Changes

These cessions of 222 million acres of western lands gave to the national government a vast public domain in which it owned the land and over which it had governmental jurisdiction.  In 1785 a land ordinance provided a method of selling the lands. In 1787, in response to demands of the Ohio and Scioto land companies, which were negotiating for the purchase of large tracts of land north of the Ohio, the [[Northwest Ordinance]] was adopted to provide a form of government for what came to be known as the "Old Northwest."  The Ordnance, written by [[Thomas Jefferson]], provided for an elaborate survey that created the checkerboard land pattern still in use, and provided that no slavery was allowed there during the territorial stage.<ref> Benjamin Horace Hibbard, ''History of the Public Land Policies'' (1965)</ref>

These cessions of 222 million acres of western lands gave to the national government a vast public domain in which it owned the land and over which it had governmental jurisdiction.  In 1785 a land ordinance provided a method of selling the lands. In 1787, in response to demands of the Ohio and Scioto land companies, which were negotiating for the purchase of large tracts of land north of the Ohio, the [[Northwest Ordinance]] was adopted to provide a form of government for what came to be known as the "Old Northwest."  The Ordnance, written by [[Thomas Jefferson]], provided for an elaborate survey that created the checkerboard land pattern still in use, and provided that no slavery was allowed there during the territorial stage.<ref> Benjamin Horace Hibbard, ''History of the Public Land Policies'' (1965)</ref>

==Further reading==

==Further reading==