What was the significance of the northwest land ordinance

The Northwest Land Ordinance was a legislative act that facilitated the United States Federal Government to become sovereign and expand to the northwest by adding new states. That ordinance was enacted in 1787 and established in 1789, but in it, it can see the Jefferson's influence, who was author of the Land Ordinance of 1784, which was the antecedent of the Northwest Land Ordinance, because there was proposed that the new territory obtained was divided into small gridded states and then were added to the junction.