<P> Before the population of a territory reached 5,000, there would be a limited form of government . There would be a governor, a secretary, and three judges, all appointed by Congress . The governor will have a "freehold estate therein, in one thousand acres of land,". The secretary and the judges will have a, "freehold estate therein, in five hundred acres of land". The governor would be commander - in - chief of the militia, appoint magistrates and other civil officers, and help create and publish laws as they see fit for their territory . They would have a three - year term . The secretary would be in charge of keeping and preserving the acts and laws passed by the territorial legislatures, the public records of the district and to transit authentic copies of such acts and proceedings every six months to the secretary of the Continental Congress . They would have a four - year term . The judges would be in charge will help the governor create and pass acts and laws and in making official court rulings . Their terms did not have a set time period . As soon as the population of a territory reached 5000 free, male inhabitants, then they would receive authority to elect representatives from their counties or townships for the general assembly . For every 500 free, males there would be one representative, until there were 25 representatives . Then the Congress will control the number and proportion of the representatives from that legislature . No male can be a representative unless they have been a citizen of the United States for at least three years or lived in the district for three years . In both cases the male in question would have to own at least 200 acres of land within the same district . These representatives shall serve for a term of two years . If a representative died or was removed from office, a new one would be elected to serve out the remainder time . </P> <P> The natural rights provisions of the ordinance foreshadowed the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution . Many of the concepts and guarantees of the Ordinance of 1787 were incorporated in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights . In the Northwest Territory, various legal and property rights were enshrined, religious tolerance was proclaimed, and it was enunciated that since "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged ." The right of habeas corpus was written into the charter, as was freedom of religious worship and bans on excessive fines and cruel and unusual punishment . Trial by jury and a ban on ex post facto laws were also rights recognized . </P> <P> Art . 6 . There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: 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 and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid . </P> <P> The language of the ordinance prohibits slavery, but also contained a clear fugitive slave clause as well . Efforts in the 1820s by pro-slavery forces to legalize slavery in two of the states created from the Northwest Territory failed, but an "indentured servant" law allowed some slaveholders to bring slaves under that status; they could not be bought or sold . Southern states voted for the law because they did not want to compete with the territory over tobacco as a commodity crop; it was so labor - intensive that it was grown profitably only with slave labor . Additionally, slave - states' political power would merely be equalized, as there were three more slave - states than there were free - states in 1790 . </P>

The northwest ordinance established all of the following