A POLITICAL HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

CHAPTER I.

THE ORDINANCE OF 1787.

The passage of the celebrated Ordinance of 1787, by the Continental Congress, extended the federal jurisdiction over the Northwest territory, which included the section of country that is now known as the State of Wisconsin. "It led to the exercise of national sovereignty in the sense of eminent domain." At the close of the Revolutionary war, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Virginia made conflicting and irreconcilable claims to the territory west of the Allegheny mountains, and north of the Ohio river, and the dispute over the title was angry and longcontinued, threatening serious trouble for some time. The controversy included all the land comprising what is now the great States of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan. Massachusetts wanted what is now the southern portion of Wisconsin and Michigan. Connecticut claimed a narrow strip running across the north end of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. New York would be satisfied with almost everything north of the Ohio river. Lastly came Virginia, who notified all the other claimants that she was the original possessor of all the land out of which the thirteen colonies had been carved; that Massachusetts had been under her jurisdiction until 1614; that she was then in actual possession of a good share of the territory claimed by the others, and that her title was indisputable. Maryland, whose isolated position made her jealous of the influence