b'Some of these similarities include: some examples:freedom of religiontrial by jury Ownership of the land was passed downno cruel or unusual punishment to the owners descendants. Somepeople died before their land warrantsfreedom from slavery or involuntary were used. The ordinance made a wayservitude for a veterans family to keep the landthat was promised to him.New states would come into theGovernors would govern the territory;nation easily because of the ordinance. first by being appointed by Congress;Ohio would be the first to come from then by being elected when enoughthe Northwest Territory. Later, four people lived there. Today, each of the50 states has a governor as its execu-more would come from this territory tive leader.(Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and A secretary would keep track of allWisconsin). One of the most important legal records for the territory andwould send copies to the Congress. Aeffects of the ordinance was that each Secretary of State is an importantnew state would enter the nation com- office that remains in effect for allstates today.pletely equal to the older states. NeverJudges would be appointed to settlebefore in the history of the world had disputes between residents in the ter-this been done. The Northwest ritory. This made sure that everyOrdinance became a strengthening force Americans rights would be protectedno matter where they lived.in the forming and growth of this nation. Eventually a legislature would beThe Northwest Ordinance stated some elected for the region. The state legis-important ideas and rights. Here are lature is the lawmaking part of thestate government. Once the NorthwestTerritory had at least 5,000 free malesAlong the Ohio TrailWho wrote the Declaration of Independence? Mostly Thomas Jefferson, ofcourse.The Northwest Ordinance did not have one author. It didnt even have adozen. Over time, this document had the input of many men as it was written andrewritten and passed through committee after committee until it took its finalform.All of the writers were careful of one thing: that they didnt write anythingthat sounded like something the British would have written. They replaced thewords colony and colonial (though the Northwest area was certainly a colony ofthe new government) with territory and territorial. We still use that language today. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the VirginIslands are U.S. territoriesnot coloniesand we have many others. Allbut 20 of our 50 states were territories before becoming states.The exceptions are the 13 colonies, California, Kentucky, Maine,Texas, Vermont, Tennessee and West Virginia.page 39'