THE PROBLEM OF EXPANSION
With the end of the Revolution, the United States again had to face the old unsolved Western ques- tion, the problem of expansion, with its complications of land, fur trade, Indians, settlement, and lo- cal government . Lured by the rich- est land yet found in the country, pioneers poured over the Appala- chian Mountains and beyond . By 1775 the far-flung outposts scat- tered along the waterways had tens of thousands of settlers . Separated by mountain ranges and hundreds of kilometers from the centers of political authority in the East, the inhabitants established their own governments . Settlers from all the Tidewater states pressed on into the fertile river valleys, hardwood forests, and rolling prairies of the interior . By 1790 the population of the trans-Appalachian region num- bered well over 120,000 .
Before the war, several colonies had laid extensive and often over- lapping claims to land beyond the
CHAPTER 4: THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
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Appalachians . To those without such claims this rich territorial prize seemed unfairly apportioned . Mary- land, speaking for the latter group, introduced a resolution that the western lands be considered com- mon property to be parceled by the Congress into free and independent governments . This idea was not re- ceived enthusiastically . Nonethe- less, in 1780 New York led the way by ceding its claims . In 1784 Virgin- ia, which held the grandest claims, relinquished all land north of the Ohio River . Other states ceded their claims, and it became apparent that Congress would come into posses- sion of all the lands north of the Ohio River and west of the Allegh- eny Mountains . This common pos- session of millions of hectares was the most tangible evidence yet of na- tionality and unity, and gave a cer- tain substance to the idea of national sovereignty . At the same time, these vast territories were a problem that required solution .
The Confederation Congress es- tablished a system of limited self- government for this new national Northwest Territory . The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 provided for its organization, initially as a single district, ruled by a governor and judges appointed by the Congress . When this territory had 5,000 free male inhabitants of voting age, it was to be entitled to a legislature of two chambers, itself electing the lower house . In addition, it could at that time send a nonvoting delegate to Congress . Three to five states
would be formed as the territory was settled . Whenever any one of them had 60,000 free inhabitants, it was to be admitted to the Union “on an equal footing with the original states in all respects .” The ordinance guaranteed civil rights and liberties, encouraged education, and prohib- ited slavery or other forms of invol- untary servitude .
The new policy repudiated the time-honored concept that colonies existed for the benefit of the mother country, were politically subordi- nate, and peopled by social inferiors . Instead, it established the principle that colonies (“territories”) were an extension of the nation and entitled, not as a privilege but as a right, to all the benefits of equality .