The first point that should be developed is the relation between the national government and the territory of the United States. Only one definite reference to this relation occurs in the federal constitution. In Art. IV, section 3, we find this statement: “The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States.” We should impress our pupils with the significance of this clause which places in the hands of the national legislature complete control over United States territory. The wide extent of land which had come into our possession by the Louisiana Purchase could be disposed of by Congress in any way that it might see fit. In this land lay the future state of Missouri. Having thus given due consideration to the general relation between the United States government and the territory which it owns, we should pass next to the question of the creation of new states. Our pupils are presumably acquainted with the necessity of referring to the Constitution for any reference to a matter of fundamental national law. It might be worth while to have the children themselves find the Constitutional provision which relates to the admission of states. The first part of Art. IV, section 3, provides that “new states may be admitted by the Congress into this Union,”--the rest of the clause, as far as our present purpose is concerned, may be dispensed with. Attention should be called to the extreme indefiniteness of this provision and to the general fact that while the Constitution gives Congress full control of United States territory and further delegates to it the power to admit new states, the actual mode of procedure has been left to Congress itself to work out. The ordinance of 1787 next calls for reference and rapid review. For the purposes of this lesson the ordinance is important as having furnished the type of territory destined to become an integral part of our political organization. Further, it had made definite provision for the future admission of states to be carved out of the Northwest territory. To be sure, this ordinance was the work of the Continental Congress, but it had been re-enacted by the first Congress under the Constitution as early as 1789. The process mapped out in this famous ordinance had already furnished the model for the creation of territories and the admission of states in various parts of the country. The territory of Missouri, originally as we have said a part of the Louisiana Purchase, was organized by act of Congress June 4, 1812. The class must be brought to see the significance of this organization. As a territory Missouri had definite boundaries and an organized government. It had a governor appointed by the President of the United States, and a territorial legislature. It of course had no voice in national affairs, and was in last resort subject to the will of Congress.