Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth for the Colson Center on John Stone Street. As America continues to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, today marks an anniversary of a significant step toward fulfilling those self-evident truths that are proclaimed in that founding document. The Northwest Ordinance, also known as an Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio. was signed on july thirteenth, seventeen eighty seven. It's one of four organic laws that serve as the foundational laws for our nation.
The others include the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the first Constitution that America had, and the current U. S. Constitution.
Now the Northwest Ordinance was first passed under the Articles of Confederation, and it stipulated that the settlement and eventual statehood of the federal territory beyond the original 13 states, which is now the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota, was to be free territory. Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, was instrumental in Virginia gifting this land to the Union on the condition that it be without slavery. Article six of the Northwest Ordinance reads as follows There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory.
Now it's an extraordinary thing. That the first major law governing the expansion of the US in the very same year that the US Constitution was written. prohibited slavery. The preamble stated that these new territories should extend, and I quote here, the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty. Two years later, the law was reaffirmed by the first Congress of the United States under the new Constitution, ensuring that it would remain good standing law.
Now, the Northwest Ordinance does not absolve our nation from its original sin of slavery. In fact, it also contained a provision about returning escaped slaves from the new territories. And the Constitution, of course, had its own compromises on the evil practice.
However, As some scholars have rightly argued, the principles of our country have to be distinguished from its compromises. In fact, many of America's most significant social reformers, like Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr., made such a distinction. And that's because many of our founders understood the moral evil of slavery, even if they did not do everything they could to stop it. but they did set a standard for how the country could expand without it. In fact, it was a full generation after the founding that the myth of the so called positive good of slavery would emerge and that the Declaration's self evident truth of equality would be challenged as a self evident lie.
But, as Abraham Lincoln would later say, the founders sought to put slavery on the course to ultimate extinction, and to ensure that the abstract truth of human equality would be eventually applied to all peoples of all colors everywhere. The Northwest Ordinance also significantly shaped the future of education in America. Though the new territory would ensure private ownership by citizens, a section in each new township would be established for public education. And Article 3 of the Ordinance stated clearly why: quote, Because religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.
Now notice the wording, Good government and man's happiness necessitate that religion, morality, and knowledge be cultivated amongst the citizenry, and education is an essential way to accomplish that.
However, as Dr. Larry Arne, president of Hillsdale College has rightly observed, and I quote, we think differently about the purpose of education today, to say the least. Prayer is now banned in public schools. Morality, when it's taught, is conceived as a subjective thing, or yet more commonly as a newly invented thing to be found under the heading, quote, political correctness. The ideas of knowledge, good government, and happiness are now subjected to the tender care of deconstruction and historicism.
⁇ From its founding, America was committed to education because it was first committed to a moral vision of life. And that vision is inherent to a Christian worldview, which is built upon the implications of who God is and who he made us to be. The Colson Educators Program was built to cultivate that same understanding of the purpose of education, that purpose that is demanded by a Christian worldview and is essential for the next generation to know and to hold. The principles of the Declaration were certainly ambitious and definitely aspirational as they were not matched by life on the ground.
However, it's very encouraging to find a commitment to those same ideals elsewhere. the heroic actions of Americans to the intentionality of something like the Northwest Ordinance in order that those ideals eventually be secured for all people. And they still can provide a solid basis for us and for an education that advances religion, morality, and knowledge. To learn more about the Colson Educators program, visit colsoneducators.org. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint.
Today I want to say thanks to Kevin of Centerville, Virginia. Thanks for being a Cornerstone Monthly partner of the Colson Center. You helped make this episode of Breakpoint possible. And today's episode was co-authored by Andrew Carico. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, please leave us a review wherever you download your podcast.
And for more resources or to share this commentary with others, go to breakpoint.org. Thousands gathered at this year's Colson Center National Conference to hear from speakers like Carl Truman, Oz Guinness, Chloe Cole, Frank Torik, and more on the challenges facing Christians today.
Now we're making this timely content available beyond the conference walls. To watch a complimentary session from Chloe Cole and have the opportunity to receive access to the complete conference video library with a gift of any amount, visit colsoncenter.org slash July.
