Editing Wisconsin Territory (section)

=== Wisconsin Enabling Act ===
In 1846, [[United States Congress|Congress]] approved the Wisconsin Enabling Act, which was the first step on the road to [[Admission to the Union|statehood]] for Wisconsin. Wisconsin would become the fifth state created out of the old [[Northwest Territory]]. Representing the expressed intent of the Wisconsin territorial legislature, [[Morgan Lewis Martin]], Wisconsin's territorial delegate to Congress, initially argued that the proposed state should incorporate all remaining land in the original [[Northwest Territory]] as defined by the [[Northwest Ordinance]] of 1787.<ref name=":23">{{Cite journal|last=Lass|first=William E.|date=Winter 1987|title=Minnesota's Separation from Wisconsin: Boundary Making on the Upper Mississippi Frontier|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20179067|journal=Minnesota History|volume=50|issue=8|pages=309–320|jstor=20179067}}</ref>

Most members of Congress believed that such a state would be too large. They eventually accepted the argument of [[Stephen A. Douglas]] of [[Illinois]], chairman of the House Committee on Territories, that Congress was not bound by the Northwest Ordinance, and passed legislation allowing a sixth state to be formed from the remnant of the Northwest Territory excluded from the new [[Wisconsin|state of Wisconsin]].<ref name=":23" /><ref name=":11">{{Cite book|last=Wingerd|first=Mary Lethert|title=North Country: The Making of Minnesota|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-8166-4868-9|location=Minneapolis}}</ref>{{Rp|176}} However, subsequent bills in 1847 and 1848 to organize a new "Territory of Minasota" were rejected on the grounds that "Minasota" did not have anywhere near the 5,000 free adult males required for legal territorial status.<ref name=":11" />