History buffs and academics alike gathered at The Ohio State University for a robust dialogue centered around the often-sidelined, yet pivotal, Northwest Ordinance. The conference titled "New Perspectives on the Northwest Ordinance" was no small affair, hosting scholars from prestigious institutions such as Stanford University, Howard University, and Johns Hopkins University who joined forces with Ohio State faculty, according to Ohio State News. Adopted in 1787, the Northwest Ordinance etched guidelines for statehood across territories to the northwest of the Ohio River, notably prohibiting slavery within the future states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and parts of Minnesota.
During the two-day event, co-organizer Christopher McKnight Nichols, Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security Studies, underscored the significance of the document in a statement obtained by Ohio State News. Nichols positioned the ordinance as "perhaps the essential blueprint for national growth, settlement and development," asserting it completed a foundational trio alongside the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
The conference drew in Trevor Brown, dean of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs, who relayed an anecdote of his youthful exposure to the ordinance through journalist Horace Greeley's famous counsel, "Go West, young man." Highlighting our nation's relatively recent history, Brown remarked on the temporal proximity of these formative events in the American narrative. Right after his reflections, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine took the stage and praised the aspirational nature of the Northwest Ordinance.
.jpg){kind=link}