THE OLD NORTHWEST WITH A VIEW OF THE THIRTEEN COLONIES AS CONSTITUTED BY THE ROYAL CHARTERS PROFESSOR BY B. A. HINSDALE, PH.D. OF THE SCIENCE AND ART OF TEACHING, UNIVERSITY OF "Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happi- -Ordinance of 1787. "No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has "We look to you of the Northwest to finally decide whether this is to be a land of VOL. I. NEW YORK TOWNSEND MAC COUN 1891 SAVE New England alone, there is no section of the United States embracing several States that is so distinct an historical unit, and that so readily yields to historical treatment, as the Old Northwest. It is the part of the Great West first discovered and colonized by the French. It was the occasion of the final struggle for dominion between France and England in North America. It was the theatre of one of the most brilliant and far-reaching military exploits of the Revolution. The disposition to be made of it at the close of the Revolution is the most important territorial question treated in the history of American diplomacy. After the war, the Northwest began to assume a constantly increasing importance in the national history. It is the original public domain, and the part of the West first colonized under the authority of the National Government. It was the first and the most important Territory ever organized by Congress. It is the only part of the United States ever under a secondary constitution like the Ordinance of 1787. No other equal part of the Union has made in one hundred years such progress along the characteristic lines of American development. Moreover, the Northwest has stood in very important relations to questions of great national and international importance, as the use and ownership of the Missis |