Journal of the Convention title page   Save
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Description: This title page reads "Journal of the Convention, of the Territory of the United States North-west of the Ohio, Begun and Held at Chillicothe, on Monday the First Day of November, A. D. One Thousand Eight Hundred and Two, and of the Independence of the United States the Twenty-Seventh." In November 1802, thirty-five delegates of the Ohio Constitutional Convention convened to draft an Ohio state constitution. In order for Ohio to become a state, representatives of the territory had to submit a constitution to the United States Congress for approval. This was the final requirement under the Northwest Ordinance that Ohio had to meet before becoming a state. Twenty six of the delegates favored the platform of the Democratic-Republican Party. Among these men was Edward Tiffin, the president of the convention. Democratic-Republicans favored a small government with limited powers, in which the legislative branch should hold the few powers that the government actually possessed. Seven delegates to the convention were Federalists. Federalists believed in a much stronger government. The remaining two delegates were independents. Since the Democratic-Republicans controlled the convention, Ohio's first state constitution established a relatively weak government with the legislative branch holding most of the power. The convention approved the Constitution on November 29, 1802, and adjourned, and Ohio's Constitution of 1803 remained in effect until the Ohio Constitutional Convention of 1851 adopted a new one. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06905
Subjects: Northwest Territory--Politics and government; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood; Constitutional conventions; History of the State of Ohio
Places: Chillicothe (Ohio); Ross County (Ohio)