KENTUCKY[1]
For organic acts issued before 1790 relating to the land now included within Kentucky see in this work:
- Charters of Virginia, 1606, 1609, 1612 (Virginia, pp. 3783–3812).
- Ordinances for Virginia, 1621 (Virginia, p. 3810).
- Constitution of Virginia, 1776 (Virginia, p. 3812).
THE TERRITORY SOUTH OF THE OHIO—1790
[First Congress, Second Session]
An Act for the Government of the Territory of the United States, south of the river Ohio
Section 1. Be it enacted it the Senate and House of Representative of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the territory of the United States south of the river Ohio, for the purposes of temporary government, shall be one district; the inhabitants of which shall enjoy all the privileges, benefits, and advantages set forth in the ordinance of the late Congress for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio. And the government of the said territory south of the Ohio shall be similar to that which is now exercised in the territory northwest of the Ohio; except so far as is otherwise provided in the conditions expressed in an act of Congress of the present session, entitled "An act to accept a cession of the claims of the State of North Carolina to a certain district of western territory."‡
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the salaries of the officers, which the President of the United States shall nominate, and with the advice and consent of the Senate appoint, by virtue of this act, shall be the same as those, by law established, of similar officers in the government northwest of the river Ohio. And the powers, duties, and emoluments of a superintendent of Indian affairs for the southern department shall be united with those of the governor.
Approved, May 26, 1790.
- ↑ Kentucky was originally settled by the whites as a colony of Virginia, but after the revolutionary war the settlers demanded an independent government, under the following provision in the first constitution of Virginia: "The western and northern extent of Virginia shall, in all other respects, stand, as fixed by the charter of King James I, in the year 1609, and by the public treaty of peace between the courts of Great Britain and France, in the year 1763, unless by act of this legislature one or more governments be established westward of the Alleghany Mountains." It was not however, until after there had been ten successive conventions elected by the people of the "district," and four successive enabling acts passed by the legislature of Virginia, that Kentucky was allowed to enter the Federal Union as an independent State, on an equality with those which had established themselves as a nation.
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