/O 
 
 Class 
 Book_ 
 
 V ' 
 
With Respects of 
 LEVI L. BARBOUR. 
 
 SEMI-CENTENN I AL 
 
 ADMISSION 
 
 STATE OF MICHIGAN 
 
 I^'TO ^I^HE UNION. 
 
 DELIVERED AT ITS CELEBRATION, JUNE 15, 1886. 
 
 PKTROIT FRF.K PRKSS PRINTINO COMPAyY. 
 18S6. 
 

 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAOK 
 
 Prkfatoky Rkmarks — by Commission 1 
 
 Joint Resolution H 
 
 Okficial Programme • • • ■ 5 
 
 Addresses at the Capitol Steps — 
 
 Prayer — Rev. Geo. Taylor 34 
 
 Address of Welcome — Russell A. Alger, Governor of Michigan. . 85 
 The Financial Elistory of Michigan — Hon. Ebenezer O. Gros- 
 
 venor 38 
 
 Mines and Mineral Interests of Michigan — Prof. Chas. I). Law- 
 
 ton o3 
 
 Addresses in the Hall ok Repkkskntatives — *^ 
 
 The Semi Centennial of Michigan — Hon. Thomas M. Cooley. ... 78 
 
 .ludicial History of Michigan — Hun. James V. Campbell 102 
 
 The University — President Angell 138 
 
 Michigan in Congress — Hon. Roswell ,G. Horr 14(5 
 
 Addresses in tiih: Senate Chamber — 
 
 Executive — Hon. Alpheus Felch 155 
 
 The Railroads of Michigan — .Major W. C. Ransom 183 
 
 A Brief Sketch of the ('ommon Schools of Michigan and of the 
 State Normal Schools— Prof. J. M. B. Sill 19« 
 
 Addresses .\t Agricultural Hall — 
 
 Fish and Fish Culture in Michigan — John H. Bis.sell 351 
 
 Corrections and Charities — Hon. Levi L. Barbour 270 
 
 The Progress of the Mechanic Arts in the Last Fifty Years — 
 James W. Bartlett 309 
 
 Addresses .vt the Grand Stand — 
 
 Agriculture— W L Webber 393 
 
 Michigan Horticulture — Hon. Chas. W. Garfield 40(5 
 
 Brief Military History of Michigan as a Territory and a State — 
 Gen. John Robertson 433 
 
 The Early Legislation ok Michigan — Hon. Alpheus Felch 510 
 
PREFATORY REMARKS 
 
 ]i Y C; O M MISSION. 
 
 Wisely considering Michigan's development and advancement 
 during this half century worthy of commemoration, her Legisla- 
 ture adopted the Ibllowing joint resolution providing for the 
 celebration of the semi-centennial of her admission into the Union. 
 
 In accordance with the sj)irit and provisions of such joint reso- 
 lution, Henry Chamberlain, Henry Fralick, Theodore H. Hinch- 
 man, James Shearer and 8. T. Read wefe appointed and confirmed 
 Commissioners, and, with the Governor, were empowered to deter- 
 mine upon a day and to make all proper and suitable provision 
 for celebrating such semi-centennial. 
 
 Messrs. Thomas M. Coolcy, .lames V. Campbell, Alpheus 
 Felch, Ebenezer O. Grosvenor, Charles I). Lawton, William L. 
 Webber. Charles W. Garfield, dames W. Bartlett, James B. 
 Angell, Edwin WiUits, J. M. K Sill, Levi L. Barbour, John H. 
 Bissell, W. C. Ransom, K. H. Horr, .lohii Robertson, John J. 
 Adam, the gentlemen selected to address the people on that occa- 
 sion, most cheerfully and fitly responded to the invitations 
 extended to them. Upon the subjects severally assigned them, 
 they delivered most interesting and instructive addresses, graphi- 
 cally portraying the progress of our State. The facts presented 
 are more cogent tiuui tlicory, however specious. 
 
 The Commission selected the subjects for addresses with refer- 
 
2 I'REFATORY REMARKS. 
 
 ence to presenting, in their treatment, the State's civil, judicial, 
 financial and military history ; her educational, reformatory and 
 charitable institutions; her railroads, varied industries and 
 resources. 
 
 To the many thousands attendant, these cultured, mature, 
 practical and distinguished gentlemen presented these matters so 
 important and vital to the State ; and for the benefit of the people 
 at large, the Commission deem those addresses eminently worthy 
 of publication. 
 
 At the request of the Commission, Hon. Alpheus Felch has 
 placed at its disposal the address by him delivered before the 
 Legislative Association ; and the same is herewith presented, as 
 supplying an important feature in the programme of the celebra- 
 tion. 
 
 Whatever is, should show its right to be. The justification for 
 this volume will be found in its subjects, contents, and the need 
 of disseminating the information it contains. 
 
 Michigan may feel a just pride in her progress, attainments 
 and prospects. 
 
 The ofiicial programme, with the words and music (both origi- 
 nal and selected), is herewith presented. 
 
 We submit this volume with the assurance that the reader will 
 feel a quickened and growing interest in the State of his nativity 
 or adoption. 
 
JOINT RESOLUTION 
 
 State of Michigan. — File No. 13. — Seuate. — No. 19. 
 
 Introduced by Senator Sherwood, February 23, 1885. Repor- 
 ted without amendments by Committee on Appropriations and 
 Finance, and ordered printed, Marcli 13, 1885. 
 
 Joint Resolxtiox relating to the semi-centennial cei('l)ratioii of 
 the admission of the State of Michigan into the Union. 
 
 Whereas, We are near the period when this State will pass the 
 fiftieth anniversary of its admission into the union of States, and 
 in view of the great changes wrought, the wonderful develop- 
 ments and rapid advancement made, during this half century, and 
 while there still remain among us many of those who have contrib- 
 uted so much towards these magnificent results, and by whose 
 wisdom the destiny of this commonwealth has been directed, and 
 for whom we have such great admiration and respect, therefore. 
 
 Resolved by the Senate and Home of Representatives of the State 
 of Michigan, That His Excellency the Governor be and hereby is 
 authorized and requested to appoint five commissioners, the same 
 to be confirmed by the Senate, and that said commissioners be 
 empowered to determine upon a day and to make all proper and 
 suitable provisions for celebrating the semi-centennial of the ad- 
 mission of the State of Michigan into the Union ; and that a sum 
 not exceeding five thousand dollars be and hereby is appropriated 
 from the general fund, so much of which as may be necessary to 
 be used by said commissioners for such celebration. 
 
 And further, That His Excellency the Governor is hereby 
 appointed to act with said commissioners, and shall be the president 
 of such Commission, and shall keep an accurate account of all 
 expenses and disbursements of the same, and shall present vouch- 
 ers for the same duly certified by him to the Auditor General, 
 who shall thereupon draw his warrant or warrants on the State 
 Treasurer for such sums as may be necessary within said appro- 
 priation. Said connnissiouers will serve without compensation, 
 but their actual expenses shall be allowed and paid out of said 
 appropriation. 
 
 Ordered to take immediate effect. 
 
 Approved May 11th, 1885. 
 
OFFICIAL PROGRAMME 
 
 Words and Mrsic of thr Seme-Ckntennial Anniversary 
 OF THE State of Michigan, 
 
 HELD AT LANSING, J C7 N E 15, 1886. 
 
 PuTKuant to an Act of the last Legislature, and under the management of a 
 Board of Commissioners, appointed bg the Governor, 
 
 BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS. 
 
 GovEKNOK R. A. Alger, Chairman of the Board of Commissiouers, 
 President of the Day. 
 
 Hon. HENiiY Ciiambeklain Three Oaks. 
 
 IIox. IlENitY FuAi.iCK ' Grand Rapid.s 
 
 Hon. Theo. H. Hinchman Detroit. 
 
 Hon. James Sfieareu Bay City 
 
 Hon. S. T. Read Cassopolis. 
 
 A National Salute will be fired at sunrise. 
 A Serai-Centennial Salute will be fired at noon. 
 Papers will be read and speeches made during tlie day by the 
 following prominent citizens : 
 
 Hon. Ali'iieus Fei.ch. Hon. Chas. W. Garfield. 
 
 Hon. John J. Adam. Pres. Edwin Willits. 
 
 Pres James B. Angell. Prof. J. M. B. Sill. 
 
 Hon. Thomas M. Coolky. L. L. Barbour, Est^. 
 
 Hon. James V. Cami'bell, John H. Bisskll, Esq. 
 
 Hon. E. O. Guosvenor. M.\.roR W. C. Ransom. 
 
 Hon. Chas D. Lawton. James W. Bartlett, Esq. 
 
 Hon. \Vm. L. Weiuser. General Jno. Robertson. 
 
 Also voluntary addresses, if time will permit. 
 Instrumental music for the day will be furnished by the follow- 
 iug bands : 
 
 Twenty-third U. S. Infantry Band of Fort Wayne Detroit. 
 
 Knights of Pytliias Band Lansing. 
 
 Cassopolis Military Band. Cassopolis. 
 
6 I'KOOEEDINGS OF THE SEMICENTENNIAL. 
 
 And vocal music by the "Ariou Quartette of Detroit, Mesdames 
 Clemelli of New York, and Tilden of Mt. Clemens, and the fol- 
 lowing from Lansing: A chorus of 80 mixed voices, the Lansing 
 " Liederkranz " of 20 male voices, and a chorus of 130 children 
 from the public schools. The whole under the management of 
 Prof H. B. Roney, East Saginaw. 
 
 The exercises of the day will commence at 10 a. m. with an 
 " Address of Welcome," from the steps of the Capitol, by Gover- 
 nor R. A. Alger. 
 
 Immediately after the Governor's address, and continuing 
 throughout the forenoon, papers will be read and speeches deliv- 
 ered in Representative Hall, in the Senate Chamber, and from the 
 steps of the Capitol, by some of the gentlemen named above, 
 interspersed with music. 
 
 At 12:30 p. M. a barbecue and grand basket picnic will be held 
 on the fair grounds. Meat, potatoes, bread, butter, coffee, sugar 
 and milk, will be furnished to all applicants without charge. 
 These articles the guests will call for at the carving table. Abun- 
 dant table room will also be supplied, but no dishes, plates, knives, 
 forks or cups. 
 
 At 2 o'clock, p. M., speeches will be made on the fair grounds, 
 from the Judge's stand and balcony of Agricultural Hall, by some 
 of the gentlemen named above, with instrumental and vocal music 
 at intervals. 
 
 At 7:30 o'clock, evening, speaking will lie resumed at the Cap- 
 itol building, with music as before. 
 
 Books containing the music and words complete, also the pro- 
 grames for the day in detail, can be obtained at the Capitol and 
 on the fair grounds at a trifling cost. It is hoped that visitors will 
 provide themselves with these books and that all will join in sing- 
 ing the words, which will be adapted to patriotic and popular airs. 
 
 .JAMES E. PITTMAN. 
 B. VERNOR, 
 F. A. BAKER, 
 
 Committee of Arrangementn by appaintment of 
 the Board of Commissioners. 
 
OFFICIAL PKOGKAMMK. 
 
 COMPLETE LITERARY AND MUSICAL PROGRAMMES FOR 
 THE LAY. 
 
 Madame Debbie Clemei.li, of New York (formerly of Detroit), prima 
 donna soprano. 
 Mrs. Maky E. Tii.den, of Mt. Clemens, contralto. 
 "Arion (Quartette," of Detroit— C. V. Slocum, first tenor; L. P. De- 
 Sale, second tenor; J. Q. Ada.ms. first bass; R. Gates Rick, second bass. 
 Miss Minnie Orton, of Bay City, piano accompanist for the Repre- 
 sentative Hall programmes. 
 
 Miss Helen R. Connkh, of Detroit, piano accompanist for the Senate 
 Chamber programmes. 
 
 Also the Lansing "Liederkranz," 20 males voices, under Prof. Ph. 
 Keinatii, director. 
 Mixed chorus of 80 voices from Lansing. 
 
 Chorus of 130 children from the Lansing pul)lic schools, under the 
 direction of Mrs. Floua Rakick, special teacher of music. 
 
 The 23d U. S. Infantry Band, stationed at Fort Wayne, Detroit, 19 
 pieces, S. Beuningkh, band-master. 
 The Cassopolis Military Band, 20 pieces, C. W. Martin, leader. 
 The Kniglits of Pythias Band of Lansing, 15 pieces, Joseph Spross. 
 leader. 
 Mr. L. A. Baker. Assistant Manager at Lansing. 
 Prof. H. B. Roney, East Saginaw, Director of Music for the Serai- 
 Centennial. 
 
 CAPITOL STEPS PliOGRAMME. 
 Gov. R. A. AixiEK, Presiding. 
 
 10;00 a. m.— Music, National Melodies Alford. 
 
 Cassopolis Military Band. 
 
 Music, " Let the Hills and Valleys Resound " Richards. 
 
 Chorus of 130 School Children. 
 
 Prayer Rev. Geo. Taylor. 
 
 Address of Welcome by His Excellency, Russell A. Alger, Governor of 
 
 Michigan. 
 Music, " Columbia the Gem of the Ocean." 
 
 Chorus of Children. 
 
 Address, "Financial " Hon. E. O. Grosvenor, 
 
 11:15— Music, Overture. " Rival" Pettee. 
 
 Cassopolis Military Band. 
 
 Address, " Mineral " Prof. Chas. D. Lawton. 
 
 Voluntary Addresses. 
 
 Music, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," with special "Michigan" verse, 
 
 writteu by Prof. Roney. 
 
 Full chorus, united audiences and three bands. 
 
 REPRESENTATIVE HALL PROGRAMME. 
 Hon. Henky Chamberlain, Presiding. 
 10:15 A. .M. — Grand selection from " Trovatore," arranged by Band- 
 master S. Bcrninger. 
 23d L^ S. Infantry Baud. 
 Music, "Michigan's Semi-Centennial Hymn ' written by D. Bethune 
 Duflield, Escj., of Detroit, to " Kellars American Hymn." 
 Chorvis. 
 
O PROCEEDINGS OK THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 Address, " Historical " Judge Thos. M. Cooley. 
 
 11:15 — Music, Ode, " Land of the Lakes." Written by Judge J. Logan 
 Ciiipman, of Detroit. Music composed for this occasion by Prof. H. 
 B. Roney. Madame Clemelli, Mrs Tilden, Messrs Slocum, Rice and 
 Chorus. 
 
 Address, " Judiciary '" Judge James V. Campbell. 
 
 Music, "Star Spangled Banner," with special "Michigan" verse, by 
 Rev. J. T. Oxtoby, of East Saginaw. Madame Clemelli, Chorus, Audi- 
 ence and 23d U. S. Infantry Band. 
 
 13:15 until 2 P. M. — Barbecue and Ba>^ket Picnic at the Fair Grounds. 
 
 SENATE CHAMBER PROGRAMME. 
 
 Hon. Henry Fkalick, Presiding. 
 
 10:15 a. m. — Music, Pharaphrase, "How Fair Tliou Art" (Nesvadba). 
 
 Arranged by J. B. Claus Lansing Knights of Pythias Band. 
 
 Music, "The United Band" Otto. 
 
 Arion Quartette. 
 
 Music, Solo, " The Soldier's Talisman " Oberthur. 
 
 Mr. C. V. Slocum. 
 
 Address, "Executive" Ex-Gov. Alphcus Felch. 
 
 11:15— Music, Solo, "Oh, Let Me Like a Soldier Fall," from " Mari- 
 
 tana Balfe. 
 
 Mr. L. P. DeSale. 
 
 Address, " Legislative" Hon. John J. Adam. 
 
 Music, Solo, " Fruehlingszeit," (Springtime) Becker. 
 
 "Mrs. Mary E. Tilden. 
 Music, " Michigan, my Michigan," Written by Maj. James W. Long, 
 of Grand Rapids, to the air, " Lauriger Horatius." 
 Arion Quartette 
 12:15 until 2 p. m. — Barbecue and Basket Picnic at the Fair Grounds. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL HALL PROGRAMME. 
 Hon. S. T. Read, Presiding. 
 
 2:00 p. M. — Music, Overture, " Silver Bell " Schlepegrel. 
 
 23d U. S. Infantry Band. 
 
 Address, "Fish and Fish Culture " ' J. H. Bissell, E'^q 
 
 3:00 — ]Music, Grand Medley on National Airs Catliu 
 
 23d U. S. Infantry Band. 
 Address, Educational, "Agricultural College," President Edwin Willits 
 
 3:45— Music, "The Tar's Song" Hatton 
 
 Arion Quartette. 
 
 Address, " Reformatories and Charities " L. L. Barbour, Esq 
 
 4:30— Music, " Ro.ses and Lilies " (Cornet Solo) RoUinson 
 
 Cassopolis Military Band. 
 
 Address, " Mechanical " James W. Bartlett, Esq 
 
 Music, Overture. " L'Espoir de L'Alsac " Herman 
 
 Cassopolis Military Band. 
 
 GRAND STAND PROGRAMME. 
 
 Hon. T. H. HiNCHMAN, Presiding. 
 
 2:00 p. .M. — Music, "American Overture ' Catlin. 
 
 Lansing Knights of Pythias Band. 
 
 Music, " The Hunter's Farewell" Mendelssohn. 
 
 Arion Quartette. 
 
 Address, " Agriculture " Hon. Wm. L. Webber, 
 
 3:00— Music, " Michigan, My Michigan " Arion Quartette. 
 
OFFICIAL PliOGKAMME. V 
 
 Aildress, " Horticulture " Hod. Chas. W. Gartield. 
 
 i<:45 — Music, Potpourri, " Ye Oldeu Time " Lansing K. P. Band. 
 
 Addre&s, "Agricultural Possibilities of the Upper Peninsula." 
 
 4:30— Music, ''"The Vacant Chair " G. F. Root. 
 
 (In IMenioriam of Michigan's Heroes) Arion Quartette. 
 
 Address, ' Military " Gen. John Robertson. 
 
 Music, " Recollections of the Warlire," Beyer. 
 
 2:^d U. S. Infantry Band. 
 
 REPRESENTATIVE HALL PROGRAMME. 
 
 Hon. Henuy Chamberlain, Presiding. 
 
 8:00 V. M. — Music, Overture, " Diademe " ... Herman. 
 
 2'->d U. S. Infantry Band. 
 
 Mus^ic. "March of the Half Century." Written by Mrs. K. R. Hill, of 
 
 Vassar, to " March to the Men of Harlech." 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 Music, "Beautiful Michigan," words and music by Madame Debbie 
 
 Clcmelli Madame Clemelli (Solo), Mrs. Roper, Messrs. C. O. Pratt 
 
 and L. A. Baker. 
 
 Address. " The University". ., President Jas. B. Angell. 
 
 !):00^- .Music, Solo, "With W^rdure Clad." from the "Creation". .Haydn. 
 Madame Debbie Clemelli. 
 
 Music, Ode, " Land of the Lakes " Chipman — Rouey. 
 
 Soloists and Chorus. 
 Address, " Congressional." 
 Music, " Michigan's Hymn of Peice," written by Edward Bloedon, of 
 
 East Saginaw, to "Battle Hymn," from "Rienzi." R. Wagner. 
 
 Lansing Liederkranz, Prof. Philip Keinath. Director. 
 Music, " Hymn of the Fifty Years," written by Mrs. C. C. Moots, of 
 
 West Ba\' City, to " Glory, Hallelujah! " Mrs. Tilden, Chorus, 
 
 Audience and 2:Jd U. S. Infantry Band. 
 Music, Do.\ology, "Praise (tod from Whom all Blessings Flow." 
 Chorus, Audience and Band. 
 
 SENATE CHAMBER PROGRAMME. 
 
 Hon. Henuy Fualu k. Presiding. 
 
 8:00 1". .\i. — Music, " Puritan's Daughter" (Balfe) Geo. Wiegand. 
 
 Lansing Knights of Pythias Band. 
 
 Music. Quintette, " Queen of the Valley " Dr. Caldicott. 
 
 I^Irs. Tilden and Arion Quartette. 
 
 Music , Solo, ' ' The Warrior Bold " Adams. 
 
 Mr. K. Gates Rice. 
 
 Address, " Railroads." Maj. W. C. Ransom. 
 
 9:00 — Music, Solo, "The Lay of an Imprisoned Huntsman," from " Lady 
 
 of the Lake " Schubeit. 
 
 Mr. J. il. Adams. 
 Address, Educational, " Normal and Common Schools," 
 
 Prof. J. ^l. B. Sill. 
 
 Music, " Away Down Upon the Suwanee liiver' Arion Quartette 
 
 Music, Do.xology, " Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow," 
 Arion (Juartettc and .\udience. 
 
10 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL, 
 
 LANSING CHORUS FOR THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 FROF. H. B. RONEY, Conductor. 
 
 Mr. Fred. Adler. 
 Mr. and Mrs. C. Allsdorf. 
 Mrs. J. Leslie Ash. 
 Miss Ella C. Baker. 
 Miss Blaude E. Baker. 
 Miss MjTtie Baker. 
 Mr. L. Adelbert Baker. 
 Mr. L. A Baker. 
 Mr. and Mrs.W.G. Bement, 
 Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Burnett. 
 Mr. A. N. Brown. 
 Miss Lizzie Brown. 
 Miss Hettie Brown. 
 Miss Grace Beamer. 
 Miss Maggie Cahill. 
 Miss Clara Cahill. 
 Miss Minnie Carnahan. 
 Miss Grace Carpenter. 
 Mr. & Mrs. Frank Chaffee. 
 Mr. F. E. Church. 
 Mr. Geo. C. Cooper. 
 Miss Fannie Covvles. 
 Miss Grace Cowles. 
 Mrs. Geo. Coleman. 
 Mr. Coonsman. 
 
 Mr. J. A. Grossman. 
 Mr. J. Dietz. 
 Mrs. R. B. DeViney. 
 Mr. Ant. Dunnebache. 
 Miss Etta Foster. 
 Miss Nellie Foster. 
 Mr. George Frey. 
 Mr. David Gauss. 
 Mr. Christian Guenther. 
 Mr. H. R. Howard. 
 Mr. L. P.. Hontoon. 
 Miss Hattie Hasty. 
 Mr. Aug. Henrich. 
 Miss E. D. Howe. 
 Mr. H. A. Irish. 
 Miss Gertie Jamison. 
 Miss Lena Jones. 
 Miss May Kellogg. 
 Mr. R. B. Kellogg. 
 Mr. Horace C. Lapham. 
 Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Lee. 
 Mr. Martin Lichte. 
 Mr. Joseph Lugar. 
 3Ir. Henry Mueller; 
 Dr. D. M. "Nottingham. 
 
 Mr. Wm. Nesshoefer. 
 Dr. H. Ostrander. 
 Capt. C. O. Pratt. 
 Mrs. D. Parker. 
 Mr. E. H. Porter. 
 Mrs. L. S. Roper. 
 Mrs. Flora Rarick. 
 Miss Nettie Robson. 
 Mr. Frank Rol)son. 
 Mr. Dwight Robson. 
 Miss Flora Rice. 
 3Ir. John Strong. 
 Mr. Geo. L. Strong. 
 Mr. J. Frank Strong. 
 Miss May L. Strong. 
 Mr. J. Seibel. 
 Miss Kittie Skinner. 
 Miss Zayde Spencer. 
 Mrs. Homer L. Thayer. 
 Miss Nora Thorne. 
 Mr.C has. H. Thompson. 
 Miss Mina Tubbs. 
 Mr. Carl Vogel. 
 Mr. G. H. Ziegler. 
 Mr. C. W. Ziegler. . 
 
 LANSING CHILDREN'S CHORUS FOR THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 MRS. FLORA RARICK, Director. 
 
 Anna Ashley. 
 Grace Ayers. 
 Alice Brazee. 
 Eddie Bement. 
 Charlie Beard. 
 Lizzie Bennet. 
 Mabel Beamer. 
 Maggie Baker. 
 Mamie Byers. 
 Clara Bailey. 
 Frank Baker. 
 Lulu Birch. 
 Howard Carnahan. 
 Irving Carey. 
 Henry Daniels. 
 Bennie Davis. 
 Grace Fowler. 
 Maud Gordon. 
 Allie Granger. 
 Sophie Zahner. 
 Daisy Davis. 
 Irving Haag. 
 Nellie Hasler. 
 Lettie Higley. 
 Willie Hornberger. 
 Nettie Hulbird. 
 Robbie Lamed. 
 Emily Leech. 
 Halle Mead. 
 Gertie Millard. 
 Charlotte McCalluu 
 Belle Nottingham. 
 Florence Presley. 
 Edith Pack. 
 Grace Robson. 
 Leonard Roe. 
 Gertie Smith. 
 Frederick Swan. 
 Mary Saxton. 
 Herbie Sutliflf. 
 Frank Wells. 
 Ella Wilcox. 
 Rena Wilson. 
 Fannie Walz. 
 Edith Cooley. 
 
 Gertie Corbin. 
 Arthur Cannell. 
 Winford Cannell. 
 Eddie Dean. 
 Carrie Gleason. 
 Mable Gale. 
 Jennie Humphrey. 
 John Hertel. 
 Clem Jarvis. 
 Lillie Klocksiem. 
 Mina Leadly. 
 Mary Pugh. 
 Maud Roberts. 
 Ralph Rauney. 
 3Iarie Stephenson. 
 Juna Todd. 
 Frankie T.yler. 
 Roswell Wright. 
 Howard Baker. 
 Howard Bement. 
 Arthur Donovan. 
 Millie Edwards. 
 Nellie Gower. 
 Julia Findlej". 
 Louie Hill. 
 Clara Hahn. 
 Tom Humphrey. 
 Katy Keys. 
 John Kelly. 
 Maggie Miller. 
 Joel Rix. 
 Elia Boyce. 
 Norman Spencer. 
 Lewis Spice. 
 Lora Williams. 
 Maggie McKenzie. 
 Ollie Newbro. 
 Byron Otis. 
 Don Piatt. 
 Nellie Snyder. 
 Ida Spaulding. 
 Ruby Spaulding. 
 Fred Schuon. 
 Callie Wardwell. 
 Eva Ward. 
 
 Florence Bissell. 
 Etta Kepky. 
 CharUe Spring. 
 Sophie Hare. 
 Ada Ackerman, 
 Clara Bailey. 
 Willie Brake. 
 Elva C'hoate. 
 Mina Cook. 
 Flora Crowner. 
 Charlie Daharsh. 
 Minnie Dunker. 
 Oce Ferry. 
 Louise Ganssly. 
 Millie Granger. 
 Alvin Herrick. 
 Jerome Howard. 
 Louie Lesher. 
 Myrtie Jlarsh. 
 Grace McDonel. 
 Marcus Miles. 
 Maude Neff. 
 Alice Olds. 
 Schuyler Olds. 
 Willi;' Piflla. 
 Charlie l;eitz. 
 Seymour Rice. 
 Fanny Roark. 
 Edith Sellers. 
 Jay Snyder. 
 Dottie Brown. 
 Harry Case. 
 Daisy Collett. 
 Alice Dean. 
 Willie Dell. 
 Ida Foerster. 
 Ralph Garlick. 
 Laura Hahn. 
 Fred Hertel. 
 Claude Hickey. 
 Harriett Hull. 
 Claude Humphrey. 
 Inez Hutton. 
 Willie Hollis. 
 
OKIK'IAL I'KOGKAMMK. 11 
 
 LIST OF DKl.EGATES OF TllK STATK noNFFII AND IIISTOIIICAL 
 
 SOCIFTV. 
 
 Appointed to represent the Societi/ at the Semi-Centennial. 
 
 Hon. henry FRALICK, Pre-sideiU. 
 Mrs. HARRIET A. TENNEY, Recordin;/ ^Secretary. 
 GEORGE H. GREEXE. Gorrespondimi Secretary. 
 EPHRAIM LONGYEAR, Treasurer. 
 
 E.recuUve Committee. 
 
 I'rof. John C. Holmes. Judge Alhekt .Mii.i.ku. 
 
 Hon. Fkancis A. Dewey. 
 
 Committee of Historians. 
 
 Col. M. Shoemaker, Chairman. 
 Dr. O. C. Co.MSTOCK. Hon. Talcott E. Wing. 
 
 M. H. Goodrich, Esq. Hon. Witter J. Ba.xter. 
 
 Hou. John J. Ada.m Tecumseh. 
 
 Dr. I. P. Aluer Coldwater. 
 
 Hon. E. Lakin Bhown Schoolcraft. 
 
 Rev. R. C. Ckawford Grand Rapids. 
 
 Hon. Tnos. M. Cooley Ann Arbor. 
 
 Hon. Jamks V. Campbeli Detroit. 
 
 Hon. Wm. H. Choss Ceutreville. 
 
 Hon. John H. Forster Williamston. 
 
 Hon. Alpiieus Felch Ann Arbor. 
 
 Hon. Thomas D. Gii.ijert Grand Rapids. 
 
 Hon. O. PoppLETox Birmingham. 
 
 Hon. H. H. Riley Constantine. 
 
 Hon. C. D. Randall Cold water. 
 
 Hon. S. L. Smith Lansing. 
 
 Hon. C. B. Stebiuns Lansing. 
 
 Hoil. Francis R. Stebbins Adrian. 
 
 Mrs. E. M. Sheldon Stewart Michigan Centre. 
 
 Mr. A. D. P. Van Buren Galesburg. 
 
 Hon. C. I. Walker Detroit. 
 
 Hon. Wm. L. Webber Saginaw. 
 
 Hon. E. S. Williams Flint. 
 
 Hon. Peter White Marquette. 
 
11' 
 
 *XAND OF THE LAKES." 
 
 Written by Jtdge J. Logax Chipman, of Detroit. 
 
 Music composed for the Seiui-Centeunial, and dedicated to His Excellency, 
 
 RUSSELL A. ALGER. 
 
 GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN 
 BY 
 
 HENRY B. RONEY. 
 
 Maestoso alia Mar ci a. ^ ^ ^^^~~ ^<— 
 
 r-f^-# — •-^•-•^^t##- -• — U-» ^-P-^U — \ 1 — i-i — \ — ST 
 
 V-^-H— h— T-^-^-M 1 ^^M — I ^h» — »—»-»—» 
 
 
 
 
 tS^ 
 
 .lA 
 
 
 "fi 
 
 
 3-# 
 
 
 -« — «-i-#-d- 
 
 Land of the Lakes, 
 Maestoso. 
 
 ■H=h:^^^^. 
 
 Up - on whose bo - soni 
 
 
 CHORUS. 1 
 
 Land of the Lakes. 
 Land of tbe Lakes up - on wiiose bo - soni 
 
 I SSI 
 
 i- A ^ 
 
 -i^- 
 
 s. 
 
 Land of tlu' Lake 
 
 'I'lie va - ricd glo 
 
 1^- 
 
 r — \ — "t 
 
 r'es 
 
 iT- *♦ 
 
 ff ' 
 
 ^~ 
 
 - 1 
 
 1 
 
 <y 
 
 ^2, 
 
 
 
 
 ^, 
 
 ©> 
 
 rD * 
 
 fS __ _ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 =^ 
 
 
 t — i- 
 
 Copyright. IHHG. by II. U. Honey. 
 
I~i=iii 
 
 r 
 
 
 ^= 
 
 i=i 
 
 r 
 
 ol e;ich M'W - el s 
 
 shopii. 
 
 Land 
 
 I 
 
 (loop AVil 
 
 ^ ^^ ^ 
 
 
 :t- 
 
 -1^- 
 
 -F 
 
 -I F- 
 
 jew - el's sheen. 
 
 
 :<::z^: 
 
 f • V J »f li^ •" 
 
 -f^*- 
 
 
 ^••^ V 
 
 Land of (loop \va - tors lit l)v tlash - in;: 
 ters 
 
 ~ d J ■dz:g': 
 
 beams Re- 
 
 -^^^ # -- #•-#(- r 
 
 r 1^ ^ 
 
 Land of dooj) \va - ters 
 
 IF— i ft* n-^ ^^-^- 
 
 
 i 
 
 fleet - ing. 
 
 
 « "5 — *" 
 
 ^±b, 
 
 na 
 
 N 
 
 t lire's 
 
 fleet - ins". 
 
 re - fleet - ing 
 
 ^^ V ^ '^ 
 
 na - ture's. na - ture's 
 
 9- 
 
 "• n- • 
 
 . . . ^,. . 
 
 r 
 
 ^ 1 
 
 -J — ^ 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 «■ 
 
 1 — ^ 
 
 . 1 
 
 fleet 
 
 insf. 
 
 - r -r — ^^ 
 
 pp\ 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 0-M^ ' 
 
 . ^10 ^-H 
 
 -N ^-= 
 
 most lux - 11 - riant ffrooii. 
 
 
 Homo of bright as - peets of 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 J: I r: 
 
 '?»=*^zr}^f3SLM 
 
 
14 
 
 I 
 
 beau - ty stern or mild. 
 
 cre.^. rit. 
 
 ^--^ R- 
 
 a=5 
 
 
 ' i . 
 
 beau - ty stei'ii or luilil. Uf .-^un - sets, gor - geons in their 
 
 — p ^0-^ # 
 
 :^;: 
 
 P^ — »— ^ 
 
 u I U I 
 
 7 ^ V 
 
 ;EESEEt=E^ 
 
 t=F 
 
 r?7. . . . '^^^ /T\ ^^t sylvan shades 
 
 and tir- chid mountains 
 
 dream- y tints, 
 
 ■m — d — ' — ^ 
 
 
 ^-^-— ^--tv ^-- 
 
 "S — s — — ■""* ^ — ^TiT""^ — m~i — ^~ 
 
 
 
 Of syl-van shades and fir - clad 
 
 V" ?" 
 
 wild Of bow'rs "mid which the vo - cal l)n)oklct glints. 
 
 3-J^-^^ 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 iiiouiiliiiiis wild; 
 
 Pipi 
 
 Of bow'rs "mid which the vo - cal brooklet glints. 
 
 s^-rEEjifi 
 
 hr— t^ 
 
 Moderato. 
 
 _^_^^_^ 
 
 t=t:=t:^t:=n:^ 
 
 ■*?-» — »-^^ — # — •—-»—»—-» 
 
 —I— — S — 1-j rj — M Ki — 
 
 ■^r- 
 
 ^—\^ — ^— (^ — ^— t^ — ^-J 
 
 -(^- 
 
 I 
 
 brooklet aflints. 
 
 m 
 
 Bass Solo. 
 
 #-^ 
 
 f b— Ip-f^- 
 
 y — ^- -— 
 
 SE^ 
 
 y^^^ 
 
 Land of the pine, of le - gend antl of song, Whose 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 
 S 
 
 #-4- 
 
 :i3sv 
 
 * 
 
15 
 
 
 pp rit. - - - - 
 > rrs 
 
 H ^ — i PS— « — -H ^ 
 
 whispering leaves and waves ix'i'ount ilu' tale Of peo - pies dead. 
 
 Of 
 
 f 
 
 /Tn 
 
 # # • • 
 
 
 -N-17- 
 
 -H — 
 
 — • 
 
 i'i^ /■//. 
 
 3=5=-a=i 
 
 i3=* 
 
 Si/' 
 
 fnnpn. 
 
 PP> ^ 
 
 
 
 f^- 
 
 Jm. 
 
 V- 
 
 : ^ — ^ — ^- b: 
 
 peo - plos (load, of peoples fresh and strons:; Land of the hoetlins: crag, th( 
 
 /TN 
 
 -N-^ 
 
 I'l' - 
 
 T*' 
 
 -N- 
 
 « — - — 90—0—- 
 
 s 
 
 i— f 
 
 -#■ 
 ii'iiijtii. 
 
 
 // 
 
 2^: 
 
 
 f^ 
 
 iii 
 
 d: 
 
 -^- 
 
 r7/?w. 
 
 ;v7. 
 
 « tempo. 
 
 if ^=^?=|»_^-r#^^.^ ,^.lg=gjVj^±^E^ 
 
 west winds wail Of kiiighily war, of 
 
 :ii^zit:g^z=i(V:^=: 
 
 /TS 
 
 s 
 
 
 ■0- >^ ? ♦ ^ * ^ 
 
 w 
 
 _•? ^_*? 
 
 - J_ 
 
 ^/ /I'linji), 
 
 '<&^ 
 
 =: '^^ '^ ^ 
 
m 
 
 mf ores. 
 
 -#-^ 
 
 ^=P- 
 
 -,^— ^ 
 
 rit. 
 
 -n ^ 
 
 :^=L=EEE 
 
 -^-^ — ^ — f 
 — •--# — J- 
 
 tiizd^jid: 
 
 Land "whicli 'er.st - Avliilc slumbered 
 
 on lirr wa - t'l-v bed, 
 
 '^ 
 
 ---^=i- 
 
 
 lii^P 
 
 
 i=F: 
 
 4#"'-#- 
 
 r 
 
 ■^ 
 
 'Til Freedom claimed her, waked her from her trance; 
 
 ^ 
 
 I 
 
 * 
 
 
 i^- 
 
 -N— i- 
 
 9g:^^- 
 
 $* 
 
 4-» 
 
 ->^i — ^iflZ — >5 — >5— >-5 
 
 r//. ii/oJ/n. 
 
 #■ 
 
 ># — >!?# 
 
 —J ^-V _ ,. 
 
 :tl2^--==::|rt:_-tt:-tt 
 
 4^ 
 > -^^ — > 
 
 1/ '^ 
 
 a^ 
 
 
17 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 Slow and majestic. 
 
 .# 
 
 rit. 
 
 
 m'-m^t^' 
 
 ^=^- 
 
 ,x4 eS 
 
 /TN 
 
 t^ ^ y ^' I i^i^ 
 
 Grand in all asjx'cts ix'-ncficcnr to tiuni. Land of ihc lakes, my own fail" Micdi-ifran. 
 
 -•-^' -*- • -#- 
 
 >^^ 
 
 ^_^ i^^*-*.* -f:*^'-^ ^^ - T f- •.* #_^-,# ^^^^ 
 
 Soprano Solo. 
 
 A ndante Graziom. 
 
 V 
 
 "eS, 
 
 cres. - - 
 
 -X i -N 
 
 r^^= 
 
 ^•=it' 
 
 ^; 
 
 What land more fair tlian 
 
 ^ds: 
 
 :^-!2i 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 cres. 
 
 
 -^'-r — r ^ 
 
 ---A-- 
 
 
 this land hathed in liiiht? 
 
 
 
 9-s^ 
 
 ££ 
 
 i^ 
 
 Mir - ror-inof the sun with 
 
 
18 
 
 flp=?=zzipzz'±^^ 
 
 Mizzzit^zzit: 
 
 calm, un-daunt - ed eye. 
 
 -j=i^i=p: 
 
 :[==^ 
 
 d: 
 
 # 
 
 Di'ink - iiig the glo - ry 
 
 H 
 
 
 / 
 
 :^^i^^4==^= 
 
 q: 
 
 ^: 
 
 S^ 
 
 ^^• 
 
 ^5. 
 
 ♦• l}'^- 
 
 :fc^i2 
 
 
 -» 
 
 acce?. - . > 
 
 of the star - rv night, 
 
 In 
 
 thousand hike - lets. 
 
 -9-b-ur^ — I — I — \--z — I — M-^^ 
 
 'pp 
 
 m^E^ 
 
 3^5 
 
 Bi 
 
 accel. 
 
 
 5^^ 
 
 :^ 
 
 bV. 
 
 r?7. 
 
 
 
 AUegretto. 
 
 ^•12£*?K^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 riv - al-ing the sky. 
 
 Drink - ing the glo 
 
 -^ 
 
 -#-v 
 
 ry 
 
 (i 
 
 m 
 
 H--.tEt 
 
 ^^=S^^§t;i^!ii 
 
 -^—4 
 
 
 J-^-#-i-*--#-i • . • • • 
 
 
 
 h- 
 
 £3: 
 
 £-^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 f 
 
 
19 
 
 ::V'*:»*» ^,,j,-,,-C -J: 
 
 :i 
 
 -#— 
 
 
 rit. 
 
 •^m-9i 
 
 
 of the star - rv niiiflit, 
 
 In thouduiid hike - lets. 
 
 
 
 i:^l2 
 
 
 :1= 
 
 =^ 
 
 
 :# • 
 
 •' • -'-L 
 
 f^^-U 
 
 ff^^ 
 
 mfA vrlanfp c^pressivo. 
 Tenor Solo. 
 
 ^J^ 
 
 .V /T\ ■*-' ^ - j r\ Tenor Solo^ 
 
 'ling the sky. 
 
 0, hiiid of hoi)e, O hind of 
 
 /rs^o^ 
 
 /rs 
 
 bifzi 8 n j:^ 8=S« 
 
 »■('(! 
 
 .//■ - .//■ "'. 
 
 /r\ ^r\ 
 
 )^'^,^==i^ 
 
 ^Ts 
 
 ^ 
 
 — (■ — I- 
 
 %~%i. 
 
 Xh 
 
 
 ::zi?^r^:*: 
 
 *?j^^i=^^^s^=s 
 
 f=F==f 
 
 Frf^8«=^^^^p: 
 
 ^ "-^ — ^ g— r — i ^ =v 
 
 
 
 lakes and streams, With hu - mid lips and tresses floating wild. 
 
 
 A—A 
 
 • - #- 
 
 ^^F=d==i^==^ 
 
 ^i^ 
 
 #z1±zq: 
 
 
 
 
 r^- 
 
 
20 
 
 
 fe=P^^ 
 
 -^-k 
 
 ^ — f=t=- 
 
 Seem - ins: as some half shv vouiii^ ma - tron seems, 
 
 ^^-r-f=' 
 
 ^ 
 
 42It 
 
 ^ 
 
 *W=«-=^F^* 
 
 f 
 
 -tT|^-^%; 
 
 
 . Who 
 
 ,N > 
 
 .^_^ 
 
 PP 
 
 /i* 
 
 ^^!-» 
 
 EEEEt::|r^ 
 
 :^z=t 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 smiles and blushes o'er her first born child, 
 
 -^ 
 
 u=t: 
 
 Eich in all richness. 
 
 
 i 
 
 -i 
 
 
 
 7^ 
 
 -l9r ■#• 
 
 ia^: 
 
 gg 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 
 .* 
 
 'is- 
 
 >(^- 
 
 ^ 
 
 2_ 
 
 ^b3^ 
 
 «.u n cres. - ■ 
 
 :P=F: 
 
 .^=a=S^ 
 
 rich - er e'en than f^old, Dowered in lake and woodland 
 
 W^ 
 
 -irr.¥U--zl \' 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 si 
 
 
 1* 
 
 iA 
 
 a^lat 
 
 g: 
 
 ft^ 
 
 ■^ 
 
21 
 
 % 
 
 -t^- 
 
 ^ 
 
 # 
 
 e 
 
 and 
 
 ,9S 
 
 in isle. 
 
 
 «r 1. — 1. — ^ 
 
 A — i, 
 
 5^ 
 
 land of hope, land of 
 
 ^=4^^- 
 
 r*»[ 
 
 pp 
 
 I 
 
 :t: 
 
 f 
 
 a: 
 
 ^^fe-if! 
 
 #! — ^^^^ 
 
 :[:.=zt:: 
 
 b. 
 
 r^^ •: 
 
 _^:v:: 
 
 lakes and streams, With lips and tresses floating wild. 
 
 
 '^^^ 
 
 -»-7 
 
 P±w=t 
 
 ■tJ-*- 
 
 -©>- 
 
 -^- 
 
 ±4 
 
 i 
 
 -^- 
 
 T^ 
 
 ^^=t 
 
 ^ 
 
 -V- 
 
 Seeniing as some lialf shy young 
 
 ± 
 
 A=:t 
 
 f^i^: 
 
 •; 
 
 ^•^ Chorus 
 
 
 :f: 
 
 ^J« 
 
 -^- 
 
 ]iumminy.\ 
 ^(S ^^ 
 
 ^ rT 
 
 ^ 
 
 -(2- 
 
 1 — r- 
 
 '^- 
 
 -(2- 
 
 f^^^ 
 
22 
 
 IS 
 
 iL=t; 
 
 V — *^ 
 
 ^==4: 
 
 -• h 
 
 ma - tron seems, Who smiles and blushes. 
 
 smiles aud 
 
 ST^ 
 
 # 
 
 -(2- 
 
 A^ 
 
 ^^feEE 
 
 s 
 
 :^: 
 
 :^ 
 
 -(^ (^- 
 
 =^ 
 
 ±EteEEfEfE!^ 
 
 ifci^t 
 
 bhish - es o'er her first born child. 
 
 ■ii=^ 
 
 
 -J- 
 
 1^ 
 
 gr 
 
 :^ 
 
 -I- 
 
 E^3JEi 
 
 ■tS^ 
 
 -^ 
 
 9!i^E=t 
 
 iz=S 
 
 -.f^- 
 
 = :^^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 E^i^^ 
 
 # fS 
 
 19^ 
 
 £^==1 
 
 ■riJz^z^i 
 
 -•— h — S^ 
 
 Rich in all I'ich - nedS, rich - ur e"ou than gold. 
 
 P 
 
 ^-fci--i 
 
 :^_ 
 
 
 :1=:a=1: 
 
 Si:=i:=l— j==g±==5 
 
 -t^- 
 
 f^ 
 
 3: 
 
 :d: 
 
 ^1 
 
 i^ 
 
 J-^J. 
 
 
 J ^ 
 
 :^ 
 
 ^^^ 
 
23 
 
 I 
 
 i- 
 
 ?±E^ •^ \ 
 
 -m — f2_ 
 
 ±1 
 
 :t^ 
 
 Dowered in lake and wuutl - hiiul ami in isle, 
 
 .^i^-^fc^: 
 
 .-■ u 
 
 tt 
 
 ==^ 
 
 espressivo 
 
 N 
 
 fe^^r-f=^-^- 
 
 V- 
 
 jirzbt 
 
 
 Lov - ing, lov - in^ e'en when tliv mood is stern and 
 
 
 ms^ 
 
 r^w- 
 
 f" 
 
 
 -i^^^-- 
 
 — jr 
 
 
 
 ;5 
 
 :i 
 
 cold, 
 
 E£ 
 
 ^^Jiei 
 
 =f 
 
 is stern 
 
 ,/^ 
 
 :^ 
 
 
 ^- 
 
 -iS^ 
 
 /TV 
 -f2 
 
 t 
 
 and cold. 
 
 m 
 
 9 m 
 
 /TN 
 
 J- 
 
 ^= 
 
 ^TN 
 
 v»V 
 
24 
 
 
 q: 
 
 r 
 
 tE* 
 
 •/ 
 
 
 
 ---=i 
 
 
 *T -^ 
 
 1i:=N: 
 
 i^: 
 
 Jf-s C 
 
 t^ 
 
 -W ^- 
 
 Anclantino. 
 
 Alto Solo, n 
 
 gl 
 
 _, ^ 
 
 l*^« 
 
 ^#=h==P 
 
 ^ 
 
 '^a ^ 
 
 -N-i 
 
 t: 
 
 True to thy faith, too pure to e'er be - guile, Thou 
 
 o'it. 
 
 
 
 j»^ w- 
 
 art 
 
 not like the gaud - y trop - ic clinie. 
 
 S=^E3Ei=^ 
 
 3: 
 
 ir-i-*- 
 
 #~| •- 
 
 Sifefe^tb^^ 
 
 ^=t& 
 
 l^ssi 
 
 151? 
 
 
 -H- 
 
 
 -t-A=^ # 
 
 •— 
 
 4- 
 
 «— 
 
 r/A 
 
 N T-^ 
 
 ::$=: 
 
a tempo. 
 
 -i^-=^~' 
 
 :^i2: 
 
 3 
 
 &-£ 
 
 :t!p: 
 
 25 
 
 F=? 
 
 /•i7. 
 
 ^2? 
 
 Ji=ztz=ti==d=_-zt- 
 
 S^S^^^H 
 
 iiti* 
 
 i 
 
 W'hjcli woos the .soul uitli dreiiniy, sen - sual airs; 
 
 — i 
 
 ^- 
 
 --A- 
 
 -# — •- 
 
 rt tempo 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 /77 
 
 
 IT 
 
 
 
 
 /. 
 
 
 T» 
 
 0^ 
 
 
 Thy free-will off - 'ring, nub - lesL oi" all time, 
 
 .-I f^J ! N 
 
 arcel. e cres. 
 
 ^'^m^ 
 
 --A-- 
 
 .//■ 
 
 . JvJ.^ 
 
 
 
 3; 
 
 r?7. „- moUo. 
 
 ^ ^ ^ ^ ff 
 
 rr\: 
 
 ^i^: 
 
 J — — ^:-4-H— ^-^ 
 
 *i=^=qz==Mz:b^=i^_:J 
 
 
 H--#-nq 
 
 -/r\- — n 
 
 Strong minds, l)ra\(' hearts, with glu - ry crowns thy years. 
 
 ;^=*z^^ 
 
 •-i- 
 
 f_0 _. » # # 
 
 
 1^ 
 
 ■^ 
 
 -•f L 
 
 
 :i 
 
 -al *r 
 
CHORUS. 
 
 Maestuso. 
 
 -M- 
 
 :?^-Eri:EE*±E$Ei. 
 
 26 
 
 72- 
 
 V ^-y. 
 
 -9-i- 
 
 -#-i- 
 
 W=^7EE^ 
 
 From thy strong womb some po - et yet will spring, And 
 
 ^^ 
 
 ^ V. ♦^v- V J. .^ ^ 
 
 w r ^ — ^H- ^ — — ; ^ — \^ , — ^ — * 
 
 /- 
 
 :^^^: 
 ^=?- 
 
 -\- 
 
 in sweet num - bers vo - cal - ize thy soul;, 
 
 
 1- 
 
 '4± 
 
 -•-.- 
 
 ±: 
 
 
 :b — *: 
 
 ^# 1 - 
 
 
 A.nd o'er the world thy gi'a - cious pres - ence fling, As 
 
 9-^ ^ — y—^ - 
 
 
 .^Ji 
 
 s 
 
 o er 
 
 9^-^E^ 
 
 thy 
 
 S^-IE^ 
 
 rit. 
 
 ::^ 
 
 P P<^ 
 
 /rs 
 
 yrsPPP 
 
 -4=^, 
 
 i^^i 
 
 land - scapes thy calm 
 
 wa - ters roll. 
 
 -• # # 1 — # ^- # (S) 1 
 
2T 
 
 mf Allegretto. 
 Soprano Obligate. Solo. 
 
 JrS^ 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 - f7-^- 
 
 P'fe^=^=t- 
 
 -V- 
 
 -i^ — r- 
 
 :5= 
 
 fai - ry - land. 
 
 of rose and wood - land 
 
 
 
 j^; 
 
 ^ 4 
 
 -^ 
 
 land of rose and wood - land 
 
 VP-0-' ^ V 
 
 -^^> 
 
 -/— y- 
 
 ^ — t^- 
 
 9 # 
 
 — »- 
 
 r-&±i^. 
 
 s^ 
 
 :S— -^ 
 
 A - bode of grace 
 
 fill forms, of swan and 
 
 
 J^S^4^4^ 
 
 -^-=^ — S 
 
 ^-^ 
 
 -N-. 
 
 * 
 
 tj^^^=Ji 
 
 N— 
 
 8— • "--^ «^-« 
 
 flow'r, of wood-land tlow'r, 
 
 ^— ^ 
 
 
 A-bode of <rraee-ful forms of 
 
 -V— )/- 
 
 i^ 
 
 ^^ P 
 
 l^i ' 
 
 
 -p: 
 
 -^M^' 
 
 lEi 
 
 :5=f±=Czq?± 
 
 dove ; 
 
 Land of wild vines, 
 
 -V— j^ V — 5 — '~V^ 
 
 in manva mvs-tic 
 
 
 
 — ^ m » m UTiZ 
 
 -^— N Nn 
 
 -s — ^■ 
 
 N- 
 
 • 90 
 
 ^^j^—trrm^ 
 
 -w~4 
 
 swan, of swan and dove; 
 
 Land of wild vines, in manva 
 
 
 ' — — T^ — /•-^-•— • 
 
 t: 
 
 V— V — k- 
 
 F=g-# 
 
 t^ .^ 
 
28 
 
 rit. 
 
 ^ 
 
 i=^ 
 
 
 
 bow'r. 
 
 Dream of an an - gel 
 
 waft - ed from a - 
 
 &==^d: 
 
 h^:=^^^zZ£iA 
 
 9^-0 
 
 .H^^H^-.^^-^-H^— J^-, 
 
 i=iEiEiE!^=s^=^? 
 
 :f 
 
 mys - tic, mvs - tic bow'r, 
 
 Dream of an an - gel Avaft - ed 
 cres. 
 
 -Kes — y—U g ^ - — 
 
 ^ 
 
 -0 — 1»"»- -0^ 0- 0- 
 
 Vzz^— t^— t^-zzg^z-V- 
 
 cre.9. 
 
 4,—- ftS- 
 
 :v=t= 
 
 W/U ^• 
 
 ^ 
 
 rit. 
 
 -^ 
 
 bove. 
 
 waft - ed from, 
 
 Ch=A 
 
 
 l=EJ,i^ 
 
 m~9 - 
 
 i 
 
 from 
 
 m^ 
 
 b: 
 
 
 bove, 
 
 F 
 
 waft - ed from 
 
 ?E-:zE|: 
 
29 
 
 
 3EE 
 
 :tzi 
 
 -6^ 
 
 EE; 
 
 E> y 
 
 m 
 
 :t= 
 
 t^-J 
 
 bovi 
 
 cres. 
 
 Time wuoi'd tliee forwui-d 
 (/i/ii. - . _ 
 
 "3 
 
 :i=q 
 
 — J — S — #-^tjf: — s — • 
 
 
 I^eS 
 
 1. My country 'tis of thee. Sweet land of lib - er - ty, 
 
 - to the _ gaze , 
 J. di7n. - - - 
 
 -#- 
 Of 
 
 ^t=F^ 
 
 of man, 
 
 cres. 
 
 In pride of thee, 
 
 dim. 
 
 S=j= 
 
 i^^JE 
 
 -3^ 
 
 
 F=E^tf= 
 
 thee I sing; 
 
 Land where mv Fa 
 
 _j^__^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 r 
 
 2: zz 
 
 ^=s 
 
 thers died. 
 
 
 rre-<i. 
 
 t^'- 
 
 (It lit. 
 
 rU 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 r4=i=::=|=4 
 
 cres. 
 
 -A- 
 
 :t 
 
 r 
 
 Laud of the pil - grini's pride; From 
 
 -#-=- 
 
 
 -t^ 
 
 My 
 
 
 ov 
 
 'ry 
 
 -^._.^_ 
 
-(2L 
 
 own 
 
 30 
 
 rit. 
 
 <T\ 
 
 
 /TN 
 
 r:N 
 
 i 
 
 fair Mich 
 
 rif moltn. - - 
 
 :i 
 
 f 
 
 t 
 
 gan. 
 
 .^— 
 
 i 
 
 m. 
 
 moun 
 
 tain side, 
 
 -» F- 
 
 Let 
 
 free 
 
 
 -t^: 
 
 £ 
 
 -^i/- 
 
 dom 
 
 ^ 
 
 rmg. 
 
 I 
 
 -^-' 
 
 VO/ 
 
 PRAISE GOD, FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW. 
 
 Franc. 
 
 Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Praise Him, all creatures 
 
 1 1 _ .,2. .^ 
 
 i^fet: 
 
 -g- 
 
 -^- 
 
 -.(S" 
 
 i^g^^s 
 
 -i 
 
 1 
 
 -n-S- 
 
 ^q=^=^=t 
 
 ^— n 
 
 ^=^- 
 
 (^- 
 
 =F 
 
 
 /CN 
 
 ^ 
 
 ;t=z:t 
 
 3 
 
 /TV 
 
 1 
 
 :^: 
 
 3: 
 
 -<s- 
 
 -s- 
 
 ^ 
 
 (S* 
 
 -^- 
 
 -<^ — 
 
 -<^- 
 
 -^- 
 
 bi; 
 
 here be - low; Praise Him 
 
 -»- 
 
 ^ -(2- 
 
 e 
 
 -I 
 
 bove, ye 
 
 -(2- -^ 
 
 -\5>- 
 
 heavenly 
 
 host! 
 
 1 
 
 r 
 
 -c E p: 
 
 t — F^ 
 
 :i--i 
 
 -^^ 
 
 r^ 
 
 t=1: 
 
 /r\ 
 
 f 
 
 -1^- 
 
 ^r\ 
 
 -^^ 
 
 i 
 
 Praise Fa - 
 
 3 
 
 7# 
 
 ther. Son, and 
 
 Ho 
 
 I 
 
 It: 
 
 -«^ 
 
 I 
 
 ::2: 
 
 '2^- 
 
 ly Ghost! A - men 
 
 /On 
 
 i 
 
 H. S, Bigelow. Music Typographer, Chicago. 
 
 -&- 
 
OFFICIAL PROGRAMME. 31 
 
 "MICHIGAN, MY MICHIGAN." 
 
 Written by Major James W. Long, of Grand Rapids. 
 
 Air—" Lauriger Horatius," ndnptod (iuringtlie war to 
 •• Maryland, .My Maryland." 
 
 Land of my love, I sing of thee, 
 
 Micbigan, my Micliigau; 
 With lake l)()uml siiorc, I'm proud of thee, 
 
 Miciiigan, my Micliigan. 
 The sweet winds whisper through thy pines, 
 The jewels glitter in thy mines. 
 And glory on thy chaplet shines — 
 
 Michigan, my Michigan. 
 
 I've traveled all thy confines o'er, 
 
 ]Michigan, my Michigan; 
 From lake to lake, and shore to shore, 
 
 Michigan, my Michigan. 
 I've seen thy maimed, thy halt, thy blind, 
 I've seen the ones l)ereft of mind, 
 To all of them thou art .so kind — 
 
 Michigan, my Michigan. 
 
 Thou art so pure, but modest too, 
 
 Michigan, my Michigan; 
 Thou art so brave and still ^o true, 
 
 Michigan, my Michigan. 
 No promise unfultillcd; — on trust 
 Thy noble sons have bit tiie dust, 
 Remembered are they. For thou art just — 
 
 Michigan, my Michigan. 
 
 The axe resounds 'mid woodland trees, 
 
 Michigan, my Michigan; 
 The sails of commerce court thy breeze, 
 
 Michigan, my Michigan. 
 And templed cities rise in sight, 
 And happy eyes catch heaven's light, 
 Our God protects thee through the night, 
 
 Michigan, my Michigan. 
 
 Oh I Alma Mater, at thy shrine, 
 
 Michigan, my Michigan ; 
 I worship thee as most divine, 
 
 Michigan, my Micliigan, 
 " Tucbor" '■ ril protect,'' 'tis true — 
 Oh, fair peninsula ! and you — 
 tShinc out a gem in starry blue, 
 
 Michigan, my Michigan, 
 
 Thy diadem — thy hero sons, 
 
 Michigan, my Michigan; 
 Thy choicest love — their helpless ones. 
 
 Michigan, my Michigan. 
 And just as long as song shall ring 
 From Iho-e who bring an offering. 
 To thee, my love, this song shall sing — 
 
 Michigan, my Michigan. 
 
32 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 MICHIGAN'S HYMN OF PEACE. 
 
 Written by Edivard Bloeden, of East Saginaw, to the 
 
 music of the " Battle Hymn " from " Rienzi,"" 
 
 by R. Wagner. 
 
 Rejoice! Rejoice! my valiant men, 
 
 Rejoice! Rejoice! my Michigan; 
 
 The daj'S of strife liave passed away. 
 
 Peace reigns supreme tliis happj' day. 
 
 Columbia's sire, thou youthful star. 
 
 Unfurl thy banners, torn in war. 
 
 Your swords my rest, bright stands thy name. 
 
 Engrafted deep on Nation's fame. 
 
 Rejoice ! Rejoice ! Peace reigns supreme this day; 
 
 Rejoice! Rejoice! the war cloud passed away. 
 
 In armor clad we held our country's standard. 
 
 'Gainst mighty foe, our banners floating onward. 
 
 In mem'ry dear rest unattended graves. 
 
 In mem'ry dear enshrined are our braves. 
 
 She brav'st of all, eternal slumber holds, 
 
 They fell, protecting our banners' folds. 
 
 Rejoice! Rejoice! the land is free from danger; 
 
 Rejoice! Rejoice! peace reigns in our home. 
 Forgotten all, the cause, the strife, the anger, 
 
 The bells of peace ring up to heaven's dome. 
 Let chants resound, ye echoes, tell aloud 
 Thy sons, my Michigan, are of thee proud. 
 Peace reigns supreme. Columbia's shield is bright. 
 Gloria, Gloria, in excelsis Deo. 
 Gloria, Gloria, in excelsis Deo. 
 
 MY COUNTRY! 'TIS OF THEE. 
 
 Tune — " America.^'' 
 
 My country! 'tis of thee, 
 Sweet land of liberty. 
 
 Of thee I sing; 
 Land wliere my fathers died ; 
 Land of the pilgrim's pride; 
 From every mountainside, 
 
 Let freedom ring. 
 
 My native country! thee. 
 Land of the noble free. 
 
 Thy name I love: 
 I love thy rocks and rills. 
 Thy woods and templed hills; 
 My heart with rapture thrills, 
 
 Like that above. 
 
 Let music swell the breeze. 
 And ring through all the trees, 
 
 Sweet freedom's song; 
 Let mortal tongues awake, 
 Let all that breathe partake, 
 Let rocks their silence break. 
 
 The sound prolong. 
 
OFFICIAL PROGRAMME. 33 
 
 [Additional Verse by H. B. Roncy.] 
 O great and alorious State, 
 Land of the wood and lake, 
 
 Thy i)ra!se we sinjr; 
 Our loyal hearts adore 
 Thy fertile, wave-washed shore; 
 God bless thee evermore, 
 
 Our >Iiehlgan. 
 
 BEAUTIFUL MICHIGAN. 
 
 Words and Music by Debbie Briscoe Clemelli, New York. 
 
 To thee I sini^, my own dear home, 
 
 In the land of the setting sun; 
 To thy hills and valleys, rivers, lakes, 
 
 Thy beauties every one. 
 Thou art dear to the hearts of thy loyal sons. 
 
 And thy daughters fond and true. 
 Who greet thee to-day with pride and joy. 
 
 And thy glorious past review. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 Then give three cheers for the boundless shores 
 
 The broad lake-breez.es fan; 
 Thou art dear to the hearts of thy loyal sons, 
 
 Beautiful Michigan. 
 
 Each hallowed spot of thy lake-bound shore, 
 
 Each teeming city of thine, 
 Each village. hanil(;t, hillside, dale, 
 
 Thy forests of oak and pine. 
 Thy Northern shores that are fondly kissed 
 
 By Superior's sparkling wave, 
 Where thou yieldest rich ores from thy loving 
 heart. 
 
 Are dear to thy children brave. 
 
 Chorus: Then give three cheers, etc. 
 
 On lakes and rivers winding through 
 
 Thy forests, deep and dark, 
 Where glideil swift in days gone by, 
 
 The savage warriors' bartjue. 
 Are smiling meadows, fertile fields, 
 
 Tilled by thy children free. 
 Who offe>', this day, with thankful hearts. 
 
 Their loyal homage to thee. 
 
 Chorus: Then give three cheers, etc. 
 
 Then blessings on thee, Michigan, 
 
 We greet thy banners gay. 
 Anil wish thee many glad returns, 
 
 or this, thy natal" day. 
 We'll govern thee in coming years, 
 
 By laws both true and just, 
 Ancl " Progress" shall our watchword be, 
 
 In God, our hope and trust. 
 
 Chorus: Then give three cheers, etc. 
 
PRAYER AT THE CAPITOL STEPS. 
 
 By rev. GEORGE TAYLOR.. 
 
 After luusic by the Cassopolis baud, the chorus of ITjO school 
 childreu rendered the beautiful choral, " Let the Hills and Val- 
 leys Resound." Then the Rev. George Taylor ■ rendered the 
 following fervent prayer : 
 
 Almighty, holy and eternal God, with whom a thousand years 
 are as but one day, we, Thy dependent creatures, devoutly thank 
 Thee for our existence and temporary residence upon this, Thy 
 earthly footstool. We thank Thee for casting our lot in this 
 pleasant, favored, and prosperous land, and gratefully confess that 
 the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places; we have a goodly 
 heritage. 
 
 We bring our grateful offerings to Thee that we are thus per- 
 mitted to convene on an occasion so auspicious; and would 
 acknowledge Thy marvelous goodne.ss in leading our enterprising 
 people from their earlier eastern settlements, by the star of empire 
 westward bound, until it has shed its effulgence so profusely upon 
 these our peninsulas; and that during the space of our short lives 
 we have been permitted to witness the fulfillmentof the prophecies 
 of Thy holy word, for to us "The wilderness has become a fruitful 
 field, and to-day the desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose.'- 
 
 We make our prayer to Thee, that as Thou hast in the past 
 blessed, guided and protected their predecessors, that Thou wilt 
 vouchsafe Thy continued favors to Thy servants, the President of 
 these United States, and all in authority throughout the National 
 and State Governments; and especially do we supplicate Thy 
 blessing upon our beloved State ; ui)on the executive now present, 
 the officers of State, and all in authority and under authority 
 throughout the commonwealth. And when the story of the march 
 of enterprise for the last half century shall have been told, and 
 aged and youth shall exchange their congratulations, the devout 
 response of every heart shall be "Not unto us, not unto us, but 
 unto Thy name be the praise." With Thy innumerable favors 
 given, we thank Thee above all for our inestimable civil, intellec- 
 tual, social, humanitarian and religious institutions; and earnestly 
 pray that with our future progress and increase of wealth and 
 power, that intelligence and virtue may keep equal pace, and that 
 under the benign influence of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, 
 our great men may ever be good men, and all the jjcople become 
 great because they are good. 
 
 In Thy preserving providence extend Thy fatherly care over us 
 during these festivities, so that all our doings begun, continued and 
 ended in Thy fear may honor Thy holy name. And when the 
 revolving years and centuries of time with us shall cease, bring us, 
 we pray Thee, to a participation with Thyself in Thine own blessed 
 eternity, for the Redeemer's sake. Amen. 
 
ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 RUSSELL A. ALGER. 
 Governor ok Michigan. 
 
 CiTiZKNs or MiciiKi.vN: With great i)leasuro I hid yon wel- 
 come to this your Capitol to-day, Jind congratuhite y<m upon tins 
 epoch in the history of our State. 
 
 Fifty years have come and gone I and during those years this 
 great Commonwealth has grown from infancy to its present 
 mighty strength. Then, it was almo.st a trackles.s forest. Now, 
 it stands in the front rank of the States of this great Union. 
 
 Michigan, with her natural resources, and peopled by such 
 noble women and resolute men, could not be otherwise than great. 
 
 Her educational institutions, headed by her University and 
 Agricultural College, are among the foremost of the country ; 
 while her other State institutions, with the magnificent Soldiers' 
 Home now being built for a cap-stone, will bear favorable compari- 
 son with those of any State in the Union. While in agricultural 
 products she is unsurpassed, both as to variety and quality, she 
 produces more iron, copper, lumber and salt than any other State 
 in the Union. 
 
 There are brave men and women here in our midst to-day, who 
 have battled with ])rivations and adversity ; to whose energy and 
 determination we owe, in a large measure, this great consumma- 
 tion. All honor to them, and may they — the pioneers — long 
 remain among us to share tlie honors and receive the love and 
 reverence so nobly earned. 
 
 At the election in 1835 the total vote cast for Governor was 
 8,322, while in 1884 it aggregated 400,348. 
 
 Her population in 1837, was 174,467 ; while to-day, it will 
 number fully two millions. These figures are given to enable us, 
 at a glance, to appreciate our wonderful growth. 
 
 When, in 1861, armed treason threatened the land, and the 
 
36 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Government called for men to defend its flag, Michigan responded, 
 giving her full quota. It was then she showed her loyalty and 
 patriotism. 
 
 According to the census of 1860, our population was 749,113 ; 
 and Michigan sent to the front 9U,747 of her bravest and best 
 men, or nearly one in eight of her total population, according to 
 that census ; men, who grandly sustained the reputation of their 
 State, and whose blood stained every battlefield of the war. Of 
 these, the " Roll of Honor " shows that 14,855 were killed in bat- 
 tle, died of wounds or disease — many of them in that " hell of 
 hells," a Southern prison — or nearly one out of every six who 
 enlisted. 
 
 Brave men ! A grateful State will gladly care for those 
 of your comrades who stood by your side, many of whom 
 helped to lay your lifeless bodies away iu far-off graves, there to 
 await the bugle-call to your final reward. Hearts there are here 
 to-day, that ache for loved ones so early lost ; and indignation 
 heats the blood and quickens the pulse of those who made these 
 great sacrifices, as they read of the recent triumphant march of 
 the head of the rebellion through the South, uttering the same 
 old treasonable sentiments that carried the fire-brand of war 
 through the South in 1861, and whose pathway was strewn with 
 flowers by the school children, en masse, in 1886. 
 
 Let any section of the country teach its children to reverence 
 those who took the oath before high heaven to defend their 
 country, and then attempted its overthrow, if they will ; but let 
 us teach our children that treason is treason, and that never, in 
 future, will it be tolerated for a day. 
 
 This is no appeal to sectional prejudice, but is that which 
 makes the future of this government safe. Unless we teach our 
 children that this country is a heritage ; that to attempt to destroy 
 li is wrong, and that to punish those who attempt such destruc- 
 tion is right, we would better teach them nothing. 
 
 As we protect with the greatest determination that which we 
 value most, so let us with one voice proclaim, that in this broad 
 land there is no place for the flag of the secessionist, the anarchist, 
 the nihilist, the pagan or the commune, and that all law-abiding 
 men and women have a right to their own, whether it be property 
 or labor, and that the interference with these rights will not be 
 permitted. 
 
ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 37 
 
 Let us teach them to love their country, to labor for its pros- 
 perity, and to defend it if in danger, and to bow to only one flag, 
 and that the flag, which, amid shot and shell, has been carried 
 victoriously wlierever and whenever the Union has been assailed 
 — the grand old stars and stripes. 
 
 Let us with one accord, proclaim to the world, that this great 
 land of ours is only open to, and will receive from other countries, 
 none except those who are willing to become law-abiding and 
 loyal citizens, ready at all times to labor for the country's good in 
 time of peace, and to defend her in all times of danger. 
 
THE FINANCIAL HISTORY OF MICHIGAN 
 
 From Earliest Territorial Times to the Present. 
 
 Hon. EBENEZEil O. GROSVENOR. 
 
 Fellow Citizens : The subject assigned me, ''The Financial 
 History of Michigan from earliest Territorial Times to the Pres- 
 ent," is too broad and comprehensive for me to expect, or even 
 hope to treat with the fullness and accuracy desirable. Properly 
 given, it would be a history of the material progress, growth, and 
 development of the Territory and State. It is hardly possible at 
 this time for want of authentic data, to give nuu^h information as 
 to financial management, during the time jVIichigan was under the 
 control of the Governor and Judges, in whom was vested the 
 executive and legislative authority of the Territory. 
 
 We can get only glimpses of these matters, from laws passed 
 from time to time, and as all general salaries and expenses were 
 paid from appropriations made by the General Government, the 
 disti'ibution of funds made under acts passed by the Governor and 
 Judges can at best give but a very partial and imperfect history 
 of the management of the finances of the Territory. 
 
 We have been at considerable pains to examine territorial 
 laws and documents from the earliest records available, and give, 
 as "Territorial Histoi'y," such facts and figures so collected as we 
 deem pertinent to the subject, up to the time when Michigan 
 assumed to act as a State under a Constitution previously 
 adopted. All subsequent to that time we have treated as State 
 history, though as a matter of fact, while the Legislature met 
 November, 1835, and passed laws, since held by our Supreme 
 Court as valid as those enacted by subseciuent Legislatures, the 
 State was not formally received into tlio I'nion until ,)anuary 26, 
 l.S.'JT. 
 
 The act of admission was, however, made to relate back, so as 
 to give the State the benefit of an act of Congress i)assed June 23. 
 
FINANCIAL iriSTOKY OF AIICniGAN. 39 
 
 1836, authorizing the loaning to the several States the surplus 
 revenue in proportion to population. 
 
 So far as I can learn from records and hiws, the only sources of 
 revenue aside from government appro|)riations applicable to 
 general territorial purposes, were specific taxes imposed on cer- 
 tain trades, occupations, etc. 
 
 We give the substance of two laws as samples: 
 
 By act of the Governor and Judges, September 10, I8O0, taxes 
 were imposed as follows: 
 
 On carriages, phaetons, etc., per wheel, #1 ; on sleighs and 
 winter conveyances, each $2 ; on a stallion 3 years old or over, 
 $4; on each other horse or mare, 3 years old or over, 81 ; ou each 
 other horse or mare colt, mule, etc., 30 cents; on one dog for a 
 family, 50 cents ; on a second dog, for a family, 81 ; on each dog 
 over two in a family, $1.50. 
 
 By act of October 7, 1814: 
 
 On each merchant or trader in Detroit, $2o ; on each merchant 
 or trader, elsewhere in the Territory, 810 ; on each tavern keeper 
 and retailer of distilled spirits, keeping also a billiard table, 828 ; 
 on each tavern keeper of same kind not keeping a billiard table 
 in Detroit, $10; on each such tavern keeper elsewhere in the 
 Territory, $5 ; on each auctioneer in Detroit, $12 ; on each 
 auctioneer elsewhere in the Territory, 8t) ; on each occupier of a 
 ferry in Detroit, 88 ; on each occupier of a ferry elsewhere in the 
 Territory, 63. 
 
 These laws were modified and changed from time to time, as to 
 amounts and now trades and articles added ; but the system of 
 taxation remained substantially the same until Michigan became 
 a State. Through the entire territorial period, appropriations 
 were often made in anticipation of funds to be received, and 
 interest-bearing certificates were issued for the same, which, to 
 some extent, entered into the circulation as money. Very early 
 in the history of the Territory, an officer was named at a nominal 
 salary, as treasurer ; but liis powers and duties were not well de- 
 fined or onerous, as all financial afllvirs seem to have been under 
 the management and control of a "Financial Agent," who re- 
 ceived and disbursed moneys, issued scrip, etc., a system wliicii 
 appears to have been continued in the earlier period of our State. 
 
 The Governor and Judges were restricted in the enactment of 
 laws to the selection of laws from otlier States, only so modifying 
 
40 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 them as to make them applicable to the circumstances and condi- 
 tion of the Territory, and the source from which they were 
 derived was always given in the acts. These laws were generally 
 approved by Congress, the only single exception we have found, 
 being an act to incorporate a bank, referred to especially under 
 the head of Banks. In examining these early records and laws, 
 we are forced to admire the care, prudence and economy mani- 
 fested. The labor imposed upon the Governor and Judges in 
 proportion to the amounts involved in making appropriations, was 
 very great — a special statute being requisite to authorize the pay- 
 ment of any bill or claim against the Territory — " the name of 
 the payee, the amount of the bill, the article purchased and 
 object for which the debt was contracted," being all particularly 
 specified in the act with as much minuteness of detail as a mer- 
 chant would observe in making an original entry. The suras thus 
 appropriated ranged from a few cents to thousands of dollars, the 
 exact amounts being given to quarters of a cent. 
 
 The labor of so collating appropriation bills as to give exact 
 amounts applied to different purposes, as salaries, court expenses, 
 legislation, territorial roads and bridges, public buildings, educa- 
 tion, etc., would not be compensated by the value attaching to 
 such information, and were such information desirable, it is not 
 now attainable, as so many sources of uncertainty are found in 
 the fact that in anticipation of the receipts into the treasury, cer- 
 tificates were given, and in other cases amounts allowed to run, 
 no that the same act often covered matters pertaining to several 
 different years. The entire destruction of Detroit in 1805, led to 
 a replatting of the village and an eflTort at adjusting claims of 
 owners of land under the old plats by assignments of lots in the 
 new; all differences in value being adjusted by payments to or 
 from the fund denominated the Detroit Fund. In appropriation 
 bills, while in general the fund from which the sums are to be 
 paid is stated, there are many exceptions, and hence we have not 
 deemed it important to attempt any classifications except from 
 1832 to 1835 inclusive. 
 
 Not so much for the value of the statistics, as a matter of curi- 
 osity, we have examined all acts of ai)propriation during terri- 
 torial existence, and found that from J 806 to and including 1835, 
 one hundred and one acts were passed, appropriating in the aggre- 
 gate, $137,1)68.35^. The appropriation of 1835 was $25,327.05, 
 
FINANCIAL HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 41 
 
 and included expenses of several " sessions of the Legislative 
 Council, taking the census, sustaining the supremacy of the 
 laws and maintaining the integrity of the Territory against the 
 encroachments of Ohio." 
 
 We give an imperfect classification of the appropriations from 
 1832 to 1835 • 
 
 General Territorial expenses $ 2,r)()1.72 
 
 Salaries of Lesrislalive employees 11, 774. .10 
 
 Priuting Legislative proceedinirs, laws, etc 10,979.03 
 
 Fuel, stationery, etc., for Legislative Council. . 3,857.64 
 
 Salaries other than Legislative employees 4,049.61 
 
 Legislative Library 1,244.00 
 
 To preserve the integrity of the Territory 6,000.00 
 
 Roads and bridges. . '. 3,700. 00 
 
 Railroad surveys 1,030.05 
 
 (4eueral court expenses 2.038.45i 
 
 Taking census 1,898.08' 
 
 Aggregating $49,832.88^ 
 
 This classification is no doubt quite defective, l)ut as accurate 
 as we can make it from information at our command. Nor does 
 it contain entire appropriations made, as some printing was to be 
 done at specified rate.s, and laws to be published by newspapers, 
 and a small sum paid each on proper evidence of publication, and 
 other matters of like character. 
 
 HANKS AND BANKING. 
 
 The earliest legislation on the subject of banking appears to 
 have been an act pas.sed by the Governor and Judges, September 
 19th, 1806, incorporating the Bank of Detroit for the period of 
 one hundred and one years, with a capital of 81,000,000, the 
 Governor and Judges being authorized to subscribe for the Terri- 
 tory an unlimited amount of stock. Its bills were made receivable 
 for all dues of the Territory. Some stock was subscribed by the 
 Governor and Judges under authority given them, and seventy 
 dollars appropriated in 1806 to pay assessments on the same, but 
 how many shares were taken w'e have been unable to ascertain. 
 Whether the bank was ever opened for business, or issued any 
 bills, is uncertain, as the act incorporating the same was disap- 
 proved by Congress March 3, 1807. The next bank incorporated 
 was the Bank of Michigan, December 19th, 1817, with a capital 
 of S100,000, with authority to increase it to §500,000, the right 
 to subscribe stock on behalf of the Territory being reserved, and 
 
42 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 the circulation limited to three times the amount of capital paid 
 in. The cashier of this bank, under several acts of the Legisla- 
 tive Council, was made the Fiscal Agent of the Territory (and 
 for the State for a short time after its admission), and moneys 
 appropriated by Congress for the Territory were deposited with 
 and paid from this bank. Ten years later another bank was 
 incorporated, and up to 1835, when the State Constitution went 
 into effect, ten banks (exclusive of the Bank of Detroit) had been 
 incorporated, with an aggregate capital of 11,100,000, which 
 under their charters might be increased to 15,000,000. This 
 number was increased by the Legislature of 1836 and 1887 to 
 seventeen, all with very liberal charters. Several railroad com- 
 panies were, by their charters, granted banking privileges, their 
 circulation to be secured by pledge of railroad stocks. An effort 
 was made by legislation in 1836 to secure the holders of the bills 
 of banks then and subsequently to be incorporated, by providing 
 for a "Safety Fuud," to be raised by a small tax on the paid-up 
 capital of the banks. The project was not productive of very 
 beneficial results, as but a small amount was ever paid in, though 
 it appears in the reports to the Legislatures as one of the funds 
 in the treasury. In the later years of the Territory and earlier of 
 the State, bank currency was very abundant, but the circulation 
 of such bank bills at their nominal value was very limited ; this 
 was especially true of the bills of most of the banks outside of 
 Detroit. 
 
 In 1833 an act was passed giving banks sixty days within 
 which to redeem their bills after presentation at their counters 
 without forfeiture of charter, and in June, 1837, entire suspension 
 of specie payments was legalized. This was during a period of 
 great financial disturbance and depression throughout the coun- 
 try ; and the condition of the banks and the currency in this 
 State did not materially differ from that of nearly every State in 
 the Union. The feeling in favor of extending the privilege of 
 banking to all who desired to engage in it was very strong in the 
 early period of our State history, and the Legislature of 1837 
 end)odied these sentiments in favor of free banking in an act 
 entitled, "An Act to organize and regulate Banking Associa- 
 tions." Under this act any person or persons could, by comply- 
 ing with certain simple prescribed forms, establish a bank of 
 issue; the only requirement rendering it necessary that more 
 
FINANCIAL HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 43 
 
 than one person should be interested as a stockholder, was found 
 in the clause providing for u board of directors of not less than 
 five. Each baidc was required to have a capital stock of not less 
 than fifty thousand nor more than three hundred thousand dollars. 
 When thirty per cent of the capital stock was paid, in legal 
 money of the United States, and the circulation secui-ed by bonds, 
 notes, mortgages or other securities satisfactory to the clerk and 
 sheriff of the county in which the bank was located, the bank was 
 ready for business. By the provisions of this act ten per cent, 
 additional of the capital stock was required to be paid in every 
 six mouths until the whole was paid ; and the banks were to be 
 examined once every three months by a bank commissioner. 
 
 This was during the legalized suspension of specie payments, 
 and the banks thus organized put large amounts of their bills into 
 circulation with no probability of immediate call for redemption. 
 This law was amended at the adjourned session the same year, by 
 restricting the securities to mortgages upon real estate to the 
 amount of the circulation authorized to be approved by the clerk, 
 treasurer, sheriff and associate judge (or a majority of them) of 
 the county where the bank was established, and the time within 
 which stock in addition to the thirty per cent, required before the 
 bank was opened should be paid, was extended so as to re(juire 
 payment of but ten ])er cent, per year. While the addition of an 
 associate judge of the county to the board by whom the securities 
 must be approved, seemed an increased guaranty of good judg- 
 ment and pro|)er caution in the examination of securities offered ; 
 yet when we reflect that county associate judges of those days were 
 judges mainly by title and courtesy, our confidence in the finan- 
 cial character and sound discretion of the board is not greatly in- 
 creased, and we can readily imagine the board so constituted (or a 
 majority of them) were easily induced to certify to securities on 
 lauds at high and fictitious valuation in anticipation of increased 
 value from the rapid development and settlement, stimulated by 
 increased business facilities to be inaugurated by the banks, and 
 to accept as legal money of the I'nited States, for the thirty per 
 cent, to be paid on the stock at organization, the currencv of the 
 ininks existing under the same law they were then ap[)lying. 
 
 Some additional security was attempted by increasing the bank 
 commissioners to three, who were constantly employed in going 
 the rounds of the banks ; but their visits were generally antici- 
 
44 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 pated, and systematic preparations made to deceive them as to the 
 value of securities and by the exhibition of specie borrowed for 
 the occasion to reappear at the next bank examined. Under this 
 general law the State was flooded with bank currency having 
 practically little or no security for its redemption. 
 
 This condition of things could not long continue, and soon re- 
 sulted in general prostration. The failure of banks was of daily 
 occurrence, and many of them soon in the hands of receivers, and 
 etibrts on their part to realize on the securities brought the matter 
 into the courts, and at the January term of the Supreme Court in 
 1844, the law under which these banks were organized was de- 
 clared unconstitutional, all securities rendered worthless, and 
 what was known as "Wild Cat" bank bills were sought for only 
 as curiosities. 
 
 In 1839 The State Bank of Michigan was incorporated with a 
 capital stock of $2,000,000, one-half to be owned by the State 
 with seven (increased at the same session to nine) branches, with 
 directors elected by a joint session of the two Houses of the Legis- 
 lature. This bank and its branches were to be depositories of the 
 public funds, and the faith of the State was pledged for the re- 
 demption of the bills. The branches were located at Detroit, 
 Monroe, Adrian, Ann Arbor, Niles, Jackson, Pontiac, Mt. Clem- 
 ens and Marshall. Certain State officers denominated Fund 
 Commissioners were authorized to negotiate a loan of $1,800,000 
 for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the act. This 
 loan was never negotiated and the only organization under the 
 law was the branch at Detroit. This act was repealed in 1842, 
 and the State probably saved a disastrous experience in banking, 
 as was had in internal improvements. At the same session (1842) 
 the Legislature repealed the charters of sixty-six banks, all of 
 which had forfeited their charters. 
 
 Between 1836 and 1842, during the suspension of specie pay- 
 ments, there being little or no coin in circulation, a system in the 
 nature of banking (though unauthorized by law), prevailed 
 throughout the State. Many business men aud municipal corpo- 
 rations issued small notes or bills, often engraved so as to resemble 
 bank bills, varying in amount from five cents to larger sums, 
 being promises to pay the amounts specified on their face, and the 
 same was almost universally received and paid out as money. In 
 most cases they were ultimately redeemed, though at the time 
 
FINAXCIAI. IIISTOKV OF ISIICIITGAN. 45 
 
 wlieu in circulation riubject to large discount, except in the iranie- 
 diate vicinity where issued. Business men of the present day, 
 with a currency of uniform value throughout the country, at all 
 times e({ual to, and readily convertible into coin, can hardly ap- 
 preciate the condition of the currency and the consequent etiect 
 upon business during this jx'riod, when every person was com- 
 pelled to keep at hand and carefully consult (when receiving bank 
 bills), the latest bank note detector, and to examine each separate 
 note to ascertain as to the standing of the bank, rate of discount 
 on its notes, etc., as well as to detect counterfeits which, by reason 
 of the multiplicity of banks, each with bills of different designs 
 and appearance, was a matter of no little annoyance and diffi- 
 culty ; when exchange on New York and the East was high, and 
 change could not be made without the use of shin plasters (as they 
 were called), when the currency consisted of an indiscriminate 
 collection of bank bills, unauthorized shin plasters, State scrip and 
 warrants, town and county orders, all at more or less discount, 
 and liable to rapid depreciation or entire loss. Since the issue of 
 treasury notes (commonly known as "Greenbacks") by the Gen- 
 eral Government, and the establishment of National banks, bills 
 of State banks have gradually disappeared, and at the present 
 time there is not a bank organized under the laws of this State, 
 that issues bills. A Michigan bank note is rarely or never seen. 
 
 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 While a Territory, and for some years after admission as a 
 State, charters granting corporate privileges for improvements 
 of various kinds were granted by legislative authority with great 
 liberality, without proper guards and limitations, and but for the 
 financial crisis which for a time prostrated all business and 
 resulted in the forfeiting of most of the charters granted, the 
 State to-day might be materially hampered and its resources 
 largely diminished by such charters and grants. Some important 
 works of internal improvements were contemplated and surveys 
 made by territorial authority, and these were enlarged, extended 
 and prosecuted with increased vigor under the State control and 
 supervision. The State Government was inaugurated just before 
 one of the most extensive and disastrous revulsions in financial 
 affairs that has ever occurred in this country. Values of all kinds 
 were unsettled, real and personal property were unavailable in 
 
46 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 payment of debts, the currency in circulation was not convertible 
 into coin for even the payment of taxes. A condition of things 
 more severely felt and more generally disastrous in a new State 
 where estates consisted principally of unimproved and unremuner- 
 ative lauds. With no premonition of the impending financial 
 crisis, the young State, under the impetus of speculative schemes 
 and in anticipation of early development and rapid growth, 
 entered at once upon a system of internal improvements embrac- 
 ing every section of the State, and for the purpose of carrying 
 them into effect, authorized loans to a large amount, and in addi- 
 tion to direct State loans, pledged the credit of the State in aid of 
 vai'ious corporations. Among the contemplated improvements 
 were three railroads across the State, several river improvements 
 and canals, and a large amount of money received from loans, the 
 sale of lands granted to the State for various purposes, the portion 
 of the surplus funds of the United States awarded to this State, 
 and from other sources was expended ; and, in addition, a debt 
 incurred evidenced by internal improvement warrants, or stand- 
 ing in unadjusted claims. These State works involved the appoint- 
 ment of many officials drawing salaries and expenses, while most 
 of the works undertaken proved entirely unremunerative, and 
 aside from the development and settlement of the State thus 
 stimulated, almost an entire loss. Two of the railroads, the Michi- 
 gan Central and the Michigan Southern, were subsequently sold 
 to corporations (chartered for their purchase) at prices greatly 
 below tlieir cost, and paid for principally in evidences of State 
 indebteduess, and the State terminated its connection with internal 
 improvements much poorer, if not wiser, from the experience. 
 Under the charters granted to the corporations purchasing these 
 roads, a large amount has been paid into the treasury as specific 
 taxes, and applied first, to the Sinking Fund (until the debt for 
 which those and other specific taxes were pledged was practically 
 paid), and then, under constitutional provision, to the Primary 
 School Interest Fund. The sale of these roads was authorized in 
 1847 ; the amount realized for them was $2,500,000 ; for the 
 Michigan Central iB2, 000.000, and for the Michigan Southern 
 $50iJ,000, and evidences of State indebtedness to that amount 
 surrendered and cancelled. 
 
FINANCIAL UIS'IORV oK MICHIGAN. 47 
 
 TEUUITOUIAI, A\D STATE LOANS. 
 
 Tlic only special " Loan '" nuidc l)y territorial antiiority, .so tar 
 as we can learn, was anthorizcd at the special session in Aiignst, 
 1835, by which the Governor was empowered to borrow on the 
 credit of the Territory not to exceed $310,000, and to issue scrip 
 therefor. An act passed on the same day placed S-"),000 at the 
 disposal of the Governor to sustain the supremacy of the laws in 
 the Territory in dispute with Ohio. This loan was evidently 
 authorized in part to provide funds to meet this approi)riati()n. 
 As early as 1809 and during the territorial period, the system 
 prevailed of issuing inteivst-bearing certificates to public creditors 
 payable when in funds, and these to some extent circulated as 
 money. 
 
 The first State loan was by act approved November 14, 1835, 
 passed by the first Legislature of the State convened in special 
 session, authorizing a loan of 1100,000 for State expenses, and 
 the issuing of certificates therefor. 
 
 The next loan, known as the "Five Million Loan," deserves 
 special notice, because of the purposes, the circumstances attend- 
 ing its negotiation, the changes made in the original contract, 
 and the very great loss it entailed upon the State. For the pur- 
 pose of raising funds to carry out the general scheme of internal 
 improvements heretofore referred to, the Legislature, by act 
 approved March 21, 1837, authorized the Governor to negotiate 
 a loan of §5,000,000 ; the interest was limited to 5^ per cent., but 
 by an amendment at a special session held the same year, it was 
 increased to six per cent. The Governor, with such advisers as 
 he called to his assistance, undertook the responsible task of nego- 
 tiating this loan. Two contracts wei'e entered into with weak or 
 irresponsible parties from whom snuill sums of money were re- 
 ceived ; but failing to fulfill their engagements, were in turn 
 cancelled. .V third contract was entered into with "The Morris 
 C'anal and Banking (-'oinpany" for the sale of the entire issue at 
 the rate of 97* cents. Subsequently the Bank of the United 
 States became a party to the contract, and gave a guaranty for 
 the payment of about -S3, 000,000. This agreement contained the 
 proper and ordinary provisions and safeguards observed in such 
 negotiations, but subsequently the Governor, on behalf of the 
 State, consented to modify and change the terms, and to surrender 
 
4:8 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 the bonds upon part payment, and to rely upon the responsibility 
 of the contracting parties for the fulfillment of the agreement. 
 The loss to the State resulting from these changes in interest and 
 commissions alone, according to a report of a special committee 
 of the Legislature, made in 1840, was 155,508.13. From a report 
 made to the Legislature in 1847, it appears that there was 
 received by the State on this loan as follows : 
 
 On full paid bonds $1,387,000.00 
 
 On part paid bonds 1.332,452.72 
 
 Making entire amount received $2,019,452.72 
 
 From the fact that the bonds had been surrendered by the 
 State and in part negotiated in good faith, and part hypothecated 
 by the parties who received them from the Governor, the State 
 encountered serious difficulty in effecting any satisfactory adjust- 
 ment of the bonds hypothecated, and for a few years Michigan 
 was I'egarded by some of the financial world as repudiating a 
 portion of her just debt. Every effort was made to ascertain the 
 owners and holders of the bonds bona fide, and without regard to 
 the amount received upon the same by the State, provision was 
 made for payment to the holders of the entire amount advanced 
 by them, both principal and interest. Tliis action on the part of 
 the young State struggling under a load of debt thus created, 
 most of the funds realized, together with other resources, having 
 been invested in internal improvements which in no case returned 
 an income sufficient to pay interest on their cost, and in most 
 cases bringing nothing into the treasury, was worthy of the high- 
 est commendation and a guaranty of its future financial credit and 
 honor. 
 
 By the report of a special committee of the Legislature of 1840, 
 before referred to, it was shown that the net amount accruing to 
 the State from the $5,000,000-loan, if paid according to the con- 
 tract, after deducting commissions, expenses and interest charge- 
 able upon the same, would be but *4,0o2,566.82, the large balance 
 of $967,433.18 being absorbed in commissions, etc. Depending 
 upon the receipts from this loan, the State pledged its credit to 
 the amount of .$100,000, each to two railroad companies, the 
 Detroit and Pontiac and the Tecumseh and Ypsilanti, guarantee- 
 ing their stock, which resulted in almost entire loss. The State 
 also loaned S20,000 to the Jackson and Palmyra Railroad Com- 
 
FINANCIAL HISTORY OF MICHKiAN. 4i) 
 
 pany, and eventually took its franchises in payment and incor- 
 porated it into the Micliigan 8onthern. The credit of the State 
 was further loaned to tlie amount of S100,Ut)0 to the Allegan and 
 Marshall Railroad Company, whose road was never constructed, 
 and the amount advanced on the loan entirely lost. A statement 
 of the loans made by the State, the purpose, rate of interest and 
 amount of each is here given : 
 
 In 1835. For expenses of government "scrip 
 
 issued" $ 100,000.00, (i percent. 
 
 " 1837. Internal improvement loans 5,000,000.00,0 
 
 " 1837. Palmyra & .lackson K. R. Co., Stock 
 
 a:uarantee(l 20,000.00,0 
 
 " 1838. Allegan & Marshall R. R. Co., Stock 
 
 guaranteed 100,000.00, 6 
 
 " 1838. Detroit & Poutiac R. R. Co., Stock 
 
 guaranteed 100,000.00, 
 
 " 1838. Ypsilanti &Tecumscli R. R. Co., Stock 
 
 sruarauteed 100,000.00, 
 
 " 1838. Penitentiary bonds 20,000.00, G 
 
 "1839. " •' 40,000.00,0 
 
 •' 1843. State University bonds 100,000.00, 
 
 •' 1843. Interest on $5,000,000 loan-V)onds 363,324.00, 
 
 1842tol845. Adjustment of 5, 000, 000-loan bonds 1,909,452.03,0 
 1846 to 1853. In payment of internal improve- 
 ment warrants 265,540.00, 6 " 
 
 1839 to 1842. Delintiuent lax bonds 227,420.67, 6 
 
 1858. Renewal Peuitentiarv, L'niversity and De- 
 troit & Pontiac R. R. bonds 206,000.00. 6 
 
 1858. To meet deficiency in revenue 50,000.00, 6 
 
 1861. Renewal of .$5,0()»), 000-loan bonds 2,000,000.00, 6 
 
 1S59. Repairs and improvement St. Marie's Canal 100,000.00,6 " 
 
 1861. Eciuipment and payment of troops bonds 1,249,400.00, T 
 
 1864 to 1865. Bounties tJ volunteers bonds 1,306,000.00, 7 
 
 The amounts given are the sums for which bonds were issued, 
 the laws authorizing the loans in some cases giving power to issue 
 larger amounts. These loans have all been paid or payment pro- 
 vided for; the only outstanding bonds of the State are as follows: 
 S21,0()0 part paid 8.'),(H)0,0U()-loan bonds, adjustible at 812,149.5)7, 
 payable on presentation (probably lost and destroyed). On de- 
 linquent tax bonds (never ])resentcd) 870.00 bounty loan bonds, 
 due May 1, 1890, .?221, 000.00, making the entire bonded indebted- 
 ness 8243,219,97, for the payment of which full provision has 
 been made and the funds set apart. 
 
 TRUST FUNDS. 
 
 By a provision in the first Constitution adopted by the State, 
 and still in force, the proceeds of all lands then and since granted 
 4 
 
50 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 to or by the State for educational purposes, were dedicated as a 
 
 perpetual fuud, and the interest annually appropriated to carry 
 
 out the purposes of the grants. These lands have mainly been 
 
 sold under legislative enactments as to price, terms of payment, 
 
 rate of interest, etc. A very large amount has been paid into the 
 
 treasury from these sources and used for general expenses, the 
 
 amounts received being placed to the credit of the proper fund, 
 
 and the interest on such amount, together with all interest received 
 
 by the State on contracts for lauds sold, have been annually 
 
 applied to the specified educational institution or purpose. The 
 
 amount held by the State in trust for educational purposes, on 
 
 September 30, 1884, according to the report of the Auditor Gen. 
 
 eral for that year, was $4,389,524.52, to the credit of the various 
 
 funds, as follows: 
 
 Primary School Fund, 7 per cent $8,184,190 09 
 
 Primary School Fund, 5 per ceut 361,382 57 
 
 University Fund, 7 per cent 497,378 78 
 
 Agricultural College Fund 384,788 27 
 
 Normal School Fund 61,784 81 
 
 Aggregating $4,380,524 52 
 
 The Primary School Fund has been largely increased since the 
 practical payment of the State debt, by receipts of certain specific 
 taxes from railroads and other corporations as required by the 
 Constitution. The interest on these " trust funds" is a perpetual 
 charge on the State. During the times we are reviewing, large 
 sums of money have been expended for the erection, equipping 
 and support of State institutions, such as prisons, reformatories, 
 asylums. State University, Normal School, State Capitol, etc. 
 Taught by early experience the disastrous results of relying too 
 much upon credit and too little upon present ability and resources, 
 the State has adopted the rule, safe for States as for individuals, 
 of incurring no indebtedness without provision for present pay- 
 ment, making no appropriation without at some time levying a 
 tax sufficient to meet the same. 
 
 This has been found safe, wise and economical, and seldom, 
 since the adoption of this policy, has any complaint been heard 
 of burthensonie taxation. A statement of the amounts thus 
 raised and expended for a few of the many objects receiving State 
 appropriations, will give some idea of what has been accomplished 
 without inconvenience or reasonable complaint. This statement 
 is taken from reports made to the Legislature in 1885 : 
 
FINANCIAL HISTOKY OF MICHKiAN. 
 
 51 
 
 Michigan University $ 1,140,871 60 
 
 Norinal School 501,442 09 
 
 Agricultural College (iS7,!):^7 15 
 
 State Public School 5!)8,11G 00 
 
 lustitutioiis for Deaf. Dumb and Blind 1,601, 57(1 HO 
 
 Asvlums for Insane 3,:}15,!)!)6 83 
 
 Primary Schools 9,78!),671 37 
 
 Prisons and Reformatories o, 08:3, 168 61 
 
 Erection and Equipping State Capitol 1,559,256 51 
 
 Aggregating for nine permanent objects $22,284,072 85 
 
 Or lu'iirly ii half million dollars a year for the entire jieriod of our 
 State existence. 
 
 We have spoken only of State expenditures, and but partially 
 and imperfectly, leaving entirely unnoticed the immeasurably 
 larger sums raised and expended by the people in support of 
 schools, colleges, municipal corporations and other public matters. 
 This financial statement would be incomplete without some refer- 
 ence to the rate of State taxation at the different periods of our 
 history. 
 
 For the purpose of comparison, wc give in tahuhir form, from 
 as early a date as practicable, e(|ualized valuation of entire tax- 
 able property, rate per cent., and per capita of State tax, and 
 grouped the same into periods of about five years, and give the 
 average at each period, from 1840 to and including 1885. For 
 these computations as a whole, we are indebted to the Auditor 
 General's report of 1885 : 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 Total Equalized 
 Valuatiun. 
 
 1840 to 1844 If 31 ,572,806 58 
 
 1845 to 1850 ' 29,093,483 23 
 
 1851 to 1855 ' 84,609,992 68 
 
 1856 to 1860 137,663,009 00 
 
 1861 to 1865 172,055,808 89 
 
 1866 to 1 870 31 >7 , 9(i.-, , 840 92 
 
 1870 to 1875 ():!0, 0(10, 000 00 
 
 1876 to 1880 630,000,000 00 
 
 1881 to 1885 1 810,000,000 00 
 
 Rate per cent. Per Capita 
 Mills on Dollar. ofStateTax. 
 
 .2.2 
 
 .3.214 
 
 .1.5672 
 
 .0.8606 
 
 .2.9054 
 
 .1.973 
 
 .1.267(i 
 
 .1.52 
 
 .1.5286 
 
 mills. 
 
 0.30 
 0.25 
 0.06 
 0.03 
 0.57 
 0.33 
 0.68 
 0.49 
 not given. 
 
 Taking the entire period from 1840 to 1885 inclusive, the 
 average State tax has been but about two mills on the dollar, and 
 30 cents per capita. And it is probable that could we give accu- 
 rately the figures for the entire half century this day completed, 
 the rate would not vary materially from what has been given. 
 
52 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 The entire financial histosy of this State, notwithstanding early 
 errors and failures, is such that every citizen may be justly proud 
 of the record. 
 
 To-day but fifty years a State, and yet we are permitted to con- 
 template, freedom from debt, vast resources already developed, a 
 population numerous and equal to any in energy, integrity, enter- 
 prise, culture and refinement, public buildings and improvements, 
 numerous, substantial and costly ; and, in many respects, adequate 
 to the probable needs for many years to come. A great Univer- 
 sity, Agricultural College, and Normal School, each ranking 
 among the first of its kind in the Union, ample State institutions, 
 educational, benevolent, penal and reformatory ; a history of fifty 
 years administration in all political and public offices so far re- 
 moved from the suspicion of corruption or abuse, that the voice of 
 accusation is rarely or never raised ; a reputation for financial 
 honor and integrity unstained ; credit and thrift unsurpassed. In 
 all this we may rejoice and contemplate with ])ride. Michigan 
 to-day, though comparatively young, in all respects stands among 
 the foremost of the States. 
 
 So much for the past and present ! What of the future '? We 
 may not, except in imagination, peer into the future. Yet in all 
 history of peoples or States the present and the past have in them 
 much of prophecy or of promise. When, fifty years hence, the 
 citizens of this great Commonwealth gather to celebrate the Cen- 
 tennial of admission to the Union, though imagination even may 
 fail to grasp the greatness of the occasion, and the progress that 
 will have been made in wealth, population, education, and gen- 
 eral advancement ; of this we may rest assured, that foundations 
 in all these departments have been laid deep and broad upon 
 which immense superstructures may safely rest, and we may at 
 least flatter ourselves with the prospect, and rejoice in the hope, 
 that our posterity and successors will have proved themselves 
 worthy of the great inheritance. 
 
MINES AND MINKRAL INTERESTS of MICIIKIAN. 
 
 PROFESSOR CHAS. D. LAWTON. 
 
 Commissioner of Mineral Statistics. 
 
 ' Prior to the admission of Michigan as one of the States of the 
 Union, and even subsequently, the Territory was held in poor 
 repute by the people of the east. This unfortunate estimate 
 regarding the value of the country was largely due to the damag- 
 ing reports which were made by the government surveyors, who 
 early undertook the work of surveying the lands. No portion of 
 the United States was ever more severely or unjustly condemned ; 
 but the clouds of censure which had settled over its horizon and 
 through the mist of which its glories had been so long distortedly, 
 or but dimly, viewed, have been dissipated by the dawn of rising 
 prosperity, and slowly the State has emerged from the murky 
 surroundings of former prejudice into the broad sunlight of appre- 
 ciation and contidence. i The manifold advantages of Michigan 
 are now everywhere recognized. Comparisons that are at times 
 odious, have eliminated misconception and error, indisputable 
 facts derived from statistics have (pielled opposition and have 
 placed Michigan in the vanguard of States. 
 
 The great bodies of navigable waters which form its borders, 
 affonling to it unsurpassed commercial advantages and tempering 
 its climate; its ample rainfall and comparative freedom from 
 destructive droughts; the fertility of its soil; the variety of its 
 products; the value of its timber; the wonderful richness and 
 extent of its minerals ; the intelligence, industry and law-abiding 
 spirit of its people ; the freedom of its laws; the wise adminis- 
 tration of its public affairs, are rapidly exciting the attention of 
 the civilized world and rendering the State in its estimation, one 
 of the most important in the Union. 
 
 Michigan is a region of agriculture par excellence ; of fertile soil, 
 and genial clime, of oaken glades, of stately forests and blooming 
 prairie, of smiling fields and pleasant homes, of thriving towns 
 
54 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 and active industry, of prosperity, health, intelligence, economy 
 and obedience to law ; and withal Michigan is a great mining 
 State. 
 
 Its deposits of iron, of copper, of salt, of gypsum and of other 
 important minerals are unsurpassed, and the annual output from 
 these sources is unequalled by that of any other State. 
 
 The salt deposits, the residuum of ancient shallow seas, possess- 
 ing unequalled extent and purity, are found in both the east and 
 the west margins of the State, in corresponding magnitude, and 
 probably stretch beneath the surface of the interior. 
 
 Extensive beds of the most excellent gypsum, readily accessible 
 for mining and for distribution, are also found centrally located 
 in the agricultural districts. 
 
 Durable stone, suitable for foundations, exist everywhere in 
 abundance in the drift formation, and ledges of sandstone, lime- 
 stone, etc., suitable for building purposes, exist in many localities, 
 and in unlimited quantity. Clays, for the manufacture of brick, 
 tile, sewerpipe and pottery are found in endless supply. 
 
 Nor is coal altogether wanting. While the deposits of this 
 mineral with us are not comparable with many other States, they 
 are still of sufficient magnitude to possess some value and to con- 
 stitute a possible resource that at a future day may avail for 
 important use. 
 
 The lower peninsula of Michigan, in which the salt, gypsum 
 and coal are exclusively found, has neither mountains nor ledges 
 of primitive rocks. Its topography is greatly diversified ; the 
 conformation of the surface, though generally rolling, nowhere 
 attains a considerable elevation. The underlying rocks are hori- 
 zontally bedded, and deeply buried beneath the drift formation in 
 which rocks of every variety are found, but seldom in situ. They 
 belong to the drift of which they are part, and are largely derived 
 from the extreme north, from the shores of Lake Superior. Peb- 
 bles, boulders, masses of quartzite and of granite, of sandstone, 
 diorite, trap and jasper, greenstone and schist, which make up the 
 rock formations of the Upper Peninsula, are everywhere found, 
 scattered over the surface, and mingled with the soil of Southern 
 Michigan. 
 
 IJut the rocks which form the basis of this superstructure of 
 drift are horizontally bedded beneath the overlying burden ; the 
 upper portions of the series outcrop in various localities in the 
 central and most elevated portions of the peninsula. 
 
MINES AND MINERAL INTERESTS OF MICHIGAN. 55 
 
 The rock formations of Lower Michigan, as determined by ex- 
 amiiiatiou of exposures which have been either naturally or arti- 
 ticially denuded, are found to consist of the limestone, shales, 
 sandstones and sulphates of the Silurian, Devonian and Carbon- 
 iferous periods of geologic history. In the outcropping ledges of 
 limestone and sandstone, in many places, rock suitable for build- 
 ing stone and for lime is obtained. Nearly all the rocks of the 
 lower peninsula, however, are wanting in firmness of texture. 
 The shales and sandstones are sometimes fine-grained, but soft and 
 friable, liable to disintegrate under the dissolving action of the 
 elements. Undoubtedly during later Silurian time and subse- 
 quently. Southern Michigan constituted a salt-water marsh, or 
 shallow sea bottom, and the evaporation from the surface of which 
 during a geological time, resulted in the deposition of these saline 
 deposits which we are so fortunate as to possess. The region during 
 this time underwent changes of level, being alternately elevated 
 and depressed at long intervals, above or below the level of the 
 sea. Beds of shale, raartyte and gypsum occur with the salt, and 
 these arc succeeded by the arenaceous argillacious carboniferous 
 rocks of the coal period. They are the dett'itus oi' pre-existing 
 rocks which, under the action of the waves, the rains, the winds 
 and the frosts, were worn to fineness, to be borne by the waters and 
 deposited in the bottom of the sea. The coal field is estimated to 
 cover an area of about one-fifth of the central part of the penin- 
 sula. The limited seams of coal are intcrstratificd with bods of 
 shale, of coarse sandstone and of clay. 
 
 Coal, generally a thin seam of it, has been found in many local- 
 ities, but only in a few places has it been rained. It varies in 
 thickness of from a few inches to four feet. Having but few ex- 
 posures, actual boring has to be re-sorted to in order to determine 
 whatever of mineral value may lie beneath the surface in any 
 locality. This operation, requiring labor and expense, is seldom 
 resorted to except for a specific object. No formations later than 
 the coal are found ; if they exist they were subsequently swept 
 away in the drift period. 
 
 It is probable that the greater portion of the cmd originally de- 
 posited in this State during the i-jioch of the coal formation, was 
 worn away and destroyed by the moving glaciers. The soft, 
 yielding rock deposits of Lower Michigan were eroded and swept 
 away by the great rivers of ice that moved over them from the 
 
56 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 north and thence were hidden and buried benegth the great 
 accumulation of drift and debris. No upheavals or cataclysmal 
 changes have occurred. The rocks remain still in the horizontal 
 position in which they were originally laid down ; the valleys and 
 chasms that doubtless, if the rocks were denuded, would be seen 
 to exist, were filled with the drift ; the ledges and precipices that 
 abound in the north are, in the lower peninsula, entirely un- 
 known. 
 
 In all localities where shafts have been opened, but a single 
 workable seam of coal has been found, so that from present knowl- 
 edge it may be stated that the stores of this mineral left by nature 
 within our borders for future consumption, is not enormously 
 large. 
 
 GYPSUM. 
 
 The gypsum deposits of Michigan that are readily worked are 
 limited to two localities, but fortunately they are at those two 
 points of sufiicient extent and accessibility to suffice for all the 
 demands that may be made upon them in the future. These 
 beds, justly estimated amongst the most valuable of our mineral 
 resources, belong to the carboniferous limestone series, but occur 
 in the regular order of superposition only in restricted localities. 
 In other places in the same geological level, no indications of 
 gypsum are found. 
 
 At Grand Rapids and at Alabaster Point, in both the western 
 and eastern margins of the State, exist a succession of beds of 
 this mineral which aggregate many feet in thickness. Thus far 
 none but the upper beds have been quarried in, and generations 
 will succeed one another before the necessity shall arise for resort- 
 ing to the lower deposits to provide for the present rate of con- 
 sumption of gypsum. The deposits which are now worked at 
 Grand Rapids are of sufficient magnitude to meet all demands for 
 this mineral, during an indefinite future, even were they to increase 
 many fold. 
 
 The purposes for which Michigan gypsum is employed, are for 
 the manufacture of stucco and for land plaster, and the mills for 
 efiecting both of these results are very elaborate and complete. 
 The beautiful frescoes of Italy, that for ages have challenged the 
 admiration of the world, are upon walls of stucco, and it is claimed 
 that tlie product from the calcining mills at Grand Rapids is no- 
 wise inferior for finishing walls and for ornamental purposes to any 
 
MINES AND MINERAL INTERESTS OF MICHIGAN. 57 
 
 in the market. Certainly it must bo growinj:^ in public apprecia- 
 tion and demand, since its manufacture, which began in 1860, has 
 steadily increased until it has reached a total of 1,533,185 pounds 
 or 229,978 tons, liut the chief use to which this mineral is now 
 devoted is of modern origin and is other than for ornamentation. Its 
 application to agriculture is the outgrowth of modern investigation, 
 and it is by reason of its effects, which experience has ])roved to 
 be so efficacious in promoting the fertility of our soil, and the 
 prosperity and happiness of the husbandman, that the rich and 
 ample deposits of this valuable mineral in our iState become of so 
 much importance. Taking into consideration our climate, our 
 varied timber soil, which has been found to be so well adapted to 
 clover and to wheat, the system of farming that prevails, which 
 includes wdieat and clover among its most promising of our pro- 
 ducts, it is more than probable that under such conditions as do 
 exist, to keep up and enhance the fertility of the land requires the 
 full use of gypsum. 
 
 Ground gypsum is thus the cheapest of fertilizers. Its prepara. 
 tion began at Grand Rapids with the early settlement of that 
 region ; at first in a limited way but with a continually widening 
 area over which its apj)reciation extended, as its value came to be 
 appreciated more and more and the facilities for its preparation 
 and distribution were from time to time extended. Its total aggre- 
 gate production since 1845 amounts to 798,744 tons. 
 
 SALT. 
 
 In 1885 Michigan produced more than one-third of all the salt 
 consumed in the United States. It furnishes within a small frac- 
 tion as much as all the other States and Territories combined — 
 3,o00,100 barrels,— nearly double that of the State of New York, 
 which was formerly the leading producer. Heretofore the manu- 
 facture of salt in this State was confined to the Saginaw valley, but 
 now the western margin has come in to supply its quota to the 
 aggregate of j)rodu('tion. The salt deposits are found to be no 
 less in magnitude or in quality where the borings have been made 
 on the shore of Lake Michigan than similar tests have proved them 
 to be on the margin of Lake Huron, and great as its production 
 has already become, it is likely to assume still vaster proportions 
 in the future. Scientific analysis and practical experience have 
 
58 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 taught that the best quality of salt may be made from the Michi- 
 gan brine. The article placed upon the market which is made 
 from it, is pronounced on all sides to be as pure and effective as are 
 equivalent grades made anywhere in the world. The future of its 
 production in Michigan is undoubtedly only a matter of cost and 
 demand, the deposits of the mineral in the earth, within our bor- 
 ders, it may be assumed, exist in quantity far in excess of our abil- 
 ity to exhaust or even to practically lessen its amount. 
 
 The existence of salt springs in the territory was known to the 
 Indians prior to the coming of the white men into the country. 
 Even the manufacture of salt from the brine was undertaken in a 
 limited, crude way by the early settlers. 80 well known was the 
 fact of the presence of salt within our limits that the general 
 Government made numerous reservations of land, which were sup- 
 posed to contain salt deposits, and on the admission of Michigan 
 into the Union it was authorized to make a selection of seventy-two 
 sections of land where the indications favored the supposition of the 
 existence of saline deposits. With the view of making these selec- 
 tions judiciously and for other like purposes, one of the first acts 
 of the newly-created State was to provide for the prosecution of a 
 geological survey. This important work was given in charge of 
 Dr. Douglass Houghton, through whose zeal and intercession the 
 measure was consummated. 
 
 The business of the manufacture of salt in Michigan as a recog- 
 nized industry, may be said to date from 18G0. .Since that period 
 it has grown to its present stupendous proportions, adding greatly 
 to the wealth and reputation of the State. During this period of 
 thirty-five years, thirty and one-half millions of barrels have been 
 made at an average cost, during the whole period, of 96 cents per 
 barrel. Thus we have in Lower Michigan two important minerals 
 which exist in quantity, and are of great economic value to its peo- 
 ple — salt and gypsum. Of coal we have little to boast. It is a re- 
 gion whose chief industry is agriculture, and the important miner- 
 als which it possesses are those which are immediately associated 
 with this primal calling. 
 
 In that portion of our territory included in its bounds by Congress 
 as an oflfeet for the strip of land on the border of Ohio has grown 
 up a mining industry of wonderful proportions. At the time of 
 the admission of Michigan as one of the States of the Union, very 
 little information respecting the northern peninsula had been ob- 
 
MINES AND MINERAL INTERESTS OF MICHIGAN. 59 
 
 tained beyond what was known to the early missionaries and 
 traders. The country was too far removed from the marts of 
 commerce and civilization to attract any particular attention. 
 It had been run over, as we know, by explorers, hoping to find 
 gold, or silver, or other precious minerals. Specimens of native 
 copper had been found in sufficient quantity to establish the belief 
 that deposits in phice, of this metal existed in the countiy, l>ut no 
 systematic explorations had been made. The early settlers in the 
 new territory were too much occupied with the labor of carving 
 out homes in the wilderness, to trouble themselves greatly about 
 this far-oti" portion of the State from which they were separated by 
 water, and which they knew to be comparatively frigid and in- 
 accessible, wild and inhospitable, — a region of primitive rocks and 
 impenetrable forests ; it is not surprising that time should elapse 
 before its riches should be known and appreciated, and that the 
 development of its resources should have been slow. The 
 Upper Peninsula was given to Michigan by ('ongress as the final 
 settlement of a serious dispute ; it was thrown in to soothe the 
 wounded pride of an irritated people. 
 
 The magnificent territory thus acquired was made a part of 
 Michigan as an offset to a mere strip of land in comparison, yet 
 which was regarded as possessing far greater value. But slowly 
 the people of our State have awakened to the knowledge of the 
 magnitude of this gain, in the exchange which was tlius thrust 
 upon them. We are coming to realize that our State possesses in 
 the northern peninsula one of the most wonderful and valuable 
 regions within the limits of the National domain. Rich in miner- 
 als iu an unparalleled degree, producing ores of iron unsurpassed 
 in quantity and richness, and native copper in an abundance 
 and purity found now hereelse. 
 
 Two centuries and a half have passed since this portion known 
 as the region of Lake Superior was first visited by the zealous rep- 
 resentatives of the French nation. It was, in fact, the earliest- 
 discovered portion of our great northwest. l>ut while other and 
 then more favored sections became the marts of commerce and 
 teemed with the arts of civilized life, it was two centuries after the 
 advent of the white man before the waters of the Great Lake bore 
 other than the canoe of the red man, or of the venturesome voya- 
 geur ; and the primitive solitude of the sombre forests which skirt 
 its borders remained equally unbroken. 
 
60 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 The Jesuit fathers explored the rock-bound coast of the great 
 lake upon which they were the first to enter, and fearlessly pen- 
 etrated the trackless wilderness which surrounds it, meeting every 
 peril with simple, undaunted courage. 
 
 In 16iJ8 a permanent mission was established at the Sault, and 
 three years later one also at Mackinac, both of which places, for a 
 period of 150 years, continued to be favorite resorts for traders 
 and trappers engaged in the romantic traffic which for so long a 
 period formed the basis of the business and commerce of the north- 
 west. In times of peace or of war the transparent waters of the 
 straits were dotted with canoes or batteaux ; traders, voyageurs, 
 and gaily-bedecked savages coming from every quarter, commin- 
 gled in traffic and social revelry. It is a region replete with 
 savage legend and romantic interest. But how greatly in contrast 
 are the batteaux of the traders with the commerce of to-day, the 
 products of the fur-hunter with the products of the miner. The 
 simple paddle of the savage is supplanted by the powerful wheel 
 of the steamship, and the batteaux of the voyageiur, which bore 
 away the fur of the beaver, is displaced by innumerable vessels 
 that bend their masts to every breeze, and unmindful of portage or 
 of foaming rapids, pass with ease and safety to the bosom of the 
 great lake. The beautiful straits, so replete with tragedy and 
 historical interest, no more reflect from their silvery waves the 
 gleam of the scalping knife. Over the graves of massacred vic- 
 tims, who heard with terror the war whoop of their murderous 
 foes, now echoes the shrill scream of the whistle of the locomotive 
 and of the steam vessel. The council fires have gone out before the 
 fiercer heat of the smelter; the crack of tlie hunter's rifle is sup- 
 planted by the ring of the axe of the lumberman ; the silent 
 trapper has fled before the advance of the miner and in the 
 stealthy footsteps of the savage warrior treads the eager searcher 
 for minerals. The rocks so rugged and forbidding to the early 
 traveler now yield millions of wealth ; by the remote stream, 
 where was the home of the beaver, is now, perchance, the ponder- 
 ous stam[) mill, and far beneath the delving of the fox has pene- 
 trated the mining shaft. The railroad and ship canal have trans- 
 cended the forest trail and ancient portage, and the rude wigwam 
 of the savage and the simple chapel of the missionary have been 
 displaced by growing cities and villages, teeming with life and 
 activity. 
 
MINES AND MINERAL INTERESTS OF MICHIGAN. C}\ 
 
 The occurrence of copper among the Indians who occupied the 
 country south of Lake Superior, and also in the rocks of the re- 
 gion which constitutes the copper range, early attracted the atten- 
 tion of the Jesuit fathers and of the travelers of the northwest, 
 and frequent mention of its existence is made in their writings. 
 An abundance of copper for the manufacture of trinkets was 
 picked upon the shores of Lake Superior and elsewhere. 'J'he 
 copper mass that was found on the bank of the Ontonagon river 
 was seen and described by L'Hontan as early as 1088. In 1796 
 Capt. Jonathan C-arver, who had spent three years in the country, 
 published an account of his travels. He declares the region 
 bordering on Lake Superior to be remarkable ibr the existence of, 
 apparently, an abundance of native copper, and ventures the pre- 
 diction that at some future day the mining of it here will be a 
 great industry. 
 
 The first effort at mining was directed by Alexander Henry in 
 1770. Henry had spent sixteen years in the country and was a 
 man of intelligence and education, bilt not an expert in mining. 
 He chose as the point for his preliminary trial the vicinity of the 
 great copper rock on the Ontonagon river. After spending all 
 the money that the promoters of the scheme would furnish, and 
 having obtained no valuable results, the undertaking was aban- 
 doned. 
 
 Henry, in reflecting on the matter, states the country must be 
 settled and peo})led before mining can be carried on to advantage. 
 
 But long prior to the period of this abortive attem})t by Henry, 
 the metal which is now so successfully mined and is the source of 
 so much wealth and prosperity in this region, was sought for and 
 mined by some unknown race that has left us no record to deter- 
 mine what manner of people they were, except the rude imple- 
 inents they used and the excavations which they made. The 
 Indians who occupied the country at the advent of the white men 
 had no knowledge of the matter. No suspicion existed that anv 
 mining work had ever been performed in this country until within 
 a recent period. Then the discovery was made that the ground 
 had been previously occupied and that these metalliferous veins 
 had been long ago worked and large amounts of copper obtained, 
 but at what time and by whom is only a matter of conjecture. Of 
 the high antiipiity of this work there can be no doubt, since the 
 pits which had been made had become filled up with soil and 
 
62 H Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 decayed vegetation, and were overgrown with large forest trees. 
 In the pits, when cleared of the accumulated dirt and rubbish, have 
 sometimes been found large masses of copper which the primitive 
 workers had unsuccessfully endeavored to remove. At the Minn- 
 esota, Caledonia, Mesnard, and at many other mines, masses of 
 copper of many tons' weight have been discovered lying at the 
 bottom of the pits, covered with dirt and surrounded with stone 
 hammers, pieces of burnt wood, and even copper tools and other 
 evidences of former labor. These "ancient diggins," as they are 
 locally called, were found to be so abundant and became so well 
 known and familiar to those engaged here in raining as to cease 
 to be a matter of surprise ; in fact they have been, undoubtedly, 
 of much service in directing attention to the copper lodes and as 
 indicative of their probable value. As in the iron region the 
 magnetic needle has guided to the discovery of many valuable 
 deposits of ore, so in the copper districts these pits of the ancient 
 miners extending along the outcrop of the copper-bearing deposits 
 have silently betokened to the eager explorer where was hidden 
 the object of his search. 
 
 An instance of the finding of a mass of copper at the Mesnard, 
 in 1862, was related to me by Mr. Jacob Houghton. The mass 
 weighed 18 tons of pure copper, and had been removed a distance 
 of 48 feet from its original bed by the ancient workmen. Abun- 
 dant evidence of their efforts was still manifest in the stone ham- 
 mers and bits of burnt wood that were found about the mass and 
 in the spot from which it had been taken. The mass itself was 
 nearly buried beneath the accumulation of earth and decayed vege- 
 tation, and forest trees of maximum size were growing over it. 
 Finds of this kind were not unfrequent in an early day; but to the 
 Indians who roamed the country at the time of its discovery, 
 to the Jesuits and voyageurs, this fact of ancient mining was 
 unknown. 
 
 Dr. Houghton, who had made an examination of Lower Michi- 
 gan and published the results of his observations in 1838, there- 
 after extended his observations into the northern peninsula, and his 
 otiicial report in 18-11 drew public attention strongly to the region. 
 
 He was greatly impressed with the importance of making a sys- 
 tematic geological survey of the country and of doing it speedily 
 and thoroughly. As the State appropriation was too small to be 
 of much avail for extended geological work in a region so remote, 
 
MINES AND MINERAL INTERESTS OF MICIIKJAN. 63 
 
 the })laii was devised of uniting geological ohservations with tiie 
 linear surveys;, and to secure this combination Dr. Houghton him- 
 self took the contract from the government to make the linear sur- 
 veys in the Upper Peninsula with the additional rcijuirement that 
 all outcrops of rocks, their strike and dip, and other characteristics 
 should be noticed and specimens collected and rclurncd. projjfrly 
 labelled and described, with the notes to the department. For tiiis 
 additional geological work an increased compensation per mile 
 was allowed. 
 
 Dr. Houghton wisely inferred that by connecting the two sur- 
 veys he would be able to command a great mass of facts which he 
 could himself correlate and systematize. All his plans were ably 
 seconded by Mr. Burt, well known as the inventor of the solar 
 compass, and who largely directed the surveys of the Upper Penin- 
 sula, which were begun in 1S40. Five years thereafter, and Dr. 
 Houghton, while engaged in the scientific work in which he had 
 unceasingly labored, was unfortunately drowned in Lake Supe- 
 rior ; his plans were thus cut short of their consummation. Enough 
 however was accomplished to entitle those who performed it to 
 grateful recollection and to sadly awaken a deep regret that the 
 icy waves of the great lake had not spared the gifted spirit of the 
 devoted scientist whom they so rutiilessly engulfed. 
 
 Dr. Houghton's published statements had awakened, abroad, 
 great interest in the Laki; Superior region. Explorer- and specu- 
 lators flocked there in numbers to search for minerals and to secure 
 possession of lauds wliich were granted under permits from the war 
 department. Nine hundred and sixty of these permits to occupy 
 miniral lands were located in the Upper Peninsula, the larger 
 number of which selections covered lands in Keweenaw Point, and 
 this portion of the mineral country was teeming with activity 
 before operations were conducted elsewhere. Old Fort Wilkins, 
 the government fort at Copper Harbor, was the rendezvous for 
 explorers, and the starting point for expeditions into the wilder- 
 ness. Exj)lorers were abundant ; the field was new ; it was 
 uncertain what might be found, but all were stimulated in a high 
 degree with enthusiasm and earnestness to find something. 
 
 Search for mineral has in all ages driven men to endless depri- 
 vations and dangers tinit scarcely another motive could have 
 sufficed to in)pel tliem to meet. To this powerful incentive is due 
 the settletueut of remote portions of our land ; it was the impel- 
 
64 mioiiigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 ling influence that stimulated the pioneers to cross the continent in 
 '49 to the gold fields of California. It guided the adventurers to 
 the canons of Colorado, to the Black Hills of Dakota, to the 
 desert plains of Arizona and to the aerial mountains of Nevada. 
 The quest for minerals has carried railways across the continent, 
 has made prosperous States and Territories, thriving towns and 
 industry where were otherwise, perchance, unsettled and undevel- 
 oped territory. • 
 
 Northern Michigan was the first of our great mining regions to 
 which the steps of the explorers were directed ; their hopes were 
 high, but the results that met their anticipations were few, and the 
 disappointments thus created were only relieved on the fortunate 
 discovex-y of the Cliff and the finding of the masses of copper 
 exposed in that vein at the foot of the greenstone blufl'. This 
 inspiring indication with the results that followed the further 
 opening of the vein, established confidence in the country and 
 stimulated renewed effort. 
 
 Keweenaw Point, Isle Royale and Ontonagon embrace many 
 localities where the rocks are exposed to observation, and the first 
 mining done in the copper range was naturally confined to the 
 points of this description. Isle Royale alone of the copper dis- 
 tricts has failed to reveal a paying mine. There are numerous 
 copper veins and there is abundant evidence of the work of the 
 ancient miners, but no company has operated there at a profit. 
 Ontonagon, however, had its great bonanza in the Minnesota, as 
 Keweenaw had in the Cliff. These two established the reputation 
 of their respective districts and maintained them through many 
 years. The success of the Clifi' mine at the very outset of the raining 
 industry contributed greatly to encourage others. With a capi- 
 tal stock paid in of only $110,905, the mine returned to the stock- 
 holders during the 22 years that it was worked, the sum of 
 $2,627,660, or a little over 2,000 per cent. 
 
 Strangely enough out of the score of mines that have been 
 opened and worked in the Keweenaw district in similar situations, 
 barely one among them all has proved a source of profit to its 
 owners. The hundreds of shafts that have been sunk unfortun- 
 ately became, rather, receptacles for burying treasure instead of 
 avenues through which it should flow out. But why the many 
 veins should be comparatively barren and the limited few so enor- 
 mously prolific is a (uirious phenomenon. It illustrates the uncer- 
 
MINES AND MINERAL INTEKESTS OF MICHIGAN. bO 
 
 tainty of mining enterprises. The hope is sustained from what 
 may he hitlden from view ; the few rich veins that are found estab- 
 lish the fact that such do exist, and it is the expectation of discov- 
 ing a similar store of wealth that stimulates to ever-renewed 
 endeavor. 
 
 In the Ontonagon district mining work was carried on contem- 
 poraneously with that upon Keweenaw Point, The prospectors 
 in the Keweenaw district inviting the attention of capitalists and 
 investors in mining stocks to the probable value of the shares, 
 which were offered, were not unfrequently embellished with a dis- 
 play of profitable results obtained at the Clifl'; and in Ontonagon 
 the fame of the great Minnesota mine proved to be a force equally 
 attractive and ])otent. The fame of the Ontonagon region was 
 world-wide. Accounts of the monster masses of pure native cop- 
 per which the Minnesota and Xational mines yielded were every- 
 where published and nearly challenged belief. One of these 
 masses found in 1857 was 45 feet in length, 9 feet in thickness 
 and an average of 18^ feet in width,; it weighed upwards of 500 
 tons, and sold for more than $200,000. The Minnesota was a 
 rich mine from the start. The shareholders only advanced the 
 sum of $60,000 beyond which the product of the mine itself 
 sufficed to supply the necessary capital ; and for every dollar paid 
 in the stockholders received back in dividends $30. 
 
 These mines are of the past. The great copper mining district 
 is at Portage Lake, in the vicinity of the channel which cuts 
 across the Keweenaw peninsula. This area has no equal in the 
 history of copper mining anywhere in the world, either in the 
 richness of some of its deposits or in the economy with which they 
 are worked. Perhaps no mineral de])osit ever discovered has 
 possessed the extent and uniform metallic richness of the Calumet 
 & Hecla conglomerate. The mine has probably returned more 
 money to the stockholders in proportion to the amount which they 
 were called upon to advance than any other mine has ever done, 
 and it is reasonably certain that the mine will continue to be as 
 productive and profitable in the future as in the past. Some of 
 the other leading mines in this district, which are opened in far 
 leaner lodes, have established a record for economy of working 
 that is without parallel in mining history. The Calumet & Hecla 
 overshadows all others in the richness of its deposits and in the 
 magnitude of its operations. The depth of the mine on the plane 
 5 
 
66 Michigan's semi-centennial, 
 
 of the lode is 3,400 feet and its length is 5,000 feet. The average 
 production is 2,000 tons of refined copper per month, and the 
 mine has returned to its owners in dividends the net sum of 28^ 
 millions of dollars in the period of 18 years. Nowhere else on 
 this continent, if indeed, in the world, is there so much powerful 
 machinery employed in mining work. If it is a fact that this 
 conglomerate deposit without diminution in richness or magni- 
 tude, continues to an indefinite depth to underlie the surface of 
 this company's property, it foreshadows a metallic wealth that is 
 almost limitless. Rich in the present, and assured of the future, 
 it is no wonder that the shares of the great mine are a coveted 
 possession. 
 
 One of the most notable schemes in the annals of mining was 
 the sinking of the Tamarack shaft, recently consummated. Just 
 one year ago, — three and one half years from the date of the 
 commencement of the work, — the lode was struck at 2,270 feet 
 below the surface. From being a thing of doubt and conjecture, 
 the Tamarack is now a mine, already producing copper in large 
 quantity. In every particular the mine has been a success, and 
 the result has verified the best anticipations of the owners. It is 
 a remarkable example of the verification of previous estimates 
 and an example of the most rapid sinking in hard rock that has 
 anywhere been done. When one reflects that this enterprise 
 involves the task of sinking a shaft nearly half a mile into the 
 earth's crust before even the fact could be determined whether 
 the company possessed a copper-bearing deposit of sufficient rich- 
 ness to insure its profitable working, he will appreciate the bold- 
 ness of the scheme, and when he realizes how successfully the 
 task has been performed ; how steadily the work progressed to its 
 conclusion; how all the estimates that were primarily made have 
 been fully verified in the results, he cannot but admire the skill 
 of those who determined and directed the work. The shaft has 
 an estimated capacity of 1,000 tons of rock per day^and another 
 one of like dimensions is in progress of construction. 
 
 In the early days of mining in this State it would scarcely have 
 been possible to have succeeded with such an undertaking as the 
 Tamarack. But all that has changed. There is a new order of 
 things. The power drill, high explosives, improved hoisting 
 machinery, and numberless other valuable appliances that have 
 been improved or added within a recent period, have resulted in 
 
MINES AND MINKKAL INTERESTS OF MICHIGAN. 67 
 
 revolutionizing the mining industry and given it an immense stride 
 forward. It is now only necessary to ascertain what should be 
 done and the work is speedily undertaken and accomplished. 
 
 It is now 40 years since minjng was fairly begun in the copper 
 region of" Michigan, and its whole history is a record of" [jrogress. 
 The men who are now conducting the mining work are mainly 
 from among those who have grown up with the country and who 
 have demonstrated their fitness for responsibility during the 
 development of the industry. 
 
 The metal is found in the rock in form varying from a micro- 
 scopical fineness up to masses of hundreds of tons of weight. 
 Formerly the bonanza mines were the ones producing great masses 
 and the stamp lodes were little regarded. Now nearly all the 
 mines are in stamp lodes, and the mass copper forms so small a 
 percentage of the total products as to be of comparatively little 
 consideration. 
 
 The manipulation of the stamp rock in the mills of our great 
 copper mines has reached a high degree of perfection. Large 
 expenditure is incurred and every means is adopted to secure the 
 best possible results. The advance which has been made in this 
 department of mining work from the crude iron-shod wooden 
 stamj) and simple separators of an early day to the stupendous 
 structures with their intricate machinery that now so successfully 
 perform the work, is certainly wonderful. The primitive mill 
 wherein could be crushed and manipulated but a few tons of rock 
 per day, and at a cost too great for a profit to accrue, has given 
 place to those with a capacity of 1,000 tons per day, and with all 
 the facilities for manipulation so complete that were it not au 
 accomplished fact the low cost at which the result is reached 
 would hardly be credited. It would scarcely seem possible that 
 rock which yields less than lo jwunds of copper to the ton can be 
 mined at the depth of 1,000 feet below the surface, hoisted, run to 
 the rock house, sorted and crushed, thence taken by rail 3i miles 
 to the stamp mill and there subjected to the various and intricate 
 manipulations by which the mineral is separated that is subse- 
 quently conveyed to the smelting works to be cast into ingots ; 
 whence finally it finds its way into the market and is sold for 
 >;l.nr)I It cannot, I say, be fairly credited that this is accom- 
 plished, the rock mined and manipulated at this low cost, and 
 after paying all expenses there is a margin of profit on the year's 
 
^H Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 work sufficient to return to the stockholders in dividends the sum 
 of $40,000. Yet this was the result at one of the Portage Lake 
 mines the past year, and is but a repetition of what has been 
 accomplished in previous years, and in fact is but an example of 
 what is done, in a varying degree according to circumstances, at 
 all the leading mines in the Michigan copper region. The per- 
 centage of cost has been constantly reduced by the gradual increase 
 in the magnitude of operations. All the elements that enter into 
 the problem of successful mining are thoroughly studied by our 
 mining men. As the price of copper diminishes, as the working 
 of leaner lodes is undertaken, a more careful consideration of all 
 the conditions that, when applied, shall result in the production of 
 copper at such a cost as shall leave a margin of profit, has to be 
 met. However difficult the problem is, it is successfully solved. 
 The relation of all the factors which enter into it is understood 
 and defined. Probably nowhere in the world is mining work in 
 advance of that in the copper district of Michigan. 
 
 IRON. 
 
 While the knowledge of the existence of copper in the country 
 bordering on the south shore of Lake Superior was one of the 
 facts earliest made known to the world, none of those who early 
 visited the country had, apparently, learned that the ancient rocks 
 of this far-off region contained also in ample supply and richness, 
 a mineral that has contributed in far greater measure to the 
 world's progress than the one of whose existence they found so 
 much evidence. But both were here in quantity and of a quality 
 unsurpassed in the mineral regions of the world, awaiting the 
 time for their discovery and development. It was destined that 
 more than two centuries should elapse ere the existence of iron 
 ore should be determined and made known to the world, and the 
 small product which followed upon the heels of this discovery, 
 has steadily grown into a stream that now annually pours into the 
 markets of the country more than two million tons of ore. 
 
 Michigan is now the chief iron ore producing region in the 
 United States. In fact, it furnishes upwards of one-half the total 
 production of the country. The credit of the discovery of iron 
 ore in (juantity and in place is due to a party of government sur- 
 veyors who, under Mr. Burt, on September 19, 1844, in running 
 the east line of section 7, town 47, range 27, where are now the 
 
MINES AND MINERAL INTERESTS OF MICHIGAN. 69 
 
 Jackson mine and the city of Nagaunee, found outcrops of ore at 
 several points. They state tli^t they were led to make especial 
 search for these deposits from the fact of observing along this line 
 unusual defections of the magnetic needle, a matter which their 
 instructions re(iuired them to note. In the following year, Mr. 
 P. M. Everett, of Jackson, Mich., accompanied by four men and 
 under Indian guidance, visited the same locality and found the 
 remarkable outcrop, which they subsequently named the Jackson 
 mine. This land he secured by a permit from the war depart- 
 ment. 
 
 The party was not in search of iron ore. They had been led to 
 hope, from the statements made by the Indians who had accom- 
 panied them, that they should find some metal which they deemed 
 of more value than iron. The Jackson Iron company was formed 
 and the land purchased of the government at S2.50 per acre. 
 The first president of this, the earliest of iron mining companies 
 in Michigan was A. V. Berry, who recently died in Jackson. It 
 was not only the first iron mine opene'd in the State, but has ever 
 been and still continues to be, a mine of leading importance. 
 The first ore was tested in a forge near Jackson in 1846, and in the 
 following year the construction of a forge was begun on the Carj) 
 river, three miles from the mine, at which the manufacture of 
 blooms was commenced in 1848. Thus the Jackson company was 
 also the pioneer iron maker from the ores of Lake Superior. A 
 few tons of ore were taken to New Castle, Pa., in 1850, and made 
 into blooms, and two years later a larger amount was melted into 
 pig iron in a furnace at Sharon, in the same State, and in 185() a 
 shipment of OjOOO tons was made. The Cleveland and Lake Su- 
 perior iron companies were formed, and like the Jackson were 
 engaged in tlie struggle for existence. The C'leveland comi)any 
 built a forge with two fires at Marquette, in which, and in the 
 Jackson company's forge about 25,000 tons of ore were turned 
 into blooms, but no money was made, and after 1856, the period 
 when the shipments of ore from the country began, the work in 
 the bloomeries was abandoned. 
 
 In operating these early mines both in the iron and in the cop- 
 per districts, there was much to contend with which continually 
 occasioned disappointment and financial embarrassment. Trans- 
 portation at that time was irregular and expensive. There was 
 no canal at the Sault, no vessels, no roads in the country, no 
 
7i> Michigan's skmi-oentennial. 
 
 agriculture, uo skilled labor, uo supplies for meu and teams, no 
 materials for construction and repairs except such as were obtained 
 by the uncertain and unfrequent communication from below. 
 
 It having thus become apparent to those who early engaged in 
 the development of the iron mines that no suitable progress could 
 be made until better facilities for transportation were secured, the 
 construction of a railroad from the mines to the lake, 13 miles, 
 naturally suggested itself ; but though the matter was broached 
 in 1851, it was not until 1857 that a railroad was completed and in 
 operation. Previously, however, the iron companies had jointly 
 built a plank road which sufficed until the railroad was con- 
 structed. 
 
 Of greater importance to the development of the mining re- 
 gions was the building of the ship canal at the Sault de Ste. 
 Marie. This artificial waterway around the rapids, which occur 
 in the channel connecting Lake Superior with Lake Huron, 
 through which vessels could readily and safely pass from one lake 
 into the other, thus affording uninterrupted navigation between 
 Lake Superior and the lower lakes, was the turning point in the 
 history of Lake Superior mines. Previous to this everything 
 transported by lake — and there was no other method of transpor- 
 tation at that time — was subject to portage and re-shipment in 
 both directions. 
 
 Direct and complete commercial communication was imperative- 
 ly demanded, and Congress having granted 750,000 acres of land 
 to aid in the construction of a canal to overcome this barrier, in 
 
 1852, commissioners were appointed, a company organized and 
 chartered, and the work of construction began in the spring of 
 
 1853, and in June, 1855, the canal was opened to the public. The 
 following year the regular shipments of ore were begun to the coal 
 regions of Ohio and Pennsylvania. 
 
 At the time of the completion oP the canal another project of 
 similar character was originated, which was to build a railroad 
 from the mines to the head of Green Bay, on Lake Michigan, a 
 distance of 62 miles. The work was not consummated, however, 
 until December, 1863, at which time the road was opened to the 
 public. At the terminus of this road at Escanaba, as had pre- 
 viously been done at Marquette, an extensive ore dock was built 
 which rendered the matter of transporting ore from cars into ves- 
 sels a work easily accomplished. 
 
MINES AND MINERAL INTERESTS OF MICHIGAN. i 1 
 
 The development of the mineral resources of a country are so 
 intimately blended witii the improvement of its facilities for trans- 
 portation as to render it essential in considering the progress of 
 the former to give due credit to the latter. 
 
 Iron ores having a low value per ton as compared to more pre- 
 cious minerals, must have the advantage of cheap transportation 
 before they can become available. The iron region of Michigan 
 is especially fortunate in this regard ; it has the cheapest and best 
 of all means for transportation of its ores from the mines direct to 
 the coal fields, and the necessary connections of the ore fields 
 with the lakes, so that the advantage of water communication 
 could be made fully available and have been met ; each iron dis- 
 trict of the peninsula is provided with one or more railroads. One 
 may now travel from Detroit or Chicago to all points in the iron 
 region and to the co{)per district, also, directly by rail. The pro- 
 fits of the transportation of ore has in recent years stimulated tlie 
 building of railroads to reach the mines where has been made such 
 development as gives a reasonable assurance of the possession of 
 ore in paying quantity. 
 
 The development of the iron mining industry in Michigan has 
 been made with extraordinary rapidity. In no iron mining 
 region in the world has there been greater progress. In 1856, 
 the period when the shipments of ore were begun, 6,790 tons were 
 sent out. Twenty-six years later and the annual product reached 
 2,656,933 tons of 2,240 pounds, worth not less than 812,000,000. 
 It is but oOyears since iron mining was begun in a limited, primitive 
 way, and already the aggregate production during these years is, 
 in round numbers, 27,000,000 gross tons. This result has been 
 accomplished in so brief a time, in the face of greater difficulties 
 than have been encountered in any other iron region in the country, 
 and in no other mining section has there been brought into the 
 business so much energy, such varied and consummate skill in 
 searching for ores and in adopting the means to develop them ; in 
 originating or availing themselves of the most effective methods, 
 the most expensive and powerful machinery and appliances, as in 
 the iron district of Michigan. 
 
 In times of depression there are many mines which, though not 
 alti)gether valueless, but in which the ore, being of comparatively 
 poor quality, are obliged to modify their operations, or to suspend 
 altogether. Not so the old mines, those of established strength 
 
'72 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 and reputation ; these continue with little abated force through 
 good times and through bad. Whatever the conditions of the 
 market, the output of the larger mines remains uniform. 
 
 For the first ten years, or until 1864, the Jackson, Cleveland 
 and Lake Superior were the only mines from which ore was 
 shipped, and these mines, which have contributed so greatly to es- 
 tablish the reputation of the district, are still among the larger 
 producers ; still maintain their early supremacy both for quantity 
 and quality of ore. In fact the product of the Lake Superior 
 mine in 1882, of 296,509 gross tons, has never been equalled by 
 any single mine in this country. 
 
 Until 1877 the production of ore in this State was confined to 
 Marquette county. The chief mines of this district yield hard 
 specular and magnetic ores, and these ores still constitute 60 per 
 cent, of the entire product of this district. Nowhere else in the 
 State is strictly hard ore obtained, and the district is still the 
 largest pi-oducer, having in 1885 afforded nearly a million and a 
 half of tons. 
 
 In 1877 shipments began from the Menominee range which, 
 within a year thereafter, reached a million tons annually, and it 
 still holds the place which it immediately assumed of being a 
 large producer of most excellent ore. Some of the mines in the 
 Menominee range are among the most remarkable in the State, 
 both as regards quantity of product and quality of ore. But even 
 the wonders of this surprising section seem likely to be eclipsed 
 by the new district which, though the latest to claim our atten- 
 tion, is possibly not the least in value. The development in this, 
 the Agogebic range, is the most important addition that has been 
 made to the mineral interests of the State since the discovery and 
 opening of the great ore deposits in the Menominee region nearly 
 a decade ago. 
 
 There is much in the rock formation of our iron region to tax 
 the patience and skill of the miner and the geologist. The ore 
 occurs in the rocks with which it is associated in every manner of 
 form of deposit. These deposits possess great irregularity, and 
 there is little certainty where they may be found or to what ex- 
 tent they will continue. Some of our mines already have consid- 
 erable depth with no sensible lessening of the ore. The opinion 
 has prevailed that the hard specular ore deposits are more persis- 
 tent than the soft. That there is ground for this theory cannot be 
 
MINES AND MINKRAI. INTERESTS OF MICHIGAN. 73 
 
 denied. The old mines which are producers of'spccuhir ore, con- 
 tinue, as of yore, to yield their accustomed product. The mines 
 that early gave to this country its reputation still continue in an 
 equal degree to maintain it. 
 
 As time goes on there niust be an accumulation of scientific 
 facts that shall lead to a better elucidation of the much compli- 
 cated geology of our iron region. There are abstract jjrobieras 
 to be solved, in which many elements are to be considered. The 
 Lake Superior region is geologically of great antiquity : the rocks 
 have been subjected to every manner of elemental force and 
 change of character and form. It is a tangled skein that re(iuires 
 every appliance of modern science in the hands of the skilled 
 observer to attempt to unravel it. The satisfactory solution of 
 the problem of the origin of our iron ore deposits remains to be 
 given ; whether through chemical action the iron oxide occupies 
 the space formerly held by some other mineral, which is displaced ; 
 whether the ore beds were originally jasper out of which the silicia 
 had been dissolved, or whether of vegetable or igneous origin, or 
 originating from several causes, is a question yet to be satisfac- 
 torily answered. It is not difficult to broach an hypothesis and 
 to discover facts to support it. But the theory must be found 
 that covers all these facts, and all the facts must be discovered 
 and correlated. The great forces that were at phiy in the forma- 
 tion of these ore beds have left their traces in the rocks, and the 
 record may be deciphered. Very much has been done in this 
 direction ; some of the laborers in the field of iiivi'stigation in our 
 iron region have advanced our knowledge vastly, but we have not 
 yet reached the full interpretation of the history which the rocks 
 themselves have for ages held locked up in their constituent 
 crystals. Fortunately this work is in proper liands. 
 
 Notwithstanding the thousands of workmen, embracing all 
 nationalities, employed in our mines, entire harmony has ever 
 prevailed between them and their employers. The strikes 
 and disgraceful conflicts which have been so common else- 
 where are almost unknown in our mining region. No general 
 strike has ever occurred, and none has been of long duration. 
 Industrious miners are able to provide well for themselves and 
 their families. They are well fed, well clothed and housed. The 
 children enjoy the advantages of good schools. Our beneticeut 
 school laws find no better upholders than the mining districts of 
 
74 Michigan's se^ii-centennial. 
 
 the Upper Peninsula. There are many men in this peninsula now 
 prominent in their callings, who began as common laborers in the 
 mines, but who, by their industry, thrift and intelligence, have 
 accumulated wealth and acquired positions of influence and im- 
 portance. Certainly our mines afford as favorable opportunity 
 for the improvement of one's fortunes as are found in other voca- 
 tions. 
 
 Twelve years ago in the iron region were found only open cut 
 mines, now nearly all are underground and many have very 
 extensive openings beneath the surface. Not uufrequeutly one 
 will meet with, in visiting one of our important mines, a succes- 
 sion of great cavities that, if a stranger, will excite his curiosity 
 and wonder ; but a sudden trembling of the earth beneath his 
 feet and muttered sounds ascending from its depths remind him 
 that the wide chasms that meet his eye are not the only ones 
 embraced in the ground upon which he stands. Investigation 
 reveals to him the fact that far below the level of the cavities into 
 which he gazes are others wherein the light of day never enters — 
 caverns wrought by brawny men, no less in magnitude than these 
 which he openly beholds. And anon, &,s he ponders, the rum- 
 bling of the ascending skip strikes his ear, and there is revealed 
 to him in its contents, as it comes into view, the prize for which 
 all this toil is endured. 
 
 SANDSTONES. 
 
 The sandstones of the Upper Peninsula which skirt the south 
 shore of Lake Superior aflTord deposits of brownstone exceedingly 
 valuable for building purposes. Quarries in this rock liave been 
 opened at Marquette and L'Anse, and the stone which has gone 
 to Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland, etc., has become greatly 
 esteemed for its beauty of color and excellence of texture. Archi- 
 tects everywhere who have examined it are enthusiastic in its 
 favor. The brownstone is one of the layers from the Potsdam 
 series, which at the time in the Silurian period covered the entire 
 region, but is now, owing to tlie subsequent action of the denud- 
 ing forces of nature, confined to a limited area. To these' sand- 
 stones belong the celebrated Pictured Rocks, so frequently described 
 in the early references to this country. 
 
 The quarrying of sandstone is only in its infancy, but these 
 deposits are a mineral resource of undoubted future importance. 
 
MINES AND MINERAL INTERESTS OK MICIIKJAN. 75 
 
 SLATE. 
 
 It is well known that we possess in the vicinity of Huron Bay 
 extensive deposits of slate tliat afford this material for roofing and 
 other purposes, of an excellence that is not excelled by any pro- 
 duced in the United States or elsewhere. In color and texture 
 this slate leaves nothing to be desired, aud it undoubtedly exists 
 in unlimited quantity. There is no dissenting opinion from the 
 judgment expressed by all who are qualified to determine, that the 
 rock is adapted to the manufacture of not only the best roofing 
 slate, but for such other purposes as the superior grades of this 
 mineral are elsewhere employed. The deposits are contiguous 
 to Lake Superior, thus giving the advantage of cheap water 
 transportation to the important cities of the country. Thus 
 far but a single quarry is worked, which pn)duces about 5,000 
 squares per annum. 
 
 GOLD. 
 
 F'roin time to time in the history qf our northern peninsula pub- 
 lic interest has been awakened in reputed discoveries of i^old and 
 silver ; hut while nothing of apparently much importance has 
 grown out of these discoveries, they have kept alive a slight 
 degree of expectation, a belief in the possibility of the existence in 
 our rocks of veins of quartz which carry gold and silver in paying 
 quantities. Indeed, the recent results attained at the gold mine 
 now working in the vicinity of Ishperaing (the Ropes), indicates, 
 as do many other facts which have come to light in the past, 
 that the hope is well founded. 
 
 We regard Michigan as a great agricultural State. Wc speak 
 with pride of the leading rank which it holds for the production 
 of wheat, of wool, of fruit ami many other articles of argiculture 
 for the production of which it is noted ; but the average farmer, 
 while coiigrutulating himself upon the amplitude and variety of 
 the production of the fruits of his calling, may overlook the fact 
 that it is for its minerals, and not for its agriculture, that our 
 State is chiefly remarkable. That it is only as a mining State 
 that Michigan ranks first in the Union. 
 
 Our mineral interests are the greatest of which our State can 
 boast. They probably contribute more largely to the sum of 
 human prosperity than do any other of the products of the State. 
 Our annual production of iron, of copper, and of salt bear a 
 
76 Michigan's semi-oentemnial. 
 
 larger proportion to the total of the world's supply of these miner- 
 als than does the yield of our farms to a like aggregate of agricul- 
 tural production. It is safe to assume that the loss of all the 
 grains and fruits which our soil so bountifully supplies would be 
 less seriously felt by the world at large than would the extinction 
 of the product of our mines. Mining is the chief industry of a 
 large section of our State ; of an area comprising more than one- 
 third of its territory and occupied by more than 120,000 of its 
 people. It is here an industry which is comparatively new, but 
 what wonderful progress it has made ! To what a position it has 
 attained and to what a future it is destined ! 
 
 During the brief period of the third of a century there has 
 been accomplished a development in our mining region which jnay 
 well excite our wonder and admiration. And when we consider 
 the magnitude of the industry that has caused it, its apparently 
 unlimited capacity for enlargement, and the effect which this 
 increase must occasion in the growth and importance of the coun- 
 try, we may well view with complacency the past and be pardoned 
 for entertaining seemingly extravagant hopes of the prosperity 
 which the future has in store for it. The early missionaries who 
 first traversed the coast of our mineral peninsula, encountered 
 much at which they mareveild; but more than two centuries have 
 elapsed since its wonders were first described, and it is marvellous 
 and wonderful still. The reality of its resources transcend the 
 most sanguine conjectures of the early travelers, and this "fag end 
 of creation," as Baron L'Houtan epitomizes it in 1688, stands 
 among mineral districts as does the great lake, whose waves it 
 limits, among fresh waters, the Superior. The Upper Peninsula 
 is no longer an isolated, dependent region ; it is now accessible by 
 numerous lines of boats in summer, which regularly ply between 
 its harbors and the ports of the east, and by railway thorough- 
 fares which at all seasons afibrd direct and rapid communication 
 with the country. Its position as a mining region is established, 
 and the reputation of its great mines is world-wide. It is a region 
 which has developed a great prosperity and has still greater possi- 
 bilities. Its mining resources are permanent, and anon in the 
 future must be added a diversity of other interests for the conduct 
 of which there is every inducement. The basis of all its growth 
 and prosperity must be in the future as it has been in the past, — 
 its mines and minerals. 
 
MINES AND MINKKAL INTERESTS OF MICMKiAN. i i 
 
 Its deposits of iron and copper are so extensive, so phenomen- 
 ally rich and pnrc, the region is possessed of such cheap water 
 communication, has sucli an abundance of timber, is so elevated 
 and healthy, as to place it far in the van with the chief mining 
 regions of the world. 
 
 This northern peninsula of Michigan, from its great extent of 
 coast line of navigable waters, from its accessibility and the ease 
 with which it may be reached and traversed, from the coolness 
 and salubrity of its air and climate, from the extent and richness 
 of its mineral deposits, stands pre-eminent among mineral dis- 
 tricts. Its deposits of iron and copper are nowhere surpassed, and 
 from no other region can these minerals with less difficulty, or 
 with greater economy, be mined and transported to the markets of 
 the country. 
 
ADDHESSliS mil HALL OF REPIIESENTATIYES. 
 
 Hon. henry CHAMBERLAIN, Presiding. 
 
 Men and Women of Michigan : We have assembled to-Jay 
 to celebrate the semi-centenuial anniversary of the admission of 
 Michigan into the Union of States. 
 
 The large number of persons present, and the intense heat, I 
 am certain will not prevent you from listening to the able men 
 who have consented to address you on this occasion. 
 
 Remember, if you are crowded and the heat is oppressive, that 
 our fathers on a hot June day, more than a hundred years ago, 
 fought the battle of Bunker Hill. 
 
 I take pleasure in presenting to you (he needs no introduction), 
 ex-Chief Justice Thomas M. Cooley. 
 
 THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL OF MICHIGAN. 
 
 Hon. THOMAS M. COOLEY. 
 
 Generations of men come and go, ripening with years for the 
 Inevitable harvest ; but institutions in harmony with eternal laws 
 may expand and strengthen as the cycles of time roll on, and 
 with every passing century strike their roots deeper, and take on 
 some new form of perennial youth. 
 
 It is the founding of a new commonwealth we celebrate to-day; 
 one of a mighty family, whose founders accepted equality as the 
 true germinal principle of States, and trusted, by just and equal 
 laws to ensure, as far as government may do so, the general hap- 
 pine.ss of all. Availing themselves freely of the wisdom of past 
 ages, but relying mainly on the results worked out in the cruci- 
 ble of experience, they seemed to strike the true mean between 
 the conservatism that blindly and reverently follows the past, and 
 the wild and restless radicalism that still more blindly attempts 
 to anticipate the future, so that they had the unique fortune to be 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. THOMAS M. t'OOLEV. 79 
 
 the founders of institutions which other nations at first (U^spised, 
 then distrusted, tl>en came gradually to respect, and at last to ad- 
 mire and to imitate, until the mother country herself crowns with 
 her praises the memory of Washington, thankful that through the 
 overthrow of her armies there was given to the world the price- 
 less boon of American liberty. 
 
 It was certain from the beginning of time that a notable com- 
 monwealth would some day grow up between the great lakes. 
 The abundant provision which nature had here made for the 
 wants of man was prophecy for it. Such fertility of soil, such 
 wealth of forest and stream and lake and mineral deposit were 
 certain, when the sun-light of discovery made them known to the 
 world, to attract a colonization intent on their development. And 
 if the lower peninsula in respect of natural resources left any- 
 thing to be desired, the upper peninsula more than made good any 
 deficiency ; for its inexhaustible mineral stores only awaited the 
 magic touch of skilled industry to be converted into productive 
 wealth for the enjoyment of such fortunate people as should 
 possess them. 
 
 A panoramic historical view of this region, beginning with the 
 first meager accounts we have of it, would be of intense interest, and 
 give us many startling surprises. First, we should see on a back- 
 ground of almost total darkness the despei*ate struggles of power- 
 ful tribes of Indians contending in their savage way for its pos- 
 session. Then a day of promise seems to dawn when the Jesuit 
 fathers come, inspired with the purpose to convert the wandering 
 tribes of savages to the true faith, but destined to give tireless 
 labor for a harvest which seems but scanty when they come 
 bringing in their sheaves. Not altogether in vain, however, do 
 they labor, for on the picture we trace how the gleam of their 
 mission fires lights the way for trade and settlement, and how the 
 early commerce finds protection in the rude cross planted at the 
 missions, about which the Indians gather with their furs and 
 peltry for barter. iShortly appears upon the canvas the vener- 
 ated figure of Father Marquette, who in 1068 plants at the Sault 
 Ste. Marie the first permanent settlement in Michigan, and three 
 years later founds the mission of 8t. Ignatius on the Straits of 
 Mackinaw. Thirty years more roll on, and the Chevalier la 
 Motte Cadillac is seen to select with unerring sagacity as the .site 
 for his town the commanding position now held by the commer- 
 
80 michk^an's semi-centennial. 
 
 cial emporium of the State ; but the town he established grows but 
 feebly under the monopoly of trade which represses the energies 
 of its people until it passes under British control. Then imme- 
 diately the gloomy and threatening countenance of Pontiac rises 
 before us, and we have in succession the dramatic surprise and 
 capture of Mackinaw with the massacre of its garrison and 
 traders, followed by the close and persistent siege of Detroit, in 
 the progress of which, first romance, and then tragedy, excite in- 
 tense interest. And then all through the war for Independence 
 the lines of British influence over the Indians are seen to center 
 at Detroit, which is the mart for captives, and the place where 
 scalps, torn from the heads of men, women and children in the 
 back settlements, are gathered in and paid for. Even after the 
 treaty of peace the baleful British influence over the Indians is 
 not withdrawn until two American armies have been disastrously 
 repulsed, nor until a third, under Gen. Wayne, has annihilated 
 the savage power. 
 
 Willingly we allow so gruesome a canvas to be rolled up from 
 our sight, that we may open the record-book of American suprem- 
 acy. And here we find the very first pages radiant with the 
 history of that grand and inspiring event in our national life, the 
 founding of territorial government for the country northwest of 
 the Ohio, on the principle of entire and absolute exclusion of 
 chattel slavery. 
 
 When the founders of the new government thus took stand in 
 advance of their age, they builded not wisely merely, but better 
 than they knew, for their act was such " a deed done for freedom " 
 as sends " a thrill of joy prophetic " through the universe. In 
 thus putting slavery under perpetual ban a blow was struck at 
 oppression everywhere, whose echoes were never to die away until 
 the conscience of the civilized world should be so quickened that 
 in America every shackle should fall frcun human limbs, and even 
 in distant Russia church bells should ring in a jubilee of emanci- 
 pation. 
 
 In the fullness of time Michigan, fourth in the list of free 
 daughters of the old Northwest Territory, was decked with the 
 honors of incipient statehood under the same perpetual dedication 
 to equal rights and universal liberty. It was fortunate in its 
 name, which is American, derived from Indian words signifying 
 a great lake. Mr. Jefferson had proposed for it the classical 
 
ADDRESS OF UvS. TIIUMAS M. COOLKV. 81 
 
 appellation of Cliersonesu.s, but a kindly Providence spared it the 
 hard fortune to be thus named, and when it was organized in 1805, 
 inspired its godfathers to give it the appropriate christening. In 
 other particulars it was not so fortunate, and the early annals 
 form dismal reading. In the very year of organization Detroit 
 was wholly burned to the ground, and its people rendered home- 
 less. And while the little settlement was still struggling with 
 adversity came on the war of 1812, and the revolutionary soldier 
 who had been made Governor and entrusted with the defense of 
 the lake region, proved wholly inadequate to the military responsi- 
 bilities of his position, and Detroit, under the most humiliating 
 circumstances, was delivered into the hands of the enemy. Then 
 came the massacre of Kentucky's brave sons at the River Raisin, 
 and the banishment of worthy citizens who refused to turn trai- 
 tors; but competent leadershi[) soon breasted and turned back 
 the tide of success, and in little more than a year Perry had won 
 possession of Lake Erie, Harrison had chased the British array 
 across the river and broken it uj) in' a decisive battle, and Col. 
 Lewis Cass had been sent to Detroit as Military Commandant, 
 soon to be followed by a commission as Civil Governor. 
 
 If the first appointment of Governor for the Territory had 
 proved unfortunate, in the second the people found ample com- 
 pensatiou. Gov. Cass had been a pioneer in Ohio; he knew the 
 west and its needs, and during the war he had become well known 
 to the people of his new government. He was of vigorous, intel- 
 lectual and physical constitution ; he was a man of culture and 
 courtesy ; he was of pure life, so that with no aflectation of dig- 
 nity he commanded respect ibr abilities and deportment, and 
 became a social force of marked and permanent benefit to his 
 people. In his administration of public affairs it was soon per- 
 ceived that he was a statesman in no narrow sense; that he thor- 
 oughly understood the interests committed to his charge, and 
 that he might be relied upon to advance and cherish them with an 
 energy proportioned to a nature so robust and vigorous. 
 
 To many who gather here to-day it would be repeating a thrice- 
 told tale to recount how Gov. Cass, by just and firm treatment of 
 the Indians, preserved their friendship, and purchased in fair con- 
 vention vast tracts of their lands ; how he contributed to the 
 opening of the Territory to settlement by means of good roads 
 and the bringing of the public lauds into market ; and how, with 
 6 
 
82 Michigan's semi-uentennial. 
 
 a statesmairs perceptiou of the real point of danger in a Demo- 
 cratic republic, he urged upon the Legislature from session to 
 session that competent provision should be made for educating in 
 the public schools all the children of the Territory. Xor was his 
 interest in public education bounded by the narrow limits of 
 elementary instruction, but comprehended the best and the high- 
 est, so that even in one of his treaties with the Indians we find 
 him making a beginning in University endowment. 
 
 When Gov. Cass was called to the government but few set- 
 tlers of American birth had as yet located in the Territory, but 
 these few were 
 
 " The first low wash of waves where soon 
 Shall roll a human sea." 
 
 The population swelled rapidly until in 1830 it numbered up- 
 wards of thirty-two thousand. But in the following year the Ter- 
 ritory lost its chief magistrate who was summoned to a seat in the 
 cabinet of President Jackson. The loss was not made good by 
 the appointment of Mr. George B. Porter of Pennsylvania, to the 
 vacancy, for the new appointee was slow in coming to his govern- 
 ment, and was much absent from his post afterwards. Under the 
 law in his absence the duties were performed by Stevens T. 
 Mason, the territorial Secretary, who, when the I'esponsibilities of 
 government devolved upon him was still but a boy, without legal 
 capacity to buy a horse, or give a note of hand. But the acting 
 Governor was ambitious and able, and he was shortly made the 
 leader in a movement for State government. In 1835 the pop- 
 ulation was found to exceed sixty thousand, and under a claim 
 that this, by the Ordinance of 1787, entitled the people to organ- 
 ize as a State, a Constitution was formed and adopted by popular 
 vote, and a full complement of State officers elected and installed, 
 with Mr. Mason as Governor. 
 
 Had there been no opposing interests, it is probable that these 
 proceedings, though plainly irregular, would have been sanctioned 
 by CJongress and the State received into the Union. But a boundary 
 controversy with Ohio involving territory of which the chief value 
 centered in the rising town of Toledo, complicated the situation ; 
 the military were called out to defend the respective claims, and 
 for a time the Toledo war raged. But the war was in prudent 
 hands, and though drums were heard not a funeral note brought 
 
addkp:ss ok hon. tiiomas m. cooley. 83 
 
 sorrow to any household. Ohio had the advantage of position, 
 for she was already in the Union with voting power, and I'resi- 
 deut Jackson, who could appreciate this, disallowed the claims of 
 Michigan to State government and sent John S. Horner on as 
 Secretary, to be acting Governor and restore peace. The Secre- 
 tary, on coming, found no government awaiting him, and 
 people only ridiculed his pretensions. 
 
 There was thus a State government repudiated at Washington 
 and a territorial government rejected at home, when Congress 
 intervened with the compromise proposition that Michigan in ex- 
 change for the Territory in dispute should accept the Upper Pen- 
 insula. The ort'er was emphatically rejected, but an irregular 
 convention of people having subsequently voted to accept, the 
 authorities at Washington pretended to be satisfied with this, 
 and declared the State admitted to the Union with its present 
 boundaries. It was a piece of sharp practice, and the people pro- 
 tested, but even while protesting they acquiesced, satisfied in their 
 hearts that for all that was taken from them princely compensation 
 was made. And thus the Toledo v^ar came to an end. One 
 belligerent had won all it contended for and the other a great deal 
 more, and Franklin's aphorism that there never yet was a good 
 war, was proved to admit of exception. 
 
 The State was received into the family of the American Union 
 on January "IG, \8'-i7. The occasion invites some notice of the 
 people as they then were, of their antecedents and characteristics, 
 that we may the better judge of the motives underlying and per- 
 meating the social and political community. 
 
 The motives which in past ages have led to colonization have 
 not commonly been such as strict morality could approve, and in 
 history we have many stories of great wrong, and very few in which 
 the motive apparent was higher than national ambition or greed. 
 The colonization of New England was exceptional, but it has 
 been overpraised as if it were a planting of States on the great 
 principle of freedom in religious worship. This it was not and 
 could not have been ; for the world was not then ready for such a 
 planting. What our New England forefathers did was to brave 
 the hardships and privations of the wilderness, that they might 
 establish civil and religious liberty for themselves; and this was 
 noble even though they invited and desired no participation by 
 others. 
 
84 Michigan's semi-oentennial. 
 
 Religious motive in the ordinary sense had nothing to do with 
 the colonization of Michigan. The early explorers were mission- 
 aries, but the French settlers came for trade and barter, as did 
 also those of other nationalities. The later immigrants were for 
 the most part men of very limited means, who in their plain way 
 would answer an inquiry for their motive in coming west with 
 the common response that they had come west to better their 
 condition, and in order that their children might "grow up with 
 the country." 
 
 The motive as thus stated seems common-place and to a degree 
 selfish. We hear it with a certain degree of respect, but we are 
 not thrilled by it, or excited to high admiration, as we are when 
 we read how some self-sacrificing patrotic or religious motive has 
 inspired some great movement or led to notable deeds. But a motive 
 may seem common-place and even selfish, and yet be grounded in 
 the noblest sentiments of human nature. In the building of great 
 States of vigorou.s and wealth-creating people, selfishness comes 
 first though philanthropy may come later, and the selfishness is 
 blamable only when excessive. The greatest of apostles in his 
 pointed condemnation of the man who provides not for his own 
 "and specially for those of his own house," has shown us in what 
 category he places this duty, and reason, as plainly as the preacher, 
 declares that the duty to place those whom nature has committed to 
 our care above the want that causes suflTering and breeds repining, is 
 not social merely but religious also. In performing it we may lift 
 those dependent upon us into that condition of comfort and con- 
 tent from which shall spring the sentiment that life is a beneficent 
 gift from the Creator, to be acknowledged with continuous grati- 
 tude and well doing. 
 
 It can justly be said of the pioneers of the State that they per- 
 formed faithfully and well this duty of care for their own ; and in 
 doing so they demonstrated the harmony of their aims and their 
 labors with the great purposes of the Creator. The foundations 
 of a great State were laid in industry, frugality and the domestic 
 virtues. 
 
 If we look into the social conditions of the period, we behold 
 an exceedingly primitive society, in which wants were few and the 
 measure of strict economy ample for their gratification. The 
 older towns of the State were still largely French in population. 
 Among these were all grades of intelligence and all conditions of 
 
ADDRESS OK HON. TIIOMAS M. CDOLKY. 85 
 
 worldly prosperity; aud while some took up business in a large 
 way and with ample means, others were content with the small 
 gains and hard fare of trappers and fishermen. But the majority 
 of the people had found their tedious way into the Territory from 
 other States, in their heavy tented wagons which then ploughed 
 the ruts of every forest road, but are now as much unknown in 
 Michigan as the bufiiilo or the beaver. They had come with an 
 inspiration as absorbing as that which moved the old crusaders, 
 and fiir more intelligent and elevating; an inspiration to seize the 
 golden moment when peacefully with their small means they might 
 possess themselves of homes where prudence and economy, after 
 some discipline of pioneer hardship and deprivation, would be 
 sure of just rewards, and where ample means for the nurture and 
 education of a hardy and vigorous offspring should be within the 
 reach of every industrious citizen. When before in the history of 
 the world, in what other country but America, was such tempting 
 promise held out for the acceptance of honest industry? 
 
 It was a hard life the pioneers led in the woods, but every acre 
 which they brought under cultivation added to the value of their 
 possessions, and they could forego without repining many of the ' 
 most ordinary comforts of iife when the future promised such 
 abundant compensation. It was a hardship for husbands and 
 brothers ; but let us be just and admit that for wives and sisters it 
 was still harder. Many of them had been reared in competence and 
 accustomed to luxuries, but they had left these behind them with- 
 out repining, and had brought to the west no notions which would 
 preclude their giving effective assistance in any labor, indoors or 
 out, to which the feminine strength was equal. And it must be said 
 that there were few tasks to which it was found unequal, for the 
 willingness to be helpful begot the strength necessary for the pur- 
 pose, and the haj)iiiest days of many an honored woman's life were 
 when she was piling and burning the brush in her husband's 
 clearing, and when the sun went down, refreshing him and her- 
 self with supper, from the hriituuing milk-pail which she brought 
 from the pasture. If she was a lady in her eastern home, she Mas 
 not the less so with rougher hands and coarser garments and 
 heavier burdens, but with not less buoyant spirits in the woods 
 where only her husband's axe woke the reverberating echoes. She 
 wore no diamonds and no laces ; she may have known little and 
 cared less for fashions ; but she did lier full siiare in giving to the 
 
86 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 new State the muscle and the brain, the industry and the strength of 
 character that in a few short years were to bring to it both wealth 
 and greatness. The song of the spinning-wheel in the log cabin 
 was as cheerful then as is now the melody of musical instruments 
 in many thousand happy homes which owe their abuudant com- 
 forts to the patience, the self-denial, the industry, the energy and 
 the endurance of those who first opened the forest to the sunlight. 
 The men felled the trees, and the women, "keepers at home," 
 made the home worth the keeping. In that day of small things 
 it was woman's mission, which woman faithfully performed, to 
 
 " bring to her husband's house delight and abundance, 
 
 Filling it full of love, and the ruddy faces of children." 
 
 But if the pioneers could dispense with many comforts, they 
 could spare none of their accustomed institutions. They must, 
 therefore, have the common schools, which to their view were a 
 necessity to both the social and the civil state. The provision 
 for these was on a scale of economy corresponding to that which 
 governed domestic expenditures ; and often the child had to 
 travel a tedious distance to school, where the instruction awaiting 
 him was still more tedious. 
 
 Then, too, these were the semi-barbarous times, when every 
 "Master of the district school" was "brisk wielder of the birch 
 and rule." But poor as they were, these pioneer schools were 
 harbingers of better things ; the rude forerunners of a system not 
 surpassed in the world, and seldom equalled. All education must 
 be largely a process of self-training, and the child of inquiring 
 mind with only the most imperfect help at first, may make all 
 things about him, animate and inanimate, his teachers, finding 
 " tongues in trees, books in the running brooks " to instruct him. 
 
 In these primitive schools many a boy acquired such elementary 
 instruction as enabled him in time to become a man of mark in the 
 State ; and they should be mentioned with respect, for places of 
 honor and trust, from lowest to highest, have been filled with 
 their graduates, who in many cases wielded wisely and well an 
 extensive and valuable influence. 
 
 The early settlers in Michigan were for the most part young 
 men who first entered upon the stage of independent action in 
 their new homes. This was in some respects an advantage to the 
 State, for the vigor of youth inspired all industrial and political 
 
ADDRESS OF IIDN. lH<)>rAS ^[. COOLKY. 87 
 
 life, and made itself ertectively useful where the couservatisni 
 which comes in later years might not have ventured. But in the 
 confident and restless energy of youth may lurk dangers also ; 
 and as these young men contemplated the natural advantages and 
 resources of the State, hope told a flattering tale of the rapidity 
 with which it might be made great and wealthy by prompt and 
 efficient development, and pictured results so alluring and so 
 apparently attainable, that sober reason for the time wjvs mas- 
 tered. 
 
 General causes greatly magnified the dangers. When the State 
 Government was formed an eager spirit of speculation pervaded 
 the country. Wild lands seemed to offer the best means for its 
 gratification. The Erie Canal had been constructed ; railroad 
 building had begun ; the West was thus brought within easy 
 reach of the seaboard, and the emigration to it must be large and 
 continuous. Land in the West must immediately begin to 
 advance in value, and the advance must continue until prices 
 should approximate those in the Eastern .States. Such was the 
 confident and not unreasonable expectation. Wild lands, there- 
 fore, became tlic chief object of speculation, thouuh ])y no means 
 the .sole object. 
 
 Some faint idea of the prevailing rage may be had from the 
 statement that in 18;>4, fifty per cent, more public land was sold 
 than in any prior year ; that three times as much was sold the 
 next year, and that tlie (juantity sold in 1836 equalled all the sales 
 from 1821 to 18.')3 inclusive. The hurricane of speculation swept 
 across the country, but the cyclone struck here. The State was 
 easily accessible, and immigration poured over it in such a torrent 
 that it seemed like the concerted migration of a great people. In 
 the three years foHowing 1834, though the tide was greatlv 
 checked in 1837, the population of the State was doubled, and 
 lands in enormous (quantities were held for speculation, much of it 
 under purchase money mortgages far exceeding actual value. 
 
 Time will not admit of our giving in detail the story of what 
 followed ; how to realize the fiattering hopes of speedy wealth, 
 the State was induced, under the leadership of its sanguine Gov- 
 ernor, to enter upon an extensive system of internal improve- 
 ments by canal and railroad when it had not money to dig a 
 mile of ditch or build a mile of road ; how for this purpose it 
 mortgaged it-^ future by a loan far beyond its al)ility to pay even 
 
88 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 the interest ; how bonds were issued for this loan and by a breach 
 of trust put upon the market when only a moiety of the loan had 
 been received ; and how to meet its current expenses and interest 
 resort was had to State scrip of doubtful constitutionality. The 
 great crash soon came when the bubble of speculation broke. The 
 market value of lands went down faster than it had ever gone up ; 
 wild lands became unsalable at any price ; debts contracted in 
 buying them bankrupted the purchasers, and the overtrading 
 which had been a part of the general inflation was succeeded by 
 such sharp reaction as made disaster general. In two years from 
 the time when speculation was at its highest and expectation 
 most buoyant, the business of the State was prostrate ; credit, 
 public and private, destroyed, bankruptcy general, and large 
 numbers of persons looking about anxiously for the means of sub- 
 sistence. Only among the officers of the law who were busy in 
 bringing suits and serving writs, was prosperity apparent, and 
 they had found their harvest time. 
 
 The bubble had burst, but another which had been inflated at 
 the same time to dangerous proportions was now further expanded 
 as a means of relief And here we open another chapter in State 
 history which can only be mentioned but not entered upon, the 
 chapter which concerns that species of financiering appropriately 
 termed wild-cat banking ; banking without legitimate banking 
 means or convertible security, and therefore only calculated to 
 play the part of beast of prey. Enormous amounts of worthless 
 paper were issued ; the wild banking and the wild speculating 
 going on hand in hand until the latter collapsed, threatening to 
 pull down the worthless banking system with it, when the Legisla- 
 ture interfered and authorized suspension of bank payments. 
 Even then the process of creating banks was not stopped, and the 
 extraordinary spectacle was witnessed of banks coming into exis- 
 tence in a state of suspension ; born bankrupt and lifeless except 
 for plunder. Before the year was over in which the State was 
 admitted to the Union it had gone through all the stages of un- 
 reasoning speculation ; it had been compelled to refuse recognition 
 of State obligations disposed of without consideration received, 
 though tlie refusal subjected it to a plausible but unjust chafge of 
 repudiation ; it had begun railroads and canals it had no means 
 to construct and did not yet need ; and it had legalized a great 
 pack of beasts of prey in the form of banks, which had flooded 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. I'HOMAS M. COOI.KV. 89 
 
 the country with dishonored currency now sinkiug rapidly to 
 utter worthlessness. Such was the mortifying result of the 
 attempt to find a (flicker and easier road to wealth and greatness 
 than by the common highway which industry and frugality open. 
 The suffering from the collapse of fictitious prosperity was gen- 
 eral, but here, as in all similar cases, losses from bad currency fell 
 in largest measure upon persons of limited means, wlio had few- 
 est opportunities to kc-ep advist'd of what was coming, or to pro- 
 vide against it when it was perceived. 
 
 At the lieginning of 1880 the lowest depth had been reached 
 and the golden visions which had daz/led the eyes of the people 
 had faded away. State and people alike were opjjrcssed by debt, 
 and the public works were unfinished and unprofitable. Nothing 
 but a long course of sober and persistent industry with strict 
 economy could bring effectual relief. But reason was now res- 
 tored ; and it was an inspiriting spectacle to see with what un- 
 hesitating confidence the people put the past behind them, and 
 beginning at the very bottom, applied themselves to planting in 
 steady labor, in frugal living and in honest dealing, the founda- 
 tions of public and individual prosperity. 
 
 The errors of Gov. Mason as executive are very patent, but in 
 some particulars he is to be highly commended. He was a man 
 of public spirit and good purposes, and he had the best inter- 
 ests of the State at heart. His judicial appointments, among 
 which were those of George Morel 1, Epaphroditus Ransom and 
 Elon Farnsworth, wore excellent. And he did an incalculable 
 service to the State when he made .John D. Pierce superintendent 
 of public instruction, and gave him the assistance he needed in 
 putting in force his views upon common school and University 
 education. Anil here he had the help of Isaac E. Crary, the first 
 representative of the State in Congress, well qualified by culture 
 and ability to be a safe adviser. Nor must we forget that it was 
 during the administration of Gov. Mason that a geological survey 
 of the State was provided for and put in charge of that enthusi- 
 astic student of Nature, Douglas Houghton ; a survey which has 
 been carried on to this day with most valuable results. The good 
 he did, therefore, fully justifies the warm place our boy-governor 
 still holds in our hearts. 
 
 The financial crash carried down with it the Democratic party, 
 whicii luul been in power when madness ruled the public councils. 
 
90 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 In the election of 1839 William Woodbridge, a native of Con- 
 necticut, was chosen Giovernor. He had been in the Territory 
 twenty-five years, and had held the office of territorial secretary, 
 delegate in Congress and judge of the territorial Supreme Court, 
 which last office President Jackson had taken from him to confer 
 upon one of his own supporters. He did not serve out his term 
 as Governor, being transferred to the Federal Senate to succeed 
 John Norvell, who with Lucius Lyon, had been the first members. 
 Mr. Lyon had previously given place to Aug. S. Porter. Lieut.- 
 Gov. J. Wright Gordon then became Governor. 
 
 The Democratic party was restored to power by the election of 
 1841, with John S. Barry as Governor. Mr. Barry was a native 
 of Vermont, who in agricultural and mercantile pursuits had 
 acquired a reputation for a prudence not too narrow to be thrifty, 
 for methodical business habits and for integrity. He had been 
 sufficiently in public life to be known to the people of the State, 
 and his characteristics seemed to indicate him as the suitable man 
 for executive, at a time when the people were still burdened with 
 private and public debts, and when in the management of public 
 affairs strict economy and accurate business habits were of the 
 first importance. He was not chosen for popular manners, for he 
 neither had them nor apparently cared to acquire them, but he 
 was nevertheless selected in 1843, and again recalled to the office 
 in 1849 after having been four years in retirement. 
 
 The administration of Gov. Barry was eminently useful to the 
 State, It gave to the State an illustration of rigid economy and 
 careful method in the management of public affairs which deter- 
 mined the character of financial management for the State there- 
 after. It was of value also for its influence upon private habits 
 and expenditures ; and the State and its people from that time 
 went on steadily and strongly in the direction of improvement and 
 accumulation. The times demanded an executive to whom the 
 facile and flattering tongue of the demagogue was denied, but who 
 could make austere and uncomprising public virtues acceptable 
 to the people ; and Gov. IJarry fully met its requirements. 
 
 In the election of 1845 Alpheus Felch, a native of Maine, still 
 with us and worthily associated with State history from the first, 
 was made Gov. Barry's successor. Under his administration the 
 State relieved itself by sale of the incubus of its railroads. The 
 sale was demanded by a public sentiment practically unanimous. 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. THOMAS M. CdOr.KV. 01 
 
 and it has never been regretted. The State was at once put in 
 condition which made payment of its debt easy, and its financial 
 credit became unquestioned and un(|uestionable. And now for a 
 second time the State lost a good executive by the transfer of the 
 Governor to the Federal Senate. William L. Greenly, the Lieut. - 
 Governor, succeeded him, giving way in 1848 to Judge Ransom, a 
 native of Massachusetts, who had retired from the bench three 
 years previously. 
 
 The old pioneers of the State were gratified by the nomination 
 of Gov. Cass for the Presidency in 1848, naturally preferring 
 him, as they did, to any other candidate of his party. The Gov- 
 ernor, after serving in the cabinet of President Jackson, had been 
 sent as minister to France, and on his return was elected to a seat 
 in the Federal Senate. He resigned his seat pending the Presi- 
 dential election, but dissensions in his party proved fatal to his 
 prospects, and a man without known political principles was 
 elected over him. Gov. Cass was a statesman of the old school ; 
 upright, patriotic and decorous ; but Ije was overwhelmed by a 
 rising tide of anti-slavery sentiment which he could neither resist 
 nor fully understand, and new men, who were ready to grasp with 
 aggressive ardor the living issues of the time, soon supplanted 
 him in public notice. In this he but shared the fortunes of his 
 great contemporaries, Webster, Clay and Benton, who for a time 
 struggled vainly to master the logic of events, hoping against hope 
 that by new compromises they might preserve the national peace 
 and repress a conflict which the laws of mind and of morals made 
 irrepressible. 
 
 During the last administration of Gov. Barry the time seemed 
 to have come for that peaceful and undisturbing revision of the 
 fundamental law which is alwa3's provided for in the American 
 Constitutions,and which enables new ideas to assert their supremacy 
 without the revolutionary violence that might be a necessary con- 
 comitant in some other countries. The period was one of uneasi- 
 ness and unrest the world over; the thrones of Europe were 
 shaking, and the people, with arms in their hands and behind 
 barricades, were demanding the abolition of oppressive special 
 privileges, and for themselves a larger share in the government. 
 America escaped the calamities of insurrection and civil war, and 
 the radical wave which swept across both continents spent its force 
 here upon constitutional changes which brought the agencies of 
 
92 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 government more directly within the reach of the popular voice, 
 and made, in some important particulars, a better adjustment of 
 individual rights. A notable change in Michigan was the 
 requirement that judicial officers and the heads of executive 
 departments should be chosen by popular election. In an entire 
 revision of the State Constitution, made in 1850, we find checks 
 upon over-legislation in the provision for biennial sessions of the 
 Legislature, and in the limitations imposed upon the enactment 
 of private, special and local laws. Exemptions of property from 
 forced sale for debts were largely increased, and married women 
 were relieved from the harsh rules of the common law which gave 
 their property to their husbands. Very low salaries were pre- 
 scribed for all State officers, that of the Governor being one 
 thousand dollars only. The possible consequences of corporate 
 aggrandisement were aimed at in a provision requiring all corpo- 
 rations to be formed under general laws which were to be always 
 subject to alteration or repeal. Banking laws must be approved 
 by popular vote, -and the State was prohibited from engaging in 
 internal improvements, or taking part with or loaning its credit to 
 any person, association or corporation. These last are significant 
 provisions, born of the great revulsion, but as wise in policy as 
 they were noticeable in origin. 
 
 The succession of the executive office fell in 1851 to Robert 
 McClelland, for a term shortened to one year in the change of 
 constitutions. Gov. McClelland was a native of Pennsylvania, 
 but had emigrated to Michigan before it became a State, and had 
 served for three terms in the popular branch of 'Congress, where 
 he had made for himself a national reputation. He was re-elected 
 Governor in 1852, but resigned to become Secretary of the Inte- 
 rior, and was succeeded by Lieut.-Governor Andrew Parsons. 
 Charles E. Stuart, who had also served with credit in the lower 
 house of Congress, was now advanced to the Senate, to fill a 
 vacancy caused by the resignation of Senator Felch, who had 
 accepted a federal apjwintment. 
 
 The great anti-shivory uprising which followed the passage of 
 the Kansas-Nebraska bill had the same disrupting efl^ect upon 
 political parties in Michigan as elsewhere, and the Free Soil 
 party now almost wholly absorbed the Whigs, and had sufficient 
 reinforcement from the Democratic party to enable it to take 
 control of the State. Kinsley S. Bingham, who had served two 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. Tll().Mx\> M. t;UOLi;V. 93 
 
 terms in Congress and made a good record, led the Democratic 
 contingent into the Free Soil ranks. He was a native of Xcw 
 York, a farmer by occupation ; had been in Michigan since 1833, 
 and was now elected Governor as the candidate of the new party. 
 He was a man of good but not showy abilities; made a good 
 record as Governor, and was re-elected in 1856. At the end of 
 his second term he was chosen Senator in Congress to succeed 
 Charles E. Stuart. Gov. Cass continued in that body until 1857, 
 when he became Secretary of State under President Buchanan, 
 and was succeeded in the Senate by Zachariah Chandler. Of 
 this gentleman it may safely be said that from the time of his 
 election to the Senate he was the most notable man of his party 
 in the State ; that he soon became prominent in national politics, 
 and that his influence with his party associates grew from year to 
 year to the day of his death. 
 
 Mr. Chandler was a merchant of Detroit, and like his predeces- 
 sor, a native of New Hampshire. He liad strong native sense, 
 easily adapted himself to all classes of men and all grades of 
 society, was quick in tlecision, fearless in action, uncompromising 
 in principle and inflexible in purpose. These are the character- 
 istics which make one a natural leader of men ; and Mr. Chan- 
 dler by mere force of will commonly carried the doubting and 
 hesitating among his associates along with him. He was less 
 learned, courtly and poli-shed than his predecessor.; he knew 
 much less of literature and history, of foreign countries and our 
 relations with them ; but he resembled Gov. Cass in integrity and 
 thrift, while in his nature he was far more combative and persist- 
 ent. When the time came for the great life and death struggle 
 of the nation, no defiance rang out clearer and stronger ; no cour- 
 age was less doubtful of results ; no vote was more unhesitatingly 
 or more emphatically given for radical measures than were those of 
 Zachariah Chandler. For twelve years he spoke the voice of the 
 State in the Senate, and on the main questions of the day his 
 utterances were never of doubtful import. Gov. Bingham was 
 his fitting colleague when the civil war began, but he died in 
 1861, and was succeeded by Jacob M. Howard, another man of 
 strong and positive qualities, respected alike for his learning, for 
 his great natural parts, and for his integrity and fearlessness, who 
 immediately took good rank in the Senate, where he commanded 
 general respect. 
 
04 MICHKiAN's SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 Gov. Bingham was succeeded as executive by Moses Wisner, 
 and he after two years by Austin Blair. Both these gentlemen 
 were natives of New York, and both were inflexible in devotion 
 to an undivided country. When war broke out Gov. Wisner 
 entered the army at the head of a regiment and great expectations 
 followed him to his new field, but he fell a victim to disease 
 before there had been opportunity to give proof of military abil- 
 ity. His successor is happily still with us, performing with undi- 
 minished strength such public duties as are assigned him, and 
 therefore with record still incomplete ; but we may safely say of 
 his administration that it was made notable by the refusal to join 
 in compromising the dignity of the country and the constitutional 
 rights of the people in order to win back seceding States, and by 
 the vigor and fidelity with which the State, while the war lasted, 
 performed all national duties. 
 
 When the war broke out Michigan was found to be loyal to 
 the core. All parties as by instinct perceived that a great struggle 
 was upon us, which was to put to final test the institutions of our 
 fathers, and to determine for all time whether we were henceforth 
 to be one of many, under a living constitution, or to be many and 
 not one under a disrupted and despised compact. The alterna- 
 tive admitted of no hesitation, and reason not less than sentiment 
 responded to the summons of the Union, and responded again and 
 again as the need increased in urgency. Nor in this did Gov. 
 Cass, though fresh from associations which had tainted some others, 
 waiver or hesitate. He had lost his youthful fire and vigor when 
 the war began, and no doubt felt much of that despondency which 
 is a common accompaniment of great age in times of public dan- 
 ger and perplexity ; but when he thought the time had come that 
 he could no longer serve his country in the cabinet, he withdrew 
 to come back to the scenes of his early labors and successes, and 
 there with his old neighbors and constituents assembled about 
 him, urged firm adherence to the cause of their common country, 
 and gave his last public utterance for an indissoluble Union of 
 indestructible States. 
 
 The deeds of Michigan's honored sons are resplendent in the 
 history of the great civil war. How honorable was the part which 
 Israel B. Richai'dson, Alpheus S. Williams, and others like them, 
 now gone from among us, took in the great constitutional debate 
 when cannon answered cannon in the arirument I And that 
 
ADDKKrSS OF UVN. TlIOMAte M. CUOLEY. *Jo 
 
 mighty man of war, George A. Custer, a lion in battle and a 
 child by the tireside; how the mountain passes of Virginia thun- 
 dered beneath the tramp of his horsemen as he hurled them 
 upon the enemy, striking never a light or dallying blow, and 
 winning never a barren victory. But Custer, too, is laid to rest 
 
 " With all liis country's wishes blest, 
 But not until the battle storm had passed away 
 With its spent thunders at the break of day." 
 
 Leaving 
 
 " A greener earth and I'airer sky behind, 
 Blown crystal-clear by Freedom's northern wind. " 
 
 And what need we say of the four years' trial of the Constitu- 
 tion in the civil war V Only this : The bands of Union which 
 some feared and many hoped were but withes of straw^ proved 
 to be bands of iron, so entwined with the aftections of the people 
 as to bid defiance to assaults from any quarter. The idea that with 
 many people has been almost a maxim — that it is impossible to 
 support republican institutions in large countries, has been shown 
 to be utterly baseless. Other nations recognize the cogency of 
 the prool's ; in (ircat Britain the monarchy has become little more 
 than a name ; France at last seems securely republican, and, 
 excepting Russia and Turkey, every nation in Europe has been 
 quickened to higher life by American example, and either secured 
 representative institutions or perfected such as it had before. 
 
 Proceeding with the regular current of events, the organization 
 of an independent Supreme Court a little before the war should 
 be mentioned. Of the justices of this court Isaac P. Christiaucy 
 and James V. Campbell remained long enough on the bench to 
 make for themselves great names in legal circles, as did also 
 Benjamin F. Graves, who in 1868 became their fitting associate. 
 
 The successor of Gov. Blair was Henry H. Crape, a native of 
 Massachusetts, who was recommended to the people by his emi- 
 nent business ability which had been exhibited in many different 
 vocations and with unvarying success. He was once re-elected, 
 and is remembered as an able, careful and prudent executive. 
 During his term the fever of voting municipal aiil to railroads was 
 afHicting the country, and he strove, but without success, to stay 
 its progress in this State. This method of making use of munici- 
 pal credit and resources was, however, brouglil to astop by a 
 
96 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 decision of the Supreme Court before the evils had become very 
 serious. 
 
 The successor of Gov. Crapo was Heury P. Baldwin, a native 
 of Khode Island, who for many years had been extensively engaged 
 in business in Detroit as merchant, manufacturer and banker, and 
 had won an enviable reputation for ability, integrity and liberality. 
 He held the office for two terms, retiring at the beginning of 1873. 
 Succeeding him for two terras was John J. Bagley, a native of 
 New York. In him the State had for executive, one of those 
 strong and vigorous characters who, by their native sense, business 
 tact and ability, and promptitude in the performance of duty, do 
 honor to the commonwealth with which they unite their fortunes. 
 Many such have made their homes in Michigan, but none more 
 worthy of honorable mention than John J. Bagley. He began 
 life without means, and with but slight educational advantages, 
 but he was full of energy and was prosperous in business from the 
 first, his stores of useful information kept pace with his other 
 acquisitions, so that when he was called to the office of Governor, 
 his fitness for the place was universally recognized, and his admin- 
 istration was able, popular and wise. He was a man of large 
 heart and of strong domestic and social ties; he was proud of his 
 State and city, and he felt every inch the Governor when he had 
 occasion to be their representative abroad, and to speak as he 
 delighted to do, in their praise. 
 
 The gentlemen who have held the office of Governor since the 
 time of Gov. Bagley are fortunately all still among us, and we 
 meet them in social and business circles where their ability and 
 worth make them prominent and respected. Charles M. Croswell 
 held the office from 1877 to 1881 ; David II. Jerome, from 1881 
 to 1888; Josiah W. Begole, from 1883 to 1885, and the latter 
 then gave place to Russell A. Alger, who as the present executive 
 has so worthily addressed assembled thousands to-day. Each of 
 these gentlemen as a private citizen was known and respected for 
 the energy, prudence and success with which he managed his own 
 business interests, and the people expected from each an administra- 
 tion of public aftairs which should be prudent, conscientious and 
 watchful, and in no instance were the expectations disappointed. 
 Governors' Croswell and Begole were natives of New York, and 
 Gov. Alger, of Ohio. To Gov. Jerome belongs the proud distinction 
 of being the first Governor of Michigan, who was born within its 
 
AI)nKP:SS OK HON. THOMAS M. COOLKV. 1)7 
 
 limits ; the true representative of those who wore reared among 
 its stumps and taught in its district schools. Good rearing and 
 good teaching that must have beeu that gave a pioduct so sturdy, 
 vigorous and self-reliant; so well calculated by energy and persist- 
 ence to hew an open road to public respect and to fortune. 
 
 The succession in the Federal Senate was ke])t uj) by the election 
 of Thomas W. Ferry to succeed Jacob M. Howard in 1871, and 
 and of Isaac P. Christiancy to succeed Zachariah Chandler in 1875. 
 Judge Christiancy did not serve out his term, but resigned to accept 
 the appointment of l\Iinist(ir to ]*eru, and Henry P. Baldwin suc- 
 ceeded him for a time under executive appointment until the elec- 
 tion by the Legislature of Omar D, Conger, who is still in office. 
 Ferry was once re-elected, and was succeeded by Thomas W. 
 Palmer in L^S3. All these gentlemen are still with us, and still 
 making history, and we leave, them to the future chronicler. 
 
 Of the men who served the State faithfully in the lower house 
 of Congress and whose records have been sealed by death, a few 
 have already been mentioned. It would be pleasing if time per- 
 mitted to name all the others in succession ; but the list is long, 
 and at best we could only pass through it, and place a laurel here 
 and there upon a worthy brow. And among the worthy was 
 William A. Howard, a man of strong and positive qualities, who 
 represented the First district from 1855 to 1861. He took high 
 rank in Congress and had a place on most important committees. 
 One of these was the special committee created for the investigation 
 of the inroads into Kansas by armed bands from the border States. 
 The country was then excited beyond all former precedent by 
 what seemed to be the approaching culmination of the struggle 
 over slavery, and already from State to State leaped the live 
 thunder of the coming tempest. The committee in an elaborate 
 report put plainly before the people a nuiss of startling facts, con- 
 stituting one of the most important historical documents of the 
 period. Mr. Howard was also one of the committee of thirty-three 
 appointed to consider and report upon the subject of further 
 national compromises ; but his principles forbade his assenting to 
 take even the shortest step backward, and he {)erformed effective 
 service in defeating the purpose for which the committee was 
 created. Men doubted at the time whether this was best, but few 
 doubt now. 
 
 Another worthy name is that of Fernando C. Beamau, who 
 7 
 
98 MI('HIGA>f's 5?KMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 entered Congress in 1861, and bad the rare fortune, unequalled 
 in the State except in the cases of Jay A, Hubbell and Omar D. 
 Conger, of serving for five successive terms. He was a modest 
 man, and became less prominent in Congress than many others 
 who were neither so able nor so useful. Fidelity to duty was to 
 him the mainspring of public action ; and when he was offered the 
 appointment of Senator on the resignation of Senator Christiancy, 
 he declined, because his health was then failing, and he could not 
 in conscience accept an office to whose responsibilities he felt him- 
 self physically inadequate. Charles Upson, also, who served for 
 three terms, beginning in 1863, was a man of ability and sterling 
 worth, and the career of a frank, manly, upright, honorable and 
 useful citizen was closed when he passed away, having served the 
 State in many important offices. 
 
 It is pleasing also, as we pass along, to note some federal ap- 
 pointments made in evident recognition of the truth that the office 
 should seek the man and not the man the office. Such was the 
 appointment of President Angell of the University to conduct an 
 important and delicate negotiation with China ; a deserved com- 
 pliment to the profession of which he is so distinguished a mem- 
 ber, and which in China i.s particularly respected and esteemed. 
 It was a graceful return whicli the Flowery Kingdom made to the 
 State when it bestowed upon the University its excellent display 
 of Chinese productions which at New Orleans had excited so 
 greatly the interest of all visitors. And eminently worthy also 
 was the selection of Geo. V. N. Lothrop, the distinguished leader 
 of the bar of the State, for the important post of Minister to 
 Russia. When the national executive so emphatically makes 
 fitness the test in his selections the people are not likely to over- 
 look or even in thought to underrate the fundamental maxim that 
 public office is a public trust. 
 
 But while thus mentioning a few of the many worthy men who 
 have filled with credit important offices, we are reminded con- 
 tinually that many of the most notable and useful of the citizens 
 of the State have seldom or never held public office. They have 
 been active and served the public well in their several callings 
 and set worthy examples ; but for various reasons not personally 
 discreditable have lived and died private citizens. They may not 
 be less entitled to public honor for that reason. The best of 
 worth is not in holding office, but in showing by an intelligent 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. TIluMAh M. (JOOLEV. 99 
 
 j)erfbriiiance (jf duty everywhere a fitness to hold it. A State's 
 choicest possessions are its men of broad and vigorous minds, pure 
 character, and noble aspirations, whether they serve the public in 
 high station or low, as cultivators of the soil, in the profession or 
 in handicraft employments. Such men inspire and elevate all who 
 come withiu the sphere of their influence; they give the State 
 respect and standing abroad ; they strengthen it in the esteem 
 and regard of the whole body of its people, and they create among 
 its youth an emulation in excellence which is better for them and 
 for the State than any reaching after mere personal distinction of 
 wealth or oflBce. Nor does the public spirited citizen fail to find 
 that in private life he is charged with public duties which in their 
 performance may be made of the highest utility ; and while he 
 performs these faithfully, he knows he stands not merely at the 
 post of duty but at the post of honor. The trappings of office 
 are mere tinsel, but commanding worth, as Emerson has so well 
 said, " must sit crowned in all companies." 
 
 Thus, in the c )mpass of an hour; have we attempted to sum- 
 marise the leading events in State history. As thus presented 
 the history seems tame and commonplace as compared with what 
 during the same ])eriod has been takinsj^ place in other countries. 
 No battle has been fought on our soil, no violent revolution has 
 occurred in government, the steady pulse of industry has not been 
 disturbed by the near approach of any alarming danger. There 
 have been local calamities and disorders, but not once in all the 
 period of State existence has anything occurred so strange and 
 remarkable as to fix upon it the anxious eyes of the world. But 
 yet — and largely because of this very fact — how mighty have been 
 the changes! The State which fifty years ago was knocking at 
 the door of the Union for the favor of admission, now numbers a 
 population equal to that of all the American colonies at the time 
 they first set British power at defiance in refusing to yield obedi- 
 ence to the Stamp Act. In fifty years the State has added to its 
 population as much as the continent did in the first hundred and 
 fifty years of colonization, and its growth in material wealth has 
 been still more wonderful. This single fact is far more striking 
 and significant and far more worthy the attention of statesman 
 and historian than could |)0ssibly be the greatest of battles and 
 the most brilliant of victories upon which nothing was depending 
 but the gratification of individual or national ambition. Nor will 
 
 LOfC, 
 
1(jO Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 the character of the population acquired suffer in comparison with 
 that of any other country on the globe. The population is mixed 
 as to nationality, with the Puritan blood predominating, but it is 
 sufficiently homogeneous for all important purposes of the social 
 state and of government. British America is largely and usefully 
 represented, the Germans are planted on all sides, making intelli- 
 gence and enterprise productive ; all parts of the British Islands 
 have furnished contingents, as has Holland also, and other Euro- 
 pean countries, but disturbing elements are few, and order, industry 
 and thrift are everywhere. The educational system which the 
 State so early established and so wisely nourished receives cordial 
 support from adopted citizens, and it grows and prospers steadily 
 and strongly, having, like the gentle showers of heaven, blessings 
 for all. Rarely, in either public or social concerns, does nation- 
 ality of birth determine the action of the individual. To the 
 sober, industrious citizen of foreign birth, whether born in Briti-sh 
 ligeance, or in Scandinavia, or beyond the Rhine, or in that 
 small country of great renown 
 
 " Where the broad ocean leans against the laud," 
 
 the home of nativity may always remain the home of sentiment, 
 but the country of adoption will not for that reason be the less 
 cherished ; and coiwmon interests, common pursuits, common enjoy- 
 ments and common aims and purposes must rapidly obliterate 
 distinctions, leaving all proud that of right they are entitled in 
 this beautiful an<l thrifty State to share the priceless benefits of 
 American institutions. 
 
 And we may well take pride in our State, whether we contem- 
 plate it simply in its grand results, or examine it in comparison 
 with other States. In the main its record is a clean one, bearing 
 upon it few marks we should care to erase. After passing over 
 the brief spendthrift days of its youth, we have only the unexcit- 
 ing story of how energy, enterprise, prudence and thrift may 
 quietly and without the notice of the world build up a mighty 
 State, with all the elements of strength and every promise of 
 enduring prosperity. And were we to go back of the record to 
 show who those were who were most active, efficient and able 
 in State building, it would appear that for the most part they 
 were men who began empty-handed but strong-hearted, and by 
 mental and piiysical energy and force of character made for them- 
 selves a name while helping the State to greatness. 
 
ADDKKSS or' HON. THOMAS M. COOLEY. lOl" 
 
 -Michigan was the twenty-sixth State to take its phice in the 
 American Union, hut it lias been advancing steadily and with 
 strong and even pace to the front, and to-day only eight are lead- 
 ing it in population and wealtii. And while Michigan has been 
 overtaking and passing so many of the older States, not one, new 
 or old, has overtaken and securely held a position in advance of 
 Michigan. Of the original thirteen, only New York, Pennsylvania 
 and Massachusetts have now more people, and in a little time 
 the proud old Bay State must content itself with a lower place. 
 What more can be said in praise of the State than that it has 
 more than kept pace with the astounding growth of the country, 
 and more than ke})t good the wonderful promise of its earliest 
 years? Justly and with the emphasis of proud satisfaction may 
 its citizens exclaim as they welcome the stranger to our hospita- 
 ble board to-day: Si qweris ammnavi peninsula in, circumspice. Its 
 beauties, its riches, its attractions are everywhere. But not in its 
 growth, in its wealth, in its beauty, in its numbers, does the 
 State chiefly pride itself as its reli^ous and charitable institutions 
 and its complete system of public education, and what the people 
 have done and are doing through these and by these must suffi- 
 ciently attest. First and foremost the aim of the State has 
 always been to prepare its youth to act well their part in the 
 great drama of life, and in the incidental trials and rivalries. If 
 that aim is accomplished, the State may well be content, for mate- 
 rial success will abundantly follow. TTowever rich and diversilied 
 are the bounties of nature, " man is the n()l)ler growth our realms 
 supply," and the strength of the State must always be in the man- 
 hood of its people, who, if worthily trained, will make their own 
 success in their chosen walks in life the glory of the common- 
 wealth. 
 
 Mk. Ciiami;i:ui>ain : 
 
 There are present here to-day, a large number of persons whose 
 forms are bent, and whose heads have become white ; the pioneers 
 of Michigan. Few of us can be expected to live in our loved 
 Michigan many years longer ; but there are many here who may 
 hope to see the centennial year of the State of Michigan. If such 
 there are, and they join in the celebration, they will not, as we do 
 to-day, hear addresses delivered by one who has been a Chief 
 
102 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Justice, and one who now fills that office, both eminent as judges ; 
 who have both written and published valuable histories of Miohi- 
 igan. I think no one will enjoy such a privilege again. 
 I present to you Chief Justice James V. Campbell. 
 
 JUDICIAL HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 
 
 Hon. JAMES V. CAMPBELL. 
 
 In the old world, and in most parts of the new, the judicial 
 system and the matters with which it deals will be found to have 
 been naturally developed from a historic past. The direct bear- 
 ing of jurisprudence on the general progress and welfare, and the 
 fact that its action is continuously recorded and kept in sight, 
 render it a visible test and measure of public movement. No 
 other records are so significant. In all civilized countries the 
 rights and duties of citizens-in-law are substantially in accordance 
 with usage and common understanding. Private and public action 
 is continually brought to trial, and very few principles can be long 
 lost sight of, or departed from, without quick detection. The his- 
 tory of law is the history of the Commonwealth. 
 
 But in this State of Michigan, whose corporate life has lasted 
 but two score years and ten, so that many of us have seen and 
 known it all, we do not look back to a long historic development. 
 Our people, as their numbers have multiplied, are kindred in blood 
 and ways to our neighbors in other States of this Union, and such 
 adopted citizens as we have among us have also their counter-parts 
 elsewhere. But looking back to our American antecedents, we 
 find that the founders of this community did not come from Great 
 Britain or any part of its dominions, and when the wilderness was 
 first explored it was by another race, neighbors geographically, 
 and long ago in part of common ancestry, but in the days when 
 America was first colonized very far apart in all that determines 
 the characters of commonwealths. The Norman stock that fur- 
 nished the enterprising and uneasy blood that set men on both 
 sides of the channel upon voyages and distant adventures had 
 been losing political kinship ever since the Conquest. Equal in 
 courage and personal enterprise, these neighboring peoples had 
 drifted very far asunder in their habits of municipal conduct. 
 
 In Normandy there were frequent and fierce outbursts of popular 
 hatred against centralized tyranny, but the tyranny remained. In 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. .lAMES V. CAMPBKLL. 103 
 
 England the decisive triumph had been gained long since, and 
 before the law, although the law was sometimes broken, there was 
 general as well as personal freedom. When the British colonies 
 were first settled the colonists were all English. There was no 
 parliament of Great Britain and no legislative union of the island. 
 They came over, bringing with them the permanent privileges of 
 the common law of England, l)ut leaving behind them a large part 
 of its accidents and rules not fundamental. In those things which 
 were not essential the different companies of adventurers, who were 
 largely from cities, very generally adliered to their local usages, 
 which were often far in advance of the common law of the rural 
 parts of England, and much better suited to growing communities. 
 Their laud tenures, their recording laws, and many flexible and 
 sensible business usages, came chiefly from the free cities, and not 
 from the great lordships and manors. 
 
 In France, at that time, there was a much greater diversity of 
 customs than in England. What remnant of popular freedom 
 still survived was chiefly in the chartered municipalities which, 
 like the cities of England, were always tenacious of such rights as 
 they possessed. The southern part of the kingdom was known as 
 the country of written law, and its towns and dependencies held 
 on to the Roman law substantially as it was when they were 
 Roman colonies, and before it became so thoroughly despotic in 
 form as it came from the moulding of Justinian. The rest of the 
 realm followed the customs developed from the various distinct 
 races that had possessed its different regions, and the cities and 
 communities of the north of France resembled in many ways 
 their kindred in England. But throughout the entire territory 
 of France there were certain rules in common, and these were 
 chiefly feudal. And there were ordinances in force everywhere of 
 royal origin. 
 
 There was no great charter to limit, and no free parlinient to 
 clieck the encroachments of prerogative, and the customs them- 
 selves, instead of being in force of common right, were held at the 
 king's sufferance, so that this great variety was no sign of free- 
 dom. And when the French adventurers began their settlements 
 in Acadia and Canada, followed not long after by the various 
 New England and more southern English settlers, the two nation- 
 alities dirtered in the vital element of self-government. The 
 Englishmen differed in their usages because they managed their 
 
104 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 own affairs in their own way, so that actual uniformity was made 
 impossible by the necessary variations of free agency. Their French 
 neighbors had only such freedom of conduct as a monarch, jealous 
 of his regalities, found it necessary to wink at in order to keep 
 proud and spirited men from rebellion. But experience shows 
 that liberty is only pi-eserved by the actual conduct of affairs, and 
 without that experience individual intelligence is powerless. 
 
 It waa not the policy of the French authorities to extend civil 
 settlements. West of Montreal there were but a few detached 
 military posts, and those were not centres of population. In 
 what is now Michigan, Michilimackinac and St. Joseph were the 
 first military stations, and the former was the principal post. 
 Some others were transient. No French people were allowed to 
 become fixed residents of either. Detroit was the first, and during 
 the French dominion the only, post intended to become a town, 
 unless the seigneurie of SaultSte Marie, granted in the latter days 
 of that rule, can be classed with it. Detroit was established after 
 a fierce contest with powerful adversaries, who were opposed to 
 any new settlements as likely to cut off* some of their profits from 
 the western fur trade. As it was meant to have all essential 
 advantages, and as courts of justice of some kind would seem 
 necessary, we are led to consider what provision was made in that 
 direction. Trade and mechanic arts came at once into existence 
 in the town, and in a short time farms were granted and tilled and 
 some industries were started. 
 
 Theoretically at that time the establishment of courts of original 
 jurisdiction was one of the rights, if not one of the duties of feudal 
 land-holders. In all the grants of seigucuries some power of this 
 kind was given, and in a large portion of them it included jurisdic- 
 tion over all subjects, civil and criminal, except a few political 
 offences. The royal tribunals reserved chiefly appellate jurisdiction. 
 But it is stated by the Canadian historians that there were economi- 
 cal reasons which led most of the seigneurs to abstain from setting 
 up courts, and the people preferred to have their differences settled 
 by some kind of arbitrators. Practically the only courts were 
 created by the appointment of judges or commissaries by the Colon- 
 ial authorities. The lutendant appears to have been at the head of 
 the ordinary judicial system, and his delegates were probably the 
 principal local judges, where they happened to be sent. In order 
 to avoid confusion, the custom of the Prevote and Vicomte of 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. .lAMES V. CAMPBELI-. 105 
 
 Paris was adopted by the Crown as the rule of civil conduct, 
 including contracts and estates. This was regarded among the 
 writers on Customary Law as of" \\'\<A\ authority in construing 
 doubtful questions, and by some it has been said — although ques- 
 tionably — that it might be looked to where other customs were 
 silent. It was not confined to urban matters, although the anti- 
 quity of Paris made its usages valuable. The field of its jurisdiction 
 included originally considerable territory, rural and agricultural, 
 and it covered all sorts of interests. It was chiefly important here 
 in fixing the amounts due for various charges on lands, multure 
 and other feudal and proprietary dues, and the method of passing 
 contracts and estates. 
 
 There is no record that has yet come to light which shows the 
 early existence of any court in Detroit. There are several docu- 
 ments indicating for what purposes money was applied in public 
 expenses, but none cover judicial charges. In the various acts of 
 baptism, marriage, burial and the like, recorded in the parish 
 books of Ste. Anne's church, which gX) back to ITOo, the titles of 
 all notables are carefully set out, but tliere is no sign of any civil 
 magistrate residing in this region until Robert Navarre, Royal 
 Notary and Sub-delegate of the Intendant. w'lio came about 1730. 
 
 There is no reason to doubt that the Commandant for the time 
 being exercised all powers necessary to enforce justice, either on 
 the spot or by arresting and sending forward culprits to the lower 
 Colony. In civil matters there could usually be very little occa- 
 sion to litigate. There was generally some one acting as notary 
 or performing analogous functions, whose action, although not 
 judicial, was at least auxiliary. All land transactions, testamen- 
 tary and estate matters, and many contracts, were had liefore 
 notaries or persons acting in their stead, in so careful and perma- 
 nent a way that there was no room for dispute about them. The 
 functions were not entrusted to any but suitable persons, and all 
 acts were publicly witnessed by witnesses of recognized standing. 
 
 From 1722, when Cadillac's rights were finally adjusted and 
 surrendered, the Colonial Government seems to have taken more 
 active charge than before, and endeavored to settle the claims of 
 all private land-holders. In 1734 the previous grants were con- 
 firmed by new ones issuing directly from the royal authorities, 
 and there are more obvious signs of regular government. Mr. 
 Navarre, in his double character of Royal Notary and Sub-dele- 
 
106 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 gate of the Intendant, was no doubt able to perform the judicial 
 work required. But we have very little light on the subject, as 
 the records have disappeared. It appears, however, that besides 
 Mr. Navarre, there were some other gentlemen who must have 
 held some kind of judicial office. Pierre St. Cosme is spoken of 
 in the Pontiac Diary as former Judge, succeeded by Mr. LeGrand, 
 and in documents much later 8t. Cosme is described in the same 
 way, indicating that his office must have been of some importance. 
 Both he and LeGrand were gentlemen of high social standing. 
 There were several notaries. 
 
 After the English rule had been made permanent by the Treaty 
 of 1763, justices of the peace were appointed quite early. They 
 had not, however, any power to try cases great or small, and only 
 acted as examining magistrates. The official correspondence con- 
 tains many references to the lamentable want of tribunals capable 
 of trying causes and redressing wrongs. The whole of Canada, 
 except the lower Province, was intentionally exempted from any 
 regular government, and was, until just before the American 
 Revolution, not even nominally under civil rule. Such courts as 
 were created were provisional and given a very limited jurisdic- 
 tion. The local commander had the supreme local power, and 
 frequently acted as judge and magistrate. The merchants formed 
 arbitration boards of their own, which, while it lasted, disposed of 
 all their mutual complaints. Generally all criminals charged 
 with serious offences were sent below for trial, as was done with 
 several American sympathisers during the Revolution ; and while 
 there were some cases in which extreme punishment was inflicted 
 in Detroit, there is no question but that it was illegal. There are 
 references in public documents showing that judges were appointed 
 by the Colonial authorities for this region, but none ever came, so 
 far as is known. Capital punishment was inflicted in three cases 
 under sentences of Philip De Jean, a justice of the peace, who 
 held also one of the provisional appointments for trying small 
 civil cases. He left Detroit when Gov. Hamilton went on his 
 unlucky expedition to Kaskaskia and Vincennes and was cap- 
 tured with that officer and held in close custody by the Virginia 
 authorities for alleged inhumanity in the war. An indict- 
 ment had been found against him below for the murder of the 
 persons he had caused to be executed, and he was afraid to go 
 beyond Hamilton's protection. The sale of his Detroit property 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. JAMES V. CAMPBELL. 107 
 
 on the eve of liis departure indicated that he did not mean to 
 return. Several years after the Kevolution it was recited in 
 articles of apprenticeship of his son, a lad who was an infant 
 when he left, that he had not returned since his tleparture in 
 1778. 
 
 The celebrated Quebec Act of 1774, which attached all the 
 French cession north of the River Ohio to the Province of Quebec, 
 declared that the custom of Paris should continue to prevail in 
 civil matters and the English Law in criminal matters. But that 
 act made no provision for the immediate organization of justice 
 in the western ])osts, and nothing etieotual was done to provide for 
 it until 17b8, five years after the close of the Revolution. At that 
 time English speaking settlers had established themselves in several 
 places in what is now Ontario, and their numbers were such as to 
 require local organization. The Governor-General therefore divided 
 this region into Districts, and as Detroit had been retained within 
 British, possession and the British authorities meant to keej) it if 
 they could, it was not only included within the district of Hesse, 
 but made the seat of justice. William Dummer Powell was the 
 first judge who presided over tliis court, and afterwards was the 
 Chief Justice of Upper Canada. From this time on the courts 
 sat regularly for all purposes and business was done in the ordin- 
 ary course. Besides the District Courts, there were courts of com- 
 mon pleas and (juarter sessions. The common pleas judges were 
 all respectable lawyers, and the court was held in high esteem. 
 Louis Beaufait was the first chief judge, and James May, Patrick 
 IMcNiff, Charles Girardin and Nathaniel Williams were associates. 
 All were ohl citizens familiar with French and English and allied 
 by marriage or blood with the French inhabitants. 
 
 Immediately after the establishment of Upper Canada into a 
 sej)arate province, the name of the district was changed to the 
 Western District, and Detroit was as before made the seat of 
 justice, although a court was also appointed to be held at Michili- 
 mackinac. Things continuedint his shape until .June, 179(3, the 
 time provided for Jay's Treaty to become operative, when the 
 British courts were removed to the other side of the river. Detroit 
 was surrendered July 11, 1796. 
 
 Then for the first time the country came under the control of 
 American institutions. Michigan formed a part of the Territory 
 northwest of the Ohio, set apart under the celebrated ordinance 
 
108 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 of 1787. By that ordinance, until the population became large 
 enough to have a Legislature, the Governor and three Judges, all 
 appointed by the President and Senate, were made a Legislative 
 Board to adopt laws from the statutes of the various States as far 
 as applicable. In selecting those laws attention was paid to sub- 
 tance rather than form, and parts of the statutes were amalga- 
 mated into new ones. Although this led to some criticism, it was 
 within the spirit of the ordinance, and as Congress never disap- 
 proved of any territorial laws on that ground, and no court has 
 ever held such action invalid for that reason, the practical con- 
 struction of the powers of the Board has been in favor of their 
 action. 
 
 The territorial authorities at once created a county, known as 
 Wayne County, which included Northern Ohio, Indiana and 
 Illinois and all of Michigan and Eastern Wisconsin, which con- 
 tained settlements. The judicial system of the Northwest Terri- 
 tory became operative, and included the Supreme Court, Common 
 Pleas, Probate and Orphans' Courts, and Quarter Sessions. 
 Annual sessions of the Supreme Court were held at Detroit by 
 one of the Territorial Judges. The Common Pleas Court and 
 Quarter Sessions continued substantially as before, and with the 
 same judges and justices, who also performed probate duties. 
 Under all of the territorial systems, until the latter days of the 
 Territory, all local officers were appointed by the Governor. 
 
 For several years population increased slowly. The earliest 
 settlers included two lawyers, who became influential. Solomon 
 Sibley and Elijah Brush were the earliest members of the Bar 
 who came to Detroit. Both came directly from Ohio. Judge 
 Sibley came from Marietta, where he had gone to join that settle- 
 ment with several eminent soldiers of the Revolution, his wife, 
 whom he married after moving to Detroit, being a daughter of 
 Col. Ebenezer Sproat, and a granddaughter of Commodore Abra- 
 ham Whipple, the first American who obtained naval success 
 over British ships. Judge Sibley 'filled several public offices, 
 having been elected a delegate to the Legislature of the North- 
 west Territory in 1799, and afterwards appointed to the Council. 
 He was twice elected a delegate to Congress, and filled the office 
 of Judge of the Supreme Court during the latter years of the Ter- 
 ritory, He was one of the wisest and ablest men that ever lived 
 in Michiiran. 
 
AUDKEtJS UK HUN. .lAMES V. CAMrUEFJ.. l09 
 
 Col. Brush was Territorial Attorney General and Colonel of 
 one of the regiments surrendered by Hull in 1812, and was one 
 of the officers who proposed to deprive him of his command 
 before he gave up the post. Col. Brush was banished by Gen. 
 Proctor for remonstrating against his violation of the terms of the 
 surrender, and returned with (tcu. Harrison's army, but died 
 shortly after the re-occupation. 
 
 The experience under the Northwest Territory was too short to 
 leave any traces. In 1802 Michigan was made part of Indiana, 
 with no material change of legislation. Only one term of the 
 Supreme Court of that Territory was held in Detroit. In the 
 early part of 1805, the Territory of IMichigan was organized 
 under a counterpart of the Ordinance of 1787, and for the first 
 time we find a course of civil administration that left its mark on 
 our subsequent career. 
 
 The Ordinance of 1787, having been made the basis of the ter- 
 ritorial government, its legislature was in tlie fir.>t instance com- 
 posed of the Governor and Judges, who selected and adapted laws 
 from other States, and by degrees made up as full a code as the 
 necessities of the people required. 
 
 It had always been a matter of tlifHculty to decide just when or 
 how the legal and judicial system of Michigan became in accord- 
 ance with the principles of the common law of England, instead 
 of retaining some ))ortion of the French law. No absolute answer 
 can be given to this intjuiry, but the reason why this cannot be 
 given is because the change was not abrupt but gradual. The 
 chief interests of the French people, especially after the English 
 conquest, were connected with their landed estates. The best 
 mechanics were French, down to a modern period, but questions 
 arising out of their business were seldom litigated. After the 
 English possession most of the active business was in the hands 
 of traders who came from New York or ]\[ontreal, and whose 
 antecedents were British. The currency recognized in tliis region 
 was New York currency, of two dollars and a half to the pound 
 of twenty shillings, and i)rices were fixed in accordance with those 
 divisions until quite recently- The common-law rules of negotia- 
 ble paper came in with the traders, and the British government 
 business was all carried on upon a similar basis. The great bulk 
 of litigation involved commercial matters, and so far as personal 
 rights or crimes called for judicial action they were always after 
 
110 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 1763 decided by English law. The French methods of dealing 
 with lands had become quite analogous to our own. Although 
 their transactions were had before notaries, it was very common, 
 and latterly universal, to have the original deed (acte in brevet, 
 i. e. letters overt), signed by parties, witnesses and notary, either 
 executed in duplicate, or delivered to the grantee. English offi- 
 cials naturally found it easier to conform to their own familiar 
 methods. The Euglisli courts, when organized, adopted all the 
 common-law officers and formalities. When Upper Canada was 
 established the English law was formally recognized, and although 
 the British occupation after the treaty of peace is only regarded 
 by our jurisprudence as provisional, and the statutes passed 
 between the Revolution and our possession were not considered 
 binding on the Territory, nevertheless acts done under them have 
 been held valid, and the usages which grew up rendered it much 
 easier to go on in the same way than to attempt theoretical 
 changes. The Ordinance of 1787 itself created rules of inherit- 
 ance, and laws for making and recording deeds and wills ; and 
 while saving their old usages to the settlers at Kaskaskia, Vin- 
 cennes, and other places which had come within the actual con- 
 trol of Virginia, no such exemption was made as to any part of 
 Michigan. The courts had their jurisdiction directly measured 
 by the common law. Habeas corpus, trial by jury, and judicial 
 proceedings according to the course of the common law, were made 
 perpetual rights under the six articles of compact. The power 
 of the Governor and Judges to select statutes was confined to the 
 American States, all of which followed the common law. 
 
 It is safe to say, therefore, that when Michigan became a Ter- 
 ritory, it was already in all essential features a common-law 
 region. The courts assumed it, and that assumption has been 
 continued and universal. The traditions indicate that while some 
 of the ancient inhabitants now and then sighed for the old ways 
 of justice, it was not for the jurisdiction of French tribunals act- 
 ing under the custom of Paris, but for the arbitrary and summary 
 procedure of the commanding officers, who applied military 
 methods to the enforcement of contracts and the redress of 
 wrongs, with more respect to natural justice than to law. It took 
 the French inhabitants a long time to understand what they called 
 Yankee ways, although they had no great love for Great Britain, 
 
 The want of knowledge concerning the precise condition of the 
 
ADDRESS OK HON. .lAMKS \ . OAMlTiKLf,. Ill 
 
 French and English hind titles led to the judicious deterniinatiou 
 of Congress to require nil claims to be brought forward before 
 commissioners, and to contirni not merely perfect j)aper titles, but 
 all rights manifested by possession. Having in this way provided 
 for muniments of title derived in all cases from the United States, 
 the courts were delivered from inquiring into feudal and unfamiliar 
 rules and burdens, and all estates became complete allodial titles. 
 To complete the work the Governor and Judges put an end to any 
 further groping in the dark by formally repealing all remnants 
 of the French law, and of the outside legislation by England, 
 Canada, or the Northwest and Indiana Territories. This left no 
 statutes in force but acts of Congress and of Michigan Territory. 
 
 The Supreme Court was the only one directly created by the 
 territorial Organic Law, The laws adopted by the Governor 
 and Judges gave to justices of the peace power to try small civil 
 cases and to District Courts general jurisdiction up to $200, after- 
 wards enlarged to -^500, with appellate authority in the Supreme 
 Court which had the remaining jurisdiction at law and in equity. 
 Probate and other proceedings outside of the ordinary judicial 
 power were also transacted in the general courts till Probate 
 Courts were created. The Territory was not divided into counties 
 and townships until (piite late in its history. Four districts were 
 created, Erie, Detroit, Huron and Michilimackinac, and courts 
 held which were at Hrst presided over by a Judge of the Territory, 
 and afterwards by lay judges, a chief and two associates. There 
 were no elected ofticers, and no small territorial divisions except 
 highway districts. All process originally issued to the Territorial 
 Marshals. Except at Mackinaw, all the settlements were along 
 the water from the St. Clair River to Ohio. As the whole terri- 
 tory fell within the old County of Wayne, that necessarily became 
 dormant, and in process of time its rights in action were vested in 
 the Territory. In 1810 the District Courts were abolished and 
 their jurisdiction divided between the Supreme Court and justices 
 of the peace. 
 
 This condition continued until after the war, and no steps 
 were taken during Governor Hull's administration to bring about 
 any local self-government. Detroit was incorporated before the 
 creation of Michigan Territory. Michilimackinac, the next 
 borough organized, was established as a borough in 1817. Detroit 
 was made a citv in 180(). In 1S09 an itmiiihus-repealiug statute 
 
112 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 apparently included the charter, but whether lawfully or not is 
 doubtful. By an act of 1810 all of the acts of the Governor and 
 Judges passed between June 2, 1807, and September 10, 1810, 
 were repealed, as well as the Indiana and Northwest Territorial 
 laws. In 1815 a new charter was given to Detroit, and the old 
 repealing laws, so far as they were supposed to affect its original 
 corporate existence, were themselves repealed. There is some 
 mystery about all this legislation and counter legislation. The 
 city seems to have continued throughout to act as such, and it had 
 been recognized and provided for by act of Congress as the seat of 
 government, and special Congressional interference led to having 
 it laid out anew after its destruction in 1805. The conflicting 
 action of the governing board can only be accounted for as a part 
 of that disgraceful bickering which induced each faction, when in 
 a majority, to undo the work of its adversaries. 
 
 The personal character and antecedents of the early territorial 
 judges have been made so familiar by many writers that none but 
 a brief sketch would be justifiable. 
 
 The first appointments made were confirmed March 1, 1805, 
 and included Samuel Huntington of Ohio, Frederick Bates of 
 Michigan, and Augustus Brevoort Woodward of the District of 
 Columbia. The act of Congress made no pi'ovision concerning 
 precedence, but the territorial board enacted that the judge hav- 
 ing the earliest commission should always preside. Judge Hun- 
 tington did not accept the appointment. On the 23d of December 
 JohnGrifiin, one of the judges of Indiana was, at his own request, 
 as stated by Mr. Jefferson, nominated as judge. The Senate seem 
 to have found some difficulty in agreeing to the confirmation as 
 it was considered and postponed several times, but he was at last 
 confirmed March 29, 180G. 
 
 Although Judge Bates was named before him in the appoint- 
 ment and confirmation of the territorial judges, Judge Woodward 
 assumed to act as Chief Justice, but how his precedence was 
 obtained does not appear. Possibly his commission may have 
 issued first. Judge Griffin and Judge AVoodward made common 
 cause from the first, and Judge Griffin quarreled with Judge Bates 
 so that the latter resigned his office, and was subsequently made 
 Secretaiy of Louisiana Territory where his career was useful and 
 eminent. 
 
 Some difficulty was experienced in filling his place. In Febru- 
 
ADDKK.SS OK HON. .lAMKS V. (AMriJKIJ,. 113 
 
 ary, 1807, Johu Coburii of Keutucky was nominated and conlirmed, 
 but never accepted the office, and in the following November was 
 nominated and confirmed as a judge in Louisiana. At the .same 
 time Return Jonatlian Meig.s, Jr., was nominated i'oi- Miciiigan. 
 The President had appointed him during the recess of the Senate, 
 but he never sat in court. The nomination was rejected. The rea- 
 sons do not ap[)ear, but the Senate directed their action on this and 
 previous nominations of the same gentleman to be transmitted to 
 the Governor of Ohio, — a proceeding not usual and unexplained. 
 
 It was not until April, 1808, that a further nomination was 
 made of James Witheri'U who was confirmed without dilHcultv. 
 (Tovernor Hull's re-nomination at the same session led to a long 
 investigation during which various calls made on tiie President and 
 Secretary of War for the communication of papers and information 
 were fully responded to, and at last he was confirmed by a yea 
 and nay vote of 18 to 10. One chief ground of objection which 
 turned out to be unfounded, was a charge that he had used bills 
 of the Bank of Detroit to pay public dues after it had been abol- 
 ished by act of Congress. In this matter Judge Woodward, who 
 was the president of the bank, was the chief offender, and one of 
 the hottest conflicts that arose between him and Gov. Hull grew 
 out of an act to punish the circulation of illegal bank bills, 
 adopted in his absence by Gov. Hull and Judge Witherell against 
 the opposition of Judge Grittin. On the i6th of Septeuiber, 181U, 
 Woodward and Griffin being in a majority, by reason of Judge 
 WitherelTs absence, adopted a law^ repealing all acts passed between 
 June 2, 1807 and September 1, 1810, which inchnled the obnoxi- 
 ous acts passed during Woodw.ird's absence. In the controversies 
 several criminal prosecutions arose out of assaults upon and by 
 friends of the disputants, and grand juries under prompting under- 
 took at various times to present legislation as a nuisance and to 
 find [)resentments against both Governor Hull and the Chief 
 Justice, all of which were of course of no legal account. On 
 September 22, 1810, the grand jury having made some present- 
 ments of persons not named in the court records, the Chief Justice, 
 in spite of the law forbidding their disclosure of the action in 
 their consulting room, actually polled them and re(piired each to 
 answer whether he voted for the presentment. It is hard to con- 
 ceive a more audacious violation of law. 
 
 So long as Governor Iluirs administration ('(Hitinued, this 
 8 
 
114 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 unseemly controversy was kept up and entered into the court as 
 well as the Legislature. Judge Witherell was the only one who 
 retained public respect. He and Woodward were personally 
 hostile. If it had not been for Woodward's services to the citi- 
 zens of the Territory during the war, he would probably have 
 been impeached. Hull's demerits and Woodward's good conduct 
 then removed much bitterness, and under Gen. Cass* administra- 
 tion no demonstrations were made which produced general dis- 
 cord, although the court was not harmonious. 
 
 During the period before the war the court had to pass upon 
 some important questions, and displayed learning and ability. 
 The position of slaves held before Jay's Treaty within the Terri- 
 tory was decided to be the same as before, and several such per- 
 sons were remanded to their masters, but procured freedom by 
 crossing into Canada, whence they subsequently returned and 
 were not molested. But it was held that Canadian slaves coming 
 into Michigan could not be delivered up. Cases also arose under 
 the non-intercourse or embargo acts, and property imported at 
 Mackinaw was seized and forfeited. The court was also on one 
 occasion called on by the State Department to make inquiries 
 into the the tarring and feathering- of an obnoxious person who 
 came into the Territory from Canada to seize runaway slaves. 
 The case does not seem to have become a casus belli. There was 
 one class of cases where the records appear very discreditably. 
 Several British officers aided by some Americans kidnapped a 
 deserter from Canada by armed force and under very aggravated 
 circumstances, and on conviction were heavily sentenced. Upon 
 Judge Griffin's taking his seat, presumably by the majority thus 
 created over Judge Bates, all of these sentences were made nom- 
 inal and reduced to fines of a few cents. 
 
 The periods before and after the war of 1812 were so dift'erent 
 in the general current of affairs as to have very little resem- 
 blance. General Cass was disposed as far as possible to Amer- 
 icanize our methods, and open the way to local institutions. 
 Changes were also made in the judicial system The original 
 jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was confined to cases involving 
 more than ^1,000, excejjt in ejectment. County courts were 
 established having original jurisdiction (except in ejectment) in all 
 cases not exceeding $1,000, and not cognizable by justices. Until 
 tho Territory should contain more than one county, the County 
 
ADDRESS OK HOX. .(AMES V. CAMri'.F.r,!,. 115 
 
 Court was to be held in Detroit, the old District Court continuing 
 at Michiliinackinac, but iiowhei'e else. Judges of the County 
 courts consisted of one Chief and two Associate Justices, who 
 were usually (although not required to be) laymen, and who were 
 invariably business men in whom the people had confidence. 
 These courts, as long as they lasted, retained the public esteem- 
 None of the judges was a non-resident when appointed, and all 
 were familiar with the ways of their fellow-citizens. Their judg- 
 ments, although open to appeal, were generally acquiesced in. 
 Few courts have ever had men of higher character or wiser dis- 
 cretion than the Territorial County Judges. Sheriffs, coroners 
 and constables were {)rovided for in each county as it should be 
 established. These offi(;ers were all appointed by the Governor. 
 Michilimackinac and Prairie des Chiens were made corporate 
 boroughs in 1817 and 1821 with all ordinary municipal powers in 
 the hands of the citizens. Inn)risonment for debt was made less 
 rigorous, and the prison limits were made coincident with the 
 county. Monroe county was establi'shed by the Governor July 
 14, 1817, shortly before the expected visit of President Monroe, 
 who came to Di'troit in August. Wayne county had been 
 re-established November 1, 1815. Macomb county was set apart 
 January 15, 1818, Michilimackinac October 26, 1818, Oakland 
 January 12, 1819, St. Clair March 28, 1820, and Lapeer, Sani- 
 lac, Saginaw, Shiawassee, Washtenaw and Lenawee were defined 
 but not organized September 10, 1822. The present State of 
 Wisconsin was organized into Brown and Crawford counties on 
 the same day that Michilimackinac count}' was created. All 
 county officers were appointed. 
 
 In 1817, a Court of Quarter Sessions was created for purely 
 administrative purposes, composed of the County Judges and 
 Justices of the Peace. They were to transact the county business 
 and see to the assessments and raising of taxes. Thev were also 
 required to divide their counties into townships and report their 
 action to the Governor, who only could actually make the divis- 
 ion operative. The first townships were established in Wayne 
 county in pursuance of such recommendations January 5, 1818. 
 On the same day Gov. Cass ordered an election to determine 
 whether the inhabitants of the Territory desired to have a Terri- 
 torial Legislature, such as they were entitled to under the Onli- 
 nance of 1787. The people decided by a decisive majority 
 against assuming the responsibilities of self-government. 
 
116 .Michigan'^ semi-centennial. 
 
 County Commissioners appointed by the Governor afterwards 
 superseded the Quarter Sessions. 
 
 In 1823 a radical change was made in territorial aliairs. Con- 
 gress decided for the people, who AA'ould not choose for themselves, 
 that there should be a Territorial Legislature, differing from that 
 contem])lated by the Ordinance, but intended, to prepare for it. 
 Eighteen persons were to be elected, of whom nine should be 
 designated by the President, with the consent of the Senate, to 
 form a Legislative Council, with general powers, and with power 
 to submit to the people whether they would have a general assem- 
 bly of two houses, such as the Ordinance contemplated. The law 
 of 182o provided that thereafter the Territorial Judges should be 
 appointed for four years instead of during good behavior, and that 
 the existing judges should go out of office in February, 1824. 
 An act of Congress of 1825, empowered the Legislative Council 
 to divide the Territory into townships and allow them to elect 
 their own officers. It also provided for electing all county officers 
 except judges, justices of the peace, clerks and sheriffs. All 
 officers not elective or appointed by the President were to be 
 appointed by the Governor and Council. The numbers of the 
 Council were enlarged to thirteen. In 1827 the people were 
 allowed to elect their own Council without the intervention of the 
 President and Senate. This completed the territorial organiza- 
 tion, as the people never adopted the legislative system which 
 they were empowered to do under the Ordinance of 1787. 
 
 There is no doubt that the judges were legislated out of office 
 because they had become intolerable to the people. Judge 
 Witherell was the only one reappointed. Judge Woodward was 
 made Territorial Judge in Florida. Judge Griffin left the Terri- 
 tory. 
 
 The upper country being difficult of access, and the I'egionwest 
 of Lake Michigan having been attached to the Territory, provis- 
 sion was made January 30, 1823, whereby a judge should be 
 appointed by the United States to hold a court of original juris- 
 diction such as was exercised by both Supreme and County Courts 
 in Michilimackinac, Jirown and Crawford counties, with appeal 
 to the Supreme Court. The original jurisdiction of all the other 
 (!Ourts there was superseded. James Duane Doty, a gentleman 
 distinguished since in })ublic life, was made such judge, and held 
 office so long as the Territory existed. In the same year, 1823, 
 
ADDRESS OK HON. .IAM];s V. ( A M I'KKI.I,. 117 
 
 the building of ii Court House was begun in Detroit, uuder the 
 Congressional appropriation of lands near Detroit. This house 
 was built by Thomas Palmer, father of our present Senator, who 
 took the appropriated lands in payment. The building was used 
 by the Territory as a Court House and Council Chamber, and b}' 
 the State, without any ap|)arent authority, as a Capitol, to the 
 exclusion of the c<)urts. After the Capitol was fixed at Lansing 
 it was used for school purposes, with the authority finally secured 
 of the United States, the State and the city of Detroit. The first 
 uuion school in the State was held there and it afterwards became 
 the site of the Detroit High School. 
 
 The Supreme Court under the Congressional revision of the 
 territorial system was for the first time made subject to appellate 
 action by the Supreme Court of the United States. It consisted 
 of .Janie.< Withcrcll, Solomon Sibley and John Hunt, all, with 
 James Dnane Doty, appointee! January 19 and confirmed January 
 21, 1824, and all residents of the Territory. Judge Hunt ilied 
 before his term expired, and IIeni<y Chipman was appointed in 
 his place, and was confirmed December 27, 1827. On the 7th 
 day of January, 1828, Judge Sibley was re-nominated and William 
 Woodbridge, who had been Territorial Secretary, was nominated 
 to succeed »Iudge Witherell, who took his place as Secretary. All 
 were confirmed. 
 
 lu 1832 Judge Sibley continued in office by re-appointment, 
 and George Morell, of New York, and Ross Wilkins, of Pennsyl- 
 vania, neither of whom had ever been in Michigan, were appointed 
 and confirmed as successors of Judges Chipman and Woodbridge. 
 The court continued to consist of Judges Sibley, Morell and 
 Wilkins when the State was organized. All of the judges who 
 were in office after 1824 were sound lawyers and able magistrates, 
 and have left behind tlu'in honorable memories and a system 
 which was largely their work. 
 
 l)y a law of l'^27, |)assed ^Vpril 13, Circuit Courts were created 
 with appellate jurisdiction ovei' County Courts, and I'c^ncurrent 
 original jurisdiction with them up to §1,000, and exclusive beyond 
 it, in cases of common law. IJoth courts had criminal jurisdic- 
 tion. .V Juilge of the Supreme (!ourt held the Circuit Court of 
 each county. A{)ril 15, 1833, a new system of Circuit Courts was 
 created. All the counties east of Lake Michigan but Wavue 
 county were to be one circuit. A Circuit Judge, who must be a 
 
118 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 lawyer, was to preside throughout the circuit in each county, and 
 two associate judges in each county, who might be laymen, were 
 to hold the Circuit Court for their counties with the Circuit Judge. 
 Any two might act, except on trials of felony, when the Circuit 
 Judge must be present. These courts had equity as well as law 
 powers, and general original jurisdiction, the County Courts being 
 abolished. The old Circuit Courts presided over by Supreme 
 Court Judges were retained and called Superior Circuit Courts, 
 with appellate jurisdiction over the new ones. At the same session 
 a full statute was passed giving chancery powers to the Supreme 
 and Circuit Courts, and making a very complete and thorough 
 system of procedure which was the basis of our subsequent legis- 
 lation on chancery procedure. It was prepared, as it is under- 
 stood, under the direction of Elon Farnsworth, the subsequent Chan- 
 cellor. Provision was also made then and subsequently for fixing 
 the county seats of the annexed country east and west of the Missis- 
 sippi. Wayne and Brown counties retained their County Courts 
 as well as their Circuit Courts. In January, 1835, the office of 
 the Register of Probate, who had been not only vested with some 
 probate jurisdiction, but also with the duty of recording deeds, 
 was abolished, and his powers were divided between Judges of 
 Probate and County Registers. 
 
 On the 12th of February, 1835, a very severe criminal act was 
 passed to punish the exercise of any foreign jurisdiction within 
 the Territory. This was the beginning of the active measures to 
 exclude encroachments on our southern boundary. 
 
 No further changes were made in the judicial system of the 
 Territory. 
 
 On the 26th day of January, 1835, an act was passed to enable 
 the people of Michigan to form a constitution and State govern- 
 ment. Referring to the Ordinance of 1787 and subsequent legis- 
 lation fixing the boundaries of the State to be erected, and author- 
 izing its admission when having a })opulation of sixty thousand 
 free inhabitants, this statute recited that by legislative authority 
 it had been ascertained that there were 87,273 free inhabitants 
 within those limits. It then provided that the free white male 
 inhabitants over twenty-one years old within those limits should 
 elect delegates to a convention to meet at Detroit on the second 
 Monday of May. On the 27th of March provision was made 
 that any citizens ordered into military service might vote in any 
 district where they should be. 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. .lAMES V. CAMI'BKI.L. ll'.> 
 
 This convention met ^May 11, and on -June 2*J finished its work 
 by adopting a constitution which was to be voted on upon the 
 first Monday of October, KS3o. At the same election a (iovernor, 
 Lieutenant-Governor, members of" the State Legislature and Rep- 
 resentative in Congress were to be elected. In case the constitu- 
 tion should be adopted, the Legislature was to meet on the first 
 Monday of November. 
 
 The judicial system of the Territory was to remain in f)rce until 
 superseded by State legislation. 
 
 The Constitution was adopted. Stevens T. Mason was elected 
 Governor, and Edmund Muiuly, Lieuteuant-Governor. Isaac E. 
 Crary was elected Representative in Congress for the State. The 
 Legislature met on the appointed day, and on the 10th of Novem- 
 ber, 1835, passed a resolution for the election of Senators. Lucius 
 Lyon and John Norvell were elected, Mr. Lyon by both houses, 
 and Mr. Norvell by majority in joint convention. The Senate 
 was Whig, and the House Democratic. Major John Biddle? 
 who was President of the Conventio«, had a majority of four in 
 the Senate, and Mr. Norvell a majority of seven in the House. 
 
 After some necessary financial legislation the Legislature 
 adjourned until February, 1836. Law^s were passed at the extra 
 session to organize the Supreme and Circuit courts, and a court 
 of Chancery, to come into existence after July 4, 1836, when the 
 jurisdiction of the territorial courts was to cease. 
 
 When the Constitution of l^oo was adopted, the Territory of 
 Michigan had received so large an increase of population from 
 other parts of the United States that the whole public system had 
 become orderly and adapted to all conditions of local self-govern- 
 ment. Counties, townships, road and school districts, and all the 
 the judicial machinery corresponded substantially with what might 
 be found in New York or New England. In the main things had 
 been patterned after New York, from which the largest immigra- 
 tion had come. l>ut the territorial officers were always inclined to 
 perpetuate their own early institutions, and as they were of various 
 origins, the result naturally followed that there were some incon- 
 gruities. New York and Massachusetts finally lent more than 
 all the other States, and there are still easily detected systematic 
 portions of legislation traced to those separate sources. Particular 
 statutes were borrowed from all sources. 
 
 It became necessary at various times during the territorial period 
 
120 :\[ichigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 to gather together the scattered laws, which had become confused 
 by the careless methods of the first period of Governor and Judges, 
 and still more so by the independent way in which Judge Wood- 
 ward and his ally, Judge Griffin, disregarded all laws which they 
 did not fancy. Between the organization of the Territory and 
 the adoption of the State Constitution there were five diflferent 
 collections published, and of these none prior to 1827 was complete. 
 In 1806 a collection was made, including thirty-four laws passed 
 in 1805, which was accurate as far as it went, but which gave no 
 light concerning the old laws in force. The condition of things 
 was not very favorable for enabling the people to understand the 
 laws. There were very few in the Territory who understood 
 English. There were no newspapers and no other means of 
 spreading intelligence. This volume was printed in Washington, 
 and was not published until many more statutes had been adopted, 
 some of which materially altered the former ones. Between this 
 time and 1816 the changes became numerous, and the conflicts 
 and inconsistencies very great. Of this new legislation much was 
 never published at all, and remained unknown. Most of the acts 
 were not brought to public knowledge for long periods, and many 
 were repealed before any one ever heard of them. Eighty were 
 never put in print, so far as known, until 188-4, when they were 
 published in a supplementary volume to the recent reprint of 
 territorial statutes. Nothing but tiie healing power of time, and 
 the operation of limitation laws, has prevented the ignorance of 
 some of these enactments from working mischief. 
 
 In 1816 a synoptical arrangement of the substance of the laws 
 supposed to be in force in that year was printed. Very few pro- 
 visions were printed in full, and several statutes were not found. 
 
 In 1820 the condition of affairs was brought to the attention of 
 Congress. That body appropriated twelve hundred and fifty dol- 
 lars, and required all laws in force to be published together, under 
 the supervision of the territorial authorities. At that time Wil- 
 liam Woodbridge was Secretary, afterwards Judge, Governor and 
 State Senator. The result was a well edited compilation, then 
 supposed to be complete, of existing laws, known as the Compila- 
 tion of 1821. The Legislative Council, which held its first session 
 in 1824, caused the session laws to be published regularly, but it 
 was discovered that acts still existed which were not in print, or 
 not known, and litigation frequently arose which brought out 
 
ADDKESS OF HON. .lAMES V. CAMI'liKLL. 121 
 
 surprises. To put an end to this mischief it was determined to 
 supersede all the existing volumes l)y a new and complete revision. 
 
 On the 21st of April, 1625, a resolution was adopted appoint- 
 ing William Woodhridge, Abraham Edwards, John Stockton, 
 Wolcott Laurence and William A. Fletcher a (lonunission to 
 revise the laws. Asa M. Rol)ins(>n was afterwards put in place of 
 Mr. Woodbridge, who resigned. 'I'he resolution very careliilly 
 indicated what rides should govern the work, which were in sul)- 
 stance these : All acts concerning the same subject were to be 
 digested into one act. The commission was authorized to follow 
 the principles of existing acts or to make such alterations and 
 additions as should be deemed ex|)edient. l^nnecessary acts 
 might be left out, and deficiencies supplied. The result was to be 
 certified to the Legislature for consideration. 
 
 The commission prepared what is now known as the Revision 
 of 1827, in which, while substantially conforming in most things 
 to the old system, nearly all important measures were put in the 
 shape of new, separate enactments, drawn with skill and leaving 
 out very few things of consequence. It was enacted substantially 
 as reported, and in order to prevent any further evils from igno- 
 rance, it was provided that all acts not therein specified should be 
 repealed. The Territory thus had for the first time a complete 
 code of all its existing laws. In lSo3 a smaller compilation was 
 })ublished, including some later statutes and some reprints of older 
 ones. Most of the legislation after 1827 was special, but some 
 general laws were passed, the most important of which was a ten- 
 years limitation law, applicable only to existing cases, and con- 
 taining no saving clauses. The ])revious laws had failed to cover 
 the whole ground, and antiipiated land claims, with no particular 
 e(]uities, had been used in some cases for extortion. 
 
 The new Legislature went to work vigorously to complete the 
 State organization. Although Congress kept the State waiting for 
 recognition and admission to representation for more than a year 
 the local government has always been recognized as beginning in 
 the fall of 1835, and the whole machinery of general and local 
 business was arranged by legislation adopted in the early part of 
 1836, or in 1835. 
 
 Provision was made for the appointment of all necessary public 
 officers and the organization of courts, and all the business was to 
 be transferred from the Territorial to the State courts after July 
 
122 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 4, 1836, at which time, under the action of Congress, Wisconsin 
 became a detached Territory. All the old courts were abolished. 
 The Constitution made no direct requirement concerning any courts 
 but the Supreme and Probate courts. It had provisions bearing 
 upon County and Circuit courts if any should be established. Full 
 order was given concerning Justices of the Peace. All county 
 officers but Prosecuting Attorneys were made elective. These were 
 appointed as State officers, and were evidently treated as repre- 
 senting State interests, and named with the Attorney General. 
 All State officers and State judges were appointed by the Governor 
 and Senate. 
 
 The courts of record which were provided for were the Supreme, 
 Circuit and Probate Courts, with substantially the same powers 
 as the old courts except in equity. A separate Court of Chancery 
 was established, from which an appeal lay to the Supreme Court. 
 Pending cases were transferred to the new courts. The judges and 
 chancellor were appointed by the Governor and Senate for periods 
 of seven years. 
 
 The first Supreme Court consisted of William A. Fletcher, 
 Chief Justice, and George Morell and Epaphroditus Ransom, As- 
 sociate Justices. Each was assigned to a circuit. Wayne, Ma- 
 comb, St. Clair, Lapeer, Michilimackinac and Chippewa, with the 
 country attached to each, formed the first circuit, presided over by 
 Judge Morell. Monroe, Lenawee, Washtenaw, Oakland, Saginaw, 
 Jackson and Hillsdale formed the second circuit, alloted to Chief 
 Justice Fletcher. Judge Ransom held the courts in the third cir- 
 cuit, consisting of Branch, St. Joseph, Cass, Berrien, Kalamazoo, 
 Allegan, Calhoun and Kent, with attached territory. One term 
 of the Supreme Court was held annually in Wayne, Washtenaw, 
 and Kalamazoo. Terras of the Circuit Courts were held once or 
 more annually in each county. Two Associate Judges were elected 
 in each county every four years to sit in the Circuit Court, but in 
 case of their absence a judge of the Supreme Court could sit alone. 
 These associates were not generally lawyers. 
 
 Judge Sibley for personal reasons did not desire an appointment 
 to the State bench. He was a man of great ability and wisdom, 
 and had universal confidence. He lived to advanced age. The 
 Chief Justice was an old resident of the Territory who had held 
 judicial <jffice and had done most of the work of the compilation of 
 1827. Judge Morell had been nominated by President Jackson, 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. JAMES V. CAMl'iiELL. 123 
 
 witli Judge Williams, to succeed Judges Chipruan and Wo(jd- 
 bridge in 1832. He \va.s a native of" Berkshire county, Massa- 
 chusetts, but received most of his legal training in New York, 
 where he was a fellow student with Governor Marcy «'iiid Chan- 
 cellor Walworth, and where he obtained a good reputation at the 
 IJar and in various offices in ])ul)lic life. He was one of the most 
 thorouglily trained common Jawyei's in the State, and ti'ansacted 
 business with readiness and accuracy. His circuit was tlie most 
 laborious of all, and his work was promptly and well done. 
 Upon the resignation of Judge Fletcher in 1842 he was made 
 Chief Justice for the remainder of his term. Judge Ransom came 
 to Michigan not flir from the time of the close of the territorial 
 period, having been a successful practitioner in New England. 
 At the close of his first term in 1843 he was made Chief Justice 
 to succeed Judge Morell, and continued to fill the office until he 
 became Governor flanuary 1, 1843. He was much respected for 
 ability and uprightness and exercised his judicial functions accept- 
 ably to the people and the Bar. He \V'as a man of good common 
 sense as well as legal sufficiency, and had great personal popu- 
 larity. 
 
 Judge Wilkins was appointed District Judge of the United 
 States for the District of Michigan several months in advance of 
 the final admission of the State, and did not become a member of 
 the State judiciary. He remained in office until 1870, when he 
 retired on full pay, having reached and passed his three score 
 years and ten, and having served thirty-eight years on the bench 
 in Michigan. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention 
 of 1835, ar.d of the regularly elected convention which in 1836 
 rejected the proposition of Congress to give up the disputed terri- 
 tory to Ohio, in exchange for so much of the Upper Peninsula 
 as was not within the State boundaries. He was also one of the 
 persons who called shortly thereafter the irregular body known 
 as the Frostbitten Convention, that undertook to accept the (Con- 
 gressional scheme on their own responsibility, and got the State 
 into the Union through the back door. He took an interest in 
 most public matters, and was a very useful regent of the univer- 
 sity. In private life he was genial and humorous. 
 
 The first (Chancellor, Ellon Farnsworth, was admirably fitted 
 for his office. He was a thorough scholar as well as lawyer, with 
 cool judgment and an intuitive knowledge of men, and an enlight- 
 
124 MICHIGAN S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 ened sense of justice. Under his careful administration the equity 
 system became well adapted to the necessities of the community, 
 and divested of unreasonable conditions and vexatious delay. 
 Very few of his decrees were reversed, and still less ought to have 
 been. He belonged to the same class of wise and sensible jurists 
 as Chancellor Kent, whom in character and attainments he closely 
 resembled. He gave up liis office before his term expired and was 
 succeeded by Randolph Manning, who him.self resigned in 1846 
 upon the action of the Legislature looking to the abolition of the 
 court, and Chancellor Farnsworth reluctantly accepted a reap- 
 pointment in the hope at the Bar that his popularity might induce 
 the restoration of that tribunal. The tide, however, had set in 
 another direction and could not be turned. Chancellor Manning 
 was an able and upright judge, who had filled other offices use- 
 fully and made an excellent Chancellor. Unfortunately during 
 his term there was great occasion for severity in dealing with a 
 good many frauds and corporate insolvencies growing out of the 
 general business disasters, and he became more or less obnoxious 
 to some influential persons who opposed him strenuously. With 
 all his firmness and positiveness he was a warm hearted and gen- 
 erous man, who was held in the strongest esteem by those who 
 knew him best. 
 
 At the beginning of the State existence legal proceedings, 
 although somewhat simplified, retained a great deal of unneces- 
 sary prolixity and technicality. The statutes of amendments 
 were reasonably liberal, but special pleading still prevailed, and 
 while notices might be used instead of pleas, the practice was so 
 strict that very little was gained by it. Judge Morell and Chief 
 Justice Fletcher were both thoroughly trained in legal dialectics, 
 and opposed to any laxity in pleading or practice, having been 
 educated where such things were regarded as of great importance. 
 In the project of his Revision of 183(S, Judge Fletcher seemed 
 disposed to go back rather than to advance in liberality of ])rac- 
 tice. Judge Ransom, while careful in his practice, was much 
 less inclined to excessive strictness. Fortunately it happened not 
 long after the courts were organized that the English courts 
 adopted a series of rules for the simplification of pleading and 
 practice, that was found so great an improvement as to induce 
 the best members of our Bar to urge their adoption here. The 
 struggle was a sharp one, but liberality prevailed. The Revision 
 
ADDKKSS OF HON. .lAMKS V. CAMl'lIEFJ,. 125 
 
 of 1838 made such provisions iu regard to lees that it was an 
 object for every practitioner to make his papers as prolix and his 
 action as dilatory as possible. Declarations containing from fifty 
 counts upward w^ere not unknown, and as every folio added very 
 considerably to the fee bill, it was not uncommon for some lawyers 
 to make an effort to lengthen their papers as far as possible, and to 
 use every opportunity to make motions and dilatory proceedings. 
 In spite of this there were enough among the abler members of 
 the Bar to push forward the measures of reform. In 18-10 a 
 statute wa*^ passed which reduced taxable costs to a dead level, 
 and a very low one. This no doubt had some effect in helping 
 on simplification, and the change went on steadily and intelli- 
 gently, until it would be difficult to devise a system which reaches 
 results as raj)idly or as easily as our own. 
 
 One of the incidents of what have been called the flush times, 
 was an idea that values might be created on paper out of very little 
 material. Lands were bought at low prices and supposed by the 
 process of platting to increase in value' fifty or a hundred fold. 
 Corporations were created for all manner of purposes, with no per- 
 sonal responsibility, and with capital fixed by inflated rates, 
 Banks sprang u[) in every village and hamlet, and sometimes with 
 no discoverable habitation. A neatly engraved bill, issued by a 
 chartered corporation, was assumed to be good without inquiring 
 into the character or standing of its originators. The abundance 
 of this easily obtained wealth led to speculation and extravagance, 
 and the facilities for obtaining credit gavi' many rogues a plausible 
 footing. Naturally frauds multi})lied. The Court of Chancery 
 was crowded with litigation, and when the crash came, all the 
 courts were overburdened. 
 
 One of the first things called to the attention of the Legislature 
 by the Governor, was the importance of revising and consolidating 
 the laws. On the 8th of March, I806, an act w^as passed appoint- 
 ing William A. Fletcher, then acircuit judge and afterwards chief 
 justice of the Supreme Court, to prepare, digest and arrange a 
 code of laws for the government of this State, and that he report 
 the result of his labors to the Legislature on th(> first Monday of 
 January, 1837. 
 
 The report ^vas not ready, and on the 21st of March, 1837, a 
 fi'.rther resolution was passed extending the time until the 9th of 
 Novend)er, l'S37. and authoiiziug him to report the laws digested 
 
126 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 in the shape of separate bills. That was the course which he 
 pursued in 1827, each subject being then dealt with by itself, and 
 no arbitrary or other arrangement being made into chapters, 
 books or titles. On the same day another resolution was passed 
 requesting the Commissioner not to embody the principle of impris- 
 onment for debt in the system of consolidated laws, but to provide 
 for issuing summary proce.ss to commence suits, and speedy execu- 
 tion, In November, 1837, the Legislature met to consider the 
 report of the Commissioner, and finally adopted his action with 
 little modification and hardly any scrutiny. 
 
 The result was unfortunate. It was intended that no serious 
 change should be made in the statutes. If this plan had been 
 carried out no confusion would have arisen. But the reviser 
 shaped matters very much to suit himself, and the fact that the 
 chapters were first introduced separately prevented the Legisla- 
 ture from discovering all the changes and omissions. In some 
 instances he directly disregarded positive instructions, and the 
 deviation was not discovered till afterwards. He paid no atten- 
 tion — as they supposed he had attended — to the directions con- 
 cerning imprisonment for debt, and the law as he reported it was 
 as severe as ever. He restored the system of County Commis- 
 sioners, who had been for ten years replaced by the Board of 
 Supervisors. He made no provision whatever for the regulation 
 of the State prison. He omitted the very necessary provisions for 
 proceeding against corporations in chancery, and did not provide 
 any statutory means, legal or equitable, for winding them up. 
 The provisions for executing and recording deeds were left in 
 great disorder. He omitted the old provisions for allowing notices 
 instead of special pleas. Many omissions were afterwards dis- 
 covered in the details of business in courts and elsewhere concern- 
 ing testimony and other essentials, and the various officers and 
 their powers auxiliary to judicial action. The non-imprisonment 
 of debtors and the equitable control of failing corporations were 
 at that time as imjiortant questions as any that could be found. 
 
 The haste with which this revision was prepared and adopted 
 rendered it very unsatisfactory. It was ordered to go into effect 
 August 1, 1838, and in the meantime it required arranging, print- 
 ing and indexing. Before it was ready for the printer's hands 
 some further changes and additions became necessary. 
 
 The previous revisions had been arranged in natural order by 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. .lAMES V. CAMIT.KLL. 127 
 
 subjects, and sometimes alphabetically. The arrangement of this 
 code was left to the two commissioners appointed by the Gover- 
 nor. E. Burke Harrington and Elijah ,]. Roberts were selected 
 for this purpose. Mr. Harrington was a lawyer who had before 
 leaving New York been one of the compilers of an excellent 
 chancery digest. He was the first State reporter of Michigan. 
 ^Ir. Roberts was a gentleman of experience in journalism and an 
 accomplished writer and editor. By reason of illness Mr. 
 Roberts could do very little, and Mr. Harrington was obliged to 
 complete the task nearly unaided, except more or less by the 
 reviser. He brought to his task a profound admiration for the 
 complicated divisions and sub-divisions of the New York revised 
 statutes, and parcelled out the contents into parts, titles, chapters 
 and sections, so that every citation had to be made with four 
 references. To those unused to such a roundabout way of point- 
 ing out what was meant to be indicated, this was annoying and 
 liable to lead to slips and blunders. When the book was out and 
 distributed the legislative session of 1839 was near at hand, and 
 before it met the defects of the new code were apparent to every 
 one. The time of the Legislature was largely taken up that 
 winter in rectifying the mistakes, supplying the deficiencies, and 
 undoing the unwise provisions of the unfortunate code, so that 
 the session laws of 1839 not only contained many detached 
 amendatory acts, but also embody one very long omnibus act 
 which referred to nearly all parts of the book as subject to modi- 
 fication. The changes of that year were not the legislation that 
 is so common which alters without much reason and without pre- 
 serving congruity. It was almost entirely, if not altogether, 
 necessary to make th6 statutes what the Legislature originally 
 supposed or meant them to be. 
 
 There was no meeting of the Legislature from that time until 
 1846, when further amendments in considerable numbers were 
 not made, and when many of them were not needed. It was 
 more difficult than ever before to know what the statutes provided 
 on the ordinary affairs of life. In 184(5 anew revision was made 
 which contained radical changes in the law. 
 
 The courts which were organized in 1886 worked smoothly and 
 the system was satisfactory. With the exception of a local crim- 
 inal court in Wayne and the adjoining counties, over which 
 Judge Chipniun presided which was afterwards cut down to 
 
128 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Wayue county unci held by Judge Benjamin F. H. Witherell — 
 no new tribunals were erected, although some special cases were 
 provided for, and the criminal jurisdiction of justices was for a 
 time in courts of special sessions instead of single justices. Proposals 
 were now and then made by zealous reformers to popularize liti- 
 gation and confine it to courts not supposed to be hampered by 
 any blind adherence to law. But these notions passed aw-ay. In 
 1838 it was found necessary to enlarge the judicial force, and 
 Charles W. Whipple was added to "the Supreme bench and a 
 fourth Circuit was created over which he presided. Alpheus 
 Felch succeeded Judge Fletcher in his Circuit, and Daniel Good- 
 win took the place of Judge Morell. Judge Felch and Judge 
 Goodwin are still among us in the full vigor of their mental 
 powers. Judge Felch, who had previously been Auditor General, 
 was, during his judicial term, elected Governor, and then United 
 States Senator, and still later Commissioner to investigate laud 
 titles in California, and in all of his life has been distinguished 
 for diligence, capacity and fidelity. Judge Goodwin who has 
 also filled several important Federal and State offices by appoint- 
 ment or election, resigned his position on the Supreme Court 
 bench after a comparatively short service. He was afterwards 
 President of the Second Constitutional Convention, Judge of the 
 District Court of the Upper Peninsula till it became a Circuit, 
 and thereafter Circuit Judge through various terms, retiring at 
 the last judicial election after a long and houorable^service seldom 
 equalled. The old Supreme and Circuit Court system continued 
 until the C^onstitution of 1850, Judges AVarner AVing, Abner 
 Pratt, Sanford M. Green, George Miles, Edward Mundy and 
 George Martin at various times forming part of it. Judge Mundy, 
 the first Lieutenant Governor, was appointed as a fifth judge in 
 1848. In 1849, by a constitutional amendment submitted and in 
 due time adopted, the office was made elective, and George Mar- 
 tin was the only member of that court who was elected and not 
 appointed. 
 
 In 1845 Sanford JM. Green was appointed to prepare a new 
 revision. His work, which was very deliberately and carefully 
 prepared and homogeneous, was presented to the Legislature of 
 1846, conveniently divided in continuous chapters. It was not a 
 propitious time for careful consideration. Several disturbing ele- 
 ments were present. In that winter the Legislature discussed and 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. .(AMKS V. CAMIM5KI.I,. 129 
 
 decided on the policy of selling the works of internal improve- 
 ment which had been partially completed. 'I'he Mi(;higan Cen- 
 tral and Southern Railroads were disposed of to private corpora- 
 tions, and a reduction thereby made in the State debt. The Upper 
 Peninsula was coming into notice in consequence of the location 
 of mining property, and there was considerable discussion of its 
 necessities, and counties were organized within it. The discussion 
 of the removal of the State Capital had not yet begun within the 
 Legislature, but it was not left out of sight entirely. New corpo- 
 rate enterprises were springing up everywhere, and much time 
 was spent in dealing with their special charters. The session was 
 a very busy one, and some relief as well as amusement was Ibund 
 in the final disposition of Lewis E. Bailey's claim for a horse lost 
 in the Toledo war, which had been persistently urged annually, at 
 the cost of much time and patience, and was now allowed. 
 
 The session was emj)haticaily a debating one, and Judge Green's 
 symmetrical revision was robbed of much of its coinj)leteness, and 
 changed with small regard to its hacnjony. The most striking 
 changes consisted in abolishing the Court of Chancery, and in 
 creating County Courts with elected first and second judges, 
 having a general original common-law jurisdiction, civil and 
 criminal. The chancery business was transferred to the Circuit 
 Courts. The effect of this sudden revolution at the time was very 
 bad. The equity business was large and important. It was uni- 
 formly made to give way to the common-law business, all cases 
 being then tried by jury, and it became sul)ject to tlie delays 
 which have been proverbial in some other regions, but which did 
 not exist under our thorough chancellors. It w^as also subject to 
 another railical mischief The Chancery liar had up to that time 
 included but a small percentage of the lawyers, and required a sepa- 
 rate and thorough examination for admission. Many able common 
 lawyers knew nothing of equity, and even some\)f the judges had 
 given it less attention than was desirable. The clerks elected for 
 each county, with no professional knowledge, became at once 
 ex-officio registers in chancery, and every attorney became a 
 solicitor and counsellor in equity. For several years the interests 
 of suitors were severely tried. It took a long time to get the 
 mixed practice into good working order. The County Courts 
 turned out badly. In some counties where business was large 
 and the right men accepted office, those courts worked reasonably 
 9 
 
130 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 well. lu inauy counties less care was taken and they did not 
 approve themselves to the public sense. In the beginning the 
 judges were paid by fees, and this injured the standing of the 
 tribunals. This was afterwards changed, and they received fixed 
 compensation. Upon the whole, in spite of the good service of 
 some excellent judges, there was no lamentation when these courts 
 ceased to exist. The experiment was one which it was perhaps 
 well to try. But the changed conditions of business, and the 
 necessity of having courts frequently open and judges who must 
 devote much time to their work, rendered it impracticable to 
 revive the old lay courts, where business men found it no sacrifice 
 to attend short sessions while spending most of their time in their 
 own affairs. The courts organized did not as a rule have either 
 the best laymen or the best lawyers to conduct them. Few 
 important cases ended there, and they served to enable suitors to 
 get one more delay in the progress of litigation, and to encourage 
 vexatious defences. Every separate tribunal, intervening between 
 the beginning and the end of controversy, has the inevitable ten- 
 dency to induce parties who wish time to prosecute appeals, which 
 would never have been taken unless delay was profitable. 
 
 Capital punishment was abolished by the Revision of 1847, and 
 then, as now, there was much difference of sentiment upon it. 
 
 The State began to recover from its poverty in 1843 and 1844, 
 and before 1850 was on the way to prosperity. Between 1846 
 and 1850 the election of judges was much discussed, and in 1849 
 it was enacted by constitutional amendment that thenceforward 
 all judges should be elective. The Constitutional Convention of 
 1850 which adopted our present Constitution, contained a very 
 large number of members zealous for novelty. It also had many 
 of the most experienced and statesmanlike citizens of the State. 
 A natural result was that some very radical changes were made 
 but little, if anything, which could be called revolutionary affected 
 judicial matters. The most unpleasant features were a too great 
 attention to details in grants and limitations of power, which have, 
 on some occasions, endangered the public welfare for lack of dis- 
 cretionary authority in the Legislature. Attempts to fix salaries 
 and some other things which depend very much for their ade- 
 quacy on changing circumstances, have led to some evil. But a 
 thing which struck many j)ersons unpleasantly was the number of 
 provisions which seem to indicate that it was supposed the people 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. JAMES V. CAMIMIKI.I,. 131 
 
 coiiKl not trust their agents and representatives. There are few 
 constitutions which have led to so mucli litigation concerning the 
 validity of legislation. Much of this difficulty has been modified 
 or removed by the lapse of time and the instinctive adaptation of 
 popular ways to their surroundings. It has, as a whole, been a 
 useful instrument. The evident unwillingness of the people to 
 give it up entirely for a new one shows that it is thought better to 
 amend than supersede it. There are two important provisions 
 which bear upon the statutes. One forbade the passing of laws 
 with double objects or misleading titles, confining every act to 
 the single purpose suggested by its title. This was an excellent 
 rule and has prevented some frauds and much heedless legislation. 
 The other prohibited revisions of the statutes, and authorized com- 
 piled reprints of existing laws when needed. Such a compilation 
 was authorized and carried out by Judge Cooley in 1857, whose 
 excellent arrangement, based on the Revision of 1816 as far as 
 practicable, was adopted in the second compilation of 1871, by 
 Judge Dewey. A private enterprise since of Judge HowelTs on 
 the same plan but annotated further, is in general use and well 
 executed. 
 
 The repeal of the constitutional re(|uirement of prosecutions 
 of crime by grand juries has led since to a practical abandon- 
 ment of that system, although not absolutely abolished. The 
 present generation can hardly appreciate either side of the argu- 
 ment. The assaults made upon the system as inquisitorial are in 
 direct variance with the fact that it has been generally insisted on 
 as a safeguard against official oppressions. The average American 
 freeholder is not the stuti" inquisitors are made of. It is certainly 
 a questionable policy which makes the prosecution of criminals 
 depend upon the will of a single Justice of the Peace and a Prose- 
 cuting Attorney. In many cases it probably is not of much 
 importance. But experience has shown that there are some 
 classes of crimes and some classes of criminals against which the 
 public itself requires the aid of the substantial and fearless 
 tribunal of accusation. There are powerful single and banded 
 criminals against whom injured parties are afraid to complain 
 before a magistrate, and who are known in every large community 
 to count on their immunity from prosecution. Crimes against the 
 election laws, which are the most dangerous of all in their public 
 tendency, are of very frequent occurrence, and are very seldom 
 
132 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 complained of. The inefficiency of such grand juries as are now 
 and then suninKnied is chiefly due to their inexperience. If the 
 law required them to be summoned often enough to make their 
 duties familiar, they would be a very great help to putting down 
 crime, and inspire a wholesome caution in presumptuous wrong- 
 doers. 
 
 The provision which allows cases to be heard by judges without 
 juries, whei'e parties do not choose to call them, has never been 
 complained of. There are many cases where a jury would be of 
 no service. The right to demand one ought never to be denied, 
 and there are cases where the intervention of a body of ordinary 
 men dealing only with facts is essential to justice. 
 
 There is one constitutional provision which has never been car- 
 ried out, and which deserves serious consideration. That is the 
 provision which declares that " the Legislature may establish 
 courts of conciliation with such powers and duties as shall be 
 prescribed by law." It seems to have been supposed that so long 
 as parties can arbitrate they need no other friendly tribunal. But 
 where courts of conciliation exist it may be and frequently is 
 made obligatory to resort to them in the first instance, even if par- 
 ties should not be absolutely bound thereafter to abstain from fur- 
 ther litigating; and a fair decision once made will have an eflect 
 in bringing parties to reason. 
 
 Those who have watched the course and causes of litigation 
 know that a great share of it arises from misunderstanding. This 
 is particularly so in matters arising out of agreements, and larger 
 or smaller business relations. We do not ap})reciate the fact that 
 while no rule of law can have more than one true meaning it is not 
 only possible but common for men to enter upon business relations 
 with each other without having in their minds any complete identity 
 of understanding. While courts and the State cannot under ordi- 
 nary cirumstances release any one from the obligation of informing 
 himself what the law is, yet in law, as in all other sciences, the defini- 
 tions are apt to be understood in the light of previous impressions 
 upon the meaning of words and phrases, and the same maxim 
 does not present the same idea to all minds. The most important 
 advantage of the jury system is that juries understand and apply 
 rules as they are commonly understood by the mass of society, and 
 so harmonize legal obligations with the general sense of mankind. 
 The beauty of the common law is that it is not abstract, but is 
 
ADDRESS OF lloN. .IA>[i:s V. ('A>ri'l*.KI,I,. 133 
 
 found iu practical applications of right and duty. In a simple state 
 of society there are very few things which all intelligent persons 
 do not understand far enough to escape serious peril. But with 
 the advances and changes of society it very often happens that men 
 become separated in their habits and dealings, so that while famil- 
 iar with their own surroundings they know little of what is done 
 by those iu other pursuits. The landsman knows nothing of sea- 
 faring business. The farmer knows nothing of mines and not very 
 much of complicated manufacturing industries. The mutual rights 
 and duties of those engaged in one calling can seldom be exactly 
 the same as those relating to others. The great fundamental prin- 
 ciple that the duty owed by one to another usually must be deter- 
 mined by circumstances as they ap})ear at the time, can never be 
 perfectly applied except by those who ai)preciate the full weight of 
 the surroundings and the habits that have grown up in reliance 
 upon them. Courts and juries with all their care and diligence 
 must often fail to understand what is not within their experience, 
 and abstract justice is not always actual justice. 
 
 It has been very comuKm in all times to have within larije 
 organizations for labor or business purposes, domestic tribunals 
 for settling difficulties upon equitable principles without delay or 
 expense. Both of these are important considerations. Unsettled 
 controversies may keep interests at a standstill to the damage of 
 all concerned. Delays, too, have a bad effect in keeping parties 
 asunder and aggravating ill-feeling. It is also a good feature of 
 these informal tribunals that parties can make their own showing 
 and explanations in their own way, while the experienced arbiters 
 understand just where explanation is needed. But the great 
 advantage lies in their ability to look at things substantially as 
 the parties do. In mining countries courts have always existed 
 which acted upon the peculiar customs of the business, where con- 
 tracts and rights depart considerably from those found elsewhere. 
 Similar diversities have been found to make a customary law in 
 many other cases. 
 
 The necessity for suc^h a remedy has been found most commonly 
 where numbers of peoj)le have similar interests or employments. 
 It has existed in France for a long time, and has been applied to 
 several classes of eases. The members of these tribunals are 
 there called Prud'hommes (men of experimental knowledge). As 
 long ago as the time of Philip the Fair, in the thirteenth century, 
 
134 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 a council of twenty-four Prud'hommes was formed to decide con- 
 troversies between manufacturers and traders dealing in their 
 wares. The first French Republic created similar boards to dis- 
 pose of the ordinary diflferences between masters and workmen or 
 apprentices. In 1806 provision was made in like manner for the 
 important manufacturing city of Lyons, with powers to extend it 
 to other industrial towns. Several of these bodies were organized 
 in Paris from 1844 to 1848, for metalworkers, weavers, chemical 
 works and builders. The maritime towns have for a great while 
 without legislation had such tribunals among the fishermen. The 
 modern French councils are said to be composed of representa- 
 tives of employers and employed, chosen by their own orders. 
 One third go out of oflace annually. Their duties are confined to 
 questions relating to the business. The old fishery boards are 
 supposed to have suggested the others, and are said to have been 
 first known in the southern ports. It is quite likely they were 
 regulated by the ancient sea laws. These arrangements, with 
 perhaps some variations, seem to be regarded as desirable. 
 
 Analogous bodies are found in other countries. They are 
 thought to be better and more satisfactory than temporary and 
 voluntary arbitrations, and experience in the diflSculties and 
 grounds of difference among particular classes is of great value in 
 enabling them to decide fairly. The effect of the permanent 
 reference committees in our Boards of Trade in preventing com- 
 mercial litigation in the courts of this State has been very 
 marked. 
 
 Courts of conciliation properly organized to settle the differences 
 of employers and employed could hardly fail to remove any 
 rational cause of complaint of unfairness in their mutual relations, 
 and would have the double value of doing justice and of putting 
 captious persons in the wrong. Sympathy would be given where 
 it is deserved, and the common sense of the community would 
 justify witiiholding it where it is not deserved. When public 
 sentiment knows where justice lies it will not be profitable to pro- 
 voke it. 
 
 With this exception the Constitution has been fairly carried 
 out, in regulating judicial affairs. Unlike the previous constitu- 
 tion, it named all the classes of courts in which the judicial power 
 should be vested, and in most cases left no authority to the Legis- 
 lature to put it elsewhere. It also does what was not done before 
 
ADDRESS OK IION. .l.\^rES V. CAMPHELr,. 135 
 
 in strictly dividing tlie judicial power from all others, and in con- 
 fining its exercise to courts. Many of our old statutes paid small 
 regard to this important consideration. Although with some 
 formal differences, the jurisdiction over causes was left very nmch 
 as before. The State was divided into eight circuits, subject to 
 change and increase, and the Circuit judges were to be elected in 
 their Districts for the terms of six years. They were to sit singly 
 without associates at the Circuit, and together in the Supreme 
 Court as before, until a separate Supreme Court should be pro- 
 vided for by election from the State at large, for terras of eight 
 years, to consist of four judges. Municipal courts could be created 
 in cities, and the Upper Peninsula was for a time to be a separate 
 District, from which ultimately circuits could be made or enlarged. 
 All of the Upper Peninsula counties are now in circuits. Munici- 
 pal courts, civil and criminal, were created in Detroit many years 
 ago, and now exist in several cities. The number of circuits is now 
 twenty-eight, so that, including the city courts, the number of 
 judges presiding in common-law courts of record is four times as 
 great as in 1851. Business has multiplied, and for the last ten 
 years there has been a perceptible increase in the prolixity of 
 important trials. It would be difficult to determine the causes of 
 this unfortunate tendency with any sort of unanimity. 
 
 Since 1851 there has been ;ui important change in the law of 
 testimony. The connnon-law rules excluding witnesses for interest 
 or for bad character were pretty much done away under the laws 
 passed while the first constitution was in force. In 1-S61 all per- 
 sonal discjualitications were abolished, and parties were made com- 
 petent. Some rules made to preserve confidence inviolate to 
 families and with professional advisers were wisely preserved. 
 There is more reason to doubt the wisdom of the rule excluding a 
 survivor from testifying where other parties have died. The 
 legislative tendency is to keep up and emphasize this distinction, 
 and rather to favor than qualify it. 
 
 One class of laws has given occasion for much contention. 
 There is too little uniformity, and too frequent change in the laws 
 which regulate the condemnation of property for various ease- 
 ments and corporate uses. Few of the statutes contain specific 
 provisions for compensating owners for property jiractically 
 destroyed in value, but not appropriated bodily, and in some 
 cases, under the pretext of benefits, they take it away without 
 
136 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 any compensation at all. The power is one very necessary, but 
 justice requires that one part of the State should not have different 
 laws from other parts, and that property should not be disturbed 
 without plain necessity, or confiscated without recompense. Muni- 
 cipal condemnations have made the most trouble in this way. 
 
 It is worth considering whether litigation is not too much 
 encouraged by our system by imposing no restriction on appellate 
 proceedings. No one doubts the importance of giving to every 
 one legal protection and redress. But where from the nature of 
 things the cost of controversy will go beyond any possible gain 
 from it, there is much harm done by continued litigation. If 
 small cases, involving no important principle, have once been 
 fairly tried, any further pursuit tends only to injure the public 
 tranquility and burden the public treasury as well as the means 
 of the litigants. Persons of small means are often injured and 
 sometimes ruined by prolonged legal action, and whether right or 
 wrong they can do very little against a wealthier opponent who 
 will not be seriously hurt, though defeated on appeal. There are 
 small cases which represent important principles that should be 
 settled by courts of last resort. Such cases can be easily provided 
 for by requiring leave to appeal, which is always done in cases of 
 certiorari. The courts are now driven to extremity to keep up 
 with their business, and if it once gets beyond their power to hear 
 and decide speedily, and the door is still left open for indiscrimi- 
 nate appeals, cases will be, as they have elsewhere been, carried 
 up for delay and vexation until deliverance is hopeless. It was 
 supposed when the Constitution allowed justices of the peace to 
 take jurisdiction up to $300, and in some cases up to $500, that 
 the circuits would be relieved. But nearly all cases are appealed 
 if the parties can afford to appeal them, and a large amount of 
 Circuit anil Supreme Court business comes up from justices. 
 
 When the Constitution of 1850 went into effect, and the Circuit 
 Judges and District Judge of the Upper Peninsula were first 
 elected, all of the existing Judges of the Supreme Court were chosen 
 as Circuit Judges, and Judge Goodwin, a former member of that 
 Court, was elected for the Upper Peninsula. Judge Sanford M, 
 Green, the reviser of 1846, and Judge of the Supreme Court 
 under the old Constitution, still presides at the Circuit, and still 
 retains undiminished respect and confidence. Samuel T. Doug- 
 lass and David Johnson are the remaining survivors of the first 
 
ADDRESS OF IKtN. .lA^UKS V. CAMI'BEI.L. 187 
 
 bench of Circuit Judges, which was made up of very able and 
 excellent jurists. Five of them resigned during their term to 
 return to practice. Many clianges have been made since on the 
 Circuit bench and most of them for the same reason. Tlie State 
 has been very well served by its Circuit Courts. 
 
 The Supreme Court, as now organized of judges having only 
 appellate duties, was provided for l)y the Legislature of i8.")7, and 
 sat first in January, 1858. George Martin of the old bench was 
 Chief Justice and Randolph Manning (former Chancellor), Isaac 
 P. Christiancy and James V. Campbell associates. Judge Man- 
 ning died in 1864 and was succeeded by Thomas M. Cooley who 
 resigned in 188.') and was succeeded by Allan B. Morse, now in 
 office. Judge Martin died in 1867 and was succeeded by Benja- 
 min F. Graves (who had been chosen to the Circuit bench in 
 1857) who retired at his own desire at the end of his term and 
 was succeeded by John W. Champlin of the present bench. 
 Judge Christiancy was elected United States Senator in 1<'S75. 
 Isaac IVIarston succeeded him and continued in office till March 
 1883, when he resigned and Thomas F^. Sherwood, the present 
 incumbent, was elected in his place. 
 
 During the existence of the State, which finished its half cen- 
 tury of judicial experience on the fourth day of July, 1886, 
 there has been nothing striking or startling in its court records. 
 No judge has been removed from office or convicted of miscon- 
 duct. No capital sentence has been pronounced or carried out. 
 No person has been tried for a political offence. No court has 
 been prevented by violence from enforcing its orders. Few con- 
 spiracies to do mischief on a large scale have created local, and 
 none general, disturbance. The four years of war, in which our 
 citizens played a heroic part, left no legacy of disorder, and 
 returned soldiers have been the best guards of law and order, and 
 have filled and are filling the most responsible offices of peace, 
 and have shared liberally in the administration of justice. It is 
 perhaps one of the most comfortable assurances of public pros- 
 perity that our long judicial history is uneventful. 
 
138 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 EVENING SESSION— HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 
 
 Mr. Chamberlain : 
 
 Having heard the interesting and valuable papers on the Fair 
 Grounds, we have again assembled here to hear the concluding 
 speeches. It is fortunate that the gentlemen who have been as- 
 signed to this hall are all so eminent in their professions and so 
 well known to the people of this State as not to need any intro- 
 duction. 
 
 I present James B. Angell, President of the University of 
 Michigan, that crowning glory of our educational system. 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 By president ANGELL. 
 
 It is fitting that the University should have a place and a voice 
 in the commemoration services of this day. For her birth was 
 almost simultaneous with that of the State. In a few months she 
 is to celebrate the completion of the first half-century of her exist- 
 ence. Four months after Congress recognized the State as a 
 member of the Federal Union, the first board of regents met and 
 began the organization of the University in its present form. 
 From that time the life of the University has been a conspicuous 
 and an integral part of the life of the State. 
 
 But in a certain and a very just sense both the State and the 
 University have a common origin, which antedates by nearly half 
 a century the event which we are celebrating to-day. In that 
 great instrument, the Ordinance of 1787, with which the declara- 
 tion of independence, the Constitution of the United States and 
 the emancipation proclamation alone of our great historical 
 instruments deserves to be compared, lie coiled together the germ 
 of the States and the germ of all our educational institutions. 
 We cannot too often or too gratefully recall the fact that the 
 Ordinance of '87, while providing that five States might ulti- 
 mately be carved out of the Northwestern territory, also provided 
 that slavery should never plant its accursed foot in this great 
 domain, and declared in words that might well be blazoned on 
 the capitols of the five States, "religion, morality, and knowledge 
 being necessary to good government and the happiness of man- 
 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ANGELL. 139 
 
 kind, schools aiul tlie means of education shall forever be encour- 
 ged ." Mark that sublime imperative, "shall forever be encour- 
 aged." In these memorable words lies the gerra of our free 
 schools. I say the free schools with the University, because they 
 are virtually parts of the same system, and the schools and the 
 University are each incomplete without the other. Both received 
 from Congress, acting in the spirit of the Ordinance, gifts of land 
 for their support. It was only a fortnight after the Ordinance 
 was ad()[)ted that appro{)riations of lands were made for the Uni- 
 versity and schools, and from that time to this the excellent 
 example then set has been followed in the admission of new 
 States. 
 
 By the act of March 26, 1804, disposing of lands in what was 
 then the Territory of Indiana, a township was reserved for a 
 seminary of learning in each of the three divisions of the Terri- 
 tory, one of which became in l(S05the Territory of Michigan, and 
 so received the grant. 
 
 It is a very interesting fact that the Indians who occupied this 
 region were early contributors to the fund for endowing the Univer- 
 sity. By the treaty which Gov. Cass and Gen. McArthur nego- 
 tiated with the Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottavvatamies, at Fort 
 Meigs, September 29, 1817, the Indians granted six sections of 
 land to be equally divided between the church of Ste. Anne at 
 Detroit and the college at Detroit. Judge Cooley well says in his 
 History of Michigan : " The gift was fully equal in positive value 
 and j)r()spectively superior to the gifts for like purposes which 
 maile John Harvard and Elihu Yale immortal, and quite as justly 
 entitles Pontagini and his associate chieftains to grateful remem- 
 brance among the founders of colleges." 
 
 The college of Detroit, which was to share in this grant, was 
 not in existence when the treaty was made, but was established a 
 month later as a part of the Catliolepistemiad or University of 
 Micliigania, which had been chartered in the previous August. 
 The act providing for the institution with this extraordinary title 
 was drafted by Mr. Augustus B. Woodward, one of the judges of 
 the territorial court. The strange and })edantic language in which 
 the act describes the proposed organization of the University, may 
 conceal at first glance the broad and scholarly conception which 
 was in the mind of its author. It contemplates imparting instruc- 
 tion in nearly all branches of learning and gave the University 
 
14t» Michigan's semi centennial. 
 
 authorities the direction of the subordinate schools throughout 
 the Territory, There seems ground for the suggestion of Prof. 
 Tenbrook that the plan of the University of France may have 
 been brought to the attention of Judge Woodward by some of the 
 French residents, and have served him to some degree as his guide 
 in maturing his scheme. All the subsequent developments of the 
 University down to this day have been on the lines which this 
 eccentric man marked out. In his large provision for the support 
 of the institution, he quite exceeded what either Territory or State 
 has ever done, since he required in his act that a tax of 15 per 
 cent, should be levied for its maintenance, and also that 15 per 
 cent, of the proceeds of four lotteries should be appropriated to it. 
 
 In 1821, the act establishing the Catholepistemiad was revised. 
 The University was styled the University of Michigan, the trus- 
 tees were authorized to establish preparatory schools, and religious 
 tests for officers and students were prohibited. 
 
 In 1824, patents for the three sections of land granted by the 
 Indians were issued. A serious obstacle was encountered in the 
 attempt to locate lands under the Congressional act of 1804. The 
 act required that the Indian title to the lands to be selected should 
 have been extinguished. It was difficult, if not impossible, to 
 find a township Avhere the Indian titles had been entirely can- 
 celled. This fact being made known to Congress, that body, in 
 1826, allowed the trustees to select lands equal in amount to 
 twice the original grant. Thus the total grant of lands to the 
 University was equal to two townshij)s and three sections. 
 
 The deep interest of the people in education was plainly evinced 
 in the Constitution of 1835, whicli provided for schools, agricul- 
 tural and scientific education, libraries and the University, and 
 the appointment of a superintendent of public instruction. For- 
 tunately for the State and for the University, the Rev. John D. 
 Pierce was selected for this position of superintendent. A gradu- 
 ate of Brown University, he had made an intelligent study of the 
 Prussian system of education, then without doubt the best in the 
 world. He proposed at once a most wise and generous plan of 
 organization of the University. It should have three departments, 
 one of literature, science and the arts ; one of medicine and one of 
 law. It was to be entirely unsectarian ; only $10 was to be 
 charged to Michigan students for an admission fee and no fee was 
 to be asked for tuition. Twelve regents were to be appointed by 
 the Governor. These, with the Lieut. Governor and Judges of 
 
ADDRESS OF I'KKSIDENT ANdELL. 141 
 
 the Supreme Court, were to constitute the board. He ^suggested a 
 most judicious phiu for the disposition of the hvud. Had it been 
 adliered to it i.s probable that the proceeds of tiie sales would 
 have ultimately yielded nearly a million dollars as an endowment, 
 or nearly twice as much as has been received from them. Time 
 will not suffice for setting out in detail the various steps by w^hich 
 successive legislatures interfered with the execution of the original 
 plan to the great detriment of the University treasury ; though we 
 must not omit to acknowledge our indebtedness to Gov. Mason, 
 who once courageously interposed his veto of a bill that would 
 have robbed us of a large part of our endowment. Worthily does 
 his portrait adorn the walls of the University, where his name 
 must ever be held in grateful remembrance. But in spite of such 
 unwise management of the lands, it is but just to say that no 
 other of the five States out of the Northwest territory realized half 
 as much per acre from its University lands as Michigan did. The 
 lands are all sold except a few acres, and the fund is now about 
 -$550,000, yielding annually to the IJniversity treasury about 
 $38,500. 
 
 The newly appointed board of regents was organized early in 
 1837, and at once addressed itself to the work of starting the 
 University on the plan proposed by Mr. Pierce. But first they 
 decided to establish eight branches or academies in ditterent parts 
 of the State. These schools rendered a valuable service, but after 
 a few years the regents withdrew their support from them and the 
 high school took iij) the work for which the branches had been 
 instituted. 
 
 The board promptly took steps to make a beginning in collect- 
 ing a library and scientific specimens and apparatus. A libra- 
 rian was appointed. Dr. Asa Gray, who has since become so 
 renowned as a botanist, was in 1838 appointed professor of botany 
 and zoology and was sent to Europe to purchase §5,000 worth 
 of books, the beginning of the library which now numbers nearly 
 58,000 volumes. Ikiildings were begun. By the autumn of 1841 
 four dwelling houses i'or jjrofessors and one structure to be used 
 for a dormitory and for recitation rooms (now the north wing of 
 the main buildinu) were completed. It should not be overlooked 
 that Superintendent Pierce wisely used the veto power lodged in 
 him to prevent squandering a large sum, half a million or more, 
 he says, on a large university building. 
 
142 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 In 1841 the first class entered. The first student who presented 
 himself is still living and busily engaged in professional life. The 
 professor who received him, the venerable Dr. Williams, died only 
 five years ago. The faculty who filled the chairs of instruction 
 was a strong one, and is remembered with grateful appreciation 
 by the graduates of the first ten years. But the classes were not 
 large. 
 
 The purpose of establishing professional schools was never lost 
 sight of, and in the autumn of 1850 the medical department began 
 its work with a class of ninety in a building which had been 
 originally designed for a chemical laboratory. The number of 
 medical students rapidly increased, and the growth of the medical 
 department has subsequently, as well as that of the law depart- 
 ment, contributed to increase the attendance in the literary de- 
 partment. By the wide range and thoroughness of its instruction, 
 and the size of its classes, the medical school early won and has 
 held its place in the very front rank of such colleges. 
 
 In 1851 the State adopted a new Constitution wliich provided 
 that the regents should be elected by popular vote, and should 
 have entire control of the University and its funds with freedom 
 from legislative dictation. The new board which came into office 
 Jan. 1, 1852, at once proceeded to look for a president. Hereto- 
 fore the executive duties had been discharged by professors acting 
 each for a single year. August 12, 1852, Dr. Henry P. Tappan 
 was chosen president. With his succession to office began a new 
 career for the University. He was familiar with the best methods 
 of higher education, both American and European, and was an 
 enthusiastic admirer of the Prussian system. He had broad cul- 
 ture, generous views of university work, and the power of kindling 
 enthusiasm in others. By his public addresses he soon awoke in 
 the State a new interest in the University, while at the same 
 time he broadened and improved the organization of the institu- 
 tion. He departed boldly from the old traditional customs of 
 American colleges by establishing a scientific course to be parallel 
 to the classical course, and to be treated with the same honor. 
 Meantime he strengthened the classical course by calling in those 
 eminent scholars, Profs. Boise and Frieze, to fill the chairs of 
 Greek and Latin. Ho opposed making appointments on denomina- 
 tional grounds, but steadfastly looked for merit and character 
 alone in judging of candidates for chairs. Largely through his 
 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ANGELL. 143 
 
 personal efforts the astrouoiuical observatory and its instruments 
 were secured by the generosity, in large part, of citizens of Detroit, 
 and especially the late Henry X.Walker. It was during his admin- 
 istration, in 18o9, that the law school was established, with James 
 V. Campbell, Thomas M. Cooley and C. I. Walker as professors. 
 
 It is not necessary to say that those eminent teachers quickly 
 drew large classes to receive their instruction. In 18(55 a new 
 building was erected for the new department. During President 
 Tappan's term of service of eleven years the total attendance of 
 students increased from 222 to 652. Under his inspiring guidance 
 the University was fairly started upon the paths in which it has 
 ever since advanced and was thoroughly imbued with the sj)irit 
 which has secured its remarkable success. 
 
 In 1863 the Rev. Dr. E. O. Haven succeeded Dr. Tappan in 
 the presidency under circumstances which threatened to make his 
 labors disagreeable and difficult. But his tact and skill and 
 happy temperament soon smoothed his way and rendered his 
 administration very serviceable. In 18U6au unsuccessful attempt 
 was made to introduce instruction in homeopathic medicine into 
 the University. In 1809 the Legislature gave to the institution 
 for two years an appropriation of ^15,500 a year, furnishing a 
 help which was so sorely needed by the rapidly growing Uni- 
 versity. During the six years of Dr. Haven's ])residency several 
 new courses of instruction were set up and the number of students 
 increased to over eleven hundred. 
 
 After his resignation in 1869, which wa.>< universally regretted, 
 Dr. Henry S. Frieze was acting president for two years. In these 
 years, under his able administration, some very important steps 
 were taken. In 1870 women were admitted to all departments of 
 the University. This action was in harmony with the public 
 opinion in the State rather than in the University. But experi- 
 ence has so demonstrated the wisdom of it that both officers and 
 students in the University are now grateful that it was taken. In 
 1871 the University also set up that intimate and friendly relation 
 with the high schools, by virtue of which the graduates from 
 approved schools are received without examination. This has 
 been of the greatest service, it is believed, both to the University 
 and the high schools, and the system has been widely adopted in 
 other States. It was in 1871 also that the Legislature granted 
 S75,000 for the erection of a university hail. 
 
144 Michigan's semi-cejstennial. 
 
 In 1871 the present incumbent of the office of president relieved 
 Dr. Frieze. In 1873 the Legislature substituted for the annual 
 appropriation of $15,500, a twentieth mill tax on all the ratable 
 property of the State, which yielded about $31,000, and which 
 yields now $40,500. The same Legislature also provided the 
 means for establishing a homeopathic medical college, a hos- 
 pital, a supply of water for the grounds, and for meeting obliga- 
 tions which had been incurred in enlarging buildings. In 1875 
 the dental college was established by the aid of an appropriation 
 from the Legislature. In 1876 the school of pharmacy, which 
 had virtually existed for eight years as a part of the library 
 department, received a distinct organization. In 1880 a spacious 
 building for which an appropriation by the State of l?40,000 was 
 made, was erected to hold our scientific collections. In 1^81 the 
 Legislature generously gave i)100,000 to construct a fire-proof 
 library building and art gallery. In 1885 the sum of $15,000 
 was voted for the erection of a shop or laboratory in which our 
 engineering students may familiarize themselves with mechanical 
 processes. Of late years important improvements have been made 
 in the courses of study in the different departments. During the 
 last fifteen years minor apjjropriations for various objects have 
 also been made. In the literary department a very large liberty 
 of choice of studies is left to the pupil. The terms in the profes- 
 sional schools have been lengthened from six to nine months, and 
 in the medical schools have been extended to three years. The 
 number of instructors is now seventy. Some years the total 
 attendance of students has exceeded 1,500, and has been much 
 larger than that of any university in the land. Its constituency 
 is not only national, but cosmopolitan, as it draws its students 
 from all the States and Territories in the United States and from 
 every continent of the globe. 
 
 In addition to the generous approprations which successive 
 Legislatures now for years have made to aid the University, she 
 has received the beuefits of private liberality. Not to mention 
 many minor benefactions, we may well recall the following very 
 large gifts, viz. : Ran library and constant additions to it by Philo 
 Parsons, the McMillan Shakespearean library by James McMillan, 
 the Buhl law lil)rary by C. H. Buhl, the peal of bells by A. D. 
 White, J. J. liagerman^and E. C. Hegeer, an anonymous gift of 
 books worth $2,500 to the political science library, the Lewis col- 
 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ANGELL. 145 
 
 lection of works of art, bequeathed by the late Henry C. Lewis, 
 and valued at more than 8200,000, and the Rogers collection of 
 statuary, presented by Randolph Rogers, the eminent sculptor, 
 and valued at about $200,000, the Chinese exhibit displayed at 
 the New Orleans exposition and presented by the Chinese govern- 
 ment, and the Goethe library which our German friends are now 
 gathering. It would seem, therefore, that not only has the State 
 settled finally upon the policy of meeting the most pressing needs 
 of the University, but that large personal benefactions may be 
 expected in the future. 
 
 I have thus given a rapid and brief sketch of the origin and 
 development of the University. Its growth is, we may confidently 
 say, without a pai-allel in the history of American universities. 
 Its name is spoken with honor wherever American scholarship is 
 known. It has long had in its faculties professors whose fame has 
 circled the globe. It has done its full part in making the name 
 and fame of Michigan familiar to the world. And looking back 
 to-day on the proud history of the State, shall we say that the 
 fathers erred in laying deep and broad the foundations of the Uni- 
 versity? Does not rather their work stand as a monument to their 
 wisdom and foresiglit? They not only secured almost without cost 
 a generous education for their own children, but they saved at least 
 three generations of educated men to Michigan. They made 
 certain at an early day the collections of museums and libra- 
 ries, which could probably not have been gathered in a century 
 through private generosity. Nor can it be questioned that the 
 University has exerted a most powerful, elevating and stimulating 
 influence upon the public schools and especially u|)on the high 
 schools of the State. It has attracted a large number of men of 
 high intelligence and character from other States who, after com- 
 pleting their studies, have remained to strengthen and enrich this 
 State with useful lives. The power and influence of the Univer- 
 sity have been felt throughout the length and breadth of the State, 
 nay, throughout the whole nation and in many a foreign land. 
 
 Now what has been the total cost to the State of all these great 
 results which have been achieved by the University during the 
 half century of its existence? The State has in all appropriated 
 from its own treasury 5! 1, 024, 071, and it has now actually in its 
 possession at Ann Arbor, buildings, libraries, apparatus, land and 
 other property valued on a moderate appraisal at about $900,010. 
 k 10 
 
146 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Really the outlay over aud above the material objects which have 
 been purchased with it aud which the State now holds is about 
 1125,000. In other words the absolute cost to the State for fifty 
 years has been on au average about $2,500 a year. But more- 
 over, if we reckon the value of the gifts which have been made to 
 the University, in works of art which may, I think, be set down at 
 about $400,000, it appears that the State now holds property at 
 the University worth nearly $300,000 more than the entire sum 
 that the University has received from the appropriations by the 
 State. It may be doubted whether the history of higher educa- 
 tion anywhere presents a parallel to this achievement. 
 
 Well may we cherish tlie memory of the fathers who so wisely 
 laid at once the foundations of the State and the University, aud 
 of those who so wisely builded on the foundations so well laid. 
 The State and the University ! As God has so constantly re- 
 freshed aud strengthened them with the dews of His grace, and 
 has enabled them to add to the prosperity and glory of each other, 
 so may He ever continue to multiply His blessings on them both ! 
 
 Mr. Chamberlain : 
 
 The Commission selected ex-Senator Charles E. Stuart, and as 
 his alternate ex -Congressman Augustus C. Baldwin, to prepare a 
 paper on the Senators and Representatives in Congress from 
 Michigan. 
 
 Senator Stuart's feeble health compelled him to decline. Mr. 
 Baldwin accepted, but a sudden and serious, though temporary 
 sickness, prevented him from preparing the paper. Within a few 
 days, ex-Congressman Roswell G. Horr was asked aud consented 
 to make such remarks on this subject as the limited time would 
 permit him to do. 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen : Hon. Roswell G. Horr. 
 
 MICHIGAN IN CONGRESS. 
 
 Hon. R G. HORR. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : I am called upon here to-night to 
 talk to you for a few moments upon the career of Michigan for 
 the past fifty years in the Congress of the United States. In 
 justice to myself you will permit me to say that I perform this 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. ROSWELL G. IIORR. 147 
 
 duty not as a "regular recruit," but rather as a " drafted volun- 
 teer." This work was to have been done by another, a man of 
 long residence and distinguished public service in this State, but 
 unavoidable circumstances prevent him from performing the task. 
 Our Governor upon learning this, only three days aijo, with that 
 modesty for which he is so justly noted, ordered me peremptorily 
 to take my place in the ranks. 
 
 I am not sure, however, that this short notice will not after all 
 conduce to your comfort and convenience, for while you may get 
 less of "Michigan in Congress for the last fifty years" than 
 seems desirable on such an occasion as this, still you will get 
 compensation for the loss right here on the sj)ot, by getting fifty 
 minutes less of me ! 
 
 From 1836 to 1843 the State of Michigan had but one repre- 
 sentative in the lower house of Congress. From 1843 to 1853 
 she had three members. From 1853 to 1803 she had four mem- 
 bers. From 1863 to 1873 she had six members. From 1873 to 
 1883 she had nine members. Since < 1883 she has had eleven 
 members of Congress. Nothing more strikingly sets forth her 
 growth as a State than the fact than in fifty years slie has 
 increased her representation in Congress from one member to 
 eleven, notwithstanding that in 1836 every 60,000 inhabitants 
 entitled a State to one representative, while now it takes over 
 150,000 people for each member of Congress. 
 
 Since the admission of Michigan as a State sixteen difierent 
 men have represented her in the Senate of the United States, and 
 she has had seventy-six difierent men in the lower house of Con- 
 gress, but six of these, to wit : Lucius Lyon, Charles E. Stuart, 
 Kinsley S. Bingham, Jacob M. Howard, Thomas W. Ferry and 
 Omar D. Conger are also included in the list of Senators, having 
 served in both branches of the National Legislature. 
 
 Such is the transitory nature of tame, that I doubt if there are 
 a score of men in this large audience who can give the names of 
 our first two United States Senators — a few of the oldest men 
 here may be able to do so from their memory of those early times. 
 To be frank with you, I had not the slightest idea until I had 
 looked them u]), and when I found out, to my chagrin I had no 
 recollection of having ever before heard tlie name of either of 
 them. Lucius Lyon and John Norvill were the first Senators 
 from Michigan in the American Congress. Of her sixteen Sena- 
 
148 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 tors seveu of them are still living. Her sixth Senator and fifth 
 Governor, Alpheus Felch, is not only alive, but hale and strong, 
 so that he is able to be with us on this anniversary occasion. 
 Few men have ever lived through such a fifty years of the world's 
 growth and been in active, working manhood during the entire 
 half century. 
 
 The first Representative in Congress Irom Michigan was Gen. 
 Isaac E. Crary. He represented the State for six years, having 
 been elected three successive times. He became quite famous in 
 his day on account of his encounter with Hon. Thomas Corwiu of 
 Ohio. Political excitement ran very high during his Congres- 
 sional career, which included the wonderful Harrison campaign 
 of "log cabins and hard cider" in 1840. Gen. Crary took it 
 upon himself to criticize the military ability and career of the 
 Whig candidate for Presidency, Gen. Harrison, and unfortunate- 
 ly for himself referred to his own experience as an officer of the 
 militia which he claimed gave him a right to speak upon military 
 matters, and enable him to intelligently criticise the exploits of 
 the hero of Tippecanoe. 
 
 He was followed by Thomas Corwin, in one of his most inimita- 
 ble speeches. Such a combination of wit, ridicule and sarcasm, 
 dressed up with classical allusions and sparkling sentences, can 
 hardly be found elsewhere in the English language. It has since 
 found its way into works on elocution and rhetoric and will be 
 recited by students of literature for ages yet to come. So com- 
 plete and telling was it, that a few days afterwards, John Quincy 
 Adams, " the old man eloquent," referred to our unfortunate 
 member as " the late Gen. Crary of Michigan." 
 
 Notwithstanding this mishap, I am told by men who knew him, 
 that Gen. Crary was a man of excellent parts, and that to no one 
 man are we more indebted for our present magnificent common 
 school system, than to this general of our State militia. He was 
 followed by Jacob M. Howard, who alone represented Michigan 
 on the floor of the House in the 27th Congress, and who after- 
 wards became a very able and successful member of the United 
 States Senate. 
 
 Of our sixteen Senators all of them have been able, painstak- 
 ing legislators, and two of them have reached positions of great 
 national renown. 
 
 It makes little difference who might be giving the history I am 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. ROSWELL G. HORR. 149 
 
 now attempting ; it matters not to what political party he might 
 belong, the names of Lewis Cass and Zachariah Chandler would 
 head his list of Michigan statesmen. And yet no two men were 
 ever more unlike in their natural gifts and personal attainments. 
 Lewis Cass was a cultivated scholar, an able lawyer, an experienced 
 diplomatist, a consummate debater and a polished statesman. He 
 is the only man from our State who was ever selected as the 
 standard bearer of his party for Presidential honors. True he 
 was defeated, but we must not conclude on that account that he 
 was unworthy, because, Mr. President (Henry Chamberlain), you 
 and I know that most excellent men are not always successful at 
 the polls? Mr. Chandler was not a lawyer, was not a scholar, 
 had no experience abroad in diplotnacy, seldom took part in 
 debates, and yet he won great distinction as a patriot and success- 
 ful party leader. 
 
 Like General Grant, his crowning intellectual trait was his rare 
 common sense. In a knowledge of practical things he was 
 immense. He was at home in the vernacular of the common peo- 
 ple, knew how to call things by their riglit names; and add to 
 that his rugged courage and one can readily see what made him 
 a natural leader among men. His short, pointed speeches always 
 seemed to supply a deep-seated want. Like Abraham Lincoln, 
 his masterpiece in speech-making was hardly ten minutes long, 
 and yet in its way it will always be looked upon as a model, as a 
 classic. 
 
 Gov. Woodbridge and Jacob M. Howard were both able men, 
 in some respects the superior of Mr. Chandler, and in others the 
 equal of Lewis Cass, and yet neither of them won any such place 
 in the annals of this country as will be accorded to Cass and 
 Chandler. These two men seem to have been born for exactly 
 the times in which each one lived, and each of them (li<l his life- 
 work well. 
 
 1 have sometimes thought that members of Congress may be 
 divided into three grades or classes. A large number of men 
 who find their way to the National Legislature, do little except it 
 be to look after the wants of their immediate districts and per- 
 haps the interests of their several States. They are careful, pains- 
 taking, often able men, who are satisfied with such limited work 
 and intiueuce. To this class belong the majority of men who 
 have been in Congress from all the States of this Union, and of 
 course Michigan is no exceptiou to this general rule. 
 
150 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Another class of Congressmen is composed of men who not only 
 attend to the affairs of their own districts and States, but who also 
 take an active part in national matters, men \vho help to shape the 
 general legislation of the couutr}', men who acquire national repu- 
 tations and would always be mentioned as among the foremost 
 men of the House. For a new State, Michigan has had her full 
 share of such legislators, but no one would expect me to single 
 out and name them. It would be a little hazardous for any one 
 to attempt the job, and especially dangerous for a man who has 
 acted in the capacity of a legislator himself, and so would be com- 
 pelled to sit in judgment on his fellow members and to state con- 
 clusions as to the capacity and standing of his warmest friends. 
 Then again there is a still smaller class of Congressmen, who become 
 leaders of men, who will go into the history of our country as the 
 men who had the ability to originate great measures and the tact 
 and courage to defend them, men who combine large brain power 
 with a genius for practical politics, such men shape the policy of 
 parties and contribute much to the weal or woe of the nation. 
 The United States in its 110 years of existence has furnished quite a 
 long roll of these able men, but our State in its fifty years can boast 
 of very few of them — I mean such men as Henry Clay, John C. 
 Calhoun, Daniel Webster, Stephen A. Douglass, Thaddeus Stevens, 
 Robert Schenk, James G. Blaine and James A. Garfield. 
 
 No State need be ashamed of its Congressional record which 
 has furnished to the House of Representatives such men as Robert 
 McClelland, Charles E. Stuart, Wm. A. Howard, Austin Blair 
 and Omar D. Conger, to say nothing of a long list of able mem- 
 bers almost equally noted with those just named. Still very few 
 of them all can be said to rank with the choice names mentioned 
 a moment ago. Perhaps Wm. A. Howard may be included in 
 that list. I well remember when a young man, during the fearful 
 struggle for freedom in the then Territory of Kansas, that the 
 name of Wm. A. Howard became almost a household word all 
 over the North. He stood out as a central figure in that noted 
 contest, and to his genius and courage, as much as to that of any 
 one man, was due the grand outcome of that early battle for liberty 
 and free territory in this country. 
 
 So many of the men who have served our State so well and so 
 ably during the last fifty years are still living among us that it 
 would be embarrassing to select names as being especially deserv- 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. ROSWELL G. HORR. 151 
 
 ing from among them. I do not j)ropose to enter upon any such 
 undertaking. 
 
 Among all our public nu;n one only has ever reached the 
 position of Acting Vice-President of the I'nited States. During 
 many months Hon. Thomas W. Ferry held that position by virtue 
 of his election as President pro tempore of the Senate. He occu- 
 pied that important place during the memorable contest which 
 resulted in the Electoral Commission and wliich ended by placing 
 Mr. Hayes in the Presidential chair. At that time the duties of 
 the President of the Senate were very delicate and difficult. Mr. 
 Ferry, however, passed through the heat and excitement of that 
 trying hour with great firmness and signal ability, so much so 
 that he won tlie approval of his political enemies and the confi- 
 dence of his own pai'ty friends. 
 
 Of the sixteen United States Senators only two of them were 
 born on Michigan soil, Thomas W. Ferry and Thomas W. Pal- 
 mer. Indeed, of her nineteen Governors David H. Jerome alone 
 was born within our borders, and of the seventy-six different men 
 who have been members of Congress from this State, only about a 
 dozen of them are natives of Michigan and five of those are mem- 
 bers of the present House. Such is of necessity the case in every 
 new State. The political, social, religious and educational growth 
 of all the younger States depends largely upon contributions from 
 older ones, and Michigan was fortunate in receiving her early 
 supplies, mostly from New England, New York, Pennsylvania and 
 Ohio. Such is the character and mental make-up of the men who 
 quit the crystallized society of the east and seek new homes in the 
 wild west, that a new State gets old in all its institutions when it is 
 very young in years. So it came about that Michigan, before she 
 had finished cutting her teeth, could boast of having one of the 
 finest Universities on this continent, and her common schools were 
 looked upon as models even by the older States. All these things 
 had a marked influence in moulding the character of her legisla- 
 tors. Then again the physical geography of Michigan is such as 
 to give her great prominence in some branches of legislation. She 
 has by far the longest water coast of any State in the Union. Her 
 harbors are most numerous. Her rivers, the Detroit, the St. Clair, 
 the Soo and St. Mary's are of the greatest importance to the com- 
 merce of the great west. Hence she has been more affected by our 
 national system of internal improvements than has any other State 
 
152 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 in the Union. Again she produces many times as much copper as 
 all the other States combined — is one of the foremost States in the 
 production of iron, leads them all in the lumber product, and fur- 
 nishes nearly one-third of all the salt consumed in the Union. 
 
 In agriculture she holds a foremost place and is fast takings 
 prominent position among the great wool-producing States. In 
 such a commonwealth one can readily see that our members of 
 the American Congress have had immense interests to look after 
 and protect, and great national questions to study and understand. 
 For the past fifty years Michigan men have aided largely in the 
 legislation that has aided our harbors and opened up our great 
 waterways for the benefit of the commerce of this country, and 
 their voices have always been heard in favor of building up Ameri- 
 can industries, protecting American labor, and making possible so 
 many happy American homes. 
 
 When the civil war broke out in this country be it said to the 
 credit of our noble State that she was found solidly for the Union. 
 During the entire war no Michigan member of either branch of the 
 National Legislature ever cast a single vote which gave aid or even 
 comfort to the enemy. Let it be remembered by us all with praise 
 and thanksgiving that during that entire conflict every single vote 
 given in the Congress of the United States by Michigan represen- 
 tatives was given in favor of that Union we all so much cherish, 
 in favor of that Constitution we all so much revei'e, and to sustain 
 the flag we all so much love. 
 
 Let us also feel proud of the fact that during all the dai-k days 
 of that wicked rebellion, our good, kind-hearted President Lincoln 
 leaned on the arm of no civilian with more confidence than he did 
 upon the strong right arm of our own Senator Chandler. 
 
 One hundred years is a short time in the life of a nation ; fifty 
 years is but a little while in the life of a State. During this half 
 century just closed we may not have produced as many brilliant 
 men as some of the older States, but none of them have outstripped 
 us in material growth, in the education of our people, in the pur- 
 ity of our judges or in the integrity and fidelity of the men who 
 have served us in our National Legislature. 
 
 Three of our citizens have held Cabinet positions, Lewis Cass, 
 Robert McClelland and Zachariah Chandler, and all of them so 
 demeaned themselves as to reflect honor upon themselves and credit 
 upon our State. Indeed up to the present date no member of the 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. ROSWELL G. HORR. 153 
 
 House or Senate of the American Congress from Michigan has 
 ever l)rought any reproach upon the good name of this State; and 
 no national scanchil has ever been Laid at the door of a single one 
 of our Congressmen. 
 
 Let us then, my friends, hope that for fifty years to come our 
 State may be represented in the great councils of the Nation by 
 men equal in patriotism, equal in integrity, equal in business tact 
 and equal in far-seeing statemanship to those who for fifty years 
 past have so performed their important duties as to make all justly 
 proud of our Peninsula State and right glad that our homes are in 
 Michigan. 
 
 The following is a list of the men who have served in the Senate 
 of the United States, and in the House of Representatives from 
 the State of Michigan during the first fifty years of her existence 
 as a State : 
 
 Senators of Michigan — Lucius Lyon, John Norvell, Augustus 
 S. Porter, William Woodbridge, Lewis Cass, Alpheus Felch, 
 Thomas Fitzgerald, Charles E. Stuart, Zachariah Cliandler, Kins- 
 ley S. Bingham, Jacob M. Howard, Thomas W. Ferry, Isaac P. 
 Christiancy, Henry P. Baldwin, Omar D. Conger, Thomas W. 
 Palmer — 16. 
 
 Representatives in Congress — Isaac E. Crary, Jacob M. Howard, 
 James B. Hunt, Lucius Lyon, Robert McClelland, John S. Chip- 
 man, Kinsley S. ijingham, Charles E. Stuart, Alexander W. 
 Buel, William Sprague, James L. Conger, Ebenezer J. Penniman, 
 Samuel Clark, David A. Noble, Hestor L. Stevens, David Stuart, 
 William A. Howard, George W. Peck, David S. Walbridge, 
 Henry Waldron, DeWitt C. Leach, George B. Cooper, Francis 
 W. Kellogg, Fernando C. Beaman, Bradley F. Granger, Rowland 
 E. Trowbridge, Augustus C. Baldwin, John F. Driggs, John W. 
 Longyear, Charles Upson, Thomas W. Ferry, Austin Blair, Omar 
 D. Conger, Wm. L. Stoughton, Randolph Strickland, Wilder D. 
 Foster, Jabez G. Sutherland, Henry Waldron, Josiah W. Begole, 
 Nathan B. Bradley, Julius C. Burrows, Moses W. Field, Jay A. 
 Hubbell, George Willard, William B. Williams, George H. Dur- 
 and, Allen Potter, Alpheus S. Williams, Mark S. Brewer, Charles 
 C. Ellsworth, Edwin W. Keightley, Jonas II. McGowau, John 
 W. Stone, Edwin Willits, Roswell G. Horr, John S. Newberry, 
 John T. Rich, Edward S. Lacey, Henry S. Lord, Wm. W. Web- 
 ber. Oliver L. Spaulding, Edward S. Breitung, William C. May- 
 
154 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 bury, Julius Houseman, Nathaniel B. Eldridge, Edwin B. Wiuans, 
 George L. Yaple, Ezra C. Carleton, Byron M. Cutcheon, Herschel 
 H. Hatch, Edward Breitung, James O'Donnell, Timothy E. Tars- 
 ney, Spencer O. Fisher, Seth C. Moffat, C. C. Comstock — 76. 
 
 Mr. Chamberlain : 
 
 Governor Alger, the chairman of the Commission, has been 
 called away by official duties. In his absence, in behalf of the 
 Commissioners, I desire to thank the gentlemen for the very able 
 papers that have been read to-day. The thanks of all are due to 
 all who have taken a part in the musical entertainment, and 
 especially are we under great obligations to Messrs. Pittman, Ver- 
 nor and Baker, the Committee of Arrangements, who have so 
 successfully managed all the affairs of to-day. 
 
 In conclusion : If the exercises of this day have renewed the 
 memories of the struggles, trials and joys past in the minds of 
 those who sit around and immediately before me, the veterans, 
 who, with me, must know that our years here are few in number, 
 and that the sun of existence here must soon sink in the west ; if 
 they have kindled in the breasts of these, the young men, who 
 soon must succeed us, one more feeling of patriotic devotion to our 
 country, to our Michigan, then these exercises have not been in 
 vain. 
 
Al)l)Ri:SSES millE SENATE CHAMBER. 
 
 Hon. henry FR ALICE, Presiding. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : — The pleasaut duty has been 
 assigned to me to preside over the meeting in this hall, at this 
 fiftieth anniversary of the admission of JNIichigan as a State into 
 the Union, 
 
 It has been deemed appropriate to celebrate the day in com- 
 memoration of the event. Eminent citizens, from various walks 
 of life, have been selected to gather up and put into permanent 
 form not only the general history of the State and the current 
 events affecting it, but also the details of its history, and the pro- 
 gress of its important branches, wliicl) will undoubtedly hereafter 
 form a part of the State's history. 
 
 I have the honor of now introducing to you the oldest Governor, 
 United States Senator, Circuit and Supreme Judge, Bank Com- 
 missioner and Legislator of the State, now living — all embraced in 
 one man, who has ably, honestly and most worthily filled all of 
 said offices with the highest credit to himself and benefit to the 
 State, the Hon. Alpheus Felch, who will now address you on the 
 executive branch of the government. 
 
 EXECUTIVE. 
 
 Hon. alpheus FELCH. 
 
 The region of country now embraced within the limits of the 
 State of Michigan has not always reposed beneath the American 
 flag or enjoyed the benefit of a republican or popular form of 
 government. Since Europeans first attempted to colonize the 
 northern part of the continent, Michigan has been subject to the 
 jurisdiction of two of the great monarchical thrones of Europe, 
 and has owed allegiance and submitted to the edicts of both in 
 turn. France and England have successively held it in its grasp, 
 and each, for a time, has ruled its destinies. From the earliest 
 encroachment of the French upon American soil in the first part 
 of the sixteenth century it was claimed as a part of that vast 
 
156 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 region of country extending from the Gulf of the St. Lawrence 
 to the region of the great lakes, and thence finally by the valley 
 of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. Michigan constituted 
 but a small portion of that vast territory, and during the French 
 dominion had only a small population, yet the power of the 
 French monarch was extended over it and, under the name of 
 New France, it was subject to his arbitrary authority. By the 
 fortune of war between France and England this territory passed 
 from the possession and jurisdiction of the former into that of the 
 latter in 1760. Another revolution was yet to follow, and the 
 fate of war was again to transfer this fertile and beautiful country 
 to the jurisdiction of another national power. At the termina- 
 tion of the revolutionary struggle in 1783, Great Britain ceded it 
 to the United States, and in July, 1796, the American authorities 
 acquired full possession. Thus for more than two hundred years 
 the flag of France floated over the land, and for thirty-six years 
 that of Great Britain, and each of these nations in turn dictated 
 and administered its laws ; and now for more than ninety years 
 the Stars and Stripes have been the proud emblem of our nation- 
 ality, and our laws have had their origin in the will of the people. 
 
 In looking into the history of the executive authority and of 
 those who have administered it here, we necessarily direct our 
 attention to the period of French domination. 
 
 The Governors, Lieutenants, Generals, or Viceroys, who per- 
 formed the duties of the executive ofiicer in Canada, then embrac- 
 ing the present domain of Michigan, as usually given by our 
 historical writers, were twenty-five in number, commencing with 
 Champlain and continuing to the cession of the country to Great 
 Britain. These all held their commissions from the King of 
 France and governed in his name and by his authority. The 
 instructions accompanying their commissions varied little in sub- 
 stance and gave most ample and arbitrary power. They were to 
 command and govern both by sea and land ; to ordain, decide and 
 cause to be executed, all that they should judge proper for main- 
 taining, keeping and preserving the places put under their power 
 and authority; and for this purpose they were authorized to com- 
 mission all officers whatsoever, whether for aflTairs of war or of 
 justiciary or police, and to prescribe all laws, statutes and ordi- 
 nances, subject, of course, to the good pleasure of his majesty. 
 Certain powers were to be exercised with the advice of prudent 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. ALPHEUS FELCH. 157 
 
 and capable persons, but these persons were selected by the 
 Governor himself, and the King, across the broad waters of the 
 ocean and harassed by the business of the kingdom, and usually 
 engaged in the fierce wars of the period, was neither readily 
 approached nor able or willing to listen to complaints. It is not 
 too much to say that the executive power which was committed to 
 these governors over the population of Canada was broad enough 
 to render possible the most arbitary, unlimited and irresponsible 
 despotism with which any country was ever scourged. In the 
 early portion of this period the exercise of these powers did not fall 
 upon the territory now within the boundaries of our State. This 
 region of country was then, with the exception of nomadic Indians, 
 without inhabitants. The first white men came in 1641, but with 
 the exceptions of a few persons connected with the missions, 
 there were no white settlers within the territory until the found- 
 ing of Detroit by Cadillac in 1701. From that time until 1760, 
 when the jurisdiction passed from the French to the English, 
 the population gradually increased^ chiefiy by immigrants 
 from the Colony of Quebec. These French immigrants were 
 generally harmless and innocent peasants, but among them 
 were some of fine ac(|uirements and good business ability. They 
 were devoted Catholics, enthusiastic adorers of " beautiful France," 
 and ardent devotees to the King. They settled around and in the 
 immediate neighborhood of the mission and the fort. No people 
 ever had within their own bosoms so rich a fountain of perpetual 
 pleasure. Always overfiowing with hilarity, full of jokes and 
 sport of every kind, wild in their simple amusements and lovers 
 of music and of their own soul-stirring songs, none seemed so happy 
 or so thoughtless as they ; but when the scene changed and they 
 knelt in their devotions before the cross, the solenmity of the 
 service seemed to banish every worldly thought and kindle within 
 their bosoms the fire of the most ardent saintly devotion. It is 
 impossible now to ascertain how many there were of these French 
 settlers during the time while they were subject to the Canadian 
 authority. The number reported in IbOO was only 551, but forty 
 years had then passed since their country's jurisdiction and officers 
 had been withdrawn, the fur trade and traffic in goods had 
 been interruptetl and had largely passed into the hands of the 
 English, and the missions had lost their pristine prosperity. It 
 is, therefore, altogether probable that many of the settlers had 
 
158 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 returned to their old homes before the census was taken, or rather 
 estimate made. The Governor residing at Quebec had had dur- 
 ing this period little or no direct interference with the settlers in 
 this remote portion of his jurisdiction, but committed their charge 
 chiefly to the commandants of the military posts. These exercised 
 general superintendence as well of the settlers outside the forts as 
 of the soldiers within. Questions of legal rights, both as to per- 
 son and property, were most frequently adjusted by the kindly 
 interposition of the priest, and, when this failed, by the decision 
 of the commandant. There appears to have been no regularly 
 organized courts, no sheriff, no jail apart from the garrison, nor 
 do the records show that during the period of French jurisdiction 
 there was a justice of the peace or an alcalde, and jurors were 
 entirely unknown. Not an order, law or edict was, during that 
 whole time, published in print, for there was not a printing press 
 in all New France. Nearly all authority, civil and political, was 
 merged in the military, and the settler quietly submitted to the 
 dictates of the commandants. The executive power committed to 
 the military commander was not, however, limited to the well- 
 being or the private interests of the settlers. The commandants' 
 authority extended to all matters of intercourse with the Indian 
 tribes, requiring the utmost vigilance, prudence and wisdom, and 
 sometimes a resort to deadly and bloody combat. He watched 
 and, in a manner, superintended the great occupation of the fur 
 trade, enforced the conditions under which it was carried on by 
 the companies licensed to monopolise it, and punished individuals 
 who infringed upon their privileges. He exercised the high pre- 
 rogative of granting the King's domain to settlers, and, although 
 these grants or ])ermits were technically not permanently valid 
 without the approval of higher authority, they have come down 
 to us as the basis of title to many a valuable city lot and many a 
 beautiful farm on the Detroit, the Rouge, the St. Clair and the 
 Raisin rivers. After all, it does not appear that the exercise of 
 the executive power of the government in this lake-eucom})assed 
 portion of Canada while under the domination of the French, 
 although in itself arbitrary and with no available check to 
 despotism, was used with unnecessary severity or unwisdom, or 
 that the settlers felt it to be in any regard oppressive or cruel. 
 Yet under such a system, with trade monoj)oly and onerous feudal 
 conditions attached to grants of land, with a hostile and cruel foe 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. ALPHEUS FJ:LCH. 159 
 
 surrounding them, with little encouragement from the supreme 
 government, it is no wonder that the immigration was small and 
 the colonial settlement, although in a most beautiful and fertile 
 region, weak and unthrifty. 
 
 In the list of twenty-five persons w,ho exercised the office of 
 Governor during the French domination, few are named who 
 are known to history. Two of them, however, were so con- 
 nected with the early settlement of the country and its colonial 
 affairs that they should never be forgotten. The first of these is 
 Samuel de Champlain, who was Lieutenant General and Viceroy 
 of Canada in 1612. In youth he served in the French navy, and 
 in 1603, under a commission from Henry lY., came to America. 
 He established the city of Quebec in lt)08. He went six times to 
 France in the interest of the Colony. He held the office of Vice- 
 roy for twenty-three years and yielded it only with his life. He 
 explored the region of the St. Lawrence, ascended the Ottawa and 
 journeyed thence to the eastern shore of Lake Huron ; and coast- 
 ing along the shore of Lake Ontario l^ie passed on to Lake Cham- 
 plain, and was the first white man whose eyes beheld that spark- 
 ling water-gem to which his own name is now most appropriately 
 given. He was an ardent friend of Christianity and aided in 
 establishing many missions. He was a friend of education, and 
 under his patronage a college was established at (Quebec, the city 
 of his residence. He was in warm affiliation and friendship with 
 the Huron, Algonquin and other neighboring tribes of Indians, 
 and in their interest he more than once led them to war against the 
 Iroquois, who were the avowed enemies of the French. An active 
 and intelligent man, never tiring in the service of the King or 
 the colonists ; true as steel to the interests of both, he was a model 
 pioneer of civilization and a builder worthy to pose as the founder 
 of a new empire. 
 
 The next man of note was Count Frontenac. He was twice 
 appointed (Tovernor and served in that capacity from 1672 to 
 1682, and again from 1689 to 1699. Under him the forts at 
 Michilimackinac and Sault Ste. Marie were established. He was 
 active in exploring the country and extending the French inter- 
 ests in the region of the great lakes and in conciliating the 
 numerous tribes of Indians ^Yho roamed over it. He was once 
 removed on unfounded charges made by his enemies, but the 
 alarming condition of affiiirs with the hostile Indians made his 
 
160 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 services again an imperious necessity and he was recalled. Indeed, 
 the ease seemed almost desperate. The Five Nations, or Iroquois, 
 the old enemies of the French, had allied themselves more closely 
 with the English, and had secured the friendship of other tribes 
 formerly the allies of the French, and war seemed inevitable. He 
 made every possible effort for conciliation, but in vain. In 1690 
 an invasion of Canada was made by the New England and New 
 York colonies in conjunction with their Indian allies. The 
 courage and energy of Frontenac was equal to the emergency. 
 With scant time for preparation, he met the invading foe under 
 Gen. Schuyler at Montreal, and, a few days later, he successfully 
 resisted the invasion of Quebec by Sir William Phipps with 2,000 
 men, and repulsed them with great slaughter. But the aggres- 
 sions of the Indian foe still continuing, Frontenac invaded the 
 country of the Iroquois and destroyed their towns and a fort 
 erected by the English. Quiet was finally restored and the col- 
 ony again left in peace. No Governor of the province ever per- 
 formed better service in peace or in war, and none ever had a 
 stronger hold on the gratitude and admiration of the entire com- 
 munity. His wisdom and forbearance averted many a threat- 
 ened evil ; his firmness and courage repulsed or avenged many an 
 aggression. He was a man of decided ability, a friend and coun- 
 sellor of the struggling colonist, and he well merited the meed of 
 praise due to one who, with singleness of purpose, has devoted his 
 life to the good of his country. 
 
 With the taking of Quebec, signalized by the chivalrous acts 
 and lamented death of General Wolfe in 1759, all of Canada fell 
 into the hands of Great Britain, and the possession of it was after- 
 wards confirmed by treaty. In September, 1760, Major Rogers 
 appeared at Detroit, as the representative of England, and demanded 
 and received the surrender of that place. The proud flag of 
 France was lowered, and the red cross of St. George floated in its 
 place. The power of the conquerors over their conquered foe here 
 exercised its first act of dominion in ^Michigan. The soldiers of 
 the French garrison defiled upon the plain, laid down their arms 
 and were sent prisoners to Philadelphia. The Canadian militia 
 were called together and disarmed, and they took the oath of 
 allegiance to the new sovei'eign. The Canadian inhabitants were 
 permitted to retain their possessions on condition of taking the 
 same oath. The other posts in Michigan were soon surrendered in 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. ALPHEIS FKLCH. 161 
 
 like maimer, aud the entire country of the lakes thus passed from 
 the dominion of France, and henceforth, for a time at least, Eng- 
 lish rule was to prevail and English agents to administer the law. 
 Little immediate change, however, was made by the British 
 authorities in managing the affairs of the newly acquired territory. 
 It was I'egarded as a conquest and held subject to the arbitrary 
 powder of the concjueror. The exercise of this power was coni- 
 initti'il to an officer, sometimes denominated Major-General and 
 Comniander-in-Cliief, sometimes Governor of Quebec, sometimes 
 Governor-General, and sometimes Governor of Upper Canada. 
 The seat of this power was, as before, at Quebec. These were the 
 executive officers to whom Michigan was subject until the juris- 
 diction passed into other hands. During this period of thirty-six 
 years — from 1760 to 1796, when actual possession was obtained by 
 the United States — the executive office was exercised by tQU dif- 
 ferent persons. They were in fact military commanders, and they 
 entrusted the administration of tlieir duties largely to the local 
 military commanders at the several military posts. It is difficult 
 to see much improvement in the condition of the occupant- of the 
 country or of the province itself by this change of national juris- 
 diction. It was still a military despotism where arbitrary power 
 might work its will, and redress for unjust, oppressive or de.-potic 
 acts by authorities was almost hopeless. It is true that during 
 this period a long and bitter strife was carried on in regaid to ilie 
 laws and the administration of public affairs in Canada, and the 
 greatest excitement prevailed among the French inhabitants on 
 the St. Lawi'euce ; but this had little effect in the remote part of 
 the province on the Detroit. The French colonists insisted upon 
 retaining their old laws, customs and rights of ])erson and prop- 
 erty, and their simple method of protecting these rights; the new 
 comers, accustomed to the more technical laws of England, ami 
 greedy of the po-ssessions of the conquered, insisted upon radical 
 changes in their favor. In the bitter controversies which charac- 
 terized this strife, the Michigan colonists seem to have taken no 
 part. 
 
 The military power of the local government was generally well 
 exercised in the protection of the settlers. It was during this 
 period of English domination that Pontiac matured his plan of 
 restoring his people to their ancient hunting grounds, destroying 
 all military and other obstacles and staying the tide of immigra- 
 11 
 
162 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 tion aud settlement ; aud the utter defeat of his forces in his 
 onslaught upon the fort at Detroit alone secured safety to the 
 settlers. 
 
 As to the exercise of power under the British rule, in regard to 
 the civil rights of the inhabitants, we have few records ; but little 
 complaint seems to have been made. It appears, however, that 
 the commander of the fort at Detroit exercised jurisdiction in 
 criminal cases, and on one occasion, not long after the surrender, 
 on the trial of some persons charged with affording assistance to 
 Pontiac, he found them guilty and sentenced them to banishment 
 from the country. In 1767 Captain Trumbull, who was then in 
 command, appointed Philip Dejean a justice of the peace, and 
 afterwards issued to him another commission enlarging his powers 
 and giving him cognizance of small civil causes, and designating 
 him as." Second Judge." But the judge did not confine his labors 
 or his jurisdiction to the hearing of small causes. We have evi- 
 dence that in three instances, at least, trials for capital offences 
 were held before him and the offenders convicted and sentenced to 
 execution. The conviction of these persons and the execution of 
 two of them, with other acts of alleged severity, caused much 
 popular indignation against the judge, and he was indicted for his 
 acts by the grand jury at Montreal ; but his friends interfered in 
 his behalf and, on appeal to the Governor-General, he was allowed 
 to go unpunished. 
 
 It is manifest, also, that the English commanders and lieutenant- 
 governors assumed power over the vacant lands and gave posses- 
 sory grants of them. In 1763, however, by the King's proclama- 
 tion, such grants were expressly forbidden, and fifteen years later 
 an order issued by the Governor-General expressly directed the 
 commander of the post at Detroit to annul and make void, by 
 public act, every concession made by any British commander 
 since the acquisition of the country, and to prevent any new set- 
 tlement whatever. From the time of the cession of the country 
 by France to Great Britain to the surrender of it by the latter to 
 the United States under the treaty of 1783, neither the population 
 nor the business of JMichigau appears to have made much advance; 
 immigration was not encouraged, agriculture made little ])rogress, 
 and enterprise of all kinds was suppressed rather than fostered. 
 While in Quebec, and Montreal and Three Rivers they had, at 
 least for most of the time, a Legislative Council and courts aud 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. ALPHEUS FELCH. 163 
 
 juries and other subordinate officers and a formal administration 
 of the law, the region on the upper lakes was treated as a border 
 country beyond tlie pale of civilization, and was committed to the 
 charge of a subordinate military officer in command of the British 
 fort. And in this condition it came to the jurisdiction of the 
 United States at the end of the struggle for independence, by the 
 treaty of 1788, although actual possession was not obtained until 
 1796. 
 
 Among the men to whom was committed the executive power 
 during the jieriod referred to, the most distinguished was Sir Guy 
 Carleton. Twice he held the position, first in 1766 and again in 
 1774. He early distinguished himself as a military commander, 
 and was active in the British service in the war of the revolution, 
 and he especially commanded the admiration of the Canadians by 
 the able and gallant manner in which he met and defeated Mont- 
 gomery in his attack upon Quebec. During his entire administration 
 he showed himself both just and liberal towards the French inhabit- 
 ants of Canada, and urged their right to the full enjoyment of their 
 ancient privileges, their laws and their customs. He regarded 
 the strict enforcement of martial law as a violation of the articles 
 of capitulation, and he inaugurated a more just and liberal policy. 
 But unfortunately the breaking out of the war with the American 
 colonies called him away for service in the field, and with his de- 
 parture the French inhabitants of Canada lost the most liberal 
 and just of the early English governors. 
 
 On thesurrender of thefortsin 1796 the territory now constituting 
 the State of Michigan for the first time fell under the actual juris- 
 diction of the United States. A local government under that juris- 
 diction was already organized and in operation, and the newly 
 ac(piired territory was at once recognized as within its limits and 
 under its authority. Under the provisions of the Ordinance of 
 1787 /o/' the government of the Territorij of the United States North- 
 ivestqf the River Ohio, the machinery of a territorial government 
 was in full operation, with its capitol at Marietta, Ohio. On the 
 fifth day of October, 1787, Congress had elected Arthur St. Clair 
 as Governor of the Territory and Winthrop Sargent Secretary, and 
 a few days later they appointed three persons as Judges of the 
 Territory. To the Governor and Judges was committed the full 
 power of executive, legislative and judicial duties; together they 
 constituted a Legislature, with certain limitations imposed by the 
 
164r Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Ordinance on their acts ; the Governor alone had full executive 
 authority, and the Judges the judicial. In 1795 they had caused 
 a code of laws to be printed, and as Michigan was regarded as a 
 part of the Territory Northwest of the Ohio temporarily withheld 
 by a foreign power, on the withdrawal of the English the laws of 
 the Territory at once extended over it. These laws continued 
 with slight modifications, perhaps, to be the laws of Michigan until 
 1800. In May of that year the Territory Northwest of the Ohio 
 was divided into two parts, and the western portion organized into 
 a new territory under the name of Indiana. This division cut 
 the region of country now embraced in our State into nearly equal 
 parts by a line running north and south near the eastern boun- 
 dary of the present county of Calhoun, transferring to the juris- 
 diction of the new Territory of 'Indiana the region west of that 
 line, and leaving the portion east of it as a part of the original 
 Northwestern Territory. By Act of Congress approved April 30, 
 1802, the eastern division of the Territory Northwest of the Ohio 
 was authorized to form a State government, and under it the State 
 of Ohio was organized. This organization, however, did not em- 
 brace within the State boundaries the eastern portion of Michigan, 
 but the law, by express provision, annexed it to the Territory of 
 Indiana. Thus the western half of our State became a part of the 
 Territory of Indiana in 1800, and the eastern half not until 1802, 
 and both portions continued under the jurisdiction of that Terri- 
 tory from these dates respectively until the Territory of Michigan 
 was organized under the Act of Congress approved January 11th, 
 1805. General William Henry Harrison was Governor of the 
 Territory of Indiana during this period. The Territory of Michi- 
 gan was organized with a government similar to that provided in 
 the Ordinance of 1787, except that the first officers were to be ap- 
 pointed by the President, by and with the consent of the Senate, 
 instead of being elected by Congress. 
 
 Thus it appears that the entire area of the present State of 
 Michigan was for four years after the surrender by the British 
 (1795-1800) under the executive authority of the old Northwest 
 Territory, and that the eastern half of it continued under that 
 jurisdiction two years longer (1800-1802). The western half was 
 a part of the Territory of Indiana during a period of about five 
 years (1800-1805), and the eastern half for about three years 
 (1802-1805). 
 
ADDKESS OF HON. ALPHEUS FELCII. 165 
 
 The Hrst exercise of executive authority uuder American juris- 
 diction witliiii the i)reseut liiuits of" Michigan, was contempora- 
 neous with the surrender of the post at Detroit. General 
 Anthony Wayne was directed to receive the surrender of the 
 British forts, and came to Detroit for that purpose. He was 
 accompanied by Winthrop Sargent, Secretary of the Territory 
 and then acting Governor, General St. Clair being temporarily 
 absent. Immediately after the British flag had been hauled 
 down and the Stars and Stripes run up in its place, the Governor 
 proceeded to the exercise of the authority granted by the Ordi- 
 nance of 1787 — by establishing the county of Wayne, designat- 
 ing its officers and declaring Detroit the seat of justice. Courts 
 were thereafter held here by the territorial judges who resided 
 in Ohio, and they were usually accompanied by members of the 
 Bar, who found their long horseback ride an enjoyable pastime 
 and their professional practice remunerative. It is the testimony 
 of one of these attendants upon the courts — Judge Burnet — in 
 his " Notes on the early Settlement, of the Nortliwestern Terri- 
 tory," that a large number of suits were commenced, many of 
 them to test the correctness of the decisions of the commandants, 
 that the docket w\as soon crowded with causes, and the practice as 
 lucrative as in any other county in the Territory. The suitors, 
 witnesses and jurors were mostly French, and the services of an 
 interpreter were always required. On one occasion great offence 
 was given to this portion of the population by .Fudge Symmes by 
 an allusion in his charge to the Grand Jury to their devotion to 
 their religious ceremonies, but the dissatisfaction was removed and 
 good humor restored by a conciliatory explanation made by him 
 from the bench. In 1798, in accordance with the provision of 
 the Ordinance of 1787, representatives to the first general assem- 
 bly of the Territory were elected by popular vote. Wayne 
 county, then embracing all the country within the present limits 
 of the State of Michigan, elected three representatives, one of 
 whom was the Hon. Solomon Sibley, afterwards one of the Judges 
 of the Territory of Michigan. The representatives assembled 
 at Cincinnati in February, 1 799, and selected and nominated ten 
 persons to be returned to the President, five of whom were 
 selected and commissioned by him as a Legislative Council. 
 
 From the time of the surrender by the British of the fort at 
 Detroit there has been no interruption to the full exercise of civil 
 government in Michigan. 
 
166 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 While a part of the " Territory Northwest of the River Ohio,'''' 
 Governor Arthur St. Clair, a distinguished soldier and a wise 
 and able man, administered the government with firmness and 
 discretion. He was a native of Scotland and came to America in 
 1758, at the age of twenty-four years. He distinguished himself 
 as a gallant officer in the struggle of the Revolution and rose to 
 the rank of Major-fteneral in the Northern Department, and 
 became a member of the military family of General Washington 
 whose confidence and friendship he always enjoyed. He became 
 a member of the Congress of the Confederation in 1786 and in 1787 
 was chosen its president. He was its presiding officer at the time 
 the famous Ordinance of 1787 was passed, and, as such appointed 
 the committee which prepared and reported it; and he was the first 
 governor appointed under it. It seems that he was reluctant to 
 accept the position when offered to him, but considerations 
 which do credit to his foresight finally overcame his reluctance. 
 In a letter written after his election as Governor, he says that he 
 would not have accepted the office but for " the laudable ambition 
 of becoming the father of a country and laying the foundation for 
 the happiness of millions then unborn." Governor St. Clair 
 strongly opposed the organizing of the State of Ohio, and at the 
 time of drafting the first Constitution by the convention elected 
 for the purpose, exerted himself zealously in opposition to it. He 
 especially opposed the proposition to dismember the territory by 
 excluding from the proposed State the eastern half of Michigan, 
 then known as Wayne county. That portion of the county had no 
 representative in the convention to present the wishes of its inhab- 
 itants; but Governor St. Clair fought the battle so zealously as to 
 give great oflfence and to seriously impair his personal popularity, 
 and Chief Justice Chase asserts that he was consequently removed 
 from office. Had his arguments prevailed the eastern half of 
 Michigan, embracing Detroit and the rich mines of the Upjier 
 Peninsula, would have constituted a part of the State of Ohio, 
 and, very possibly, might have continued so to this day. 
 
 During the time that Michigan continued to be a portion of the 
 Territory of Indiana the executive power over it was in the hands 
 of General William Henry Harrison, a distinguished soldier and 
 civilian and afterwards President of the United States. The 
 administration of Governor Harrison was particularly distinguished 
 for the wisdom and courage of his conduct with the Indian tribes, 
 
ADDRESS OF HON, ALPHEUS FELCH. 167 
 
 then highly excited and in open hostility, and the care with 
 which he guarded every interest committed to his charge. The 
 power of the executive, however, during this period was, so far as 
 Michigan was concerned, little more than nominal. In the west- 
 ern there were literally no inhabitants, and in the eastern it does 
 not appear that any interference by the Indiana authorities, was 
 ever practically exercised. I do not find that any of the laws of 
 the Territory of Indiana were ever enforced here, or that any 
 ofiicers acted under their authority, or that any resident of Michi- 
 gan ever participated in any capacity in the administration of tlie 
 government or the laws of the Territory of Indiana. But in fact 
 the records of these times are lamentably meagre, and the larger 
 portion of them are said to have been long since destroyed and 
 irrevocably lost. 
 
 In 1805 another change took place in the government of Michi- 
 gan. By act of Congress approved in January, 1805, the Terri- 
 tory of Michigan was formed with boundaries much broader than 
 those of the present State and with the same governmental organiz- 
 ation as provided by the Ordinance of 1787, and the act of Con- 
 gress approved on the seventh day of August, 1789. Detroit was 
 made the seat of government. The organization was perfected by 
 the appointment of General William Hull, as Governor, William 
 Woodbridge as Secretary, and Augustus B. Woodward, Frederick 
 Bates and John Griffin, Judges. General Hull arrived at Detroit 
 and assunied the duties of Governor on the second day of July, 
 1805, and, under two re-appointments, he continued to hold the 
 office until 1812. The old system of iraposiuo- upon the territorial 
 governors duties entirely foreign to an executive office, still con- 
 tinued, and he soon found himself .seated at board with the three 
 Judges charged with the responsible duties of legislation for the 
 Territory. The little village of Detroit had been destroyed by 
 fire a few days before his arrival and the prospect before him, on 
 entering upon his official duties in the midst of the desolation, 
 must have been gloomy enough. But if the connection of Gen- 
 eral Hull with aftairs in Michigan commenced in gloom it termin- 
 ated in the more sorrowful spectacle of his trial on a charge of 
 treason and cowardice and the sentence of death pronounced by a 
 court martial convened at Albany. He came to the office of Gov- 
 ernor with a record of previous public services which pointed him 
 out as a man eminently fitted for the position. He was a graduate 
 
168 Michigan's sEivn-CENTENNiAL. 
 
 of Yale College, and had devoted himself to the study of the law 
 aud been admitted to the Bar. He had served in the war of the 
 Revolution from the grade of captain to that of lieutenant-colonel; 
 had fought bravely in many of its battles and had received the 
 thanks of Washington and of Congress for his gallant services. 
 
 In the performance of his duties as Governor of Michigan dur- 
 ing the six years of his administration, so far as related to the 
 civil duties of an executive, his record is untarnished. He 
 exerted himself to the utmost to secure aid from Congress for the 
 settlers who suffered by the burning of Detroit, and he obtained 
 for them liberal allotments of lands in the new town, and he did 
 much to prepare the way for immigration and for the growth of 
 the city. He is charged with no corruption, or bribery, or oppres- 
 sion, or infringement of private rights, or of any willful disre- 
 gard of the public weal ; yet his administration, both for himself 
 and the country, marks a period of unusual disaster. It was 
 unfortunate for him that legislative duties were thrown upon him, 
 in conjunction with the three judges. Their sessions were always 
 characterized by wide differences of opinion, and often with 
 unseemly strife aud wrangling. The Chief Justice, Judge Wood- 
 ward, was a man of marked peculiarities. He was not without 
 ability ; he displayed much obtrusive pedantry, yet was not with- 
 out learning ; he was independent in his thoughts and plans, and 
 seemed (o make it a principle never to follow the views of any 
 other person ; he delighted in opposition. He was gratified to be 
 at the head of a following that acknowledged his leadership and 
 re-ichoed his sentiments, yet, this failing, he seemed no less 
 dtliglited to stand out solitary and alone, brandishing his wea- 
 pons and defying his opponents. With such characteristics, it is 
 little wonder that the law-enacting board of the Territory should 
 soon be at loggerheads. The Chief Justice and one Associate, 
 were speedily found uniformly acting together ; the Governor and 
 the other Associate in opposition. The same spirit of dissension 
 and controversy here begun, soon took a wider range, aud the 
 community became sharply divided into hostile parties and vexed 
 with angry controversy. The dominant and aggressive bearing of 
 the Chief Justice could not bend the Governor to his will, but it 
 paralyzed his efforts in the administration of his office and caused 
 him much unhappiness. 
 
 On Governor Hull was devolved also the duties of Indian 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. ALIMIEUS FKLCH. 169 
 
 Agent, and on the successful performance of them important 
 interests depended. He succeeded in obtaining a cession of some 
 lands in the eastern part of the State, but in the main he accom- 
 plished little in that capacity. Neither his native talents or 
 disposition, nor the experience of his former life, fitted him for 
 dealing, either in war or in peace, with the peculiar character of 
 the al)origiues. Indeed the Indian tribes were at that time little 
 disposed for negotiation and not readily pacified. The great 
 Shawnee Chief, Tecumseh, was already organizing the western 
 tribes into a confederacy against the whites, and the threats of 
 savage incursions and the bloody strife of cruel warfare already 
 begun, brought terror not only to women and children, but to the 
 stoutest hearts. The charge of Indian affairs had always been 
 committed to the Territorial Governors, generally in connection 
 with a military commission, and success had hitherto brought 
 them much praise. St. Clair, while Governor of the Northwest 
 Territory, negotiated the imjjortant treaty of Fort Harmer, and 
 led the American troops in the disastrous excursion against the 
 savage foe at the Miami villages. Harrison, while Governor of 
 Indiana Territory, concluded thirteen important Indian treaties 
 and gained the great battle of Tippecannoe. But we must not 
 criticize too severely. The success of Tecumseh in marshalling 
 the forces of the Indian tribes and precipitating them upon the 
 American forces under his own gallant leatlership at the very 
 beginning of the war of 1812, clearly shows that during the agita- 
 tion and excitement that preceded it, there was little chance for 
 pacification or treaty even from the most skillful of negotiators. 
 
 The event which terminated the official relations of Governor 
 Hull with Michigan is one of the most sad in American history. 
 Threatenings of w'ar with (rreat Britain had created alarm 
 throughout the country, and in the event of hostilities an Indian 
 force was sure to attack the western settlements, and none were 
 more exposed to their incursions than Michigan. Gen. Hull 
 was aware of all this, and alive to the danger. He more than 
 once presented to the authorities at Washington the perilous situ- 
 ation of the Northwest, cut off from all available aid as it was by 
 want of communication by the land or by the lakes, which were 
 completely controlled by British vessels. His importunity had no 
 effect, and when war with Great Britain was declared, July 18, 
 1812, Gen. Hull received a commission as Brigadier-General 
 
170 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 to command the army in the Northwest. He marched the forces 
 given to his command to Detroit and after some hostile excursions 
 into Canada the forces again rendezvoused at Detroit. On the 14th 
 of August, 1812, Gen. Brock appeared on the Canadian side 
 of the river and sent to Gen. Hull a demand to surrender, 
 which was refused. Two days after he crossed the river without 
 opposition and repeated the demand. Gen. Hull at once entered 
 into a stipulation for surrender, reserving only the right of private 
 property and the parol of troops on the way who had not yet 
 arrived. Gen. Brock reported his forces at 1,330, and in his offi- 
 cial report of the conquest he states the number of the captured at 
 2,500, both undoubtedly exaggerated. The act of surrender was 
 without the advice of the other officers of his command, and with 
 no general consultation with them. It fell like a thunderbolt on 
 both officers and men, who were ready to die rather than to sub- 
 mit to capture, and who had not a doubt of their ability to repulse 
 the foe. When the news of the disaster spread over the astonished 
 country, one common cry of indignation and grief was every- 
 where heard. The campaign was broken up, and the flag of 
 Great Britain again floated over the fort. Charges of treason and 
 cowardice were made against the general, and two years after- 
 wards he was found guilty of the latter charge and sentenced to 
 execution, but a consideration of his age and great and long-con- 
 tinued meritorious services in earlier life, secured him a pardon 
 from the President. So ended the administration and the ser- 
 vices of the first Governor of the Territory. The question of the 
 merits or the demerits of his last unfortunate public act, and of 
 the influence or the ^motive which induced his conduct, has not 
 entirely ceased to be discussed, but it is not in our province here 
 to consider it. 
 
 From August 16, 1812, to the 29th of September, 181.S, military 
 rule prevailed in Michigan. Col. Proctor of the British army 
 was made Military Governor under a proclamation that the 
 American laws should continue to prevail. He appointed Judge 
 Woodward Secretary, and to the great credit of the latter he 
 exercised his influence in every manner possible with his superior 
 to mitigate the sanguinary cruelty and coarse indignities to which 
 the inhabitants were continually subject by his orders. Judge 
 Woodward finally, disgusted with Proctor, retired from the Terri- 
 tory ; but he returned again after peace was restored and resumed 
 his duties as Chief Justice. 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. ALPHEUS FELCH. 171 
 
 After the re-taking of Detroit Lewis Cass, then a colonel in the 
 army, was stationed with his regiment at that post. He was 
 appointed Governor of the Territory of Michigan October 29, 
 18lo, and continued to perform tlie duties of the office until 1^531, 
 when he resigned — a period of over sixteen years of continued 
 service. These years con.^titute an epoch in the history of Mich- 
 igan, and the executive powers of the government have never 
 been more assiduously or more successfully exercised in building 
 up a new country, or in promoting the growth of agricultural, 
 mechanical or educational interests. When his administration 
 began, the ravages of the conquering foe, whose flag had just 
 given place to our own, were everywhere apparent. The popula- 
 tion of the Territory did not much exceed 5,000 ; when he retired 
 from the office it could not have been less than 35,000. A few 
 years previous the population consisted chiefly of the few scattered 
 French settlers who lived along the river banks, and neither the 
 English nor American domination had added materially to their 
 numbers. But now the eyes of our own American citizens began 
 to be open to tlie wonderful advantages of the Northwestern 
 country for the settler, and the tide of population began to flow in 
 that direction. It was not perhaps so much what was really 
 accomplished during that period, as the fact that the foundation 
 was then laid for that greater growth and prosperity which has 
 since followed — the laying of a corner-stone upon which a noble, 
 magniticent superstructure has since arisen, — the planting of the 
 humble seed which has sent forth its vigorous shoot, and with its 
 growth has now becouie a magnificent tree. 
 
 The territorial government at the commencement of Gov. 
 Cass' administration was still in that undemocratic state which 
 entrusted the making of the laws to the Governor and Judges. It 
 ignored the existence of popular rights and compelled a submis- 
 sion to officers appointed arbitrarily at Washington. But in the 
 administration of Gov. Cass, his associate officers were men of 
 ability and high character, and they acted in perfect harmony 
 and with a high regard to the interests of the people. So well sat- 
 isfied were the people with this peculiar form of government, that 
 in February, 1818, when a vote was taken on substituting for it 
 a (Tcneral Assembly elected by the people, as provided by the 
 Ordinance of 1787, a majority of votes was^cast against it. 
 
 In the administration of Indian affairs Gov. Cass was most for- 
 
172 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 tunate. He early began negotiations with them and soon suc- 
 ceeded in securing their confidence and respect. Under his 
 administration he secured by treaties with various tribes, large 
 concessions of laud in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, and through 
 his aid important concessions of land beyond the Mississippi were 
 obtained. Sixteen treaties made while he filled the office of Gov- 
 ernor are enumerated as negotiated by him or through his influ- 
 ence. The justice and kindness of his dealings with the Indians 
 did much to pacify and quiet them and dispel the fears of the 
 settlers of hostile attacks from them. 
 
 The opening of the public domain for sale was indispensable to 
 the settlement of the country. Gen. Cass had urged the necessity 
 of this, and of preliminary surveys preparatory to it. Surveys 
 had been ordered, but it was not till 1818 that the first sales were 
 made by government of lands in Michigan. This opened the 
 country to the immigration of most desirable settlers, who could 
 obtain perfect titles to the lands they might select, and induced 
 them to become permanent citizens. 
 
 In the meantime the right of popular representation took 
 strong hold of the public mind and, it is asserted, was always 
 favored by Gov. Cass. In 1818 the Territory was authorized by 
 Act of Congress to send a delegate to that body to be elected by 
 a vote of all taxable citizens. In 1823 the legislative power of 
 the Governor and Judges was abolished and the power transferred 
 to a council of nine persons, who should be selected by the Presi- 
 dent from eighteen elected by the people; and by another Act of 
 Congress in 1827, a Legislative Council, consisting of thirteen 
 members, was to be elected, who, without sanction by President or 
 Congress, should legislate for the Territory. 
 
 The connection of Gov. Cass with the gubernatorial office ceased 
 by his resignation in 1831. He was appointed Secretary of War 
 by President Jackson, and immediately entered on the duties at 
 Washington. His administration as Governor was one of decided 
 success, and while it secured great results to the Territory, it 
 bound him to the people by the strongest bonds of respect and 
 love. Nor did his connection with tliem cease in after years. He 
 represented the State in the Senate of the United States by elec- 
 tion in 184 , and again in 1849. He was Minister to France and 
 Secretary of War under President Jackson and Secretary of State 
 under President Buchanan. His was a long life spent in public 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. ALPHEUS FELCH. 173 
 
 service, and he well deserved the rewards due to a faithful, hon- 
 est and able public servant. The statue just ordered by our 
 Legislature to be placed in the Capitol at Washington among the 
 statues of the most eminent men of other States of the Union, is 
 a just tribute to his memory. Michigan honors herself in thus 
 honoring her most illustrious statesman. 
 
 The next person appointed Governor of the Territory was 
 George B. Porter, of Pennsylvania. He was commissioned in 
 August, 1831, but died after a short incumbency of the office. 
 He was the last Governor appointed during the existence of the 
 territorial government. 
 
 He was succeeded in the performance of the executive duties by 
 Stevens T. Mason, Secretary of the Territory, who became acting 
 Governor on the death of Governor Porter. Governor Mason 
 was a very young man. He had succeeded his father, John T. 
 Mason, as Secretary of the Territory, in August, 1831, and it is 
 said that the duties of Governor devolved upon him in that 
 capacity before he was twenty-one years of age. He continued to 
 perform the duties of the office until September 8, 1835, when he 
 was removed by President Jackson. This period of four years is 
 one of note in the history of jNIichigan. During the time, popu- 
 lation was rapidly pouring into the Territory and spreading itself 
 widely through the interior, building up towns and villages and 
 beautifying the country with cultivated farms. Near the close of 
 this period was held the convention which prepared a Constitution 
 for the future State, which was adopted by popular vote in October, 
 1835. In "this year, also, occurred the memorable controversy 
 with Ohio in reference to the southern boundary line — a contro- 
 versy which greatly excited the public mind on both sides of the 
 line and made conspicuous the Governors both of Ohio and Mich- 
 igan. The subject of the controversy was really very simple, but 
 the prospective importance of Toledo and its position on navigable 
 waters, prompted the almost frantic exertions of Ohio to secure it 
 for that State. Ever since the Territory was organized, the line, 
 surveyed and well detined, running a few miles south of Toledo, 
 had been the recognized boundary to which the territorial juris- 
 diction had been exercised. It lay within the recognized limits 
 of Monroe county, a county which was organized iu 1817, and had 
 continued from the first to exercise uninterrupted jurisdiction over 
 it in every respect as a part of its terrritory, until the adverse 
 
174 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 claim to possession was urged in 1835. It is true that Ohio had 
 repeatedly petitioned Congress to include the territory in dis- 
 pute within her limits by establishing the line known as 
 the Harris line — a line run on a course departing from that 
 established by the Ordinance of 1787, and by the acts estab- 
 lishing the limits alike of Michigan and Ohio, but the applica- 
 tions were never successful. An act of the Legislature of Ohio 
 passed in accordance with a recommendation contained in the 
 Governor's message of February 6, 1835, extending the jurisdic- 
 tion of the State over the disputed territory, and providing for 
 the appointment of officers to carry that jurisdiction into effect, 
 and to run and mark the line claimed by them, caused great 
 excitement in Michigan, and the Territorial Council, on the 12th 
 of February 1836, passed an act making it a criminal offence for 
 any person to exercise, or attempt to exercise, any official func- 
 tions, or officiate in any office or situation within the present 
 jurisdiction of the Territory by virtue of any commission or 
 authority not derived trom the authority of the Territory or of 
 the United States. Resistance to the exercise of the authority of 
 Michigan soon followed. The sheriff attempting to arrest indi- 
 viduals against whom he held warrants on criminal charges was 
 resisted, and one of his deputies wounded. The posse comitatus 
 was called out in aid of the sheriff. But the resistance to the 
 lawful authorities now assumed a more alarming aspect. The 
 Governor of Ohio determined to enforce the law of that State by 
 taking forcible possession of the territory and ousting the Mich- 
 igan authorities, and he called out a military force for that pur- 
 pose. The authorities of Michigan would not submit to this 
 forcible dispossession, and by the order of the Governor a portion 
 of the military of the Territory was sent in aid of the civil 
 authorities. The aspect of affairs became alarming, and forcible 
 collision between the armed forces of the two parties was liable 
 at any moment to lead to bloodshed. The national authorities at 
 Washington were alarmed with the threatened collision. The 
 President referred the question of legal rights to the Attorney 
 General, and that officer on the 21st of March, 1835, in an exhaus- 
 tive and lucid opinion, concluded as a result, that the territory in 
 dispute must be regarded as forming a part of the Territory of 
 Michigan, and that it was the duty of the President so to regard 
 it and to protect and maintain it — that the act of the Legislature 
 
ADDKE8S OF HON. ALI'HEUS FELCH. 175 
 
 of Ohio extending the jurisdiction of that State over it was 
 I'epugnant to the acts of Congress on tlie subject, and its enforce- 
 ment would involve a most serious violation of the laws of the 
 United States. He held, also, that the act of the Legislative 
 Council of Michigan making it a criminal oflence, punishable by 
 tine and imprisonment in any person who should exercise or 
 attempt to exercise any official functions, or officiate in any office 
 or situation, in the disputed territory, by virtue of any commission 
 or authority not derived from the Territory or the United States 
 Government, was a valid law; and he strongly intimates that if an 
 armed force should invade the territory for the purpose of estab- 
 lishing the jurisdiction of Ohio by force of arras, the autliorities 
 of Michigan might properly repel force with force in defence of 
 their rights, and if this did not avail, it might become the duty of 
 the President to render more effective aid. The situation of 
 affairs became more and more alarming and military forces on 
 both sides were called into service, and connnenced their march 
 towards the disi)uted territory. It then became more than a mere 
 local controversy, and presented a question of national importance 
 which greatly perplexed the autliorities of the federal capital. A 
 hostile collision was imminent. The President was anxious to 
 avoid such a conflict, and ardently desired an amicable aiTange- 
 ment of the matter, and for that purpose appointed two commis- 
 sioners, Hon. Richard Rush and lion. Benjamin C. Howard to 
 visit and intercede with the Governors of Ohio and Michigan. 
 They arrived in Ohio April 1, 1835, and for four or five weeks 
 thereafter were engaged in efforts to effect their object, sometimes 
 in Ohio, sometimes in Michigan, sometimes by personal interviews 
 with the Governors and sometimes by correspondence. But the 
 effort was not a success, and on the 5th of May they returned to 
 Washington. During these negotiations Gov. Mason stood firmly 
 by the right of Michigan to the h)ng conceded jurisdiction over 
 the tract in dispute, and to the enforcing of the laws of Michigan 
 within it ; and he refused to give any sanction to the organizing of 
 counties, or townships, or courts within it under Ohio authorities. 
 They proposed to him to allow the juristliction of Ohio to be 
 extended, and that Michigan ami Ohio should exercise concurrent 
 jurisdiction, and that tlie officers of both should together exercise 
 authority : but to this he refused his assent. They urged him to 
 abandon all idea of force and withhold his asseut to the exercise 
 
176 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 of it, but he considered it his duty to preserve the integrity of the 
 territory, and to allow the executive officers to enforce the laws of 
 Michigan within its borders ; and, if the circumstances demanded 
 it, he would refuse no aid which the executive might properly 
 furnish. The troublesome question of the southern boundary of 
 Michigan was finally settled by action of Congress in the act 
 organizing the State of Michigan, passed June 15, 1836. This 
 act gave to Ohio the tract in dispute and, as a compensation, 
 added the country on Lake Superior, now famous for its rich 
 copper and iron mines, to the territory described in the Constitu- 
 tion as presented to Congress. By a subsequent assent to this 
 change of State limits by a convention held in Michigan, the new 
 boundaries were accepted, and a subsequent act of Congress 
 settled the controversy forever. 
 
 It is needless to say that this controversy gave great annoyance 
 and trouble to Governor Mason. A young man scarcely twenty- 
 four years old, he had to bear responsibilities and perform official 
 duties which required the wisdom and experience of an older man. 
 This controversy brought him into sharp collision with men in high 
 official position and distinguished for long experience and eminent 
 ability. His correspondence on the subject is marked by its direct- 
 ness, its clearness of statement, its cogency of argument. His 
 voluminous correspondence with the President, the Secretary of 
 State, the Secretary of War, the Governor of Ohio, and with 
 Messrs. Rush and Howard, the commissioners ; and his messages 
 on the same subject to the Legislative Council, all evince ability 
 of more than ordinary power, and a zeal in urging the claims and 
 defending the rights of the Territory whose chief executive officer 
 he was. With the Governor of Ohio he was, of course, brought 
 into sharp collision. With the wishes of General Jackson, then 
 President, and whom above all men he admired, he could not com- 
 ply, and preferred to retire from his office rather than decline to do 
 what he thought duty demanded of him. But on the real question at 
 issue, the question as to the true boundary line under the acts of 
 Congress, and the legality of the proposed action of Ohio in 
 extending her jurisdiction and establishing and maintaining her 
 officers by force within the Territory, there is no evidence that 
 General Jackson took any view different from that of Governor 
 Mason ; and it is certain that the Attorney General, his legal 
 adviser, was clear in his opinion that Michigan was right in her 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. ALPIIELTS F'ELCH. 177 
 
 views on this point, and that the executive should maintain the 
 established jurisdiction, and that, too, by force if invaded from 
 abroad. And this, too, was the expressed view of at least some 
 of the other members of the Cabinet. But the President was 
 anxious to avoid all trouble, and it is said that he was j)articularly 
 anxious to pacify and conciliate the State of Oliio, whose large 
 vote might be important in the presidential election which was not 
 far off. At all events, he was willing to avoid the threatened col- 
 lision by allowing Ohio for the time beingto estal)lish her juri.-^dic- 
 tion, and her newly appointed judges and other officers within the 
 Territory, and that the executive of Michigan should abstain 
 from resistance in the meantime and cease to perform what, in 
 the view of the Governor, was his sworn official duty. On this 
 they disagreed, and Governor Mason was removed from office. 
 
 In this long and l)itter controversy, Gov. Mason at no time stood 
 alone. Tiie Legislative Council were always with him, and by 
 their legislative acts they not only proclaimed the right but pro- 
 vided efficient means for securing .and defending them. The 
 people were with him, and most heartily and zealously supported 
 him and his measures, and gloried in the chivalrous spirit with 
 which he defended their cause. On the eleventh day of Septem- 
 ber, l'So5, the troops having returned from Toledo to Monroe, they 
 were received by Gov. Mason,. and the hearty acclamations with 
 which his short address was received, gave ample evidence of 
 the strong hold which he had upon the affections of the people. 
 But this was the last act of Gov. Mason as Territorial Governor. 
 His removal from the office followed almost immediately after. 
 But on the first Monday of October succeeding — a short month 
 after — he was elected Governor of the State of Michigan, under 
 the Constitution of 1835, by a vote of nearly eight thousand to 
 about eight hundred given for the opposing candidate. 
 
 Gov. Mason was succeeded in the office by John S. Horner, 
 who was appointed Secretary of the Territory by President Jack- 
 son. He arrived in Detroit on the nineteenth day of September 
 of the same year, and immediately called on Gov. Mason, and 
 took charge of tiie Territorial Government as acting Governor. 
 His official term was short ; and on or about the seventh day of 
 November following, he bid adieu to that part of the territory 
 of Michigan now within the limits of the State, and passed on to 
 the west. The gubernatorial career of Gov. Horner was by no 
 12 
 
178 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 means a pleasant or an exultant one. He came at an unfortun- 
 ate time. He succeeded a man whose popularity was, at the time, 
 unbounded, and whose praise was on the lips of all. He came to 
 a community excited in the contest over the boundary question, 
 and by no means predisposed to the views which he was expected 
 to represent and to urge. He arrived only ten days before an 
 election was to take place under the State Constitution of Gov- 
 ernor and other State officers, and when the territorial organiza- 
 tion was regarded very much as a thing of the past. His first 
 act, and indeed almost the only official act of his short adminis- 
 tration, was the pardon of certain persons who had been arrested 
 in Monroe and Lenawee counties charged with a violation of the 
 law against infringement of the jurisdictional rights of the Terri- 
 tory. He also sent pardons in blank to the Governor of Ohio, to 
 be used at his discretion. He extended the clemency of his par- 
 dons to the accused as well before trial as after trial and convic- 
 tion. Gov. Horner went to Monroe at the session of the court, 
 and in a communication dated October 19th, lSo5, gives a most 
 deplorable account of his expedition and the manner of his re- 
 ception. The truth was that the Governor became alarmed 
 without cause, and in his fright construed the most harmless and 
 meaningless circumstances into a design against his honor and his 
 life ; and his own acts brought ridicule upon himself He says in 
 his report that " there never was a government in Christendom 
 with such officers, civil and military, and filled with such doctrines, 
 as Michigan." He doubtless found his brief official sojourn in 
 Michigan devoid of pleasure ; he had no friends ; nobody sought 
 his society or courted his notice ; he came to perform acts which 
 were distasteful to the entire community, but that he was foolishly 
 alarmed without cause, and fancied danger where none existed, is 
 manifest. His final departure from Michigan to the western 
 shores of Lake Michigan was doubtless a relief and a source of 
 joy to himself, and it brought no regret to those whom he left 
 behind him. 
 
 With the departure of Governor Horner the Territory virtually 
 ceased to exist in that portion of the country lying [east of Lake 
 Michigan. But the Territory of Michigan embraced a much 
 larger region of country. The present States of Wisconsin, Iowa 
 and Minnesota and a portion of Dakota were within its limits. 
 These, after the organization of the State, constituted the Terri- 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. ALPHEUS FKLCII. 179 
 
 tory of Michigan, and Governor Horner betook himself to this 
 part of his jurisdictional domain, and still acting as Governor of 
 Michigan, issued proclamation calling together the Legislative 
 Council of the Territory. The session was held at Green Bay in 
 January, 1836, and the Council petitioned Congress to pi'ovide for 
 the organization of the Territory of Wisconsin. This organiza- 
 tion was secured by an 'act of Congress in May following, and 
 with it terminated the gubernatorial functions of Gov. Horner. 
 
 With his departure and the cessation of the territorial govern- 
 ment here, the State organization at once succeeded. The Gov- 
 ernor, Lieutenant Governor and members of the Legislature, 
 elected in October under the Constitution, took the oath of office 
 at the beginning of November, and put the State government in 
 complete operation in all its departments. From this time until 
 the passing of the final act of admission by Congress, January 26, 
 1837, Michigan was a State, with its State government fully 
 organized, and its executive, judicial and legislative departments in 
 complete operation, yet a State not admitted within the circle of 
 the Union, nor was the territorial government formally abro- 
 gated or annulled. The two jurisdictions stood iace to face, but 
 luckily for all parties and for the public peace, no collision 
 occurred, nor were any of the troublesome questions which the 
 anomalous condition suggests, ever mooted. 
 
 We have seen that Governor Mason entered upon the duties of 
 the chief executive officer of the State while a very young man, 
 and that he was called to the position with ease, enthusiasm and 
 unanmity. He held the office from November, 1<S35, to January, 
 1840. This was the period in which the foundation stones of the 
 new Republic under the Constitution were laid. The present 
 institutions of the State received their origin and largely their 
 form in those early days. Every interest belonging to the people 
 of the State in their individual rights and duties, and every right 
 and duty of the State as such, were necessarily the subject of con- 
 sideration and care. Gov. Mason's messages to the Legislature 
 show how carefully he studied every subject of public import- 
 ance and how ardently he labored, in conjunction with the Legis- 
 lature, to adopt in the young State a system of judicious laws, 
 and to mould a policy which would insure liappiness for the pres- 
 ent and in the future prosperity and greatness to the Republic. 
 In the performance of all executive duties Gov. Mason was assidu- 
 
180 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 ous aud untiring. As a man he was genial, kind and compan- 
 ionable, and his personal popularity never ceased. At the end of 
 his second gubernatorial term he entered upon practice as a mem- 
 ber of the legal profession in the city of New York, but in a few 
 short years he passed away. I never recall to mind the stirring 
 incidents and events of those early times in the history of our 
 State, that the youthful Governor does not stand by my side — a 
 fitting representative and emblem of the new republic, both 
 entering with youthful vigor upon a career, looking, each in its 
 proper sphere, to a long bright future. But the time of youth 
 has passed. Fifty years of growth have changed the young State 
 into a great and prosperous republic, with a future brighter and 
 more promising than the most enthusiastic then dared to hope ; 
 but the man long since, but still in early manhood, passed to that 
 immortality which lies in the great future. 
 
 Governor Woodbridge's term commenced in January, 1840> 
 and ended with that year. He was a native of Connecticut, but 
 removed early to Ohio and entered on the practice of the law at 
 Marietta in 1806, aud was afterwards a member both of the 
 Assembly and Senate of that State. He came to Michigan in 
 1814, under an appointment by President Madison, as Secre- 
 tary of the Territory, and continued in the office of Secretary 
 until 1827. General Cass was during that time Governor of the 
 Territory. In the course of that period the Secretary was often 
 called upon to perform the duties of Governor. He was the first 
 delegate from Michigan to Congress, a Judge of the Supreme 
 Court of the Territory, a member of the convention that drafted 
 the State Constitution in 1835. This long intimacy with Michi- 
 gan and its varied interests, and the ability and integrity with 
 which he had performed every official duty, gave him exceptional 
 qualifications for the position of chief executive officer of the 
 State, and his fellow-citizens did not fail to appreciate these quali- 
 fications, and he was elected to the office in 1839 ; nor did their 
 partiality end with this. In 1841 he was chosen by the Legisla- 
 ture to the Senate of the United States. In these various positions 
 Governor Woodbridge performed his duties in a manner that did 
 him great credit, and secured the confidence and admiration of 
 all. He was a man of extensive reading and much and varied 
 learning ; a modest and retiring man, yet genial aud kind in his 
 feelings. Few men were as familiar as he with the incidents and 
 
ADDRESS OK HON. ALPHEUS FELCH. 181 
 
 stirring events of western life; attention was secured, and his 
 listener was sure to be rewarded with the rich treasures stored up 
 in his memory. He died in Detroit, in October, 18(il. 
 
 John S. Barry, the third Governor of the State of Michigan, 
 WHS elected to succeed Governor Woodbridge in the office, and his 
 term commenced in January, 1842. He was again elected for the 
 term beginning in January, 1844, and subsequently for the terra 
 beginning in January, 1850. This repeated call to this high 
 office by his fellow-citizens shows clearly the high estimate in 
 which he was held by the people, and their confidence in his integ- 
 rity and capacity. He was a native of the State of Vermont, and 
 his occupation was that of a merchant. His first two terras era- 
 braced a time of much embarrassment in business afiairs, and very 
 considerable complication in the pecuniary condition of the State. 
 He guarded the public treasury with watchful eyes, and his hand 
 fell heavily on the shoulder of any man who indicated a thought 
 of tampering with the bolt that guarded the treasury. The 
 economy of his administration was proverbial, yet he did not hesi- 
 tate to pledge his own personal responsibility when the public 
 interest required it for the payment of a public obligation. In 
 1845 it became necessary for the State to purchase some railroad 
 iron to be used on the State railroad. The iron was contracted 
 for in New York, but the vendor was not satisfied with the respon- 
 sibility of the State, and would not deliver the iron unless the 
 Governor would personally guaranty the payment of the bonds. 
 This he did, and the iron was delivered and used on the road. It 
 was by law to be paid for out of the income of the road, but at the 
 expiration of the Governor's term of office a considerable amount 
 remained unsatisfied. When about to take his place as hia suc- 
 cessor, he explained to me the condition of his liability, and ex- 
 pressed the hope that it might be consistent with the public weal 
 to continue the application of the income to the payment of this 
 debt. He had expected that it would be liquidated before his 
 office expired, and if it had been, no man would ever have known 
 from him of the responsibility he had vi)hintarilv assumed. The 
 debt was paid in due time by the Slate. 
 
 The successors of Governor Bany in the executive office were 
 thirteen in number, seven of whom are still living. Those who 
 have departed this life have left an enviable record of services 
 performed and official honors most worthily borne. 
 
182 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Epaphroditus Ransom, a native of Vermont, after holding the 
 position of Judge of the Supreme Court of the State, entered upon 
 his duties as Governor in January, 1848. Robert McClelland, a 
 native of Pennsylvania, became Governor of Michigan in January, 
 1852. He was a member of the constitutional convention that 
 drafted the Constitution of the State in 1835, and also of that 
 which prepared the Constitution of 1850 ; was three times elected 
 a member of Congress, and was Secretary of the Interior during 
 the administration of President Pierce, Kinsley S. Bingham was 
 a native of New York, and became Governor of Michigan in Jan- 
 uary, 1855, and was elected for the succeeding term. He was a 
 member of Congress from 1847 to 1851, and was elected to the 
 United States Senate for the term commencing March 4, 1859. 
 Moses Wisner, a native of New York, was Governor during the 
 term commencing in January, 1859. He subsequently served as 
 an officer in the Union Army during the war of the Rebellion, 
 and died in the service in January, 18G3. Henry H. Crapo 
 was born in Massachusetts, and was elected Governor for the term 
 commencing in January, 1865, and again for the next succeeding 
 term. John J. Bagley was a native of New York, and held the 
 office of Governor of Michigan during two successive terms com- 
 mencing in January, 1878. The two persons last mentioned were 
 strictly business men. They were early attracted to Michigan by 
 the prospect it offered for large business operations, and for many 
 years devoted themselves untiringly to their respective business 
 avocations, and they were among the most enterprising, successful 
 and honorable citizens of the State. 
 
 Six of the former Governors of the State still survive. These, 
 with the date of the commencement of their official terms, are as 
 follows : 
 
 Alpheus Felch, January 5, 1846. 
 
 Austin Blair, January 2, 1861. 
 
 Henry P. Baldwin, January 6, 1869. 
 
 Charles M. Croswell, January 3, 1877. 
 
 David H. Jerome, January 1, 1881. 
 
 JosiAH W. Begole, January 1, 1883. 
 
 Russell A. Alger, the present (xovernor, was inducted into 
 that office January 1, 1885, and his term will expire with the 
 present year (1886). 
 
 I have thus briefly glanced at the history of the executive power 
 
ADDKESS OF MAJOK W. C. RANSOM. 183 
 
 and of those by whom it has been exercised from the time when the 
 authority of organized government first asserted itself in Michigan to 
 the present time. During this period the Kings of France and of 
 England in turn claimed Michigan as their own, and exercised 
 jurisdiction over its territory and its sparse population ; and more 
 recently it constituted a part of the Territory Northwest of the 
 Ohio, and again of the Territory of Indiana. Not one of the per- 
 sons who were clothed with the executive authority during this 
 long period of time is now living, and probably not one who par- 
 ticipated in any manner in the administration of the .several gov- 
 ernments; nor is there any living of the chief executive officers of 
 the Territory of Michigan, and few, if any, of its other officials. 
 The list of the living (xovernors is brief; and of these personally 
 it does not become me to speak on this occasion. Most, if not all 
 of them, are here present within the hearing of my voice. Kach, 
 in his proper time, has labored, both officially and personally, in 
 building up this noble structure of our Republic. Brothers, let 
 us heartily rejoice togother on thi:s anniversary. Our dreams, 
 and the dreams of our fathers, are more than realized, (^ur cup 
 of joy is full. The grand result of fifty years of toil and anxiety 
 in building up our beloved Commonwealth is spread before us. 
 It is enough. Our hearts glow with thankfulness for the past 
 and the present, and we invoke for our State the richest blessings 
 in centuries that are to come. 
 
 EVENING SESSION — SENATE CHAMBER. 
 
 Hon. henry FRALICK, Pkesiding. 
 
 THE RAILROADS OF MICHIGAN. 
 
 Major W. C. RANSOM. 
 
 The State of Michigan was admitted to the Union at the thresh- 
 hold of what may properly be designated in the world's record 
 as the "railroad age." Historians in the enthusiasm born of their 
 theme, have perpetuated the glories of the Golden, and the splen- 
 dors of the Silver Ages, but neither, with all that can be said, 
 with reference to the advances made in civilization, enlightenment 
 and material development of the world's resources during those 
 
184 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 progressive periods, are at all comparable with the wonderful 
 accomplishments that have distinguished the nineteenth century. 
 
 It is difficult to realize the fact that when Michigan entered 
 upon her career in the sisterhood of States, — less than ten years 
 had elapsed since Stephenson with the little " Rocket " had demon- 
 strated upon the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the practi- 
 cability of its operation with steam carriages, and the movement of 
 cars laden with passengers and freight at a speed of twenty-five 
 miles per hour without hurt or damage to the persons or property 
 transported. In our own country as early as 1825, Col. John 
 Stevens of Hobokeu, had constructed a miniature engine, the 
 success of which was demonstrated upon a circular track in front 
 of his residence ; it was not until four years later that Peter Cooper, 
 the distinguished citizen and afterwards capitalist of New York 
 City, had placed upon the track of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- 
 road a rudely constructed machine, but able to draw after it a 
 passenger car loaded with thirty-six passengers at a speed of 
 eighteen miles per hour. This last accomplishment supplement- 
 ing Stephenson's success upon the other side, left no room for doubt 
 that railroads would in the near future replace all other agencies 
 for inland transportation. 
 
 New York, inspired by the foresight and energy of De Witt 
 Clinton, had just completed the Erie canal by which the waters of 
 the great lakes had been connected with the ocean, and the rich 
 and unoccupied area that bordered upon the shores made accessible 
 to the teeming thousands, who, forsaking the mountainous and less 
 fertile regions upon the Atlantic slope, sought new homes where 
 milder skies and more generous soil offered easier and larger 
 returns to the hand of labor. 
 
 Among the Territories of the Northwest, jNIichigan was among 
 the first to feel the impulse given to immigration by the enter- 
 prise of the Empire State, and her broad domain, so long reported 
 by trappers and the agents of the fur companies, which at that 
 early day held almost exclusive possession within her exterior 
 borders, as only an extended swamp, swarmed with the hardy 
 pioneers whose I'esouuding axes soon made it evident that they 
 had come to stay. The fiction by which the tide of people seeking 
 their fortunes in the new west had been turned in other directions 
 once dissipated, an inflow of immigration commenced, hitherto 
 unprecedented in the history of the country. The class of popu- 
 
ADDRESS OF MAJOR W. C. RANSOM. 185 
 
 lation that made up the early inhabitants of Michigan was excep- 
 tional in enterprise and intelligence, largely from New England 
 and Eastern New York, the founders of our State brought with 
 them habits of thrift and industry, and shar[)ly defined ideas of 
 policies, that could not fail to stand them well in hand in forming 
 the institutions of the new commonwealth, so soon to grow up 
 under their guidance and supervising care. The building of a 
 new State could not have fallen into better or more judicious con- 
 trol. From the first, there was a thorough appreciation of the 
 magnificent possibilities, and a firm determination to carry them 
 to their most successful end. Prominent among other agencies to 
 be relied upon for the accomplishment of such purpose, was the 
 devising and completion of a system of internal improvements, to 
 supplement the advantages already secured by the navigable 
 waters which washed the exterior boundaries of the Territory, and 
 whose fourteen hundred miles of coast, indented with innumerable 
 bays and inlets, furnished the finest of harbors for commerce and 
 refuge, to the shi[)j)ing already beginnuig to multiply on the great 
 Northwestern lakes. The successful outcome of the canal system 
 of the Atlantic States had for some years previously given to such 
 method of internal traflSc, the first place in popular favor, but 
 with the certainty at last, that the steam locomotive for so long a 
 time almost ridiculed as the wildest of Utopian fancies, had 
 become an assured fact, public sentiment (piickly underwent a 
 change, and the demand for the railroad instead of the slow-going 
 canal, everywhere asserted undenied supremacy. Our early set- 
 tlers exposed to the fever before leaving their Kasterii iiomes, very 
 soon developed out clear cases of the mania for the iron horse, 
 real evidences of which l)e('atuo manifest in our early territorial 
 legislature. 
 
 The first railroad charter granted in Michigan was an act to 
 incor[)ordte the Pontiac and Detroit Railway Company, approved 
 July 31, IboO ; this was less than nine months subsequent to 
 Stephenson's successful operation of the " Rocket " in England, 
 and before there could be said to be a mile of track in practical 
 use for general traffic within the limits of the United States. Cer- 
 tainly there was none upon which locomotive engines had replaced 
 the horse-power common to tlie tramways in use to a limited extent 
 during the earlier years of the century. In reviewing the provi- 
 sions of that first charter it is impossible to suppress a smile as we 
 
186 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 read of some of the conditions imposed upon the corporation in 
 the construction of their road. They were generously permitted 
 to use a strip of the United States road, commonly called the 
 Saginaw road, not exceeding twenty feet in width running parallel 
 with the centre of said road from the village of Pontiac to the city 
 of Detroit, but with the following very unusual proviso : " that 
 such railroad should not interfere with the ditches and traveled 
 part of said road," nor pass upon the ground lying between said 
 ditches. Another section provided that such railroad should be 
 so constructed as to admit of the easy and safe passage of wagons, 
 carts, sleds and teams at the points where public and private roads 
 intersected the line of the said Saginaw road. Certainly there was 
 no subordinating the public interest and convenience to the de- 
 mands of a soulless corporation, in that charter, and one looks 
 through the entire instrument in vain to find that a single franchise 
 was granted beyond that of the right to build a railway ; and as to 
 what manner of creature the latter was to be, if we may judge 
 from their legislation, our early lawmakers were in blissful ignor- 
 ance most wonderful to contemplate. The archives of the State 
 do not indicate that the above mentioned charter was ever utilized ; 
 but, all the same, it remains upon the statute book, a silent wit- 
 ness of the fact that our founders fully intended to keep well up 
 with the procession in all that appertained to the material progress 
 of the times. 
 
 On the 22d day of April, 1683, an act of the territorial legis- 
 lature to incorporate the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Company 
 became a law. The road of this company was the first to be 
 opened for traffic in Michigan, and among the earliest of any in 
 the United States. The termini of this road were to be Port 
 Lawrence and Adrian, and thence to such point on the Kalama- 
 zoo river as should be deemed most proper and useful. Port 
 Lawrence is now known as Toledo, and was then supposed to be 
 within the limits of Michigan, but as the result of the bloodless 
 contest for State supremacy over the mouth of the Maumee, Ohio 
 was confirmed in her claim to the right of possession, and in lieu 
 thereof, Congress generously gave to us the Upper Peninsula, 
 then thought to l)e only a waste of rock and wilderness, on the 
 solitude of which civilization would long hesitate to intrude. It 
 is hardly necessary to say that what was then deemed a misfor- 
 tune, has proved a blessing in disguise, and that to-day, six hun- 
 
ADDRESS OF MAJOR W. C. RANSOM. 187 
 
 dred and fifty miles of railway tracks traverse that erstwhile 
 inhospitable region, carrying towards the trade centers of the 
 country the inexhaustible and invaluable product of its iron and 
 copper mines. 
 
 The Erie & Kalamazoo railroad was opened for traffic in 1836; 
 it was cheaply constructed upon the plan generally adopted for 
 nearly all of our primitive roads. First, heavy mud sills hewn 
 from the longest sticks of timber obtainable from our almost 
 unequalled forests, were planted in the road-bed. To these were 
 firmly spiked the ties first properly notched to receive the oak 
 stringers, which by means of wedges were secured in position, and 
 chamj)fered at the upper inside face so as to permit a safe bear- 
 ing of the car-wheel flanges. To these stringers was spiked a 
 thin, narrow strap rail, weighing not more than six to eight 
 pounds to the yard, easily loosened from the fastenings by the 
 engagement of the car-wheels passing over it; and as experience 
 frequently proved, wonderfully apt to intrude upon the comfort 
 of the passengers seated above by passing up through the car 
 floors and wrecking things generally. Technically, these car 
 inspectors were known as " snake heads." Compared to the solid 
 superstructures to which we are accustomed at the present day, 
 the roadways of half a century ago seem absurd enough ; but 
 nevertheless they were " pointed to with pride " by the pioneers 
 of that early period, who firmly believed that when the journey 
 from Toledo to Adrian and return could be made through the 
 hitherto almost impassable recesses of the Mauraee swamp in two 
 days, but little in the way of rapid transportation was left to be 
 desired. 
 
 For some months after the completion of the road, the cars 
 were drawn by horses, but on the 20th of January, 1837, the 
 Toledo Blade announced the arrival of the long expected loco- 
 motive " Adrian," — No. 80, from the Baldwin works at Philadel- 
 phia. It was the third engine to be sent west of the Alleghany 
 range, and the first to the vStates west of New York bordering 
 upon the great lakes. The commissioners in charge now announced 
 to "emigrants and travelers," that the Erie and Kalamazoo rail- 
 road was in full operation between Adrian and Toledo, and that 
 people destined for the west, Michigan City, Chicago, and Wis- 
 consin territory, would save two days and the corresponding 
 expense, by availing themselves of the new thoroughfare. 
 
188 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 The owners of the Erie and Kalamazoo railroad also inaugurated 
 the Palmyra and Jacksonburg railroad; and its opening to 
 Tecumseh was celebrated with the enthusiasm usual to such occas- 
 ions, on the 9th of August, 1838. 
 
 Such, in brief, is the history of the inception and construction 
 of our pioneer railroad, chiefly interesting from the fact that it 
 was the beginning of our now extended system of internal improve- 
 ments, and the first section constructed, of what is now one of the 
 most extensive and prosperous railroad properties in the United 
 States. 
 
 The territorial Legislature on the 29th of January, 1832, char- 
 tered the Detroit and St. Joseph Railroad Company for the con- 
 struction of a road from the city of Detroit to the mouth of the 
 St. Joseph river, traversing the counties of Wayne, Washtenaw, 
 Jackson, Calhoun and Kalamazoo, the latter county then com- 
 prising all the territory lying between Calhoun and Lake Michi- 
 gan. Work under this charter was commenced by the company 
 and some progress was made in its construction ; but upon the 
 admission of the State to the Union, and the adoption by the Leg- 
 islature of a comprehensive scheme of public works to be under- 
 taken and controlled by State authority, the Detroit and St, 
 Joseph was purchaseil, and by legislative enactment, subsequently 
 became the Michigan Central. 
 
 March 7th, 1834, the act to incorporate the Detroit and Pontiac 
 Railroad Company was appi'oved, and for a second time a railroad 
 between Detroit and Pontiac was authorized. By tiiis time, how- 
 ever, legislators seem to have become more familiar with the char- 
 acter and requirements of a railroad corporation, and the new 
 charter conceded substantial franchises to the incorporators, which, 
 though often attacked in the courts and Legislature, have remained 
 unimpaired until the present time. In the mutations incident to 
 corporate history, the Detroit and Pontiac is now known as the 
 Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee, and long years since was 
 completed to Lake Michigan, and has become one of the most 
 important thoroughfares of our State. 
 
 Some twelve miles of this road was in use for horse-cars as 
 early as 1835, but the first locomotive did not appear upon its 
 track until the autumn of 1838, when a little machine not much 
 larger than a cooking stove on wheels was placed in service and 
 continued to be the sum total of motive power employed for 
 
ADDRESS OF MAJOR W. C. RANSOM. 189 
 
 many years. The early patrons of this road used to claim that 
 on one occasion a citizen of Detroit, who avaikd himself of its 
 trains to make the journey to Pontiac and back, was so long 
 absent from home that his children grew out of his recollection ; 
 and that it was no rare thing for notes given by persons upon 
 the eve of departure to Royal Oak, or Birmingham, to outlaw 
 before their return. 
 
 Charters authorizing the construction of railroads between 
 Komeo and Mt. Clemens, and Shelby and Detroit, were also passed 
 by the territorial Legislature, granting, in pi-rpetuity, franchises 
 of the most liberal character to the persons named in the acts ; 
 such charters, however, were not utilized, and upon the organi- 
 zation of the State government, by common consent, the further 
 work of building railroads seems to have been accepted as among 
 its principal functions. 
 
 Probably there has never been a time in the history of our 
 country, when impracticable sehemes of internal improvement 
 and extravagant policies for the development of the State's 
 resources, were more likely to meet with favorable consideration 
 than in 18o(). The spirit of speculation was rife, paper money 
 " tiat " in character in all that the term implies, was seeking 
 investment, and no enterprise, however grand its proportions, was 
 without friends for its execution. 
 
 The first Governor, Stevens T. JNIason, was a most enthusiastic 
 believer in the splendid future of Michigan and its ability to carry 
 to successful conclusion systems of internal improvement which 
 would leave nothing to be desired in that particular, and attract 
 to the State an immigration commensurate with the advantages 
 aflbrded by broad and enterprising policies. 
 
 It was already becoming the i)racLice of the Federal Govern- 
 ment to donate to the new States liberal grants of lands in aid of 
 the establishment and maintenance of schools and universities, 
 and the construction of works of internal improvement. This 
 State had attached an ordinance to its Constitution, asking Con- 
 gress for such assistance to build one or more railroads or canals 
 from its eastern boundary to Lake Michigan ; and it was believed 
 that the application would meet with a favorable response in the 
 near future; a belief realized in the act of Congress, approved 
 September 4, 1841, by the provisions of which Michigan, in com- 
 mon with other Western States, received five hundred thousand 
 
190 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 acres of land, the proceeds of which were to be devoted to pur- 
 poses of internal improvement. Relying upon the probability of 
 such a grant, and the anticipated rapid settlement of the State, 
 Governor Mason in his first message recommended the most 
 liberal legislation for carrying forward an extensive system of 
 public works. But that the State should be in position to exer- 
 cise at least partial control of the same, he favored the idea of its 
 becoming a large stockholder in such enterprises ; and the nego- 
 tiation of a loan on its faith, in anticipation of resources to be 
 derived from the sales of lands, that might thereafter be granted 
 for internal improvement purposes. 
 
 The Legislature fully shared the enthusiasm of their youthful 
 Governor, and entered with alacrity upon the adoption of his sug- 
 gestions for the development of the new State. A scheme for the 
 construction of three railroads was determined upon, and a loan 
 of five millions of dollars for that purpose authorized upon the 
 credit of the State — these roads severally to be known as the 
 Central, Southern and Northern, extending across the State. The 
 first, from Detroit to St. Joseph ; the second, from Monroe to New 
 Buffalo ; and the third, from Port Huron to Grand Haven. While 
 during the years of distress and disaster that followed closely upon 
 the era of inflation which so shaped our early legislation, the policy 
 of our first State administration met with popular disapproval as 
 being unwise and extravagant, who, in the light of the present 
 situation, can gainsaj' the fact, that, after all, at the close of the 
 first fifty years of our history, the estimate then made of the future 
 necessities of our State, for a comi)reheusive system in the interest 
 of internal transportation, does not to-day stand fully vindicated? 
 
 The recommendations of the Governor were practically ap- 
 proved by the Legislature, so far as the works to be undertaken 
 were concerned, but instead of merely giving to the State a con- 
 trolling interest as a stockholder, it was thought the better policy 
 to build the roads at the entire expense of the public treasury, 
 and to maintain the operation and management solely under the 
 State control. Although it required but a few years of practical 
 experience to change popular sentiment with regard to the ques- 
 tion which resulted in the sale of the railroads to corporations 
 chartered for their purchase, and a provision in the Constitution 
 of 1850, which forever inhibited the State from being interested in 
 or engaged in carrying on any work of internal improvement, 
 
ADDKESS OF MAJOR W. (\ RANSOM. 191 
 
 still there is to-day a strong seutiment in this State, and most of 
 the others, which may be said to be a growing seutiment, that the 
 public interest would be largely subserved by State control of one 
 or more important lines in a position to fix and enforce transpor- 
 tation rates upon other roads connecting therewith or running 
 parallel thereto. Whether in fact such a control would be in the 
 direction of a sound policy, I shall not discuss upon this occasion, 
 but that it is advocated by economists who have given much 
 thought to u solution of the vexed question of transportation rates 
 and traffic discrimination that are now and for some time past 
 have agitateti the country, is alluded to merely to show that the 
 views of Gov. Mason, by him urged fifty years ago, were not so 
 entirely impolitic and unsupported by the logic of a sound 
 economy as many of us have been accustomed to believe. But 
 with five millions of money supposed to be in hand, and liberal 
 land grants from Congress in sight, operations were commenced 
 upon all the proposed works; and for a time everything pro- 
 gressed to the satisfaction of the most sanguine. The Central and 
 Southern roads, traversing as they did the most })opulous counties, 
 and being on the line over which the westward march of empire 
 was making its way, as was natural, were more favored by the 
 Legislature and the commissioners of internal improvement under 
 whose administration the construction was carried forward. Not 
 a little friction was engendered between the two rival routes, each 
 anxious to outdo the other and to make the fastest progress 
 towards the western boundary of the State. This feeling of jeal- 
 ou.sy occasionally showed itself in a practical way, and there is a 
 tradition that when the road bed of the Central was ready and 
 waiting for the iron, between Detroit and Dearborn, one of the 
 commissioners residing at Monroe, anticipated the vessel freighted 
 with rails intended for the rival of the Southern, when off the 
 mouth of the River Kaisin, and running her about a mile up that 
 stream, had the iron thrown overboard in seven feet of water, and 
 ordered the schooner to return to Buffalo for another load. This 
 sharp practice however, availed the "Independent State" but 
 little. Henry ^\'illis, of ship canal fame, in charge of track lay- 
 ing on the Central, learned of the whereabouts of the iron, took a 
 scow in tow of the little steamer "Ruby," and proceeding to Mon- 
 roe a few nights after, fished up every bar of the rail, carried it to 
 Detroit, had it securely spiked to the stringers, before the Monroe 
 Commissioner was aware that it had o:one. 
 
192 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 But it is not necessary to the purpose of this paper that I should 
 continue in detail the progress made in completing our railroad 
 system under the auspices of the State. Upon the Northern line 
 after clearing and partially grading about eighteen miles west 
 of Port Huron, further work was abandoned and attention in 
 that section principally devoted to the completion of what was 
 known as the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal, a work intended to 
 connect the waters of the Clinton and Kalamazoo rivers, and so 
 save to commerce the then tedious voyage by way of Mackinaw 
 Straits. A few days since, I traveled for some distance upon a 
 railroad car in the dry bed of the abandoned canal, while an old 
 timber dock that we passed hard by, in the last stages of decay, 
 spoke, more forcibly than words, of the changes wrought in fifty 
 years. 
 
 Upon the two principal lines work was continued by the State 
 with all the energy that its disordered finances and the general 
 depression that followed upon the speculative period contempor- 
 aneous with the admission and first three years of our history, 
 would permit. The fiscal agents charged with the negotiations 
 of the five million loan had failed to realize the proceeds from the 
 parties with whom placed, and what has been so long known 
 upon the State ledgers as the " part-paid bonds," became a legacy 
 for the future to care for. Of the remainder, all but about $400,- 
 000, as stated by the report of the Committee of Inquiry, headed 
 by the now venerable A, T. McReynolds, to the Senate of 1841, 
 had been scattered to the four winds of heaven, and the only 
 available resources left for the prosecution of the public improve- 
 ments were warrants payable in internal improvements lands, and 
 worth in market from thirty-five to sixty cents on the dollar. 
 Truly, Michigan at that low ebb of her financial fortunes, might 
 have anticipated for her own the legend of the Kansas Great 
 Seal, "Ad astra per aspera,''' with a touching regard for the "eter- 
 nal fitness of things." 
 
 But with characteristic persistency work was continued upon 
 the roads in the face of every discouragement until in 1846 the 
 Central had been completed to Kalamazoo, and the Southern to 
 Hillsdale. Early in the session of the Legislature for that year a 
 syndicate of Boston capitalists, through their agent, proposed to 
 the State authorities the purchase of the Central road. The pro- 
 position was favorably received by the Legislature to whom it 
 
ADDRESS OF MAJOR W. G. RANSOM. 193 
 
 was referred by the Governor ; and a bill chartering the Michigan 
 Central Railroad Company, and j)roviding for the sale to it of the 
 Michigan Central Railroad for the sum of $2,000,000, in due time 
 became a law. Inspired by the enterprise of the Boston people a 
 number of gentlemen, for the most part residing in Monroe, in this 
 State, came to the Legislature with a proposition to purchase the 
 Michigan Southern. The proposition was favorably entertained 
 by that body; and a law passed disposing of the road, the price to 
 be paid for the property being five hundred thousand dollars. 
 The companies, chartered in connection with the sale, were 
 promptly organized, and the roads transferred to the purchasers ; 
 and from that time Michigan has left the building of railroads 
 witliin her borders entirely to private enterprise. 
 
 When the State disposed of her railroads there were remaining 
 unappropriated nearly one-half of the lands granted by Congress 
 for their construction. These lands had been selected from the 
 public domain with special reference to their value for their tim- 
 ber and agricultural purposes; and without doubt in these qualities 
 were unexcelled by any equal area in the State. Had a wise 
 policy prevailed, no disposition would have been maile of the resi- 
 due of the grant until, in the course of yeai's, sales at increased 
 value would have returned millions of dollars to Michigan's ex- 
 chequer. As it was, improvident legislation that no remonstrance 
 of faithful and far-seeing executives could avert, appropriated the 
 lands for every wild scheme that ingenuity or stupidity could de- 
 vise ; until, in a short time, what should have been held as a most 
 valuable reserve for the benefit of the State at large, was squan- 
 dered and "frittered away," in most instances, to no permanent 
 usefulness whatever. 
 
 With the acquisition of its property the Michigan Central rail- 
 road company at once commenced the extensions and improve- 
 ments that have made it the chief railroad property in our State. 
 Under the most able and energetic administration of John W. 
 Brooks, its first general superintendent and chief engineer, its 
 east terminal at the Campus Martius in Detroit was transferred 
 to the foot of Third street, and the splendid river front which now 
 gives the Central its unequalled dockage and ware-house room, 
 was built u{) from the bed of the river. The old line was re- 
 located and reconstructed along its former tortuous course up the 
 Huron Valley, relaid with heavy rail to Kalamazoo ; and in the 
 13 
 
194 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 spring of 1849, the locomotive for the first time roused the echoes 
 among the dunes of Lake Michigan. 
 
 The Southern company, lacking in financial ability, were less 
 prompt in carrying out the engagements required by its charter ; 
 and it was not until after much supplementary legislation and an 
 almost entire change in corporate ownership, that work was at 
 last commenced in good earnest. From that time the strife 
 between it and its old rival, for the first entrance into Chicago, 
 waxed very warm ; and so close was the race that both crossed 
 the corporate limits of that city, within a few hours of each other, 
 in May, 1«52. 
 
 Soon after, the other of the first trio of Michigan railroads 
 resumed the work of extension; and November 22, 1858, the 
 Detroit and Pontiac, re-christened as the Detroit and Milwaukee 
 railway, ran its first train into Grand Haven, and Governor 
 Mason's prophesy that within twenty-five years from the admis- 
 sion of the State three railroads would cross its territory from 
 east to west, met with fulfillment. 
 
 From that time on, the growth of our railroad system has been 
 one of steady progress, always a little perhaps in advance of the 
 development of the State, but aiding materially to that end. 
 While our legislation has not permitted our municipalities, as in 
 many States, to bankrupt themselves in recklessly issuing their 
 bonds in aid of railroad schemes, still so liberal and conservative 
 has been its character in the granting of franchises, and the limi- 
 tations of privileges in the case of railroad enactments, that capital 
 has rarely been lacking for the construction of any really needed 
 work. 
 
 The Michigan Central Railroad Company, with thirty miles of 
 track February 5th, 1838, on the 31st day of December last was 
 operating within the limits of this State 1020.31 miles. The Lake 
 Shore and Michigan Southern (the old Erie and Kalamazoo of 
 1837), with thirty-five miles of track, at the close of last year was 
 operating in Michigan 576.10 miles. 
 
 The old Detroit and Pontiac road, with only 25 miles of track 
 in 1844, is now but the smallest section of the Grand Trunk of 
 Canada system, which controls and operates within the limits of 
 our State, 577.96 miles of road. 
 
 The entire miles of track in the State January 1st, 1886, were 
 5,220, belonging to sixty ditterent corporations, under thirty-four 
 separate managements. 
 
ADDRESS OF MAJOR W. C. KANSOM. 195 
 
 The amount of stock in these companies held in Michigan Janu- 
 uary 1st, 1885, was reported at $10,758,760.71; their total 
 indebtedness $345,787,796.36, or 830,231.51 per mile ; their total 
 stock and debt was $624,580,650.67, or $54,3 i8. 52 per mile ; their 
 total cost for Michigan, $222,194,232.28; the total income for 
 Michigan, was $26,847,797.76; total operating expenses, $19,956,- 
 786.32. Total passengers carried, 24,782,322. Total tons of 
 freight moved, 36,479,844. Total freight forwarded from Michi- 
 gan stations, 12,575,793 tons. Average rate per mile for passenger 
 fares, 02.539 cents. Average rate per ton per mile freight carried, 
 000.904. 
 
 The companies for the year 1885 paid into the State treasury 
 taxes amounting to the sum of $634,817.28. 
 
 Within the limits of the State there were at the date of the last 
 reports to the railroad department, 1,059 railroad stations and 
 20,030 employes. Our railroad lines extend into every county of 
 the lower peninsula, save seven ; ^nd of that at first despised 
 Upper Peninsula, not a single county is now without railroad 
 facilities. In addition to the six roads that practically run across 
 the State from east to west, two meridian lines extend from our 
 southern boundary to the straits of Mackinaw ; while shore lines 
 along the lakes that wash either border, are rapidly extending 
 northward to the same terminal. 
 
 In the construction of this comprehensive system of railroads, 
 congressional grants of 3,65o, 936.78 acres of land have been con- 
 ceded; to which the State has added 1,595,840.66 acres more of 
 swamp lands, making a grand total of 5,252,777.44 acres received 
 by our railroad corporations, the proceeds of which will go far 
 towards meeting the cost of at present unproductive roads. 
 
 Michigan at the close of the first half century of her political 
 history, in all that goes to make a State prosperous aad wealthy 
 and its people contented and happy, may most justly claim to be 
 the peer of any in the Union, Foremost among the causes that 
 have led up to this felicitous result, is the rapidity with which her 
 material resources have been developed through the instrumental- 
 ty of her railroads. By a constant recognition of that fact, and 
 the enforcement of the legislative policy which seeks to protect 
 the interests of capital alike with that of the people whom it 
 serves, its continued investment in our railroad properties may be 
 expected, and their permanent usefulness assured. 
 
196 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE COMMON SCHOOLS OF 
 
 MICHIGAN AND OF THE STATE 
 
 NORMAL SCHOOL. 
 
 Peof. J. M. B. SILL. 
 
 I am asked to contribute two brief sketches, one outlining the 
 history of the common schools, and the other a similar paper on 
 the State Normal school. The limits of time and space pres- 
 cribed to me, forbid anything more than a condensed statement 
 of what seems to be the salient facts in the history of these State 
 institutions. There is no room for much in the direction of infer- 
 ences or suggestions. 
 
 The term " Common Schools " means all the free public schools 
 of the Commonwealth, supported to a greater or less extent by a 
 common public fund, and devoted to the primary and secondary 
 education of the youth of the State. 
 
 Thus the term includes not only the isolated country schools, 
 but also the Union and High Schools of the cities and villages, 
 and the extended systems of free public education, sustained and 
 supported in all our towns of any considerable size. 
 
 They are common schools because they are common ground 
 where all, whether rich or poor, may meet on a standing of perfect 
 equality ; they are institutions wherein in the seeking of a com- 
 mon benefit and in the pursuit of a common interest, distinctions 
 of race and sect, however bitter and sharply drawn, ought to be 
 and are forgotten, and the youth of diverse and even unfriendly 
 sects and nationalities are, by the very nature of their association, 
 trained to a fraternal regard and wholesome mutual respect. 
 
 The common schools and the Normal school are fitly united in 
 these sketches. The latter is an outgrowth from the necessities 
 of the former. The chief educational thought, the grand aim of 
 the State being the advancement of her youth in intelligence and 
 in the knowledge essential to good and useful citizenship by 
 means of her common schools, the Normal school was established 
 to render these more efficient in the performance of the great 
 work assigned to them. 
 
 The first requisite of good elementary instruction is a sufficient 
 supply of earnest, devoted aud intelligent teachers, and to meet 
 this want and to secure to the common schools their highest 
 measure of efficiency, the Normal school was established and has 
 be«u cheerfully maintained by the State. 
 
ADDRESS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 107 
 
 Indeed, so close is the connection between the subjects of these 
 sketches, that most authorities class normal schools as a mere 
 division of common schools. I shall first treat of the common 
 schools. 
 
 THE COMMON SCHOOLS. 
 
 Fir^t, — as to their resources: 
 
 In 17'S.^, shortly after the general government had taken pos- 
 session of the vast area of unoccupied lands lying west of Penn- 
 slyvania, north of the Ohio river and eastward from the Mississippi, 
 one thirty-sixth part of this entire Northwest Territory was set 
 apart and reserved " for the support of public schools," and the 
 Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the same territory, 
 affirmed this grant or reservation by declaring as follows: 
 "Religion, moralitv and knowledge being necessary to good gov- 
 ernment and the happiness of mankind, scliools and the means of 
 education shall be forever encouraged." 
 
 An act, also of the Congress of the confederation, dated in 1804, 
 making provision for the sale of lands in Indiana Territory com- 
 prising the present States of Indiana, Michigan, Illiuftis and 
 Wisconsin, again confirmed this dedication by expressly reserving 
 from sale section No. It) in every township for the support of 
 schools. 
 
 When the Territory of Michigan was organized in 1"05, com- 
 prising at that time the lower peninsula of this State, and also a 
 narrow strip of land on the northern border of Indiana and Ohio, 
 there was a further confirmation of the grant for school purposes 
 secured by the acts mentioned above ; and in 1828 Congress 
 placed these reserved lands under charge of the Territorial Gov- 
 ernor and Council to care for them and to take measures to make 
 them productive of an income for the purposes intended in the 
 grant. Further, the Ordinance of 18:^6 admitting Michigan as a 
 State into the Union, declares that "Section No. 16, in every 
 township of the public lands, and where such section has been 
 sold or otherwise disposed of, other lands equivalent thereto, and 
 as contiguous as may be, shall be granted to the State for the use 
 of schools." 
 
 Of late some doubt has been thrown upon the motives of Con- 
 gress in making this beneficent grant. It has been questioned 
 whether it was not a desire to render the public lands salable to 
 
198 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 settlers, and so to make a way for the payment of the public 
 debt, rather than a high sense of the value of popular education 
 that prompted the gift. It is true that the close of the war of 
 the Revolution found the General Government almost hopelessly 
 encumbered with a great debt incurred in the exhausting though 
 heroic and brilliantly successful struggle for independence ; that 
 to the means for the extinction of this debt which was paralyzing 
 the ambition and barring the prosperity of the new nation, the 
 statesmen of the infant republic were directing their anxious 
 thought and their most earnest endeavors. 
 
 But there ought to be little sympathy with any attempt to 
 ascribe to human action any motive lower or meaner than the best 
 and highest that will fully explain and account for it, and, cer- 
 tainly, we can afford to judge these patriotic men by the explana- 
 tion which they themselves make in the famous declaration 
 already quoted from the Ordinance of 1787. Even if it be 
 granted that members of Congress had in view nothing more than 
 enhancing the value of the public lands and making them more 
 desirable to settlers, this act showed a quick appreciation of the 
 fact that the American people set a high value on universal edu- 
 cation, and they recognized this in granting what, of all things, 
 would make such lands most desirable to settlers, viz., a provis- 
 ion for perpetual aid to common schools. 
 
 Certainly they were steadfast in the liberal policy first inau- 
 gurated. The brief account which I have already given of the 
 history of these dedicatory acts, shows, to the last, no variable- 
 ness nor shadow of change in the wise and philanthropic policy 
 first formulated in the Ordinance of 1785. 
 
 In considering this first grant for the support of common 
 schools, it is hardly necessary to say that the uniform method of 
 survey of public lands lays it off into townships six miles square. 
 This is the largest division of land known to the survey. Each 
 township is subdivided into thirty-six sections, each one mile 
 square, and containing six hundred and forty acres of lands. 
 These sections are numbered consecutively, and section No. 16 is, 
 as nearly as possible, the central section. 
 
 The matter of the location of the section reserved for support of 
 schools is significant. Why a central section was fixed upon 
 becomes evident in view of the wording of the Ordinance of 1785, 
 which prescribes that there shall be reserved from sale the lot (sec- 
 
ADDRESS OF PROF. .1. M. B. SILL. 199 
 
 tion) No. 16 of every township for the maintenance of public 
 schools within said township. 
 
 It is plain that it was the original design of Congress to apply 
 the moneys acquired by the sale of lands in each section 16 for 
 the benefit only of the township in wliich such section was sit- 
 uated. 
 
 When Michigan sought admission to the Union, she profited by 
 the experience of some of her sister States. They had taken the 
 grant of land for school purposes under the formula of the Ordi- 
 nance of 1785 as quoted above. There were many difficulties in 
 the way of such an administration of the trust ; the chief one being 
 that the sections numbered 16 differed immensely in value. Some 
 of them were of sufficient value to afford a magnificent fund for 
 the support of the schools in the township of which they were a 
 part ; others being of little or no value for this or any other pur- 
 pose. 
 
 The proposition in reference to primary school lands made by 
 the people of the proposed State to Congress, has already been 
 quoted in this paper ; and it subsequently became a part of the 
 ordinance admitting Michigan into the Union. It will be seen 
 that the State took jurisdiction of these lands for the benefit of 
 popular education, not in the several townships in which the sec- 
 tions were located, but in the State as a whole. Of the wisdom 
 of this alteration of the original plan of Congress, there can be no 
 doubt. F. W. Shearman, then Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
 tion, in his valuable report for 1852, speaks of it as follows: "In 
 taking the grant to the State, it avoided a multiplicity of officers 
 otherwise located in diflferent counties ; it contributed and is still 
 contributing in an unexampled manner to the education of all the 
 youth of the whole State; it has saved many townships from ask- 
 ing legislative aid, where the school section was unavailable, 
 either from prior location by actual settlers, or where the section 
 was covered with heavy timber, which prolonged the event of its 
 being cleared for many years; and in many instances, saving not 
 only time, labor and expense, but the means of education itself to 
 the inhabitants of those townships where the section was entirely 
 unavailable from natural causes, and relieving the inhabitants in 
 such cases from the management of equivalent sections at a dis- 
 tance from their townships." 
 
 " In taking the grant to the State, there was a higher principle 
 
200 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 of equity involved in the relation to the whole people than would 
 have obtained, had Congress refused to assent to the terms 
 demanded in the ordinance of the (State) convention. If the 
 original faith of Congress might be considered as pledged to the 
 township, previous to the adoption of our Constitution, the inhabi- 
 tants by their votes in adopting that instrument, decided in favor 
 of a consolidation of the fund and its management by the Legis- 
 lature for the common benefit of all the townships. Nor was such 
 policy rendered less sound by the adoption of a system which 
 avoided the repeated applications to Congress which have arisen 
 in other States, and which left all questions connected with these 
 lands to be settled by Congress and the State in its sovereign 
 capacity, rather than by township jurisdictions, subordinate in 
 their will and power, to the higher and more general interests of 
 the whole people." 
 
 The present condition of the Primary School fund and the his- 
 tory of its helj)fuluess to free education in our State, are a splen- 
 did and enduring memorial to the far seeing wisdom of the men 
 who framed this proposition to Congress and gained its assent 
 thereto. All the States since admitted have seen the wisdom of 
 adopting the plan first devised and put in practice in Michigan. 
 
 It is worthy of note, as showing the estimation in which free 
 elementary education is and has been held both by Congress and 
 by the people of this State, that all the grants of Congress, as well 
 as the ordinance of the Constitution which submitted propositions 
 for admission to the Union, speak of Section 16 as reserved for 
 the maintenance of "Schools" or of "Public Schools," never speci- 
 fying elementary schools; and yet universal consent has construed 
 these words to mean only common or primary schools. And 
 upon this accepted construction all subsequent legislation has 
 been based. There has been no flinching or wavering. Higher 
 institutions of learning are certainly schools, and if supported by 
 the public, they are public schools; but, to this day, no serious 
 attempt has ever been made to divert the fund to the support of 
 anything but common schools maintained for the advantage of all 
 the people. The [)romoters of universities and other institutions of 
 advanced learning, have never attemj)ted under any technical con- 
 struction to take a dollar from the fund arising from the sale or 
 use of the sixteenth section dedicated, in the minds of its grantors 
 and trustees, to the work of the popular education. 
 
ADDRESS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 201 
 
 The area of" land which is thus held by the State iu trust for 
 the primary schools amounts to nearly 1,100,000 acres. Soon 
 after this grant came under the control of the State it was a mat- 
 ter of much discussion whether they should be leased or sold in 
 order to secure a permanent income from them. In the end 
 wise counsels prevailed. It w'as seen that the State could hardly 
 make itself a landlord to an army of tenants, and take upon itself 
 the task of attending to conducting a business so immense and yet 
 so minute and exacting in its details. Accordingly it was de- 
 cided that the lands should be sold and that the money received 
 from the sales should be invested in a perpetual fund, the interest 
 only of which should be devoted to the use of the primary 
 schools. 
 
 In 1837 tlie Legislature passed a law authorizing the Superin- 
 tendent of Public Instruction, an office recently created by the 
 Constitution, to sell lands by auction to the amount of one and 
 one-half million dollars, the minimum price being S8.00 per acre, 
 the terms of payment being orie-fourtl,i at the date of sale, and the 
 remainder being in annual installments of five per cent., com- 
 mencing five years after purchase ; the unpaid balance bearing 
 interest at seven per cent. 
 
 The sales thus authorized began in July, 1887, and within a 
 little more than five years they amount ed to more than seven 
 hundred thousand dollars, at an average of about -^12.00 i)er acre. 
 This, it will be remembered, was in a time of inflated credit, 
 fictitious values, and magnificent expectations, but l)efore the five 
 years had elapsed the collapse came and the fund had already 
 suflfered grievously. In many cases the remaining three-fourths of 
 the purchase price was claimed to be in excess of the actual value. 
 Many who had made valuable improvements on the lands pur- 
 chased, yielded to the pressure of hard times, and submitted to 
 forfeiture because they could not meet the annual interest. 
 
 In 1840 the minimum price was reduced to five dollars per acre, 
 and the time for the payment of the principal extended indefi- 
 nitely ; but this relief was claimed to be entirely insufficient, and 
 the purchasers again clamored for further concessions. In 1842 
 the Legislature yielded again to the demands of those who desired 
 to be relieved of the obligations to which they had voluntarily 
 bound themselves. These demands were extraordinary in their 
 nature, but were finally agreed to, and it was provided that, on 
 
202 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 application of the purchaser, the associate judges should examine 
 any school lands purchased at 18.00 per acre, or over, and ap- 
 praise its value in its actual condition at the time it was first 
 bought, provided, that the reduction should not exceed forty per 
 cent, of the original price. The difference between the appraised 
 value and the contract price was to be credited to the purchaser. 
 The following figures show the sudden creation of the school 
 fund and its no less sudden collapse between the years 1837 and 
 the close of 1842: 
 
 Whole amount of sales including forfeited lands re-sold, and 
 
 amount paid on lands previous to their forfeiture $739,638.01 
 
 Deduct on account of forfeiture, reduction through new ap- 
 praisal, and other losses 379,828.00 
 
 Actual amount of fund in December, 1842 $359,809.41 
 
 The condition of this fund at the close of the fiscal year 1885 
 was as follows : 
 
 In the hands of the State $3,184,190.01 
 
 Due from purchasers of lands 293,155.69 
 
 Total of the primary school fund $3,477,345.70 
 
 This is a total increase of $3,117,536.29, or an average annual 
 increase of $72,500 since 1842. 
 
 At first the policy of loaning the moneys belonging to this 
 fund to individuals was adopted by the State. This policy was 
 soon abandoned ; but it survived long enough to cause a loss of 
 nearly 112,000 to the fund. For many years a wise plan had 
 been in operation in the investment of this fund and also the 
 Swamp Land fund, of which some account will be given further on 
 in this paper. As fast as the fund accumulates it is placed in the 
 State Treasury and forms a perpetual loan to the State, and the 
 faith of the State is pledged for the annual interest at the rate of 
 seven per cent. Not only does the State pay interest upon moneys 
 which have come in the treasury, but it assumes and guarantees 
 the payment of all interest due from those purchasers who have 
 paid but a part of the price agreed upon for school lands. Thus 
 the fund is safe beyond all peradventure, and the wants of the 
 schools are met by prompt payment of all accruing interest. This 
 interest, formerly distributed once in the year, is now paid semi- 
 annually to the several counties in amount proportionate to the 
 number of persons between the ages of five and twenty years, 
 
ADDRESS OF PKOF. J. M. B. SILL. 203 
 
 residing in each county, as shown by the school census, taken by 
 authority of law in the autumn of each year. 
 
 This fund, known as the Primary School Interest Fund, 
 receives some small additions from time to time, which are due to 
 a provision in the Constitution as follows : " All lands, the titles 
 to which filial 1 fail from a defect of heirs, shall escheat to the 
 State ; and the interest on the clear proceeds from the sales there- 
 of shall be appropriated exclusively to the support of Primary 
 Schools." 
 
 Another and vastly more important and extensive addition to 
 this fund became available first in the year 1881. This addition 
 is due to the provision to be found in Section 1, Article XIV. of 
 the Constitution : " All specific taxes, except those received from 
 the mining companies of the Upi)er Peninsula, shall be applied in 
 paying the interest of the Primary School, University and other 
 educational funds, and the interest and principal of the State 
 debt in the order herein recited, until the extinguishment of the 
 State debt, other than the amounts due to educatit)ual funds, 
 when such specific taxes shall be added to and constitute a part of, 
 the Primary School Interest Fund." 
 
 At the January term in 1881, the Supreme Court of Michigan, 
 upon an amicable application for an interpretation, decided that 
 the time indicated in the Constitution had arrived, inasmuch as 
 the State debt, some portions of it not maturing until 1890, 
 though not actually paid, was fully provided for in a sinking 
 fund, made up of unused accunmlations of the specific taxes, 
 and decreed that " any exces.s, apart from what shall be annually 
 required to meet the annual interest accruing on the debt, must 
 be held applicable under the Constitution, so long as there is no 
 failure in the fund for the payment of the princij)al, to the Pri- 
 mary School Interest Fund, and ought to be assigned thereto." 
 
 Under this decision the specific taxes for each subsequent year, 
 have first paid the interest on the unmatured debt, and on the 
 educational funds, and the remainder has been divided among the 
 counties as a part of the Primary School Interest Fund. On 
 account of this large addition to the moneys available for distri- 
 bution the amount per capita to each person of school age, was, 
 in the spring of 1881, the first year in wliich'the surplus of specific 
 taxes became available for school purposes, $1.06 against 47 cents 
 in the year next preceding; an increase of more than one hundred 
 and twenty-five per cent. 
 
204 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 The annual per capita arising from the interest of this fund had, 
 in years previous to 1881, never exceeded 50 cents for each person 
 of school age, and the rainirauni amount was reached in 1845, 
 when it was only 28 cents. Before the addition of the surplus of 
 the specific taxes in 1881, the annual additions through sales of 
 land, had ceased to keep pace with the increase of the school popu- 
 lation, and it had already fallen from its yield of 50 cents per 
 annum in 1878 to 47 in 1880. 
 
 Future accumulations to the original School Laud fund will doubt- 
 less be slow and uncertain. It seems difficult to make any safe 
 estimate as to the probable enlargement of the fund arising from 
 this source. Superintendent Gregory's estimate of the possible 
 maximum amount of the fund, made in 1859, was $4,868,022, 
 which he, apparently fearful that the future would fail to justify 
 his calculations, took prompt occasion in the next paragraph, to 
 reduce to $4,000,000. If his last estimate was a safe one, the 
 present margin of possible increase is only $522,645.00. But 
 the specific tax resource is not likely to decrease, and after the 
 actual extinction of the State debt, the amount which now goes to 
 the payment of interest will be added to the amount distributable 
 for the support of schools. 1 have dwelt, perhaps, disproportion- 
 ately upon the history of this fund, because it is, as Supt. Shear- 
 man in the report heretofore alluded to, says, " the foundation 
 upon which the educational structure of Michigan * * * vvas 
 laid." The amount of the income it has yielded is large, though 
 it is insignificant when compared with the total cost of common 
 school education in our Commonwealth, and stands in the relation 
 of a small percentage to the amount for which the people of this 
 State have freely taxed themselves in behalf of the schools ; but 
 it has been exceedingly helpful at the times in which it was sorely 
 needed. It has given courage to the fainting hearts of the friends 
 of education in periods of deep discouragement and despondency. 
 The little that it was able to do, was enough to educate the people 
 up to a profound appreciation of the value of popular education. 
 Without it, education, in this State, could never have made the 
 substantial triumphs and the magnificent |)rogress which its history 
 records, and of which we are so justly proud to-day. With it we 
 have como to a point ^'herc the failure of any permanent educa- 
 tional fund could have only a temporary efifect upon the prospects 
 of our schools. The men and women of the present generation 
 
AIJDKKSS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 205 
 
 are now thoroughly indoctrinated in their faith in the inestim- 
 able value of universal intelligence. Whatever should be the 
 cost to themselves, they will not withhold from their children the 
 benefits and advantages which they themselves have enjoyed. 
 
 Another fund for the support of common schools is what is 
 known as the Primary School Five Per Cent. fund. This fund was 
 created by the act of 1858, providing for the sale of the State 
 swamp lands, which directed that one-half of the moneys received 
 from the sales of such lands be disposed of in the same manner as 
 the fund derived from the sale of the school lands, except that 
 the State shall pay five instead of seven per cent, interest. 
 
 This fund has been available for school purposes only since 
 1863. In that year the fund amounted to §109,715.-12, the 
 income therefore being S5,485.77. In the year 1885 the fund had 
 increased to §31)1,882.57, yielding an income of $18,069.12. 
 
 These two, the Primary School fund and the Primary School 
 Five Per Cent. Fund are the permanent resources of the common 
 schools. The additional moneys needed and expended for their 
 adminiiitration come from other sources, as follows : 
 
 1st. Township School Taxes: 
 
 From the time the school system of Michigan was first organ- 
 ized until the present date, a township tax for the support of 
 schools has always been levied. At first it was required that it 
 be a sum equal to the township income from the Primary School 
 fund. An amendment in 1841 gave, to the electors of any town- 
 ship, authority to raise for the support of schools any sum not 
 exceeding one dollar for each person of school age in the town- 
 ship. In 1848 another amendment provided that for 1845 and 
 annually thereafter the supervisor in each township should assess 
 for the su})port of schools one mill on each dollar of the total 
 taxable valuation. This act, as well as the original one men- 
 tioned above, was mandatory. This tax was changed as follows : 
 In 1851 to two mills, in 1853 to one, in 1859 to two, and in 1879 
 to one mill on the dollar. Xo changes have been made since the 
 date last named. 
 
 The jealous interest of the people in respect to their schools, is 
 emphatically recorded in the law as to township levies, which ))re- 
 scribes that " The Township treasurer shall retain in his hands 
 out of the moneys collected by him, after deducting the amount 
 
206 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 of tax for township expenses, the full amount of the school taxes 
 on the assessment roll, and hold the same subject to the warrant 
 of the proper district officers." Thus nothing except the payment 
 of township expenses is allowed to interfere with the receipt by 
 the school authorities, of the whole amount of school tax assessed. 
 Under this law failure to collect any portion of the tax levied on 
 the township can hardly affect the portion allotted to the support 
 of education. The schools take precedence of the demands of the 
 county and State. The requirement on supervisors to assess one 
 mill (sometimes two, as shown above), on the dollar of the total 
 valuation of taxable property in each township was formerly 
 in defiance of the plain letter of the law, evaded by that officer in 
 many townships. As shown by the reports of the State Superin- 
 tendent, this tax in 1845, the first year in which the law was in 
 full force, yielded an income of $5,521. The yield of this tax in 
 1885 was $679,279.75. 
 
 2d. Resources arising from direct taxation. 
 
 The first enactment looking to the establishment of common 
 schools, was made in 1827, nearly ten years before the admission 
 ofMicliigan to the Union. This act provides for the raising of 
 school revenues by district taxation; and this general plan was 
 adhered to from that day to this. The power to levy such taxes 
 has been much modified by legislative enactments, but it has sur- 
 vived all changes, and has been, from the beginning, the source 
 of by far the largest revenues which the people have applied to 
 the establishment and maintenance of the common schools. For 
 instance, the report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
 for the year 1885, shows that of the money raised for school pur- 
 poses, the amount of $2,700,030.23 came from this source, 
 against |>1,384,94;}.59, the sum yielded by the township mill tax 
 and the primary school fund combined, and against $1,963,319.10 
 received from all other sources. Superintendent Gower's report 
 for 1879 shows the relative yield of the various sources of rev- 
 enue for the school year 1868-9 as follows : District taxes for all 
 purposes, $2,049,755.29 against $723,396.36 coming from the two- 
 mill tax and the primary school fund combined, and against 
 $1,029,802.67, received from all other sources. In this year it 
 must be remembered that the township assessment was two mills 
 on the dollar, instead of one mill in 1884. In the early history 
 of schools, the power of districts to raise money for school pur- 
 
ADDRESS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 207 
 
 poses was closely limited. In late years, repeated araendiuents to 
 the law gave the electors of districts almost unlimited power in 
 this direction. It was found, however, that rivalry between dis- 
 tricts, and the zeal of the people for schools and for costly build- 
 ings in which to operate them, not unfre({uently outran their dis- 
 cretion and their financial ability. Unwise expenditures in be- 
 half of the schools, had their natural effect, and a strong reaction, 
 dangerous to progress in education, set in. These facts led the 
 Legislature of 1875 to set narrower limits to the power of taxing 
 of districts. The restricting amendment of 1875 remains in force 
 at this time. It limits the power of districts to levy taxes for the 
 purchase of sites and the erection of buildings in any one year as 
 follows: Those having less than ten children of school age (be- 
 tween the ages of five and twenty years) are limited to $250.00 ; 
 Those having between ten and thirty children to $^500.00 ; those 
 having between thirty and fifty children of said age to $1,000.00. 
 
 For other purposes of the schools, excluding the amount re- 
 quired for wages of teachers, fuel, or other incidental expenses, 
 the amount raised must not exceed one-half the amounts men- 
 tioued above. The amount which each district may raise for 
 payment of teachers, fuel, and other regular incidental expenses, 
 is not limited by law, except that districts having less than thirty 
 children of legal school age, must not raise a sum exceeding $50.00 
 per month, for the period during which school is held in such 
 district. This last levy is, under the present law, determined by 
 the district board. The amount of all other district school taxes 
 being determined by a vote of the electors at an annual school 
 meeting held for this and other purposes. 
 
 3rd. For many years preceding 1869 a portion of the funds, 
 enough to make up all deficiencies in the current expenses of the 
 common schools, not provided for by the means already described, 
 was raised by a tax upon parents and guardians of the children 
 that attended school. The proportion of this tax payable by in- 
 dividual patrons of the schools was determined by the number of 
 days of attendance of the children seat by them. 
 
 The law provided for the collection of this tax by severe 
 measures, including distress and sale of property. For many 
 years the rate-bill was perhaps the most serious obstacle in the 
 way of the success and progress of the schools. It is plain that 
 no system of public schools can flourish under such a regime. 
 
208 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Schools conducted on this plan, will perhaps have a fair attendance 
 at the opening of a term, and so long as the funds provided by 
 the public were sufficient to maintain them, but they can hardly 
 survive the exhaustion of such funds. 
 
 In such cases, there was uncertainty as to what amount the 
 rate-bill might call for. Poor men could not afford to send their 
 children longer, and sordid and avaricious men would not ; so 
 children began at once to be withdrawn. Then came the inevi- 
 table panic, because as numbers decreased, heavier and heavier 
 expenses must be met by those remaining. As a consequence, 
 studies were sadly interrupted and, in many cases, the schools 
 were broken up long before the date agreed upon for closing them. 
 
 This matter of rate-bills was the crowning discouragement of 
 all friends of education. 
 
 The State Superintendents regularly in their yearly communi- 
 cation, pointed out to the people and the Legislature the hopeless- 
 ness of anything like genuine prosperity under such a condition 
 of affairs, and burdened their annual reports with unfailing 
 lamentations over the mischief and the useless waste entailed by 
 the rate-bill system. 
 
 The Constitution of 1850 recognized the evils of such a method 
 in the conduct of the schools and required the Legi:«lature to pro- 
 vide for free schools, at a date not later than 1855 ; but for rea- 
 sons which are difficult now to understand, legislative action on 
 this most important matter was deferred for fourteen long years 
 after the expiration of the time set by the Constitution ; and not 
 until the year 18()!*, were the rate-bill laws repealed and the com- 
 mon schools made truly and absolutely free. Thus, at last, and 
 after much tribulation and contest against opposition, Michigan 
 took her stand with those who believe education to be one of the 
 inalienable rights of man ; that the highest safety to the State lies 
 in the intelligence of her citizens ; that it is right, in self-defence, 
 if upon no higher ground, to tax property in order to add to the 
 value of man. Thus she gave good, plain recognition to the 
 principle that the child belongs not only to the parent, but to the 
 State as well ; to the parent in an especial manner in its earlier 
 years, while it is still within the jurisdiction of parental control, 
 but to the State almost exclusively by-and-bye ; that she has the 
 right to protect the reversionary interest in the coming citizen, 
 and to have something to say as to the kind and amount of pre- 
 
ADDRESS OK I'KOF. J. M. B SILL. 209 
 
 paratioii for useful and loyal citizenship which must be made in 
 the period of childhood and youth, if made at all ; and that as a 
 future, responsible member of society, the child has rights which 
 neither the poverty nor tlie avarice, or indifference of parents can 
 justly defeat, and whose demands it is the duty of the State to 
 provide for, at the common expense. 
 
 Making the schools free to all, is a long step in the right direc- 
 tion. This policy at least removes the chief obstacle to universal 
 education, and leaves the parent who willfully defrauds his child 
 of his most valuable inheritance, and the State of her undoubted 
 right to intelligent citizenship, with but a slender excuse for so 
 great a wrong. 
 
 In other w'ords, the establishment of free common schools, to 
 be maintained at the common expense, tenders to all the oppor- 
 tunities for acquiring an elementary education. It opens the doors 
 to all ; it freely invites all ; but it is the unquestionable right of 
 the State to go further than this. She may not only say to the 
 citizen, "I offer you the means of the, free education of your chil- 
 dren. The school-house doors are open to all. If poverty bars 
 the way of progress in intelligence to any, I have broken the 
 barrier down. The property of the commonwealth, receiving its 
 compensatory benefit in the safety and security which spring from 
 the intelligence of the great mass of citizens, and from progress 
 in culture and in the arts, shall bear rightfully the cost of the 
 education of your children." But the State may go further, and 
 say, " Having offered these advantages, I demand that you shall, 
 for the good of your children and for the security of society take 
 proper advantage of them. The right to levy taxes for the sup- 
 port of schools can be justified only on the ground that they are 
 necessary to public safety and well being, and this right includes 
 the right to require attendance upon them. Your children are 
 your own, but they are my wards as well. They are peculiarly 
 yours in infancy and childhood, but in the rush of years, the day 
 soon comes, when they are yours no longer, when they belong to 
 the State and to the world, and when, if they are ill-prepared for 
 the duties of life, if they are ignorant and depraved, the curse 
 falls not on you alone, but on society at large." 
 
 Later legislation has taken this more advanced ground. I 
 refer to the compulsory attendance laws which require the parents 
 and guardians of children between the ages of eight and fourteen 
 14 
 
210 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 years, to see that such children have at least four months of attend- 
 ance annually upon the public schools, or an equivalent in study 
 at home or in private schools. No serious effort has yet been 
 made for the enforcement of these laws, and there are undoubtedly 
 serious difficulties in the way of such enforcement. It is a prob- 
 lem, yet to be worked out, in western states ; but its solution 
 must come, for it is vitally connected with the welfare of the 
 republic. Here and elsewhere, illiteracy is gaining ground. The 
 people must see to it that the downward course is checked, or free 
 institutions will be put in deadly peril, and ultimately perish. 
 
 As I have intimated above, compulsory laws are, in this State, 
 a dead letter. Is it not time to vivify them ? Is it not time that 
 a thorough and vigorous campaign in behalf of general education 
 be begun and carried on, until the strongholds of ignorance are 
 taken by storm ? Is it safe to open our doors to all creation, and 
 invite all creation to make itself at home with us, and offer great 
 inducements to it to accept the invitation, unless, at the same time, 
 we compel at least a moderate degree of intelligence to be acquired 
 by our citizens of foreign birth ? 
 
 The census of 1880 shows that Michigan brought the ranks of 
 Dative born illiteracy down to the extent of two and one half 
 thousand iu the decade just preceding 1880, but that in spite of 
 this decrease there was a net increase as stated above. 
 
 The existence of this law among Michigan statutes, and the 
 discussions that have attended its enactment, and the amendments 
 to it hitherto made, have called attention to this subject, and so, 
 even in the interval of failure to execute it, have boon productive 
 of some good ; but a law too long disregarded, falls into popular 
 contempt. It will be indeed unfortunate if this law is allowed to 
 lapse into this condition. Much is to be done before its enforce- 
 ment can be secured. It will be obliged to meet opposition from 
 the greed of manufacturing corporations, which sometimes, in 
 their employment of children of tender age, subordinate every 
 interest to the solution of the problem of cheapness of production; 
 from the indifference and selfishnesss of depraved and ignorant 
 parents; and from those, also, whom pressing and urgent daily 
 want seems almost to compel to the coining of the health ami future 
 happiness of their offspring into the means of meeting the merci- 
 less necessities of to-day. 
 
 It must also meet the hostility of those who, in a false spirit of 
 
ADDRESS OF PROF. J. yi. B. SILL. 211 
 
 exaggerated American independence, will insist that in the execu- 
 tion of such a law, the State is interfering with their rights to do 
 as they please with their own, forgetting that the State and the 
 child both have rights, the one to decent, intelligent and progres- 
 sive citizenship, and the other to an opportunity to make the most 
 of the gifts which the good Father has given him. 
 
 No other view of the limit of the rights of the j)arent is tenable. 
 The parent has no right to starve his child, or cripple or dwarf 
 his material organs ; and should he attempt such a policy, society 
 would at once interfere in a way to be understood and remembered. 
 Nor has he any better right for his own interest or for the advan- 
 tages of present convenience, to imperil his child's moral and 
 intellectual future, and to dwarf his spiritual life in its tender 
 beginnings. 
 
 There is much to be done, much prospective cost in money and 
 in effort. Tt must be provided that there be room for all in the 
 schools, and that the force of teachers be; sufficient for the instruc- 
 tion of all. This means a very coilsiderable outlay, especially in 
 the cities. There must be efficient and fearless officers, charged 
 with the duty of a thorough enforcement of the law. 
 
 Complaints against offenders must not be left to the neighbors 
 of those who break the law. Society must also step in to the help 
 of those who are too poor to take the whole burden. 
 
 It is a project of great magnitude, but it is also a project whose 
 importance it is almost impossible to overestimate. 
 
 Illiteracy with its attendant evils and dangers, can be greatly 
 
 . reduced, if not totally wiped out ; but nothing less than persistent 
 
 and untiring effort can secure this beneficent result. It is not too 
 
 late yet to do much towards the accomplishment of this end before 
 
 the end of the present decade. 
 
 We owe it to the good name of Michigan that the census of 
 1890 shall show a better state of things. We cannot afford that 
 one in every forty-three of our native born citizens above ten 
 years shall be unable either to read or write. 
 
 In addition to the sources of increase already noted, there are 
 two others which require mere mention. One of these is what is 
 known as the dog-tax. There is an assessment made on the 
 owners of dogs. The moneys thus raised are devoted, first, to the 
 establishment of a fund for settlement of claims for damages sus- 
 tained by owners of sheep by reason of having such sheep killed 
 
212 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 or wounded by dogs, and the surplus, under certain limitations, 
 are apportioned among the several school districts of the township 
 in which taxes are levied. 
 
 The portion of this tax applied to the support of common 
 schools, has, in some years, reached a considerable amount. The 
 reports of the Superintendent usually combine this account with 
 several others, but the amount separately reported in 1867 was 
 $25,812.92. 
 
 The remaining resource of the common schools is the tuition 
 paid, mainly in the cities and larger towns, by children of non- 
 resident parents. This, in the year 1885, amounted to $50,023.72, 
 as reported by the Superintendent of Public Instruction. 
 
 I have used much of the whole space allotted to me, in detail- 
 ing the resources of the common schools, in order that I may be 
 able to draw a sharp line between the two great sources of income 
 which have made possible their establishment and their continuous 
 maintenance. 
 
 These resources may be classified thus: 
 
 First. Moneys received from land grants, and second, moneys 
 raised from the taxes levied upon themselves by the people of the 
 State. 
 
 The people of Michigan are not entitled to any considerable 
 amount of credit for the first. 
 
 They have shown much wisdom and some folly in their method 
 of caring for this trust, but the trust itself is in the nature of a 
 gift, and has not come directly from the pockets of the people. 
 
 But the second source of revenue shows what the people have 
 done, and are willing to do for their common schools. 
 
 In the year ending September 1, 1885, the total expenditures 
 for common schools in Micliigan was $4,728,940.54. Of this 
 amount $261,190.82 came from the income of the land grants, 
 and all the remainder, viz., 14,467,750.22, was, in one form of 
 taxation or another, paid by the people and the property of the 
 State. In other words, for every dollar coming from the land 
 grants, Michigan taxed herself more than $17. In still other 
 words, the schools received from the land grants a little more 
 than five per cent, of their cost for maintenance ; and the people 
 paid something more than 94 per cent, of the sum required. 
 
 It is not practicable, with the data at hand, to make a similar 
 comparison for the entire time covered by our existence as a 
 
ADDRESS OF PROF. J. ^r. B. SILL. 213 
 
 State; but I am satisfied tluit the proportions for the whole fifty 
 years would not differ very materially from those shown for 1885. 
 
 The figures for a few years taken at random and at considerable 
 intervals, justify such a conclusion. For instance, the showing 
 of the years 1864-1873 inclusive, is as follows : The total expen- 
 diture for these years was >5!21, 237,879, and of this |!l9,614,o00— 
 or nearly 93 per cent.,, w^as the yield of taxation in one form or 
 another, and the remaining $1,623,579 came from the income of 
 the land grants. 
 
 In the year 1874 the income of the land grants yielded about 
 six per cent, of the means used in defraying the expenses of the 
 schools; and in 1876 the amount realized from this source was 
 less than six per cent, of the total expenditure. 
 
 In this connection another point is worthy of notice. Of course 
 the amount realized on the proceeds of land grants depends on 
 two factors: the amount of the fund drawing interest and the 
 percentage thereon which the State chooses to pay. If the peo- 
 ple of the State, through their representatives, elect to pay a 
 larger sum in interest for the use of the school funds in its hands, 
 than it would need to pay on its bonds in the open market, the 
 excess over current rates thus paid, ought to be credited to the 
 good will of the people, rather than to the land grants themselves. 
 Now the State pays seven per cent, on the proceeds of the sale of 
 the Primary School lands, and five per cent, on money received 
 from the sale of one-half of swamp lands. That is to say, on 90 
 per cent, of the school trust funds, the State pays seven per cent, 
 interest for the support of schools, and on ten per cent, of such 
 trust fund, it pays five per cent. 
 
 On this showing, is it an exaggeration to say, that something 
 like thirty per cent, of the amount of the income supposed to be 
 derived from the permanent i'uiids belonging to the primary 
 schools, is, in fact, raised by taxation, and is, really, a gift of the 
 people of the State, to promote the interests of the common 
 schools ? 
 
 Our representative in Congress from the First District of Michi- 
 gan, is reported to have said in connection witii the Blair Educa- 
 tional Bill, that the entire proceeds of the land grants to the com- 
 mon schools in Michigan, would hardly suffice to operate these 
 schools for a single year. He was right. The latest published 
 report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, is for the year 
 1885. 
 
214 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 On September 30 of that year, the total amount of Common 
 School funds yet realized from the land grants and upon which 
 the vState pays interest, was $3,838,71^8.27; and the expenditures 
 for the year, exclusive of library moneys, amounted to $4,092,- 
 765.38. To this sum add, say, 5 per cent, as interest on the 
 $11,267,056.00 worth of school property, in buildings, sites, ap- 
 paratus, etc., and you have a balance of expenditure in one year 
 over the accumulated principal of the land grant funds of -$1,417, - 
 399. 
 
 Taking out of the account the sum named as interest on the 
 investment, and it will be found that in the year 1884, the whole 
 accumulations of the land grant funds would have met but little 
 more than three-fourths of the expenditure made in behalf of 
 common schools, for the twelve months named. 
 
 We hear so much concerning the magnificent fund which sup- 
 ports the common schools of Michigan, and so little of the en- 
 deavor and self-sacrifice of the people in sustaining them, that it 
 has seemed well to set the facts forth plainly. 
 
 The fund is a magnificent one, and its value to the cause of 
 free education can hardly be overestimated ; but the fact remains 
 that thus far the common schools of Michigan have depended 
 mainly on moneys contributed directly by the people themselves. 
 
 In the future the part that the income from land grants will 
 play in the maintenance of the schools will grow more and more 
 insignificant in comparison with other resources. The increase 
 of these permanent funds will be slow and uncertain, and 
 they must before long reach their maximum ; but the population 
 of the State must increase rapidly as the years roll on, and the 
 amount distributed will grow less and less per capita ; but if the 
 schools are wisely administered and the confidence of the people 
 in them maintained, their willingness to meet increasing demands 
 will keep pace with the necessities of the case. 
 
 Allusion has already been made to the Ordinances of 1785 and 
 1787, the first of which dedicated to common schools one section 
 in thirty-six of the public land ; and the second clinched and fixed 
 this dedication by the declaration that " schools and the means 
 of education shall be forever encouraged." These ordinances 
 were the forerunners of all common schools in the then northwest 
 regions, and a pledge and promise of their establishment. 
 
 But common schools being the offspring of legislation, it can 
 
ADDRESS OF PKOF. J. M. B. SILL. 215 
 
 hardly be saitl that they began existence in territorial Michigan 
 until the year 1827, four years after the organization of the Leg- 
 islative Council, when the first law to provide for them was 
 enacted. Under this law, any townsliip could determine by a 
 two-third vote not to niaintaiii townshij) schools ; but if the decis- 
 ion was favorable to tiie establishment of a schocjl, a schoolmaster 
 of good morals w'as to be em[)loyed. A township having lilty 
 families was required to have a school for a time equal to six 
 months in the year; one having one hundred families, for a longer 
 time. Townships of one hundred and fil'ty families were to have 
 two teachers, and those of two hundred families were to have 
 teachers well instructed in the Latin, French and English lan- 
 guages. A penalty consisting of a fine for the benefit of town- 
 ships complying with the law was prescribed for townships which 
 should fail or neglect to establish schools as directed. The 
 schools so established were to be under the charge of five comrais- 
 sioners in each township. This law is worthy of notice here, 
 because from its enactment the history of common schools in 
 Michigan takes its earliest date. It is known that some town- 
 ships complied with the law, and that schools were opened and 
 maintained under it, l)ut it is difiicult, if not impossible, to ascer- 
 tain much concerning the common schools of this period. This 
 law also seemed to indicate broader views on the matter of free 
 education than some of its successors ; for the schoolmaster was to 
 be supported by moneys assessed upon the polls and ratable 
 estates in the township, and not by the hardships of a rate-bill. 
 
 In 1829 the law of 1827 was repealed, and another substituted 
 for it. The law doubled the number of township school commis- 
 sioners and authorized the Governors to appoint a Superintendent 
 of Public Instruction, who should take charge of the school 
 lands and make an annual report of their condition. 
 
 There is nothing to show that the increase in the number of 
 commissioners operated to improve the schools ; and no record of 
 the ai)pointment of a superintendent under the law. That the 
 law was unsatisfactory is shown by the fact that four years later 
 it was repealed, and a new one, differing, however, but slightly, 
 enacted in its place. The number of commissioners was reduced. 
 The townships were to be divided into districts, the districts each 
 electing three directors to look after the buildings, and five direct- 
 ors to care for the schools and the teachers. 
 
216 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 The accessible history of coramou schools from 1827 until the 
 organization of the State and the adoption of a Constitution is 
 mainly a history of legislation ; but few facts as to the schools 
 themselves are recorded. It is possible that there was little to 
 record. Concerning this period I can hardly do better than to 
 quote the words of Miss Lucy M. Salmon, in her admirable and 
 exhaustive paper on Education During the Territorial Period, 
 prepared as a thesis when she was a candidate for the degree of 
 Master of Arts at the University of Michigan. 
 
 " As the population gradually extended beyond Detroit, schools 
 were started ; but of their primitive character at this, as well as a 
 much later period, we have abundant evidence in the reminiscences 
 given us by the pioneers of the State. The school-house was of 
 logs, and there were no complaints of lack of ventilation. Oiled 
 paper generally answered the purpose of window-glass. The 
 doors were hung on wooden hinges, wiiile one side of the room 
 was given up to the fire-place. Slabs furnished with legs were in 
 general use, answering the double purpose of seats in-doors, and 
 of sleds out-of-doors ; while desks were formed by placing planks 
 upon pins driven into the sides of the room. The modern appli- 
 ances for teaching were unknown. Even in the aristocratic center 
 of Detroit, John Monteith used for his blackboard a shallow box 
 of dampened sand. The branches taught were readini,'', writing, 
 spelling, and arithmetic, and sometimes, but not often, geography 
 and grammar. Reading and spelling were made specialties, and 
 the average pupil graduated from arithmetic as soon as he reached 
 vulgar fractions. Each child provided whatever text-book was 
 convenient, and even in Detroit it was not unusual to find in the 
 same class half a dozen different readers and as many arithmetics. 
 The inducements held out to enter the profession (of teaching) 
 were the privilege of boarding around, and four or five dollars 
 per month ; though in some districts the extravagant price of 
 fourteen dollars per month was sometimes })aid during the winter 
 term. Occasionally pay was taken in farm produce or in labor, 
 nearly all the schools being supported by voluntary contributions. 
 The teacher, on his part, was to ' keep the school ' six days in the 
 week from six to eight hours per day." 
 
 My own recollections of the rural schools go back to 1838, 
 when Michigan was already a State in the Union; and lean testify 
 that Miss Salmon's account of their general characteristics is not 
 at all over-drawn. Indeed, it is possible to make some additions 
 to the picture which she has so vividly painted. The teacher was 
 expected to take care of the school-house as well as to instruct 
 and manage the school. It was the duty of the patrons of the 
 
ADDRESS OF PROF. J. M. 15. SILL. 217 
 
 school to furnish each, his quota of wood, for the fire-place 
 or stove. This was usually delivered in sled lengths, and was 
 not unfrequently of a quality to condemn it for home use. It 
 was the duty of the one who brought it to see that it was cut 
 up into suitable pieces for fire. This duty was commonly met so 
 far as he was concerned, by ordering his boys at school to do the 
 chopping at recess and noon-time. This will undoubtedly seem 
 an admirable and altogether sufficient provision by all who know 
 the fondness of the average boy for this kind of recreation, but 
 it pains me to say that it occasionally failed. Then some pupil 
 was sent to the nearest house to borrow an ax, and the master, 
 after an oration to the scholars on the pleasures and benefits of 
 manual exercise in general, and wood-chopping in ))articular, 
 which, so far as my memory serves me, was sadly insufficient in 
 bringing out volunteers among the bigger boys, with a sad heart 
 antl a far-away look in his eye, repaired to the wood-})ile and made 
 provision for his own and our immediate temporal comfort. Do 
 not believe that our lack of readiness, to volunteer as wood-chop- 
 pers arose altogetlier from laziness or from disinclination to do the 
 master a kind act. We had a higher and nobler motive in the 
 prospect of so edifying a sight as that of the teacher exploring 
 the snow-drifts for the logs, and then for the moment abdicating 
 his unapproachable greatness and actually chopping ; and when 
 we tired of this, the wild delights of letting pandemonium loose 
 in a school-house all unchecked by the eye and the rod of the 
 master, was something to remember and to rejoice in. 
 
 My prescribed limits will not allow further detail as to the 
 common schools of the period between 1827, the date of the first 
 legislative notice of common schools and the admission of Miclii- 
 gan as a State into the Union. Miss Salmon, in her paper here- 
 tofore referred to and quoted from, says of the years thus included: 
 " The work actually done (hiring this period had ap]iarently so 
 little connection with all these (legislative) measures that it is 
 necessary to consider it by itself As the plans proposed seem to 
 have been made with reference to the formation of an ideal system 
 of education, and not to the practical needs of the Territory, so, 
 on the other hand, the schools, as they actually existed, were in 
 general carried on with little reference to any legislative theory 
 or any uniform i)lan." No doubt this statement is in all respects 
 true, and presents to our minds the strange spectacle of the 
 
218 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 authorities putting upon paper, wild and visionary schemes hav- 
 ing no real relation to the existing state of affairs, while the people 
 who knew little and cared less concerning their educational air- 
 castles, were slowly and painfully working their way by other 
 and very divergent paths to something like a reasonable solution 
 of the great problem before them. Though the history of the 
 true common schools begins so late as 1827, it is perhaps well to 
 stop for a moment to recall certain events having relation to the 
 common schools, which had taken place previous to this initial date. 
 Prominent among them is the famous legislation which was 
 enacted and promulgated by the Governor and Judges of the. 
 Territory of Michigan in the year 1817, establishing — on paper 
 only — the " Catholepistemiad of Michigania " with its thirteen 
 " didaxiim," or professorships, including, among others, " a didaxia 
 or professorship of Catholepistemia or universal science," a didaxia 
 or professorship of antheropoglossica or literature embracing all 
 the epistemum of sciences relative to language, " and a didaxia or 
 professorship of physiognostica or natural history." The par- 
 ticular sciences included and comprehended in the thirteen 
 didaxiim numbered sixty- three. There were to be thirteen 
 didactors or professors in charge of the thirteen didaxiim, and 
 the "Didactor of Catholepistemia " was to be obeyed and respected 
 as president of the Catholepistemiad of Michigania. This tre- 
 mendous and almost unspeakable institution was to be supported 
 by an addition of fifteen per cent, to existing public taxes and a 
 like per cent, of the proceeds of four successive lotteries to be 
 arranged for and drawn by the aforesaid Catholepistemiad or 
 University. 
 
 At the bottom of all this amazing effort of pedantry, promul- 
 gated when the population of the entire Territory was less than 
 seven thousand, and uttered in a language which according to 
 excellent authority is neither Greek, Latin, nor English, may be 
 found certain grains of common sense, and many of the principles 
 upon which the educational system of the State was afterwards 
 founded. It recognizes the principle that chronologically, higher 
 institutions of learning must antedate or at least be contempora- 
 neous with schools for the culture of the masses. It concedes the 
 truth of the doctrine that education of the people ought to be 
 carried on at public cost, and places the University where it be- 
 longs, viz.: at the head of the school system. One of the earliest 
 
ADDRESS OF PROF. .1. M. IJ. SILL. 219 
 
 euactineut.s of its founders was certain additional legislation, 
 which, after adopting an appropriate flamboyant seal for the 
 Catliolepisteiniad proceeded to provide a course of study in read- 
 ing, writing, and arithmetic in the primary schools to be connected 
 in some manner as yet unprovided for with the unborn University. 
 The tangible outcome of this marvelous piece of legislation was 
 the erection, after some delays, of a building twenty-four by fifty 
 feet in dimensions and two stories in height in the city of Detroit 
 on the west side of Bates near Congress street, which was occupied 
 mainly as a prinjary school supported chiefly by tuition charged 
 to the parents of attending children, until June, I808, when a 
 branch of the University was opened within its walls. With the 
 primary schools conducted in this building and under at least 
 nominal control of the University trustees, several well known 
 names are associated, notably that of Lemuel Shattuck, of Con- 
 cord, Mass., who was from August 10, 1818, until October 8, 1821, 
 the teacher of an elementary school managed on Laucasterian 
 principles. This is a matter of interest mainly because it was, so 
 far as 1 know, the only experiment on any considerable scale with 
 this kind of schools made in Michigan. This system of instruc- 
 tion was introduced at Madras by Dr. Andrew Bell, an English 
 clergyman, about the year 17i)0. He was chaj)lain of the English 
 garrison stationed at Madras, and had, also, the supervision of a 
 school for the education of orphan children of that city. He 
 found it diflicult to obtain assistants in this work, and resorted to 
 the expedient of conducting the schools by means of the help of 
 the pupils themselves. On his return to England a few years 
 later, he published a pamphlet explanatory of his scheme. His 
 work, however, attracted little or no attention at first, until 
 Joseph Lancaster introduced the method into the schools of the 
 dissenters early in the nineteenth century. The temporary suc- 
 cess of Lancaster's eff()rts put England into a notable excitement. 
 The church, alarmed at the success of Lancaster's schools for the 
 dissenting poor, established similar schools under Dr. Bell, whose 
 merits as the first modern promoter of the monitorial system, 
 began to be remembered and extolled. Under Lancaster's vigor- 
 ous propaganda schools sprang up everywhere, and for a time a 
 new one is said to have been organized every week. The system 
 was the educational sensation of the time. Everything was 
 claimed for it. Dr. Bell said: "The system has no parallel in 
 
220 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 scholastic history. In a school, it gives to the master tlie hundred 
 eyes of Argus, the hundred hands of Briareus, and the wings of 
 Mercury. By multiplying his ministers at pleasure, it gives him 
 indefinite powers ; in other words, it enables him to instruct as 
 many pupils as his room will contain." 
 
 Lancaster's school was sometimes attended by a thousand 
 pupils. It seems sufficiently absurd now in the light of a better 
 experience, that so much was expected from a system that con- 
 templated nothing better in the way of instruction than the repe- 
 tition by monitor pupils to their mates, of what they themselves 
 were taught but yesterday; that ignored the fact that teaching is 
 the evolution of the powers of the pupil's mind, and that wisdom 
 and cultivation on the part of the teacher are necessary elements 
 in this process; but it took England by storm, took root in New 
 York, where it held its own for many years, and was tried in 
 many of the large American cities. Lancasteriau schools were 
 established in many States of Continental Europe. In England 
 the general effect was to awaken a new and fervid interest in edu- 
 cation, and thus the results were, on the whole, beneficial. 
 
 Great claims were made for the efficiency and economy of the 
 plan, which was to have one master supervising the training of an 
 indefinite number of children. The older and brighter pupils 
 were trained and taught directly by the master, and they in turn 
 comnmnicated this newly acquired knowledge to the mass of pupils. 
 As might be expected, there was little success in the way of main- 
 tenance of order and quiet. Some of the promoters of the system 
 insisted that the noise and the confusion were an especial advan- 
 tage, because pupils trained to attend to their studies in a great 
 room where dozens of monitors were instructing hundreds of chil- 
 dren and making themselves heard by sheer lung force, were get- 
 ting a most useful preparation for the turmoil of actual life. 
 
 In the cit)'^ of Detroit there was at first unbounded enthusiasm 
 in behalf of Mr. Shattuck's Lancasteriau enterprise; but after a 
 time doubts sprang up as to its value, and the discu.ssion of the 
 subject became hot and general. Miss Salmon says that at last 
 argument became of little weight, "when brought home to Detroit 
 where no fine-spun theory was needed to show that the children 
 of the school were noisy, impertinent and undisciplined, while the 
 instruction was, of necessity, crude and imperfect. In addition to 
 actual results, it was soon seen that the system was in itself radi- 
 
ADDRESS OF PliOF. ,1. M. B. SILL. 221 
 
 cally defective. The school was kept up by Mr. Shattuck for 
 four years, and by his successor about two years, but the method 
 was soon abaudQued." 
 
 The first Constitution, adopted in 1835, provided for a Superin- 
 tendent of Public Instruction to be nominated by the Governor 
 and confirmed by the Legislature. Ilis terra of office was to be 
 two years. It required the Legislature to provide for a system 
 of common schools to be maintained at least three months in 
 every year in each school district. It made no requirement that 
 the schools shinild be free, thus taking a step backward from the 
 position taken by the Legislature in 1827. Hon. Isaac E. Crary 
 of Calhoun county, was chairman of the committee which 
 reported the article concerning education. 
 
 On July 26, 1836, an act containing the first legislation look- 
 ing to the carrying out of the constitutional provisions concern- 
 ing education became a law ; and on the same day Rev. John D. 
 Pierce was nominated and confirmed as first Superintendent of 
 Public Instruction in the new State ; and to him was intrusted, 
 by the terms of the act mentioned above, the duty of preparing a 
 system for the common schools, and a plan for the University. 
 
 Never was a duty more faithfully and conscientiously per- 
 formed. His first report shows that his comprehensive mind had 
 fully grasped the difiiculties of the situation and the magnitude 
 of the problem to be solved. He saw. that under the provisions 
 of the Constitution there was room for noble and beneficent work, 
 and he wisely planned for its beginning and its triumphant pro- 
 gress ; but also he saw beyond constitutional provisions and 
 limits, and from first to last in his long and useful career, he 
 never failed to urge upon the jieople that the schools must be free 
 in order to accomplish their highest and best work. In this con- 
 nection I cannot do better than to quote a few of his own words 
 from the document just mentioned : 
 
 " It has been rightly said, too, that common schools are truly 
 republican. The great object is to funiisli good instruction in all 
 the elementary and common branches of knowledge for all classes 
 of community, as good for the poorest boy of the State, as the 
 rich man can furnish for his children, with all his wealth. The 
 object is universal education, the eilucatiou of every individual of 
 all classes. * * * * It is this feature of free schools which 
 has nurtured and preserved pure republicanism in our own laud. 
 
222 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 In the public schools all classes are blended together ; the rich 
 mingle with the poor, and are educated iu company. In their 
 sportive gambols a common sympathy is awakened ; all kindly 
 sensibilities of the heart are excited, and mutual attachments are 
 formed which cannot fail to exert a soothing and happy influence 
 through life. * * * * Nothing can be imagined more 
 admirably adapted in all its bearings, to prostrate all distinctions 
 arising from mere circumstances of birth and fortune. * * * 
 
 *' Let free schools be established and maintained in perpetuity, 
 and there can be no such thing as a permanent aristocracy in our 
 land ; for the monopoly of wealth is powerless where mind is 
 allowed freely to come in contact with mind. It is by erecting a 
 barrier between the rich and the poor, which can be done only by 
 allowing a monopoly to the rich — a monopoly of learning as well 
 as of wealth — that such an aristocracy can be established. But 
 the operation of the free school system has a powerful tendency 
 to prevent the erection of the barrier." 
 
 In the mind of this far-seeing educator, and I may truly say 
 statesman, universal education ought to be the objective point of 
 all educational endeavor. To him universities had their justifi- 
 cation not only in their direct and immediate advantages, but, 
 also, and more emphatically, because elementary education must 
 wither and finally perish without them. He foresaw the need of 
 a normal school and foreshadowed it in his appeal for prospective 
 provision that every teacher of the public schools shall have been 
 through a regular course of professional training. 
 
 He emphasized the doctrine, that not only has every individual 
 a natural right to at least an elementary education, but that where 
 there is on the part of the State a binding obligation to suffer 
 none to grow up in ignorance, and to this end he suggests compul- 
 sory education and the requirement upon all. who have the charge 
 of children to send them to school at least for a time equal to the 
 annual three months named in the Constitution, and he puts this 
 suggestion upon the high ground of the welfare of the individual 
 and the security of the State. 
 
 In the same report he urges the immediate establishment of 
 district libraries, and suggests means for their support. He pre- 
 pared a schedule of school officers, consisting of township inspect- 
 ors, the Township Clerk being ex-officio clerk of the township 
 board, and a moderator, director and assessor in each district. 
 
ADDRESS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 223 
 
 This plan of organization has persisted in its main features until 
 the present time, and is in force to-day. 
 
 At this early date it could hardly be expected that any one 
 would foresee the ultimate expansion of the common schools into 
 institutions preparing students for the University; and so Super- 
 intendent Pierce made great efforts for the establishing of branches 
 of the University in order that the way might be open for all to 
 advance from the common schools to the doors of the system's 
 crowning institution. This provision for preparatory instruction 
 did not meet the expectations of its friends ; and at an early date 
 the branches yielded their place to the Union and graded schools; 
 but, true to his instincts in favor of primary schools and loyal 
 always to general education, Mr. Pierce's plan provided for the 
 training of common school teachers in each of the branches to be 
 established. Mr. Pierce's term of service as Superintendent of 
 Public Instruction covered a period of five years, until April, 
 1841, He was the true pioneer in Michigan's educational field. 
 When he was called to the great work of organizing a school 
 system for the State, there were few precedents for his guidance. 
 New problems were to be solved, and great questions before 
 unasked and unanswered were to be dealt with. 
 
 Deeply impressed with the responsibility of the position assigned 
 to him, he laid hold of the work vigorously and courageously, and 
 brought to its accomplishment all the force of his far-seeing wisdom 
 and indomitiible industry, and all the energy of enthusiasm born 
 of his love for his fellow-men and iiis confidence in the value of 
 universal education. 
 
 The Legislature placed on his ample and sufficient shoulders 
 the greatest burden of the hour, and confident in his wisdom and 
 integrity followed, almost without deviation, the plan which he 
 marked out. 
 
 His public services in behalf of the schools were by no means 
 confined to the period during which he held the office of Superin- 
 tendent. 
 
 Fortunately for the cause of education in Michigan, he was 
 elected to the State Legislature in 1847, where confidence in his 
 knowledge and good judgment made him a power in all matters 
 pertaining to the schools, and enabled him to secure the passage 
 of several measures of importance in their administration. Again 
 and still more fortunately, he was called to take a conspicuous part 
 
224: Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 in the deliberations of the convention which framed the Constitu- 
 tion of 1850. His handiwork is to be been in many of the pro- 
 visions relating to the education of the people by means of the 
 common schools, the university and the libraries. 
 
 He died in April, 1882, at the advanced age of 85 years. He 
 was active in all good works to the last of his life, and his pro- 
 found and intelligent interest in behalf of public education never 
 faltered nor grew faint. Many of us here present knew him and 
 honored him. We recall, at this moment, his massive, sharply- 
 chiseled face, his kindly eye, his white locks, his towering form 
 and his venerable presence. He stands among Michigan's noblest 
 benefactors. Ought not our children and our children's children 
 to know him, and remember him ? Has this Commonwealth yet 
 produced a man whose portrait would more worthily grace the 
 halls of this Capitol than his ? 
 
 At the close of Mr. Pierce's term of office, the organization of 
 the schools had progressed as follows : From fifty-five districts 
 in 1836, to 2,215 in 1841, and the number of children attending 
 the schools from 2,377 in 1836, to 51,254 in 1841. In his last 
 report he again gives emphatic expression to a doctrine which 
 had been, throughout his career, the chief guide of his action : 
 "The property of a State ought to be held liable for the educa- 
 tion of all within its borders, and on this principle every school 
 system should be based." 
 
 Mr. Pierce's successor, Franklin Sawyer, dr., was appointed on 
 the 8th day of April, 18'41, and the term of his service ended in 
 May, 1843. He was a graduate of Harvard University, and came 
 to Detroit about the year 1830, where he studied law and was 
 admitted to the bar. After a few years of practice at the bar, 
 during which he was, for a time, a partner of Jacob M. Howard, 
 he turned his attention to journalism, in which he made a repu- 
 tation as a brilliant and forcible writer. He brought to the work 
 of superintendence of the schools, excellent scholarship, great 
 industry and earnestness, and habits of systematic work. He 
 made a careful and laborious inquiry into the working of the 
 school system, and found it excellent in its main features, but dis- 
 covered to the Legislature and the people great imperfections in 
 its details, especially in the working of the amendments made to 
 the law of 1840. lie found the most striking defect in the inade- 
 quate provision made by means of the township taxes for the sup- 
 
ADDRESS OF PKOF. J. M. B. STLI,. 225 
 
 port of schools. During his administration an attempt was made to 
 remedy this serious defect ; but the new amendatory act was itself 
 defective, providing only that the electors of any township be 
 authorized to raise any sum of money for the support of schools, 
 provided that such sum should not exceed one dollar for each per- 
 son within the limits of the school age, in the township; but mak- 
 ing no adequate provision for securing such action by the electors ; 
 and therefore the financial affairs of the schools were not at all 
 improved by its enactment. 
 
 In his reports he was the steadfast and vigorous supporter of the 
 free school doctrine so ably promulgated by his eminent pre- 
 decessor. " He urged the supremacy of the common schools 
 over all others, as upon them depend the very existence of higher 
 seminaries of learning." He says, " Education is a common right, 
 the exclusive property of no man, of no set of men." 
 
 In his first report to the Legislature he made a strong presen- 
 tation of the absolute necessity of free education, based upon taxa- 
 tion of the property of the State. In the second year of Supt. 
 Sawyer's incumbency, the State Land Office was established and 
 the Superintendent of Public Instruction was relieved of the 
 onerous duties pertaining to the custody and accountsof the school 
 lands. This was a most desirable and salutary change, freeing 
 the executive school officer from a burden which ought never to 
 have been imposed upon him. Daring the same year, several 
 important changes in the school laws were made. In accordance 
 with a suggestion made in his second report, the new law provided 
 for the raising of the township mill tax, for the support of schools in 
 the various districts. This was the most important legislation, 
 and it marks a conspicuous era in the school history of Michigan. 
 The law did not provide for the immediate levying of the whole 
 amount of one mill on the dollar, but "it was enacted that the 
 supervisor in each township should assess, for the support of 
 schools, for the year 184o, twenty-five dollars; for 1844 one-half 
 mill on each dollar of the total valuation of the taxable property of 
 the township ; for 1845 and thereafter, the whole amount of one 
 mill on the dollar. 
 
 Mr. Sawyer's draft of the revision of the school laws provided 
 
 that the schools should be supported by the income of the school 
 
 fund, the mill tax, and such otlier sum as should be voted in the 
 
 district meetings. In other words, that the schools should be free 
 
 15 
 
226 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 to all comers. The Legislature, however, did not agree to this 
 view ; and attempted to remedy the difficulty in raising money 
 for the payment of teachers by means of a rate-bill. The dis- 
 astrous effects of this policy have been alluded to heretofore in 
 this paper ; but with all its disadvantages and attendant discour- 
 agements, it held its paralyzing sway in the schools for more than 
 a quarter of a century, and not until the year 1869 were they 
 relieved of this wearying burden. 
 
 Dr. Oliver C. Comstock succeeded Mr. Sawyer as Superintend- 
 ent of Public Instruction on May 8, 1844. The school laws had 
 been recently revised and amended, and while much that was 
 unsatisfactory remained in them, the Legislature, fearful of the 
 danger of changes too frequent and too radical, prepared "to sub- 
 mit to temporary difficulties rather than to legislate anew upon a 
 subject in which a permanent and settled policy is as much to be 
 consulted as correctness of principle and propriety of detail." It 
 therefore happened that the administration of Dr. Comstock was 
 an uneventful one, no extensive or radical changes being made 
 during its existence. A biographical sketch given in the report 
 of the Superintendent in the year 1880, accords to him large abil- 
 ities and faithful and efficient service. 
 
 Certainly his reports bear the impress of careful and correct 
 thought and diligent labor, and are filled with practical, wise, and 
 faithful suggestions. 
 
 In April, 1845, Ira Mayhew, of Monroe, was appointed by the 
 Governor and confirmed by the Legislature to succeed Mr. Sawyer 
 in the superintendeucy. He served two constitutional terms, 
 retiring from the office in 1849, and afterwards recalled to it by 
 election at the hands of the people, under the Constitution of 1850, 
 for another period of two terms. 
 
 Tiie i)eriod of Mr. Mayhew's first superintendeucy was one of 
 unprecedented activity in educational affairs. He early succeeded 
 in correcting, at least to a considerable degree, the misdirection 
 of moneys arising from fines, penalties and forfeitures, and in 
 applying them to the purposes to which constitutional provision 
 and legislative enactment had dedicated them. 
 
 He reinforced Superintendent Sawyer's urgent appeal for a 
 better and more efficient supervision of the schools, which was 
 voiced and repeated by his successors until it was met, in 1867, by 
 the passage of a law establishing county superintendence. 
 
ADDRKSS OF PKOF. .1. M. I!. SILL. 227 
 
 He was the first ti) engage actively in tlie formation of teach- 
 ers' associations, founding the first one in Lenawee county ; and by 
 persistent endeavor lie succeeded in establishing teachers' insti- 
 tutes, and labored untiringly in their behalf, not only in securing 
 for them a permanent place in the educational system of the 
 State, but also in the actual work of conducting instruction in 
 them. 
 
 They came into favor at once, and from that day to this, they 
 have been acknowledged as one of the foremost agencies in arous- 
 ing among teachers a genuine professional spirit, and in giving 
 them the means of a better prei)aration for their work. He made 
 strong efforts in behalf of the circulation of educational journals, 
 and induced great numbers of the teachers to subscribe for them. 
 Under his administration, and by his advice and encouragement, 
 the Union Schools, the precursors of the present High Schools, 
 took their rise. He was quick to see in them the more useful and 
 valuable successors to branches of the University — which were 
 moribund in 1848, and practically dead before the expiration of 
 .Mr. Mayhew's second teruL He saw in them the true and endur- 
 ing link between the })rimary schools and the University. 
 
 He began the agitation for a Normal School and continued it with 
 such vigor that the year 1849 brought the fruition of his ho()es 
 and the result of his labors in legislation providing for the es- 
 tablishment of a State Institution for the training and instruction 
 of teachers. 
 
 He was a zealous educational missionary in a new and needy 
 field. He visited the remotest parts of the State, lecturing, en- 
 couraging and helping. 
 
 The Legislature requested him to prepare and publish a volume 
 containing the views set forth in his course of lectures. In answer 
 to this request he published a volume called " Means and Ends of 
 Universal Education," which did excellent service in informing 
 the people and arousing their interest in the matter of which it 
 treated. 
 
 During Mr. Mayhew's administration previous to the adoption 
 of the new Constitution in 1850, the number of organized dis- 
 tricts increased to 3,075 and the number of children attending 
 the public schools to 102,871. The corresponding figures for 1845, 
 when he began his work, were 2,683 and 75,770. On March 25, 
 1849, he was succeeded in the superintendency by Erancis W. 
 
228 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Shearman, of Marshall, thus closing the first period of his official 
 career with credit to the State, honor to himself and lasting ad- 
 vantage to education in Michigan. 
 
 Mr. Shearman, appointed at the date mentioned above, was 
 elected under the new Constitution in 1850, and re-elected in 1852, 
 served the State as Superintendent of Public Instruction for 
 nearly six years, until January 1, 1855. 
 
 In 1850 the revised Constitution was adopted and went into 
 eflfect. A comparison of this instrument with the Constitution of 
 1835, shows several important changes affecting the common 
 schools. Among these the following are prominent: 
 
 The Superintendent of Public Instruction was to be elected bi- 
 ennially by the people. 
 
 The first Constitution required the Legislature to provide for a 
 system of common schools, but did not require the maintenance 
 of free common schools. The revised instrument made it obli- 
 gatory upon the Legislature to provide for and establish, within 
 five years, a system of primary schools to be open, in every school 
 district, at least three months in each year, without charge for 
 tuition. In other words, it required the Legislature, within the 
 time named, to establish a system of free common schools. 
 
 It also provides that all specific taxes with certain exceptions, 
 after extinction of the public debt, other than the amount due to 
 the educational funds to be added to and become a part of the 
 Primary School Interest fund. 
 
 During Mr. Shearman's first elective term, in 1851, there was 
 legislation that seemed, at the time, to be of great prospective 
 importance. The mill tax was changed to a tax of two mills on 
 the dollar, thus doubling one of the chief sources of revenue to 
 the schools ; but two years later this tax was changed back again 
 to the original amount, as fixed for the year 1845. In October, 
 1852, during Mr. Shearman's superintendency, the Normal school 
 was dedicated by appropriate ceremonies, and in the following 
 spring it was opened for the reception of students and began reg- 
 ular work. In the same year, 1852, the State Teachers' Associa- 
 tion was organized at the Normal School ; A. T. Welch, principal 
 of that institution being its first president. Mr. Shearman was 
 graduated from Hamilton college in the nineteenth year of his 
 age. He was an elegant and accomplished scholar ; a most amia- 
 ble and agreeable gentleman, and a writer of great force and abil- 
 
ADDRESS OP- PKOF. .1. M. B. SILL. 229 
 
 ity. His annual report for 1852, included a full, historical 
 account of education in Michigan, from the earliest territorial 
 times to the date at which it was written. It is a comprehensive 
 and valuable work which must still be consulted by every one 
 who makes any serious inquiry into the educational history of 
 Michigan. 
 
 ^Ir. Shearman's successor was Ira Mayhew, of whom mention 
 has already been made in this paper. Called thus to service a sec- 
 ond time, he entered upon his work with the industry and steady 
 vigt)r that characterized his previous administration. He was 
 re-elected in 1857, and continued in the service of the State until 
 the end of the official term, January 1, 1859. 
 
 In his report for the year 1855, he urged the compliance of the 
 Legislature with the requirements of the Constitution concerning 
 free schools. The time set for their establishment was already 
 past, and as yet nothing effective had been done towards meeting 
 those requirements. If he had foreseen that nearly a decade and 
 a half were yet to elapse before the Legislature would yield full 
 obedience to the Constitutional mandate, he would have been dis- 
 couraged indeed. He renewed his appeal of ten years before for 
 a better and more efficient system of supervision, but in this also 
 he was many years in advance of the views of the law-makers. 
 Having thus made brief mention of the leading events in the 
 earlier history of our common schools, and of some of the more 
 noteworthy pioneers in Michigan's educational field, I must hasten 
 to close this sketch. 
 
 Next in order comes the superintendency of Dr. John M. 
 Gregory. As he stands on the dividing line between the pioneers 
 and their worthy successors, perhaps it may not be thought invidi- 
 ous if the historian pauses to give a brief expression to the general 
 feeling of kind regard and high respect which the people of this 
 State entertain for him. He was a man who gave to his work in 
 the schools all the resources of a large and sympathetic heart, and 
 all the power of a strong, keen and magnificently disciplined mind. 
 He was an indomitable and untiring worker, and while he made 
 no startling innovations, he stood upon the strong foundations 
 laid by his predecessors, and l)uilt with tb.e skill of a master arti- 
 ficer. 
 
 His enthusiasm and devotion were contagious and inspiring, 
 and his four years of service, ending January 1, 1865, were full of 
 
230 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 profit to the State. Following Mr. Gregory comes Oramel Hos- 
 ford, of Olivet, to whom the people gave the extraordinary and 
 well-deserved compliment of three consecutive re-elections, and a 
 continuous terra of eight years. During his incumbency the Legis- 
 lature at last listened to tlie many times repeated advice of a long 
 line of Superintendents, and enacted a law providing for a system 
 of county supervision. 
 
 For eight years this system was maintained. It is the testi- 
 mony of those who should know best, that this plan was in all 
 respects a decided improvement over the absence of supervision 
 which had previously been the policy of the State. 
 
 Of its downfall in 1875, the historical sketch in the report of 
 the Superintendent of Schools, for 1880, says: "Although the 
 scheme was in many respects faulty, yet the efforts and influence 
 of the superintendents were conducive to much good, and a wide 
 contrast was soon manifest between the schools taught under its 
 operations and those of former years, but its defects were seized 
 upon by those who had, from the beginning, opposed it, and every 
 opportunity was taken to belittle and cripple it. As a conse- 
 quence, a weight of popular opposition was brought against it, to 
 which the Legislature, without any attempt to modify its defects, 
 yielded, and in 1875 repealed all its provisions and inaugurated 
 in its stead a system of township superintendency of schools." 
 Six years sufficed to show the unwisdom of the change mentioned 
 above. The system of township supervision was found to be, if 
 possible, less valuable than the absence of all supervision which 
 prevailed before the advent of county superintendents. In 1881 
 the Legislature returned to a somewhat modified county system 
 which promises good results. Three county examiners have in 
 charge the whole matter of the examination of teachers, while the 
 chairmen of the township boards are cliarged with the duty of the 
 immediate supervision of the schools, each in his own township. 
 
 Next in order after Mr. Hosford came Daniel B. Briggs, who 
 served four years, his second terra ending January 1, 1877. Mr. 
 Briggs is the last Superintendent who has fully filled out the term 
 for which he was elected ; his successors, Messrs. Horace S. Tar- 
 bell, Cornelius A. Gower and Herschel R. Gass, all having resigned 
 the office before the ex[)iration of their several terms; and the 
 present Superintendent, Theodore Nelson, of St. Louis, Michigan, 
 having not yet completed the terra for which he was elected. 
 
ADDRESS OF PKOF. J. M. IS. SILL. 231 
 
 It reiuaius to give a brief synopsis of the present condition of 
 the common schools, as compared with their status fifty years 
 ago. The fact is that the records of the schools in the first years 
 of Michigan's existence as a State make it impossible to obtain 
 the data for such comparison as to many interesting facts. One 
 is, therefore, obliged in many instances to make the comparison 
 between the present time and a date more recent than lSo(). 
 
 The latest published report of the department of instruction 
 brings the Educational Statistics down to Septeini)er, 1885. The 
 exact progress which tiie schools have made real in excellence, is, 
 of course, difiiicult of measurement. We cannot lay the measur- 
 ing line to the products of education as we can to the output of a 
 mine, or to the results of half a century of manufacture. I'o one 
 who has seen them in the early times and who knows them now, 
 their progress in all that makes schools worth having, and se- 
 cures for them the respect and confidence of communities, is pro- 
 nounced and unmistakable. 
 
 But their material progress is morq easily measured and exhib- 
 ited. The last half century has seen the attendance upon them 
 increase from two or three thousand, as reported, to more than 
 400,000; the annual resources from 82o,171 to -^5,703,412; the 
 number of organized districts from 55 to 6,932; and since 1845 
 the number of teachers employed has increased from 3,053 to 
 15,358. 
 
 It must be admitted, however, that these figures canncjt, and do 
 not, have any very exact value in measuring real progress; but 
 they do show, that in spite of all complaints and criticisms, the 
 people care for their common schools; and that they are to-day, 
 after an experience of fifty years, more ready than ever before to 
 give them abundantly whatever their needs require. 
 
 THE STATK NORMAL SCnoOL. 
 
 Having already nearly exhausted the space allotted to me for 
 these sketches I shall limit myself to a brief statement of the con- 
 spicuous points in the history of this institution. The preceding 
 sketch has already called attention to the urgency with which the 
 early Superintendents of Public Instruction had pressed upon the 
 attention of the Legislature the imperative need of suitable means 
 for preparing teachers for their work. 
 
232 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 As early as 1836, Superiutendent Pierce made au able presen- 
 tation of the subject. In his first report he gave a review of the 
 Prussian system of Normal Schools, and strongly recommended 
 the adoption of a similar plan for the benefit of education in 
 Michigan ; and in his subsequent reports he kept this matter, 
 which he deemed of prime importance, before the people of the 
 State. He was careful to provide for the beginnings of normal 
 instruction in the plan for the organization of branches of the Uni- 
 versity, which he submitted to the Legislature. His successor. 
 Superintendent Sawyer, was mindful of the same pressing need, 
 and called the attention of the Legislature to the importance of 
 establishing a Normal school. 
 
 In 1843, Superintendent Comstock again urged the necessity 
 for such a step, and dwelt upon the benefits and advantages that 
 it would secure to the Schools. 
 
 Superintendent Mayhew took the subject in hand with charac- 
 teristic persistence and earnestness, and at last succeeded in secur- 
 ing a favorable hearing by the Legislature. In the year 1849, an 
 act was passed providing for carrying out the plan which Mr. 
 Mayhew and his predecessors had so perseveringly advocated. The 
 law establishing the State Normal School was enacted and approved 
 in March of that year. This new educational enterprise was 
 placed in charge of a State Board of Education, consisting of three 
 persons appointed by the Governor, the Lieutenant-Governor, and 
 the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the last being secretary 
 of said Board. The Legislature of 1850 added the State Treas- 
 urer, who was to be the treasurer of the Board. 
 
 During the same year, the new Constitution was adopted. 
 This provided for a Board of four persons, three of whom are 
 elected by the people and hold office for six years, one being 
 chosen at each biennial election. The fourth is the Superinten- 
 dent of Public Instruction, who is ex-officio a member and the 
 Secretary of the Board. The first election under this provision 
 of the Constitution was held in the fall of 1852 ; and the State 
 Board of Education thus constituted began their term of office in 
 January, 1853. 
 
 Under the law of 1849, ten sections of Salt Spring lands were 
 appropriated for the pur[)0se of defraying the expenses of erect- 
 ing a building and for the purchase of necessary apparatus, books, 
 cte. Another fund, called the Normal School Endowment fund, 
 
ADDRESS OF I'KOF. J. M. B. SILL. 233 
 
 was also established by a grant of" fifteeu sections of Salt Spring 
 lands; and the Board of Education was directed to locate the 
 lands comprising both grants. 
 
 In 1850 the two grants were consolidated into one, constituting 
 a Normal School Endowment fund; and from this endowment 
 fund a sum not exceeding S 10,000 was reserved for the erection 
 of buildings; about $8,000 of this fund was actually used for this 
 purpose. The remainder of the proceeds of the sale of the lands 
 granted for normal school purposes is now held by the State, and 
 the interest at six per cent, goes annually to the maintenance of 
 the Normal School. 
 
 The present condition of this fund is as follows: 
 
 In the hands of the State $(31,784.81 
 
 Due from purchasers of lands 7,;}41.23 
 
 $69,126.04 
 
 The fund has attained its maximum. The last of the Normal 
 School lands were sold in 1868, and ,since that time sales have 
 been made only of lands forfeited for the non-payment of interest. 
 Originally the lands comprised 16,000 acres; and the amount 
 realized is an average of about $4.80 per acre. 
 
 The members of the first Board of Education were Samuel 
 Barstow, Randolph Manning and the Rev. Samuel Newberry, 
 with the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Lieutenant 
 Governor. This Board proceeded promptly to locate the Endow- 
 ment Fund lands and select a place for the Normal School. 
 
 Proposals were received from Jackson, Niles, Gull Prairie, 
 Marshall, and Ypsilanti, each offering to donate lands and sums 
 of money to secure the location of the school. The most favor- 
 able proposition came from Ypsilanli. The ofler included the fol- 
 lowing items : An eligible lot for the proposed site, a subscription 
 of $13,500, the use of temporary buildings, and the payment of 
 the salary of the teachers of the model school for five years. 
 Accepting this offer, the board proceeded at once to enlarge the 
 grounds by the purchase of an additional tract of four acres, and 
 to erect a brick building fifty-five by one hundred feet in dimen- 
 sions, and three stories in height, at a cost of §15,200. This was 
 finished and ready for use in the autumn of 1852. 
 
 The remaining history of the buildings may properly be given 
 at this point. In October, 1859, the original t)iiilding was partly 
 
234 xMichigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt with |;8,000 realized from iusur- 
 ance, and was again in readiness for the reception of students in 
 September, 1860. Though the loss of the building was thus made 
 good, the school suffered from the destruction of its library, fur- 
 niture and apparatus to the extent of nearly $6,000. 
 
 An additional building was finished in 1869. An interesting 
 account of its erection is given in the Historical Sketches pub- 
 lished in connection with the report of the Superintendent of 
 Public Instruction for 1880, as follows: 
 
 " In 1864, the Board of Education made an arrangement with 
 the executive committee of the State Agricultural Society to erect 
 a building seventy by forty feet, and two stories above the base- 
 ment, to be used by the school and to contain the Museum of the 
 Agricultural Society. The terms were that the society should 
 contribute two thousand dollars, the citizens of Ypsilauti fifteen 
 hundred dollars, and the Board of Education the balance, for the 
 erection of the building. During the year 1865 the building was 
 inclosed, the work having been greatly retarded by the high price 
 of materials and labor ; and in September, 1868, the most that 
 could be said was, ' it has been inclosed, and rooms finished in the 
 basement for the janitor.' In the meantime the committee of the 
 Agricultural Society had become discouraged, and in 1868, after 
 an expenditure of three thousand two hundred and fifty dollars, 
 assigned their interest in the property to the Board of Education. 
 The Legislature in 1869 appropriated |i7,500 for the completion 
 of the building, which was effected the same year. In 1871, the 
 Legislature very justly voted an additional appropriation of 
 83,250 to reimburse the Agricultural Society for the money it had 
 expended. This building is now mainly occupied by the Conserv- 
 atory of Music connected with the Normal School." 
 
 In 1878 greatly needed additions were made to the main build- 
 ing. A new front eighty-five by eighty-six feet, three stories high 
 above the basement, was erected, the cost being about $43,350, of 
 which the citizens of Ypsilanti contributed $2,300. 
 
 The growth of the school making still more room necessary to 
 its suitable accommodation, a wing, by one hundred feet 
 
 and two stories in height, was added to the w'est side of the origi- 
 nal building in 1882. The entire cost to the State, of the build- 
 ings, furniture, fixtures and repairs from the date of the establish- 
 ment of the scliool, thirty-three years, has been le.ss than $84,000. 
 
 The recent extraordinary increase in the number of pupils in 
 attendance makes necessary still further additions to the school 
 
ADDKKSS OF PUOF. J. M. IJ. SILL. 235 
 
 buildings, and the Board of Education, at tlie last session of the 
 Legislature, made an earnest but ineffectual appeal for an appro- 
 priation for this {)urpose 
 
 There is time for only the briefest possible outline of the annals 
 of the Normal School, the succession of its administrations, etc. 
 
 The building was detlicated with approj)riat(! ceremonies on 
 October 5th, 1852. Hon. John D. Pierce, the honored father of 
 education in Michigan, who saw in the event the fruition of his 
 most earnest efforts, delivered the main address of the occasion. 
 D. Bethune Diiffield, then, as now, t\\v firm friend and energetic 
 promoter of popular education, contributed a brief poem which is 
 presented herewith: 
 
 " Hail, Spirit of immortal trulli. 
 Bright emauation from on high. 
 Now o'er our Nation's glowing youth 
 Extend thy wings of purity — 
 To thy great purpose now we raise 
 Tkese noble walls, this song of praise. 
 
 Here we liavo built a holy shrine 
 AVhcre thy true worshippers may kneel 
 And seek to know the art divine 
 Of teaching what thy laws reveal ; 
 Pour then thy tlood of golden light 
 And cheer the groping student's sight. 
 
 May thy disciples hence depart 
 Well girded for the toilsome life 
 And ever as they faint ai heart 
 Sustain them for the ceaseless strife; 
 Give them to feel that by thy power 
 Bright hopes oft deck tlie darkest hour. 
 
 Teach them our rising youth to lead 
 
 In wisdom's ways, whose paths are peace; 
 
 And grant Thou as the years succeed, 
 
 Our numbers here maj' still increase; 
 
 Till from those heights bright streams shall flow 
 
 To cheer the drooping vales below. 
 
 Great God, preserve this sacred fane, 
 And let thy smile upon it rest. 
 For Art and Science build in vain. 
 Unless the work the Lord hath blessed. 
 Take it within thine own embrace. 
 And l)less it to our land and race." 
 
236 Michigan's semi-oentennia.l. 
 
 Hon. Isaac E. Crary, of the Board of Education, in a few well 
 chosen and eloquent words, dedicated the school to its high pur- 
 poses. Hon. Chauncy Joslin, in a brief but impressive address, 
 installed Prof. A. S. Welch as the first principal of the school, 
 and delivered to him the keys of the building, as a symbol of his 
 office. 
 
 A State Teachers' Institute, under the direction of the principal 
 of the school, was hehl during the four weeks next succeeding the 
 dedication. During this Institute the Michigan State Teachers' 
 Association, which has ever since been an educational power in 
 the State, was organized, the new principal of the Normal School 
 being its first president. 
 
 The first actual session of the Normal School was opened in 
 March, 1853. The actual work of the school, therefore, covers a 
 period of a little more than thirty-three years, one-third of a 
 century. Its affairs have been administered by several principals, 
 the order and length of whose service is shown in the following 
 table : 
 
 Name of Principal. Period Covered. llrvfcef 
 
 A. S. Welch 1853-1865 13 years. 
 
 D. P. Mayhew 1865-1870 5 " 
 
 C. Fitzroy Bellows 1871 1 " 
 
 (Acting Principal.) 
 
 Joseph Estabrook 1871-1880 9 " 
 
 Malcolm McVicar 1880 1 " 
 
 D.Putnam 1881-1883 2 •' 
 
 (Acting Principal.) 
 
 Edwin Willits 1883-1885 2 " 
 
 D.Putnam 1885-188G 1 " 
 
 (Acting Principal.) 
 
 The purpose of the Normal School was defined in the law es- 
 tablishing it, as follows: " Be it enacted by the Senate and House 
 of Representatives of the State of Michigan, that a State Normal 
 School be established, the exclusive purpose of which shall be the 
 instruction of pei-sons, both male and female, in the art of teach- 
 ing, and in all the various branches that pertain to a good com- 
 mon school education ; also to give instruction in the mechanic 
 arts, and in the arts of husbandry and agricultural chemistry, in 
 the fundamental laws of the United States, and in what regards 
 the rights and duties of citizens." 
 
 To this day there has been, so far as the law is concerned, no 
 change in the original purpose of the school, but the course of 
 
ADDRESS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 237 
 
 eveuts has tended' to the narrowing of its original aims, to the 
 one purpose of training teachers for their work in the schools of 
 the State. For a time, during the earlier years of the institution, 
 lectures upon agricultural chemistry and the arts of husbandry 
 were regularly given; but the enactment in 1855 of a law 
 directing the establishment of un Agricultural College, removed 
 the necessity for further etibrts in this direction. Indeed, from 
 the first, it seems to have been generally understood that the real 
 work of the Normal School was the training of teachers. Super- 
 intendent Gregory, in the report for 1859, speaks as follows: 
 "The State Normal School was established by the Legislature in 
 1849 ; and its main design is to be a school for teachers, where 
 they may receive instruction peculiarly adapted to their pro- 
 fession ; though tiie law contains some rhetorical flourishes about 
 giving instruction in tlie mechanic arts, and in the arts of hus- 
 bandry, and agricultural chemistry, in the fundamental laws 
 of the United States, and in what regards the rights and duties 
 of citizens. The Normal School is -to the primary schools what 
 theological seminaries are to the churches. It is simply the 
 teachers' college, and a school for professional training." 
 
 It will be seen by reference to the law quoted above, that 
 it requires that instruction be given " in all the various branches 
 of study that pertain to a good common school education." Of 
 course this means academic instruction, and foreshadows the 
 policy of the school to be to equip future teachers with a suitable 
 knowledge of the branches to be taught by them, as well as to 
 train them in the science and art of teaching. In other words, 
 il was not designed to make the Normal School strictly and abso- 
 lutely professional. A purely professional normal school would 
 require of its pupils full knowledge, gained elsewhere, of all the 
 subjects of instruction, and would undertake only to train them 
 in the philosophy of education, school government, methods of 
 instruction, etc To such a school, graduates of colleges and 
 others wlio h;ul already acquired all needful knowledge in mathe- 
 matics, science and literature, would come for training and 
 instruction in the art of teaching. 
 
 In the work of giving instruction in the several branches of 
 study, the Michigan Normal School occupies the educational 
 field in common with other literary and scientific institutions. It 
 is peculiar and professional only when it undertakes to train its 
 pupils in the " Science and Art of Teaching." 
 
238 Michigan's semicentennial. 
 
 About the year 1872, the question whether it was not time for 
 the Normal School to abandon academic work and become a 
 strictly professional institution, began to be agitated and warm- 
 ly discussed. This discussion, carried on in the State Teachers' 
 Association and elsewhere, reached its culminating point in the 
 year 1878. It was argued with some warmth, that there was no 
 longer any necessity that the school should engage its energies in 
 the direction of academic instruction. It was said that the High 
 School and Colleges were equipped for this work, and were will- 
 ing and abundantly able to do it. It was thought that the time 
 was ripe for a radical change which would free the Normal School 
 corps from everything except the appropriate work of a typical 
 professional school. It was also thought that Michigan ought, for 
 her own sake, to make this advance, and that great credit would 
 justly fall to her if she should take the lead in so important a mat- 
 ter, and be the first to maintain a true American Norman School 
 devoted exclusively to professional effort. 
 
 In the spring of 1878, the faculty of the school, convinced of 
 the value and feasibility of these suggestions, requested the IJoard 
 of Education to prepare a course of study, in accordance with 
 them. 
 
 The following quotation from the catalogue of 1877-8 gives a 
 history of the adoption of the new plan of work. 
 
 "There is in process of erection at Ypsilanti, a new building 
 for the State Normal School, which has grown to need more 
 extended and fitting accommodations. 
 
 " It has been thought fit to signalize the occupancy of these new 
 quarters in September next, by making such changes in the econ- 
 omy of the school and its scheme and methods of work as shall 
 bring it fully up to the most progressive and well defined views 
 now held of the true sphere of Normal Schools." 
 
 The faculty of the school recjuested the State Board of Educa- 
 tion to prepare a course of study to be entered upon at the com- 
 mencement of the new school year. Accordingly the State Board 
 of Education, at its meeting on the 8th of March last, appointed 
 as a committee for this work its president and secretary. 
 
 This committee entered upon its labors by requesting each 
 member of the Normal faculty to prepare in extetiso, in writing, 
 for the use of the committee, his views on the proper work of the 
 Normal School. 
 
ADDRESS OF I'KOK. .1. M. H. .-ILL. 'J/V.t 
 
 An extended correspondence was entered upon with the leading 
 educators of this State and many in other States, and very elabo- 
 rate and able reports were presented by several members of the 
 Normal faculty, and the opinions of all secured. 
 
 At a meeting of the State Board of Education on the I'ith of 
 April the committee above nientioiied presented the following 
 report, which embodies the judgment of the committee, and is 
 consonant with the views of a very large majority of those whose 
 opinions were obtained : 
 
 " The committee ap])ointed to examine and report upon com- 
 munications from the faculty of the Normal School, in relation to 
 a change in the course of study, would respectfully report that 
 they have been exceedingly gratified by the full and able papers 
 presented; and while there are differences in the details of the 
 courses of study recommended, they find substantial unity of views 
 in the general plan. It is agreed by all that the Normal School 
 should, if possible, be brought more into sympathy with the super- 
 intendents and principals of the high schools of the State, and 
 assume a more purely professional- character. To accomplish 
 these objects, two plans are suggested — one being to elevate the 
 standard of academic attainment required for admission, and to 
 remodel the course of study so as to combine academical and pro- 
 fessional study during the entire course ; the other to separate the 
 academical entirely from the professional, all academic preparation 
 to be made prior to admission to the Normal School. 
 
 The committee deem it wise to combine the two plans to a cer- 
 tain extent, and by so doing secure a substantial agreement 
 between the members of the entire faculty. 
 
 They recommend : 
 
 1st. Enlarging the School of Observation and Practice, so as to 
 constitute a graded school, representing all the (lej)artments of our 
 best gradeil schools, and that students applying for admission to 
 the Normal Scho(d, deficient in academic preparation, be aHowed 
 to make such preparation in the School of Ob.servation ami 
 Practice. 
 
 2d. This School of Observation and Practice to be under the 
 supervision of the principal of that school, with two skilled assist- 
 ants, but the teaching to be done by Normal students, under the 
 direction and inspection of the respective professors of the 
 Normal. 
 
 3d. To establish in the Normal School proper three courses of 
 study, of one year eacli, — the C'onnnon School, Higlier English, 
 and Language, fitting teachers respectively for the lower and 
 higher grades in our common and graded schools. 
 
 4th. Aside from general reviews in connection with professional 
 
240 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 instruction, the Normal School proper to be confined to pro- 
 fessional instruction. 
 
 5th. The requirements for admission to the Normal School 
 proper should be carefully and fully stated in the prescribed 
 courses of study, and students admitted on certificates from our high 
 schools should still be required to pass examination in the ele- 
 mentary branches. 
 
 6th. Your committee recommend that in the prescribed course 
 of study, both for the School of Observation and Practice, and of 
 the Normal School proper, more attention be given to Drawing 
 and English History and Literature. 
 
 Your committee do not think there will be any difficulty in 
 combining and modifying the several schemes, or courses of 
 study, so as to remodel them on the plan proposed, prescribing 
 just what should be pursued in the School of Observation and 
 Practice, and what shall be pursued in the Normal School proper. 
 
 The School of Observation and Practice is an absolutely essen- 
 tial part of the Normal School, without which, and without full 
 and careful teaching in which by the pupils of the Normal 
 School, under their respective professors, we are satisfied the Nor- 
 mal School would fail to send out teachers fully fitted for the 
 work of their profession. 
 
 Your committee would recommend the reference of the several 
 schemes of study to a committee, to be modified and combined and 
 perfected, so as to carry out the general purposes and views above 
 set forth. 
 
 W. J. Baxter, 
 
 H. S. Tarbell, 
 
 Committee." 
 
 The report of the committee was adopted without dissent, and 
 the following committee appointed in accordance with the recom- 
 mendation of the report. 
 
 Committee on Courses of Study for the Normal School — Super- 
 intendent J. M B. Sill, of Detroit; Prof Daniel Putnam, of Ypsi- 
 lanti ; Horace S. Tarbell, of Lansing. 
 
 This committee, after careful consideration, has prepared the 
 following course of study and requirements for admission to the 
 several departments of the Normal School : 
 
 COMMON SCHOOL COURSE OF PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTION. 
 
 KEQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION. 
 
 A thorough knowledge of Practical Arithmetic, English Gram- 
 mar, Local Geography, Orthography, Reading, History of the 
 United States, Elements of Physiology, of Vocal Music, and of 
 Drawing, and Elementary Algebra. 
 
ADDRESS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 241 
 
 COURSE OF INSTIiUCTION. 
 
 1. Elementary Principles of Education 20 weeks. 
 
 2. School Organization, (Jovernment, School Laws, History 
 
 of Education, ^lethods of Reading and Study, etc 20 weeks. 
 
 3. Practice Teaching 40 
 
 4. Reading and Orthography 10 " 
 
 5. Arithmetic 10 " 
 
 6. English Grammar 10 
 
 7. Geography 10 
 
 8. History of the United States 5 " 
 
 9. Vocal Music 10 " 
 
 10. Drawing 10 " 
 
 11. Penmanship 5 
 
 12. Algebra 5 " 
 
 13. Physiology 5 " 
 
 14. Objective Teaching (Botany, Zoologj'. Physics) lo " 
 
 ADVANCED ENGLISH PROFESSIONAL COURSE. 
 
 REQtllREMRNTS FOR ADMISSION. 
 
 In additiou to the requireuieiits i'or admission to the Conmion 
 School Course, a good knowledge of the following l)ranches of 
 study (a course equal to that of our best high schools is uiider- 
 stood) : Higher Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Bookkeeping, 
 English Composition, Rhetoric, English Literature, General His- 
 tory, Mental Science, Botany, /-o'^logy, Physiciil ' reography, 
 Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Civil Goveriinjein 
 
 Equivalents for anv ■_>f thest' branches, <)r ot thiwe retjuired for 
 admissiou to the course m languages, will be accepted, at the dis- 
 cretion of the faculty, and students will be required to pursue 
 those studies only iu the advanced professional courses, for which 
 preparation was required for admission. 
 
 COURSE OK INSTRUCn'ION. 
 
 1. Elementary Professional Work. . . 5 weeks. 
 
 2. Advanced Professional Work 35 
 
 3. History of Education, School (roverument, Civil Govern- 
 
 ment, etc 20 " 
 
 4. Practice Teaching 40 " 
 
 5. Arithmetic 5 "' 
 
 6. Algebra 5 
 
 7. Geometry, Trigonometry, etc 10 " 
 
 8. Geography 5 " 
 
 9. Physiology and Zoology 5 " 
 
 10. Botany 5 
 
 10 
 
242 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 11. Astronomy 5 weeks. 
 
 12. Geology 5 " 
 
 18. Naluial Philosophy aiul Laboratory Practice 5 " 
 
 14. Chemistry and Lab )ratory Practice o " 
 
 15. ithetoric, Grammar and Composition 5 
 
 16. History and Literature 10 
 
 17. Reading, etc 5 " 
 
 18. Penmanship 5 " 
 
 19. Drawing 5 
 
 20. Vocal Music 5 " 
 
 PROFESSIONAL COURSE IN LANGUAGES. 
 
 REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION. 
 
 In addition to the requirements for admission to the common 
 school course a good knowledge of the following branches of 
 study (a course equal to that of our best High Schools is under- 
 stood :) Latin and Greek, or German and French, Algebra, 
 Geometry, General History, Mental Science, Botany, Zoology, 
 Physical Geography, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Civil Gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 COURSE OP INSTRUCTION. 
 
 1. Elementary Professional Work 5 weeks. 
 
 2. Advanced Professional Work 35 
 
 3. History of Education, School Government, Civil Govern- 
 
 ment, etc 20 " 
 
 4. Practice Teaching 40 
 
 5. Latin and Greek or German and French 30 
 
 And any ten of the subjects, numbered 5 to 20 inclusive, in the pre- 
 ceding course. 
 
 SPECI.\L COURSES. 
 
 Students may take, with the approval of the faculty, special 
 courses which shall require attendance at not less than seventeen 
 lectures, recitations, and exercises per week. 
 
 Preparatory to these professional courses which were to engage 
 the attention of students in the Normal School proper, and which 
 graduates of high schools in good standing might enter and 
 pursue, a full graded course including the subjects usually taught 
 in primary, grammar and high schools, was prepared for the School 
 of Observation and Practice. Students desiring to take either of 
 the advanced professional courses, but not adequately equipped 
 with academical knowledge, were to receive in the school the re- 
 quired amount of instruction. Thus the Normal School proper 
 was to become a strictly professional institution, and all academic 
 
ADDKESS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 243 
 
 iustruction except certain reviews was to be furnished by the 
 Sciiool of Observation and Practice. The report of the Committee 
 of the Board of Education, (juoted heretofore, exhibits the pro- 
 posed administration <it" this scluxtl as to supervision and instruc- 
 tion. 
 
 This plan of work did nut prove satisfactory, and it was as to 
 most of its distinguishing points, abandoned after a trial of about 
 two years. The advocates of this change, among whom was the 
 writer of this paper, did not take into sufficient account the fact 
 that an almost indispensable element in the training of a teacher 
 lies in the lessons set before him in the model presented by his own 
 instructors, and that normal instruction is most effectively given 
 by example and precept when it progresses step by step with the 
 acquirements of the necessary academic knowledge. This is 
 especially true in the acquisition of skill, in the orderly presenta- 
 tion of the subjects of study and in methods of instruction gen- 
 erally. Nothing more powerfully influences teachers in dealings 
 with their pupils than their recollections of what was done for 
 them iu the days of their pupilage ; and one of the most efficient 
 i'actors in normal training is the correct example of normal teach- 
 ers. In unprofessional schools the effort of the instructor is to 
 secure to his pupil a thorough knowledge of mental power and 
 mental btrength. The normal teacher adds to these a professional 
 trend to all that is done and a professional color to all that is ac- 
 quired. 
 
 The new plan as suggested and adopted lacked that element 
 of success and efficiency. Students whose ideas of methods had 
 already firmly crystallized under influences of all kinds, good, bad 
 and indifferent, were expected in a single year, divided between 
 reviews and practice in teaching, to become skilled instructors and 
 efficient in management and discipline. This was too much to 
 expect, and the experiment was unsatisfactory in its results. It is 
 true, also, that notwithstanding the great advance which has been 
 made in the opportunities for primary and secondary instruction, 
 that there are still many regions in Michigan where it is either 
 impo.ssible or extremely difficult for young persons to obtain 
 academic instruction suitable iu kind and adequate in extent to 
 serve as a basis for a purely professional normal course ; and these 
 are the localities where the need for trained teachers is most 
 urgent. 
 
244: Michigan's semi-cbntennia.l. 
 
 Though this experiment was on the whole unsuccessful, it 
 was by no means barren of valuable results. It was made under 
 circumstances which were, so far as the school was concerned, as 
 favorable as could be expected. The faculty united in a request 
 for the new departure and were, no doubt, earnest in promoting 
 its success. It seems, therefore, that its failure was due to the 
 fact that it was made too early, before the general educational 
 condition of the State would warrant a change so radical. It also 
 seems evident that a considerable period of time must elapse 
 before it will be worth while to make another similar trial. 
 
 Another very valuable result of the action above described, was 
 the infusion into the school of greater earnestness in the direction 
 of professional training. At the present time the Normal School 
 is probably as thoroughly professional as the existing condition 
 of general education will allow. While academic instruction, 
 dominated and directed by earnest pedagogical spirit, receives its 
 due and necessary share of attention, professional requirements 
 are conspicuous and exacting in all the course of study. Public 
 opinion seems to justify the present division between what is 
 academic and what is strictly pedagogical, and to regard it as 
 wise and just. 
 
 All pupils are required, upon entering the Normal School, to 
 sign the following declaration of intention : " I hereby declare 
 that my purpose in entering the Normal School is to make prepa- 
 ration for the work of teaching." 
 
 Six courses of study are offered, as follows : Scientific, four 
 years; Literary, four years; Ancient languages, four years; 
 Modern languages, four years ; Special Course with Music, four 
 years ; and English, three years. 
 
 The Scientific course which is given below may be fairly 
 regarded as showing the present average division between aca- 
 demic and professional work in all the courses of the Normal 
 School. 
 
 SCIENTIFIC COURSE. 
 First Year. 
 thirst Term. Second Term. 
 
 1. Arithmetic. 1. Algebra. 
 
 2. GrHininar and Composiliou. i 2. Geography. 
 8. Readiui^ and Oitiiography 3. Botatiy. 
 
 4. Vocal Music. 4. Elementary Drawing. 
 
ADDRESS OF PltOF. J. M. I!. SILL. 
 
 245 
 
 Second 
 First lerm. 
 Algebra. 
 
 History of the United Slates 
 Advanced Drawing. 
 Piiysiology and Hygiene, 15 
 weeks; Narcotics, 5 weeks. 
 
 Third 
 Fiisl Term. 
 
 1. Geometry. 
 
 2. Comjiarative Zoology and Phy- 
 siology, 10 weeks; Civil Govern- 
 ment, 10 weeks. 
 
 o. Outlines of History. 
 
 4. Mental and Moral Science. 
 
 Ye.vk. 
 
 Second Term. 
 
 1. Geometry. 
 
 2. Rhetoric. 
 
 3. Elementary Physics. 
 
 4. Penmanship, 10 weeks; Zoology, 
 10 weeks. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Second Term. 
 
 1. Higher Algebra. 
 
 2. English Literature. 
 
 3. Professional Training in Com- 
 mon Branches. 
 
 4. Mental Science applied to Teach- 
 ing, and School Management. 
 
 Fourth Ye.\k. 
 
 Term. 
 
 First 
 
 1. Chemistry. 
 
 2. Higher Physics. 
 
 3. Geology, 10 weeks; Bookkeep- 
 ing, 10 weeks. 
 
 4. Practice Teaching and Criticism; 
 Essays. 
 
 Second Term. 
 
 1. Chemistry, 10 weeks; Astron- 
 omy, 10 weeks. 
 
 2. Trigonometry and Surveying. 
 
 3. Political Science, 10 weeks; 
 Training in Physical Science and 
 History of Education, 10 weeks. 
 
 4. Practice Teaching and Criti- 
 cism; Essays. 
 
 The catalogue for the current year thus outlines the course of 
 instruction in Principles of Teaching and a portion of the Special 
 Professional Training which the school offers: 
 
 INSTRUCTION IN PRINCIPLES OF TKACIIING. 
 
 This course enabraces a discussion of the 
 
 1. Nature of purposes of education. 
 
 2. Forces and agencies employed in the work and process of 
 
 education. 
 
 3. True province of schools and teachers. 
 
 4. Nature, powers and faculties of the child. 
 
 5. Laws, or conditions, which govern the developnaent and 
 
 training of those powers and faculties. 
 
 6. General application of these laws to means and methods of 
 
 teaching. 
 
 7. Organization, govornnient and general management of schools, 
 
 including a consideration of the duties, rights ami obliga- 
 tions of teachers, 
 
 8. School system and school laws of Michigan. 
 
246 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 9. Progressive development of improved methods of teaching, 
 illustrated by reference to the lives, labors and principles 
 of the great leaders in educational reform and progress. 
 10. Something of the history of schools, of school systems, and of 
 education. 
 The work indicated necessarily includes an elementary study 
 of mental and moral science." 
 
 special professional training. 
 
 1. Pupils are required to note carefully the methods of instruc- 
 
 tion pursued by teachers, and to be able, when a subject is 
 completed, to give an accurate account, either orally or in 
 writing, of the following points : 
 (a). The order in which the topic was discussed. 
 (6). The illustrations and devices used to enlist the attention of 
 
 pupils, and to make plain the truth presented. 
 [c). The method of drill employed to fix the truth permanently 
 in the memory. 
 
 2. The principles of teaching and school organization, based on 
 
 the constitution and laws of the body and mind, are care- 
 fully discussed. This is supplemented by special profession- 
 al training in the common branches to secure in the pupils 
 habits of teaching and governing in harmony with the prin- 
 ciples discussed. This part of the work includes the follow- 
 ing : 
 (a). A discussion of the order which should be pursued in pre- 
 senting given subjects to a class. 
 {b). A discussion of the illustrations and devices that should be 
 used to enable pupils to understand thoroughly the subject 
 presented, and to fix a clear outline of it in the memory. 
 (c). The preparation of sketches or outliue lessons which are sub- 
 mitted to teachei's for criticism. 
 (d). Teaching and governing in the Practice School under the 
 guidance and instruction of competent teachers, whose duty 
 it is to observe carefully, criticise and correct all defects. 
 j^OTE — Any person who, as provided for under requisites for 
 Higher Standings, sustains examinations or presents Certificates of 
 Standing in all the academic subjects of any course, can complete 
 the professional work of a course in one year. It is desirable, 
 however, in order to get the full benefit of the professional and 
 other work of the school, that a {)upil should spend Two Years in 
 the institution." 
 
 In the summer of 1871 a new departure was made in the con- 
 stitution of the School of Observation and Practice. A plan 
 similar to that followed at the Oswego Normal School was devised 
 and tried for two years. An agreement was entered into between 
 
ADDRESS OF PROF. J. M. B. SILL. 247 
 
 the State Board of Education and the School Board of the city 
 of Ypsilanti, whereby the schools of the city were to become 
 Schools of Observation, and to some extent, Schools of Practice 
 for the pupils of the Normal School. This plan proved unsatis- 
 factory and was abandoned after a comparatively brief trial. Of this 
 plan and of the probable results of any future attempts in the 
 same direction, Professor D. Putnam, at tliat time director of the 
 School of Practice and an earnest worker in behalf of the success 
 of the new arrangement, has since said (State Superintendent's 
 Report for 1881, p. 76) : "No such arrangement can be adopted 
 here with even the slightest reasonable anticipations of making it 
 profitable or satisfactory either to the city or to the Normal School. 
 The Practice School must be entirely undt-rthe same management 
 and control as the Normal. Any divided authority or interest 
 will be fatal to efficiency and usefulness." 
 
 This attempt to use the local public schools as Schools of Obser 
 vation and Practice connected with the Normal School, is worthy 
 of notice here, because from time to time the suggestion is renewed 
 by those who are probably unaware that the experiment ha 
 already proved unsuccessful under circumstances as favorable as 
 any are likely to exist at any future time. 
 
 The present School of Observation and Practice dates its begin- 
 ning in the year 1872 immediately after the abandonment of the 
 plan noted above. It is now a regularly graded school, comprising, 
 however, only the eight years of primary and grammar school 
 work. Its instructors are the students of the Normal School in 
 the last year of their course. These teach under the immediate 
 supervision of the director and his two assistant critic teachers. This 
 supervision is also, to a considerable extent, supplemented by that 
 of the teachers of several of the departments in the Normal 
 School. 
 
 As to the question whether Normal School graduates actually 
 engage in teaching and whether the Normal School act uallv affects 
 as it ought, the schools of this State, the tbllowing statistical 
 table collated in 1884, and published in Superintendent's Report 
 for 1884, p. 65, is instructive. The facts contained in it are valu- 
 able and make an excellent showing for the Michigan Normal 
 School. 
 
248 
 
 MICHIGAN 8 SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 STATISTICS OP TEACHING. 
 
 1. Number of graduates in the full courses from the State 
 
 Normal School from 1870 to 1880 inclusive 294 
 
 2. Number of those who are known to have engaged in 
 
 teaching 370 
 
 3. Number from whom no report has been obtained 10 
 
 4. Number known not to have engaged in teaching 14 
 
 5. Per cent, known to have engaged in teaching 92 
 
 a. Average length of time taught, on the basis of the whole 
 
 number of graduates 5 years 
 
 7. Average length of time taught, on the basis of the num- 
 
 ber engaged in leaching 5.5 years 
 
 8. Number of male graduates 126 
 
 9. Number of males known to have engaged in teaching. . 113 
 
 10. Number of males from whom no report has been ob- 
 
 tained 2 
 
 11. Number of males known not to have engaged in teaching 11 
 
 12. Per cent, of males known to have engaged in teaching.. 89 
 
 13. Average time taught, on the basis of the whole number 
 
 of male graduates 5 years 
 
 14. Average time taught, on the basis of the whole number 
 
 of male graduates who engaged in teaching 5.6 years 
 
 15. Number of female graduates 168 
 
 16. Number of females known to have engaged in teaching 157 
 
 17. Number of females from whom no report has been re- 
 
 ceived 8 
 
 18. Number of females known not to have engaged in 
 
 teaching 3 
 
 19. Per cent, of females known to have engaged in teaching 93 
 
 20. Average time taught, on the basis of the whoie number 
 
 of female graduates 5 years 
 
 21. Average time taught, on the basis of the number of fe- 
 
 male graduates who have engaged in teaching 5.4 years 
 
 22. Number of male graduates known to have died 8 
 
 23. Number of female graduates known to have died 4 
 
 24. Total time that could have been taught if all these 
 
 graduates had been teaching from the date of their 
 graduation to the present time ; i. e., if all had at 
 once gone to teaching, if none had died, stopped for 
 a season, or abandoned the profession 3,380 years 
 
 25. Males could have taught 1,246 
 
 20. Females could have taught 1,334 
 
 27. Time actually taught by these graduates 1,488 
 
 28. Time actually taught by male graduates 639 
 
 29. Time actually taught by female graduates 849 
 
 30. Per cent, of actuality to possibility on the basis of the 
 
 whole number of these graduates 62 
 
ADDRESS OF PKOF, J. M. B. SILL. 249 
 
 31. Per cent, of actuality to possibility ou the basis of male 
 
 graduates (31 
 
 33. Per cent, of actuality to possibility on the basis of female 
 
 graduates 63.6 
 
 33. Whole numlier of graduates in all courses from 1854 to 
 
 1884, inclusive 1,188 
 
 Professor Daniel Putnam, Acting Principal, furnishes the fol- 
 lowing of the increase in attendance in the Normal School proper 
 since 1870 : 
 
 Year. Attendance. Year. Attendance. Year. Attendance. 
 
 1870-1 331 1876-7 366 1883-3 398 
 
 1871-3 39G 1877-8 338 1883-4 475 
 
 1872-3 339 1878-9 393 1884-5 519 
 
 1873-4 364 1879-80 398 1885-6 628 
 
 1874-5 409 1880-1 318 
 
 1875-6 449 1881-3 330 
 
 These figures indicate the steadily increasing prosperity of the 
 school so far as numbers are concerned, the last year of its exist- 
 ence exhibiting a much larger attendance than any preceding 
 year. Other and more vital indications of genuine success and 
 usefulness are not wanting. Those who have watched with friendly 
 interest the progress of the Normal School through its career of a 
 third of a century, have seen a steady advance in good scholar- 
 ship, in a growing professional spirit without which a true Normal 
 School is impossible; more and more, as the years roll on, its 
 graduates are called to large resj)onsibilities in the educational 
 field. It has the earnest support of a great and influential body 
 of thoroughly loyal admirers who are watchful of its interests and 
 proud of its successes. All present indications point to a still 
 more prosperous future, full of help for the great work of universal 
 education in Michigan. 
 
ADDIIESSKS AT AGIirCULTUllAL HALL. 
 
 Hon. S. T. READ, Presiding. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, Pioneers of Michigan: It is 
 emiuently fitting that we, the people of one of the greatest States 
 of the Union, should come up to our beautiful capital, from every 
 town and hamlet within its borders, to celebrate the fiftieth anni- 
 versary of its birth. It is fitting to pause and look back through 
 all those years to the beginning of all this goodly heritage ; and 
 from the progress of the past gather lessons of value to guide us 
 in the development of that higher civilization for which we strive. 
 But it is particularly appropriate for us, old pioneers who came 
 to Michigan years before it was admitted as a State, when it was 
 still a trackless wilderness, with only here and there a trading- 
 post ; and who cleared the way and laid the foundations for this 
 great commonwealth, to gather here to-day, to note and rejoice 
 over all that the brain and muscle of Michigan's sons and daugh- 
 ters have wrought for their beloved State. No other American 
 State has made a more gratifying progress than that of Michigan. 
 With a population of but 31,000 in l-SoO, it now has about 2,000,- 
 000, and its increase in wealth has been commensurate with its 
 growth in numbers. The commercial position of our State, with its 
 1,400 miles of lake navigation along its shores, and a water commu- 
 nication with the Atlantic ocean, togetlier with its central position 
 on the American continent, giving it access to a vast internal 
 trade, is one possessing remarkable advantages, which our people 
 have not been slow in improving. In the variety, richness and 
 abundance of her natural resources, Michigan stands the peer of 
 any State in the Union, if not actually superior to all of them. 
 Her manufacturing industries are rapidly increasing. Our public 
 school system is the pride of the State ; while the little educa- 
 tional sprout that was planted at Aim Arbor forty years ago, and 
 which we have nurtured with so much care, has grown and flour- 
 ished, until its hospitable branches shelter not only youths from 
 everv part of our land, but from foreign lands as well. Our pub- 
 
ADDRESS OF .TO FIN TI. RISSKI.L. 251 
 
 lie buildiugs, churches, charities, reformatories and penal institu- 
 tions are a credit to the State; and, beyond all, we are free from 
 debt (i)ractica]ly). The future of our State is bright with prom- 
 ise. Possessing, as it does, almost inexhaustible natural resources, 
 it should be the homo of a contented and prosperous people for 
 ages to come. 
 
 FISH AND FISH CULTURE IN MICHIGAN. 
 
 .JOHN H. BISSELL. 
 
 The abundant natural supply offish in the waters of this State 
 has played so important a part in its settlement and development 
 that any history of the State, or its people, which omitted men- 
 tion of its fish or fisheries, would be incomplete. In the pres- 
 ent and near future the o|)erations of the State's establishments 
 for fish culture, are, and will be, useful and important factors in 
 the further development of the State, and assist in solving one at 
 least of the urgent economic probl'ems which must be met by 
 every community as its population increases, — that of cheap and 
 wholesome food supply. 
 
 We know something of the great (}uantities of fish that were 
 found in our waters by the early settlers, and those who came to 
 trade with the Indians before any permanent settlements existed 
 outside of the fur trading posts, from the accounts that have been 
 happily preserved for us in that charming field of history, the 
 discovery, explorations and settlement of " New France." The 
 great abundance of fish during those times is also evident from 
 the fact of their easy capture, in comparatively large quantities, 
 by the rudest of fishing appliances. The Indians of this region 
 lived very largely upon fish ; and so, too, did the fur traders. 
 Their highways were the lakes and rivers which served as well as 
 supplied larders, always at hand. Jacques Cartier says, in 1535, 
 the Indians on the St. Lawrence River "had in their houses ves- 
 sels as big as any butt or tun in which they preserved their fish." 
 From which it is evident the fish were captured not only for the 
 summer use, but to carry them through the winter. Other writers 
 of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have told us of the peri- 
 odical migration of Indian tribes, living in IJi)por Canada, to 
 convenient places on the lakes and rivers, to lay in stores offish for 
 
252 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 their winter use. La Hontan, a French officer who visited the 
 lakes in the year 1688, mentions a tribe of Indians "\yho procured 
 their subsistence mainly from the fish which abounded at the foot 
 of the rapids" of the Ste. Marie's River. Pere Marquette (1671), 
 La Salle (1679) and Charlevoix (1721) made frequent allusions 
 in their narratives, to the bountiful supply offish and its recog- 
 nized importance to themselves and to the natives. 
 
 The earliest notice I have found of the fish in Lake Erie is by 
 Baron La Hontan in 1688. La Hontan says : " It abounds with 
 sturgeon and white fish, but trouts are very scarce in it as well the 
 other fish that we take in the lakes of Huron and Illinese " (Michi- 
 gan). Down to the time of the organization of Michigan as a State, 
 all sources of information now attainable agree in the statement 
 that the fish were so plentiful the supply was deemed inexhaustible. 
 That was before the days of rapid and improved methods of trans- 
 portation, the absence of which necessarily restricted the market. 
 That was, also, before the introduction of modern fishing appli- 
 ances. Then the catching of fish was for home consumption 
 entirely, and of course with a thin and scattered population the 
 demand was a limited one, easily supplied from time to time. 
 The apparatus then used in fishing was limited in quantity, rude 
 in construction, and as compared with modern fishing rigs as the 
 boy's sail-boat to an iron steamship. From the earliest settle- 
 ments to about 1830, industrial fishing was almost exclusively 
 confined to the Indians and the employees of the Hudson's Bay, 
 American and Northwest Fur Companies ; the former organized in 
 1696, the latter in 1783. These companies were established for 
 prosecuting fur trade with the Indians, the first great incentive to 
 exploration and settlement of the upper lakes ; but, as that indus- 
 try became less profitable, they turned their attention to catching 
 and trafficking in fish. Blois' Gazetteer of Michigan, published in 
 1835, says of the fish product of the great lakes : " Their quan- 
 tities are surprising and apparently so inexhaustible as to war- 
 rant the belief that were a population of millions to inhabit the 
 lake shores, they would furnish ample supplies of this article of 
 food without sensible diminution.'' We may smile at such a 
 belief now with the experience of what fifty years of fishing have 
 done, but the statement probably embodied the general opinion 
 of the community of that day upon this subject. 
 
 Mr. Lauman in his history of Michigan published in 1839 says. 
 
ADDRESS OF JOIIN H. 15ISSELL. 253 
 
 that then the hikes abounded witli fish of various kinds, mention- 
 ing sturgeon, Mackinac trout, " nuiskallonge " and whitefish, the 
 latter only being important as an article of commerce. At that 
 time industrial fishing was mainly confined as to locality, to the 
 Detroit, St. Clair and Ste Marie rivers, the Straits of Mackinac, 
 the extreme southeastern end of Lake Superior and Saginaw Bay. 
 " Whitefish," he says, "were caught in large quantities around 
 Mackinac, Sault Ste. Marie and the other waters connecting the 
 great lakes. They are packed in barrels and transported to New 
 York and Ohio." 
 
 The Detroit river formerly maintained extensive and profitable 
 white fisheries. The fish were not only abundant but of a super- 
 ior quality. These fish, although sometimes called the Detroit 
 River whitefish, are really Lake Erie fish. They pass the 
 greater part of their lives in Lake Erie, feeding and living there, 
 and only moving uj) the river late in October, through Novem- 
 ber, and part of December, for fhe purpose of spawning along 
 the channel banks of the river. It must not be understood that 
 all the whitefisl) in Lake Erie make Detroit river their breeding 
 grounds, for vast uuml)ers of them found suitable sj)awning places 
 on the reefs, ledges and shoals about the islands at the western 
 end of the lake. As the whitefish possesses in common with all 
 the members of the salmon family to which it belongs, the 
 instinct to return and deposit its ova in the place of its own 
 nativity, it may not be inappropriate to designate such of the 
 Lake Erie fish as seek the river for the purpose of reproduction, 
 as the Detroit River whitefish, although no structural difference 
 distinguishes them from the other whitefish of the Lake. 
 
 As late as 18')6 and 1837, such statistics as we have, indicate 
 that the Detroit river yielded nearly one-half of the total num- 
 ber of pounds of fish caught in the Great Lakes for those years. 
 In 1859 the value of the catch in the river was put at $75,000, 
 all whitefish. In 18()7 Mr. George Clark, a man of great exper- 
 ience and an accurate observer, estimates the yield of the river at 
 500,000, averaging in weight three pounds. The Board of Trade 
 Review put the number of wiiitefish received at Detroit in 1803 
 at over 900,000. This would of course include nearly all of the 
 fish caught in Lake St. Clair besides those taken in Detroit river. 
 
 Mr. Lanman's "Red Book '' of 1H71, notices that the whitefish 
 are becoming scarce in all the rivers. The account says that "for- 
 
254 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 raerly as many as (5,000 fish have been taken at a single haul of a 
 seine. At present (1^71) 2,000 is considered a big haul." To 
 note and emphasize the difference, which has come about in these 
 fisheries in the past fourteen years, let me call your attention to 
 the fact, that one of the best fisheries of the river, in 1885, pro- 
 duced less than 2,000 whitefish for the entire season's fishing. 
 
 The River St. Clair has always produced great quantities offish, 
 the pike-perch or wall-eyed pike being the most abundant. In 
 1830, and for a number of years thereafter, immigration to the 
 shores of the Detroit and St. Clair rivers increased very rapidly. 
 The settlers found it difficult to obtain a supply of other food, and 
 from necessity were largely dependent upon the product of the 
 fisheries. The Rev. O. C. Thompson, in a paper read before the 
 Detroit Pioneer Society in 1828, says, " More and better fish were 
 taken from the St. Clair river than at any other fisheries, and the 
 fish were larger than those of the Detroit river," and they were 
 sold at $1.50 per hundred fish. The St. Clair fisheries have 
 passed into history, (as have most of those on the Detroit river), 
 excepting perhaps two or three points where the pike-perch or 
 pickerel, as they are locally named, are caught by seining, in 
 limited numbers. The present season, which closed last week, 
 has proved the poorest ever known. From the earliest times of 
 which we have any record, the Lake and River St. Clair have been 
 noted for the abundance and good quality of their fish, and even 
 now the St. Clair flats are famous for black bass fishing. 
 
 The first industrial fishing on Lake Huron was commenced in 
 1835, with small sail boats and gill nets. The principal product 
 was whitefish and salmon trout, which were salted and sold in 
 Detroit. 
 
 The great fur trade which centered at Mackinac, early brought 
 into prominence the fishing grounds of that locality. From its 
 great abundance there the lake or salmon trout was named the 
 " Mackinac Trout." Father Marquette mentions besides the white 
 fish, "sturgeon, herring and three vaiieties of lake trout," as 
 abounding in the waters of the straits, and fifty years later Char- 
 levoix was surprised by the number, and charmed by the qualities 
 of the whitefish of those waters. The experience of one fisher- 
 man will illustrate most strikingly the change which the use of 
 modern fishing apparatus lias wrought in these waters. 
 
 Mr. Noel La Ville informs us, that he began fishing at Macki- 
 
ADDRESS OF .lolIK II. BISSELL. 255 
 
 iiac ill 184-"! with 12 gill nets, and could then take more fish than 
 he can now witli 240 gill nets. The value of the Mackinac catch 
 has averaged about one-tenth of the total [)roduct of our waters 
 until iSTo, since which time its relative im[)ortance has steadily 
 declined, though not in a more marked degree than other points 
 once as prolific. 
 
 No figures representing the fishing products of Lake Michigan 
 are found earlier than 1859, at which time Mr. Strickland's" Old 
 Mackinac" places the catch at 30,500 barrels, valued at $270,000, 
 and the twine in use in the Michigan waters of the lake at G,(J70 
 gill nets, no steam vessels being then used there. 
 
 As late as 1871 Lanman's " Red Book" classes Beaver Islands, 
 Green Bay and other [joints on the east shore of Lake Michigan 
 as inferior in product to Mackinac, Detroit River and the west 
 shore of Lake Huron. A very striking change is reported in the 
 relative quantities of whitefish and herring in Green Bay on the 
 Menominee shore during the past ten years. In 1875 whitefish 
 comprised three-fourths of the catph, in 1885 the herring were 
 about seven-eighths of the total. 
 
 But little is known of the fishing industry of Lake Superior 
 prior to 1833. Blois' Gazetteer published that year reports " the 
 only productions of the Upper Peninsula which are a source of 
 profit, are the fish and furs, the latter is on a decline, but the 
 former gives evidence of an inexhaustible supply of the finest 
 tpiality." In J841 the American Fur Company took two schoon- 
 ers over the rapids of the Ste. Marie to use in fishing on Lake 
 Superior. 
 
 From the foregoing it appears that around our coast of two 
 thousand miles, at the time Michigan became a State, the waters 
 were teeming with fish in (juantities deemed inexhaustible by the 
 people of that generation. Fifty years have made as great a change 
 in those fisheries as has been manifested in some other industries, 
 but the change here has been an unfortunate one. As reliable 
 statistics as could be found of fishing product prior to 1875 are 
 given in a note to this paper ; a comparison of tiiem very briefly, 
 with a valuable re[)ort made by Mr. Lyman A. Brant, as statisti- 
 cal agent of the State Board of Fish Commissioners, on the fish- 
 ing season of 1885, will enable us to gather a lesson worth learning. 
 For example, take the east shore of Lake Michigan. It appears 
 that in 185'J this coast yielded 17,200 barrels of fish ; in 1885 
 
256 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 12,789 barrels ; iu 1859 the fishing was done with 5,350 gill nets 
 and 58 sail boats; in 1885 there were in use 11,074 gill nets, 107 
 pound nets, operated by 23 steam tugs and 91 sail boats. While 
 the capacity of t he apparatus was increased in efficiency more 
 than 200 per cent., the product fell off more than 35 per cent. 
 The earlier operations were conducted comparatively near the 
 shore, those of the last season, with improved sail boats and steam 
 tugs, 25 and 30 miles out into the open lake. With a coast line 
 the same in both cases the acreage of waters covered is probably 
 more than trebled. 
 
 Mr. Lanman's "Red Book" of 1871 estimates the total fish 
 product of the State as $1,000,000 per annum. The Michigan 
 Census Report in 1874 places the catch of 1873 as 114,669 barrels, 
 which at the prices ruling then would make the value of the pro- 
 duct something over 11,000,000. 
 
 The catch of 1885 was 26,381,875 pounds, or in barrels 109,923, 
 valued at first cost at $791,456, to gather which required over 
 1,800 men, 1,109 pound nets, 27,635 gill nets, 333 fykes and seines, 
 with 68 steam and 725 other boats, and an invested capital of 
 $1,200,000 (the estimated amount of capital invested in our fish- 
 eries in 1873, by the census return was $334,091). 
 
 The most complete investigation into the value and extent of 
 catch, capital invested, and other points connected with the fish- 
 eries, of which any record has been found, was that made under 
 the direction of the State Fishery Board in 1885; and it is desired 
 to make public acknowledgment of the intelligent and untiring 
 eflfbrts of the agent, Mr. Brant, for the valuable service to the 
 State. The common methods of fishing prior to 1830 were with 
 spear, hook and line ; dip nets, seines were used to some extent, 
 and at a few points upon the upper lakes gill nets were used as 
 early as 1781. The Indians of the upper lakes used gill nets 
 made from strips of elm bark. In McKenzie's Voyages is found 
 a good description of the stone and tioat gill nets, which corres- 
 pond exactly to many nets of that kind still in use at points on 
 the upper lakes. McKenzie's nets were sixty fathoms long by 
 fifteen meshes of five inches in depth. The gill nets now generally 
 used have a leaded line upon the bottom, with cork floats on the 
 upper line to which the net is fastened. 
 
 Pound nets were introduced into Lake Erie between the years 
 1840 and 1850, and were first used in the upper lakes, about the 
 
ADDHKSS OF .lOHX H. BISSKLl.. 257 
 
 Straits, in 1858 or 18")9. Their increased use can be judged from 
 the number reported in 1885, being 1,109. 
 
 A glance at the reported product after the introduction of pound 
 net fishing, shows phiinly the effect they have had upon the fish- 
 eries. In 1859, the year of their introduction, the product 
 increased sixty-nine per cent, over the average preceding five 
 years. In 18(50, when they came into more general use, an 
 increase of 244 per cent, over the average of the preceding six 
 years was shown, and about 127 per cent, over that of 1S59. The 
 years 1861 and 1862 show a marked decrease from the yield of 
 the two precedinii^ years. Unfortunately we have no reliable 
 figures at hand or to be obtained which would bring the compari- 
 son further down by years consecutively, but we have the general 
 results of 1885, which show conclusively that with the increase of 
 net and area of waters fished, the product has not risen in any- 
 thing like due proportion, but on the contrary exhibits a large 
 ratio of decrease. No waters can long withstand the indiscrimi- 
 nate use of this kind of net. 
 
 The area of land comprised in the' State of Michigan is 56,457 
 square miles. The superficial area of water within the territorial 
 limit of Michigan, over which the State has complete executive, 
 legislative and judicial jurisdiction, is not far from 88,000 square 
 miles. Our coast line, including bays and islands, is 2,000 miles 
 in length. The value in money of the fishing product of these 
 waters in 1885 was about 8800,000. The product of the same 
 fisheries with the same efficiency of apparatus a> in 1885, if the 
 quantities of fish available had been equal to what we have seen 
 they were at any time previous to 18 )9, could not have been less 
 than twelve or fifteen millions of dollars. 
 
 The varieties of fish indigenous to our waters in the onhn* of 
 their commercial value are: Whitefish, lake trout, pickerel, 
 herring, sturgeon, perch, bass, pike, catfish and suckers. The 
 literature of this subject is so complete in these days, when every 
 State in the Union is publishing fishery reports, besides the 
 numerous exhaustive treaties published by the United States gov- 
 ernment through its fish commission, that any description of the 
 characteristics, qualities and habits of these well-known varieties 
 would be an unpardonable repetition of what is generally known. 
 I therefore pass to fish-culture, as it has been, and is, in Mich- 
 17 
 
258 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 igan, and as my experience and judgment teach me it ought to 
 be in this great State in the near future. 
 
 The earliest effort to rear whitetish by artificial methods was 
 made in 1857 by some gentlemen in Connecticut ; but it failed, 
 as most first experiments do. 
 
 The first experiments in Michigan were undertaken by Mr. N. 
 W. Clark, at Clarkston, Oakland county, in 1869, and were 
 attended with enough success to induce him to repeat them the 
 following year. The eggs were procured from the fishery of Mr. 
 George Clark, opposite Ecorse, Detroit river, and the result was 
 better than in 1869. In 1871, having improved his quarters and 
 learned that in temperature of water he must come as near as 
 practicable to natural conditions, he impregnated about one-half 
 a million of eggs, and hatched, in a healthy condition, about 
 fifty per cent. In 1872 the number of eggs taken was one million, 
 of which nearly one-quarter million were successfully shipped to 
 California, in a partly developed state, for hatching and planting 
 there, by the Uuitad States Fish Commission. These experiments 
 were made with the apparatus then commonly used in hatching 
 trout, consisting of a series of shallow trays having wire screen 
 bottoms, upon which the eggs were spread, placed in a long 
 trough, through which the water flows with a gentle current. 
 Cotemporaneous experiments were being prosecuted in Canada 
 and New York, which somewhat aided in the general results. In 
 1872, Mr. Holtou, an assistant of Mr. Seth Green, in New York, 
 devised a great improvement in hatching apparatus, which per- 
 mitted the handling of a much larger quantity of eggs. It con- 
 sisted of a deep box in which the trays were placed on each 
 other, the water being introduced from the bottom, and circulating 
 upwards through the wire bottoms of the trays. Shortly after 
 that, Mr. N. W. Clark invented a hatching apparatus in which 
 the water was taken from the top and run down through the 
 trays, and was allowed to escape into the next box and repeat the 
 same operation. 
 
 In 1870 some leading fishermen of Detroit had erected tempor- 
 ary troughs which they supplied with ova, but it was readily seen 
 that the work must be undertaken for the supply of the great 
 lakes, if at all, by the State government, and efibrts to that end 
 were accordingly made, but without success. This effort to induce 
 the State to engage in fish culture, was the best demonstration 
 
ADDKES8 OF jou:n h. bisskll. 259 
 
 tliat could be made that the fisheries were decliniug, and resort 
 to artificial aid was required to pieserve the stock of" fish. Mr. 
 J. P. Clark, Mr. George Clark, Mr. A. M. Campau and Mr. 
 James Craig of Detroit were the promoters of this effort. The 
 success attendiug the whitefish experiments interested a number 
 of observing men, who took the time to urge the subject of fish 
 culture as a branch of public business upon the attention of the 
 Legislature, with the result that in 1873 an act was passed con- 
 stituting a State Board of Fish Commissioners. While this step 
 was urged b) many intelligent citizens, the influence of Gov. Bag- 
 ley was probably more potent than that of any other, and by the 
 act the Governor was made one of the Commissioners. Besides 
 the Governor the first Board consisted of Mr. George Clark of 
 Wayne, and Mr. A. J. Kellogg, then of Allegan County. Mr. 
 George H. Jerome of Niles, who had at first been apjiointed a 
 Commissioner, resigned and accepted the position of Superintend- 
 ent of Fisheries, and vigorously inaugurated the work which has 
 since made Michigan somewhat conspicuous as a leader in this 
 department. 
 
 During the winter of 1873-4, before the State had established 
 its hatching stations, one million and a half of whitefish ova were 
 hatched for the State by Mr. N. W. Clark at Clurkston, and the 
 following year about two millions were hatchrd in the same way. 
 During these first years of the Commissioner's work, by the courtesy 
 of the U. S. Fish Commission, Michigan received considerable 
 allotments of ova of the Atlantic and California salmon, and of 
 the fresh water salmon of Maine, all of which were hatched at the 
 State hatchery then established at Pokagon in Cass county. 
 These fish were planted in many brooks and rivers, and some 
 lakes. 
 
 True to their instincts, they left the streams, dropping down 
 into Lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie, and not much trace of 
 them has since been found. A few have been caught at difi*ei-eut 
 times for some years, and even last season two or three were 
 reported by fishermen. We do not regard it as conclusively 
 proved that the x\.tlantic salmon cannot be established in the 
 great lakes above Niagara Falls. What we do know is that the 
 experiment was made with so few fish for the size of the waters, 
 that it would only be surprising if it proved anything, which it 
 does not. The Schoodic salmon, on the other hand, in the case 
 
260 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 of one lake in Kalkaska county, have made a marvelous growth, 
 from which those competent to form an opinion are confident of 
 the ultimate establishment of this fish in some of our large north- 
 ern interior lakes, as well as in the waters of the Straits and Lake 
 Superior. 
 
 In 1875 the whitefish work was started in Detroit under the 
 immediate supervision of Mr. Oren M. Chase. Nearly ten rail- 
 lions of eggs were laid in that fall for hatching by the Holton Box 
 method. The work of that and the three succeeding years is 
 important, principally, for the experience it furnished Mr. Chase, 
 leading as such experience did, to the most valuable improve- 
 ment which has yet been discovered in hatching whitefish eggs, 
 or other fish eggs of similar specific gravity and habit. The older 
 methods were expensive and cumbersome when applied to exten- 
 sive operations. They were all, however, successive steps of pro- 
 gress. 
 
 The invention of Mr. Chase was a glass jar with a capacity of 
 from one to one and a half gallons, into which the water was 
 introduced through a glass tube, bell-shaped at the bottom, rest- 
 ing on small knobs or feet, which permitted the water to escape 
 upwards, through the jar on all sides, to be discharged over a 
 metal spout. This upward current of the w'ater gives a gradual 
 but constant motion to the eggs, which is necessary to prevent 
 adhesion, and is more natural than nature. The flow of water 
 separates the bad from the good eggs, and does away with con- 
 stant manipulation, which is expensive and inconvenient, and 
 makes it possible to handle a large number of eggs in a small 
 space, the water doing the greater part of the work. The Chase 
 Automatic Jar makes it possible to produce at a very reasonable 
 cost, enough young fry to restock the depleted fisheries of the Great 
 Lakes. The average capacity of the glass jars used in the white 
 fish oj)erations at Detroit and Petosky, is 134,000 eggs. The 
 present whitefish operations are conducted at Petoskey with 208 
 jars, and at Detroit 312 jars, giving a total capacity of 09,080,000 
 eggs each season, which exceeds the amount of any of the other 
 States, and is only exceeded by the General Government fishery 
 work. The average loss on the first count is from 10 to 15 per 
 cent. 
 
 The most popular department of fish culture is the rearing of 
 brook trout, because its results are more quickly seen, Ah-eady 
 
ADDRESS Op' .lOlIN II. l!lSSi:i.I.. . 'HM 
 
 in many counties in the northern, central, and western parts of 
 the lower peninsula good trout fishing is found, in streams where 
 this fish was unknown before it was planted by the State. The 
 trout work was conducted at Pokagon until 1880, when that 
 property was given up and a location made at Paris, Green town- 
 ship, Mecosta county, where the State has ac(iuired title to 119 
 acres of laud, for the purpose of controlling suitable streams. 
 Here extensive ponds have been and are being constructed, for 
 the purpose of holding stock fish for breeding, and the streams 
 utilized as wild nurseries. The station at Paris is within a quarter 
 of a mile of the depot of the Grand Rapids & Indiana railroad, 
 convenient shipping fticilities being important for the extensive 
 work done there. 
 
 An abundance of brook trout serves two desirable purposes for 
 the people, in furnishing them nutritions food to vary the mon- 
 otony of form fare, as well as giving an opportunity for healthful 
 sport ; and, secondly, in attracting visitors to the localities for 
 fishing, whose expenditures of money help the business of the 
 community. 
 
 The present State fishery establishment consists of a Board of 
 three commissioners appointed by the Governor and a force of 
 about nine men regularly employed, the Commission having an 
 oflSce in Detroit, with a Secretary whose entire time is devoted to 
 the work of the Commission. The stations are at Detroit, where 
 the culture of whitefish and pickerel is conducted. This house 
 has a capacity of 42,000,000 of whitefish. Its capacity for pick- 
 erel work is greater than the number of eggs obtainable has ever 
 permitted, the largest take of pickerel eggs having been 28, 000,- 
 000; at Paris, Mecosta county, where all kinds of trout work is 
 carried on, including experiments with the grayling, Thia sta- 
 tion has a capacity for handling 1, -500,000 brook trout, 800,000 
 lake trout, and all the land-locked salmon and grayling that can 
 be procured ; at Petoskey for whitefish with a i)resent capacity 
 of 26,000,000 ; at Glenwood, Cass county, where there is located 
 a station for the cultivation of German carp, which station has a 
 capacity fully equal to any demands the State may make upon it. 
 Extensions of this work, which are contemplated by the Commis- 
 sion as necessary, will be made as soon as funds are provided, 
 enabling the Commission to engage in the propagation of muskal- 
 longe and black bass, for the rearing of which Michigan has most 
 
262 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 suitable waters. The time is near at hand when we shall be 
 called upon to save the sturgeon fishing of the great lakes, the stur- 
 geon bringing a higher average price in the market to-day, than 
 the whitefish or trout. 
 
 What is the significance of these facts ? Ten times the space 
 might easily have been filled without exhausting the authorities or 
 facts. Such facts and their meaning, as one charged with a meas- 
 ure of responsibility in the supervision of the State fisheries, I 
 deem it my duty to lay before this audience. Even the briefest 
 historical notice of the fisheries leads inevitably to one conclusion, 
 and forces upon us the urgent inquiry, can our fisheries now be 
 saved, or is their ruin inevitable? While we have not yet learned 
 all there is to know about the culture of fish and the artificial pro- 
 pagation of them, enough is known, scientifically and experiment- 
 ally, to place the practical art of fish-culture beyond the domain 
 of mere curious research, and its results are already sufficiently 
 demonstrated to enable us to answer without hesitation, that if 
 given sufficient support by the State government, we shall find 
 a reasonable and sufficeutly affirmative answer to the inquiry above 
 suggested. 
 
 When I speak of fish-culture as furnishing the sufficient remedy 
 for the evils already pointed out, I mean to include in the term 
 not only the artifical propagation of fish, but also the protection 
 of them by reasonable, municipal regulation until they are mar- 
 ketable ; and in the combination of these two things we have the 
 complete definition of fish-culture as a practical art. The demon- 
 stration of what fish-culture can do for the State, is not generally 
 understood. There are sufficient reasons why it has not yet been 
 able to make a complete demonstration of what it can ultimately 
 do, by accomplishing all the results that some of its enthusiastic 
 friends have looked for. To satisfy any reasonable man that fish- 
 culture can again restore our fisheries and fill the great lakes with 
 marketable fish, it is not necessary that that fact should be actually 
 done. If it is possible to restore the fisheries at two or three aver- 
 age places, there is no reason to doubt tiiat when carried on upon 
 a sufficient scale, it will be able to work the same beneficial results, 
 at least for all waters similarly situated. In the sense that a com- 
 plete demonstration can only be ma<le by accomplishing the whole 
 result sought, fish-culture has not yet had a fair chance. 
 
 1. It has not been conducted upon an adequate scale. Where 
 
ADDRKSS OF JOHN H. BISSELL. 268 
 
 we are now hatchiug about 50,000,000 of whitcfish per year, we 
 need to hatch from six to eight times that number to restore the 
 wasted grounds, as well as to replenish and keep good the stock in 
 those waters that are not yet productive. 
 
 Again, artificial propagation has not had a fair chance in point 
 of time. It is only within the first three years of the second de- 
 cade of its existence, say from 1882 or 1883, that the practical 
 operations offish-culture have been anything more than the mer- 
 est experiments. It is only within that time that the State has 
 hatched and planted over 15,000,000 of whitefish in any one 
 year. The same period will also cover the most extensive opera- 
 tions of the United States Fish Commission in that direction. 
 The force of this will be readily appreciated when it is under- 
 stood that from our present knowledge we have no right to expect 
 important results from these plants before the expiration of four, 
 proiiably five, and possibly six years from the time they were 
 made. Operations during the first decade were, as I have said, 
 but ex[)eriments, and they were successful beyond anything we 
 could in reason expect. The only places where they were not 
 entirely successful, were in some of the inland lakes, where with 
 our present knowledge of the habits and needs of whitefish, those 
 fish would not now be planted. But there are without doubt quite 
 a large number of interior lakes where whitefish can be grown 
 successfully and in large quantities. It must be remembered in 
 jinlging of the results of fish-culture, that the ruin caused by 
 wasteful and unconscionable methods of fishing, the results of 
 which fish-culture is called upon to repair, has been going on for 
 thirty or forty years; and it is always more difficult to cure than 
 to prevent disease, whether physical, political or economical. 
 
 Again, fish-culture has not had a fair chance, because we have 
 lacked proper municipal regulations of the methods of fishing. 
 It is not enough that we should be able to put into the waters of 
 the lakes each year enough young fish to take the place of the 
 adults captured and marketed. The fish must be protected until 
 they come to mature or marketable age, otherwise our work will 
 be lost. Artificial propagation alone cannot accomplish the result. 
 Neither can legal regulations do it alone, within a period that 
 will avail anything for one generation, and possibly not even 
 then. The two things are nuitually dependent conditions. They 
 must concur to assure valuable and lasting success. 
 
264 
 
 MICHIGAN S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 There is not time here to review the arguments or state in 
 detail what regulation is needed, but only to suggest that the 
 destruction of immature fish must be prevented, and discretionary 
 authority given to fishery oflBcers to prohibit fishing at times and 
 in places where unmarketable fish will be destroyed and some 
 equitable system of license as incidental to municipal regulation, 
 which will furnish the means to pay the necessary cost, not only 
 of regulation, but ultimately of artificial propagation. 
 
 An important condition, which cannot be provided for by stat- 
 ute law, is the spread of reliable information regarding the pur- 
 poses and operations of the State's fishery department among the 
 people of the State, which will create a healthy public opinion in 
 support of the laws, and their strict and just enforcement. The 
 practical art of fish-culture, carried on under the conditions above 
 indicated, can make the barren waters of this State productive 
 again, arrest the depletion of fisheries now valuable, and cultivate 
 to its natural capacity of productiveness, for the benefit of the 
 State, this great public domain. The waters are here and cannot 
 be alienated. Shall not the State cultivate them? 
 
 SCHEDULE 1. 
 
 PISHING STATISTICS FOR THE YEAR 1800. — FROM CENSUS REPORTS. 
 
 Capital. 
 
 Bay $ 15,000 
 
 Berrien 6,200 
 
 Chippewa 9,000 
 
 Delta 5,700 
 
 G'd Traverse. ... 200 
 
 Huron 9,800 
 
 Leelanaw.. . . 4,050 
 
 Mackinaw 47,000 
 
 Manistee .. 1,000 
 
 Manitou 7,000 
 
 Bbls. 
 
 Value. 
 
 6,000 
 
 $ 48,000 
 
 3..375 
 
 25,500 
 
 3,200 
 
 19,600 
 
 2,509 
 
 15,368 
 
 8ti 
 
 688 
 
 4,200 
 
 30,690 
 
 l,32ti 
 
 10,608 
 
 7,843 
 
 103,938 
 
 793 
 
 6,.344 
 
 6,000 
 
 42,000 
 
 Capital. Bbls. Valueo 
 
 Marquette $ 1,000 620 $ 3,66 
 
 Mason 4,100 1,130 7,60 
 
 Oceana 2,200 950 6,65 
 
 Ontonagon 2,100 1,000 6,000 
 
 Ottawa 8,000 5,800 34,600 
 
 St. Clair 725 8.50 .5,090 
 
 Wayne 54,700 3,375 29,300 
 
 $178,375 59.057 $395,6.36 
 
 SCHEDULE 2. 
 
 STATISTICS FOR THE YEAR 1863, BY COUNTIES. 
 
 Bbls. Capital. 
 
 Alpena 2,000 $ 8,000 
 
 Bay 792 1,7.50 
 
 Berrien 1,7.50 .3,000 
 
 Cheboygan 1,200 1,200 
 
 Chippewa 1,216 4,095 
 
 Delta 130 400 
 
 Emmet 203 995 
 
 Houghton 347 725 
 
 Huron 700 3,000 
 
 Iosco 6,000 8.0(K) 
 
 Keweenaw .50 200 
 
 Leelanaw 390 860 
 
 Mackinaw 9,000 60,000 
 
 Manistee 237 .500 
 
 Mason 825 1,200 
 
 Menominee 1,002 
 
 Monroe 2,050 
 
 Muskegon 1,000 
 
 Oceana 100 
 
 Ontonagon 85 
 
 Ottawa 1,483 
 
 Sanilac 2,045 
 
 Shiawassee 46 
 
 St. Clair .575 
 
 Tuscola 100 
 
 Van Buren 1.50 
 
 Wayne 3,822 
 
 Unorganized Counties... 2,600 
 
 Bbls. Capital. 
 
 $ 
 
 5,000 
 4,180 
 1,200 
 200 
 300 
 4,675 
 3,600 
 
 800 
 
 800 
 
 600 
 
 21,649 
 
 8,500 
 
 *39,488 $145,429 
 
 *It will be noticed that some of the most important counties in the State for flsh 
 product (St. Joseph, Saginaw and Grand Traverse) made no returns for this year. 
 
ADDKESS OF JOHN 0. lilSSELL. 
 
 205 
 
 SCHEDULE 3. 
 
 STATISTICS KOH YEAK ENDING JUNE 1st. 187U, BY COUNTIES. 
 
 Value Bbls. 
 
 Mackinaw 103,tini 10,172 
 
 Manistee 4,500 892 
 
 Mason 5,544 59.3 
 
 Menominee 34,771 3,575 
 
 3Ionroe 30,490 1,790 
 
 Mii.sl<eson 3,950 375 
 
 Oceana 2.000 200 
 
 Ontonagon 5,840 
 
 Ottawa 36,990 8,100 
 
 Sanilac 28,250 3,425 
 
 St. Clair 4,240 655 
 
 Van Buren 6,550 675 
 
 Wayue 14.106 400 
 
 8569,623 58,854 
 
 Value Bbls. 
 
 Alcona S3,t!TO 440 
 
 Allegan 1,401 143 
 
 Alpena 37,700 3,800 
 
 Antrim 3,080 501 
 
 Bay 9,850 1,015 
 
 Benzie 1,200 120 
 
 Berrien 37,750 
 
 Chebo vgan 13.450 1 ,575 
 
 Chippewa 18,(i(;3 2,.^)60 
 
 Delta 15,399 1,711 
 
 Emmet 23,000 2,899 
 
 Grand Traverse 700 
 
 Houghton 13,4ii0 1,6.50 
 
 Huron 15,905 2,128 
 
 Iosco 92,800 9,300 
 
 Leelanaw .... 800 100 
 
 Berrien, Grand Tni verse and Ontoiiai^ou counties made no returns. 
 Number of fisheries reporting, 24;j, 
 Men employed, 961. 
 
 SCHEDULE 4. 
 
 The earliest statistics of" the commercial value of the fisheries 
 which have been obtaiiuul are from Blois' Gazetteer of Michigan 
 (1888), and do not include returns from the Upper Peninsula : 
 
 Uhls. Per bbl. 
 
 1M80 8,0U0 I 5 00 
 
 1S;56 11,400 10 13 
 
 1^!37 1:5, oOO 9 32 
 
 These fish were taken on the Detroit, St. Clair and .St. 
 Mary rivers, the Straits of Mackinaw, the southeastern part of 
 Lake Superior and Saginaw Bay. Tlie varieties are given for 
 two years only, as follows : 
 
 White and Trout. 
 
 183(5 8,300 
 
 1837 9,500 
 
 Tiie whitefish and trout are given together in the statistics. Of 
 the whitefish, 4,000 bbls. in 1836 and 2,500 bbls. in 1837, were 
 taken in the Detroit river. The trout were caught with hooks 
 principally, the other kinds with seines and gill nets. The pick- 
 erel were mainly from Saginaw Ray and St. Clair river (pp. 
 56-7). 
 
 Population of Michigan in 1830, 28,000; 1 836, about 60,000. 
 
 Pickerel. 
 
 Herring. 
 
 2,500 
 
 600 
 
 3,400 
 
 600 
 
266 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 SCHEDULE 5. 
 
 Roberts, in sketches of Detroit, estimates that 18,600 bbls. 
 were shipped from there in 1854 (p. 19) ; that 35,000 bbls. were 
 packed in the State in 1840, and 100,000 bbls. of all kinds in 
 1854 (pp. 21-2). 
 
 Strickland's Old Mackinaw gives the following as the catch of 
 the points named for the year 1859: 
 
 Bbls. Value. 
 
 Port Huron to Point Au Barques (mostly white) 3,000 $ 25,(X)0 
 
 Au Sable (% white, U trout) 6,000 50,000 
 
 Thunder Bay and vicinity ( mostly white) 6,000 50,000 
 
 Saginaw Bay and River j Pi^i^^and white;.; : ; ; ; : ; ! ' '. '. '. \ \ ; ; ; ! ; ; ; ; i:500 32,000 
 
 Tawas (mostly white) 600 5,000 
 
 Thunder Bay to Mackinaw (mostly white) 500 4,500 
 
 Mackinaw (trout 1,875, white 5,625) 7,500 62,000 
 
 Beaver Island group ( nearly all white) 7,000 59,000 
 
 Green Bay in Michigan (white) 3,000 25.500 
 
 Between Detour and Sault (% white) 1,000 8,000 
 
 Little Traverse region 600 4.000 
 
 Ludington 1.500 12,000 
 
 Pentwater 2,000 16,500 
 
 Montague and Whitehall 1,500 12,000 
 
 Grand Haven 4,000 32.800 
 
 Saugatuck 2,000 16,000 
 
 South Haven 2,100 16,800 
 
 St. Joseph 3,500 28,000 
 
 New Buffalo 300 3,(i00 
 
 Michigan City (Michigan fish) 3,000 30,000 
 
 58,600 $492,100 
 
 The number of bbls. caught in Lake Erie, including Maumee Bay, Detroit and 
 St. Clair rivers and Lake St. Clair is not given, but its value is 106,000 
 
 §598,100 
 
 The total value of the catch is given at !|6'20,000, out of 
 000 for the entire chain of the great lakes, which would make 
 au estimated value of $21,900 for those of Lake Superior points 
 not mentioned. Prices averaged $S per bbl. of 200 lbs., except 
 in the vicinity of the Detroit and Chicago markets, where they 
 were about 12 better. Whitefish brought about II more than 
 ti'out or pickerel. Herring do not appear to have had any com- 
 mercial valne. 
 
 The total capital invested in fisheries at points named above is 
 given at $252,000. 
 
 The statistics for the year of 1859 only give number of gill nets 
 and boats in use on east shore of Lake Michigan, as follows : 
 
 Nets. Boats. 
 
 Little Traverse. . . 300 6 
 
 Ludiniiton 600 8 
 
 Pentwuler 750 10 
 
 Whitehall 500 5 
 
 Grand Haven.... 800 8 
 
 Nets. Boats. 
 
 Sau-ratuck (500 (5 
 
 South Haven (iOO (i 
 
 St. Joseph 1,200 9 
 
 5,350 58 
 
ADDRESS or JOHN II. I5ISSRLL. 
 
 267 
 
 The same places on the east shore of Lake Michigan had in 
 service in 1885 the following rigs: 
 
 Gill Nets. Pound Nets. Steam Tugs. Fish Boats. 
 
 Little Traverse region... 1,010 
 
 Liidington 494 
 
 Pentwater VUl 
 
 Whitehall 44.-) 
 
 Grand Haven 1,906 
 
 Saugatuck 1,017 
 
 South Haven 77'* 
 
 St. Joseph 2,814 
 
 Grand Traverse region . . 2,483 
 
 11.074 
 
 33 
 
 2 
 
 31 
 
 4 
 
 
 9 
 
 19 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 20 
 
 12 
 
 ') 
 
 9 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 13 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 25 
 
 2 
 
 53 
 
 132 
 
 25 
 
 144 
 
 The (iraml Traverse region includes Traverse Bay, Frankfort 
 and points on the Lake Shore soutli to Manistee, for which no 
 returns were iriven in 1859. 
 
 SCHEDULE 6. 
 The catch for the points named in 1855, was; 
 
 Fkom Whom Bought. 
 
 Little Traverse region.. 
 
 Ludington 
 
 Pentwater. . . 
 
 Whitehall 
 
 Grand Haven 
 
 Saugatuck 
 
 South Haven 
 
 St. Joseph 
 
 Grand Traverse Region. 
 
 1 Whitefisli 
 Pounds. 
 
 198,4.57 
 41,621 
 .52.347 
 15,386 
 83,288 
 
 146,237 
 1.3,500 
 
 28.5,818 
 
 836,654 
 .594,968 
 
 Lake 
 
 Trout, 
 
 pounds. 
 
 Herring, 
 pounds. 
 
 Other 
 kinds, 
 pounds. 
 
 1.50,.539 
 
 17,230 
 
 23,189 
 
 8,087 
 
 109.655 
 
 52,750 
 
 9,000 
 
 321,993 
 
 693,443 
 347,443 
 
 31,995 
 
 7,937 
 
 130,4.36 
 
 100 
 
 '5,660 
 
 178,408 
 3,900 
 
 28,378 
 500 
 68,2.58 
 80,438 
 104,993 
 116,000 
 1,000 
 103,M9 
 
 50.3,116 
 12,781 
 
 515,897 
 
 1,431,632 
 
 1 
 
 939,885 
 
 183,308 
 
 ■rntal Equiva- 
 
 i,„,^ l<?nt in 
 pounds, j^i^, 
 
 409,.369 
 58.851 
 146.744 
 lll,8;i8 
 428,373 
 31.5,087 
 23,500 
 716,359 
 
 2,210.120 
 859.092 
 
 3,069,112 
 
 1,706 
 ^5 
 611 
 466 
 
 1,785 
 
 1,313 
 98 
 
 2,985 
 
 9,209 
 3,580 
 
 12,879 
 
 The above table is made up from tlie returns actually made to 
 the Michigan Fish CJommission, and while probably falling some 
 below the actual catch, is undoubtedly the fullest ever yet gath- 
 ered. The returns for 1859 were in barrels of 200 pounds, while 
 the returns for this year were in pounds, as the fish were sold 
 fresh. For the purpose of comparison the number of pounds 
 has been reduced to barrels, allowing 20 per cent, for shrinkage 
 and offal, which is probably less than the actual loss. The calcu- 
 lation is based on 240 i)ounds of fresh fish with entrails only 
 removed for 200 pounds of salt fish. 
 
268 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 SCHEDULE 7. 
 
 The following figures are given in the Michigan Census Report 
 for 1874 as the catch for 1873 : 
 
 Bbls. 
 
 Lake Erie and Detroit River. 12,110 
 
 St. Clair Lake and River 1,217 
 
 Sanilac and Huron Co. 's (Huron Peninsula) 1,900 
 
 Saginaw Bay and River 12,370 
 
 Saginaw Bay to Cheboygan 25,170 
 
 Mackinaw 10,114 
 
 East Shore of Lake Michigan 27,052 
 
 Green Bay 9,961 
 
 North Shore of Lake Michigan to Detour 8,834 
 
 Sault Ste. Marie 5,683 
 
 Balance of Lake Superior 258 
 
 114,669 
 
 About 28,000,000 pounds as at present sold fresh, estimating 
 200 pounds per barrel and a shrinkage of twenty per cent, between 
 salt and fresh fish. 
 
 The amount of capital invested was given at $o34,091, but 
 nothing said of number or kind of nets or boats. 
 
 The shipments of fish from Alpena in 1874 were 3,749 pack- 
 ages of salt and 1440 tons fresh. A fleet of 200 fish boats was 
 engaged in and about the straits, including the Beaver Island 
 group. Each boat had from 50 to 10 ) gill nets, and they aver- 
 aged about 200 pounds per boat per day. The lake fisheries 
 were then declared to be second only to the cod fisheries of the 
 Atlantic coast. 
 
 (Vol. 6, Pioneer Reports, p. 188.) 
 
 J. A. Leggett, Mayor of Grand Haven, reported that there 
 were in the business at that place in 1875 five tugs and eight sail 
 boats. The total product for that year was 1,185,000 lbs. at 4c, 
 and 10,000 gallons of oil at 55c per gallon. Number of men 
 employed, 114. The product of Saginaw bay and river for the 
 same year was 22,000 bbls. (McCracken's Statistics of Michigan, 
 pp. 75-6.) 
 
 Prices for salt whitefish for the years named averaged as fol- 
 lows at Detroit. 
 
ADDRKSS OF .lOHN H. I5ISSKLL. 269 
 
 185fi $9 m 1859 $7 44* 1864 $15 :W 
 
 1857 9 86i 18G0 7 9(5 1807 11 00 
 
 1858 7 aU 186- 6 <^5 18G8 14 75 
 
 (From Haddock's Board of Trade Reports.) 
 
 SCHEDULE 8. 
 The catch for 1885 actually returned to the Fish Commission, 
 bv 432 firms, employing 1,789 men, was as follows : 
 
 •' Lbs. 
 
 Whitetisb 7.455,459 
 
 Trout 4,881,273 
 
 Herring 4,033,13.'> 
 
 Bass =^5'«19 
 
 Other kiuds 4,81o,783 
 
 21,821,469 
 Reported, but not classified 1,854,000 
 
 23,675,469 
 Approximate catch of fisliermcn not reporting. . 2,706,40() 
 
 26,381,875 
 Or 13,190 tons, vahie at 3 cents per lb $791,456 25 
 
 The following nets were in use: 
 
 Reporting. Not Reporting. 
 105 
 
 Pound nets l.*^<^4 
 
 Gill nets 24,835 2.800 
 
 59 4 
 
 220 
 
 Seines 
 
 Fykes 
 
 Fathoms. Feet. utiles. 
 
 The gill nets measured 1,588,852 9,533,112 1,8054 
 
 The pound nets measured 177,440 1,064,640 201s 
 
 The seines mea-MU-ed 4,909 oi 
 
 CAPITAL INVESTED. 
 This table is the best approximation that can be made, and is 
 probably within the actual amount; it is based upon the observa- 
 tion of the agent, and not on reports of owners. 
 
 Value of nets * 'i^^'^'I."^^ 
 
 Value of boats '^l.^.'^'^l 
 
 Value of docks and buildmgs 2o6,392 
 
 Value of other apparatus ^^■^^^^' 
 
 $1,133,970 
 
 This includes no lands for fishing coast or grounds. 
 
270 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 CORRECTIONS AND CHARITIES. 
 
 Hon. LEVI L. BARBOUR. 
 
 The subject of crime and its punishment leads us away back to 
 the days of Cain, and so is coeval with the history of mankind ; 
 and good Samarilanism also has grown up with the development 
 of the human race; but the subject of "Corrections and Chari- 
 ties," thus formulated, is of comparatively recent date. 
 
 It is a growth of ideas and systems aiming to counteract the 
 growth of pauperism, crime, insanity, and to alleviate suffering 
 and ennoble the race. It is the organization of the efforts made 
 within the last few years at child-saving, prison-reform, the pro- 
 tection and training of the feeble-minded, the supervision of the 
 administration of charitable and penal institutions and the cor- 
 rection of abuses found in connection with them; and other 
 kindred objects. 
 
 While its province is to urge morality, for that tends to due 
 observance of the law, it ignores sects and religious doctrines, 
 because honest and intelligent men differ so widely respecting 
 them ; and, because there are so many zealous and law-abiding 
 citizens anxious and striving for the development of the human 
 race into a sphere of thought and action higher than that which 
 now characterizes it, who would turn their backs upon the work 
 were it to be done only upon condition that they should seem to 
 subscribe to religious opinions which they cannot honestly hold. 
 
 The material and continued progress of society in correctional 
 and charitable matters demands a sympathy of hearts and a union 
 of hands — rather than sectarian discussions, which more often 
 result in dissensions and discouragement, than in the attainment 
 of any desirable object. That these matters must be kept inde- 
 pendent of political control or influence, is too evident to any 
 broad-thinking man to require more than the statement. They 
 must also be treated as purely matters of business, and all senti- 
 mentality carefully repressed. 
 
 In order to comprehend fully what has been done by Michigan 
 since her admission as a State, with respect to her public chari- 
 ties, and what advances she has made in the suppression of vice 
 and the restraint and reform of criminals, one must consider her 
 
ADDKESS OF HON. L. L. BARBOUR. 271 
 
 condition at and before that time as to tlie population, its com- 
 ponents and culture and moral status. One who should write of 
 the charities and corrections of Mississippi during the last twenty- 
 five years, and did not portray the condition of society as atlected 
 by the war and the eraancijjation of slaves, would fall far short of 
 giving a faithful account of the work done and the results 
 achieved. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that there is no distinct and separate field 
 of corrections and charities, as there is for the judicial and the 
 legislative and executive branches of the government, or the school 
 system and the several industries, the advance of which go to 
 make up our State's progress and history. What has been done 
 in this particular field is largely, if not almost entirely dependent 
 upon, or concurrent with the advancements in all the other direc- 
 tions indicated. Theiefore, an account (jf what has been done, what 
 miscarrieil and what remains to be done, calls for a presentation 
 of the prior condition of society and its progress ; the part played 
 by the Legislature, in how far it has foreseen and met the chari- 
 table and repressive necessities of the State, and wherein it has 
 fallen short ; in how far the executive, by messages and a wise 
 administration, has advocated and aided progressive measures or 
 retarded them ; and wherein the judiciary has by a strict and 
 severe enforcement of the criminal laws, taught the people whom 
 it protects and serves, that the law of the land must be respected and 
 obeyed ; and wherein judges have shown, by fear and by favor, 
 that in their eyes a re-election was of more value than the faith- 
 ful administration of justice. 
 
 Parkman well describes the early Detroiter at a time when 
 Detroit and Mackinaw were all that was settled of Michigan, and 
 when nearly all the whites were French. " lie was," he says, 
 " usually a happy man, taking life easily, laughing at its hard- 
 ships, soon forgetting his sorrows, loving adventure, frolic, danc- 
 ing, little troubled with the past or future, and little plagued with 
 avarice or ambition. Aloof from the world, the simple colonist 
 shared none ot its excitements or tumultuous pleasures, and 
 escaped many of its cares. Plenty, and even luxuries were not 
 wanting. The long winter was a season of social enjoyment, and 
 when, in summer and autumn, the traders, voyageurs aud coureurs 
 de />ow gathered from the distant forests of tlie Northwest, the 
 whole settlement was alive with dancing and feasting, and often 
 with drinking, gaming and carousing." 
 
372 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 There were uoue of the meekly pious followers of Penn, who 
 gave such a staid aud quiet, yet thrifty tone to the early popula- 
 tion of Pennsylvania, no Dutch of the class which founded the 
 wealth and aristocracy of New York, nor any of the New England 
 puritans, with the stern and witch-burning zeal which charac- 
 terized the race. 
 
 That elsewhere gorgeous religious creation, the Church of 
 Rome, pervaded the wilderness in the persons of the Jesuit fathers, 
 not only where was found a son of France, but wherever a being, 
 red or white, contained within him a human soul divine. 
 
 The large population of half-breeds assures us that the Indians 
 and French got on well together; and, indeed, at Detroit in those 
 early days, on a peace footing were three Indian villages, the 
 Potawattamies, the Wyandottes and the Ottawas. Judge Burnet, 
 who had intimate personal acquaintance with the Indians, re- 
 garded them in 1795 as dignified and independent in their rela- 
 tions with the whites, and naturally not an inferior race ; and he 
 thought that if they were not degraded by the vices and excesses 
 of the whites, they would be as capable of improvement as any 
 people on the face of the earth. Another author says of them: 
 "The Indians were for two hundred years after the first settle- 
 ment of Canada, in several places, the only farmers. In Michigan 
 their villages were neat, their lands were well laid out and culti- 
 vated. They possessed keenness of intellect, wonderful memory, 
 and when educated, compared favorably with other nations upon 
 an equality." 
 
 The coureur)^ de hois, who were guides and traveling traders, 
 were a class from which might naturally be expected the most 
 frequent violations of the laws in force which were taken from the 
 Goutume de Paris, so far as it seemed applicable to the character 
 of the population and the country. They were, however, seldom 
 guilty of treachery to the government, malice toward their kind, 
 or any of the graver fiendish vice.-* which now so distinctly and 
 indelibly mark the criminal class of to-day. Though they were 
 far from belonging to the highest tyj)e of humanity, they were 
 generally popular for good fellowship and symi)athy for the poor, 
 fairly honest in their dealing, except occasionally with the gov- 
 ernment, and possessed of a very good reputation for certain 
 manly virtues. 
 
 It will strike one at a glance, that during this primitive settle- 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. I,. L. liAKliOIK. 273 
 
 menl of the coiiutry by this class ot" people, no great ainouut of 
 organized public action, either correctional or in the way of char- 
 ities, could be expected, or was demanded. There were no great 
 necessities and no crying evils. 
 
 The government of the country was in the hands of the mili- 
 tary Commandant, until the Governor and Judges were appointed, 
 when the territory came under the administration of the United 
 States. 
 
 Among the first instances of executive and judicial action, were 
 the arrest by Cadillac of some of the Canada company's agents 
 for fraud, and liis attempts to prevent disturbances from the exces- 
 sive use of brandy, l)y stopping its sale, except in very small 
 quantities, for a fair drink, and providing tliat no one should be 
 served more than once until all others had been provided who 
 desired it. 
 
 De la Gallissouiere was probably the first, and perhaps the 
 only Governor to urge upon the home government the introduc- 
 tion of paupers. He only desired a few, as needed, and urged 
 that other persons of doubtful character, except faux saulniers, 
 salt smugglers, should not be sent out unless called for. 
 
 Slavery existed, but very few of the slaves were of African 
 descent. They were mostly Indian captives, brought in and sold 
 by Indians, and passed from hand to hand like other chattels. 
 It continued until the Ordinance of 1787 took effect, by which it 
 was abolished, except in so far as property in slaves was protected 
 by treaty. In \f*>\i), there were thirty-two slaves enumerated in 
 the Territory ; but in 1836, all had died or been freed. Michigan 
 has never been disgraced by being a slave State. 
 
 Just when public wliipping began, it is difficult to ascertain ; 
 but it continued to disgrace the country until 1881, when, as Judge 
 Campbell says, " this relic of barbarism was forever removed." 
 He also mentions that the not less barbarous customs of selling 
 the poor to the lowest bidder, and tlie disgusting ball-and-ehain 
 gang were long continued. 
 
 In 1760 Michigan, with all the other French possessions in 
 Canada, came under the English flag; and from that time the 
 increase of population by way of immigration was mostly English 
 and Scotch. The careful business ways of the Scotchmen and 
 the restless enterprise and industry of the English commenced, 
 18 
 
274 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 slowly, but surely, to work a change in the character of the 
 country. 
 
 The English Governors, upon taking possession, commenced to 
 disregard the French law, which they knew nothing about, and 
 substituted the English law so far as they knew anything about 
 that, which seems to have been almost nothing at all. They, for 
 the most part, evolved a "higher law" from their inner conscious- 
 nesses, which was frequently a conscienceless and arbitrary exe- 
 cution of their own capricious wills, regardless of justice or public 
 policy. A few cases, however, which in the course of events were 
 appealed and decided in the English courts against the Governors 
 and others in authority, had a very salutary efl'ect in protecting 
 the inhabitants and compelling officers to keep within safe 
 bounds. 
 
 Justices of the peace committed for trial as early as 1765, but 
 do not seem then to have actually tried criminal causes. In 
 March, 1777, however, two capital executions took place, result- 
 ing from the sentence of a justice of the peace, De Jean, who 
 had no more right to pass such a sentence than a Springwells 
 justice now has. De Jean, however, had this excuse, that he was 
 ordered by Governor Hamilton to conduct the trial. The victims 
 of this judicial murder were Jean Contencisiau and xVnna or 
 Nancy Wyley. They were charged, the man, with stealing goods 
 to the value of four pounds sterling, and the woman, a purse con- 
 taining six guineas. The sentence was as follows: "You shall 
 be hanged, hanged, hanged and strangled until you be dead, on 
 the King's public domain (the Common) the 26th inst. precisely 
 at twelve o'clock ; and the Lord have mercy on your souls." 
 
 In 1778, Courts of Common Pleas, having a clerk and sheriff, 
 were first established ; but the judges knew nothing of criminal 
 law, and banished, whipped, fined or pilloried those convicted be- 
 fore them as they chose. Cases of slitting the nose were not in- 
 frequent. 
 
 Hanging continued to be the punishment prescribed for murder, 
 until 1840 ; but the last execution, that of Simmons, for killing 
 his wife, took place at Detroit, September 24th, 1830, — "and 
 music was furnished by the military band." 
 
 The misdemeanors most commonly punished were horseraciug, 
 bowling and failing to keep water-butts full and buckets in order 
 and within reach for use in case of fire. The punishments 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. J.. L. UAKUOL'R. 275 
 
 iiiliicted sceiu to have been mostly by way of tine, but tliey were 
 entirely " insnfKcieut to prevent the festive Frenehnian from rac- 
 ing iheir ponies and bowling cannon balls down the narrow streets 
 of Detroit." At the time of the surrender of the Northwest Terri- 
 tory in 1796 to the United States, there were no white settlements 
 within its boundaries of any importance, except Detroit, French- 
 town (Monroe), and Mackinac. The white population in laOO 
 was about o,000, and in 1810 was nearly 5,000. 
 
 Under the territorial government the trial of capital criminal 
 cases was reserved to the yupreme Court, presided over by three 
 judges; intermediate cases to the District Court, of which there 
 were three, presided over by one of the three judges, and cases of 
 minor importance remained to be tried by justices of the peace. 
 Presentments were made by grand juries. In 1805, dueling and 
 challenging were for the lirst time made ])unishal)le. Punish- 
 ments were frequently peculiar, and authorized by no better estab- 
 lished precedent than the capricious will of the judge who tried 
 the case. In 1806 the Supreme Court sentenced an Indian to be 
 branded in the hand, for what crime, I believe, is unknown. 
 
 One marshal was originally provided for the Territory, who 
 had the charge of all jails, prisons and prisoners ; subsequently 
 these were appointed, one for each district. The marshal was at 
 first paid a salary, but by Act 29 of the Territorial Laws of 1805, 
 the pernicious fee system, with a per diem for board, which still 
 prevails, was established. All services, however, relative to the 
 commitment and discharge of a public case, were limited to one 
 dollar. From that small beginning has grown the long list of fees 
 which now make the office of sheriff' in the large counties a mine 
 of wealth to the lucky politician who succeeds in getting it. 
 
 Prisoners in public causes were compelled to maintain them- 
 selves, if able; but where they set forth to three justices of the 
 peace their inability to do so, the justices might, after investiga- 
 tion, give a certificate of the fact, and the marshal in such cases 
 maintain them, and was allowed twenty-tive cents a day for each 
 prisoner. It is hardly probable that there were originally any 
 other places of detention than the guard-houses at Detroit and 
 Mackinaw, built of square, hewn, 12x1- hard-wood tiniber, with 
 floor and ceiling of the same. The payment of several accounts 
 shows that a new jail was built in Detroit in 1802, and after the 
 tire ihe Governor and .Fudges in 1806 passed an act, among other 
 
270 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 things, providing for the erection of a prison or jail at Detroit. 
 August 29th, 1805, the Legislative Council passed an act to pre- 
 vent rioting, revelling, disorder and drunkenness, by punishing 
 the tavern-keeper, or retailer permitting it upon his premises, 
 with a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars. 
 
 In 180!) an act was passed requiring that a jail be kept in good 
 and sufficient repair by the marshal, under the direction of the 
 judge, in each judicial district ; the expense to be defrayed by 
 the district. Every person committed to the jail, who had the 
 means, was compelled to bear a reasonable charge for conveying 
 him there, and pay for his own support until discharged ; and the 
 keeper was prohibited from demanding any other or greater fees 
 or charges than allowed by law, under penalty of treble dam- 
 ages. 
 
 In 1819 a very carefully prepared law was passed by the 
 Governor and Judges, regulating prisons, by which the county 
 coramissiouers of the respective counties were required to erect 
 and keep in repair a good jail. The sheriff was required to keep 
 a true and exact calendar of the names of all prisoners, their places 
 of abode, additions, time of commitment, cause, description of the 
 person by whom committed, and time of discharge, or escape, 
 should the latter happen. At the opening of the court it was made 
 his duty to return a list of all prisoners in his custody, with the 
 facts above required, by him to be kept, and the manner in which 
 the prisoners were treated and employed ; and it was made the 
 duty of the county court, at the commencement of each term, to 
 inspect the jails in their respective counties with reference to secur- 
 ity, condition, and accommodation of the prisoners, and to cause 
 such measures to be taken as would best tend to secure them from 
 escape, sickness or infection. No prisoner was allowed the use of 
 spirituous liquors, except on the written order of a physician, and 
 the jailer permitting it was guilty of a misdemeanor, and punish- 
 able by fine of twenty-five dollars, one month's imprisonment, or 
 both. The law provided for separate and solitary confinement, 
 bread and water diet, hard labor in the jail, in a yard, or outside 
 confined with ball and chain, the sheriff being required to furnish 
 necessary tools. Upon a convict's refusal to labor, without a rea- 
 sonable excuse, he was to be kept in solitary confinement on bread 
 and water. It contained many other important provisions relative 
 to the construction and managcMnent of jails ; and was probably 
 
AnnuKss OK iion. r.. l. isakuour. 277 
 
 taken altogether, the most important of all the laws enacted upon 
 the subject. Had it been vigorously lived up to, this State would, 
 in all probability, have been in as good condition, and been able 
 to make as good showing as is made under the present prison laws 
 of England. It has practically been a dead letter ever since it 
 was enacted. No jail has been built that complied with its require- 
 ments, and therefore it has never been j)ossihle for any sheriff to 
 manage a jail as contemplated by this law. The only objection- 
 able feature was, that which provided for the working of prisoners 
 outside the walls while confined with ball and chain. The (jues- 
 tion naturally arises, who is to be charged with the utter disregard 
 of such a beneficent provision as this law seems to have been. 
 Some reasonable excuse may be found for the proper officers 
 while the country was new and attention was directed almost 
 entirely to channels of private business, and matters of public 
 growth ; but from the time the Territory became a State, no rea- 
 sonable excuse can be found for the universal neglect which has 
 prevailed throughout the State to pay any attention whatever to 
 the subject. The first blame rests upon the officers to whom was 
 delegated the duty of providing proper jails, the county commis- 
 sioners; and this mantle of blame falls upon the shoulders of their 
 successors, the boards of supervisors ; and it has rested with them 
 ever since they were first organized. No man who has ever held 
 the office of supervisor, can feel himself free from having failed 
 in a most important essential to do his duty. 
 
 The laws of the State have always provided that prisoners may 
 be sentenced to hard labor in jails, and provided for means for 
 such employment through the orders of the Court. Through 
 sentimentality, or fear of causing expense to the county, or other 
 equally poor reason, have these laws and provisions been utterly 
 neglected by Circuit Judges. Idleness, card-playing, Police Ga- 
 zette reading, and worse, promiscuous association of all kinds of 
 prisoners have resulted. Is it any wonder that with these "schools 
 of crime" in full blast, our universities of vice should be full to 
 overflowing, and the daily papers able to satiate a putrescent taste 
 for the nasty, the wicked and the awful ? 
 
 Another hindrance to reform in jails and jail management, is 
 Article X, Section 5 of the Constitution, which provides that 
 sherifis shall be incapable of holding the office longer than four 
 in any six years. The management of criminals of any class re- 
 
278 MicniGAx's semi-centennial. 
 
 quires experience. By the time a sheriff has obtained the 
 necessary experience to be of value, this unfortunate clause com- 
 pels hira to give place to another, generally entirely ignorant of 
 all the tricks resorted to by criminals to escape conviction or from 
 prison. The section should be repealed, or some means found 
 whereby the custodians of our jails may be continued in office 
 during efficiency and good behavior. 
 
 The first general act providing for the punishment of crimes, 
 was passed December 9th, 1808. Murder and treason were pun- 
 ished by death ; rape by fine and imprisonment at hard labor 
 during life; robbing and forgery by imprisonment not to exceed 
 seven years; and for arson the culprit might be put in the pillory, 
 whipped, imprisoned at hard labor for seven years, bound to good 
 behavior, fined to the amount of three thousand dollars, or all of 
 these punishments, according to the nature of the offense. 
 
 For other offenses imprisonment at hard labor, solitary confine- 
 ment, and whipping, such corporal punishment not extending to 
 life or limb as the Court or justices might direct, were prescribed. 
 Proceeding against any person for conjuration, witchcraft, sorcery 
 or enchantment was prohibited ; but any one pretending to use 
 skill or knowledge in the occult sciences, could be fined or im- 
 prisoned. Blasphemy was punished by fine, or imprisonment not 
 exceeding three months at hard labor ; and persons conAMCted of 
 bribery were forever disqualified from holding office. 
 
 In 1815 spirituous or fermented liquors were forbidden to be 
 sold to minors, apprentices, soldiers or Indians without the written 
 order of the master or other proper person designated ; and not at 
 all on Sundays, except to travelers and lodgers in taverns. 
 
 In 1820 justices of the peace were charged with the duty of 
 causing to be kept all laws for the preservation of peace and 
 good order. Poor prisoners were entitled to have counsel assigned 
 them in criminal cases. Another act compelled the observance 
 of the Sabbath day between twelve o'clock the night preceding 
 and the setting of the sun on the same day. It prohibited the 
 resort to any {)ublic assembly, except for religious worshij) and 
 moral instruction. Public worship was protected, and parents 
 and guardians were liable for the fines imposed on children, wards 
 or servants convicted of ofTen-ses against the act. Gambling was 
 prohibited as " being injurious in a high degree to the persons 
 engaged therein, and in its tendencies destructive to the com' 
 
ADDRESS OK HON. I.. \.. WARHDV H. 279 
 
 munity." Money or property lost could be recovered, and if the 
 loser did not commence suit within three months, any otiier per- 
 son might recover treble the value from the winner, one-half to 
 go to the county. Billiards, raffles and horse races were pro- 
 hibited. 
 
 Poor debtors were not to be imprisoned for a debt less than 
 five dollars; and when imprisoned and unable to support them- 
 selves, the creditor was compelled to give security for their main- 
 tenance, to be paid weekly in advance. Women could not be 
 imprisoned on mesne process or for debt. And imprisonment for 
 debt was abolished when the debtor assigned his property for the 
 benefit of his creditor, uidess in case of fraud. Farmer mentions 
 in his liistory, that June 24th, 1824, there was not a single person 
 in jail or prison in the whole Territory. " When we recollect," 
 as he says, "that A[ichigan then included all of Wisconsin, it is 
 evident that the officials W(>re very lax or the people remarkably 
 law-abiding." Ten years later the same thing occurred again. 
 Though the first settlers were far from wealthy, pauptTism was 
 unknown among them. None but the sturdy and the plucky 
 came into the wilderness. There were times of distress, but no 
 time to beg; and no one entertained the opinion that the world 
 owed him or his family any better living than he could procure 
 for them. 
 
 Beggars came with the increase of population. There was no 
 poor officer, before 1790 ; and subsequent appropriations show that 
 he had no funds at his disposal. 
 
 The first provision made for the poor, as was very natural, 
 was to care for individual cases. October 7, 1805, an 
 appropriation, probably not the first, was made, not to exceed 
 seventeen dollars, to pay Isaac Day for the support and burial 
 of a pauper; and for the general relief of paupers a sum not 
 exceeding one huiulred dollars was voted. Soon after an act for 
 the general relief of the poor was passed, providing that when- 
 ever any person should petition three justices of the peace, stating 
 that he was destitute and incapable of labor, the justices, after 
 inquiry, should grant the jiauper a certificate approving his 
 becoming a pul)lic charge, and the nuirshal of the Territory was 
 empowered to contract for his support with the person offering the 
 lowest terms, not execcding twenty-five cents per day, but only to 
 the extent of tlir umxpcnded appropriation of one liundre'd dol 
 lars. 
 
280 miciiiGxVn's semi-centennial. 
 
 In June 1820 the laws of 1805 and 1817 were repealed. 
 County commissioners were given charge of paupers in their 
 respective counties ; and when relief was adjudged necessary they 
 issued a warrant to the sheriff which directed him to take charge 
 of and provide support for the pauper ; and after six days' notifi- 
 cation, to receive proposals for the support of the person for the 
 ensuing year, and contract upon the most reasonable terms there- 
 for. The commissioners were authorized to apprentice poor chil- 
 dren during minority having no parents able to support them. 
 
 The State has never pursued a uniform policy in regard to the 
 care of its poor. Two systems have prevailed ; one, whereby to 
 the townships is relegated the duty of providing for the poor ; and 
 by the other they are placed in charge of county officers, each 
 county determining for itself which course it will follow. There 
 are, however, but few counties which have not abolished the 
 township system. The policy of the State in regard to the care 
 of its poor, has been liberal, by very many thought too liberal. 
 Large county-houses have been constructed, often much larger 
 than necessary, and very frequently not carefully planned or 
 built. The first requisite, safety from fire, has been constantly 
 overlooked ; and all idea of separation and classification 
 frequently ignored. There is no record that any inmates have 
 suffered from want of proper clothing, and no just complaint has 
 been made that they have not been well fed. But in their care, 
 two cheap and very essential requisites have been very often 
 entirely overlooked, viz.: fresh air and soap. Except in the poor 
 houses built or remodeled within the last few years, proper bath- 
 ing facilities and sufficient ventilation are unprovided. 
 
 That proper poor-house keepers have not always been provided, 
 the following interview with one of them, which I give at length, 
 omitting names and places, will sufficiently show : 
 
 I called last evening, and learned that he was keeper of the 
 county poor-house for six years, beginning in 1847. He seemed 
 to know little about the laws governing the matters of jails and 
 prisons or even those governing the poor • but was quite full of his 
 own experiences. He said the children of the jwor-house were 
 kept with the women and apart from the men ; they were sent 
 regularly to school at the district school-house. The insane were 
 kept in a house by themselves, locked in cells of which there were 
 seven. There were about fifty inmates in the poor-house when he 
 
ADDKKSS OK llUN. L. L. HAUIJCHK. 281 
 
 took it; he found tliein moping about with uotliing to do. He 
 said he went to the superiuteudent and tohl him he must have 
 some checkers and cards. The superintendent wanted to know 
 what he wantod with them. He told him none of his business, he 
 wanted to get them, so he got them, took them to the poor-house 
 and gave the paupers something to amuse themselves with, which 
 made them, he said, more contented; he often took a hand at 
 cards with them himself Able-bodied men worked on the farm. 
 He found when he took the house that his predecessor was in the 
 habit of locking the inmates in their rooms at night; this he did 
 away with. Thinks he was the first man who had paupers vote. 
 The Prosecuting Attorney said the laws would not permit it ; but 
 he took them to the polls where the votes were challenged, but he 
 soon put a stop to that, by saying that they were poor paupers 
 deprived of enough without being deprived of voting. He and 
 the inspector of election, however, were indicted by the grand 
 jury for having allowed such a thing; but his attorney soon con- 
 vinced the Prosecuting Attorney that a man did not lose his res- 
 idence by being at the poor-house, and the suit was dropped, and 
 he laughed and said : "I got in fourteen votes that way, and we 
 just carried the election l)y thirteen votes.'' He used to take his 
 paupers to the county fair, the managers of which objected at first 
 to admitting the " dirty creatures ; " but he told the officers they 
 were as clean as they were, and they let hi in bring them ; and he 
 never had any trouble after the first time. He thinks very little 
 of insane a.sylums, having the utmost confidence in the way he 
 used to treat the insane at the poor-house. He told me of one 
 man whom, by hanging up by the neck for a while, he cured ; 
 another man, by knocking him down with a stick of wood two or 
 three times; that, with working them out-doors every day, he 
 considered all-sufficient for the permanent cure of this class. 
 
 The State has been frequently been imposed upon by paupers 
 shipped into it from the Eastern States, Canada, and even from 
 countries across the sea. Michigan is not justly chargeable with 
 all the dependents shown by the census to be within her borders, 
 and which she is compelled to support. Large numbers of pauper 
 children especially, have been shipped in from New York and 
 Boston. More careful examinations and prompt measures look- 
 ing to the retuni of these foreign paupers by the Superintendents 
 of the Poor, would have lessened the number greatly. 
 
282 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 The amount of unnecessary out-door relief furnished by the 
 Supervisors in their indiv^idual capacity, has aided to make the 
 State attractive tramping ground for foreign paupers ; and it has 
 been too frequently and vehemently charged, not to be, in some 
 degree, at least, true, that some of these officers have sometimes 
 distributed portions of the public poor funds, not where absolute- 
 ly needed by the recipient, but where they would do the officer 
 the most good in the next election. It has been claimed, and by 
 a great many people implicitly believed, that a poor-master in 
 Wayne county kept himself continually in office for many years, 
 no matter which party was in the majority, by a skillful manipu- 
 lation of the poor funds. It was never suspected that he was 
 enabled to retain the position because of the confidence of the 
 people in his integrity. 
 
 Since the creation of the office of Superintendents of the Poor, 
 there has been a very great improvement in the management of 
 poor-houses generally ; and, so far as they have had to do with 
 them, in all matters pertaining to the dependent class. 
 
 One of the most useful charitable agencies in the State, is the 
 Association of the Superintendents of the Poor, which was inaug- 
 urated in December, 1873, at a convention of superintendents, 
 where twenty-three counties were represented, and thirty-nine 
 superintendents were present. 
 
 The object of the Association is to confer annually together 
 respecting all matters which may arise in connection with pau- 
 perism and its prevention. The Association includes, also, 
 keepers of poor-houses, all officers of State and local charitable 
 institutions, and of penal and reformatory institutions, as well. 
 All questions respecting the attention required by the poor to pre- 
 vent them from becoming paupers, measures to be taken to prevent 
 imposition upon (;haritably disposed citizens and public officers, the 
 most economical and benevolent treatment of persons, who, from 
 accident, misfortune or their own fault, become a burden on the 
 public, are carefully studied by the members, and made the sub- 
 jects of papers read at the annual conventions. These are printed 
 with the discussions which follow, and extensively circulated 
 throughout the State. The discussions at these conventions 
 assume an eminently practical character and generally result in 
 the appointment of a committee to nrgc upon the next Legisla- 
 ture the adoption of such charitable and poiial reform measures 
 as may have been determined upon. 
 
ADOKESS OF 1I()\. L. F,. l!AKI!Ol K. 283 
 
 In 1879 such a coraniittoe stroiiffly urued that the liquor tax 1)0 
 largely increased, and that the proceeds go to augment the |)()or 
 fund of the several counties ; that an industrial school be pro- 
 vided for girls ; that the retention of children in poor-houses be 
 prohibited; that counties be compelled to provide for the work- 
 ing of traraps and other persons of like character, at breaking 
 stone, or some similar occupation. And since then, among other 
 things, they have repeatedly urged upon the Legislature, but so 
 far in vain, the establishment of an institution for training feeble- 
 minded children. 
 
 The first of the State corre(!tional institutions, the State Prison, 
 was located at Jackson, or Jacksonburg, as it was then called, 
 in 1888, The agent of the prison was authorized in 1842 to 
 employ convicts at mechanical labor, giving twenty days' notice, 
 and lettini^ them to the highest bidders, in the branches of trade 
 which it might be found desirable to carry on ; the avails to go 
 towards defraying the expenses of the prison. 
 
 The first law relative to the government of the State Prison, 
 was passed in 1839, and, with a few exceptions, the general prin- 
 ciples of its managenn^iit have remained the same ever since. 
 Solitary confinement for life was the sentence generally passed 
 upon murderers, but as it was demonstrated that continual soli- 
 tary continenient in a cell produced insanity or imbecility, in 1849 
 a law was passed authorizing the inspectors to release such from 
 the cells and work them as other convicts. Since that time, soli- 
 tary confinement has only been resorted to for a few days at a 
 time, as an extra punishment for offences committed in the prison. 
 
 The striped dress of the convicts has been changed, corporal 
 punishment prohibited, though it is sometimes inflicted ; and 
 recently the lock-step has been abandoned, and schools are main- 
 tained. The convicts are well fed and comfortably clothed. An 
 important clause of the law which provides that the warden shall 
 furnish employment to prisoners best suited to their capacities, 
 has always remained a dead letter. 
 
 .Vrticle XV^IIT, of Soi'tion 8, of the State Constitution, provides 
 tluit no mechanical trade shall hereafter be taught convicts, except 
 the manufacture of such articles as are chiefly in)ported from 
 other States or countries. And as Michigan manufactures almost 
 everything she uses, which it is possible (o manufacture with any 
 ]>rotit, this unfortunate clause, so far as (Miforced, t'ornis the great- 
 
284: xMiuiiigan's semi-ckntennial. 
 
 est possible hindrance to the reformation of" criminals; for to 
 compel them to learn a good trade is universally recognized as 
 one of the first steps toward reformation. With a good trade, 
 even, and all the advantages and facilities that can be provided, 
 and with a strong will, too, it is exceedingly difficult for any man 
 who has once passed through the dark valley of the shadow of 
 prison walls to become an upright and self-supporting citizen. 
 The self-protection of society demands that every possible exer- 
 tion shall be made, during the incarceration of a criminal, to put 
 him in such a condition that upon his exit it shall have no fur- 
 ther trouble with him ; and when society prevents, by a provision 
 of its fundamental law, those who have charge of a criminal from 
 teaching him a trade which prepares him to take care of himself 
 and family, it commits a blunder. When it prevents the individ- 
 ual under its charge from acquiring the ability to live upon an 
 equality with his fellow-men it commits a crime against the crimi- 
 nal himself 
 
 The original law of 1839 provided for the appointment of the 
 agent or warden by the Board, to hold during its pleasure ; and 
 with its assent, the warden appointed the under-officers, thus being 
 responsible for the general management of the prison. A very 
 unfortunate law was passed in 1840, giving the appointment of 
 the warden to the Governor. Each Governor appoints a warden 
 from among his political henchmen. If there is to be any refor- 
 mation of criminals, it is too plain a propositiou to need argu- 
 ment, that the warden should hold his office during efficiency and 
 good behavior. 
 
 The total number of prisoners received to June 1st, 188G, was 
 3,844 ; and the number in prison on that day was 785 ; fifty-one 
 of whom are life-convicts. The plant has cost the State about 
 $686,000. 
 
 The Slate House of Correction and Reformatory, at Ionia, was 
 established in 1877. It was originally designed for male convicts 
 sentenced for ninety days or longer, who were between sixteen 
 and twenty-five years of age, excepting those sentenced for life. 
 
 Though called a reformatory, there are no reformatory features 
 connected with it, diflferent from those existing at the State Prison ; 
 and even the distinction of age has, in very many cases, not been 
 adhered to. Many judges have become accustomed to send short- 
 time men to this prison, regardless of age, the character of the 
 
ADDICKSS OF HON. I.. I.. l:.\Ki:ot!K. 285 
 
 offense or the number of times the convict has l)efore served sent- 
 ence. There is no systematic classification of j)risoners, except 
 perhaps during the few hours weekly when they are in the school. 
 
 The cost of the plant is, in round numbers, $365,000 ; 8,153 
 inmates have been received, with an average time served by each 
 of seven months antl a half. The number of prisoners June 1st 
 last, was 482. 
 
 In 1885 a bill was passed for the selection of a site for, and tlu; 
 erection of, a "Branch of the State Prison in the Upper Penin- 
 sula," and an appropriation of $150,000 was made for that pur- 
 pose. A site has been selected near Marcpietlc, ami plans for a 
 prison adopted. 
 
 The Detroit House of Correction, though not a State institution, 
 from the number and variety in character of its inmates, and its 
 many peculiarities of organization and arrangement, ought not to 
 be passed by without mention. It is in charge of four inspectors 
 nominated by the Mayor of Detroit and confirmed by the Com- 
 mon Council, one retiring from office each year. It is subject to 
 State inspection. The superintendent is appointed by the board 
 for a term of years, and subordinates are appointed by the board 
 on his nomination. This makes him the one responsible head of 
 the institution, both for its financial management and discipline. 
 It has been conducted on the State account plan, materials being 
 bought, worked up, and the articles manufactured, sold. The 
 superintendents have generally held through several terms, and the 
 discipline and management have always l)een considered excel- 
 lent. 
 
 An examination of the law of its organization, shows this prison 
 to be rather 
 
 Conglomerate in character. 
 
 It is the female prison of the State. 
 
 It has been, and is, in potent ia, a female reforinatory. 
 
 It is a State Prison, exce{)t for murderers. 
 
 It is a United States Prison, or a prison for the confinement of 
 United States jjrisoners, and it is a city work-house, and a work- 
 house for any county contracting with it. 
 
 In view ol tiie lack of any adequate pri.son system, and to solve 
 some of the difheulties caused by loose legislation, and to enable 
 the State to enter upon a course of reform in prison methods, 
 in accordance with movements the world over, a bill was drafted 
 
286 Michigan's skmi-oentennial. 
 
 aud placed before the last Legislature, known as the joitit-prison 
 bill. It attracted much attention, and its objects and provisions 
 received universal approbation among penologists and others in- 
 terested in reformatory matters. It provided for the consolida- 
 tion of the two State penal institutions under one uon-partisan 
 board of coutrol, the members to hold office for six years, two 
 retiring biennially. The Board was to have the appointment of 
 the wardens who should hold for a term of four years, unless 
 within that time removed for cause. It provided for indefinite 
 sentences in certain cases, at the discretion of the judge trying 
 the case ; for the ticket-of-leave system ; for conveyance of con- 
 victs to prison by a prison-officer ; for the employment of prison- 
 ers and the disposition of the proceeds of such employment, and 
 especially for the employment of young prisoners upon such work 
 as would fit them for self-support upon release. The bill passed 
 both houses, but unfortunately the Governor vetoed it. It is sin- 
 cerely hoped that a similar, but improved, measure embracing 
 all the prisons, and not mixed up with the prison labor question, 
 will be passed at the next session. 
 
 One of the great difficulties in the treatment of crime, is the 
 uncertainty of conviction and the inequality and unjustness of 
 jiunishments. Juries will not do their duty in the matter of con- 
 viction, and frequently judges are not above criticism in regard 
 to sentences, making no discrimination against recidivists, or in 
 favor of first-term men. With the ijidefinite sentence, however, 
 as the law, the jury has only to find whether the accused com- 
 mitted the ofiejisi, a long sentence not staring them in the face, 
 for the law fixes the limits of imprisonment, and the prison au- 
 thorities determine from all the facts of his previous life and the 
 subsequent conduct of the prisoner, when, within those limits, it 
 is safe for society and just to him that he shall be permitted again 
 at large. Its adoption would be simply an extension of the same 
 system which now prevails with so much profit to the State in 
 connection with our juvenile reformatories. 
 
 There can be no legal objection applicable to men and women 
 who violate the law, which would not apply to those of tender 
 years. Indeed the system of allowing a prisoner for "good time" 
 earned in prison, is such a modification of the fixed-sentence sys- 
 tem, aud has worked so admirably, that it leads logically and 
 necessarily to the adoption of indefinite sentence with its accom- 
 paniment, the ticket-of-leave, as a modification and restraint. 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. I.. I.. IJARIiOlk. 287 
 
 di:af and dumb scirooL. 
 
 As the second .State institution coming within the purview of 
 this paper, and the first (^haritahle institution oiganized in the 
 State, comes the Deaf" and Dumb School. The first board was 
 appointed by an act of the J^egishiture of 1848, to organize an 
 Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb and Blind, and an Asylum 
 the Insane. They made their first report in 1850, selecting a site 
 for an asylum at Flint for the Deaf and Dumb and Blind 
 $3,000 and ten acres of land having been donated by the vil- 
 lage. The school was opened in February, 1854, and twelve 
 pupils were received during the first school year. The first build- 
 ing was completed in 185(5, at a cost of •i'80,500, and occupied that 
 year by forty-seven pupils and four teachers. In that year, also, 
 a separate board was provided for the Insane Asylum which had 
 been located at Kalamazoo. 
 
 The Board of the Deaf and Dumb School consists of three 
 members, who hold office for six years, one retiring at the end of 
 each two years. Board and tuition are free to all students resi- 
 dent in the State. 
 
 Those who have intimate ac(|uaintance with the deaf and dumb 
 and the blind, have never thought it wise to provide for them in 
 the same establishment, as the methods of education and care 
 have nothing in common. The combination of the two schools, 
 however, continued till June, 1880, when the blind were provided 
 for in a separate school at Lansing. There have been admitted to 
 the Deaf and Dumb School 1,0(36 pupils, including 173 blind, 
 before the separation. During the thirty-two years of the institu- 
 tion, the number of pupils has more than kept pace with the 
 growth of the poi)ulati()n of the State. That deaf mutes can be 
 educated and made to think ami act like other people, becomes 
 every year better known, and every year brings to the institution 
 an increased percentage of those designed to be benefitted by it. 
 Over four hundred thousand dollars have been invested in the 
 school ; its annual expenses are about §50,000, and the present 
 attendance of pupils is about three hundred. In standing, it 
 ranks among the first of like institutions in the country; and in 
 numbers, there are only five in the United States that exceed it. 
 The institution aims to be eminently practical in the character 
 of its education, licncc it assumes to a great degree, the appear- 
 
288 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 ance of a manual training school. Quite a large uuinber of 
 trades are taught, among others, printing, cabinet-making, car- 
 pentering, farming and drafting. Its pupils can be found in 
 every part of the country following profitable pursuits and leading 
 the lives of intelligent and useful citizens. 
 
 BLIND SCHOOL. 
 
 In 1879, the act was passed for the establishment of a separate 
 school for the blind; and the Governor and three commissioners 
 were authorized to select a site, erect buildings, and in the mean- 
 time put the school in operation. A permanent board of control 
 was provided for, organized upon the same plan as the Board of 
 the Deaf and Dumb School. The institution is for the instruc- 
 tion of blind children of the State between ten and twenty-one 
 years of age ; but the Board may admit those older or younger. 
 Applicants from other States are received on payment of ten per 
 cent, over the actual jjer capita running expenses of the school. 
 Pupils are entitled to remain eight years, and even ten, by per- 
 mission of the Board. Superintendents of the poor are required 
 to send persons entitled to admission who are in charge of the 
 county, and clothe them while there. Board and tuition are free 
 to others not dependent on the county. In 1880 the commis- 
 sioners rented the Odd Fellows' Institute at Lansing, and the 
 school opened with thirty-five pupils, 'i'his property was subse- 
 quently purchased for ^10,000, and the main buildings greatly 
 enlarged, by wings on each side, costing about $37,000 each. 
 
 The total number of pupils in 1881 was 55; 188:^63; 1883, 
 70 ; and the same number in 1884 ; and the cost per annum per 
 capita is something over $300 ; but I doubt whether those con- 
 nected with the school begrudge the State's having been thus 
 bountiful in her efforts to provide for the education of the blind. 
 
 DEAF, DUMB AND BLIND. 
 
 Consistency, however, demands that others more unfortunate 
 should receive some share of her attention. There is no provis- 
 ion for the deaf, dumb and blind. There are quite a number of 
 these unfortunates in our county-houses and throughout the State. 
 One of the sweetest faces I ever saw was that of a little girl four 
 years old, deaf, dumb and blind, in one of our county poor-houses. 
 There is sometimes a sunshine more radiant than that which 
 
ADDRKSS OF HON. L. I,. RAKBOIK. 289 
 
 beams upou us from tlio heavens. The suul of this little child 
 pouring itself forth in aglad smile, as some little attention is paid 
 her, sends more warmtii to a syinpatliisiii(r heart than the glad- 
 dening rays of a vernal sun. And she is beautiful. Great 
 "ox-eyed eyes," such as Homer sang of Juno, though they see 
 not ; a complexion that would tempt a Fortuny, so transparent 
 and delicately tinged was it, and such a mild and gentle soul 
 sa<lly feeling its way out to light I That little life, for want of 
 attention, must sink into idiocy worse than death. And such as 
 she, because they are few and have none to plead their cause, 
 have been passed by unheeded in the munificent distribution of 
 the bounty of the State. 
 
 FEEBLE-MINDED, 
 
 Several Governors in their messages, have called the attention 
 of the Legislature to another class, which probably now number 
 two hundred or more, for which no State provision has been made. 
 In their annual conventions, for many years, the Superintendents 
 of the Poor have urged the Legislature to take some action look- 
 ing to the relief of this class; and the State Board of Corrections 
 and Charities has reported what was doing in our sister States, 
 setting forth the necessity, the injury done, and the dangers in- 
 curred by leaving them in the poor-houses untrained, unguarded 
 and unprotected; but, as yet, the Legislature has ever been too 
 intent on other things to listen to any argument or appeal for an 
 institution to train and have the custody of the feeble-minded. It 
 is not merely that the welfare of this unfortunate class demands 
 this much of us. The welfare of society and practical economy 
 recommends it as well. The older States, and younger, too, for 
 that matter, have institutions of the kind ; and their experiences 
 all show beyond a question, that not only much good can be done, 
 that many of this class can be made self-supporting, or nearly so ; 
 but that they are much more economically and certainly more 
 humanely cared for under the direction of one skilled in the busi- 
 ness, than in poor-houses where they are continually the butts of 
 ridicule, picked upon, harassed, made ugly, dangerous, and fre- 
 quently outraged in a manner not to be named. The Christian 
 County of Wayne has furnished two horrible instances of such 
 outrages within the last few years. The Board of Charities comes 
 upon these sad specimens of humanity occasionally in a eoiKiition 
 19 
 
290 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 and under treatment that makes the heart sick. At a county 
 poor-house not long since a girl fourteen years old was kept, in a 
 first floor room with slats across the window, perfectly naked. 
 Men were constantly passing and could not help seeing her. A 
 brother was kept in a pen with no protection from the glaring 
 sun of a raid-summer's day. With proper training and treatment 
 both might be made quite useful. 
 
 Gov. Bagley, probably as wise and liberal a Governor in mat- 
 ters of charity and correction as Michigan has ever had, in his 
 message in 1873, said : " I hold to the firm belief that all idiotic 
 persons are the wards of the State, and that it should exercise for 
 them and over them the same loving care, as far as possible, that 
 a wise parent should over his children. The State should do for 
 them what humanity demands." Again, he says: "Provision 
 should be made for these babes of God. I most sincerely hope it 
 may not be long before we will be enabled to empty every poor- 
 house of its idiotic inmates. Every consideration of humanity 
 and charity urges on the work." 
 
 INSANE ASYLUMS. 
 
 Though provision was made for an insane asylum contempor- 
 aneously with the School for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, 
 the first asylum at Kalamazoo was not opened till 1859. Before 
 that time, the insane were confined in county-houses, jails, strong 
 rooms, attics, log-pens and holes dug in the ground ; or they 
 wandered uncontrolled, a terror to children and a life-long horror 
 to women upon whom they cast an evil eye. No family was safe 
 from a visit from them by day or by night. Women half naked, 
 followed by crowds of school children, and sometimes by men, 
 made the streets hideous with their profanity and vulgarity. 
 
 In 1860 it was found that there were seven hundred insane 
 persons who needed asylum treatment; and at that time, the 
 asylum could care for only one hundred. The war prevented 
 making proper provision then, and it was not until 1870 that the 
 building was enlarged to care for three hundred. In 1873 the 
 great deficiency was so apparent that another asylum was pro- 
 vided for at Pontiac, known as the Eastern Asylum, which, how- 
 ever, was not completed and opened until 1S78. During the first 
 year it cared for over four hundred patients. When provision 
 was made for this asylum, it was expected that it would be sufli- 
 
ADDliKSS OF HON. L. L. BAKBOTR. 291 
 
 cient for years to come ; but by the time the Poutiac Asylum was 
 opened, it was manifest that the State would need at least another 
 as large. In 1880 a third asylum was provided for at Traverse 
 City, to accommodate live hundred patients; and in 1885 it was 
 opened. 
 
 In 1883 an asylum for insane criminals was provided for, or 
 partly provided for, which, for want of sufficient foresight on the 
 part of the Legislature, and lack of sufficient appropriation, was 
 necessarily located adjoining the State House of Correction at 
 Tonia, and the soutli yard wall was utilized for a portion of the 
 north wall of the building. It was opened for patients in 1885. 
 
 The present capacity of the ^lichigau asylums is as follows: 
 Michigan Asylum, at Kalamazoo, 800 ; Eastern Michigan Asy- 
 lum, at Pontiac, 700 ; Northern Asylum, at Traverse City, 500 ; 
 Asylum for Insane Criminals, at Ionia; 100. Total, 2,100. 
 
 The law governing asylums has not been changed in any 
 important particular since Krst enacted in 1859. Whatever 
 changes have been made, have bee^i in the direction of securing 
 more perfect safeguards to the liberty of the individual, and a 
 more careful determination of the question of insanity prior to 
 transfer to an institution. To this end the question of insanity 
 of all patients has been made by law a judicial matter, it being 
 necessary now that the Judge of Probate shall review and approve 
 all certificates of insanity of private j)atients. 
 
 In 1878 a law was passed which provided that when any 
 patient had been in an asylum for two years at the expense of a 
 county, it should become a State patient, and henceforth pro- 
 vided for at the expense of the State. One result of this law has 
 been to render the counties less careful to protect the public from 
 imposition. Quite a number of cases have been found, where 
 the county officers undoubtedly received from a well-to-do rela- 
 tive the amount paid or to be paid by the county for the two 
 years' expenses as county j)atients, for the purpose and with the 
 intent of saddling the patient uptm the State and relieving the 
 relative of the future expense. 
 
 In this matter, Michigan has done nobly. Her asylums rank 
 with any in the United States. The rich, the poor, the recently 
 attacked and the chronic patient are now alike all well taken care 
 of. No pains or necessary expense has been spared ; and yet 
 money has not been wasted. But the self-respecting principle has 
 
292 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 been adliered to, that if a patient or his friends were able to pay 
 the cost of his treatment, they should do so ; if they were unable, 
 and the county was compelled to, the patient was entitled to and 
 has enjoyed the same treatment and attention as his wealthy 
 neighbor. All the asylums have been free from political interfer- 
 ence. The boards of control have been non-partisan, and the 
 members appointed, with one or two exceptions, solely in conse- 
 quence of their fitness to assume the control of large business 
 enterprises, or their special knowledge of insanity. The boards 
 have all served gratuitously. They have given the State the ben- 
 fit of a large business experience, a valuable judgment and disin- 
 terested service, which no salary could adequately reward. The 
 superintendents are appointed by the respective boards. Those of 
 the three large asylums are examples of the working of the civil 
 service reform in this State. They all previously served as assist- 
 ants in Michigan asylums, and were promoted because none better 
 could be found to occupy the positions which they now so ably 
 fill. 
 
 Homeopathic and allopathic schools are both represented among 
 the superintendents ; but, in fact, that question had probably very 
 little, if anything, to do with their selection. 
 
 In no case, I believe, has any officer been appointed by the 
 boards with the slightest reference to political views ; and no 
 changes have been made in consequence of changes of political 
 parties. No suspicion of patronage or jobbery has ever attached 
 to the erection of any building, or the purchase of any supplies. 
 The State has received full value for every dollar she has paid 
 out through the hands of the insane asylum officers. A perma- 
 nency and a steady improvement have thus characterized all the 
 operations of the asylums, and a stability has been given to their 
 management, which is noteworthy when compared with the fre- 
 quent changes of policy and administration of asylums in adjoining 
 States. 
 
 The character of the buildings is in marked contrast with the 
 extravagance displayed in New York and Massachusetts, and with 
 the low grade and cheap structures of Canada and the southern 
 and western States. They are all substantially built, and furnished 
 with the most approved hygienic appliances. The rooms are 
 large and airy, corridors neat and cheerful, and the architectural 
 arrangements pleasing. Heating and ventilation have received 
 
ADDKESS i)F HON. [,. L. ISAIiHi )i;r. 293 
 
 careful study, and are of the most approved systems. The admin- 
 istration buildings are not extravagant; the kitchen and laundry 
 departments seem to be unusually complete and well onlered, and 
 the construction has been of such a character that additions to 
 any department can be made without inconvenience, and at a much 
 reduced per capita cost. 
 
 The beneficial effect of this generous provision for the insane, 
 upon humanitarian work generally throughout the State, cannot 
 be overestimated. The standard of care inaugurated, the charac- 
 ter of the buildings constructed, and the general interest which 
 these institutions have awakened for one class of unfortunates, 
 have had a great influence upon all other State charitable institu- 
 tions. 
 
 The enlightened public sentiment of Michigan, not only in 
 reference to the insane, but also in regard to the care of all other 
 dependent and afflicted classes, is to be ascribed in a great measure 
 to the far-sighted sagacity and broad humanity of the original 
 promoters of our first asylum. They deserve great credit tor 
 establishing and constructing an institution, which, at the time of 
 its erection, was much in advance of the age. The spectacle of a 
 poor pioneer State providing for its insane after the most perfect 
 methods then attainable, is worthy of highest commendation. No 
 less praise should be given to the first medical superintendent 
 whose broad-minded and long continued administration developed 
 a healthy public sentiment throughout the State and gave prac- 
 tical form to the dictates of an enlightened humanity. 
 
 Year by year the standard of care has imi)roved, and to-day 
 the methods of treatment in Michigan are equal to those in any 
 other State, and far better than in most of the States of the Union. 
 Our asylums are practically non-restraint institutions. By care- 
 ful management, a healthy sentiment has l)een developed within 
 them, which has led to the abolition of mechanical restraint. For 
 days and weeks together, not a single patient will be found in 
 restraint. It is only used in surgical cases, and where constant 
 attention cannot prevent suicide or self-mutilation. Larger liber- 
 ty is given the patients ; many are alloweil to come and go upon 
 parole, others occupy rooms in open door halls, and are permitted 
 the liberty of the grounds, and as they show signs of recovery are 
 permitted to go away on trial; and every efii)rt is made to dimin- 
 ish the restrictions incident to asvlum life. A large amount of 
 
294 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 liberty is given patients not allowed to go on parole or in open 
 door halls, by daily open-air exercise, not in airing courts, but 
 upon the farm and in the groves surrounding the asylum. Sup- 
 plementary to non-restraint, and as an important factor of asylum 
 treatment, industrial pursuits are encouraged in every way possi- 
 ble. Male patients are systematically employed in all sorts of 
 work, in the care of cattle, shoveling coal, cutting wood, wheeling 
 earth, making mattresses, seating chairs, binding books, printing, 
 etc., etc. The women are employed in knitting, sewing, manu- 
 facture of all sorts of clothing, laundry, kitchen, growing flowers. 
 Amusements are by no means neglected ; social gatherings, cards, 
 concerts, lectures, dances, reading, choir practice, croquet, lawn- 
 tennis, base ball, and other games are regularly enjoyed by the 
 patients. 
 
 By an act of 1877 the boards of the several asylums are re- 
 quired to meet twice a year in joint session, to consider matters of 
 common interest and devise methods for the benefit of the insane 
 of the State. The frequent interchange of views among the mem- 
 bers of the boards, serves to keep the asylums in harmonious re- 
 lations, and yet there has been a warm emulation in devising 
 ways and means of adding to the efficiency of each asylum. At 
 these joint meetings the superintendents have taken an active 
 part, preparing and reading papers on the various means employed 
 by each in dealing with difficulties, and suggesting changes and 
 improvement. 
 
 STATE REFORM SCHOOL. 
 
 The Reform School, located at Lansing, seems to have first 
 come before the public in an official way througli the valedictory 
 message of Gov. Parsons in 1855. Gov. Bingham, in his inau- 
 gural message the same year, also urged the establishment of a 
 House of Refuge for boys, that they might be separated from the 
 hardened offenders in jails and prisons. The Legislature that 
 year provided for such an establishment to be located at Lansing, 
 upon condition that not less than twenty acres should be donated 
 for that purpose. Thirty acres were given, and subsequently the 
 State purchased one hundred and ninety-five acres more. The 
 institution was opened September 2, 1856. The name was changed 
 in 18)9 to the State Reform School. Originally the inaiiagenient 
 was vested in a board of six commissioners, two api)i)int('(l by the 
 Governor and contirnied bv tiie Senate everv two years. In 1857, 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. L. L. UAIiUoi'K. 295 
 
 however, a change was made to a board of control of three mem- 
 bers. At first the institution consisted of one main buihling with 
 bars, locks, grated doors and high fences. These latter have all 
 now been removed, and additions to the buildings have been made 
 by cottages accommodating fifty boys each. Eacli cottage is pre- 
 sided over by a man and his wife, who act in the capacity of 
 teachers and have general charge. The instruction is confined to 
 the common English branches. A chapel has been erected upon 
 the grounds, which is used not only for religious services, but for 
 such other general purposes of a.ssembly as may be found profit- 
 able. Sunday school is conducted in the morning. It is a very 
 good feature of the management, that frequently half the boys of 
 the school attend service in the different churches of the town, 
 under charge of one of their own number. 
 
 The law provides that the board of control may, in its judg- 
 ment, place in families, or indenture as ap|)rentices, any boys suffi- 
 ciently reformed, or return them to their parents, requiring, if 
 they deem it necessary, security for their care and future good 
 behavior. The limit of age. for sending boys to the school, is 
 from ten to sixteen, and all boys, except for truancy, are sent 
 until eighteen years of age, unless sooner discharged by the 
 board. The boys rise at o^JO in the morning in the summer, and 
 at six in the winter, and retire at eight o'clock. Each boy, unless 
 ill, is required to work four to five hours each day, attend school 
 four to five hours, and about three hours are devoted to recrea- 
 tion. A large play-ground is provided, and balls, bats, marbles 
 and other things for their amusement, so that a boy finds the life 
 which he leads at the school fully as pleasant and made more 
 profitable than his previous comlition as a young marauder and 
 vagrant. A boy, who, by uniform good conduct, gives evidence 
 of reformation, generally is, and always ought to be discharged 
 before he attains his eighteenth year, if he has a good home, or 
 one can be found for him, by a county agent. 
 
 Incorrigible boys, upon whom reformatory influences have 
 failed, and whose presence at the school is deemed prejudicial to 
 its discipline, are returned to the court issuing the commitment, 
 for such disposition as it shall deem proper. If the school were 
 not so large, more personal attention could be given to each 
 individual under its care, and greater success might naturally be 
 expected ; but it i> too much to expect that any superintendent 
 
296 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 can have a personal knowledge or charge of 500 boys and accom- 
 plish the same results as with half the number. There is some 
 variety in the occupations which a boy can choose from, as his 
 tastes incline him ; but the opportunity for choice might be 
 enlarged with profit. Many a boy is totally unfit to be a farmer, 
 tailor, shoemaker, baker or engineer. His nervous organization 
 and inclinations are such that he cannot be kept and cannot keep 
 himself to any of these avocations. He will be a total failure if 
 confined to any one of them, while he might make a good printer, 
 a skillful draughtsman, or a rapid and accurate stenographer or 
 telegrapher. Not that one of these trades is above another; but, 
 simply, that the individual is fitted for one, and it is to his taste, 
 and not so another. 
 
 STATE PUBLIC SCHOOL. 
 
 The State Public School for dependent and neglected children 
 is the natural outgrowth of the civilization in which we live, and 
 of the charitable and economical studies and the theories of the 
 philanthropists of the last twenty-five years. 
 
 In the same line, it is a long step beyond the poor-house, the 
 reform school and the prison. It is the ounce of prevention which 
 I'enders unnecessary the pound of cure, which does not always 
 cure. The great wonder is, that Michigan alone, of all the States, 
 has such a school. The practical public men of the State, with- 
 out foreseeing, perhaps, what would result, did certainly foresee 
 the necessity for a full and careful examination of the institutions 
 of the State having any connection with the suppression of pauper- 
 ism and crime. The first official action in this direction appears 
 to have been taken by Gov. Baldwin. Before assuming the duties 
 of his office, he visited several State institutions, jails and poor- 
 houses, and plainly saw, not only the necessity for improvements, 
 but for radical changes. This led him, in his inaugural message, 
 to recommend the apj)oiutment of a commission to make a more 
 careful examination of these matters than his time and opportun- 
 ities would afford him. In accordance therewith, by joint resolution 
 he was authorized to appoint such a commission. He appointed 
 one, and after a very careful and extensive (,'xamination, it made 
 an able and exhaustive report to the Legislature of 1871, among 
 other things, calling special attention to the lamentable condition 
 of dependent children in and out of poor-houses, and asking the 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. L. L. BAKBUUR. 297 
 
 Legislature to take some action for their relief. The commission 
 recommemied that the State assume control of its dependent chil- 
 dren, provide for and educate them, and among other things, for 
 that purpose recommended the establisliment of a State Primary 
 Scliool. The facts and arguments which they set forth were the 
 moving cause of an act passed at that session, to carry out their 
 recommendation. 
 
 It provided for three commissioners to he aj)pointed hy the 
 Governor, to select a site and erect a building. Thirty thousand 
 dollars were appropriated for the purpose, and the commissioners 
 were given charge of the school after its completion until the end 
 of the next succeeding session of the Legislature. The school 
 was located at Coldwater, the citizens of that place donating the 
 site and t'io.OOO for the purpose. Further appropriations were 
 made in 1873, and the buildings were completed in 1874. By the 
 Legislature of 187") its capacity was increased to accommodate 
 250 children. It was organized upon the congregate and cottage 
 jilan combined ; a large main building, with wings, providing a 
 residence for the Superintendent, offices, dormitories for teachers, 
 and school rooms, and a chapel, and dijiing-room, kitchen, etc., in 
 a rear |)rojection. In the rear of this building, and extending 
 both sides of it, are ten cottages, entirely disconnected, accommo- 
 dating about thirty children each, and each under the charge of a 
 matron. 
 
 There is nothing about the institution which would recall the 
 squalor and untidiness, or the listless vagrant life of poor-house 
 children. In dress, behavior and general appearance, these little 
 ones compari' well with district school children throughout the 
 State. Children over two and under twelve years of age, sound 
 in body and mind, are sent by superintendents of the poor upon 
 the order of the judge of probate. The act provided for teach- 
 ing the branches usually taught in common schools, and for 
 proper moral and physical training, and ileclared the object to 
 be, to providi' such children only a temj)orary home, until one 
 coidd be procured for them in a good family ; and the act made it 
 the duly of the board, so far as [)i)ssible, to procure homes for all 
 such pupils as had received a piiinary education. 
 
 No more l)eneficent measure has been enacte<l by the Legisla- 
 ture of any State. No measure has had a greater tendency to 
 cut oH' the tap-root of crime and pauperism, not because of its 
 
298 Michigan's semi-centknnial. 
 
 enactment simply, but because it has been properly carried out. 
 No feature of it has been a dead letter. The records of the school 
 show the work honestly and faithfully pursued from the day of 
 its commencement, and the number of children cared for and 
 placed in homes, shows the accomplishment of a work second to 
 none other in the State. The share in this noble work taken by 
 the county agents of the State Board of Corrections and Charities, 
 not only in providing homes for children directly, without send- 
 ing them to the State Public School, but also in securing homes 
 for the children from the school, and continually watching over 
 the care and treatment of the little ones that they should suffer 
 no harm from neglect or cruelty, has been such an important 
 element of success in this great charity, that it should ever be in 
 mind when the subject is mentioned. In fact, a great share of 
 this success is owing to the hearty co-operation of the officers of 
 the school and the county agents. The agents have the advantage 
 of personally and continually knowing the families in which the 
 children are placed, and all their surroundings. The first rumor 
 of neglect or ill-treatment is wafted to their ears, and they find a 
 ready way to investigate all charges, and effect reconciliations, 
 where proper, between the children and families with whom they 
 are. Two thousand children have been received at the school ; 
 over fourteen hundred placed in homes, and the plant has cost the 
 State about $150,000. The school is neither penal nor reforma- 
 tory, and no inore taint attaches to any child because of its hav- 
 ing passed through it, than through any other State institution, 
 such as the Normal School, the Agricultural College or the Uni- 
 versity. They are all established for the purpose of aiding those 
 who resort to them to become good and well-educated citizens ; 
 and it is not expected that any one who resorts to anyone of them 
 will return an equivalent for what he receives. 
 
 (ilRLs' INDUSTRIAI. HOME. 
 
 In 1879 the Legislature passed an act establishing a reform 
 school for girls, and appropriating .SoO,000 for purchasing 
 grounds, erecting suitable buildings, and to pay current expenses. 
 It provided for a board of control of four women, subsequently 
 changed to three, and two men, to he ap})ointed in the usual man- 
 ner, authorized to select a site containing not less than twenty- 
 five acres, adopt a plan, erect buildings for the confinement and 
 
ADDRKSS OF UOS. ].. L. BAKHOTR. 299 
 
 discipline of girls between the ages of seven and seventeen until 
 twenty-one years of age, except truants are sent until sixteen. It 
 provided that the school should be conducted on the family or 
 cottage plan ; and that the girls sliouhl be taught donnestic indus- 
 tries and given a thorough education in all branches of household 
 work. Sentences by police or justice court were required to be 
 approved by the Circuit or Probate Court of the county, and the 
 approval endorsed on the commitment. The Board was author- 
 ized to liberate girls reformed, or indenture them to suitable )>er- 
 sons, and authority was granted to return any incorrigible girls 
 to the court, for other sentence. The institution was opened 
 August Ist, 1881 ; eighty-five girls were received during the first 
 fiscal year; and the year following, one hundred and forty-three 
 had been received. Up to June 1st of this year, tliree hundred 
 and four girls have been received ; fifty-three placed out on ticket- 
 of-leave ; twelve returned as unfit subjects; thirty-four discharged 
 for various reasons, of whom twenty-two were for good behavior, 
 and four have died ; leaving one hundred and seventy-nine in 
 the Home. There are five grades, and the girls are graded 
 in the several cottages according to their condition, and 
 the improvement which they make. In 1883 the name 
 of the institution was changed to the State Industrial 
 Home for Girls, and an appropriation of -^65,000 was made for 
 current expenses for two years, and §13,000 to purchase an addi- 
 tional forty acres and for other purposes ; 823,000 was appropri- 
 ated for another cottage, which the Legislature unfortunately 
 provided should be double the capacity of those previously built. 
 
 Thirty girls, such as are usually sent to an institution of this 
 nature, are all that any matron can properly care for Unfortun- 
 ately, too, the cottage was located between others, and sufficient 
 room for the spread of the wings was lacking, so that it was forced 
 to assume the shape of a \'. The proximity of this central cottage 
 to the others adjacent renders it easy, and a matter of daily oc- 
 currence, for the inmates to communicate with those in the adjoin- 
 ing buildings. 
 
 The aim of the iustitulion is, to niakt- domestic women, prudent 
 of speech and conduct, cleanly, industrious and capable, so that 
 they may become eventually good wives and good mothers. To 
 treat them as criminals any more than is absolutelv necessary to 
 restrain them, would be to coinmit an egregious ern>r. Many of 
 
300 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 them have never known what it was to have a clean abiding- 
 place, or to hear clean language ; and the improvement of the 
 girls in manners, conduct and appearance after they have been in 
 this institution a short time is generally to be seen at a glance. It 
 is not expected that all girls sent to such an institution will be 
 saved (whatever that may mean); and it ought not to be expected 
 that an institution such as this will at once attain perfection in all 
 its methods ; but, so far, such a large proportion of the girls who 
 have been released, or placed in homes, have shown themselves so 
 worthy of the trust placed in them, that the Board and officers 
 have every reason to congratulate themselves upon the success of 
 iheir efforts, and the people of the State to be thankful that so 
 important an institution is in worthy hands. 
 
 It is true, however, that there are some girls in the Home, and 
 there have been since the opening, who have no business in such 
 a public institution. They are the unfortunate victims of unkind 
 relatives or others who seek to be rid of them, and use a justice of 
 the peace as the unworthy means of accomplishing their purpose. 
 Some of the o'ertrue tales which are told by these girls of their 
 treatment before arrest, and the farcical trial gone through with to 
 convict them, would bring a blush upon the face of fair justice, if 
 she were aware, how, in her name, such proceedings were con- 
 ducted. 
 
 THE STATE BOAKD OF CORRECTIONS AND CHARITIES. 
 
 The State Board of Corrections and Charities was first oi-ganized 
 in 1871, under the name of the Board of State Commissioners for the 
 general supervision of charitable, penal, pauper and reformatory 
 institutions. It is the continuation of Gov. Baldwin's Commission 
 to examine the penal and charitable institutions of the State. It was 
 made, among other things, the duty of the Board at least once a 
 year to visit and thoroughly examine the prisons, asylums and 
 reformatories of the State, and the jails and poor-houses of the 
 several counties. As a board, it has never had any executive 
 power or authority. It was not created to manage, but to advise 
 and supervise. It has never had any power or desire to control 
 the management of any State or county institution, but through 
 investigations, comparisons and suggestions, to effect more uniform, 
 economical and improved methods for the treatment of those, who 
 through crime, poverty or misfortune, have become partly or wholly. 
 
ADDRKSS OF HON. L. T.. IJAUlJorii. 301 
 
 a public charge, or arc likely to. Perlia|w the ino.st iini)ortant of 
 its duties relates to inspection. Thorough, careful and frequent 
 inspection, by disinterested persons of common sense, always serves 
 to reveal sufficient facts to prevent abuses in public institutions. 
 When the door clo.ses upon the iiiiuate.>< of any public establish- 
 ment and they are secludetl frdui the public view tluy are liable 
 to suffer neglect or abuse from the almost absolute power possessed 
 by the officials. Visits when unexj)ected, and careful oversight, 
 not only tend to prevent abuses, but inspire public confidence in 
 their non-existence. This oversight tends to relieve the officials 
 from suspicious, and frequently materially aids them in making 
 changes and reforms which without advice, aid and support, they 
 would be made unable to effect. Frequently preconceived opinions 
 of other officials, newly elected, inexperienced, knowing nothing of 
 the matter in question, are to be overcome; there are personal 
 interests to be set aside ; deraogoguery to be withstood, and political 
 wire-j)ulling to be exposed. Though these things are not specially 
 nominated in the act creating the .Board or defining its duties, 
 they frequently are to be met, and to meet them is generally suf- 
 ficient to overcome them ; except in the Legislature and sometimes 
 with the judiciary. They, being each in these things, as it were, 
 a law unto themselves, sometimes conduct matters as they please, 
 regardless of argument or law. This is only exceptionally the 
 case. Generally, judges whose attention has been called to abuses 
 or desirable reforms, have heartily co-operated; and the same 
 may be said of legislators when they have devoted the time necessary 
 to a full understanding of a subject presented to them. The 
 Board is one rather of measures than of matters, of theories that 
 have been proved i)ractical, ratlu r than of ])ractices that have 
 only precedents tor their basis, regardless of changes that render 
 them useless or obstructive. Every pathmaster knows that fre- 
 quent alteration is necessary to kt'cp the highways free from ruts; 
 and it is no less true of the ways which lead from the people to 
 institutions ; through institutions and back again to the people. 
 It is necessary to keep them traversable that they should be fre- 
 quently inspected, and obstacles and ruts, when found, removed. 
 
 The Board acts also as a means of communicating information 
 between institutions of different character, — recommending what 
 it finds new and good and healthi'ul ; and advising how to avoid 
 what has been found elsewhere objectionable. For example, iu 
 
302 Michigan's semi-centknnial. 
 
 building, to avoid courts and places unexposed to the sun, as 
 breeding disease; proximity of cottages, as interfering with dis- 
 cipline ; elaborate designs as a waste of the people's money ; an 
 extension of the plan of placing children, not too bad, in fami- 
 lies, as a good fiimily under ordinary circumstances is the best 
 home and reformatory that can be provided for our dependent 
 and delinquent youth ; bath-rooms and work-yards in connection 
 with jails, as cleanliness and industry are the two things which a 
 tramp or vagrant hates worse than the devil hates holy water. 
 Sometimes amusing incidents occur in connection with the inspec- 
 tion of county buildings. The visitor is detained until those who 
 are half clad, without shoes or uncombed, are put in order ; but 
 any little attempt of this description at deception, is at once per- 
 ceived, and generally casually noticed in a pleasant manner that 
 prevents its repetition. If a house is dirty, it cannot be cleaned 
 in a few moments. If the inmates are squalid, unkempt or ill-fed, 
 their appeai'ance will indicate these facts to a connoisseur at 
 once, and unequivocally ; and, on the other hand, if general order 
 prevails, and cleanliness and industry are the rule, they will show, 
 and any little irregularity is excused, for accidents will happen 
 everywhere, and are more likely to, in the handling of people of 
 irregular habits and undisciplined lives, than elsewhere. 
 
 In the inspection of State institutions there lias very seldom 
 been occasion to complain of the care and treatment of inmates, 
 or of lack of cleanliness. They may generally be said to be 
 models of neatness which many a housewife would do well to 
 copy. They are not all, however, well ventilated or provided with 
 proper bathing facilities. This is more especially true of prisons. 
 
 The law provides that the members of the Board shall receive 
 no compensation for their time or services. No member can be 
 interested in any contract with respect to any State institution, 
 poor-house or jail ; nor, so far as I am able to learn, are there any 
 emoluments or perquisites, except those Addison mentions, when 
 he says, " to an honest mind the best perquisites of a place are the 
 advantages it gives a man of doing good." Of these, there are 
 many ; and with these the Board is content. The actual travel- 
 ing and otHcial expenses of the members — when audited by the 
 Governor, or the State Board of Auditors — are paid. The Board 
 is required by the 1st of October, prior to the sitting of the Leg- 
 islature, to make a written report to the Governor of the result 
 
ADDKKSS OV !I()i\. L. I.. MAKUoI M. 3<>8 
 
 of tlioir investigations, together with such int'onnation and recom- 
 mendations as they may deem proper, inchiding their opinions as 
 to the necessity of further legislation to improve the condition 
 and extend tlie usefulness of the various State, county and other 
 institutions visited. When any special investigations into alleged 
 abuses in any institution are thought necessary, or of -any charit- 
 able or penal institution outside the State, the Governor is author- 
 ized to direct the Board, or one of its members, to examine into 
 the matter, and report. 
 
 The Governor is ex-ojficio a member of the Board. It is pro- 
 vided by Act 20(J, Laws of 1881, that the boards of State charit- 
 able, penal and reformatory institutions, before determining 
 amounts to be recommended for ap[)ropriatiou by the Legislature, 
 needed for the ordinary current expenses for the next two years, 
 and for special purposes, shall submit them to the Board of Cor- 
 rections and Charities for its opinion thereon ; and the Board is 
 required to examine, and report to such boards respectively; also, 
 that when any institution shall determine upon the plan of any 
 building for school purposes, living, work or sleeping-rooms for 
 inmates, or any system of ventilation, heating or sewerage, author- 
 ized by the Legislature to be constructed, such ])lan shall be sub- 
 mitted to the Board for examination and its opinion thereon, and 
 that the next report of the institutional board shall show to what 
 extent such opinions were concurred in. 
 
 COUNTY AGENTS. 
 
 In 1873 it Ijecame evident from authentic reports made to the 
 Governor, that there were nearly or quite one thousand children 
 in the iii>titutuiiis controlled by the State, or some department, 
 held as objects of j)ublic charity, or oflenders under restraint ; and 
 that the number was increasing. It was also ascertained that 
 some children were committed to the Reform School or to places 
 of punishment, for trivial causes without much investigation; and 
 more to be rid of them than for any criminal conduct on the part 
 of the children. This state of facts, together with a purpose to 
 secure if possible combineil and systematic efforts to put children 
 out into reputable families, and to maintain over them during 
 tender years a supervision that should protect them from abuse, 
 led the Legislature in that year to establish a State agency for the 
 care of juvenile offenders, and authorized theGoveruor to appoint 
 
304: Michigan's skmi-centennial. 
 
 each county an agent of the Board of Charities to hold office 
 at the pleasure of the Governor, which precedent has been con- 
 strued to mean during efficiency and good behavior. Notice of 
 such appointmeut is given to the County Clerk, and to all judges 
 and justices of the peace. No compensation was at first provided 
 for agents, their actual expenses only being repaid. By subse- 
 quent enactment, they are paid three dollars for each case, but 
 not to exceed one hundred dollars for expenses and services in 
 each county, excepting Wayne and Kent, where two hundred 
 dollars may be expended. 
 
 When complaint is made against any child under sixteen, for 
 any oflTense not punishable with imprisonment for life, the court 
 or magistrate having jurisdiction, before proceeding to hear the 
 case, is required to give notice in writing to the county agent, and 
 allow him opportunity to investigate the charge. It is made 
 the agent's duty immediately to make a full examination of the 
 parentage and surroundings of the child, with all the facts and 
 circumstances of the case, and report to the court, whom then the 
 law requires to counsel and advise with him respecting what 
 course the interests of the child and the public demand with 
 respect to its disposition. Thereupon, if a proper case, the court 
 may, with the advice and approval of the Judge of Probate, au- 
 thorize the agent to bind out the child to some suitable person, or 
 should it appear willful and unmanageable, cause it to be sent to 
 one of the Reform Schools, or House of Correction, subject to 
 such condition of sex and age as the law provides. 
 
 It is also made the duty of the agent to visit, at least yearly, 
 all children indentured or placed in charge of any person by the 
 board of any State institution, inquire into the management, con- 
 dition and treatment of such children, and for that pur])ose, have 
 private interviews with them, and report to the State Board of 
 Charities and to the institution indenturing them. And should it 
 at any time come to the ears of an agent that any such child is 
 abused or neglected, or that the person is unfit to have the man- 
 agement of such child, he must report the fact to the institution, 
 whereupon the contract is cancelled and the child returned, or 
 indentured to some other person. Before any children can be 
 indentured, adopted or taken from any institution, a report from 
 the agent respecting the suitability of the place must be made, 
 and the law required all applications for release or discharge of 
 
ADORKSS OF UoX. I,. [,. iJAKliolK. 305 
 
 such adopted or indentured children to be given to the agent for 
 his report. It is made the especial duty of such agents to seek 
 suitable persons who are willing to adopt chilclren arrested, or 
 connnitted to any State institution, or who have been abandoned 
 or neglected. It is the duty of the superintendent of any reform 
 school forthwith to notify the agent of the county upon the dis- 
 charge of any child, and the agent, so far as possible, assists in 
 procuring hint employment and a home free from immoral influ- 
 ences. The agent is also required to keep a careful history of 
 each case. By the law of 1885 the report of the agent to the 
 court is required to be attached to the mittimus when any child 
 is sent to a reformatory, and the agents are required to make 
 special reports of their doings to the superintendents of State 
 institutions when recpiested by their superintendents, and to the 
 State Board of Charities. 
 
 In I880, also, the county agents together with tlu' superintend- 
 ents of the poor and the Judge of Probate, were made a local 
 board of jail inspectors, to report twice a year to the Circuit 
 Court and the Board of Charities, the condition of the jail and 
 lockups in each county. The spring inspection was very gener- 
 ally conscientiously performed, sharp criticism of the condition of 
 very many jails made, and from the newspapers it seems evident 
 that many changes for the better resulting from these inspections 
 and reports will be made. 
 
 In 1882 the Board of Corrections antl Charities called the 
 county agents together in convention at Jackson. An address 
 vf-as delivered by the President of the Board, [)apers of great inter- 
 est were prepared and read by a number of the agents and others ; 
 and a general discussion followed each paper. Some of the sub- 
 jects will indicate the matters considered, as, " Dealing with 
 Accused and Indigent Children," " Putting Children into Homes," 
 " Visiting Indentured Children," " Rights and Duties of the State 
 towards Children Morally Exposed by their Surroundings." A 
 general conference of agents followed, after the manner of conven- 
 tions of Superintendents of the Poor. Since then, annually, such 
 a convention has been held in different parts of the State, and the 
 proceedings published by the Board of Charities and the publica- 
 tion distributed where it would do the most good. At the last 
 annual meeting, the agents elected oflBcers and became a perma- 
 
306 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 nent organizatiou, and the same beneficial results may be expected 
 as from the organization of the Superintendents of the Poor. 
 
 BOARD OF PARDONS. 
 
 The Advisory Board in the Matter of Pardons was created by 
 an act of the last Legislature, by which the Governor was author- 
 ized, with the assent of the Senate, to appoint four citizens of the 
 State members of the lioard (two from each of the dominant 
 political parties), two for two years and two for four years, whose 
 duty it should be to investigate and consider all applications for 
 pardons or commutations of sentence made by prisoners confined 
 at Jackson and the two houses of correction, at Ionia and Detroit. 
 
 The Board organized for business July, 1885. All petitions 
 sent to the Governor, and those on hand at the time the Board 
 was organized, have been referred to it ; besides many petitions 
 made to the Board directly. It is the custom of the Board to 
 investigate cases as thoroughly as possible, ascertaining all the 
 facts and circumstances relative to the crime, the trial, and the 
 previous history of the convict. In these investigations the Board 
 visits the prison and has personal interviews with the convicts 
 who have complied with the rules of the Board in their applica- 
 tions. In considering cases, the Board does not give weight to 
 the complaint that on the testimony the prisoner ought not to 
 have been convicted, unless the case shows a very flagrant viola- 
 tion of justice, as one or two have. In other words, the Board 
 does not assume to review the action of the jury. It has been the 
 aim of the Board, in exercising its functions, to treat with great 
 care the cases of young men, or men in for their first offense, 
 especially with a view of giving such convicts a chance to reform. 
 The system adopted in this class of cases is, when deemed worthy, 
 to put them out on probation, after the manner of ticket-of-leave 
 men. The Board has made a number of recommendations upon 
 this basis, which have been acted upon by the Governor, and have 
 proved so far very successful. In only one case has there been a 
 failure, and in that case, immediately upon the breach of the con- 
 dition corning to the knowledge of the Board, it caused proceed- 
 insrs to be instituted against the convict. He was tried for the 
 breach of his parole, convicted and returned to the prison at 
 Jackson to serve the balance of liis original sentence. The Board 
 has, in its investigations, discovered that there is among the pris- 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. L. L. BAKBOUR. 307 
 
 oners a feeliug that injustice is frequently done them in the great 
 inequality of sentences for like offenses. The Board has found 
 cases of convicts sentenced to the State Prison for rape, all the 
 way from five years to life ; and the worst cases have freciueutly 
 received the shortest sentences. It has found this inequality of 
 sentences running all through the prison, and this feeling of injus- 
 tice is the cause of much dissatisfaction among tlie men, — that a 
 wrong has been perpetrated upon them and that they feel justified 
 in taking any course to get even. This is very natural and ought 
 to be expected ; but it docs away with all the good results which 
 might be hoped from punishment. When the prisoner is turned 
 loose again u|n)n society at the end of a fixed term, with this 
 embittered feeliug raukling in his breast, he becomes ten times the 
 ciiild of hell he was when society attempted to check his career 
 in crime. The Board sees, also, plainly that a result of confining 
 a young man who has committed his first offense with hardened 
 offenders who have led alternately a life of crime and of punish- 
 ment, is, that he loses all self-respect, and that the unvarying 
 tendency is to make him a criminal for life. The Board is of the 
 opinion that when a man has become an habitual criminal, he 
 should be retained within the prison for life ; but care should be 
 taken that he should not be convicted of a second offense simply 
 because convicted of a first offense. Such things do happen too 
 frequently. 
 
 From these statements, it will be concluded that the Board is 
 strongly in favor of the introduction in prison management of the 
 ticket-of-leave, and of the indeterminate or indefinite sentence, as 
 now generally understood ; that is, upon conviction, sentence is 
 passed for the time prescribed for that character of ofl'ense by the 
 statute, leaving it to be determined whether the prisoner shall 
 serve the maximum or minimum, not l)y the judge who tries the 
 case, and only knows what of the history of the accused can be 
 gleaned while he is on trial ; but from the conduct of the pris- 
 oner while in the prison by the officers in whose care he is placed 
 whon tliey have learned his previous history and surroundings, 
 and have studied his character wliile daily under their eyes or 
 supervision. 
 
 The Board also favors suspension of sentences in cases of first 
 offense, and that the culprit be placed under police surveillance 
 for a period of time. 
 
308 Michigan's semi-centknnial. 
 
 NATIONAL PRISON RKFoRM ASSOCIATION. 
 
 At the National Conference of Charities at Washington in June, 
 1885, through' the influence of the Superintendent of the Detroit 
 House of Correction and the members of the Board ol Charities 
 present, the National Prison Association was induced to hold its 
 annual meeting at Detroit in October. Attended by many men 
 from different States and Canada, for many years experienced in 
 the actual management of prisons, and by many others for years 
 and years known and honored for their zealous labors in prison- 
 work and reform, this meeting excited much interest. However 
 much some who were unfamiliar with the ideas advanced by the 
 most prominent speakers were inclined to criticise and condemn, or 
 to deride other results, it cannot be denied that much interest and 
 thought was aroused throughout the State, and a desire created 
 for the progress of the work, which will be felt for a long time. 
 
 The opening meeting, held on Saturday evening is said to have 
 been the largest ever known in the world on the subject of prison 
 reform. 
 
 Non-partisan government of prisons, the appointment of prison 
 officers solely for competency, and their retention during good 
 behavior, the classification and grading of criminals, separ- 
 ating the old in crime from young offenders, the nature and 
 extent of punishment in prisons, the kinds of labor enabling a 
 prisoner to gain an honest livelihood when discharged, the dis- 
 position and oversight of discharged prisoners, the indeterminate 
 sentence, the control and management of jails by the State and 
 not by counties, the advantages of non-intercourse between pris- 
 oners in jails, and the necessity of matrons in station-houses and 
 jails, were some of the topics ably discussed by men whose repu- 
 tation is continental and even world-wide. 
 
 The wonderful effects of the changes lately made in England, 
 as shown by some of the papers, illustrated and enforced the prin- 
 ciples and views earnestly advocated by the State Board of Cor- 
 rections (luring the last four years. 
 
 The education of the people in these things was begun, and 
 when they are brought to understand the nature and the extent 
 of the evils existing in connection with them, reform will come, 
 and these evils will cease. 
 
ADDKKSS OK .I.VMKS W. BARlLKir. 3(>9 
 
 THE PROGRESS OF THE .MECHANIC ARTS IN THE 
 LAST FIFTY YEARS. 
 
 JAMES W. BARTLETT. 
 
 Gentlkmkn and Ladies: In attempting to write a paper on 
 the progress of the Mechanic Arts in the last fifty years, I find 
 the field so vast that I can only hope to glean a little here and 
 there, to note a few of the most glaring facts, to find out, as near 
 as I can, what was the then state of the arts, and what they have 
 arrived at, at the present time ; to put in a priek-puncli mark, 
 "as it were," so that some other machinist, fifty years hence, can 
 take up the subject where I have droi)ped it and carry it on 
 another fifty years. No doubt he will ridicule the small begin- 
 nings that I consider so wonderful, and laugh at our ignorance of 
 what are, to him, self-evident facts ; hut he wont hurt our feelings, 
 for we shall have gone over to the majority. If 1 should confine 
 myself to Michigan, I should have little to say, though some of 
 the largest manufactories in .Vmerica are situated in the vState. 
 
 When this State was admitted into the Union there was hardly 
 a trace of the Mechanic Arts within her borders ; a few farmers 
 scratched the earth on the banks of our great lakes and rivers, a 
 few grist-mills were driven by the unstable winds, or by the slight 
 falls in our sluggish streams; some were even run by the slow ox 
 pacing his weary round ; half a dozen small saw-mills, driven by 
 water power, had beguti to cut their way into the forest; steam 
 navigation had commenced on the lakes, and there were four 
 steam engines in or near Detroit, all of them not aggregating 
 one hundred horse-power; the houses were mostly built with an 
 axe, which was the most useful, and almost the only tool known 
 to the inhabitants. The noble red man was still among u.i; 
 hundreds of their canoes could be seen at once, from the banks of 
 the river near Detroit; they had got out of the stone age, into 
 the age of whisky. The Indians were not great mechanics; but 
 three of their inventions have never been improved upon l)y the 
 most skillful experts of modern times ; the snow-shoe, toboggan 
 and birch-hark canoe were perfected before Columbus crossed the 
 Atlantic. 
 
310 Michigan's semi-centennial, 
 
 THE FIRST USE OF MACHINERY. 
 
 Probably the oldest, and certainly the most sacred use of ma- 
 chinery is in public worship ; for praying-machines, moved by 
 hand or driven by water power, are now, and from time imme- 
 morial have been in use. In Northern Asia they consist of 
 revolving cylinders on which are carried or written a form of 
 prayer. In modern times it is the words "Oom Nannie Puime 
 Oom," something repeated thousands of times. These machines 
 are set up along the highways, so that travelers can set them 
 whirling, thus repeating thousands of prayers at each revolution. 
 Water-falls are taken advantage of to turn them, and thus to 
 send up constant streams of supplications; to the great saving of 
 manual labor, as they keep going, no matter what sins their owner 
 may be committing. So old is this custom, that one of our lead- 
 ing scientists, in a lecture on the discovery of fire, gives as his 
 opinion, that the first fire known by man was caused by one of 
 these machines taking fire from a hot bearing. For this reason 
 fire has since been an object of worship, and the worship of fire 
 preceded its use for cooking or heating. 
 
 The mysterious whirls and tops, of which so many were found 
 in digging for the ruins of Troy, which were graven with unknown 
 alphabets, were probably fly-wheels to hand praying-machines, 
 similar to those now used in Thibet. 
 
 Andrew Wilson, in the "Abode of Snow," says: "I found 
 the ordinary prayer-wheel used. A brass cylinder about six 
 inches long and two inches in diameter, containing a long scroll 
 of paper, on which were written innumerable reduplications of the 
 Lama prayer, " Om ni pad ma houn," and whicli is turned from 
 left to right in the monk's hand by means of an axle which passes 
 through the centre. In the Lama temple I found a still more 
 powerful piece of devotional machinery, in the shape of a gigan- 
 tic prayer-mill, made of bronze, about seven or eight feet in diam- 
 eter, and which might be turned either by hand or by a rill of 
 water, which could be made to fall upon it. This jirayer con- 
 tained, lam afraid to say how many millions of repetitions of 
 the great Lama prayer. The neophyte who showed the prayer- 
 mill to me, turned it with ease, and allowed me to send up mil- 
 lions of prayers.'' 
 
ADDRESS OK .lAMKS W. IJAHTLKIT. 311 
 
 THE AGK OF STKAM. 
 
 The period, the close of which we are to-day celebrating, might 
 be called the Age of Steam. 
 
 About the beginning of the nineteenth ccntnry, the all- 
 con(iuering power of steam having burst the wooden fetters by 
 which mankind had tried to confine it, and struggling in its iron 
 bonds, began its mighty work. Without its aid, modern civiliza- 
 tion would have been impossible, the horse and ox had lent their 
 feeble aid, the unstable force of the winds had long been used, 
 and where water was so situated as to run downhill, the water- 
 wheel was serving man in its weak way ; even the ebb and flow 
 of the tides had been utilized; but with all these forces, human 
 muscles had to bear the brunt of the labor of the world, till steam 
 came to man's aid. What are the muscles of man compared to 
 this untiring power? For, by the use of four pounds of the 
 poorest coal an hour, steam will do the work of eight men. A man 
 working 300 days a year for thirty years, will accomplish only the 
 amount of labor that can be done by"22j tons of slack coal. The 
 coal being worth SI. 75 a ton, so the labor of a man for au aver- 
 age lifetime, is only worth $39,871. According to the census 
 of 1880, there was used in the United States, for driving 
 the machinery of its 85,932 manufactories, 3,410,837 horse 
 power. '1^0 drive this machinery by human labor, > would take 
 27,286,693 men ; and as there was but 14,744,942 men at work 
 at all occupations, from preaching to ditching, we should have to 
 enlarge our population immensely, before we could spare men for 
 the purpose. And we also find that only 3,837,112 were 
 employed at any manufactory, or at mechanical work ; so it 
 would take over eight times as many men to turn the machines 
 as to operate them, and to do, in addition, all other mechanical 
 labor, that does not require power, such as carpentering, hand- 
 weaving, tanning and baking. 
 
 This 3,410,837 horse-power, is not nearly all that is used in the 
 United States, no account being taken of engines used for pump- 
 ing water, steam fire-engines, pile drivers, locomotives, or the 
 thousands of engines used for farm purposes Pumping water for 
 Detroit takes 2,000 horse-jmwer daily. If we de])cnded on human 
 labor for our water supply, it would take 22,000 able-bodied men 
 to keep us in drinking water. What an addition to our population 
 
312 Michigan's sExMi-centenxial 
 
 this would be ; as we fiud by the census, that less thau one-third 
 of mankind, in the United States, work for a living, the addition 
 to the inhabitants of the city would be 66,000 people. Add to 
 these, the mechanics to construct their houses, tradesmen to supply 
 their groceries and dry goods, ministers, school-teachers and doc- 
 tors, to take care of their morals, education and health, to say 
 nothing of city officials, tax collectors, policemen and saloon- 
 keepers. What a power could be shown by 22,000 intelligent 
 voters, united in one interest, and voting as one man I What a 
 calamity a strike would be! We should all have to take our 
 pails and form a grand procession towards the river. 
 
 Within a few days I have found out that I have plagiarized 
 from the works of an old citizen of Michigan, for a title of a poem 
 written in 1880, by Major General Whitney, is "The Age of 
 Steam ;" but as I suppose this title has been used hundreds of 
 times since, I won't change it, and I humbly apologize to our old 
 ancestor for stealing his thunder. 
 
 I have overestimated the value of the labor of a man, for com- 
 paring him with the modern compound engine, his work for a life- 
 time only equals 9^ tons of hard coal, or the value of 28.88 dollars 
 in soft coal. 
 
 FREIGHT. 
 
 Before the advent of steam, civilization was confined to coun- 
 tries near natural harbors and the banks of navigable streams, for 
 water-courses were almost the only highways known, the only 
 exception being portages between two seas, where coramei'ce had 
 to pass for a short distance over laud. The cheapest method of 
 land transportation was by camels, well called the ships of the 
 desert, and on their track over the portages between the Mediter- 
 ranean Sea and the Indian Ocean great cities sprung up, the 
 stupendous ruins of which are now in uninhabited deserts. Petrea, 
 Baalbec, Palmyra, and many others, once flourished, whose names 
 are forgotten, and whose sites are only marked by heaps of cut 
 stone, and here and there a broken column. The want of harbors 
 and rivers keeps the "Dark Continent" of Africa a barbarous 
 country, except a narrow strip along the northern coast and the 
 banks of the Nile, which from pre-historic times has been the seat 
 of the highest civilization; the camel, introduced about the 
 Christian Era, half civilized the countries bordering on the 
 southern edge of the great desert ; l)ut in the South, on account 
 
ADDKKSS OF .JAMES W. B A Kl LKIT. 313 
 
 of the destruction of all horses aud oxen by theseroot fly, the only 
 beast of burden being man, the only merchandise that will pay 
 for transportation is gold, ostrich feathers and ivory, and the 
 never-failing crop of the country, Negro slaves, who transport 
 themselves to the seaboard to do the work for the Christian 
 races in the torrid zone. In America, all internal traffic was car- 
 ried on by water, and all settlements were at the seaboard, or on 
 the rivers and lakes; at every good harbor from Hudson Bay to 
 Galveston settlements sprung up, and the banks of the Mississip- 
 pi, Potomac, Hudson, Connecticut and St. Lawrence as high up 
 as their first rapids, were peopled long before a tree was cut fifty 
 miles inland. 
 
 The profitable fur trade raised up a race of half-amphibious 
 wood rangers, who carried their birch-bark canoes, and packed 
 their goods and furs round falls and rapids, and from the head- 
 waters of one stream acro.ss the water-shed of the Atlantic, to 
 those running into the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, 
 making portages by trails worn by the moccasins of generations 
 of Indians. This kind of travel was reduced to a system by the 
 Hudson Bay Company in tlie Northwest ; for in 1793, Alexander 
 Mackenzie succeeded in crossing the continent, reaching the Pa- 
 cific at Vancouver's Sound, by way ofFrazer's river. He had in 
 1789 reachetl the Arctic Ocean, by the river that bears his name. 
 In his works, 1 find a curious account of the method and cost of 
 travel in those days, which did not materially change in that part 
 of the country till after the Erie Canal was opened. The fleet 
 started the first of May, from La Chine, eight miles above Mon- 
 treal, with eight or ten men in each canoe, and their baggage, aud 
 sixty-five packages of goods, six hundred weight of biscuit, two 
 hundred weight of pork, three bushels of peas, for the men's pro- 
 vision ; two oil cloths to cover the goods, a sail, an axe, a towing- 
 line, a kettle, and a sponge to l)ail out tin- boat, and gum and 
 bark for repairs. 
 
 This is all they had for a voyage of five months, on the whole 
 length of which they liardly passed a house; they slept on the 
 ground where night found tiiem, and took rain or sun, without 
 shelter. Their course was up the Ottawa River, through Lake 
 Nipissing, down the French River, through Georgian Bay to 
 Detour, up St. Mary's River to the Sault, round which tiiey car- 
 ried their canoes, into Laki' .'^u[)erior, cruising round the north 
 
31-1 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 shore to Grand Portage, 130 miles from what is now Duluth. 
 The trip from La Chine is a hard road to travel ; the voyageurs 
 are frequently obliged to unload their canoes aud carry the goods 
 upon their backs, or rather suspended in slings from their heads ; 
 each man's ordinary load is two packages, though some carry 
 three, the canoe being towed by a strong line. 
 
 Over the portages, the canoe and all the lading is carried ; at 
 some of them the rock is so steep and difficult of access that it 
 requires twelve men to take the canoe out of the water ; it is then 
 carried by six men, two at each end on the same side, and two 
 under the opposite gunwale in the middle. On the trip to Lake 
 Huron, there are twenty-nine places where the canoes must be 
 taken out of the water, and thirteen where it is only unloaded ; 
 the longest carry is 2,030 paces. They reach the Grand Portage 
 in July, tote their packs over a nine-mile portage into waters run- 
 ning into Hudson Bay, bring over packs of furs for a return 
 load, put to sea, and return over the same route to Montreal, by 
 the last of September, having been five mouths on the way. Those 
 of us that have been in those forests in summer, will appreciate 
 how much they must have suffered from mosquitoes. 
 
 The cost of each caaoe was $ 50 
 
 Pay of ten men (550 
 
 Clothing, ten men 100 
 
 Provisions, ten men 300 
 
 Net cost, two loads |1,100 
 
 Two canoe loads, goods up and furs for down freight, 11,700 
 pounds. 
 
 Net cost of freight, per pound, $9.04. Add to this the guide, 
 foremen, clerks, and the expense of a large force at Grand Por- 
 tage, who stay there summer and winter, and it will make pretty 
 costly freight. North of the Grand Portage, men are hired by 
 the year, and the freight costs twice as much as the lower lake. 
 For taking a bale of furs nine miles over the Grand Portage they 
 pay a silver dollar, or one cent a pound, and board the men the 
 year round. 
 
 And it cost something to feed them, where " corn is the cheap- 
 est provision that can be procured, thougii from the expense of 
 transport the bushel costs about !!i^5.00 at the Grand Portage," being 
 all brought from Detroit. The Northwest company shipped their 
 
ADDRESS OF .TAMKS W. BAUir-ETT. 315 
 
 goods from Montreal iu boats to Kingston, and from thence in 
 vessels to Niagara, then overland ten miles to a water commnni- 
 cation, by boats to Lake Erie, where they were received into 
 vessels, and carried over that lake up the river Detroit, and the 
 Sinclair to Lake Huron, and from there to the Falls of St. Mary, 
 where they were again landed and carried for a mile above the 
 falls, and shipped over Lake Superior to tlie Grand Portage. 
 This is found to be a less expensive method than canoes, but 
 attended with more risk, and requiring more time than one short 
 season of this country will admit. For the purpose of conveying 
 all these things, they have two vessels upon the Lakes Erie and 
 Huron, and one on Lake Superior, of from 50 to 70 tons burthen. 
 The fur traders purchased in Detroit Indian corn and flour; the 
 corn was prepared in Detroit, by boiling it in a strong lye which 
 takes off the outer husk, well washed, and carefully dried. This 
 is the first manufactureil article I can hear of, ex[)orted from the 
 State ; and it must liave been a large export, as it was the only 
 vegetable food used by the voyageur-'^ above the Grand Portage ; 
 a quart boiled for two hours, with two ounces of suet, was a day's 
 ration of the canoe men ; it was called hominee. Under these 
 conditions of expensive freight, and toilsome travel, no country 
 could be settled ; there being no outlet for the crops, no surplus 
 was raised ; furs being the only article of value enough to bear 
 the expense of transportation to the seaboard. Having little 
 commerce, everything except luxuries must be raised, or made on 
 the spot; the inhabitants raised grain and cattle, and caught fish, 
 enough to supply themselves with food ; the skins of animals, 
 and cloth spun and woven by the women, from wool from their 
 sheep, furnished their garments, so that there was no motive for 
 labor, except to supply their daily wants ; the natural increase of 
 the inhabitants was the only accession to a population that cared 
 little for what was going on in the outside world. The first step 
 in improvement was caused by the opening of the Erie Canal 
 across the State of New York, which gigantic enterprise con- 
 nected the Great Lakes with the rest of the United States, chang- 
 ing their seaport from Montreal to New York, which, with the 
 advent of steamboats on the lakes, started the swarm of emi- 
 grants that liave long ago reached the Pacific Ocean, and are now 
 gleaning back over the field for the spots they passe<l over in 
 their hastv niareli. Wliih^ Michigan remained a Territory, it 
 
316 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 seems to have been avoided by settlers ; those who came about 
 that time were from two to . three weeks on the way from New 
 York, six to teu days on the canal and four or five days by 
 steamer on the lake ; the lake fare was from $15 to ^^20. 
 
 Erie Canal was completed in 1825. In 1834 the number of 
 tons of freight that passed Utica was 396,000, 57 per cent, being 
 lumber and cord-wood.' The only freight that seems to have 
 came from the upper lakes were furs. In 1885, the through 
 freight between Buffalo and Albany was 1,597,620 tons, worth 
 $-i7, 892,167, and probably more local freight was carried in 18'i5 
 than the total amount in 1834." Last year 5,671 canal boats 
 cleared from Buffalo, their average cargo being equal to 8,000 
 bushels of wheat or 240 tons; they reach tide-water in from eight 
 to ten days. The speed at which cargoes are handled is some- 
 thing marvelous. ^ The barge Golden Age, the second in size 
 of any craft on the lakes, has arrived at Buffalo in the morning, 
 discharged 91,500 bushels of wheat, taken on 2,600 tons of coal, 
 and left port the same evening; she is six days in reaching Chi- 
 cago, two days in unloading the coal, and four hours loading with 
 wheat; 1,800 tons of coal has been loaded on a vessel in 119 
 minutes, and 6,550 tons on four vessels in eleven hours.* Many 
 of our large steamboats make a round trip a week, and some 
 have made twenty-two in a season, and they run with great 
 economy, so freights are cheap. 
 
 This year the average freight on the canal is 5 cents, and from 
 Chicago to Buffalo, 2V cents a bushel, though they were much 
 lower last year ; now it costs, with elevator charges and insur- 
 ance, from 9 to 10 cents to deliver a bushel of wheat at tide" 
 water, from Chicago, and it has been done as low as 6 cents, 
 which is at the rate of one-tenth of a cent a pound. Sixty years 
 ago it cost 9 cents a pound without insurance. Therefore, freight 
 was ninety times as high in 1826 as at the present time. Even 
 the railroad freights are not so very high, for they will take a 
 barrel of flour from Chicago to New York for 50 cents, carrying 
 it 950 miles for what a drayman would cliarge to haul it two 
 miles. 
 
 1 Canal report, 18.S4. 
 
 '' Charles O. Irish, Collector of Statistics, Erie Caiiul. 
 
 3 F. Salter, Esq., Grand Trunk R. R. 
 
 < Mr. Langdon, D., L. & W. R. R. Co. Mate of the Gokleu Age. 
 
ADDKK.SS OK .lAMKS W. HA IM I, I 'I'l'. ?» 1 7 
 
 The loading i)f" caual boats is done at great speed, as 8,000 
 busliels of wheat is spouted into tliem in an hour from the ele- 
 vators ; but the speed on the caiuil has not increased, as two horses 
 at a walk is still the method of jjropulsion, thougli steam is some- 
 times used, one small engine driving two boats, but it is not found 
 economical to increase the speed, over that of the horse, as it 
 washes the banks too much. This spring, the canal is used to its 
 utmost capacity, and much freight intended for the canal was 
 shipped by the railroads. Ft is proposed to lengthen the locks to 
 increase its capacity. 
 
 I quote from a paper read by Edward Atkinson before the 
 American Association for the Advancement of Science at Ann 
 Arbor, August, 1885: "In the period under consideration, the 
 screw propeller has finally displaced the paddle-wheel in all ocean 
 traffic. At the same time the compound steam engine has been 
 perfected, the end of both being that the fuel required has been 
 vastly reduced, and where it required over 200 tons per day of 
 coal to cross the Atlantic twenty years since, a much more 
 capacious steamer is now driven across by the use of 35 tons." 
 
 But this statement is far from showing the full change. The 
 important matter is the ratio of fuel to the weight moved ; every 
 pound of coal now carries thirty-two times as much cargo across 
 the Atlantic as could be carried thereby in tlie eai-lier days of 
 ocean navigation. 
 
 The steamer " Persia " in 1850, consumed 1-1,500 lbs. of coal to 
 each ton of cargo, while even the racer " Arizona" in 1882, con- 
 sumed only 450 His. per ton of cargo. In the freight steamers, 
 assuming paper to have the same calorific value as coal, the com- 
 bustion of an ordinary letter, such as carried by mail for a two- 
 cent stamp, Wduld move a ton of cargo and its share of the vessel 
 two miles. A lump of coal which can be mailed anywhere in the 
 Postal Union for one cent, would do the same work. Thus has 
 room been made for cargoes of provisions or other merchandise, 
 now carried at low cost more than half way round the world, to 
 feed and clothe the people of the most distant lands. 
 
 LltiHT-HoUSKS AM) WAPKH COUR5>K^; OX THE LAKES. 
 
 In 1830 there were but nineteen light-houses on the lakes, seven 
 of these were below the Niagara river. The tirst built on the 
 upper lakes was at Marblehead, Ohio, in 18J1. Butialo Light 
 
318 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 was buik iu 1828, Fair Port, Fort Gratiot, Cleveland, Beaeon, 
 Turtle Islaud and St. Joseph, in 1881, Pelee Island iu 1833, and 
 Conneaut, Ashtabula, Cleveland, and Huron in 1835, making ten 
 below Detroit and two above. There was no light from the head 
 of the St. Clair on Lake Huron to the foot of Lake Michigan. 
 The few vessels navigating the upper lakes could only draw eight 
 feet of water, and to get that, had to go round by the North 
 Channel through St. Clair Flats. In 1857 St. Clair Flats cut was 
 made, also that through Lake George, and the canal was finished 
 round St. Mary's Falls, so that boats drawing thirteen feet of 
 water could go to Chicago, and a depth of twelve feet could be 
 carried into Lake Superior. New light-houses were constantly 
 being built and cuts were made into Chicago, Saginaw, and Port- 
 age Lake. Harbors of refuge were lighted, and extensive piers 
 were built, making artificial harbors at Chicago, Sand Beach, 
 Marquette and other places. A new cut was made through the 
 Flats into Lake St. Clair in 1871, and afterwards deepened to 
 twenty feet. In 1872 a canal was dug from Green Bay to 
 Lake Michigan, A new set of locks were opened September 1, 
 1881, giving sixteen feet of water into Lake Superior. At Lime 
 Kiln Crossing a cut is now in progress through solid rock, which 
 will give a depth of water of twenty feet, which is as deep as will 
 ever be needed, as that is all the water tliat cau be carried over 
 Lake St. Clair. 
 
 There are now 354 light-houses on the lakes, 239 of which are 
 American and 115 Canadian ; twenty-two of these are provided 
 with fog-signals. The lakes have been accurately surveyed and 
 charted. Buoys and beacons mark all channels and shoals. 
 Hay Lake channel is being opened, which will lessen the distance 
 to Lake Superior eleven miles, besides making a straighter course, 
 nineteen feet deep, that can be lighted so that St. Mary's river 
 can be navigated at night as well as by day. The new locks at 
 Sault Ste. Marie are opened and shut by the power of water 
 wheels driven by the falls, the njethod being hydraulic cylin- 
 ders worked by a pump, a pressure of 300 pounds being carried, 
 and oil used instead of water, to avoid freezing. The grounds are 
 lighted by electricity, so that the locks are used by night as well 
 as by day. 
 
 The first year of the opening of the caual, the freight tonnage 
 passing through the locks was only 5,000 tons. In 1885 it had 
 
ADDRESS OF JAMKS W. HAKTLETT. 319 
 
 increased to o,2r)() ()28 tons, increasintf gradually till the new 
 locks were opened in 18'S1, when it almost doubled in three years. 
 Coal freight increased from 1(»0,()0() tons in J 879 to over 900,000 
 tons in 1885. 
 
 Wheat as a down freight increased, at about the same ratio as 
 coal ; last year it amounted to 15,500,000 bushels. 
 
 These water-ways and light-houses show a wonderful increase 
 in the perfection of modern engineering. At Lime Kiln Crossing 
 the work of deepening the channel is carried on in a swift current 
 in the direct course of all the shipping to the lower lakes. The 
 drills are moved by steam and the charges of dynamite exploded 
 by electricity, without removing the scow ; each hole is drilled at 
 the exact place marked on the chart, the position being directed 
 from instruments set on shore. One of the great dangers of the 
 !St. Mary's river was the Neebish Rapids, where the channel ran 
 between immense rocks. The Canadian government had been at 
 work twenty years blasting at these obstructions, and might have 
 been at it twenty years more before they had got a safe channel. But 
 three years ago the United States River and Harbor Engineer set 
 a steam dredge at work on the other side of the river, and in a few 
 weeks dug out a perfectly straight channel twenty feet deep, 
 changing the whole course of the navigation of the river. 
 
 The light-houses on the lakes are of every variety, from timber 
 lattice-work to permanent structures of brick, stone and iron, and 
 in every situation, I'roni the tops of high hills to foundations laid 
 in water twenty-two feet deep ; some are beautiful additions to 
 the architecture of largo cities, and others are in the roughest 
 waters of the lakes out of sight from the nearest land. Who has 
 not heard of the Pharos of Alexandria and the Colossus of 
 Rhodes ? And the books are full of tiie descriptions of the great 
 achievement of building a light-house on Eddystone Rock, which, 
 at the time, without steam, was a wonderful work. The rock was 
 fourteen miles from harbor and almost covered at high tide, so 
 the work could only be carried on at low water. Three structures 
 were built within sixty-three years, before one could be got fo 
 stand the weather. The inscription on it is, " Except the Lord 
 build the house, they labor in vain that build it." 
 
 Few who are not mariners, noticed an advertisement in 1882, 
 giving notice that a light would be shown at Stannard Rock, Lake 
 Superior ; and few except fishermen have been within five miles 
 
320 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 (»f it. The problem was to build a light-house forty miles from 
 the nearest harbor, in twelve feet of water, in an almost arctic cli- 
 mate, where the terrible force of moving ice was to be guarded 
 against as well as the fierce dash of the waves. A crib ninety feet 
 square was built at Huron Bay, towed out by four steamers, and 
 sunk at the proper place on the reef This formed a foot-hold for 
 future operations. A ring of boiler-iron fifteen feet wide was hung 
 over the water's surface by twenty-four long screws and scribed true 
 with the bottom of the lake, which was a rough trap-rock vary- 
 ing in depth of water about seven feet in the circumference of the 
 ring; at one place it varied seven feet in ten feet in length. This 
 ring was cut off at the scribed mark, armed with a bag of okrum 
 and lowered to the bottom by the use of screws from which it had 
 hung. Plates were riveted on to raise it to thirty-three feet ; it 
 was then pumped out dry and filled with concrete, making a 
 monolith of concrete, solid as a rock, sixty feet in diameter and 
 thirty-five feet high. On this was erected a round cut-stone tower 
 twenty-six feet in diameter at the base, surmounted by a cast-iron 
 balcony, watch-house and lantern, the centre of the lens being 
 seventy-eight and a half feet above the water. The structure is 
 divided into five stories, which are used for living-rooms, occupied 
 by the light-keepers, and below the surface of the concrete are 
 rooms for two fog-signals and cellars for coal and supplies. The 
 weight of the concrete in the base is but little less than 20,000 
 tons, and much more than this weight of stone was used for keep- 
 ing in place the temporary crib work. Add to this the cut stone 
 and iron for the tower, which was quarried and prepared on shore 
 and carried over forty miles of water LaiKfing could only be 
 made at the crib in calm weather, and the working season was 
 only four months in tlie year, owing to the inclemency of the 
 weather. Fifty years ago such a work would have been impossi- 
 ble, but with the help of steam, most anything can be done. 
 
 The first of this class of work on the lakes was at Spectacle 
 Reef, where a coffer-dam of wood was sunk in substantially the 
 same manner as that at Stannard Kock ; the dam was pumped 
 out, the rock below was cut level, and a structure built from the 
 bottom with massive cut stone dove-tailed together and pinned to 
 the rock below. This, being the first great work of this kind, was 
 a most daring and successful piece of engineering. Spectacle Reef 
 id sixteen miles from the nearest harbor, and in the roughest part 
 
ADDKIOSS OF JAMK6 \V. liAK'lLETT. 321 
 
 of Lake Huron. You would have to search many public docu- 
 ments to find who was the projector of these great works, which 
 few of us have ever heard of 
 
 STKAMIJOATS ON TlIK [.AKES. 
 
 The first steamer on the lakes was the low-pressure, side-wheel, 
 beam-engine boat "Ontario," built at Sackett's Harbor, in 1816. 
 She was schooner-rigged, with a small cabin abaft the wheel-house. 
 She was 110 feet long, 213 ton burden, her cylinder was thirty- 
 four inches diameter by four feet stroke. The first steamer which 
 ever stirred the waters of Detroit River was the " Walk in the 
 Water," arriving at Detroit August 22, 1818. The first boat 
 built in Michigan, in 1834, was named " Michiu^an First," and was 
 built in Detroit at the foot of First street, by Capt. Blake. She 
 was 470 tons burden, and had two low-pressure beam-engines, and 
 cylinder boilers set in brick-work; the cylinders were 3H inches 
 in diameter and nine feet stroke. Five other boats were built in 
 this State before 1836 ; ninety steam crafts were built on the 
 lakes before 1836, aggregating 23,222 tons, the average being 258 
 tons ; forty-two of these were built below Niagara Falls, leaving 
 forty-eight that could have reached Michigan ; and, as many of 
 these were lost early in their career, it would be safe to assume 
 that not more than twenty steamboats were running on Lake 
 Erie in 1836. 
 
 There was less than one arrival of a steamboat a day at Detroit. 
 Four trips of the "Michigan First" were sufficient to do all the 
 business between Buffalo and Chicago for the year 1836 ;' and it 
 was nine years before the sound of an exhaust pipe was heard on 
 the waters of Lake Superior, when the " Independence " was 
 moved round the falls on rollers and launched above the rapids. 
 Compare this with the shipping of to-day." Last year there were 
 46,93y passages of vessels through the Detroit River, carrying a 
 freight tonnage of 19,645,271 tons. Navigation l)eing open on 
 the average of 224 days in the year, so 209 vessels a day pass 
 Detroit, being 81 an hour for the whole season, and more vessels 
 pass and more freight is carried through the locks at the Sault 
 into Lake Superior than passes through the Suez Canal, the great 
 thoroughfare between Europe and Asia. 
 
 ' Theo. Hiuchinaii. ■' Qeueral O. M. Poe. 
 
 21 
 
322 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Almost every style of engine now used for paddle-wheel l)oats 
 was early in use, high and low pressure, double and single beam, 
 horizontal, and square and side-lever and even the compound 
 were tried. The first horizontal engine had fly-wheels, and one 
 running to Mount Clemens had the paddle-wheel driyen by a belt ; 
 but most of the engines used before 1832 were of the so-called 
 " Pittsburgh Style," having one or two cylinders from 16 to 24 
 inches, and from 7 to 9 feet stroke, with the poppet valves at each 
 end, worked by long levers, moved by wippers on a rocker — 
 shaft, running across the centers of the cylinders, driven by an 
 eccentric. The connection-rod was of wood over twenty feet long, 
 driving cast-iron cranks. The shafts were of cast-iron, the bed- 
 plates of wood with a light plate of iron, to carry the cylinders 
 and slides. From two to five two-flue boilers 20 to 24 feet long, 
 were used, placed below deck and cased in brick-work. 
 
 This style of boiler held its place till long after 1850, at which 
 time the first tubular boilers were built, tubes being introduced 
 at that date. They were superseded by the return tubular-boiler, 
 which has held its place till to-day. 
 
 When Illinois was being settled, from 1842 to 1852, was the 
 palmy time for this class of boats ; seyeral passed Detroit every 
 day packed with emigrants, like sardines in a box, some boats 
 carrying 1,500 passengers. They must have carried very high 
 steam, as the sound of their exhaust could be heard at Detroit as 
 they entered the river at Maiden, two hours before they arrived 
 at the city. 
 
 Between 1850 and 1860 this class of boats was superseded by 
 those driven by low pressure beam-engines, the largest of which 
 was the " Plymouth Rock," 1,991 tons burden. She was used for 
 passengers between Buffalo and Detroit. Her cylinder was 82 
 inches in diameter by 12 feet stroke, which was the largest ever used 
 on the lakes. Her wheels were 36 feet in diameter. This style 
 of engine is the only one now in use for side-wheel boats. Many 
 boats have been built of this type, and some of them are very 
 fast ; even as high as twenty-two miles an hour is claimed for some 
 of them. The fastest mercantile boat in America is of this type. 
 They are particularly adapted for river navigation and for shoal 
 water. The largest beam-engine ever built is on the " Pilgrim," 
 now running on Long Island Sound. The hull is 374 feet long 
 and <S8.I feet wide over all; depth of hold 18i feet, steam-cylinder 
 
ADDKKSS OF .TAMKS W. I?A IMI.KTr. 323 
 
 110 inches diainetor by 14 feet stroke; each shaft is 26 inches at 
 main journals by 40 feet long, which is the largest shaft ever 
 made in the world. 
 
 The fastest speed ever made by a steamer was by an Austrian 
 tori)e(lo-l)oat, which was run at the rate of 27.(56 miles per hour, 
 her average speed being 24.027. The first propeller was built on 
 the lakes in 1842 ; and a few came into use every year until 1855. 
 They were mostly small, the largest being 400 tons burden. In 
 1856 and 1857, fifty-six were built, many of which were 900 
 tons burden. This increase was owing to the opening of the St. 
 Clair Flats cut. By 1870 many propellers were in use, of 1,200 
 tons. The first to reach 2,000 tons was in 1876. 
 
 As the channels were dug deeper, the boats were built larger. 
 The standard propeller was an upright cylinder working down to 
 a crank shaft. Before the canal was deepened to twenty feet, the 
 wheels could not exceed nine and one-half feet in diameter. To 
 drive such a wheel required an engine with twenty-eight-inch 
 cylinder ; both high and low pressure were used. The non-con- 
 densing engine, with one hundred pounds of steam, was consid- 
 ered the most economical. Propellers were built of every size, 
 from four-inch to fifty-two-inch cylinders; some of the great tugs 
 for towing rafts using two thirty-inch cylinder engines. Com- 
 pound engines, having been experimented on for many years, 
 about 1880 be<jfan to take the place of all others. The steeple 
 compound having the high steam piston working on the same 
 rod as the low steam piston, this style had the merit of cheapness 
 of construction ; but fir economy of fuel they wore far surpassed 
 by the fore and aft compound, on which both cylinders acted as a 
 separate crank, the cranks being set at right angles to each other. 
 The largest boat on the lakes is the " Onoko," which is 302^ feet 
 long, 39 wide and 25 deep, with 4 masts and 2 decks, and 6 
 water-tight compartments. Her load on 141 feet of water is 
 3,000 net tons, or 108,000 bushels of wheat and 164,000 bushels 
 of oats. She has compound engines, high steam 30 inches, low 
 steam 56 inches, 4 feet stroke, and runs ten miles an hour on the 
 round trip. 
 
 The most common and cheapest way of carrying freight is by a 
 large barge towing two or more sailing barges. I will give a state- 
 ment of the freight and fuel of a steam barge with two barges in 
 tow. The power of steam barge being one high steam cylinder 26 
 
324 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 inches in diameter, and one low steam cylinder 44 inches, 42 
 inches stroke, and 80 pounds steam pressure. 
 
 Net tons carried by three barges, 70,087 tons, 7^ miles an 
 hour. 
 
 No. miles run by three barges is 14,453 in ten trips. 
 
 Tons of coal cousuraed, 1,190 tons. 
 
 Pounds of coal to carry 70,000 tons of freight one mile 164.55. 
 
 Pounds of coal to carry 1,000 tons of freight one mile, 2.o5. 
 
 The largest and fastest steamer afloat is the " Umbria " of the 
 Cunard line; length 520 feet, width 57 feet, depth of hold, 40 
 feet, tonnage 9,806. The engines are triple compound, one 71- 
 iuch, and two 105-inch cylinders. At 110 pounds of steam, turn- 
 ing 70 revolutions per minute, she runs 20.18 marine miles an 
 hour, developing 14,321 horse-power ; being the highest indicator 
 card ever taken. 
 
 The number of American side-wheel steamers now afloat in the 
 
 Lakes is 40 
 
 CanadiaD is 110 
 
 Total 150 
 
 American propellers is 887 
 
 Canadian propellers is 202 
 
 Total 1 ,089 
 
 Total number of steamboats, 1,239 
 
 American tonnage 289,864 
 
 Canadian tonnage 82,057 
 
 Total 371,921 
 
 This shows the progress made in fifty years. We have over 
 sixty times the number of steam crafts, and one hundred times the 
 tonnage in 1886 as we had in 1836. The total number of steam 
 crafts in the United States is 5,513. 
 
 Some old shipping news, from the Buffalo Gazette, October 10, 
 1811. The schooner Salena, Capt. Davis, arrived at this port 
 (Black Rock), September 30, 1811, with a cargo of furs, valued 
 at $150,000. (This was one of the 70-ton schooners of the North- 
 west Company, and few of our largest steamers ever had such a 
 valuable load). 
 
 1815. There are now two brigs, thirty-five schooners, and four- 
 teen sloops on the lakes. 
 
 1817. Average weekly arrivals and clearances, six. 
 
ADDKESS OF .lAMKS \V. 15 A KIT,!; IT. 325 
 
 1818, August 27. The steamer Walk in the Water (the first 
 steam craft on the upper lakes), started for Detroit with 150 
 passengers, at $20 a head. 
 
 1819. Six arrivals a week. 
 
 1831. Number of vessels on Lake Erie ; Americau sailing ves- 
 sels 58, tonnage 3,118 ; British sailing vessels 17, tonnage ; 
 
 Americau steamers 10, tonnage 1,906. 
 
 Daily line of steamboats for Detroit, Niagara, Wm. Penn, 
 Ohio, Enterprise, Superior, Shell-Thompson. 
 
 November 24. The whole number of vessels navigating the 
 western lakes, is about 100, averaging 70 tons. 
 
 Detroit Journal, 1831. The number of entries and clearances 
 at Detroit in 1830 was 1,000, average value of cargo about 
 $5,000. 
 
 Buffalo Patriot, July 4, 1832. The steamboat Pennsylvania 
 was launched at Erie; she is 400 tons burden, and has double 
 engines 80 horse-power, being decidedly the largest and most 
 splendid boat on the lakes. 
 
 The Walk on the Water made between eight and nine miles an 
 hour, and in 1819 made her trips to Detroit in five days, and to 
 Mackinaw and back in two weeks. In 1820 she left Detroit 
 every Saturday. 
 
 RAILROADS. 
 
 Fifty years ago the railrond w-as in its infancy. It was not till 
 1837, that the seventy miles between Albany and Utica were 
 completed. Passengers from New York to Detroit were from ten 
 to sixteen days on their way, going by steamboat on the Hudson, 
 by rail to Utica, by canal to Buttalo, and steamboat or sail on the 
 lake. The first locomotives started in Michigan in the fall of 
 1837. They were brought out by Jose])h Briscoe, who still lives 
 in Detroit, and were built by Ualdwin in Philadelphia. The 
 cylinders of these locomotives were ten by fifteen inches stroke. 
 The road was two ditches, lengthwise to the road, in which were 
 placed long timbers cut by the roadside, flattened on the bottom 
 and gained in at the top, to receive cross-ties which were held in 
 place by wedges. On these were spiked oak stringers five by 
 seven inches, and on these were sj)iked iron bars 2^ by {', making, 
 when new, a smooth and solid road, but a few years after, the 
 most dangerous track that a locomotive ever was run over. In 
 1842 the road was completed to Jackson, making a small fraction 
 
326 Michigan's skmi-centennial. 
 
 of the great net- work of iron that now covers the United States, 
 there being length enough to reach around the world. 
 
 To level the way for the rails, hills have been cut down, valleys 
 iilled up, mountains tunneled and rivers bridged. They pass 
 through great cities and uninhabited deserts, linking the ends of 
 the earth together, and annihilating space. Passengers can now 
 go from New York to San Francisco in seven days, sleeping and 
 eating while traveling, without leaving the car. The first trip 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific by canoes, took Mackenzie as 
 many years ; and Lewis and Clark were twenty months on their 
 trip from St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia river. To-day 
 they could repeat their trip in four and one-half days. 
 
 The first locomotive used in America was in 1829. It was built 
 by Peter Cooper ; it was tried on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 
 making thirteen miles an hour. One carriage was attached carry- 
 ing thirty-six passengers. It was rated at one-horse power. The 
 standard engine of 1836, had ten-inch cylinders, sixteen-inch 
 stroke. It was inside connected with the two driving-wheels four 
 and one-half feet in diameter, and a pair of pony wheels in front, 
 though some builders had adopted the 4-wheeled truck-frame now 
 in use ; they all had horizontal boilers, substantially like those 
 now used. Only two eccentrics were used, which had to be turned 
 on the shaft in reversing. Next came two eccentrics with hooks 
 above the rocker-pin, lowered by carabs in reversing ; the bottom 
 of the hook was enlarged to a V-shape, so as to catch the pin 
 easily. All these styles necessitate hand-levers, and it was a 
 hazardous job to reverse an engine at a high rate of speed. The 
 next improvement was to connect the hooks by links, one rod 
 being under the pin and the other over. 
 
 Many had cut-off valves of every known style, the separate seat 
 came first, and alterwards the riding cut. About 1847 the first 
 link motion was introduced from England. This was adopted at 
 once by all the builders, and holds its place till now. In 1840, 
 Hinkley and Drury commenced building outside connected 
 engines, which style has superseded all others. The old engine 
 had no cab, the engineer being out to the weather. Wood was 
 the only fuel, and great spark arresters were necessary ; cow- 
 catchers came early into use, and also sand-boxes. Steam gauges 
 came in in 185U, followed by the pony pump and injector ; few 
 engines were in u.se with more than a single pair of drivers until 
 
ADDRESS OF JAMKS W. IJAKTI.KTT. 827 
 
 1840. The first cars had ouly four wheels, aud one wheel on 
 each axle was loose on the shaft, and held by a pin and washer. 
 The modern passenger car is sixty feet long, and the sleeping cars 
 are fitted up in most expensive manner ; they have paper wheels 
 and run with the most perfect smoothness. The standard freight 
 car is thirty-four feet long and will carry twenty tons, each car 
 having truck-frames at each end, and provided with eight chilled 
 wheels. Refrigerator cars are largely in use ; meat killed in Chi- 
 cago being shipped to New York and thence to Europe. Tank 
 cars carry petroleum, when beyond the pipe lines, which are laid 
 in the ground from the wells to the seaboard, through which the 
 oil is pumped in immense quantities for thousands of miles. 
 Robert Stevenson wrote in 1838, "Small engines are losing 
 ground, and large ones are daily demonstrating that powerful 
 engines are more economical." He sends a sketch of his latest 
 engine, weighing nine tons ; and capable of taking one hundred 
 ton gross load, at the rate of sixteen or seventeen miles an hour 
 on a level. The largest engine of to-day weighs seventy-eight 
 tons; and the standard locomotive of the Michigan Central road 
 drew 800 gross tons. The fastest speed ever made by a train 
 was at the rate of eighty-four miles an hour. 
 
 At the close of 1884 there were 125,379 miles of railroad iu 
 the United States, which cost $7,476,865,782; number of passen- 
 gers carried, 334,814,529 ; number of passengers carried one 
 mile, 8,778,581,061 ; tons of freight carried, 400,453,439; tons of 
 freight carried one mile, 44,725,207,677. 
 
 If this amount of freight wa,s to be transported over such roads 
 as we had in Michigan in 1836, it would have to be carried on 
 pack-horses, and it would require over 200,000,000 animals, work- 
 ing 365 days in the year. Allowing nine feet for each horse, it 
 would make a caravan over thirteen times around the world at 
 the equator. If carried on single wagons, on a good turn-pike, six 
 miles an hour, it would require 20,422,470 teams ; at twenty feet 
 for each, the procession would reach over three times around the 
 world. There was in Michigan iu 1885 0,219 miles of railroad, 
 2,7^0 locomotives, 1,218 passenger cars, 598 baggage cars, and 
 84,810 freight cars. Number of miles run, 1884, 62,201,089. 
 Number of passengers carried, 24,782,322. Number of passengers 
 carried one mile, 1,()25,6<S0,009. Tons of freight carried one 
 mile, 6,154,447,358. 
 
328 Michigan's semicentennial. 
 
 There are in the United States and the connecting roads in 
 Canada and Mexico 27,167 locomotives, 20,038 passenger cars, 
 6,467 baggage and express cars, and 806,960 freight cars. If 
 these were all made up into one train, it would reach 5,067 miles. 
 
 machine shops. 
 
 My brother machinists may be interested in a description of a 
 machine shop fifty years ago. Most of the appliances known 
 to-day were then in use, for about 1835 the first iron planer was 
 imported from England. If my memory serves, the table was 
 twelve feet long, and it would plane three feet square. It was a 
 crude, clumsy machine, the bed being worked by a chain and the 
 shifter thrown over by a ball on the end of a lever. Planers did 
 not'come into general use till some years after. I commenced as 
 a machinist in 1842, in a shop employing about fifty men, work- 
 ing on cotton machinery. 
 
 The lathes were small, the largest not swinging over thirty 
 inches ; about half were hand-lathes ; there was but one screw" 
 lathe in the shop, mostly used for cutting taps and worms. The 
 bed-frames were of wood ; no planer was obtained till 1846. Much 
 turning was done on hand-lathes. Screw bolts were mostly turned 
 by hand and cut with chasers (a set of shoulder tools and chasers 
 would now be stared at by modern machinists, as relics of an 
 extinct race, like the stone arrow-heads or the trilobites found in 
 the rocks) ; though such tools were used for turning and cutting 
 all small bolts in 1863 in the largest shop in Detroit; and men 
 are now living who have used them. The lathe beds, for want of 
 planers, were all chipped and filed; no wrought shafting was in 
 use; it was cast in the clutch-couplings, and was square, laged 
 out, and covered with wood, forming a drum ; laging was nailed 
 to form pulleys and the whole turned ofl^ in its bearings. Heavy 
 shafting was cast with wings, to which gears were fitted by laying 
 out, and chipping to the line with cold-chisels. 
 
 All turned fits were made tapering, and the gear caulked or 
 riveted on, like the modern piston fits ; keys wore not used to fasten 
 work to shafting ; and turned pulleys, except very small sizes, 
 were unknown. Gear cutters were largely used, as small castings 
 were not as perfectly made as they now are. Babbiting, or pour- 
 ing soft metal into a luirder shell, was unknown. 
 
 Most of the work was done by hand-tools, the file and cold-chisel 
 
ADDRESS OK JAMES W. IIAUrLETT. 329 
 
 played a great part in the business. Few machinists of to-day 
 would care to undertake to chip and level such surfaces as valves 
 and seats, or in the beds twenty feet long; but then it was the 
 only method. It took a long time, and the work was never well 
 done; for hand-work can never compete with that done on a 
 machine. 
 
 Allow me to go out of my way and say something about the 
 men who did the work ; for that was in the good old time that we 
 look back to with such longing. The wages of a machinist in 
 the shop I first worked in, were 61.00 to $1.25 a day; one nabob 
 of a patternmaker received the great sura of $1.50. For this 
 sum, they went to work at five o'clock in the morning, and worked 
 till half past seven at night, with an hour for breakfast and three 
 quarters for dinner. It was several years before we obtained 
 eleven hours a day. It has now been ten hours a day for twenty- 
 five years or more, and we grumble at that, even though we may 
 get more than twice the wages that we did forty years ago ; and 
 we are hoping to get thesame or higher pay for working only eight 
 hours. 
 
 I am glad the world has moved so far in fifty years. 
 
 In another thing we have improved on the good old times of the 
 Harrison campaign, when we hallooed for §2 a day and roast beef 
 as the ideal thing to be desired. I doubt if any nuin could have 
 kept his place, if he did not vote as his employer wished. Cer- 
 tainly four years later, we were all of the same stripe of politics, 
 who worked for the great corporations. Novv-a-days the bloatedest 
 bond-holder would not dare to dictate how his men should vote ; 
 and if he did, they would probably vote the other way. I know 
 the condition of the machinist is better than it was when I first 
 joined the guild; he has better pay, better houses, better education, 
 better living; and I ho))e he will keeji on improving for the next 
 fifty years. 
 
 Few boys now learn more than one branch of the business ; a 
 lathe-man and a vise-man have separate trades. Few men can do 
 all that pertains to building a steam engine. In the great fac- 
 tories of specialties, a man may work for years on the same ma- 
 chine, doing the same thing over and over again. Of course the 
 work is well, quickly and cheaply done; but it don't make a 
 machinist of the man. as a boy could learn such an art in a few 
 weeks. The tendency at present is to get along with the cheapest 
 
330 miuhigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 labor ; so we are making no machinists. Where the new stock is 
 coming from, I am unable to see. 
 
 Large machine shops were started before 1836; one in Lowell, 
 Mass., employed over 1,000 men, on cotton machinery. Now the 
 country is dotted with them. In them are made locomotives, 
 portable engines, steam pumps, governors, fire-arms, cotton-ma- 
 chinery, sewing-machines ; and numerous other staple kinds of 
 iron work are made in duplicate, and sold to the trade. The 
 making of fittings for steam an3 gas pipe employs armies of men. 
 I contemplated making a list of the various attachments made 
 for this class of goods; but I found it would be such a long cata- 
 logue I should have no room for anything else. 
 
 The machine shop proper, or rather the job shop, is seldom of 
 a very large size. Those in which the largest engines are made 
 employ comparatively few men ; for no one makes marine and 
 water-works engines on stock for chance customers. They are all 
 specially designed for the work they have to do, and are the labor 
 of months or years ; and the shops for repairing must be near 
 where the work is to be done. There are many such shops in 
 Michigan ; but few, and none of large size, that work on special- 
 ties. In Detroit, three are equipped for making globe- valves; 
 one in Battle Creek for portable engines ; and wind-mills are 
 made in Jackson ; but most of this class of goods are brought 
 from other States. The first machine shop in Michigan started at 
 the foot of Cass street, in Detroit, before 1833, by Dorr & Web- 
 ber. In 1836 it was quite small, having about six lathes, mostly 
 hand lathes, the largest swinging about thirty inches. They did 
 repair and job work; put engines (that were built in other States) 
 into boats built in Michigan. Their foundry cast kettles, plow- 
 points and many other castings they could get to do in this fron- 
 tier settlement. Under the superintendence of Patrick Keaven, 
 this was the pioneer of the numerous shops that have made Detroit 
 a great machine center. The building of locomotives was started 
 in 1852, but was abandoned. Iron bridge-making, started in 
 1861, has proved successful. We have built all the water-works 
 engines for Detroit; the complicated machinery for tlie locks at 
 Sault Ste. Marie, and the iron-work and machinery for the great 
 sub-marine works at Waugoshance, Spectacle Reef, Staunard's 
 Kock and Bar Point ; the lanterns and other iron-work of most 
 of the light-houses on the lakes ; all of fog-whistles in use, and 
 
ADDRESS OF JAMKS W. IIAUTLETT. 331 
 
 we also built the engine.s and converters for the great Bessemer- 
 steel plants at Wyandotte and those at North and South Chicago, 
 one of whicli is one of the largest steara engines in the world, 
 indicating 12,000 horse-power. But it is by our steamboat en- 
 gines that we have acquired our greatest reputation. The finest 
 and largest engines on the lakes were built at the five shops en- 
 gaged in that manufacture. One concern that started in 1809 
 has built for dilierent boats: 22 high pressure engines from 20 to 
 40 itieh cylinders; 12 condensing engines from 34 to 50 inch 
 cylinders; _2 compound engines with high steam, 10 and low, 28 
 to28and48.V; 01 marine engines ; 71 land engines from water- 
 works to pony-pumps; 132 engines in all, besides doing a large 
 amount of steamboat repairs and otlii-r job work. Since 1876 
 they have built 155 marine boilers, weighing 3,758,915 pounds. 
 To do all this they have 8 lathes, 4 planers, 6 drills, 1 slotter, a 
 traversing crane worked by steam, forges, 2 cupolas, 39 and 04 
 inches in diameter ; and for making boilei's, 2 sets of shears, 3 
 punches, 1 riveting machine, 1 set of rolls, and 4 forges. This is 
 a large amount of work for so few tools. 
 
 The great car works make more show, there being two in 
 Detroit; one of which employs 2,250 men and running four steam 
 engines, they turn out sixty freight cars a day ; and three car- 
 wheel foundries cast 875 chilled wheels weighing 240 tons, and 
 160 tons of other castings daily. 
 
 But the greatest amount of machine shop work has been the 
 countless saw-mill engines, boilers and machinery that have been 
 turned out in every part of the State, beginning nearly fifty years 
 ago. Every few miles of territory has had at some time a saw- 
 mill, which, when it has cleared off all the timber within reach, 
 was moved or abandoned. The grist mills trade has its hundreds 
 of engines, following the march of the saw-mills, and grinding 
 the crops from the land which they have cleared. The preparing 
 of the lumber for its various uses, requires many sash and blind 
 works, stave and heading mills and pail and wooden ware numu- 
 factories. Lately, lumber, instead of being shipped in a crude 
 state, is mostly planed, tongued and grooved, made into siding, 
 or cut into lengths for boxes ; even the entire wood work of 
 houses is prepan-d here and shipped to all parts of the States. 
 
 To illustrati' our progress, I quote from the life of James Nay- 
 smith: "We next had a pair of 200 horse-power engines in 
 
332 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 baud." At that time such power as two hundred horse was 
 scarcely thought of. They formed a noble object in the great 
 erecting shop. Fifty years after, the then most powerful engine 
 in the world, sixty times as large, and rated at 12,000 horse power, 
 was erected in Michigan, and but few people knew about it or 
 cared to go to see it. 
 
 The largest machine-shop tools in the world are used in the 
 United States. I quote the following dimensions and par- 
 ticulars of the largest planer ever built and erected in any 
 machine shop : 
 
 " Length of bed, 40 feet ; length of bed-plate or table, 13 feet ; 
 width, 16 feet; width between uprights, 18 feet ; height of uprights 
 from table, 17^ feet; total height from floor, 23 feet 9 inches. 
 Will plane 30 feet long, 18 feet wide and 13 feet high. The 
 table is driven by a double-threaded screw 7 2 inches diameter, 
 having a 3-inch pitch. Total weight 200 tons gross ; will plane 
 lengthwise and cross-wise, and since the planer was erected attach- 
 ments have been added for boring and slotting also. The power 
 required to drive the planer is about 14 horse-power." ' 
 
 I quote from another letter : 
 
 " The two lathes you saw building in our works, are of the fol- 
 lowing dimensions: Length, 90 feet; swing, 10 feet ; weight, 150 
 tons each. We could cut a screw on them 70 feet long, or we 
 could swing and finish as large a gun as has ever been made in 
 Europe." ^ 
 
 Boiler-making was first started in Michigan in 1833, when 
 James Brennan came to Detroit from Buffalo, to build the boilers 
 for the " Michigan t'irst," and established a shop that bears his 
 name to-day. 
 
 Boiler-plate at that time was imported, and the sheets were all 
 26 inches wide. Large boilers were built of this awkward mate- 
 rial. Compared to the boilers of to-day, they look like patch- 
 work. The first boilers were cylindrical ; next came the two-flue 
 boiler, which has held its place in our saw-mills. The introduc- 
 tion of lap- welded tubes, changed the whole style of marine- 
 boilers, and those in all places in which the cost of fuel was of 
 any object. 
 
 Boiler material has wonderfully improved. The old English 
 
 ' David 1?. Macomb, Chief Engineer of U. S. N. 
 2 Wm. P. Hunt, South Boston Iron Works. 
 
ADDRESS OF JAMES \V. BAKTLEri'. 333 
 
 iron was not trustworthy at over 30,000 pounds with the grain. 
 It has heen rephiced by Anieriean iron, at 05,000 to 60,000 
 j)Ounds tensile strength, and iron has tor the hist ten years been 
 superseded by steel, which is e<iually strong in every direction, 
 and is used in boilers as high in tensile strength as 70,000 pounds 
 to the inch. Sheets are rolled to any length and thickness, up to 
 100 inches wide and 6,000 pounds weight. 
 
 The United States laws for the inspection of marine boilers 
 have greatly diminished the risk of explosions. Racing steam- 
 boats no longer have a nigger on the safety-valve, as in old days, 
 and the loss of life of passengers from that cause is almost 
 unheard of, though no law can do away with carelessness and 
 recklessness in men. It can make the strength of the boiler so 
 much greater than the steam allowed by the locked up safety- 
 valve, that little chance is left for accidents. There are many 
 boiler shops in Michigan ; five shops in Detroit are rigged up for 
 making the largest marine boilers, having several styles of power- 
 riveting machines ; punching^ sheari^ig, drilling and scaffing 
 the sheets is done by steam power. The two boilers just com- 
 pleted in Detroit for the Greyhound, are the largest in diame- 
 ter ever built, viz.: loj feet diameter, I'il feet long, 350 inch 
 flues and 261 3^ inch tubes; shell, S steel, 160,000 T. S.; weight, 
 36 tons. ' 
 
 This is the present fashion of boilers; but the styles are continu- 
 ally changing. 
 
 The foundry business, or the casting of metals, is a pre-historic 
 art, and attained a high development at an early age. 
 
 We read in Holy Writ that Hiram of Tyre dug a loam pit, 
 and swept up and cast in brass, two columns twenty-seven feet 
 long by six feet in diameter, with a separate base and capital for 
 ornaments. 
 
 These pillars were set up in front of the great 'J'emple at Jeru- 
 salem, and were probably used as safes in which to deposit valu- 
 ables to guard against destruction by fire. Such castings would 
 be considered a difficult job to-day. In America tlie Mexicans 
 and Peruvians cast gold, silver and brass; very fine specimens of 
 their work are extant. The first foundry in the State was started 
 in connection with the first machine-shop in Detroit before 1833. 
 
 ' John McGregor & Sons. 
 
334 Michigan's skmi-centp:nnial. 
 
 They are numbered by hundreds, large and small, and are 
 scattered all over the State. One in Detroit casts 264 tons of 
 iron a day, and another employs 600 men under one roof. The 
 largest castings ever made in the State, wei-e three shells for steel 
 converters, which weighed over thirteen tons each. lu answer to 
 an inquiry about large castings, I received an answer which I quote: 
 "The heaviest casting we have ever made was for a twelve-inch 
 rifle, and the rough casting was 123 tons weight. I do not think 
 as heavy a casting as this has ever been handled anywhere ; al- 
 though it is likely that foundations for steam-hammers may have 
 been cast even of greater weight, by setting up cupola furnaces 
 around a circle and leading the molten iron to a mould in the 
 center, and the casting not moved afterward." ' 
 
 The first iron casting made in America, was in 1645 by John 
 Jenks of Lynn, Massachusetts. It was a small iron pot, capable 
 of containing a quart. It has been preserved as an heir-loom by 
 his descendants. The twelve-inch gun, before mentioned, was 
 finished as a breech-loader, being thirty-six feet over all, lined 
 with steel for sixty -nine inches of its length, and weighed, wheu 
 finished, fifty-four tons; about half of the original casting having 
 been turned into chips. It threw a projectile weighing 800 
 pounds, as well as Krupp's steel guns, of the same size. It took 
 ten months and twenty-five days to finish it." 
 
 THE BLACKSMITH. 
 
 The blacksmith's trade is also prehistoric, though not so uni- 
 versal as the casting of brass. South of the Great Desert, Africa 
 had no stone age, but the rude cupolas for smelting iron ore are 
 now seen as fossils in the rocks. The negro blacksmith, sitting 
 before his hut, smelts his own iron from the ore, converts it into 
 steel and fashions it into edge-tools as good as any made by 
 civilized man. King Solomon placed the blacksmith higher than 
 any other tradesman, for all of them, on being asked, "• Who 
 makes your tools? " answered, " The blacksmith." But when he 
 asked the blacksmith, " Who makes your tools?" got for a reply: 
 '• I make them myself" Till within four hundred years, wrought- 
 iron and steel were the only form of the metal known ; for iron 
 
 '- Win. Hunt, South Boston Iron Works. 
 •■' Report of the Chief of Ordnance, 1885. 
 
ADDUKSS OF JAMKS W . I5A inTJ'/rr. .>.)0 
 
 was first cast in moulds in France in the Hf'teenth century. The 
 first notable forging inach^ in the United States, was the chain 
 stretched across the Hudson river at West Point, to prevent the 
 passage of the British ships, in the revolutionary war. The 
 links were two feet long, and formed of two and one-half inch 
 square iron, the chain weighed IKO ton.s. The largest forgiugs 
 ever made in America were the main shafts of the Sound 
 Steamer " Pilgrim." They were 89! feet long and 38:|: inches in 
 diameter at the largest, and 26 inches at the smallest part, and 
 each weighed 81,200 pounds. It took twenty men fourteen days 
 to forge one of them, with the help of one of the largest steam- 
 hammers in America. The largest steam-hammer in the States 
 is in Pittsburg. Its anvil-block is eleven feet high, eight by ten 
 at the base and six by four at the top; it weighs 160 tons. It 
 was cast from five cupolas set up for the purpose. The steam 
 cylinder is forty-inch bore, by nine feet stroke ; and the force of 
 the blow is ninety-seven tons. Who can tell who was the first 
 blacksmith in the State ? Wherever ijien are gathered toijether, 
 there is always heard the roaring of the bellows, and the ring of 
 the hammer on the anvil. Virgil describes the rhythm of the 
 alternate fall of the sledges ; and no doubt, Tubal Cain sent up 
 the same music, as he struck a blow between each one given by 
 his sledgemen ; and now the horse-shoer is established at every 
 cross-road. 
 
 In old times blacksmiths were supposed to have dealings with 
 the evil one; but now they are only famous for their power over 
 the female sex ; for blacksmiths are alleged to always be able to 
 obtain handsome wives. I have seen the hammersman of one 
 of the largest steam-hammers hold hickory-nuts between his 
 fingers and let his helper crack them with the ponderous ham- 
 mer, capable of striking a blow of forty tons. It required more 
 nerve, and more faith in the skill of a man than I shall ever 
 have. 
 
 The first large forge using steam power in Michigan, was started 
 in Hamtramck, by John Ford about 1860. They had several 
 steam hammers, and made car axles and heavy forgiugs up to 
 twelve inches in diameter ; it burnt down about five years ago. 
 
 The only steam forge in the State is at Springwells, though 
 there are steam hammers in many of the machine shops. 
 
 This concern runs two trains of rolls, using a large steam 
 
336 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 engine and three steam hammers ; the largest has a twenty-inch 
 piston, four-feet stroke, moving a three-ton hammer. They make 
 large shafting, and job work ; but their specialty is car work and 
 axles, of which they turn out 100 a day, or 5,700 tons a day. 
 
 THE DRAUGHTSMAN. 
 
 But there is one branch of the machine shop business that has 
 never changed. It was practiced by the unknown architect that 
 built the Caaba, at Mecca, the great city of Thebes, the Palace of 
 Nineveh, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and hewed out the 
 Rock Temples of India, It was used in building the Acropolis 
 at Athens, the Coliseum at Rome, the Alhambra in Spain, the 
 ancient buildings at Uxraal and Palenque, in Central America, 
 and all the great cathedrals of Europe. Without it the great 
 bridges, steamships, water- works, light-houses, and machinery, or 
 any of the great works of modern times, would have been impos- 
 sible. It was practiced by Noah, by Hiram, the widow's son of 
 the tribe of Naphtali, by Archimedes, Michael Augelo, Stevenson, 
 Naysmith, Erricson, and by the machinist of to-day. All the 
 great works and inventions have to pass through the hands of the 
 draughtsman, who, with his rule, square and compasses, leans 
 over the tressel-board, and puts the thoughts and inventions of 
 the great masters into practical shape. He is a relic of pre- 
 historic times, and his trade has never, and will never, change. 
 
 From the time man conceived the idea of building, he must 
 have had the means of measuring, striking circles, and laying 
 out a square. And as long as civilization exists, there will be a 
 draughtsman among men. 
 
 In regard to the various text-books and ready-reckoners used 
 by the profession, a reverend gentleman remarked: "The best 
 proof we have, that the world has existed more than 5,000 years 
 is, that Haswell has been written ; for the facts in the book could 
 not have been accumulated in that time." ' 
 
 THE STEAM ENGINE. 
 
 As far as the main principles are concerned, the steam engine 
 was perfected more than Hfty years ago ; beginning with the use 
 of steam at atmospheric pressure, and only using the diifer- 
 
 1 Dr. Hill, Waltham, Mass. 
 
AT)I)Ri:S> (tF JAAIKS \V. I'.A K ri.K.'ri'. 337 
 
 ence between that and the vacuum. The old engiiieer.s began 
 strengthening their boilers and carrying more and more pressure. 
 Condensing, high-pressure and compound engines, and even steam 
 over 500 pounds to the inch, was experimented with before 1836. 
 The line of expansion of the steam cylinder was dcteriniued ; and 
 all the great principles were discovered before tiiat date. Cut-off 
 valves and the drop cut were tried; and we have been repeating 
 their experiments, and re-inventing their inventions. But for all 
 that, we build a much better and more economical engine than 
 before. 
 
 It is now possible to get castings and forgings of any desired 
 weight ; and builders' failures are avoided, and merits imitated or 
 improved upon. One great improvement is in substituting iron 
 for wood in bed-frames and connecting-rods, and wrought-iron in 
 place of castings for shafting, walking-beams, cranks, etc. 
 
 But more advance has been made in the boiler, by being able 
 to obtain larger and better sheets of iron, and the using of steel in 
 the place of iron. We are using muoh more pressure of steam on 
 our boilers. Fifty years ago, sixty pounds to the inch was 
 thought to be high pressure ; but now one hundred pounds is in 
 general use ; and on locomotives and river steamboats, where the 
 water is too sandy for the use of tubular boilers, one hundred and 
 fifty to two hundred pounds is safely used. 
 
 The new appliances that have come into use within fifty years 
 in the use of steam engines, are, the steam gauge, injector, and 
 last, but not least, the exhaust injector, first used in 1883 in Eu- 
 rope, and but just introduced into America. It uses the exhaust, 
 which is a waste production, for forcing water into the boiler, 
 which water it heats nearly to boiling point. 
 
 FORMS OF THK STEAM ENOINF. 
 
 In Leghorn, Italy, dredging machines may still be seen, clean- 
 ing out the harbor, worked by eight men, who climb uj) a large 
 wheel, and scoop up a few feet of mud an hour. The modern 
 steam dredging machine will excavate three yards of sand at a 
 haul, and make two scoops in a minute. 
 
 Steam shovelers make cuts for railroads, level hills for filling 
 up arms of the sea, and raising the land fi)r cities. Rock-drills 
 are worked from scows, in twenty feet of water ; deepening chan- 
 nels for navigation through solid rock. The revolving diamond 
 22 
 
338 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 drill is used to prove up the country for raining purposes, to great 
 depths; and the rock-drill, driven by a piston supplied with air, 
 compressed to 300 pounds to the inch, have made the great tun- 
 nels of the world a possibility, as the air used for drilling will 
 support life, and takes the place of the deadly gases formed by 
 explosives used in blasting the rock. Within twenty years power 
 passenger elevators have become a necessity in large cities, where 
 the value of land makes it necessary to build business blocks to a 
 great height. The common power used in them is a piston, work- 
 ing in a long cylinder, driven by water pressure, the speed being 
 multiplied by pulleys. They are supplied from a tank on the 
 roof, and the water exhausted into a tank in the cellar, and forced 
 up again by a steam-pump, which works automatically, starting 
 when the tank is empty and stopping when it is full. Of steam 
 pumps there is no end ; great factories are making them of all 
 sizes, and for every purpose. They vary from one that discharges 
 fifteen gallons a minute, to such ponderous machinery as those 
 that supply Detroit with water ; the weight of the metal work of 
 which is 420 tons. I quote from an account of the first trial of a 
 pile driver: " The pile-driving machine men gave me a challenge 
 to vie with them in driving a pile. At a given signal we started 
 together. I let on steam, and in four and a half minutes my pile 
 was driven. It took them twelve hours to drive their pile." But 
 giving the different forms in which steam engines have been 
 built, or the different uses to which they have been put, would be 
 like writing a dictionary, "Their name is legion." 
 
 Given a force moving in any shape, and it is easy to get it to 
 drive anything ; and we have contrived to put the force of steam 
 into every conceivable shape. But it all comes to this: how much 
 coal does it take to move a piston so far in a minute, against a 
 certain pressure ? 
 
 With the engines and boilers in use fifty years ago, there is no 
 doubt that the average consumption of coal was as high as ten 
 pounds an hour. Even now most engines consume half that quan- 
 tity, few burning less than four pounds of coal to the indicated horse- 
 power, an hour. In very large machines and pumping engines, 
 where the work is constant, this result has been improved upon ; 
 but till the compound engine came into use, few could honestly 
 claim much better results as a yearly average. I have before me 
 the record of a week's trial, which is the best that has been 
 
ADDRESS OF JAMES W. BARTLETI. 339 
 
 accomplished as far as I can find out, by a land engine, cora- 
 pouiui, steam jacketed, horizontal, tandem engine, with receiver, 
 cylinders 20x8(3, 72-iuch stroke, steam 125 pounds to the inch, 57 
 revolutions, ashes weiijfhed hack; result 1.65 lbs. coal an hour to 
 one indicated horse-power. "Our pumping engines which have 
 been in constant use, are doing equally as well, taking a whole 
 year's work. The coal used during the test was of good Lacka- 
 wanna, egg size." ' 
 
 I have the result of a lake boat, fore and aft compound, 27 x 
 42 in. cylinder; taking all the coal bought in three years, includ- 
 ing that used in banking fires and moving boat and hoisting cargo 
 in port, heating and pumping bilge-water; the time of running 
 being between dock and dock ; the average coal being 2.50 lbs. a 
 horse-power per hour, which is the best I can find on the lakes. 
 
 The coal used costs $2.00 a ton ; therefore the expcmse of a one- 
 horse-pow'er an hour with soft coal on the boat was $0.0025. The 
 expense of the land engine, with hard coal at S4.00, is 80.0043. 
 In either case, there has been a great improvement in cost in fifty 
 years, as then we used four times as much coal per horse-power as 
 we do now ; and it is claimed that ocean steamers with three 
 cylinders compounded, get as low as one and a quarter lbs. of coal 
 per hour, for a horse-power.'^ 
 
 IKON SHir-Bril.DINO. 
 
 The first iron vessel was launched 1817 ; audisstilliu existence. 
 But not till 1832 did the work seriously begin. The first iron 
 steamer to cross the Atlantic, was the " Great Britain '' in 1843. 
 The first iron steam vessel on the lakes was the U. S. steamer 
 " Michigan." The materials of this vessel were got out at Pitts- 
 burgh, and put together at Erie, in 1840. She has been in com- 
 mission ever since, and has performed the duties on her station 
 well. She was built of light iron, none of her plates being over 
 five-sixteenths of an inch thick. When rendering aid to vessels 
 in distress, she has often been ashore ; and yet, after forty-two 
 years of constant wear, she appears to be as good as when first 
 built." ^ The propeller Merchant, by Bell, of Buffalo, built in 
 1862, was the first iron vessel built on the upper lakes. Twenty- 
 three more were built within the next ten years, and the work has 
 
 ' Corliss Steam Kngiiie Works. 'Sec'y Farwell. 'David Bell. Buffalo. 
 
340 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 been going on ever since, in I^uffalo, Cleveland, and Wyandotte. 
 The keel has just been laid for the largest on the lakes. Lengtli, 
 three hundred and twenty-two feet; beam, forty feet; moulded, 
 twenty-six feet ; tri-cylinder compound, one thirty-six high steam 
 and two fifty-one inch low steam, forty-eight inch stroke; three 
 boilers thirteen feet diameter by eleven feet long. The engines are 
 amid-ship, ocean steamer style, this being a great innovation on the 
 former custom. Iron seems almost indestructible in fresh water 
 vessels, if they are kept oflT the bottom, and painted every few 
 years ; and therefore must soon entirely supersede wood in ship- 
 building. 
 
 bridges. 
 
 A.S we travel over our railroads, we look with wonder not 
 unmixed with fear, at the great bridges spanning wide rivers and 
 deep gorges, and feel a relief when the train has safely passed the 
 apparent danger. 
 
 As you look over the " two iron lines that lay between you and 
 destruction, you appreciate the Mohammedan fable of the Bridge 
 Herat: thinner than a hair, sharper than the edge of a scimitar, 
 which stretches over hell and leads to Paradise." ' 
 
 But the danger is very slight, as there is hardly an instance of 
 a bridge giving way under the weight of a train of cars; but two 
 great bridges have been wrecked by the force of the winds. 
 
 The increasing weight of locomotives and trains has made the 
 structures of twenty years ago too light for the present traffic ; 
 and, with hardly an exception, they have all been rebuilt or very 
 much strengthened within that time. T quote from a letter from 
 one of the great bridge builders : 
 
 "The u.se of iron and steel in the construction of bridges is 
 practically limited wholly to the last fifty years. A few experi- 
 mental structures were built earlier ; but the art may fairly be 
 said to have been born and to have grown to maturity during 
 that time. Nothing could be better than stone arches that our 
 forefathers built, and in suitable locations that design is still 
 adopted ; but the advent of railroads and the immense increase of 
 highways made imperative demand for larger, higher, longer and 
 less costly spans, and the engineer was prompt to meet it. The 
 modern truss bridge is as far in advance of the stone arch as the 
 railroad train of the farmer's cart. 
 
 > Theodore Higinson, Atlantic Monthly. 
 
ADDRKSS OF .TAMKS W . nAKTLETT. 341 
 
 The mastery of the abstruse and complex mathematical science 
 of stresses, and the careful and intelligent study of the qualities 
 and capacities of materials, have rendered easy the construction of 
 bridges that would have been simply impossible fifty years ago. 
 
 The art of sub-marine founding is advanced to a high degree. 
 Massive piers are by the pneuniatic process safely and easily carried 
 down through great depths of water and quicksand, and silt and 
 mud, to a solid bearing on the bed-rock, and the superstructure 
 placed thereon is not uncommonly in spans of from 800 to 500 
 feet. There are exceptional cases, when the peculiar circum- 
 stances re(|uire much larger stretches. The Brooklyn Bridge is 
 1,600 feet long between the piers, and the bridge now being built 
 across the Forth at Scotland will have clear spans of 1,700 feet." ' 
 
 The State of Michigan has ct)ntributed her share to the advance- 
 meut in this department of engineering. For one of her great iron 
 works, during the twenty-three years of its existence, has designed 
 and built a great number of such structures, including some of 
 the largest bridges in the country." 
 
 SAW-MI LIVS. 
 
 When the last census was taken, in 1880, there were in Mich- 
 igan 3,581 manufacturing establishments, using power from l,74fi 
 water-wheels, 3,085 steam engines, 4,109 boilers, developing 
 164,747 horse-power. Seventeen hundred and fifty-three of these 
 were saw-mills or sash and blind works, 706 were grist mills, and 
 21 were paper mills. Wood working used more than half the 
 power, or 93,623 horse-power, running 441 water-wheels, and 
 1,670 steam engines, it being by far the most prominent industry 
 in the State.' 
 
 The first power used in Michigan drove a grist-mill built in 1701, 
 in Cadillac's time, and called the Governors mill. It was in Detroit, 
 on what was once May's Creek, now the Tenth street sewer, at the 
 site of Sutton's pail factory. And in 1820 there was one on 
 Bloody Run. In 1822 oxen were used to drive a woolen mill on 
 Randolph street, by French & Eldridge ; and as late as 1833 
 there was an ox-power grist mill in Detroit.* Fifty years ago 
 there were several saw and grist mills, running by wind and 
 water, at Detroit, Saginaw, Ypsilanti, and Mount Clemens.* The 
 first steam engine was at the site of the Detroit water-works, in 
 
 ' Willard Pope. '-' Detroit Bridge and Iron Works. ^ Detroit Tribune. 
 
 ' United States C'ens\is, IS^O. ' Mr. D<ilson. 
 
342 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 1827, and used by Peter Van Avery for running a grist mill and 
 distillery ; the second was at the machine shop at foot of Cass 
 street;' the third drove the water-works; and in 1834 Justin 
 Rice built the first steam saw-mill in the State, which was bought 
 by Buckniinster Wight, who, with his descendants, have occupied 
 the same location for sawing lumber, till within a few years. It 
 was a small concern, running one nuiley saw, with a ten-inch 
 cylinder engine; and it was the only steam saw-mill in the Terri- 
 tory fifty years ago. This was the pioneer of the great army of 
 saws that have cut their way into the wilderness of Michigan ; 
 their track being followed up by clearings, farms, settlements, 
 villages and cities. The level surface of the State furnishes few 
 streams with fall enough to run water-wheels ; and little could 
 have been done toward clearing up the forest till streams came to 
 the aid of man. " 
 
 The water saw-mills were weak affairs; one built at Grand 
 Blanc in 1829, would cut only 2,500 feet a day; the largest of 
 them could not turn out over 4,000 feet of lumber. Compare 
 this with the mills of to-day.^ 
 
 MODERN SAW-MILLS. 
 
 The modern saw-mill is the most perfect devourer of the forest 
 evfr known; the largest mills cutting 55,000,000 feet of lumber 
 a year; and as the average of pine to the acre is about 10,000 
 feet, one year's work will clear o,500 acres. At that rate our 
 pine will soon be exhausted ; and fifty years hence the sound of 
 the exhaust of the saw-mill engine may be heard on the shores of 
 Hudson Bay, clearing away the forest south of the Barren Lands; 
 frightening the reindeer, musk-ox and polar bear. '^J^o do this 
 work, they use an engine 30 by 36 and a double engine 20 by 24 
 and eight boilers 60 inches by 16 feet, running two circular saws 
 and a gang, with edgers, lath- mill, etc.* 
 
 The logs are brought into the mill from the boom, up an in- 
 clined [)lane, by an endless chain. If they are large logs, about 
 1,500 are brought up in a day; if small, they use up from 1,800 
 to 2,000. As the logs pass from the chain, they are thrown right 
 or left to the circulars which cut off" the slabs and square the log 
 ready for the gang, which has from forty to fifty saws, through 
 
 Patrick Keveney. ''L. Tinker. » Stanley Wight. <;Green Pack. 
 
ADDRESS OF .IAMP:S \V. HARTLETT. 343 
 
 which the timber passes aud comes out lumber at the other end. 
 The lumber is carried to the edgers, cut to width, and passed 
 along by a series of rollers and deposited on cars, ready for ship- 
 ment. No human labor is required, except to manage the ma- 
 chinery. It is a sight to be remembered, to see a great mill in 
 action, using up three logs a minute, aud turning them into 
 lumber, lath, staves and heading; for in addition to the lumber, 
 they manufacture from the slabs 14,000,000 lath, and barrel-stuff 
 enough to barrel 60,000 barrels of salt which they boil down 
 from brine, by the exhaust steam and refuse fuel. On a trial of 
 the capacity of this mill, under the most fav'^orable circumstances, 
 they cut 4")4,000 feet of one and one-quarter lumber in ten hours 
 and forty seconds. And in a test of hauling logs on a sled, two 
 horses drew 30,180 feet of logs at one load, one and one-quarter 
 miles.' 
 
 More than half the power used m the United States is em- 
 ployed in working wood and grinding grain.' 
 
 The stave mill is also constantly at work on our hardwood tim- 
 ber, gleaning after the saw-mill ; and we may say of our forests : 
 What the locust has spared, the canker-worm hath eaten. 
 
 The United States Commissioner of Agriculture in 1883 esti- 
 mated the uncut pine in Michigan, at 35,000,000,000 feet, which, 
 at the then rate of consumption, would be exhausted in ten years. 
 This State is the greatest lumber producing State in the Union, 
 turning out one-Hfth of the lumber in the United States. Last year 
 we manufactured 3,471, 4()0,501 feet of lumber, board measure; 
 8,555,251,750 shingles ; '295,94(5,015 laths ; besides a quantity of 
 staves and heading.^ 
 
 But we must not think that skimming off the first cut of the 
 white pine will finish up the forests of the State. Trees are still 
 growing, in much of the lumbered lands, which, if kept from cat- 
 tle and fire, will prove a supply for years to come, and scattered 
 through all the older settled portions of the State, patches of 
 growing woods are left, on most of the farms, which, with proper 
 care, and the increasing use of coal for fuel, will furnish much 
 lumber for our future needs. 
 
 ' ]j. Tinker. ^ Patrick Keveney. ' United States Commissioner of Agriculture. 
 
344: Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 SALT. 
 
 The makiug of salt, which is directly connected with the saw- 
 mill interest, has grown up since 1860 to gigantic proportions . 
 for, at that time, all the salt used in Michigan was imported from 
 New York off' the seaboard. In 1879 the State produced almost 
 half the salt made in the United States, making over 2,000,000 
 barrels. Since that date we have increased our product about 
 one-half, having made in 1885, 3,297,480 barrels. Fifty years 
 ago, the sea-coast was lined with salt blocks for making solar salt; 
 sea water being pumped up by wind-mills and evaporated by the 
 sun. This process would do when salt could be sold for $1.00 a 
 bushel ; but now this industry is practically abandoned, as in 
 1879 only 9,577 bushels of salt was produced from sea water from 
 the Atlantic ocean ; some little still being made in rainless Cali- 
 fornia. Twenty years ago it was (and in many places in Michi- 
 gan it still is) a great problem how to dispose of the waste from 
 saw-mills. It cumbered the laud, filled up the lakes and rivers. 
 In most places it was necessary to burn it, which was done at 
 great expense and risk, either by building tall stacks of fire-brick 
 and sheet-iron, into which the surplus saw-dust and slabs were 
 conveyed on an endless chain ; or by forming a " Gehenna " at 
 some distance from the mill, to which the waste was hauled by 
 horses ; the fires of which were never quenched, the smoke from 
 the burning darkening the air and making navigation danger- 
 ous. 
 
 But the question was solved in the saw-mills that were on the 
 great salt-basin. Large nests of boilers were set up for running 
 the engines, and in front of them was made a dumping-ground 
 for all refuse of the mill, covered and surrounded by cylinder 
 boilers, which were connected to the main nest of the tubular 
 boilers. The exhaust steam from the engines and all surplus 
 steam from the waste fuel was used for evaporating the salt water 
 pumped from the wells ; and the once waste product was utilized 
 and the expense of taking care of it saved. So great has been 
 the saving that a barrel of salt which cost $3.00 fifty years ago, 
 lias been sold for 75 cents. Of course, this state of things can't 
 always last. When our lumber is finished, we shall have to g-o 
 back to using coal for boiling our salt, and compete on equal 
 terms with Syracuse, in the market. The Bufl^alo Gazette for 
 1825 quotes salt at $3.00 a barrel. 
 
ADDRESS OF .TAMILS VV. BAKTLETT. 345 
 
 MINING ENGINES. 
 
 I have before me a photograph of Watts' first engine, which 
 was used for pumping a mine at Ohlham. It is a cylinder about 
 24 inches diameter by 8-foot stroke. The piston is connected to 
 a " wolving bob," by two chains running over a segment of a cir- 
 cle. Also a drawing of a 6-inch engine, used in starting one of 
 the largest mines in the Lake Superior country. I give a list of 
 the engines now in use at the Calumet and Hecla mine: 
 
 Compound, 17 in. hii:;li steam, 3(5 in. low steam, 5 fl. stroke. 
 
 2;] ' •■ ;w " r, 
 
 13 " 24 " 4A " 
 12 •• 24 " U " 
 28 " 48 " 6 
 
 40 " 70 " (i 
 
 Ilitih Pressure 30 4 " 
 
 40 .-) 
 
 IS S 
 
 30 6 
 
 28 ' 4 
 
 14 2 
 18 4 
 
 And three small engines, size not given — sixteen in all = to 180 
 feet area of one cylinder, 138 inches diameter. They have also 
 two steam-hammers for breaking rock, five steam stamps and five 
 20-ton locomotives. ' 
 
 UK HAD. 
 
 The raising of grain and preparing it for food is the first neces- 
 sity of civilized man, and the improvement wrought in this by 
 the mechanical arts, has kept pace with the progress in otlier 
 directions. In some parts of the United States the soil is still 
 scratched with u pointed stick, drawn by o.xen harnessed by the 
 horns, the grain sown broadcast by hand, the crop reaped with a 
 sickle, trodden out by oxen, and winnowed by the wind. Maize 
 is shelled on a shovel, hulled and softened by boiling in lye-water, 
 pulverized with a stone roller, on a matate and baked on a heated 
 stone, requiring the constant labor of one or two women to supply 
 a family with their daily l)reail, or rather, with their daily tortil- 
 
 ' KiigineeriiiK mid Miiiiii;;: .loiiinal. .July I",'. 1884. 
 
346 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 las. The modern plow is of steel or chilled iron, and is harder 
 than the nether mill-stone and polished like a mirror. 
 
 The grain is sown with a drilling-machine, drawn by a horse, 
 which digs the hole, drops the seed, and covers it up. The hoeing 
 is done by horse-cultivators, and the crop is garnered by a mach- 
 ine, drawn by two horses, which reaps, bundles, and binds the 
 straw ready for threshing and winnowing. This is done by an 
 immense machine, driven by a steam engine, which bags the clean 
 grain and stacks the straw. 
 
 The wheat is drawn to the railroad, where it is loaded by steam 
 into cars, and carried to the large elevator, which is an immense 
 building, capable of storing millions of bushels. Here it is raised 
 by an endless chain of scoops, into bins, from which it is weighed, 
 shot out into vessels or cars, and transported to the ends of the 
 earth. Steam-shovelers unload the cars, and steam elevators 
 unload the vessels, and raise the wheat into the mill, to be ground 
 into flour. It is ground, bolted, and barreled, by power, and is 
 kneaded, rolled, and cut into shape by machines, and baked in a 
 revolving oven. It is never touched by human hands until it is 
 ready for eating. 
 
 CRACKERS. 
 
 Machine bread and cracker making are largely practiced in the 
 State. I quote from a letter from the largest and oldest concern: 
 
 " I am unable to state the exact time the cracker business was 
 first established, that is, the old system of hand work ; probably 
 before the birth of this State. The first steam cracker bakery 
 was established about 1 861 ; and at that time ten bbls. of flour was 
 considered a big day's work, and required about seven hands. We 
 now have a building 95 by 80, employ 38 hands, 12 machines, 60 
 horse-power engine. We manufacture 18,000 bbls. of flour into 
 40 different kinds of goods, also 1,200 tierces of lard, several car- 
 loads of sugar, and 300 bbls. of molasses." ' 
 
 Other establishments use power in making soft bread, w^hich is 
 delivered hot to customers. 
 
 GRIST MILLS — FLOUR. 
 
 The two women grinding at the mill, mentioned in Scripture, 
 must have been about the earliest method of pulverizing grain. 
 The oldest use of power on record was for driving a grist mill, 
 
 1 Vail & Crane Cracker Co., Detroit. 
 
ADDRESS OF JAMKS W. BAK1I,I<; IT. 347 
 
 as water-wheels were iu use for this purpose over 1,800 years ago. 
 Ox, wind and water grist mills were common in Michigan long 
 before the State was admitted into the Union ; and the first use 
 of steam there was for grinding grain. These mills and all others 
 in America, till about ten years ago, used the upper mill-stone, 
 revolving above the nether. But now the whole system is aban- 
 doned, and all wheat is now pulverized by chilled iron rollers, 
 which, with the help of the middlings jmrifier, make better flour 
 than was ever possible with the old process. In the modern mills> 
 the wheat goes over and over again, from the top of the mill to 
 the bottom, passing from one set of rollers to another, but "from 
 the time the grain comes into the mill in cars, to the packing up 
 of the fine flour in barrels, through all the processes of sifting, 
 cleaning, grinding, purifying, se'parating, etc., everything is 
 automatic. No workman touches the product save in the way of 
 supervision." ' 
 
 The great flouring mills at Minneapolis consumed last year 
 24,000,000 bushels of wheat, and made 5,450,163 barrels of flour. 
 The largest flour-mill in Michigan is driven by a compound 
 engine, making 750 barrels of flour, by the use of 325 horse-power, 
 daily. ' 
 
 SUGAR MAKING. 
 
 The making of sugar, which was formerly confined to the 
 tropics, is, by the aid of modern invention and machinery, now 
 practiced in the temperate zone, and the cost of it very much 
 decreased by the competition of sorghum and beets to the sugar- 
 cane, 
 
 I have seen the negro slave at his unrequited toil ; and as he is 
 a thing of the past in this country, and must soon be extinct 
 among civilized men, 1 take the liberty of describing how he cut 
 and ground the cane, and made sugar, without the aid of steam 
 machinery, working eighteen hours a day in crop-time without a 
 Sunday, under the lash of the mayoral, in Cuba. The cane was 
 cut by a gang of negro men and women, with rude swords, and 
 heaped in great piles near the mill, which was three wooden roll- 
 ers connected to long wooden sweeps. To these many teams of 
 oxen, yoked by the horns, were fastened, and as they traveled in 
 a circle, the cane was crushed between the rollers, and the sweet 
 
 > Detroit City Mills. > Century Magazine, May, 1886. 
 
348 Michigan's semi-centknnial. 
 
 juice ran in a trough to the boiling house, and there boiled in a 
 train of four kettles, set in brick-work, heated by the refuse cane 
 which was spread out to dry after leaving the rolls. 
 
 When the cane juice was boiled down to the sugar point, it was 
 dipped out into coolers ; after cooling and crystallizing, it was set 
 to purge in long tapering tin cans, with a small hole in the bottom 
 end, treated with a layer of damp clay on the top, and the result 
 was the hard white sugar, which some of us remember as done up 
 in thick blue paper. The drippings from the pans, was the West 
 India molasses, from which the Medford rum of our fathers was 
 made. 
 
 The steam sugar works of 1S53, which is now in use, had for a 
 mill three iron rollers, two and a half feet in diameter and six 
 feet long, geared together by pinions ; driven by a twenty-inch 
 engine, geared to the rolls twenty to one, by massive gears. The 
 cane was brought to the mill and the begass taken away, by end- 
 less tables. Boiling down the cane juice was done by exhaust 
 steam from the engines, in large vacuum pans, very much below 
 atmospheric pressure. 
 
 When partly boiled down, it was leached through high vats, 
 filled with animal charcoal, for clarification ; then reboiled to the 
 sugar point, cooled and revolved at a high rate of speed in centri- 
 fugals which separated the molasses from the sugar. The use of 
 steam made sugar-cane culture possible in the southern States ; as 
 now the grinding can be finished before the first frost, which ruins 
 the cane for sugar. The French revolution was the cause of one 
 great good to the world, as the blockade of European ports by 
 the English, deprived the people of sugar, and turned their atten- 
 tion to providing a substitute ; so now, sugar made from beets has 
 largely taken the place of foreign sugars in Europe ; and several 
 of the States now manufacture it in large quantities. 
 
 The United States Department of Agriculture publish plates of 
 a mill in France, which works up 1,000 tons of beets in a day. 
 In one room there are six steam engines, five vacuum pans, and 
 endless other machinery; and in another building, there is a large 
 cutting-mill and twelve batteries, making a mass of machinery 
 seldom seen together. They also publish a description of a mill 
 in California, with a print, shewing a pile of 20,000 tons of beets, 
 ready for the mill. Large appro))riations have been made by 
 Congress, to experiment in sugar making from cane, sorghum and 
 
ADDRKSS OK JAMKS VV. BAKIT.KTr. 349 
 
 beets ; and the process of niiimitheture is fast changing, and before 
 long, temperate climates will furnish their own sugar. 
 
 Several years ago, there were a number of large establishments 
 started in the United States, for making so-called grape sugar or 
 glucose. Large buildings were erected and tilled with expensive 
 machinery. One of these concerns was built in Michigan. 
 
 For some reason the business did not pay ; and the machinery 
 has been removed, and the building used for other i)urposes. And 
 that has been the case with most of them. 
 
 CANDY. 
 
 In my investigations into the subject of food, I found out what, 
 to me, was an astounding fact; that there is made and sold in 
 the United States oOO tons of candy a day, which is 109,500 tons 
 a year. 
 
 In the great cities there are large factories devoted to candy- 
 making, using a large amount of steam power. 
 
 " It is a fact, that within the past, quarter of a century, the 
 development of the industry has been very great. The simple 
 wants were easily enough supplied by such appliances as are now 
 long since passed into disuse, or are used only to supplement the 
 more complicated meth()<ls. For instance, there was the old- 
 fashioned plan for smooth or j)earled work, operated by a man 
 toiling all day long, shaking and moving the pan over a hot tire, 
 turning out, at most, from 100 to 'iOO pounds a day. Now, we 
 find the revolving steam-pans, a dozen or more in a row, which a 
 man and two helpers easily preside over, turning out anywhere 
 from 2,000 to 3,000 pounds a day, of finely finished goods." 
 
 Twenty-five years ago there were but two candy works in the 
 United States, both in New York city ; but now most of the large 
 cities have one or more. The largest in the State is in Detroit ; 
 employing when in full blast, about 300 hands. It is driven by 
 a fifty horse-power steam engine, which pulverizes the sugar in a 
 mill running at the rate of 3,000 turns a minute, beats up the 
 material fo r marsh-mallow in enormous egg-beaters, runs a row 
 of twenty-four steam pans, kneads, rolls, cuts out and prints the 
 material for lozenges, turns series of rollers on which are stamped 
 dies, which cut the hard candy into kisses at the rate of bushels 
 a minute ; elevates the sugar and other material from one fioor 
 to the other; in short, it has a hami in every department of the 
 
350 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 business. The boilers furnish steam for boiling the stock in great 
 copper kettles capable of cooking from 500 to 800 pounds of 
 stock, heats the steam-pans, warms hollow tables to keep the mass 
 soft while working, heats large drying-rooms in which are stored 
 at once 8,000 trays of moulds, formed of corn-starch of various 
 shapes, filled with material. In short, without steam-heat, mod- 
 ern candy-making would be impossible. 
 
 The most striking feature of a candy factory is the pan room, 
 where a dozen or two of these, arranged in a row the whole 
 length of the room, are constantly revolving with a lazy like 
 motion and a deafening sound. These pans are from four to five 
 feet in diameter, made entirely of copper, and revolve on a hollow 
 shaft two or three feet above the floor. Tlirough this hollow 
 shaft, steam passes to a coil of pipes surrounding the pan, and 
 thus the required heat is obtained. Each pan holds from one to 
 two hundred pounds of previously formed drops or some kind of 
 nut kernel. Melted sugar is put on the revolving contents, 
 which, with the heat of the pan, soon hardens to the surface in a 
 smooth coating ready for a repetition of the dose. Flavor is 
 applied either in the original drop or in the sugar added. 
 Lastly, when the required size and fineness of finish are obtained, 
 color in a liquid form is applied. This is mostly carmine, as 
 nearly all these goods that are colored at all are red. After the 
 goods have been thoroughly dried they are put in the waxing 
 pan, which gives them a fine glossy finish. 
 
 We now manufacture the finest qualities of candy, which a few 
 years ago were all imported from Paris. Any new style got up 
 anywhere is immediately duplicated here. There are five factories 
 in Michigan ; four in Detroit and one in Grand Rapids; three use 
 steam only, and two are run by steam engines ; the product of the 
 largest is from eight to ten tons a day ; and about twenty tons a 
 day are made in Detroit. 
 
 One of the most prominent candymakers said : " It is a sin- 
 gular fact that ^38,000,000 are spent in America for something 
 that is of no use to anyone." ' 
 
 TOBACCO. 
 
 Detroit is a great tobacco manufacturing centre, and its promi- 
 nence is comparatively recent. But long ago, when the Jesuit 
 
 ' Gray, Toynton & Fox. 
 
ADDRESS OF JAMES W. BARTLETT. 351 
 
 missionaries first settled ainoiiij^st the Hurons, they found the tobac- 
 co trade flourishing in our immediate neighborhood. A branch 
 of the Huron tribe was called the Tobacco Indians, and lived on 
 the other side of the river, along the banks, from the southern 
 shore of Lake Huron to Lake Erie. These aborigines cultivated 
 the weed and prepared it for market, being the only instance of 
 the North American savage east of the Rocky Mountains engag- 
 ing in any traffic or raising a crop for sale. When the Hurons 
 were exterminated by the fierce Iroquois, these Indians were 
 spared, and their name is perpetuated in the town of Wyandotte. 
 Tobacco is one of the good gifts that America gave the rest of 
 the world. It must fill a great want of mankind, for in less than 
 two hundred years after it was first introduced into Europe, it 
 was used by every nation and tribe on the whole earth. The 
 highest civilization and the lowest barbarism unite in the use of 
 this much abused weed. The maledictions of Kings, Popes and 
 Emperors did not hinder its progress. It is the one habit that 
 conquered the world. I have no means of finding out how much 
 is used in the world, but in the United .States the figures are suffi- 
 ciently high. 
 
 In 1884 there was numufactured in the States, 19o, 4 3^,604 
 pounds of plug tobacco ; 16,579,882 pounds of fine cut ; 45,172,- 
 73/ pounds of smoking ; 6,127,230 pounds of snuff; 76,533,371 
 pounds of material used in cigars and cigarettes ; total, 252,- 
 852,825 pounds, or 126,426 tons. We have also manufactured, 
 3,372,982,036 cigars and 920,303,519 cigarettes, a total of 4,293,- 
 285,547. 
 
 With the help of our foreign neighbors, to whom we exported 
 83 tons, we have smoked and snuffed 65,416 tons, and chewed 
 61,0.0 tons of tobacco of our own make. We are increasing in 
 its use, for in 1863 we only made 29,000,000 pounds. In 1885 
 we made 6.2 times as much, or 180,700,000 of smoking and 
 chewing tobacco alone. 
 
 Fifty years ago we purchased our tobacco in the form of plug 
 or " pig-tail." It was hard, and required much exertion of the 
 jaws to masticate it. The old conundrum, " Why do you chew 
 tobacco ? '' 'I'he answer being: " To get the juice out ; " would 
 hardly be appreciated by the consumers of the fine-cuts of to-day. 
 To get a pipeful ready for the pipe was a long job. It had to be 
 shaved fine with a jack-knife, and rolled for a long time in 
 
352 Michigan's semi-centknnial. 
 
 the palms of the hands; and even then it required lighting and 
 re-lighting many times before it was consumed. The old grand- 
 mother of the period kept scooping up hot ashes with her pipe, 
 from between the andirons and getting a whifl'or two before she 
 had to repeat the operation. I acknowledge the smoke was good 
 when it was obtained " as no tobacco is really bad, though some 
 is much better than others ; " and the old fashioned plug certainly 
 had the real seductive poison, all in it, which went just to the right 
 place. This went on till some genius appreciating this great 
 waste of human muscle, conceived the idea of cutting and shred- 
 ding tobacco, by the power of steam, thus reducing it to a con- 
 venient form for human use. The idea took at once; and now 
 the great factories and palatial mansions around Detroit, show 
 how well their labors are appreciated in America, and throughout 
 the civilized world. In 1842, George Miller commenced cutting 
 tobacco at Detroit, in a small building on Woodward avenue, south 
 of Jefferson. The power was a horse, which traveled round a 
 sweep in the cellar. 
 
 There were no other works of the kind east of the Hudson river. 
 He used a Rodgers machine, the stock being pressed into a cheese 
 ten inches square and two feet long, and fed up to the revolving 
 knives by sci'ews. From this small beginning started this great 
 industry of Michigan; the founders of the tive great factories in 
 Detroit being all employed at these works. They are the only 
 tobacco cutters in the State, and make over one-eighth of the fine- 
 cut, and nearly one-tenth of the smoking tobacco in the United 
 States, using large steam engines, and the cutting tools so con- 
 trived that it is not necessary to press the stock before cutting. 
 They turn out 7,474,916 pounds of manufactured tobacco a year. 
 
 j:)Rinks. 
 
 Fifty years ago the prevailing beverage for an intoxicant was 
 New England rum, made from the sugar cane. This has been 
 superseded by the extract of our own maize, called whisky. 
 Much wine was imported and some ale. There were a few brew- 
 eries, which made strong beer. The farmers' wives brewed a 
 decoction of roots and herbs, more or less palatable, and small 
 beer was for sale in the cities, in heavy stone bottles. These weak 
 drinks have been replaced by pop, and soda-water, so-called, 
 because there is no soda in it. But all these beveraures are fast 
 
ADDRESS OF JAMES \V. HARTLETT. 353 
 
 being driven out by lager beer, which is of German parentage, 
 but taken kindly to, by the average American citizen. If you 
 get high enough to overlook a Western city, you sec two classes 
 of buildings towering over the rest, in about equal numbers; one 
 set are school-houses, and the others lager beer breweries. The 
 lousiness is not forty years old, for the first lager beer in 
 Michigan was made in 1850, by Henry Miller, of Detroit ; and 
 now there are in Michigan 110 breweries, making 442,500 barrels 
 a year. 
 
 There are in the United States, 2,002. If they made as much 
 beer, in proportion to those of this State, they would produce 
 8,853,500 barrels, or enough to supply the pumps of the Detroit 
 water-works nine and one-half days, or ten gallons to every man," 
 woman and child in the United States. 
 
 One brewery in Detroit has a capacity of 60,000 barrels a year, 
 using two steam engines of fifty horse-power, for grinding malt, 
 stirring the mash, and elevating material ; also, three steam 
 pumps, aud two one hundred and fifty horse-power boilers for 
 running the engines and furnishing steam for boiling the mash. 
 They tuni malt, rice, and hops into lager beer and other seductive 
 beverages. The percentage of alcohol in this beer is four per cent. 
 It is kept six months in cooling rooms at a temperature of thirty- 
 three, before it is ready for use. Their stock on hand in March 
 was 14,000 barrels of lager, and they use ten tons of ice a day. 
 
 But for all this great increase in the use of lager, it is said 
 there is still some whisky consumed in Michigan ; though there 
 is no distillery within her borders ; but over the line there is 
 plenty of them " that are driven by the diabolical power of 
 steam, and with an energy that knows no Sunday." 
 
 ELECTRICITY. 
 
 The terrible power of lightning finds a place in the earliest 
 myths, and crops out in mythology ; the thunderbolts of Jove, 
 Thor's hammer, the rock«breaker, are types of Supreme power. 
 
 In 1754 Franklin " seized the lightning from heaven," and 
 found out something of its nature, and showed how our houses 
 could be protected from its power. But it remained a scientific 
 toy for over an hundred years ; but now it is degraded to house- 
 hold drudgery, going our errands, calling our servants to answer 
 the door-bell, and polishing our stoves. In 1837 the first message 
 23 
 
354 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 was sent over a wire, aud the electric telegraph soon became a 
 household word. It was immediately adopted all over the world; 
 and now there is no spot inhabited by civilized man where he is 
 not in instantaneous communication with his fellow men. The 
 wires run over mountains and under the oceans, from the Arctic 
 Circle to the Equator. 
 
 There are in the United States 162,000 miles of telegraph 
 poles; 599,000 miles of telegraph wire; 15,600 telegraph stations. 
 There were sent last year 46,300,000 messages, not counting those 
 on railroad business. 
 
 There are in Michigan 5,300 miles of poles ; 11,900 miles of 
 wire ; 539 telegraph stations. There are in use 1,000 instruments 
 in the State. ' 
 
 Ten years ago an electric light was one of the curiosities of the 
 Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. Now several cities in 
 Michigan use it for street lighting. In Detroit they use the arc 
 light, or the spark between carbon points, set up on towers from 
 100 to 150 feet high, which beautifully illuminate the roofs of 
 our houses. For household use the incandescent light is being 
 introduced. It is a wire of carbon in a vacuum formed in a glass 
 globe, aud made candescent by the passage of a current of elec- 
 tricity. 
 
 Electricity is used as a means of distributing power through 
 wire ; and railroad cars have been run in this way ; but at pres- 
 ent no economical and practical result has been obtained. The 
 current of electricity is excited by magnets revolving at great 
 speed between other stationary magnets, driven by steam engines, 
 so the result is turning power into light. One horse-power is 
 required to furnish the force to run arc light of an alleged 2,000 
 candle-power. The best result claimed for coal, oil, and wages of 
 engineer and fireman, in running an electric light plant, is nine- 
 tenths of a cent an hour per horse-power. 
 
 The Detroit Electric Light Company use five steam engines, 
 the total capacity of which is 900 horse-power. They supply 400 
 street tower lights and 300 private customers. They estimate 
 each light at 2,000 candle-power. 
 
 Solomon said : " There is nothing new under the sun; " and mod- 
 ern experience has shown he was wise in his generation. Which 
 of our great inventions are really new ? The power of steam was 
 
 A. P. Roberts, The Bell Telephone Company. 
 
ADDRKSS OF JAMKS W. BARTLE']'!'. 355 
 
 kuowii centuries before the days of Watt ; and many steam- 
 boats run before Fulton's time. In Hindostan, there have been 
 no power forges in liistoric times; but in the Mosque of Delhi, 
 there has been for ages, a wrouglit-iron shaft, so hirge that there 
 are but five hammers in America large enough to duplicate it. 
 Even the electric telegraph was foreshadowed in the oldest of 
 books ; for we read in Job : " Canst thou send lightnings that 
 they may go and say unto thee, Here we are ?" 
 
 But as Minerva sprang fully armed from the head of Jove, so 
 appeared the telephone. We waked up one morning and found 
 it full grown ; and the sound of its halloo was heard all over the 
 land. I believe no one ever imagined that human speech could 
 possibly ever be heard for miles as distinctly as for feet, before 
 this wonder was evolved. 
 
 The wise man of old for once was mistaken. .Starting ten 
 years ago, it had in use, January 1st, 18^!6, 101,734 miles of wire, 
 134,847 subscribers, and 5,168 employes. 
 
 LEA J) I'ipk. 
 
 The process of making lead pipe has been very much improved. 
 The lead was formerly cast in the form of a cylinder about three 
 inches in diameter, with an inch bore and about lour feet long; 
 and afterwards rolled to the proper thickness, over a long man- 
 drill. The pipe was very imperfect and could only be produced 
 in short lengths. Now the melted lead is poured into the cylinder 
 and a piston forced down into the melted lead by a hydraulic 
 press at 3,000 pounds to the inch. The semi-fluid lead is forced 
 through an orifice of the proper size around a mandrill, and a 
 continuous lead pipe passes out, and is reeled up finished ready 
 for shipment. This method furnishes perfect pipe in long lengths. 
 The lead in the cylinder is kept at the proper state of fluidity by 
 a steam-jacket supjilied with steam from the boiler. 
 
 There is but one lead pipe works in the State, which is in 
 Detroit ; and by the use of a ten horse-power engine turns out 
 fifty reels of pipe a day, each weighing 180 pounds, which is a 
 yearly output of over l,o-")0 tons.' 
 
 .SHOEMAKING. 
 
 We all remember the old-time shoemaker sitting on his low 
 bench, with a small collection of awls and knives, lap-stone, ham- 
 
 iE2dward Morris. 
 
356 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 mer and pair of piucers, cutting out from raw leather, and with 
 long-continued labor making a pair of shoes, evolving them out 
 of his head " as it were." There are plenty of cobblers to-day 
 working with a smiliar kit of tools, but they work only at repair- 
 ing, for boots and shoes are now made by machinery. The first 
 practical pegging machine was built iu 1857 ; and an enterprising 
 shoemaker iu Dauvers, Mass., concluded to start a power factory. 
 I set up for him a four-inch cylinder and boiler, and put his works 
 in operation, using a three horse-power, with which he run one 
 pegging machine. Within three mouths he changed for a six- 
 inch engine ; three months more it was changed to an eight-inch, 
 and afterwards to a twelve ; and the last time I heard, he was 
 running an eighteeu-iuch engine, which supplied 100 horse-power; 
 and other factories were started, so in a few years hand-shoemak- 
 ing became a thing of the past. " Over a hundred machines have 
 been invented for shoemaking, changing the whole course of a 
 great industry, and producing great cities."' "Through scores 
 of processes, the forty-four pieces of a pair of shoes require, to 
 bring them together, the co-operation of fifty men, women and 
 children. The result is, you can buy for three dollars what would 
 have cost your forefather six." 
 
 To do this, there are used sewing machines that make 600 
 stitches in a minute, pegging machines that make and drive pegs 
 faster than they could be counted ; machines for sewing on soles, 
 that increase the product over hand work from 40 to 600 a day, 
 or fifteen times as fast. In 1880 the great factories turned out 
 125,478,511 pairs of boots and shoes, a little more than two pairs a 
 year, for every man, woman and child in the United States. 
 
 The largest shoe factory in Michigan "employs between 600 to 
 700 hands, makes on an average about 1,500 to 1,800 pairs per 
 day. Some seasons of the year run as high as 2,000 pairs a 
 day.'- 
 
 BRICK-MAKING. 
 
 Brick-making is older than history ; and bricks, being inde- 
 structible, are found all over the world. In Scripture we find the 
 first written account of an attempted improvement in their manu- 
 facture by King Pharaoh, by economizing in straw, thereby 
 causing a strike among his workmen, who went out and never 
 
 ' Harpers' Monthly, January, 1885. ^ Pingree & Smith, Detroit. 
 
ADDRESS OF .lAMKS W. nAHTI.K'lT. 357 
 
 came back to work, but emigrated to Palestine uiuler Moses, 
 Pressed brick were used when Babylon was building ; and had 
 the maker's name stamped upon them. Brick-making then, and 
 till thirty years ago, has been a hand trade ; oxen have been used 
 to run a mixer for preparing the clay, and the hog's labor is still 
 utilized in China by sprinkling corn over the wet clay, which by 
 rooting they prepare for use ; this being the only instance where 
 the labor of swine has been used by man. 
 
 The first brick used in Michigan for building, was in the Gov. 
 Porter House, in Detroit. They were imported from Ohio in 
 canal boats, while Michigan was a territory. The size of the 
 brick was nine inches long, four and five-eighths wide and two 
 and one-quarter thick. The first made in Detroit were made on 
 the Woodbridge farm a short distance north of Wood bridge 
 grove, and the (juantity just enough for building chimneys. When 
 the arsenal at Dearborn was built, Titus Dart started a brick- 
 yard on his farm on the River Rouge. Abial and William 
 Wood, on the Allen farm, furnished the brick for SS. Peter 
 and Paul church and for the first freight house on 
 the Michigan Central Railroad. In 1848 John Greusel 
 came here from New York, where he had been in the brick busi- 
 ness for fifteen years. It was he who first introduced brick 
 machinery into Detroit, or the State of Michigan. All brick be- 
 fore that were made by hand. The quantity of brick made in 
 1848 was not over 3,000,000 ; and this was enough to supply the 
 market. Prices were $3.25 to $3.50 per 1,000. Since then the 
 brick business has increased to such an extent that at this time 
 there are twenty-nine brickyards near Detroit, all of them using 
 machinery, and most of them using steam power, and, on an aver- 
 age, making 90,000,000 per year, the product being thirty times 
 as great as it was eighteen years ago.' 
 
 STOVES. 
 
 In 1836 there were few stoves in use. The crane hung over the 
 kitchen fire place, on which were suspended the pots and kettles. 
 
 Meat was roasted suspended by a chain before the fire, and 
 turned by the draft of the chimney, or by a dog-power. A class 
 of short-legged dogs still go by the name of turn-spits. 
 
 ' John Greusel. 
 
358 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Later, a tin-kitchen so-called, was used. This was set before the 
 fire, and the reflection from the bright tin doing part of the cook' 
 ing, so the meat had only to be turned occasionally in roasting. 
 Biscuits were baked in a cast-iron bake-pan suspended over the 
 fire from the crane, the cover had a high rim all around, to be 
 filled with coals to equalize the heat. Bread was baked in a brick 
 oven, and a set boiler with a fire under it heated the water for 
 washing-day. The rooms were heated by wood burned in open 
 fire-places. What a contrast to heating by the base-burners of 
 to-day, with the mica panes all around to give light to the room, 
 and polished and nickel-plated till they shine like silver, and our 
 six-kettled cook stoves with large ovens and set hot water tanks ! 
 In those days a moderate family laid in eighty cords of hard 
 wood. Now the same house is heated and the cooking done by 
 twelve tons of anthracite coal, and much better heated than was 
 possible before. 
 
 The makingof stoves is one of the great industries of the United 
 States, and Detroit is the largest stove market in America, more 
 stoves being made there than in any other city in the world. 
 
 Stove-making in Detroit dates back to the year 1857, when 
 Jeremiah Dwyer started a small foundry at the foot of Lieb 
 street. Shortly afterward a company was formed to increase the 
 manufacture.' 
 
 In 1875, they had 200 men at work, and cast from ten to fifteen 
 tons per day. Now they employ from 1,000 to 1,250 men, and 
 turn out from 225 to 275 stoves per day, a yearly average of 
 between 60,000 and 70,000. There are three stove foundries in 
 Detroit, which employ about 3,000 men, and produce 125,000 to 
 150,000 stoves per year, consuming from 125,000 to 150,000 tons 
 of pig-iron yearly. 
 
 These stoves are the best made anywhere, and are sold in every 
 State in the Ihiion, and many are shipped to foreign countries, 
 and their business increases every year. 
 
 HEATING OF BUILDlNi^S. 
 
 There are numerous methods of heating buildings from a single 
 fire. Large furnaces are arranged as near as possible below the 
 middle of the building; fresh air is brought in from the outside, 
 
 ' L. L. Barbour. 
 
A1)1)KE88 OF JAMES \V. liAKTLETT. 359 
 
 and after being warmed by passing over the heated iron, is dis- 
 tributed through openings in the floors, controlled Ijy dampers. 
 Steam boilers are largely used for heating, and the steam carried 
 by pipes to all parts of the building, and taken into radiators of 
 cast-iron or steam pipe, which give out the heat from the steam, 
 and, by a system of small pipes, carry the condensed water back 
 to the boiler by gravitation. This method of heating is reduced 
 to a very perfect system, the pressure being nearly alike on all 
 parts of the building, and very low steam is mostly used, seldom 
 over three pounds to the inch. 
 
 The boilers are so arranged that the dampers shut off the draft 
 when the steam reaches the desired amount of pressure, and they 
 open when the pressure fails. Thus the boilers \vi\\ run for 
 several hours without attention, and no labor is required, except 
 to shovel in the coal and rake down and carry away the ashes. 
 
 These boilers are so safe that an explosion of any of the thou- 
 sands in use has never occurred ; though they are often in the 
 charge of inexperienced men or women. The boilers are of every 
 form and material, from the ordinary upright and horizontal 
 tul)ul;ir wrought-iroii iioiler, to all forms of cast-iron concerns; for 
 the pressure carried is so low, even that unreliable material has 
 been used without exploding dangerously. Radiators are made 
 in every style, and .some are highly ornamental ; many are made 
 in the State; one large foundry does nothing but cast one pattern; 
 and many large establishments are entirely devoted to heating 
 buildings by steam. The largest public buildings are heated in 
 this manner, using large nests of tubular boilers. Return-flue 
 boilers are .sometimes used, and miles of piping. In some cities a 
 central boiler-house is established, the pipes laid under the streets 
 and the steam carried for miles, for heating buildings and furnish- 
 ing steam for elevators and other power. 
 
 EXTINGUISHING FIRES. 
 
 The houses of the United States being mostly built of wood, 
 tires are con.stantly taking place; and means for extinguishing 
 them by public organizations were early used. These were vol- 
 unteer associations, each member agreeing to keep at his house, 
 two fire-l)uckets, a long ladder, axe, bag, and bed-key to be used 
 for fire purposes only. The town meeting appointed a fire-war- 
 den who had great power. In case of a fire he could compel by- 
 
360 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 standers to work under his orders under a severe penalty for dis- 
 obedience. When fires took place in the woods, teams of oxen 
 and plows were collected, to run furrows around the burning, and 
 men were stationed along the line with shovels, to dampen the 
 fire with sand to prevent its running through the grass and leaves. 
 The alarm was given by ringing the meeting-house bell, and every 
 good citizen hurried to do his part to extinguish the flames and 
 save property. 
 
 Hand-engines without suction- hose were in use in 1836, which 
 were supplied by a string of men passing water from the nearest 
 pump or stream ; and lines of boys passed back the empty buckets. 
 
 The first improvement was the introduction of suction-hose, to 
 draw water from wells, with long lengths of leading hose to 
 reach the fire. When water was at a distance, two or more engines 
 were stationed in a line, taking water from each other, the last 
 playing upon the fire. Engine companies were formed, and the 
 rivalry between the different organizations in cities can hardly be 
 conceived by the present younger generation. The engines were 
 of the most perfect description, with high-flown names, and as 
 beautiful as paint and pumice-stone could make them; they were 
 manned by from 40 to 100 men, and a race towards a fire was an 
 excitement well remembered by those of you who are now over 
 fifty years old ; and the washing of a rival tub was a feat to be 
 long remembered, and led to black eyes and bloody noses. Great 
 riots have taken place, owing to the rivalry between the various 
 companies. 
 
 But Siksey has long ago rolled down his pants, and now hardly 
 looks up when the alarm bell strikes the number.' 
 
 The first steam fire engine was built in 1840, in New York; 
 but such was the opposition by the hand-engine companies, that 
 its use had to be abandoned ; but in 1855, others were built, and 
 they began to come into use, manned by paid companies. At the 
 close of 1875 there were 1,400 in use. The standard engine of 
 to-day has an upright tubular boiler two feet eight inches in 
 diameter, two steam cylinders from eight to nine inches diameter, 
 pumps from four to five inches, stroke eight inches, capacity in 
 gallons a minute 900, weight 6,500." 
 
 The fire alarm is sent to the central office from signal-boxes 
 
 > Concord, Mass. '^ Hand-book of modern steam fire engines. 
 
ADDRESS OF .FAMKS W. BAKTLETT. 361 
 
 placed at the street corners, and bells strike the number of the 
 box by electricity. At the first stroke of the bell, the great 
 horses rush from their stables to their places by the pole, the 
 harnesses drop down upon their backs, the fire is lighted, and the 
 men dress themselves, mount the foot-board, and in thirteen sec- 
 onds the engine is tearing down the street towards the fire. On 
 arriving at the hydrant, thirty seconds more, and the engine is at 
 work pumping water under a pressure of one hundred pounds to 
 the inch. The men may be all asleep in bed, but if an alarm is 
 given from a box three-quarters of a mile distant, three minutes 
 is sufficient to get the machine at work on the fire. 
 
 These machines do effective work, throwing two streams through 
 900 feet of hose and one and one-eighth nozzles. Then men and 
 horses are all in one building which is never left without men 
 enough to manage the engine at a fire. Chemical engines, so- 
 called, are used, which throw a stream of water highly charged 
 with carbonic-acid gas, the pressure of which drives the water. 
 They are lighted and drawn by fleet horses, so they can gain time 
 on the larger engines ; and a few minutes at the commencement 
 of a fire may save a great conflagration. Great extension-ladders 
 are used, mounted on heavy trucks, and raised by cranks, by 
 which the hose can be safely carried to the tops of the highest 
 Ijuildings. Take it all in all, the city fire departments seem to 
 have arrived to a high state of perfection.' 
 
 STREET CARS. 
 
 In 1836 there were but fifteen miles of decent inland wagon- 
 road in Michigan, though roads were cut through the woods to 
 Saginaw and Chicago ten years before. This road started from 
 Detroit, and is now the Grand River road. Beyond were only 
 Indian trails, by one of which it was possible to reach Chicago 
 if a man was a good walker or had a horse. Freight could 
 only be carried by packers, pack-horses, or by dog-trains on 
 toboggans, in winter. Koads were very soon cut and worked in 
 all parts of the State, and travel and transportation were carried 
 on in large, covered wagons, drawn by oxen. You can judge of 
 the then condition of the roads by riding out in the spring, ofl^ 
 the |iavements of our cities. Within thirty years it was the 
 
 > View of Engin6 No. 8, Detroit 1. 
 
362 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 fashion for ladies to be driven to church in ox-carts in muddy 
 weather, as the streets were impassable by carriages. The first 
 improvement, after the corduroy roads, were the plank roads, 
 with which, to our sorrow, we are well acquainted. Stone pave- 
 ments were first laid in Detroit about forty years ago, and vari- 
 ous styles of wood pavements have since been tried. Twenty 
 years ago the first of the street-car lines were started, which are 
 now in general use in the State. Steam-power has been tried and 
 abandoned on street lines; but in New York elevated roads have 
 been built, on which locomotives are run, and over which millions 
 of passengers are carried at a great speed, long trains of cars fol- 
 lowing each other every minute. Cable-lines are also in use, an 
 endless wire passing round large drums, driven by steam engines, 
 draw the cars ten miles an hour. Electricity is being experi- 
 mented with, for driving street-cars, but as yet with doubtful 
 success.' 
 
 iron. 
 
 Iron was known before written history. The book of Job and 
 every Scriptural writing afterward, mentions steel and iron. They 
 were also sung by Homer. Iron clamped together the stones of 
 the Pyramids, and was cased in brass in Assyria, showing it to 
 have been the cheaper metal. Iron is the most universally dis- 
 tributed and the cheapest of metals ; but to the savages tribes, to 
 whom it has before been unknown, it is the most valuable com- 
 modity on earth. In trading with the inhabitants of the Pacific 
 Islands, by Capt. Cook, the price of fat hogs was a nail each. In 
 1317 the Scots invaded England and carried off all the iron they 
 could find, as the most valuable plunder. Iron was passed from 
 tribe to tribe in America, long before the knowledge of where it 
 came from was known, for when Mackenzie crossed the con- 
 tinent he found knives in use east of the Rocky Mountains, that 
 had been furnished by the Spaniards on the Pacific Coast, among 
 tribes that had never heard of white men ; and iron was buried 
 with the dead, as the greatest sacrifice to their memory. In open- 
 ing graves in Yucatan, Stevens found a knife, along with stone 
 tools and gold ornaments. 
 
 The Romans when they oc(;upied England, built their blast 
 furnaces on the hill tops, the winds furnishing the blast through 
 
 « L. Tinker. 
 
ADDRESS OF JAMES VV. RARTr,ETr. 363 
 
 channels opened to the windward ; but water was early used for 
 the purpose. Wood was the only fuel till 1750, and coke came 
 into use in 1842, and in 1<S80 one-third of all the pig-iron in 
 America is made with that fuel. Thirty years ago the Bessemer 
 process of making steel had not been heard of, and the open- 
 hearth process for the manufacturing of steel had not been made 
 a practical success, or the regenerative gas furnace had not 
 been invented. Fifty years ago the American blast turnace 
 which would make four tons of pig-iron a day, or twenty-three 
 tons a week, was doing good work. It was published as a great 
 thing in 1831, that a furnace was building which would make 
 1,100 tons of pig-iron in a year. But in 1880 we had one fur- 
 nace which made 224 tons a day, and 67,179 tons a year. 
 
 In 1810 we produced 5:],980 ; in 1840, 315,000 ; in 1880, 4,500,- 
 000 tons of pig-iron. It was not till 1844 that we commenced to 
 roll any other kinds of rails than strap-rails for our railroads. In 
 1880 we rolled 1,305,212 tons gross of rails, two-thirds of which 
 were steel. In 1880, we made 22 percent, of the pig-iron and 29 
 per cent, of the amount of steel made in the world. 
 
 There are in the United States 091 blast furnaces for making 
 pig-iron, the capacity of which is 18,600,000 tons, which is enough 
 pig-iron to build four solid i)yramids as large as and thirty-two 
 times as heavy as that of Cheops, on which 100,000 men are said 
 to have worked half a century, and which is the largest structure 
 ever raised by human hands. 
 
 There are 438 rolling-mills, having 1,555 trains of rolls, 5,265 
 puddling furnaces and 2,782 heating furnaces; thirty-two nail- 
 mills with 5,762 machines; twenty-two Bessemer steel works run- 
 ning forty-six converters ; eighty rail-mills, and several other 
 works for making the finer grades of tools and plate-steel. 
 
 Capacity of the roUin.i^mills 7.()0(),00() tons. 
 
 of the Bessemer works 2,490,000 ' ' 
 
 of other steel works 810,000 " 
 
 Total 10,!)00.00o ' 
 
 If this wore drawn in bars 1 by U inches, enough would be 
 made every month to reach around the world ten times, and 
 enough over to stock all the iron stores in Detroit. 
 
 One of the greatest achievements of iron machinery is rolling 
 over 233 miles of wire bar every day. I quote : "Our rod-mill 
 
364 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 rolls the steel billets into wire rods ; we take a four-inch billet 
 from 125 to 200 pounds weight, and at one heat roll it down into 
 a wire rod (five gauge), coiled on a thirty-inch reel, and from 900 
 to 1,300 feet long. 
 
 The regular output of the mill is about eighty tons per day, 
 although it has gone much higher than that, sometimes almost to 
 100 tons." ' 
 
 BLAST FURNACE. 
 
 The first great improvement in making cast-iron was in the use 
 of the hot blast, which was invented in England in 1828, and 
 introduced into this couutry between 1830 and 1840. The first 
 experiments only raised the temperature to 250 degrees, Fahren- 
 heit, and the product of the furnace increased about ten per cent.; 
 later, a hot blast oven, containing cast-iron arched pipes was 
 placed on the top of the stack, and heated by the flame from the 
 tunnel head. By this arrangement the temperature of the blast 
 was raised to 500 degrees, increasing the product about forty per 
 cent. Since 1868 cast-iron stoves of various patterns have been 
 used, raising the temperature of the blast still higher, and caus- 
 ing greater economy in making pig-iron. The regenerative prin- 
 ciple of storing heat is the latest improvement in blast furnaces. 
 In this process large masses of fire-brick are heated by the refuse 
 gases from the stack, and when heated the cold blast is turned 
 through the hot passages and heated by taking up the heat stored 
 by the brick while the gas is heating another set of flues. In 
 this way a great heat is obtained for the blast. 
 
 STEEL rails. 
 
 The making of steel rails requires a most extensive collection 
 of machinery. In the large works the iron ore is smelted in 
 from six to eight of the largest blast furnaces, with two regener- 
 ating ovens to each ; the molten iron being drawn ott' into ten-ton 
 ladles hung on trunnions on railroad cars; these are drawn by small 
 locomotive engines up to the converters, into which the hot iron 
 is dumped. Air is forced through the metal, at a pressure of 
 twenty-five pounds to the inch, burning out the carbon of the 
 cast-iron. '^J'he heat of this combustion raises the temperature to 
 
 ' Oliver & Roberts Wire Company, Pittsburg. 
 
ADDKESS OF .lAMKS W. HARTLETT. 365 
 
 the highest degree known in the arts, and entirely decarbonizes 
 the iron ; but as steel has a small percentage of carbon, it is now 
 mixed with about one hundred and twenty pounds of spigle (a 
 highly carbonized iron) to the ton, giving it the proper temper 
 for the rails. 
 
 The steel is drawn oft" into a ladle and run into ingots, eacdi 
 large enough for three rails, which are carried hot to the bloom- 
 ing train, a set of massive rolls, which are run and reversed by a 
 pair of engines, which reduces the ingot to the i)roper size for the 
 finishing rolls. In some cases the bars are now luted up in an 
 iron box with ashes, to remain several hours till the internal heat 
 of the bar heats the surface, and the blooms can be rolled into 
 rails with no reheating. So the only coal used is that of the blast 
 furnace, where the ore is melted ; though in most cases the ingot 
 is reheated before passing the blooming train. 
 
 Tlie amount of machinery in a rail mill is enormous; each blast 
 furnace having two blowing engines of sixty or more inches diam- 
 eter and air cylinder, which deliver air at a pressure of from five 
 to ten pounds to the inch. The double engines that supply the 
 twenty-five or thirty pounds of air to the converters, have con- 
 densing cylinders fifty-four inches in diameter by six feet stroke, 
 driving air cylinders sixty-six inches in diameter. The blooming 
 train engines are forty-inch cylinders, and the rail-mill engine is 
 the largest hitherto built in this country, working on a single 
 shaft, being double reversing compound, the high-pressure cylin- 
 der being forty-two inches, and the condensing cylinder seventy- 
 two inches in diameter. At full speed of 150 revolutions a min- 
 ute, they are capable of developing 12,000 horse power. The 
 bloom passes through the finishing rolls seven times, and cumes 
 out a rail long enough to be cut twice, making three rails thirty 
 feet long, weighing 600 ptuinds each. 
 
 The cranes, of which there is a great number, are moved by 
 water under a pressure of 300 or more pounds to the inch, which 
 also revolves the converters an<l reverses the engines. There are, 
 also, numerous elevators to raise ore, coal and other material, and 
 the cars for moving stock are drawn by endless wire ropes. Of 
 smaller engines there seems to be no end, for cutting, punching, 
 and drilling rails, driving machinists' tools, running dynamoes 
 for electric lighting, etc. To supply steam for these engines, 
 there are nearly 100 tubular boilers, set in rows in the boiler- 
 house, from whicli the st(>ani ])ipcs run in every direction. 
 
366 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 The main feature of the works are the three converters, twelve 
 feet iu diameter, rolliug on massive trunnions, which work off ten 
 tons of iron each, every blast, or forty-four tons an hour. They 
 are charged with molten iron brought from the blast furnace. 
 The blast is started and the spout turned upward, throwing a 
 roaring column of fire caused by the combustion of the carbon in 
 the cast-iron, which burns about fifteen minutes. Then the con- 
 verter is turned quarter round and receives its share of melted 
 spigle from a cupola; then another quarter turn dumps the steel 
 into a ladle set on a central crane, from w^hich it is tapped out 
 from the bottom into cast-iron moulds, the whole process taking 
 less than an hour ; and the moulds must be emptied and cleaned, 
 ready for the next blast. The two other converters are in use at 
 the same time, one after another. All together, they get ofl!" heats 
 at the rate of 4.4 an hour, making the grandest show of any in 
 the iron business. The converters are revolved, and the cranes 
 raised, lowei'ed and turned from a pulpit, so-called, where half a 
 dozen boys handle the levers that move the great masses of iron as 
 though it had no w^eight. It is one of the grandest triumphs of 
 machinery. Some weights will give an idea of the magnitude of 
 these machines. 
 
 Converters and supports 473,000 lbs 
 
 Rail engine 430,000 " 
 
 Blowing engines 4(34,000 " 
 
 l,;i72,000 " or (i8() tons 
 
 A complete steel rail works requires about 600 men and Irom 
 seven to eleven locomotives. Braddock's field rail mill made 
 6,000 tons of steel rails in one week (six days and five nights), 
 weighing 60 pounds to the yard, 20,000 rails in lo2 hours. This 
 is the highest run ever made. 
 
 South Chicago made about 1,760 rails in twelve hours, for one 
 day only; average month of 1,20) to 1,500 rails in twelve hours, 
 would be considered good running.' 
 
 In a modern blast furnace two tons of ore will make one ton 
 of pig iron ; 2,200 pounds of coke will make 2,000 pounds of pis^ 
 iron. 
 
 In a cupola, one ton of coke will melt eleven tons of pig iron. 
 
 1 South Chicago Rolling Mill. 
 
ADDRESS OF JAMKS W. HARTLK'IT. 367 
 
 It takes about 120 pounds of spigle to one ton of pig iron ; 2,200 
 pounds of pig iron, melted and blown, will make but 2,000 pounds 
 of steel ingot. 
 
 Id ten tons of ingots, 700 pounds is cut ofi' at the blooming 
 shears. In heating and re-heating ingots and blooms, about two 
 per cent, is burnt off".' 
 
 By the usual process it takes two and a half tons of coal to 
 make a ton of bar iron." 
 
 IRON IN MICHIOAN. 
 
 It is reported on doubtful authority, in the census of 1840, that 
 there were fifteen blast furnaces in Michigan, all in the southern 
 part of the State. Probably most of these were foundries, casting 
 pig-iron brought from other States, the total being only 301 tons. 
 From 1840 to 1850, no progress, from 1850 to 1860, three fur- 
 naces were started, using bog-ore, and they were all in use in 1857, 
 but went out of existence before 1860, when Lake Superior ore 
 came into use. 
 
 The famous Lake Superior ores, which now furnish more than 
 one-third of the iron used in the United States, were first proved 
 in a blast furnace in Sharon, Pennsylvania, in 1853, and their 
 value was at once recognized. They had been worked into blooms 
 at Carp River in 1847. The first blast furnace in Michigan was 
 built at Wyandotte in 1855 by Eber Ward, who was the pioneer 
 in the iron business in the State. One was started in Detroit in 
 1856, and another in what is now the town of Negaunee in 1858, 
 all of which arc now in ojjcration. There are now twenty estab- 
 lishments running twenty-seven blast furnaces in the State, for 
 making pig-iron, with a capacity of 844 tons a day. 
 
 In 1884, the Lake Superior iron mines produced of ore and pig 
 iron 2,575,432 tons ; and the copper mines turned out 52,280 
 tons of copper. ^ 
 
 In 1865, no American iron was used in Detroit, bar iron and 
 boiler plate being all imp(n-ted. In 1860 it began to supersede 
 foreign iron, and in 1865 no foreign wrought iron was used, and 
 for the last ten years, Scotch pig has been driven out by native 
 soft irons. Prices are a good test of improvement in the methods 
 of manulacture. In 1855, bar iron cost eighty-four dollars a net 
 
 ' G. B. Bartlett. '^ C. H. Buhl. ■' United States Census. 
 
368 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 ton in New York, and with freight and profit it must have been 
 sold at over five cents a pound in Detroit. It is now below two 
 cents a pound; boiler plate cost five and a half cents ; a better 
 article can now be purchased for two and a half cents ; two inch 
 boiler tubes, which sold for thirty-five cents, can now be bought 
 for nine cents ; and a keg of nails has been brought from Penn- 
 sylvania and sold in Michigan for less than two dollars a hundred 
 pounds.' 
 
 The largest, and with one exception, the only rolling-mill in the 
 State, has two blast-furnaces of a capacity of 29,000 tons a year, 
 twenty-one puddling and twelve heating furnaces, and fourteen 
 kuobbling fires, six sets of rolls, for plate mill, bar mill, and guide 
 mill, muck rolls, and top and bottom mill. They have an engine 
 for each blast furnace, and one engine to each mill, and make, 
 when running the twenty-four hours, 100 tons of bar iron, and 80 
 tons of boiler-plate. 
 
 I quote from a letter describing the largest tube works in the world, 
 situated on the field where Braddock was defeated in 1755. " Our 
 location is all that could be desired, we have the most important 
 feature of natural gas which has of late given the Pittsburgh dis- 
 trict such a decided advantage over other manufiicturing localities 
 throughout the country. We own and control three superior gas 
 wells, and a pipe line nine miles in length. We employ 3,000 
 men every day from January to December ; we work night and 
 day excepting Sunday, from one year's end to another. Our annual 
 tonnage will amount to about 100,000 tons, and we make about 
 80,000,000 to 100,000,000 feet of tubular goods per year. The 
 most important departments of our works are as follows: Refine- 
 ries, Swedish knobbling. Fires, Forges Rolling Mills, But-weld 
 Mill for sizes of tubular goods under 1^ inches, Lap-weld Mill 
 for sizes over 1-j inches, inclusive, blacksmith shops, boiler shops, 
 kalameining, and galvanizing shops, car[)enter and pattern shops, 
 converse lock joint shops, asplialtum enameling shops, and the 
 necessary auxiliaries. Througli our yards we have several miles of 
 railroad tracks, and three engines of our own, for the rapid 
 handling and shipping of goods."* 
 
 On looking over their price list I find they make over 1,400 
 classes of goods. 
 
 iC. H. Buhl. 
 
 * Stanley Gardner, National Tube Works Co. W. K. Muir, Eureka Iron Works, 
 Wyandotte. 
 
ADDRESS OF JAMES \V. BAKTLETT. 3f)9 
 
 SAFES. 
 
 " Love of wealth in its various ibrnis, has, from the earliest 
 ages, iiiade it necessary to throw about the accuniuhition of those 
 who have been successful in obtaining it, etJective safeguards to 
 protect it from the devouring flames, as well as from the hands 
 of those who always stand ready to appropriate to themselves that 
 which is not theirs. The ancients constructed vaults of heavy 
 masonry, provided with iron doors, locking with secret springs. 
 Also, treasure boxes covered with iron or bronze, and in many 
 cases secret receptacles in the walls of their buildings, many of 
 which have been discovered in the ruins of cities in the old world. 
 
 "There is now in the National Museum at Naples a portable 
 safe or treasure box, taken several years since from the ruins of 
 Pompeii, which is probably one of the oldest portable safes iu ex- 
 istence. It is thirty inches deep and thirty-five inches wide; the 
 walls are two inches thick. It is made of wood, covered with 
 bronze, ornamented with raised bronze .figures. It locks with in- 
 geniously constructed secret springs, and in its day was no doubt 
 considered a safe repository for the treasures and jewels of some 
 rich family, against the cunning thieves of that ancient city. 
 From that early date till the beginning of the present century, 
 little farther progress was made in the improvement of safes. The 
 earliest record we find of any effort being made to make portable 
 safes fire-proof, as well as burglar-proof, was iu 1801, when iu 
 Loudon, Boston, New York and Philadelphia, apparently almost 
 simultaneously, it was discovered that coarse grained wood, 
 saturated iu a solution of alum, became largely uou-combustible 
 and a non-conductor of heat ; and from that date until after the 
 great fire in New York, in December, 1835, nearly all the port- 
 able safes made either in Europe or this country, were made of 
 coarse-grained oak plank, from four to six inches thick, thoroughly 
 saturated in a strong solution of alum, to which had been added, 
 iu some cases, uric acid. The planks were formed into boxes 
 similar in shape to the modern safes and covered inside and out 
 with heavy sheet-iron, and in some cases, bars of iron crossing each 
 other, forming a sort of lattice-work, were placed upon the out- 
 side. This iron was secured to the wooden box with nails which 
 had been provided with large cast-iron heads, giving the safe a 
 very sul)st.antial look, but adding to it little .jtreugth. Their 
 24 
 
370 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 doors were hung upon very heavy hinges and were locked with 
 bolts shooting out from the top, bottom and sides of the door, and 
 large key locks. The keys to these locks are a wonder to look on; 
 some of them weigh two or three pounds, and the key-holes would 
 almost admit a child's hand. These key-holes, however, were 
 usually covered by a sliding plate which was held in place by a 
 secret spring, the operation of which was supposed to be known 
 only to the manufacturer and the purchaser. For about thirty years 
 this style of safe was manufactured with slight changes, and many 
 of them are in existence to-day. They had some merit in resist- 
 ing heat, but the great fire in New York showed their defects ; 
 and improvements began to be made." 
 
 The modern safe consists of an outer box of boiler plate and an 
 inner box of thin iron or tin, the space between being filled with 
 some non-conducting material. Many substances have been tried 
 as fire-proof filling, such as sand, ashes and asbestos ; but now all 
 reliable safes are filled with water-lime cement, this substance 
 having the quality of taking up fifty-three per cent, of water, and 
 holding it for an indefinite time in a crystalline form at ordinary 
 temperatures, and giving it off in the form of steam, when subjected 
 to a temperature of 300 degrees ; and, by the well known law of 
 expansion of matter, giving out cold, it will prevent the contents 
 of the safe from burning, while any water is left in the lime. A 
 curious experiment is shown by putting a large piece of crystallized 
 water-lime, which resembles hard limestone, into a smith's forge 
 and blowing on it for a long time, till, if it was iron, it would be 
 heated red-hot, and then taking out and breaking it in two, the 
 outside will be found to be dried white for a quarter of an inch, 
 making the outer coating a good non-conductor of heat, thus pro- 
 tecting the water inside from evaporation. The inside will be a 
 little damp and very cold, and it will bear a high temperature 
 for a long time before parting with all its water. 
 
 This quality makes the modern safe fire-proof under the usual 
 exposure to the heat of a burning building ; and in no instance 
 has six inches of this material been exhausted of its water so as to 
 conduct the outside heat to destroy the contents within; and the 
 safe would be perfect, if it was not necessary to make the jambs 
 of the doors of metal, which conducts the heat into the inner box 
 of the safe. 
 
 Formerly, these door jambs and frames were made of cast-iron; 
 
ADDKKSS UF JAMKS W . IJAKI LK I 1 . I>71 
 
 and to give the necessary strength, they were made from oue- 
 (juarter to one-half incli thick, thus giving a large amount of con- 
 ductive metal tVoni the outer or exposed portion to the inside of 
 the safe. Recently an important improvement has been made in 
 this particular. The jambs and door frames of the best safes are 
 now made of soft steel one-sixteenth of an inch thick, which 
 gives equal strength and reduces the avenue for transmittal 
 of heat more than twenty-fold ; and safes of this construction have 
 been subjected to great heat by being buried in the burning de- 
 bris of a building for weeks, and the contents found uninjured by 
 fire. To guard against burglars, an inner chest is made of many 
 thicknesses of the best steel, the inner half of the plate being soft 
 steel of great tensile strength, while both the surfaces of the plate 
 are of highly carbonized steel, which, in tempering are rendered 
 exceedingly hard and drill proof These plates are three-eighths 
 of an inch thick, and from three to five inches of these plates will re- 
 sist noiseless tools for many hours. Each layer is secured to the next 
 by separate screws or bolts, so that no holes pass through more 
 than three-quarters of an inch of the entire thickness ; in fact, 
 no such box has ever been rifled by thieves through the plates. 
 The safe lock has gone through many changes since 1836. 
 
 At the world's fair in London in 1851, Hobbs picked the fam- 
 ous Bramah lock, and walked oft with $3,000 that was placed 
 behind it. Punch called for some patriotic burglar to come for- 
 ward and pick Hobbs' lock "for the glory of Old England." 
 
 All key-locks have long been abandoned, the key-holes being a 
 too handy receptacle for gunpowder ; and have given place to 
 combination locks, which are locked on secret series of numbers, 
 the lowest number of combinations being one to a million. The 
 only way for a thief to open these locks, is to intimidate or torture 
 the cashier till he gave up the secret, or opened the safe for them; 
 and several martyrs to honesty, or the love of money, have laid 
 down their lives rather than be unfaithful to their trust. This 
 danger is now avoided by the use of the "time lock," in which a 
 clock, running inside the safe, moves a camb in such a manner 
 that the door can only be opened at a predetermined hour. Im- 
 mense fire and burglar proof vaults are now in use, having sepa- 
 rate receptacles to rent, and fire vaults are built to shelter money 
 boxes of enormous strength, sometimes weighing 40,000 pounds, 
 and costinu: from S'),000 to >«lo,000. 
 
372 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Portable safes are made of every style, from a family safe cost- 
 ing thirty-five dollars to an immense fire and burglar proof con- 
 cern, weighing twenty tons, and costing several thousand dollars. 
 Thirty thousand safes a year are manufactured in the United 
 States. ' 
 
 There is one safe manufacturing company in Michigan, employ- 
 ing 350 bands, making eighty-five varieties of safes, with a capa- 
 city of 4,000 safes a year." 
 
 CLOTH. 
 
 It was not very long ago that calico came from Calcutta, India 
 muslin from India, Cashmere shawls from Cashmere, nankeen 
 from Nankin, carpets from Turkey, and silks from China. The 
 teeming millions of Asia made most of the dress stuffs for Europe 
 and America. Times are changed now, and the people of those 
 countries are now clothed by the products of the looms of ]Man- 
 chester and Lowell. At the first quarter of the present century 
 wool and flax were spun and woven in most households, and the 
 greater and lesser wheels were always in motion. The little flax- 
 wheel fell before the cotton-gin and spinning jenny ; the larger 
 wheel may still be found by the curious at work spinning stock- 
 ing yarn ; but its day is past. Ten cotton spinning factories, 
 which made warp for hand looms, were started before 1814, on 
 which year the first weaving mill was built at Waltham, Massa- 
 chusetts ; but so slow was the progress of the art, that in 1837 
 they had but two crank looms, and the beaters were driven up 
 with cambs. Such has been the increase of the business in fifty 
 years, that one city yearly turns out 250,000,000 yards of cotton 
 cloth, 1,300,000 yards of woolen goods, and 3,120,000 yards of 
 carpets ; and the mills of the United States furnish 2,300,000,000 
 yards of cotton cloth. The elaborate carpets, shawls, ribbons, 
 laces, silks and pattern goods, are now woven by power, and sold 
 at prices far below the prices of 1836, as many of you remember 
 calico at fifty cents a yard, which can now be bought for ten 
 cents. 
 
 Forty years ago one of the largest items sold by our druggists 
 was dye-stuffs, and fulling mills were in every town ; but now 
 Michigan makes less than one per cent, of the woolen goods of 
 
 ' D. O. Paige. '■' Detroit Safe Company. 
 
.\I)1)up:ss of .tamks w. iiAKiMnr. 373 
 
 the country. We spin considerable yarn and have knitting mills 
 at Pontiac, St. Joseph, Centerville, Ypsilanti, Detroit and other 
 places. The largest runs 400 machines, with a sixty horse-power 
 engine, uses 2,500 pounds of yarn a day making stockings, 
 mittens, tippets, German socks, etc. They can make 1,000 dozen 
 stockings a day. ' 
 
 PHARMACEUTICAL. 
 
 But in one direction, Michigan has, in a few years, placed her- 
 self far in advance of the world ; for Detroit manufactures at 
 least half of the pharmaceutical preparations, and three-fifths of 
 the pills made in the United States ; and twelve years ago the 
 business, as it is now carried on, was practically unknown. Now 
 two great factories, using every variety of machinery, have so 
 improved the quality and lowered the cost of these preparations, 
 by working on such an immense scale, that they are fast supplying 
 the world. Besides supplying the United States, Canada, Mexico, 
 Central and South America, they make great shipments to every 
 part of civilized Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, and even 
 trade largely in Central Asia, China, Japan, Corea, New Zealand, 
 Feejee and other islands in the Pacific ; and all this is legitimate 
 business, in non-secret remedies, no so-called secret or proprietary 
 medicines being now made in the State. 
 
 " The practice of pharmacy dates from a very early period, and 
 the improvements which have been wrought are many. It is not 
 difficult for many persons now living to recall the custom of 
 physicians in the early history of this country to supply their own 
 medicines, and to prepare many of them from the botanical drugs 
 which probably were gathered by their own hands. The ' herb- 
 doctor ' is not an unknown individual to-day in some sections; 
 but the duties of the pharmacist are quite clearly defined in the 
 present age ; and it is his mission to supply such medicines as the 
 medical profession demands and to make such improvements as 
 his knowledge and experience will admit." The origin of the pill 
 is unknown to the writer. It is one of the first things we hear of 
 in this world, and frequently one of the last. It was customary 
 for a long time, and to the present day this is largely practiced, 
 tliat the physician made his own pills, mixing the ingredients in a 
 mortar, rolling them and cutting them on an old pill-tile, by the 
 
 >Rush Brothers, Detroit. 
 
374 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 aid of a spatula. As trade increased, the apothecary would pro- 
 vide himself with a pill-raachiue, which would enable him to roll 
 the mass into pipes or cylinders more rapidly and more uniformly, 
 and to cut them much more readily ; but when these disagreeable 
 and nauseous medicines were prescribed in this uncoated form, the 
 patient could not but object ; and for this reason the reputation of 
 pills became somewhat clouded, and the skill of the pharmacist 
 was called upon to overcome these objections. At the present day 
 pills are manufactured mostly by large manufacturers. It is not 
 unusual for him to make several millions of one kind ; and by 
 these extensive operations he is able to ensure uniformity in size, 
 can produce them much more perfectly, and at greatly reduced 
 cost. 
 
 Besides this, he adds a coating, usually of sugar or gelatin, 
 although many other substances are employed, and this coating 
 so completely disguises the ingredients of the j)ills that they are 
 swallowed with no more difficulty than a piece of confectionery. 
 For the manufacture of pills there are many machines in use. 
 The sugar-coating is done in large, revolving pans, the same as 
 are used by the confectioners. The process of gelatin coating, 
 which has come into general use in the last decade, one hundred 
 or more pills are dipped in gelatin at one operation ; the bars 
 with the wet pills attached are placed under currents of warm 
 air. The "mass" is a very important item in the process. Par- 
 ticular care is necessary in weighing the materials, in the selection 
 of the proper excipient, and in the thorough mixing of the two 
 into a mass. 
 
 " We cannot give you statistics as to the number of pills man- 
 ufactured in this country. It is customary with us to keep an 
 account of the pills we make by count, rather than by weight; 
 and we expect that our output this year will amount to over 
 300,000,000 pills. This would, at even figures, provide six pills 
 for each man, woman and child in the United States.'' There 
 are probably four hundred tons of pills made in the States, of 
 which Michigau furnishes ihree-fifths. 
 
 " There is a line of goods on the market, known as empty cap- 
 sules, which have an enormous sale, and which are comparatively 
 new. They are used principally by the retail druggists, as cov- 
 ering or vehicle for the plain pills which they manufacture. We 
 dispose of several thousand gross of these boxes of one hundred 
 
ADDRESS OF JAMES W. BAKTLETT. 375 
 
 capsules each, 100,000,000 capsules aunually ; and the consumption 
 is on the increase. They are of all sizes, from the little one of one 
 grain capacity, to the large one holding one and one-half ounces," 
 the largest for veterinary use, being one inch in diameter by two 
 and one-half inches long. They also furnish soluble elastic cap- 
 sules, filled with nauseous medicines and tightly sealed, making that 
 horror of our childhood, castor-oil, a luxury, and the swallowing 
 of the disgusting oil of cods' livers, as pleasant as eating oysters, 
 the dose being seven-eighths of an inch in diameter by two inches 
 long. 
 
 "Our business is based principally upon botanical drugs, from 
 which we make fluid extracts, powdered extracts, concentrations, 
 alkaloids, etc., etc. ; many of these are consumed in pills; but 
 more are sold or used in other forms. To carry on these several 
 branches, more knowledge, more capital, and more extensive 
 machinery are required than to make pills; considerable power 
 and plenty of free steam are necessary. Our milling department 
 has to be fully ecjuipped to grind everything, from a simple leaf 
 to a root as tough as iron wood. To exhaust from these ground 
 drugs their medicinal properties, are required large vats, percola- 
 tors, powerful hydraulic presses, evaporating pans, stills, con- 
 densers, etc., etc. Many of the processes are not free from danger, 
 and more require a skilled hand to guide them successfully. 
 Accompanied with these we have to deal at all times with the 
 possibility of a serious, if not fatal, error in this business of * eternal 
 vigilance.' Fluid extracts are produced from the drug by per- 
 colation of alcohol through the drug, the extract being so concen- 
 trated that one minim, or so-called drop, equals one grain of the 
 drug; they will keep indefinitely, taking the place of numerous 
 liquid preparations now obsolete, such as water infusions, teas, 
 etc." 
 
 The evident advantages of fluid extracts have proved so great 
 that the uses of them have become enormous, and the amount of 
 skill applied and machinery invented for their manufacture is 
 very great. The factories built seven years ago have been doubled 
 in size, and are now overcrowded; and they do not supply human 
 wants alone, for last year one concern turned out 450 tons of 
 iininial medicine.' 
 
 From iiif<irmatioii fiirriislind by Frederick Stearas and Parke, Davis & Company. 
 
376 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 A NEWSPAPER. 
 
 The newspaper has become a necessity of our daily life. Break- 
 fast without it would be a mockery. It is served out hot, by day- 
 light every morning, and we are not satisfied without five edi- 
 tions of the evening papers. The progress of printing is well 
 illustrated by the progress of a paper, the publication of which 
 antedates the admission of the State into the Union. Starting 
 in 1833 as a weekly, and changing into a daily in 1835, it has 
 lived till to-day, and who knows that it may not last till the next 
 semi-centennial ! 
 
 " The publication of a daily paper in a quaint little French 
 village of the Northwest, containing less than 6,000 inhabitants, 
 destitute of railroads, with uncertain mails, and the telegraph 
 unheard of, might well be noted as extra-hazardous." 
 
 From 1831 to 1846 the several editions of the paper were 
 "worked off" on a Washington hand-press, the motive power 
 being a stalwart "Jour." who manipulated the sheets and 
 " pulled the devil's tail," while a diminutive imp, the " printer's 
 devil," inked the type previous to each impression. A good 
 pressman could print a " token," or 240 sheets an hour, on one 
 side, and a daily edition of 1,000 would require about nine hours 
 press-work. It may be imagined that their daily circulation was 
 somewhat limited. At the latter year, finding it necessary to 
 increase their capacity for press-work, they procured a drum 
 cylinder power press of R. Hoe, of New York. This was the first 
 power press used west of Buffalo, and upon it were printed the 
 session laws of 1845. Though called a power press, it was run 
 by men turning a crank, and it w-as used for printing the daily till 
 1859, when it was superseded by a small cylinder three revolu- 
 tion Hoe press, known at that time as the " lightning press." 
 
 With the advent of railroads and improved steam navigation 
 on the lakes, the i)opulation of Michigan had greatly increased. 
 The telegraph (that great right hand of the daily press), had 
 included in its net-work of wires every important town in the 
 State. 
 
 With increased facilities for the receipt and transmission of 
 news, the circulation of newspapers increased. Then came the 
 civil war and tlie rush to the front. Nearly every family in Mich- 
 igan had its representative on the various battlefields from 1861 
 
ADDKKSS OF JAMKS W. BAKILETT. 377 
 
 to 1865, and every item of " war news'' was watched for, seized 
 and devoured with feverish interest. No effort was spared by the 
 paper to meet this demand, and its circulation increased so rap- 
 idly that in 1861 a double-cylinder Hoe press and steam folding- 
 machines were started, and with both presses running night and 
 day, they were enabled to supply their patrons promptly, and con- 
 tinued to do so until 1873, when a Bullock perfecting press and 
 Scott folder were placed in the press-room. This press, with the 
 addition of an improved " Clause " folder, was used for printing 
 the several editions of the paper until 1884, when they placed in 
 the press-room a second Bullock press and folder, with all the 
 latest improvements. These presses are now constantly at work 
 employed in printing its various issues ; and the little backwoods 
 daily of fifty years ago has now an average daily edition of more 
 than 20,000 copies. Two engines drive the shafting on three 
 floors, as well as the powerful dynamos which furnish electric 
 lighting from basement to roof Thirteen job presses of various 
 ])atterns jirint a variety of work, from a business card to a mam- 
 moth theatrical show-bill. They have also a large electrotype 
 foundry, to which is attached a wood engraving department, the 
 whole being a striking contrast to their small beginnings fifty-five 
 years ago.' 
 
 NEWSPAI'HK PKINTrNO. 
 
 Hand-made paper was in fiat sheets ; and when power paper- 
 machines, which left the paper in rolls, were introduced, the 
 printer, following his old custom of using flat type, required the 
 paper cut into sheets of the proper si/e, before printing. All 
 printing presses before 187<) worked on single sheets; and the 
 " Hoe" machine is an immense affair, many men being required 
 to feed in the paper, sheet by sheet. 
 
 About 1863 some innovator hap])cned to think that paper might 
 as well be printed right from the roll, and then cut off; and so the 
 whole method of fast printing was changed, tor the modern press 
 takes the paper from the roll and delivers newspapers folded, 
 ready for delivery. These presses have two printing rolls, the 
 length of two papers, each having a duplicate set of type, and 
 each roll prints two copies of one side of the paper. After pass- 
 ing the type, the long strip of p:i|i( r i> cut lengthwise and cross- 
 
 ' From information fiiniislied by the Detroit Free Press. 
 
378 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 wise, before it conies to the folder, making two distinct papers, 
 and the folder doubles, cuts, pastes, and doubles again, and 
 20,000 newspapers ready for the carrier boy drop from the 
 machine an hour. The type-rolls being twenty-four inches in 
 circumference, so the paper passes through the press at the rate 
 of 3oo feet a minute, or over 0.87 miles an hour. Type set in 
 the usual manner are printed on a soft thick paper, which is fitted 
 inside of a half segment of an iron cycliuder, a core is adjusted in the 
 centre, leaving a space of about % of an inch between the paper and 
 the core, which is filled with melted type metal, making a stereo- 
 type of one-half of the paper, four pieces being cast and squared- 
 up by a simple process, they are fastened to the rolls ready for 
 business. This can be done very quickly, for two sets of papers 
 can be printed and the circular stereotype plates cast and 
 adjusted to the machine, ready for work in less than an hour. 
 Therefore the news that arrives within an hour of going to press 
 can be printed ; when hourly editions are wanted, a new plate is 
 cast and fitted to the machine with very little delay. These 
 machines take up little room, and not much power to drive them.' 
 
 FIGHTING TOOLS. 
 
 In 1861 the people of the United States were called from their 
 usual avocations to go to war. They were green in the business 
 and had few arms, and those old-fashioned and superannuated; so 
 the machinists went to work to make fighting tools; having no 
 plans, they had to evolve their ideas from their own consciousness. 
 In place of the old muzzle-loaders came the breech-loader, and 
 multiple charge guns ; and revolvers came handy for close work. 
 Cannon were to be made, and foundries built to cast them in ; but 
 we soon had sixteen and twenty-four inch cannon. Iron began to 
 take its place in fortification, for the barbed wire fencing was at 
 once utilized as an abattis and proved an awkward one to break 
 through. River boats were made bullet, and tolerably cannon 
 ball proof, by railroad iron and other plating; even the protec- 
 tion of chain-cables, hung over the sides of ship^, was success- 
 fully used, and made harmless many a hostile shot. But the 
 crowning result of the labors of the mechanical engineer was the 
 fighting-machines called Monitors, which were so well protected 
 
 > Buffalo Express. 
 
ADDRESS OF JAMKS W. BAKTLETr. 379 
 
 that though exposed to the fire of the heaviest artillery then in 
 use, they were perfectly shot-proof. Some of them now bear the 
 marks of nearly 400 shot, many of them from guns of ten-inch 
 caliber, not one of which did any damage, excei)t to paint. 
 
 They are the only iron-clads that have ever been successful in a 
 sea-fight with an iron-clad; and every opponent they met was 
 driven off, sunk or captured. The last sea-fight on the coast of 
 Peru, was between a monitor and an English built iron-clad, in 
 wiiich tlu' monitor came out ahead. Everything in these vessels 
 is worked by steam ; the anchor is hoisted, the engine is driven, 
 the turret is turned ; the engineer with a reversing lover in his 
 hands points the great guns, steam closes the port shutters, and 
 drives the blowers that supply the air to the crew and for the 
 boilers, which are all below the water line. They are as much a 
 machine as a locomotive is, and have neither the form nor the 
 semblance of a ship. Instead of riding over the waves, the waves 
 go over the vessel ; and yet they are sea-worthy, one of them 
 making a cruise round the world. 
 
 After laying up for twenty years, a crew was ordered to take 
 one of the monitors to sea. The papers called them floating 
 coffins, and censured the Navy Department for risking men's 
 lives by sending them to sea in such a craft. Mothers wrote to 
 their sons, asking them to resign their commissions, rather than 
 to risk their lives so foolishly. Some petty officers were sud- 
 denly taken sick about that time. 
 
 An engineer in charge of fitting the craft for sea, told me 
 there was nothing to do, except to clean off the tallow and white- 
 lead from the bright work, oil up, get on steam and start. They 
 were all ready for service after twenty years of rest ; and we all 
 remember what service they did in time of need. They maN' have 
 been superseded by more modern iron-clads ; but a fleet of such 
 machines, tlirowing sixteen-inch shot, would bi' an enemy not to 
 be despised. In the last war we built many wooden vessels that 
 did good service; one of which, the Kearsage, is the only steam 
 craft afloat, that ever fought a sea-fight on equal terms, meeting 
 off the coast of Franci' an English built and armed steamer, 
 manned by Englishmen, making short work oi' sinking her, and 
 receiving no serious damage herself Such iron-clad vessels, so 
 invidnerable against ordinary projectiles, have one weak spot, as 
 Achilles after being dipped in the River Styx, was proof against 
 
380 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 hostile spears and arrows, everywhere except in the heel, so these 
 sea turtles would succumb to a wound below water ; one of them 
 being sunk in Charleston harbor by a sub-marine torpedo-boat, 
 the crew of which shared the same fate as their victims. Against 
 a fleet of torpedo-boats, running at great speed, capable of ex- 
 ploding a charge of gun-cotton six feet below water, and manned 
 by " men that dare to die," the strongest armored leviathan would 
 be in danger. Though we have at present no use for such ma- 
 chines, experiments are constantly being made, and various forms 
 of torpedoes tried, some to set in the channels, to be exploded by 
 electricity, when an enemy is passing over ; others, driven by 
 compressed air, are guided by* electric wires from shore. I hope 
 it will be after our day, before we have to prove their efficiency 
 in actual use, as one war is enough in a generation ; but the 
 maxim, " in time of peace prepare for war," is old, if it is not 
 good.' 
 
 HOUSE-WORK. 
 
 Mechanics have made great changes in the farm and household. 
 Compare the present plows, shovels, hoes, forks, etc., with those 
 we remember to have used when we were boys. 
 
 Hay is now cut by a horse-mowing machine, instead of the 
 scythe, and raked, loaded and moved away by horse-power. 
 Instead of the sickle and cradle of our fathers, horse reapers and 
 binders have come into use, and steam threshers and winnowers 
 have taken the place of flail and crank winnowing-machine; even 
 our potatoes are now dug by the aid of the horse. A man can now do 
 three times as much work as he could fifty years ago. With our 
 stoves and the improvements in the construction of our houses, 
 our rooms can be heated and our food cooked with one-fourth the 
 wood formerly used in the old fire-places; and the sawing and 
 splitting are done by steam-power, instead of a man breaking his 
 back over a saw-buck, or blistering his hands on an axe-helve. 
 In towns, coal has superseded wood for fuel ; and hot air furnaces 
 and steam boilers heat our houses, and gas-stoves do our cooking. 
 Water is brought into our houses and distributed hot to our bath- 
 rooms, and the slops carried away in tight pipes to the sewers; 
 hand pumping, and trips to the spring or river for water, and the 
 sink-spout and its filthy puddle, are things of the past. House 
 
 > F. B. Bartlett, U. S. N. 
 
ADDUKSS OF JAMES \V. liAinLKTT. 381 
 
 fixtures, such as hinges, door-knobs, locks and \vin(h)\v fastenings 
 are much improved; furniture is strong and light and of great 
 variety ; window glass is now to be obtained in large panes, and 
 does not distort the image of things seen through it. We have 
 electricity to ring our door-bell and guard us from burglars, and 
 the telephone to go our errands. 
 
 The old-time farmer worked early and late. He went to May- 
 Training, Fourth of July and Muster. He kept Sunday, Fast-day 
 and Thanksgiving idle, and always went to Town Meeting ; and 
 when it rained so hard that no outside work could be done, he 
 went fishing as a matter of business, not to found a romance on ; 
 and if he hunted, it was for meat or pelts. As bad as he hated 
 waste, and as well as he loved money, he would go to meeting 
 twice a day on Sunday, on a good hay-day, after a long rain, and 
 never lift a pitch-fork, though he had tons of hay down and 
 spoiling. 
 
 His books were few, the Bible, the almanac, and if he lived in 
 New England, Fox's Book of Martyrs were in every house; but 
 he kej>t his boys and girls in school three mouths in the year. He 
 was his own house builder, blacksmith, shingle-maker and shoe- 
 maker ; and he slaughtered his own cattle, and killed his own 
 hogs and smoked their bacon. 
 
 HOUSE WORK — WOMEN. 
 
 But one thing the advance in the arts has done, of more import- 
 ance than anything else. It has reduced the necessary labors of 
 women. They think now their work is never done; but in old 
 times it never could have been finished. The women of half 
 a century ago, lived in cold houses, slept in cold rooms, and cooked 
 over open fires in great fire-places, baked their bread in brick 
 ovens, boiled their meat and potatoes in pots and kettles hanging 
 from the crane, or fried them in spiders, set on the coals ; meat 
 to be roasted was hung by a string in front of the fire and turned 
 and basted continually. The fire had to be banked up at night, 
 for if lost, sparks had to be struck with a flint and steel, and the 
 tinder-box was on every kitchen mantel-piece. The use of friction 
 matches has done away with any amount of labor, and tliere were 
 no matches fifty years ago. And they literally sat in darkness, 
 for the whule-oil lamps and tallow-dijis only made the dark- 
 ness more visihlf. What a nasty jnli it was to melt tallow in 
 
382 Michigan's semi centennial. 
 
 the great kettle and clutter up the house dipping candles, getting 
 the wicks strung on sticks, and dipping them into the hot fat, 
 hanging them between chairs to cool, and then dipping them over 
 and over again, till the kitchen-floor was slippery with grease! 
 And then came the horrors of soap-making, with its leach-hogs- 
 head, caustic lye and foul smelling soap-grease, the dirty labors 
 of bog killing time, with its sausage-meat to chop and hog's cheese 
 to be made, pig's feet to be pickled and all the lard to try out ; 
 and then the turkeys and chickens to be picked and cleaned. 
 Pork and beef must be salted down for summer eating and fruit 
 preserved for winter, roots and herbs hung up for sickness, and 
 barrels of cider boiled down to pailfuls for apple-butter. Then 
 the flax for warp must be spun on the little wheel ; and the woolen 
 filling on the greater wheel, the loom set up, and cloth for clothing 
 the men-folks, women and children, was slowly woven, and then 
 made up for the family, without the aid of a sewing-machine. 
 Patch-work must be made, not for beauty, but to save every scrap 
 of cloth for bed-clothes; and then came the never-ending task of 
 spinning and weaving linen sheets and table-cloths, and under- 
 clothing, and no end of blankets and coverlids ; and to fill up 
 the spare time, stockings must be knitted and darned, and the fam- 
 ily mending kept up from week to week. Then the milk must be 
 taken care of all the year, and butter and cheese made, and the 
 milking done in haying-time. With all these duties, she never 
 did outside work on the farm ; that was men's work ; and she drew 
 a line there. And all the time, three meals a day must be got; 
 the dishes washed, the pewter plates polished, the floor swept and 
 sanded. 
 
 Washing-day came every Monday, when the boys must be scolded 
 into bringing soft water from the brook, followed by the ironing 
 day, when the irons were set to heat between the andirons, in 
 front of the kitchen fire. Once a week the front parlor shutters 
 must be opened, and the best set of furniture dusted, and shut up 
 again ; and every Sunday morning the children must be washed, 
 dressed and made to put on shoes and stockings, and everybody 
 must ride to meeting, and sit in the cold pew if in winter, only 
 mitigated by the foot-stove filled with coals from a neighbor's 
 fire. 
 
 Our mothers and grandmothers had little time for German les- 
 sons and high teas. It was a struggle for existence ; and in the 
 
ADDRESS OF .TAMKS \V. HAKII.KTT. 383 
 
 old grave-yards the tombstone of the men often had for corapauy, 
 cue or more older stones, sacred to the memory of his former con- 
 sorts. 
 
 ('HII-DltKN's IT, AY. 
 
 Men and women change, bnt nothing is .><o conservative as a 
 child. In digging tlic bone-caves tor the remains of the pre-his- 
 toric man, who hunted the tiger and hippopotamus in England 
 before the great Ice Age, and among the later race of Esquimaux 
 who lived at the foot of tlie glaciers in Central Europe, w'e find 
 among the arms and ornaments of the primitive man, the play- 
 things of children, their dolls, model canoes and other toys ; and 
 no doubt when our Arian ancestors started from Central Asia to 
 overrun and conquer the world, the boy of the period had his 
 pockets stuffed with marbles, and at every halting place got up a 
 game of three-old-cat, or if the horde was large enough, a game 
 of rounders, with as much interest as we now have in a league 
 game of base ball, the modern form of that amusement. At the 
 Centennial iu Philadelphia, there was to be seen an old bronze 
 Greek statue of a shinty player with' his crooked stick; and no 
 doubt the cry of "shinney on your own side" has been shouted in 
 all languages, from that day to this, and the old Roman and the 
 modern Scotchman pitched the discus or quoit. 
 
 The Indian game of lacrosse has been refined into lawn ten- 
 nis; and the cat of to-day is shown on the Harlem tapestries, 
 worked at the time of William the Conquerer. Who sets the 
 season for boys' games? Why must marbles be played on the 
 first dry land after the snow leaves in spring ; or ball and foot- 
 ball in the heat of summer 'i Why cannot kites be flown in the 
 gales of March, instead of in the calms of iVugust? and why are 
 peg-tops of no value in any month but June? If the old man of 
 to-day wishes to renew his youth, let him go to the circus, he will 
 see exactly the same feats, and hear identically the same jokes as 
 were in vogue fifty years ago. 
 
 Few or none of the games we now play, are new. Chess, the 
 most complicated of all games, has been played from time im- 
 memorial in Western Asia, and in 1822 Cochrane found it uni- 
 versally known among the half civilized tribes of Siberia. Cards 
 and dice are hundreds of years old. Pope in "The Rape of the 
 Lock," gives a good description of the game of whist, which is 
 still played among us by children of a larger growth ; and no peo- 
 
384 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 pie so savage that gumblingis unknown amongst them. Though 
 the games are old, modern mechanics have constructed more per- 
 fect implements with which to play them. The old jack-stones 
 are now iron castings ; the shops are gay with life-like dolls ; 
 turned base ball bats are sold by the cord, along with perfectly 
 made balls, gloves, spiked shoes and masks. Lawn tennis rac- 
 quets are \vorks of art; and playing cards are wonderful for their 
 finish. Large manufactories with ingenious and costly machin- 
 ery are employed in making the various playthings. 
 
 THE bicycle. 
 
 One of the greatest triumphs of modern mechanism is the 
 bicycle, being a most ingenious combination of steel, brass and 
 India rubber with a wheel from 50 to 60 inches in diameter, and 
 weighing from 23 to 55 pounds, the lightest being for racing, the 
 average roadster weighing 45 pounds, and capable of carrying a 
 man over country roads. 
 
 The embryo machine was used about fifty years ago, and con- 
 sisted of two wheels connected by a bar across which the rider 
 straddled, shoving himself with his feet. This was followed by 
 the velocipede, with two nearly equal wheels, between which the 
 rider sat and worked the machine by a set of cranks with his feet. 
 Now the rider sits directly over the large wheel, working his 
 feet downwards, on either cranks or levers, therefore using his 
 weight to great advautage. They are much used for pleasure or 
 business, there being in use in some of our small cities from 700 
 to 1,000. They are a great convenience to their owners. A 
 young man writes: " We have gone from Detroit to Pontiac, 
 and 14 miles beyond (40 miles), visited five hours, and returned 
 home the same day. I have also made over 100 miles between 
 sunrise and sunset." The bicycle seems a mechanical paradox. 
 With its aid a man can accomplish more, with less exertion of 
 his muscles than in any other way. He can outstrip the fastest 
 horse, and tire out the strongest runner, and still carry wdth liim 
 a machine weighing over forty pounds. The performances on 
 these machines seem incredible. Few horses have ever traveled 
 twenty miles in an hour,. but this is not an uncommon feat on 
 a bicycle. No horse dreamed of getting over 281 miles of 
 ground in twenty-four hours ; but this has been done on one of 
 those machines. For a single mile the horse made the highest 
 
ADDRESS OF JAMES \V. IJAKTLETT. 385 
 
 speed ; for a mile has been trotted in 2 minutes, 8i seconds. Run- 
 ning horses have made their mile in 1.40, and the highest speed 
 of a bicycle is 2.25, but as this was made from a stand-still and 
 the horse had a flying start, the difference is slight. The nearest 
 approach to their speed by man is the skating one mile in 3 min- 
 utes and 20 miles in 1.14. The fastest time a man has ever made 
 on foot was a mile in 4.16^, and 10 miles in 57.26. 
 
 But it is in endurance that the bicyclist exceeds any other 
 traveler; for in racing, at the eleventh mile he passes the fastest 
 running horse, and he has made 100 miles in 5.51, three hours 
 quicker than the horseman gets over the ground. The longest 
 distance in a "go-as-you-please race" made in six days, is 610 
 miles, against a record of 1,009 miles in the same time by a 
 bicycler. 
 
 Since the foregoing was written comes the report that the record 
 has been broken, and that a bicycler has made 300 miles in less 
 than twenty-four hours. 
 
 THE PHOTOCiRAPII, SEWING MACHINE, ETC. 
 
 Many things which are as "household words" to us, were 
 absolutely unknown to our fathers. The daguerreotype not 
 being fifty years old, which was followed by the ambrotype, a 
 picture on glass, the photograph being in use in 1853, and the 
 dry plate came in three years ago. Nothing is so universal as 
 the j)hotograph. Every family has a picture gallery, and the 
 photograph album is on every parlor table. One of the oldest 
 men in the business has taken over a million and a half of 
 pictures. Copies of all the famous pictures, and photo- 
 grai)hs of the famous statues and buildings, are for sale; 
 and instantaneous views are taken of crowded streets, of 
 horses at full speed, and of cannon balls just leaving the gun ; 
 draughtsmen multiply drawings by this process, and photographs 
 of machines are sent out as samples. The explorer of new coun- 
 tries carries his box of dry plates, and brings back pictures of the 
 scenes and inhabitants of strange lands ; even the rock temples of 
 Pctrea, and the interior of the Pyramids are now shown by the 
 magic lantern. With one exception; we have views of all the 
 famous buildings and nunes on the face of the earth ; and we 
 hope before long some fearless followers of Burton will bring us a 
 25 
 
386 Michigan's sp:mi-centennial. 
 
 sun-picture of the holy Caaba of Mecca, that forbidden city, that 
 is death for a Christian to enter. 
 
 The coolest thing in photography was done when the Proteus 
 was crushed by ice in Smith's Sound, up in the Arctic regions, a 
 few miles from Cape Sabine, where most of the Greeley party 
 spent their last winter. A young man who had charge of the 
 chronometers had a dry-plate machine with which he was con- 
 stantly practicing. 
 
 In the morning he took a view of the vessel becalmed ; a few 
 hours after, the ship being in danger by the closing together of 
 the ice, all hands were ordered to leave the vessel. He took his 
 chronometers to a place of safety on the ice, noted the time on his 
 book, and took a view of the ship just as she was being crushed 
 by the ice. Five minutes after he noted the time of the vessel's 
 sinking, and ran up and took a photograph of the hole through 
 which she sunk. These views were published with his testimony, 
 in the report of the investigation that followed. 
 
 SUNDRIES. 
 
 That emancipator of woman, the sewing-machine, is not forty 
 years old. I remember of hiring a room in the shop in which I 
 worked, and with a few tools, and one good machinist, turning out 
 the first dozen that were ever sold. The industry has been car- 
 ried on in great establishments, and 1880 building nearly fourteen 
 million dollars worth of machines. The latest of these machines 
 will make "-?,000 stitches per minute. 
 
 The birch broom of our mothers has been superseded by one 
 made from the tassels of the broom-corn ; and within thirty years 
 the carpet-sweeper has found a place by our fire-sides. 
 
 The changes of fashion in dress have built up and ruined great 
 industries. Twenty-five years ago a lady's dress was built in the 
 form of a pyramid, tapering from the peak of the bonnet dowu 
 to a base four or more feet in diameter. To form this immense 
 structure, great factories were built, to flatten the steel wire for 
 springs, and to cover it with braid ; and the making of hoop- 
 petticoats employed thousands of men and women. But the 
 business shrunk as ladies' skirts decreased, till the whole business 
 was abandoned, after living about fifteen years. 
 
 The ever-twinkling knitting-needles have been driven out of 
 sight before the power-knitting-machine ; for the fastest knitter 
 
ADDRESS OF JAMKS W. BARTLKTT. 3S7 
 
 could not make over one stocking a day. Now first-rate woolen 
 stockings are sold for less than 25 cents a pair. 
 
 Fifty years ago, books were expensive, and free libraries were 
 unknown. Now we have a library in every school district, and 
 great public libraries in our large cities. Copies of the works of 
 the best authors, thanks to the want of international copyright, 
 are sold for from 10 to 20 cents a volume. 
 
 Original paintings by the great masters are beyond the means 
 of the wealthiest men, and none but European travelers can ever 
 see the best of them. But by the aid of the chromo, a repro- 
 duction of the master-pieces of ancient and modern art (more or 
 less bad) are sold in all print shops, and given away as an adver- 
 tisement. The tobacco show-bills are a picture-gallery of them- 
 selves; to say nothing of those of the soap, shoe and perfumery 
 dealers. 
 
 Twenty years ago, a lumburmuu looking at the zig-zag fences 
 in our fields, said : " If Michigan had to be refenced, it will 
 take every tree in the lower part of the State ; or some other 
 method of fencing must be invented. The thousands of tons of 
 barbed-wire in use has solved that question. 
 
 Carpenters well remember the old-fashioned screw that had to 
 be started with a gimlet ; and bless the man who invented the 
 gimlet-pointed screw. 
 
 Type-writers are a new invention. With them we make many 
 copies at one time; and those unfortunates whose handwriting is 
 illegible can make themselves understood in print. Unfortu- 
 nately machinery will not correct bad spelling. 
 
 To give an idea of the speed of type writing, 1 quote: "The 
 average rate of speed of an expert type writer operator, on legal 
 matter written from dictation, is about fifty words a minute or 
 thirty folios of one hundred words each, an hour. This includes 
 ordinary delays of dictation. For trial minutes, experts can 
 attain a speed of one hundred words a minute, or possibly more, 
 on new matter. The highest record of my own, that I now 
 remember, is seventy-seven words a minute. On a practiced sen- 
 tence of common words, a speed of one hundred and twenty-five 
 a minute, or more, may be attained. The speed of fifty words a 
 minute may be maintained until tin- operator requires food or 
 sleep, without excessive exhaustion. Eighteen or twenty folios 
 
«388 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 an hour is a good average speed when the operator reads the 
 matter from clear copy." ' 
 
 LITHOGRAPHY. 
 
 " Lithography, or the art of printing from stone, dates back 
 about ninety years, though little use was made of it till within 
 forty years ago. 
 
 " The stone used for this purpose is a very compact homogeneous 
 limestone, found in layers varying in thickness from one to six 
 inches. The process of lithography is based upon the well-known 
 antagonism of water and oil. It may be said to rest on the fol- 
 lowing properties of the stone : 1st. That a drawing made upon 
 the surface of the stone with fat ink, or crayon, of similar con- 
 stituents as the ink, adheres to it so strongly as to require me- 
 chanical force to remove it. 
 
 " 2nd. That the parts of the surface not covered by the draw- 
 ing receive and retain water. 
 
 " 3d. That a roller or other instrument covered with fat ink, 
 being applied to the surface of the stone when wetted, the ink will 
 attach itself only to the drawing on the stone, and will be repelled 
 from the wetted parts. 
 
 " It will thus be observed that lithography differs entirely from 
 the other graphic arts, not only in the material employed as a 
 printing surface, but also in the causes or means by which the 
 impression or print is obtained. Letter-press, block, or plate 
 printing, are strictly uiechauical processes ; the impression from 
 type is from a raised relief surface over which the roller passes, 
 the parts to be left white being sufficiently depressed to escape 
 contact with it. In printing from steel or copper plate, the ink 
 is rubbed into the engraving, which has been cut or etched into 
 the plate, and all surplus ink is entirely removed from its sur- 
 face, while in lithography the printing surface is perfectly flat, 
 and the impression is obtained entirely by reason of the chemical 
 properties of the stone, water and ink." 
 
 Fifty years ago lithography was almost unknown in the 
 United States, and was started in Michigan about as early as in 
 any other State. 
 
 I quote from a letter from one who knows its history in the 
 
 F. E. Rankin, Detroit. 
 
APDKKSS OF .(AMKS \V. li.\ U ll.K Tl'. 389 
 
 State: " In 1861, just a quarter of a century ago, when litho- 
 graphy was comparatively in its infancy in this country, and 
 almost unknown in the West, when skilled workmen, machinery 
 and materials were to be obtained with few exceptions, only in 
 Europe, the founders of this enterprise laid the foundations of 
 their present large and pros[)erous establishment. 
 
 Developing and increasing with the State and country, it has 
 now become one of the foremost lithographic establishments iu 
 the United States. The crude small hand-presses of foreign 
 manufacture, have given place to huge steam-presses of American 
 production. Every improvement in the process and in machin- 
 ery has been taken advantai^e of, and at the present time with 
 over 200 employes, the company is shipping its productions to 
 every section of our country; to Mexico, Europe, and the far-off 
 Islands of the sea, an honor and credit to our great State.' 
 
 THK WOKK8 OF MAN UNAIDED KY STEAM. 
 
 I have spoken of that which man has accomplished by the aid 
 of steam and organization ; l)ut great works have been done by 
 men's hands, with little help from their heads. We look with 
 wonder at the ruins of Karnac, the pyramids of Egypt, and the 
 gigantic stones at Baalbec, as though such works would be impos- 
 sible to-day. 
 
 No doubt the old workmen had skillful architects to design, 
 and good foremen to execute, great patience and plenty of main 
 strength and stupidity for the heavy lifts. If anybody would fur- 
 nish the money, he could close a contract, any day, to duplicate 
 any or all of those works ; and if they would pay ten per cent, on 
 the investment, we should have them in every town. But these 
 great works are not to be compared with what man, without 
 the aid of machinery, has done in America by his own 
 hands. The first settlers found an unbroken forest stretching 
 from the Atlantic to the Mississippi river ; and went to work to 
 clear it up. Tree by tree the forest disappeared ; generation atler 
 generation of axe-men hewed out homes, and by the aid of fire, 
 let iu the sun to their little clearings. (The settler iu the forest 
 hates a tree. It keeps his land a swamp, and the sun from his 
 crops ; and his first aim is to exterminate the forest.) Among the 
 
 ' C. H. (Jaiiiller, Calvert Lithograpli and Kiijjraving Co., Detroit. 
 
390 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 ashes of their fires they raise small crops between the stumps ; 
 and by persistent labor the roots are removed, till the sleepy oxen 
 have room to draw the plow; grass springs up, the cattle increase, 
 and the once howling wilderness becomes smooth pasture, or cul- 
 tivated field. 
 
 The first inland communication in a new country is by Indian 
 trails. Next comes the blazed track of the landlooker, followed 
 by the winter road, passable only on the snow, then the roads are 
 cleared of trees, stumped, corduroyed, and turn-piked, so as to be 
 passable in summer; bridges are built, plank and gravel improve 
 the roadway, and finally comes the paved streets of cities. 
 
 Settlers establish themselves in the wilderness, and farms are 
 cleared up and improved. After fifty years we have within our 
 borders 205,000 farms, aggregating 18,400,000 acres, of which 
 10,000,000 are improved into tillage, orchards and mowing, and 
 the remainder is yet in wood land or old unproductive fields. Of 
 the remainder of the 36,800,000 acres in the State, 14,000,000 is 
 yet forest, leaving 6,000,000 acres for roads, towns and cities. To 
 hew out and grade the roads, clear up and plant the farms, rep- 
 resent more human labor than all the other work that has been 
 done in the State. 
 
 The amount of human labor that is yearly expended in cutting 
 and preparing for stoves and fire places the 145,778,137 cords of 
 firewood that is annually consumed in the United States, will be 
 appreciated by those of us that have cut and corded it at SI a 
 cord. 
 
 IN CONCLUSION. 
 
 For my part, I don't want any more of the good old times. 
 The present time is the best we have ever had, though I hope not 
 the best that we shall ever see. In fifty years we have reduced 
 our hours of labor from fourteen to eight hours a day; our wages 
 are doubled, and the necessities of life are much cheaper. The 
 great curse of drunkenness is very much diminished. We live in 
 better houses, better warmed and lighted, and we are better 
 clothed; a high school education is in the reach of every child; 
 books are free to all; the poorest laborer who meets with an acci- 
 dent in our streets will receive surgical aid that no king could 
 purchase fifty years ago. Our great elevators and ware-houses 
 store the products of plentiful years to supply those in which the 
 
ADDKEsS OF .I.VMKS \V. BARILKI'I'. 31U 
 
 harvests are blighted ; ami our great railnnuls distribute the fruits 
 of labor, so that famines ari> iinj)ossil)le. Beef killed on the 
 prairies is distributed all over the country, and supplies the 
 markets of Europe. Fish from the salt seas and our great lakes 
 are eaten fresh, all over the continent, even in the most barren 
 deserts; and tropical fruits are peddled round in all our streets. 
 
 When we consider the great advance we have made in fifty 
 years, we may flatter ourselves that there are no more fields to 
 conquer; but I have no doubt the machinist of 1836 thought he 
 had put the cap-stone on the works of his predecessors. 
 
 I see two things beginning to loom up in the horizon that may 
 completely change the whole system of manufacturing, and the 
 use of coal and iron may become a thing of the past. The use of 
 natural gas is ii» its infancy; but in the iron and glass works in 
 Pittsburg it has taken the place of 20,000 tons of coal a day, and 
 the field is widening every day. If this gas should be found 
 inexhaustible ; if, as some claim, it is caused by the decomposition 
 of water by the internal heat of the earth, and thus liable to be 
 found everywhere, and therefore we can get our heat without 
 labor, it would be the greatest step the world has ever taken. 
 
 Distributed through the entire world, one-fourth of the con- 
 tents of every clay bank is composed (jf a metal, ductile and mal- 
 leable in the highest degree, indestructible by acids, lighter than 
 glass, and much stronger than steel. When it was first made, it 
 cost many times its weight in gold. Eight years ago it cost 864 
 a pound. Within two years it has been furnished at $4 a pound ; 
 and now it can be produced for $1 per pound, and we may see 
 the day when it will be as cheap as iron. If this should happen, 
 it would make more change in the world than the use of steam 
 has made in fifty years. 
 
 I prophesy that fifty years hence, the machinist who takes up 
 the subject and passes it along for another halt' century, will have 
 for his text Natural (tos and Aluminum. 
 
ADDIIESSl^ AT THE GRAND STAND. 
 
 Hon. T. H. HINCHMAN, Presiding. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow-Citizens : We meet to- 
 day to recall and acknowledge the many favors conferred by 
 Divine Providence on the people of this State in the past fifty 
 years, and to mark the progress made. During the early years 
 of a State this is necessarily material. Labor and efforts tend 
 mainly to develop and establish industries; and to build, endow 
 and maintain educational and other institutions. 
 
 The Legislature and Governor have considered it fitting and 
 appropriate to celebrate this day, apprehensive that events beyond 
 their control may forbid their observance of a Centennial. 
 
 We have lived in an extraordinary epoch. The inventions and 
 developments the past fifty years have more than eclipsed those 
 of many centuries, and, in some respects, those of all centuries. 
 The advancement has been educational, in agriculture, inven- 
 tion, mechanics, physics, science and industry, rather than in 
 religion, morals, architecture or art. 
 
 The commission appointed have aimed to present in addresses 
 to be delivered this day, records of the past, appropriate to the 
 occasion, which will be published in book form, for the informa- 
 tion of the absent, those who are to follow and for those who vvill 
 celebrate a centennial fifty years hence. 
 
 If in the coming half-century, a corresponding material and 
 physical advancement is made, together with religious, moral, 
 intellectual, medicinal and sanitary acquirements, this State will 
 occupy a proud and distinguished position. 
 
 Moral, intellectual, or sanitary progress is not presented at 
 the time, save only as it cannot be eliminated from the educa- 
 tional. Neither is architecture or art included. The two last 
 are yet in a rudimentary state. They are indicative of wealth 
 and luxury, and eventually mark culmination and decline, and 
 become the enduring monuments of past greatness, when all things 
 else have crumbled, decayed, or become oblivious. May many 
 
ADDKKSS OF ilON. W. L. WKIJBKK. 393 
 
 centuries pass before art and architecture reacli their climax in 
 Michigan. 
 
 Shall we anticipate, thougli not in a jsanguine or prophetic spirit, 
 that intellectual, moral and sanitary achievements, illustrated and 
 presented by historical, poetical, social words and literature may 
 be the leading themes and characteristics of the gathering to cele- 
 brate the Centennial in 1936? 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 Hon. W. L. WEBBER. 
 
 Mr. Presidknt and Fellow-Citizens : It seems peculiarly 
 appropriate for me to take part in this celebration. It is the semi- 
 centennial of the Slate; it is also the semi-centennial of my resi- 
 dence therein. Fifty years ago, in the early days of June, among 
 those who were crowding the means of transportation to reach 
 Michigan, to seek homes for themselves and to assist in develop- 
 ing the agricultural resources of the State, was my father with 
 his family. On the 11th day of June, 1886, he brought us to the 
 farm which he had purchased from the (Tovernraent, in the town- 
 ship of Ilartland. Livingston county, consisting of two hundred 
 acres of heavy oak openings, with a stiff clay soil. Though but 
 a youth at the time, I took part with him in transforming this 
 wilderness into a farm. Tlie first step was to cut the heav}' growth 
 of timber from the land, to select sufficient therefrom to make rails 
 with which to fence the fields, and to burn the remainder in order 
 that the land might be rid of its incumbrance — an incumbrance 
 then, but which, if standing now upon the soil, would more than 
 add double to its present value. After the clearing of the land, the 
 heavy breaking-up plow was brought into use, with its four-yoke 
 of oxen as a team ; and it was considered good work if three- 
 quarters of the surface was fitted for the first crop. The many 
 stumps and roots too large to be taken out by the plow, forbade 
 more than this partial cultivation of the soil, and rendered 
 extremely difficult the work which was performed. 
 
 The life of tlie pioneer was no life for a lazy man. The life of 
 one was like the life of all, — constant labor to provide means for 
 supporting the family. It was the life of the woodsman combined 
 with the life of the farmer. Working earlv and late, sometimes 
 
394 miohiuan's skmi-ckntknnial. 
 
 in sunshine, and often in storm, the pioneers laid the foiiudation 
 in Michigan for its glorious development as an agricultural State. 
 In those early days there were no highways Ht to travel, mills were 
 at a distance, and there were practically no markets. The pio- 
 neers contended against odds which many of the present generation 
 would consider it vain to battle against. But it was necessary that 
 some money should be procured from the farm products, because 
 taxes must be paid in cash. To obtain this money wheat was con- 
 sidered well sold at fifty cents a bushel. In my own experience, 
 I have taken ei<;ht barrels of flour to Detroit, a distance of fifty 
 miles, and over the roads as then existing a journey of five or six 
 days, and received only S3 a barrel, or $24 for the whole load. 
 
 But though the toil was severe there was no repining. There 
 was no complaining of long hours or severe labor. There were 
 many compensations for the hardships to which the pioneers sub- 
 mitted. Every man was willing to share with those who needed ; 
 every neighbor was a friend. Every latch-string was out, and no 
 one feared to admit a stranger lest he might admit a foe. There 
 was game in the woods, and fish in the ponds and streams, and 
 there were wild fruits growing in the forest. There was a genuine 
 spirit of independence among the people, a spirit of self-reliance 
 and confidence, with which every difficulty was met, and, so far 
 as practicable, overcome. It was the best kind of a life to pro- 
 mote that individual development of character, that spirit of self- 
 reliance which constitutes the best type of manhood. 
 
 The art of agriculture is the most ancient known to man, 
 whether civilized or barbarian. Earliest history accords it a 
 place among the most honorable of employments. Among the 
 ancient Romans it was not considered beneath their dignity for 
 Senators to engage in this employment. The example of Cin- 
 cinnatus, who left his plow to guide armies in the field, returning 
 again after victory to his peaceful pursuits, has ever been ap- 
 plauded as one of the most noble on record. Virgil, nearly two 
 thousand years ago, in his " Georgics," gives specific directions 
 for the cultivation of the soil. He tells us that we should plow 
 in early spring ; that a four-fold plowing will find its reward ; 
 that we should not fight against nature, but understand the soil. 
 That we should give proper attention to drainage. He gives 
 specific directions for the care of domestic animals, and the rear- 
 ing of fruits, and glorifies the life of the husbandman as follows : 
 
A.DDKESS OF IIO>'. W. L. WKHUKK. 395 
 
 " O, husbauduieu, too dear to Fortune, if they know tlu-ir own 
 blessedness! For them of herself, far from the clash of arms, all- 
 riglitcous Earth pours from her soil an easy sustenance." * * * 
 They have " repose without a care, and a life that knows not what 
 disa|)[)ointment is, a life enriched with manifold treasures * * * 
 the lowing of oxen, and soft slumber beneath the trees are theirs, 
 with them * * * i.s a band of youths inured to toil, and 
 accustomed to little ; the sacred rites of Heaven, and reverend 
 sires: Justice, as she departed from earth, j)lanted among thein 
 her latest footsteps." 
 
 The importance of agriculture to the development of the State 
 wa- fully understood and appreciated in the early days in Michi- 
 gan by those in otticial position. In the message of Governor 
 Mason, in January, 1838, among other things, he says: 
 
 "The character of industry upon which the real prosperity of 
 the State is most dependent, is the cultivation of the soil. ^lost 
 nations have considered it their policy to encourage some par- 
 ticular branch of industry, as the one from which they could 
 derive the most abundant resources of wealth. But whilst the 
 true policy of a free Government is to extend eciual protection to 
 every department of trade, we are too apt to overlook the interest 
 of the agriculturist. Michigan, it is true, may and will exhibit an 
 important field for successful domestic manufactures, but the cul- 
 tivation of her soil must at all times be regarded as the great 
 source of .her pros])erity. It furnishes not only the means of 
 human subsistence, but sujjplies materials for manufactures, as 
 well as the chief resources of commerce. Whatever encourage- 
 ment, therefore, we secure for the agricultural interest, extends a 
 benefit to every other department of industry. Agriculture being, 
 then, a primary and most important branch of State economy, 
 it is the duty <>f the Legislature, not oidy to protect its members 
 from disproportionate burdens, but to facilitate to them the advan- 
 tages derived from the researches of science, and the discoveries 
 and improvements of the age. With this object in view, I would 
 recommend the creation of a board or society, whose duty it would 
 be to foster and encourage this great source of national prosperity 
 and independence, to gather desirable information, and at the 
 public expense, distribute it to the tarmers of the State. Such a 
 measure, I have no doubt, would in a short time be productive of 
 important public consequences.'" 
 
 A year later, he again calls the attention of the Legislature to 
 this subject, saying : 
 
 "The agricultural interest is one of great importance, and 
 claims with justice the protection of the Government, and yet it 
 has received less aid from direct legislation, than any other de- 
 
39H Michigan's se;mi-centennial. 
 
 partnient of industry. But I feel that when it is recollected how 
 essentially the real prosj)erity of Michigan depends upon the culti- 
 vation of her soil and the labors of her husbandmen, the subject 
 will receive your earnest consideration and favorable action." 
 
 In the first constitution adopted by the State, which was framed 
 by the convention held in 1835, it is provided, among other things, 
 that "The Legislature shall encourage, by all suitable means, the 
 promotion of intellectual, scientifical and agricultural improve- 
 ment." 
 
 The reverses which the people of Michigan sustained, beginning 
 in 1838, when their unsound financial system exploded, and which 
 continued for several years, prevented attention to the subject of 
 agriculture to that extent which its importance demanded. But 
 when brighter days began to dawn, carrying out the policy above 
 suggested — the correctness of which all admitted — there was 
 formed at Lansing, the capital of the State, on the 17th of March, 
 1849, The Michigan State Agricultural Society. The call for the 
 first meeting of this organization was signed by the executive 
 officers of the State, and members of the Senate and House of 
 Representatives. The first President of the society was Hon. 
 Epaphroditus Ransom, of Kalamazoo, and the first Recording 
 Secretary was J. C. Holmes, of Wayne. Hon. Henry Chamber- 
 lain, of Berrien county, was one of the signers to the first call, 
 and acted as secretary of the meeting at which the organization 
 was perfected. Hon. Wm. M. Fenton (then Lieutenant Gover- 
 nor) delivered an address, in which, speaking of the farmers, he 
 says that they are '' lovers of their country for their country's 
 sake; when danger threatens our institutions from without, or 
 turbulence reigns within, we can rely upon the aid of such a com- 
 munity to resist every encroachment, and ward off* every impend- 
 ing danger. Virtue, intelligence, and that religion which is 
 disconnected with gorgeous pomp and show, animates and inspires 
 them to be jealous of their privileges, and ready to defend, if 
 needs be, their homes, rendered doubly dear by their position, 
 indepe ndent, as it must ever comparatively be, of all the world 
 beside." 
 
 And in closing, he says : 
 
 " If we desire to perpetuate for the benefit of those who are to 
 succeed us, the blessings we enjoy, to erect for ourselves and for 
 after ages, the most enduring superstructure of a free (iovernmeut, 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. W. L. WKBBER. 397 
 
 beneficent laws and institutidns, let us unite, one and all, in fos- 
 tering, encouraging and promoting by every means in our power, 
 the improvement of our system of agriculture, knowing that upon 
 that for its base, and upon that alone, can our superstructure 
 securely rest." 
 
 General Lewis Cass, whose noble patriotism and statesmanship 
 were so prominent in shaping the destinies of Michigan, recog- 
 nized fully the importance of agriculture in its influence upon the 
 welfare of the State. In an address delivered by him before the 
 Kalamazoo Agricultural Society, in October, ISAO, he says: 
 
 *'We have assembled here to-day to commune together, upon 
 one of the great departments — the greatest indeed — of human em- 
 j)loyment." 
 
 Also, "He who puts his hand to the plow, and does not look 
 back upon more brilliant but less useful employments, will not fail 
 to find his reward in a happy and honorable life." 
 
 In this connection I desire t(» make a still further quotation 
 from this address, to show the broad and intelligent views which 
 he entertained concerning education in connection with agricul- 
 ture. He says : 
 
 "There is one great error, to which public attention is now 
 directed, and which ought long since to have found a corrective, 
 and that is the too prevailing imj)ression, that education, at least 
 to any considerable extent, is unnecessary for those who intend to 
 devote themselves to the pursuit of agriculture. And in this con- 
 nection, that some of the other j)rofessious are more respected, if 
 not more respectable, than is the life of the independent farmer. 
 * * * A more unreasonable and unjust prejudice than this, 
 for it cannot be dignified with the name of opinion, it would be 
 difficult to find in the whole circle of human errors. This class 
 of our population are the natural guardians of our republican 
 institutions: sentinels in safety, defenders in danger." 
 
 Gen. Cass also delivered an address before the Michigan f^tate 
 Agricultural Society in Detroit, September, 1851, in which he 
 speaks of labor in the following language : 
 
 "But in the natural, as in the moral world, the system of crea- 
 tion is one of compensations — good and evil go hand in hand to- 
 gether. Wiicre man lives without exertion or industry, he lives 
 without virtue or intelligence, and dies as inditlerent to the future 
 as he has been to the past. But where necessity — his real friend, 
 though sometimes apparently a stern one — requires him to labor, 
 he attains his true position, and fulfills his true destiny by the 
 
39S Michigan's semi-centennial, 
 
 proper eraployineut of his faculties, physical and moral, and by 
 their nobler development, which is sure to follow." 
 
 Among the first acts of the State Agricultural Society was the 
 proposition for an agricultural school, and from this idea ulti- 
 mately grew the present State Agricultural ('ollege. Hon. Bela 
 Hubbard took an active part in encouraging this "aid to agricul- 
 ture," in a report which he made to the society in support of a 
 resolution offered by hitu, in the following words : 
 
 " Resolved, That our Legislature be requested to take such legis- 
 lation as shall appear necessary or expedient for the establish- 
 ment of a State central agricultural office, with which shall be 
 connected a museum of agricultural products and implements, 
 and an agricultural library, and as soon as practicable, an agri- 
 cultural college and a model farm." 
 
 Step by step the people of Michigan enlarged upon this idea, 
 until the Agricultural College at Lansing became an established 
 fact. I shall consume no time in speaking concerning this college, 
 as its able President will do that subject justice in the address 
 which he delivers at this celebration. I will remark, however, 
 that it is an institution of which not only the farmers but the 
 whole people of Michigan may well be proud ; and it is one which 
 should receive their encouragement and support upon every 
 proper occasion. Like all other human institutions, it is capable 
 of misdirection, but the mission is a noble one, and, intelligently 
 pursued, will give in the future, as it has in the past, most excel- 
 lent results. 
 
 The State Agricultural Society, organized to aid in promoting 
 the best interests of agriculture and its kindred arts, has done 
 much towards fulfilling the end of its creation. But it has not 
 done as much as it should have done. It has not at all times 
 received the support which it should have received. It has not at 
 all times been managed with the wisdom requisite to insure best 
 results. Yet, with all its errors and shortcomings, it has been one 
 of the most useful institutions in the State. Its annual fairs and 
 the reports of its officers have from time to time called attention 
 to agricultural topics, and thus promoted the end in view. Its 
 true purpose is educational ; and in this respect, like other educa- 
 tional agencies, if it educates wisely it is useful. The object of 
 all education is to make men wi.ser, to teach them the proper use 
 of their faculties, and to enable them to live in greater comfort 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. W. L. WEBBER. 309 
 
 and with le.ss labor. The State Agricultural Society has done 
 much in showing the larniers of Michigan how they raay better 
 their condition by the raising of improved breeds of stock, and by 
 the use of improved methods of work and better kinds of machin- 
 ery. Its managers, as a rule, have worked unselfishly to promote 
 the cause in view, always without remuneration for their services, 
 and often at large personal sacrifice. The farmers of Michigan 
 should be so deeply interested in the welfare of the Society that 
 they will not permit it to be diverted to unwise ends. 
 
 And tending in the same direction are all our local agricultural 
 societies. It was formerly the practice for the county societies to 
 report to the State society — a practice which might wisely have 
 been continued, and to w'hich it would be well to retui'n. 
 
 I think it would l)e wise, also, to have the State Agricultural 
 Society reorganized, by a legislative act, in such manner as to 
 more evenly distribute the membership of its executive commit- 
 tee throughout the State. There has been in the past a tendency 
 to localize the State Fair and the efforts of the State society. 
 If its executive board were distributed so that there were two 
 members in each Congressional district, and if its number were 
 limited accordingly, all parts of the State would then be better 
 represented, and the expenses of the management of the society 
 would undoubtedly be very much lessened. The expense of hold- 
 ing the fairs has been so great of late years that large receipts 
 were necessary to pay the bills. I fail to see any advantage to 
 the true object of the organization in the aggregation of such 
 large numbers of animals of the various breeds, and I think it 
 would lessen the expense of the fairs very much if the number 
 were judiciously limited. It is only the better animals of the 
 various breeds that are desirable for exhibition. The State Fair 
 has been used too much as an advertising medium at the expense 
 of the society. Too often, under the pretense of a necessity to 
 put money in its purse, the society has resorted to trials of speed 
 upon the track, with a view of creating an excitement in the com- 
 munity, which would fill the grand stand. The breeding of good 
 horses, such as farmers require for their own use, and such as the 
 market will demand from them :it ;i pi'ofit, is useful, and the best 
 efforts in that direction are worthy of encouragement. But the 
 experience of the world is that the breeding of horses for speed 
 alone is valuable miiiniy in giving pleasure to those who seek the 
 
400 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 excitement of the race-course, rather than in giving support to 
 the cause for which the State Agricultural Society was formed. 
 
 In considering subjects of this uature we are too apt to lose 
 sight of the fact that, no matter what the occupation in which one 
 is engaged, he is still a man, })ossessed of all the attributes of the 
 race, its weaknesses and its errors. The pursuit of agriculture is 
 rather ennobling and purifying, is less beset with temptation, and 
 more free from vice. The contrast is often mentioned : The 
 vices of the city, and the virtues of the country. 
 
 The most prominent and successful business men of the cities 
 were country boys. From the country they inherited and acquired 
 that vigor of constitution and that habit of independent thought, 
 that self-reliance, which are necessary to the success of all busi- 
 ness men. The wear and strain upon the life of a business man 
 in the city at the present time cannot be endured except by those 
 who are blest with strong physical constitutions, as well as with 
 great mental vigor. It is not pretended that all are equal in these 
 respects, even though born and reared under like circumstances. 
 While it is true in this country that all men are equal in their 
 political rights, it is not true that they are born equal in their 
 capacities, in their physical vigor and mental endowments. The 
 inequalities which exist in these respects cannot be remedied by 
 legislation. They are inherent conditions, and must be submitted 
 to by men in all stations of life. It is unwise to contend against 
 the inevitable. Very many of the evils of which men complain at 
 the present time arise from these inequalities which no human wis- 
 dom can remedy. If the activities of the race are properly directed 
 these inequalities will gradually grow less. All men are not equal 
 in their capacity to earn money and accumulate property. We 
 are taught by the political economists — or, at least, by some of 
 them — that labor is the source of all wealth. And many of the 
 troubles in the business world of to-day arise from the accept- 
 ance of this heresy. I agree that the production of wealth calls 
 for labor, but labor alone does not necessarily produce wealth. 
 Labor must have intelligent direction to produce wealth. It 
 must be aided and reinforced by the bounteous and beneficent 
 earth, by the changing seasons, by the rain and the sun, in order 
 that beneficial results may follow. The man who carries a stone 
 up a hill merely to roll it down again, may continue his labor all 
 his life without adding to his own wealth or to the wealth of the 
 
ADDRESS OF ll(>^f. VV. L. WKJiUKK. -4"1 
 
 world. The capacity of men to earn money, then, depends not 
 only upon their physical endowments, but also upon their mental 
 qualifications. Intelligent direction to labor is what makes it 
 valuable. Every man of observation and experience knows that, 
 for example, in one hundred laborers the best ten men will earn 
 more money than the poorest twenty. This is a truth which 
 every laborer should appreciate. And he should have just and 
 fair compensation, not only for his physical exertions, but for his 
 mental guidance as well. In other words, it is his inheritance to 
 have his fair share of the wealth he aids in producing, and it is 
 not the right of his weaker or less fortunate co-laborer to be put 
 upon an exact equality of wages with him. 
 
 When the laboring n:en fight against these laws of natun; they 
 simply waste their strength and injure themselves. Like one who 
 beateth tlie air, he fatigues himself but injures no one else. Un- 
 fortunately, however, many of these so-called labor agitators, in 
 their efforts to demonstrate their false theories, not only injure the 
 men who follow them, but they injure the entire community. 
 
 Human efforts should be directed not only to the satisfaction of 
 man's physical necessities, but also to the cultivation of such a 
 frame of mind as will make men satisfied with their surrounding 
 conditions, wherever those conditions cannot be improved. The 
 pi*ayer of the ancient philosopher, " Give me neither poverty nor 
 riches," has been the aspiration of the wise in all ages. Great 
 wealth is not desirable. Ordinarily it .brings little real happiness 
 to the possessor. But independence is desirable. Great wealth 
 in the hands of good and wise men confers upon its possessors 
 •great responsibilities and cares, for the ultimate good of their fel- 
 low men. But in the hands of unscrupulous and dishonest men 
 the power of great wealth is a tremendous influence for evil and 
 oppression. 
 
 The accumulation of large fortunes during the present genera- 
 tion has been exceptional and extraordinary rather than otherwise. 
 But it is so natural in man to love wealth for the power it brings, 
 or to enable him to shine more brilliantly than his fellows, that 
 he easily falls a prey to the temptation of making money, simply 
 for the power and prominence that it gives him This is an evil 
 which might be modified by wise legislation. But the wise legis- 
 lator will bo content with partial remedies, wdien the people for 
 whom the legislation is designed arc not prepared to enforce a 
 26 
 
402 Michigan's skmi-oentennial. 
 
 perfect cure. He considers the condition of society where the 
 legislation is to operate, and frames his laws in such a way as to 
 produce the greatest practical good. He is an impracticable 
 legislator who undertakes to set up the standard of absolute per- 
 fection, when it cannot be enforced among the people. Truths 
 beyond the capacity of a generation are lost upon that genera- 
 tion. But it is wise to utter them ; it is well for the world to 
 have them promulgated. But their effect must be looked for in 
 future generations. It is as true now as ever before that people 
 having eyes see not, and having ears hear not. 
 
 One truth which ought to be impressed upon all men with 
 great vigor at the present time is that wealth does not necessarily 
 bring happiness. Another is, that the happiest people on earth 
 are those who live simply and purely and are content with their 
 surroundings. The world has advanced wonderfully in many 
 directions. But it was understood in the days of Solomon as well 
 as now that all these things are vanity. 
 
 The life of the farmer affords more opportunity for contempla- 
 tion upon these subjects, and for just conclusions concerning 
 them, than any other employment. His mind is more free from 
 care — assuming, always, that he confines himself to the legiti- 
 mate pursuits of his occupation. The farmei" who makes haste to 
 be rich, who, learning of the fortune which some man has made 
 upon the Board of Trade, mortgages his farm and sends his money 
 to a broker for investment,, has gone outside of his legitimate pur- 
 suits, and usually finds not only great disquiet, but loses his farm 
 and ruins all his earthly exi)ectations. In this respect legislation 
 might be wise to prevent men from injuring themselves. Laws 
 against gaming have been enforced with good results. Laws 
 might be ])assed, and should be passed to prevent all this unnat- 
 ural kind of business, which is nothing more nor less than gam- 
 bling. Legitimate commerce should be encouraged by all appro- 
 priate means. But as well call it commerce to bet on the turn of 
 a die as to bet upon the turn of a market. Gambling with cards 
 or dice is safer even than gambling in these " bucket-shops '' or 
 other similar institutions. With the cards or the dice there is 
 always some element of chance. But in the other case the lambs 
 are always shorn. It is said that there are over 3,000 stock brokers 
 in the city of New York, who have an annual income avei'agiug 
 not less than $10,000 each— §30,000,000 ! Where does this 
 
ADDKESS OF HoN. \S . I,. U KBHKK. 403 
 
 money come from ? From the silly lambs in the country, who, in 
 their unwise haste to be rich, enable these brokers to live in lux- 
 ury. How much better it would be if this money were kept at 
 home and judiciously expended for the promotion of the comfort 
 and happiness of the people. The country is being constantly 
 drained to the cities. Farmers should remember this fact, and 
 be careful to so conduct their own business that they individually 
 may not contribute to this depletion of the country for the advan- 
 tage of the city. 
 
 It may not be wise to limit individual ac(iuisition. Hut the evil 
 of great accumulation of wealth would be lessened if it should be 
 provided by law (as it may be, without violation of constitutional 
 rights) that estates should be distributed so that no one person 
 should receive from the estate of a deceased person more than a 
 certain sum to be luimed in the law; any surplus to go into the 
 common treasury for the common good. But the incentive to 
 acquisition should not be taken away, for that is the mainspring 
 of business life. And yet the power of ac(iuisition to an extent 
 which gives power to do the State mischief should be lessened. 
 That State is in best conilition which has no paupers, and no 
 citizens possessing sutiicient wealth to endanger public good. 
 
 We have a system ijf common schools, each of which is growing 
 and aspiring to become a university, in which the people of the 
 State take great pride, and justly so. The motive which prompts 
 the community to su{)port these schools without expense to the 
 pupils is a most worthy one. It may well be doubted, however, 
 whether greater good might not be accomplished if these schools 
 were more thoroughly practical in their teachings. That edu- 
 cation is best which gives the best practical results. Great fears 
 have been expressed lest sectarianism be taught in our public 
 schools, and in the effort to avoid that avowed evil I have some- 
 times thought that the opposite extreme has been reached. The 
 education of the children in the public schools is confined purely 
 to the development of their intellect, without reference to the 
 training of the moral faculties, which are to give direction in life 
 to the powers ol the intellect. Knowledge is power. But it may 
 be power for evil as well as for good. All depends upon its direc- 
 tion. And whether intellectual development is a good or an evil 
 depends upon whether it is guided by coiTect moral principles 
 into proper channels. Children should be taught to be good as 
 
404 MICHIGAN'S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 well as intelligent. And that teacher who omits moral training 
 from his course omits the element which is to determine whether 
 the result of his teaching will be useful or otherwise. There is 
 no danger of promoting sectarianism in following out this sugges- 
 tion. There is a wide range of moral principles in which all good 
 people agree ; and if these are observed the disputed points may 
 be omitted without danger. 
 
 No man is well educated who does not know how to make a 
 living, by availing himself of his own capabilities and the forces 
 of nature about him. If those who complain that the labor mar- 
 ket is overstocked, and that they cannot find employment with 
 which to support their families, would avail themselves of the 
 opportunities abounding everywhere throughout this State, for 
 seeking their sustenance and independence from the soil, they 
 would greatly promote their own interests. While it is true that 
 the more intelligent farmer always obtains better results, yet it is 
 also true that mother earth is very kind, and grants even to those 
 of little skill and little knowledge sufficient to supply actual 
 want. No man is so ignorant but that with willing hands 
 he can obtain comfortable sustenance from the land. And, for- 
 tunately, as yet, land is in such abundance throughout this State 
 that none who are disposed to labor in that direction are unable 
 to obtain its use. The farmers and all others must learn to be 
 content with enough. 
 
 The trouble with the country just now is that there are not 
 markets enough to take the surplus. Our manufacturing indus- 
 tries are so varied and extensive, and the products are so numer- 
 ous that we have a surplus. Our soil is so productive that we 
 have a surplus of cereals ; we have a surplus of meats. Although 
 complaint is made of stagnation and general depression in busi- 
 ness, in fact, everything is in surplus, except markets. A few 
 years since, the country west of the Mississippi took from the 
 farmers east its supply of breadstufFs. Now more than half of 
 the cereal surplus of the country is produced west of the Missis- 
 sippi, and probably not one-sixth of the capacity of that territory 
 has been called upon. What are we to do with this surplus? 
 Will farmers ever see the day again when they will get a dollar 
 a bushel for their wheat? We must all learn to be content with 
 enough, and not strive to go beyond it. And those people who 
 complain of the dullness of the labor market must seek inde- 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. W. I.. WEBBKK. 405 
 
 pendent livelihood ii|)on tlu' farm ii" they would seek their own 
 good. 
 
 No State in the riiion, nn place in the world i.s better fitted for 
 independent life than Mieliigan. Everything may be produced 
 here necessary to .satisfy reasonable desires. Fifty years ago the 
 country was anxious to encourage manufactures and production, 
 so that in case of foreign war the people would not suffer for the 
 comforts of life. We have passed that stage now. Everything 
 necessary for the comfort of life is produced in abundance among 
 us. And in our anxiety to become wealthy, to secure great 
 accumulations, we are reaching out to the world for markets. 
 If these markets fail to come we should be content to enjoy our 
 abundance. 
 
 Our Government is formed uj)on the theory that every individ- 
 ual is to have the greatest opportunity to secure and promote his 
 own happiness, always within those rules and regulations which 
 society has prescribed, to prevent improper interference with 
 others. Tiidivi<lual development, individual opportunity has 
 made this country what it is. We started out with the theory 
 that i)ower was inherent with the individual, and tliat (4()vern- 
 nient had such powers as were conferred by the common consent 
 of the individuals to be governed. This theory was not in accord 
 with that which prevailed in the old woild. All jjower there was 
 vested in the crown, and what power individuals possessed was 
 such as had been conferred upon them by the crown. The theory 
 of the old world tended to throw society into classes. As the 
 crown dispensed its favors, powers were exercised by one class or 
 another, according to the bounty of the sovereign. But here, 
 where every individual stands before the law equal in civil rights, 
 society should never be forced into classes. Every attempt so to 
 do is at variance with the whole theory of our government. The 
 organization of one class as a laboring class, and the organization 
 of another class as employers is greatly to be deprecated. We 
 have set out upon the theory that man is capable of self-govern- 
 ment, and it is a duty which this generation owes to posterity to 
 take no step backward. One hundred years and over of our gov- 
 ernmental experience have passed, and so far it has proved a 
 success. Upon the people of this generation it depends whether 
 it shall continue such. Do not |)ormit these ideas of classifications 
 in society, im]iorted from the old country, to bo introduced here. 
 
406 mk.hkjan's semi-centenntal. 
 
 Let it be understood distinctly that every individual is to stand 
 upon his own mei-its, upon his own virtues, upon his own capaci- 
 ties. 
 
 There is no class in the community to which attejitiou is 
 directed with so much hope for the preservation of our institu- 
 tions as to those engaged in agricultural pursuits. Let them 
 cultivate practical education, (he spirit of individual liberty, and 
 the development of individual self-reliance and self-respect. 
 Let them encourage respect for the law, which is only the 
 expressed will of the whole society, the observance of which is so 
 essential to the peace and safety of all. The past lies behind us 
 and is safe, the present is in our control, and the future depends 
 largely upon the example which w^e set for those who are to fol- 
 low us. If we see to it that the principles I have announced are 
 commended to those who come after us we may lay down our 
 burdens with the assurance that the future of the State is safe. 
 
 MICHIGAN HORTICULTURE. 
 
 A resume of its progress, and notes concerning its connection with our 
 
 prosperous condition, and suggestions about its impress 
 
 upon the future homes of our State. 
 
 HON. CHARLES W. GARFIELD. 
 
 The man of wealth or learning who has secured his acquire- 
 ments through long years of constant adherence to his purpose, 
 and has won success and renown in the face of serious difficulties 
 by means of sacrifices which taxed to the utmost his powers of 
 endurance, delights to recall, occasionally, and with a wholesome 
 pride, the great obstacles overcome, the triumphs attained, and 
 will, for the amusement of his auditors, unfold at times, failures 
 that in the perspective have a ludicrous aspect, but which render 
 more complete the progressive steps to a worthy success. 
 
 So we to-day, in hastily reviewing the facts and incidents con- 
 nected with the pioneer attempts in the field of Michigan Horti- 
 culture, may be justly proud of the rapid strides taken in the 
 face of astonishing difficulties, and can smile at the errors and 
 trials, which from our point of view, scarcely checked the onward 
 movement, but which, when experienced, looked like mountains 
 
ADDKESS OF HON. CHAULKS \V. GAKFIKLU. 4<>7 
 
 in the way of success. In the hands of the past we will find 
 tightly grasped tiie key to unlock the future. The strength at- 
 tained in overcoming serious difficulties, is that to be employed in 
 climbing to greater heights of success. 
 
 The pioneers who came to our part of the great Northwest 
 Territory, in their beginnings, had little thought of horticulture, 
 pomology or floriculture. They had to deal immediately with a 
 great forestry question. The problem of how soonest to turn 
 the great trees into ashes and gases, so as to let the life-giving 
 sunlight have an opportunity to touch the soil and quicken to life 
 the germs that would give the largest amount of simple food to 
 maintain the strength for wider clearings and broader life. They 
 at once absorbed the notion, and acted upon it, that the axe and 
 torch would pave the way to the most satisfactory acquirements, 
 an idea that has been bred so thoroughly into the generations 
 that have followed them, that the argument of approaching ster- 
 ility of soil and consequent poverty of possessions will alone 
 eradicate it. 
 
 The |)ioneers found fruits of certain kinds growing in abun- 
 dance without the *'Art which does mend Nature." Grapes, 
 plums, crab and thorn apples, gooseberries, huckleberries, rasp- 
 berries, blackberries and elderberries were well distributed over 
 our penin.sula and served to give variety to many a meal for the 
 early settlers, which otherwise would have been confined to a 
 narrow range of substantials. Vegetables were less abundant ; 
 but I have been told that in the absence of any garden products, 
 the forests afforded a few things that were utilized, prominent 
 among which were the wild onion and leek, while from the brooks 
 were gathered abundance of cress. Occasionally a pioneer will 
 now laugh at any early experience in testing the quantities of 
 the wild turnip, — an experience of which a very little goes a great 
 ways. 
 
 rilK RK(4lXN'IXf4S. 
 
 It may not occur to many (»f our people that the horticulture 
 of Michigan may have had its beginning as early as that of Mas- 
 sachusetts, as the French Jesuit mi.<sionaries visited Detroit the 
 same year that the 3Iayllower lauded its pilgrims at Plymouth 
 Roek. From the old French records we gather that it was the 
 custom of the early Jesuit missionaries to leave at the jjoints at 
 which they touched, as tlu'v paddli'd their way along the borders 
 
408 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 of our great iuland waters, some luark to record tlie path they 
 traced iu the unknown world. There would be no benevolence to 
 future travelers to dig a well, as did the patriarchs of old, but 
 they could plant a tree or scatter a few seeds of apples and pears 
 that would mark their camping grounds for generations; and 
 while recording the adventurous spirit of these daring men, would 
 be emblematical of their purpose to scatter the "seedof the Word" 
 among a people whom they hoped to lead to a knowledge of their 
 God. 
 
 In the very early records of the missions established by the 
 French, are references to the trees planted ; and the old apple and 
 pear trees mentioned in the early sketches of Detroit, Michilimac- 
 kinac and the Sault Ste. Marie, indicate that the climate of Michi- 
 gan with reference to pomology had a test at a very early day ; 
 and the great age to which the first plantings of trees attained, 
 and their productiveness, indicated strongly the possibilities of the 
 future in the growing of fruit. The plantations of apples and 
 pears made on both sides of the Detroit river or at " D'Etroit," 
 the straits, as it was then w^ritteu, were very productive in fruits, 
 and as this was on the line of travel of many of the tribes of 
 Indians, who each autumn took a trip from our peninsula to Eng- 
 lish and French stations in Canada, it is not singular that fruit 
 trees sprang up along their trails, which are mentioned in the early 
 records of the country about Pontiac and the Saginaw Valley as old 
 and productive trees when first the white man penetrated the 
 wilderness of these regions. At Monroe the items of history as 
 connected with the old pear trees that have rendered this city 
 famous have been woven together by Hon, Edwin Willits (see 
 Michigan Pomological Report, 1874, p. 351), who found that these 
 venerable trees grew from sprouts taken from a famous tree at 
 Detroit, which was planted in the latter part of the seventeenth 
 century. Wherever these old trees were planted they grew thrif- 
 tily, were healthy and produced enormous quantities of fruit. 
 
 Prof. J. C. Holmes in a paper read before the Michigan Pomo- 
 logical Society, records that William L. Woodbridge upon whose 
 farm some of (see Michigan Pomological Report, 1873, p. 337), 
 these trees stood, had repeatedly gathered from single pear trees 
 a crop of fifty bushels of fruit. 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. CHARLK^; VV. (lAKFIPXD. 409 
 
 TItK FIRST SETTr.KUS. 
 
 Immediately after the war of 1812 the emigration from the 
 East to our State really began; and of the men who sought to 
 establish homes in Michigan between 1820 and 1835 a majority 
 were from New York and New England ; they were people who 
 had known in their eastern homes the value of orchards and 
 gardens ; and while their wives were willing to assist in burning 
 the brush and performing such other labor as they could in 
 hastening to enlarge the openings in the vast forest, they did not 
 forget the flowers and vines which a(h)riied their eastern homes, 
 and (juickly embellished the log houses with such attractive 
 features as a knowledge of horticulture could suggest. In every 
 part of the State I have found reminders of the taste and good 
 sense of these pioneers in rendering tlicir homes attractive. And 
 many a beautiful residence is given character and individuality 
 to-day by the trees and vines planted by the wives of these pion- 
 eers. Living as I do upon the oldest farm in Kent county, I 
 keenly appreciate the thoughtfulness' and the generous heart of 
 Mrs. Burton, the first farmer's wife of this county who, with her 
 own hand planted larches and walnuts, which to-day are not only 
 the pride of our family, but of the locality. 
 
 BRIEF LOCALITY NOTES. — DETROIT. 
 
 The first plantations of orchards of any account in our State, 
 were made at Detroit, from stock secured across the river, the 
 stock having originally com(> from France to Montreal, and pro- 
 gressed westward with the settlements. The varieties were Fam- 
 euse, Porame Grise nnd Red and White (■alville. 
 
 Governor Woodbridge made the first large importation of 
 orchard trees about 1825, the stock having been purchased of 
 Grant Thorhurn of New York. In 1S30 he bought a large con- 
 signment of small trees of the leading varieties then known in 
 New York, and shipped from Buffalo by a schooner, which was 
 frozen in on its way and consequently the stock de-stroyed. 
 
 There were about 2,000 of the trees first jnirchased, and they 
 wore put into two orchards. Among the varieties of apples were 
 R. I. Greening, Baldwin, Esopus, Twenty Ounce, Early Harvest, 
 Belle Flower, Roxbury, Russet and Fall Pip|tin. 
 
 In 18.S.'> Wm. L. Woodbridge, son of Governor Woodbridge, 
 established a small nursery. 
 
410 mk^higan's semi-centennial. 
 
 MONROE. 
 
 Perhaps no locality in our State has a so well preserved record 
 of early orchard tree planting as Monroe. Here stand, side by 
 side, trees planted in each decade for a century. Each French 
 settler, as soon as he erected his cabin, planted a few sprouts of 
 fruit trees. They were not orchardists ; no large orchards are 
 found upon any of the early French farms — and judging by the 
 productiveness of these old apple and pear trees, there was no need 
 of many trees to sup{)ly a family with fruit. The old pear trees 
 here do not bear choice dessert fruit, but an abundance of it, and 
 especially adapted for culinary purposes. Mr. Willits, iu unfold- 
 ing the early history of these trees, found that the first were 
 planted by Francis Navarre in 1780. Numbers of trees are now 
 standing of which authentic record has been preserved, that were 
 planted before 1800. In a number of yards may be found trees 
 planted very soon after the war of 1812. On the farm of S. M. 
 Bartlett, Mr. Willits found, in 1873, an apple tree, the companion 
 of which had been blown down and the rings of annual growth 
 counted, indicating that these patriarchs were planted about the 
 middle of the last century. 
 
 WASHTENAW COUNTY. 
 
 French traders came out as far as Woodruff's Grove, now 
 Ypsilanti, very early in this century, and there are a few fruit 
 trees standing to-day as relics of their visits. Apple trees are 
 standing in Ann Arbor planted as early as 1825; hut the earliest 
 orchard of which we have record was plantcnl in 1829 by Oliver 
 Whitmore, a record of the varieties having been preserved to this 
 day, written by Mr. Whitmore at the time of planting. 
 
 A small nursery of fruit and locust seedlings had been planted 
 by Deacon Israel Branch in 1825, which passed into the hands of 
 Elihu and Augustus Mills the following year. 
 
 In the fall of 1826 Hon. Horace Carpenter says, that himself 
 and father came to Ann Arbor and brought one half bushel of 
 apple seed which was planted on a half acre of laud, from which 
 0,000 trees were sold during the following four years. 
 
 In 18.S.'^ E. D. and L. K. Lay located at Ypsilanti and brought 
 with them 20,000 cultivated fruit trees of all classes, erected a 
 small greenhouse, and soon supplied a large region of country 
 
ADDRESS OF IKXN. (JIlAIiLES W. GAKFIELD. 41 I 
 
 with orchard .stock. Thi.>< was the first general nur.sery in the 
 State. Otlicrs had phiuted a few rows of seedlings and j)ossibly 
 there were, in a small way, grafted trees grown, but the Messrs. 
 Lay started a stock that included all the leading sorts of the day. 
 By 1840 they were so thoroughly established as to issue a full 
 catalogue of forty pages. 
 
 LEXAWEF> (JOUN'TY. 
 
 The following note kindly sent me by Prof R. C Kedzie of 
 the Agricultural College, gives a brief account of the very earliest 
 attempt at fruit growing in Lenawee county. He writes: "My 
 father moved into Michigan territory in May, 1826, making his 
 home on a farm of oOO acres on the bank of River Raisin in the 
 eastern edge of Lenawee county, now known as Deerfield, but for 
 a long time called Kedzie's Grove. Having cleared off the woods 
 from a part of his farm, he set out a small ap[)le orchard with trees 
 obtained from Monroe ; mostly natural fruit, but a few trees of 
 "grafted apples,'' a variety probably local in Monroe, which I 
 have never been able to identify with'any recognized variety de- 
 scribed in books. He also set out in the "door yard" a number 
 of trees of the Kentish cherry, a n)w of red Dutch currants and some 
 native blackcap raspberries along the big oak log that made part 
 of the garden fence. He planted peach pits from which we soon 
 had a supply for ourselves and neighbors — a big crop every third 
 year, with light crops intervening. He sowed apple seeds and 
 started a nursery of about half an acre, which produced vigorous 
 seedling trees, from which sprung many of the orchards in the 
 southern side of Lenawee county. 
 
 Farmers with their ox teams came from Adrian, Bean Creek 
 and Palmyra to get a load of these trees to start an orchard. The 
 price of a thifty tree seven or eight feet high was a York shilling 
 (124 cents), and usually the payment was made in iS{)anish quar- 
 ters, the most abundant silver change oi" that day. For plums 
 we depended upon the wild varieties which grew in abundance on 
 the banks of the river and on the small prairies. 
 
 Our grapes were the wild grapes that grew so ai)undantly <>n 
 the banks and bottoms of the river as to give the name " Raisin " 
 to that tortuous stream. I never knew any raisins to be made 
 from those grapes, for they were for the most part of the " fox '' 
 or " frost grapes," which only ripened after the action of a sharp 
 frost, and even then were very sour. 
 
412 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Orchards of some size, of both apples aud pears, were growing 
 in Frenchtovvu (Monroe) iu 1826, and produced a fair supply of 
 fruit. I well reraember that the event of the year was when my 
 older brothers took a load of corn or potatoes to Monroe (25 
 miles away) to exchange for a load of apples, going one day and 
 returning the next. The roads were poor and traveling slow, and 
 it was often midnight before the wagon with its precious load of 
 fruit reached home. Yet there was no rest or sleep in the house- 
 hold till it came, and when it did come, to my young senses, the 
 house was tilled with the very breath of Paradise. 
 
 My father planted aud sewed iu hope of a future harvest, but. 
 he never lived to see the blossoms or taste the fruit of his plant- 
 ing. Within two years he was called to pluck the fruit of the 
 tree of life that grows beside another stream than our " muddy 
 Raisin." 
 
 Very soon after the first plantings at Kedzie's Grove, Darius 
 Comstock aud his brothers and the father of Mr. R. W. Steele, 
 settled at Adrian and started orchards with stock brought from 
 Western New York. 
 
 .JACKSON. 
 
 Mr. A. W. Daniels, who came to Jackson in September, 1830, 
 erected a log house on tlie land which his father, John Daniels, 
 had located. This farm is on the old territorial road just out of 
 the city limits. This was the first farm in the county. He pur- 
 chased a yoke of cattle in Detroit, came to Ann Arbor with 
 them, then hired a wagon and loaded it with 2)rovisions aud 
 farming implements and came to Jackson. Subsequently his 
 father, John Daniels, sent him some fruit trees from Bethany, N. 
 Y. He had to go to Detroit for them, and on returning, got 
 stuck in the mud in crossing Grand River at the ford. He was 
 obliged to leave the wagon mired until the next day, when he 
 obtained assistance to bring it out of its Stygian bed, with its 
 precious load, which was to be the beginning of fruit growing in 
 this locality. 
 
 In 1834 Timothy W. Dunham brought iu a chest of drawers, a 
 lot of root grafts and planted them out in the township of Sand- 
 stone. The following spring these were sold to T. K. Gridley and 
 were the formation of the extensive orchards afterwards planted 
 by this pioneer horticulturist. 
 
ADDKE88 OF ilON. CllAULES VV. GAKFIELD. 413 
 
 EATON COUNTY. 
 
 A colouy of Verraouters settled in Eaton county rti 18.>6, and 
 foundt'd the town of Vermontville. Oren Dickinson planted the 
 first apple seedis, from which he planted an orchard that to-day is 
 thrifty and fruitful. E. W. and H. C. Barber planted from this 
 same lot of seedlinj^s an orchard which is now owned by Hannan 
 Dickinson. 
 
 A relic of a plantation of trees made in 1«88 by Jay Hawkins, 
 stands in front of the residence of Dr. Palmiter, in the village. 
 Other orchards were started very soon after these in Bellevue, by 
 Sylvanus Hendricks; in Hamlin, by Amos Spicer and John 
 Montgomery; in Delta, by Erastus Egbert and Harlem Ingersoll. 
 
 KALAMAZOO. 
 
 Enoch French planted a few apple seeds in 1838, bnt two years 
 later Timothy W. Dunham, who had previously made a start in 
 Jackson county, came to Kalamazoo with grafts and seeds, with 
 the intention of starting a nursery on the plan of those at 
 Rochester, N. Y., with which he had long been familiar. His 
 etibrts were carried out with success. For several years he took 
 the trip to the East to renew his supply, at a large expense for 
 those times, and in a few years supplied a large area with trees. 
 
 BAItRY COUNTY. 
 
 Early settlers who came into the Grand River valley by way of 
 Kalamazoo, will remember the first plantation in Barry county, 
 at Yankee Springs, made by "Yankee" Lewis. He had a fine 
 garden which was on the site of what is now the most extensive 
 orchard in the c(niiity. 
 
 INUIIAM CO IN IV. 
 
 The first ai)ple trees i)laDted in Ingham county were set in the 
 town of Stockbriilge by David Rodgers in LSoO. In 1886 he 
 planted peach pits, imported from New Jersey, which proved to 
 be of the variety known as Red Cheek Rareripe, which repro- 
 duced itself from the seed. Other orchards were set in the same 
 town in 1838. 
 
414 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 CALHOUN COUNTY. 
 
 Robert Church settled on his farm two miles east of Marshall, 
 iu 1836, and immediately cleared off a field of six acres and put 
 it into an orchard. The trees were obtained of the Messrs. Lay, 
 of Ypsilanti. Very soon after Mr. Church planted apple seeds 
 and started a nursery. 
 
 GRAND rapids. 
 
 The very earliest history of horticulture iu the Grand River 
 valley below Jackson, is connected with Grand Rapids as a 
 French trading post. Louis Carapau, previous to 1834, had 
 improved a piece of land extending from what is now the corner 
 of Monroe and Waterloo streets to the river bank, which was not 
 far off. This was a vegetable and flower garden, and occasional 
 fruit trees and ornamental shrubs scattered through it. The most 
 attractive thing about it was the flowers, and I have often heard 
 " Uncle Louis " tell of the delight of the early settlers and 
 Indians in traversing his garden from the canoe-landing to the 
 curved path to his house. An old canoe answered for a propa- 
 gating bed. 
 
 It was in June, 1834, that the Reed family came to Grand 
 Rapids and settled on the bank of the lake, east of town. After 
 having forded the river to get some material for their house, one 
 of the boys (Osmand Reed, now of Cadillac) espied some seed- 
 ling apple trees in the corner of Uncle Louis Campau's garden 
 and adroitly filched a handful of them, planting them on the 
 new farm, where they now stand as monuments of the early 
 days. 
 
 About the year 1835, Mr. Abel Page moved to Grand Rapids 
 and located on the bank of the river near the foot of Huron 
 street ; Mr. Page and John Ahny started gardens, ))lanting in 
 them such things as they brought from the East, and could get 
 through the mail from friends, in the form of slips and seeds. 
 They also made selections from the woods. It was in Mr. Page's 
 river garden that the first tomatoes were raised in the Grand 
 River valley. They were simply curious ornamental plants, 
 called, then, " love apples." The only man in the country who 
 would eat them was the schoolmaster, and he was accounted a 
 lunatic. But the early settlers were all largely indebted to 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. (MIARLES W. GARFIELD. 415 
 
 Uucle Louis Campau tor their tirst tilings plautod, wlio grew 
 notliing to sell, but always gave with a generous hand. 
 
 From the most authentic record I have ascertained that the 
 oldest apple tree standing in tlie county is the one under which I 
 swing my hammock in summer, and which shades the west side 
 of my house. This is from seed phintcd by Barney Burton in 
 
 MT. CLEMENS AND liOMKO. 
 
 The first fruit tree planting in ^lacomb county was done by 
 Moravians from the Muskingum valley, in ( )hio. These must 
 have been set over a hundred years ago. Some of the trees are 
 yet standing, and are of kinds unnamed in our present cata- 
 logues. 
 
 Among the early planters was Mr. Lazarus Green, in Wash- 
 ington township. He planted peach pits as early as 1825 ; and a 
 part of the orchard now standing on the farm upon which he set- 
 tled, was planted out in 1827. The trees were of his own grow- 
 ing, and brought from (renesee county. New York. Mr. Green 
 for years grew nursery stock from which hundreds of orchards 
 were [jlanted in .Macomb and adjoining counties. 
 
 PONTIAt'. 
 
 I am told that what was known as the Sprague nur.sery was 
 started at Pontiac in IS'-i'i, and that from then for some years, 
 trees were taken by the pioneers with which to start their 
 orchards, even as far west as Grand Rapids. 
 
 SA(JINAW. 
 
 After the planting of the old Indian orciiards of the Saginaw 
 Valley, the exact age of which is unknown, Mr. Abram Whitney 
 set out the first fruit trees, in the fall of 1833, in section 18 of 
 town 12 north and range 8 east. Others followed soon after, get- 
 ting their trees from the Sprague nursery at Pontiac. The banks 
 of the Tittabawassee were lined with plum trees, which furnishid 
 the early settlers an al)undancc of" delicious fruit. The Indian 
 apple trees were scattered along the river through a luimber of 
 townships, and always l)i)re great quantities of fruit. In the 
 early liistory of the county, there was nothing that would predict 
 till' woiidcrtul capacity of the soil which has been developed in 
 later years tor the growth of market garden products and small 
 fruits. 
 
416 miouigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 VAN BUREN COUNTY. 
 
 For a scrap of early history in Van Bureu county horticulture, 
 I am indebted to Judge G. W. Lanten. Dolphin Morris, in the 
 spring of 1829, settled on Little Prairie Ronde, just inside the 
 limits of Van Bureu county. Mr. Jones, who resided on McKin- 
 ney's Prairie, Cass county, had secured some apple trees from 
 Long Island, and parted with fifteen of them to Mr. Morris, for 
 an equivalent of S15.00. From the Indian chief, Pokagon, Mr. 
 Morris procured a seedling which bore abundant crops of a very 
 good apple, and was for decades known as the " Old Indian apple 
 tree." In the fall of 1830, in returning from a trip to Ohio, Mr. 
 Morris brought three roots of the Bell Pear and plums and cher- 
 ries, with a few peach pits. In 1833, neighbors of Mr. Morris, 
 Le Grand Anderson, George Tittle and Mr. Swift, planted out 
 orchards. The first currant bushes were brought in there by Mrs. 
 Tittle in 1830, from Fort Defiance. Now, while their husbands 
 were thoughtful in securing the fruits which would in a few years 
 make glad the families of their households, their wives were not 
 forgetful of those simple but delightful embellishments which 
 flowers and shrubs and vines contribute to the home. 
 
 Mrs. Morris grew peonies, hundred-leaf roses and many of the 
 floral treasures, while Mrs. Anderson looked with pride upon 
 crocuses, damask roses, snowballs and tulips of her own growing ; 
 and an asparagus bed that was probably the first in the whole of 
 Michigan. 
 
 ST. .lOSEPH AND BENTON HARBOR. 
 
 Any history of fruit growing at the mouth of the St. Joseph 
 river always begins with the peach. 
 
 B. C. Hoyt, in 1829, found peaches growing at St. Joseph, but 
 before enough peaches were grown to supply the wants of the 
 early settlers there, they were brought in by the wagon load in 
 1834, from the vicinity of Niles, by a Mr. Brodiss. The rapid 
 development of peach culture in the locality, I will speak of here- 
 after. In 1837 the first orchard was planted at Benton Harbor 
 by Mr. E. Morton. 
 
 THE APPLE IN MKHKiAN. 
 
 Tlie apple i.s king among all northern fruits; and the climate 
 and soils of our State seem admirably adapted to the production 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. UHAKI.KS W. GAKFIELD. 417 
 
 of the highest types of this fruit. Whether the fruit that grew 
 upou the "tree of knowledge" belonged to the apple family or 
 not, may be a matter of doubt ; but were the fruit as delicate and 
 handsome as the apple grown in the many favored parts of our 
 peninsula, it is not strange that the temptation to pluck and taste 
 was not resisted. 
 
 A large proportion of our people came from the famed apple 
 region of western New York, bringing with them seeds and trees 
 of the best varieties grown there, and a knowledge of the most 
 improved methods of cultivation. The southern tiers of counties 
 became noted twenty-five years ago for the fine quality of the 
 apples produced there. Other .sections have surpassed the pro- 
 ducts of these orchards of southern Michigan in height of color, 
 but none in quality of fruit. 
 
 And as the tide of emigration set northward and it was found 
 that we could grow the most tender sorts of apples, on the line 
 that bounds Vermont on the north, it was learned by experience 
 that varieties grown in the northern latitude, were unequalled in 
 firmness of flesh and consequent keeping qualities. It is a well 
 known fact among poraologists that the varieties of the best qual- 
 ity are of summer and autumn ripening. These sorts grown in 
 the Grand Traverse region, maintain their record of quality and 
 combine with it wonderful keeping qualities, so that a large pro- 
 portion of the apples that rank as the very best, which are ripened 
 and gone in other apple regions early in autumn are perfectly 
 preserved in tliis northern country, l)y the ordinary methods, un- 
 til midwinter. 
 
 The 250 miles of longitude, and a climate tempered by sur- 
 rounding bodies of water, in which apples can be successfully 
 grown in Michigan, form an apple region unsurpassed in the 
 world. And Michigan has proved by successful competition, the 
 records of which she points to with pride, that the products of her 
 apple orchards have no rivals to fear. 
 
 In answer to a large number of letters which I sent out a few 
 years ago, to farmers in our State, who had good orchards con- 
 nected with their farms, not one, who had any taste for the care 
 of trees but admitted that the orchard, after arriving at bearing 
 age, was the most profitable area of land on the farm. 
 
 We have about 'J4(),l)00 acres devoted to apple culture, in our 
 State, which in a favorable year will produce over 5,000,000 
 27 
 
418 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 bushels of fruit for export, and furnish ii liberal supply for the 
 cellar of each owner of an orchard, and a moderate amount for 
 his less fortunate neighbors. 
 
 The fruit of Michigan apple orchards goes into the market in a 
 diversity of forms. Although cider was its only orchard product 
 mentioned in the first Michigan census, we now rank it as a minor 
 product of the orchard. The most thrifty farmers are finding the 
 waste fruit from the orchard a valuable food for swine ; the use 
 of which ought certainly to be a convincing argument to our 
 Hebrew brethren, that this class of pork can be neither common 
 nor unclean. 
 
 In every well regulated family, no winter evening is perfect 
 without its accompanying dish of apples. Michigan people can 
 all be well provided for from their own trees, and can send abroad 
 with generous hand an abundance for less fortunate brethren in 
 sister States. There was a time when it was said of Michigan, 
 
 " Before a man gets out of bed, 
 The doctor peeps into his head, 
 And twenty doHars he must pay ; 
 The doctor '11 have it on that day. 
 
 Go there in summer, yon will see 
 Much sorrow and calamity; 
 Some sick in bed, some shivering stand, 
 For that's the case in Michigan." 
 
 What has worked this wondrous change by which Michigan's 
 record for health compares favorably with other States ? I cer- 
 tainly believe the apple has done a large share of it. 
 
 Happy is the man whose home now is in Michigan, who can 
 quaintly say with Marvell, 
 
 "What wondrous life is this I lead, 
 Ripe apples drop about ray head. " 
 
 THE PEACH IN MICHIGAN. 
 
 Prof C. D, Lawton remarked to me a few years ago, in some- 
 thing like this vein: " Peach culture is one of Michigan's recognized 
 industries. In the production of this healthful and delicious fruit, 
 our State ranks among the first ; its advance has been rapid, and 
 its recognized prominence is due to a very few brief years of earnest 
 effort. There was a time when fortunes were made in a very few 
 
ADDRKSS OF HON. CHAKI.KS W. (JAKFIKLD. 419 
 
 hours, through the exchauj^e of lands that were supposed to be 
 especially adapted to the culture of the peach. But unfortunately 
 the enchanting hopes awakened by the wonderful successes in the 
 beginning of commercial peach orcharding, have been overcast 
 with the presage of approaching evil. In the locality that first 
 gave Michigan her notoriety in the culture of the peach for mar- 
 ket, this fruit is but little grown to-day, and we know not how 
 soon the blighting influence which caused the destruction of 
 orchards here may spread over the entire State." 
 
 Since these remarks were made, a more hopeful feeling prevails 
 among peach men. By prompt measures the disease which pro- 
 mised to sweep everything before it, has been stayed, and the hope 
 is born that soon we shall be able to resist its further encroach- 
 ment. 
 
 We must reach back more than a century to find the beginning 
 of peach culture in Michigan. Before the Revolutionary War, a 
 Mr. Barnett sought to trade with the Indians of West Michi- 
 gan, and touched at St, Joseph in 177"), and left a few peach pits 
 that marked the place of the bartei'. In 1829 and 1831 the trees 
 from this seed were found bearing abundantly, by pioneers whose 
 names and statements are recorded. With no markets for the pro- 
 duct peach orchards were not started by the early settlers except 
 so far as supplying their own necessities was concerned. It was 
 not till 1834, that peaches were grown in sufticient quantities to 
 seek a market. It was Mr. Gaius Bough ton and son, Capt. Curtis 
 Boughtou, who gave the peach interest of St. Joseph an impetus 
 that resulted in ascertaining the wonderful advantage of the whole 
 east shore of Lake Michigan, for peach culture. The captain 
 bought peaches as early as 1840, and in the most jjrimitive pack- 
 ages, such as barrels and boxes, carried sliii)ments to Chicago. 
 
 In 1850 Capt. Boughton's record shows that he took to Chicago 
 from St. Joseph 400 barrels of peaches, which, measured by the 
 present standard, would be about 6,000 baskets. 
 
 The growth of the peach interest from this time until 1872 was 
 marvelous. In this year a careful canvass showed 1364 acres in 
 this vicinity, closely planted to peaches ; and in 1871 an aggregate 
 of 500,000 packages of peaches were shipped from the ports of St. 
 Joseph and Benton Harbor. 
 
 It did not take long for the news to spread nortliward along the 
 shore, that a congenial honu' had been found for the peach ; and 
 
420 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 extensive plantations were made in the counties, reaching even to 
 Grand Traverse. 
 
 In 1881 the peach shipments from South Haven aggregated 
 above $115,000. In 1879 a reliable authority places the income 
 from the peach crop of Allegan county at $250,000. 
 
 One grower, Mr. C Engle of Paw Paw, informed me that a 
 careful account which he kept of his first peach orchard planted 
 about 1861, for twenty-three years, showed a net income per acre 
 of 13,200. 
 
 No branch of special farming has been so profitable in our 
 State, in the hands of experts, as peach growing 
 
 Nature evidently arranged the conditions so that our State 
 could be a perfect home for the peach. Embraced by the waters 
 of the great lakes that formed a shield of protection from the 
 freezing winter winds, and a mantle of protecting timber evenly 
 spread over the land, the pioneers found that almost anywhere 
 the peach would grow luxuriantly, and bear the same abundant 
 crops of delicious fruit that were produced in the far off Southern 
 clime, where it originated. But, alas, the change which man has 
 wrought by the ruthless elision of our timber, has gradually closed 
 in upon the area of successful peach culture, until now, except 
 upon the heights of ground in the interior, the peach can only be 
 grown upon a limited area next to the Lake Michigan shore ; and 
 could the waters of the great lakes be drawn out and sold for 
 money even its protecting arm would wither before the heedless 
 avarice of num. 
 
 It is the old story of killing the goose that lays the golden egg. 
 
 The advent of that paralyzing disease, the yellows, introduced 
 a new epoch in Michigan peach culture. It swept the industry 
 from Berrien county before its power was known, and invaded 
 the counties northward ; but a careful study of the habits of the 
 disease and protective legislation have assisted the growers to 
 meet the destroyer in successful combat. And although to-day 
 little more is known of the cause of the disease than when it first 
 invaded our soil, its symptoms are so well understood and the 
 most approved methods of warfare so thoroughly taught the 
 growers, that its progress is not feared. 
 
 SMALL FRUIT. 
 
 The small fruit interest has rapidly developed, witli a knowl- 
 edge of how to grow the fruit, and the demand for it in the 
 
ADDKKSK OF lloN. OIIARI.KS W. (;.\KKIELI). 421 
 
 growing markets. With the decadence of the peach industry in 
 Berrien county, the small fruit area rapidly increased, until now, 
 there is no place in the whole west that surpasses this region in 
 the growtli of" small fruit for market. Mr. Morrill is authority 
 for the statement, that it is not a rare occurrence for 10,000 
 bushels of berries to be shipped from the ports at the mouth of 
 the St. Joseph river in a single evening. Every town in our State 
 is abundantly supplied with berries from the last of May until 
 the first of September. 
 
 GKAPE8. 
 
 The early French voyageurs who paddled their way from Detroit 
 southwesterly, following the indentures of the coast, found, as 
 they passed up the river by the site of the present city of Monroe, 
 that every tree was vine-clad, and they thought they had found 
 the native haunt of the grape, and named the stream La Riviere 
 an Raisiu (grape river). 
 
 The liiaestone soil of this county seemed admirably adapted to 
 the growing of i^rapes of the highest qualities; and rapidly the 
 the vineyard interest increased, under the hands of competent 
 growers, until it was the leading industry of this locality. 
 
 Viticulture is now a recognized industry in our State, and 
 growers have kept pace with the progress of knowledge in this 
 field, until no farm house is complete without its accompanying 
 bearing grapevines. The culture of the grape for commercial 
 purposes has, under skillful management, been found profitable 
 in every locality of our southern peninsula. 
 
 MARKKT GARDENING. 
 
 The market gardening interest of our State, in the aggregate 
 so enormous, has developed largely within the last twenty-five 
 years. Success in this industry has grown out of the acquire- 
 ment of knowledge concerning varieties, soils, manures and mar- 
 kets. Near all of our larger cities we find experts, who, upon a 
 small bit of land, grow produce that secures them handsome 
 incomes. And in some localities specialties are followed, which 
 aggregate large profits. This is notably true of the celery pro- 
 duct of Kalamazoo, Ypsilanti, Jackson, Grand Rapids and Grand 
 Haven. About Kalamazoo nearly 1,000 acres are devoted to the 
 culture of this vegetable. In many localities what have long 
 
422 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 been considered the waste lands in our State, have been utilized 
 by progressive gardeners and made to produce enormous crops of 
 vegetables of excellent (puility. I have no statistics at hand to 
 exhibit the amount of invcstmejit in this branch of horticulture, 
 or the area devoted to it. But visitors to the towns of our State, 
 who travel over large sections of our country, say that no towns 
 in the United States are so well supplied with a diversity of veg- 
 etables and small fruit as those of Michigan. 
 
 THE RICHEST PROFITS. 
 
 But the most satisfactory profits that accrue to our people of 
 Michigan from the growing of fruits and vegetables is not the 
 amount of money netted from the area planted. The statistics 
 of census-takers do not touch upon the richest returns that the 
 development of horticulture in our State has gathered as a per- 
 manency to our people. The cultivation of fruits as affecting a 
 population is not a mere matter of the pocket-book and bank 
 account. We proudly contemplate the array of figures that rep- 
 resent the aggregate sales from the orchards, vineyards and fruit 
 farms of Michigan ; yet could we put into some exact form the 
 civilizing influence of fruit as grown about the thousands of Mich- 
 igan homes, it would make a much grander showing. The mould- 
 ing influences which determine the character of an individual or 
 people, cannot be measured by figures. Yet they are as real as 
 those which lie at the foundations of great fortunes. That which 
 emanates from a man's brain is closely connected with that 
 which enters his stomach. And the development of the possibil- 
 ities of horticulture in any community is what gives diversity to a 
 good living, and largely determines the type of the people. The 
 masses have been elevated and refined by the advanced position 
 that our State has taken in matters of pomology and horticul- 
 ture. 
 
 If I may be allowed to put the matter concisely, the most satis- 
 factory income that accrues from the advanced position of Michi- 
 gan horticulture, may be tallied from the diversity of fruits and 
 vegetables that can be readily grown at slight expense, for the 
 comfort of the households ; from the delightful turf that so rapid- 
 ly takes possession of the area about our dwellings; from the wide 
 range of attractive shrubs, annual and perennial herbaceous 
 plants, and noble trees that may be gathered with success to 
 administer to the satisfaction of the owuei'ship in a home. 
 
ADDRESS OK IIoN. CHARLES VV. OARKIKLD. 423 
 
 CLIMATIC PKIVII-ICOES AS AFKECTINCi OUK IIDin'rcrLTURI-:. 
 
 Lake Micliigiiii is truly a " clicrishing mother " to tlie orchar- 
 dist. A body of" water oGO miles in length and 100 miles in 
 breadth, it would float the three States of New Jersey, Dela- 
 ware and Maryland, and is deep enough almost anywhere to 
 bury Mount Holyoke beneath its waves. With its 8,400 cubic 
 miles of water in one great basin, it maintains a temperature that 
 varies comparatively little throughout the year. And this with 
 the other fact that (55 per cent, of our winter winds are From a 
 westerly direction, gives the key to our peculiar success in horti- 
 culture. This it is which enables us to grow peaches on the 
 forty-fifth parallel, which bounds Vermont on the north, and 
 ripen figs in the open air on a ])arallel with Boston, Massachu- 
 setts. 
 
 This influence, to be sure, is felt most strongly on the border 
 of Lake Michigan, and gives rise to the terra " Michigan Peach 
 Belt," but the modifying effect is felt all over the peninsula. 
 This ameliorating influence of the lake was noticed by the very 
 earliest surveyors, in the native flora of the State, and their 
 reports were the first that led to the noting on maps of the 
 abrupt northward curve of the isothermal lines in Michigan. 
 
 IMPORTANT EMPIRICAL ACQUIREMENTS. 
 
 In a half century's progress in horticulture of our Stale, almost 
 everything had to be learned. Allow me to state concisely the 
 most important general facts that have been gatliered. 
 
 1. Adaptation to a wide diversity of varieties. Nowhere can 
 we find so rapid transitions of soil as in Michigan. Upon a single 
 farm, of quite limited area, may be found all kinds of land, from 
 the stifltest clay to the lightest sand ; and from ground limestone 
 to a bed of muck. So that in learning the special adaptation of 
 varieties to certain soil conditions, it has been found that a fruit 
 or vegetable farmer in Michigan has a great advantage in adap- 
 ting his sorts to the best conditions. 
 
 2. The wonderjul capabilities of our ivest shore. These I have 
 hinted at incidentally. The growing of the very tender varieties 
 of fruits so near to great markets, along our west shore, and with 
 little variations of conditions for so great a difference in longitude, 
 as that of St. .loseph and Grand Traverse, is a wonderful acquisi- 
 
4:24 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 tion to our State. The peach belt of Michigan has an unques- 
 tioned existence and a notoriety that is enviable. 
 
 3. Atmospheric drainage. It is within the history of Michigan 
 horticulture that the influence of atmospheric drainage upon the 
 selection of sites for orchards and gardens has been brought to 
 the front ; and the facts which show that valleys are not snug, 
 cosy, warm places for tender fruits, and that high ground sloping 
 so as to allow the cold air to settle away quickly, is the safest 
 place to locate sites for fruit and vegetable culture, especially of 
 the varieties which most readily suffer from the effects of frost, 
 have been brought out by Michigan pomologists. The observa- 
 tions and experiments of the fruit growers of Michigan have done 
 more to spread the knowledge of these facts and impress them 
 upon planters than all other means combined. 
 
 4. Forest protection. We have been learning by the most ex- 
 pensive methods the wonderful influence of a proper distribution 
 of forest growth, and the dire consequences which follow the 
 wholesale destruction of standing timber. The horticultural liter- 
 ature of our State is strongly impregnated with facts bearing 
 upon this subject. We are learning that the great lakes are not 
 the only elements in our environment which modify our climate 
 and render us better oflf than our neighbors in facilities for the 
 prosecution of the more delicate branches of horticulture. 
 
 Whether we profit by the knowledge, remains for the future to 
 develop. There seems no stay yet in the ruthless destruction of 
 forest growth, except the condition of the lumber and wood mar- 
 ket. If the horticulturists of Michigan could speak persuasively, 
 they would call a halt and shout to the timber slashers that "there 
 is danger ahead." I certainly trust that the argument of facts 
 may have an influence where it will be felt, to stay the progress 
 of a method that will surely result in a limited horticulture. 
 
 5. Market facilities. Certainly as far as markets are concerne 
 we are highly favored. The rapid development of the great 
 Northwest by a people who have an appreciation of the value of 
 horticultural products, added to the fact that only the very hardi- 
 est (which are usually poorest in quality), of these products can 
 be there grown, places Michigan in an unique position with refer- 
 ence to the unloading of her surplus fruits. The great distribut- 
 ing markets of Chicago and Milwaukee are at her doors, with the 
 most ready transportation at hand. The benefits to be derived 
 
AimRKSR OV M<»X. OHARLKS W. <iAKFIEI,D. 425 
 
 from these conditions, to the market growers of Michigan, can 
 hardly l)e overestimated. 
 
 HORTICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. 
 
 As early as March, 1841, a few enthusiastic horticulturists of 
 Detroit met and organized the Detroit Horticultural Society. 
 The names of William Adair, Prof. J. C. Holmes, M. Howard 
 Webster, Bela Hubbard, G. V. N. Lothrop, Thomas Hall, John 
 Ford and Wm. B. Wesson figured prominently in the earlier pro- 
 ceedings of the society. For years this association maintained a 
 strong organization, holding regular meetings for discussion, and 
 the exhibit of fruits, vegetables and flowers. 
 
 The smaller towns tributary to Detroit joined in swelling the 
 membership and exhibits. Tiie last meeting of the society was in 
 1853. 
 
 In 1851 the Adrian Horticultural Society was formed and has 
 maintained itself until now, in good working condition. A few 
 years ago it widened its name and boundaries, and is now known 
 as the Lenawee County Horticultural Society. 
 
 The first State organization of this character was called together 
 for organization at Jonesville, Hillsdale county, and started out 
 under the title of the Michigan Nurserymen and Fruit Growers 
 Association, in September, 1853. An adjourned meeting at 
 xVdrian the following February completed the organization, and 
 its first officers were J. C. Holmes, Detroit, president; .T. T. Blois, 
 Jonesville, secretary. The society did some good work but died 
 an untimely death in 1856. 
 
 Regarding the next venture in the way of organization, Prof. 
 Holmes says: "The Nurserymen and Fruit Growers Association 
 having been winter killed, and there being a call for an organiza- 
 tion of similar character, in September, 1857, a meeting was held 
 at Jackson, with T. T. Lyon of Plymouth as temporary chairman 
 and V. B. Merum of Moscow, as temporary .secretary.'" 
 
 At this meeting a constitution and by-laws were adopted, and 
 permanent officers elected, as follows: President, H. tj. Wells, 
 Kalamazoo ; secretary, R. F. Johnstone, Detroit ; treasurer, P. 
 B. Loomis, Jackson. Directors : Hiram Walker, Detroit ; D. 
 K. Underwood, Adrian ; John T. Blois, Jonesville ; Linas Gone, 
 Troy ; G. W. Nelson, Grand Rapids, Wm. Bort, Niles. 
 
 Tlu" followiniT .laiiuarv the .society hehl a trrand exhibition and 
 
426 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 meetiug for discussion, at Kalamazoo, which was commented upon 
 most favorably by the agricultural press of the entire country. 
 
 This society like its predecessor, had a lingering existence for a 
 few years, holding its last meeting just at the opening of the civil 
 war. 
 
 Very soon after this several county societies were formed in 
 various parts of the State, known as agricultural and horticul- 
 tural societies, their only object being the making of an autumn 
 exhibit. In 1869 the most flourishing horticultural society in the 
 State was that of Spring Lake, Ottawa county. For some years 
 this society had held regular meetings, and this year made a 
 grand exhibit of its fruit products, at which there was a large 
 attendance and the discussions were interesting and instructive. 
 A careful census of the acreage into fruits, and the product there- 
 from, was taken under the auspices of this organization, by Mr, 
 W. G. Sinclair ; the publication of which gave this locality a 
 great boom. 
 
 The first meeting called to organize a State society, wliicli 
 has grown into the present efficient State horticultural society, 
 was convened in Grand Rapids, February 11th, 1870. The 
 following temporary officers were chosen: 
 
 President, S. L. Fuller; vice-presidents, L. S. Scranton, S. 
 S. Bailey; secretary, A. T. Linderman; treasurer, E. U. 
 Knapp. 
 
 Articles of association were adopted the 26t]i of the same 
 month, and througli the influence of Henry S. Clubb, one of the 
 charter members, who was a State Senator, a law was enacted 
 for the incorporation of horticultural societies, and the Michi- 
 gan State Pomological Society was the first association to take 
 corporate form under it. 
 
 The Legislature of 1870-1 provided for the publication of 
 the transactions of the society, and from that day to this the 
 society has made steady and rapid growth; 
 
 For two years monthly meetings were held in a small room 
 in Grand Rapids, the use of which was donated by S. L. 
 Fuller. In June, 1872, the society showed its right to be 
 called a State society, by holding a grand meeting at St. 
 Joseph, and has since held quarterly meetings without a break. 
 
 At a meeting at Battle Creek, June 18th, 1880, the name of 
 the society was changed to the Michigan State Horticultural 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. CHARLES W. GARFIELD. 427 
 
 Society, for the purjiose of acconliiicj the name witli tlie work 
 of the organization, which covered the entire fiehl of horticul- 
 ture. At tliis time tht're was inaugurated a systt-ni of l)ranch 
 societies, l)y which, in any h>cality, tiiere couhl be organized a 
 horticultural or ))oinological so(riety, connecting itself with the 
 State society; and its members become, by virtue of this 
 connection, members of the parent society, and entitled to all 
 of its privileges. Under this arrangement thirty-two societies 
 liave been formed in the State. 
 
 The following comprises the list of these organizations and 
 the names of the secretaries: 
 
 Name of Society. Secretary. P. O. Address. 
 
 Allegan Co. Poni'l Society G. H. LaFleur Millgrove. 
 
 Barry Co. Hort. Society James C. Woodruff Hastings. 
 
 Bay Co. Hort. Society : Will. H. Fennell, Bay City. 
 
 Berrien Co. Hort. Society A. J. Knisely Benton Harbor. 
 
 Benzie Co. Hort. Society J. W. Van Deman Benzonia. 
 
 Eaton Co. Hort. Society S. R. Fuller Eaton Rapids. 
 
 Genesee Co. Hort. Society Ed H. Rockwood Flint. 
 
 Grand Haven Hort. Society C. E. Russell Grand Haven. 
 
 Grand River Valley Hort. Society G. C. Bennett Grand Kapids. 
 
 Holland Colony Hort. Society I. Marsilge Holland. 
 
 Hillsdale Co. Hort. 'Society L. B. Agard Litchfield. 
 
 Ingham Co. Hort. Society C. B. Stebblns Lansing. 
 
 Ionia Co. Hort. Society J. II. Kidd, Ionia. 
 
 Jackson Co. Hort. Society R. T. McNaughton Jackson. 
 
 Lenawee Co. Hort. Society D. G. Ediniston Adrian. 
 
 Lenawee & Hillsdale Hort. Society. . . Mrs. Hattie C. Russell Hudson. 
 
 Lawton Pom'l Society CD. Lawton Lawton. 
 
 Lapeer Co. Hort. Society ..H. W. Davis Lapeer. 
 
 Mason Co. Hort. Society L. W. Rose Ludington. 
 
 Macomb Co. Hort. Society Alex. Grant Utica. 
 
 Manistee Co. Hort. Society J. V. P. Mukantz Manistee. 
 
 Muskegon Co. Hort. Society H. H. Holt Muskegon. 
 
 Oakland Co. Hort. Society James S. Bradford Pontiac. 
 
 Osceola Co. Hort. Society W. L. Stoddard Evart. 
 
 Oceana Co. Pom'l Society A. E. Souter Shelby. 
 
 Saugatuck & Ganges Pom'l Society. ..Rev. J. F. Taylor, Prest. . . .Douglas. 
 
 Spring Lake Hort. Society J. H. Farmer Spring I.Ake. 
 
 South Haven & Casco Pom'l Society. .A. G. GuUey. . South Haven. 
 
 Washtenaw Co. Pom'l Society. .7. Ganzhorn Ann Arbor. 
 
 Wayland Hort. Society C. R. Davison Wayland. 
 
 Wayne Co. Hort. Society D. F. Griswold Northvlll.-. 
 
 Wexford Co. Hort Society E. F. Sawyer Cadillac. 
 
 SOME OF THE WORKERS. 
 
 Even a brief resume of Michigmrs liorticultural jtrogress 
 wotild l)e incomplete without naming at least a few persons 
 who have been active in the promotion of hortiriilt uic here. 
 
428 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Among those who are gone who brouglit a wealth of experi- 
 ence, and who were always willing to impart it to others, were 
 George Parmelee, of St. Joseph and later of Grand Traverse; 
 Wm. Bort, of Niles; Edward Bradfield of Ada; G. W. Dick- 
 inson, Grand Rapids; John Gilbert, of Ovid; George W. 
 Towles, Benton Harbor; S. O. Knapp, of Jackson; David Allen, 
 of Plymouth; Abel Page, of Grand Rapids; S. B. Peck, of 
 Muskegon; Jeremiah Brown, of Battle Creek, and J. Webster 
 Childs, of Ypsilanti. 
 
 Among those who used their pens most effectively were R. 
 F. Johnstone and J. P. Thompson. Mr. Johnstone, as editor 
 of the Michigan Farmer, freely gave the columns of his paper 
 for the improvement of our horticulture, and in the files of 
 this valuable paper are found the most complete history of the 
 development from year to year of our special horticultural 
 capabilities. Mr. Thompson had for years, his leading pur- 
 j)0se, the advertisement of Michigan as a great fruit-growing 
 State; his enthusiasm was unbounded and his ability of the 
 best. 
 
 Many gentlemen who have gone from us, although not hor- 
 ticulturists, by their inrtuence, aided materially, during their 
 lives, in promoting our great pomological interests. Among 
 them may be named Judge H. G. Wells, of Kalamazoo; Hunter 
 Savidge, of Spring Lake; Governor John J. Bagley, of Detroit; 
 John Ball, Grand Rapids; Frederick Hall, Ionia; F. J. Little- 
 john, of Allegan; R. E. Trowbridge, of Birmingham. 
 
 I would like to make a list of men now living who have done 
 valiant service for horticulture by experimenting and impart- 
 ing the results of their work, by maintaining organizations, by 
 ever having their shoulders at the wheel. But my limits 
 forbid. 
 
 However, two men I will name in this connection, who 
 should be honored above all others because of their unselfish 
 devotion to the interests of Michigan horticulture, extending 
 through the half century, the close of which we now celebrate. 
 
 T. T. Lyon, the honored President of our State Horticul- 
 tural Society, has given the best years of his life for the good 
 of the pursuit which captivated him in his early life. In his 
 life-long experience, in his constant vigilance to see that 
 Michigan's promises and peculiar capabilities were brought to 
 
ADDKK88 OF HON. OIIAULKS \V. (i.VKKIELD. 4li'J 
 
 the fioiil, ;uul in his devoted liberality which he has brought to 
 bear uiton the progress of the science of pomology, we are 
 largely indebted for the advanced standing which our State 
 has taken among her sister States, in matters of pomology. 
 
 To Mr. IJenjamin Hathaway, of Cass County, we are in- 
 debted for a long line of careful experiments, the results of 
 whieh he lias freely given to his fellows. And not only this, 
 lull Ik' has eontributed not only his results Init his experience 
 in securing the results, which is invaluable to planters in our 
 State. 
 
 Mr. Hathaway has been a pioneer in all the branches of hor- 
 ticultui-e, and did not neglect to set an example to others when 
 he saw the unwarranted destruction of our timber, of how 
 rapidly, under skillful management, the timber could be made 
 again to cover the land, restoring in time the lost climatic con- 
 ditions. 
 
 A (iLIMPSK AT STATISTICS. 
 
 Unfortunately those who have in charge the gathering of 
 statistics, have not seen fit, in our "State, to go into the details 
 of horticulture, so that it is imi)Ossible to give exact figures of 
 the aggregate yield of any of the orchard or garden products. 
 In truth, market garden produce, which has grown rapidly into 
 prominence during the past fifteen years, is given no place on 
 the blanks of our Supervisors who gather the crop statistics. 
 In a few localities, individuals and societies have carefully 
 gathered data, and from these T have made the following notes 
 and estimates: 
 
 An apple tree in bearing in the State of Michigan, is equival- 
 ent to an investment of ^S^S.OO at 7 per cent, interest, and a 
 peach tree in a reasonably favorable locality may be represented 
 bv at least $20.00, l)earing a similar rate of interest. It requirt\s 
 greater skill to grow an apple tree than a piece of wheat, and 
 the marketing of fruit is a more precarious business than 
 wheat; but the profits are better, and a plant once made is a 
 permanency for a series of years. 
 
 The aggregate apple crop of our State for iss.") approxi- 
 niatetl 5,000,000 bushels. In western Michigan, where the 
 peai'h crop was good, it was not uncommon to have a peach 
 orchard pay :i net profit of $300 per acre. The small fruit area 
 is trettinir to be enormous in our State, and oiu- hundred busli- 
 
430 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 els of strawberries per acre is considered l>ut a small yield: 
 while tbe same amount is often raised of raspberries and black- 
 berries. 
 
 In a single year the County of Berrien, has been known to 
 ship 29,327 bushels of strawberries, 5,067 bushels of rasp- 
 berries, 10,787 bushels of blackberries, 201,611 bushels of 
 peaches, and 16,633 barrels of apples. 
 
 This was when peaches were most abundant, and before the 
 yellows had ravaged the orchards; but with the decreased pro- 
 duction of peaches, the small fruits have increased. 
 
 South Haven has shipped in a recent year $155,012 worth of 
 fruit from June to December. The apple product of Genesee 
 county, over near the other side of the State, in 1882, aggre- 
 gated $105,000. We might multiply these figures by taking 
 the statistics of other parts of the State. The market garden 
 products aggregate an enormous sum, as they are grown about 
 our large cities. And the flower trrfde is growing rapidly. 
 
 WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID. 
 
 The horticulturists of our State have caught the spirit of the 
 age, and have not hid their products under a bushel. Wher- 
 ever opportunity has offered, we have j^laced in great exposi- 
 tions the products of our orchards, and to some purpose; while 
 other States have come to Michigan for material at times to 
 embellish their pomological exhibits, when advertising the 
 capabilities of their own limits, we have had no need to go 
 beyond our own borders to secure material that has commanded 
 the praise of the nation. 
 
 Regarding the display from Michigan orchards at the 
 national exhibition of the American Pomological Society in 
 1875, the committee on awards said: "Michigan made a 
 grand exhibition under the name of the State Pomological 
 Society. Her fruits were from ten different counties, and a 
 large number of exhibitors, embracing very many handsome 
 lots of aj>ples, and the finest plums on exhibition, a large 
 variety of grapes; the largest blackberries ever seen by the 
 members of the committee, and figs grown in the open air at 
 South Haven and ripened on the balmy shores of Lake 
 Michigan. The entiri^ display covered 900 plates and occupied 
 much the largest space of any State." 
 
ADDKK8S OF HON. ('IIAKI.E8 W. GAKFIKLI). -131 
 
 At tlio centennial exhibition in Pliiladi-lpliia, in IcSTti, the 
 exhibit of long keeping apples, made in May by our State, so 
 far eclipsed the displays from other States that many of their 
 exhibits were unopened. 
 
 In 1880 the exhibit of fruits made by our State Horticultural 
 Society at the biennial meeting of the American Pomo- 
 logical Society, in Boston, Mass., was pronounced by the hon- 
 ored president of the society. Col. Marshall P. Wilder, to be 
 "the glory of the entire exhibit," and again in 1885, when 
 this great society came into Michigan, we made a show of fruit 
 that astonished the delegates from everywhere abroad, and the 
 representatives from every part of the Union were impressed 
 as never before, of the wonderful pomological caj)abilities of 
 the Peninsular State. The medals held by the Michigan State 
 Horticultural Society testify to the success of all these and 
 other competitive exhibitions of horticultural products made 
 by our State. 
 
 ^IICIIIGAN FOR HOMES. 
 
 But it is in connection with the rural homes of Michigan 
 that we see the most striking influence of horticulture in our 
 State. 
 
 Michigan is emphatically a State in which to build pci'ina- 
 nent homes; homes that are independent, attractive, in which, 
 through the aid of an advanced horticulture, there is engen- 
 dered a s]»ii-it of ipiiet satisfaction that gives i)ermanence and 
 continuous prosperity to a population. These conditions are 
 secureil through our climatic con<litions, and the character of 
 the peoj)le who have K'd the van. Our pioneers, who laid the 
 foundations of our i)resent orchards, came largely from New 
 York, where they had oidy been taught the value of the fruits 
 of the orcharils and gardens as home accom})aninu'nts. 
 
 THK LESSON OF THE YEARS. 
 
 The surveyor, as he runs out long lines that are to be the 
 future bou!idaries of sections, townshi})s, counties and common- 
 wealths, is not only concerned about the direction he is to take 
 in advance, but occasionally reverses his transit and corrects 
 liis line by earefully taken i)acksights. So we to-day call a 
 halt for a uionient, and witii shaded eyes peer back through 
 the years of progressive tlevelojnnent of the material interests 
 
432 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 of Michigan; not simply to bring into view the steps of 
 progress as a matter of self gratification, nor to humble 
 ourselves by a glance at our small beginnings — but for the 
 more worthy purpose of correcting our lines, and by the 
 elimination of errors, strengthen foundations for future 
 progress and prosperity. 
 
 The lesson of the hour for our State, as far as horticulture is 
 concerned, is that bonanza farming will add nothing to our 
 prosperity. Small farms that are readily converted into 
 delightful homes, by bringing into them the refinements of 
 education, and about them the attractions of modern horticul- 
 ture, will be the foundation of Michigan's future prosperity. 
 
 Any country that is especially adapted to horticultural 
 pui'suits has a permanent advertisement to home seekers, the 
 details of which will appeal to the common sense of any who 
 are seeking a permanent location for building a home. The 
 advantages which mark a region as adapted to the prosecution 
 of a broad horticulture, are just those which one seeks when 
 he intends to settle for life. The products of horticulture are 
 the most delightful home accompaniments, and in the develop- 
 ment of some branch of horticulture, no matter what the 
 principal occupation of life may be, one gets a wholesome 
 satisfaction that brightens the seasons and softens the declining 
 years. 
 
 But in our own State we are living far beneath our possi- 
 bilities, until we recognize so fully our delightful conditions as 
 to make the most of them in the preservation of the natural 
 beauty and protection of a reasonable area of forest growth; 
 in the embellishment of our school grounds, public parks, 
 churchyards and cemeteries, and the wealth of native plants 
 that are indigenous to our borders, in the growing of the 
 fruits, flowers and vegetables about every homestead that will 
 make labor more attractive, home more delightful and life a 
 richer boon. 
 
 The native beauty of our peninsula, which led to the selection 
 of the Latin motto that is written on our coat of arms, loses 
 nothing in application, through the development of the 
 resources of our State, in support of a large poj)ulation, 
 provided there is an adequate appreciation of the value of 
 embellishing each individual home with the attributes that 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 433 
 
 may be found about us, and thi<>ui,'li the aid of a knowledge of 
 advanced horticulture, it is made to reflect the native beauty of 
 our Michigan hindseapc, togetlier with the other refinements 
 which accojupanv an advanced civilization tempered with a 
 patriotic benevolence. 
 
 BRIEF MILITARY HISTORY OF MICHIGAN AS A 
 TERRITORY AND AS A STATE. 
 
 Compiled by JNO. RORERTSON, Adjutant-General. 
 
 " Land of the West: green forest land: 
 Thine early day for deeds is famed, 
 Which ni historic paf^e shall stand 
 Till bravery is no longer named." 
 
 The vast Northwest Territory, unbroken in native grandeur, 
 unsurpassed in forest, river and lake, with a fertile soil, 
 unei]ualed in rich minerals hidden in the unexplored dejiths of 
 the rock. Once the roaming and battle ground of the nomadic 
 tribes of the American savage, the pasture land of the elk and 
 the cariboo, now covered with productive fields and inhabited 
 by a people of intelligence with a high degree of civilization, 
 living in comfortable dwellings and mansions, indicating thrift, 
 pros])erity and wealth, the result of industry, enterprise and 
 energy. Thus the western wilderness has been transformed 
 into rural homes and villages, populous cities and great States. 
 
 The martial career and consequent military history of a 
 State largely depends on surroundings, circumstances and 
 events, which bring into historic notice her military forces, by 
 becoming engaged from time to time in active service, either 
 in protecting her people from hostile incursions, supjjressing 
 sedition, insurrection or other internal commotions, aiding in 
 the enforcement of law and maintaining peace, or defending 
 the General (-lovernment against rebellion or foreign invasion, 
 or in punishing its enemies for insult to its flag, or infringe- 
 ment on its national rights. 
 
 Peculiar surroundings, uncommon circumstances and stirring 
 
 events, in the land of Michigan, gave her at a very primitive 
 
 day experiences of a militarj' character, which, to some extent, 
 
 have been periodiciilly continuous, consecpiently inculcating, 
 
 28 
 
434 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 not only in the earlier inhabitants, but in those who have fol- 
 lowed, much of a military character, both in habit and spirit, 
 more or less encouraged by the almost continual example of 
 regular troops in their midst, and their consequent personal 
 association with them, thereby commencing at an early day an 
 interesting military record and history which have been con- 
 tinuous up to the pi'esent time, equal if not surpassing that of 
 any other State. Although her earlier military career was 
 limited, both in service and results, yet reasonably creditable 
 under the circumstances, her later service, consequent to the 
 great war for the Union, was substantially extensive, most 
 effective, and conspicuously gallant and brilliant. 
 
 All the territory now comprising the State of Michigan was 
 at one time owned and inhabited exclusively by Indian tribes, 
 and the land and forest lay sleeping in their original solitude. 
 In due time, however, the energetic and persevering French 
 pioneers toiled their way westward, and after traversing much 
 land and water, reached what is now Michigan, and beholding 
 with a jealous and envious love her boundless forests, beautiful 
 rivers and unrivaled lakes, established their homes in the wil- 
 derness. 
 
 At the Falls of St. Mary's, in 1G71, representatives of the 
 Indian tribes from the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, the Lakes, 
 and even the Red River, met in convention, and veteran offi- 
 cers from the armies of France, intermingled here and there 
 with a Jesuit missionary, a cross having been raised, and also 
 a cedar 'post, on which the French lilies were inscribed, 
 intended as a substitute for a Hag, the first symbol of govern- 
 ment established on Michigan territory. The representatives 
 of (he savage hordes were then informed that they were under 
 the protection of the Freni;h King, and the lands were formally 
 taken possession of by M. de Lusson, on behalf of his Govern- 
 ment, where a rude post was afterwards established. 
 
 In August, 1070, old Fort Mackinac was built by Robert de 
 la Salle, a Jesuit pioneer who had turned his attentions to the 
 French colonies in America, and in November of that year 
 built one at the mouth of the St. Joseph river on Lake Michi- 
 gan, which he called Fort Miami, now known as St. Joseph. 
 In 1680 the post was burned by deserters from Fort Crevecoeur 
 of the Illinois, on their wav to Mackinac. 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN UOBEKTSON. 435 
 
 Early in 1700 the French Jesuits placed a mission and the 
 French Government built and garrisoned a fort on the St. 
 Joseph river, about fifty miles from its mouth, afterwards 
 known as Fort St. Joseph. In 1761, after the capitulation of 
 Montreal by the French in 1760, a detachment of the 60th 
 British Regiment relieved the French troops and raised tlie 
 English tiag. Two years after some of Pontiac's warriors 
 attacked the garrison of fourteen, in command of an Ensign, 
 plundering it, killing the Commander and eleven men, and 
 sending the three men left as prisoners to Detroit. This fort 
 a few years later was again occupied b)^ British troops, who 
 were not molested until in October, 1777, when one Thomas 
 Brady, a resident of Cahokia, in Illinois, organized a party of 
 sixteen volunteers and crossed the prairies to St. Joseph, sur- 
 prised the fort at night, attacked and defeated the garrison of 
 twenty British regulars, and captured a quantity of merchan- 
 dise, but on their return were overtaken by a detachment of 
 British soldiers aad Indian allies at the Calumet river, not far 
 from the site of Chicago, and were completely routed. 
 
 In 1778 three hundred French and Indians under Paulette 
 Meilett, the founder of Peoria, Illinois, marched across the 
 country, attacked Fort St. Joseph, defended by English troops 
 with cannon, seized all the Indian goods stored there, and sent 
 the garrison to Canada. When Meilett left, the English 
 returned and were again in possession. 
 
 The Spanish Government, then holding the territory border- 
 ing on the west bank of the Mississippi from New Orleans to 
 what is now St. Louis, and at the same time laying claim to the 
 country as far east as the Ohio river, was preparing to 
 strengthen her pretensions and include in her territory what 
 was known as the Northwest. In January, 1780, the Spani- 
 ards sent forth an expedition from St. Louis, set on foot under 
 the direction of Don Francisco C'ravat, a Spanish Colonel of 
 infantry. This force was in command of Spanish officers, and 
 was made up of sixty-five militiajnen, thirty of whom were 
 Spanish, and the remainder sujiposed to be of French birth, but 
 all sworn subjects of the Spanish Government, with a band of 
 sixty Indian allies, believed to have been Pottowatomies. 
 The object of the expedition being to strike a blow at Eng- 
 land, then the foe of botli France and Spain, by the capture of 
 
436 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 tlie British fort St. Joseph, said to have been located one mile 
 west of the present city of Niles, and at this time the nearest 
 British fortification to St. Louis. The command marched 
 across Illinois and through Michigan, flying the flag of Spain, 
 and on reaching the fort the few English traders and soldiers 
 defending it were totally unprepared for the sudden attack 
 which made them prisoners, and through Don Eugenia Pourn6 
 in command, was surrendered Fort St. Joseph to the King of 
 Spain, and the English flag gave place to the standard of His 
 Most Catholic Majesty, while the force remained there. The 
 fort was plundered, most of the provisions and goods were given 
 to the Indians, the remainder, with the magazine and store- 
 houses, were destroyed. The command remained but a few 
 days for rest and refreshments, and then commenced their 
 homeward journey to St. Louis, which was accomplished with- 
 out incident, carrying with them in triumph the English flag, 
 which was delivered to Don Francisco Cravat in testimony of 
 the successful execution of his orders. 
 
 In Jul)', 1701, the first permanent settlement on Michigan 
 soil was made on what is now the site of Detroit, then an 
 Indian village. 
 
 ' ' Here warrior to liis standard flew, 
 Not knowing what his future doom; 
 And, calling on his Manitou, 
 Would plunge into the forest gloom." 
 
 The several Indian tribes then inhabiting the country in the 
 vicinity of this village seemed to have each a name for it in 
 their own language, most of them, however, indicating that a 
 " Strait " was the name intended. 
 
 It was chosen by Antoine de la Motte Cadillac, who had 
 been granted by Louis XIV of France a tract of fifteen square 
 acres of land in the wilderness, where he landed with one hun- 
 dred men from Montreal and constructed a fort. Thus was 
 acquired a very limited white population made up of fur trad- 
 ers, trappers, voi/<u/etirs, with some missionaries, who there 
 erected a fort, wliile one was also built where Fort Gratiot 
 now stands, one at Mackinac, one at St. .Joseph Island, and 
 one at Sault Ste. .Marie. 
 
 These forts established at long distances apart, at points 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 437 
 
 along the lake frontier, are most of them now occupied as forts. 
 Five times their flags have been changed, while they have been 
 under three different governments. Tlie French occupation 
 commenced in 1671, and continued until 1700, when they were 
 surrendered to the English and occupied until ITitti, wlien they 
 were evacuated and garrisoned by the Americans. In their 
 day, flying respectively, first, the fleur de lis, then the proud 
 flag of France, then the haughty crosses of Saint George and 
 Saint Andrew, which was then the flag of England, "that has 
 stood a thousand years, tlie battle and the breeze, '' and then 
 that bright galaxy of stars, beautifully combined with the 
 national colors, the rod, white and blue, the flag of America, 
 destined perpetually to float in brilliancy and truth o'er land 
 and sea, the emblem of liberty. 
 
 The Northwest Territory, when it was claimed and occupied 
 by France, was a vast ranging ground for the numerous Indian 
 tribes, who roamed over it in all the listless indolence of their 
 savage independence, so characteristic of the Indian and Indian 
 life. 
 
 The Indians and half-breeds were not favorable to what they 
 considered the encroachments of the whites, hence their loca- 
 tion at various points on their territory was not acceptable, 
 often leading to threatenings and hostile opposition with occa- 
 sional attacks. On the I3th of May, 1712, the Foxes, consid- 
 ered the Ishmaelites of the wilderness, in laige force in league 
 with the Iroquois made an attack on Detroit, bent on its entire 
 destruction. It was then garrisoned by M. Du Buisson with 
 twenty French soldiers, aided by Indian allies, including the 
 coureurs de bois, or rangers of the woods, lawless but prac- 
 ticed and skilled marksmen. Tlie Indians after a long and se- 
 vere fight, struggling to the last, were defeated with great loss 
 ami driven from the field in utter confusion. 
 
 This was recognized at the time not only as an im])ortant 
 battle but as a very severe one, as the attacking Indians exhib- 
 ited a degree of courage and endurance unequalled by any 
 Indian tribe since that time, while it was also important, as a 
 defeat of the French would undoubtedly have involved the de- 
 struction of the place and most likely the massacre of at least 
 a portion of the white population. The attack was made dur- 
 ing the absence t)f the Otlawas, the Pottawatamies and Ilurons, 
 
4-38 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 friendly Indians, rendering the garrison comparatively weak ; 
 but it did not corne unawares, as the commander, on informa- 
 tion, had summoned portions of the friendly Indians within 
 reach to his reinforcement. Soon after the attack commenced 
 they began to arrive and were admitted inside the fort, when 
 preparations were made for an active and effective defence. On 
 discovering the force of friendly Indians engaged, the Foxes 
 retreated to the adjoining forest, where they entrenched in 
 camp. The French, backed by their allies, in order to force 
 their enemies from their position, erected a block-house within 
 range of the hostile camp, when a heavy fire was opened on 
 them and a close siege commenced and continued until, driven 
 to desperation from thirst and hunger, all their supplies being 
 cut off, they rushed from their stronghold, attacked the French 
 and friendly Indians and took position in a house close by, 
 which they fortified, where they were again attacked with 
 French cannon and driven back into their former intrench- 
 raent. Ascertaining that their former league was proving un- 
 successful the Foxes asked the French commander for peace, 
 which he declined to accord them. Feeling much insulted at the 
 denial, they attacked the fort and houses with showers of blazing 
 arrows, kindling the dry roofs into flames, but most of them 
 were saved by the use of wet skins. The desperate fighting of 
 the Foxes so discouraged the French commander, that had it 
 not been for re-assurances of the Indians of more aid he would 
 have abandoned Detroit and retired to Mackinac ; being sat- 
 isfied with the promise, however, he determined on further fight, 
 and advancing from the fort, delivered on their intrenchments 
 a deadly fire, when they were soon filled with dead and dying. 
 After again suing for peace, but before any capitulation was 
 effected, the Foxes during a storm at midnight retreated tow- 
 ards Lake St. Clair, having been engaged in the siege with more 
 or less fighting for nineteen days. The discovery of their flight 
 led to their immediate pursuit, and they were soon overtaken 
 and attacked in intrenched camps, the commencement being 
 rather in their favor. This fight lasted for three days ending 
 with ap})lying a field battery which soon reduced the works and 
 scattered the Indians. 
 
 After the attack on Detroit, the territory remained in com- 
 parative peace, although the two great powers, France and 
 
ADDRESS OF GP:N. JOHN ROBERTSON. 439 
 
 England, struggling tlirdiigh intrigiu' with the Iiuliun.s, had 
 become engaged in a desperate contest lor the supremacy, 
 the first to hold, and the latter to obtain, douiinion. This 
 condition of aifairs continued until 1757, when the British 
 Government projected a campaign of a very formidable char- 
 acter, and soon after with an army of 12,000 men, com- 
 manded by General Amherst, invaded the French colonies in 
 America, and after the fall of Quebec, under the capitulation 
 of 17G0, took military possession of all the forts held by the 
 French both in Canada and on what was known as the Ameri- 
 can side. 
 
 While a detachment of English tro(j ps was advancing to 
 occupy the fort at Detroit under that capitulation, a very 
 singular symbol was made use of by the French otficer in 
 charge. Being indisposed to give up possession, he deter- 
 mined on resistance, and with this in view, he collected a body 
 of Indians to assist him. Being aware that the Indians were 
 liable to be strongly influenced by symbols, he erected a pole, 
 placing thereon the image of a man's head, and on this he put 
 a crow, telling the Indians that the head repi'esented the 
 English, and the crow himself, meaniiior that the French would 
 scratch out the brains of the English. They did not believe 
 him, however, but were of the opinion that the reverse would 
 be the case. Wiien the French officer gave up the fort the 
 Indians loudly shouted in derision, and rejoiced that their 
 opinion had been verified. 
 
 The Englisii continued in peaceable possession of these forts 
 until .\j)ril, 1 70;^, when a large combination of Indian tribes, 
 known as the conspiracy of Pontiac, was organized by the 
 celebrated chief unfavorable to the British possession. Pon- 
 tiac having been led by the French to believe that the inten- 
 tion of the English was to drive him and his people from their 
 lands, considered them as dangerous intruders, and for the 
 purpose of forming a conspiracy to wage war against them, 
 assembled a grand council of Indians at the River Aux Ecorse, 
 where he addressed them in person, telling them, among other 
 matters, that the British were their natural and inveterate 
 enemies, and that the Great Spirit had directed that they must 
 be removed from their possessions. At the same time he 
 exhibited a war belt which he said the French king had sent 
 
440 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 him from beyond the sea, with orders to drive the British from 
 the land and make way for tlie return of the French; con- 
 sequently he commenced distributing war belts among the 
 principal tribes on the borders of the lakes and formed a line 
 of operations of more than a thousand miles along their waters, 
 with the intention of concentrating forces at various points 
 for the purpose of attacking the British forts. Soon the In- 
 dians abandoned their hunting grounds and camps for the war 
 path and repaired to the frontier. Then followed general and 
 simultaneous attacks on most of the forts. Detroit being among 
 the number, and a most important point, was assailed and be- 
 sieged on May 10th by a large force of Indians under Pontiac in 
 person, while it was defended by Major Gladwin, the British 
 commander, with one hundred and twenty-two men and eight 
 officers. The fort was of a square formation, surrounded by 
 three rows of pickets. Most of the houses inside were pro- 
 tected by the guns mounted on the works. All the inhabitants 
 were provided with arms and ammunition and a place was 
 reserved within the inclosure for the deposit of arms, named 
 Le Cheniin du Monde, and over the gates of the fort at each of 
 its corners there were small dwellings. The Beaver, an armed 
 schooner moored in the river, defended the town in front. 
 Pontiac intended to take the fort by surprise, and to aid him 
 in his purpose proposed a council to the commandant " that 
 they might brighten the chain of peace " and to avoid any 
 appearance of hostile intentions had ordered a portion of his 
 warriors to saw off their rifles so short that they could conceal 
 them under their blankets, and under a feigned pretence to 
 gain admission into the fort and massacre the garrison. The 
 plot of Pontiac was exposed by an Indian woman named 
 Catherine, who informed Major Gladwin of his designs. The 
 Major at once took the necessary measures to meet the con- 
 templated surprise by doubling the guard, and placing sen- 
 tinels on the works. The flres of the Indians seen during the 
 night in the vicinity, convinced the garrison that something 
 was in contemplation, and the woman's story was believed to 
 be true. Next morning, according to appointment, Pontiac 
 repaired to the fort, accompanied by his warriors. On advanc- 
 ing, he discovered on the works a greater number of soldiers 
 than usual and all the officers fully armed. Having entered 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 441 
 
 the Council House, he opened the tliscussion with a friendly 
 speecli, hut as lie progressed he became very vehement, and at 
 the time when the woman said his designs were to be uncovered 
 by the exposure of the war belt and the uprising of his war- 
 riors, the Governor and his officers drew their swords, and the 
 clatter of an armed force was heard outside, when Pontiac 
 discovered that he was the party surprised, although he con- 
 tinued perfectly calm and unmoved. The Commandant still 
 more surprised him by at once charging him with treason, 
 and in order to convince him of his knowledge of his plot, 
 took from under the blanket of one of his Indians the short- 
 ened rifle. Me also ordered him and his warriors instantly to 
 leave the fort, as on discovery of his treason the soldiers 
 would show them no mercy, but at the same time assured them 
 of protection while leaving. The warriors on leaving the fort 
 fully evinced their hostile intentions by turning and firing on 
 the garrison, and then collecting in larger numbers around the 
 fort, continued to tire from the shelter of the nearest houses ; 
 but they were soon shelled and burned. Still a constant fire 
 was continued on the fort from a low ridge which overlooked 
 the pickets. An attempt was made to burn buildings with 
 blazing arrows, but did not succeed, a Jesuit priest forbidding 
 it, as it would be displeasing to the Great Spirit. Then resort 
 was liad to making a breach in the pickets, in which Major 
 Gladwin aided by cutting them on the inside, thereby weak- 
 ening them so that it was easily effected, when the fort was at 
 once tilled with Indians, but no sooner was this done than the 
 discharge of a brass camion which had been trained on them, 
 made terrible havoc. After this the fort was merely block- 
 aded and its supplies cut off, but which brought great suffer- 
 ing on the garrison. The loss of the Indians has not been 
 given ; but among the British, Sir Robert Devers and Captain 
 Robertson were killed, and their l)odies boiled and eaten ; 
 while from a portion of the skin of the arm of the latter, a 
 tobacco pouch was made. 
 
 Major Campbell, who liad tlien been assigned to the com- 
 mand of the fort, was inveigle<l into a pretended peaceful 
 interview with Pont iac, and umler a promise of being returned 
 in safety. \Vhen in his power, however, he informed him that 
 his life should only be spared on condition that the fort be sur- 
 
442 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 rendered. The demand was nut complied with, and Campbell 
 was held as a hostage and afterwards suffered death by a blow 
 from a tomahawk in the hands of an Ottawa, who had come 
 from Mackinac for the purpose, and who sought revenge for 
 the death of his uncle, a chief of that tribe, who had lost his 
 life in the siege of Mackinac. 
 
 The savages, having lost heavily, and finding all their 
 attempts to destroy the fort unavailing, endeavored to get the 
 French settlers as allies, but failed. They then fell back on 
 Bloody Bridge, now known as Bloody Run, where they were 
 attacked by Captain Dalzell with about 250 men, part of a 
 reinforcement of 300, which had just arrived in gunboats from 
 Niagara, when one of the most severe and bloody fights took 
 place known in Indian warfare, in which the British troops 
 were repulsed, retreating under the protection of their gun- 
 boats to the fort, with a loss of 19 killed, including their (com- 
 mander, and 42 wounded. 
 
 While these scenes were passing at Detroit old Fort Macki- 
 nac, with a population of about thirty families and garrisoned 
 by ninety-three English officers and soldiers, in command of 
 Major Etherington, was attacked in June, 1763, by Indians, 
 then numerous in that vicinity, who were determined on 
 getting possession of the fort and massacring both soldiers 
 and citizens. They therefore planned a scheme to gain 
 entrance to the fort by throwing a ball over the pickets while 
 engaged at a game of ball in view of the commander and 
 soldiers, who were mostly outside, and then rushing in with 
 their rifies, that had been purposely shortened so that they 
 might be concealed under their blankets. This they success- 
 fully accomplished, and instantly raised their war-cry and 
 commenced the massacre of the unarmed, scalping, cutting to 
 pieces, and even drinking their blood, and not until most of 
 their victims within reach had been killed ()r scalped did they 
 cease their horrid work. The fort was burned to the ground, 
 seventy of the soldiers were killed, and to complete their 
 sanguinary deed many of them were boiled and eaten by the 
 savages, the Indians after the slaughter retiring to the Island 
 of Mackinac, while those spared were all released. 
 
 The Indians in the confederacy, perceiving that they could 
 no longer contend against so powerful a foe, laid down their 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROIiEKTSON. 443 
 
 arms, and thus the war in the teiritory for the time J)einir was 
 brought to a close. Of Pontiac, after his discomiituie but 
 little is certainly known. Disappointed and m(>rtili(«l at the 
 failure of his ])lans, he retired to Illinois. 
 
 " 1 will go to my teat and lie down in despair; 
 I will paint me witii black and will sever my hair; 
 I will sit on the shore, where the hurricane blows, 
 And reveal to the God of the tempest my woes." 
 
 The character of Pontiac was bold and strongly marked, 
 excelled by none of his race in courage, strengtli and energy. 
 He possessed traits which pointed him out for a leader ; undis- 
 mayed by difficulties, and far-seeing and comprehensive in his 
 plans, he fought from a sense of justice and in defence of the 
 rich domain which had come to him from his ancestors. He 
 was assassinated about the year 1767, l»y an Indian of the 
 Peoria tribe. 
 
 The Indian insurrection having l)een entirely (juelled, the 
 English adopted a system of conciliatory measures to secure 
 the good will of the disaffected tribes, and continued to pursue 
 the same general policy of the French regarding government 
 and trade, while the forts still continued to be garrisoned by 
 troops. 
 
 During the struggle of the American revolution, and up to 
 the end of the war, the Indians within the borders of Mic higan 
 were, under the inHuence of the English government, employed 
 by British commanders to harass the American settlements 
 without power of defence. In the vicinity (jf Detroit and 
 Mackinac they were furnished with arms and ammunition, and 
 were despatched to pillage, burn, massacre and scalp, and on 
 their return received the sti|)ulated price for scalps. Nothing 
 of military interest had occurred for several years in the terri- 
 tory after the Indian insurrection, aiid not until 1700, when 
 American Independence was declared and the forts were all 
 surrendered to the United States. Detroit and Mackinac 
 being the principal posts, the former was taken possession of 
 on July 1 1th of that year, by Captain Porter, with troops from 
 the army of General Ilamtramck, then in the Miami Valley, 
 when the American flag was raised for the first time on its 
 ramparts and the fort passed (juietly into the possession of the 
 United States. 
 
444 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 The white population from this on began to increase, but 
 became very mixed as to nationalities of the inhabitants, while 
 the accessions were still largely made up of the trader, 
 trapper and voyageur, but having more of the American 
 element, possessing more energy, greater force of moral char- 
 acter and personal courage. 
 
 " I hear the far-off 'ooyageurs horn, 
 
 I see the Yankee's trail, 
 His foot on every mountain-pass. 
 
 On every stream his sail."' 
 
 The whites, distrustful of the friendly Indians on their own 
 border, and of the strength of the small detachments of troops 
 so far apart, and without means of rapid transportation to reach 
 them speedily in the event of a sudden uprising, and especially 
 as the whole ('anadian frontier was swarming with Indians of 
 a very doubtful friendship, being more or less encouraged in 
 misciiief by the British, were compelled to organize and arm 
 themselves as best they could for mutual defence, establishing 
 early on Michigan soil a serai-military service, which neces- 
 sarily became continuous, inculcating preparation and a habit 
 of ceaseless watchfulness, and guarding, in expectation of 
 unforeseen attacks at any moment, day or night, and thus, 
 from necessity of self-preservation, they became in fact effi- 
 cient citizen-soldiers in all but name and appearance. These 
 brave and hardy traders, trappers and voyageurs, French, Eng- 
 lish and American, many of them of the highest intelligence, 
 were men inured to hardship, looking danger, tight and mas- 
 sacre in the face every day of their lives, became prepared at 
 all times to meet either. 
 
 MICHIGAN ! 
 
 " Thine early day ! it nursed a band 
 Of men who ne'er their lineage shamed; 
 The h-on-uerved, the bravely good, 
 Who neither spared nor lavished blood." 
 
 On botli the American and Canadian frontiers were found 
 a class of men of very questionable cliaracter, who might be 
 designated as middle-men, who acted between the whites and 
 Indians, and sometimes as interpreters ; they were made up of 
 whites and half-breeds with nothing to lose, but with constant 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 445 
 
 expectation of gain ; a specimen of tlic villainous compound 
 of the frontier braggart, called liy the Inilians Shaw-go-dah, or 
 boaster, and the confirmed idler, bold in a bar-room, but in a 
 tight dodgers, yet ready at all times to agitate and incite hos- 
 tilities between the traders and Indians, with much damaging 
 effect on the peace and prosperity of the settlements. 
 
 The militia organizations existing under the laws of the 
 Northwest and Indian Territories were very limited. Al- 
 though in May, 180:^, there appears to have been a parade in 
 Detroit of the First Regiment of Wayne County, which then 
 included more space than the whole State of Michigan now 
 does ; these parades were ordered once a year under law, and 
 were in the most primitive style, the troops having to provide 
 arms and equipments at their own expense, and only cavalry 
 and light infantry were required to appear in uniform. 
 
 Such appears to have been the condition of the protective 
 or defensive force, aside from the small numljer of troops scat- 
 tered along the frontier up to June, 1805, when Michigan be- 
 came a territory with the motto, "^The shoot at length becomes 
 a tree" (that of the Marquis of Waterford). covering what 
 are now the State of Michigan and part of Ohio, Indiana and 
 Wisconsin, with General William Hull Governor and C'om- 
 mander-in-Ciiief of the militia, who was appointed March 1st, 
 1805. Hull being a military man, a new impetus seems to have 
 been given to military matters by the passage of aii act of 
 August 30th, of that year, authorizing the Commander-iTi- 
 Chief to organize the militia in divisions, brigades, regiments 
 and battalions, to appoint officers therefor, and to set apart 
 certain days in the year for training, to designate the uniform ; 
 providing, also, that all male residents over fourteen and under 
 fifty be enrolled for military duty. At the time of the passage 
 of the act referred to there appears, according to official 
 reports made July 9th, 1805, to have been in service, fully 
 organized and equipped, two regiments of infantry and what 
 was known as the Legionary Corps, made up of cavalry, 
 artillery and ritlt'ineii. 
 
 The First Regiment appears t<» liave lieen raised in that 
 part of the territory adjacent \o Detroit, with A. 1>. ^V()od- 
 ward as Colonel. The second in what was then designated as 
 the Krie disti-ict, cinbraciiig all the territoi-v south of the 
 
446 MICHIGAJS's SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 River Huron, in Monroe county, commanded by Colonel 
 John Anderson, while the Legionary Corps seems to have 
 been made up from the x-esidents in and around Detroit, with 
 Lieutenant Colonel Elijah Brush commanding. 
 
 In addition to this force there had been organized on the 
 Clinton (then called Huron) and St. Clair rivers a battalion of 
 four companies, in command of Lieutenant Colonel Christian 
 Clemens. 
 
 This seems to have comprised all the organizations of a 
 military character then in existence, chiefly officered by French- 
 men, and they seem to have continued in service up to the 
 commencement of the war of 1812, and were present at the 
 surrender of Detroit, with the exception of the battalion of 
 Colonel Clemens and the Second Regiment, which had been 
 retained on the lower Raisin for the protection of the inhabi- 
 tants against large numbers of Indians, arriving from the 
 West. 
 
 In 1806, the Indian Chief Tecumseh, with his brother, the 
 Prophet, incited by the British Government, commenced the 
 formation of a confederacy of tribes similar to that of Pontiac, 
 to operate against the American settlements in the Indian 
 country, which was finally accomplished. From that on the 
 savages became restless and very troublesome to the villages of 
 the whites in Michigan. In the meantime, timely preparation 
 was being made by the Indians for hostile operations. Arms 
 were being procured from various sources, and near the banks 
 of the Kalamazoo a smith's forge had been set up, where 
 hatchets and knives were made for the approaching contest ; 
 and at no great distance from it, in a retired spot, the Indian 
 women, surrounded by a dense forest, with their children, had 
 collected for the purpose of raising corn to furnish a supply of 
 food for the warriors. 
 
 It appears that the designs of Tecumseh were fully realized, 
 for in the war of 1812 with Great Britain he was found with 
 his Indian confederates a strong and faithful ally of the 
 British. 
 
 War with England had for some tiini' \>ceu anticipated. 
 Meanwhile the Governor of Oliio, under instructions of the 
 general government, liad, with great alacrity, gathered 
 together, organized, armed and disciplined a portion of the 
 
ADDRESS OF GP:N. JOHN KOBERT80N. 447 
 
 militia of that State, consisting of three regiments of infantry, 
 raised in the Scioto Valley, Cincinnati and the Muskingum 
 V^alley, and commanded respectively by Colonels Duncan 
 McArthur, James Findlay and Lewis Cass, numbering in all 
 about 1200 infantry with some cavalry. 
 
 On May "Jlth, 181 J, the Governor placed those regiments 
 under the command of General Hull, who on April 8th had 
 been appointed a Brigadier General in the U. 8. army, and a 
 movement of this force towards the lakes commenced via the 
 Miami X'alley. On the 18th of June following the expected 
 declaration of war was made by Congress, and on the 24th 
 Hull, while on the march, received a dispatch from the war 
 department directing him to hasten with his troops to Detroit 
 and there await further orders, and on July 2d arrived there 
 and assumed command with considerable staff and great pomp- 
 The 4th U. S. infantry, Colonel James Miller commanding, 
 having joined Hull on the march at Urbaua, also formed a 
 part of his command. On arriving at Detroit Hull's army 
 became impatient for action, clamoring to be led into Canada, 
 to drive off the " fort builders," as they called them, then at 
 work erecting forts near Windsor and Sandwich, and attack 
 Maiden. ()u July 9th Hull received orders giving him full 
 authority tocommenc'.' offensive operations, and on the evening 
 of the 11th, with about 1,000 men, including a battery of six- 
 pounders in command of Captain Samuel Dyson, U. S. array, 
 moved in boats across the river to Sandwich, the enemy aban- 
 doning their position at that point and falling back on Maiden. 
 
 In the meantime reconnaissances were made by Colonels 
 McArthur and Cass into Canada without much opposition, the 
 former pushing up the Thames as far as the Moravian towns 
 above Chatham, and finding no enemy entered upon a foraging 
 expedition, returning to Detroit with considerable supplies, 
 while Captain Joseph Watson, of the .Michigan troops, with a 
 small cavalry force, raided as far as Westminster, Colonel 
 Cass moving down on the Canada side towards the Canard 
 river, with a detachment of oo regulars and 250 volunteers in 
 command of Colonel Miller. On coming nt-ar the l)ridge over 
 the stream, discovering that it was defeinled with cannon by 
 a force of liritish ti'oo]>s, he attacked and drove them from 
 their [)ositioii. falling l)ack on their works at Maiden, when 
 
448 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 darkness set in, rendering pursuit at that time impracticable. 
 A refusal of Hull to follow up this advantage chagrined Cass 
 so much that he became enraged, and did not fail to unfavor- 
 ably criticise his commander in the most severe terms, and 
 tradition says that in his anger Cass broke his sword over an 
 old stump in the road. 
 
 News of the war reached the British post at St. Joseph's 
 Island, in the St. Mary's river, in July, which was garrisoned 
 by a company of regulars, numbering 46 officers and men, in 
 command of Capt. Charles Roberts. On the 16th of that month 
 this force embarked for Mackinac on board the armed brig 
 Caledonia, with 250 agents and employes of the North West 
 Fur Company, and traders, together with 500 Indians, all under 
 command of responsible traders. They were joined on the 
 passage by from 80 to 100, and on their arrival at Mackinac 
 about 70 allies were added to the force. 
 
 The garrison of Mackinac consisted of 57 officers and men, 
 commanded by Lieut. Porter Hanks, of the regular army. 
 The British landed in the night on the beach at what has been 
 known ever since as the " British Landing," which is on the 
 side of the island reaching farthest from the fort. The British 
 at once took possession of Fort Holmes, a position which 
 completely commanded the whole island and approaches, 
 rendering the fort in which were the American troops utterly 
 indefensible, and resistance useless. 
 
 Hanks had been completely surprised, the appearance of the 
 British force being the first notice he had received that war 
 was in progress. Seeing at once that his position was unten- 
 able, and ascertaining the overwhelming force against him, he 
 concluded to surrender, and in accordance with terms of capit- 
 ulation his command marched out of the fort with the usual 
 honors of war, and were paroled. 
 
 The commander started for Detroit, reaching there on the 
 29th, when Hull, not having heard of the affair, became 
 nervously alarmed and immediately called for reinforcements. 
 
 Sometime after the movement of the Ohio troops on Detroit 
 two companies of volunteers were organized in that State, one 
 at Chillicothe under Captain Henry Brush, and the other at 
 Sandusky by Captain Thomas Rowland, the two forming a 
 battalion. This command under Brush, with supplies from 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 449 
 
 Ohio for Hull's array, arrived at the Raisin on August 9th, 
 where he ascertained that a British force was posted at Brown- 
 stown, cutting ofY all communication with Detroit, and having 
 learned that the force was largely superior in point of numbers, 
 concluded to await further developments. 
 
 Hull having receive<l notice that Brush was on his way, on 
 August 4th had detached Major Van Home with about 150 of 
 Findlay's regiment to meet him and act as an escort and guard. 
 Meantime information of the movement had reached Proctor, 
 the British commander at Makhni, who sent across the river a 
 force of soldiers, and together with about 300 Indians, intercept- 
 ing him near AFonguagon. Van Home made a gallant attack; 
 but repulsed and defeated he returned to Detroit. 
 
 On August 8th Colonel Miller with a detachment of 600 
 officers and men, 280 being regulars and the rest Ohio troops, 
 made another effort to relieve Brush, l)ut encountered opposi- 
 tion by a party of Indians who fired on his rear guard near 
 Monguagon; he returned their fire, driving them on the main 
 force, estimated at about equal to his own command, made up 
 of British regulars and Brownstown Indians, under the cele- 
 brated Chief Walk-iii-the-Water. Miller then attacked them, 
 and after a warm and severe fight defeated them, but with a 
 loss of seventeen killed and wounded, while the enemy lost 
 thirty whites and one hundred and four Indians killed and 
 wounded. The British disappearing during the night. Miller 
 next day got his wounded into boats, and tliinking that the 
 communication with Tirush had opened, and failing to get sup- 
 plies as promised by Hull, marched for Detroit on August 11th, 
 reaching there next day. 
 
 This is recognized as the principal engagement connected 
 with the surrender of Detroit, and is designated in the records 
 of the War Department as the battle of Brownstown. 
 
 Tlie British commander, General Brock, having been concen- 
 trating his forces at Maiden and vicinity for some time, and 
 constructing batteries opposite Detroit, on the morning of 
 August loth opened fire on a battery commanded by Caj)tain 
 Dillaba, U. S. A., which had been made near the centre of the 
 town, but near what was then the river bank. At the time the 
 batteries opened a flag of truce was received by Hull, demand- 
 ing a surrender, which he answered alxiut 3 o'clock, stating that 
 29 
 
45(1 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 he was ready to meet Brock's force and all the consequences. 
 The British guns aguin opened and were at once answered 
 witli vigor by the Dillaba battery and others, continuing until 
 about 10 o'clock at night. 
 
 On the morning of the 16th a brisk fire was again opened 
 by the batteries of the fort with considerable effect, which was 
 promptly replied to by the American batteries. The enemy 
 in the meantime, about 750 strong, commenced crossing the 
 river in vessels with an astonishing degree of boldness, landing 
 at Springwells without opposition, commenced the advance on 
 Detroit without the least obstruction or resistance, while the 
 American batteries were refused permission to fire on the ad- 
 vancing enemy. 
 
 The fort at the time of their landing was garrisoned by the 
 Fourth regular infantry and some detached companies of the 
 regular army, one of them of the First Regiment, in command 
 of Captain Whistler. The First Regiment Michigan troops 
 then in command of Colonel Elijah Brush, and the Legionary 
 Corps, in command of Major James Witherell, together with 
 the three Ohio regiments were on the commons in rear of the 
 town, but not far distant, ready and eager to attack the advanc- 
 ing columns. The Second Michigan Regiment, at the request 
 of Colonel Anderson, had been retained on the lower Raisin for 
 protection of the inhabitants against large numbers of Indians 
 arriving from the west, and was not present. 
 
 Colonels McArthur and Cass were also absent; they had been 
 sent with 350 officers and men of the Ohio troops on another 
 expedition, to open communication with Brush, who was still 
 at Godfrey's trading post on the Upper Raisin, but before they 
 had reached him were ordered by Hull back to Detroit, arriv- 
 ing near there after the surrender. ]>rush was finally reached 
 by a British officer, who demanded his surrender, to which 
 he declined to accede, and marched his troops back to Ohio 
 without parole. 
 
 On the enemy's reaching a certain point in his advance 
 on Detroit, the volunteers on the commons, instead of being 
 allowed to attack, which they so urgently demanded, were all 
 ordered inside the fort. When Findlay with his regiment 
 reached the gate he halted outside, and with Major Snelling 
 found Hull inside, much dissatisfied and indignant, and at the 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. J(^HN K« HJKKTSON. 451 
 
 same time much excited. Findlay abruptly said to his com- 
 manding officer: " What in hell am I ordered here for?" Hull 
 replied in a low trembling voice that in view of the number 
 killed in the fort, a surrender would be best, that he could pro- 
 cure better terms from General Brock at that time than if he 
 waited a storm. Colonel Findlay replied: "Terms! damna- 
 tion ! We caN beat them on the plain. I did not come here 
 to capitulate ; T came to fight." But he had to enter with his 
 regiment, notwithstanding his forcible protest. 
 
 The fort was totally insufficient to hold so many, and thus 
 being huddled together almost in a solid mass, a shot or shell 
 entering from any direction could not fail of doing fearful ex- 
 ecution. When the enemy had arrived at a point on the route 
 within a mile of the town, their approach, coupled with the 
 result of the fire from the batteries, terrified and bewildered 
 Hull so that without any consultation with his officers he raised 
 the white Hag and surrendered, which beseemed to accomplish 
 with an astonishing degree of unconcern and effrontery. 
 
 About noon of tlie IGtli of Augiist, Genei-al Brock with his 
 forces triumphantly entered the fort, and tlie Americans 
 marched out with solemnity and silence; the stars and stripes 
 were hauled down and replaced by the British colors. A gar- 
 rison of 250 officers and soldiers was established in command 
 of General Proctor, and the fort and town were again under 
 the British government. 
 
 By the capitulation he surrendered about two thousand men, 
 with a large amount of supplies, provisions, 2,500 stand of 
 small arms and a quantity of ammunition and including 
 thirty-five iron and brass cannon; most of the supplies being 
 at once transferred to Maiden. The regular troops were held as 
 prisoners of war and sent to Montreal, Quebec, and some even 
 to Halifax, while those of Michigan were })aroled at Detroit, 
 and those of Ohio were also paroled there and sent in vessels to 
 Cleveland. 
 
 Thus was accomplished the surrender of Detroit, a fortified 
 place, to an inferior force of unequal equipment, with a disad- 
 vantageous position, in an enemy's country, with a broad, 
 deep and rapid river in the rear, and with a limited means of 
 retreat in the event of defeat. An audacious and bold under* 
 taking, its success mysterious and unaccounted for, except in 
 
452 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 positive imbecility or treasonable connivance in the American 
 commander. Thus presenting the humiliating spectacle of the 
 unconditional surrender, without a shot, of an American fort 
 well planned and substantially constructed, amply equipped 
 and supplied in every respect, fully manned with troops well 
 posted, eager and persistent to defend it, artillery in position 
 commanding all the approaches, with officers and men begging 
 the denied privilege of opening fire on the advancing enemy. 
 The American people to this day abhor the thought of the 
 disgraceful surrender, and while they justifiably exonerate 
 the rank and file, they denounce the pronounced cowardice, if 
 not treason, of him who alone was responsible, and shudder 
 with horror at the very thought of its being consummated by 
 an American general. 
 
 On the day of surrender, and before his departure for Can- 
 ada, Brock issued a proclamation declaring that the territory 
 of Michigan had been ceded to the arms of Ilis Britannic 
 Majesty, without any other condition than the protection of 
 private property. 
 
 Proctor succeeded Brock in command, who, on August 21, 
 by proclamation, organized a civil government. 
 
 Hull was taken to Montreal, where he was offered, and ac- 
 cepted, his parole on September 16th, and allowed to proceed 
 to his home. Charges were afterwards officially preferred 
 against him of treason, cowardice and conduct unbecoming an 
 officer, and neglect of duty. He was tried on these charges at 
 Albany, N. Y., in January, 1813, and acquitted of treason, but 
 found guilty on the other charges and specifications, and was 
 sentenced to be shot, but on account of his services in the 
 Revolutionary War, the Court earnestly recommended him to 
 the mercy of President Madison, who approved of tlie sen- 
 tence, but extended the pardon. 
 
 The American forces, with the exception of their com- 
 mander, were faithful in their service to tlieir country on 
 every occasion where the opportunity was afforded them, while 
 many of theii- officers, both regular and volunteer, distinguished 
 themselves by bravery and gallant deeds, being specially men- 
 tioned in reports. 
 
 The Michigan troops were not afforded the desired oppor- 
 tunity to become actively engaged in that most feeble defence, 
 
ADDRKSS OF GKN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 453 
 
 nor were they in the least responsible for the eowanlly and 
 unaccountable surrender of Hull, and in no wise were any of 
 the other troops serving there, as all openly protested against 
 H as a measure neither honorable nor necessary. 
 
 On the 18th of January, 1813, the exchange of Hull, McAr- 
 thur, Cass, Findhiy, Miller and the remainder of the paroled 
 troops was officially announced, relieving them from disability 
 to serve in the war. 
 
 Hull's surrender had the immediate effect of creating a gen- 
 eral uprising all over the West ; a campaign was planned for 
 the capture of Maiden and the recovery of Michigan territory 
 from British rule, and relieve the peojile from tlie terror of 
 the merciless savages. Kentucky and Ohio were especially 
 active, and General W. H. Harrison was, by common consent, 
 put at the head of the forces, receiving a special commission 
 from Kentucky, and also one from the United States Govern- 
 ment. The troops raised were volunteers not called out origin- 
 ally by the United States, but brought into tlic Held under the 
 enthusiasm of the occasion. 
 
 General Winchester, an oM officer of the revolution, in com- 
 mand of a division of these troops undertaking without orders 
 to advance to the River Raisin, and on reaching there, met 
 with a disastrous defeat. On January 18th, 1813, about 600 
 or TOO officers and men of his force, in command of Colonel 
 Lewis, reached a point on the Raisin near what is now the 
 city of Monroe, where he was attacked by a force of British 
 and Indians. He at once made a disposition of his troops, 
 crossed the river on the ice to what is now known as French- 
 town, and attacked, when the battle became very hot and de- 
 structive, driving thera into the heavy timber, when darkness 
 put an end to the conflict, having lost twelve killed and fifty 
 wounded, while the British loss was not ascertained, their 
 killed and wounded being carried off by the Indians. 
 
 On the 21st, Winchester, having arrived with the rest of his 
 command, was apprised that he would be attacked that night 
 or next morning, and urged to prepare for a severe battle ; 
 but he disregarded the warning, and on the next morning at 
 davbreak his camp was opened on with a heavy artillery fire 
 of shot and canister, and assaulted at the same time by a force 
 of British regulars and about 3,000 Indians, when, after a 
 
454 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 severe contest, his force was compelled to recross the river, 
 fighting bravely and desperately, with heavy loss. The enemy 
 giving no quarter, the greater portion of his wounded were 
 either killed or scalped, while Winchester and Lewis surrend- 
 ered to Roundhead, an Indian, who delivered them up to Proc- 
 tor, and on arriving at his headquarters and understanding the 
 condition of his troops, Winchester surrendered his entire 
 force with the understanding that the wounded and private 
 property should be cared for and protected. 
 
 Notwithstanding this promise, the insolence and barbarity 
 of the Indians commenced; an appeal to Proctor for protection 
 failing to bring relief, some of the troops, still having their 
 arms, opened fire on the Indians, which for the time being 
 ended the mischievous work. Contrary to the assurance of 
 Proctor, his promises were all disregarded; pillage was per- 
 mitted without restraint or punishment. Those able to travel 
 were put on the march, in the extreme cold and deep snow, for 
 Maiden, while the wounded, unable to travel, were left at the 
 mercy of the savages, on the frozen ground. Soon after a 
 large body of Indians, led by their chiefs, assembled on the 
 ground in war paint, bent on revenge, and in council deter- 
 mined that the wounded should be put to death. This was 
 fully carried into effect, and most of them were either scalped 
 or killed, while two houses used as prisons for the captured 
 were fired and consumed, with most of their inmates unable 
 to escape. Many of them in trying to get through the 
 windows were thrust back, while some who were not inside 
 were killed and thrown into the flames. 
 
 The British victory was dearly bought. Proctor had 182 
 killed and wounded in his white force, or more than one-third; 
 the loss of the Indians was not known ; and of the American 
 troops not more than 30 or 40 escaped ; 537 prisoners were 
 accounted for as first estimated, and the number was increased 
 by 40 or 50 afterwards ransomed from the Indians. 
 
 The bloody battle of the Raisin, fought on Michigan soil, 
 but not by Michigan troops, has well been designated in 
 history as one of the inhuman massacres of the ages. The 
 shot-gun, the tomahawk and scalping knife were the instru- 
 ments of death in the hands of the victorious savages bent on 
 unrestrained plunder and butchery, while the bodies of many 
 
A1)I)KK!?S OF (iKN. JOHN KOBEUTSON. 455 
 
 of the dead, being Udt unprotected and exposed, were ilevoured 
 by dogs, swine and other voracious animals, the brutal tyrant 
 who controlled affairs not even interfering in the least to secure 
 their naked and mangled bodies a deposit in the frozen ground. 
 
 " How dread was the conflict, how bloody the tray, 
 Told the l)anks of the Raisin at tlie dawn of the day, 
 While the giisii from tiie wounds of the dying and dead 
 Had tliawed for the warrior a snow-sheeted bed." 
 
 " But where is the pride tlial a soldier can feel, 
 To temper with mercy the wrath of the steel, 
 While Proctor, victorious, denies to the brave, 
 Who had fallen in battle, tlie gift of the grave." 
 
 The expedition of Proctor into Ohio early in 18l;5, his 
 attempted attack and failure May 1st on Fort Meigs, at the 
 Maumee Rapids, then held by General Harrison, and his defeat 
 on Jidy 27th, following in his assault on Fort Stephenson, on 
 the Sandusky river, in command of Major George Croghan, 
 coupled with the advance of Harrison's army and Commodore 
 Perry's great victory on Lake End on the 10th of September, 
 rendered the retreat of Proctor on Maiden advisable, which he 
 accomplished in all haste. These events and the advance of 
 Perry's fleet towards the mouth of the Detroit river compelled 
 the abandonment of Maiden on the 18th of that month by the 
 British forces. On the 2 7th of September Harrison crossed 
 from the Middle Sister Island to the Canada shore about four 
 miles below ]\Ialden, and on maiching into that place and 
 finding it evacuated he at once prepared for pursuit, but did 
 not expect to overtake Proctor until he should reach the 
 Thames, where he told Tecumseh he meant to make a stand. 
 
 Proctor was at Sandwich when Harrison landed, and he at 
 once moved eastward with the Detroit garrison and all his 
 auxiliaries. On the 2r)th the American army reached Sand- 
 wich, and General Duncan McArthur crossed over and took 
 possession of the fort, which he h id left before under such 
 different circumstances. The overjoyed inhabitants were 
 released from what had become a reign of terror. The fort 
 had been fired, but the flames were extinguished, and General 
 McArthur drove off a horde of hostile Indians who were 
 prowling round the neighborhood. The fleet arrived the same 
 day. On the iOth (ieneral Harrison issued his proclamation 
 
456 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 restoring the civil authority as it had been before the 
 surrender, and entrusting its administration to the old incum- 
 bents when present, and to their next predecessors, if absent. 
 Colonel Johnson's riflemen came up on the 30th and crossed 
 into Canada on the day after. 
 
 The American flag is said to have been raised by the inhabi- 
 tants before McArthur's entrance. But it never floated again 
 from the old flagstaff. That was left bare and uncared for as 
 a memorial and warning, until a few years afterwards, in June, 
 1820, it was blown over by a severe wind and ceased to be vis- 
 ible from the walls. What ignominious uses its ruins may 
 have served is not recorded. It was not, however, in demand 
 for relics. McArthur's command was left to hold Detroit. 
 Cass' brigade was left at Sandwich, and Harrison, with Cass 
 and Perry as volunteer aids, and a force of about 3,500, on 
 the 2nd of October pushed on by land after Proctor, the 
 smaller vessels of the fleet sailing up the Thames. Proctor 
 was at last overtaken at the Moravian towns, and compelled to 
 give battle on the 5th. The mounted riflemen dashed through 
 . the British line and turned it, and in less than ten minutes the 
 whole force was captured, except General Proctor and seventeen 
 oflicers and two hundred and thirty-nine men. The ofticial re- 
 ports of his own government show that he was regarded as 
 having been guilty of grossly disgraceful conduct. His brave 
 ally, Tecumseh, met a soldier's death by the hands of a brave 
 enemy, Colonel Johnson. 
 
 The American fleet was now employed in removing the 
 ammunition and stores from the captured British posts, and 
 on the 18th of October General Harrison and Commodore 
 Perry issued a joint proclamation at Detroit for the better gov- 
 ernment of the 'JY'rritory of Michigan, and guaranteeing to the 
 inhabitants their rights of property, and the enjoyment of 
 their ancient usages and laws. 
 
 The Island of Mackinac was now the only part of the terri- 
 tory remaining in the possession of the enemy. This being a 
 post of great importance, from its commanding the upper 
 lakes and being the centre of the fur trade, a fleet under 
 Commodore Sinclair, with a body of land forces under Colonel 
 Croghan, the gallant defender of Sandusky, was dispatched in 
 July, 1814, for the purpose of capturing it. After reconnoiter- 
 
ADDRESS OF GP:N. JOHN KOBERTSON. 457 
 
 iiig the coast near the Island, the Commodore proceeded to the 
 neighboring British island of St. Joseph, where he destroyed a 
 few trading posts and then returned. 
 
 Meanwhile the British commandant was actively employed 
 in strengthening his defences and in summoning to his aid the 
 nearest savage tribes. 
 
 It was at first proposed to attack the post near the village, as 
 that part was the most free from trees, and consequently offered 
 less cover to the Indians. This, however, was objected to by 
 Sinclair, as his fleet would be here exposed to the fire of the 
 fort. It was finally concluded to land on the northeastern 
 side of the island, although from this point they would be 
 obliged to traverse its whole breadth, through a dense forest in 
 order to reach the British position. After marching some 
 distance through the wilderness, on arriving at a small clearing 
 the detachment was fired on from all sides by the savages 
 stationed in the surrounding woods. Major Holmes, at the 
 head of a considerable force, wis directed to charge the enemy, 
 but as he was gallantly executing the order, he was shot down 
 by a rifle ball. The fire, indeed, was so destructive that the 
 advanced party was obliged to retreat to the main body, upon 
 which the whole force retired to their boats, abandoned the 
 enterprise and returned to Detroit. In consequence of this 
 failure the British retained possession of Mackinac until the 
 conclusion of peace. 
 
 With the death of Tecumseh the confederacy was dissolved, 
 and a peace was concluded with the Ottawas, Chippewas, 
 Miamis and Pottawatamies. This renowned chief deserves a 
 passing notice. He possessed a noble figure, his countenance 
 was strikingly exjiressive of magnanimity, and he was distin- 
 guished for inonil traits far above his race. He was not re- 
 markable for eloquence, or even for intellect; but ho was a 
 warrior in the broadest Indian sense of the word. Without the 
 far-reaching views of Pontiac, or his hereditary rank, still in 
 sudden action and desperate valor he showed himself superior 
 to that chief; antl, though a new man, he acquired unbounded 
 intliu'iict.', and ])laci'd himself above all competitors as the great 
 champion of Indian rights. While his brother, the Prophet, 
 was the principal manager of the confederacy in all that related 
 to its organization and plans, he was its executive arm in the 
 
45 S Michigan's semi-c?:ntennial. 
 
 field. There were other peculiarities by which he was no less 
 distinguished. Like Pontiac, he manifested a deep interest in 
 regard to the manners and customs of the whites; lie would not 
 sanction the barbarities practiced by the Indians, and he dis- 
 dained the personal adornments in which they so much de- 
 lighted. Although holding the rank of a Brigadier General in 
 the British service, he pertinaciously adhered to his Indian 
 garb, a deerskin coat with leggings of the same material, was 
 his constant dress, and in this he was found dead at the battle 
 of the Thames. During the latter years of his life he was 
 almost incessantly engaged either in the Council or at the head 
 of his warlike bands; and he sank at last on the field of his 
 glory, with tomahawk in hand and the cry of battle upon his 
 
 lips. 
 
 "Like monumental bronze, unchanged his look; 
 A sohI which pity touch'd, hut never shook; 
 Train'd from his tree-rocked cradle to his bier. 
 The fierce extremes of good and ill to brook; 
 Unchanging, fearing but the shame of fear, 
 A stoic of the woods, a man without a tear." 
 
 The victory of Commodore Perry having secured the com- 
 mand of Lake Erie, Proctor's army having been routed, and 
 the Indian confederacy l)roken up, nothing of especial interest 
 in military affairs transpired in the territory during the re- 
 mainder of the war, which terminated under the treaty of 
 February 17, 1815. 
 
 On October 2!)th, 1813, General Cass, who had held the rank 
 of Brigadier General United States Array since March 12th, 
 1813, was, by President Madison, made permanent Governor 
 of Michigan Territory, and served until August 1st, 1831, hav- 
 ing been appointed Secretary of War by President Jackson in 
 July of that year. Governor Cass deeming a prompt and 
 efficient re-organization of the militia in the territory important 
 and necessary, on the 17th of December following designated 
 to be recruited and mustei'ed into service as active troops 
 Legionary Corps in Detroit, First Regiment 'u\ the vicinity of 
 Detroit, the Second Regiment in and around Monroe county, 
 and a battalion on the Clinton and St. Clair rivers. The com- 
 manders were directed to report to Lieutenant Colonel Butler, 
 Twenty-eighth United States Tiif.iiitry, left in charge of the 
 Post of Detroit. 
 
ADDKESS OF GKN. JOHN KoBKRTSON. 459 
 
 It appears that during tlie remaiiuler of the existence ol, tlie 
 territory tliis force continued in service, with some changes in 
 •lesignation and with additions, including several independent 
 companies in various parts of the territory. 
 
 In 1820 an act was passed authorizing the Governor to 
 arrange tlie militia into divisions, brigades, regiments, bat- 
 talions and comjianies, and appoint officers. In the meantime 
 the active force luid but very little of service, nothing occuri'ing 
 to recpiire it, until early in the spring of 1832. A war with the 
 Sac and Fox Indians, then occupying the country west of the 
 Mississippi river, was inaugurated by an invasion of Northern 
 Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, then in what was known as 
 Micliigan Territory, by Black Hawk, the chief of these Indi- 
 ans, who had repeatedly given assurances to the Government 
 that he, with his people, would remain on the west side of the 
 river, but had then, with liis force, entered Illinois, murder- 
 ing the inhabitants in considerable numbers, committing depre- 
 dations upon their property and submitting them to continual 
 fear for their lives ; declaring that he would use all his en- 
 deavors, even unto war, to recover his old home on the east 
 side of the river, which he had left under treaty. 
 
 At the commencement of the outbreak, quite a heavy Indian 
 war seemed itievitable from all appearances, as the dispositions 
 of surrounding tribes were not clearly understood ; and in 
 addition to the regular troops sent up the Mississippi river, a 
 considerable force was sent from the seaboard and from other 
 points to the seat of war, taking the lake route via steamers. 
 
 When the war commenced, Stevens T. Mason, being Secre- 
 tary and acting Governor of Michigan, called on General John 
 R. Williams, then in command of the militia, for troops, when 
 an order was made on May 2d for a detachment of 250 officers 
 ami men of the First Regiment, whicli was promptly furnished, 
 iiu'hiding one company of dragoons. 
 
 The command was on the march for Chicago at one o'clock 
 tlie next day; it was reached, however, on the day following 
 by an order from Governor Mason to General Williams, who 
 was in command, to send the infantry back to Detroit and ]»ro- 
 ceed with his stalf and dragoons to Chicago. 
 
 Another detachment of five companies of infantry, raised in 
 the southern portion of the State, comniatuU'il by General 
 
460 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Joseph W. Brown, bad previously moved westward for the 
 field of operations ; but on reaching Niles was ordered back 
 and mustered out at Tecumseh. 
 
 A company of fifty cavalry from Brown's command, also ac- 
 companied General Williams. The General with his force, 
 arrived in Chicago and, remaining some weeks awaiting de- 
 velopments of the war, made a reconnaissance to Napier's set- 
 tlement, a point which the Indians at that time were threaten- 
 ing, and did not return to Michigan until after the capture of 
 Black Hawk. 
 
 While the command was in Chicago the people of that city, 
 on the 18th of June, at a public meeting, adopted and pub- 
 lished an address to General Williams and the officers and sol- 
 diers of his command, warmly thanking them " for the prompt 
 and efficient aid rendered by them when the citizens of Chi- 
 cago were without protection and had not the means of de- 
 fending themselves." 
 
 Although from circumstan(!es beyond their control, the 
 Michigan troops organized for the Black Hawk war, both in- 
 fantry and cavalry, were not afi'orded the opportunity they so 
 much desired of taking an active part in the war by meeting 
 the enemy, yet their courage and patriotism were none the 
 less. Having volunteered in a good cause and undertaken a 
 march of great hardship on foot of several hundred miles, 
 much of it over badly constructed roads, through a country, a 
 large portion of which was then comparatively a wilderness, 
 and withal scantily provided with supplies and equipment, 
 entitled them to much vvell-deserved credit. 
 
 Major (Tcneral Scott accompanied the detachment sent by 
 the lakts, which became much demoralized and reduced by 
 cholera, while General Atkinson commanded the forces sent 
 by the Mississippi. The Indians had been attacked and driven 
 from point to point, and were reached at their headquarters at 
 the mouth of Rock river, and finding themselves hard pressed 
 by the advancing troops, pushed up Black river, more anxious 
 to escape their pursuers than to make war on them. Tlie pur- 
 suit continued to the Wisconsin river, where they were over- 
 taken, and a spirited fight ensued. The Indians, defeated, 
 crossed the river in the night, still pursued closely by the 
 troops. They were overtaken near th e mouth of the Bad Axe 
 
ADDRKSS OF GEN. JOHN KOBEKTSON. 461 
 
 rivur, which runs into the Mississippi river about forty miles 
 above Prairie du Chien. A steamer, tlie Warrior, liad been 
 sent up the Mississippi river with troops and armed with a six- 
 pounder, to prevent their escape across the river. Thus sur- 
 rounded, tlie Indians fell easy victims, and the battle soon 
 terminated in the total destruction of a very large portion of 
 Black Hawk's followers, men, women and children, and the 
 capture and dispersion of the remainder ; and thus ended the 
 battle of Bad Axe, the tinal engagement of the Black Hawk 
 War. The official reports give the loss by the whites at 
 twenty five killed and wounded. The entire loss by the array 
 in the war, including the murders of settlers, and exclusive of 
 the ravages of cholera, was estimated at about fifty, while the 
 Indians were reported to have lost 230 killed in battle and a 
 great number died of wounds, with a great loss by starvation, 
 disease and drowning among the women and children. Black 
 Hawk hastily made his escape with his Prophet from Bad Axe, 
 and a large reward was offered for his capture. The fugitives 
 pursued their lonely retreat to the dalles on the Wisconsin 
 river, and were there captured by One-eyed-De-Cor-ra, a chief 
 of the Winnebagos, who delivered them as prisoners of war 
 on the "-'Tth of August to General Street, Indian Agent at 
 Prairie du Chien. 
 
 '■ 1 will weep for a sea.suu ou bilteruess' bed; 
 For my kindred are gone to the bills of the dead, 
 But they died nat by hunger or lingering decay, 
 The steel of the white man bath swept them away." 
 
 The hostile chief was sent down the river with an escort in 
 charge of Lieut. Jefferson Davis, of the regular army, to 
 Jefferson Barracks, Mo., and held as a prisoner of war several 
 months, a portion of the time confined at Fortress Monroe, 
 from which he was taken in June, 18:^8, and escorted through 
 the principal cities and towns for the purpose .of enlightening 
 him as to the power of the country, of which he seemed to be 
 entirely ignorant, and finally reaching the Mississippi river he 
 was released from arrest and lived in quiet on the banks of 
 that river, where he died Oct. '2;^, 1838. 
 
 What is known as the Toledo v.'ar was one of very peculiar 
 and harmless cliaracter, beginning in perspective and ending 
 without collision, right, or casualty, yet e.viiibiting on the start 
 
462 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 on both sides a maximum of bombastic thrcatenings, pros- 
 pective of possible coming war, with bloody battles and direful 
 consequences; and although it brought out on the part of 
 Michigan the most formidable military demonstration incident 
 to a dispute between States as to territory, occurring in the 
 United States, it ended in a wordy peace which has resulted 
 in handing down the whole affair, both civil and military, in 
 undeserved traditional and written ridicule. 
 
 In the beginning of 1835 the State of Ohio undertook to 
 enfofce jurisdiction over certain territory south of the Maumee 
 Bay, which was then a portion of Michigan territory. The 
 legislative council of Michigan on February 12th of that year 
 passed an act "To prevent the exercise of foreign jurisdiction 
 within the limits of the Territory of Michigan," making it a 
 penal offence for any one to accept or exercise any public 
 office in any part of the territory, except by commission from 
 the United States or Michigan. On the 19th of the same month 
 Acting Governor Mason, in a letter of instructions in detail to 
 General Joseph W. Brown, then commanding a division of 
 Michigan militia, says: "Under existing circumstances but 
 one of two courses is left for Michigan to pursue. If Ohio 
 continues to persevere in the attempt to wrest from us our 
 territory, as she now meditates, in voluntary submission to 
 encroachment upon our rights, or firm and determined opposi- 
 tion to her, — the latter, though painful to us, is preferable to 
 the former, and must be decided upon. With this in view I 
 have, with due regard to the important task assigned you, con- 
 cluded to give you the control of the measures necessary to be 
 adopted in consequenceof the peculiar and unpleasant relations 
 which I fear may soon exist between the civil authorities of 
 Ohio and those of this territory." 
 
 On the 2.3d following, the Oiiio Legislature asserting the 
 right of that State, and declaring that measures should be 
 taken to establish it. Governor Lucas placed a Major General 
 of militia in command, with instructions to enroll the militia 
 of tlie districts in dispute, for the purpose of protection, while 
 running a boundary line which Ohio insisted on accom- 
 plishing. The matter of boundary had been laid before Con- 
 gress, but failed to receive attention, and the Acting Governor 
 of Michigan, considering his territory in possession, ordered 
 
ADDRESS OF GKN. .lOlfX KOBKUTSON. 463 
 
 General Brown to hold himself in readiness to resist any 
 attempt of Ohio to carry out the threatened measures, the 
 right of Michigan being sustained by the Attorney General of 
 the United States, and also by the President and his advisers. 
 After a futile attempt at conciliation and considerable delay, 
 Ohio still persisting in her claim, the President intimated by 
 letter that if that State attempted running tlie line with an 
 armed force he would have to interfere to prevent it by the 
 power of tlie United States. Still affairs remained quiet, with 
 an occasional difficulty, but without any military demonstra- 
 tion. It was ascertained, however, that in accordance with 
 the views of the Ohio Legislatuie, a new county (Lucas) was 
 to be organized over the disj)uted territory, and that court was 
 to be opened at Toledo on the 7th of September, 1S85, and 
 that this move was to be protected by Ohio troops. To meet 
 this contemplated action Governor Mason ordered out the 
 Micliigan foi-ces, and with them in person moved on Toledo, 
 but on arriving there no opj)Osing force was encountered, and 
 he peacefully took possession of the place, hohling it for four 
 days, when under an order of Septeml)er 10th they returned 
 and were disbanded at their various rendezvous, not having 
 fired a gun at an enemy nor lost a man. The force numbered 
 in all 1,05.5 officers and men, and were paid over thirteen 
 thousand dollars for their services. Ohio finally succeeded by 
 strong political influence in obtaining the disputed ground, but 
 only with what was claimed to have been the consent of 
 Michigan, in lieu of which she received what is now known as 
 the Upper Peninsula. 
 
 Thus have been briefly recorded the military operations of 
 the land of Michigan, the struggles of the inhabitants under 
 the blighting effects of feudal surroundings, their courageous 
 and trying contests with savages, for the protection of property 
 and life, in common with the military power of several govern- 
 ments, of which they were from time to time the subjects. 
 We have seen the French banner supplanted by the red cross 
 of England without producing any beneficial change in the 
 condition of the countrv; we have also seen the American 
 l)ainu'r surrendereil to IJritish invaders. Hut finally we have 
 belield the stars and stripes of i>iir own Republic planted on 
 the soil and Hying ovt'r it as a State, anil wit ncsscil in her 
 
^64 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 extraordinary prosperity the wonder-working energy of her 
 people under the free institutions of a government, the 
 permanency of which has been so fully and permanently estab- 
 lished in the results of a gigantic civil war, unequalled in 
 history. 
 
 In June, 1835, Michigan adopted a Constitution and elected 
 a State Government, with Stevens T. Mason as Governor, Nov. 
 3, 1835, which was accepted by Congress on June 15, 1836, 
 and Michigan was admitted into the Union as a State upon 
 condition of acceding to the boundary claims of Ohio. This 
 condition, which was at first rejected by a convention called 
 by the Legislature to consider it, was finally accepted by a 
 second convention Dec. 15, 1836, and Michigan was formally 
 declared a State by Act of Congress January 26, 1837. 
 
 In the winter of 1837-38 a very feeble effort at revolu- 
 tion, known as the Patriot war, broke out along the Canadian 
 border, instigated by dissatisfied residents of Canada, encour- 
 aged by a lawless element on the American side, which gave 
 the government and Michigan considerable annoyance and 
 trouble. General Scott was ordered to the frontier to aid in 
 preserving peace on the American side and enforcing the 
 observance of the neutrality laws, who, with General Brady, 
 then in command in Michigan, rendered efticient service. 
 
 On January 8th, 1838, Governor Mason with 220 volunteer 
 militia embarked on the steamers Erie and Brady, to arrest the 
 schooner Ann with stolen American arms on board and having 
 committed a violation of neutrality; but the vessel escaping to 
 one of the islands outside of American jurisdiction, the expedi- 
 tion proved entirely a failure. 
 
 On January 27th, the steamer Robert Fulton with three com- 
 panies of United States troops in command of General Worth, 
 arrived at Detroit from Buffalo. In the meantime the Michigan 
 Brady Guard had been ordered out for special service on the 
 line of the river. On February 12th, Governor Mason called 
 out six companies of militia to proceed to Gibraltar, where a 
 large and riotous force had congregated after the patriot de- 
 feat on Fighting Island. On arriving at the place with his 
 force the Governor prevailed on the patriots to disband, but 
 they soon collected again for another attempt. 
 
 During the summer and the early j)art of the winter, the 
 
ADDRESS OF GP:N. JOHN RoBKKTSON. 465 
 
 frontier was Still iu continual commotion, attacks being made at 
 various points along the line. In December, a force of about 
 180 to 200, in command of General L. V. Bierce, of Ohio, 
 boarded a steamer at Detroit, crossed over and landing about 
 three miles above Windsor, marched to tlie British barracks, 
 which they attacked and burned; meantime the British regulars 
 being reinforced from Maiden, the patriots were driven across 
 the river to Hog Island (now Belle Isle), in canoes, with a 
 loss of twenty-one killed, four ca])tured and shot by order* 
 twelve or more frozen to death, and sixty-Hve taken prisoners. 
 
 On December !)th General Scott hail arrived from Buffalo for 
 the purpose of maintaining neutrality; and later in that month 
 about one thousand British troops had been concentrated at 
 Windsor, but tlie war on that part of the frontier had prac- 
 tically ended. 
 
 In 1839, under the administration of Governor Woodbridge, 
 the un-uniformed militia of the state was regularly organized, 
 mostly on paper, however, with eight divisions of two brigades 
 of two regiments each, including the few uniformed companies 
 then in the State. 
 
 The war with Mexico was a result of the annexa- 
 tion of Texas, and brought about by a dispute over the 
 boundary line, the Mexicans claiming the Nueces river as 
 the line, while the United States insisted on the Rio Grande. 
 Mexico, determined to enforce her claim, occupied with troops 
 the territory in controversy, thereby bringing on the war, 
 which was substantially inaugurated in the early part of Aug- 
 ust, 1845, by the occupation of a portion of the disputed ter- 
 ritory at Corpus Christi by an army of the United States, 
 under General Zachary Taylor, who, on March Ilth, 1846, 
 commenced a movement inland, meeting the Mexicans in 
 severe battles at several points in Texas, defeating them in 
 every instance in face of largely superior numbers, and driv- 
 ing them out of Texas across the Rio Grande. Pursuing them 
 into their own territory, again meeting them in severe engage- 
 ments, defeating and following them from point to point as 
 far as Saltillo, and at Buena Vista, in his last and greatest 
 battle on February 2'2nd and 2:3rd, 1847, where, against over- 
 whelming odds, he routed Santa Anna, driving his native army 
 30 
 
466 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 from the field, and occupied and held the entire northern por- 
 tion of Mexico until the war ended. 
 
 In March, 1847, another army, in command of Lieutenant 
 General Scott, entered Mexico at Vera Cruz, and advanced 
 without <lelay on the City of Mexico, engaging the enemy in 
 force at several points in heavy battles, but defeating him in 
 every instance, driving him from stronghold to stronghold, 
 until finally he attacked him within the fortifications defending 
 that city, resulting in its capitulation with the entire Mexican 
 army, which ended the war with that country, and maintained 
 the claim to the territory in dispute. 
 
 Michigan fully performed the part required of her in the 
 war by sending to the field one regiment of ten companies of 
 infantry, together with one separate company as volunteers, 
 and one company of dragoons and three companies of infantry 
 for the regular array. 
 
 In October, 1847, an order was issued by direction of the 
 President for mustering the regiment into the service of the 
 United States, and the measures necessary to secure a com- 
 pliance with that order were taken without delay by the proper 
 authorities of the State. 
 
 The regiment was designated the First Regiment Michigan 
 Volunteers, commanded by Colonel T. B. W. Stockton, and 
 was mustered into the service at various dates during the 
 months of October, November and December, 1847, and Jan- 
 uary and February, 1848. 
 
 The regiment remained in the field, rendering faithful and 
 efficient service until the close of the war, when it returned to 
 Michigan via New Orleans, Chicago and Mackinac to Detroit, 
 where it was mustered out of service July 23, 184s. 
 
 The company of dragoons referred to was organized in De- 
 troit by Captain Andrew T. McReynolds for the Third United 
 States Dragoons. The three companies of infantry were for 
 the Fifteenth Regular Infantry, commanded by Colonel George 
 W. Morgan, of Ohio, with Joshua Howard, of Detroit, as 
 Lieutenant Colonel. Tiie separate company referred to was 
 the Brady Guard Company of Detroit, Captain Morgan L. 
 Gage, which was sent to Mackinaw and Saulte Ste. Marie to 
 relieve companies of regulars for service in the war. 
 
 Following this war the uniformed militia was composed of 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN RoUERTSON. 467 
 
 independent companies, raised from time to time throusyhout 
 the State, made up from tlie best young men of the communi 
 ties ill wliich they vvere recruited. At the time of the break- 
 ing out of the civil war tliey consisted of twenty-eight se])a- 
 rate companies, without any regimental formation, uniformed 
 at their own expense, only partially equipped, but well armed; 
 
 " For with a common shriek the ,<!;eneral tongue 
 Exchiimed ! 'To arms.' and fast to arms tliey sprang, 
 And valor woke that Genius of the land ! 
 Pleasure, and ease, and sloth aside he flung, 
 As burst th' awakening Nazarite his band, 
 When 'gainst his treacherous foes he clenched his dreadful hand." 
 
 The great war for the Union waged against secession and 
 rebellion, inaugurated in 1861 by the armed uprising of the 
 people of the Southern States and the attack on Fort Sumter, 
 boldly assailing and defying the Government and insulting the 
 tiag, was sudden and alarming, gigantic in proportions* 
 destructive in prosecution, ])rolonged in duration, but most 
 triumphant and glorious in termination. 
 
 Michigan, from tlic beginning, was strong and earnest in 
 sympath)'' with the Union cause, and, believing in its justice 
 and right, she was pronounced in her loyalty, persistent and 
 untiring in furnishing her contiiigcmt to the war to aid in 
 saving the nation, was conspicuously present in force at its 
 commencement and at its end. Thus fulfilling the sacred 
 pledge of the people at the outbreak, consecrating their strong 
 arras, their means, and if need be their lives, to defend and 
 maintain the Government, under all circumstances and at all 
 hazards and sacrifices, declaring that the emergency and neces- 
 sity of the time must be met speedily and fully. 
 
 The war found the uniformed militia in better condition 
 than might have been expected^ considering its struggles for 
 many years to acquire recognition or assistance as an element 
 of the State government, but so far had failed. It was no 
 wonder that it was regarded as delicate and feeble, and rather 
 looked upon as a burlesque on the military profession. It 
 proved, however, a valuable nucleus, from which rallied the 
 earlier regiments sent to the war, giving them much of the 
 discipline and esprit de corps which afterward characterized 
 them ill the field. 
 
468 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Notwithstanding the weakness of the State in a military- 
 point of view, as well as in her financial resources, she was 
 strong in loyalty, coui*age and patriotism. 
 
 On retiring from the executive chair at the close of his term, 
 in 1860, Governor Wisner delivered a cogent and eloquent 
 address to the Legislature of 1861. In discussing the great 
 question of secession, his language bore no shadow of flatter- 
 ing, no tinge of disaffection or doubtfulness, but in great 
 earnestness and stirring eloquence and firmness breathing in 
 every sentence devotion to the Union, invoking patriotism and 
 denouncing treason, we quote some of his inspiring words : 
 " This is no time for timid and vacillating councils, when the 
 cry of treason and rebellion is ringing in our ears." " The 
 Constitution, as our fathers made it, is good enough for us, 
 and must be enforced upon every foot of American soil." 
 " Michigan cannot recognize the right of a State to secede 
 from this Union. We believe that the founders of our Gov- 
 ernment designed it to be perpetual, and we cannot consent to 
 have one star obliterated from our flag. For upwards of 
 thirty years this question of the right of a State to secede has 
 been agitated. It is time it was settled. We ought not 
 to leave it for our children to look after." "I would calmly 
 but firmly declare it to be the fixed determination of Michigan 
 that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, must 
 and shall be preserved." 
 
 Governor Blair, the war Governor, followed Wisner in a 
 profound and logical message, setting forth the true nature of 
 our system of government, and after discussing the impend- 
 ing crisis, closed with these emphatic utterances: "We are 
 satisfied with the Constitution of our country and will obey 
 the laws enacted under it, and we must demand that the peo- 
 ple of all the other States do the same; safety lies in this path 
 alone. The Union must be preserved, and the laws must be 
 enforced in all parts of it at whatever cost. The President is 
 bound to this by his oath and no power can discharge him 
 from it. Secession is revolution, and revolution in the overt 
 act is treason and must be treated as such. The Federal Gov- 
 ernment has the power to defend itself, and I do not do\ibt 
 that power will be exercised to the utmost. It is a question of 
 war that the seceding States have to look in the face. They who 
 
ADDRESS OK GEN. JOHN liOHKKTSON. 469 
 
 tliiiik that this powerful CTOvermuent can be disrupted peace- 
 fully have read history to no j)urpose. The sons of the men 
 who carried arms in the seven years war with the most power- 
 ful nation in the world to establish this Government will not 
 hesitate to make equal sacrifices to maintain it. Most deeply 
 must we deplore the unnatural contest. On the heads of the 
 traitors who provoke it must rest the responsibility. In such 
 a contest the God of battles has no attribute that can take 
 sides with the revolutionists of the Slave States. 
 
 "I recommend you at an early day to make manifest to the 
 gentlemen who represent this State in the two Houses of Con- 
 gress, and to the country, that Michigan is loyal to the Union, 
 the Constitution and the laws, and will defend them to the 
 uttermost; and to proffer to the President of the United States 
 the whole military power of the State for that purpose. Oh! 
 for the firm, steady hand of a Washington or a Jackson to 
 guide the ship of state in this perilous storm. Let us hope 
 that we shall find him on the 4th of Mai'ch. Meantime, let us 
 abide in the faith of our fathers — 'Liberty and Union, one and 
 inseparable, now and forever.' " 
 
 The Legislature, backed by the strong Union sentiment of 
 the people, and inspired by its own love of country, was quick 
 in defining its position, and pron)ptly flying its colors to the 
 western breeze, declared in joint resolution the adherence of 
 the State to the Union, pledging and tendering all its military 
 power and material resources, anil asserting that concession or 
 compromise was not to be entertained, nor offered to traitors. 
 Michigan was extremely fortunate in her executive. His 
 example and utterances in public and private, full of loyalty, 
 patriotism and courage, gave an abiding tone to public senti- 
 ment and inspired the troops. And although the intense pre- 
 vailing patriotism of the people of Michigan was undoubtedly 
 the main source of the high standard reached by her troops 
 in this respect, yet it being so eminently inherent in her " War 
 Governor," Austin Blair, and which he so eloquently imparted 
 to them on every fitting occasion, impressing it on their minds 
 with so mucli earnestness as to produce most beneficial and 
 enduring eflFects. 
 
 The State was equally fortunate in her Legislative bodies, 
 being composed of men thoroughly in sympathy with the 
 
470 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Union cause, opposing with great earnestness and ability any 
 measures tinctured in the least with secession or even a shadow 
 of compromise; and as a result their declarations in this 
 respect were "stalwart" and decided, not minced in clipped or 
 timid words, nor faint in expression, but bold, pronounced and 
 defiant. 
 
 In the management of her interests at the National Capital 
 the State was well represented, having in the several depart- 
 ments of the Government men of influence, who esteemed the 
 reputation of their State, and were ever anxious and prompt 
 to advance her cause. In her representatives in both Houses 
 of Congress she was especially favored, and with these advan- 
 tages Michigan unhesitatingly, but reluctantly, although hope- 
 fully and fearlessly, launched her bark on the turbulent sea of 
 war on rebellion. 
 
 In the meantime, however, Sumter had been tired on. With 
 the early dawn comes the expected shot, and like the deep 
 thunder, awakes the morning echoes and rolls over the trembling 
 waters of the bay. No single shot before ever bore such desti. 
 nies on its darkened flight. 
 
 The tocsin of the gigantic and wicked rebellion, the key-note 
 of civil war, had been heard all over the land ; the National banner 
 had been insulted by the fire of treason's batteries, when the 
 loyal young men of Michigan sprang, as if by magic, to arms, 
 to defend and maintain the National Union and protect its 
 flag; to sustain the honor of their State and maintain their 
 own glorious birthright as freemen. They vowed to God and 
 their native land, and pledged their arms and their lives, that 
 the beloved flag of their country should again wave triumph- 
 antly on the walls of Sumter, and over every Slate and inch 
 of ground in the Union, and that the Republic should be 
 saved and forever preserved. 
 
 Nothing was definitely undertaken by the State authoriticg 
 until April 15th, when the surrender of the Carolina fortress 
 was known throughout the land, and Michigan had been called 
 on for her quota of the 75,000 volunteers required by the 
 Government. The eventful hour had come with its emergen- 
 cies and duties, and being fully realized by the people of the 
 State, the excitement was intense, the uprising universal, and 
 business was almost abandoned. Flags waved from every 
 
ADDKKSS OK (tEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 471 
 
 public building .ind piivate dwelling, alike on the palace and 
 on the cot, while the drum beat to music of the Union from 
 our soutliern border to the far off and craggy shores of our 
 great lakes. The volunteers in large numbers were assembling 
 in various parts, demanding instant service, while the cheering 
 and inspiring watch-fires of patriotism had been kindled on 
 every hillside and in every valley. 
 
 " Throughout the laud there goes a cry; 
 A sudden splendor tills the sky, 
 From every hill the banners burst. 
 Like buds by April breezes nurst; 
 In every hamlet, home and mart, 
 The firebeat of a single lieart 
 Keeps time to strains whose pulses mix 
 Our blood with that of Seventy-Six." 
 
 The proclamation of the President, received April loth, and 
 his own anxiety regarding coming events, coupled with a de- 
 termination for immediate action, brought Governor Blair to 
 Deti'oit on the IGth, and after a short consultation with mili- 
 tary men and prominent citizens, issued his proclamation for 
 a regiment to till the re(juisition of the Govi.'rnment, which 
 was promptly responded to, and the tender (^f troops far ex- 
 ceeded the number required. 
 
 At the meeting of the citizens it was ascertained that the 
 State Treasury was comparatively empty, and that the pressing 
 call for means could not be immediately met; pledges were 
 then and afterwards taken from the financial men of the State 
 for 1100,000, the amount required, on which John Owen, the 
 State Treasurer, raised the funds, afterwards refunded by the 
 State. Thus all the pressing duties of the hour were speedily 
 met. 
 
 The Governor had also issued a proclamation on April 2, 
 1861, convening the Legislature in extra session on the 7th of 
 May. A session of four days resulted in the passage of laws 
 endorsing the previous acts of the Governor, and clothing him 
 with full authority to raise ten regiments, and also to effect a 
 loan of one million of dollars, which was speedily accom- 
 plished. A "Soldiers' Relief Law" was also wisely and 
 generously enacted, providing aid for one year for the fami- 
 lies of soldiers, according to their necessities, but not to exceed 
 
472 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 fiftet'u doUiirs a month. The President's call for troops was 
 promptly met by the muster-in of the First Regiment and its 
 early movement on May 13th to the field, having the honor of 
 being the first regiment reaching Washington from the AYest. 
 Hurriedly the advance of the Michigan contingent took up 
 their line of march southward to defend the capital and pro- 
 tect the flag; and as their many friends, with warm and true 
 hearts, grasped the hand and kissed the brow, with " God bless 
 and protect you," in affectionate whispers, thought reached 
 not so far into the future, nor mind conceived that the little 
 band then bidding adieu to loved ones and homes, were but 
 the " advance guard'''' of the large army that was to follow, 
 and which in saving the nat'ional life, and in bringing so much 
 honor to the State, was to give up to the sword, the bayonet 
 and the bullet so much of life's best blood. 
 
 " We struck our camp at break of day, we marched uuto the light, 
 We hxid the rose of pleasure dowa, aad grasped the thorns of right; 
 The drum's tones were joy to us, the fife was sweetly shrill, 
 The flapping of our country's flag, it made our pulses thrill," 
 
 Reaching Washington at a critical time, when Confederate 
 troops flaunted their flag on Arlington Heights, claiming, de- 
 fiantly, equality with the old banner of freedom floating from 
 the dome of the National Capitol, when rebel pickets patrolled 
 the banks of the Potomac and bivouacked under tlie old trees 
 that shade the tomb of Washington. 
 
 In the meantime authority had been received from the War 
 Department to raise three regiments, already in progress of 
 recruitment and pressing for service; but at the same time 
 stating that it was *' important to reduce rather than increase 
 the number.'''' Thus disappointing many companies outside of 
 the organizations authorized, which led them to find service in 
 other States. 
 
 This limited and mistaken policy of the Government was 
 not in aecord with the views of the Governor as to the neces- 
 sities of the country at the time, nor in the immediate future; 
 and deeming immediate preparation to meet the emergencies 
 necessary, took the responsibility, and on June 19, 1861, es- 
 tablished a "Camp of Instruction" at Fort Wayne for the 
 officers and non-commissioned officers of the Fifth, Si.vth and 
 
ADDRESS OF CKN . JOHN ROBERTSON. 473 
 
 Seventh Rei^iineiits, which was continued until August 1st 
 following, when tlie regiments were sjieedily tilled up and 
 took the Held in fine condition. 
 
 The course of instruction at the canii» was that of the regu- 
 lar arniv, bringing about most beneficial results, not only in 
 the regiments present, but which afterwards l)ecame infused 
 into many others; and although the only camp of the kind or- 
 ganized during the war, it was universally recognized as a val- 
 uable and timely measure. 
 
 The great pressure for the acceptance of companies, outside 
 those designated for the camp, continued unabated, while the 
 personal applications and importunities of others for commis- 
 sions seemed to be at a maximum, regardless of natural or 
 acquired qualifications for the place. In his perplexing and 
 responsible position, the Governor recognized ability and 
 fealty to the cause as the test, more than personal friendship 
 or |)olitical status. 
 
 Michigan, in quick response to all requisitions, continued a 
 vigorous recruitment, sending regiment after regiment to the 
 front, arid had placed in the field up to December 81, ISOl, 
 thirteen regiments of infantry, three of cavalry, and five bat- 
 talions of artillery, with a total strength of 16,475 oflticers and 
 
 men. 
 
 " From city's dome 
 
 And village home, 
 
 The thousands come, 
 Still marchiiiir to the 'Old Flair's' aid, 
 
 Each knows his part, 
 
 And every heart 
 Moves onward, calm and undismayed 
 
 By Treason's fiery dart." 
 
 Meanwhile thirteen companies had found service in other 
 States, thus sacrificing in their extreme patriotism and anxiety 
 to be early in the field, the preferable service with the Michi- 
 gan troops, thus ent itiiii'j tlitni to a credit not often given or 
 ever remembered. 
 
 In his eloquent anil fi>r('il)l(' message of January, 1S6'2, to the 
 Legislature, then in extra session, and which was accepted at 
 the time as the expression of the people of Michigan on the war 
 question, the Governor occupied his usual strong ground for 
 the Union, and was interestingly pungent against treason and 
 
474 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 rebellion. In closing, he urged a more active prosecution of 
 the war, advocating with vigoi'ous earnestness the confiscation 
 and seizure of rebel property wherever found, and its applica- 
 tion to the maintenance of the armies in the field. 
 
 The Legislature, fully endorsing the sentiments of the mes- 
 sage, was equally firm, forcible and acrimonious in a resolu- 
 tion on the same subject, and requesting the Governor to for- 
 ward a copy thereof to the Michigan Senators and Representa- 
 tives in Congress. 
 
 Recruiting was successfully being prosecuted in the early 
 part of 1862, five regiments of infantry and three batteries of 
 artillery being in rapid progress of recruitment; but as the 
 summer approached, and immediately following the disastrous 
 Peninsular campaign, it had entirely failed, rendering the com- 
 pletion of regiments almost impossible. Public meetings were 
 resorted to as encouragement. One held at Detroit in .luly was 
 furiously interrupted and dispersed by a mob of men supposed 
 to be largely made up of Southern refugees and sympathizers 
 with rebellion from Canada. This led to the assembling, in 
 the open air at an early day, of an immense public gathering, 
 composed of respectable and enthusiastic citizens of all 
 classes and conditions, determined on establishing the right to 
 hold and conduct such meetings. It was a complete success, 
 severely rebuking the rebel element, avowing the most faith- 
 ful and persistent prosecution of the war, pledging their per- 
 sonal encouragement, subscribing means at the time for the 
 recruitment of troops, and urging the re-inforcement of the 
 armies in the field. 
 
 This prompt action of the citizens had the desired effect, 
 giving recruiting a new life and serving to end all demonstra- 
 tions or personal efforts in the metropolis of the State, or else- 
 where, opposing the raising of men for the armies of the 
 Union. 
 
 The influence and action of this meeting spreading through- 
 out the State, aided greatly in completing the regiments re- 
 ferred to and in the recruitment of eight others, all of which 
 took the field in a little more than thirty days, an example of 
 recruiting unequaled in this State, or perhaps in any other 
 during the war. 
 
 Individuals of every degree of prominence had interested 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. ,U>llS KoBKKTSON. 475 
 
 theinselvc'S in recruiting; war nu'otings were Leld in almost 
 every village and township in the State. Representatives of 
 all classes converted themselves either into reci'uits or recruit- 
 ing otticers, and among the most efficient of the latter were 
 ministers of the Gospel, some of whom le(l the men they had 
 enlisted into the field. 
 
 The progress of the struggle and conseijuent calls of the 
 President for men to re-inforce the armies in the field de- 
 manded the continuous raising of troops by the States, and 
 Michigan, filling all her obligations had sent to the front, from 
 the commencement of the war to December 31, 1862, six regi- 
 ments of cavalry, twenty-seven regiments of infantry, nine 
 batteries of light artillery, one regiment of engineers and six 
 separate companies of infantry, which carried on their muster- 
 in rolls 34,890 officers and men, not including the thirteen com- 
 panies which found service iti other States. 
 
 The patriotism of the men composing these regiments will 
 not be questioned, as they entered the service in the darkest 
 days of the war and when money. could not have entered into 
 the question, as neither Government, State nor local bounties 
 were being paid, while, physically, mentally and morally the 
 composite of the regiments was made up of the best young 
 men of the State, and probably were not excelled in the troops 
 of any other State, or in the armies of any other nation. 
 
 The military operations in the field in 1862 had not been 
 much in favor of the ll^nion cause, yet neither the army nor 
 the people of the country seemed much discouraged. In Michi- 
 gan there was no faltering or timid foreboding of coming dis- 
 astrous events, but a firm and positive determination to press 
 on to ultimate and speedy success. 
 
 In his message to the Legislature of 1863 the Governor com- 
 mended the Michigan troops to their sympathy and support, 
 alluding to their gallant and efficient services in the field in 
 glowing, kindly words. 
 
 In February following the Legislature expressed in strong 
 terms in a resolution (lie sentiments of the people on the war 
 question, saying: 'That we are unalterably o|)posed to any 
 terms of compromise and accommodation with the rebels, 
 while under arms and acting in hostility to the Government 
 of the Union, and on this we express but (;ne sentiment — un- 
 
4:76 Michigan's vSemi-centennial. 
 
 conditional submission and obedience to the laws and Constitu- 
 tion of the Union." 
 
 This Legislature also passed acts authorizing the payment 
 of bounties, and generously appropriating $20,000 to assist 
 wounded and sick soldiers; to be distributed by agencies estab- 
 lished by the Governor. 
 
 In February a draft was accomplished under the State law, 
 with very small results. In March following Congress enacted 
 a law making provision for drafting in localities where quotas 
 were unfilled, assigning the necessary Government officers to 
 carry it into effect. The system was continued until the close 
 of the war, but was very little enforced in Michigan, as most 
 of her troops preferred to volunteer. 
 
 A call was made by the President for 300,000 men specially 
 intended for re-inforcing depleted regiments in the field. A 
 proclamation was at once published, urging a prompt and 
 effective response, in which the Governor said: 
 
 "This call is ior soldiers to fill the ranks of the regiments in 
 the field — those regiments which, by long and gallant service, 
 have wasted their numbers in the same proportion that they 
 have made a distinguished name, both for themselves and the 
 State. The people of Michigan will recognize this as a duty 
 already too long delayed. Our young men, I trust, will hasten 
 to stand beside the heroes of Antietam, Gettysburg, Vicks- 
 burg, Stone River and Uhickamauga. 
 
 "The hopes of the rebellion are steadily perishing. The 
 armies of the Republic are in the midst of their country and 
 they have not the power to expel them. 
 
 " Fill up the ranks once more and the next blast of the 
 bugle for an advance will sound the knell of revolution and 
 herald in the return of peace. 
 
 " Fellow citizens, let us do it icillingly, gallantly, jotjousli/. 
 The people of Michigan have heretofore earned the gratitude 
 of the country by their promptness and energy in the support 
 of the Government." 
 
 This appeal was received by the people of the State with 
 the same cordial response that had charaeterizeii their action 
 on all previous demands of the Government, and they went to 
 work with their usual alacrity and success. 
 
 During 1803, although only five regiments of cavalry, two 
 of infantry and three batteries had been sent to the front, yet, 
 together with recruits, nearly 14,000 had been recruited, and 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN KOBERTSON. 4r ( i 
 
 since the commencement of the war a total of nearly 54,000 
 men had been sent by the State to the armies in the field. 
 
 In November, 18G3, on information from the War Depart- 
 ment, tlie military authorities in Detroit discovered a plot 
 involving the complicity of the rebel government having in 
 view the liberation of the rebel prisoners, all officers, on Kelly's 
 Island, near Sandusky, Oliio, but it was frustrated by a timely 
 report to the commander of the U. S. steamer Michigan, then 
 lying near that island. An attempt to put it into force and 
 accomplish the purpose was made by the seizure of the small 
 steamer Philo Parsons, then running between Detroit and 
 Sandusky, by an armed party led by liennett G. Hurley, 
 holding a commission as master in the rebel navy, numbering, 
 in all, about thirty persons, taking passage at Detroit and 
 Amherstburg, in Canada, who on the way down took forcible 
 possession of her and robbed her clerk of all the money on 
 board; and in the meantime had taken and sunk the steamer 
 Islau'l (^ueen on her way to Detroit, making prisoners the crew 
 and passengers. On reaching a 'short distance from the island, 
 not receiving an expected signal, the project was abandoned 
 and the steamer returned to Sandwich, where she was pillaged 
 and then surrendeix'd to the crew. 
 
 The important event occurring in the winter of 1863-1864 
 was the return of the veterans, 5,54.5 strong, who had re-en- 
 listed for another term of service, entitling their respective 
 organizations to the designation of veterans. 
 
 During the prosecution of the war there were many encour- 
 aging and promising features developed that indicated a 
 successful and satisfactory end of the rebellion; but none more 
 foreil)le or of greater import, or that will fill a brighter page 
 in history, than the timely and glorious tiiliutv voluntarily 
 made to their country by the veterans of the war. .Michigan 
 was proud of her veterans, scarred, wounded and weather- 
 beaten as they were; glorious evidences of faithful service, true 
 l)ravery and gallant deeds, and fully appieeiated their true 
 devotion and great sacritii-i'. 
 
 A singular tact was estal)lished regarding tlii' Michigan 
 soldiers of the war, and particularly among the re-enlisted 
 veterans, both by personal observation and the examination of 
 descriptive lists, that a large prtipurtion of those who stood 
 
478 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 the service best and endured the longest, bore strong marks of 
 the nervo- sanguine temperament, having florid complexions, 
 some with red or tawny beards, most of them having brown or 
 light brown hair, and some had red hair, wliile few had dark 
 con)plexions, black hair or black beards, clearly showing that 
 a very large number of both officers and men whose endurance 
 enabled them to undertake and accomplish the most arduous 
 service were of the com|)]exion and temperament referred to. 
 This was so noticeable in one of the Michigan regiments that 
 the colonel, when he had a detail to make involving a necessity 
 for great endurance in overcoming hardships, directed that 
 sandy-haired men be selected. 
 
 Prominent among the operations of 1863 was the important 
 battle of Gettysburg, in wliich the Michigan troops bore a 
 conspicuous part — that battle, which in effect proclaimed with 
 most pronounced force to the monster rebellion: "Thus far 
 hast thou dared to come, but must advance no farther at thy 
 peril; back to thy rebel den; henceforth thou canst only fight 
 on the defensive, for thy aggressive power is broken, and thou 
 must crumble to pieces until thou art dead, thy rebel spirit 
 crushed to atoms, never to rise again." 
 
 The Legislature of 1864 authorized an increase of State 
 bounty, and townships and wards of cities were also empow- 
 ered to raise moneys for the same purpose. In the meantime 
 calls for men continued, and the Governor took the necessary 
 means to respond, pointing out by proclamation, in explicit 
 terms, the readiest and most feasible plans to raise the required 
 quotas. 
 
 About this time, under an act of Congress, States were 
 allowed to recruit colored troops from the States in rebellion, 
 and authorized the appointment of agents for that service. 
 This, however, the Governor declined to do, saying that our 
 only resource will be that which has heretofore been found 
 sufficient, the j)atriotism of our people. He did not, therefore, 
 take advantage of the provisions of the act, as he did not approve 
 of, nor would he encourage, this mode of raising soldiers for the 
 armies, thereby coinci<ling with the views of most of the promi- 
 nent generals of the array. Although it may here be stated that 
 several eastern States were hasty in embracing the opportunity. 
 
 Regiments continued to be recruited and formed for service, 
 
ADDRESS OK GEN. JOHN KODEKTSON. 479 
 
 while the reports showed that from the beuiiiiiiiig of the war 
 to December 31, 18t>:3, the State had fiiriiislied 53,749 men, 
 and that during the first ten months of 1864 it liad raised 
 27,6l(j, exhibiting tiie striking fact that in tliat time more than 
 half as many men had been recruited as were during the first 
 three years of the war. The strongest evidence possible that 
 Michigan had not weakened in lier dut}', nor lessened her early 
 determination of prosecuting the war to a successful and satis- 
 factory termination, the enlistments up to November 1st, 1864, 
 giving 81,365 of a total credit. During the year only five 
 legiments of infantry and two batteries of artillery had been 
 orgaiiizi'd, tlic regiments in the licKl receiving the balance of 
 recruits. 
 
 In accortlance with an act of the Legislature, approved 
 February 5th, 1804, to enable the qualified electors of this 
 State in the military service to vote at certain elections, the 
 same were held amongst the Michigan troops in the service of 
 the United States on the 7th day of November, 1864. They 
 took place under the supervision of commissioners appointed, 
 and were conducted in com|)liance with the instructions 
 contained in letter of ap|)ointment by the Governt)r. 
 
 The result gave Henry II. Crapo, Rejuiblican, 9.612 votes 
 for Gt)verni)r, wliih' 2,992 were given to William M. Fenton, 
 Democrat. 
 
 In view of the exposed condition of the frontier in Novem- 
 ber, 1S64, being then threatened by reltel refugees and agents 
 of the rebel government, under pay, who had found cheerful 
 welcome, congenial companions, and a safe asylum in Canada 
 with tlie rebellion sympathisers, tiieii unaccountal)ly numer- 
 ous, and also in view of the limited force of troojts available 
 for its defence, on the recommendation of Major General 
 Hooker, then cotninanding the department, the Thirtieth 
 Regiment of infaniry was recruited and organized to serve 
 for one year for duty along the Detroit and St. Clair rivers. 
 
 The approach of winter caused no abatement of activity in 
 the Union armies, nor cliecked the increasing magnitude of 
 the operations. 
 
 " The end of operations of the year found the Army of the 
 Potomac in tlie trenches before Petersburg, holding Lee as in 
 a trap, Sherman's army in possession of Savannah, and Thomas 
 successful in Tennessee. 
 
480 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 "This memorable year was fraught with great results to 
 the nation, eflFected by the unparalleled fighting of hosts of 
 men, wading deep in human bloo<I through carnage dense. 
 
 "The day and night advances of Grant's army on Richmond 
 were, to the Northern people, movements producing intense 
 anxiety, strong hope, fervent prayers for success, and sorrow 
 and sadness for the patriots passing away. 
 
 "The desperate advance of Hood on Nashville had been 
 most successfully met by General Thomas, his army com- 
 pletely defeated, routed and driven in hot haste southward in 
 a most demoralized condition. 
 
 " General Sherman had gallantly driven the enemy from be- 
 yond Chattanooga and onwards, had battered down his strong 
 works at Atlanta; then, bidding farewell to his friends, and 
 placing both flanks of his noble army in air, swung off for the 
 sea, leaving the nation in great ignorance and intense uneasi- 
 ness as to his movements and safety, and is first heard from in 
 the dispatch of General Howard, of his army, saying: 'We 
 have had perfect success, and the army in fine spirits;' and 
 then by General Sherman himself, sending to Abraham Lin- 
 coln a telegram covering the capture of Savannah as a Christ- 
 mas present." 
 
 Michigan commenced' 1865 with that determination to crush 
 out the rebellion which characterized her soldiers and people 
 so far during the war. 
 
 In his retiring message to the Legislature, Governor Blair 
 alluded to the Michigan soldiers in the following beautiful and 
 kindly language: 
 
 "Again, for the last time, I commend the Michigan troops 
 to your continued care and support. They have never failed 
 in their duty to the country or to the State. Upon every great 
 battle-field of the war their shouts have been heard and their 
 sturdy blows have been delivered for the Union and victory. 
 Their hard-earned fame is the treasure of every household in 
 the Slate, and the red blood of their veins has been poured out 
 in large measure to redeem the rebellious South from its great 
 sin and curse. At this hour they stand under the flag of their 
 country, far away from home, in every quarter where the 
 enemy is to be met — along the banks of the Father of Waters, 
 in the great city at its mouths, on the Arkansas, in the captured 
 forts of the Gulf, by the waters of the Cumberland, the Ten- 
 nes!>.e(f and of the Savannah, in the chief city of the Km]>ire 
 State of the South, among the con(piering columns in the Val- 
 ley of the Shenandoah, and in the trenches under the eye of 
 the Lieutenant General in the great leaguer of Petersburg and 
 Richmond. Alas, that they are also perishing of cold and 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBKUTSON. 481 
 
 hunger, and disease, in the filthy rebel prisons and pestilential 
 camps of tlie South. In every situation their braveiy has now 
 tlie approval of their commanders, and their heroic endurance 
 of hardships has added lustre to their name. It is my sole re- 
 gret at quitting othce that I part with them. My earnest 
 efforts for their good shall follow them while I live, and now, 
 from this place, I bid them hail and farewell!" 
 
 Following Governor Blair, Henry H. Crapo took the execu- 
 tive chair, bringing to the service of the State and the nation 
 strong and inherent patriotism, great ability, scru))uIous hon- 
 esty of purpose, and a most remarkable and pre-eminent degree 
 of physical and mental energy, with almost continuous appli- 
 cation, giving his administiation great eflticiency and much 
 popularity. The Governor, in his inaugural message delivered 
 to the Legislature, referring to the Michigan troops in the field, 
 for whom he always entertained the most profound respect 
 and the highest appreciation of their valuable services, says, 
 with much eloquence and feeling, while alluding to the great 
 loss of life among them, and of the cause in which they were 
 then still engaged: 
 
 "This is indeed a fearful sacrifice to be made even in the 
 cause of liberty, justice and humanity, and fearful is the 
 penalty and terrible is the suffering which the authors and 
 leaders of treason and rebellion deserve and must endure as a 
 just consequence of this enormous crime. These brave men — 
 the Michigan troops — are worthy of all praise. I commend 
 them to your warmest sympathies, to your highest regards, to 
 your active supj^ort. They have done heroic deeds on every 
 battlefield; they have won a name for undaunted courage in 
 every conflict with a deadly and persistent foe; they have en- 
 dured hardships and privations without a murmur, and their 
 loyalty and patiiotism have never yet been tarnished. Those 
 who have fallen upon the battlefield or on the march, or have 
 died in hos|)itals — who now slee)>in death, martyrs to the cause 
 of human freedom — our gratitude, our sympathies can never 
 reach. But of those who suffer through loss of them, and of 
 those 1>rave veterans who yet survive, we should ever be mind- 
 ful. A nation's gratitude should ever be theirs; and justice, at 
 least, should be their reward." 
 
 Nor were they forgotten by the Legislature of 1805, repre- 
 senting the peojde of the State; for early in the session the fol- 
 lowing concuircnt resnlutioii was adopted: 
 31 
 
482 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 "That on this anniversar_v of the birthday of tlie Father of 
 his Country, the thanks of this Loi^islature, and of the people 
 of the State, are iiereby tendered to the soldiers of Michiofan; 
 who {)romptly responded to the call of their countrj' in its time 
 of peril; and who by their fortitude and soldierly bearing 
 under tlu; privations and hardships of a soldier's life, in 
 camj) and fiehl, throu<j^h inarch and siege, and l)y their indom- 
 itable bravery and heroism on scores of battlefields, have won 
 exalted honor to themselves and crowned with unfading glory 
 the name and fame of Michigan." 
 
 The Legislature also adopted a resolution reaffirming the devo- 
 tion of the Commonwealth to the Constitution and Government 
 of the United States, and declaring the earnest determination 
 of the people to do everything in their jjower to support and 
 sustain the national administration in all measures for the vig- 
 orous prosecution of the existing war, the utter overthrow of 
 armed rebellion and the punishment of traitors, until a per- 
 manent peace should be secured, based upon the sul)mission of 
 the rebels, the supremacy of the Government, and the estab- 
 lishment of the Federal Union in all its entirety, one and in- 
 separable, througliout the entire land. 
 
 During the session, the following concurrent resolution was 
 unanimously passed: 
 
 " Whereas, The Hon. Austin Blair, whose valedictory mes- 
 sage was delivered to this Legislature on the fifth of January, 
 eighteen hundred and sixty-five, has retired to private life; 
 
 "And, WHEREAS, The foui- years of his administration have 
 been the most laborious, as well as the most j)erilous in the 
 history both of the State and of the nation, with eleven of the 
 most Southern States banded together in the most unjustifiable 
 rebellion that the world has ever known; 
 
 " And, WHEREAS, Governor Blair's administration has been 
 marked by eminent ability, rare integrity and unsurpassed suc- 
 cess, as shown by the enlistments and organization into com- 
 panies, regiments and batteries, in the most perfect military 
 order, of over eighty thousand men, as brave, true, and patri- 
 otic as ever bared their breasts to any foe; therefore, 
 
 "Resolved, (the Senate concurring), That the thanks of the 
 people of Michigan, through this Legislature, are hereby cor- 
 dially tendered to ex-Governor Blair for the able and satisfac- 
 tory manner in which he has, during his administration of the 
 last four years, been able to conduct the atfaii's of the Govei'u- 
 ment of the State," 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 483 
 
 It also antiiorized the payment of ^150 State bounty and 
 empowered townships and wards to pay §100. These bounties 
 continued to be paid until April 14, 1805, when recruiting 
 ended in the State. 
 
 Only one regiment had been sent to the front in 1SG5, but 
 the State had received a credit since November 1st, 1864, of 
 8,683, including 430 enlisted during th« war in the navy 
 sufficient to place a total credit at the War Department of 
 90,048 men. Of these, 14,855 fell under the Flag, many killed 
 on the battletield, or died of wounds or of disease consequent 
 to the hardship in the Held or by exposure in rebel prisons. 
 
 Under a resolution of the Legislature of 1869, approved by 
 Governor Henry P. Baldwin, the Adjutant-General was in- 
 structed to prepare a Roll of Honor to contain the names of all 
 Michigan soldiers who died while in the service. This has 
 been accomplished, beautifully bound in two volumes, and 
 placed in the State Library at Lansing. 
 
 During the war the State had raised and organized eleven 
 regiments of cavalry, thirty-six of infantry, one of engineers 
 and mechanics, one of twelve batteries of light artillery, two 
 independent batteries and ten in(k'))endent companies of in- 
 fantry and sharpshooters, while thirteen companies had been 
 recruited by other States. 
 
 Michigan had speedily and clieerfuUy responded to the sev- 
 eral calls for troops, fully complying with every requirement 
 of the Government. Michigan was earnest in the cause, and 
 sought no other course than to fight on until a peace Avas suc- 
 cessfully conquered and until every State was brought into 
 submission to the power of the National Government and 
 made to acknowledge allegiance to the Constitution and the 
 laws of the land. Michigan, as evinced by the patriotism of 
 her citizens at home, and the bravery of her troops in the field, 
 was truly loyal and freely gave her influence, her means, and 
 the blood of her people to put dowMi the unjust, unreasonable 
 and selfish rebellion. 
 
 On one occasion during the feudal times in Scotland, when 
 chief met chief in battle array, two chiefs, witli their adher- 
 ents, were in one of the glens of that mountainous country, 
 engaged in mortal combat, hand to hand and foot to foot, 
 with claymore and skein dhu. One of them becoming much 
 
484 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 worsted, excited the fealty of one of his clan, a very old High- 
 lander, who stood on a projecting crag in the face of the 
 mountain watching the contest with intense interest, too 
 old to fight: he was merely a looker-on. He had several 
 sons engaged for his chief. One falling by the hand of an 
 opponent, the old man shouted in his Celtic tongue " A}iother 
 son for the Chief!'''' And as one after another of his sons fell 
 he continued the shout, " Another son for the Chief/ " and 
 again, ^'•Another son for the Chief I^"* until the last had fallen. 
 Then quickly drawing the broadsword of his fathers from its 
 rusted scabbard he shouted with all the energy and enthusiasm 
 of a true Highlander, ^^ Myself for the Chief!'''' and rushing 
 down the mountain side into the affray, was soon cut down 
 and lay with his gallant sons in a gory bed. 
 
 So it was in many instances in Michigan during our recent 
 war. Son after son went to the field, until all had gone, and 
 one after another fell for the Union. Then the old father, in 
 his agony of grief, with desperate loyalty and true patriotism 
 in his heart, giving up all, family, friends and home, rushes to 
 the front shouting, '■'■Myself for the Union ! " 
 
 The Michigan troops on the whole during the war encoun- 
 tered the enemy on 800 separate occasions and at different 
 dates and places while upholding and defending the flag. 
 
 Of the services of Michigan men in the navy during the war 
 there is, unfortunately, but little known, as reports thereof were 
 not made to the State military authorities; but undoubtedly 
 they v/ere at their posts, distinguished officers and brave men 
 under the flag of their country, with Foote, Dupont, Porter and 
 Farragut, and received their proportion of the general credit. 
 
 Michigan was well represented at the surrender of Lee and 
 Johnston — the termination and death of the rebellion; and a 
 Michigan regiment captured the President of the so-called 
 Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, in his inglorious flight to esca])e 
 deserved punishment for his infamous treason and rebellion. 
 
 " We left thee no confederate band, 
 No symbol of the lost command, 
 To be a dagger in their hand, 
 From which we wrenched the sword." 
 
 Wlu-n the regiments returned to their State they brought 
 with them their colors, not one dishonored, neither blot nor 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN KOBEKTSON. 485 
 
 stain on their escutcheons, but all distinguished, glorious em- 
 blems, bearing record of many battles. Beiieatii their folds more 
 than ninety thousand of the bravest sons of the State pressed 
 forward through privations and amid dangers, to share largely 
 and gloriously in nearly all the battles of the great rebellion. 
 With unyielding devotion many gave up their lives that the 
 nation might live, while the bleeding wounds and the trials 
 and sufferings of others attested their fidelity to the Union and 
 their valor in its behalf. And when their work was accom- 
 plished, in the day of their triumph, treasuring no spirit of 
 resentment, with moderation unsurpassed, these heroes freely 
 forgave their enemies, and restoring peace on unparalleled 
 terms of generosity to the vanquished, betook themselves again 
 to the quiet pursuits of life, by energy, industry and thrift, to 
 renew prosperity and make good the waste of war. 
 
 The flags bear the National and Stale emblems, and are the 
 cherished and venerated mementoes of great public services 
 rendered by the soldiers of the State to the Republic, and of 
 regimental bravery. Arouml them will cluster hallowed 
 memories of State pride, of national grandeur and prowess, of 
 individual heroism and patriotism, of fallen comrades and 
 family bereavements. 
 
 "Those banners, soiled with dust and smoke, 
 
 And rent by shot and shell, 
 That through the serried phalanx broke, 
 
 What terrors could they tell! 
 What tales of sudden pain and death. 
 
 In every cannon's boom; 
 When e'en the bravest held his breath. 
 
 And waited for his doom." 
 
 Under date of June \Mh, 1865, the war department author- 
 ized the chief mustering oflicer of this State to turn over to 
 the Governor, at his request, all the regimental colors of 
 Michigan regiments then in his charge, or that might thereafter 
 come into his possession under the provisions of the order 
 referred to. 
 
 On the Fourth of July, 1^66, those colors were formally 
 presented in Detroit, through the Governor, to the State, and 
 were deposited in its archives, to be sacredly kept and carefully 
 preserved. 
 
486 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 The setting apart of the national birthday for the purpose, 
 was most appropriate. Its hallowed memories reminded the 
 people of the gallant struggle of their forefathers in establish- 
 ing the government, in the maintenance of which so many 
 present had followed their Hags to glorious victory. 
 
 A cordial invitation having been extended by the Governor 
 to all who had served in the war, while the State authorities 
 were cheerfully aided and liberally sustained by the citizens of 
 Detroit, and the affair was honored by a magnificent celebra- 
 tion, and participated in by the most numerous assembly of the 
 people from all parts of the State ever congregated within its 
 borders; and for the purpose of honoring the day, and especi- 
 ally the occasion, as well as giving the people of the State an 
 opportunity to witness the emblems of State prowess, and of 
 patriotism, bravery and gallant services, a procession was 
 arranged and carried into effect, under the direction of General 
 James E. Pittman, who at the time was Inspector General of 
 the State, and who was selected and appointed by the Governor 
 as chief marshal of the day. 
 
 The procession was formed in divisions, under selected 
 commanders, and made up of the several regiments carrying 
 their old colors, presenting the finest appearance possible. It 
 was remarkable with what pride each color-bearer held aloft the 
 banner under which he had served, and with what elasticity of 
 step and erect bearing the whole marched to the strains of 
 martial music, to which they had been accustomed. 
 
 "1 saw the soldiers come today 
 
 From battlefields afar; 
 No conqueror rode before their way, 
 
 On his triumphal car; 
 But captains, like themselves, on foot. 
 
 And banners sadly torn, 
 All grandly eloquent, though mute, 
 
 In pride and glory borne " 
 
 Those old flags, fluttering proudly in the breeze, bearing the 
 mark of many bullets and the record of many battles, under 
 which friends had fought and loved ones fallen, strengthened 
 the people in their love of country, and made them firmer in 
 their faith of the lasting union of the Republic. They were 
 gladdened in heart at the presence of the veterans of the army 
 
ADI)RP:88 of gen. JOHN ROBERTSON. 487 
 
 of Michigan. Yet, alas! their joy was mixed with sorrow; 
 fourteen thousand and over of that army had joined the 
 " Legion of tlie dea<l; "' they had fallen under the flag on many 
 battlefields. Most of them, in a spirit of humanity and vener- 
 ation, have bi'en gathered l)y kindly hands into the beautiful 
 cemeteries, ])rovided by a beneficent government, oi' by their 
 friends at liome, and now sleep in their windowless palaces of 
 rest, where they will lie in peace until the last reveille; but 
 some of them yet lie where their comrades left them, by the 
 way-sides, on the sunny brows of many hills, in the dense 
 forests, in the valh'vs and under the orange and palm trees, 
 on the banks of rivers, under the deep, dark waters, and on the 
 sea beach, where the restless waves forever chant their 
 requiem. lUit they lie under the flag they defended and made 
 stainless, and in the land they saved and made free. 
 
 ■■ Thank God! there beams o'er land and sea. 
 Our blazing star of victory ; 
 And everywhere, from main to main, 
 The ' Old Flag ' flies and rules again." 
 
 At the close of the procession, which was one of the finest 
 and most interesting displays ever witnessed in Michigan, the 
 veterans were massed in front of the speaker's stand on 
 Campus Martins, anti delivered their flags to the Governor, 
 when, after a prayer by Bishop S. A. McCoskry, the apjjropri- 
 ate addresses were made by Mayor M. I. Mills, General Will- 
 cox and Governoi- Crapo. 
 
 The ceremony concluded with ;i benediction by Rev. George 
 Durtield, when the veterans marched to the depot of the Michi- 
 gan Central Railroad, where they partook of a substantial 
 repast, prepared for them by the citizens, and where they were 
 waited upon at tables by hulies and gentlemen of the city. 
 
 In the interior arrangement of the New Capitol at Lan.sing, 
 the soldier ami his services were not forgotten, but were most 
 favorably and substantially remembered. With almost a pro- 
 fuse liberality, which should be fidly appreciated, a large and 
 commodious room was set apart, designated as the "Museum."' 
 This is the deposit of the " Michigan Battle Flags," properly 
 placed in regimental order in a magnificent vertical case of 
 large dimensions, novel in construction and of beautiful pro- 
 |)orlioiis, reaching almost to the ceiling, erected in the center 
 
488 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 of the apartment, superbly mounted with heavy plate glass, 
 which, coupled with the bullet-marked and battle-worn flags, 
 is the grandest and most impressive monument to the soldiers 
 of Michigan. 
 
 A beautiful idea is conveyed with regard to the American 
 flag in the remarks of a little boy, whose parents resided near 
 Bardstown, Kentucky, when a Michigan regiment was sta- 
 tioned there. Although very young, a mere child really, he 
 had learned the difference in the appearance of Union and 
 Confederate soldiers, having seen both, and he had also taken 
 notice of the colors that composed the flags of both. One 
 morning, discovering a beautiful rainbow arching the heavens, 
 suspended, as it were, from the sky, he hurried to his mother, 
 exclaiming with great earnestness, pointing upwards with 
 both his little hands, "Mother! mother! oh, mother! God is a 
 Union man!" His mother questioned him as to his reasons 
 fer thinking so; he replied, while a glow of delight flashed on 
 his countenance, his little eyes beaming with brightness, " I 
 know he is a Union man, mother, for I have seen his flag in 
 heaven, and it is red, white and blue." 
 
 The successful operations of the Union armies having 
 brought the war to a close by the complete overthrow of the 
 rebel forces early in the spring of 1865, orders were at once 
 issued to abandon all pending measures for the re-inforcement 
 of the national arms and recruiting, as well as process under 
 the drafting system ceased on the 14th of April. 
 
 With the surrender of the rebel army under General Lee, on 
 the 9th of April, 1865, and the subsequent surrender of Gen- 
 eral Johnston's army in the same month, the war which had 
 been waged against the Union ended, and soon after the 
 troops belonging to the various States began to leave the field. 
 
 The Michigan troops being among the first to receive orders, 
 the Twentieth Regiment arrived in the State June 4th, and 
 others followed in succession up to June 10th, 1866, when the 
 Third and Fourth Regiments of infantry reached the State, 
 being the last belonging to the State to leave the field. 
 
 In June, 1865, anticipating the early return of troops from 
 the field, a meeting of citizens was held in Detroit, when 
 measures were taken to arrange for a proper reception at that 
 place of the returning regiments, and to provide such refresh- 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 489 
 
 meiits as tliey might stand in nctd of. With this in view, 
 committees were selected and appointed. 
 
 The services of tliese committees wore gratuitous, involving 
 much labor, both early and late. They were aided in their 
 attentive services by a number of ladies and gentlemen who 
 gave their attendance at the tables, while the citizens generally 
 contributed liberally, rendering the object an entire success. 
 From June 4, 1865, down to June 10, 1866, 19,510 Michigan 
 and 3,506 Wisconsin troops were hospitably received and sub- 
 stantially entertained. 
 
 Through the liberality of the people of Jackson, then a 
 rendezvous for returned troops, like arrangements were made, 
 and during the time before mentioned over 10,569 Michigan 
 soldiers received kindly attention and l)ountiful entertainment 
 on their arrival there. 
 
 On the 14th of June, 1865, Governor Crapo made a proclama- 
 tion of welcome and tiianks to the returning Michigan troops, 
 of which the following is an extract: 
 
 "In the name of the people of'Michigan I thank you tor the 
 honor you have done us by your valor, your soldierly bearing, 
 your invincible courage, everywhere dis})layed, whether upon 
 the field of battle, in the perilous assault, or in the deadly 
 breach; for your patience under the fatigues and privations 
 and sufferings incident to war, and for your discipline and 
 ready obedience to the orders of your superiors. We are 
 prt)ud in believing that when the history of this rebellion 
 shall have been written, where all have done well, none will 
 stand higher on the roll of fame than the officers and soldiers 
 sent to the field from the loyal and i)atriotic State of Michi- 
 gan." 
 
 The English war with Russia in the Crimea brought 
 prominently to notice Florence Nightingale; her superintending 
 care and great service in affording relief to the wounded and 
 sick in that great event, have given her a bright page in history, 
 while her name and fame is known throughout the globe. 
 The Florence Nightingales of America during our own war 
 were numbered by thousands, and all are deserving of remem- 
 brance and honor imperishable. Michigan may well take 
 credit for their distinguished and noble service in the war. 
 They were numerous in the field from the commencement to the 
 end, whik' both there and in tlie State they wrrc patriotic to 
 
4-90 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 an extreme, some of them even serving in the ranks, and a 
 large portion of them, either individually or in associations, 
 earnestly devoted their time and labor in many ways to supply 
 wants of the absent soldier; their interest in his behalf was 
 intense, while their industry for his benefit was continuous; 
 and whether their names and services are made historical or 
 not, they are engraven on the hearts of recipients while life 
 lasts. 
 
 Stand by the flag, on land and on sea, was the motto of the 
 women of Michigan, inspiring and scattering patriotism 
 amongst the people, and in the ranks at the front. Never 
 doubting, always hopeful, ever confident of success, trusting 
 in God's help for the cause of liberty, humanity and right. 
 
 From the time that Sumter was fired on until Lee and 
 Johnston laid down their rebellious arms, and Davis fled for 
 his life, the Christian church in Michigan proved, by its 
 strongly pronounced patriotism and manifest devotion to the 
 cause of the Union, an element of great power. It encouraged 
 by word and deed the soldier in the field, aided greatly in the 
 recruitment of men by its approval of the war, and its expressed 
 faith in its successful termination in favor of the Union, and 
 by its forcible denouncement of rebels and those who sympath- 
 ised with them and opposed the war. 
 
 The valuable services of the Michigan press cannot be over- 
 estimated. For the bold advocacy of the entirety of the 
 Union, the slrengtliening of the hands of civil oflicials and 
 moulding and holding public opinion in favor of loyalty to the 
 government. The faithful encouragement of patriotism among 
 the masses at home, and inspiring those at the front with 
 courage and a heroism leading to gallant deeds, and with the 
 cheerful hope of ultimate victory. 
 
 In Michigan as much care as possible was taken -in the 
 selection of oflicers by the Governor and those authorized to 
 raise regiments, yet it was necessary to take into account their 
 ability to recruit a required number of men, a ('ustom more of 
 necessity than of fitness; consecjuently military qualifications 
 were more or less overlooked. Thus in the new regiments a 
 defect in officers was more likely to prevail to a greater extent 
 than in the regiments in the field. In the latter, with few 
 exceptions, a[)point ments and promotions were made from the 
 
ADDRESS OF GK:N. JOHN ROBERTSON. 491 
 
 ranks, upon tlio rocommendatioii of regimental commanders, 
 ifTiioring tlie unmilitary and pernicious system of elections 
 liraeticc'd among the troops of most other States, which 
 inKpu'stionably gave an opi)ortunity to overlook merit, and 
 had a tendency to cripple discipline. 
 
 In the Michigan regiments, when in the field, the promotions 
 were mostly made within the regiments, and tlie appointments 
 in a very large proportion were made from the ranks, the 
 exception being a few from the regular service and from citi- 
 zens to fill vacancies conditional to raising a certain number of 
 men for the depleted regiments in which they were commis- 
 sioned, a system which, although practiced in a limited manner, 
 was never recognized by the appointing power with much 
 favor, and in most instances such a))pointments were made on 
 the request of colonels of regiments with a view to strength- 
 ening their commands. 
 
 During the war 4,007 officers were commissioned, of whom 
 2,067 left the State with regiments, 1,940 were promoted from 
 the ranks, with the exception of ten appointed from the regular 
 army, and a comparatively small number were commissioned 
 to raise men in the State. 
 
 Although it was an accepted truth that a great number who 
 were in the ranks of 3Iichigan regiments in the field and who 
 failed to be commissioned had the intelligence, education and 
 ability requisite for competent and efficient commissioned 
 officers, nevertheless, but a comparative few only could be 
 made officers; but this fact was generally understood and 
 accepted by the people, and is now, that the greater honor 
 belonged to the men in the ranks, although but seldom men- 
 tioned in official reports, and, notwithstanding they had the 
 least pay, they certainly did not fight the least; while the 
 officers may be regarded as the motive power, the men in the 
 ranks were the power itself, and are equally deserving of a 
 place on public records, as well as in the history of the war. 
 
 A prophecy was generally advanced early in the war, and 
 even up to its close, that idleness, debauchery and crime would 
 characterize the release from military restraint, and the return 
 to the State of so many men who iiad been exposed to a ser- 
 vice, judging from results in other armies, likely to engender 
 irregular, improvident and dissolute habits, leading to a law- 
 
492 MIOHIGAN'8 SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 less course of conduct, tending to the most deplorable con- 
 sequences. 
 
 Alas for the prophets ! their sayings were but the idle bab- 
 blings of the most distrustful of humanity. By over twenty 
 years of experience since their return their theory has been 
 completely refuted by a practice of honesty, virtue and thrift, 
 most commendable, comparing favorably with our citizens 
 generally; while many of them have filled high places of trust 
 in the government of the country, as well as in the adminis- 
 tration of the State, and in the ordinary avocations of life. 
 They proved noble examples in war and are none the less in 
 peace. While the young Frenchman proudly boasts of his 
 father's membership in the "Legion of Honor of France," the 
 young American may with justifiable pride reply, " my father 
 belongs to the 'Grand Army of the Republic ' of America!" 
 
 There was a time when many doubted the unity of the 
 armies for a vigorous prosecution of the war; but they were 
 only the doubtings of the timid and unthinking, forgetting the 
 prevailing characteristics of the American soldiers, a strong 
 inherent element of individuality unequalled in any other ar- 
 mies, intelligence and moral courage, centering in true patriot- 
 ism, the honor of their State, love of family and of home, and 
 of the respect of their fellow-citizens, all so forcibly illustrated 
 in the service of tlie Michigan troops. 
 
 The high and imposing range of the Grampian Hills in the 
 Highlands of Scotland are peculiarly wild, startling and 
 rugged in their outlines, terminating in the bold projecting 
 rock Craigellachie, that has withstood the storms of ages, the 
 rendezvous of the Clan Grant in feudal war time, who had 
 adopted its name as their "slogan" or war cry; and when re- 
 sisting the furious charge of their enemy, the Highlanders 
 would sound their war cry along the line, " Stand fast, Craig- 
 ellachie," and they stood fast as the rock itself; so it was in 
 many instances during our great war. The Michigan troops 
 in the field, when resisting the charge of the Confederate 
 horde, remembering the bold and firm stand of their State in 
 the war, would pass along the line in spirit, if not in words, 
 '* Stand fast, Michigan," and they stood bold and firm as Craig- 
 ellachie. 
 j^ The war found tlie people of Michigan in the fullest enjoy- 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN R(1BERTSON. 403 
 
 ment of peace and advancing prosperity; tlieir minds had not 
 been burdened with the thought of a coming exigency, which 
 was to test their patriotism and tax tlit-ir energies and resources 
 to such an extreme. The idea had never entered tlieir minds 
 that the first gun fired from Sumter was the first demand for 
 men which was to be continued until 90,000 and over 
 would take the field, of which over 14,000 would never return 
 alive, or that it gave the first notice of a series of drafts on 
 their treasury, which would finally reach over fourteen millions 
 of dollars. But the story had to be told and the drafts were 
 fully honored. 
 
 The Michigan "contingent" in the war was largely from 
 the more respectable young men of the community. Coming 
 from all avocations of life, many of them ha<l lequired obedi- 
 ence of others at home; they had to obey others in the field. 
 Yet they were patient under the most rigid discipline; per- 
 sistent in the long and tedious march, cheerful and untiring in 
 the trenches, apt in experiment, and most ingenious in con- 
 struction, they added to all these 'qualifications and merits true 
 courage in the field, while almost every important action illus- 
 trated their heroism, and almost every battlefield was con- 
 secrated witli their blood. Their services were eagerly sought 
 for by all the best Generals, whether to construct a defence, 
 lead a " forlorn hope " or charge a battery. 
 
 The alarming tocsin had been sounded, the momentous shot 
 had been heard, the flag had been insulted, the laws of the 
 land defied, treason and armed rebellion defiant and war in- 
 evitable. Michigan was prompt at the outset; no question as 
 to cause, no thought as to result, no summary of cost nor esti- 
 mate of lives to be lost. All! all were merged in the im- 
 mediate exigency of the time. Micliigan troops, eager for the 
 conflict, were early at the fiont and were found there at the 
 close. 
 
 In isi;i they had served with McDowell at Blackburn's 
 Ford and liull Run, with Grant at Shiloh, with McClellan in 
 West Virginia. In 1862 they were with him on the Penin- 
 sula and in Maryland, with Banks in the Valley of the She- 
 nandoah, in Louisiana with Butler, in Missouri with Mulligan, 
 and with Pope in Virginia. In 1 Sti^ the campaigns of Hooker 
 in Virginia and Mead in Pennsylvania found them at the front. 
 
494 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 Burnside had them at Knoxville, Rosecrans at Stone River and 
 Chickamauga, Grant at Vicksburg and Mission Ridge. In 
 1864-5 they were with Thomas at Nashville, and prominent in 
 the great flanking movements with Grant in the Wilderness, 
 at Spottsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, and in the great 
 leaguer of Petersburg. They were on the wing with Sher- 
 man on his matchless and victorious flight to the sea; with 
 Sheridan and Custer in their brilliant achievements in the 
 valley, and with Grant at Appomattox, the death place of the 
 confederacy. 
 
 The end of the war found a veteran array in the field, tried 
 and true, which had triumphantly passed through a desperate 
 national contest. Although having only been trained and dis- 
 ciplined during a few years of service, it evinced a surprising 
 development of military capacity, courage and endurance in 
 the field, equal if not superior to the armies of other nations 
 after many years of training which war brings with it. 
 
 The histories of the time bear witness to the patriotism of 
 the States which in the time of great peril gave their strong 
 arms and means to preserve the nation; while Michigan 
 proudly cherishes the remembrance of the valor of her troops 
 as peculiarly her own, who in the great struggles of a pro- 
 longed and gigantic warfare reflected undying lustre on her 
 own escutcheon. 
 
 The following table shows the aggregate numbers in detail 
 of the credits allowed to each county in the State, during the 
 operations of the enrollment S3'stera, together with the number 
 of men enlisting previous to the adoption of that system, and 
 reported to the Atljutant Genei'al's oftice as residents thereof, 
 and the total, approximately, of the number of troops furnished 
 by the several counties from the beginning to the close of the 
 war: 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 
 
 495 
 
 COUNTIES. 
 
 Allepan 
 
 Antrim 
 
 Alpena 
 
 Barry 
 
 Benzie 
 
 Bay 
 
 Branch 
 
 Berrien 
 
 Cass 
 
 Calhoun 
 
 Cheboygan 
 
 iMinton 
 
 Chippewa. 
 
 Delta 
 
 Emmet 
 
 Eaton 
 
 Genesee 
 
 Gratiot 
 
 Grand Traverse 
 
 Hillsdale 
 
 Houghton 
 
 Huron 
 
 Ingham 
 
 Ionia 
 
 Isabella 
 
 Iosco 
 
 Jackson 
 
 Keweenaw 
 
 Kent 
 
 Kalamazoo 
 
 Livingston 
 
 Lenawee 
 
 Leelanaw 
 
 Lapeer 
 
 Monroe 
 
 Montcalm 
 
 Macomb 
 
 Menominee 
 
 Marquette 
 
 Schoolcraft 
 
 .■Muskegon 
 
 Mecosta 
 
 Muson 
 
 Manitou 
 
 Manistee 
 
 Mackinac ...... 
 
 Midland 
 
 Newaygo 
 
 Ontonagon 
 
 Oaklantl 
 
 Oceana 
 
 Ottawa 
 
 Shiawassee 
 
 St. Joseph 
 
 Sanilac 
 
 St riair 
 
 Saginaw 
 
 Tuscola 
 
 Van Buren 
 
 Washtenaw 
 
 Wayne 
 
 £3 
 
 
 7-M 
 11 
 39 
 
 6C4 
 25 
 
 2(il 
 
 7S.S 
 
 y<)() 
 
 709 
 
 1,423 
 
 9 
 
 558 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 69i 
 
 807 
 
 LOi 
 
 80 
 
 1,230 
 
 137 
 
 74 
 
 819 
 
 873 
 
 53 
 
 6 
 
 1,311 
 
 20 
 
 9.S9 
 
 1,246 
 
 710 
 
 1,94 
 
 33 
 
 620 
 
 691 
 
 251 
 
 900 
 
 19 
 
 70 
 
 248 
 38 
 25 
 
 3E 
 5 ■a 
 
 69 
 26 
 54 
 131 
 61 
 1,622 
 
 m 
 
 669 
 
 484 
 
 1,125 
 
 ■Si5 
 
 779 
 
 871 
 
 211 
 
 605 
 
 1,741 
 
 3.352 
 
 96 
 
 66 
 
 25 
 173 
 246 
 119 
 295 
 
 123 
 
 206 
 18 
 
 111 
 13 
 12 
 98 
 79 
 6 
 2 
 208 
 
 3M 
 
 205 
 
 89 
 
 224 
 
 'i23 
 
 115 
 
 16 
 
 149 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 212 
 
 1 
 
 106 
 
 129 
 
 96 
 
 81 
 
 199 
 
 153 
 
 39 
 
 im 
 
 334 
 722 
 
 « 2 
 
 78 
 4 
 
 4' 
 
 2 
 37 
 79 
 49 
 55 
 123 
 
 2 
 15 
 
 215 
 
 42 
 20 
 191 
 164 
 139 
 53 
 5 
 
 59 1 
 
 98 
 13 
 
 3 
 59 
 
 13 
 6 
 66 
 65 
 153 
 6 
 178 
 
 Term of Service 
 Credited. 
 
 16 
 15 
 5' 
 32 
 94 
 7 
 20 
 75 
 44 
 52 
 124 
 
 83 
 122 
 59 
 26 
 ' 12 
 91 
 
 19' 
 91 
 
 137 
 99 
 44 
 84 
 
 235 
 
 218 
 22 
 37 
 34 
 89 
 36 
 
 183 
 47 
 59 
 
 136 
 58 
 
 Totals 32,:i38 5,545 48:3 1.982 ♦4,231 13,026 105,31.498 14.629 44,514 89,173 
 
 530 
 
 18 
 
 8 
 
 301 
 
 47 
 
 35 
 
 474 
 
 555 
 
 374 
 
 690 
 
 1 
 
 155 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 346 
 
 290 
 
 156 
 
 35 
 
 442 
 
 62 
 479 
 
 40 
 
 14 
 
 554 
 
 1 
 
 446 
 
 612 
 
 258 
 
 563 
 
 43 
 
 209 
 
 344 
 
 138 
 
 .320 
 
 5 
 103 
 
 578 
 
 37 
 
 292 
 
 159 
 
 534 
 
 62 
 
 231 
 
 166 
 
 55 
 
 341 
 
 723 
 
 703 
 
 589 
 
 10 
 
 43 
 
 515 
 
 23 
 
 311 
 
 8U9 
 
 900 
 
 663 
 
 1,221; 
 
 15 
 
 5911 
 
 '^l 
 
 12 
 
 12l 
 
 598, 
 
 893 
 
 ISO; 
 
 62! 
 
 1,137 
 
 130 
 
 137 
 
 607 
 
 46 
 12 
 
 1,191 
 
 19 
 
 1,19 f 
 
 1,016 
 
 706 
 
 1,807 
 
 33 
 
 635 
 
 733 
 
 215 
 
 894 
 
 19 
 
 253 
 61 
 25 
 
 .391 
 
 68; 
 no. 
 
 62 
 
 1,506 
 
 86, 
 
 578 
 
 .526 
 
 873 
 
 316 
 
 971 
 
 988 
 
 298 
 
 594 
 
 1,.S77 
 
 3,635l 
 
 "To 
 
 
 1,041 
 
 7 
 809 
 
 163 
 
 1,490 
 
 1,724 
 
 793 
 
 1,942 
 
 15 
 
 860 
 
 16 
 
 1,134 
 
 28 
 51 
 
 816 
 7(1 
 
 346 
 1,286 
 
 1,('39 
 
 1,936 
 
 16 
 
 746 
 
 5 
 
 24 
 
 18 
 
 943 
 
 1,18.3 
 
 336 
 
 97 
 
 1,579 
 
 1501 
 
 199, 
 
 1,090 
 
 1,047 
 
 86' 
 
 26 
 
 1 733 
 
 20 
 
 1,643 
 
 1,661 
 
 964 
 
 2,377 
 
 78' 
 
 844 
 
 1,079 
 
 353 
 
 1,216 
 
 19 
 
 72] 193 
 
 357' 379 
 
 92! 67 
 
 47 12 
 
 2 S 
 
 = 3 
 
 la 
 
 21 
 
 796 
 
 1,3.35 
 
 310 
 
 74 
 
 1,319 
 
 310 
 
 143 
 
 1,007 
 
 1,417 
 
 51 
 
 1 
 
 1,479 
 
 9!li 
 
 2,571! 
 
 1,560 
 
 923 
 
 2, 060 
 
 20 
 
 9321 
 
 1,191 
 
 287 
 
 1,144 
 
 ?l 
 
 82 
 
 47 
 
 74 
 
 213 
 
 62 
 
 2,080 
 
 123 
 
 874 
 
 086 
 
 1,414 
 
 379 
 
 1,203 
 
 1,154 
 
 353 
 
 939 
 
 2,306 
 
 4,313 
 
 54 
 
 199 
 
 192 
 
 1,63a 
 
 IdO 
 
 673 
 
 1,067 
 
 1 , 422 
 
 402 
 
 1.378 
 
 885 
 
 311 
 
 915 
 
 1.778 
 
 4,870 
 
 2,175 
 
 28 
 
 58 
 
 1,625 
 
 70 
 
 511 
 
 2,776 
 
 3,179 
 
 1 , 832 
 
 3.878 
 
 31 
 
 1,606 
 
 21 
 
 24 
 
 39 
 
 1,741 
 
 2,318 
 
 646 
 
 171 
 
 2, 9;.'8 
 
 460 
 
 342 
 
 2,097 
 
 2,464 
 
 137 
 
 27 
 
 3,2.32 
 
 119 
 
 4,214 
 
 3.221 
 
 1,887 
 
 4,437 
 
 98 
 
 1,776 
 
 2,270 
 
 640 
 
 2,360 
 
 19 
 
 265 
 
 730 
 
 159 
 
 59 
 
 10 
 
 88 
 
 47 
 
 129 
 
 412 
 
 254 
 
 3,718 
 
 223 
 
 1,5)7 
 
 1,753 
 
 2,836 
 
 781 
 
 2.581 
 
 2.a39 
 
 664 
 
 1,884 
 
 4,084 
 
 9. 213 
 
 * The total sum paid into the Treasury Department of the United States by 
 drafted citizens of Michigan as commutation money, was >394,600.00. 
 
496 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 The product of soldiers and credits j'^ielded by the several 
 counties, as exhibited in the table immediately foregoing, is in 
 its aggregate, as previously intimated, below the total number 
 known to have been furnished by the State. 
 
 The report of the Adjutant General's Department for 1864 
 showed that according to the records the actual number of 
 men furnished by Michigan from the beginning of the war to 
 November 1st, 1864, was 81,365. 
 
 Add the number of men commuting 1,983 
 
 And the total credits to that time were 83,347 
 
 The number of men credited by enlistment and draft from No- 
 vember 1st, 1864, to the close of the war. as shown by the pre- 
 ceding tables, was 9,382 
 
 Making the total credits of the State from April, 1861, to April, 
 
 1865, the entire period of the war, as shown by the records 92,729 
 
 Deducting from this aggregate the number of men commuting. . . . 1,982 
 There is left a total of numbers actually furnished in men of. . . 90,747 
 
 These figures do not include men enlisted in regiments of 
 other States, and are believed to be substantially correct. 
 There is a discrej)ancy, however, between them and the tables 
 of the War Department, as will be seen by the subjoined let- 
 ter from the Provost Marshal General: 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT. 
 
 PuovosT Marshal General's Office, 
 Washington, D. C, Sept. 2d, 1865. 
 His Excellency H. 11. Crapo, Oovernor of Michigan, Lansing : 
 
 Sir — I have the honor to inform you that the number of 
 men furnished by the State of Michigan from April 17tli, 1861, 
 to April 30th, 1865, is ninety thousand and forty-eight (90,- 
 048), without reference to periods of service, which varied 
 from three months to three years. 
 
 I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully your obedient 
 servant, 
 
 James B. Fry, 
 Provost Marshal General. 
 
 From returns made by the Provost Marshal General it 
 appears that the aggregate quotas charged against the several 
 States under all the calls made by the President from April 
 15th, 1861, to April 15, 1865, amounted to 2,759,049, and 
 that the aggregate number of men credited on the several 
 calls and put into the service during the same period was 
 
AOnRESS OF GEN. .fOHN ROBERTi?0N. 
 
 40: 
 
 2,656,553, leaving a deficiency on all calls when the war closed 
 of 102,496, which would have been obtained in full it" recruit- 
 ing and drafting h;ul not been discontinued. This number 
 does not embrace the "emergency men" put into the service 
 at various times during the summer of 1863, amounting to up- 
 ward of 120,0 00 men, who served pci'iods of two or three 
 weeks. 
 
 The following tables, furnished to Congress by the Secretary 
 of War, in compliance with a resolution of the House of Rep- 
 resentatives adopted in December, 1865, give the latest official 
 information with respect to the number of volunteers called for 
 by the President at various periods: 
 
 NUMBER OF TROOPS FURNISHED UNDER DIF 
 FERENT CALLS. 
 
 DATE OF CALL. 
 
 Call Of April 15, 1861, for 75,000 men < 
 
 Call of May 'i, and .July 'JS and ~>5, ISOl, for :M),m) men 
 
 Call (if July 2, 18tVJ. for 50i>.ii00 men 
 
 Call of .Vugiist 4, ISt;-,', for 3(H). OHO men 
 
 Proolamal on of .June 1."). lSt;.3, for Militia 
 
 Call of October 15. lS(i;j, and February 1, 1864, for500,000 I 
 
 men ) 
 
 Call of .March, 18C4, for 200.000 men 
 
 Militia Mustered into Service in Spring of 1H04 
 
 Call of July 18, 1864, for 500,000 men < 
 
 Call of December 19, 1864, for 300, (XH) men | 
 
 Numbei' 
 of Men. 
 
 98,235 
 
 2,715 
 
 9,0,56 
 
 30, 952 
 
 657, 86;^ 
 
 419,627 
 
 86,860 
 
 16,361 
 
 374,807 
 
 2K4,021 
 
 S3, 612 
 
 149,. 156 
 
 231, 79H 
 
 728 
 
 151,105 
 
 5,076 
 
 48,0<;5 
 
 312 
 
 Terins of 
 Enlistment. 
 
 3 months. 
 6 months. 
 
 1 year. 
 
 2 years. 
 
 3 years. 
 3 years. 
 
 9 months. 
 6 months. 
 
 3 years. 
 
 3 years. 
 
 100 days. 
 
 1 and 2 years 
 
 3 years. 
 
 4 years. 
 
 1 year. 
 
 2 years. 
 
 3 years. 
 
 4 years. 
 
 32 
 
498 
 
 MICHIGAN S SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 NUMBER OF TROOPS FURNISHED BY STATES. 
 
 STATE. 
 
 Maine 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 New York 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Maryland 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 District of Columbia . 
 Ohio. 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Michigan . . 
 Wisconsin . 
 Minnesota.. 
 Iowa. 
 
 Missouri i 108 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Kansas ! 20 
 
 Totals I 2,653, 062 
 
 Aggregate 
 
 Reduced to 
 
 3 years' 
 
 Standard. 
 
 2,139,041 
 
 * The final credit allowed Michigan by the Provost Marshal was 90,048. 
 
 'riic following is taken from the same work, made up fi-om 
 the Provost Marslial General's report: 
 
 " The recorded uuniljer of deserters was 26S,o;30, although 
 the Provost Marshal General considers that about one-fourth 
 of these were subsetjuently a(;counted for. More than 76,000 
 were ari-ested, but probably as many as 125,000 different enlist- 
 ments failed to yield soldiers to the army, although they led to 
 their entry upon the official record. 
 
 "In general, the manufacturing States, as for instance, Mas- 
 sachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New 
 Jersey, rank high in the column of desertions; and this result 
 is to be attributed to the fact that such States are dotted with 
 towns and cities. 
 
 " It appears beyond dispute that the crime of desertion is 
 especially characteristic of troops from large cities and of the 
 districts which they supply with recruits. The ratio per thou- 
 sand of deserters to cretlits throughout the loyal States is 
 62.51. 
 
 "The resj)ectable and industrious part of tliis population 
 did, indeed, produce a mass of faitiiful troops, but with these 
 were mixed a vast number of adventurers unworthy of any 
 country, who had no aft"e(;tion for the Republie, and only en- 
 listed for money." 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN ROBERTSON. 
 
 4:90 
 
 c ^- 
 
 
 
 ^-fl 
 
 CO .— ^ » to to o -^ '-0 :D CO 
 
 00 d -JO 00 X QO XI 'JO 00 X 30 
 
 coooto»:o:ooco:o-jtoo:o--* 
 
 ooxooaoooxooTjxo&xQOobooa 
 
 to to o --o to p o to to o to to to ^ to to to to to t 
 
 ■« "c ■■=" ^" =' '^'a'p's's''" 
 
 'S.'S 6i '- .^^ > 6 %,tf > 
 Sou =5 3 3 O i; » 3 O 
 
 TJto'os'^fto'-rTj'-T'ts 7>'3>'(^>■^;"-f j- 
 -. - Ti « ■:* « ^ ^ •:> •^> 5 
 
 t. u » t>. t^ Si k:, ■_,!>.■_» k', :», Si ^ -t3 
 >» j^ ^ >> >j — bjD^' •*> -^i Qlj;^ 3 C -— , 
 3333 = 3 = 3335333 cS- 
 
 ^1 
 
 Ho 
 
 4-' 2 
 
 Zee 
 
 ;2; 
 
 H a-£ 
 
 OH i; 
 
 <S 3 .a 
 
 -n q J) 3j 
 
 y a '■" 
 
 * Jj 03 4J 
 
 -a , 
 _2 o :« 
 
 X X B 
 a5 ijjj 
 
 lOtootoioi.'^i.'^Oirtinu? 
 cototototocotototototo 
 
 OOOOOOXOOOOXXXXXI 
 
 fU O t^ ">> '• 'H"? ^^ '^ -^ "^ 
 (7^ ^ ^ ^^ c4 r* .-< 7^ ?» .-« 
 
 55*03 3d — 30*030 
 
 0.3 
 
 a- : : — : 
 
 moiO'ommiOinmini.jigiOiOO'OjO 
 
 •M .-« 71 « 7( 1-" 7J 7J 7* 7J 7? 
 
 ^33 iiJ:>i? ^^ir-r- s* w;i?.^ ft aa 
 
 333333 = 3335^=^ = ®=JiSJ 
 
 to to to to to to to to to to to -o to to to to to to =9 i? S S S - 
 xxSooooxooooxxxxxooooxxx)otxx»aoo 
 
 to «o to^to 
 
 X X 00 X X 
 
 j-Tor-^x'to'Tf^cro t;^i-^i-^7-^i-^i^Cii~n'^cO'^ co'^coco' 
 
 C3ft>>cLoy^bi?^"H d'JdaiiJS'so^ ^— -o -3 ft a. 
 5)5~ooJua5a;i>""3>>U3»i>J'i'5i>''-iiii*33)i>Da) 
 
 £2| 2 
 
 w D t- OJ 
 
 . « — — 7» 71 7» 
 
 > to to to to to to 
 
 1 06 00 X X X X 
 
 S M ;S : :2 § : : : : :2 : oS :© 
 
 ft a. -ft© :ft r. • -o ; -ft/efto-a 
 £ -ti^ 2 cs o 2 . 5~ oe o D u oij •- =8 si 
 
 2 ifflS 
 
 • o ■ • ft .• a fto; 
 
 t- O : : eS t- (D ej O' 
 
 ®N • -x a ~x " ' 
 
 £-a^ = H 3-3-^. 5^ >, 
 
 as: 
 
 
 
 Sen 
 
 OS CO 7i »— C5 O ^ 
 
 J o a 3 o 
 
 t£f 7» ot'oo o 00' to x't- toart-'o'o3'o'co'"o'oo''o'to'to"— 'to ■>r g •» ^ 2 
 
 a >>>>>' o >i >>' Q. y c d '' ^^ '^ a B° a' ft ft a ^ b i ■" E? ft 
 
 ^a?5S!:QSZZMa""S-!jta<J'-5T-3 03a2i-5<!a«oaa3 
 
 ^a5ocai.c!!W"MiJg 
 
 , d 
 
 Ho 
 
 l- IB. - 
 
 r-.«7<?3'<]'OtOC-.X3>".-i»-< 
 
 « OJ'O'O ^ 
 
 n : 
 
 jss: 
 
500 
 
 MICHTGAN S SE>n-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 o 
 
 
 o 
 
 •- =5 
 
 so 
 
 ■w 
 
 0.-SO.-S 
 
 
 
 P^^ 
 
 
 w o ^ o 
 
 ,M' 
 
 
 
 
 
 *^ O' 
 
 Rsi' 
 
 
 - u« y ♦^ 
 
 m 
 
 £ <^ 
 
 
 «i5 aSi^ 
 
 •-s 
 
 Qi-5 
 
 M^^ 
 
 a 
 
 -sQ^Q 
 
 00 O ® CA O 
 
 :o CD :o to O cc to "-O ;D *^ :0 :0 X> o CO 'O :D "O to :D tc :0 'O 'O O <D -^ O 'XI *^ CO ■-. --D :o 
 
 .--ro'o'ir'o'x"o\--"TO'a-'c*u';'":<:"t-"i-.''-H'"-H'j»'t- -ij'co •^'w'o'c- o'jj'i-'oi'x'';)' - —Ti-" 
 e« ^ T* — n "-I T* K T< -> I) 1} rH >-• — so TO 7( " "i CO " 
 
 ■5l-5'-Sl-5 
 
 i; S >.ji >.S t-.il-'a >>. 
 
 3S535«3il> 0® 3Daj33333333333; 
 
 l-5T«)-5<1aJ'^COa!CI(l-3l-3a2l-3l-Sl-5l-3»-3'-5'-S^I^>-5'-J>■ 
 
 o :::■: :o :::::::: :0 : -o ::::: :0 :q :0 • 
 
 Q i i ; •'§j'ai=> ::::::: :'§Q 'ddo : : • : :Q :g :qJ 
 
 m -d .cS ^""w3. •aj3t>» Jh -ma'-'mQa^ ■^►>M ■_•-•« • 
 §^ 2^|:2 Sii'g^^^|;« Jl g S ,^3 4^^^>i'0 8^ 3'^_ 
 
 &.t£-5 .-'§15! ^1 f 2 f « ^ = ^ S &"! .1 g'.a ■? 3 £ ^ p-a J s ^1 
 
 irt -Tw ;c -r ;ri if: »ft lO o in in -i« tn CD iO »c in .-^r o o iO i-': <>> 7? ^* o lO ira in o ift o i.*^ in 
 
 tO^^^O^tO— ■•-r':Dto^'J;D!0:D:DtotOcotc*^^^— ^^^^cd:d:0^:o 
 
 000 lO 30 
 
 x>'Oinoioooo50'^»n»nxcox5o:C'Oox--rxo7t;- 
 
 ' -X) O :;C O X O 
 
 3 3J2 3 
 
 t>. >> !i >, >^.-e xs ^^ >. >> hi) >> 2 L _ 
 
 23333ar3aJDl'S = 33333«a33-3rS3D-3, 
 ^l-S<^>r>M'-5a2a}*>-5'-5<!l-5l-5l-5^«'-J^'-5'-5*-5'-5'-5^a3'-!l- 
 
 ^ ,1 ^ -H T" •-! —n-i ii ^ o» ^ in -N ■r> T! IN 1-1 »J ■>> e» IJ JJ ■?»«»*'?» TJ 50 -r -r • co -^ 
 coco<Dcoco:oco-^coco;oco--ococDy2coococococo-oco<ocococo:ococoD--ocD 
 xxxxxxxxxxjoxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>xao 
 
 '"'NT)>x^235M'^^co•o— ' 
 
 
 
 lO CO O ■?» « O lO i~ O ■?< 05 X X "N !» i- — 
 
 a a -^ a »■ a. 't a a.*-> 2 u b iJ r i: a='^a.a.a,Q.,:i.a.rfa.^ fc 
 3 3 u 3 u3i 3 g-g-o a.v^^v a.^ rs a?£^» "373? 3 g"^ a 
 
 rja '• ; '■ ; • T'- ; '■ ; r ". : : ; i '."": 7~. : : r 
 ;2 : : : : : : o : : : : : : ;::::::::: 
 :9< ■ "6:' •S-'o--; :::::fc:d;; 
 
 0) CD fto ca^ 3^ 
 
 QO 
 
 
 ^ ai3 
 "5 o n 
 
 
 ;3j 
 
 -2.2 a 
 
 
 ~ 5 O 3 a -C 
 
 S CO 
 
 a =3 ^ , 
 
 
 
 Sc*^ ^ ' 
 
 &i 
 
 -" -H -C TH -r — " — < ^ -< ■?» rH 10 « OJ ->» T> -H 7> ^ 
 
 CO CO -j; CO CO - — — -~ 
 
 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxaoxxxxnxxxxxx 
 
 aox : 
 
 »n o in o 'S' 
 
 o-3'QoO'?*coiccoTfcDiot'-coox--coincs-fa>coir3C^'r?oocoo3C*t^ 
 
 ,'?o — inoi-x3>o-^I»co-»ioo<-Qoai= mo 
 
ADDRESS OF GEN. JOHN KOBEETSON. 
 
 501 
 
 OFFICERS AND MEN WHO WP]KE UNDER THE FLAO OF 
 THE IN ION 18(51-65. 
 
 RKGIMENTS. 
 
 Gen'l Officers, and on the Staff, and i 
 
 in the retjular service of the U. S. l 
 
 In Vol. Ortranizations of othei- States. 
 
 1st Regiment Eng'rs and Meclianics. . 
 
 Light .Vrtillery. 
 Cavalry 
 
 Infantry, three months. 
 " three years 
 
 reorganized 
 
 l.st 
 
 l8t 
 
 2d 
 
 3d 
 
 4th 
 
 5th 
 
 tlth 
 
 7th 
 
 8th 
 
 9th 
 
 10th 
 
 nth 
 
 1st 
 
 1st 
 
 ■M 
 
 3d 
 
 3d 
 
 4th 
 
 4th 
 
 5th 
 
 6th 
 
 7th 
 
 ,sth 
 
 !)th 
 
 10th 
 
 11th 
 
 nth 
 
 12th 
 
 13th '• " 
 
 14th " " 
 
 15th " " 
 
 lOtli Retrinient Infantry, and two _ 
 
 C'o's Sharp.<;liooters, attached ' 
 
 17th Regiment Infantry 
 
 ISth •• " 
 
 reorganized 
 
 reorganized 
 
 19th " " 
 
 20th " •• 
 
 21st " " 
 
 22d " " 
 
 23d " " 
 
 24th " •• 
 
 25th " •' 
 
 26th " " 
 
 27tli Regiment Infantry, and two t 
 Independent Companies attached "I 
 
 28th Regiment Infantry 
 
 29th " ■• 
 
 30th " ■' 
 
 Ist " Sharpshooters 
 
 1st '■ Colored Infantry 
 
 Merrill Horse 
 
 1st Regiment U. S. Sharpshooters . . . 
 2d 
 
 Co. D, fiBth Illinois Infantry 
 
 Co. A, 23d •• 
 
 Co. B, 37th •• 
 
 Co. H,42d •' 
 
 Co.B,44th " 
 
 
 6 
 33 
 92 
 45 
 24 
 31 
 94 
 95 
 47 
 23 
 23 
 18 
 18 
 3 
 103 
 95 
 96 
 
 115 
 ] 
 
 141 
 43 
 
 123 
 
 130 
 11 
 55 
 45 
 
 28 
 40 
 82 
 48 
 
 155 
 
 89 
 11 
 50 
 04 
 40 
 52 
 38 
 
 lis 
 
 21 
 61 
 
 :i42 
 367 
 246 
 260 
 375 
 327 
 
 2:w 
 
 266 
 246 
 288 
 151 
 240 
 114 
 3 
 
 92 
 112 
 
 75 
 1.56 
 
 95 
 141 
 163 
 470 
 154 
 195 
 268 
 209 
 198 
 
 81 
 377 
 314 
 195 
 264 
 
 128 
 
 152 
 297 
 142 
 173 
 291 
 289 
 225 
 142 
 129 
 1.55 
 
 199 
 
 122 
 
 64 
 
 17 
 
 150 
 
 128 
 
 67 
 
 37 
 
 18 
 
 16 
 
 10 
 
 •1 
 
 28 
 29 
 
 ^ I 
 
 £ I 
 
 355 
 410 
 384 
 3:M 
 407 
 371 
 ;i50 
 379 
 317 
 318 
 177 
 269 
 i:i8 
 fi 
 227 
 306 
 218 
 157 
 260 
 148 
 379 
 53! 
 324 
 389 
 286 
 290 
 279 
 81 
 428 
 381 
 243 
 
 3;w 
 
 831 
 
 276 
 310 
 230 
 274 
 362 
 368 
 280 
 298 
 lti3 
 253 
 
 126 
 69 
 17 
 2.57 
 137 
 75 
 70 
 80 
 29 
 18 
 
 56 
 43 
 
 7 
 356 
 418 
 404 
 .3:18 
 414 
 .375 
 358 
 .386 
 322 
 321 
 181 
 271 
 142 
 
 9 
 243 
 321 
 224 
 158 
 273 
 148 
 398 
 .542 
 338 
 403 
 2<)2 
 299 
 286 
 81 
 432 
 390 
 247 
 337 
 
 343 
 
 283 
 310 
 2:57 
 290 
 368 
 374 
 287 
 313 
 ](W 
 259 
 
 128 
 
 71 
 
 18 
 
 263 
 
 140 
 
 75 
 
 73 
 
 31 
 
 29 
 
 IS 
 
 5 
 
 50 
 
 43 
 
502 
 
 MICHIGAN 8 SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 OFFICERS AND MEN WHO WERE UNDER THE FLAG OF 
 THE UNION 1861-G5— Continued. 
 
 
 KUled in Action. 
 
 Died of Wounds 13 
 Rec'd in Action g 
 
 RS. 
 
 Men. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 REGIMENTS. 
 
 h 
 
 o 
 
 ■o 
 » 
 
 a 
 
 3 
 < 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 ■si 
 
 a" 
 
 s 
 
 o 
 
 s 
 
 £ 
 
 1 
 
 o 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 Is 
 
 II 
 
 Co. C, 70th New York Infantry 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 
 25 
 14 
 
 498 
 
 25 
 
 In other Companies serving in regi- I 
 ments of other States and in the-v 
 
 
 
 *14 
 
 regular army so far as reported . . ( 
 
 Taken from Roll of Honor U. S. f 
 
 Quartermaster's Department as 
 
 belonging to Michigan Regiments, ■{ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 *498 
 
 but not found on regimental 
 records I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 Officers killed 177 
 
 Officers died of wounds 85 
 
 Officers died of disease 96 — 
 
 Men killed 2,643 
 
 Men died of wounds 1,303 
 
 Men died of disease 10,640 
 
 358 
 
 *14 
 *498— 14,497 
 
 14,855 
 
ADDRESS OF GKN. JOlJX KoliERTSOX. 503 
 
 " Columbia e'er will know you 
 From out her glittering towers, 
 And kisses of love will throw you 
 And send you wreaths of tlowers; 
 And e'en in realms of glory 
 Shall shine your starry claims; 
 Angels have heard your story, 
 And God knows all your names." 
 
 While flags and banners are made tlie medium of expressing 
 to troops gratitude for their patriotism, and tlie expectation of 
 theii' gallant services, as well as their acknowledgment, costly 
 monuments and columns are reared to commemorate their 
 sacrifices. 
 
 From tlu' earliest [)eriods in all civilized nations and com- 
 munities, monuments have been acknowledged evidences of 
 an eidightened, grateful and generous people, and are so 
 considered at the present day. Some are reared as mementoes 
 of great national events, or as recognitions of achievements or 
 acknowledged worth of individuals ; others to honor the 
 memories of patriots who have made sacrifices for their coun- 
 try, while the most numerous are raised to mark the last rest- 
 ing place of the departed, and to inscribe thereon their brief 
 and latest history. 
 
 iSome monuments, commenced with a national purpose, are 
 in ruins ere completed. Others, undertaken by populous 
 states or cities, are left unfinished, both speaking loudly of 
 neglect, if not disgrace, and at least are evidences of a cooled 
 ai'dor in the cause, or of a wanton forgetf ulness of the worth 
 or valor which they were intended to perpetuate; while the 
 humble stone, with the tender and loving inscription of the 
 widowed mother to her departed child, is complete and stands 
 intact, the consummation of a fixed and hallowed purpose. 
 
 With a grateful appreciation of the services and sacrifices of 
 her sons who gave up their lives, the dearest boon to man, 
 and of those who risked them in the same glorious cause, 
 Michigan, early in the war, determined to perpetuate their 
 memories and heroic deeds, by the erection of a monument 
 chiseled from the white marble or beautiful granite of 
 America, elaborately and appropriatcl y finished with bronze 
 or marl)le tigures. 
 
 In June, 18(17, numerous designs were submitted to a com- 
 
504 Michigan's semi-centenkial. 
 
 inittee, whose clioice was made of that presented by Randolph 
 Rogers, the eminent American sculptor. In due time the 
 monument was completed iu Detroit as originally designed, 
 and at a cost of 870,185.91, raised by contributions through- 
 out the State. It is constructed of gray granite, while its or- 
 namental decoration is of gold bronze. Its dedication is: 
 " Erected by the people of Michigan in honor of the martyrs 
 who fell and the heroes who fought in defence of Liberty and 
 Union." 
 
 "The whole — it speaks in volumes of the past — 
 
 Of war's dread tempest and the fiery blast; 
 
 Of mail-clad labor, brave the sword to draw, 
 
 To vindicate the right, maintain the law." 
 
 The American sanitary measures were undoubtedly the most 
 extensive and liberal ever undertaken by a people in any war, 
 and accomplished much in ameliorating the sufferings incident 
 to a great and prolonged war. Michigaii was not slow in 
 entering into the beneficent effort. 
 
 In the autumn of 1861 the " Michigan Soldiers Relief Asso- 
 ciation of Washington," composed of warm-hearted Michigan 
 men in that city, commenced its humane work and continued it 
 until September, 1866. Its resources were assessments of the 
 membership at the start. They were, however, in a short 
 time relieved by contributions made by the people of the State 
 amounting to $24,902.24 in the aggregate, which was expended 
 in the care of Michigan soldiers in hospitals in Washington 
 and in the field. 
 
 The " Michigan Soldiers Aid Society " was formed in 
 Detroit in November, 1861, being a branch of the "United 
 States Sanitary Commission," and continued until June, 1866. 
 Its resources were from various contributions in the State, 
 amounting to $28,129.44, together with a large amount of goods 
 and useful articles expended for the use of the sick in hospitals 
 in the State and at the front, including $11,422.86 for 
 " Soldiers' Home " in Detroit. 
 
 The "Michigan Soldiers' Relief Association " was organized 
 in Detroit in April, 1862, and continued while the war lasted. 
 This association directed its efforts to collections throughout 
 the State of large amounts of necessary supplies, including 
 underclothing, sending them to the front for the use of the 
 
ADDKE6S OF GliN. JuHN ROBERTSON. 5()5 
 
 soldiers sick or well; and in addition it expended $3,60U for 
 useful purposes. 
 
 In 18<J4 those associations were most opitortunely assisted by 
 the ''Ladies' Soldiers' Aid Society of Kalamazoo," by way of 
 a "State Sanitary Fair" at Kalamazoo in September of that 
 vear. It was managed with much good judgment and energy, 
 ending in complete success, netting ><!»,(>18.7h over all expenses. 
 
 " In tlie lieautiesof lilies, Christ was horn across the sea, 
 With a glory in his hosom that transfia;urcs yon and me; 
 As He died to make men holy, let ?/.v die to make men free." 
 
 The *' Christian Commission " was a powerful auxiliary in 
 sanitary operations, j)Ossessing immense strength and ciieriry- 
 It was most successful as a sanitary organization, uniting 
 therewith the religious instruction and admointion of good 
 men to the living when opportunity offere<l, while kindly con- 
 solation was afforded in their last moments to those who were 
 passing away. 
 
 The Michigan branch of the Commission commenced in 
 June, 1803, but was practically in operation but one year. 
 Its funds were received principally from church collections- 
 Its receipts were $21,725.20, most of which forwarded to the 
 central office in Philadelphia; stores estimated at $10,000 were 
 sent direct to the army. 
 
 The plan of the Commission was to minister both to the 
 mental as well as the bodily wants of the army, sending the 
 living preacher, the bible, and the religious newspapers of ail 
 denominations, while all the time it ministered to the temporal 
 wants of the soldier, and worked for the comfort of the sick, 
 wounded and dying. It searched for the wounded amid the 
 thickest of the battlefield, and never left him until he was 
 discharged from hospital, or a jirayer consigns him to a 
 soldier's grave. 
 
 Michigan sent to the front fifty-six clergymen and laymen, 
 <vho labore<l each six weeks without any compensation exce))t 
 the consciousness of doing good. 
 
 At the session of 18()T the Legislature appropriated twenty 
 thousainl dollars to maintain for two vears a temporary 
 "Soldiers' Home" at Harper hospital, in Detroit, for disabled 
 destitute soldiers, managed by the State Military Hoard. At 
 the session of 1869 another appropriation was made for its 
 
506 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 support for two years more. Since then appropriations have 
 been continued and the Home is still in existence. 
 
 The Potomac army, under command of Lieutenant General 
 Grant, crossed the Rapidan May 5, 1864, and from that day 
 onward to about the 10th day of June, there occurred a nearly 
 continuous succession of battles, so frequent that it was a 
 common remark of the soldiers returned from that campaign 
 that it seemed to them like one continuous battle. 
 
 Certain it was that the entire region, from the Rapidan to 
 Cold Harbor, was a continuous battle ground. Three hundred 
 thousand men in daily and nightly conflict for thirty-flve days, 
 produced of necessity a host of wounded, who demanded from 
 not only the Government, but the people, every possible 
 assistance. 
 
 Notwithstanding the medical department of the Government 
 exercised all its accustomed foresight, and made judicious use 
 of its immense resources with advanced preparations to meet 
 coming emergencies, there were times during the war when 
 great battles came thick and fast, when rebel bullets felled men 
 like the grain in harvest, that it failed in supplying a sufliciency 
 of surgeons in the field, and extreme sufl:ering threatened the 
 sick and woumled. This deficiency, however, was readily and 
 cheerfully made up by the voluntary service of the medical 
 men of the laud. The surgeons of Michigan were not behind 
 in the humane work, and without fee or proffer of reward, 
 never failed, although at a great sacrifice, in promptly and 
 substantially responding to the emergency, and thirty-three 
 surgeons of the State, together with five medical students from 
 Ann Arbor, volunteered their services and reported to the 
 Surgeon General of the army, who assigned to duty at various 
 points at the front, most of them remaining so long as their 
 services were deemed necessary, without any compensation or 
 hope of reward except that which comes from a sense of 
 having served their country in a time of great need, and 
 performed a Christian duty in alleviating much suffering of 
 their fellow man. 
 
 The most momentous period in the history of Michigan was 
 the war of the rebellion, embracing the home work of the 
 people; and although that may be looked upon as insignificant 
 when compared with the extent and vahu; of the labor of her 
 
ADDKESS ()F GEN. JOHN KoBEKTSON. O^U 
 
 troo[)S in ihe tiold, and the great sac-riHcc of lite made by them, 
 yet it was one of great magnitude. The ukl proverb that 
 "constant dropping wears the stone," did not seem to be 
 applicable, for could the continuous drain on the people of 
 Michigan for men and means liave worn out their patriotism, 
 such a result would liave been surely accomplished. For, 
 aside from the incessant labor of the people in raising men to 
 till their quotas, to save their communities from the odious 
 drafts which continually threatened them, involving much 
 perplexing anxiety, there were many petty annoyances, great 
 sacrifice of time, together with large expenditures of money by 
 State, counties and townships, and also by individuals, which 
 all combined rendered the burdens and cares of the people at 
 times so heavy as to be almost unbearable. Still the aston- 
 ishing statements made below, covering over fourteen and a 
 half million of dollars, raised and applied by Michigan for war 
 purposes, although couched in silent figures, speak most 
 eloquently and earnestly of the great sacrifice and the 
 unbounded patriotism of her people. 
 
 In accordance with law the Quartermaster General of the 
 the State expended in 1863 $134,250; 1864, 8867,959; 1865, 
 $383,076; 1866, $438,500; 1867,111,700; 1868, $18,623; 1869, 
 $28,850; 1870, $26,400, up to and including 81 st of July, amount- 
 ing in the aggregate to $1,909,408. 
 
 Since then there has been paid from July 31st, 1870, up to 
 and including September, 18S0, $18,450, making $1,927,858 of 
 a total of bounties. 
 
 There was also disbursed .$60,000 as premiums for the pro- 
 curation of recruits. 
 
 Aside from these amounts this department expended for 
 war purposes $815,000, making a total of $2,802,858 disbursed 
 by the State. 
 
 The following are the aggregate expenditures and liabilities 
 of the various townships, cities and wards of the counties in 
 the State for war purposes, made up from statements of the 
 proper officers, rendered in 1866: 
 
 Allegan, $188,898.49; Alpena, $9,781.98; Antrim, $4,638; 
 Berrien, $257,416.97; Branch, $230,086.65; Barry, $180,641; 
 Bay, $61,267; Calhoun, $354,432.32; Clinton, $135,936; Cass, 
 $196,239.86; Chippewa, ; Cheboygan, $1,525; Delta, 
 
508 Michigan's semi-centennial. 
 
 ^1,200; Eaton, 1175,863.58; Emmet, $50; Genesee, $150, 
 488.75; Gratiot, $23,527; Grand Traverse, $12,990.54; Hills 
 dale, $282,449.21; Houghton, $39,152.71; Huron, $17,230 
 Ionia, $182,888; Ingham, $203,985; Isabella, $5,775; Iosco 
 $4,900; Jackson, $439,325.10; Kent, $167,550,50; Kalama/oo, 
 $383,416.61; Keweenaw, $1,000; Livingston, $14-1,379.22; La 
 peer, $129,674.89; Lenawee, $544, 557.75; Leelanavv, $4,845.52 
 Midland, $12,598; Montcalm, $44,861.20; Muskegon, $43,604 
 Macomb, $289,029.69;' Mecosta, $3,340; Monroe, $135,180.69 
 
 Manistee, $15,476; Manitou, ; Mackinac, $6,727.50; Ma^ 
 
 son, $807; Marquette and Schoolcraft, $3,000; Newaygo, $12, 
 004; Ottawa, $148,523; Oakland, $586,556.98; Oceana, $14, 
 692.93; St. Clair, $233,291.90; St. Joseph, $557,958; Saginaw 
 $158,099.59; Shiawassee, $167,203; Sanilac, $95,794.29; Tus 
 cola, $67,631.96; Van Buren, $1 15,637.90; Wayne, $660,554.88 
 Washtenaw, $458,563.54. Total, $8,157,748.70. 
 
 Amount expended by each county of the State from 1861 to 
 1867 for the relief of soldiers' families, under the provisions 
 of tlie Soldiers' Relief Law, approved May 10th, 1861: 
 
 Alpena, $8.80; Allegan, $80,985.72; Antrim, $666.11 ; Bay, 
 $21,991 54; Barry, $86,598.15; Berrien, $131,924.45; Branch, 
 $69,121.20; Calhoun, $200,193. 66; Ca8S,$80,883. 46; Clinton,$67,- 
 
 443.75; Cheboygan, $368.92; Chippewa, $1,032; Delta, ; 
 
 Eaton, $62,103.69; Emmet, $1,948.40; Genesee,$89,087. 12; Grat- 
 iot, $8,875; Grand Traverse, $10,636.81; Hillsdale, $90,155.96; 
 Houghton, $8,419; Huron, $23,033.50; Ingham, $110,547.09; 
 Isabella, $4,680.45; Ionia, $31,500; Iosco, $1,000; Jackson, 
 $129,401.25; Kalamazoo, $119,084.79; Kent, $76,31 1 ; Kewee- 
 naw, $3,620; Lapeer, $75,t»O0; Livingston, $34,500; Lenawee, 
 $145,226.20; Leelanaw, $6,487.89; Macomb, $1 10,339.26; Me- 
 costa, $9,280.09; Mackinaw, ; Midland, $6,550; Manitou, 
 
 ; Mason, $3,200; Manistee, $9,620; Muskegon, $20,000; 
 
 Marquette, $7,989.16; Menominee, $3<»0; Monroe, $143,762; 
 Montcalm, $40,000; Newaygo, $14,516.72; Ottawa, $56,616.08. 
 Oceana, $18,368; Ontonagon, $4,747.02. Oakland, $127,993.38; 
 Sanilac, $73,11 1.33; Shiawassee, $50,645; Saginaw, $81,000; St. 
 Clair, $89,427.99; St. Joseph, $96,214; Tuscola, $51,987.22; 
 Van Buren, $99,511.81; Washtenaw, $155,043.15, and Wayne, 
 $547,200. Total, $3,591,248.12, while $14,569,852.82 was the 
 total jMiblic expenditure of the State, without making any ac- 
 
ADDRESS OF OEN. .TOITN ROBERTSON. 509 
 
 count of the large sum which the war must of necessit)'^ have 
 cost private individuals in money and articles contributed for 
 sanitary purposes and other contingencies. 
 
 Tile amount of ><594,(3()U was paid by individuals into the 
 Treasury of the LTnited States in accordance with law, by 
 drafted citizens of the State as commutation. 
 
 At the outbreak of the war all the uniforined companies 
 I lien ill llic State voliint(>ered for service; of these two in 
 Detroit reorganized for home duty, the Detroit Light Guard, 
 Srott (Tiiard, while the Lyon Guai-d, also in Detroit, was i-aised 
 and inustereil for that duty, and all served in tiie State during 
 the war. These companies were held in readiness to quell any 
 disturbances in the community, and rendered valuable service 
 ill that respect and in guarding against raids by Southern rebel 
 i-efugees from the l)orders of Cana<la. threatened from time to 
 time to be made on Detroit and along the frontier line. They 
 also aided iniich in sustaining a confidence of secuiity of life 
 and property among the inhabitants, especiallv while the raids 
 referred to were being threatened. 
 
 The war had thrown a damper on homeservice, and but little 
 ]>rogress was made in organizing companies, but few seeking 
 admission, so that from the commencement of the war up to 
 ls73 only six com)ianies had been received into service. In 
 that year an allowance of uniform was made bv the State, 
 which gave some impetus to military affairs, and in \x74 they 
 had increased to sixteen companies, sufiicient from which to 
 organize the 1st Regiment, Colonel W. H. Withington, of 
 Jackson, and the 2nd, Colonel I. C. Smith, of Grand Ra])ids. 
 
 About this time the State commenced to look upon the mili- 
 tary in a more favoiabic light, and in l^Tn authoritv was 
 given by tin- Legislature to levy for its sup])ort in each vear a 
 tax of ten cents per capita on the preceding vote for Governor, 
 :ind during IST") eight companies more were accepted and mus- 
 tered into service, wlien t he organization of the Tliiiil Regi- 
 ment, Colonel O. F. Lochhead, of Flint, was accomplishei]. 
 
 In 1!^7'.1 the tax was made three and one-half cents jn-r 
 capita oil the last preceding census. These ;illo\vances gave a 
 new life to the military of the .'^tate, and a iccM<_fiiition and i-n- 
 couragement so long denied. 
 
 On .fulv l">th of that vear, a brigade was formed of the 
 
olO Michigan's SE>n-cENTENNiAL. 
 
 three regiments witli Brigadier-General W. H. Withington 
 as Commander. Up to this time the pressure for the admission 
 of companies had been strong and urgent, and sufficient had 
 been accepted to warrant the organization of a battalion of 
 four companies at Detroit in 1882, in command of Lieut. Col- 
 onel Eugene Robinson. In the meantime a battalion of two 
 companies, taken from the Third Regiment, had been made up 
 at Marquette to be commanded by the ranking Captain; it 
 was, however, soon broken up and the companies again merged 
 in the Third Regiment. In 188-5 six additional companies 
 were admitted and assigned to the First Battalion, which was 
 then designated as the Fourth Regiment, with Colonel Robin- 
 son commanding. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the State troops now consist of four 
 regiments of infantry formed into a brigade. They are well 
 officered, armed and equipped, and ready for any service. A 
 comparison of their present condition with that of a few years 
 ago exhibits a degree of rapid and substantial improvement in 
 all that pertains to their Organization, discipline and drill; 
 while it is most satisfactory to notice that, at all times, when 
 their services have been required, they have been rendered in 
 such a manner as to receive the approval of the civil authori- 
 ties and the people of the communities where they have been 
 on duty; and that they are now recognized as a permanent part 
 of the State government, creditable, effective and reliable, re- 
 ceiving the countenance and support of the people of the 
 State. 
 
UK KAKLV LKGISLATIOX OF MICHIGAN. 
 
 INSERTED BY KIND PEKMl.SSION OF THE AUTUOll, 
 
 Hon. ALPHEUS FELCPI. 
 
 It w;is my fortune to be a member of tlie first and second 
 Legislatures of the State of Michigan. The first Constitution 
 of the State was adopted by a vote of the people on the first 
 Monday of October, 1835. Under its provisions the Governor 
 and members of the first Legislature were elected the same 
 day, and the first session of the Legislature was hc^ld on the 
 second day of November following. The meeting took place 
 at Detroit, in the building erected by the LTnited States for 
 the Territorial Council, and which, for twelve years afterwards, 
 served the State for its legislative halls. 
 
 Here the first Legislature was organized and the official oath 
 administered to its members. Hero in joint assembly of the 
 two houses the votes for Governor and Lieutenant Governor 
 were canvassed, and they took the official oath prescribed by 
 the Constitution. Ili're tlu' State organization was perfected. 
 Here a new Commonwealth had its birth and waited only the 
 action of Congress to take its place in the galaxy of States 
 which, together, constitute the great American Nationality. 
 I scarcely need to say tliat the occasion was one of great 
 interest to the people of JNIichigan. The initiatory government 
 of a territorial organization was about to cease. The days of 
 pupilage were maturing into tlic freedom nl' manhood, and 
 visions of the glorious future of the new State were bright 
 before every eye. A Constitution prepared by delegates of 
 their own choosing and adopted by their own free votes was 
 henceforth to be their fundamental law, and under it legisla- 
 tive and executive officers of their own selection were to be 
 the guardians of their common interests. 
 
 More than fifty years have passed since the proud day to 
 which I refer, a?id you will not wonder that one who partici- 
 pateil in its events, and whose Ixisom glowed with the ardoi- 
 
512 THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 
 
 then kindleil in every breast, looks back with a proud and 
 beating heart to this birthday of our Commonwealth. Nor is 
 it in the primal days of our State's history, or in the time of 
 our first executive Legislature and judicial othces alone that 
 we may justly glory. Every day of the fifty years that marks 
 the history of our Republic I have watched carefully the 
 events which have occurred in its progress — its discourage- 
 ments, its changes and marvelous growth — and I cannot but 
 feel in my heart that within this half century no State in the 
 Union, and certainly no |)olitical organization on earth, outside 
 the Union, has made truer or greater progress, or has more 
 reason to be proud of the record made by the various depart- 
 ments of its government. 
 
 There are some peculiarities connected with the early legis- 
 lation which we must not fail to notice. By the provisions of 
 the Constitution all laws then in existence in the Territory of 
 Michigan, not repugnant to the Constitution, were to remain 
 in force until they should expire by their own limitation, or be 
 repealed by the State Legislature, and all civil and military 
 officers holding in the Territory under authority of the United 
 States were to continue so to act until superseded under the 
 authority of the State. Thus the new State started on its 
 course as an inde])en(lent Republic, with laws already matured 
 and in force, and with officers already sworn to carry them into 
 effect. The machinery might at the first view have seemed 
 sufficient for the new organization, and further acts of legisla- 
 tion unnecessary. But this was not so. The territorial laws 
 were crude and imperfect. They were enacted for the small 
 border settlements in a wilderness country, where the footstep 
 of the immigrant had just begun to press the virgin soil and 
 the forest to yield to the axe and the plow of the settler. But 
 a change had commenced and was in rapid progress. Immi- 
 gration was pouring in with a tide irresistible and, day by 
 day, growing stronger and stronger. The new inhabitants 
 brought with them the arts of domestic life and the refinements 
 of civilized and polished society; and, above all, that spirit of 
 energy and enterprise which was able to build up a new State 
 and crown it with the glory of a free Republic. Few of the 
 old laws originated in an assembly chosen by the people of the 
 Territory, and not one of the officers received his authority by 
 
THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 513 
 
 popular election. The popular sentiment which induced the 
 niakint; of the Constitution and the organization of the State 
 Government under it, demanded larger and broader legislation 
 and institutions of a more popular character. The duty of 
 supplying these, and of enacting laws in accordance with this 
 sentiment, and in aid of the progress and consolidation of the 
 State on the basis of permanent prosperity, was tlirown largely 
 on the first Legislature and to its immediate successors. 
 
 The first Legislature met on the second day of Xovember, 
 1835, under pe(!uliar circumstances. The Legislature, if it was 
 anything, was a part of an organized government — of a gov- 
 ernment possessing all the powers of an existing organized 
 State, yet it was within the limits and jurisdiction of the 
 United States. But tlie Government of the United States re- 
 cognized no such State as a member of the Federal Union. 
 True tlie State Constitution hail been ))resented to Congress 
 and an apj)eal made for admission into the Union, but the 
 unfortunate collision with the State of Ohio relative to the 
 southern boundary of Michigan calised delay in the desired rec- 
 ognition. Congress, however, by an act of June loth, 1836, ap- 
 proved the State Constitution, and recognized the right of 
 the State to admission, yet imposed a condition of formal as- 
 sent to the change of the boundary line as demanded by the 
 State of Ohio, and refuse*! admission until such assent was 
 given. This assent was subse<piently given in an informal but 
 acceptable manner, and on the 25th of January, 1837, the ad- 
 mission of the State into the Union "on an equal footing with 
 the original States " was formally declared by an act of Con- 
 gress. Thus from Xovember 2, 1835, when the Legislature 
 was organized under the Constitution in Detroit, until the final 
 act of admission by Congress on the 26th of January, 183 7, a 
 period of one year and about three months, the condition of 
 the State was most anomalous. Two jurisdictions existed in 
 apparent conflict. The territorial jurisdiction was not for- 
 mally withdrawn by the LTnited States. The Territory con- 
 tinueil to be represented in the House of Representatives by 
 her delegate: John S. Horner was nominally Acting Governor 
 of the Territory. In tiie mcaniime the State organization 
 was perfected and the Government {)Ut into completeoperation. 
 Li November, Is3.3, two United States Senators were elected 
 33 
 
514 THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 
 
 by the Legislature, and in the month previous a Representative 
 in Congress had been chosen by the people. The Judicial De- 
 partment of the State was put into full operation, and in 1836, 
 county, State and township officers wore elected and assumed 
 the duties of their respective offices. Thus the State was fully 
 organized and her officers administering the State Govern- 
 ment, while the territorial organization under the general 
 Goveriinient had not been withdrawn, nor any assent to the 
 antagonist State Government given by Congress. The two 
 jurisdictions were incompatible with each other, and it is sur- 
 prising that during a period of more than a year while they 
 continued, no important act of collision or conflict occurred. 
 Great good sense and forbearance on all sides,, and especially 
 on the part of the President of the United States, alone, could 
 have avoided it. The provision of the Constitution which 
 continued in force the territorial laws and fetained the terri- 
 torial officers in authority until a change should be made under 
 the authority of the State did much to avoid collision and 
 trouble. The old territorial officers continued to pei'form 
 their offices as before, and neither they nor others cared to de- 
 termine whether their authority came from the State or the 
 General Government. The old territorial laws which by the 
 Constitution were continued in force, were still the laws of the 
 land, and no man cared to discuss the question whether they 
 derived their validity from the territorial or State organiza- 
 tion. Still the condition was most remarkable — a State within 
 the territorial jurisdiction of the General Government acting 
 with perfect independence — a full-fledged State within the 
 limits of the Union, yet not a member of the Union, nor i-ec- 
 ognized by it — a Government under a State Constitution 
 within a Government oi'ganized under the authority of the 
 United Stales. It is easy to see in such a state of affairs, how 
 many questions might liave arisen which the most astute casu- 
 ist would have found it difficult to solve, and ovei- which the 
 keenest civilian and the wisest statesman might have pondered 
 in doubt. Luckily there was no disposition anywhere to raise 
 mooted questions, or to encourage controversy or to bring on 
 collisions. The Hrst Legislature had no hesitancy in putting 
 into operation the entire machinery of the Constitution or in 
 enacting laws to promote the prosperity and growth of a per- 
 
THK KAKLV LKcilSLATIoN <>F MICHIGAN. 515 
 
 manent re|ml»lic. It must Itc (■(nifcssed, however, that the 
 history ol' the birth aii«l caily <lays of tlie State exliibits the 
 most bolil and chivalrous action on the part of our early states- 
 men, and tlie most fearless and determined etierj^y in the men 
 who laid the framework of our shi)» of state and sent it on its 
 prosperous voyage. 
 
 The first session of the Legislature attempted little more 
 than to inaugurate the executive branch of the government 
 and to elect two United States Senators. But at the adjourned 
 session in FeV)ruary, 1886, the work of legislation was entered 
 upon in good earnest. Aware of the delicate condition of 
 affairs, the evident conflict of jurisdictions and the possibility 
 that it might lead to serious collision between the authorities 
 of the United States and those of the State, they })roceeded 
 carefully to consider the subject through a committee, and 
 resolved " to proceed at the present session to pass all laws 
 required by the ititerests of the people, and to secure to them the 
 rights guaranteed by the Ordinance and the Constitution of 
 their own adoption." A respectable minority in the Senate 
 filed their protest against such proceeding on the ground that 
 the President had officially communicated to the executive- 
 elect of the State liis full determination to maintain the terri- 
 torial authorities and (Tovernment in all its parts, and that 
 every act passed by the Legislature must inevitably produce a 
 collision with the authorities of the general government. But 
 the Senate resolved to make no delay in the work, and the 
 House tacitly acquiescing, the work of general legislation was 
 entered upon in good earnest. During this session many new 
 counties and towTiships were organized, and villages incorpor- 
 ated. Authority was given for building and improving 
 certain rivers and for laying out State roads. Seven banks and 
 twelve railroad companies were incorporated. Provision was 
 also made for the election of all elective officers provided for 
 by the Constitution or the laws, and their duties and compen- 
 sation were prescribed. The effect of these and other enact- 
 ments was speedily to retire all officers who held under terri- 
 torial authority and to supersede all territorial laws and to put 
 the new State organization into full and complete operation. 
 
 But the laws of the early Legislatures did more than this. 
 There is abundant evidence in them that the members took no 
 
516 THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 
 
 narrow or unworthy view of the work they were chosen to 
 perform. He who is called to participate in the foundation of 
 a new Republic, is called to a most noble and dignified work. 
 He labors not for the present alone, but for ages and ages yet 
 to come. The work of our early Legislatures w^as in its 
 immediate application for a small population, and for a region 
 of country almost a wilderness, with few industrial pursuits, 
 small available resources and limited business operations. But 
 they saw beyond all this. A wider vision opened before them. 
 If it is the immortality of man that gives dignity to manhood, 
 so it is the perpetuity of statehood that gives dignity and 
 importance to a State. 
 
 They laid the foundation stones with the vision of the future 
 bright before them, and in the hope and undoubting belief 
 that they built for all time, and that generations yet to come 
 would enjoy rich fruit from their labors. 
 
 How wise, both for the present and the future, this early 
 legislation was, is clearly exhibited by reference to some of 
 the statutes. 
 
 Here was laid the foundation of that grand system of 
 education which has so nobly developed itself within the last 
 fifty years. The Constitution of 1835 provides for the 
 appointment of a Superintendent of Public Instruction, whose 
 duties should be prescribed by law, and made it the duty of 
 the Legislature to encourage " the promotion of intellectual, 
 scientifical and agricultural improvement." It required the 
 establishment of common schools and libraries. Into the hands 
 of the Legislature was committed by Congress the charge of 
 the section of laud in every township in the State for the use 
 of schools, and the seventy-two sections of land granted for the 
 use and support of a University. With these funds devoted 
 to educational purposes, of little present, but of great pros- 
 pective value, the foundation of the present system of educa- 
 tion was laid. The report of John D. Pierce, Superintendent 
 of Public Instruction, made to the Legislature at its session in 
 January, 1837, is an admirable and most exhaustive discussion 
 of the great subject of popular education, with clear and 
 practical views for carrying into operation the provisions of 
 the Constitution, and suggestions as to the necessary legisla- 
 tion on the subject. The Legislature caught the spirit, and 
 
THK K\KI,\' r,K(;ISr>ATr()N' of MK'inO.VN. 517 
 
 embraced tlu' hroad views of tlic report, and its reeoimiieiida- 
 tions were adopted. It gave the new State at once and from 
 the first an educational system, tlien, if not now, far in advance 
 of that of any of the ohler States. I know of no otlier State 
 where tlie education of all its population was, at that time, 
 treated as a great sultjectof State importance, the details of its 
 various branches defined, and an oflicer under tlie commission 
 of the RepuV)lic- charged with its general care and oversight, 
 and required to report periodically to the legislative department 
 of the Government. 
 
 In other States education was committed largely, if not 
 entirely, to local and district schools, private schools, acade- 
 mies and colleges; but these were detached organizations, 
 doing certainly much true and faithful work, but greatly 
 wanting in the coherence necessary to form an effective and 
 perfect system, with that sui)erintendence over all which so 
 broad a subject demands. The system here adopted contem- 
 plates nothing more or less than the education of all. Begin- 
 ning with the lowest grade, it gradually rises until it termi- 
 nates at the highest in the University. The success of this 
 system has drawn to it the marked attention of educators and 
 Statesmen elsewhere, and has elicited universal commendation. 
 The University now standing at the head of the system, now 
 less than half a century in operation, already takes its place 
 beside the old institutions which have enjoyed the growth of 
 centuries, and shares with them the honors of literary 
 eminence, while it was among the foremost to enlarge and 
 liberalize the cunicidum, and to welcome within its halls 
 science and knowledge of the arts and industries of practical 
 life. 
 
 The judicial svstcni which was ailoptcd l)y the Constitution 
 and by the early Legislatures was eminently fitted to tiie cir- 
 cumstances of the times and proved highly successful in pro- 
 motion of the |)ulilic interest. The population of the State 
 was at that time small and l>usiness transactions neither exten- 
 sive nor complicated. Three Judges ajjpointed by the Gover- 
 nor, by and witii the advice and consent of the Senate, consti- 
 tuted the Supreme Court, under the provisions of the Constitu- 
 tion; but under the same authority the Legislature added a 
 Court of Chancerv. Circuit Courts were held in each of the 
 
518 THE KARI.Y LEGISLATION oF MICHIGAN. 
 
 counties by one of tlie Judges of tlie Supreme Court, assisted 
 by two associate Justices elected by the people. Thus justice 
 was brought to the door of all litigants, and it w-as ably and 
 impartially administered. But this organization, admirable as 
 it was for the time being, was insufficient to sup2)ly the needs 
 of a largely increased population and the necessarily large and 
 complicated business of later times. Nothing perhaps can ex- 
 hibit in a stronger light the marvelous growth of the State and 
 the increase of its business interests, than the fact that the 
 Supreme Judges, although relieved from all Circuit Court 
 duties and increased in numbers, are continually burdened 
 with heavy dockets, while the Circuit Court business then re- 
 quired to be performed by the three Supreme Judges is now^ 
 committed to twenty-eight Circuit Judges. 
 
 Another of the measures of importance in early legislation 
 was the adoption of a system of internal improvements. In 
 1837, two bills having this object in view, were simultaneously 
 before the Legislature, and respectively became laws on the 
 20th and 21st of March in that year. The first of tiiese pro- 
 vided for the construction of three railroads across the State, 
 to be known as the Central, the Southern and the Northern 
 railroads, although for the last a canal might be substituted 
 in whole or in part. The other act authorized a loan of the 
 credit of the State, of a sum not exceeding five millions of 
 dollars for the purpose of meeting the expenses. This loan 
 was subsequently obtained and the construction of the works 
 commenced and prosecuted under the charge of commissioners 
 appointed for the purpose. The State held the roads until the 
 spring of 1846, when they were sold and two and a half mil- 
 lions of dollars paid into the treasury for them. 
 
 The legislation and the project involved in it have been the 
 subject of much criticism, and certainly it was a most expen- 
 sive undertaking for a new State with a small population and 
 few' available resources, and for some years the outstanding 
 warrants of the State, issued for labor and materials in con- 
 structing the wox'ks, were unpaid and afloat. But we must 
 consider the circumstances of the times before we censure. 
 The complete adaptability of the wondrous power of steam to 
 locomotion and draught by railroads was a discovery compara- 
 tively new. Not more than twelve hundred miles of railroads 
 
thp: eakf.v i.Ki.isr.ATio-v »>k miumigax. 519 
 
 h.ul \)L'cu coiislnuleil ;il tliat time in the llniteil States, ami 
 these were ehiefly in the vicinity of the Athmtic coast, no one 
 of them approaching nearer to Michigan than the eastern por- 
 tion of tlie State of New York. liut the public mind was 
 aroused on the subject of the newly discovered power, and its 
 applicability and the incalculable benetits to be derived from 
 them. Legislatures were everywhere besieged for charters, and 
 our own State, as we have seen, was no exception. Capitalists 
 and moneyed men were ready to invest their means, and asked 
 only the boon of chartered privileges and i)owers. The busi- 
 ness of ruined manufacturers and dilapidated cities was to be 
 revived, and the prairie and forest lands of the Western States, 
 it was fondly dreamed, needed oidy railroads to bring trade, 
 population, wealth and the retinemtHits of civilization. It was 
 a craze almost universal, and yet at the bottom of it all lay 
 much truth and sound practical reasoning. 
 
 It was under these circumstances that the proposition for the 
 railroad project and the live million loan was made. The bill, 
 as reported by the Committee in the House, provided for only 
 one road, that running from Detroit west through the second 
 tier of counties from the southern border of the State. I re- 
 member very distinctly when the proposition was made to 
 amend the bill by substitutitig the three roads in place of one. 
 It created great alarm among the special friends of the bill. 
 They looked upon it as indicating a design to defeat the en- 
 tire project, and they well knew that a combination of the 
 votes nortli and south of the line would seal its fate. But in 
 this they were mistaken. The proposition was ma'le in all 
 sincerity. The pro[)osed loan was large and they reasoned that 
 as near as possible the benefit of it sln)uld be given to all who, 
 as members of the State, were to bear the burden of paying it. 
 
 The two tiers of counties lying on the north and south of the 
 counties through which it was proposed to construct the road, 
 a fertile region already filling up with immigrant-s and develop- 
 ing rich resources, had, in their judgment, equal claims with 
 the others to participate in the beni^Hts of the public works. 
 The rich and now important portion of the State north of the 
 counties above referred to was then, with rare exceptions, an 
 unbroken forest and little known. The jiroject of the railroads 
 ;ui<l the loan was accepted w itii approbation 1)\ the public, and 
 
520 THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 
 
 indeed I knew of but very few in the Legislature or out of it 
 who doubted the propriety or the prudence of the measure. 
 
 And now after the lapse of fifty years, we may well ask the 
 question whether it turned out well or ill for the State ? Cer- 
 tain it is, that the making of the roads gave a marvelous im- 
 pulse to immigration and to business enterprises of every kind, 
 and placed Michigan at the head of the list of western States 
 in energy and successful prosperity and in the attractive char- 
 acter of its institutions and population. And when we con- 
 sider what an element of prosperity railroads have become, 
 and how largely they have aided in developing the country, 
 how intimately they are connected with all important business 
 transactions, how efficient and successful a part they have 
 acted and are still acting in the growth and prosperity of our 
 State, he must be a bold man who should assert that the money 
 was thrown away or the expenditure without adequate return. 
 Besides, we must remember that the construction of the State 
 roads was but the beginning of a broader system which, with- 
 out aid from the public treasury, has since extended itself over 
 the entire State with some seventy district roads and their 
 branches and some five or six thousand miles of track, covering 
 the entire surface as with a network of iron and constituting 
 an element of prosperity exhibited in almost every locality 
 without which our present high position must be lost. 
 
 I must refer to another act of early legislation which opened 
 the way for development of one of the resources of our State, 
 now the subject of one of the great industries of our people 
 and a source of much wealth. By a statute passed Februarj^ 
 23d, 1837, a geological survey of the State was provided for 
 and the Governor authorized, by and with the advice and 
 consent of the Senate, to appoint a State geologist. At this 
 time little or nothing was known of the geological character 
 of the State. The lower peninsula was understood to be 
 founded on a l)ed of limestone, with little or no variety in its 
 characteristics, and no value in its deposits; and of the upper 
 peninsula nothing was known and nothing expected from it. 
 The appointment of Dr. Douglas Houghton to the position of 
 State geologist was a most forlunate one. A man of high 
 scientific attainments, a true admirer of nature, whether in the 
 animal, vegetable or mineral kingdom, an astute explorer of 
 
THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 521 
 
 their secrets, an iiidcfiitigable toiler in his investigations, he 
 was just tlie man foi- tlie duties required. For about ten 
 years he (h-voted himself assiduously to his task, and died in 
 the midst ol" his labors and at the post of duty. The result of 
 this legislation has been highly important to the pecuniary 
 interests of the State. The upper peninsula, previously 
 regarded as worthless, was found to contain rich deposits of 
 mineral wealth, and the business of mining has become of 
 immense importance. The iron mines of Lake Superior have 
 given an annual yield sometimes as high as fourteen millions 
 of dollars, and the copper mines, confessedly the richest in the 
 world, have given a yield of more than eight millions of dollars 
 in a single year. In the lower peninsula the development of 
 saline waters coursing through the earth, at first indicated only 
 by the track of wild deer to the few salt springs, has, through 
 the agency of the State geologist, ripened into a business 
 employing many laborers and raucii capital, and returning 
 generous profits. In the production of this industry, Michigan 
 is first in the list of States, with an annual yield of not less 
 than three millions of dollars. The progress of discoveries 
 since the days of our own first State geologist has enlarged his 
 work, and made further valuable develoj)ments. We have 
 now not merely the salt springs inviting the wild deer, nor the 
 brine percolating through the earth and brought from great 
 depths, by artificial means, for the manufacturers' use, but 
 some portions of the country are found to rest on beds of rock 
 salt, deposited in the days of uncertain antiquity, when the 
 briny waters of the ocean flowed over the basins of the great 
 lakes and covered our two peninsulas. 
 
 Another act of early legislation may be cited as exhibiting 
 the peculiar characteristics of the times and the uncertainty of 
 the results of well-intended enactments. I refer to the general 
 banking law passed in March, 1837. It had its origin in the 
 general derangement of all business affairs, the failure of some 
 of the strongest mercantile firms, and the dark cloud of depres- 
 sion and gloom which hung over the community and seemed 
 to shut out every ray of light or hope for the future. The cry 
 of hard times was loud, and came from every quarter, and 
 many sincerely believedj that the remedy would be found in 
 the multiplication of banks and flooding the country with 
 
522 THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 
 
 bank bills. Under the pressure of discouragement and panic 
 wise men do not always act wisely. The general banking law 
 was sup])osed by its friends to afford a remedy for all these 
 evils, and this belief was almost universal. Indeed, no proposed 
 measure in the Legislature was ever more jiopular, and in that 
 body it had almost a unanimous vote. The opponents of the 
 bill, of whom I was one, never exceeded three in number in the 
 house, and the record shows that no more than two of them 
 ever voted together in any stage of the progress of the bill to 
 its final passage. A feeble minority was this, but the sequel 
 showed that their apprehensions of disaster in the future were 
 not groundless. The business of the country continued to 
 become more and more deranged; banks were everywhere 
 failing or suspended, and the panic seemed universal. Three 
 months after the passage of this law Governor Mason convoked 
 the Legislature in extra session, and gave in his message a 
 graphic account of the deplorable condition of business and 
 pecuniary affairs, for the consideration of which he had called 
 them together. 
 
 In the meantime banks without number had been organized 
 under the law throughout the State — in all the villages and in 
 out-of-the-way places, chosen for their remoteness from the 
 intrusive bill holders. With a nominal capital of millions, they 
 had little to show in their vaults; with discounted paper to a 
 large amount they often had only the worthless promises of 
 insolvents; with reported specie amounting to many thousands 
 they frequently had only a few dollars, or, perhaps, coppers, 
 or boxes partly filled with worthless rubbish, or a fraudulent 
 certificate from some institution equally insolvent as them- 
 selves, falsely asserting the deposit of coin held subject to 
 their order. The bank commissioners became familiar with 
 certain peripatetic coin traveling from bank to bank, and 
 borrowed at a specified price per day, designed to be returned 
 after an examination had been had, but speedily detected by 
 the bank commissioner. Meantime the country was flooded 
 with bank bills — some beautiful pictures in the highest art of 
 the most skillful note engraver — some the blurred daub of the 
 coarsest wood-cut; but all for a time passed into the currency 
 and was paid out and received in the business transactions of 
 the country. But the bubble soon burst. It was soon learned 
 
THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 523 
 
 that paper jjromises, from whatever source emanating, in what- 
 ever form issued, and by whatever signatures authenticated, 
 can never constitute a safe currency, unh'ss behind it lays the 
 means for its ready redemption and tlie Jinancial si<ill and 
 sterling integrity wliicli alone can maintain its credit. The 
 currency rapidly depreciated and soon became worthless. 
 The legislation which caused its production was ill-advised and 
 unwise, the times were unpropitious, and the loss to the com- 
 munity large; but luckily it fell upon a young and vigorous 
 people, and a few years of prudent economy and vigorous toil 
 repaired the injury and restored their former prosperity. 
 
 I have thus referred to the early legislation of Michigan as 
 laying the foundation of the subsequent wonderful growth and 
 advancement of our State. At the time of the adoption of the 
 Constitution of 1835, the population of the State did not much 
 exceed one hundred thousand, now it numbers little less than 
 two millions. Detroit was then its only city: now between 
 forty and fifty incorporated cities exist. The sixteen counties 
 of 1835 have increased to forty-six. A single member then 
 represented the State in Congress; now eleven share the burden 
 between them. Thirty of the present counties were then a 
 wilderness without inhabitants; now' the forests have largely 
 given place to cultivated fields and the habitations of intelli- 
 gent families. No large manufacturing establishments then 
 existed: now they are numbered by hundreds. No railroad 
 tracks then ))ressed the soil; now there are five thousand one 
 hundred and fourteen miles reaching every ))ortion of the 
 State, '['hen no mines had been discovered and the tool of the 
 miner was unknown; now the mines are counted by hundreds, 
 and the yield of copper and iron is abundant and richly re- 
 wards the cajMtalist and the laborer. All this, and much more, 
 is the growth of fifty years which have passed over us since 
 the sessions of the first Legislature. 
 
 As I refer to the acts of the early Legislatures, memory 
 brings to my niiu-l the miii themselves who were the actors in 
 the scene. Tiiey were in the full vigor of manhood, robust, 
 active and energetic men; patriotic and zealous to do their 
 State good service; men of great good sense and much prac- 
 tical knowledge, they always looked to the matter rather 
 than to the form, and scrui)ulously followed their own convic- 
 
524 THE EARLY LEGISLATION OF MICHIGAN. 
 
 tions of right. In tlie legislative sessions every day was one 
 of business. Speech-making was at a discount. The mem- 
 bers were generally thinkers and actors, but not talkers. 
 Thought, deliberation and judgment constituted their qualifi- 
 cations for legislative duties, and they had neither time nor 
 taste for harangue or speech-making. So small a part did the 
 latter play in the proceedings that I believe not a speech can 
 be found reported in the newspapers of the day. Arguments 
 were not wanting when occasion required, but they were 
 always pointed and couched in the briefest terras. 
 
 The work of these earliest Legislatures was highly meri- 
 torious and will never cease to receive due acknowledgment. 
 They laid well the foundation stones of the great State. But the 
 labor and the praise are not due to them alone. You, gentle- 
 men, their successors in the several Legislatures since their 
 day, are sharers in the good work. No legislation, however 
 wise, can remain like a marble statue, fixed and unalterable. 
 Wise as were the early statutes, and fitted as they were to the 
 condition of things at the time of their enactment, a change 
 of circumstances, and sometimes an experience of their un- 
 favorable operation have required a change, and this has gen- 
 erally been effected with care and prudence. In the rapid 
 progress of improvements, in the great increase of population, 
 in the ever progressive enlargement of business, in the busy 
 activity in community of both the honest and the dishonest, 
 the work of the Legislature is never ended. There are always 
 rights to be protected, evils to be guarded against and great 
 public interests to be promoted; and, altiiough it is a wise rule 
 which enjoins that legislation should be as little as possible, 
 these always demand the care of the legislative branch of the 
 Government and will continue to do so. 
 
 The first fifty years of our State have passed. Its history is 
 written in letters of gold and cannot be blotted out. It is not 
 for us who have seen all from the beginning, to remain until the 
 great future of the republic shall be disclosed; but we can read 
 the bright signs of promise that rest upon it, and join in the 
 song of thanksgiving. 
 
(,IX