The Northwest Ordinance

On July 13, 1787, the Congress of the Confederation of the United States (the congress operating under the Articles of Confederation) authorized the Northwest Ordinance, which covered the territory northwest of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River, including five future states (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin) and portions of the future state of Minnesota. The Ordinance set legal precedent as to how territories would eventually be admitted as new states rather than extensions of current states, and how the United States would expand westward. The Ordinance was later affirmed by the United States Congress under the Constitution and signed into law by George Washington in 1789.