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Introduction

On this day, 13 July, 1787, the Congress of the Confederation of the United States passed legislation under which the federal government became responsible for the territory that would become the states of Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and part of Minnesota. It established the requirements for admission of new states. One of its most intriguing statements had to do with education. At the time all of America’s institutions of higher learning (and much of its other education) were religious, rather than secular, which helps explain the words chosen by Congress.