Viewing The Resolutions on Public Land (1780)

The Resolutions on Public Land (1780)

In 1780, meeting before the Articles of Confederation were adopted, the Continental Congress adopted a Resolution calling upon the existing states--Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia were targeted--to cede their claims to lands in the Western Territory to the United States. A Recommendation to that effect was introduced on September 6, 1780, and a Resolution adopted on October 10, 1780. The latter provided:

"That the said lands shall be granted and settled at such times and under such regulations as shall hereafter be agreed on by the United States in Congress assembled, or any nine or more of them."

The Ordinances of 1784, 1785, 1787 and 1790 provided the subsequent "regulations" for the settlement of what became known as the Northwest and Southwest Territories.

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