Nathan Dane (December 29, 1752 – February 15, 1835) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the Continental Congress from 1785 through 1788.

[3] In 1785, Dane became a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress, where he helped draft the Northwest Ordinance, which was enacted on July 13, 1787.

The Ordinance encouraged American settlers into the Northwest Territory and formed the basis of the constitutions of the five states there: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.

In July 1788, he finally wrote a pivotal letter of support to Melancton Smith of New York.

Dane said that he feared violence and social upheaval if the Constitution were not ratified, and he supported ratification with the understanding that there would be later amendments, which eventually came to be known as the United States Bill of Rights.

Later, while practicing law, he remained an active reformer, on behalf of vocational education and humane treatment of prisoners.

[12] By 1820, Dane was almost totally deaf, but he continued working long hours in his library, writing two major legal treatises.

"[16] On account of the Abridgement and his generosity to the law school at Harvard, together with his co-authorship of the Northwest Ordinance, Dane has been called the "Father of American Jurisprudence.

"[17] The Abridgment was often cited in later years; for example, when abolitionist Wendell Phillips argued against abolitionist Lysander Spooner's notion that judges have an obligation to disregard any law that the judges deem wrong, Philips cited[18] the following legal maxim in which Dane assigned that obligation to legislators instead of judges: Municipal or civil law ... is the rule of municipal or civil conduct, prescribed by the superior power in the state commanding what the legislature deems right, and prohibiting what it deems wrong.