The Ministerial Lands were tracts of land in the

Northwest Territory The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolutionary War. Established in 1 ...

, later

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, that the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

donated for the support of clergy. In the contracts that the Congress wrote for purchases of large tracts of land in the

in the 1780s by the

Ohio Company of Associates The Ohio Company of Associates, also known as the Ohio Company, was a land company whose members are today credited with becoming the first non- Native American group to permanently settle west of the Allegheny mountains. In 1788 they establis ...

and John Cleve Symmes, tracts of land were set aside for support of religion. This was before the passage of the

Bill of Rights A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and pri ...

. These land purchases were divided into

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

six miles square arranged on a checkerboard pattern. Each township was further divided into one mile square

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numbered systematically from 1 to 36. In the Ohio Company and Symmes purchases, section 29 of each township, except the two townships set aside to support

Ohio University Ohio University is a Public university, public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confeder ...

, was set aside for support of religion. Ohio’s Ministerial Lands totaled . Monies realized from the leasing or sale of section 29 were to be distributed to the township’s churches on a pro rata basis according to each denomination’s membership. The legislature of the state was designated to be the trustee for the ministerial lands in the First purchase of the Ohio Company and the Symmes Purchase by Congress, while the trustees of the Ohio Company designated the Legislature as trustee of the sections in their second purchase. In 1833, - Text of Act of February 20, 1833

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

Congress authorized Ohio to sell Ministerial Lands and invest proceeds in a fund to support religion in the various townships in which they sat. This lasted until 1968, when the constitutionality of such church-state relationships was challenged. Congress then authorized the remaining ministerial funds to be disbursed for schools. In May, 1968, Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment that directed any future ministerial income be used solely for educational purposes. Grants by the Government for support of religion came to an end in 1811 when President Monroe vetoed a bill for relief for a Baptist Society who had built a church on Government land in Salem Mississippi. He cited that the bill “comprises a principle and precedent for the appropriation of funds of the United States for the use and support of religious societies, contrary to the article of the Constitution which declares that Congress shall make no law respecting a religious establishment.”

Notes

References

* * * * {{Ohio-Lands Pre-statehood history of Ohio

See also

Notes

References