'A Few Men Well Conducted'

Part of America’s genius is that our best ideals have always indicted our worst practices. 

Joshua Claybourn | June 29, 2026

At the memorial to Revolutionary War hero George Rogers Clark, there’s a line carved above the murals: “Great things have been effected by a few men well conducted.”

It's a good line because it doesn't put on airs. It doesn’t allude to perfect or powerful men. It says good comes from a few men “well conducted," those disciplined and guided by something larger than ambition.

Clark beat the British at Fort Sackville (now called Vincennes) in Indiana in 1779. His tiny force crossed freezing floodwaters and took the fort from a far larger British group, securing American claims to the territory that became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. That victory created a practical question for the new nation: What would Americans do with the vast territory they won?

They could have built an empire, treated the West as a colony, or let slavery spread wherever money and power carried it. There was no guarantee at the time that the 13 colonies would coalesce into a unified country, so it was equally plausible that they simply splintered into 13 nations.

Addressing how to handle what became known as the Northwest Territory helped bring them together and, in 1787, Congress adopted the Northwest Ordinance.

That document deserves a larger place in our civic memory, especially as the country marks its 250th birthday. The Ordinance promised that new states could enter the Union........

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