Ohio History Journal

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THE STRUGGLE FOR STATEHOOD IN OHIO

THE STRUGGLE FOR STATEHOOD IN OHIO

 

 

BY RUHL JACOB BARTLETT, M. A.

 

The. admission of Ohio as a state into the Union,

marked the end of a long and bitter political contest

both within and without the Northwest Territory.* It

was that age old conflict between the forces that are

progressive and those that are conservative, for it must

be remembered that the closing years of the 19th cen-

tury marked a period of rapid political transition in

American history. The colonists who had so gallantly

adorned themselves in new garments of political liberty

and equality in 1776 found that their desires had grown

by 1800 to a demand for additional plumage, in the way

of popular government. The pre-Revolutionary leaders

as well as those who had piloted the new government

through its first twelve years of existence, did not look

with favor upon the too rapid growth of democratic

ideals, but were content with the old.

Unaided then, by these Revolutionary fathers, a

great political renaissance had taken place in the minds

of the American people. The Revolutionary War and

the new responsibility after the war was in a great

measure the cause of the change. New England colo-

 

* This seems to be the best designation for the land that was gov-

erned by the Ordinance of 1787. It was first known as the North-

western Territory and subsequently was legally named The Territory

of the United States Northwest of the Ohio River. Most writers have

adopted either the title, Northwest Territory or simply The Territory;

but Judge Jacob Burnet and William Maxwell write of it as the North-

western Territory.

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