On This Day
1787 – The Continental Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance establishing governing rules for the Northwest Territory. It also establishes procedures for the admission of new states and limits the expansion of slavery.
The Northwest Ordinance (formally An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio, and also known as The Ordinance of 1787) enacted July 13, 1787, was an organic act of the Congress of the Confederation of the United States. It created the Northwest Territory, the first organized territory of the United States, from lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains, between British North America and the Great Lakes to the north and the Ohio River to the south. The upper Mississippi River formed the territory’s western boundary.
In the Treaty of Paris (1783), which formally ended the American Revolutionary War, Great Britain yielded this region to the United States. However, the Confederation Congress faced numerous problems gaining control of the land; these included: the unsanctioned movement of American settlers into the Ohio Valley, violent confrontations with the region’s indigenous peoples, the ongoing presence of the British Army which continued to occupy forts in the region, and an empty U.S. treasury.[1] The ordinance superseded the Land Ordinance of 1784 (which declared that states would one day be formed within the region) and the Land Ordinance of 1785 (which described how the Confederation Congress would sell the land to private citizens). Designed to serve as a blueprint for the development and settlement of the region, what the 1787 ordinance lacked was a strong central government to implement it. This need was addressed shortly thereafter, when the new federal government came into existence in 1789. The 1st United States Congress reaffirmed the 1787 ordinance, and, with slight modifications, renewed it through the Northwest Ordinance of 1789.[2]
Considered one of the most important legislative acts of the Confederation Congress,[3] it established the precedent by which the Federal government would be sovereign and expand westward with the admission of new states, rather than with the expansion of existing states and their established sovereignty under the Articles of Confederation. It also set legislative precedent with regard to American public domain lands.[4] The U.S. Supreme Court recognized the authority of the Northwest Ordinance of 1789 within the applicable Northwest Territory as constitutional in Strader v. Graham,[5] but did not extend the Ordinance to cover the respective states once they were admitted to the Union.
The prohibition of slavery in the territory had the practical effect of establishing the Ohio River as the geographic divide between slave states and free states from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River (an extension of the Mason–Dixon line). It also helped set the stage for later political conflicts over slavery at the federal level in the 19th century until the Civil War.
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Born On This Day
1918 – Marcia Brown, American author and illustrator (d. 2015)
Marcia Joan Brown (July 13, 1918 – April 28, 2015) was an American writer and illustrator of more than 30 children’s books.[1] She has won three annual Caldecott Medals from the American Library Association, recognizing the year’s best U.S. picture book illustration,[2] and the ALA’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal in 1992 for her career contribution to children’s literature.[3] Many of her titles have been published in translation, including Afrikaans, German, Japanese, Spanish and Xhosa-Bantu editions.
FYI
Fernando José “Corby” Corbató (July 1, 1926 – July 12, 2019) was a prominent American computer scientist, notable as a pioneer in the development of time-sharing operating systems.
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By Rebecca Aydin, Business Insider: McDonald’s is giving away free fries every Friday in July — here’s how to get yours
The first day of the promotion is Friday, July 12 — one day before National French Fry Day. Customers who spend at least $1 using Apple Pay on the McDonald’s app are eligible to receive a free medium order of french fries. The promotion will continue on Friday, July 19, and Friday, July 26.
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WHAT TO KNOW
Going It Alone The “Billy Graham Rule” Dossier
What happened? Mississippi State Rep. Robert Foster, a Republican who’s running for governor, sparked a media frenzy this week when he refused to allow Larrison Campbell, a female reporter for Mississippi Today, to join him for a ride-along without a male chaperone. Foster, 36, claimed the move was aimed at respecting his marriage and avoiding the potentially poor “optics” of the situation. Campbell and many critics, however, say the decision was purely sexist. (Campbell, by the way, is married to a woman.) Either way, Foster’s apparent invocation of the so-called “Billy Graham rule,” named after the prominent evangelical leader, has raised an important question: What’s the line between male caution in the #MeToo era and straight discrimination?
By Molly Fosco: This Former Sex Crimes Prosecutor Keeps Harassment Out of Her Kitchens
Why you should care
Because she’s taking the “bro culture”’ out of the food industry.
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Cari @ Everything Pretty: Natural Bug Repellent and Unicorns
Lit Hub Weekly: July 8 – 12, 2019 2019 is half over, but there are so many highly anticipated books still to come! | Lit Hub; Rebecca Solnit on Jeffrey Epstein and the silencing machine. More ->
Fast Company Compass: What most Americans are looking for in a new home: solar panels; These two comedians are DESTROYING internet culture—and it’s hilarious; 3 ways to deal with conflict more productively; Facebook gets its $5 billion slap on the wrist. Now will it change its ways? More ->
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wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for November 25 November 25, 2024Picture of the day Papaya fruits in a grocery store. Colatina, Espírito Santo, Brazil.
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for November 24 November 24, 2024Picture of the day The Scroll of Eighty-Seven Immortals, drawn by an unknown painter, measuring 30cm high and 292cm wide, is a line-drawing Chinese figure painting. Drawn on a long silk scroll with lines, the painting depicts 87 taoist immortals, including three supreme gods with halo, ten divine generals, seven deities and 67 celestial maidens […]