Goshen High School - Crimson Yearbook (Goshen, IN)

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ADMINISTRATION :The Crimson 1938;

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The Ordinance of 1787 had many truly worthy features. It was worked out over several years by the best minds in all the colonies. Those men looked ahead to future expansion of our nation and planned for the treatment of all dependent territories. They gave voice to the ideals that were becoming im- bedded into the very foundation of American independence. They provided for such rights as trial by jury, free education, free soil, and free churches. It made provision for territories becoming states with equal rig hts with the original states ; it broke the old custom of primogeniture ; it spoke of the sanc- tity of private contracts, a very new step in the rights of man. The importance of the Ordinance of 1787 can hardly be over-emphasized. The clause barring slavery was undoubtedly the deciding factor in the War Between the States. The force of the Northwest Territory states on the Union side was the thing that won the war. In the field of government of depend- ent territories, the ordinance was an example to the entire world as well as to the United States in later years. This phase had been called America ' s most significant contribution to government. It set forth the principles of law- making as following the fundamental principles of civil and religious lib- erty. If these ideas should be followed today, they would provide a way to escape from war, the greatest menace to the continued existence of civilization. In the Northwest Territory, for whose welfare this great act of legislation was conceived, now lie eleven per cent of our nation ' s territory, twenty-two per cent of the population, and twenty-four per cent of the wealth. Who can say but that the Ordinance of 1787 played a large part in building the once wil- derness to the prosperous section it is today? iThe Crimson 1938 =

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ORT L. WALTER The extent of influence the Ordinance of 1788 has had on the development of the Ameri- can school system is difficult to determine, but we can safely conclude that the growth and de- velopment would have been different had this ordinance and its subsequent developments been unratified by the States. The land survey plan as finally approved by Congress for this territory provided for the subdivision of the land into townships and for the subdivision of these in turn into thirty-six squares or sections. The township thus created has become generally the unit of school control. Another action that laid the foundation for the acquisition of state school funds and properties was the outgrowth of a real estate deal between Ohio Company of Associates and Congress in the disposition of Northwest Terri- tory land. This resulted in the reservation of Section 16 in every township for schools. This action was followed by most states of the middle west, either by statute or by state constitution. As time elapsed and the several divisions of the Northwest Territory de- veloped into states, these sections of state school lands increased in value, and when sold created an ever increasing school fund of which only the interest could be used for school maintenance. This necessitated the creation of a state office, an officer whose duty it was to superintend the investment of these school funds, and out of this office grew the office of state superintendent of schools. Thus, directly or indirectly, the Ordinance of 1787 has influenced the de- velopment of public schools by determining a unit of school control, by cre- ating the Congressional State School Fund for the support of public schools, and by creating and developing the office of state superintendent of schools. =The Crimson, 1938=