10/30/96 Contact: George Bain, Ohio University, 614/593-2713

ATHENS, Ohio -- The Ohio University Libraries Department of Archives and Special Collections has acquired an issue of a newspaper from 1787 that contains an early published text of the Northwest Ordinance, which specified the provisions under which Ohio University was established.

The text of "An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-west of the River Ohio" is on page 2 of the four-page issue of the Pennsylvania Packet, and Daily Advertiser for Saturday, July 21, 1787. The newspaper was published in Philadelphia.

"This is not the first publication of the Ordinance, but may be the first newspaper publication," said George Bain, head of Archives and Special Collections for the libraries. "We are delighted about this new item and will have it on display soon."

Ohio University, established in 1804, was the first institution for higher education created in the Northwest Territory.

The third article of the Ordinance states that "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. . . ." That quote is inscribed on the Class Gateway at the north edge of the College Green on the Athens campus.

The Continental Congress approved the Ordinance in New York City on July 13, 1787. The newspaper also contains news articles and advertisements giving a flavor of the times. Bain noted the printing of the ordinance would have been newsworthy to delegates to the Constitutional Convention meeting in Philadelphia at the time of the newspaper's publication.

The Ohio University Libraries bought the Pennsylvania Packet issue at an auction in Watertown, Ohio, in late September. The item was from the William Haas Collection.

The newspaper will be housed in the Archives and Special Collections department on the fifth floor of Alden Library.