Reading the Northwest Ordinance, like most did in 8th grade civics, can always confuse the locals... shown best at the Alaska Bar Association, with not one thing to do with law, on display at our United States Supreme Court.

"The net is cast and the meshes of it are spread wide;
In the moonlit night the tunnies will come darting through the sea."
Herodotus, Book 1

Transcript of Northwest Ordinance (1787)
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=8&page=transcript