Scholars gather at Ohio State for Northwest Ordinance conference

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Scholars gather at Ohio State for Northwest Ordinance conference

Event kicks off celebrations for America 250

A fully booked conference - with a wait list - is a great way to kick off celebrations in Ohio for the United States' semiquincentennial, or America 250.

At "New Perspectives on the Northwest Ordinance," held at The Ohio State University, scholars from Stanford University, Howard University, Johns Hopkins University and many others joined Ohio State faculty for two days of discussion about an easily overlooked founding document, the Northwest Ordinance.

Adopted by the Confederation Congress in 1787, the Northwest Ordinance provided a framework for statehood for territories northwest of the Ohio River. Crucially, it outlawed slavery in what became Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota - an early example of the use of federal power in the nascent country.

In his opening remarks, Christopher McKnight Nichols, co-organizer of the conference, argued that the ordinance may deserve more credit as a founding document for the country.

Calling it "perhaps the essential blueprint for national growth, settlement and development," Nichols, Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security Studies, said:

"In my humble opinion, the Northwest Ordinance … the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution … those three are critical in understanding the early foundations of the republic. But the Northwest Ordinance provided something else, as we're going to learn from a whole lot of the scholars who are here with us today. It represents for me the apotheosis of that triad of documents: how to settle, how to develop, what shape would republican governance take, and for better and for worse, these were the contested terms by which the republic unfolded over the next several centuries."

After making what he called such a "provocative claim," Nichols welcomed Trevor Brown, dean of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs and senior vice provost for academic affairs.

Brown spoke about how he was first introduced to the ordinance as a child studying journalist Horace Greeley. "Go West, young man" is a popular Greeley quote, imploring young people to leave places like Washington, D.C., and explore the new frontier.

Greeley's quote comes 80 years after the Northwest Ordinance. The Second World War happened 80 years after the quote and a little more than 80 years before now. Our history is not all that far away, Brown pointed out.

"I'm reflecting on how still young we are as a nation," Brown said before he introduced Gov. Mike DeWine.

DeWine shared his passion for the state of Ohio, which would not exist in its current form without the Northwest Ordinance, he said.

"This was an aspirational document," he said. "To me, one of the most significant things is if you think about the time the Revolutionary War occurred, 13 colonies become 13 states and now they're thinking about what goes beyond that."

The new nation didn't have to dilute the power of the original colonies by adding others, he said. The Northwest Territory could have remained a territory.

"They obviously thought this was the next step," he said.

The conference closed the following night with a keynote address given by Pulitzer Prize-winner Annette Gordon-Reed, a history professor at Harvard University.

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