to possession of the United States all of that territory
ceded by Great Britain in 1783, which was not included in the
boundaries of those states. This territory, in brief, may be described
as the territory east of the Mississippi, and north and south of the
Ohio River; and out of this territory and that west of the Mississippi
added later (1803) through the Louisiana Purchase, most of the new
states were formed that came into the Union before the Civil War. And
this was the beginning of what is known as the "public domain"--that
is, land owned by the Federal Government.

In 1785, Congress passed a law which has become general in its
application to all public lands of the United States. It is a law for
the uniform survey of public lands into townships six miles square,
subdivided into sections containing 640 acres, and quarter sections
containing 160 acres. The purpose of the government in making this
survey was to make public lands in the territories of the government
easy of settlement, and as the townships became settled, to develop in
them the local township form of government.

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The territory north of the Ohio River was designated the "Northwest
Territory." As soon as the public lands in this territory were thrown
open to settlers, they began to pour in. Indeed, in many instances,
they went ahead of the survey.

The next step taken by Congress was to pass a law, in 1787, for the
government and protection of those settlers in this Northwest
Territory, and in this law Congress made provision that slavery should
be prohibited. Therefore, states formed in this territory had to come
into the Union as free states. This was a restriction of slavery,
however, which did not apply to the territory south of the Ohio, nor
west of the Mississippi; so that when a new state came into the Union,
formed out of either one of these territories, it became a great
political factor in our government either for or against slavery.

In the passing of the years, many changes were taking place in our
government, but there came a time when the people began to realize
that slavery was spreading and that our government was politically
divided between states that were slave and states that were free--or,
in other words, that in the principle of slavery the peace and
preservation of the Union were involved.

And thus it happened that the slave-holding states, not being able to
live at peace in the Union, decided to go out of it, and