136 Chapter 4 The American Revolution
prorogue, and dissolve” them at their discretion. The
territorial delegates to Congress were not unlike colo-
nial agents. Yet it was vital that this intermediate stage
end and that its end be determined in advance so that
no argument could develop over when the territory
was ready for statehood.
The system worked well and was applied to
nearly all the regions absorbed by the nation as it
advanced westward. Together with the Ordinance of
1785, which branded its checkerboard pattern on
the physical shape of the West, this law gave the
growing country a unity essential to the growth of a
national spirit.
Western Land Claims Ceded by the Statesat
myhistorylab.com
Northwest Ordinance, 1787at
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National Heroes
The Revolution further fostered nationalism by
giving the people their first commonly revered
heroes. Benjamin Franklin was widely known
ReadtheDocumentSeetheMapbefore the break with Great Britain through his
experiments with electricity, his immensely success-
fulPoor Richard’s Almanack, and his invention of
the Franklin stove. His staunch support of the
Patriot cause, his work in the Continental
Congress, and his diplomatic successes in France,
where he was extravagantly admired, added to his
fame. Franklin demonstrated, to Europeans and to
Americans themselves, that not all Americans need
be ignorant rustics.
Stern, cold, a man of few words, Washington did
not seem a likely candidate for hero worship. “My
countenance never yet revealed my feelings,” he himself
admitted. Yet he had qualities that made people name
babies after him and call him “the Father of His
Country” long before the war was won: his personal
sacrifices in the cause of independence, his integrity, and
above all, perhaps, his obvious desire to retire to his
Mount Vernon estate (for many Americans feared any
powerful leader and worried lest Washington seek to
become a dictator).
As a general, Washington was not a brilliant
strategist like Napoleon. Neither was he a tactician
of the quality of Caesar or Robert E. Lee. But heThe Land Ordinance of 1785 called for surveying and dividing the Western Territories into square mile subdivisions—640 acres. These were
further subdivided and sold as forty-acre tracts. Few pieces of legislation have left a more visible imprint upon the landscape. Today’s Midwest,
as seen from an airplane, resembles a patchwork quilt of forty-acre squares, as in the section of Kansas shown here.