Everything about The Land Ordinance Of 1785 totally explained
The
Land Ordinance of 1785 was adopted by the
United States Congress on
May 20,
1785. Under the
Articles of Confederation, Congress didn't have the power to raise revenue by direct
taxation of the inhabitants of the United States. Therefore, the immediate goal of the ordinance was to raise money through the sale of land in the largely unmapped territory west of the original colonies acquired from
Britain at the end of the
Revolutionary War.
In addition, the act provided for the political organization of these territories. The earlier
Ordinance of 1784 called for the land west of the
Appalachian Mountains, north of the
Ohio River and east of the
Mississippi River to be divided into ten separate states. However, it didn't define the mechanism by which the land would become states, or how the territories would be governed or settled before they became states. The Ordinance of 1785, along with the
Northwest Ordinance of 1787, were intended to address these political needs.
The 1785 ordinance laid the foundations of land policy in the
United States of America until passage of the
Homestead Act in 1862. The Land Ordinance established the basis for the
Public Land Survey System. The initial surveying was performed by
Thomas Hutchins. After he died in 1789, responsibility for surveying was transferred to the Surveyor General. Land was to be systematically surveyed into square
"townships", six miles (9.656 km) on a side. Each of these townships was sub-divided into thirty-six
"sections" of one square mile (2.59 km²) or 640
acres. These sections could then be further subdivided for sale to settlers and land speculators.
The ordinance was also significant for establishing a mechanism for funding public education. Section 16 in each township was reserved for the maintenance of public schools. Many schools today are still located in section sixteen of their respective townships, although a great many of the school sections were sold to raise money for public education. In theory, the federal government also reserved sections 8, 11, 26 and 29 to compensate veterans of the Revolutionary War, but examination of property abstracts in
Ohio indicates that this wasn't uniformly practiced. The
Point of Beginning for the 1785 survey was where Ohio (as the easternmost part of the Northwest Territory),
Pennsylvania and
Virginia (now
West Virginia) met, on the north shore of the
Ohio River near
East Liverpool, Ohio. There is a historical marker just north of the site, at the state line where Ohio Route 39 becomes Pennsylvania Route 68.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Land Ordinance Of 1785'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://land_ordinance_of_1785.totallyexplained.com">Land Ordinance of 1785 Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
