hundred free, white male inhabitants, until the number should
amount to twenty-five, after that the number to be regulated
by the legislature. A representative must have been a citizen
of the United States for three years, and be a resident of the
district, or have resided three years in the district, in either
case to have the fee simple of two hundred acres of land in the
district. An elector was to reside in the district, have a free-
hold of fifty acres of land therein, and be a citizen of one of
the states, or a like freehold and two years residence. The
representatives to be chosen for two years.
The legislative council was to consist of five persons, to
continue five years in office, unless sooner removed by Con-
gress, were chosen in the following manner: The house of
representatives to nominate ten persons, each possessed of a
freehold in five hundred acres of land; out of this number
Congress was to appoint five to constitute the council. The
general assembly had power to make laws for the govern-
ment of the district not repugnant to the Ordinance. All laws
to have the sanction of the majority of both houses, and the
assent of the governor. The legislative assembly were author-
ized by joint ballot to elect a delegate, who was to have a
seat in Congress with the right of debating, but not of voting.
It was necessary to establish certain principles as the basis
of the laws, constitutions, and governments, which might be
formed in the territory, as well as to provide for its future
political connection with the American confederacy. Congress,
therefore, at the same time established certain articles, which
were to be considered as articles of compact between the
original states and the people of the territory, and which were
to remain unalterable unless by common consent. By these
no person in the territory was ever to be molested on account
of his mode of worship, or religious sentiments, and every
person was entitled to the benefits of the writ of habeas
corpus, trial by jury, and all those other fundamental rights
usually inserted in American bills of rights. Schools, and the
