onfederation. They were the North West Ordinance and the Ordinance of 1785. These ordinances gave the United States lands north of the Ohio River. They set the basic principals for surveying the frontier, allowed territorial government at an early stage of state development and provided reasonable standards for statehood. It also banned slavery while the area was a territory but after the area became a state, slavery laws could be passed but none succeeded, such as Illinois in 1824. Another element of the ordinance of 1785 was the process of state admission. This process was lenient and conventional. The first aspect of state admission was during the first years of settlement, Congress appointed territorial governors and judges. Then, once there were at least five thousand adult males living in the area they wrote a temporary state constitution and elected a legislature to pass laws. The third stipulation was having a population of sixty thousand. Once this was achieved, they wrote a permanent state constitution and if congress approved this constitution, they were granted statehood. The only downfall of the Northwest Ordinance was that it was extremely hard to gain lands north of the Ohio River because of Native Americans’ resistance to forfeit these lands.Overall, the articles of confederation did not think far enough ahead in terms of economics and overall political concepts. This is because the articles were put together quite quickly so as to establish a National Government to keep from falling under British rule again. Although, the articles did not achieve much, just the fact that the United States gained the land north of the Ohio River was a great achievement to the furtherment of the United States of Americ...
