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Washington as Statesman at the Constitutional Convention by Junius Brutus Stearns, 1856. Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
On July 13, 1787, the Confederation Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance. Following the principles, written by Thomas Jefferson, in the Ordinance of 1784, the act declared that the lands north of the Ohio River and East of the Mississippi River would become part of the United States, creating the Northwest Territory.
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