Congress, therefore, as soon as it had received the deeds to the tracts ceded, trusting that the other land-owning states would cede their western territory in time, passed a law (in 1785) to prepare the land for sale by surveying it and marking it out into sections, townships, and ranges, and fixed the price per acre.

%167.  Virginia and Connecticut Reserves.%—­When Virginia made her cession in 1781, she expressly reserved two tracts of land north of the Ohio.  One, called the Military Lands, lay between the Scioto and Miami rivers, and was held to pay bounties promised to the Virginia Revolutionary soldiers.  The other (in the present state of Indiana) was given to General George Rogers Clark and his soldiers.  A third piece was reserved by Connecticut when she ceded her strip in 1786.  This, called the Western Reserve of Connecticut, stretched along the shore of Lake Erie (map, p. 175).  In 1800 Connecticut gave up her jurisdiction, or right of government, over this reserve in return for the confirmation of land titles she had granted.

[Illustration:  TERRITORY OF THE %UNITED STATES% NORTHWEST OF THE OHIO RIVER %1787%]

%168.  Ordinance of 1787; Origin of the Territories.%—­Hardly had Congress provided for the sale of the land, when a number of Revolutionary soldiers formed the Ohio Land Company, and sent an agent to New York, where Congress was in session, and offered to buy 5,000,000 acres on the Ohio River:  1,500,000 acres were for themselves, and 3,500,000 for another company called the Scioto Company.  The land was gladly sold, and as the purchasers were really going to send out settlers, it became necessary to establish some kind of government for them.  On the 13th of July, 1787, therefore, Congress passed another very famous law, called the Ordinance of 1787, which ordered: 

1.  That the whole region from the Lakes to the Ohio, and from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi, should be called “The Territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio.”

2.  That it should be cut up into not less than three nor more than five states, each of which might be admitted into the Union when it had 60,000 free inhabitants.

3.  That within it there was to be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except in punishment for crime.

4.  That until such time as there were 5000 free male inhabitants twenty-one years old in the territory, it was to be governed by a governor and three judges.  They could not make laws, but might adopt such as they pleased from among the laws in force in the states.  After there were 5000 free male inhabitants in the territory the people were to elect a house of representatives, which in its turn was to elect ten men from whom Congress was to select five to form a council.  The house and the council were then to elect a territorial delegate to sit in Congress with the right of debating, not of voting.  The governor, the judges, and the secretary were to be elected by Congress.  The council and house of representatives could make laws, but must send them to Congress for approval.