he/she owned the property until they sold it. By doing so, the Congress guaranteed U.S. citizens “the freedom of contract.”

Second, it abolished all unsettled state claims to land and transferred the land ownership rights to the central government, which would determine how and when the territories would be admitted as states. In Article 4, the Northwest Ordinance declared all the rivers feeding into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence Rivers free and open to any inhabitants who wanted to use them.

Third, the initial intent of the Northwest Ordinance of 1789 was to establish criteria for creating new states that would be admitted as equals to the original 13 states. One requirement was that the territory must have 60,000 citizens within its borders to become a state.

Fourth, it made the provisions that each county would set aside land for educational institutions stronger.

Fifth, the Northwest Ordinance set the requirements for a territorial government. Initially, the Congress would appoint a Governor, Secretary of State, and three judges.

As payment, newly appointed governors were given an estate of 1,000 acres within the territory, and the appointed Secretary of State would receive 500 acres. The governor reported to Congress and could appoint additional magistrates and create and enforce laws. Once the territory had 5,000 male citizens, it could send representatives to Congress. The representatives were required to live in their district, serve a term of two years, and receive 200 acres of land as payment for their services.

Sixth, the Northwest Ordinance of 1789 prohibited slavery in the Northwest territory.

It is obvious that the men who wrote the Northwest Ordinance of 1789 were familiar with what would be in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Written into the ordinance are words that enable the Federal government to ensure freedom of commerce between states, guaranteed freedom of religion, requirements for trial by a jury of one’s peers, a ban on ex post facto laws, right to habeas corpus, and much more are all found in the Northwest Ordinance.

Image is the Northwest Ordnance of 1787 suggested borders for states in the Northwest Territories.

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Land Ordinance of 1785 Facilitates Public Schools

To the members of the Continental Congress, the land ceded to the new United States of America was an opportunity. Remember, until the Constitution was ratified in 1788, under the Articles of Confederation, the Continental Congress, which preferred to be called the Congress of the Confederation, could not levy taxes, or adjudicate disputes between citizens or states.

Passing the Land Ordinance of 1784 proved the Congress of the Confederation could establish frameworks to lay the foundation for the country’s growth. Understand that that in the Northwest Territories, the British had not left their forts in direct violation of the 1783 Treaty of Paris and worse, they were arming the Native Americans and inciting them to resist settlers moving west.

Protecting the settlers required an army which required money which the Congress of the Confederation did not have. It was forced to ask the states to “donate” money to pay for an army, something they were reluctant to do.

A committee of five men – Thomas Jefferson representing Virginia; Hugh Williamson from North Carolina; David Howell; member from Rhode Island; Elbridge Gerry from Massachusetts; and Jacob Read, one of South Carolina’s representatives – was created to make recommendations. The result was the Land Ordinance of 1785.

Since the land given to the U.S. was poorly, to be kind, surveyed, the first recommendation was to set standards on how the land would be surveyed. Western Ohio was chosen as the first territory in which townships would be created from six-mile by six-mile pieces of land called a section. Each township would be a square of 36 sections and the language in the Land Ordinance of 1785 provides the methodology of how surveyors would measure the land down to the individual lot.

What was unique about the Land Ordinance of 1785 was that it required that one section, i.e., a six-by-six-mile square near the center of each township would be set aside on which public schools would be created. Schools would be open to ALL children living in the township.

The Land Ordinance of 1785 stated that additional lands within each township could be set aside for institutions of higher learning, i.e., colleges and universities established by the states.

Another committee recommendation was to create a position in the government called the Geographer of the United States. His sole purpose was to manage surveying the land given to us by England. The recommendation became a reality when an act passed in May 1786 created the office of the Surveyor General of the United States.

What is interesting is that at the time, there were two land management “systems” – Southern and New England. Even though a majority of the five-man committee were Southerners, they adopted the New England system which Massachusetts, New Hampshire Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York and its territory called Vermont. (See 7/19/20 Blog Post – The Republic of Vermont vs. the State of New York – https://marcliebman.com/the-republic-of-vermont-versus-the-state-of-new-york/ ) had been using to survey and sell land and fund education since early in the 17th Century.

Underlying the need to create the Land Ordinance of 1785 was money. The Congress of the Federation limped along on what money the states donated. By selling land, the Congress of the Confederation could raise funds to pay for an army, conduct foreign policy, etc., etc.

What is also unique about the Land Ordinance of 1785 is that the money from land sales would come to the central government, not to the states. It also established the principle that public education for ALL U.S. citizens was the responsibility of the state and local governments.

Later, once the new Federal government was established under the Constitution, the Land Ordinance of 1785 was challenged several times Each time, the U.S. Supreme Court voted in favor of the provisions of the legislation which governed U.S. land policy until the Homestead Act was passed in 1862.

Image is how the Land Ordinance of 1785 segmented land into townships down to the individual lot.

 

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