The article was adopted by a vote unanimous, except for the dissent of one delegate, a nobody from New York.
The ordinance established a territorial government, with a governor, secretary, and judges.

A General Assembly was authorized as soon as there should be five thousand free male inhabitants in the district.

The lower house was elective, the upper house, or council, was appointive.
The Legislature was to elect a territorial delegate to Congress.

The governor was required to own a freehold of one thousand acres in the district, a judge five hundred, and a representative two hundred; and no man was allowed to vote unless he possessed a freehold of fifty acres.
[Footnote: "St.Clair Papers," ii., 603.] These provisions would seem strangely undemocratic if applied to a similar territory in our own day.
Features of the Ordinance of 1787.
The all-important features of the ordinance were contained in the six articles of compact between the confederated States and the people and states of the territory, to be forever unalterable, save by the consent of both parties.

The first guaranteed complete freedom of worship and religious belief to all peaceable and orderly persons.