Beschreibung:

[Americana] [Northwest Territory] Land Ordinance of 1785 A rare printing establishing America's public land system, and the mechanism for surveying and selling land in the Western Frontier "BE IT ORDAINED BY THE UNITED STATES IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, That the territory ceded by the individual states, to the United States, which has been purchased of the Indian inhabitants, shall be disposed of in the following manner..." (New York, 1785). 4 pp. Bifolium sheet, 14 1/4 x 8 in. (362 x 203 mm). Printed Confederation Congress ordinance, being "May 20, 1785, An Ordinance for ascertaining the Mode of Disposing of LANDS in the Western Territory" on second through fourth pages, and with Land Ordinance of 1784 of April 23, 1784, printed in full on first page. Signed in type on page four by President of the Congress of the Confederation, Richard Henry Lee, and Secretary Charles Thomson Fore-edge trimmed; horizontal crease from original fold, 1 3/4 in. separation traversing center of same; contemporary docketing below Lee's signature on fourth page: "Act 23rd April 1784/for temporary government/of western territory--Ordinance for dispo-/sing of western terry/May 20th 1785"; spotting in top margin; a few scattered spots. Evans 19283; ESTC W38445 An extremely rare printing of the Land Ordinance of 1785, adopted by the United States Congress of the Confederation on May 20, 1785, one of the most significant pieces of congressional legislation and the prelude to the historic Northwest Ordinance of 1787. This landmark document set up a standardized system for the government to measure, divide, and facilitate the selling to settlers, undeveloped land in the Northwest Territory acquired from Great Britain at the end of the American Revolution (current day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the northeastern part of Minnesota). The Ordinance laid the foundation for government land policy, established the basis for the Public Land Survey System, and set the stage for organized westward expansion. It was largely an extension of the Ordinance of 1784, written by Thomas Jefferson and debated in a committee comprised of Jefferson, Hugh Williamson, David Howell Elbridge Gerry, and Jacob Read, and passed by Congress on April 23, 1784. The 1784 Ordinance called for the development of land north of the Ohio River, its division into separate states, and the means for establishing a temporary government (printed on the first page of this document). Among the chief purposes of these Ordinances was to address Congress's need to raise much needed revenue for the government (due to its inability to levy taxes) by selling public land recently ceded to it by the individual states. "The land Ordinance of 1784 was never implemented before it was superseded by the Ordinance of 1785. The latter was primarily designed to raise revenue toward payment of the public debt by selling land in the Old Northwest as soon as the Indians relinquished their claims and it was surveyed...The Ordinance of 1785 served as the primary legislation for a public land system. It called for a survey with a base line beginning at the point where the Ohio River intersected the western boundary of Pennsylvania and extending west for seven ranges (42 miles) and then south. Townships six miles square were made up of thirty-six sections, each one mile square (640 acres). Three sections of each township were reserved for public school use, another section for religious use, and other lands reserved for Continental officers, Canadian refugees, Virginia soldiers, and Christian Indians per agreement with Virginia. The land was to be sold at public auctions for not less than one dollar an acre, and certificates of pay to Revolutionary veterans would be acceptable at face value. Still needed was a process by which government would be established over this territory." (Liberty's Legacy: Our Celebration of the Northwest Ordinance and the United States Constitution, 1987, p. 31) The 1785 Or