Note 151 — Chapter V
Reading edition
One of the great inducements to the adoption of the Constitution of the United States was to give the general government adequate constitutional power to dispose of the Western territory and to form new States out of it. Congress, under the Confederation, had no express authority to do this, although they proceeded both to dispose of the lands and to erect new States, by the Ordinance of 1787. See The Federalist, No. 38, 42, 43. Story's Commentaries on the Constitution, III. 184-190, 1st edition.