The States which possessed small and already settled
territory, withheld their ratification, in order to obtain from the
large States a cession to the United States of a portion of their vacant
territory. Without entering into the reasons on which this demand was
urged, it is well known that they had an influence on Massachusetts,
Connecticut, New York, and Virginia, which States ceded to the United
States their respective claims to the territory lying northwest of the
river Ohio. This cession was made on the express condition, that the
ceded territory should be sold for the common benefit of the United
States; that it should be laid out into States, and that the States
so laid out should form distinct republican States, and be admitted as
members of the Federal Union, having the same rights of sovereignty,
freedom, and independence as the other States. Of the four States which
made this cession, two permitted, and the other two prohibited slavery.
The United States having in this manner become proprietors of
the extensive territory northwest of the river Ohio, although the
confederation contained no express provision upon the subject, Congress,
the only representatives of the United States, assumed as incident
to their office, the power to dispose of this territory; and for this
purpose, to divide the same into distinct States, to provide for the
temporary government of the inhabitants thereof, and for their ultimate
admission as new States into the Federal Union.
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