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“fundamental principles” as somewhat vague aspirations or abstractions. But that is not the way the Northwest Ordinance treated them. Principles of liberty are generators of liberty, and to serve as a basis for republicanism they must be concrete. They include those ways of acting and thinking and feeling that support republican government.
Take just one of those principles as expressed in the Ordinance: “Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” Much could be said about this celebrated maxim. (For example, what about school prayer?) But for now I will note a simple thought at its core: Majority injustice, the disgrace and danger of republican government, is avoided to the extent that the majority of the people are well-instructed enough to recognize and self-controlled enough to respect the rights of the rest of the people.
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