Land Ordinance of 1785

Land Ordinance of 1785

I) The Land Ordinance

A. Adoption

1. The United States Congress adopted the Land Ordinance of 1785 in May 1785.

2. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Ordinance of 1784, which called for the land west of the Appalachian Mountains, north of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi River to be divided.

a. This ordinance did not exactly describe how the land would be settled, governed, or how the land would become a state.

3. The Land Ordinance of 1785 put the 1784 resolution in operation by providing mechanism for selling or settling the land. B. Goals and Accomplishments:

1. Due to the fact that Congress could not raise taxes, the main goal of the ordinance was to sell the unmapped territory west of the states acquired in 1783 through the Treaty of Paris and uses the income as federal profit.

2. Over three-fourths of the continental US was surveyed using the rectangular survey, which provided the following:

a. Easily recognizable land descriptions . Economic, political, and social development in the townships.

4. The Ordinance divided the land into townships, six square miles each that were divided into 36 1 square mile sections.

a. Each of the 36 sections were subdivided into portions of land that were sold or used for a specific purpose.

b. Section 16 of every township was reserved for the maintenance of public schools.

c. In later townships, section 36 was designated as a school section.

d. Sections 8, 11, 26, and 29 were reserved for federal sale