The Ordinance of 1785 provided for the scientific surveying of the territory’s lands and for a systematic subdivision of them. Land was to be subdivided according to a rectangular grid system. The basic unit of land grant was the township, which was a square area measuring six miles on each side. A township could then be subdivided into a number of rectangular parcels of individually owned land.
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the most important of the three acts, laid the basis for the government of the Northwest Territory and for the admission of its constituent parts as states into the union. Under this ordinance, each district was to be governed by a governor and judges appointed by Congress until it attained a population of 5,000 adult free males, at which time it would become a territory and could form its own representative legislature. The Northwest Territory must eventually comprise a minimum of three and a maximum of five states; an individual territory could be admitted to statehood in the union after having attained a population of 60,000. Under the ordinance, slavery
was forever outlawed from the lands of the Northwest Territory, freedom of religion and other civil liberties were guaranteed, the resident Indians
were promised decent treatment, and education was provided for.
