Founding Documents of Liberty

The Hebrew Prophet Samuel Warns Against Rule by a King, 11th Cen. B.C.

In this cautionary passage from the Hebrew Bible we read what will be the "manner of the king that shall reign over" those who would have a king. The date of the warning is 11th cen. B.C. Modern scholars believe the date of final composition of the text is as late as 6th cen. B.C. The passage is from the Bible book known to Jews, Anglicans, and Protestants as First Samuel; in Orthodox Christian Bibles the book is called First Kings; Roman Catholic Bibles, which had traditionally called the book First Kings, now, at least in English-language translations, have largely adopted the name First Samuel. The translation is the Authorized (King James) Version of A.D. 1611.

The Twelve Tables of Roman Laws, c. 451-450 B.C.

Justinian's Institutes, A.D. 535.

Magna Carta, A.D. 1215.

Mayflower Compact, A.D. 1620.

Declaration of Independence, A.D. 1776.

Articles of Confederation, A.D. 1777.

Massachusetts Constitution, A.D. 1780.

Treaty of Paris, A.D. 1783.

The Northwest Ordinance, A.D. 1787.

The Northwest Ordinance, passed under the Articles of Confederation on July 13,1787, is the single most important piece of legislation in the Confederation period. The Ordinance provided the means by which new states would be created out of the western lands and then admitted into the Union. Governors and judges appointed by Congress would rule a territory until it contained 5,000 free male inhabitants of voting age; then the inhabitants would elect a territorial legislature, which would send a non-voting delegate to Congress. When the population reached 60,000, the legislature would submit a state constitution to Congress and, upon its approval, the state would enter the Union.

The importance of the statute, aside from providing for orderly westerly settlement, is that it made clear that the new states would be equal to the old; there would be no inferior or superior states in the Union. Moreover, in the Ordinance Congress compacted with the settlers of the territories that they would be equal citizens of the United States, and would enjoy all of the rights that had been fought for in the Revolution. Where the Articles of Confederation lacked a bill of rights, the Ordinance provided one that included many of the basic liberties the colonists had considered essential, such as trial by jury, habeas corpus, and religious freedom.

The Northwest Territory, under the terms of this ordanances, became the States of:

Ohio (admitted as seventeenth State on March 1, 1803)
Indiana (admitted as nineteenth State on December 11, 1816)
Illinois (admitted as twenty-first State on December 3, 1818)
Michigan (admitted as twenty-sixth State on January 26, 1837)
Wisconsin (admitted as thirtieth State on May 29, 1848)

The Northwest Ordinance would, with minor adjustments, remain the guiding policy for the admission of all future states into the Union.

U.S. Constitution, A.D. 1787.