On May 26, 1790, President George Washington approved the Southwest Ordinance, formally organizing the “Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio” from the western lands recently ceded by North Carolina. The act established a territorial government modeled on the Northwest Ordinance, providing courts, executive authority, and a clear path to eventual statehood. In a region unsettled by land disputes, failed separatist movements, and frontier tensions, the ordinance imposed a coherent federal framework that stabilized the area and set the stage for the creation of Tennessee in 1796.