Posted on July 13, 2013 by Ed
The Northwest Ordinance of July 13, 1787 may be the third of four Organic Laws of the United States of America, however, it may be as important as it is obscure, because in its Article 4 it describes what is the United States and why citizens and residents of those United States will in the
future be burdened with the Constitution, federal taxes and legislation:
Art. 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, and to such alterations therein as shall be constitutionally made; and to all the acts and ordinances of the United States in Congress
assembled, conformable thereto. The inhabitants and settlers in the said territory shall be subject to pay a part of the federal debts contracted or to be contracted, and a proportional part of the expenses of government, to be apportioned on them by Congress according to the same common rule and measure by which apportionments thereof shall be made on the other States; and the taxes for paying
their proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the district or districts, or new States, as in the original States, within the time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled. The legislatures of those districts or new States, shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by the United States in Congress assembled, nor with any regulations Congress may find necessary for securing the title in such soil to the bona fide
purchasers. No tax shall be imposed on lands the property of the United States; and, in no case, shall nonresident proprietors be taxed higher than residents.
The second of the Organic Laws, the Articles of Confederation of November 15, 1777, retained for the confederate member States all their “sovereignty, freedom and independence,” so neither the power
to tax nor the power to legislate could have been delegated to the United States of America in Congress assembled. The Northwest Ordinance of July 13, 1787, at least on a temporary basis, would be the law of the land as long as the United States of America held title to it. The Constitution of September 17, 1787 would become a more permanent law of that land, however, its still temporary nature was betrayed by the two year duration of the Congress of the United States
compared to the continual session of the Senate.
The Northwest Ordinance of July 13, 1787 was the source of the proprietary power upon which the 16th Amendment is based: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration,”
