ng to this demand, the southern states were very angry. The New
England states were equally angry at what they called the obstinacy of
the South, and threats of secession were heard on both sides.

[Sidenote: The northwestern territory; the first national domain,
1780-87.]

Perhaps the only thing that kept the Union from falling to pieces in
1786 was the Northwestern Territory, which George Rogers Clark had
conquered in 1779, and which skilful diplomacy had enabled us to keep
when the treaty was drawn up in 1782. Virginia claimed this territory
and actually held it, but New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut also
had claims upon it. It was the idea of Maryland that such a vast region
ought not to be added to any one state, or divided between two or three
of the states, but ought to be the common property of the Union.
Maryland had refused to ratify the Articles of Confederation until the
four states that claimed the northwestern territory should yield their
claims to the United States. This was done between 1780 and 1785, and
thus for the first time the United States government was put in
possession of valuable property which could be made to yield an income
and pay debts. This piece of property was about the first thing in which
all the American people were alike interested, after they had won their
independence. It could be opened to immigration and made to pay the
whole cost of the war and much more. During these troubled years
Congress was busy with plans for organizing this territory, which at
length resulted in the famous Ordinance of 1787 laying down fundamental
laws for the government of what has since developed into the five great
states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. While other
questions tended to break up the Union, the questions that arose in
connection with this work tended to hold it together.

[Sidenote: The convention at Annapolis, Sept. 11, 1786.]

The need for easy means of communication between the old Atlantic states
and this new country behind the mountains led to schemes which ripened
in course of time into the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio and
the Erie canals. In discussing such schemes, Maryland and Virginia found
it necessary to agree upon some kind of commercial policy to be pursued
by both states. Then it was thought best to seize the occasion for
calling a general convention of the states to decide upon a uniform
system of regulations for comm