b'Ohio Statehood and Tennessee (1796) became the four-1800-1812 teenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth states. Ohio already had its territorial gov-Steps Toward Statehood ernor (St. Clair), judges, and secretary You will recall that the Northwest the first step toward statehood. NowOrdinance of 1787 set up the necessary Ohio needed to have its own laws, andsteps for a territory to become a state. that is what a legislature does. Up to thisBefore Ohio had achieved these steps, point, St. Clair, the judges, and the sec-three other regions had already become retary had tried to select some laws, orstates: Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792), codes, for the inhabitants to live under.Ohios people began to complain that theyAlong the Ohio TrailHow would you feel if you couldnt vote in the next bigelection because you didnt own any landor you werent a man or you werent whiteor you were under 21? Thats the wayit was in the U.S.and the Ohio areaduring the early1800s. This law had been in effect for hundreds of years inEngland, and it came over to America with the Pilgrims.In Ohios first real election (in 1799 for the territoriallegislature), a man could vote only if he owned at least 50 acresof land. In order to be a member of either the house or thesenate, a person had to be a male who owned at least 200 and500 acres, respectively. Clearly, the male landowners wereruling the region, and the country. There were more people whocould not vote than those who could.The two political parties at the time disagreed about this.The Federalists thought it was okaythe way it was. The newer party,strongly supported by ThomasJefferson, the Republicans, did notwant it to continue (this is not the sameRepublican Party that exists today). Thesepoliticians believed that we needed a moredemocratic system that allowed more peopleto vote. Eventually laws were passed that gavemore and more people the right to vote.page 61'