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Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled... there shall be appointed
from time to time by Congress a governor,
whose commission shall continue in force for
the term of three years....
There shall also be appointed a court to consist of three judges... who shall have a common law jurisdiction [authority over local
affairs], and reside in the district....
The governor and judges, or a majority of
them, shall adopt and publish in the district such
laws of the original States, criminal and civil, as
may be necessary and best suited to the circumstances of the district and report them to
Congress....
The governor, for the time being, shall be
commander-in-chief of the militia, appoint and
commission all officers in the same below the
rank of general officers; all general officers shall
be appointed and commissioned by Congress....
So soon as there shall be five thousand free
male inhabitants of full age in the district...
they shall receive authority, with time and place,
to elect representatives from their counties or
townships to represent them in the general assembly: Provided, That, for every five hundred
free male inhabitants, there shall be one representative.... Provided, That no person be eligible or qualified to act as a representative unless
he shall have been a citizen of one of the United
States three years....
It is hereby ordained and declared by the
authority aforesaid that the following articles
shall be considered as articles of compact between the original States and the people and
States in the said territory....
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Article 1. No person... shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or
religious sentiments, in said territory.
Article 2. The inhabitants of the said territory shall always be entitled to the benefits of
the writ of habeas corpus and of the trial by
jury; of a proportionate representation of the
people in the legislature; and of judicial proceedings according to the course of common
law....
Article 3. Religion, morality, and knowledge
being necessary to good government and the
happiness of mankind, schools and the means of
education shall forever be encouraged....
Article 4. The said territory and the States
which may be formed therein, shall forever remain a part of this Confederacy of the United
States of America, subject to the Articles of
Confederation....
Article 5. There shall be formed in the said
territory, not less than three nor more than five
States... And whenever any of the said States
shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants
therein, such State shall be admitted, by its delegates, into the Congress of the United States on
an equal footing with the original States in all
respects whatever....
Article 6. There shall be neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in punishment of crimes...
Provided, always, that any person escaping into the
same, from whom labor or service is lawfully
claimed in any one of the original States, such
fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed...
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