( : ;NWEALTHS 
 
 Edited by 
 
 HORACE E. SCUDDER
 
 american 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 HORACE E. SCUDDER.
 
 MAP O1 
 MICHIGAN TERRITORY 
 
 to Illustrate War of 1812. 
 
 10 -JO
 
 MICHIGAN 
 
 TO ACCOMPANY 
 
 T. M. COOLEY'S 
 
 MICHIGAN in AMERICAN COMMONWEALTHS 
 
 10 20 30 40 50 ep 70 80 80 100 
 
 9 Washington 8'
 
 511mratan 
 
 MICHIGAN 
 
 SIXTH EDITION 
 
 BOSTON 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street 
 
 , amtrit>0e 
 
 1892
 
 Copyright, 1885, 
 BT THOMAS M. COOLET. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A: 
 Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE changes of sovereign as well as of subordi- 
 nate jurisdiction have been greater in Michigan 
 than in any other part of the American Union. 
 France, Great Britain, and the United States have 
 successively had dominion over it, and under the 
 United States it was part of the Northwest Terri- 
 tory and of the Territory of Indiana before it be- 
 came the Territory of Michigan. As Michigan 
 Territory it passed through all the grades of 
 subordinate jurisdiction, and the circumstances 
 attending its admission to the Union made its his- 
 tory at that period quite unique. Altogether it 
 seemed appropriate that in the series of American 
 Commonwealths the history of Michigan should 
 be sketched as a history of governments ; but this 
 would be incomplete without a summary view of 
 the relations of States to the Union at the time 
 Michigan was received into it, or without some
 
 yi PREFACE. 
 
 notice of the remarkable changes which have been 
 going on since that time, and which have so 
 greatly affected constitutional questions and the 
 political habits of mind and tendencies of the 
 American people. It was also thought proper to 
 present the financial history of the State with 
 some fullness, because it was believed to inculcate 
 a lesson of more than local importance. But no 
 attempt has been made to give the annals of the 
 State as a substitute for other histories, nor, with 
 the field so well occupied as it now is with Judge 
 Campbell's Political History, was any such attempt 
 thought desirable.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I- PAOB 
 MICHIGAN is EXPLORED, AND MISSIONS AND TRADING- 
 POSTS ESTABLISHED 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DETROIT is FOUNDED, AND AT LENGTH SURRENDERED TO 
 
 16 
 ENGLAND 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PONTIAC'S VAIN STRUGGLE FOR THE HOMES OF HIS PEO- 
 PLE 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 A DECADE OF MILITARY ABSOLUTISM 66 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE NORTHWEST CONQUERED FOR THE AMERICAN UNION 79 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN RELUCTANTLY SURRENDERS THE NORTH- 
 WEST . . . . 105 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THE FOUNDATIONS OF A FREE STATE ARE LAID IN THE 
 
 120 
 NORTHWEST
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 MICHIGAN BECOMES A TERRITORY AND is GIVEN RULERS 140 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 WAR, AND THE CONQUEST AND RECONQUEST or MICHI- 
 GAN 163 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF ACTIVE AMERICAN SETTLEMENT . 189 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 THE TERRITORY ADVANCES TO THE DIGNITY OF A STATE 205 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 THE STATE AND ITS ELEMENTS 232 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 MONEY is MADE ABUNDANT IN THE NEW STATE . . . 254 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 THE STATE ENTERS UPON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS . . 279 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 ECONOMY, RECUPERATION, AND PROGRESS 294 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 THE STATE PROVIDES FOR UNIVERSAL EDUCATION . . 306 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 THE WAR IN DEFENSE OF THE UNION 330 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 THE NEW STATE AND THE UNION 344
 
 MICHIGAN : 
 
 A HISTORY OF GOVERNMENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MICHIGAN IS EXPLORED, AND MISSIONS AND 
 TRADING POSTS ESTABLISHED. 
 
 IT was between the great lakes that the west- 
 ern currents of French and English colonization, 
 starting from distant points upon the St. Law- 
 rence and along the Atlantic, after a century and 
 a half of unfriendly rivalry, with occasional bloody 
 and devastating wars, met at last and blended in 
 a peaceful and prosperous commonwealth. 
 
 Europe was dazzled by the discovery of a new 
 world, and every maritime nation hastened to 
 share with Spain the fame to be won in adventu- 
 rous exploration. But in colonization Spain was 
 long without a rival. Attracted by the amazing 
 wealth of tropical production, but far more by 
 the inexhaustible mines of precious metals of 
 which fame brought such wondrous reports from 
 the interior, that country was not long in seizing 
 l
 
 2 MICHIGAN. 
 
 and occupying the Antilles and the mainland 
 from Mexico to Peru, and the Spanish crown 
 could boast possessions in America of which Rome 
 would have been proud in the height of her su- 
 premacy. Portugal, a little later, had obtained a 
 foothold in Brazil ; but it was some time before 
 any people or any ruler in Northern Europe ap- 
 peared to take in the full significance of Ameri- 
 can discovery, or seemed to appreciate the great 
 fact that a vast and fertile continent, whose possi- 
 bilities for humanity were beyond calculation, wa~s 
 now offered for the acceptance of European civil- 
 ization. For more than a century after the dis- 
 covery by Columbus, the attention of the people 
 of England was so far absorbed by the polemical 
 controversies and the bitter political contests at- 
 tendant upon a change in the state religion, that 
 the mysterious continent across the ocean ex- 
 cited only occasional and transitory interest. And 
 France, which then, in rivalry with England, was 
 preparing to contest the claim of Spain to the 
 leadership of the world, contented herself for a 
 long time with a lion's share in the harvests 
 which hardy fishermen were gathering on the 
 banks, of Newfoundland, and with voyages of ad- 
 venture and exploration upon the bay and the 
 river St. Lawrence, through which it was hoped 
 there might be found an avenue for trade with the 
 Indies. Roberval and Jacques Cartier attempted 
 a colony at Cape Roque in 1542, but it failed to
 
 THE FRENCH IN CANADA. 3 
 
 take root ; La Roche with forty transported con- 
 victs made a like attempt on Sable Island in 1598, 
 but took off five years later all whom death had 
 not already removed ; and De Monts, in 1604, 
 made a settlement on an island near the mouth 
 of the St. Croix, which the next year he aban- 
 doned for Port Royal, and Port Royal in its turn 
 was abandoned in 1607 when the fur monopoly, 
 which had been granted to De Monts, was taken 
 away. It was Samuel de Chain plain who was the 
 father of New France ; and by him, at Quebec, 
 the first permanent settlement was made the year 
 following the planting of the English colony at 
 Jamestown. Other points were soon occupied, of 
 which Montreal was the most important. 
 
 The primary objects of French adventure in 
 Canada were profitable trade with the savages 
 and their conversion to the true faith of Christ. 
 Every company of adventurers had its priests, 
 and the eagerness of the trader for gain was more 
 than equaled by the self-sacrificing zeal of the 
 missionary of the cross. Champlain himself was 
 a sincere and devoted son of the Church ; and 
 while he endeavored to foster and advance the 
 fur trade, he gave his best energies to establish- 
 ing and maintaining missions among the Indians, 
 and to protecting against their enemies the tribes 
 which submitted to his guidance, and tacitly ac- 
 knowledged the French supremacy. In 1615 he 
 visited the shore of Lake Huron, where for the
 
 4 MICHIGAN. 
 
 powerful tribe of that name he established a mis- 
 sion of the Recollets, intended by him for a cen- 
 tre of French influence, and of hostility to the 
 Iroquois Confederacy, which he had early encoun- 
 tered in battle near the lake afterwards named 
 for him. 
 
 The history of New France from this time to 
 the end of the seventeenth- century is a history 
 of one long struggle with the Dutch and English 
 at Albany and New York for the good will and 
 trade of the Indians, in which the Iroquois in 
 general antagonized the French, and the Hurons, 
 with the Algonquin tribes, were their firm friends 
 and supporters. But the French were unable to 
 protect their allies against the proud and fierce 
 confederacy, and the Hurons were driven from 
 their ancient home and took up their abode at 
 Michilimackinac, where they were joined by the 
 Ottawas. But at Michilimackinac they were 
 again assailed by their old enemies, and fled in 
 terror before them to the country beyond Lake 
 Superior, only to come there into conflict with 
 the Illinois, who drove them on to the Mississippi. 
 But there they encountered the Sioux, an enemy 
 not less fierce or formidable than the Iroquois, 
 and finding neither peace nor safety elsewhere, 
 they returned to the Straits of Michilimackinac, 
 and there, in 1671, Father Jacques Marquette 
 founded a mission for them. 
 
 The Jesuits took early possession of the mis-
 
 THE POLICY OF THE JESUITS. 5 
 
 sions in New France, and members of that order 
 devoted themselves to the conversion of the In- 
 dians with a zeal that spared no endeavor and 
 no artifice, shrank from no privation, quailed be- 
 fore no danger, and was fully in accord with the 
 religious spirit of the day, which could persecute 
 to the death, or submit to martyrdom at the hands 
 of others, with undoubting confidence in either 
 case that Heaven approved the cruelty or the sac- 
 rifice. But nothing in the policy of the order 
 favored colonization from Europe ; the fathers had 
 come into the wilderness as apostles to the In- 
 dians, and it was no part of their mission to peo- 
 ple America from France. On the contrary, their 
 mission was to bring the religion of the cross to 
 the people by whom America was already pos- 
 sessed. New colonies must bring with them the 
 vices of civilized life ; and the savage nature 
 would be quite certain to add these to such as al- 
 ready belonged to it. A French settlement must, 
 therefore, to some extent be inimical to the suc- 
 cess of a mission ; and in so far as the colonists 
 failed to observe the sacred precepts of the relig- 
 ion they professed, their proximity would tend to 
 bring religion into contempt in savage eyes, and 
 greatly to increase the labors and perplexities of 
 religious teachers. 
 
 But the policy of the fur traders was scarcely 
 less unfriendly to colonization than was that of 
 the Jesuits. Monopolies in the fur trade were
 
 6 MICHIGAN. 
 
 granted from the very first, and though condi- 
 tions were attached to the grants which required 
 the settlement of colonists within territory indi- 
 cated, it was not to be expected that attention 
 would be given to the conditions any farther than 
 it should be compelled. The grants were made 
 and received for the profit of the grantees, and as 
 their gains were to be gathered in the wilder- 
 ness, their interest was to preserve the forests, not 
 to destroy them. The conditions for colonization 
 never had more than nominal fulfillment until set- 
 tlement began in earnest upon the rock of Que- 
 bec. Even then the earnestness was but partial, 
 for most of those who were brought over came 
 for hire, and not in pursuance of any deliberate 
 choice to exchange their native country for a home 
 in the new world. Finding everything in New 
 France given over to monopoly, these men either 
 became irregular traders, or took up a roving and 
 lawless life among the Indians, constituting that 
 peculiar class of men known as coureurs de bois, 
 whose ambition was fully satisfied if by gun and 
 trap they were able to provide for the limited 
 wants of a life of careless indolence. In 1637, 
 when Richelieu was at the head of affairs, an 
 effort was made in the direction of colonization 
 which seemed to promise great results. Previous 
 grants of monopoly were annulled, and a company 
 of a hundred associates was formed, with Riche- 
 lieu at its head, to which was granted a perma-
 
 SCHEMES FOR COLONIZATION. 7 
 
 nent monopoly of the trade in furs, skins, and 
 leather, and a monopoly for fifteen years of the 
 whole colonial trade, by land and sea, with the 
 exception of the cod and whale fisheries, which 
 were left free. The scope of the grant embraced 
 the whole of New France, from Florida to the 
 Arctic circle, and on its part the company under- 
 took to convey to New France within the next 
 year two or three hundred men of various trades, 
 and before the year 1643 to increase the number 
 to four thousand, lodging and supporting them 
 for three years, and then giving them for their 
 maintenance lands ready for cultivation. In an- 
 other age and under other circumstances this un- 
 dertaking might have borne fruit; but bigotry 
 was then dominant and unrelenting in France, 
 and it would neither tolerate a heretic at home, 
 nor permit him to become the means of extend- 
 ing the glory and power of his native land in the 
 distant wilderness. Every settler was, therefore, 
 required to be a Catholic, and for every settle- 
 ment at least three ecclesiastics must be provided. 
 The scheme was doomed by its very conditions, 
 for the French nature is little disposed to expa- 
 triation, and the class of the people to whom per- 
 secution had made emigration a temptation was 
 vigorously excluded from the offer the associates 
 were permitted to make. The company was not 
 prosperous, and in 1663 it was dissolved. 
 
 But the dissolution of this company did not
 
 8 MICHIGAN. 
 
 result in freedom to trade. The next year the 
 French West India Company was formed, to which 
 a monopoly still more extensive was granted ; but 
 this also was not prosperous, and in 1674 its priv- 
 ileges, with some reservations, were surrendered. 
 Other grants of monopoly followed in succession, 
 the last expiring in 1731; and while they had 
 the effect to prevent immigration and settlement, 
 they also tended to paralyze trade of every sort, to 
 check enterprise, and to incline the lower classes 
 to prefer a life of slothful ease and independence 
 in the woods to one of unprofitable service for the 
 monopolists. 
 
 Had trade been free there would still have been 
 serious impediments to settlement in New France. 
 Among the chief of these was the complicated 
 despotism of the government. No English colony 
 had anything similar, and none would have toler- 
 ated it. First of its officers was the governor- 
 general, usually a man of noble birth, and nomi- 
 nally the king's immediate representative. Then 
 there was the intendant, who was the king's spy 
 upon the governor-general, possessed of large in- 
 dependent judicial powers, and expected to re- 
 port fully and frequently, as well as secretly, to 
 the minister. He judged all the king's causes, 
 and might create inferior courts. Commonly, 
 the governor-general and the intendant were at 
 loggerheads, and their correspondence with the 
 minister was burdened with mutual complaints.
 
 ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNMENT. 9 
 
 There was also a Superior Council, composed of the 
 governor-general, the intendant, and the bishop, 
 which constituted the legislative authority. The 
 Council had an attorney -general, a secretary, 
 and attendant officers, but many times the dis- 
 putes of the governor and the intendant in regard 
 to their respective powers and privileges made the 
 meetings a scene of disorder, or prevented their 
 being held. The Jesuits were also a power in 
 the colony, which, in the pursuit of its policy, 
 bent its will to no other except when compelled 
 by a necessity which was known to be irresistible. 
 And the king of France wanted no self-govern- 
 ment in America. When Frontenac in 1672 as- 
 sembled the people of Quebec, administered the 
 oath of allegiance, prescribed for them a form of 
 municipal government, and reported the facts to 
 the king, the minister, Colbert, responded : " Your 
 assembling the inhabitants to take the oath of 
 fidelity, and your division of them into three es- 
 tates, may have had a good effect for the moment ; 
 but it is well for you to observe that you are 
 always to follow, in the government of Canada, 
 the forms in use here ; and since our kings have 
 long regarded it as good for their service not to 
 convoke the states of the kingdom, in order, per- 
 haps, to abolish insensibly this ancient usage, you 
 on your part should very rarely, or, to speak more 
 correctly, never give a corporate form to the in- 
 habitants of Canada. You should even, as the
 
 10 MICHIGAN. 
 
 colony strengthens, suppress gradually the office of 
 the syndic who presents petitions in the name 
 of the inhabitants ; for it is well that each should 
 speak for himself and none for all." 1 It was not 
 by such a policy that a power was to be created 
 in New France which could compete successfully 
 in the long race for wealth and power with 
 the English colonies. The matchless skill and 
 prowess of Frontenac for a time made New F ranee 
 preeminent in Indian councils, and humbled and 
 half annihilated the Iroquois Confederacy ; but 
 Frontenac in 1698 rested from his long struggles 
 with Iroquois and with Jesuit, and he had no suc- 
 cessor who was equal to his responsibilities, or 
 worthy to wear his honors. 
 
 Before the opening of the eighteenth century 
 the shores of the great lakes had been well ex- 
 plored by the fur traders and the priests, and im- 
 portant stations had been established, which were 
 at once missions and trading posts. So early as 
 1641 the Jesuit fathers Raymbault and Jogues 
 had visited the Sault St. Marie and had estab- 
 lished a mission there for the Chippewas, but the 
 sickness and death of Raymbault caused its early 
 abandonment. The position was too important to 
 permit of its being permanently given up, and 
 Father Marquette was sent there in the spring of 
 1668, and renewing the mission, he founded there 
 the first permanent settlement in Michigan. This 
 
 1 Parkman's Frontenac, p. 20.
 
 FATHER MARQUETTE. 11 
 
 illustrious man had come to Canada in 1666, in 
 the twenty-ninth year of his age, to devote his 
 life to mission work, and had received with en- 
 thusiasm the order to repair to the upper lakes. 
 In the following year he was joined at the Sault 
 by Father Dablon, to whom he left the work at 
 that place, while he repaired to a new field of 
 labor with the Hurons, then west of Lake Supe- 
 rior. When in 1670 the Hurons fled before their 
 new enemies the Sioux, Father Marquette cast his 
 lot with them, and in the following year gathered 
 them about him at the Straits of Michilimackinac. 
 Michilimackinac, he says, " is the key, and, as it 
 were, the gate, for all the tribes from the south, 
 as the Sault is for those of the north, there being 
 in this section of the country only these two pas- 
 sages by water; for a great number of nations 
 have to go by one or other of these channels 
 in order to reach the French settlements. This 
 presents a peculiarly favorable opportunity, both 
 for instructing those who pass here, and also for 
 obtaining easy access and conveyance to their 
 places of abode." He adds further that the place 
 is " ' the home of the fishes.' Elsewhere, although 
 they exist in large numbers, it is not properly 
 their ' home,' which is in the neighborhood of 
 Michilimackinac. It is this attraction which has 
 heretofore drawn to a point so advantageous the 
 greater part of the savages in this country, driven 
 away by fear of the Iroquois/'
 
 12 MICHIGAN. 
 
 The mission now established by Father Mar- 
 quette was located on the north side of the Straits, 
 and was named by him for St. Ignatius. The 
 Hurons and Ottawas, as well as fragments of other 
 tribes, had villages in the vicinity ; and in admin- 
 istering to their wants and baptizing their children 
 Father Marquette and his associate, Nouvel, found, 
 as he informs us, " consolation which God sends 
 us, which makes us esteem our life more happy as 
 it is more wretched." 
 
 But attractive as were to him the place and-the 
 duty, Father Marquette was fired with zeal for 
 more dangerous and venturesome missions, and 
 was ready, as he writes Father Dablon, to leave 
 his charge in the hands of another missionary, in 
 order to seek new nations towards the South Sea, 
 and to become their teacher. Accordingly, when 
 Joliet was sent out to explore the Mississippi, 
 Marquette had orders to accompany him, and he 
 expresses himself as " enraptured at this good 
 news," which put him under the " happy neces- 
 sity " of exposing his life for the salvation of the 
 nations on the Mississippi, and particularly for 
 the Illinois, who had entreated him when on Lake 
 Superior "to carry the word of God to their 
 country." 
 
 The parties started on their mission of explora- 
 tion May 17, 1673, and proceeding by way of 
 Green Bay, and the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, in 
 a month had reached the Mississippi, which they
 
 DEATH OF MARQUETTE. 13 
 
 followed as far down as the Arkansas. Returning 
 they ascended the Illinois, crossed to Lake Michi- 
 gan at the site of what is now Chicago, and then 
 coasted the western shore of that lake to Green 
 Bay, which they reached in September. Here 
 they separated, and Joliet returned to Quebec. 
 In the fall of the following year Marquette started 
 to fulfill his desire to establish a mission among 
 the Illinois, but his health failed him, and he 
 spent the winter upon the Chicago River. In the 
 spring he proceeded to his destination and began 
 his labors, but continuing to grow feeble in health, 
 and fearing that his end was approaching, he sor- 
 rowfully turned his face again to the north, in the 
 hope that his strength might be sufficient to 
 enable him once more to reach the mission he had 
 founded at Michilimackinac, and to worship in the 
 midst of his converts in the chapel of St. Igna- 
 tius. But the will of Providence was otherwise. 
 Coasting along the eastern shore of Lake Michi- 
 gan, he landed for brief rest and for worship near 
 the mouth of the river which has since been 
 named for him, and there, after a few hours' delay 
 and almost without warning, he passed peacefully 
 and quietly to his eternal rest. He was buried on 
 the spot by his sorrowfu? companions, but two 
 years later a party of his Indian con veils removed 
 the body to the place of repose he would have 
 chosen for himself, beneath the chapel which 
 overlooked the Straits of Michilimackinac.
 
 14 MICHIGAN. 
 
 From the time of the founding of the mission 
 on the Straits, that place became a point of resort 
 for the fur traders of Quebec and Montreal, and 
 a point of competition with the English located 
 on the shores of Hudson Bay, and the merchants 
 at Albany. It is not known when Michilimacki- 
 nac became a military post ; we have incidental 
 mention of it by travelers from time to time ; La 
 Salle, in the Griffon, the first vessel to plough the 
 waters above Niagara, passed it in 1679, and in 
 1688 Baron La Hontan visited and described-it. 
 La Motte Cadillac was here in command of the 
 post in 1695, and he says of it that " this village 
 is one of the largest in all "Canada." The gar- 
 rison consisted of about two hundred men, and 
 savages to the number of six or seven thousand 
 souls lived in the vicinity, by whom sufficient 
 corn was produced for both the French and them- 
 selves. But the capture of the Hudson Bay sta- 
 tions by the French in 1697, and the founding 
 of Detroit in 1701, deprived Michilimackinac of 
 much of its importance, and in 1706 the Jesuits 
 who were stationed there, discouraged by the op- 
 position at Detroit, burned down their chapel and 
 their school building, and took up their departure 
 for Quebec. A few traders and many Indians 
 continued to reside there, and Father Marest soon 
 came to care for their spiritual needs, and re- 
 mained there until the post was reestablished, but 
 on the south side of the Straits, in 1714.
 
 EARLY SETTLEMENTS. 15 
 
 The importance of the Sault St. Marie was 
 greatly diminished by the mission of Michilimack- 
 inac, but the Chippewas, a fierce and warlike peo- 
 ple, had a village there, and the French govern- 
 ment deemed it the suitable point for convening 
 a Congress of Nations in the summer of 1671. 
 Great numbers of Indians came, from the St. Law- 
 rence on the one side to the Mississippi on the 
 other, and even, it is said, from so far down as the 
 Red River, to form or to strengthen a friendship 
 with the French. A post was planted marked with 
 the lilies of France, and the assembled nations 
 were assured that they were now under French 
 protection. 
 
 These were the settlements which preceded 
 Detroit. A fort was also built by La Salle at 
 the mouth of the St. Joseph, on Lake Michigan, 
 in 1679, but there was no European settlement 
 about it, and its importance as compared with 
 Michilimackinac was small. A fort at the out- 
 let of Lake Huron was built by Du Lhut in 1686, 
 and named by him St. Joseph. It was constructed 
 to command the passage from Lake Erie to the 
 upper lakes, and its value for this purpose was 
 evident, but with no settlement about it its main- 
 tenance would have been troublesome and expen- 
 sive, and it was abandoned two years after its 
 construction. The founding of Detroit soon ren- 
 dered any other post on the passage of little or no 
 importance.
 
 16 MICHIGAN. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DETROIT IS FOUNDED, AND AT LENGTH SUR- 
 RENDERED TO ENGLAND. 
 
 THE pathway for Indian traffic and missionary 
 enterprise from Quebec and Montreal was by WHY 
 of the Ottawa and French rivers to the Georgian 
 Bay, and thence to Michilimackinac, St. Marie, 
 and other stations. The existence of the connect- 
 ing strait between lakes Huron and Erie must 
 have been known to the French at an early day, 
 but it is not certain that any one of that nation 
 pMSsed through it prior to the expedition made 
 by Joliet, under the command of the intendant 
 Talon, to discover and explore the copper mines 
 of Lake Superior, of which rumors were preva- 
 lent. Indeed, that Joliet passed through this 
 strait is only matter of plausible conjecture, for 
 he left no record of this part of his journey ; but 
 on his return from his unsuccessful search for 
 mineral wealth in 1669, he encountered, near the 
 head of Lake Ontario, La Salle and the Sulpitian 
 fathers Dollier and Galine'e, who had started on 
 their journey of exploration for a passage to the 
 South Sea, and the information he imparted to
 
 LA SALLE'S PARTY DIVIDES. 17 
 
 them respecting the upper lake country and the 
 spiritual wants of the Indians of that region so 
 fired the zeal of the worthy fathers that, in spite 
 of the remonstrances of La Salle, they determined 
 to part with him and take their course to the up- 
 per lakes by way of Lake Erie. The separation 
 took place at the end of September, 1669, but 
 they did not cross Lake Ontario until the follow- 
 ing spring, and they arrived at the Sault St. 
 Marie on May 25, 1670, having landed on or near 
 the site of Detroit on the way up, and seized and 
 destroyed with iconoclastic fury and indignation 
 a stone idol which they found there, and whose 
 remains they threw into the middle of the river, 
 that it "might never be heard of again." At the 
 Sault they were received with frigid reserve by 
 the Jesuits, who plainly gave them to understand 
 they were not wanted there, and they returned in 
 discouragement by way of the Ottawa. A crude 
 map made by Galine'e and a minute journal of 
 their travels were the valuable results of the ex- 
 pedition, and the importance of Detroit was from 
 this time known to the colonial authorities. It 
 seems probable, also, that at times it was tempo- 
 rarily occupied as a military post. But it was 
 soon to receive more attention, and become a post 
 of first importance, for Antoine de la Motte Ca- 
 dillac, a man of mark and ability, now appears 
 upon the scene. 
 
 We first hear of Cadillac in America in the 
 2
 
 18 MICHIGAN. 
 
 year 1687, when he was married at Quebec, be- 
 ing then in the thirtieth year of his age. Two 
 years afterwards he went to France, and returned 
 with a large grant of lands, with manorial rights, 
 on the shores of Maine. He was subsequently 
 employed in positions of importance in the naval 
 and military service of the king, and was so highly 
 esteemed for his judgment and his knowledge of 
 colonial affairs that, in 1692, at the request of 
 Count Pontchartrain, he was sent to France by 
 the govern or -general, to give advice respecting 
 the military affairs of the province in its deal- 
 ings with New York and New England. In the 
 fall of 1694 he was appointed to the command 
 of Michilimackinac, where he remained for five 
 years. Surveying the field of French trade and 
 influence from that remote post, Cadillac had be- 
 come convinced that Detroit, rather than any of 
 the upper stations, was the point from which the 
 fur trade could best be controlled, and where the 
 friendly Indians could most conveniently be con- 
 centrated for the mutual protection of themselves 
 and their French allies. Impressed with this view, 
 he again went to France in 1700, determined, if 
 possible, to obtain the necessary authority as well 
 as the necessary assistance for the establishment 
 of a settlement at Detroit. In a long interview 
 with Count Pontchartrain he presented veiy fully 
 the advantages of Detroit, its supreme importance 
 as a military and trading post, the excellence of
 
 LA MOTTE CADILLAC. 19 
 
 the soil about it, and the desirability of planting 
 in that country an agricultural colony. The sa- 
 gacious minister was so impressed with his ear- 
 nestness, and with the reasons assigned, that the 
 desired permission was cordially given, and Cadil- 
 lac returned to Canada early in 1701, bearing a 
 grant from the king of a tract of land fifteen ar- 
 pents square, " wherever on the Detroit the new 
 fort should be established," and with assurance 
 of military and other assistance. Making brief 
 pause at Quebec he pushed on to Montreal, where 
 he completed his arrangements for the new under- 
 taking. Fifty soldiers and fifty Canadian traders 
 and artisans were secured by him, and with these 
 in canoes, well supplied with the essentials to a 
 new settlement in the woods, he started from La 
 Chine at the beginning of June. The younger 
 Tonty was commander of the military force, a 
 Recollet priest accompanied the party as chap- 
 lain, and a Jesuit as missionary t<v the Indians. 
 The old route by the Ottawa and Lake Huron 
 was followed, and the boats were drawn up on the 
 shore at the point of destination, on July 24th. A 
 stockade fort was immediately constructed which, 
 in honor of the minister, was named Fort Pont- 
 chartrain, and log houses thatched with grass soon 
 went up, in which the settlers found shelter and 
 a home. 
 
 At this time the solitude of the vast forests of 
 Michigan was unbroken by the sound of the wood-
 
 20 MICHIGAN. 
 
 man's axe. The great oaks, hickories, walnuts, 
 and maples towered secure in majestic grandeur, 
 and in all the region of the pine there was audi- 
 ble as yet neither promise nor prophecy of the rich 
 harvest which the lumberman of another day was 
 to reap. In the openings of Southern Michigan, 
 which Nature had decked with more than royal 
 adornments, the elk and the deer found abundant 
 pasturage, and the bear fed on mast and tracked 
 the honey bee to his secret store. The beaver 
 was still building dams in the forest watercourses, 
 and the buffalo fed on the prairies and frequented 
 the abundant salt licks. Choice fish were abun- 
 dant, but undisturbed, in the lakes and streams of 
 the interior. The iron of Lake Superior was still 
 unknown, and the wealth of its copper was but 
 a rumor, of which the copper ornaments some- 
 times displayed by the Indian women furnished 
 the only confirmation. The Indian population of 
 the southern peninsula of Michigan was not great; 
 the terror of the Iroquois had made their enemies 
 jieek safety in the distance. Around the trading 
 posts and missions, or within easy reach, they 
 had gathered, and many of them under Jesuit 
 teaching had become nominally Christian. But 
 their conversion had scarcely made them less sav- 
 age and brutal than before ; it had not changed 
 their nature, and they could torture the prisoners 
 taken in battle or by treachery, and on great oc- 
 casions devour their flesh as a stimulant to cour-
 
 EDUCATION OF THE INDIANS. 21 
 
 age, with the same delight as ever. The Ottawas, 
 said Cadillac a little later, " would be baptized 
 a hundred times a day for a hundred drinks of 
 brandy." " The only good that the missionaries 
 do consists in the baptism of children, who die 
 after having received it, and perchance adminis- 
 tering the same rite to some old man at the hour 
 of death." But Cadillac did not like the Jesuits, 
 and he underrated the value of their services. It 
 was a great and lasting benefit to the Indians, 
 that under the influence of the priests they were 
 taught foresight, and in the enlarged cultivation 
 of the soil were induced to provide against the 
 contingencies of bad seasons and occasional fail- 
 ures of the chase, and thus to forestall and pre- 
 vent the famines that sometimes had visited them 
 with destructive severity. Their agriculture at 
 the best was crude and limited, but it became at 
 length adequate to their wants, and they Avere the 
 farmers and the gardeners for the soldiers and 
 traders. 
 
 Of the traders with the Indians at this early 
 period some were regular, and traded under the 
 existing grant of monopoly, or by special permits. 
 More, however, were irregular. In the woods 
 about every station were many coureurs de bois, 
 or bushrangers, who carried on a lawless traffic in 
 fu: - s and peltry with the Indians, and lived wiih 
 them much of the time in their wigwams. Their 
 trade, though illegal, was generally connived at
 
 22 MICHIGAN. 
 
 by all but the regular traders, whose profits it 
 would diminish, and even these sometimes found 
 the bushrangers valuable agents in bringing to 
 their places of business the traffic that otherwise 
 might have been secured by the English. To the 
 colony at large these people were an undoubted 
 advantage, for they gave valuable assistance in 
 maintaining friendly relations with the Indians, 
 and if danger threatened they had early knowl- 
 edge of it and could give warning in season. But 
 they lived like savages and loved the savage life. 
 At the same time they were never weaned from 
 their native attachments, but were Frenchmen in 
 spirit even when ~they had abandoned the manners 
 and methods of civilization. 
 
 Dominion over the territory lying between the 
 great lakes was claimed by both Canada and New 
 York, on similar grounds of prior discovery and 
 possession. But most of the claims on both sides, 
 so far as can now be ascertained, had little founda- 
 tion in fact. A sharp correspondence had taken 
 place on the subject between Governor Dongan 
 on the one side and De la Barre on the other, 
 and this was renewed when De la Barre had 
 been succeeded by Denonville. But the corre- 
 spondence had no result; each party continued its 
 efforts to obtain the trade of the Lake region, 
 while jealously watching the other, and stirring up 
 strife against their rivals as opportunity offered. 
 In all intercourse with the Indians the French
 
 THE FRENCH AND THE INDIANS. 23 
 
 had one very great advantage over their rivals : 
 they affiliated with them more readily; they met 
 them more freely and easily on terms of fellow- 
 ship; their manners were less austere and abrupt; 
 and they took more pains by friendly attentions 
 and courtesies to conciliate favor. In many cases, 
 too, their young men formed lasting attachments 
 and family relations with the forest maidens, and 
 a thousand ties were woven between the Indians 
 and the French, which in the intercourse of the 
 former with the English were comparatively un- 
 known. On the other hand, the English goods 
 were always cheaper, and the Indians had shrewd- 
 ness enough to discover the fact, and to avail 
 themselves of it whenever they were permitted 
 and found it practicable and safe to do so. But 
 after the founding of Detroit the French generally 
 monopolized their trade. Cadillac assigned to 
 the minister many reasons for this. " One is that 
 each savage, one with another, kills per year only 
 fifty or sixty beavers, and as he is neighbor to the 
 Frenchman, frequently borrows of him, paying in 
 proportion to his returns by the chase ; with the 
 little that remains to him he is compelled to 
 make purchases for his family. Thus he finds 
 himself unable to go to the English, because his 
 remaining goods are not worth the trouble of car- 
 rying so far; not being sufficient to pay him for 
 the expense of his journey. Another reason is 
 that in frequenting the French he receives many
 
 24 MICHIGAN. 
 
 caresses ; they are too cunning to allow his furs 
 to escape, especially when they succeed in making 
 him eat and drink with them. The will to go to 
 the English still exists among the savages, but 
 they are skillfully reduced to the impossibility of 
 its execution." 1 Thus early in America do we en- 
 counter the slavery of a mortgaged future. But 
 the French had not relied exclusively on their in- 
 fluence with the Indians for the protection of their 
 trade, but had on some occasions made use of 
 force. Robert Livingston thought Detroit should 
 be occupied by the English, and in 1699, after 
 the treaty of Ryswick, a plan was submitted by 
 him to Lord Bellamont for establishing a mili- 
 tary post at that point, and settling there both 
 whites and Iroquois Indians ; but the plan was 
 not promptly acted upon, and two years thereafter 
 Cadillac was in possession. More fortunate than 
 Livingston, he had succeeded in convincing his 
 government that Detroit " is a door by which one 
 can go in and out to trade with all our allies ;" 2 
 and the king had made him the doorkeeper. 
 
 Cadillac was not less impressed with the beauty 
 of Detroit and its desirability as a home than 
 with its commercial and strategic importance, and 
 he grows eloquent as he desciibes the passage 
 through which flows with moderate current " the 
 living and crystal waters " of the upper lakes, 
 
 1 Sheldon's Early Hist, of Michigan, 87, 88. 
 
 2 Ibid. 116.
 
 THE PRAISES OF DETROIT. 25 
 
 " which are so many seas of sweet water " rolling 
 on to mingle with the distant ocean. The borders 
 of the strait, he says, are vast prairies, and " the 
 freshness of the beautiful waters keeps the banks 
 always green." Natural orchards " soften and 
 bend their branches under the weight and quan- 
 tity of their fruit towards the mother earth which 
 has produced them," and " the ambitious vine, 
 which has never wept under the pruning-knife, 
 builds a thick roof with its large leaves and heavy 
 clusters, weighing down the top of the tree which, 
 receives it, and often stifling it with its embrace." 
 The woods are full of game ; the forest trees are 
 straight as arrows, and of prodigious size ; above 
 them the courageous eagle soars looking fixedly at 
 the sun ; the swans in the river are so numerous 
 that one might take for lilies the reeds in which 
 they crowd together, and the fish are none the 
 less delicious for their great abundance. And he 
 adds, with covert allusion to his enemies, the 
 Jesuits, that " none but the enemies of truth 
 could be enemies to this establishment, so neces- 
 sary to the increase of the glory of the king, to 
 the spread of religion, and to the destruction of the 
 throne of Satan." 
 
 The glowing description of the adventurous 
 founder of Detroit was written with the pen of 
 truth, and expressed but inadequately the senti- 
 ments of the writer respecting the beauty and 
 desirableness of his new location. And here he
 
 26 MICHIGAN. 
 
 proposed to found the mart of commerce for all 
 tlie northwest: a town which should be the nu- 
 cleus of an agricultural colony. But Detroit was 
 born in chains, and weighed down with mana- 
 cles in all its struggling infancy. The old system 
 of repression under which Canada existed and 
 languished from the first was vigorously applied 
 to it. Commerce must not for a moment be free ; 
 individual energy and enterprise must be kept in 
 strict restraint, or if it escaped restraint it must 
 be left to act in defiance of law, or in evasion of it. 
 On October 31, 1701, a contract was entered into 
 by the governor-general and intendant with " The 
 Company of the Colony of Canada," whereby the 
 posts of Detroit and of Frontenac on Lake Onta- 
 rio were ceded to the company for traffic in furs, 
 to the exclusion of all others, the company as- 
 suming various obligations, the chief of which 
 were to put and keep the forts in repair, and to 
 maintain at Detroit the commandant and one 
 other officer. The contract provided under severe 
 penalties that the commandant and soldiers at 
 Detroit should make no trade in furs with the 
 savages or French, directly or indirectly, and 
 the colonial authorities thus evinced their willing- 
 ness that the new settlement should neither be 
 "nourished by their indulgence," nor "grow by 
 their neglect." 
 
 Cadillac, having established his post, proceeded 
 to gather the Indians about it, and for this pur-
 
 CADILLAC AND THE JESUITS. 27 
 
 pose lie looked as far as those at Mi chili mackinac, 
 and urged them to join him. He was a zealous 
 son of the Church, but affiliated with the order of 
 St. Francis, and his cordial dislike of the Jesuits 
 may have quickened liis zeal in the endeavor to 
 break up the mission at Michilimackinac, where 
 the Jesuits were supreme. The obnoxious order 
 reciprocated his dislike most fully, and his stay 
 at Detroit was one long struggle with them, the 
 varying phases of which are all brought out in 
 the correspondence of the parties with the au- 
 thorities of Canada, and that of Cadillac with 
 Count Pontchartrain. Meantime the wishes of 
 the minister concerning the permanent settlement 
 at Detroit seem not to have been expressed with 
 the precision and certainty which were important 
 to the purposes of Cadillac, who in 170-3 anxiously 
 addresses him on the subject, with full statement 
 of his own views. To make success sure, he says, 
 
 / ' 
 
 there must be liberty of settlement. He wishes 
 to know whether the soldiers should not have 
 grants of land and be permitted to marry when 
 able to support families ; he gives his own opin- 
 ion decidedly in the affirmative, and he would 
 have dwelling-places granted to the Canadians, 
 who are persecuting him continually for them. 
 He urges the minister to speak decidedly on this 
 point, for he cannot conceal the fact that the 
 company which controls the trade does not wish 
 to do anything about it. Nothing, he affirms, is
 
 28 MICHIGAN. 
 
 to be accomplished at Detroit without more in- 
 habitants. 
 
 But Cadillac was soon in a quarrel with the 
 company, growing out, as he informed the minis- 
 ter, of his endeavors to protect its interests against 
 thieving officers. This might seem a strange rea- 
 son elsewhere, but it was not strange in Canada, 
 where official peculation and knavery, in public 
 as well as in corporate service, was the rule, and 
 continued to be so until the French power was 
 overthrown. Montcalm, half a century later, de- 
 clared that Canada was a land where the knaves 
 grew rich, and the honest men were ruined. Be- 
 ing at Montreal in the autumn of 1704, Cadillac 
 was arrested and charged before the intendant 
 with tyrannical conduct, and though acquitted of 
 the charge he was not given leave to return to 
 his post until September of the following year. 
 When he received permission he did not avail 
 himself of it until he had met Count Pontchar- 
 train, who came to Quebec to satisfy himself, by 
 personal investigation, of the true nature of the 
 difficulties which appeared to hinder the prosper- 
 ity of the new post. The full and minute expla- 
 nations which were given him by Cadillac proved 
 satisfactory, 1 and it was when, with his approval, 
 the commandant returned to his post in 1706, that 
 the Jesuit fathers at Michilimackinac gave up the 
 
 1 The examination and defense are given at length in Sheldon's 
 Early Hist, of Michigan, 142 et seq.
 
 CADILLACS DIFFICULTIES. 29 
 
 struggle with him and abandoned their station. 
 But when Father Marest succeeded them at that 
 place the old strife was renewed, and continued 
 thereafter as active as ever. 
 
 The chief anxiety of Cadillac was now the be- 
 havior of the Indians about his fort. They were 
 of various tribes, and not harmonious ; and the 
 longing among them for the cheap goods of the 
 English caused some discontent. A fire at the 
 fort was with much reason believed to have been 
 the work of dissatisfied Indians. A number of 
 the Ottawas, by invitation, went down to Al- 
 bany in 1703, and while there were cunningly 
 made to believe that the building of Fort Pont- 
 chartrain was for the purpose of holding them 
 in subjection to the French. They returned dis- 
 contented, and there were continuous difficulties 
 thereafter. For five years or more the settlement 
 was in a state of disquietude, and Vaudreuil, the 
 governor-general, in 1707 summoned the princi- 
 pal chiefs to a council at Montreal, where he re- 
 ceived them with displeasure and rebuke, and 
 after some delay sent them back submissive, but 
 with jealousies and bitterness towards each other. 
 Meantime Cadillac was urging the entire aban- 
 donment of Michilimackinac, but Aigrement, who 
 was sent to inspect Detroit and remained at the 
 post nineteen days, reported strongly against the 
 plan of the commander. 1 How far his report was 
 1 See report, Sheldon's Early Hist, of Michigan, 280.
 
 30 MICHIGAN. 
 
 meant to be truthful may be a question, but the 
 unfriendly animus is apparent. The ground about 
 Detroit, he says, is full of water, and the grass- 
 hoppers eat up all the garden plants, so that it is 
 necessary to plant and sow the same things even 
 to the fourth time. But even if the land were 
 ever so productive there would be no market for 
 the surplus, and the trade of the post would never 
 be useful to France ; the result of which would be 
 that the establishment would always be a burden. 
 Michilimackinac, on the other hand, is the ad- 
 vanced post of all Canada ; the most important 
 as well for its advantageous position as for the 
 commerce that might be made there. But as 
 matters now are, brandy and ammunition are all 
 the goods sold to the Indians by the French : all 
 else are furnished by the English. Cadillac, he 
 takes pains to add, is generally disliked for his 
 tyranny. 
 
 Such, in brief, was the report ; but it was more 
 damaging in intent than in effect. The minister, 
 though sometimes hesitating, did not fail in any 
 case, after full explanation had been called for 
 and received, to come to the support of Cadillac, 
 and of his favorite post. The faithful and per- 
 sistent commandant remained at Detroit, and con- 
 tinued to be the life of the settlement and the 
 chief figure in the public affairs of this peninsula 
 until 1710, when private affairs took him away 
 from the colony. We hear of him afterwards
 
 PROHIBITORY MEASURES. 31 
 
 as governor of Louisiana for a brief period, and 
 still later in unconspicuous public employments in 
 France, where he died in 1730. His life was one 
 of varied usefulness, but his chief claim upon the 
 regard of posterity rests upon his having had the 
 sagacity to perceive that the site of Detroit com- 
 manded a great highway of nations, and the 
 courage and persistence essential to the planting, 
 under many difficulties and against powerful op- 
 position, of the foundations of the City of the 
 Straits. 
 
 Among the complaints made of Cadillac was 
 one of the manner in which he dealt with the 
 traffic in intoxicating drinks. How to deal with 
 the traffic was a problem that perplexed him, as 
 it has many a statesman before and since ; and if 
 his wisdom was inadequate to its mastery, he was 
 but one in a long line of American rulers who 
 have been equally at fault, and equally unsuccess- 
 ful. Brandy in Canada, as elsewhere, had been 
 found the readiest and most effective means of 
 making friends with the savages. The Indian 
 tasted it with delight, and he loved it not for its 
 taste merely, but for the demon that was in it. 
 The drunken stage which the white man would 
 gladly avoid, the Indian craved ; and the Jesuit 
 soon found that strong drink would prove a chief 
 obstacle to the success of his labors, and that for 
 the Indian, if not for the white man, brandy and 
 Christianity were irreconcilable. The Jesuits,
 
 32 MICHIGAN, 
 
 therefore, launched anathemas against the trade, 
 and when these proved idle they obtained prohi- 
 bitions ; but when the sale could no longer be 
 made at the posts, it was made in the woods. 
 Severe punishments were no restraint ; at ono 
 time the penalty was death, and several execu- 
 tions actually took place ; 1 but so desperate a rem- 
 edy excited other passions among the people, with- 
 out cooling the passion for drink. Repeatedly we 
 find it declared in official reports and papers that 
 the traffic in brandy is essential to trade anct to 
 friendship with the Indians: they must have it 
 from the French, or they will obtain it from Al- 
 bany, and even religion is concerned in their not 
 going to Albany, where they may be taught 
 heresy to the peril of their souls. Cadillac him- 
 self, when at Michilimackinac, had strongly at- 
 tested the necessity of the trade, but he seems at 
 Detroit to have become firmly convinced of the 
 need of restraints, and to have labored faithfully 
 to establish them. Among the complaints which 
 Aigrement makes of him is one upon this sub- 
 ject : 
 
 " In order to prevent the disturbances which would 
 arise from the excessive use of brandy, M. La Motte 
 causes it all to be put into the storehouse, and to be sold 
 to each in his turn, at the rate of twenty francs a quart. 
 Those who will have it, French as well as Indians, are 
 
 1 Journal rles Jesuits, Oct., 1661. See Parkman's Old Regime 
 in Canada, 121,324.
 
 BRANDY AND THE INDIANS. 33 
 
 obliged to go to the storehouse to drink, and each can 
 obtain at one time only the twenty-fourth part of a 
 quart. It is certain that the savages cannot become in- 
 toxicated on that quantity. The price is high, and as 
 they can only get the brandy each in his turn, it some- 
 times happens that the savages are obliged to return 
 home without a taste of this beverage, and they seem 
 ready to kill themselves in their disappointment." 1 
 
 But Cadillac's method of limiting the sale was 
 prob.ibly wise for the day, and the occasional fury 
 of disappointment was less to be feared than the 
 voluntary madness of drunken savages. A sub- 
 sequent attempt of one of the successors of Cadil- 
 lac to induce the Indians voluntarily to abandon 
 the use of brandy had much the same basis in 
 reason as an attempt to teach the wolf voluntarily 
 to abstain from the taste of blood. In a council 
 held on the subject in 1721, when it was inti- 
 mated that the French would refuse to sell brandy 
 longer, Sastaretsi, the Huron orator, admitted 
 their right to do so, and did not deny that it 
 would have been much better if his people had 
 never been taught to use it ; but now, he declared, 
 they had become so much accustomed to the use 
 that they could not do without it. The inference 
 was that whether openly or secretly, from French 
 or from English, the brandy they must and would 
 have, and it was useless to think of preventing it. 
 
 1 Summary of inspection of Detroit and Michilimackinac, given 
 at length in Sheldon's Early Hist, of Michigan, 280 et seq. 
 3
 
 34 MICHIGAN. 
 
 And that Sastaretsi was right in this is proved 
 by all subsequent Indian history. The restraints 
 which the law has cast over the traffic have al- 
 ways been mere gossamer threads, seldom felt, 
 and noticed only as suggesting prudence in meth- 
 ods of dealing and skill in evasion. 
 
 Detroit was maintained as a military and trad- 
 ing post under Cadillac, but it did not grow. The 
 opposition to him and to his settlement was so 
 vigorous and persistent that he was barely ^able 
 to prevent its being uprooted and removed. The 
 force which, in 1710, was transferred to Dubuisson 
 as temporary commandant was smaller than that 
 with which possession of the strait was first taken 
 and the stockade fort erected. The weakness of 
 the post invited attack, and in May, 1712, the 
 Outagamies and Mascoutins, who had settlements 
 near it, undertook to capture and destroy the fort, 
 but Dubuisson had discovered their purpose and 
 was on his guard. The Ottawas and the Hurons 
 were not then returned from their winter's hunt, 
 but they came in time to save the fort. The be- 
 siegers were assailed with overwhelming force, 
 and after flying for a distance of twelve miles 
 were captured and slaughtered to the number of 
 a thousand. But the Outagamies, though fear- 
 fully weakened by this destruction, were not an- 
 nihilated, and they remained unfriendly and a 
 source of danger and difficulty afterwards. 
 
 And now for forty-eight years, until the final
 
 PROPOSAL TO ABANDON DETROIT. 35 
 
 sui'render of New France to the English, the his- 
 tory of Detroit is a monotonous record of the bare 
 existence of a post, the maintenance of which de- 
 pended upon a trade which was uncertain and 
 subject to many contingencies, upon the friend- 
 ship of savages who were proverbially treacherous 
 and were given abundant occasions for unfriend- 
 liness, and upon the favor of the government, to 
 which it proved an almost constant expense. In- 
 cessantly, the question was coming up in public 
 councils, whether Detroit should not be aban- 
 doned. La Foret, who had commanded there in 
 1714, felt under the need of writing a memorial 
 insisting upon its importance as a military post, 
 but he thought settlement about it should be 
 stopped, and the settlers excluded from the fort, 
 since the danger from the savages rendered im- 
 provement impossible. Charlevoix, on the other 
 hand, who visited the post in 1721, when Tonty 
 was commandant, speaks in glowing terms of the 
 agriculture about it, and of the Huron s as sharp 
 traders, who raise much for sale. Beauharnais, 
 who was governor-general in 1732, wrote to the 
 minister : " It is impossible for that establishment 
 to become considerable so long as a sufficient num- 
 ber of troops are not sent thither, to whom lands 
 would be granted for the purpose of improvement, 
 by which course farmers would eventually be in- 
 troduced." With a farming population about it 
 " this post would become considerable in a short
 
 86 MICHIGAN. 
 
 time, and by its strength keep all the nations of 
 the upper country in check." In 1745 Beauhar- 
 nais complained that licenses to trade at Detroit 
 and the upper straits, for which before that time 
 large sums had been paid, could scarcely be given 
 away; provisions were threatening to give out, 
 and the Indians were mutinous. The year 1747 
 was one of constant alarms of Indian hostility, and 
 some warlike movements were observed among 
 the Hurons, which it became necessary to .sup- 
 press. And not long after, news began to come 
 from the valley of the Ohio which plainly fore- 
 shadowed a struggle for that region of marvelous 
 wealth and beauty, which would be certain to 
 draw within its desolating vortex the people of 
 Detroit and the Indian tribes that lived near or 
 traded with them. 
 
 The teeming valley was fit prize for the conten- 
 tion of mighty nations, and each party could ad- 
 vance claims to it which, according to the ideas 
 then prevalent, had plausibility: the French by 
 right of discovery and actual occupation ; the Eng- 
 lish by the occupation and settlement of the sea- 
 board in the same latitude, but especially in the 
 right of the Iroquois Confederacy, which in 1684, 
 when they dominated all this region, had in sol- 
 emn council at Albany placed themselves and their 
 Country under English "protection." In 1748 the 
 Ohio Company was formed, with the avowed pur- 
 pose to establish settlements in the Ohio valley,
 
 SLOWNESS OF DEVELOPMENT. 37 
 
 and five years later the youthful George Wash- 
 ington led into the valley a small military force, 
 and the war began which was to convulse Europe, 
 and to end only with the entire overthrow of 
 French power in America. Fortunately for De- 
 troit the Indians about it sympathized in this war 
 with the French, and so far as they took part in 
 it did so as the allies of France. Detroit, there- 
 fore, heard the thunder of war only in its distant 
 reverberations, and felt the shock but faintly. 
 But though undisturbed it was not prosperous. 
 In 1T50 Gallissoniere, who had been succeeded 
 as governor-general by Jon^uiere, in a paper ad- 
 dressed to the minister, pointed out in strong and 
 clear terms the necessity for an agricultural pop- 
 ulation at the military and trading posts. Of De- 
 troit he said. " Did it once contain a farming pop- 
 ulation of a thousand, it would feed and defend all 
 the rest. Throughout the whole interior of Canada 
 it is the best adapted for a town, where all the 
 trade of the lakes would concentrate ; were it pro- 
 vided with a good garrison and surrounded by a 
 goodly number of settlements, it would be enabled 
 to overawe almost all the Indians of the conti- 
 nent." Through persistent effort he succeeded in 
 having a few settlers sent out, who for a time 
 received assistance from the government, but the 
 gain to the population was not great. Vaudreuil, 
 the governor-general, writing in 1755 to the min- 
 ister, could say of Detroit, " That post is consid-
 
 38 MICHIGAN. 
 
 erable ; well peopled ; but three times more peo- 
 ple than it possesses could be easily located there. 
 The misfortune is that we have not enough of 
 people in the colony." 
 
 This continued to be the misfortune until C<m- 
 ada became a British province. Colonies had 
 grown to greatness under English neglect, and in 
 the shadow of governmental disfavor ; but under 
 the fostering care of French supervision and nurs- 
 ing, they could only languish in the weakness of 
 absolute dependence. When Canada became Brit- 
 ish there was within the limits of Michigan no 
 settlement which, und*er existing conditions, gave 
 promise of substantial growth and expansion. At 
 Sault St. Marie the Chevalier de Repentigny, 
 under a large grant made to him with manorial 
 rights, had made some effort to plant a settle- 
 ment, but it took no root and was soon forgotten. 
 At Michilimackinac a trading post and a mission 
 were still maintained, and Indians had their vil- 
 lages about it, and practiced such imperfect agri- 
 culture as sufficed for the limited needs of their 
 indolent and unthrifty mode of living. Detroit 
 alone had pretensions to be called a settlement ; 
 but when its age and its magnificent natural ad- 
 vantages are considered, the pretensions must be 
 called but slight. For sixty years the Indians 
 had gathered in considerable numbers about it, 
 and raised their scanty crops in its vicinity, and 
 been given such Christian instruction as they
 
 FRENCH POLICY IN COLONIES. 39 
 
 would consent to receive, and far more than they 
 were capable of understanding ; but they still re- 
 mained savages, and were watched more than 
 they were trusted. The few French agricultural 
 settlers kept within easy reach of the shelter and 
 protection of the fort. Sixty years of the French 
 system of governmental absolutism, official venal- 
 ity, trade monopoly, and individual dependence 
 had maintained for the king a nominal sover- 
 eignty over the Lake country, but it had estab- 
 lished no colony worthy the name. On all the 
 upper lakes not a vessel unfurled sails to the 
 breeze ; the canoe and other row-boats met the 
 wants of such transportation as the existing traf- 
 fic called for. There was no printing-press in 
 Michigan, for there was none in all New France. 
 The time was to come when at many a waterfall 
 and crossing of trails in the peninsula, some small 
 company, less numerous than that with which 
 La Motte Cadillac founded Detroit, coming with 
 their axes and other agricultural implements, but 
 above all with their families for permanent homes, 
 would within a single year have more of perma- 
 nent worth to show for their labors.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PONTIAC'S VAIN STEUGGLE FOR THE HOMES 
 OF HIS PEOPLE. 
 
 the memorable eighteenth of September, 
 1759, the garrison of Quebec sorrowfully opened 
 its gates, and the investing British army marched 
 in and took possession. It was the stronghold of 
 all Canada ; and from New Hampshire to Georgia 
 Americans welcomed the news with exuberant 
 rejoicings as the prelude to the inevitable submis- 
 sion of all New France, and the termination of 
 the savage warfare that under French inspiration 
 had so long disquieted and at times devastated 
 their northern and western borders. Canada also 
 was alive to the significance of the great event ; 
 for it was plain to all men that the permanent 
 occupation of Quebec by British forces involved 
 the overthow of French power in America. Ac- 
 cordingly a vigorous effort was made to recover the 
 place the following year, but it proved abortive, 
 and on September 8, 1760, M. de Vaudreuil, the 
 governor-general, surrendered Montreal, and with 
 it all Canada, to General Amherst, the British 
 commander. By the articles of capitulation the
 
 ROGERS, THE PARTISAN LEADER. 41 
 
 undisturbed enjoyment of their property and the 
 free exercise of their religion were guarantied 
 to the people, but an article stipulating for the 
 preservation of existing laws was refused, and the 
 people were given to understand that they had 
 become subjects of the British crown, and would 
 be treated as such. 
 
 Four days later General Amherst issued an 
 order to Major Robert Rogers, directing him to 
 proceed with a military force to Detroit and Mich- 
 ilimackinac and take possession of those posts and 
 administer oaths of allegiance to the inhabitants. 
 Rogers was the most noted partisan leader of the 
 day : he had been active and conspicuous in the 
 war from the first ; no Indian had surpassed him 
 in woodcraft or in cunning, and few either white 
 or red had equaled him in daring or in prowess. 
 He had suffered hardships of every nature incident 
 to war : sickness, and wounds, and captivity, and 
 starvation ; but his endurance was equal to every 
 emergency, and he had come out of every trial 
 with no abatement of courage or determination. 
 From Lake Champlain to Quebec forest glens had 
 echoed the deadly reports of his rifle, and were 
 red with the bloody footsteps of his men. He 
 received with pleasure the order which was to 
 complete on the upper lakes the victory at Que- 
 bec, and started the next day, taking the route 
 by Lake Ontario, the Niagara River, and Lake 
 Erie to Presque Isle, from which he diverged for
 
 42 MICHIGAN. 
 
 the delivery of dispatches to General Monckton 
 at Pittsburgh. Returning to Presque Isle he re- 
 sumed his journey along the south shore of Lake 
 Erie until November 7th, when he encamped at 
 the mouth of a river which he called the Cho- 
 gage, and which has been variousl}- conjectured 
 to have been the Chagrin, the Cuyahoga, and the 
 Grand. Here he was met by a party of Indians 
 who announced themselves messengers of Pon- 
 tiac, the ruler and king of all that country <-and 
 who admonished the British commander in the 
 name of their master, that no further advance 
 should be made until Pontiac, who was near at 
 hand, should arrive and give permission. The 
 chief soon followed the embassy, and in haughty 
 tones demanded of Rogers how he dared to enter 
 his country without permission. Rogers replied 
 that he had come with no hostile purpose against 
 the Indians, and that his sole business was to re- 
 move from the country the French, who had been 
 an obstacle to peace and trade between the In- 
 dians and the English. In token of friendship, 
 strings of wampum were then delivered to Pon- 
 tiac, who received them graciously, but signified 
 his will that the party should proceed no far- 
 ther until the morning ; and after exchange of 
 friendly courtesies he took his departure. The 
 next morning he again appeared, smoked the 
 pipe of peace with Major Rogers, gave consent 
 to his proceeding on his journey, and offered to
 
 THE FRENCH ABANDON THE FORTS. 43 
 
 accompany him to Detroit and give him any nec- 
 essary protection against unfriendly or excited 
 Indians. The offer was accepted by Major Rog- 
 ers, and the party proceeded, sending forward in 
 advance a notification of the coming and of its 
 purpose. M. Bellestre, then in command at De- 
 troit, was still vainly hoping that Canada, by a 
 supreme effort, might be recovered by the French, 
 and he seems to have made some effort to arouse 
 the animosity of the Indians in the neighborhood 
 against the English, and to induce them to aid 
 him in resistance ; but Rogers gathered them in 
 council near the mouth of the Detroit River, and 
 having assured them of his fixed purpose to send 
 the French away, promised to leave the Indians in 
 possession of their own country, and to settle with 
 them amicably all matters which might be the 
 subject of controversy. The Indians received his 
 assurances as satisfactory, and when on November 
 29th Rogers reached Detroit, the French com- 
 mandant, perceiving that resistance would be fu- 
 tile, surrendered the post. From Detroit was sent 
 out a detachment which took possession of Fort 
 Miami on the Maumee and Fort Ouatanon on the 
 Wabash, and Rogers himself started with a force 
 to occupy Michilimackinac, but found the season 
 too far advanced, and was obliged to abandon the 
 undertaking. It was not until the fall of the next 
 year that small forces, sent out from Detroit by 
 command of Sir William Johnson, took possession
 
 44 MICHIGAN. 
 
 of the forts at Michilimackinac, St. Marie, and 
 St. Joseph, and garrisoned them for the British 
 crown. 
 
 Thus ninety years after the establishment of 
 the mission on the Straits of Michilimackinac, and 
 more than a century and a half after the founding 
 of Quebec, the French were compelled to yield to 
 their persistent rival the vast country for which 
 they had sacrificed so much, and whose possession, 
 in the eyes of the world, added so considerably to 
 the glory and grandeur of the crown and promised 
 such great things for the future. The national 
 pride was humbled, and the national heart was 
 touched .also by the necessary abandonment of 
 the French colonists. Vaudreuil, the governor- 
 general,, truthfully said in taking his departure : 
 " With these beautiful and vast countries France 
 loses seventy thousand inhabitants of a rare qual- 
 ity ; a race of people unequaled for their docility, 
 bravery, and loyalty. The vexations they have 
 suffered for many years, more especially during 
 the five years preceding the reduction of Que- 
 bec, all without a murmur, or importuning their 
 king for relief, sufficiently manifest their perfect 
 submissiveness." 1 The treaty of peace was not 
 made between the two countries until February 
 10, 1763, but when it came it made final conces- 
 sion of Canada to the British crown. 
 
 With the triumph of Wolfe on the heights of 
 1 Garneau's Hist, of Canada, by Bell, vol. ii. p. 71.
 
 THE MEANING OF WOLFE'S VICTORY. 45 
 
 Abraham, it has been said, began the history 
 of the United States. Voltaire, in his retirement 
 at Ferney, rejoiced at the fall of Quebec, and the 
 inevitable surrender of Canada, and celebrated it 
 by a banquet as the precursor of American en- 
 franchisement. But this great event meant more 
 than American enfranchisement : it meant the 
 overthrow of the despotic principle in America, 
 and the surrender of the continent, with all its im- 
 mense possibilities, to the growing and expanding 
 ideas of English liberty. American enfranchise- 
 ment from the British rule was an event of fir$t 
 importance, but its value to the world would have 
 been infinitely lessened had it not been grounded 
 on the assertion and maintenance of rights assured 
 to the subject by English law. For many cen- 
 turies now the germs of free institutions had 
 been planted in England, nurtured by the robust 
 thought and defended by the vigorous arms of its 
 people ; and when from time to time despotism 
 trampled in the dust the incipient attempts of 
 other nations to win recognition of rights or to 
 gain relief from intolerable burdens, the sea- 
 girt island, in maintaining her independence, pre- 
 served her liberties also, and the slow but cer- 
 tain development of free institutions went on 
 unchecked. The two opposing principles in gov- 
 ernment had now grappled in a final struggle for 
 mastery in America, and when despotism fell, a 
 Britain, no longer needing the protection of the
 
 46 MICHIGAN. 
 
 four seas, but stepping boldly out to occupy a 
 continent as master, began immediately to give 
 prophecy of that vast confederacy of common- 
 wealths which was successively to become the 
 rebellious child, the hated rival, and at last the 
 chief glory of the island parent, and the precursor 
 of other confederacies of commonwealths which 
 should speedily give to the English tongue and to 
 English liberty an undisputed leadership on both 
 continents. ^ 
 
 But the immediate result of the conquest to the 
 conquered people was far from being either bene- 
 ficial or agreeable. The French rule had been 
 arbitrary and irresponsible, but the English rule 
 did not promise to be immediately any less so. 
 It was, besides, the rule of the stranger over a 
 people compelled to submit by force of arms, and 
 every oppressive act would seem doubly oppressive 
 from that fact. The British commander at once 
 assumed supreme authority, and for the purposes 
 of the administration of justice created a series of 
 military courts to which was given jurisdiction 
 of all controversies, with no appeal in case of dis- 
 satisfaction except to other military authorities, or 
 to the commander himself. A military judiciary, 
 always arbitrary and always obnoxious, was made 
 preeminently obnoxious in this case by its being 
 required to govern its decisions by the English 
 law, of which the people knew nothing, instead of 
 the preexisting laws and usages of the country
 
 THE FRENCH UNDER ENGLISH RULE. 47 
 
 to which they were accustomed, and which were 
 dear to them as the laws and customs of their 
 native land. If by English law had been under- 
 stood the common law of England, whose rules 
 for the protection of rights were definite and just, 
 there would have been less reason to complain ; 
 but military judges are to be expected to have 
 some degree of contempt for common law methods, 
 and are likely in rejecting the methods to put 
 substance aside also, and make their will the test 
 of right. With the intelligent among the people 
 the sense of oppression was increased by the 
 knowledge that this uprooting of the pasting law 
 by the conquering power was not according to the 
 customary practice of civilized nations, and might 
 for that reason be justly suspected as promising a 
 rule exceptionally despotic even for the military ; 
 and many of the most enterprising and thrifty 
 abandoned the country, leaving the population 
 sensibly diminished. Some of these returned to 
 France ; many accepted the invitation of the 
 people of Louisiana to remove to that district ; 
 and when St. Louis was founded in 1764 some 
 became residents of that town. Those who re- 
 mained under British rule submitted with out- 
 ward cheerfulness, but without the loyalty of 
 feeling and spirit so essential in times of public 
 danger. 
 
 If the establishment of unrestricted military 
 tribunals was not likely to please the French,
 
 48 MICHIGAN. 
 
 still less would the management of public affairs 
 tend to conciliate the Indians, or to establish rela- 
 tions of trustworthy amity with them. Most of 
 the savages living in the upper lake region, hav- 
 ing taken the part of the French in the wars 
 which preceded the conquest, still looked upon 
 the French as their friends, and would gladly have 
 seen the country restored to their dominion. A 
 strong hope prevailed among them, which might 
 easily become a belief, that a reconquest m>uld 
 yet take place, and the advances they made to- 
 wards cordial relations with the English were 
 half-heartec^ and such only as temporary interest 
 seemed to prompt. On the other hand the Eng- 
 lish authorities, with strange disregard of the de- 
 mands of the situation, not only neglected to 
 take proper steps to wean the Indians from their 
 French attachments, and to convert them from 
 enmity to friendship, buf by a cold, haughty, and 
 reserved demeanor they repelled advances, and 
 thereby gave serious offense even in the case of 
 influential personages, whose favor and friendship 
 were necessary to amicable relations. Wttere the 
 French officer was easy and complaisant, and by 
 his courteous bearing avoided wounding the self- 
 respect of the Indian, the English officer, con- 
 scious of his superiority over the brutal and dis- 
 gusting savage, and impatient of any assumption 
 of equality, took little pains to conceal his con- 
 tempt and repugnance, and was perpetually allow-
 
 THE ENGLISH AND THE INDIANS. 49 
 
 ing himself to be guilty of slights and affronts to 
 which only the most abject could be expected to 
 submit without resentment. The customary pres- 
 ents which the Indians expected, and which the 
 French had made on a scale of liberality, the 
 English either discontinued entirely or measured 
 by a standard of economy which showed them to 
 be given not in friendship, but grudgingly, and de- 
 prived them of all efficacy as a means of preserv- 
 ing amicable relations. Lieutenant Gorrell, when 
 he was sent to receive the surrender of the more 
 western posts, was instructed to give the Indians 
 no more presents than was absolutely necessary 
 to keep them in temper, 1 instructions which he 
 might well say made him uneasy, so different 
 were they in spirit from the policy which had 
 prevailed with the French. And what was nom- 
 inally given was often dishonestly appropriated 
 by agents, or only delivered to the Indians to 
 whom it was sent when they had paid for it such 
 sum as the agent saw fit to exact. 2 In Western 
 Pennsylvania and Virginia the settlers were con- 
 tinually encroaching upon the lands of the In- 
 dians, and though the tribes west of the lakes 
 were as yet unmolested, they saw in the case 
 of their brothers what they might soon expect 
 from the restless and greedy English, and they 
 perceived very clearly that in this particular, at 
 
 1 Wis. Hist. Col. vol. i. p. 32 
 
 2 Stone's Life of Sir Wm. Johnson, vol. ii. p. 137. 
 
 4
 
 50 MICHIGAN. 
 
 least, the cause of one tribe was the cause of all. 
 Jefferson did not exaggerate when he said that 
 the settlers in many cases regarded neither the 
 laws, treaties, nor proclamations of their own gov- 
 ernment, nor the remonstrances of the Indians, 
 and that the lives of men, women, and children 
 were ruthlessly taken by them. 
 
 More than ever before trade with the Indians 
 was now the occasion of injustice and outrage, 
 and exasperations arising from it were frequent. 
 Under French sway some degree of fair dealing 
 was secured to the savage ; the trader became his 
 friend and boon companion, and made his com- 
 ing to dispose of his peltry an occasion for festiv- 
 ity and roisterous goodfellowship, when all would 
 partake of the same fare, drink of the same bev- 
 erages, and indulge in the same sports. At Detroit 
 and elsewhere some of these traders remained, 
 and of the new-comers some were Scotch, with 
 many characteristics resembling those of their 
 predecessors, who sought, while making great 
 profits out of the Indians, to win and preserve 
 their favor. But there were many of a different 
 sort, whose greed knew no bounds, and in whose 
 service, as Park man has forcibly said, " were ruf- 
 fians of the coarsest stamp, who vied with each 
 other in rapacity, violence, and profligacy. They 
 cheated, plundered, and cursed the Indians and 
 outraged their families, offering, when compared 
 with the French traders who were under better
 
 THE INDIANS AND LIQUOR. 51 
 
 regulation, a most unfavorable example of the 
 character of their nation." l Liquor was the ever 
 ready means by the use of which the Indian was 
 defrauded. Returning from the chase after long 
 abstinence, his eagerness for intoxicating drinks 
 was passionate, and when once indulged, his rea- 
 son and his self-restraint were overcome, and he 
 was powerless for any purpose of self-protection. 
 We get a vivid picture of what must have been 
 a frequent occurrence at Detroit from the narra- 
 tive of a white person who was taken prisoner in 
 Western Pennsylvania and adopted into one of 
 the Indian tribes. 
 
 " A trader [he says] came to town with French 
 brandy ; we purchased a keg of it, and held a council 
 about who was to get drunk and who was to keep sober. 
 I was invited to get drunk, but I refused the proposal ; 
 then they told me I must be one of those who were to 
 take care of the drunken people. I did not like this, 
 but of two evils I chose that which I thought was the 
 least, and fell in with those who were to conceal the 
 arms and keep every dangerous weapon we could out of 
 their way, and endeavor, if possible, to keep the drink- 
 ing club from killing each other, which was a very hard 
 task. Several times we hazarded our own lives, and got 
 ourselves hurt in preventing them from slaying each 
 other." 2 
 
 1 Conspiracy of Pontiac, 155. 
 
 2 Account of Remarkable Occurrences, etc., by Col. James Smith, 
 76.
 
 52 MICHIGAN. 
 
 The debauch went on while a beaver skin re- 
 mained, and when it was over the Indian found 
 he had exchanged for it the results of his labors 
 for weeks or months. If he ventured to make 
 complaint he was answered with curses and blows, 
 and was driven off as a creature whose presence, 
 now that his immediate usefulness to the unscru- 
 pulous trader was exhausted, had become repul- 
 sive. Nor was the trader any more regardful of 
 the rights or of the safety of the white settlers 
 than of the Indians ; for in the time immediately 
 preceding Pontiac's war, when the government of 
 Pennsylvania had forbidden trade with the In- 
 dians from regard to the public safety, traders 
 did not scruple openly to disobey the law, and 
 supplied the Indians freely with the maddening 
 liquors and with the very guns and ammunition 
 by the use of which they were subsequently en- 
 abled to plunder and ravage the frontier. So bold 
 and reckless was the defiance of law by the deal- 
 ers that in some cases the indignant people retali- 
 ated with violence, and seized and destroyed their 
 stores. When, however, the Indian alone was the 
 sufferer from fraud and lawless rapacity, his com- 
 plaints received little attention from either the 
 authorities or the people, and any resentment on 
 his part that went to the extreme of violence was 
 certain to be regarded as the outrage of a savage, 
 which must be visited with swift and condign ret- 
 ribution. But there was very general recogni-
 
 FAILURE TO STRENGTHEN THE COLONY. 53 
 
 tioti of the fact that difficulties began with the 
 traders, and so loud and so general had become 
 the complaints of misconduct and outrage on their 
 part, that in the summer of 1761 Sir William 
 Johnson was sent to Detroit with full authority 
 to correct such evils as he might find to exist, and 
 to take into his own hands complete supervision 
 and control of Indian trade in the Northwest. He 
 reached Detroit in the beginning of September, 
 where he held council with a number of Indian 
 tribes, and no doubt did whatever seemed to him 
 possible in the correction of abuses. But the cor- 
 rection, when the restraining power was to be at 
 a distance, could at best be only temporary and 
 partial : greed was more powerful than the sense 
 of justice or the feeling of humanity, and the 
 story of one year was repeated in the next with 
 variation only of actors and minor circumstances. 
 Meantime nothing was being done in the North- 
 west to strengthen the exposed settlements by 
 bringing about them what they needed most of 
 all, a class of agricultural laborers, who would 
 live on the results of their own industry. The 
 French were not brought into sentiments of at- 
 tachment to their new government by a concilia- 
 tory deportment towards them, and with both 
 French and Indians the hope was indulged that 
 the overthrow of French power would prove but 
 temporary, and that before long that great na- 
 tion might be expected to put forth its mighty
 
 54 MICHIGAN. 
 
 energies for the recovery of its lost prestige and 
 dominion. 
 
 The fires of discontent were smouldering every- 
 where, and nothing was needed but the breath of 
 a bold and daring spirit to blow them into flame. 
 And such a spirit promptly appeared on the stage. 
 Pontiac, who with such haughtiness had inter- 
 posed to stay the advance of Major Rogers, was 
 one of those rare characters among the Indians 
 whose merits are so transcendent that, without 
 the aid of adventitious circumstances, they take 
 by common consent the headship in peace and the 
 leadership in war. In battle he had shown his 
 courage, in council his eloquence and his wisdom ; 
 he was wary in planning and indefatigable in exe- 
 cution ; his patriotism was ardent and his ambi- 
 tion boundless, and he was at this time in all 
 the region between the head-waters of the Ohio 
 and the distant Mississippi, the most conspicuous 
 figure among the savage tiibes, and the predes- 
 tined leader in any undertaking which should en- 
 list the general interest. Of the Ottawas he was 
 the principal chief, and he made his home at their 
 village opposite and a little above Detroit, with a 
 summer residence on Peche Island in Lake St. 
 Clair. But he was also chief of a loose Confed- 
 eracy of the Ottawas, Ojibwas, and Pottawat- 
 amies, and his influence extended far beyond 
 those tribes, and placed him above rivalry in all 
 the lake region and the valley of the Ohio. The
 
 PONT I ACS VIEWS. 55 
 
 change in territorial sovereignty had not been 
 agreeable to him ; he perceived very clearly that 
 with the accession of the English to undisputed 
 sway in the interior, the greatness and even the 
 security of his people were threatened, and that 
 unless bounds could be set to English encroach- 
 ments the Indians must inevitably be debased by 
 their enticements, robbed by their unscrupulous 
 arts, and at last driven from their homes and their 
 hunting grounds by a rapacity that seemed insati- 
 able. While the French held Canada the Indians 
 had been courted by both sides as holding a cer- 
 tain effective power which made their friendship 
 of high value ; but now that Prance had appar- 
 ently abandoned the long struggle for a share in 
 the new world, the Indian was made to feel that 
 he 110 longer had an importance entitling him to 
 respect, but was an inferior being whose rights 
 were subordinate to the interests of the superior 
 race, and who in all controversies would be held 
 presumptively in the wrong, and compelled to 
 submit to such justice as his adversaries should 
 see fit to concede to him. To a bold and haughty 
 spirit like that of Pontiac, this condition of things 
 was intolerable, and he resolved to strike a blow 
 that should at once break the yoke of servitude, 
 and be ample warning against further encroach- 
 ments upon Indian rights and territorial and per- 
 sonal independence. In the preparation for this 
 blow he had the important, if not indispensable,
 
 56 MICHIGAN. 
 
 assistance of a prophet, who sprang up among 
 the Delawares at the need of the hour, and who 
 promised his people restoration to their former 
 importance and power, on condition, however, that 
 they should abandon the arts and the habits of 
 civilized life, throw away the implements which 
 they had received from the white people, and re- 
 turn once more to their primitive simplicity. 
 
 The British advanced posts at this time compre- 
 hended Niagara, Pitt, formerly Du QuesnevXigo- 
 nier, southeast of Pitt, Le Boeuf and Venango on 
 the Alleghany, Presque Isle, Sandusky, Miami, 
 where Fort Wayne was afterwards built, Detroit, 
 Michilimackinac, Le Baye at the head of Green 
 Bay, St. Joseph near the mouth of the river of that 
 name, and Ouatanon on the Wabash. The plan 
 devised by Pontiac for their reduction, while thor- 
 oughly characteristic of his race, was worthy of 
 his masterly mind. He proposed by preconcerted 
 action on the part of the Indians in the neighbor- 
 hood of all these posts to surprise and capture 
 them simultaneously, and thus at one blow to 
 annihilate British power in the West. To make 
 his scheme successful he needed to enlist not only 
 all Indians under his immediate control, but the 
 Senecas of New York also ; and this he found 
 means to accomplish. 
 
 Detroit being the most important and com- 
 manding of all the posts, Pontiac in person took 
 charge of the movement against it. The fort had
 
 FAILURE OF THE INDIAN STRATAGEM. f)7 
 
 a garrison of a hundred and twenty-eight men, 
 under command of Major Gladwyn; a number of 
 fur-traders with their servants were living within 
 the stockade, which also inclosed the town proper, 
 and the dwellings outside along the shore were 
 almost exclusively of French farmers and garden- 
 ers. Below the town on the western side was a 
 village of the Pottawatamies; opposite was one of 
 the Wyandots, and farther up was that of the 
 Ottawas, as before stated. The stratagem which 
 Pontiac devised was to have his warriors shorten 
 their rifles to a length which would admit of their 
 being concealed under their blankets, and then, un- 
 der pretense of a council, obtain admission to the 
 fort, and at a given signal fall upon and slaughter 
 the unsuspecting and unprepared garrison. 
 
 The plan came so near success that its failure 
 seems almost providential. The process of short- 
 ening their guns by files and saws was observed 
 by some of the French settlers, one of whom 
 communicated the fact to Major Gladwyn, and 
 warned him that danger was brewing. But Glad- 
 wyn paid no heed to the warning, and seems to 
 have had a strange and unaccountable confidence 
 in his savage neighbors. On the following day, 
 however, which was May 6, 1763, an Indian maid 
 who had become possessed of the plan, and who 
 cherished kindly feelings for the commandant, 
 managed to obtain a private interview with him, 
 and revealed the full extent of the conspiracy and
 
 58 MICHIGAN. 
 
 of his danger. Pontiac, she informed him, with 
 sixty other chiefs was to come the next day to the 
 fort, with their shortened guns under their blan- 
 kets, and demand a council. This being granted 
 he would deliver his speech, and then offer a belt 
 of wampum, but holding it in reversed position, 
 which would be the signal for attack. The chiefs 
 were instantly to spring to their feet and shoot 
 down the officers, and the other Indians were im- 
 mediately to rush in and massacre the soldier's and 
 the traders. Not an Englishman was to be left 
 alive, but all Frenchmen were to be spared as not 
 being their enemies. 
 
 Gladwyn immediately prepared for the emer- 
 gency, and when Pontiac with his subordinate 
 chiefs entered the gateway of the fortress the 
 next morning, he was startled at perceiving the 
 garrison under arms, and the fur-traders posted 
 with their rifles at commanding positions, as if 
 awaiting attack. It was evident his treachery 
 was discovered ; but he preserved his composure 
 and proceeded to the council-house, where Glad- 
 wyn and the other officers were awaiting him as 
 if anticipating only a friendly interview. The 
 wily chieftain demanded to be informed why the 
 men were in hostile array, and was told they had 
 been ordered under arms for discipline and ex- 
 ercise. With hesitation and evident distrust he 
 rose at length to make his speech, which in terms 
 was friendly, and expressive of attachment to the
 
 GLADWYN BAFFLES PONTIAC. 59 
 
 English. Gladwyn answered calmly, without in- 
 timating any suspicions of their intentions, and 
 after receiving some trifling presents, the Indians 
 retired to their camp. The next morning Pontiac 
 came with three of his chiefs and renewed the 
 friendly professions, and again on the morning of 
 May 9th he made his appearance, but this time 
 accompanied by a great crowd of Indians. The 
 gate was shut against them, and Pontiac de- 
 manded to be informed why he was refused ad- 
 mittance to the fort. The commandant replied 
 that the chief should be free to enter, but that 
 the crowd which accompanied him must remain 
 outside. To this the savage rejoined that he de- 
 sired his warriors to enjoy with him the fragrance 
 of the pipe of peace. But Gladwyn was immov- 
 able, and Pontiac, baffled and enraged, turned 
 away, and entering a boat, proceeded to the Ot- 
 tawa village on the opposite shore. His followers 
 were now fully aware that further attempts at 
 deception would be useless ; the war-whoop was 
 immediately raised, and while some rushed to a 
 house on the common occupied by an English 
 woman with her family, whom they immediately 
 slaughtered and scalped, others pulled off in a 
 boat to Isle au Cochon, where an Englishman had 
 his home, and subjected him to the same fate. 
 
 That night the Ottawa population was trans- 
 ferred to the western shore, and at daybreak 
 a desperate attempt was made upon the fort, and
 
 60 MICHIGAN. 
 
 for six hours was kept up continuously, but with- 
 out avail. Two armed vessels anchored in front 
 of the fort rendered valuable assistance to the gar- 
 rison, and the efforts of the besiegers soon began 
 to show indications of discouragement. Gladwyn 
 now hoping that the whole affair was but a tem- 
 porary ebullition of anger on the part of the 
 Indians, attempted to open negotiations with their 
 commander, but this only resulted in Major Camp- 
 bell and Lieutenant McDougall being inveigled 
 into the hands of Pontiac, where they were treach- 
 erously detained. McDougall in a short time suc- 
 ceeded in escaping, but Campbell met a tragic 
 fate, being seized, bound to a tree, and shot to 
 death with arrows in revenge for the death of an 
 Ojibwa chief whose scalp had been foolishly ex- 
 hibited in derision at the fort. That no circum- 
 stance of horror might be wanting, his heart was 
 torn out and devoured. 
 
 From this time savage ingenuity was exhausted 
 in vain endeavor to capture Detroit. The assaults 
 upon other posts were attended with more success. 
 Sandusky, St. Joseph, Miami, Ouatanon, Presque 
 Isle, Le Bo3uf, and Venango were all captured in 
 the months of May and June, and in order of time 
 as here enumerated. The fate of Michilimackinac 
 was highly dramatic and tragical, and the story 
 as told by Alexander Henry, 1 the trader who 
 
 1 Travels and Adventures in Canada and Indian Territories, 
 1760-1766.
 
 THE PERIL OF DETROIT. 61 
 
 chanced to be present and was fortunate enough 
 to escape, is one of the most exciting, as well as 
 most familiar, in the literature of savage warfare. 
 The succession of dramatic incident could not be 
 given in brief without marring its intensity of 
 interest ; but in the narrative of Henry and in a 
 subsequent letter from the commandant to Glad- 
 wyn, 1 we are presented the picture of the Indians 
 gathering about the fort as for a day's sport, the 
 unsuspicious commandant opening his gates to 
 their squaws, who strolled in one by one with 
 arms concealed under their blankets, the Indians 
 engaging in their favorite game of baggatiway, 
 and throwing the ball back and forth, nearer and 
 nearer the stockade, until at last it lands in the 
 fort, when they rush in as if to recover it, and 
 once in, raise the war-cry, and seizing the con- 
 cealed weapons, fall to the work of scalping and 
 slaughter. All the English not slain were made 
 prisoners, but no violence was offered to any 
 Frenchman. 
 
 Detroit so far had escaped, but its fate for a 
 long time seemed uncertain. One detachment 
 sent from Niagara for its relief was intercepted 
 and driven back ; another, under Captain Dalzell, 
 was more successful. Desirous of signalizing his 
 coming by some marked achievement, the captain 
 planned and executed a night attack on the Indian 
 camp, but was ambushed at a stream two miles 
 
 1 June 12, 1763 : Conspiracy of Pontiac, 596.
 
 62 MICHIGAN. 
 
 above the fort and slain with many of his men, 
 This fight occurred on July 30th, and thereafter 
 for a time the siege was pushed with vigor. But 
 the reinforcement had put the garrison in better 
 condition for resistance than before, and though 
 the siege went on, the prospects of success contin- 
 ually diminished. Early in October the Ojibwas 
 made some advances towards peace. At the end 
 of that month, Pontiac, who up to that time had 
 cherished hopes of French intervention and* as- 
 sistance, was advised by letter from M. Neyon, 
 commandant at Fort Chartres, that hopes of as- 
 sistance from that quarter were idle, and that it 
 would be wise for him to abandon hostilities. 
 From that time the siege was substantially raised 
 for the winter, and the Indians went off on their 
 annual hunt. In the spring hostilities were re- 
 newed about the fort, but to little effect. Mean- 
 time Sir William Johnson, who best of all the 
 English officials understood the Indian character, 
 and was fitted by temperament and sympathy to 
 deal with the savages, was arranging for a grand 
 council at Niagara in the summer, witli a view to 
 bringing about a general peace. The meeting 
 which he succeeded in procuring was attended by 
 a great number of Indians, including not only 
 many from the several tribes of the Iroquois Con- 
 federacy, but Caughnawagas from Canada, Otta- 
 was, Ojibwas, Wyandots, Winnebagoes, Menom- 
 jnies, Sacs, and Foxes, and even the Osages from
 
 END OF FONTIAC'S SCHEME. 63 
 
 beyond the Mississippi, and many others. The 
 conciliatory deportment of Sir William Johnson 
 and a liberal distribution of presents had the de- 
 sired effect upon the Indians, and they returned 
 to their homes in a peaceful frame of mind. 
 General Bradstreet, with a considerable army, 
 was then on his way to Detroit, where he arrived 
 at the end of August, relieving the garrison from 
 its long beleaguerment. A detachment was im- 
 mediately sent up to take possesssion of Michili- 
 mackinac and to reoccupy the abandoned posts 
 of St. Marie and Green Bay, all of which was ac- 
 complished without noteworthy incident. 
 
 Pontiac haughtily held aloof from all negotia- 
 tions, and repelled all advances. In the summer 
 of 1764 he was in the West endeavoring to stimu- 
 late the Western tribes to vigorous measures. He 
 was also soliciting aid from the French ; but all 
 his efforts were without avail. He even sent an 
 embassy to New Orleans, where the French, 
 though the territory had been ceded to Spain, 
 were still in possession ; but he received no en- 
 couragement from that quarter. This was the 
 end of his hopes. On August 27, 1765, he met 
 George Croghan, the emissary of Sir William 
 Johnson, in a conference at Detroit, and smoked 
 with him the pipe of peace. " It is your chil- 
 dren's pipe," he said, " and as the war is all over, 
 and the Great Spirit and Giver of Light, who 
 has made the earth and everything therein, has
 
 64 MICHIGAN. 
 
 brought us all together this day for our mutual 
 good, I declare to all nations that I have settled 
 my peace with you before I came here, and now 
 deliver my pipe to be sent to Sir William John- 
 son, that he may know I have made peace and 
 taken the King of England for my father." But 
 he was then settled on the Maumee, and declined 
 the invitation to return to his old home, assign- 
 ing for his refusal a reason that, to one who loved 
 his race and desired its preservation, should have 
 been conclusive. " If we dwelt near you at our 
 old village of Detroit our warriors would always 
 be drunk, and quarrels would arise between us 
 and you." " Where we live is so nigh to you that 
 when we want to drink we can easily come for 
 it." 1 Pontiac plainly saw that the struggle for 
 the independence of his people was ended, and 
 that nothing remained for them now but present 
 subjection and, if they remained in the vicinity 
 of white settlements, degrading dissipation with 
 ultimate extinction. In July of the next year he 
 met Sir William Johnson himself at Oswego, and 
 renewed in the most formal manner his assurances 
 of friendship. He assumed to speak the voice of 
 all the Western nations, and Sir William was as- 
 sured by him that what he agreed to do would 
 be a law to them. With vague reference to what 
 had gone before, he submissively said that " He 
 who made the Universe would have it so." 
 
 1 Conspiracy of Pontiac, 556 ; Hildreth's Pioneer History, 76.
 
 DEATH OF PONTIAC. 65 
 
 The masterly but unavailing effort of Pontiac 
 for the independence and preservation of his race 
 is often spoken of as a conspiracy ; but making 
 due allowance for the barbarous methods of In- 
 dian warfare, the fair mind must admit that it 
 was as patriotic and as deserving of generous 
 commemoration as the struggle of Cromwell for 
 the liberties of Englishmen, or of Kosciusko for 
 the independence of Poland. A year later the 
 great chieftain was assassinated at Cahokia, Il- 
 linois, by a Kaskaskia Indian instigated to the 
 crime by an English trader, and by the gift of a 
 barrel of liquor and the promise of further re- 
 ward. The dastardly murder brought speedy ven- 
 geance upon the assassin, his tribe, and all their 
 allies. But the chief criminal was unmolested, 
 and as only Indians were the victims, the consti- 
 tuted authorities abstained from all interference.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A DECADE OF MILITARY ABSOLUTISM. 
 
 PONTIAC'S war had desolated many settlements, 
 and left behind only the ashes of burned habita- 
 tions and the bleaching bones of the people. But 
 in the vicinity of Detroit its desolating tracks 
 were few and soon effaced. The French people 
 then resident in Michigan had not been looked 
 upon by the Indians as enemies, and the war had 
 been waged not against them, but against the 
 English, who held them in subjection by force of 
 arms. " It is not to avenge myself alone," said 
 Pontiac to the French of Detroit, "that I make 
 war on the English. It is to avenge you, my 
 brothers. When the English insulted us they in- 
 sulted you also. I know that they have taken 
 away your arms and made you sign a paper, 
 which they have sent away to their country. 
 Therefore you are left defenseless, and I mean 
 now to avenge your cause and my own together." 
 So their possessions were spared, and they were 
 treated as friends whom the fortune of war had 
 subjected to a hated foreign yoke, which they 
 would willingly embrace the first favoring oppor-
 
 MILITARY RULE. 67 
 
 tunity to cast off. A people so regarded by the 
 enemy must necessarily be distrusted by their 
 own government, and when the war was over the 
 condition of the people of Detroit, under the gov- 
 ernment of suspicious rulers, was very far from 
 being enviable. The king's proclamation on the 
 ratification of the treaty of cession, in 1763, had 
 established military control, and not until the 
 dawn of the American Revolution, when concilia- 
 tion of Canada seemed to promise the opportunity 
 for a revival of the former antagonisms between 
 that colony and those which were now becoming 
 rebellious, were any steps taken to give this vast 
 country civil government. 
 
 Nominally Detroit was within the jurisdiction 
 of the governor-general of Canada, but its great 
 distance from the capital, and its complete isola- 
 tion from other settlements, enabled the officer in 
 command to wield at pleasure an authority which 
 was almost autocratic. Complaints of oppression 
 do not appear to have been numerous, but in this 
 there is nothing surprising. The only authority 
 competent to give relief was the military com- 
 mander of the province. To reach him would be 
 difficult, and if reached, it might be expected he 
 would listen with little favor to complaints of 
 abuses which must naturally attend the adminis- 
 tration of a system of which he was himself the 
 head. And moreover, the natural inclinations of 
 the French settlers, who were docile and submis-
 
 68 MICHIGAN. 
 
 eive, would lead them to submit silently to such 
 wrongs as were found endurable, rather than to 
 make complaint of the officials whose authority 
 over them was in no manner restricted by law, 
 and might in many ways be abused with impu- 
 nity. 
 
 While Bradstreet remained in command at De- 
 troit he held court for the trial of offenders, and 
 banished some persons on the charge of having 
 given assistance to Pontiac. But this officer-had 
 the good sense to perceive that regular courts 
 and a steady administration of the law were es- 
 sential, and he urged the need of them upon the 
 attention of government. He also believed that 
 encouragement should be given to settlers, though 
 it does not appear that he suggested any particu- 
 lar measures to that end. But at home his views 
 elicited no favorable response. The government 
 showed little inclination to limit the absolutism 
 of military rule, and its regulations in respect to 
 land, while in the main just in so far as they 
 were intended for the protection of the Indians, 
 were well calculated to prevent any extension of 
 the settlements. 
 
 By royal proclamation of October 7, 1763, war- 
 rants of survey and patents of any lands beyond 
 the heads or sources of any of the rivers falling 
 into the Atlantic from the west or northwest, 
 or of any lands not ceded by the Indians, were 
 strictly forbidden. Private persons were also for-
 
 DEALINGS IN LAND. 69 
 
 bidden to purchase from the Indians, and grants 
 were only to be solicited from them by the gov- 
 ernor or commander-in-chief of the proper colony 
 at public meeting or assembly of the Indians held 
 for the purpose, under proper regulations. The 
 proclamation had some effect in restraining the 
 acquisition of land for settlement and cultivation, 
 but did not prevent speculative dealings with the 
 Indians, and Governor-General Gage, fifteen years 
 later, in a letter to Captain Stevenson, then in 
 command at Detroit, found it necessary to deal 
 very summarily with the local land transactions. 
 Calling attention to the fact that none but the 
 governors of provinces had had authority to make 
 grants, and that no purchases from the Indians, 
 without the king's permission, could be of any 
 validity, he proceeds to say : 
 
 " I am now to require of you as soon as this is re- 
 ceived to annul and make void by public act every con- 
 cession made by Mons r Bellestre in the year 1760; 
 every grant made by any British commander without 
 exception, and all Indian purchases whatever, or Indian 
 deeds not obtained by the king's permission and au- 
 thority ; and that you do not suffer any settlements to be 
 made with the above titles, or any new settlements to 
 be begun on any pretense whatever, and that you pull 
 down as fast as any persons shall presume to build up, 
 and that you do seize and send down the country all 
 persons who shall be endeavoring to settle among the 
 savages."
 
 70 MICHIGAN. 
 
 And he adds with good reason : 
 
 " I imagine the Indians will be set up to talk to you 
 on these subjects ; you will answer them that the king 
 is tender of their property, and has made regulations 
 to prevent their being cheated and defrauded ; that his 
 majesty has been induced to make these rules upon the 
 frequent complaint of the Indians against the white peo- 
 ple, who have defrauded them of their lands by making 
 a few of them drunk, and getting them in that condi- 
 tion to give away their country, to the great disgust 
 of the rest of the nations ; and that by such means the 
 Indians have represented the white people have taken 
 great part of their hunting grounds. This has hap- 
 pened to many Indian nations, and unless you stop it at 
 the beginning at the Detroit, the same thing will hap- 
 pen there." 
 
 If the government orders for the protection of 
 the Indians had been accompanied by regulations 
 for the gift or sale to actual settlers of the lands 
 to which the Indian title had been extinguished, 
 they would have indicated a wisdom on the part 
 of those in authority of which there had as yet 
 been little evidence in the management of colonial 
 affairs. But up to this time America had been to 
 British statesmen simply a vast domain existing 
 and to be managed for the benefit of Britain her- 
 self, and the question of its management pre- 
 sented only the problem in what manner it could 
 best be made to contribute to the wealth and 
 glory of the imperial island which owned it
 
 BRITISH POLICY IN THE NORTHWEST. 71 
 
 What would be best for America itself ; what 
 would best promote the welfare and prosperity 
 of the people who had found homes in that dis- 
 tant country, might abstractly be a question of 
 some interest, but it was not a question which 
 British statesmanship of the day deemed it neces- 
 sary to take into consideration. It was not en- 
 tirely certain that it was for the interest of Great 
 Britain that there should be a further extension 
 of settlements in America, especially in that part 
 of America which was drained by the St. Law- 
 rence. The trade in furs and peltry which, even 
 when shared with France had been largely profit- 
 able, was now wholly in English hands, and if 
 nothing were done to check its natural supplies, 
 there was reason to expect it would now be more 
 remunerative than ever. But to open the coun- 
 try for settlement was to destroy or drive out 
 the animals upon whose abundance the trade de- 
 pended, and must immediately diminish and in 
 the end destroy this profitable industry. It might 
 be thought, perhaps, that there was something 
 unnatural and inhuman in preserving for wild 
 animals the territory by the settlement of which 
 the poorer classes of Britain might greatly bet- 
 ter their own condition ; but the preservation of 
 forests for game was in the line of British tradi- 
 tions and practice, and so long as the nation per- 
 mitted a considerable portion of the home country 
 to be kept from cultivation, to gratify a passion
 
 72 MICHIGAN. 
 
 for the chase, it was not likely to let sentimental 
 considerations interfere with the preservation for 
 profitable hunting of this distant wilderness. 1 
 
 Another reason also had its influence in re- 
 straining any active encouragement of settlements 
 in the interior. As matters now were, the colo- 
 nies were dependent upon the mother country for 
 all the more important manufactures, and they 
 furnished a large and profitable market for which 
 public opinion would expect from the govern- 
 ment a fostering and protecting care. But as the 
 colonies increased in population and wealth, and 
 pushed farther and farther into the wilderness, 
 this dependence must diminish. Manufactures 
 would spring up to supply the local wants, and 
 the people would be taught an undesirable reli- 
 ance upon themselves and their own resources. 
 The period was one when narrow and selfish ideas 
 controlled the policy of governments; Detroit, like 
 other frontier settlements, suffered from them, 
 and it was kept in the condition of a mere trad- 
 ing post, stationary in population and importance, 
 until America, in the struggle for political liberty, 
 had burst the chains which fettered industry and 
 enterprise. 
 
 In the treaty with Pontiac, that "King and 
 Lord of all the Country " had ceded to the crown 
 
 1 For a full illustration of this policy, as exhibited by the action 
 of the Hudson Bay Company, in relation to the Oregon question, 
 see Barrows's Oregon, American Commonwealths Series. ED.
 
 THE INDIAN AND HIS LAND. 73 
 
 the land between Detroit and Lake St. Clair. 
 As sovereign he doubtless had authority to make 
 this cession ; but he made grants at the same time 
 to individuals, the competency of which would 
 seem more questionable. The chieftain of an In- 
 dian tribe was not proprietor of the soil, and 
 there was no known custom which authorized him 
 to convey away the lands of the tribe to persons 
 not members of or adopted into it. Moreover, 
 the proclamation of the British king had forbid- 
 den the acquisition of the Indian title by private 
 persons, and the grants of Pontiac were therefore 
 doubly invalid. But nobody cared at the time to 
 offend the great chief by questioning his convey- 
 ances, and as the new inhabitants who now came 
 to Detroit came for temporary purposes only, 
 mostly as traders, ownership of land for those 
 purposes might well pass unnoticed, or be regarded 
 with indifference. 
 
 No monopoly of the fur trade existed at this 
 time, and any one might take out a license to en- 
 gage in it. But with an autocratic and irresponsi- 
 ble government entire freedom of trade was not 
 to be expected ; something of arbitrary intermed- 
 dling was to be looked for, and no doubt the love 
 of power, or the passion of avarice, or the desire 
 to enrich favorites, often found methods of grati- 
 fication at the expense of regular trade and in- 
 dustry. 
 
 The absolute and irresponsible character of the
 
 74 MICHIGAN. 
 
 government at Detroit is made specially conspic- 
 uous in the manner in which the military com- 
 mander made use of the judicial power with 
 which he had been clothed. Some delegation of 
 that power was perhaps a necessity, and those 
 which were earliest made were moderate and ju- 
 dicious. At the beginning of 1767 Captain Turn- 
 bull, who was then in command, issued to Philip 
 Dejean a commission as justice, but with such 
 specification of powers as seemed designed" to 
 make his court one of arbitration and concilia- 
 tion only. But this authority was soon enlarged 
 by another commission, in which Dejean was des- 
 ignated " second judge," and given cognizance of 
 small civil causes. As magistrate, however, his 
 legitimate business was small ; the population was 
 devoted to the church, and the spiritual adviser 
 was oftener than the civil judge the arbiter of 
 controversies. But Dejean, who appears to have 
 been a favorite of successive commanders, and was 
 the incumbent of other important offices, did not 
 limit his authority to the terms of his commis- 
 sions, but unhesitatingly magnified his office to 
 meet the requirements of the situation and the 
 Avishes of his superiors. In three instances, at 
 least, persons were tried before him on capital 
 charges and sentenced to execution, and one of 
 the trials was attended by such circumstances as 
 excited great indignation, and led to a present 
 ment by the grand jury of Montreal district. One
 
 ARBITRARY GOVERNMENT. 75 
 
 i 
 
 Contencinau, a Frenchman, and Nancy, a female 
 slave, were accused of larceny and attempted 
 arson, and convicted ; the woman, it was s;dd, 
 was promised pardon on condition that she would 
 act as executioner of the man, which she did, and 
 was then hanged also. These facts were affirmed 
 by the grand jury, who called for the punishment 
 of the judge ; but Hamilton, who was then in 
 command at Detroit, and was not likely to be 
 disturbed by a stretch of power that only took 
 the life of a friendless negro, interfered for the 
 protection of the judge, and appealed to the gov- 
 ernor-general on his behalf, with the ever-ready 
 plea for detected official rogues, that he was " a 
 man who has made enemies by doing his duty." 
 But Hamilton went farther, and took upon his 
 own shoulders all the responsibility. He was busy 
 just then in directing Indian hostilities against 
 the western settlements, and was too useful a man 
 to be parted with or to be put on defense for a 
 comparatively petty atrocity, and the crime of 
 the judge, who now came to be known as " Grand 
 Judge of Detroit," was suffered to pass unpun- 
 ished. 
 
 General Amherst was succeeded as governor- 
 general of Canada by General Murray, and he in 
 turn by Sir Guy Carleton, who was in office at 
 the opening of the American Revolution. The 
 commandant at Detroit was lieutenant-governor 
 under him, with jurisdiction over all the north-
 
 76 MICHIGAN. 
 
 western posts. Carleton was a mnn of more just 
 and humane sentiments than commonly prevailed 
 in- his day, but he seems to have had very little 
 knowledge respecting the western portion of his 
 province, and there is abundant evidence that it 
 could never have received much of his attention. 
 When examined as a witness before the House of 
 Commons in 1774, he was asked whether Detroit 
 and Michigan were under his government, and 
 he replied, " Detroit is not under the govern- 
 ment, but Michigan is." To the further ques- 
 tion, whether he looked upon Illinois as a part of 
 old Canada, he replied, " I believe so. New Or- 
 leans was under the government of Quebec, but 
 where the precise district ends I really do not 
 know." It is very plain that the governor-gen- 
 eral was having very little supervision of his sub- 
 ordinates, either at Detroit or elsewhere in the 
 Northwest. 
 
 For the most part the period from the treaty 
 with Pontiac to the beginning of the Revolu- 
 tionary War was without noticeable incident. A 
 garrison maintained in idleness ; a governor who 
 was at once law-maker, judge, and military com- 
 mander, but with little to do in either capacity ; a 
 people without political and almost without civil 
 rights, an unprogressive town with stationary and 
 limited industries, these were the prominent 
 features at Detroit, and such they remained while 
 British occupation continued. The assurance in
 
 THE QUEBEC ACT. 77 
 
 the capitulation of Montreal that the people were 
 to be treated as British subjects never bore satis- 
 factory fruit. If this assurance meant anything, 
 it must have meant that the people should have 
 conceded to them the fundamental rights belong- 
 ing to native Britons : the right of security against 
 arbitrary arrest and imprisonment ; the right of 
 trial by their peers ; the right to be judged by set- 
 tled and definite laws. Against anything less 
 than this Britons would have rebelled ; but with 
 the people of Canada " it fell out that when they 
 hoped to enjoy legality under peaceful sway, they 
 saw their tribunals abolished, their judges re- 
 pelled, and the whole social organization upset, 
 to make room for the most insupportable of all 
 tyranny, that of courts -martial/' But despotic 
 sentiments ruled in England; and even the lib- 
 erals of the day were little inclined to concede to 
 Frenchmen, who were also Catholics, equality of 
 rights with Protestant Englishmen. So the state 
 of military despotism continued until the mut- 
 terings of discontent in the English colonies, and 
 the occasional instances of determined resistance 
 to royal authority, warned the government that 
 danger was impending. Then the Quebec Act 
 was adopted, as a measure at once firm and con- 
 ciliatory, and which was thought calculated, while 
 attaching the people of Canada to the crown by 
 removing the causes of just complaint, to give 
 warning to the other colonies that resistance to 
 authority would meet with stern repression.
 
 78 MICHIGAN. 
 
 The isolated post of Michilimackinac, now com- 
 ing to be known as Mackinaw, acquired excep- 
 tional temporary importance through suspicions 
 of a treasonable scheme of Major Rogers, who 
 had been sent there as commandant in 1765. He 
 was charged with scheming to seduce the Indians 
 from the English to the Spanish interest, and to 
 hand the post over to the New Orleans authori- 
 ties. Rogers was arrested and sent to Montreal 
 for trial, but whether he was actually tried is not 
 known. He was soon at liberty, but did not re- 
 turn to Michigan, and his schemes, whatever they 
 were, came to nothing. His subsequent career 
 was not honorable, and was well calculated to 
 lend plausibility to the accusations of treasonable 
 purposes which had been made against him. 
 
 An attempt was made about this time, in which 
 Alexander Henry participated, to explore and 
 work the copper mines of Lake Superior, of whose 
 exceeding richness there had been rumors ever 
 since the upper lakes had been first visited. But 
 the time had not yet come for such an undertak- 
 ing ; the copper mines, which ages ago had been 
 worked by the people who ante-dated the Indians 
 in America, and which since then had remained 
 in neglect and forgetfulness, were only to be 
 opened again when improved methods of trans- 
 portation should make their working profitable. 
 Their day would come when the whistle of the 
 steamboat should wake the echoes along the rock- 
 bound coast of Superior, but not before.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE NORTHWEST CONQUERED FOR THE 
 AMERICAN UNION. 
 
 WHEN France surrendered Canada to Great 
 Britain the population of the English colonies in 
 America exceeded that of several countries in 
 Europe which in former times had won lasting 
 renown in defending their liberties and independ- 
 ence against the assaults of more powerful neigh- 
 bors. Two millions of people accustomed to a 
 share of liberty which was altogether uncommon 
 at that period, and schooled by hard necessity to 
 independence of action and the use of arms, must 
 at any time and in any part of the world be 
 a formidable power, and entitled, in all matters 
 which concerned their relations to government, 
 to a respectful hearing. This must be especially 
 the case when their numbers are increasing with 
 great rapidity, and when their distance from the 
 seat of authority is so considerable that their gov- 
 ernment as a discontented people must necessarily 
 be exceedingly difficult and enormously expensive. 
 But these obvious truths were either overlooked 
 or haughtily disregarded, and a course of treat-
 
 80 MICHIGAN. 
 
 ment for the American colonies at once unjust in 
 its essentials and offensive in its methods was 
 deliberately entered upon. The Stamp Act as a 
 measure of internal taxation, the attempt to collect 
 a revenue from importations of tea, the closing of 
 the port of Boston, the abrogation of the charter 
 of Massachusetts Bay, and the proposal to send 
 persons charged with crimes in America to Great 
 Britain for trial in certain cases, and to quarter 
 troops upon the colonists, were each and all indi- 
 cations of settled despotic purpose, and resistance 
 to them went on from step to step, until dele- 
 gates were chosen to a Continental Congress, 
 which, when other measures failed to secure re- 
 dress, was to declare the colonies free and inde- 
 pendent states. 
 
 But while the British colonies were preparing, 
 with an earnestness that admitted of no doubt 
 or question, for an appeal to arms, Canada neither 
 participated in the excitement nor cared for the 
 causes of it. The Canadians shared in common 
 with the people of the other colonies in no tradi- 
 tions of liberty; they knew nothing of Magna 
 Charta or the Bill of Rights, and they had justly 
 been praised by their last French governor-general 
 for their docility and " perfect submissiveness." 
 These were not the men to resist government be- 
 cause denied the right of self-taxation ; king and 
 church had their implicit obedience; and having 
 little in common with the sentiments from which
 
 MATERIALS FOR A STATE. 81 
 
 sprang the American Revolution, and quite as 
 little with the men who led it, they were not likely 
 to see attractions in martyrdom for political lib- 
 erty. The coureurs de bois and voyageurs about 
 Detroit, French in their gayety and buoyancy of 
 spirits, and Indian in their unthrift, their grossness 
 of life, and their alternations of excess and priva- 
 tion ; the little farmers in their whitewashed and 
 vineclad cottages, living a life of easy and thought- 
 less cheerfulness upon what they produced, were 
 none of them likely to concern themselves with 
 theories of political equality, or with questions of 
 popular enfranchisement. A certain lot in the 
 order of Providence had fallen to them, which 
 they found abundant means of making a cheerful 
 if not a happy one. The traders indeed were not 
 now exclusively French, as they liad been a few 
 years before ; a few Irishmen and Englishmen had 
 come in, and more Scotchmen ; but these seem in 
 coming into the wilderness to have found the 
 habits and methods of those who bad preceded 
 them congenial, and they soon displayed in their 
 own ways the characteristics of their French 
 neighbors. They had their seasons of devotion to 
 business, and their seasons of social hilarity and 
 profuse expenditure in the enjoyments of the 
 table ; their hospitality was unbounded, and they 
 delighted equally in the rough athletic sports of 
 the day and in the dance and other enjoyments 
 of social life. Nothing could be more agreeable
 
 82 MICHIGAN. 
 
 than the picture handed down to us of the best 
 society of the day, and nothing as we look back 
 upon it would be impressed more distinctly upon 
 the mind than that these agreeable and social 
 people were not the men to evolve from the in- 
 tellectual warfare of troublous times the foun- 
 dation principles upon which may be builded great 
 states. 
 
 But the people of Canada had grievances "pe- 
 culiar to themselves, which they felt at all times, 
 and in which people of both sexes and all condi- 
 tions participated. One of these concerned their 
 church ; they had been promised the unrestricted 
 enjoyment of their religion, but the church com- 
 plained that its property rights had not always 
 been respected, and this, while not a breach of 
 the letter of the promise, was felt to be in disre- 
 gard of its spirit. But a second and more palpa- 
 ble grievance was that of being deprived of their 
 ancient laws. If the complaints they made of 
 these grievances were more subdued in tone and 
 deferential than the complaints by the English col- 
 onies of attempted imperial taxation, they were 
 not the less sincere or persistent, and they were 
 more universally concurred in by the people. 
 
 Accordingly, we find measures for the concilia- 
 tion of Canada proceeding hand in hand with 
 measures for the punishment of the other colonies. 
 The act for the regulation of the affairs of the 
 province of Quebec was a measure of conciliation
 
 OPERATION OF THE QUEBEC ACT. 83 
 
 from which very much was anticipated. The act 
 sanctioned in Canada the free exercise of the 
 religion of Rome, and confirmed to the clergy 
 their accustomed dues and rights, including tithes 
 established by the edict of Louis XIV. In all 
 civil matters it restored to the people the benefit 
 of their ancient laws, it relieved them from the 
 operation of the English test acts, and it gave to 
 the colony a governing council with powers of 
 legislation subject to the king's negative. The 
 selection of the members was to be made by 
 the king, but a part of the number were to be 
 Catholics, and this was a step in the direction of 
 political liberty which was peculiarly agreeable to 
 the people because of its recognition of their 
 church, a church not tolerated in England, and 
 abhorred in the other colonies. The act extended 
 the boundaries of the province of Quebec so as to 
 include within it all the British possessions from 
 the Ohio to the Hudson Bay Territory. 
 
 The Quebec Act had for one purpose to prevent 
 the disloyalty of the other colonies from extend- 
 ing to Canada ; and the bigoted king, who by it 
 made concessions to the Catholics which he would 
 peril his crown rather than make in England and 
 Ireland, declared when he signed it that it was 
 founded on the plainest principles of justice and 
 humanity, and that he anticipated from it the 
 best effects in calming the inquietudes and pro- 
 moting the well-being of his Canadian subjects.
 
 84 MICHIGAN. 
 
 Mr. Fox would have gone farther, and given the 
 people an elective chamber. u Nobody has said 
 that the Romish belief naturally disqualifies a 
 man from becoming politically enfranchised, and 
 I for one will never listen to such an assertion. 
 No man intimately acquainted with the Catholic 
 mind will say that there is anything in it opposed 
 to the principles of political freedom. Its aspi- 
 rations, though expressed by rulers in Catht>lic 
 countries, exist in the breasts of the people, Cath- 
 olic and Protestant alike." But this just and 
 manly sentiment of the great statesman was in 
 advance of his day. London made an imposing 
 protest against the approval of the act by the 
 king, and the English colonies included it in the 
 list of their grievances against the British crown. 
 Much of their complaint was born of the bigotry 
 of the time, and may be passed now without 
 remark. But some grounds of objection to the 
 bill were substantial and permanent. It gave to 
 the people no security against arbitrary arrests 
 nnd imprisonments, and the semblance of a share 
 in the enactment of law was Avithout substantial 
 value. Without the habeas corpus and without a 
 responsible participation in legislation, the people 
 must of necessity be under a political despotism, 
 tempered only by such humane characteristics and 
 such sense of justice and right as might be in the 
 nature of their rulers for the time being. But 
 Thurlowsaid: "The Quebec constitution is the
 
 IMPORTANCE OF DETROIT. 85 
 
 only proper constitution for colonies ; it ought to 
 have been given to them all when first planted, 
 and it is what all ought now to be reduced to." 
 Some of the colonies had objections to the Quebec 
 Act which were peculiar to themselves. In the 
 extension of the boundaries of the province to 
 include the territory south of the lakes and north 
 of the Ohio, the claims of Massachusetts, Virginia, 
 New York, and Connecticut, under their charters, 
 were ignored, and ground for controversy and con- 
 tention was thus laid which might have become 
 serious had not the course of military events soon 
 deprived it of practical importance. 
 
 The government at the opening of the Revolu- 
 tionary War was represented at Detroit by Colo- 
 nel Henry Hamilton, first appointed by Governor- 
 General Carleton as his lieutenant; a man of 
 capacity and energy, and thoroughly loyal to the 
 service of his king. The post, next to Quebec, 
 was the most important in the newly created 
 province : it commanded all the upper lakes ; all 
 the important points in the country from which 
 have since been formed the states o.f Ohio, In- 
 diana, and Illinois were easily accessible from it 
 by water highways ; it was the place of largest 
 habitual concentration of Indians, and presented 
 means for communication and negotiation with 
 the savages not equaled by any point in posses- 
 sion of the Americans. If the British were to 
 employ the savages in the war, Detroit was the
 
 86 MICHIGAN. 
 
 natural and most convenient point for enlisting 
 them in the service, distributing presents among 
 them, and furnishing them with supplies ; if they 
 \vere not to be employed, their very neutrality 
 would constitute a protection to the British au- 
 thority over the Northwest ; for the Americans 
 must either respect the neutrality and put a stop 
 to the intrusion of settlers upon Indian lands, or 
 the Indians on their own account might be ex- 
 pected to wage war upon them. 
 
 In all the American wars between the French 
 and the English, the Indians had been enlisted on 
 both sides, but much the more largely on the side 
 of France. To Canada the aid of the Indians 
 had always been essential. The population of the 
 colony was insignificant as compared with that of 
 the colonies in arms against her, and if compelled 
 to rely exclusively upon her own resources, Can- 
 ada might have been overwhelmed by sheer force 
 of numbers. The dependence upon Indian assist- 
 ance was, therefore, considerable, and it had been 
 effective in enabling the colony to maintain its 
 relative importance until the time of final strug- 
 gle. On the side of the English the Iroquois Con- 
 federacy had generally been found giving valuable 
 assistance, but though, after the habitual barbar- 
 ity of their race, the Six Nations destroyed, with 
 out distinction, men, women, and children, the col- 
 onial authorities had never expressly enlisted them 
 for such indiscriminate slaughter, and would will-
 
 THE INDIANS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 87 
 
 ingly, had it been possible, have restrained their 
 belligerent acts within the limits admitted by the 
 rules of civilized warfare. Nor was Sir Guy Carle- 
 ton any more disposed to make use of Indian allies 
 for barbarous work, and he declined to sanction 
 their being sent beyond the boundaries of his 
 province to wage war without restraint upon the 
 defenseless American settlements. 
 
 But the Americans had not waited for the In- 
 dians to be let loose upon them by their enemies ; 
 bad men among them, by the most wanton and 
 cruel putrages, had Brought upon the West a fury 
 of Indian hostility, which was not extinguished 
 until a great number of lives had been taken and 
 many settlements devastated. In the spring of 
 1774 a party of land-jobbers exploring the upper 
 Ohio made outcry that Indians had stolen from 
 them a number of horses. It was never made 
 certain that the charge was true ; many people 
 believed it a mere pretense for the barbarities 
 which followed. War upon the Indians was im- 
 mediately begun, with determination to slaughter 
 without distinction all who should fall into their 
 hands. Two were met and killed the same day. 
 A larger number who were encamped a few miles 
 away were approached in pretended friendship, 
 and, as treacherously as ever a savage took life, 
 were wantonly put to death. Other like outrages 
 followed in quick succession. Among the mur- 
 dered Indians were all the members of the family
 
 88 MICHIGAN. 
 
 of Logan, son of a Cayuga sachem, who had lived 
 at Canestoga, and had been the friend and patron 
 of Count Zinzendorf, the Moravian missionary. 
 Logan himself had become a chief in the Sha- 
 wanese country, and wherever he was known his 
 pacific disposition and his friendship for the white 
 people were also known and recognized. But he 
 would have been neither Indian nor human if this 
 wanton destruction of his family had not stifred 
 his passions to their lowest depths, and made him 
 thirst for vengeance. With others who had in 
 like manner been wronged Tie entered upon a 
 war of extermination, and the border settlements 
 were soon ablaze with their murderous fires. Dun- 
 more, the royal governor of Virginia, led an army 
 against the Indians, and after a campaign, in 
 which little glory was won, a nominal peace was 
 made, but not till Logan could say, " I have fully 
 glutted my vengeance." It was not possible tm~ 
 der the circumstances that the temper of the In- 
 dians should be pacific, or that the nominal peace 
 should restore friendship. " Good laws vigorously 
 enforced," said Sir William Johnson, " are the 
 best guaranty against Indian resentments ; " a sen- 
 timent the truth of which is as obvious as its 
 humanity. The border maxim has always been 
 different ; it is that when the Indian has been 
 wronged, the proper guaranty against his resent- 
 ments is the rifle ball. 
 
 Neither party is blameless for bringing Indians
 
 THE INDIANS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 89 
 
 into the field in the Revolutionary War. The 
 British were first in enlisting them ; but the Con- 
 tinental Congress, by action of nearly the same 
 date, resolved to take into its service two thou- 
 sand Indians, and to pay them a reward of one 
 hundred dollars for every commissioned officer, 
 and thirty dollars for every private soldier taken 
 prisoner by them. This arrangement was as hu- 
 mane as any that could have been proposed ; but 
 General Schuyler, who was desired to carry the 
 resolution into effect, made strong representations 
 against it as both impracticable and useless, and 
 he prophesied that the aid of the Indians, if en- 
 listed, would be uncertain and fitful, and the 
 value bear no proportion to the cost. In this, as 
 the event proved, he was entirely correct. The 
 Indians might, in their savage way, be of service 
 in carrying an ^aggressive war into an enemy's 
 country and laying waste his settlements ; but 
 such was not the character of the war in which 
 the Americans were engaged. They stood upon 
 the defensive, endeavoring to turn back the tide 
 of war from their own borders, and the lawless 
 habits of the Indians and their peculiar methods 
 of warfare would not only make their aid embar- 
 rassing and wastefully destructive of resources, 
 but their very presence would be a constant 
 source of alarm and disquietude to the district 
 which should be the scene of operations. While, 
 therefore, the British might profit by their assists
 
 90 MICHIGAN. 
 
 ance, through such harassing inroads upon the 
 American settlements as would distract the atten- 
 tion and scatter the forces of the military, until 
 the incessant and pervading alarm of the people 
 and destruction of their resources might possi- 
 bly incline them at last to accept peace at the 
 cost of submission, the Americans, on the other 
 hand, could look for no corresponding advantages. 
 Nothing was to be gained by them through rt+ids 
 upon the French Canadian settlements ; and In- 
 dian allies who submitted to discipline with re- 
 luctance, and were impatient of the necessary 
 restraints of civilized warfare, were not a promis- 
 ing assistance in encountering in the open field 
 the disciplined armies of England. Neither were 
 rewards which were limited to prisoners alone 
 likely to be attractive to them. It was easier to 
 take scalps than prisoners, and it was also more 
 in accord with their usages and savage instincts. 
 On the part of the Americans, therefore, the value 
 of Indian assistance would practically be limited 
 to such service as they might render against those 
 of their own race taking part with the British. 
 
 At Detroit Governor Hamilton saw, or thought 
 he saw, how he could make Indian assistance to 
 the royal cause fearfully effective. He was so de- 
 cided and earnest a partisan that it is not neces- 
 sary to charge or even to suspect that he favored 
 useless cruelty; but there is abundant evidence 
 that he had no scruples in enlisting Indians to
 
 THE PRICE OF INDIAN ALLIANCE. 91 
 
 fight after their own methods, or in paying them 
 for such effective work as they might accomplish. 
 The effective work which was desired from them 
 was such as would restore the British authority 
 over the western portions of Virginia, Pennsyl- 
 vania, and New York ; and this could only be 
 accomplished by the destruction of the western 
 settlements, and especially those in the valley of 
 the Ohio. But scalps were the rewards and the 
 trophies of such destruction ; and for these, if their 
 effective aid was to be had, the Indians must 
 be paid. Hamilton therefore offered rewards for 
 scalps, and he was not ashamed to say, in writing 
 on one occasion to his superior, " Last night the 
 savages were assembled, when I sang the war 
 song, and was followed by Captain Lernoult and 
 several officers." 
 
 Captain De Peyster was then in command at 
 Mackinaw, M. de Rocheblave at Kaskaskia, and 
 Mr. Abbot at Vincennes. Captain Langdale, at 
 Green Bay, who was extensively known among 
 the Indians, was commissioned early in 1776 to 
 raise among them a force for the British service, 
 and he proceeded promptly in the execution of 
 his commission. A considerable force was raised, 
 which was sent forward to Montreal under orders 
 from De Peyster which charged them with the 
 duty of " annoying the rebels wherever you meet 
 with them." Several persons who had lived 
 among the Indians were also employed by Ham-
 
 92 MICHIGAN. 
 
 ilton to instigate them to hostilities, and among 
 them were the brothers Simon, George, and James 
 Girty, who were regularly paid as British agents 
 at Detroit, and who personally took part in raids 
 upon the settlements. The monstrous barbarities 
 of some of these men almost stagger belief, and 
 force upon us the unwelcome truth that in civil- 
 ized society, and within the sound of Christian 
 bells, there may be bred and reared savagesr as 
 fiendish in their cruelty as any the world has ever 
 known. Hamilton, in his dispatches to his supe- 
 riors, gave them to understand that he should 
 send out parties of Indians " to fall .on the scat- 
 tered settlers on the Ohio and its branches," and 
 he selected to lead these raids fit instruments who 
 would be troubled by no compunctions and no 
 emotions of pity in making the work of destruc- 
 tion complete. 
 
 The year 1777 was distinguished by much mili- 
 tary activity, of which Governor Hamilton was 
 the instigation and the head. In the spring sev- 
 eral Kentucky settlements were attacked in suc- 
 cession by the Indians, but in each case effective 
 resistance was made, and few scalps were brought 
 back for the governor's bounty. In July Hamil- 
 ton reported that he had sent out fifteen parties 
 to raid upon the border settlements, but they 
 achieved no considerable success, and only in- 
 tensified among the settlers a hatred of the gov- 
 ernment which made use for its purposes of this
 
 GEORGE ROGERS CLARK. 93 
 
 species of warfare. In September Fort Henry, 
 at Wheeling, was besieged by a considerable foive 
 of the governor's Indians, but the defense was 
 skillful, heroic, and successful. In the succeed- 
 ing year raids were again made upon the Ken- 
 tucky settlements, and Boonesborough was for a 
 time besieged, but again the besieging party was 
 foiled. So far the bounty money of the govern- 
 ment had produced no important results. The 
 settlers retaliated as they found opportunity, and 
 in the destruction of Indian villages and means 
 of subsistence the savages had measure for meas- 
 ure meted out to them for their own barbarities. 
 
 But this indecisive warfare, the horrors of which 
 were experienced by only one of the principal bel- 
 ligerents, had results which its instigators little 
 anticipated, and was the inspiring cause and the 
 prelude to movements which were pregnant with 
 mighty consequences. The actors were few, and 
 the scene of conflict so far in the interior that 
 what was done passed at the time almost without 
 observation ; but the future of a vast and fertile 
 country from which great states were to be carved 
 depended upon what these few actors* in heroic 
 but unpretending way, were to accomplish. 
 
 George Rogers Clark was at this time the 
 most conspicuous figure in the Kentucky settle- 
 ments. He was a Virginian from the mountain 
 region ; like Washington he was a land surveyor; 
 and in 1775 and again in 1776 he had visited the
 
 94 MICHIGAN. 
 
 Kentucky settlements, and made himself thor- 
 oughly familiar with their condition. He found 
 them without civil government, the jurisdiction 
 claimed by both Virginia and North Carolina ; 
 but neither State was doing anything to justify 
 the claim by giving to the people the benefits of 
 protection and government. The settlers them- 
 selves claimed to be Virginians, and in mass 
 meeting in June, 1776, they chose Clark and 
 Gabriel Jones to represent them in the Virginia 
 Assembly. But this was without authority of law, 
 and Clark disclaimed the election, though he con- 
 sented to go as agent, and did his best to enlist 
 the interest and aid of the State in the defense 
 of his constituents. He had the mortification of 
 finding that his solicitations bore no fruit, and 
 turning his back upon the authorities with the 
 pregnant remark that "a country not worth de- 
 fending was not worth claiming," he determined 
 to return to Kentucky and initiate a movement 
 for the formation of an independent state. The 
 council of state were made uneasy by this dec- 
 laration ; they knew the hardy mountain sur- 
 veyor meant what he said and could accomplish 
 what he determined ; and yielding to his resolute 
 manner what they had denied to his solicitations, 
 they reversed their decision, and forwarded to the 
 order of Clark a considerable supply of gunpowder 
 for Kentucky use. 
 
 But Clark saw very clearly that all warfare in
 
 MOVEMENT AGAINST K ASK ASK 1 A. 95 
 
 the West must be desultory and inconsequential 
 unless the British themselves could be made to 
 feel the consequences, and that this could only 
 be done by the reduction of the British posts. 
 Accordingly, in 1777, he sent spies to reconnoitre 
 and report upon their condition, and on their 
 return he submitted to Patrick Henry, then gov- 
 ernor of Virginia, a plan for the capture of Kas- 
 kaskia and Vincennes. The plan was approved, 
 the necessary legislation was obtained for the 
 attempt, and on January 18, 1778, the resolute 
 leader left Williamsburgh to put it in execution. 
 " Elevated," he says, " with thoughts of the great 
 service we should do our country, . . . the more I 
 reflected on my weakness the more I was pleased 
 with the enterprise." His modesty was great, but, 
 with courage inspired by the occasion, he perceived 
 clearly that the opportunity was offered for an 
 achievement at once glorious for himself and of 
 lasting benefit to his country. With vast difficulty 
 and under numerous discouragements he collected 
 a force at the Falls of the Ohio with which on 
 the 30th of June he started across the country 
 for Kaskaskia. The intervening ground was low 
 and flat, and covered by luxuriant vegetation ; the 
 guide was unfamiliar with the way, and at one 
 time lost it ; and two days before the point of 
 destination was reached the provisions were ex- 
 hausted. Nevertheless the intrepid leader of de- 
 termined men pushed on, and on the evening of
 
 96 MICHIGAN. 
 
 July 4th, a day famous in American annals for 
 many great events, he surrounded and occupied 
 the town, and broke into the fort with such celer- 
 ity that the astonished commander had no time 
 for any resistance. Assuring the inhabitants of 
 the town of the friendship and protection of the 
 Americans, he quieted their fears, which at first 
 had been greatly excited, and they promptly and 
 cheerfully tendered their allegiance to the Affter- 
 ican cause. The French settlers of Cahokia, on 
 learning of the capture, made haste to follow the 
 example of their brethren at Kaskaskia, and an 
 Indian force which had been collected in the vi- 
 cinity dispersed in fear of an attack. Vincennes 
 followed suit, and Clark, with a success beyond 
 expectation or reasonable hope, was put in posses- 
 sion of these several settlements without the loss 
 of a man. 
 
 The whole force with which this remarkable 
 achievement had been accomplished consisted of 
 but a hundred and eighty men ; and it was so in- 
 significant in numbers and so far from support 
 that Clark deemed it necessary to magnify his 
 strength by circulating a report that a large force 
 at the Falls was at his service. This deception 
 was the more imperative since a portion of his 
 men, thinking their task now fully accomplished, 
 insisted upon returning to their homes. Only 
 about a hundred remained with him, but the 
 French settlers proved true friends, and with their
 
 CAPTURE OF VINCENNES. 97 
 
 assistance he set about establishing friendly rela- 
 tions with the Indians. 
 
 It was startling news which was brought to 
 Detroit, that the settlers of Kentucky, instead of 
 being driven back beyond the mountains, as was 
 expected, had taken the aggressive, and captured 
 and were then holding the posts in the Illinois. 
 It was not pleasant intelligence for Governor 
 Hamilton to communicate to his superiors ; and 
 he took prompt steps to retrieve the disaster. 
 On December 17th, with a considerable force of 
 British and Indians, he presented himself before 
 Vincennes and demanded its surrender. Captain 
 Helm was in charge with but a single man ; for 
 Clark had not been able to spare men for a gar- 
 rison. Helm made a show of resistance, and 
 Hamilton, who was ignorant of the condition of 
 affairs, and desired to avoid bloodshed, offered 
 him the honors of war. The terms of surrender 
 were accepted, and the valorous captain, with 
 colors flying, marched his one man out, not less 
 to the surprise than to the mortification of his 
 captor. 
 
 The vigor displayed in capturing Vincennes 
 bore no further fruit. The Indians soon dis- 
 persed, or were sent off by Hamilton on maraud- 
 ing expeditions, and Clark, who was soon apprised 
 of the condition of affairs, determined to make an 
 attempt for the immediate recovery of the post. 
 Volunteers swelled his force to a hundred and 
 
 7
 
 98 MICHIGAN. 
 
 seventy-six, and with these, early in February, he 
 began his march. On February 23d he was before 
 the town, having, during the preceding five days, 
 waded several miles in water on the "drowned 
 lands," often with the water up to the breast. A 
 sharp attack upon the fort was at once made, 
 which met with vigorous resistance ; but from the 
 first the resistance was hopeless, and at noon^of 
 the following day the post wns surrendered with 
 all its stores. The men captured were nearly 
 equal in number to the force of Clark, but what 
 was more important WHS the capture of Hamilton 
 himself. Supplies on their way from Detroit were 
 also captured a few days later, and with these was 
 taken " Dejean, Grand Judge of Detroit." 
 
 Thus by the invincible bravery of a single 
 man, with a force so insignificant and under 
 difficulties so formidable that to cool heads the 
 attempt might well have seemed foolhardy, the 
 Northwest was conquered and held for Virginia. 
 The title of the State was doubtful before, but 
 now with " nine points of the law " in her favor, 
 she made practical assertion of her right, and pro- 
 ceeded to organize the county of Illinois. The 
 possession had national consequences of the high- 
 est value. To the commissioners who negotiated 
 the treaty of peace which secured American inde- 
 pendence, it indicated with unerring certainty that 
 the true northern boundary of the states was not 
 the Ohio, but the line of the great lakes. One
 
 HAMILTON AND DEJEAN. 99 
 
 Virginia surveyor, by his valor and wisdom, had 
 secured independence to America, and another 
 had given to the Union this vast Northwest, with 
 its boundless resources and its brilliant future. 
 
 Hamilton and Dejean, with one Lamothe, were 
 sent prisoners to Virginia, where they were put in 
 irons for their cruelties, and detained with refusal 
 of exchange. The council of state held inquisi- 
 tion upon their case, and found " that Governor 
 Hamilton has executed the task of inciting the 
 Indians to perpetrate their accustomed cruelties 
 on the citizens of the United States, without dis- 
 tinction of age, sex, or condition, with an eager- 
 ness and avidity which evince that the general 
 nature of his charge harmonized with his particu- 
 lar disposition. . . . That Governor Hamilton gave 
 standing rewards for scalps, but offered none for 
 prisoners, which induced the Indians, after making 
 their captives carry their baggage into the neigh- 
 borhood of the fort, there to put them to death 
 and carry in their scalps to the governor, who 
 welcomed their return and success by a discharge 
 of cannon. . . . That the prisoner Dejean was on 
 all occasions the willing and cordial instrument 
 of Governor Hamilton, acting both as judge and 
 keeper of the jails, and instigating and urging 
 him, by malicious insinuations ;md untruths, to 
 increase rather than relax his severities, height- 
 ening the cruelty of his orders by his manner of 
 executing them. . . . That the prisoner Lamothe
 
 100 MICHIGAN. 
 
 was a captain of the volunteer scalping parties 
 of Indians and whites, who went from time to 
 time under general orders to spare neither men, 
 women, nor children." 1 Dejean and Lamothe were 
 suffered to go on parole the following December, 
 but Hamilton was detained until October, 1780. 
 His connection with the Indian cruelties may 
 have justified the hardship of his treatment, 2 but 
 Jefferson in his communications with Washington 
 assigned other reasons also. " You are not unap- 
 prised," he said, " of the influence of this officer 
 with the Indians, his activity and embittered zeal 
 against us. You also, perhaps, know how pre- 
 carious is our tenure of the Illinois country, and 
 how critical is the situation of the new counties 
 on the Ohio. These circumstances determined us 
 to detain Governor Hamilton and Major Hay 
 within our power when we delivered up the other 
 prisoners." 3 He added that on representations 
 of the people of Kentucky of what they had rea- 
 son to apprehend from these two prisoners in the 
 event of their liberation, assurances had been 
 given that they would not be parted with. If, 
 therefore, they were not detained exclusively for 
 their cruelty, it was their cruelty which excused 
 the policy of their detention. 
 
 1 Jefferson's Works, vol. i. p. 226, note. 
 
 2 See the narrative of his captivity, Mag. of Am. History, vol 
 i. p. 1 76. 
 
 3 Jefferson's Works, vol. i. p. 258.
 
 THE SYSTEM AT FAULT. 101 
 
 But, justly as Hamilton deserved condemnation 
 for his cruelties, it is not probable that he was 
 conscious of deserving the censure he received, or 
 that he was exceptionally cruel when judged by the 
 standard of the times. There are proofs that he 
 sometimes ransomed prisoners who might other- 
 wise have been slaughtered, and showed kindnesses 
 where the interest of his cause did not seem to 
 forbid. The brutality was in the system, rather 
 than in the men who administered it ; a system 
 which, in the indignant words of Lord Chatham, 
 was "to turn forth into our settlements, among 
 our ancient friends, connections, and relations, the 
 merciless cannibal, thirsting for the blood of man, 
 woman, and child; against our Protestant breth- 
 ren, to lay waste their country, to desolate their 
 dwellings, and extirpate their race and name with 
 those horrible hell-hounds of savage war;" and for 
 this the administration was responsible, and not 
 the agencies employed to execute its will. Even 
 De Peyster, who succeeded Hamilton in command 
 at Detroit, and whose reputation has escaped the 
 charge of barbarity, is said on one occasion to have 
 reproached a trader, who rescued from the Indians 
 two female prisoners who were being made to run 
 the gauntlet preliminary to further tortures. If 
 savages were to be employed, they must be left to 
 their savage ways. 
 
 The posts in the Illino's being thus captured 
 and occupied, the whole West, if Detroit could be
 
 102 MICHIGAN. 
 
 seized by the Americans, would be secure from 
 farther forays under British direction. Mackinaw 
 and Montreal were too far away to constitute bases 
 of operations against the settlements in the Ohio 
 valley, and Mackinaw itself was too exposed to be 
 either a gathering place for attack or a secure re- 
 treat. The important thing to be now accomplished 
 was, if possible, to seize and occupy Detroit. Witli 
 three hundred men Clark at the time estimated 
 that he could effect the capture, but three hun- 
 dred men he had no means of raising, and the 
 State could not spare them for his service. The 
 impatient soldier declared that Detroit was lost 
 for the want of a few men. 
 
 De Peyster was transferred from Mackinaw to 
 the command of Detroit, and the post continued 
 to be headquarters of plots against the western 
 settlements until the war was over. A formida- 
 ble force of British and Indians, under the com- 
 mand of Captain Bird, was sent out in the spring 
 of 1780 upon a mission of devastation, and a 
 couple of settlements were captured and a few 
 non-combatants slaughtered in the Licking River 
 valley; but the force accomplished nothing of 
 which its commander was likely to boast. With 
 Hamilton gone, Detroit proved more disquieting 
 than dangerous. Washington, Jefferson, and Clark 
 are found repeatedly planning to equip an expe- 
 dition for its capture, but the time seemed never 
 to come when the men or the means could be
 
 THE BRITISH CLAIMS. 103 
 
 spared from larger operations on the seaboard. 
 But the American occupation of the Illinois coun- 
 try had put the hostile Indians on the defensive, 
 and the new settlements had such comparative 
 peace that Jhey continued to grow and extend. 
 
 When peace came to be negotiated between 
 Great Britain and the United States, the British 
 commissioner was inclined to claim for Canada 
 the boundaries named in the Quebec Act. Mr. 
 Secretary Livingston, writing to Franklin, very 
 pertinently remarked that as that act was one of 
 the laws which occasioned the war, to build any- 
 thing upon it would be to urge one wrong in 
 support of another. The boundary between us 
 and Canada, he said, had been very well ascer- 
 tained by grants, charters, proclamations, and 
 other acts of government, " and more particularly 
 by the settlements of people who are engaged in 
 the same cause with us, and who have the same 
 rights with the other subjects of the United 
 States. . . . Our claims are such at least as the 
 events of the war give us a right to insist upon." * 
 Nothing was more certain than this. The British, 
 by the fortune of war, had succeeded in holding 
 nothing but a couple of posts on the connecting 
 waters of the upper lakes ; all else had been wrested 
 from them, and many little communities had made 
 their homes in the disputed territory. These were 
 Americans, and the United States could not in 
 
 1 Works of Franklin, by Sparks, vol. ix. p. 129.
 
 104 MICHIGAN. 
 
 honor abandon them. The proper boundary be- 
 tween the two countries in this part of the world 
 was obviously the line of the lakes, and the 
 British commissioner did not strenuously dispute 
 it. Great Britain was perhaps the *iore ready 
 to concede the American claims from the fact that 
 Spain also was claiming the Ohio valley, and 
 likely to make trouble for the nation which pos- 
 sessed it. 1 
 
 Thus was th'e Northwest conquered and secured 
 for the American Union. A different result would 
 have changed the whole current of subsequent 
 American history; how much no one can calculate, 
 or has basis for any reasonable conjecture. The 
 achievement was of incalculable value to America, 
 and it was won with a handful of men by the 
 patriotism, unflinching courage, and energy of 
 George Rogers Clark. 
 
 1 Secret Journals of Congress, vol. ii. p. 225 ; Works of John 
 Adams, vol. viii. p. 18 ; Works of Franklin, by Sparks, vol. ix. 128 
 et seq.; Pitkin's Hist, of U. S. ch. 15.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN RELUCTANTLY SURRENDERS THE 
 JTORTHWEST. 
 
 THE valor and endurance of America had won 
 from the mother country an acknowledgment of 
 independence, but had not produced a clear con- 
 viction that it was secure and permanent. A loose 
 Confederacy of thirteen states, without army or 
 navy, or treasury, or stable executive, or power of 
 any sort to compel obedience by a single person 
 to its proper requirements or commands, was not 
 a spectacle calculated to excite admiration 01 to 
 inspire confidence. To the thoughtful and disin- 
 terested observer it must have seemed probable 
 that for want of cohesive force it would shortly 
 fall to pieces. The interests of the several states 
 were greatly variant, and for that reason amica- 
 ble relations with other countries on some subjects 
 might become impossible. The Confederacy owed 
 a large debt which the states were expected to 
 pay, but upon what basis or in what proportions 
 it was not possible to secure consent of opinion or 
 harmony of action. In the treaty of peace stip~ 
 ulations had been inserted in the interest of Brit-
 
 106 MICHIGAN. 
 
 isli creditors and American loyalists, which must 
 depend for their enforcement on the voluntary 
 action of individual states, ^,nd the popular op- 
 position to these stipulations was in some quar- 
 ters so positive and aggressive that enforcement 
 seemed quite out of the question. But these were 
 not all the discouraging circumstances which the 
 patriot was forced to contemplate, and in which 
 the enemies of the country rejoiced. The poverty 
 of the people, and their manifest inability to pay 
 their debts, was in some parts of the country so 
 great that rebellion was threatened if the courts 
 were allowed to perform their regular functions. 
 The Indians also gave occasion for alarm. In 
 the negotiations for a treaty of peace they had 
 not been included, but had been left to be dealt 
 with separately. From central New York to the 
 Mississippi they had in general sympathized with 
 Great Britain in the late war ; large numbers had 
 taken arms in its cause, and Joseph Brant, the 
 head chief of the Six Nations, a man of educa- 
 tion, of great intelligence and ability, known and 
 respected by all the tribes, had held a commission 
 in the British army. After the war he had re- 
 moved with his own tribe, the Mohawks, to Can- 
 ada, that he might be under British, rather than 
 American jurisdiction. Brant had a deep sense 
 of the wrongs his people had suffered and were 
 likely to suffer at the hands of the Americans ; 
 reflecting in this particular the general feeling
 
 THE ENGLISH KEEP BACK THE POSTS. 107 
 
 among them. Under all these circumstances a 
 condition of semi-hostility existed on the part of 
 the Indians, which gave no little concern to the 
 state and confederate governments, and kept the 
 new settlements disquieted. 
 
 The action of the British authorities tended 
 very greatly to increase this disquiet, and to keep 
 up the belligerent condition among the Indians. 
 When the line of the lakes had been agreed upon 
 as the northern boundary, it had been expected 
 that the British would immediately surrender 
 possession of Oswego, Niagara, Detroit, and the 
 minor posts which fell within the limits of the 
 United States. This expectation was not fulfilled. 
 Baron Steuben was sent by Washington, in July, 
 1783, to the British General Haldiman to receive 
 possession ; but on making known his business he 
 was informed by that officer that he had received 
 no instructions for the surrender of the posts, and 
 did not consider himself at liberty even to discuss 
 the subject. He was so ungracious as even to 
 refuse the baron passports to visit Niagara and 
 Detroit; and the latter was compelled to return 
 with nothing accomplished. For this conduct at 
 the time there could have been no sound or 
 friendly reason. Afterwards, the retention of the 
 posts was excused by the failure on the part of 
 the states to perform some of the stipulations con- 
 tained in the definitive treaty of peace ; and it 
 was continued until the ratification of Jay's treaty,
 
 108 MICHIGAN. 
 
 twelve years later. Meantime there was a lin- 
 gering hope that if the American Confederacy, as 
 was not apparently improbable, should fall to 
 pieces from its own inherent weakness, some of 
 the states at least, to secure to themselves the 
 blessings of permanent government, might be 
 ready to return to their old allegiance, and the 
 possession of the posts by the British would favor 
 that result. What was certain was that the pos- 
 session contributed largely to keeping up the 
 hopes of the Indians, and to perpetuating the con- 
 dition of hostility. 
 
 In the fall of 1784 the United States had en- 
 tered into a treaty with the Six Nations at Fort 
 Stanwix, by which that Confederacy was made to 
 consent to relinquish all claims to the country 
 west of a line beginning on Lake Ontario, four 
 miles east of Niagara, thence passing southerly to 
 the mouth of Buffalo Creek, thence to the north 
 boundary of Pennsylvania, and thence west and 
 south along the Pennsylvania line to the Ohio 
 River. This treaty had caused bad feeling: the 
 Six Nations had objected to entering into it with- 
 out the presence and concurrence of the western 
 tribes ; but the government had insisted on nego- 
 tiating with them alone, and they had very un- 
 willingly assented. It was ominous that Brant 
 was not present : he felt, as did his people gener- 
 ally, that it was unjust to require them thus to 
 make a treaty which affected others as well aa
 
 INDIAN ADDRESS TO TBE UNITED STATES. 109 
 
 themselves, without the presence and counsel of 
 the parties concerned. 1 The terms of the treaty 
 were also greatly disliked ; they were vague in 
 their references to territory, and more might be 
 claimed under them than the Indians had in- 
 tended to concede. They especially objected to 
 any implication that lands west of the Ohio were 
 to be surrendered to the United States ; and in 
 December, 178d, a grand confederate council was 
 held at the Huron village, at the mouth of the 
 Detroit, to consider the grievances incident to the 
 excessive claims under this treaty. 2 At this coun- 
 cil the attendance was large and imposing: the 
 Six Nations, the Hurons, Ottawas, Miamis, Shawa- 
 nese, Chippewas, Cherokees, Delawares, and Pot- 
 tawatamies, and the Wabash Confederacy were 
 represented, and an address to the United States 
 was adopted with general concurrence. The ad- 
 dress was pacific in tone, and recommended a 
 further grand council, in which the United States 
 also should be represented, and that in the mean 
 time the United States should prevent surveyors 
 and other people crossing to the Indian side of 
 the Ohio. The address plainly indicated a pur- 
 pose to insist upon the Ohio boundary as an ulti- 
 matum ; and there is abundant evidence in the 
 correspondence of Brant with the British author- 
 ities that in this purpose the Indians were con- 
 
 1 Life of Brant, by Stone, vol. ii ch. 8. 
 
 2 Ibid. vol. ii. ch. 9.
 
 110 MICHIGAN. 
 
 finned by the advice of Sir John Johnson and of 
 Major Matthews, who had recently been assigned 
 to the command at Detroit, if not by that of Sir 
 Guy Carleton himself, now become Lord Dor- 
 chester. The result of the council was not com- 
 municated to the United States until July, 1787, 
 and the proposed grand council was never held. 
 The Indians came together again in 1788, but the 
 result of their deliberations remains matter of 
 conjecture. 
 
 Meantime the government was endeavoring to 
 form treaties with the western tribes. General 
 St. Clair was empowered by Washington for the 
 purpose, and in January, 1789, he proceeded to 
 negotiate separate treaties, avoiding all recogni- 
 tion of a confederacy, and all common or con- 
 certed action among the tribes. " A jealousy sub- 
 sisted between them," he said, " which I was not 
 willing to lessen by appearing to consider them 
 as one people." 1 This was statesmanship accord- 
 ing to the diplomatic ideas of the day : a broader 
 philanthropy would no doubt have been more ex- 
 pedient, as well as more humane. The object of 
 the government in entering into treaties was to 
 secure peace, but treaties were powerless for this 
 purpose unless they resulted in friendly relations ; 
 and it was not possible that friendly relations 
 should be established by encouraging, directly or 
 indirectly, the tribal animosities and jealousies, or 
 
 1 St. Clair Papers, vol. ii. p. 113.
 
 SETTLERS IN THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. Ill 
 
 by a course of conduct which plainly indicated a 
 purpose to profit by them. The excuse sometimes 
 advanced, that the white people did not create 
 these unfriendly sentiments, was only partly true : 
 from the first they had practiced making use of 
 Indians against each other, and one of the chief 
 purposes which the Indians proposed to accom- 
 plish by gathering in grand council was to allay 
 tribal jealousies and put an end to wars among 
 themselves. The western tribes were incensed 
 that the treaty of Fort Stanwix was entered into 
 without their cooperation and advice, and a con- 
 tinuation of the same policy at this time was cer- 
 tain to spread discontent instead of allaying it, 
 and to offend more persons than it would pacify. 
 
 Before this a territorial government had been 
 given to the Northwest Territory, with St. Clair 
 for governor, and settlers began to pour into it. 
 Marietta was founded in April, 1788, and Cin- 
 cinnati in December of the same year. " Arks," 
 bearing one or more families with their household 
 goods, were floating down the Ohio, and it was 
 evident to the most limited comprehension that a 
 tide had set in which, unless promptly checked, 
 must overwhelm or drive out the native tribes. 
 Nor were the new-comers altogether honest emi- 
 grants : lawless characters were among them, and 
 instances were not wanting of atrocious outrages 
 upon unoffending Indians. 1 Thus individual in- 
 
 1 The account which Sir William Johnson in his letter to the
 
 112 MICHIGAN. 
 
 jury concurred with national wrong to swell the 
 tide of hostile feeling, and in 1790 statistics were 
 collected from which it appeared that since 1783 
 no less than fifteen hundred and twenty men, 
 women, and children had, in Kentucky alone, 
 been killed by the Indians or carried away into 
 captivity. It is not likely that the Indians, in the 
 same period, had suffered less than the white peo- 
 ple. 
 
 This condition of affairs could not be suffered 
 to continue, and in the autumn of 1790 General 
 Harmar, with an army of near fifteen hundred 
 men, was sent into the territory to chastise the 
 Indians. The chastisement inflicted was received 
 by his own army, which was defeated with con- 
 siderable loss, and the depredations were renewed 
 with greater fury than ever. The Indians also 
 sent an embassy to Lord Dorchester, that they 
 might learn what assistance, if any, could be ex- 
 pected from the British authorities. Lord Dor- 
 chester gave them no encouragement whatever ; 
 but the tenor of communications made to them 
 by Sir John Johnson and others was such as to 
 confirm them in their belief that they were right 
 in insisting on the Ohio as a boundary ; and, as a 
 consequence, all the efforts made by Washington 
 to bring about peace were futile. A year after 
 the defeat of Harmar, St. Clair was given the 
 
 Earl of Hillsborough of August 14, 1770, pives of the treatment 
 of the Indians iu the West will hold good of a much later period.
 
 THE DISPUTE OVER BOUNDARIES. 113 
 
 command of two thousand men, an army thought 
 to be ample for bringing the Indians to submis- 
 sion ; but in one of the bloodiest fights in the 
 history of Indian wars he was defeated and com- 
 pelled to retire. This disaster was as unexpected 
 as it was alarming : the whole country was made 
 uneasy by it, and the Indians became more bold 
 in their ferocious depredations. It seemed neces- 
 sary that conciliation should again be attempted, 
 and the President invited Brant to Washington, 
 where he was treated with great respect, and the 
 good offices of the Six Nations were solicited to 
 bring about peace with the western tribes. But 
 the western tribes were not so much bent upon 
 Avar as they were determined to insist upon what 
 they believed to be their rights ; and in a confer- 
 ence at the Au Glaize they would agree upon no 
 peace that did not fix upon the Ohio as a bound- 
 ary. This was reiterated in a formal conference 
 had with Messrs. Lincoln, Randolph, and Pick- 
 ering, commissioners on the part of the United 
 States, in the summer of 1793. " We desire you 
 to consider," they said, " that our only demand is 
 the peaceable possession of a small part of our 
 once great country. Look back and view the 
 lands from whence we have been driven to this 
 spot. We can retreat no farther, because the 
 country behind hardly affords food for its present 
 inhabitants ; and we have, therefore, resolved to 
 leave our bones in this small space to which we
 
 114 MICHIGAN. 
 
 are now consigned. We shall be persuaded that 
 you mean to do us justice if you agree that the 
 Ohio shall remain the boundary between us." l 
 But the time when this was possible, if it ever 
 was, had gone by ; the commissioners had no 
 power to consent to it, and the Indians were 
 given distinctly to understand that it was out of 
 the question. 
 
 Brant was present at this conference, and from 
 a speech subsequently made by him it appears 
 that a treaty was prevented by British interfer- 
 ence. " To our surprise," he said, " when on the 
 point of entering upon a treaty with the commis- 
 sioners, we found that it was opposed by those 
 acting under the British government, and hopes 
 of assistance were given to our western brethren 
 to encourage them to insist upon the Ohio as a 
 boundary between them and the United States." 2 
 In February, 1794, Lord Dorchester, in a formal 
 talk with the Indians, gave them further encour- 
 agement. " From the manner in which the peo- 
 ple of the United States rush on and act and talk 
 on this side, and from what I learn of their con- 
 duct towards the sea, I shall not be surprised if 
 we are at war with them in the course of the 
 present year, and if so, a line must then be drawn 
 by the warriors." Simcoe, who had become lieu- 
 tenant-governor of Upper Canada, soon followed 
 
 1 See Life of Brant, by Stone, vol. ii. ch. 11. 
 
 2 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 358.
 
 WAYNE'S EXPEDITION. 115 
 
 this talk with the erection of a new fort at the 
 foot of the rapids of the Maumee, an act of 
 which the hostile nature was manifest. The In- 
 dians were greatly elated, and emboldened to per- 
 severe in their hostility, while Washington felt 
 outraged, and wrote to Mr. Jay denouncing it in 
 unmeasured terms. It was, he said, the most dar- 
 ing act yet committed by the British agents in 
 America, though not the most hostile or cruel ; 
 u for there does not remain a doubt in the mind 
 of any well-informed person in this country, not 
 shut against conviction, that all the difficulties we 
 encounter with the Indians their hostilities, the 
 murders of helpless women and innocent children 
 along our frontiers result from the conduct of 
 the agents of Great Britain in this country." 1 
 And he added that it was in vain for the ad- 
 ministration in Britain to disavow having given 
 orders which will warrant such conduct, while its 
 agents go unpunished. 
 
 But remonstrance was idle, and negotiation with 
 the Indians was fruitless, so long as the prestige of 
 success in the field remained with them ; and an- 
 other campaign was necessary to bring hostilities 
 to a conclusion. For its command General Wayne 
 was chosen; and in June, 1794, over the road 
 where St. Clair led his army to disaster, Wayne 
 marched to a bloody but decisive victory. The 
 battle of August 20, 1794, was fought in the 
 
 1 Writings of Washington, vol. x. p. 433.
 
 116 MICHIGAN. 
 
 immediate vicinity of the new British fort on the 
 Maumee ; and Major Campbell, who was in com- 
 mand of the fort, having witnessed the disaster to 
 his friends, addressed to General Wayne an ar- 
 rogant and impudent note, expressing surprise 
 at the appearance of an American force almost 
 within reach of his guns, and inquiring in what 
 light he was to view such near approaches to the 
 garrison which he had the honor to command. 
 The American commander replied that were the 
 major entitled to an answer "the most full and 
 satisfactory one was announced the day before 
 from the muzzles of his small arms in an action 
 with a horde of savages in the vicinity of the fort, 
 and which terminated gloriously to the American 
 arms." And he added that " had it continued 
 until the Indians were driven under the influence 
 of the fort and guns 'mentioned, they would not 
 have much impeded the progress of the victorious 
 army under my command, as no such post was 
 established at the commencement of the present 
 war between the Indians and the United States." 
 Other notes of equal asperity followed, 1 in the last 
 of which Major Campbell warned the American 
 general that he must not approach within reach 
 of the guns of the fort without expecting the 
 consequences that would attend it, and Wayne 
 responded by devastating with fire the land about 
 the fort almost to its very gates. 
 
 1 Dillon's History of Indiana, 352-355.
 
 TREATY OF PEACE CONCLUDED. 117 
 
 This was not the last of unfriendly British inter- 
 ference. In October following Governor Simcoe 
 was himself at Fort Miami, and in a conference 
 with chiefs whom he had invited to meet him he 
 endeavored to keep up their faith in British as- 
 sistance. He was still of the opinion, he said, 
 that the Ohio was their right and title. He had 
 given orders to the commandant of Fort Miami to 
 fire on the Americans if they ventured to make 
 their appearance again. He would go himself to 
 Quebec, and lay their grievances before "the great 
 man." From thence they would be forwarded to 
 the king their father. Next spring they should 
 know the result of everything, what they should 
 do and what he would do. And he gave them to 
 understand that the next spring the English would 
 be prepared to attack the Americans and drive 
 them across the Ohio. 
 
 Although Brant joined his advice to the gov- 
 ernor's, the speech made little impression upon 
 the Indians. They had been looking from fall to 
 spring and from spring to fall for twelve long 
 years for British assistance, which had never 
 come, and they had lost faith and courage. Their 
 two great victories had fearfully reduced their 
 numbers, and their defeat by Wayne threatened 
 annihilation. On Wayne's invitation they met 
 him in council at Greenville, where on August 3, 
 1795, a treaty of peace was concluded. As Brant 
 said, "the Indians, convinced by those in the
 
 118 MICHIGAN. 
 
 Miami fort, and other circumstances, that they 
 were mistaken in their expectations of any as- 
 sistance from Great Britain, did not longer oppose 
 the Americans with their wonted unanimity. The 
 consequence was that General Wayne, by the 
 peaceable language he held to them, induced 
 them to hold a treaty at his own headquarters, in 
 which he concluded a peace entirely on his own 
 terms." Large grants of lands were made to-the 
 United States ; among them one six miles in width 
 on the eastern shore of the peninsula of Michigan 
 from the River Raisin to Lake St. Clair, another 
 on the main land north of the island of Mackinaw, 
 six miles in length and three in depth, together 
 with the Island of Bois Blanc, " being an extra 
 and voluntary gift of the Chippewa nation." All 
 claim to the posts of Detroit and Mackinaw and 
 the adjacent lands was also surrendered. 
 
 Meantime Jay had negotiated a treaty with 
 Great Britain, by one of the provisions of which 
 it was stipulated that on or before the first day of 
 June, 1796, the British garrisons should be with- 
 drawn from all posts and places within the limits 
 of the United States. The treaty was ratified 
 after a controversy of extraordinary earnestness 
 and acrimony, and the garrisons were withdrawn 
 according to its terms. On July 11, 1796, the 
 American flag was, for the first time, raised above 
 Detroit, and the laws of the United States and of 
 the Northwest Territory were extended over the
 
 DEATH OF WAYNE. 119 
 
 Michigan settlements. The occupying detach- 
 ment was from Wayne's command, but Wayne in 
 person did not reach the town until the following 
 month. He then took command of the post until 
 November, when he started for the East, but at 
 Presque Isle succumbed to a disease which termi- 
 nated his brilliant and useful career.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE FOUNDATIONS OF A FKEE STATE AKE LAID 
 IN THE NORTHWEST. 
 
 AT the opening of their struggle for Independ- 
 ence, the American States had no common bond 
 of union except such as existed in a common 
 cause and common danger. They were not yet a 
 nation ; they were only a loose confederacy ; and 
 no compact or ai'ticles of agreement determined 
 the duties of the several members to each other, 
 or to the Confederacy as an aggregate of all. The 
 attempt to agree upon articles of union, which 
 should determine rights and prescribe duties, en- 
 countered difficulties which for a long time ren- 
 dered it abortive. One of the chief of these 
 concerned the vast territory lying between the 
 Alleghanies and the Mississippi, not yet settled or 
 occupied by people of European race, but which 
 the people of the states were determined not to 
 abandon to the king. 
 
 The Confederacy as such could of course make 
 no claim to this territory except as an acquisition 
 resulting from the war; but it was claimed by 
 individual states, and to much of it the claims
 
 CONFLICT OF CLAIMS TO WESTERN TERRITORY. 121 
 
 were conflicting. This was particularly the case 
 with all that part of it lying north of the Ohio 
 and west of the present boundary of Pennsylvania. 
 New York claimed it under the Six Nations, 
 who, by their martial prowess, had established a 
 certain undefined and only partially admitted su- 
 premacy over the tribes of the region, and who 
 had themselves acknowledged subordination to the 
 jurisdiction of New York. Virginia, Massachu- 
 setts, and Connecticut claimed all or parts of it, 
 under the vague and uncertain terms of their 
 charters, and Virginia claimed also by virtue of 
 the conquest made by Clark under the authority 
 of the State and at its expense ; a conquest which 
 the State had made complete and effectual by the 
 organization of counties and the establishment of 
 civil government. The other states did not con- 
 cede the justice of these claims. Whatever were 
 the rights of the respective colonies before the 
 war, none of them had made its claim effective 
 by taking possession ; and if the territory was now 
 wrested from Great Britain, it must be done by 
 common effort and common sacrifices, and if re- 
 tained after peace, it could only be as the result of 
 a treaty made by the common authority. The ob- 
 vious use to be made of the territory after acquisi- 
 tion was to put the land upon the market for set- 
 tlement ; and it seemed entirely just and reason- 
 able under the circumstances that instead of being 
 eold for the benefit of one or more of the states,
 
 122 MICHIGAN. 
 
 it should be considered a common fund to be 
 managed and disposed of for the advantage of all. 
 Nor did this seem any less politic than it was just. 
 To permit one or a few of the states to appro- 
 priate this vast domain to the exclusion of the rest 
 would give to it or them such an advantage over 
 the others in point of territorial extension and of 
 material wealth as would make their preponder- 
 ance in the Confederacy dangerous to the rights' of 
 the others, and might threaten its very existence. 
 Impressed with these views Delaware, in giving 
 assent on February 1, 1779, to the Articles of 
 Confederation, accompanied the act with the dec- 
 laration " That this State think it necessary . . . 
 that a moderate extent of limits should be ass'gued 
 for such of those States as claim to the Mississippi 
 or the South Sea," and further " That this State 
 consider themselves justly entitled to a right in 
 common with the members of the Union to that 
 extensive tract of country which lies to the west- 
 ward of the frontiers of the United States, the 
 property of which was not vested in or granted to 
 individuals at the commencement of the present 
 war : that the same hath been or may be gained 
 from the king of Great Britain or the native 
 Indians by the blood and treasure of all, and 
 ought therefore to be a common estate to be 
 granted out on terms beneficial to the United 
 States." In this Delaware expressed the common 
 opinion of all the states which made no separate
 
 SURRENDER OF CLAIMS TO THE STATES. 123 
 
 claims ; but Maryland emphasized the opinion by 
 refusing to ratify the Articles of Confederation 
 until the western lands were ceded to the Union. 
 This refusal made action on the part of the claim- 
 ant states imperative, and New York in February, 
 1780, recognized the necessity by giving to its 
 delegates in Congress authority to make on its 
 part the required cession. Connecticut followed 
 in October of the same year by offering to cede its 
 claim to the unsettled territory west of Pennsyl- 
 vania, but with considerable reservation of lands 
 bounded on the north by Lake Erie and on the 
 east by Pennsylvania ; a tract since known as 
 the Connecticut Western Reserve. For this res- 
 ervation the State could advance a claim of very 
 plausible equity, based upon the fact that a con- 
 siderable tract, which had been claimed under its 
 charter with much apparent reason within the 
 existing boundaries of Pennsylvania, had been 
 taken away by the decision of a federal tribunal 
 after much of it had been settled by purchasers 
 under Connecticut grants. Virginia, in the De- 
 cember following, offered a cession of its claims to 
 the territory north of the Ohio, but coupled it 
 with a condition that its claims south of that 
 river, which were then the subject of much con- 
 troversy, should be guarantied. The New York 
 delegates, in March, 1781, exercised the authority 
 which had been vested in them to give a deed of 
 cession, but reserved a right to rescind unless the
 
 124 MICHIGAN. 
 
 same guaranty was given to New York as to any 
 other ceding state. Maryland, thereupon assuming 
 that the cessions were so far completed as to ren- 
 der the result certain, gave her adhesion to the 
 Articles of Confederation. But how much the, 
 Confederacy had acquired by the public acts so 
 far performed was a question of no small moment. 
 A committee of Congress reporting the next year 
 upon the western claims declared the title of Kew 
 York to be the valid title. As matters then stood 
 it was for the interest of the Confederacy to take 
 this position, and the report was open to the sus- 
 picion that it was made for effect rather than 
 from a belief in the soundness of its conclusions. 
 Thus matters stood until March, 1784, when Vir- 
 ginia again came to the front with a cession quali- 
 fied only by a reservation for bounty lands for 
 the soldiers who with Clark made the conquest of 
 Kaskaskia and Vincennes, and with stipulations 
 for the reimbursement of the expenses of that con- 
 quest, for the security of the French inhabitants, 
 and for the eventual erection of republican states 
 within the ceded territory. Nobody could well 
 complain of these provisions. Massachusetts ceded 
 its claims in April, 1785, and the cession of Con- 
 necticut, with the reservation already mentioned, 
 was accepted in the following year. By these 
 several cessions the Union acquired jurisdiction 
 over the territory north and west of the Ohio, and 
 title to its unsold lands except as they had been
 
 PLAN FOR GOVERNMENT OF THE NORTHWEST. 125 
 
 reserved, but subject to such aboriginal rights as 
 had not already been extinguished by treaties 
 with the Indian tribes. 
 
 The Confederacy had thus acquired a vast do- 
 main, upon which there were already living many 
 people. These people were without a govern- 
 ment ; and some provision for this just need of 
 the social state was imperative. Such provision 
 could now be made by no single state ; it must be 
 a confederate act ; for only the Confederacy had 
 jurisdiction over the territory. Minds inclined to 
 be captious and technical might have interposed 
 the objection that the Confederacy, which derived 
 all its powers from the states, had not been given 
 authority to create subordinate governments. But 
 the cae was not one to be disposed of on a tech- 
 nicality ; the necessity for action was imperative, 
 and the broad statesmanship of Mr. Jefferson was 
 prompt to recognize and act upon it. Though 
 never at any time inclined to liberal construction 
 of federal powers, he took the lead in the steps to 
 give the people of the territory the benefits and 
 protection of government, and as chairman of a 
 committee of three upon the subject, he matured 
 a plan which, in March, 1784, he reported to Con- 
 gress. The plan was comprehensive, for it em- 
 braced all the territory of the Confederacy, and 
 proposed to divide it into seventeen parts, with 
 provision for temporary governments, contem- 
 plating the eventual admission of the several parts
 
 126 MICHIGAN. 
 
 as states into the Confederacy, but with certain 
 fundamental principles upon which both the tem- 
 porary and the permanent governments were to be 
 established. The first of these was, " That they 
 shall forever remain a part of the United States 
 of America;" the last, " That after the year 1800 
 of the Christian era, there shall be neither slavery 
 nor involuntary servitude in any part of the said 
 States otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, 
 whereof the party shall have been duly convicted 
 to have been personally guilty." 
 
 This comprehensive plan, thus embodying the 
 great principles of perpetual union and universal 
 liberty, and proposing to organize all the territory 
 of the United States upon them, was reported 
 to a Congress representing states, every 'one of 
 which, save Massachusetts, was then slaveholding. 
 If adopted and given full effect, it must inevitably, 
 within a few years, bring into the Union a suffi- 
 cient number of free states to put the slave-hold- 
 ing states into permanent minority. "It would, 
 moreover, so effectually circumscribe the area of 
 slavery and interpose obstacles to its extension, 
 that if permitted to stand, nothing could save the 
 institution from certain and not long-delayed de- 
 struction. It seems a bold plan to be proposed to 
 such a Congress ; but it expressed the matured 
 convictions of Mr. Jefferson, and it had the sup- 
 port of the leading statesmen of the Virginia of 
 that day.
 
 THE ORDINANCE OF 1787. 127 
 
 The states were not fully represented in Con- 
 gress at the time, and the anti-slavery provision 
 of the proposed ordinance, though the opposition 
 to it was but feeble, failed to receive a sufficient 
 vote. In March of the next year Rufus King 
 proposed in Congress an entire and immediate pro- 
 hibition of slavery in all the territory belonging 
 to the Confederacy, but the proposition, though 
 exciting little opposition, was not acted upon. 
 Early in 1787, a committee, of which Nathan Dane 
 was a member, reported an ordinance drafted by 
 him, which received the unanimous approval of 
 the eight states then represented in Congress, and 
 was adopted on the thirteenth of that month. 
 
 This was the immortal Ordinance of 1787 "for 
 the government of the Territory Northwest of the 
 Ohio;" immortal for the grand results which have 
 followed from its adoption, not less than for the 
 wisdom and far-seeing statesmanship that con- 
 ceived and gave form to its provisions. No char- 
 ter of government in the history of any people 
 has so completely withstood the tests of time and 
 experience: it had not a temporary adaptation to 
 a particular emergency, but its principles were 
 for all time, and worthy of acceptance under all cir- 
 cumstances. It has been the fitting model for all 
 subsequent territorial government in America, and 
 BO far as its provisions have now become custom- 
 ary in organizing territories, thev may be passed 
 without particular mention.
 
 128 MICHIGAN. 
 
 The significant provisions were contained in six 
 articles, which it was declared " shall be considered 
 as articles of compact between the original states 
 and the people and states in the said territory, 
 and forever remain unalterable except by common 
 consent." The first of these provided for freedom 
 of religious worship. The second was a compre- 
 hensive bill of rights; and in the enumeration was 
 included an unusual and very significant provision 
 making contracts inviolable. The third should be 
 given in the words of the author. " Religion, 
 morality, and knowledge being necessary to good 
 government, and the happiness of mankind, schools 
 and the means of education shall forever be en- 
 couraged. The utmost good faith shall always 
 be observed towards the Indians ; their lands and 
 property shall never be taken from them without 
 their consent, and in their property, rights, and 
 liberty they shall never be invaded or disturbed 
 unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Con- 
 gress ; but laws founded in justice and humanity 
 shall from time to time be made for preventing 
 wrongs being done to them, and for preserving 
 peace and friendship with them." The fourth 
 declared that the states to be formed from the 
 territory should remain permanently in the Con- 
 federacy and share its obligations, and that all 
 navigable waters and the carrying places between 
 them should be free. The fifth provided that not 
 less than three nor more than five states should
 
 THE ORDINANCE OF 1787. 129 
 
 be formed from the territory, and that these 
 as they attained a population of sixty thousand 
 should be admitted to the Union under republican 
 constitutions. The sixth again should be given 
 exactly as its author framed and the Congrese 
 adopted it. " There shall be neither slavery nor 
 involuntary servitude in the said territory, other- 
 wise than in the punishment of crime, whereof the 
 party shall have been duly convicted : Provided 
 always that any person escaping into the same, 
 from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in 
 any one of the original States, such fugitive may 
 be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the per- 
 sons claiming his or her labor or service as afore- 
 said." 
 
 In all this ordinance, so full and complete in its 
 provisions for government and for the protection 
 of individual rights, framed though it was when 
 popular notions of government were crude and 
 unsettled, not a provision appears if we except 
 the proviso to the sixth article, which concerned 
 external relations which after the lapse of a 
 century does not still appear wise and proper ; not 
 a line which one could wish had been omitted ; 
 not a clause which one could desire modified in 
 any important particular. For its dedication of 
 the territory to freedom credit has been given by 
 partial friends to several different persons ; but 
 Jefferson first formulated the purpose, and for him 
 it constitutes a claim to immortality superior to 
 
 9
 
 130 MICHIGAN. 
 
 the presidency itself. The one was proof of his 
 greatness and far-seeing statesmanship ; the be- 
 stowment of the other evidenced only the popular 
 favor. The ordinance was the beginning of the 
 end of American slavery. It checked at the banks 
 of the Ohio the advance of a system fruitful of 
 countless evils, social and political ; and the oppo- 
 nents of the system found in its mandate of 
 uncompromising prohibition an inspiration "and 
 a prophecy of final triumph in their subsequent 
 warfare. 
 
 The convention for framing a constitution for 
 the United States was in session when the ordi- 
 nance was adopted, and the first Congress of the 
 Union recognized and sanctioned the ordinance, 
 and provided for the appointment by the presi- 
 dent, with the advice and consent of the Senate, 
 of the governor, and other territorial officers. 
 But before the federal constitution had been rati- 
 fied by the states, the Congress of the Confederacy 
 had chosen a governor, judges, and secretary, and 
 on July 15, 1788, Arthur St. Clair, as governor, 
 had in great state made his formal entry into 
 Marietta, and inaugurated civil government amid 
 the plaudits of the people. Shortly afterwards, 
 with the assistance of the judges, he proceeded to 
 give laws to the territory. 
 
 But the Ordinance of 1787 did not establish 
 immediately a state of universal freedom. Many 
 slaves were already in the territory ; some of
 
 SLAVERY IN THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. 131 
 
 them Africans, brought by settlers from New 
 York, Virginia, and elsewhere ; but more of them 
 Indians or their descendants. The servants who 
 were generally preferred at that day were Indians 
 who had been held and disposed of as slaves under 
 the French and English governments, and were 
 still detained as such. This species of slavery 
 was founded upon the assumed right, which the 
 Indians had acted upon, of selling their captives 
 as the alternative to putting them to death ; and 
 it had existed from the early settlement of the 
 country. The most of these slaves were Pawnees; 
 that tribe was generally considered by the others 
 as degraded, and for that reason the prisoners 
 taken from it were more often sold for degrading 
 service. Traders purchased them to do the drudg- 
 ery of the fur trade ; families procured them as 
 house-servants, and Pawnee, or Pani, came to be 
 the common appellation given to all slaves. But 
 the practice of purchasing them had ceased before 
 the territory came into the possession of the United 
 States ;. and now the question which concerned 
 them was whether their bonds were sundered by 
 the ordinance. 
 
 The slaves in the Northwest Territory, as re- 
 gards the legal questions affecting their liberty, 
 might be ranged in three classes ; the first em- 
 bracing those who were in servitude to French 
 owners previous to the cession of jurisdiction to 
 England, and who were still claimed as property
 
 132 MICHIGAN. 
 
 in which the owners were protected under the 
 treaty of cession ; the second, those who were held 
 by British owners at the time of Jay's treaty and 
 claimed afterwards as property under its protec- 
 tion ; and the third, those who since the terri- 
 tory had come under American control had been 
 brought into it from the states in which slavery 
 was lawful. In the case of the first two classes 
 the claim of the masters was generally recognized 
 as indisputable, and it was always enforced when 
 contested ; the third class, when held at all, as was 
 not unfrequently the case, were quite as generally 
 believed to be held in evasion or defiance of law. 
 But such slavery as was then in the country 
 existed in very mild form, and no glaring evils or 
 abuses arrested public attention, or excited active 
 hostility to the institution. The anti-slavery pro- 
 vision in the ordinance, therefore, probably for 
 this reason more than for any other, was very 
 generally treated as having only prospective force, 
 and as not designed to disturb existing relations, 
 whether originating under French, English, or 
 American law. And in this treatment of the 
 subject the governor apparently concurred. The 
 anti-slavery sentiment of the day was not ag- 
 gressive, and it was much less pronounced among 
 the people than it was among the leading states- 
 men in Congress, who had been active in the Rev- 
 olution, and for many years had given thoughtful 
 attention to the subject of human rights in all its
 
 INDIANA TERRITORY. 133 
 
 aspects. By them the elements which go to the 
 making of great states had been carefully consid- 
 ered, and the most of those who were inclined to 
 tolerate slavery at all did so in the expectation 
 that it would prove but a temporary evil. But 
 the people at large had given the subject little 
 attention ; they knew the slaves only as servants 
 who seemed to be as well treated, as others, and 
 they did not pause to consider their status further, 
 or to speculate upon the effect of degraded labor 
 upon the social or political state. 
 
 Subsequent proceedings made it painfully evi- 
 dent that the public sentiment on the subject of 
 slavery was not well advanced. By act of Con- 
 gress of May 7, 1800, the Northwest Territory 
 was divided and Ohio set off, the remainder re- 
 ceiving a government under the name of Indiana. 
 The boundary line between Ohio and Indiana ran 
 from the mouth of the Kentucky River to Fort 
 Recovery, and thence due north to Canada, thus 
 assigning the eastern portion of Michigan to Ohio. 
 But this arrangement did not long continue ; 
 Ohio in 1802 formed and adopted a constitution 
 with more restricted bounds, and by act of Con- 
 gress the following winter was declared a state 
 in the Union. The territory north of the new 
 boundary of Ohio was annexed to the Territory of 
 Indiana, which was thus made to include all the 
 lower peninsula of Michigan. 
 
 William Henry Harrison was the first governor
 
 134 MICHIGAN. 
 
 of Indiana Territory, and among the subjects to 
 which the people invited his early attention was 
 their inability under the ordinance to acquire and 
 hold slaves. Many of them had come from slave- 
 holding states and were accustomed to slave labor ; 
 and it seemed to them a hardship that they should 
 be deprived of it. But the inhibition of slavery 
 discouraged immigration, and in many ways, as 
 the people thought, hindered the development of 
 the resources of the country. A popular con- 
 vention held in 1802, presided over by the gov- 
 ernor himself, adopted a petition to Congress 
 which prayed for a temporary suspension of the 
 anti-slavery article. The petition was received 
 with respect, and referred for consideration to a 
 committee of which John Randolph was chair- 
 man, but it found no favor with the committee, 
 and received no further attention from Congress. 
 " The rapid population of the State of Ohio," 
 said Mr. Randolph, reporting upon it, "sufficiently 
 evinces, in the opinion of your committee, that 
 the labor of slaves is not necessary to promote 
 the growth and settlement of colonies in that re- 
 gion ; that this labor, demonstrably the dearest of 
 any, can only be employed in the cultivation of 
 products more valuable than any known to that 
 quarter of the United States ; that the committee 
 deem it highly dangerous and inexpedient to im- 
 pair a provision wisely calculated to promote the 
 happiness and prosperity of the northwestern
 
 SLAVERY IN INDIANA DEFEATED. 135 
 
 country, and to give strength and security to that 
 extensive frontier. In the salutary operation of 
 this sagacious and benevolent restraint, it is be- 
 lieved that the inhabitants of Indiana will, at no 
 very distant day, find ample remuneration for a 
 temporary privation of labor and of emigration." 
 So Virginia stood firm in her purpose to preserve 
 for freedom the domain which had been pledged 
 to it by her early and wise policy. 
 
 The petitioners were not discouraged by this 
 first rebuff, but renewed their application ; and in 
 two successive Congresses reports of committees 
 were obtained favorable to their views. For un- 
 explained reasons upon neither of these was action 
 taken. A third favorable report was obtained in 
 1807, which recommended a suspension for ten 
 years from the succeeding January, but this also 
 was ignored by Congress. In the autumn of 1807 
 Governor Harrison united with the legislature in 
 renewing the request for suspension ; but this time 
 a select committee reported against it, and the at- 
 tempt to secure this change in the organic law, so 
 long and so persistently urged, became evidently 
 hopeless, and was at last abandoned. Albert Gal- 
 latin truly said to Badollet, " If you have had a 
 share in preventing the establishment of slavery 
 in Indiana, you will have done more good to that 
 part of the country at least than commonly falls 
 to the share of man." l 
 
 1 Life of Gallatin, by Adams, 406.
 
 136 MICHIGAN. 
 
 While this last petition was pending in Congress 
 legal proceedings arose in Michigan which called 
 for authoritative examination of the whole subject 
 of slavery in that territory. As there were some 
 slaves on both sides the national boundary, cases of 
 fleeing from servitude sometimes occurred which 
 led to bad blood, and an attempt was made to 
 secure territorial legislation for restoring fugitives 
 from Canada, but the necessary vote in the legis- 
 lature could not be secured. Several persons held 
 as slaves by masters residing in the territory also 
 demanded their freedom on writs of habeas cor- 
 pus ; and these were made returnable before the 
 chief justice, who gave the subject careful ex- 
 amination. In the case of one held as a slave 
 at the date of Jay's treaty, there was no difficulty 
 in deciding that the relation was still lawful ; but 
 as to others the judgment was different. The 
 arguments made on behalf of the masters are not 
 preserved ; but it is manifest from the opinion 
 that the discussion took a wide range, and that 
 the competency of the legislation which undertook 
 to prohibit in the territories what was permitted 
 by the states was questioned. But the chief jus- 
 tice met the case squarely, and declared that in 
 cases not covered by treaty slavery could not exist 
 in the territory, either, 1, by the law of nations; 
 or, 2, by the common law ; or, 3, by domestic leg- 
 islation. And he then proceeds to say : 
 
 "lu some parts of the United States, and in some
 
 SETTLEMENT OF SLAVERY CONTROVERSY. 137 
 
 parts also of the British dominions, a judicial character 
 could not lay down these positions; and he must cer- 
 tainly feel a strong sense of shame for his country that 
 she does not permit him ; as on the contrary every Eng- 
 lishman feels and must feel a very just pride of country 
 when he reflects on the position laid down by Lord 
 Mansfield. 
 
 " But in this part of her dominions my country does 
 enable me to lay down this position, and to act upon it, 
 with a very slight exception, and that entirely in favor 
 of British settlers by virtue of a special treaty. In 
 other respects her will is there shall be ' neither slavery 
 nor involuntary servitude ' in this territory. I am, there- 
 fore, bound to say and do say, that a right of property 
 in the human species cannot exist in this territory 
 except as to persons in the actual possession of British 
 settlers in this territory on 16th June, 1796, and that 
 every other man coining into this territory is by the law 
 of the land a freeman, unless he be a fugitive from law- 
 ful labor and service in some other American state or 
 territory ; and then he must be restored." l 
 
 There was no appeal from this decision, and it 
 settled the controversy finally for this part of the 
 country. It will be remarked that no notice was 
 taken of cases which might have arisen under the 
 French cession; but the great lapse of time had 
 made the question under that treaty of historical 
 importance only. 
 
 Illinois, after it had come to be a state, was 
 destined to be the theatre of a pro-slavery agita- 
 
 1 MSS. opinion in possession of Michigan Historical Society.
 
 138 MICHIGAN. 
 
 tion, which was carried on with no little acrimony, 
 and with every appearance for a time of probable 
 success. The question then made was compli- 
 cated, for it involved both congressional and state 
 action. The State had been admitted to the 
 Union under a constitution adopted by the people, 
 and subject to change only by the people, and 
 which prohibited slavery. The anti-slavery article 
 in the Ordinance of 1787, being one of " compact 
 between the original states and the people and 
 states in the said territory," and " forever unal- 
 terable except by common consent," would stand 
 in full force even if the constitution were amended, 
 unless by the consent of Congress it was abrogated 
 or suspended. Thus both the state constitution 
 and the ordinance stood in the way of the agi- 
 tators for slave labor; the one must be changed 
 by popular voice, the other by the national legis- 
 lature. In the year 1823 the attempt was made 
 to secure an amendment to the constitution. Had 
 the attempt succeeded, and had that great state 
 as a political force been arrayed for the extension 
 and perpetuity of slavery, the current of subse- 
 quent American history and the probable destiny 
 of the Union would have been altogether changed. 
 It was fortunate for the State, for the American 
 Union, and for mankind, that the State had in the 
 person of its governor a statesman at once far- 
 seeing and patriotic, fearless and able, persistent 
 in what he knew to be right, and who did not for a
 
 EDWARD COLES. 139 
 
 moment hesitate when the question was presented 
 to him, whether he would yield to a prevailing 
 sentiment for the sake of personal popularity and 
 a political future, or, on the other hand, would 
 allow himself to be the sacrifice to preserve his 
 commonwealth from the evils of slave labor. 
 
 Edward Coles had himself been a slaveholder, 
 and had come to the Northwest that he might 
 emancipate his slaves, and thus sever all connec- 
 tion with a system of labor and dependence which 
 to him was abhorrent. When the pro-slavery agi- 
 tation began, he took up promptly and fearlessly 
 the gage of battle which was cast at his feet, and 
 in a struggle deserving of perpetual remembrance 
 and praise achieved a victory which was signal 
 and conclusive. To his skill, fidelity to principle, 
 and unflinching courage it is due that the noble 
 commonwealth of which he was executive did not 
 even temporarily lose its place in the category of 
 free states, and that its onward progress in pop- 
 ulation and wealth, and in all the elements of 
 greatness, was never for a moment delayed or em- 
 barrassed by this attempt to turn back the wheels 
 of time and take up again the discarded system of 
 degraded and degrading labor.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MICHIGAN BECOMES A TERRITORY AND IS GIVEN 
 
 RULERS. 
 
 -. 
 
 THE Territory of Michigan was set off from 
 Indiana on June 30, 1805. It was to embrace 
 all that portion of Indiana Territory lying north 
 of a line drawn east from the southerly bend or 
 extreme of Lake Michigan, until it intersected 
 Lake Erie, and lying east of a line drawn from 
 the same southerly bend through the middle of 
 Lake Michigan to its northern extremity, and 
 thence due north to the northern boundary of the 
 United States. 
 
 The settled parts of the territory had then for 
 nine years been in possession of the United States, 
 but the increase in population had been insig- 
 nificant. Some slight addition had been made by 
 French families coming in from Canada, and we 
 have seen that some enterprising persons of other 
 nationalities had come for the purposes of trade. 
 But with the change in jurisdiction there had 
 been some loss of inhabitants also by the removal 
 to Canada of persons who had reasons for pre- 
 ferring to live under British rule.
 
 FATHER GABRIEL RICHARD. 141 
 
 Detroit was still the principal settlement. It 
 had taken on a certain municipal dignity by being 
 incorporated as a "town" by the legislature of 
 the Northwest Territory in 1802, but it was still 
 a small hamlet, and almost without growth. The 
 people, for the most part, professed the Catholic 
 religion ; but their piety scarcely went beyond 
 profession ; the days of intense zeal had passed 
 away, and general indifference had succeeded. 
 Since the conquest by England the people had 
 been gi'eatly neglected by their spiritual teachers 
 and superiors ; and the restraints which had done 
 something to preserve their morals in the half 
 savage life led by so many of them as hunters, 
 trappers, and voyageurs had almost entirely been 
 withdrawn. Now, however, they had among them 
 Father Gabriel Richard, a faithful and devoted 
 pastor, who, under many discouragements, was do- 
 ing what he found it in his power to do to restore 
 or convert the people to Christianity, and to moral 
 and decent lives. 
 
 Father Richard would have been a man of 
 mark in almost any community and at any time. 
 He had come to America in 1792 at the age 
 of twenty-eight, and placing himself at the dis- 
 posal of Bishop Carroll of Baltimore, had been 
 sent by him first to Illinois, where, without evi- 
 dence of much valuable fruit, he labored until 
 1798, and was then transferred to Detroit. He 
 was a plain man, simple in all his habits, and ab-
 
 142 MICHIGAN. 
 
 stemious in all his indulgences. In his Christian 
 labors he soon perceived that the intemperance of 
 the people was likely to prove the chief obstacle 
 to success, and to the cure of this he addressed his 
 efforts directly, not limiting them to indulgence in 
 intoxicating drinks, but to the use of tobacco also. 
 But the evil of intoxication was too deep-seated 
 for any one man, however much he might be re- 
 spected, to make sensible inroads upon it. It per- 
 vaded all classes of society, and was not wholly a 
 matter of indulgence of appetite. With well-to-do 
 people it was to some extent a matter of fashion ; 
 with other classes a matter of imitation. Burnet 
 has left us a graphic picture of the dinner parties 
 given by the fur traders of Detroit, in which 
 *' they competed with each other for the honor of 
 drinking the most, as well as the best, wine with- 
 out being intoxicated themselves, and of having 
 at their parties the greatest number of intoxicated 
 guests." l It was thus that they offset the priva- 
 tion and suffering of their excursions into the wil- 
 derness ; their lives, as another observer said, 2 con- 
 sisting in one constant succession of amusements: 
 "dances, rides, dinners, card parties, and all the 
 et ceteras of dissipation follow in one long train, 
 treading each on the heels of the other." It was 
 little that the sincere and fatherly advice of any 
 
 1 Burnett's Notes, 283. As to Indian degradation from intoxica- 
 tion, see Ibid. 389 et seq. 
 
 2 Judge Wm. Woodbridge : Memoir by Lanman, p. 14.
 
 FATHER RICHARD'S SPIRITUAL OVERSIGHT. 143 
 
 priest or pastor could accomplish with the common 
 people when such were the examples set for them 
 by the men of wealth, the leaders in business, and 
 in society. 
 
 Father Richard did not confine his labors to 
 Detroit, but in the summer of 1799 he visited 
 Mackinaw, which he found to be a place con- 
 taining fifty houses, but where a thousand people 
 sometimes congregated. These people also had 
 once been nominally Catholic, but the children 
 among them were mostly illegitimate ; and it was 
 " very painful to see so many poor creatures 
 left without instruction, several of them scarcely 
 knowing how to make the sign of the cross." He 
 was informed that the same condition of things 
 prevailed farther on to the northwest " where the 
 great Northwest Company of Montreal employ 
 nearly seventeen hundred men, nearly all Cana- 
 dians." He visited the settlement of the Ottawas 
 on Lake Michigan, where he was received gladly. 
 He proposed to send a priest among them " for 
 their instruction, or at least for that of their 
 children," but though they seemed thankful for 
 this, and took the offer into consideration, they 
 never made reply to it. " The truth of the matter 
 is," he is mournfully compelled to admit, " they 
 are so much addicted to the use of ardent spirits 
 that they care very little about religion. . . . The 
 trade there is principally in liquors, and as long 
 as this state of things exists there can be no pros-
 
 144 MICHIGAN. 
 
 pect of making them Christians." He repeats the 
 saying of another that the traffic in English rum 
 has destroyed more Indians than the Spanish 
 sword, and wishes it could be abolished, but sees 
 no hope of it. He returned to Mackinaw, where 
 he found ample need for his services, and would 
 gladly have remained for the winter; but duty 
 seemed to demand his presence at Detroit, and 
 he came back to his regular charge. 
 
 If Father Richard had tasted the " English 
 rum" of Indian commerce he would have dis- 
 covered, if he did not already know by common 
 report, that what was sold to the Indians by that 
 name was for the most part neither rum nor any 
 other liquor known to civilized trade. It was a 
 preparation specially made for Indian use. Two 
 gallons of whiskey in a barrel of water, with to- 
 bacco sufficient to impart the desired intoxicating 
 quality, made an article as suitable for this tirade 
 as any other. The cost to the dealer was trifling, 
 and the profits of the trade enormous. 
 
 The condition of the Sault St. Marie at this 
 period was quite as repulsive as that of any of the 
 fur-trading stations described by Father Richard. 
 Mackenzie, who visited it in 1793, said of it, "It 
 is dwindled to nothing, and reduced to about 
 thirty families of the Algonquin nation, who are 
 one half the year starving, and the other half 
 intoxicated, and ten or twelve Canadians who 
 have been in the Indian country from an early
 
 CONDITION OF THE WHITE POPULATION. 145 
 
 period of life, and intermarried with the natives, 
 who have brought them families." Game was al- 
 ready gone, and the Indians lived mainly on fish ; 
 but " whatever quantity they may have taken, 
 it is never known that their economy is such as to 
 make it last through the winter, which renders 
 their situation very distressing." l Equally dis- 
 tressing, and for the same reasons, was the condi- 
 tion of the Indians in other parts of the territory. 
 That of the white people was substantially the 
 same at Detroit and elsewhere. The total white 
 population of the territory at this time did not 
 exceed four thousand, and the fur trade was still 
 the leading industry. The number of "settle- 
 ments " or farms was found on actual count to be 
 four hundred and forty-two, of which more than a 
 fourth were at Frenchtown on the Raisin, where 
 French famili* had begun to settle in 1784. A 
 few were on Grosse Isle, but the most of them 
 were on the Rouge and other streams flowing 
 eastwardly. Many of them were locations with- 
 out lawful permission on the public lands, so that 
 in law the settlers were mere trespassers. In all 
 the territory it was believed there were but eight 
 good titles to land. The claims were numerous, 
 and were derived from various sources, but the 
 most of them were either clearly illegal in their 
 origin, or had become invnlid by reason of some 
 breach of condition. But nobody was questioning 
 
 1 Mackenzie's Travels, xxxviii. 
 10
 
 146 MICHIGAN. 
 
 the titles, and the people troubled themselves but 
 little about the defects. They were lively and 
 gay, if not happy ; they had no feeling of respon- 
 sibility in respect to public and governmental 
 concerns, and submitted cheerfully and without 
 question to the authorities placed over them. 
 
 The government of the territory was already 
 outlined by the Ordinance of 1787, which was 
 closely followed. The executive was to be a gov- 
 ernor appointed by the president, with the advice 
 and consent of the senate, and there was to be a 
 secretary who would perform the duties of gov- 
 ernor if the latter officer was absent or the office 
 vacant. The judiciary was to consist of three 
 judges, also of presidential appointment. The 
 legislature was at first to consist of the governor 
 and judges, who were not, however, to originate 
 laws, but were to adopt such as were suitable 
 from the laws of the original states ; and the laws 
 so adopted were to be in force unless disapproved 
 by Congress. The whole government thus orig- 
 inated in Washington and centred there, and was 
 neither derived from the people governed nor 
 responsible to them. But as yet the interest of 
 the United States in the territory was greater 
 than that of all the people in it. The nation 
 was proprietor of the soil, and was charged with 
 the duty of protecting a long line of frontier, 
 where the people who were subject to its jurisdic- 
 tion were in the main aliens in language and
 
 CHARACTER OF THE EARLY RULERS. 147 
 
 feeling, and in sympathy rather with the people 
 across the border than with those with whom by 
 the fortune of war they had come into political 
 association. A temporally government originating 
 at Washington was, therefore, a political neces- 
 sity ; but the organic act provided that so soon as 
 there should be five thousand free male inhab- 
 itants of full age in the territory, they should elect 
 delegates to a general assembly, who, with a ter- 
 ritorial council of five, to be selected by Congress 
 from ten names nominated to it by the general 
 assembly, should constitute the legislative body. 
 The legislature would, therefore, be representative 
 of the people in both houses, but the veto of the 
 governor was to be absolute. 
 
 If the wisdom of the president in his appoint- 
 ments had been equal to that of the legislation, 
 the early history of the territory would have been 
 more orderly, and, perhaps, more prosperous also. 
 But Mr. Jefferson, with singular want of tact and 
 judgment, sent to this distant frontier territory 
 as rulers for its rough and peculiar population a 
 number of persons who were not only ignorant of 
 this part of the country and of its people, but 
 were without practical acquaintance with similar 
 communities elsewhere. It was not to be ex- 
 pected, therefore, that they would readily and 
 easily come into sympathetic and cordial relations 
 with the people they were to govern. Some of 
 them also had personal peculiarities and deficiencies
 
 148 MICHIGAN. 
 
 which would render entirely improbable a success- 
 ful and orderly administration of their offices. 
 
 General William Hull of Massachusetts was the 
 selection for governor. He had an excellent and 
 well-deserved reputation, and in point of charac- 
 ter and standing the appointment was altogether 
 suitable. He had early entered upon service in 
 the War for Independence, participating in many 
 important battles with credit, and continuing 1 in 
 the service until the surrender of Cornwallis. 
 Steuben had selected him for his assistant in the 
 work of army reorganization, and when the war 
 was over, and Steuben 's mission to obtain the sur- 
 render of the western posts had failed, he had 
 himself been charged with a similar mission, which 
 also proved unsuccessful, and he then took part in 
 the suppression of Shays's Rebellion. In 1793 
 he was again sent to Canada; this time to bring 
 to the attention of the authorities the manner in 
 which the hostile Indians were furnished with the 
 supplies that enabled them to continue their de- 
 structive depredations. Subsequently he traveled 
 in Europe for observation and mental improve- 
 ment, and on his return was made judge of the 
 Court of Common Pleas of his native state. 
 
 This highly honorable record was without a 
 stain, and that of his whole subsequent life would 
 probably have been equally untarnished and en- 
 viable had he declined to accept the appointment 
 of governor of this territory when it was tendered
 
 HULL'S CHARACTER. 149 
 
 to him. He was at this time fifty-two years of 
 age and inclined to corpulency ; he had all his life 
 lived in the smiles of public favor, and his do- 
 mestic and social relations were agreeable ; and 
 had he been made the executive of a staid and 
 orderly commonwealth, with associates in govern- 
 ment of similar characteristics, his administration 
 might have been altogether popular and success- 
 ful. But in Michigan he found uncongenial peo- 
 ple all about him, and it soon appeared that 
 he was somewhat* lacking in the persistent self- 
 assertion necessary to make the rough characters 
 of a backwoods settlement recognize and accept the 
 fact that within the proper limits of his authority 
 he proposed to be and would be ruler and master. 
 Had the other territorial officers yielded him the 
 deference and respect which was due to his char- 
 acter and station, their example would, in all prob- 
 ability, have been followed by the general public, 
 and his administration might then have had a fair 
 measure of success. But the governor was pecul- 
 iarly unfortunate in having in one of the judges 
 a person of characteristics much more pronounced 
 than his own, and with not only the power but 
 the will, as subsequently appeared, to embarrass 
 and embitter his whole official life. This was 
 Augustus B. Woodward, who was sent on from 
 Washington as chief justice. 
 
 The chief justice was pronounced by one of his 
 subsequent associates to be "a wild theorist, fit
 
 150 MICHIGAN. 
 
 only to extract sunbeams from cucumbers ; " but 
 this characterization presents only one side of his 
 erratic and peculiar nature. He was a theorist, 
 but not a mere dreamer ; his ability was very con- 
 siderable, and, in some respects, very substantial. 
 In doing what he chose to do he was perfectly 
 fearless, and he succeeded, through the use of his 
 official authority, in dominating public affairs 
 during the whole period of Hull's administration. 
 He was as eccentric as he was able, and his auda- 
 city kept him continually in the public eye, and 
 made him, until the war came on, the most con- 
 spicuous figure in territorial affairs. Mr. Jefferson 
 had given him for associates Frederick Bates and 
 John Griffin, both Virginians ; but Bates had 
 already been in the territory for some little time 
 as an official of the land office, and he alone of 
 all the territorial officers possessed the important 
 qualification for his post, that he knew the coun- 
 try and knew its people. And it may be added 
 here that he alone of them all had a subsequent 
 career that was satisfactory and altogether honor- 
 able. He was not long in discovering that his 
 official relations were to be unpleasant, and he re- 
 signed his office and left the territory for con- 
 spicuous public service in Missouri. Judge Griffin 
 remained at his post ; but his official life was not 
 a happy one, and years afterwards he complained 
 that he was made the mere drudge of the chief 
 justice to do his will.
 
 HULL'S JOURNEY TO MICHIGAN. 151 
 
 The journey of Governor Hull to take possession 
 of his government was well calculated to impress 
 him with its exposed condition, and with its vast 
 distance from friendly support in case an emer- 
 gency should arise which made assistance neces- 
 sary. From Albany his route was by way of 
 Lake Ontario, which he traversed in boats with his 
 family. Reaching Niagara he proceeded thence 
 to Buffalo, where he found a vessel in which he 
 could take more comfortable passage to Detroit. 
 But before he reached the lakes he had left civil- 
 ization behind, and whether he turned to the right 
 hand or to the left he beheld a wilderness still 
 inhabited by savages. To the north of the lakes, 
 too, the territory was the property of Great Britain, 
 a country with which the relations of the United 
 States were at the time far from cordial. It was 
 inevitable that the governor should have received, 
 upon his long and tedious journey, impressions of 
 the exposed condition of the territory which abided 
 with him until the great crisis of his life and 
 helped then to unman him. 
 
 But the circumstances of the governor's recep- 
 tion at Detroit were not calculated to remove un- 
 pleasant impressions or to give augury of official 
 ease and enjoyment. It is not improbable that 
 the veteran soldier who had consented to take up 
 his abode in the far interior as governor of the 
 new-born territory expected to be received with 
 acclamations, and to make triumphal entry, as
 
 152 MICHIGAN. 
 
 St. Clair had done, into his capital ; but when on 
 the first day of July, 1805, he came in sight of 
 the town he found nothing but the smoking em- 
 bers of desolated homes, and tents set up here 
 and there in which a portion of the people had 
 found temporary shelter. 'Hie story the people 
 had to tell was a sad one. On the eleventh of 
 the preceding month fire had broken out in the 
 densely compacted settlement, and it had spread 
 right and left, to be stayed only when there was 
 nothing left for it to consume. Public build- 
 ings and private alike were gone ; only a ware- 
 house and a bakery had escaped destruction. The 
 spectacle was disheartening. Instead of finding 
 his people well housed and comfortably circum- 
 stanced, as he expected, the governor found them 
 objects of charity, living in their canvas habita- 
 tions, or provided for in the outside settlements. 
 A beginning had been made of putting up log- 
 houses, but the gloom of the great desolation was 
 still upon the people, and it could not immediately 
 be driven away. 
 
 Obviously the first duty of the new officials was 
 to do what should lie in their power to give relief 
 to the homeless and needy people. The rebuilding 
 of the town must be aided, and the people must 
 have lots upon which to erect their habitations 
 and business houses. Fortunately, in providing 
 for their relief it was possible to convert the pres- 
 ent calamity into a permanent blessing. The old
 
 MEASURES FOR RELIEF OF THE PEOPLE. 153 
 
 town had been constructed with special view to 
 protection against the Indians ; it was compact 
 that it might be the more easily fortified; its 
 streets were mere lanes ; it was too crowded for 
 comfort, for health, or for business. Some day it 
 would have become necessary to plan the town 
 anew, and to make .suitable streets by the destruc- 
 tion of the buildings at great expense to the 
 public. But now accident -had removed the build- 
 ings as if by providential design ; and the bare 
 earth invited the suitable plan, and was incum- 
 bered by no obstacles. 
 
 In seeking relief for the people, the governor 
 and the chief justice found themselves able to 
 cooperate ; and they agreed that the destruction 
 of improvements presented a strong case for the 
 equitable consideration of Congress. Both of them 
 took the long journey to Washington to impress 
 their views upon the national legislature, and 
 their success was reasonably satisfactory. Con- 
 gress recognized the justice and policy of providing 
 homesteads for the sufferers by the fire ; and an 
 act was passed making the governor and judges a 
 land board, with authority to lay out a town, and 
 to convey a lot therein to every person over 
 seventeen years of age who, at the time of the 
 fire, had owned or inhabited a house in the old 
 town. This enabled them all to become free- 
 holders, where before they had had a merely tol- 
 erated occupancy.
 
 154 MICfflGAN. 
 
 But the efforts on behalf of the settlers were 
 not restricted to those who had suffered in the 
 destruction of the town. The propriety of recog- 
 nizing and confirming all actual possessions was 
 strongly urged upon Congress, and with such suc- 
 cess ti.at under proper legislation the people of 
 the outside settlements soon became owners of 
 the legal title to the lands they had occupied 
 and brought under cultivation, and were thus 
 encouraged to make lasting and valuable improve- 
 ments. 
 
 Next to looking after the immediate needs of 
 the homeless people, the preparation of a code 
 of laws demanded the attention of the governor 
 and judges. For this purpose they met from day 
 to day, and adopted distinct acts on different sub- 
 jects as occasion seemed to require. The chief 
 justice was commonly the draftsman ; and the 
 several acts were printed together, and in popular 
 speech were collectively known as the Woodward 
 Code. 
 
 The plan of the new town was also the produc- 
 tion of the chief justice, and he had made one that 
 was his pride and his glory. To some extent it 
 was modeled upon that of the national capital ; 
 and though he succeeded in securing its adoption, 
 it was the subject of much contemporaneous ridi- 
 cule, not only for what seemed to the people its 
 whimsical character, b-ut also for its magnificent dis- 
 tances. It had its Campus Martius and its Grand
 
 THE CHIEF JUSTICE'S BANK. 155 
 
 Circus, with broad avenues radiating from these 
 into the woods, avenues which the fertile imagi- 
 nation of its author saw, in the near future, lined 
 with elegant dwellings and stately public and 
 private edifices. But the matter-of-fact people of 
 the day saw only a visionary plan for an immense 
 metropolis on paper, prepared by an eccentric 
 enthusiast for a town which had been more than 
 a hundred years in attaining the proportions of a 
 respectable village ; and which, so far as could be 
 seen, had nothing in immediate prospect calcu- 
 lated to give its growth any considerable impetus. 
 The plan, therefore, was ridiculed while it was 
 tolerated, but it was not strictly adhered to, and 
 the departures from it, from time to time, an- 
 noyed its author, and were a frequent incitement 
 to ill-temper and controversy. 
 
 The chief justice had more occasion for annoy- 
 ance in the refusal of Congress to sanction his 
 scheme for a great bank. He had planned for a 
 bank with a capital of four hundred thousand dol- 
 lars, which Boston parties were expected to furnish 
 for nominal use in the fur trade. So confident 
 were he and his associates of entire success in the 
 scheme, that a bank building was erected and all 
 preparations made for beginning business before 
 the charter was granted. But the chief justice 
 was at this time the effective force in the legis- 
 lature : it was only necessary for him to draft the 
 bill he desired, and to present it to the others for
 
 156 MICHIGAN. 
 
 their signature. The bank was soon in operation, 
 with the chief justice for president ; and it was 
 charged at the time that the governor was con- 
 cerned with him in interest ; but this was denied, 
 and the probability seems to be that the governor 
 abandoned a purpose which he had once formed 
 to that effect. 
 
 A bank in the vastness of its pretensions so out 
 of proportion to the insignificant town where* it 
 was to do business, and having the chief legislative 
 and judicial officer of the territory for its manager, 
 was naturally the subject of unfavorable criticism, 
 and the parties concerned were severely attacked 
 in such newspapers as circulated in the territory. 
 Congress refused to sanction the scheme, and the 
 charter became of no force ; but the bank, never- 
 theless, went on as before, until, in September, 
 1808, in the absence of the chief justice from the 
 territory, the other members of the legislature 
 summoned courage to pass an act denouncing 
 severe penalties upon unauthorized banking. The 
 bank officers petitioned for exemption from these 
 penalties, but were refused. 
 
 From this time the governor and the chief 
 justice were in avowed hostility ; and as one of the 
 associate judges took sides with the governor and 
 the other against him, the meetings of the four, 
 whether as a land board or as a legislature, were 
 occasions for undignified and angry contests and 
 dissensions which were well calculated to bring
 
 THE CHIEF JUSTICE'S ARISTOCRACY. 157 
 
 public authority into contempt. It does not ap- 
 pear that the governor was wanting in proper 
 observance of the proprieties of his station, or of 
 the rules of law ; but his antagonist was less 
 scrupulous, and by his very audacity not only for 
 th ' most part carried his points, but also carried 
 with him an apparent public sentiment. He was 
 ingenious in finding ways to annoy and mortify 
 the governor, and his own misbehavior furnished 
 
 O 
 
 opportunities when nothing else did. He did not 
 hesitate, on one occasion, to stretch his prerogative 
 to the extent of fining a citizen as for contempt 
 of court for offensive language to himself in the 
 public street, an outrage on the law which the 
 governor undertook to redress by the issue of a 
 pardon. But the grand jury of the territory made 
 a presentment denying that the governor pos- 
 sessed the power of pardon, and censuring his 
 usurpation ; and the chief justice, thereupon, not 
 only treated the pardon as void, but proceeded to 
 enforce his own illegal judgment. What was 
 more extraordinary still, the grand jury at the 
 instigation of the chief justice presented as un- 
 necessary and a " nuisance " certain legislation 
 which had been adopted when that functionary was 
 absent. Fortified by this presentment the chief 
 justice and his echo in the court treated the offen- 
 sive legislation as a nullity. Evidently the gov- 
 ernor had more than a match in his daring and 
 unscrupulous antagonist.
 
 158 MICHIGAN. 
 
 But other causes were troubling the governor 
 also. He was Indian agent as well as executive ; 
 and he had come to the territory with some idea 
 that in his capacity of agent he might be of signal 
 service, both to the territory and to the Indians. 
 For the benefit of the territory he proposed to 
 take steps for the extinguishment of the Indian 
 title as rapidly as it might be accomplished with- 
 out causing discontent to the tribes. To benefit 
 the Indians he proposed to have them taught 
 agriculture and the mechanic arts. He soon per- 
 ceived, however, that plans made by a New Eng- 
 land fireside for the amelioration of the aboriginal 
 condition lacked fitness of adaptation to circum- 
 stances when presented for actual test, and that 
 civilized agriculture and mechanic, arts were the 
 last things the savages cared to learn. We hear 
 nothing of his philanthropic purposes after he 
 came to his government ; and when he opened ne- 
 gotiations for cessions of territory, he discovered 
 an entire absence of a disposition to respond fa- 
 vorably. On the contrary he found the opposition 
 decided and persistent. The Indians about Mack- 
 inaw refused to attend any council, declaring that 
 if their brothers below were fools enough to throw 
 away their lands, they might do so; but for them- 
 selves they were determined that the governor 
 must not think of taking away one hair's breadth 
 of their lands, for they had not so much to spare. 
 The governor did succeed, however, in obtain-
 
 THE INDIANS IN CONTACT WITH THE WHITES. 159 
 
 ing, in 1807, a cession of all that portion of the 
 territory not before ceded which was bounded on 
 the west by the principal meridian, and extended 
 on the north to the line of White Rock in Lake 
 Huron. 
 
 This was a very valuable acquisition ; and no 
 complaint has reached us of any overreaching or 
 other unfairness on the part of the governor in 
 obtaining it. But ever since their encounter with 
 Wayne, the Indian tribes of the Northwest had 
 been rapidly sinking into degradation, and the 
 most of them no longer exercised much freedom 
 of will. In their intercourse with white people 
 they were constantly brought in contact with all 
 that was low and base in civilized life, with the 
 inevitable result of adding to their native vices 
 many that were new and in their effects more 
 destructive than those they were born to. When 
 not on the war-path, or on their great hunts, they 
 were easily mastered by their passion for intox- 
 icating drinks ; and several classes of white people 
 were ready to cater to this passion for selfish pur- 
 poses of their own. It was often the case that a 
 treaty of cession by the Indians was an arrange- 
 ment which scheming persons among them had 
 contrived to bring about for their own interest, 
 and which the Indians were made to conclude 
 with little volition of their own. Reservations in 
 the nature of grants for the benefit of traders and 
 interpreters and their half-breeds came to be
 
 160 MICHIGAN. 
 
 a common feature in such treaties ; and though 
 these were always nominally made at the desire 
 of the Indians, the management which had created 
 the desire was not often such as would bear the 
 light. What was snid of an Indian treaty a little 
 later was already coming to be true. " An Indian 
 treaty now lies chiefly between the various traders, 
 agents, creditors, and half-breeds of the tribes, 
 on whom custom and necessity have made iJie 
 degraded chiefs dependent, and the government 
 agents. When the former have seen matters so 
 far arranged that their self-interest and various 
 schemes and claims are likely to be fulfilled, and 
 allowed to their hearts' content, the silent ac- 
 quiescence of the Indians follows of course ; and 
 till this is the case the treaty can never be am- 
 icably effected." l 
 
 But the governor, by the time his treaty was 
 concluded, saw plain indications that trouble was 
 brewing. He heard well - authenticated rumors 
 that a prophet was among the Indians throughout 
 all the West, practicing his arts and incantations, 
 and urging in the name of the Great Spirit, for 
 whom he assumed to speak, that they should 
 league themselves together for protection against 
 the white men. A great chieftain was also com- 
 ing upon the stage, who perceived very clearly 
 that the system pursued by the United States was 
 " a mighty water ready to overflow his people ; " 
 1 Blanchard's Discoveries and Conquests in the Northwest, 402.
 
 TECDMSEH'S POLICY. 161 
 
 and he was laboring earnestly among the tribes in 
 the effort to form a confederacy " to prevent any 
 tribe from selling land without the consent of 
 the others." This was " the dam he was erect- 
 ing to resist this mighty water." The scheme of 
 Tecumseh, even though it had been peacefully 
 intended, must necessarily have excited alarm 
 among the white people; for it sprang from a 
 feeling of antagonism to their encroachments, and 
 must depend for its success upon the prevalence 
 of unfriendly sentiments among the tribes. That 
 such sentiments were already spreading was per- 
 ceived by those who were brought in contact., 
 officially or otherwise, with the Indians ; and the 
 tendency in that direction increased rapidly as 
 the relations between the United States and Great 
 Britain became unsettled and threatening. There 
 had never been any complete sundering of ties 
 between the Indians of the Northwest and their 
 old employers ; they were still to some extent 
 pensioners upon Great Britain for services during 
 the Revolutionary War; and as they had nothing 
 to fear from British aggression, there were no 
 suspicions to weaken the former friendship. If 
 war broke out between the United States and 
 Great Britain, the Indians were likely to take the 
 part of their old allies; and if the Indians on 
 their part felt inclined to war, they naturally 
 hoped for the assistance of the nation which they 
 
 plainly perceived had no friendly feeling for the 
 11
 
 162 MICHIGAN. 
 
 Americans. What Governor Hull saw very dis- 
 tinctly was that in the event of war the little 
 settlement on the frontier of civilization, whose 
 destinies were committed to his care, would be 
 encompassed by foes so numerous and so blood- 
 thirsty that they might overwhelm and destroy 
 it before the distant assistance upon which ex- 
 clusively he must depend could be made effective. 
 Such was the state of affaire when the " dm " 
 which Tecumseh had arranged broke away under 
 premature pressure with such destructive force 
 in the battle of the Tippecanoe. John Randolph 
 truthfully said : " It was our own thirst for terri- 
 tory, our own want of moderation that had driven 
 these sons of nature to desperation of which we 
 felt the effects."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 WAK, AND THE CONQUEST AND RECONQTJEST 
 OF MICHIGAN. 
 
 IN February, 1812, Governor Hull was in Wash- 
 ington, and reports which gave him great concern 
 were continually coming to him of hostile conduct 
 on the part of the Indians. For a long time the 
 relations between the United States and Great 
 Britain had been growing more and more critical ; 
 and if, as there was every reason to fear, war 
 should be declared, no part of the country was so 
 exposed to attack or so difficult of defense as the 
 territory of which he was governor. The people 
 in a petition to Congress the preceding December 
 had justly said that the whole territory was a 
 double frontier, with British on one side and 
 Indians on the other, and they prayed for further 
 protection of military posts and for an additional 
 force at Detroit. There was so little agriculture 
 in the territory that the garrison they already 
 had at Detroit must be dependent for supplies in 
 part at least upon Ohio ; and a wilderness of two 
 hundred miles separated that frontier post from 
 the Ohio settlements. Through this wilderness
 
 164 MICHIGAN. 
 
 by difficult and exposed roads the supplies must 
 be transported and reinforcements sent forward, 
 unless the Americans should secure command \)f 
 Lake Erie and establish a base of operations 
 upon it. 
 
 At this time the British had complete control of 
 the lake and its connecting waters. Three years 
 before the governor had suggested to the ad- 
 ministration the expediency of constructing armed 
 vessels upon Lake Erie as a necessary protection 
 to communication with the territory ; and in 1811 
 he returned to the subject, and gave hia views 
 with considerable fullness. After a careful review 
 of the situation, he summed up as follows : 
 
 " This, then, appears to he the plain state of the case. 
 The British have a regular force equal to ours. The 
 province of Upper Canada has on its rolls a militia of 
 twenty to one against us. In addition to this there can 
 be but little doubt but a large proportion of the savages 
 will join them. What then will be the situation of this 
 part of the country ? Separated from the states by an 
 extensive wilderness which will be filled wfth savages to 
 prevent any succor, our water communications entirely 
 obstructed by the British armed vessels on Lake Erie, 
 we shall have no other resource for defense but the 
 small garrisons and feeble population of the territory. 
 Under these circumstances it is easy to foresee what 
 will be the fate of this country. ... If there is a pros- 
 pect of war with England, what measures are most 
 expedient ? In my opinion there can be no doubt. Pre- 
 pare a naval force on Lake Erie superior to the British, 
 and sufficient to preserve your communications."
 
 ILLUSIONS REGARDING CANADA. 165 
 
 And once more he returned to the subject m 
 the spring of 1812, but every time without avail. 
 
 There were not wanting at that day able men 
 in Congress and out of it who ridiculed the sug- 
 gestion that Canada could possibly be a source of 
 serious danger to the United States. So far from 
 indulging in fears of that sort, they looked upon 
 Canada as a source of weakness to the British 
 government. The people of Canada, as they con- 
 ceived, were a people held in unwilling subjection 
 by a foreign power ; and it was only necessary to 
 raise the flag of liberty and offer them free insti- 
 tutions, and they would be found flocking with 
 alaci-ity to accept the offer. Mr. Clay, who should 
 have known better, was one of this sanguine class. 
 " We can take Canada without soldiers," he de- 
 clared. " We have only to send officers into the 
 province, and the people, disaffected towards their 
 own government, will rally round our standard. 
 ... It is absurd to suppose we shall not succeed 
 in our enterprise against the enemy's provinces. 
 We have the Canadas as much under our com- 
 mand as Great Britain has the ocean, and the 
 way to conquer her on the ocean is to drive her 
 from the land. I am not for stopping at Quebec 
 or anywhere else, but I would take the whole con- 
 tinent from them and ask no favors." Mr. Clay had 
 evidently forgotten the history of Quebec in the 
 war of the Revolution, and the repulse of the brave 
 Montgomery before its frowning citadel. Discon-
 
 166 MICHIGAN. 
 
 tent in Canada there undoubtedly had been under 
 the administration of Governor-General Craig, 
 who was obnoxious to Canadians of French de- 
 scent ; but Craig had been succeeded by Sir George 
 Prevost, an able man who took every pains to 
 make a good impression upon the people, and to 
 remove all ground of just complaint. The French 
 inhabitants, more than willing to be favorably re- 
 garded by their rulers, responded readily to the 
 governor's pacific advances, and from all "sides 
 there is concurrent testimony that in the prepa- 
 rations for anticipated war the Canadians were 
 more active and also more unanimous than were 
 the Americans. John Randolph was, therefore, 
 abundantly justified by the facts when he ridi- 
 culed the anticipated " holiday campaign," in 
 which there was to be "no expense of blood or 
 treasure on our part," but Canada was "to con- 
 quer herself," ** to be subdued by the principle of 
 fraternity." But Mr. Clay's delusion was the 
 common one, and nothing in his utterances ap- 
 peared unreasonable to the dominant war party of 
 the day. The journals of public opinion and the 
 speeches of public men in Congress and elsewhere 
 furnish abundant proof of a general expectation 
 that Canada in case of war would be easily con- 
 quered with the aid of large numbers of its own 
 people. But Governor Hull, who better knew the 
 condition of things in Canada than did most of 
 his contemporaries, indulged in no such expecta- 
 tion.
 
 THE FATAL BLUNDER. 167 
 
 While in Washington the governor was tendered 
 the command of a force, consisting in the main of 
 Ohio militia, which it was proposed to send to 
 Michigan for such service as might be required 
 of it. He declined the appointment, but subse- 
 quently, after Colonel Kingsbury, who had been 
 assigned to the command had been disabled by 
 sickness from taking it, he accepted, though with 
 reluctance ; and at Dayton, on May 25th, three 
 regiments of militia, commanded respectively by 
 Colonels McArthur, Cass, and Findlay, and num- 
 bering twelve hundred men, were placed under 
 his command. Three hundred regulars afterwards 
 joined them, and with the whole body General 
 Hull marched to the Rapids of the Maurnee, 
 which he reached at the end of June. From Ur- 
 bana, then a frontier town, a road had to be cut 
 through the wilderness, and the labor was very 
 great and the progress necessarily slow. 
 
 The government made a blunder in tendering 
 the command of this force to Hull, and he on his 
 part made if possible a greater blunder in ac- 
 cepting it. His opinion that the control of the 
 lakes was necessary to the protection of his posts 
 had been fully disclosed ; and not having that 
 control he was, according to his own view, if war 
 should break out, at the mercy of the enemy. A 
 courageous and vigorous campaign, and especially 
 an aggressive campaign, it was idle to expect 
 under such leadership: he was conquered by his
 
 168 MICHIGAN. 
 
 own misgivings before he moved ; and nothing 
 but great and to him unexpected good fortune at 
 the outset could have relieved him of his dismal 
 forebodings and inspired him with the necessary 
 courage for a campaign so far from support. In- 
 stead of experiencing any such good fortune he 
 was made the victim of another blunder, the con- 
 sequences of which were visited upon him with 
 merciless severity when they culminated in the 
 disaster which finally overtook his force. 
 
 On July 1st General Hull procured a small ves- 
 sel, upon which he loaded his baggage, hospital 
 stores, and the invalids of his army, and sent it 
 forward from the Rapids to Detroit. With the 
 baggage he also sent important papers containing 
 full information respecting the force under his 
 command. There would have been nothing unsafe 
 or wanting in prudence in this proceeding under 
 ordinary circumstances, and General Hull might 
 claim with some plausibility that he was aware of 
 no circumstances which could render it improper 
 or imprudent. But as the probability that war 
 might arise was the only reason for placing him at 
 the head of a military force, and as the vessel 
 could not reach Detroit without passing what in 
 the event of war would be a hostile fort, a more 
 cautious man would not have been likely to expose 
 his papers to unnecessary risks under such circum- 
 stances. What actually happened, however, he 
 had no reason to anticipate, for the department at
 
 NEGLIGENCE AT WASHINGTON. 169 
 
 Washington was gnilty of negligence so gross as 
 to be little less than criminal. 
 
 On the eighteenth of the preceding month Con- 
 gress had declared war against Great Britain. As 
 Hull was in command of a military force marching 
 towards an exposed " double frontier," the im- 
 portance of his receiving the earliest possible in- 
 formation was so obvious and so imperative that 
 it would seem impossible it should be overlooked 
 or neglected by those in authority. But this, 
 through gross and most unaccountable mismanage- 
 ment in the war department, was precisely what 
 happened. A communication from the secretary 
 of war notifying General Hull that war had been 
 declared, instead of being sent with expedition by 
 special messenger, was intrusted, as far as Cleve- 
 land, to the slow-going mail of the day, and only 
 reached the general on the second of July. An- 
 other communication from the same office, of com- 
 paratively little importance, sent out at an earlier 
 hour of the same day by special messenger, had 
 come to hand eight days earlier. British interests 
 had been looked after with more vigilance, and the 
 authorities in Canada were notified of the state of 
 war with the utmost promptness. The immediate 
 and very natural consequence was that the vessel 
 which Hull had sent forward from the Rapids was 
 seized when passing the British post of Maiden, 
 the astonished crew receiving their first notifica- 
 tion that hostilities existed from the demand made 
 for their surrender.
 
 170 MICHIGAN. 
 
 But this capture of the general's baggage and 
 papers was not the only injurious consequence of 
 the criminal neglect of the war department. The 
 secretary, in communicating to him so leisurely 
 the fact that war had been declared, had appar- 
 ently overlooked altogether the exposed post of 
 Mackinaw, which from its situation and sur- 
 roundings would be liable to immediate and over- 
 whelming assault, unless at once reinforced and 
 strengthened. He assumed that the general 
 might be able at once to take the offensive, and 
 suggested the capture of Maiden, and an exten- 
 sion of conquests as circumstances might seem to 
 justify. General Hull on receiving the communi- 
 cation immediately pushed forward to Detroit. 
 But the British authorities had lost no time in 
 communicating the declaration of war to the offi- 
 cer in command on the island of St. Joseph ; and 
 that officer, though his own force was insignificant, 
 had experienced no difficulty in collecting, within 
 the short space of eight days, by the aid of British 
 fur companies and the friendly Indians, a force 
 of a thousand men. With this force on July 16th 
 he started to reduce Mackinaw, and landing in 
 the night-time, and taking up a position command- 
 ing the fort, he was able in the morning to an- 
 nounce his presence at the cannon's mouth. The 
 garrison consisted of but fifty-seven effective men, 
 and had no alternative but that of surrender. 
 
 The possession of Mackinaw as a means of con-
 
 Til',: BRITISH CONTROL OF LAKE ERIE. 171 
 
 trol over the Indians inhabiting that part of the 
 country was at this time of the very highest im- 
 portance. Nothing but a show of force held 
 those Indians in a neutral position, and not even 
 this remained when Mackinaw was lost. The cir- 
 cumstances of the loss, also, were such as to bring 
 the American authorities into contempt among the 
 savage tribes. The prestige of success was now 
 with the British, and such motives as had tended 
 to restrain the savages from gratifying their in- 
 clinations to take arms in the British service were 
 gone. They were emboldened also to expect an 
 easy and speedy success over Hull; and as a con- 
 sequence the woods about Detroit and other settle- 
 ments in Michigan were swarming with hostile 
 savages, before there had been opportunity to take 
 precautionary measures for protection. 
 
 But by far the most important fact in the ex- 
 isting situation was that which Hull had endeav- 
 ored to convince the administration must control ; 
 namely, that the British had undisputed mastery 
 of Lake Erie. While they held command of that 
 lake, Hull's communications were at their mercy. 
 Such road as then existed between Detroit and 
 the Ohio settlements was poor at the best, and at 
 times almost impassable. It followed along the 
 river and the western end of the lake to the 
 Rapids of the Maumee ; and from the post of 
 Maiden it was so easy at any time to throw a Brit- 
 ish force upon it, that a strong military convoy
 
 172 MICHIGAN. 
 
 was a necessity whenever supplies were to be sent. 
 For the defense of the communications a consider- 
 able force wns therefore required beyond what 
 would otherwise be needed for the protection of 
 Detroit ; but no force could make them entirely 
 secure against sudden and disastrous assaults. It 
 is not likely that Hull, in this condition of affairs, 
 saw anything to change his previous opinion that 
 control of the lake must be secured, or Detroit 
 sooner or later must fall. 
 
 But Hull very well knew it was the expecta- 
 tion of the department and of the country that 
 he would immediately commence operations to 
 reduce a province which was supposed to be ready 
 to fall into his hands. He therefore crossed the 
 river into Canada on the 12th of July, dislodg- 
 ing and scattering a small force which had col- 
 lected at Sandwich. He also immediately, in pur- 
 suance of the policy of " fraternity " which Mr. 
 Randolph had so pointedly ridiculed, issued a 
 proclamation to the Canadians in which he ten- 
 dered them " the invaluable blessings of civil, 
 political, and religious liberty, and their necessary 
 result, individual and general prosperity." De- 
 tachments from his army pushed out into the coun- 
 try and secured some provisions, and one under 
 the command of Colonel Cass took possession of 
 the bridge over Aux Canards in the direction of 
 Maiden. The army at the time was eager to at- 
 tack Maiden, but the opinion of General Hull was
 
 CRITICAL POSITION OF BULL. 173 
 
 against it. A council of war, when the river was 
 first crossed, had decided against an immediate 
 attack, and though the army had since received 
 an important supply of field artillery, the com- 
 mander did not believe an attack would be pru- 
 dent. Meantime his supply of provisions, which 
 was not very abundant at the outset, was rapidly 
 diminishing, and his alarm was excited on that 
 score. Learning that a company of Ohio troops 
 was at Frenchtown with provisions for his relief, 
 he detached Major Van Home with two hundred 
 men to escort them to Detroit, but the officer in 
 command at Maiden had early information of the 
 movement, and a small force was sent across the 
 river in the night, which fell upon Van Horne and 
 totally routed him. Here was new' cause of anxi- 
 ety to General Hull, and very striking evidence 
 that his previous fears were not groundless. 
 
 The calamity to Van Horne was followed by 
 information from Niagara which increased his un- 
 easiness to such an extent as to impress him that 
 his position in Canada was critical. He now 
 learned that the British had sent reinforcements 
 to Maiden, and that others were on their way ; 
 that their movements indicated an intended attack 
 upon him, and that he could expect no diversion 
 at Niagara in his favor. Impressed by this infor- 
 mation with a sense of immediate danger, the 
 general, without counseling with his officers, on 
 the night of August Tth recrossed the river with
 
 174 MICHIGAN. 
 
 his whole army to Detroit. The movement had 
 all the appearance of a flight under a panic, and 
 was generally condemned by subordinate officers. 
 
 The reason why Hull was to expect no diversion 
 from Niagara in his behalf was that General Dear- 
 born, who was in command of the American forces 
 at that point, had entered into an armistice with 
 Sir George Prev.ost, the British commander at 
 Queenstown, whereby his hands were tied from 
 rendering General Hull any assistance. Having 
 hurried off to Maiden a considerable force under 
 General Brock, Sir George had the address to se- 
 cure the assent of General Dearborn to an armis- 
 tice, whereby it was agreed that the forces opposing 
 each other on the Niagara should act on the defen- 
 sive only ; thus protecting his own depleted force 
 by this stratagem, while Hull was left to his own 
 resources and to such aid as an administration of 
 phenomenal inefficiency would be likely to render 
 him. The armistice was subject to disapproval 
 at Washington, but the mischief which the British 
 commander intended was accomplished before the 
 disapproval by the government could be notified. 
 
 Immediately on recrossing the river Hull de- 
 tached Colonel Miller with six hundred men to 
 do what Van Home had failed to accomplish, 
 namely, to open communications and bring for- 
 ward supplies from Frenchtown. At Monguagon 
 a force of British and Indians was found in- 
 trenched, and this was attacked and routed. A
 
 NEGOTIATIONS FOR SURRENDER. 175 
 
 severe rain-storm coming on, and the rations prov- 
 ing to be lost or destroyed, the detachment was 
 ordered back to Detroit, and another sent out 
 under McArthur and Cass, by a route farther 
 back from the river. This was on August 14th. 
 On the next day General Brock appeared at Sand- 
 wich with a force which lie reports at 1,330, and 
 sent a demand to General Hull for a surrender. 
 This being refused he opened fire, but with little 
 effect. On the morning of the 16th he crossed 
 the river at Springwells, in plain sight of the fort 
 and without opposition, and renewed his demand 
 for surrender. Hull, whose effective force then at 
 the fort was rated by Cass at 1,060, but by himself 
 at much less, immediately entered into negotia- 
 tions for surrender, stipulating only for the pro- 
 tection of the p30ple and of private property, and 
 for the parole of the state troops which had been 
 sent to his assistance, but were not yet arrived. 
 The forces of McArthur and Cass were included 
 in the stipulation, but" the fiery spirit of Cass could 
 not brook the indignity, and he broke his sword 
 rather than surrender it. From all sides the con- 
 curring testimony is abundant that the army 
 under Hull, confident in its ability to repel the 
 British assault-, was awaiting the attack in good 
 spirits when the order to haul down the American 
 flag was given. They had the mortification to see 
 the flag lowered without a blow in its defense ; 
 and with Detroit all Michigan passed under Brit- 
 ish control.
 
 176 MICHIGAN. 
 
 The indignation of the army at what seemed to 
 them a pusillanimous surrender was intense, and its 
 expression found an answering echo in every part 
 of the country. Great things had been expected 
 of this army< and the ambitious colonels of regi- 
 ments had anticipated nothing so little as a result 
 inglorious to American arms. The first sugges- 
 tion to thousands of minds was that Hull, from 
 some corrupt motive, must purposely and treason- 
 ably have betrayed his army. He was actually 
 put on trial on a charge of treason, coupled with 
 others of cowardice and criminal neglect of duty, 
 before a court-martial of which General Dearborn 
 was president ; and though acquitted of the most 
 serious charge, he was convicted of the others, 
 and sentenced to be shot to death. The president 
 approved the conviction, but in consideration of 
 former meritorious services remitted the penalty. 
 
 When time had softened the asperities which 
 the surrender evoked, General Hull appealed from 
 this conviction to the judgment of his contempora- 
 ries, basing his defense upon the following propo- 
 sitions. First: That his army was cut off from 
 supplies with no adequate means of opening com- 
 munications, and that so situated it must inevita- 
 bly fall. Second : That in his actual situation to 
 fight would have been a useless expenditure of 
 life, and would unnecessarily have exposed the 
 inhabitants of the territory to Indian hostilities. 
 Third : That the situation was not his own fault,
 
 HULL'S FALSE STEP. 177 
 
 but was in part the fault of the general govern- 
 ment, and of General Dearborn, and in part of 
 circumstances for which perhaps no one was re- 
 sponsible. Fourth: That his force at the time 
 was much inferior to that of General Brock ; 
 and Fifth : That his provisions were so nearly ex- 
 hausted that surrender for that reason would soon 
 have been inevitable even if his force had been 
 adequate. The judgment of the country has not 
 acquitted Hull of fault. That his effective force 
 was smaller than that of General Brock seems 
 probable. The latter in his official report stated 
 the forces captured at 2,500 ; a gross exaggeration, 
 which must have been intended to magnify his 
 success beyond its true proportions. The same 
 motive might have led him, and possibly did, to 
 understate his own force. And the situation was 
 such that while Brock might expect accessions 
 from Indians and militia, Hull could look for none 
 immediately from any source. 
 
 But armies have often, under far more disad- 
 vantageous circumstances, won signal victories; 
 and while the men were confident and eager to 
 put courage to the test, the general had no busi- 
 ness to be discouraged. The men believed they 
 could repulse the enemy in his attempt to cross ; 
 and they should have been given the opportunity 
 for a trial. But when he had ci'ossed they felt 
 safe within the fort; and the scarcity of provisions 
 could have been no ground for surrender until the 
 12
 
 178 MICHIGAN. 
 
 enemy had demonstrated his ability to keep the 
 garrison behind its defenses^ 
 
 The ground of defense which has most strongly 
 appealed to the sympathy of the world was that 
 a vigorous resistance would have subjected the 
 inhabitants to the danger of massacre at the hands 
 of the hostile Indians. This the general, who as 
 governor must have been familiar with the face 
 of nearly every man, woman, and child in the 
 little town of Detroit, professed to contemplate 
 with horror. And if the defense of his post 
 had been plainly impossible, he might upon this 
 ground have been excused from making the vain 
 attempt. But as a military commander his first 
 duty was to defend the posts committed to his 
 charge ; and he had no right while that was pos- 
 sible to permit his sympathies to overcome his 
 sense of public duty. War is cruel at the best, 
 and the commander of an army expects to inflict 
 cruelties instead ot laying down his arms to prevent 
 them. A possible massacre of non-combatants is 
 always incident to a warfare in which savages are 
 employed, and constitutes a reason with civilized 
 nations for refusing to employ them. But General 
 Hull knew very well that for a military com- 
 mander to suffer the possible barbarities of the 
 opposing force to be accepted as a renson for 
 relaxing the vigor of his efforts, or fur surrender- 
 ing his charge while it was still in his power to 
 make defense, was to give the savage an im-
 
 THE FATAL LOGIC OF HULL'S POSITION. 179 
 
 portance in war beyond his proper military effect- 
 iveness, and to make his very cruelty and his 
 disregard of the rules of civilized warfare a reason 
 for employing him. Instead of yielding to such 
 considerations, his duty on the other hand would 
 be to make his defense all the more persistent and 
 vigorous, that his antagonist might be made to 
 see that loss rather than gain was to follow from 
 bringing into the field a force so wicked and so 
 uncontrollable in its barbarity. 
 
 But what was put beyond question by Hull's 
 defense was that his fault began when he ac- 
 cepted a task which he believed it was not in his 
 power to accomplish. Without the command of 
 the lake he had declared that Detroit must fall ; 
 and yet without command of the lake he had 
 undertaken its defense. When, therefore, the en- 
 emy came and demanded a surrender, his judg- 
 ment, deliberately formed, assented immediately 
 to the demand, because he believed resistance 
 would be hopeless. It was not necessary to sug- 
 gest physical cowardice : the want of confidence 
 in the ability to make defense of the post had 
 been made known to the government before his 
 appointment. When the government persisted in 
 offering him the command, his duty was either to 
 decline it absolutely, or to let the courage of others 
 supply the deficiency of his own, even though the 
 task might seem to be an attempt to accomplish 
 the impossible.
 
 180 MICHIGAN. 
 
 The judgment of the court-martial upon General 
 Hull has never as a judgment had much weight 
 with the people. It was ordered by an adminis- 
 tration whose blunders in management had been 
 at least equally blamable with his own conduct, 
 and it was presided over by an officer whose 
 position in respect to some of the questions in- 
 volved was such as to suggest a suspicion that he 
 could not be wholly unbiased. The importance 
 to the defense of Detroit of a command of~*the 
 lake was afterwards so fully demonstrated that 
 the prosecution of the officer who pointed it out 
 in advance, by the government which could not 
 understand or appreciate it, seemed to partake of 
 cruelty. 
 
 On taking possession of Detroit, General Brock 
 issued a proclamation announcing that the Amer- 
 ican laws should continue in force so long as the 
 peace and safety of the territory would admit. 
 Colonel Proctor was made civil governor with full 
 powers, and he immediately issued regulations for 
 the government of the territory, whereby the civil 
 officers remaining in the territory were for the 
 most part continued in the discharge of their 
 respective functions, and the courts were to be 
 open as usual. And what proved to be of more 
 importance to the people than any of the other 
 regulations, Chief Justice Woodward was desig- 
 nated to act as secretary. 
 
 This able and fearless official, who in time oi
 
 MILITARY OPERATIONS. 181 
 
 peace had so stretched his prerogative to the an- 
 noyance of the governor, had now an opportunity 
 to appear in a character which justly won for him 
 the gratitude of the people whose interests in 
 a measure were committed to his keeping. For a 
 time his influence with Colonel Proctor was con- 
 siderable, and he was ready on all occasions to 
 employ it in mitigating the evils of war to his 
 countrymen. But Proctor soon gave such unmis- 
 takable evidence of a tyrannical nature that no 
 one who sympathized with the people placed by 
 the fortune of war at his mercy could possibly for 
 any considerable time cooperate with him in har- 
 mony. It does not appear that any breach took 
 place in their official relations until after the defeat 
 of Winchester at Frenchtown, but the atrocities 
 which attended and followed that disaster to the 
 American arms, and the use which the temporary 
 governor at Detroit would have made of it to 
 bring an unwilling people to abjure allegiance to 
 their own government, not only excited the indig- 
 nation of the chief justice, but convinced him that 
 he could no longer be useful in the attempt to 
 cooperate with a man so wanting in proper feel- 
 ing and so unobservant of the common rights of 
 humanity. 
 
 The military operations important in their bear- 
 ing upon the final possession of Michigan, after 
 the capture of Detroit, can be briefly stated. Fort 
 Dearborn at Chicago, which was within the ju-
 
 182 MICHIGAN. 
 
 risdiction of General Hull, was abandoned on 
 the loth of August, in pursuance of an order 
 which he had sent, but the garrison in returning 
 was captured by hostile Indians and in part mas- 
 sacred. An army entitled the Army of the West 
 was soon put iu process of formation, under the 
 command of General Harrison, who was expected 
 to operate against Upper Canada, and to repossess 
 the country lost by Hull. In January, 1813, 
 General Harrison was at Sandusky, from wlTich 
 place he sent orders to General Winchester at 
 Fort Defiance to move forward and take post 
 at the Rapids of the Maumee, which was promptly 
 accomplished. At the Rapids Winchester received 
 an urgent appeal from Frenchtown for protection 
 against British and Indians who were then threat- 
 ening to plunder the settlement, and he sent out a 
 detachment of near seven hundred men to their 
 assistance. The enemy were attacked and scat- 
 tered with considerable loss, and Winchester on 
 receiving information of the affair, went forward 
 himself with a small reinforcement, and assumed 
 the command. The force which had preceded him 
 was quartered behind pickets in the settlement, 
 and the reinforcement encamped in the open field. 
 Here at daybreak of the next morning, January 
 22d, Winchester was attacked by a British force 
 from Maiden under the command of Proctor, and 
 nearly the whole detachment was killed or cap- 
 tured. Winchester himself was among the pris-
 
 PROCTOR'S INHUMANITY. 183 
 
 oners, and many of his men in endeavoring to 
 escape were tomahawked by Indians. Meantime 
 an assault upon the pickets had been repulsed with 
 heavy loss ; but Proctor having made Winchester 
 believe he could easily destroy the village and 
 drive out the military with his artillery, and that 
 a massacre by the Indians would follow, the latter 
 weakly sent orders for surrender. Major Madison, 
 who was in command, declined to obey until as- 
 sured of protection against the Indians, and the 
 proper assurances were given. Private property 
 was to be respected, a guard was to be provided 
 for the wounded, and sleighs furnished for their 
 removal to Maiden. 
 
 If any attempt was made to keep faith with 
 these stipulations, it was so feeble and ill-con- 
 ducted that it accomplished little or nothing. 
 Proctor did indeed take to Maiden under the pro- 
 tection of his own soldiers such of the prisoners 
 as were able to walk, but the wounded were left 
 behind, where they were plundered by straggling 
 savages ; and after the main body of the Indians 
 had moved off to Stony Creek, a band, some two 
 hundred in number, unable longer to restrain their 
 savage propensities, hurried back to Frenchtown, 
 and began an indiscriminate slaughter. Well has 
 a historian of Canada said, in alluding to this 
 affair : " It is a subject of eternal regret to every 
 true Briton that those biped bloodhounds should
 
 184 MICHIGAN. 
 
 have nm under the shadow of our standard so 
 long and so late." l 
 
 The criminality of Proctor in respect to the 
 massacre of Frenchtown was enhanced, if that be 
 possible, by the fact that citizens, in anticipation 
 of a battle, had specially called his attention to 
 the probability of such an occurrence. Judge 
 Woodward, in a subsequent communication re- 
 viewing the facts, reminded him of the previous 
 apprehensions of the people, which had induced 
 them to press the subject upon his attention 
 previous to the battle, and that their fears had 
 been quieted by his assurance that he considered 
 his own honor pledged for their effectual protec- 
 tion. Proctor affected to disbelieve the reports of 
 barbarities, and called upon the judge for proofs. 
 They were furnished in great abundance, and the 
 story, which was cruel enough when told in sum- 
 mary, was only the more sickening and horrible 
 when given in detail. Proctor, also, as if that to 
 any extent could excuse the massacre, intimated, 
 without directly affirming, that the surrender had 
 been made without pledge of protection on his 
 part ; but he was very properly reminded that the 
 principles of the law of nations impose an obliga- 
 tion almost equally strong ; and the judge might 
 very justly have added that a commander who 
 advances the fact that his prisoners surrendered 
 without first demanding assurances that they shall 
 
 1 Garneau's History of Canada, by Bell, vol. ii. p. 293.
 
 UNJUSTIFIABLE MEASURES. 185 
 
 be treated according to the rules of civilized war 
 as excuse or palliation for his conduct in suffering 
 them to be massacred, is adding, by the brutality 
 of the excuse, to the original enormity. 
 
 For some time after the massacre there might 
 frequently be seen on the streets of Detroit women 
 and children led or driven as the prisoners of sav- 
 ages, and considerable sums were paid by humane 
 people for their ransom. Meantime Proctor, not 
 yet satisfied with the misery inflicted upon the 
 territory, undertook to coerce the citizens of De- 
 troit into taking an oath of allegiance to the king. 
 He seems to have intimated a desire to have the 
 assistance of Judge Woodward in this business ; 
 but that officer, with no little indignation, told 
 him that " in a state of open and declared war a 
 subject or citizen of one party cannot transfer his 
 allegiance to the other party without incurring 
 the penalties of treason ; and while nothing can 
 excuse his guilt, so neither are those innocent who 
 lay temptations before him." Proctor also, with- 
 out just cause so far as is known, ordered from 
 the town a considerable number of its leading 
 citizens, in palpable violation of the terms of 
 Hull's capitulation, which stipulated for the pro- 
 tection of persons and private property. They 
 made spirited protest, but it had no effect upon 
 the British commander ; and Judge Woodward, 
 apparently convinced that he could no longer be 
 of service to his countrymen by remaining in De-
 
 186 MICHIGAN. 
 
 troit as the subordinate of so arbitrary a ruler, 
 withdrew from the territory that he might give 
 the facts to the world. He returned when peace 
 was restored, and took up again his judicial func- 
 tions. 
 
 The capture of Winchester was followed by 
 successive attacks under the leadership of Proctor 
 on Forts Meigs and Stephenson, where his repulse 
 was so decided that he deemed it prudent to fall 
 back with precipitation upon Maiden. But^he 
 career of this obnoxious officer was now rapidly 
 drawing to a close. On the 10th of September, 
 1813, Commodore Perry won his great victory 
 over Commodore Barclay at Put-in Bay, capturing 
 the entire British squadron. Making use of the 
 captured vessels for convoy, the army of Harrison, 
 now largely reinforced, was transferred to Canada 
 and took up offensive operations. Proctor, in great 
 haste, proceeded to dismantle the fortress at Mai- 
 den preparatory to flight. To the great Indian 
 chieftain this looked like an act of cowardice, and 
 he made earnest protest against it. In a formal 
 speech Tecnmseh said to his superior officer, " You 
 have got the arms and ammunition which our 
 great father sent for his red children. If you 
 have an idea of going away, give them to us, and 
 then for all we care you may go and welcome. 
 Our lives are in the hands of the Great Spirit. 
 We are determined to defend our lands, and if it 
 be his will we wish to leave our bones upon
 
 END OF MILITARY OPERATIONS. 187 
 
 them." But the protest and the plainly implied 
 censure were alike in vain. Maiden and Detroit 
 were both evacuated and a hasty retreat made. 
 Detroit on September 29th was reoccupied by an 
 American detachment, and Proctor was pursued 
 and overtaken at the Moravian town, where he 
 sustained a crushing defeat, and only escaped 
 capture by precipitate flight, looking, as some of 
 his own people said, more after his baggage than 
 after his army. Tecumseh, who among Amer- 
 icans had in all respects a better reputation than 
 his superior, and was looked upon as honorable 
 and humane, was killed in the engagement. 
 
 This victory effectually broke for the time the 
 British power in Western Canada, and was the 
 end of important military operations in the vicin- 
 ity of Detroit. Colonel Cass, much to the satis- 
 faction of the people, was stationed with his 
 regiment at that place and given the command. 
 Mackinaw still remained in the hands of the 
 British, and an attempt made by Colonel Croghan 
 to recover it in July, 1814, proved abortive. It 
 was only restored after the conclusion of peace in 
 the spring of the following year. 
 
 After the death of Tecumseh a considerable 
 number of Indians abandoned their British allies, 
 and some of them offered their services to Colonel 
 Cass and were accepted and enrolled by him. But 
 it was not easy to subject them to proper dis- 
 cipline, and their thirst for plunder was so uncon-
 
 188 MICHIGAN. 
 
 trollable that Colonel Cass did not long retain 
 them. Hostile Indians hovered about Detroit and 
 committed occasional depredations until after the 
 peace with Great Britain. A mounted force was 
 sent up from Ohio as a protection against them, 
 and they were soon brought under such fear 
 of punishment as kept them for the most part to 
 a proper observance of the rights of others.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF ACTIVE AMERICAN SETTLE- 
 MENT. 
 
 MICHIGAN had great good fortune in her second 
 territorial governor. Lewis Cass, born in New 
 Hampshire, had settled at Marietta at the age of 
 seventeen, and hud had abundant opportunity to 
 become thoroughly acquainted with the Northwest 
 and its people. He was a lawyer of exceptional 
 ability ; he had been in the legislature of Ohio 
 when the mysterious conspiracy of Burr excited 
 and alarmed the country, and had drawn and pro- 
 cured the passage of a luw to reach and punish 
 such conspiracies. Afterwards he had served as 
 marshal of Ohio, on the appointment of Mr. Jeffer- 
 son. On the breaking out of war with Great 
 Britain, he had entered into military service, with 
 the ambition and courage to make the aggressive 
 campaign which the country had expected of Hull 
 His severe condemnation of that officer, in a letter 
 to the war department, had attracted the attention 
 of the country, and been generally accepted as 
 conclusive of Hull's criminality. Afterwards he 
 had taken part in the brilliant campaign of Harri-
 
 190 MICHIGAN. 
 
 son, which ended in the destruction of the British 
 army in western Canada, the killing of Tecum- 
 seh, and the ignominious flight of Proctor. He 
 had then been assigned to the command at Detroit 
 and became military governor of Michigan. The 
 president could have made no appointment of 
 civil governor more likely to be useful or accepta- 
 ble to the people. 
 
 The territory was also fortunate in its secretary. 
 This office was of great importance, as the secre- 
 tary, in the absence of the governor, would become 
 acting governor ex officio. William Woodbridge 
 was selected for this place, like Cass a lawyer of 
 prominence at Marietta. The two men were as 
 different as possible : the governor, a man of the 
 world, of robust health and active temperament, 
 fond of politics and a natural leader ; the secretary, 
 more frail and of a retiring disposition, and never 
 so happy as when busy at his quiet home among 
 his books. On political questions the two were 
 commonly found in opposition, but there were no 
 unseemly disagreements during the long time they 
 held offices so mutually related, and their official 
 intercourse was always decorous and agreeable, 
 though they were never specially intimate. 
 
 The number of French farms, particularly on 
 the river Detroit, had been slowly increasing. 
 Secretary Woodbridge has left us a picturesque 
 description of their appearance from the river as 
 he came up to take possession of his office : the
 
 THE FUR TRADE IN MICHIGAN. 191 
 
 row of long and narrow farms, with cultivation 
 only in front ; the houses of one story, most of 
 them from ten to eighty years old and fashioned a 
 little like the houses of the low Dutch about New 
 York ; and the moss-grown crucifixes everywhere 
 on gates, barns, and houses, this was what ap- 
 peared on either side the river. 
 
 But it was still to be said of Michigan that its 
 few settlements were far on the frontier, and that 
 its leading interest was that which gathered its 
 harvests in the wilderness. John Jacob Astor had 
 appeared in the fur trade a little before the war, 
 and had negotiated with the British fur companies 
 for the purchase of their interests on the American 
 side of the boundary, but the war had broken up 
 the arrangements, and after it was over Congress, 
 in his interest, passed a law prohibiting foreign 
 traders from prosecuting their enterprises within 
 the limits of the United States. This law, as a re- 
 taliatory measure, was perfectly just, for the Brit- 
 ish companies, by their organization and the man- 
 ner in which they had employed it in the capture 
 of Mackinaw, had given ample demonstration that 
 they were capable of performing the service of a 
 military force, and that they constituted an ever- 
 present danger to the settlements. It was evi- 
 dent, also, that their interests were opposed to the 
 settlement of the country ; and if this fact did 
 not prompt them to foster an unfriendly feeling on 
 the part of the Indians towards the Americans,
 
 192 MICHIGAN. 
 
 it would without doubt keep alive an influence 
 against further cessions of land by the Indian 
 tribes. The exclusion of British fur dealers from 
 American territory was, therefore, justifiable on 
 sound reasons of public policy; and Mr. Astor as 
 the American Fur Company, with his headquar- 
 ters on the island of Mackinaw, soon had the 
 woods full of savage and half savage people, 
 working in his interest and gathering for him the 
 forest treasures that soon made him one of"*tLe 
 great merchant princes of the world. 
 
 The fur trade, however, could neither colonize 
 Michigan nor enrich it. It brought some money 
 and some goods into the territory and assisted in 
 giving a certain activity to business at the centres 
 of trade. But the period immediately following 
 the war was one of great depression and general 
 stagnation in business, and the derangement of the 
 currency was such that losses from that source 
 were constant and unavoidable. Steady progress 
 and prosperity were impossible while this state of 
 things continued. 
 
 Michigan also needed to be better known. The 
 country knew almost nothing of it, and the com- 
 mon belief was that there was a fine belt of terri- 
 tory on the eastern border, but that the interior 
 was avast swamp which might well be abandoned 
 to fur-bearing animals and the trappers and hunt- 
 ers. This belief was countenanced by the geog- 
 raphers of the day ; for even Morse, who was con-
 
 TREATMENT OF INDIANS. 193 
 
 sidered authority, gave it currency in the books 
 which were made use of in colleges and schools. 
 It was supported also by the reports of surveyors 
 who were sent out by the general government, and 
 who reported without much investigation what 
 they supposed to be the fact. A notable instance 
 is that of the party who were charged with the 
 duty of making surveys for bounty lands for the 
 soldiers who had served in the late war. These 
 surveyors professed to have made an examination 
 of the country, beginning at the northern terminus 
 of the boundary line between Ohio and Indiana 
 and proceeding thence north fifty miles ; and they 
 reported finding only tamarack swamps, bogs, and 
 sand barrens, with not one acre in a hundred fit 
 for cultivation ; a most astounding report, and 
 quite impossible to have been honestly made, if 
 they had examined the country as they professed 
 to have done. But it was conclusive for the time, 
 and the soldiers were sent farther west for their 
 bounty lands, not probably to their advantage. 
 
 Other causes besides ignorance of the country 
 were delaying its settlement. Many Indians were 
 still in the territory, whose presence was disqui- 
 eting, and the governor deemed it of high im- 
 portance that, so far as should be found possible, 
 consistently with justice, they should be removed 
 to the distant west. They had, now, in two wars 
 been employed by the British against the Ameri- 
 cans, and they were regular pensioners on British 
 
 13
 
 194 MICHIGAN. 
 
 bounty. They gathered annually in considerable 
 numbers at Maiden and at Drummond's Island to 
 receive payments and presents, and while their 
 attachment to the British was thus perpetuated, 
 their animosity to the Americans was to some 
 extent kept alive also. They passed back and 
 forth through the territory in large bands, and 
 were likely to encamp in the vicinity of white 
 settlements, whenever there was opportunity for 
 doing so, and their drunken orgies and sa"fage 
 antics made them a source of constant dread and 
 danger. 
 
 Governor Cass, therefore, who was made super- 
 intendent of Indian affairs for the Northwest, gave 
 early attention to the extinguishment of the In- 
 dian title. One treaty of cession was made as 
 early as 1814; another and very important one 
 was concluded at Fort Meigs, on September 29, 
 1817, by which the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, 
 Shawanese, Pottawatamie, Ottawa, and Chip- 
 pewa tribes of Indians surrendered nearly all the 
 lands they claimed in Ohio, and large districts in 
 Indiana and Michigan, constituting in all nearly 
 four millions of acres. Sixteen other treaties 
 were negotiated during his administration, mainly 
 through his management, resulting in the transfer 
 of a large part of the Indians to the country west 
 of the Mississippi. In all his dealings with them 
 the governor proceeded in a spirit of perfect fair- 
 ness, refusing at any time to resort to coercion,
 
 SALES OF PUBLIC LANDS. 195 
 
 but waiting for a more propitious day when he 
 found success by fair means impossible. He thus 
 preserved for himself the respect of the Indians, 
 and secured for his people their good will. 
 
 It was next important that the lands acquired 
 by the United States should be brought into 
 market. Congress in 1796 had provided for the 
 survey and sale of the public lands in sections of 
 six hundred and forty acres, at a minimum price 
 of two dollars an acre, giving credit for a part of 
 the purchase-price if desired. Changes were after- 
 wards made in the interest of purchasers with 
 small means, and in 1817 sales in eighty-acre lots 
 were authorized. In 1818 the surveys had so far 
 progressed that sales were begun in Michigan. 
 In 1820 the minimum price was reduced to one 
 dollar twenty-five cents an acre. Ten years later 
 preemption rights began to be given to actual 
 settlers upon the public lands. By this legislation 
 it was made easy for any prudent and industri- 
 ous person to obtain land sufficient for moderate 
 wants. 
 
 Governor Cass meanwhile was active and vigi- 
 lant in furthering the interests of his government. 
 In 1818, on the admission of Illinois to the Union 
 as a state, the territory of Michigan had been 
 enlarged by the addition to it of all that part of 
 the Northwest Territory lying west of Lake Mich- 
 igan and north of .Illinois ; an addition, the value 
 of which was at the time very little known. The
 
 196 MICHIGAN. 
 
 governor now determined to visit in person the 
 upper lake region, with a view to inquire into 
 the condition of the Indians, their numbers and 
 sentiments ; to explain to them that their an- 
 nual visits to the British authorities at Maiden 
 were offensive to him and must be discontinued ; 
 to obtain further cessions if possible ; to investi- 
 gate the copper region; and to make himself 
 familiar with facts concerning the British and 
 American fur trade. This comprehensive plan* was 
 carried out by the governor in 1820, when he tra- 
 versed the lakes with a party in open boats, hold- 
 ing councils with the Indians by the way, at one 
 of which a cession of land at the Sault St. Marie 
 was secured. But the Indians were generally 
 found to be unfriendly and completely under Brit- 
 ish control. At the Sault, when the governor 
 signified his purpose to construct a new fort, there 
 were plain intimations that it would not be per- 
 mitted, and one of the chiefs spurned with a con- 
 temptuous kick the presents which had been laid 
 out for him. When the council broke up for the 
 day, the Indians withdrew and raised the British 
 flag before the tent of one of their chiefs ; but 
 Governor Cass, on perceiving it, immediately pro- 
 ceeded, without arms and unattended, to take it 
 down and bear it away with him, regardless of the 
 menacing aspect of the savages and of their mut- 
 tered threats. It was a bold act but as wise as it 
 was bold, and though for a time an armed collision
 
 ABSENCE OF GOOD ROADS. 197 
 
 seemed imminent, the undaunted demeanor of the 
 governor had its effect, and the Indians, when 
 they were given distinctly to understand that the 
 fort would be built and American supremacy 
 maintained, returned to the council in a more sub- 
 missive mood, and consented to enter upon an 
 amicable consideration of the subjects the governor 
 brought before it. 
 
 Another matter of immediate and pressing im- 
 portance was that of roads. Immigrants could 
 not come into the territory in any considerable 
 numbers so long as they must find their way 
 through the woods by trails, or by roads cut out 
 but never worked, and which in a little while by 
 use became nearly impassable. At the conclusion 
 of the war there were no good roads anywhere in 
 the territory. Lake Erie was then open, but there 
 were no regular passenger vessels of any kind upon 
 it. Neither was there any considerable popula- 
 tion bordering it from which Michigan might ex- 
 pect accessions. Such immigration as then came 
 to the territory would be likely to take the road 
 around the west end of Lake Erie, a road the 
 national importance of which, not less for military 
 than for civil purposes, had been fully demon- 
 strated in the late war. The governor, therefore, 
 with the efficient aid of the secretary, called the 
 attention of the federal government to it, and the 
 secretary in person pressed it upon the attention 
 of Congress with such effect that an appropriation
 
 198 MICHIGAN. 
 
 in aid of it was at length secured. The resources 
 of the territory, so far as with reason they could 
 be applied to this purpose, were appropriated to 
 the construction of a highway from Detroit to 
 Chicago, and other roads of similar importance, 
 and it became possible to penetrate the territory 
 in various directions with the ordinary means of 
 country transportation, as it had never been be- 
 fore. The results were so beneficial that the 
 population of the territory, which for fifty years 
 had been nearly stationary, began steadily, though 
 slowly, to increase, and by 1820 not only had the 
 losses by the war been made good, but the num- 
 ber of the people was found to be twice as great 
 as it was at the preceding census. 
 
 Meantime the question of change in the terri- 
 torial government was being agitated. In 1818, 
 under a belief that the population of the territory 
 now entitled the people to be represented in the 
 legislative department, the question was submitted 
 to a popular vote, whether they desired to be thus 
 represented. The answer by the voters, the most 
 of whom were still French, was a decided nega- 
 tive. The people had found nothing to object to 
 in the existing government and they cared for no 
 change. Moreover, to them the duties and the 
 burdens of government seem to have had no 
 special attractions. They were also still poor 
 from the exhaustion of the war, and the cost of 
 the proposed change in government was used as a
 
 FATHER RICHARD. 199 
 
 powerful argument against it. They were, how- 
 ever, given the privilege of electing a delegate to 
 Congress in 1819, and William Woodbridge was 
 first chosen. After a short incumbency he re- 
 tired, and was succeeded by Judge Solomon Sib- 
 ley, and he in turn by Father Richard. 
 
 Father Richard was now in his sixtieth year. 
 He had built St. Anne's Church at Detroit under 
 many difficulties of a pecuniary nature, and he 
 now officiated there to a large congregation. He 
 was a favorite with the people at large, and was 
 easily persuaded that, as territorial delegate, he 
 might be exceptionally useful at Washington. But 
 he was not universally liked by his parishioners, 
 with whose faults he was not over-indulgent ; and 
 it is a fact not unworthy of mention that when 
 elected delegate he was under arrest on an exe- 
 cution in favor of one of them. One of his people 
 had obtained a divorce from his wife contrary to 
 the laws of the church, and had then married 
 again ; and the father arraigned him in church 
 and denounced him, in the presence of the congre- 
 gation, as an adulterer. For this language he was 
 prosecuted and a judgment of a thousand dol- 
 lars obtained, which he refused to pay, preferring 
 to suffer imprisonment, rather than recognize the 
 rightfulness of this judicial interference with his 
 clerical functions. His privilege as a member of 
 Congress enabled him to obtain relief for the time 
 being, and eventually the equally plain privilege
 
 200 MICHIGAN. 
 
 belonging to his sacred office was very properly 
 recognized by the court, and the judgment ar- 
 rested. He served one term as delegate to the 
 satisfaction of the people, and was then succeeded 
 by Austin E. Wing, some of the Catholics lead- 
 ing the opposition which defeated him. But he 
 turned patiently and without complaint to his 
 more legitimate work, to which he devoted him- 
 self with unwearied assiduity until 1832, when he 
 fell a victim to the cholera, dying full of years, 
 and grateful for the long life of labor and useful- 
 ness which had been accorded him. 
 
 Long before this time other denominations of 
 Christians had come to be represented in the ter- 
 ritory by their teachers and pastors; the Meth- 
 odists, who in the new West have commonly been 
 the pioneers, were gathering a little congregation 
 at Detroit as early as 1809, and in 1816 the Rev. 
 John Monteith, of whom we shall hear again, was 
 delivering carefully prepared written discourses 
 with decided Calvinistic leaning, to Protestants 
 without distinction. And before long began 
 changes in government. In 1823 the legislative 
 power was finally transferred from the governor 
 and judges to the governor and a council of nine, 
 the members of the council being selected by 
 the president and confirmed by the Senate from 
 eighteen chosen by the people. By this change 
 Michigan was advanced to the second grade in ter- 
 ritorial government. Two years later came an-
 
 THE PRACTICE OF SELF-GOVERNMENT. 201 
 
 other change in the increase of the councilmen 
 to thirteen, and in 1827 the exclusive power of 
 choice was left to the people. 
 
 This last change, which established the third 
 grade in territorial government, made the people 
 to a large extent self-governing. It m;iy be as- 
 sumed to have been made on the recommendation 
 of the governor, for it was in entire accord with his 
 well known views. Though in his own office a 
 creature of executive power, he was a thorough 
 believer in self-government of tlie people, and de- 
 sired to see the power of appointment which was 
 vested in him transferred to the voters. In one of 
 his messages he urged an application to Congress 
 for a change of the law in this regard, and he 
 sometimes advised the holding of popular elections 
 as a guide to his own action in making appoint- 
 ments. But the democratic tendencies of his mind 
 were perhaps most distinctly manifested in his 
 recommendations on the subject of popular educa- 
 tion, of which more will be heard farther on. 
 
 Under the organic law the governor had power 
 to organize counties, and this power he exercised 
 freely as occasion required. In 1825 the legisla- 
 tive council was empowered to divide the counties 
 into townships, and the township system was then 
 introduced which in its main features has con- 
 tinued to this day. But other changes were now 
 taking place which were quite as significant in 
 their influence upon the growth and prosperity of
 
 202 MICHIGAN. 
 
 the territory as the changes in government. Pre- 
 vious to 1809 there had been no printing press in 
 the territory and Governor Hull was compelled to 
 procure the printing of his orders and proclama- 
 tions when they were printed at all several 
 hundred miles away. Even the laws were not 
 printed as they appeared, and some of them, re- 
 maining in manuscript, were mislaid or abstracted 
 and all evidence of them lost. The first printing 
 press was brought to the territory in 1809* by 
 Father Richard, and a little paper called the 
 " Michigan Essay and Impartial Observer " 
 started ; but it had brief existence. In 1816 the 
 Cass Code, as it was popularly called, was pub- 
 lished. It was, in the main, a mere abstract of 
 the laws in force, the territorial funds not justify- 
 ing a full publication. In 1817 the day of news- 
 papers for Michigan had come, and the " Detroit 
 Gazette " was begun, followed in 1825 by another 
 paper at Detroit, in 1829 by a third at Ann Ar- 
 bor, and in 1830 by others at Monroe and Pon- 
 tiac. These were not merely journals of current 
 news, but at times they discussed public affairs 
 and important political questions with ability and 
 vigor. Now also dawned the day of steamboats. 
 The Walk-in-the-Water made its appearance at 
 Detroit in 1818 and was hailed as the harbinger 
 of a new era. The next year it advanced as far 
 as Mackinaw, to the astonishment of the savages 
 who were mischievously made to believe it was
 
 GOVERNOR CASS IN JACKSON'S CABINET. 203 
 
 drawn by a team of trained sturgeons. The great 
 event of the period, however, and that which had 
 most to do with giving sudden impetus to the 
 growth of Michigan and bringing to it the pop- 
 ulation that shortly had planted settlements and 
 reared churches and school-houses all through its 
 central and southern parts, was the opening in 
 1825 of the Erie Canal. It was not long after 
 this before steamers were abundant on the lakes; 
 no less than seven on Lake Erie in 1826, and four 
 years thereafter a daily line was running between 
 Detroit and Buffalo. The fort at Detroit was 
 abandoned, as having become an anachronism, in 
 1827, and in the same year flour began on a small 
 scale to be exported. In 1830 the population had 
 risen to 32,538, and the territory was self-support- 
 ing. By the time Governor Cass was summoned 
 by President Jackson to a seat in his cabinet in 
 1831, the little frontier settlements which he had 
 come on to defend in 1812 had extended and 
 spread to the dimensions of a commonwealth 
 under his judicious and statesmanlike care and 
 nurture. 
 
 There was some feeling of territorial pride that 
 Jackson had looked to this distant region for a 
 member of his cabinet, but the people of the ter- 
 ritory parted with the governor with great reluc- 
 tance. He had not only managed the public 
 affairs with ability and unquestioned integrity, 
 but his example had been excellent and his innu-
 
 204 MICHIGAN. 
 
 ence of the best. Governing frontier settlements 
 where rough characters abounded and roystering 
 habits prevailed, he was always in his own deport- 
 ment courteous and complaisant, always abste- 
 mious, always self-respecting ; and as unexception- 
 able in his private character and in all his domestic 
 and social relations as he was in his public capacity 
 and deportment. Permanent American settlement 
 may be said to have begun with him ; and it was 
 a great and lasting boon to Michigan when it^as 
 given a governor at once so able, so patriotic, so 
 attentive to his duties, and so worthy in his public 
 and private life of respect and esteem.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE TERRITORY ADVANCES TO THE DIGNITY 
 OF A STATE. 
 
 WHEN Lewis Cass resigned the office of gov- 
 ernor of Michigan, there were living within the 
 territory many men of ability and education, who 
 were thoroughly familiar with its affairs and fully 
 possessed of the public confidence. The appoint- 
 ment of any one of these to the vacant office would 
 have been recognized as that of a competent and 
 suitable person. Some of them as, for example, 
 William Woodbridge, who had been secretary of 
 the territory, and as such had occasionally acted 
 as governor in the absence of Governor Cass, and 
 who, after resigning the office of secretary, had 
 been successively delegate in Congress and judge, 
 and Austin E. Wing, who had also been dele- 
 gate in Congress were already well known at 
 Washington, and others might have been known 
 through Governor Cass had he been consulted. 
 The late governor was a democrat by conviction 
 and not merely in a party sense ; it was no new 
 doctrine with him, when, in his famous Nicholson 
 letter, previous to the meeting of the nominating
 
 206 MICHIGAN. 
 
 convention of his party in 1848, he laid down the 
 proposition respecting the inherent right of the 
 people of the territories to self-government which, 
 by way of ridicule, was christened by his oppo- 
 nents as the doctrine of squatter sovereignty ; he 
 had himself as governor endeavored to devolve 
 upon the people as belonging to them of right such 
 appointing power as the law had confided to him ; 
 jind it is not probable, had he been consulted by 
 the president respecting officers for the territory 
 he was leaving, that he would have advised look- 
 ing beyond the territory itself for such officers, or 
 that he would have felt any difficulty in naming 
 perfectly competent men, who had cast their for- 
 tunes with the territory, for every important office 
 in it. It is very rare that a new community in a 
 frontier region contains among its members so 
 many men of culture and ability as Michigan had 
 among its citizens while it remained a territory ; 
 and there could have been no just excuse for treat- 
 ing it as a community unfit to govern itself, and 
 requiring rulers sent in from abroad to govern it. 
 This had been necessary in the case of the North- 
 west Territory, for the settlement was in its in- 
 fancy and everybody was a new-comer when the 
 organization took place ; and it was excusable 
 also in the cases of earlier appointments for Mich- 
 igan, considering its peculiar population and cir- 
 cumstances. The excuse no longer existed in 
 view of the large, intelligent, and self-respecting 
 population which the territory had acquired.
 
 JACKSON'S APPOINTMENTS TO OFFICE. 207 
 
 But a period had now arrived constituting a 
 new era in American politics, when for a long 
 time no general maxim of government was to be 
 so powerful at Washington as the maxim that to 
 the victor belong the spoils of office. This maxim 
 of war, when war meant robbery and plunder, was 
 now being adopted in the civil administration of 
 the government, and was to vitalize all political 
 life and be the chief spring of all political action 
 and energy. As the people of the territories had 
 no vote, they constituted no part of the victors 
 who had captured and taken possession of the gen- 
 eral government, and were, therefore, entitled to 
 no consideration in the distribution of rewards. 
 These must go to Virginia, Pennsylvania, and 
 other states, where many citizens who had shown 
 their patriotism by their labors in electing the 
 president were now waiting in expectation of re- 
 ceiving their share in the division of what had 
 been won at that election. Personal fitness for 
 office was found in the fact that claims had been 
 established by labors in securing the election of 
 the presidential incumbent, and this, if not suffi- 
 cient for all cases, would seem to have been 
 thought ample in the case of a merely territorial 
 position. But circumstances of a more personal 
 nature might also have some influence, and it 
 therefore caused no surprise when Mr. John T. 
 Mason of Virginia, brother - in - law to the late 
 Postmaster-general Barry, but wholly ignorant of
 
 208 MICHIGAN. 
 
 the territory and its people, was appointed terri- 
 torial secretary. What fitness he might have de- 
 veloped for the office no one can tell, as he soon 
 elected not to discharge its duties, and went 
 abroad on an enterprise for private parties. The 
 president thereupon transferred the appointment 
 to Stevens T. Mason, his son. The only reason 
 ever advanced for this selection, and the only one 
 that could have existed, was that the father re- 
 quested it. ~* 
 
 The appointment of a successor to Governor 
 Cass had not as yet been made, and by law the 
 new secretary would be acting governor and also 
 acting superintendent of Indian affairs. A rumor 
 soon spread that young Mason was under the age 
 of legal majority ; that in fact he was but nineteen 
 years of age ; and his personal appearance indi- 
 cated the truth of the rumor. A committee of 
 citizens was thereupon appointed to inquire into 
 the facts ; and on calling upon him was frankly 
 told by the young gentleman that he was indeed 
 under age, but he added that the president very 
 well knew the fact when he made the appoint- 
 ment. Young as the secretary was, he had not 
 failed to imbibe the spirit which was dictating the 
 distribution of political favors ; and he justified 
 the appointment to the committee on the ground 
 that the emoluments of the office were needed 
 for the support of his father's family while the 
 father was absent from the country. To a com-
 
 THE HUMOR OF THE PRESIDENT. 209 
 
 mittee, some of whose members had the old-fash- 
 ioned notion that offices were to be created and 
 filled on public, not on private considerations, the 
 reason assigned seemed only an aggravation of 
 the original wrong. The papers of the day de- 
 clared that the people of the territory were out- 
 raged by this attempt to place a boy in authority 
 over gray heads. Even the Indians, it was said, 
 would know better than this. " They know, if we 
 do not, that age and talents are to be treated with 
 respect, and that boys are not to mingle in the 
 councils of the elders ; much less to assume au- 
 thority over them." But the people wasted breath 
 and the editors their ink. The president was 
 taking care of his friends, and was making prece- 
 dents to be followed and enjoyed by many suc- 
 cessors. If it pleased him to send a boy to sit in 
 the seat of Cass and play governor, complaints of 
 the people concerned would no more move him 
 than the howling of wild beasts in their forests. 
 The official organ at Washington, a large part of 
 whose business it was to defend removals made at 
 the mere will of the president, did indeed take 
 notice of the complaints, but only to advance, 
 with assumed gravity, in reply to their protests, 
 that as young Mason, whether properly appointed 
 or not, was now in office, he could not with pro- 
 priety be removed so long as he was not guilty of 
 official misconduct ; and with this answer the peo- 
 ple were forced to content themselves as best they 
 
 14
 
 210 MICHIGAN. 
 
 might. But in a new country, with much that is 
 new constantly demanding attention, a good-na- 
 tured people are not likely to nurture resentments; 
 and when, at a parting banquet to the late gov- 
 ernor, after wine had flowed freely and merriment 
 was at its height, the elder Mason appealed to the 
 assembled guests to "give the boy a trial," they 
 responded with hearty good nature, and promised 
 him their support. 
 
 The appointment of governor fell to George B. 
 Porter of Pennsylvania, a lawyer in large practice 
 whose engagements kept him away from the terri- 
 tory for nearly a year, and who was frequently 
 absent afterwards. Mason was, therefore, acting 
 governor for nearly the whole remaining period of 
 territorial existence. But the boy-governor was 
 conciliatory in his ways ; he was genial according 
 to the customs of the times ; there was very little 
 for him to do until the boundary controversy with 
 Ohio broke out, and when it did, he pleased the 
 people by the spirited manner in which he es- 
 poused .and defended the rights of the territory, 
 and in the end, after by actual occupancy of the 
 office he had acquired some fitness for its duties, 
 his administration became as popular as at first it 
 had been obnoxious. 
 
 But Jackson was not satisfied with sending on 
 executive officers from distant states ; he removed 
 the judges, who were performing their duties satis- 
 factorily, that he might give their places to gen-
 
 IMMIGRATION INTO MICHIGAN. 211 
 
 tlemen from New York and Pennsylvania who 
 wanted them. One of the judges removed was 
 William Woodbridge, an able lawyer and an up- 
 right man, whose character was above reproach. 
 The feeling against his removal was very strong 
 and the members of the bar gave expression to 
 it in a public testimonial. Seven years later he 
 became governor of the State, and was shortly 
 al'ter elected senator in Congress. 
 
 The stream of immigration continued to pour 
 into the territory, and early in 1832 the question 
 of applying for admission to the Union began to 
 be agitated. The major part of the immigration 
 was from New England, New York, and Ohio, and 
 was of people accustomed to self-rule, who valued 
 highly the privilege of choosing their own officers. 
 They were, besides, coming to understand how 
 invaluable were the natural resources of the terri- 
 tory, and were vaguely forming in their minds 
 schemes for development by means of canals and 
 railroads. It was supposed there were, by this 
 time, fifty thousand people in the territory, and in 
 another year there would be more than sixty 
 thousand. It was one of the articles of compact 
 in the Ordinance of 1787 that so soon as any of the 
 three or five states to be formed out of the North- 
 west Territory " shall have sixty thousand free in- 
 habitants therein, such state shall be admitted by 
 its delegates into the Congress of the United 
 States on an equal footing with the original states
 
 212 MICHIGAN. 
 
 in all respects whatever." It seemed proper, 
 therefore, to take the opinion of the people on the 
 question of forming a state government, and an 
 election was held in the fall of 1832 at which a 
 large majority of votes was cast for the proposi- 
 tion. But other matters were this year interesting 
 the people more than matters of government. 
 War with Indians on the Mississippi, known as 
 Black Hawk's War, had broken out and spread a 
 vague terror through the country as far easj; as 
 Lake Erie. The cholera also made its appearance 
 in Michigan, and its ravages at Detroit were so 
 alarming that hundreds fled in dismay to the 
 woods where many died or were devoured by wild 
 beasts. The troops sent forward by steamboat to 
 the scene of military operations died in such num- 
 bers that general panic prevailed, and the solemn 
 custom of ringing the passing bell for the departed, 
 which up to this time had been observed in De- 
 troit, became so continuous and so fearful a mes- 
 sage of warning in the ears of the people, and 
 added so much to the general alarm that it was 
 discontinued. Cases of cholera continued to occur 
 for the next two years, and in July, 1834, Gov- 
 ernor Porter himself died of it. President Jack- 
 son nominated Henry D. Gilpin of Pennsylvania 
 to the vacancy^ but the Senate refused to con- 
 firm him and no further attempt was made to fill 
 the place. ^ 
 
 Before the alarm caused by the cholera had
 
 ENLARGEMENT OF MICHIGAN. 213 
 
 passed away, Detroit was excited by a negro riot 
 which led to the most disquieting apprehensions 
 of arson and general plunder. There were now 
 considerable -numbers of negroes in the town, 
 some of whom were fugitives from slavery ; and 
 it was from an unsuccessful attempt to return 
 two of these to their master that the riot arose. 
 Some fires occurring near the time were attrib- 
 uted to a purpose by the negroes to burn the town ; 
 the mayor of the city, in alarm, called upon the 
 secretary of war for military protection, and a 
 company of soldiers was sent. But the alarm was 
 probably without further cause than must always 
 exist when a considerable part of the population 
 is held in public estimation and treatment as de- 
 graded, and it soon died away. 
 
 At this time Michigan was enlarged by the ad- 
 dition of the territory west of the Mississippi and 
 north of Missouri, as far west as the Missouri and 
 White Earth rivers, and counties were laid out 
 in that distant country. But the people were 
 now becoming earnest in their desire for state gov- 
 ernment. A census was ordered in 1834, which 
 showed that there were within that portion of the 
 territory which by the Ordinance of 1787 was to 
 constitute one of the five states 87,278 inhab- 
 itants ; considerably more than were necessary to 
 entitle it to admission 'as a state in the Union 
 under the compact. Congress was, therefore, me- 
 morialized to set off the western teriitory from
 
 214 MICHIGAN. 
 
 Michigan ; and in anticipation of compliance the 
 people west of Lake Michigan were allowed to 
 name one of their own number for a delegate in 
 Congress. In April, 1835, an election was held of 
 delegates to a state convention for forming a state 
 constitution, and this convention met at Detroit 
 in May and agreed upon a constitution which was 
 submitted to the people and approved by them in 
 October. 
 
 This action excited a boundary controversy 
 with Ohio which threatened serious consequences. 
 To understand its merits it is necessary to go back 
 to the Ordinance of 1787. One of the Articles of 
 Compact of the ordinance was that there should 
 be formed in the Northwest Territory thereby 
 organized not less than three nor more than five 
 states, and the boundaries were designated. If 
 three were formed, they were to be bounded on 
 the east and west by lines which now constitute 
 the east and west boundaries of Ohio, Indiana, 
 and Illinois respectively, but continued north to 
 the national boundary. But Congress reserved the 
 right to form one or two states in that part of 
 the territory which lay north of an east and west 
 line drawn through the southerly bend or ex- 
 treme of Lake Michigan. This was declared to 
 be an article of compact " between the original 
 states and the people and the states in said terri- 
 tory," and by the express terms of the ordinance 
 was to " forever remain unalterable unless by
 
 CONTROVERSY WITH OHIO. 215 
 
 common consent," and it never by common con- 
 sent had been abrogated or changed. On the 
 contrary, in the enabling act for the admission of 
 Ohio to the Union, the northern boundary of that 
 State had been made an east and west line drawn 
 through the southern extreme of Lake Michigan, 
 running east from its intersection with a due north 
 line from the mouth of the Great Miami, to Lake 
 Erie or the territorial line, and thence, with the 
 territorial line through Lake Erie to the Pennsyl- 
 vania line. The act providing for the organization 
 of the Territory of Michigan had made this same 
 northern boundary of Ohio the southern boundary 
 of Michigan, and the setting off of that territory 
 with a western boundary extending through the 
 centre of Lake Michigan to its northern point and 
 thence north to the national boundary, was re- 
 garded as conclusive of the election of Congress to 
 form five states instead of three out of the North- 
 west Territory ; the farther territory west of Lake 
 Michigan having been afterwards attached to 
 Michigan for merely temporary purposes of gov- 
 ernment. The people of Michigan had, therefore, 
 two rights solemnly guarantied to them by the 
 ordinance, neither of which could be taken from 
 them without their consent. These were, first, to 
 have a line drawn due east from the southern ex- 
 treme of Lake Michigan for their southern bound- 
 ary, and, second, to be admitted to the Union as 
 a state on reaching a population of sixty thou-
 
 216 MICHIGAN. 
 
 sand. Up to this time the Territory had exercised 
 jurisdiction to the line in dispute, had appointed 
 officers, collected taxes, and granted charters to 
 corporations which were now without contention 
 exercising their corporate functions. 
 
 On the other hand it was said with truth by Ohio, 
 that when the Ordinance of 1787 was adopted, the 
 true location of the southern extreme of Lake 
 Michigan was not known, and was supposed to be 
 much farther north than it actually was ; that, 
 by some well-informed people, it was supposed, 
 even so late as when Ohio was made a state, to be 
 so far north that a line drawn due east from it 
 would leave the Frenchtown settlement to the 
 south of it and therefore within Ohio; but the 
 convention which adopted the constitution for that 
 state, under the enabling act of Congress, in order 
 to provide for the contingency of the line running 
 farther to the south than was commonly supposed, 
 had accepted the northern boundary with the pro- 
 viso "that if the southerly bend or extreme of 
 Lake Michigan should extend so far south that a 
 line drawn due east from it should not intersect 
 Lake Erie, or if it should intersect said Lake 
 Erie east of the mouth of the Miami river of the 
 Lakes, then, and in that case with the assent of 
 the Congress of the United States, the northern 
 boundary of this state shall be established by 
 and extend to a line running from the southerly 
 extreme of Lake Michigan to the most northerly
 
 CONTROVERSY WITH OHIO. 217 
 
 extreme of the Miami Bay, after intersecting the 
 due north line from the mouth of the,Great Miami 
 River aforesaid, thence northeast to the territorial 
 line, and by the said territorial line to the Penn- 
 sylvania line." Congress, after the constitution 
 containing this proviso had been adopted, had 
 declared Ohio a state in the Union, and this, it was 
 claimed, was an implied consent to the proviso. 
 Congress had since admitted the States of In- 
 diana and Illinois to the Union, and in each 
 instance had carried the northern boundary con- 
 siderably to the north of a line drawn through 
 the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan ; 
 and this, it was insisted, as the supreme legislative 
 authority of the Union, it had undoubted power 
 to do, whatever view might be taken of the ordi- 
 nance as a "compact." This last claim was dis- 
 puted by Michigan, as being equivalent to a claim 
 that one party to a compact may annul it at its 
 own pleasure ; but it was also denied that in the 
 case of the boundary between Ohio and Michigan 
 Congress had ever consented to any change. On 
 the contrary, it was shown that Ohio had applied 
 for the consent of Congress to the boundary as 
 proposed by the proviso above given, and had not 
 succeeded in obtaining it. The case between Ohio 
 and Michigan stood, therefore, upon the Ordinance 
 of 1787, unaffected by subsequent congressional 
 action ; and what had been done in the cases of 
 Indiana and Illinois did not in any way complicate
 
 218 MICHIGAN. 
 
 or affect it. Possibly those cases might become 
 the subjects of legal controversy, and if they should, 
 it would be time enough to consider them. 
 
 Such was the condition of the question when 
 Governor Lucas of Ohio, early in 1835, procured 
 legislation in his state for taking possession of the 
 disputed territory, which included the present city 
 of Toledo, for the election of officers for it, and for 
 running and marking the boundary line accord- 
 ing to the Ohio claim. Michigan responded with 
 legislation making it highly penal to accept or 
 exercise any public office within the territory, ex- 
 cept under commission of the United States or 
 of Michigan. It was not long before the militia 
 were called out on both sides to enforce the re- 
 spective claims. An armed collision being thus 
 imminent, the president took notice of the contro- 
 versy and called upon the attorney-general for his 
 opinion. The attorney - general responded that 
 until Congress should give express assent to the 
 change in the Ohio boundary, the territory in dis- 
 pute must be considered as belonging to Michigan. 
 The position was an embarrassing one to the pres- 
 ident. It would be his duty, under the opinion of 
 the attorney-general, to restrain the proceedings 
 of the Ohio authorities, and to employ for that 
 purpose the military power if necessary. But this 
 might lose the State of Ohio to the party of which 
 the president was the head ; and it was already a 
 great state and might possibly hold the balance of
 
 ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE. 219 
 
 power in the next presidential election. He might 
 also displease the States of Indiana and Illinois, 
 both of which were interested adversely to the 
 Michigan claim. Here were three great states, 
 with considerable votes in the electoral college, 
 on one side, and a territory with no vote at all on 
 the other ; and John Quincy Adams might well 
 say, as he did : " Never in the course of my life 
 have I known a controversy of which all the right 
 was so clear on one side, and all the power so 
 overwhelmingly on the other ; never a case where 
 the temptation was so intense to take the strong- 
 est side, and the duty of taking the weakest was 
 so thankless." The president, feeling the temp- 
 tation and dreading the duty, sent Mr. Richard 
 Rush and Mr. B. C. Howard as peace commis- 
 sioners to arrange the difficulty, but their efforts 
 were without avail. Toledo was the real subject 
 of the controversy ; it was indivisible, and there 
 could be no compromise in respect to it. 
 
 Meantime the situation was greatly complicated 
 by the organization of a state government in 
 Michigan, and the assumption of state powers. 
 At the same time that the constitution was voted 
 upon, state officers, executive and legislative, were 
 elected provisionally, who, on the adoption of 
 that instrument, assumed their respective offices. 
 Stevens T. Mason, acting governor of the Ter- 
 ritory, was elected governor of the State, and Ed- 
 ward Mundy, lieutenant-governor; judges were
 
 220 MICHIGAN. 
 
 appointed and courts organized ; the legislature 
 met and elected Lucius Lyon and John Norvell 
 United States senators. Isaac E. Crary, at the 
 general election, had been chosen representative 
 in Congress. All this was done under the claim 
 that, by the Ordinance of 1787, the people, now 
 that the population exceeded sixty thousand, had 
 an absolute and indefeasible right to form a state 
 government ; and the representatives of the State 
 went on to Washington to demand admission to 
 the seats in Congress to which they claimed by 
 right to be entitled. 
 
 It was very certain, however, that though Michi- 
 gan might have a right to recognition as a state, the 
 right was not so far absolute as that its observance 
 could be compelled. Congress alone could recog- 
 nize a state as a member of the Union, and admit 
 its representatives to seats in the two houses; and 
 if it should refuse to do this, even in the plainest 
 case of right, no means or method of compelling 
 it to take the proper action could possibly exist. 
 Michigan, if a state in fact, was, therefore, a state 
 out of the Union, and must stay out of the Union 
 until it should please Congress to grant admission. 
 Nor was it at all probable that admission would 
 be granted while the boundary controversy with 
 Ohio remained undetermined. The president was 
 known to be displeased with the action of Acting 
 Governor Mason in respect to that controversy, 
 and in September, 1835, he appointed to succeed
 
 MR. HORNER NOT GOVERNOR DE FACTO. 221 
 
 him as governor John S. Horner of Virginia, a 
 y filing man as ignorant of the territory and of the 
 people as Mason bad been when first appointed. 
 When it is considered that Michigan, at this time, 
 had a population of not less than a hundred 
 thousand people, and that there could probably 
 be found in every organized county many persons 
 better fitted to be their governor than the man 
 sent on to occupy that office, the abuse of the 
 appointing power in the case is seen to have been 
 most flagrant. The appointee came on and at- 
 tempted to act as pacificator, but instead of be- 
 ing received with respect, he was treated with 
 indifference or subjected to practical jokes, and in 
 a public meeting held at Detroit it was plainly 
 intimated that the people would not be displeased 
 to see him relinquish the duties of his office and 
 return to the land of his nativity. 
 
 It was evident that Mr. Horner was not acting 
 governor of Michigan, whatever might be his legal 
 right or title. The president directed him not to 
 recognize the pretended state officers and state 
 courts ; but his action in this regard was of no 
 importance ; they were recognized by the people, 
 and they proceeded in the exercise of the ordinary 
 powers of sovereignty, while he, for all practical 
 purposes, was an officinl nonentity. He was not 
 long in becoming convinced that his official im- 
 portance, if not his personal comfort, would be 
 enhanced by removal beyond Lake Michigan, to
 
 222 MICHIGAN. 
 
 the portion of the territory which, in organizing 
 the State, had not been included within it ; and 
 he adopted that course and disappeared from 
 Michigan history. 
 
 But the condition of things in which a state 
 was exercising powers of sovereignty within the 
 limits of federal jurisdiction but not in the Union 
 was too anomalous for long continuance. The 
 president desired to bring it to an end, and Con- 
 gress agreed upon a proposition for the admission 
 of the State on condition of its resigning the dis- 
 puted territory to Ohio and accepting, instead, a 
 much larger territory, since known as the Upper 
 Peninsula, which included valuable mines of cop- 
 per and iron. This proposition was submitted 
 to Michigan to be acted upon by a convention of 
 delegates chosen by the people for the purpose, 
 and if accepted the State was to be immediately 
 received into the Union. But the belligerent 
 feeling was still too strong for this compromise ; 
 and in a convention of delegates held at Ann 
 Arbor, September 4, 1836, it was rejected by an 
 emphatic vote. Thus a settlement of the difficulty 
 was apparently as far off as ever. 
 
 But the interests favoring admission were now 
 daily growing more and more powerful. The 
 president's wishes on the subject were well known 
 to his active partisans, who constituted a strong 
 and growing party and had chosen the state offi- 
 cers. A presidential election was pending and a
 
 THE FROST-BITTEN CONVENTION. 223 
 
 very natural desire existed to participate in it. A 
 distribution of the public lands or their proceeds 
 was one of the issues of the day, and if it took 
 place it would be unfortunate if Michigan should 
 fail to receive its share. The senators and repre- 
 sentatives chosen to seats in Congress were natu- 
 rally anxious to occupy them, and politicians were 
 equally anxious to be recognized in the distribu- 
 tion of federal patronage. And the state officers, 
 though supported by the people and in the undis- 
 turbed possession of their offices, could not fail to 
 realize the fact that acquiescence by the federal 
 authorities in the present condition of things would 
 only be temporary, and that the time must come 
 when there would be a conflict in which the State 
 could scarcely fail to be overborne. In short, it 
 was manifest that Congress was master of the situ- 
 ation ; and that however clear might be the right 
 of the State, it must sooner or later accept such 
 terms as should be dictated to it. A movement 
 for another convention was therefore soon on foot, 
 which assumed to represent the whole people, 
 though in fact originating in the caucuses of the 
 Jackson party, and representing that party almost 
 exclusively. It suited the purposes of the movers 
 in it to speak of their action as the " action of the 
 people in their primary capacity ; " a high-sound- 
 ing phrase seeming to imply some right and often 
 made use of when the purpose is to accomplish 
 something of questionable nature by setting aside
 
 224 MICHIGAN. 
 
 for the time the constitution or the laws. Dele- 
 gates were accordingly chosen under the forms 
 of regular election who convened at Ann Arbor, 
 December 6, 1836, and with no more authority 
 than any party caucus, assumed in the name of 
 the State, the sovereign power of accepting the 
 proposition of Congress. No pretense could be 
 more baseless than this assumption of authority 
 by the convention ; people ridiculed its meeting 
 and christened it the " frost-bitten " convention ; 
 but the dominant party in Congress found it con- 
 venient to accept its action as a solemn act in state 
 government, and on January 26, 1837, the State 
 was declared to have accepted the proposition of 
 Congress and thereby to have become a member 
 of the Federal Union. 
 
 The act which thus assumed to admit Michigan 
 to the Union upon a false assumption of fact was 
 one which it would have been idle to quarrel with 
 or condemn. The State could not maintain its 
 anomalous position, and for any wrong in its 
 treatment only Congress could give redress. The 
 courts, as the seceding states discovered in the 
 reconstruction period, are powerless to control 
 purely political action, or to call it in question for 
 any purpose. The governor protested, but at the 
 same time admitted the folly of allowing a boot- 
 less grief to delay admission to the Union. The 
 grief was neither very deep nor very lasting. The 
 State had maintained its honor in standing upon
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE. 225 
 
 its rights, and the compromise which by a species 
 of fraud was forced upon it gave more than it took 
 away, and left the State a decided gainer in the 
 transaction. The governor did not dismiss the 
 subject without indulging in ranch rhetoric to show 
 how greatly the State had been wronged, thus 
 affording the opposition a fine opportunity for 
 ridiculing "the hero of the bloodless plains of 
 Toledo" for unbuckling his sword and coming 
 down from his high horse so tamely ; but if all 
 his important acts had shown equal wisdom, there 
 would have been little in his administration to re- 
 member with condemnation. The mock heroics 
 put the people in good humor, and they turned 
 with cheerful spirits to their peaceful avocations 
 as citizens of the United States, readily forgetting 
 and forgiving the wrong which was so far from 
 having harmed them. The successor of Governor 
 Mason went again over the grounds of complaint 
 in his first message, but this was a re-threshing ef 
 old straw, and nobody took any interest in it. 
 
 The constitution under which the State was ad- 
 mitted to the Union was carefully restricted to 
 prescribing the fundamentals of government and 
 the general framework of official organization, and 
 did not, as so many recent essays in that direction 
 have done, enter the field of legislation. In this 
 respect it may well be regarded as a model. Six 
 month's residence in the State was made sufficient 
 for the exercise of the elective franchise, but, with 
 
 15
 
 226 MICHIGAN. 
 
 singular liberality, any white male inhabitant who 
 was resident in the State at the time of the adop- 
 tion of the constitution was given the ballot, even 
 though not a citizen. This made many recent im- 
 migrants from Europe voters in both state and 
 federal elections, and furnished a striking illus- 
 tration of a sentiment very prevalent at the time, 
 that the coming to America to enjoy the benefit 
 of its institutions was of itself an evidence of fit- 
 ness to take part in administering its government. 
 It was much like the sentiment developed during 
 the civil war, that the oppressed race which had 
 been intensely patriotic when the life of the nation 
 was threatened by its enemies might be safely 
 trusted with the ballot when peace was restored. 
 
 Michigan was the thirteenth of the new states 
 admitted to the Union " on an equal footing with 
 the original states : " its acceptance of the consti- 
 tution doubled the count of the states. It was a 
 grand Union to which the State was admitted, and 
 it was made such by a constitution which was 
 worthy of everlasting regard and affection. But 
 the time had not yet come when the people of the 
 states were to look to the nation more than to the 
 state as the government in which their interests 
 were chiefly concerned. The tide of national feel- 
 ing was just now flowing very strong, for Jackson 
 by his proclamation and Webster by his masterly 
 speeches against nullification had rallied the two 
 great political parties to the sentiment with which
 
 REMOTENESS OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 227 
 
 Jackson had begun his administration, "The 
 Federal Union ; it must be preserved." But the 
 original constitution was still maintained in its 
 integrity, and the dispute over the right of nullifi- 
 cation had done nothing to diminish or weaken 
 proper state powers under it. It had only deter- 
 mined, so far as the expressed will of the people 
 could do so, that the Union under the constitution 
 of Washington and Hamilton and Madison was to 
 be perpetual. 
 
 The states under that constitution were very far 
 from being dependent provinces or inferior munici- 
 palities. Under the apportionment of powers as 
 between state and nation, the people looked to the 
 national government for very little that touched 
 their every-day life. The general government 
 had charge of foreign relations ; but these only in 
 a distant and imperfect manner interested the peo- 
 ple at large, except when there seemed to be dan- 
 ger of unfriendly relations with other countries. 
 The general government levied taxes for its own 
 purposes, but for the most part it laid them as 
 indirect taxes, and they were scarcely perceived 
 by the people as burdens. It coined money, but 
 in the early period of its history the major part 
 of the coin in circulation was of foreign coinage, 
 and nearly all of the paper currency was the bills 
 of banks existing under state charters which had 
 been authorized by state law. It passed bank- 
 rupt laws, but these were only for emergencies and
 
 228 MICHIGAN. 
 
 were soon repealed. Only in the postal service 
 did it appear before the people as a daily and 
 hourly benefactor and friend. The whole subject 
 of the domestic relations was left to the states: 
 the subject of contracts and domestic trade ; of 
 wills and the descent of property ; of land titles 
 and the administration of estates ; of the making 
 of highways and of their use and control after 
 being made ; of providing schools and furnishing 
 the means of education to the people ; of granting 
 charters of incorporation, and all that infinite va- 
 riety of rules and regulations known as laws of 
 police, which are ever present and all about the 
 citizen, his business and his property, prescribing 
 limitations and setting bounds to use and enjoy- 
 ment even in respect to that which is unquestion- 
 ably his own, that he may not unreasonably en- 
 croar-h upon the use and enjoyment of their own 
 by others. State power and state law were thus 
 present at all times, touching the citizen for his 
 advantage and direction in all his relations: by 
 his fireside as much as in his business ; in his mar- 
 riage ; in the control, management, and education 
 of his children ; in the labor he employed ; in the 
 civil and religious organizations to which he at- 
 tached himself; in the breaking up of the domes- 
 tic relations if unhappily that should occur; in 
 the final arrangement of his affairs for death ; in 
 the enforcement of debts for and against him in 
 life and for and against his estate after death ; in
 
 THE STATE NEARER THAN THE UNION. 229 
 
 short, in nearly everything which had for him and 
 those associated with him whether in kinship 
 or socially or in business an every-day interest ; 
 it was only in respect to his mail that the state 
 did not chiefly concern him. The federal govern- 
 ment seemed a distant power, indispensable as a 
 shield against foreign animosities or encroach- 
 ments ; and once in four years the citizen was 
 likely to get warmed up in the course of the presi- 
 dential campaign so as to feel a deep interest in 
 the result, but this would be as often because he 
 had inherited a place in one of the parties of the 
 day as from any deep conviction that he had a 
 personal concern in the choice the people would 
 make. It was the state that was an ever-present 
 beneficence, in whose doings he had a constant and 
 immediate interest, and to whose provident ar- 
 rangements he owed daily and hourly obligations. 
 But he felt the state in its burdens also : the taxes 
 imposed were considerable, and they were also 
 direct ; the citizen never paid them without know- 
 ing it, as he might pay customs duties, or other 
 indirect taxes ; and he had therefore an immedi- 
 ate interest in seeing that they were not levied 
 for any but proper public purposes, and not ex- 
 pended dishonestly or wastefully. Almost all the 
 local officers, except the postmaster, were also pro- 
 vided for and chosen, under state laws ; so that in 
 every way the state seemed vastly more important 
 to the citizen than the nation ; and the range of
 
 230 MICHIGAN. 
 
 subjects over which it had supreme control was 
 so vast, and the subjects themselves so important, 
 that state sovereignty seemed to the fireside phi- 
 losophers, as they discussed politics with each 
 other, a more palpable and conspicuous constitu- 
 tional reality than the sovereignty of the Union. 
 It was somewhat different in the large commercial 
 towns, where foreign trade was considerable, and 
 also in towns where large expenditures were made 
 for military and naval purposes, or land offices lo- 
 cated; but the agricultural and laboring classes of 
 the country naturally attached themselves to state 
 interests ; and as parties divided on the construc- 
 tion of federal powers, the majority tended to the 
 party that proposed to maintain in all their integ- 
 rity the rights of the states. 
 
 Then the courts for tlie administration of jus- 
 tice were, for the most part, state courts, and the 
 state regulated civil rights and prescribed and pun- 
 ished crimes. The federal judiciary had under 
 its control the subjects of bankruptcy and admi- 
 ralty, of controversies between states, and contro- 
 versies in which foreign countries or their people 
 might be concerned ; and citizens of different 
 states might implead each other in federal courts ; 
 and there were a few other cases which might be 
 there brought. But nearly all the litigation of 
 the countiy was in the state courts : they were 
 the courts in which neighborhood controversies 
 were determined ; they sat with a neighborhood
 
 A NATURAL STATE PRIDE. 231 
 
 jury and they were the courts whose doings were 
 immediately before the people and enlisted their 
 interest and attention. 
 
 The time had not yet come for great expendi- 
 tures of money by the general government upon 
 works of internal improvement, or for great gifts 
 of land to aid in the construction of such works. 
 The party of strict construction of federal powers 
 was in the ascendency, and disputed the power of 
 the nation to make highways in the states, except 
 as for strictly national purposes it might become 
 important. Neither had the time for high pro- 
 tective duties yet come to interest great numbers 
 of people in the customs taxes, and bring great 
 lobbies to Washington. 
 
 It may well be said, therefore, that it was some- 
 thing to be proud of, to be a member of a com- 
 monwealth possessing the sovereign powers which 
 were possessed by the states of the American 
 Union ; and the people of Michigan accepted their 
 place as citizens of the twenty-sixth state, not with 
 pride merely, but with unbounded confidence in 
 its future.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE STATE AND ITS ELEMENTS. 
 
 THE period of immaturity and tutelage was at 
 last over, and the people who constituted~*the 
 political society had become a state in the Amer- 
 ican Union with sovereign powers. They were 
 well entitled to a recognition of this privilege of 
 independent action, for their numbers were am- 
 ple, the average of intelligence was high, and the 
 elements of a vigorous and self-respecting state 
 were to be seen on all sides in abundance. 
 
 The French-Canadian element was still con- 
 spicuous along all the eastern border of the state, 
 and the increase was large and continuous, though 
 the proportion relatively to the whole population 
 was all the while diminishing. The grades of 
 society among this people ran from highest to 
 lowest : many of them boasted, with much pride, 
 of aristocratic descent, and had inherited large 
 wealth ; and these constituted an intelligent and 
 refined society into which the better classes of 
 other nationalities were glad to be admitted. At 
 the other extreme in the social scale were the 
 eoureurs de bois and voyageurs, who still were to
 
 THE FRENCH FARMS. 233 
 
 be found in considerable numbers, though their 
 occupations, except upon the upper waters, were 
 for the most part gone ; the fur trade in Michi- 
 gan being no longer the large and profitable com- 
 merce it once was, and no considerable parties 
 being now organized to conduct it. But these rov- 
 ing characters still gathered about the old French 
 settlements, and took up, when they labored at 
 all, such occupations as made their lives most 
 nearly correspond to those they had been accus- 
 tomed to lead. Many became professional fisher- 
 men ; others got to be draymen and petty express- 
 men with little carts and ponies. And then above 
 these lowest classes, the French in and about the 
 towns were found in numerous employments ; 
 many being market-gardeners and hucksters, many 
 others merchants in a small way ; and whatever 
 the business, women were not unfrequently the 
 principals in carrying it on. But this people had 
 their part in more extensive operations also ; and 
 some of the leading and most prosperous business 
 men were of this nationality. 
 
 French farms may almost be said to have lined 
 the river from the mouth of the Detroit to Lake 
 St. Clair ; their houses fronted upon the road 
 which ran along the river bank, and there was 
 only a narrow belt of cultivation behind them, 
 bordered by dense forest, in which wolves, bears, 
 and other wild animals still offered pastime to the 
 sportsmen. The agriculture of the farmers was
 
 234 MICHIGAN. 
 
 of the most primitive character ; the plow, except 
 the share, was of wood ; with a wooden wheel on 
 either side of the long beam, the one small to run 
 on the land side, and the other larger to run in 
 the furrow. Oxen were fastened to this plow by 
 a pole which had a hinged attachment ; they were 
 not yoked, but the draught was by thongs or 
 ropes fastened about their horns. A little two- 
 wheeled cart into which was fastened a pony, or 
 perhaps a cow or steer, was the principal farm 
 vehicle. The early farmers did not appreciate the 
 value of manure in agriculture, and removed it 
 out of their way by dumping it in the river, but 
 they were beginning now to learn in that regard 
 better ways. The houses for the most part were 
 of a single story with a plain veranda in front ; 
 and here in pleasant weather would gather the 
 household for domestic labor and social recreation. 
 The houses of the wealthier classes were of hewed 
 logs, with a large chimney occupying the space of 
 a room in the centre, and a garret hung with fes- 
 toons of drying or dried fruits, pumpkins, garlics, 
 onions, arid medicinal and culinary herbs. The 
 family washing was done at the river, and the 
 pounding of the clothes was with a little hand 
 mallet, after the method of their ancestors from 
 time immemorial. Everywhere the spinning-wheel 
 was in use, and the madam, with just pride in her 
 deftness, made the clothing for the family. The 
 kitchen was a common gathering-room for the
 
 SIMPLICITY 0V' MANNERS. 235 
 
 family, who liked to see the cookery going on, 
 with pots and kettles and spiders in an open fire- 
 place. Around many of the old houses and yards 
 were pickets of cedar, ten or twelve feet in height, 
 which were originally planted for defense against 
 the Indians ; but the Indians who had their 
 homes about the towns were no longer feared, and 
 were generally nominal Catholics and well treated. 
 The only fastening to the front door of the house 
 was a latch on the inside, which was raised to 
 open the door by a strip of leather or deer's hide 
 run through a hole in the door, and hanging down 
 on the outside. When the latch-string was drawn 
 in the door was fastened ; but so marked an indi- 
 cation of distrust or inhospitality was seldom wit- 
 nessed, as no one not even an Indian would 
 be guilty of so great a breach of propriety as to 
 lift the latch and cross the threshold without per- 
 mission of the owner. The family when leaving 
 the house temporarily did not therefore deem it 
 necessary to fasten the door. 
 
 The horse in common use was so small as to be 
 considered and called a pony, and was reputed to 
 be a cross of the wild Mexican horse with mares 
 captured at the time of Braddock's defeat. The 
 French had been long enough in the country to 
 have old orchards of apples and pears : pear-trees 
 fifty or sixty feet in height, and bearing in a sea- 
 son thirty or even fifty bushels of fruit were not 
 uncommon, and the fruit, though not of the high'
 
 236 MICHIGAN. 
 
 est quality to eat out of hand, was unsurpassed 
 for culinary purposes. There were crude cider 
 mills, and much cider was made for domestic use. 
 Peaches were raised, also, of a poor and common 
 sort, and from these distilled -in rum a drink was 
 made which was much used. 
 
 The French, whether rich or poor, educated or 
 ignorant, were always polite, light-hearted, gay, 
 and buoyant, and always fond of sports in which 
 old and young could participate together. ~*Fes- 
 tivals were kept with unrestrained enjoyment : 
 New Year's especially, when every child, whatever 
 the age, was expected to kneel for the paternal 
 blessing ; when calls were made upon all ac- 
 quaintances, presents exchanged between friends, 
 and every lady was expected to submit to be 
 saluted with a kiss upon the cheek. Mardi Gras 
 and Easter were also festivals of great enjoyment, 
 but Lent came with devotional aspect, and was 
 scrupulously kept. They were a church-going 
 people, and many religious customs were still 
 kept up which were destined to die out. The 
 christening and baptizing of the church bell was 
 one of these, and so was the distributing of the 
 blessed bread in church in commemoration of the 
 love-feasts of the early Christians. But when 
 church services were over on Sunday sports were 
 in order, and the return home was likely to be a 
 scene of boisterous merriment and of pony racing 
 by the young men. The marriage of young people
 
 DETROIT IN 1837. 237 
 
 was a great occasion, for they understood well that 
 the church did not allow of divorces, and the 
 marriage was in fact what it purported to be, a 
 binding for better or for worse for life. Regularly 
 it was preceded by a formal contract before a 
 notary ; the bans were published for three suc- 
 cessive Sundays in church, and the wedding fes- 
 tivities were kept up for several days. But man 
 or woman who after losing the spouse married a 
 second time, and especially a third time, must 
 expect a charivari, with which no police officer 
 would trouble himself to interfere. The average 
 of education among the people was low, for many 
 never went to school at all, and the church schools, 
 in which most of the education was given, were not 
 of a high order, and taught catechism more than 
 grammar or arithmetic. The ladies were fond of 
 gay and picturesque dresses and of flowers and 
 other simple decorations for themselves and their 
 homes, and in these particulars good taste was 
 general. 
 
 Detroit in this year 1837 had become a consid- 
 erable town, having now perhaps eight thousand 
 people. Old wind-mills upon which the people 
 formerly relied for the grinding of cereals were 
 coming now to be disused, though some were still 
 standing. The noble river in front of the town 
 offered, at all seasons of the year, many induce- 
 ments to sports and festivities, of which all classes 
 of the people were eager to avail themselves. la
 
 238 MICHIGAN. 
 
 the winter, when frozen over, it became the prin- 
 cipal highway, and was gay with the swift-going 
 vehicles. A narrow box upon runners wide apart 
 made the common sleigh, and the ponies, some- 
 times driven tandem, seemed to enter into the 
 spirit of racing almost as much as their masters. 
 When there was no snow the little cart was the 
 common vehicle of land carriage for all classes of 
 the people ; ladies went in it to churches and to 
 parties, and made fashionable calls, being seated 
 on a buffalo robe spread on the bottom, and they 
 were backed up to the door at which they wished 
 to alight, and stepped upon the threshold from it. 
 Now and then there was a family which had a 
 caleche ; a single carriage with the body hung 
 upon heavy leathern straps, with a small low seat 
 in front for the driver, and with a folding top to 
 be raised in sun or rain. But the cart was a con- 
 venience which all classes could enjoy and appre- 
 ciate, and it was especially adapted to a town like 
 Detroit, which was built upon a clay-bank, and 
 bad as yet neither sidewalk nor pavement. 
 
 Many Scotch were now among the business men 
 of Detroit, with a fondness for making money, 
 and a shrewd knack at doing so. There were also 
 some Irish and some English, but the major part 
 of the people who were not French were of Amer- 
 ican birth. Among these there were now being 
 established what in fact had existed before, 
 though not in much strength societies for liter-
 
 RIVAL SETTLEMENTS. 239 
 
 ary culture and enjoyment. The Detroit Young 
 Men's Society was one of them, which for twenty 
 years was to be an important institution in the 
 town, and the training-school of governors, sen- 
 ators, and judges. At the barracks, though there 
 was none now, there would shortly be a small 
 military force to preserve peace on the frontier ; 
 and the officers and their families would consti- 
 tute an important and valuable addition to the 
 society of the place at all times. 
 
 Detroit during the territorial period had to a 
 large extent monopolized political offices and in- 
 fluence, but though still the capital and the com- 
 mercial metropolis, its political domination had 
 dwindled to a disputed hegemony. Important 
 towns were springing up all over the southern 
 part of the State, and several of them were already 
 prominent, and had public journals which were 
 conducted with ability, and citizens who were well 
 known abroad and whose influence was felt in 
 other sections. Monroe, Ann Arbor, Marshall, 
 Tecumseh, Pontiac, and Adrian were the largest 
 of these, and none of them was without ambi- 
 tious men who aspired to leading positions in state 
 affairs, and with ability to justify the aspiration. 
 Wealth was as yet an unimportant source of in- 
 fluence, for there were few men of special prom- 
 inence in that regard The merchants handled 
 most money: they went once or twice a year to 
 New York to buy goods, and in the country they
 
 240 MICHIGAN. 
 
 were obliged to keep general assortments of dry 
 goods, wet and dry groceries, hardware, and boots 
 and shoes ; but wants were moderate in those days, 
 and the stock though general in kind was small in 
 amount and cheap in quality. By far the larger 
 part of the people were small farmers who were 
 now busy in bringing their land under cultivation ; 
 their fortunes were in their .farms, and they sub- 
 ordinated everything else to converting their own 
 labor into substantial and permanent value* in 
 improvements. Most of them were of New Eng- 
 land descent ; all the New England States were 
 represented among them, and Vermont especially 
 had sent a large contingent who were tired of 
 rocky hillsides. But the majority were one gen- 
 eration removed from New England, being de- 
 scendants of those who settled in New York and 
 Ohio. Western New York, especially, was largely 
 represented ; the purchasers by " article " from the 
 great land companies of that district, having in 
 many cases found themselves unable to complete 
 their payments, had been glad to sell their " bet- 
 terments " for enough to buy a lot of government 
 land in Michigan and move with their families 
 upon it. 
 
 It was a hard life which the pioneer farmers of 
 Michigan had come to lead. A rude log cabin for 
 a home, and the bare necessaries of life for their 
 families contented them while they were clearing 
 their lands ; and the lessons of industry and econ-
 
 THE SUPPLY OF FOOD. 241 
 
 omy would have been forced upon them by the 
 situation even if they had not learned them before, 
 as the most of them had. When the cheapness of 
 land is taken into account, their farms must be 
 deemed small, averaging perhaps a hundred and 
 1 wenty acres ; and hard labor and the chills and 
 fever incident to the clearing of a new country 
 gave them sallow complexions and made them pre- 
 maturely old ; but in coming to Michigan they had 
 calculated not so much upon their own immediate 
 advantage as upon giving their children an oppor- 
 tunity to " grow up with the country ; " and they 
 accomplished all they had counted on if they could 
 see that year by year their possessions increased 
 in value, and could rely with confidence upon giv- 
 ing their children the rudiments of education and 
 a fair start in the world, and on being independ- 
 ent in their circumstances in their old age. Even 
 now, though they could not supply all their wants 
 from their farms, they contracted few debts, but 
 postponed purchases when they had nothing to 
 barter for the articles they desired. 
 
 Of meats salt pork was the staple, and many of 
 the people rarely had any other, but all had wheat 
 or corn bread and potatoes, and a hearty appetite 
 need crave nothing better. Many orchards were 
 planted, but few were as yet in bearing, and fruit 
 was a rare luxury ; the people had little money 
 with which to procure it from the Eastern States, 
 and none at all to expend in the extravagance of 
 
 16
 
 242 MICHIGAN. 
 
 Southern fruits, which in after years were to be- 
 come so common. They were forced, therefore, to 
 be content with the wild fruits of the country. Of 
 the wild crab or wild plum a preserve was made 
 which was palatable as a relish to the monotonous 
 diet of pork, and if a few wild strawberries could 
 be gathered in June, or blackberries later, they 
 were great as well as rare luxuries. In the 
 swamps cranberries could be found to a limited 
 extent, and on sandy plains whortleberries, but 
 the resources in all these directions were limited 
 and exceptional. For a time there would be deer, 
 wild turkeys, and other game in considerable 
 quantities, but the pioneer farmers of Michigan 
 had little time to give to sport, and those who 
 engaged very much in it were likely to become so 
 far fascinated with its excitements as to fall grad- 
 ually into the life of thriftless wood-range re. 
 On the prairies wild bees were abundant, and in 
 the fascinating pages of Cooper one may read how 
 men became skillful in following them to their 
 homes and robbing them of their delicious stores. 
 In some parts of central and northern Michigan 
 the maple-tree furnished sugar orchards, and the 
 Indians who still lingered in the State were sugar 
 makers to a considerable extent. They also gath- 
 ered berries in their season for barter with the 
 white settlers, camping in temporary colonies for 
 the purpose. 
 
 Few of the pioneers had brought their spinning-
 
 PRIMITIVE CUSTOMS. 243 
 
 wheels with them, for as yet there were but few 
 sheep in the State, and by the time wool had be- 
 come abundant, the old ways of working it up had 
 passed away. For a while the material for gar- 
 ments, which in rural New England and New 
 York were home-made, must be bought ; but 
 cheap, coarse cloth answered the purpose, and the 
 wives and daughters made it up for use. The 
 pioneers could not be particular about other quali- 
 ties of their cloth than those of wear and comfort, 
 and nobody would criticise the style or the fit. 
 Silks for the woman and broadcloth for the man 
 were rare extravagances ; many a bridegroom des- 
 tined to become an important personage in busi- 
 ness and political circles went to the altar in Ken- 
 tucky jean, and received his bride in calico ; and 
 the wedding journey from the bride's home to the 
 husband's was made with an ox-team which was 
 prized more than would be a chariot and four be- 
 cause of what it promised in farm improvement. 
 If it was winter the vehicle might be a home- 
 made sled with bent saplings for runners ; and 
 nothing could be better, for nothing could be 
 more suited to the times. There was little senti- 
 mentality in this, but there was New England 
 hard sense, and good promise of domestic virtues 
 and contentment. 
 
 In early times pioneers sometimes made meal 
 of their corn by pounding it in a hollow stump, 
 but this was seldom done at this time. Other
 
 244 MICHIGAN. 
 
 contrivances, however, which were nearly as prim- 
 itive, were sometimes resorted to. One ingenious 
 person had constructed a mill, which answered an 
 admirable purpose, by felling a tall tree and exca- 
 vating a trough the whole length of it on the 
 upper side as it lay. The trough was a foot in 
 width at the top, narrowing as it deepened ; a 
 small quantity of corn was poured into it, and 
 was then ground into meal by means of a heavy 
 wooden wheel rolling over it. The wheel wals a 
 section cut from the butt of the tree, and shaped 
 to fit the trough, and was rolled back and forth 
 by two persons who took the ends of a pole which 
 was run through the centre of it. The use of the 
 mill was free to all, and it was a great neighbor- 
 hood convenience. But wheat, rather than corn, 
 was the staple bread food in Michigan, and these 
 rude contrivances would not make flour. The 
 grist mill must be resorted to ; and that might be 
 a day's journey away, and the farmer who went 
 that distance with his small grist was never quite 
 sure that he would not find the mill out of repair, 
 or not running from want of water, or because the 
 miller was prostrated by one of the fevers inci- 
 dent to a new co'untry ; and then he might be 
 compelled to go farther to another mill, or to re- 
 trace his steps and repeat his tedious journey at 
 another time. 
 
 Except in southwestern Michigan where there 
 were prairies, the first necessity of the time was
 
 THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 245 
 
 to get rid of the forest, and the short way to get 
 rid of it was to cut and burn it without discrimi- 
 nation. For none of it was there a market, and 
 many a great black walnut, the growth of centu- 
 ries and fit for the adornment of a palace, was 
 given to the flames because it cumbered the 
 ground. In clearing up the farm the whole family 
 could take useful part; the man chopped and piled 
 the logs, the woman piled and burned the brush, 
 leaving the babe, if there was one, in some con- 
 venient shade where it would be kept quiet in 
 watching the busy proceedings. The pine country 
 was not as yet much invaded by settlers, and the 
 tulip-tree or white-wood, which was light and 
 easily worked, was the favorite tree for lumber. 
 Saw-mills of the primitive sort were common, and 
 the farmers, as fast as they were able to do so, put 
 up a " framed " house and moved into it, leaving 
 the log cabin as a common store-house and work- 
 shop for rainy days. The moving from the old 
 house into the new was the second stage of pio- 
 neer life, and there was likely to be a " house- 
 warming," of which a dance was the chief feature. 
 Of the religious condition of the people little 
 need be said. Though there were many excel- 
 lent and sincerely religious persons among them, 
 religion had not been a motive with them in 
 coming into the wilderness. They had come to 
 better their temporal condition, and the hardships 
 and privations of every sort which are incident
 
 246 MICHIGAN. 
 
 to life in the woods they had expected to submit 
 to cheerfully. The Canadian French had their 
 priests and maintained regular church services, 
 but as to the main part of the population Mich- 
 igan might be regarded as missionary ground. 
 Many devoted Christians were for years without 
 opportunity to attend church services ; and some 
 so greatly longed for the society of their brethren 
 in Christian communion that they would go a 
 day's journey, or even farther, to attend a meet- 
 ing. The several denominations sent missionaries 
 hither who came expecting to undergo great hard- 
 ships and submit to many privations, and none 
 were disappointed in tliat regard. The Meth- 
 odists were commonly first in gathering congrega- 
 tions in the new settlements, and the circuit rider 
 was often a character of note; rough and unlet- 
 tered and ready to boast, perhaps, that the Lord 
 had been his teacher from the Bible, and not the 
 school- masters with their foolish grammars. But 
 such men were often sincere and earnest, and be- 
 ing all things to all men, gathered considerable 
 churches and laid the foundation upon which 
 others more competent afterward built. This was 
 the day of camp-meetings and revivals, and strange 
 scenes were sometimes witnessed when people had 
 " the power " and fell to the ground helpless. 
 Rough characters gathered at such meetings for 
 excitement and mischief, and they often became 
 scenes of wild disorder and pugilistic encounters.
 
 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 247 
 
 But it sometimes happened that those who came 
 to scoff remained to pray. At this time there 
 were many churches of other denominations ; of 
 Baptists and Presbyterians especially, and, in 
 some places, of Episcopalians; and these, except 
 the Episcopalians, had their occasional revival or 
 protracted meetings. In the country districts, 
 the school-house was generally the place for re- 
 ligious meetings, and perhaps the same house 
 would be occupied by two or more denominations 
 alternately, morning and evening, or on- successive 
 Sundays. But church edifices began to multiply 
 rapidly. Said hopeful Abi Evans, in a letter from 
 her solitary cabin in Tecumseh in 1824, "Per- 
 haps I may see the day when the gospel may be 
 preached at our place." It was now but thirteen 
 years since her letter was written, and there were 
 several churches near enough to her home to be 
 reached by an early morning walk on Sunday. 
 But this was an exceptional case ; many of her 
 sisters who were not so fortunate in their loca- 
 tions would live longer than she and yet pass 
 away without having similar aspirations gratified. 
 In southeastern Michigan were many people of 
 the society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, 
 who dressed in sober drab and took off the hat 
 and applied title of honor to no one. These had 
 their plain meeting-houses without spire or bell, 
 in which they gathered, and, discarding all music, 
 listened to words of wisdom from the elders, if
 
 248 MICHIGAN. 
 
 the spirit should move them to speak. The speak- 
 ers at these meetings were perhaps as often as 
 otherwise women, who seemed to have special 
 gifts. The Friends were a sober, industrious, 
 steady, and thrifty people, and their general integ- 
 rity and fidelity were so well known that they 
 were often invited by their fellow citizens to serve 
 in important public stations. They were the first 
 of the people to raise their voices against slavery, 
 and the fugitive slave was always befriendechand 
 protected by them. The first " wood-notes wild " 
 which caught the ear of the world from Michigan 
 were the anti-slavery poems of Elizabeth Mar- 
 garet Chandler ; and these were well worthy of 
 being listened to and of being held in lasting re- 
 membrance. Some of the few negroes in the 
 State were fugitives from slavery, but they felt 
 safe so far back in the woods with sympathizing 
 friends about them, and Canada was a convenient 
 refuge in case attempts were made at their recap- 
 ture. 
 
 Michigan had its full share of lawyers, many of 
 whom were well trained in their profession, and 
 would be a credit to it anywhere. Others were 
 untrained, unlettered, and unkempt, and their vul- 
 garity and insolence would be tolerated nowhere 
 but in the woods. They tried small cases for 
 smaller pay on still smaller knowledge, and were 
 never so well satisfied as when they gained a suit 
 by a trick. Doctors there were in plenty, too,
 
 POSTAL FACILITIES. 249 
 
 who rode the country on horseback, with medi- 
 cines in saddle-bags, and dealt out such doses of 
 calomel and jalap as would seem to render impos- 
 sible the survival of any but the fittest. But in 
 those early days the calls upon the doctor bore 
 small proportion to the number of cases of disease ; 
 the people doctored themselves with various de- 
 coctions of bitter herbs and other simples which 
 were popularly supposed to have healing qualities. 
 The women were mid wives to one another as oc- 
 casion required. 
 
 The postal facilities of the people were as yet 
 very primitive. The railroad from Toledo to 
 Adrian brought a daily mail, but this was as yet 
 the only railroad in operation in the State, though 
 considerable had been done on the roads from 
 Detroit to Pontiac, Detroit to Ypsilanti, and Pal- 
 myra to Jackson. But the daily mail was not 
 now limited exclusively to the railroad ; one was 
 sent out also in coaches on some of the leading 
 territorial roads. A few years before it was made 
 subject of complaint in the " Detroit Gazette" that 
 the driver of the coach was not provided with a 
 horn to announce his coming ; but he had one now 
 and he sounded it vigorously as he approached a 
 mail station, and brought his horses up smoking, 
 with a brisk trot, if the state of the roads was 
 such as to admit of it. But from the time the 
 fall rains set in until the roads became dry in the 
 spring there was little brisk movement of stage-
 
 250 MICHIGAN. 
 
 coaches, and the driver must be content if he 
 could go over the roads at the rate of three or 
 four miles an hour without any breakdown. And 
 much of the mail service of the State was done 
 with considerably more modest conveyances than 
 coaches; to some extent with lumber wagons, but 
 much more largely on horseback. A horse and a 
 boy going over the road perhaps twice a week 
 were sufficient on most routes. Congressional 
 documents were not at this time sent into 4-he 
 State by the ton, the people took few papers, and 
 the correspondence by letter was too expensive to 
 be much indulged in. The postage on a letter 
 from the old home of most of the people was 
 twenty-five cents, and money was not so plenty as 
 to admit of frequent communication. The post- 
 office was likely to be a box in one corner of a 
 store or tavern, and the postmaster, when a letter 
 was called for, turned over the whole pile until he 
 found it. 
 
 The backwoods pioneers were not without their 
 sports ajid pastimes. The State paid a bounty for 
 the scalp of the wolf, and this furnished sufficient 
 inducement to make the people eager to trap him. 
 A whole neighborhood sometimes turned out to 
 hunt a troublesome bear which had been carrying 
 off swine, and once a year or so they would di- 
 vide into two parties and engage in a great con- 
 test, to see which should bring home the most 
 game of all kinds, estimating the animals from
 
 SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 251 
 
 bears and wolves down to squirrels, according to 
 imp >rtance. A raccoon heard of in the corn-field 
 always gave occasion for extemporized sport, and 
 the young farmer was seldom so much fatigued 
 by his day's labor as to be disinclined to turn 
 out for a 'coon hunt which might extend far 
 into the night and require the cutting down of 
 one or more large trees. Husking-bees, after corn 
 harvest, and raising-bees when a new house or 
 barn was to go up, were occasions for general 
 merriment, and something to drink of a stimulat- 
 ing nature was expected on these occasions, for the 
 day of tot.il abstinence had as yet come to very 
 few. Still, although nearly all persons drank 
 occasionally, an habitual drunkard at this early 
 d.iy was rarely met with. In the winter, if snow 
 fell to the depth of two or three inches, a sleigh- 
 ing party might seem to spring up spontaneously, 
 and the home-made sleigh was amply good enough 
 for such diversion. An old furniture box or a 
 crockery crate filled with straw made a good body 
 for it, and as many rode as could manage to find 
 sitting or standing room. Every tavern had its 
 ball-room, where dancing parties were given, to 
 which any one might come who could purchase a 
 card of admission ; for there are no gradations of 
 society in a new settlement, and every man and 
 every woman is presumptively respectable. These 
 parties were very simple affairs, but they were not 
 for that reason the less enjoyable by the hard-
 
 252 MICHIGAN. 
 
 working pioneers. The spelling-school furnished 
 great sport also : whole neighborhoods, young and 
 old, gathered and chose sides in a spelling contest, 
 and the youthful prodigy, perhaps, spelled all the 
 rest down, not excepting the doctor or the mer- 
 chant who were educated at the academy. The 
 amusement reached a climax when the master 
 himself was caught tripping and was obliged to 
 take his seat in confusion. The morals of the 
 people at this time were better than appearances 
 might indicate. Coarse profanity and vulgarity 
 were heard so often that they failed to shock the 
 hearer, and treating at a public bar was common 
 when friends met and on all sorts of occasions. 
 But domestic scandals were exceedingly rare, and 
 divorces almost unknown. Society was very prim- 
 itive and there was little courtesy and less polish, 
 but there was no social corruption and parents 
 had faith in each other and little fear for the mor- 
 als of their children. The general standard of 
 business integrity was high, and as the time had 
 not yet come when great funds were needed for 
 the purposes of political campaigns, elections were 
 honestly conducted. 
 
 On the whole, it must be said of the pioneers 
 of Michigan, that in character and aims, in what 
 they were, what they did, what they suffered, and 
 what they accomplished, they deserve, and should 
 have, the grateful remembrance of those who, com- 
 ing after them, reap the harvest of their sowing.
 
 TEE PATRIOT AGITATION. 253 
 
 This year began in Canada the " Patriot " agi- 
 tation, which led in 1838-39 to partial insurrec- 
 tions, and to some acts of violation of neutrality 
 by American citizens in crossing to Canada to as- 
 sist the insurgents. The most lamentable of these 
 was a crossing from Detroit to Windsor in De- 
 cember, 1838, and a fight resulting in the loss of a 
 number of lives. The occurrence is noteworthy 
 here only as it evidenced the intense sympathy 
 of the people with the struggle of any other peo- 
 ple for greater liberty. The international com- 
 plications which followed were settled by the 
 treaty of 1842 under the admirable management 
 of Mr. Webster, which reflected new honor upon 
 American diplomacy, already so illustrious.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 MONEY IS MADE ABUNDANT IN THE NEW STATE. 
 
 THE new State was now in the Union, and it 
 was enjoying the benefits of an immigration'"&l- 
 most unparalleled in the history of mankind. It 
 w;is not the movement of men in tribes or ag- 
 gregate bodies, impelled by necessity or by polit- 
 ical considerations to abandon their country for 
 another ; but it was an immigration of individual 
 families, influenced by motives which affected 
 them severally, and by an expectation that they 
 would benefit their condition in so doing. Yet the 
 aggregate number was enormous, and it seemed 
 like the migration of a nation coining with radiant 
 hopes to take possession of a land of promise. 
 Their coming seemed to make the State rich; for 
 though very few of them were persons of consid- 
 erable means, the most of them came as pro- 
 ducers, and if they brought nothing else they 
 brought a capacity for labor and an expectation 
 that by labor they were to make their fortunes. 
 Their coming had rendered necessary many new 
 facilities for travel and business ; and the legis- 
 lature had been prompt to recognize the fact.
 
 LAND SPECULAT-JONS. 255 
 
 During the short period while Michigan had been 
 a State but not in the Union, there had been legis- 
 lation providing for the organization of fifty-seven 
 townships, and the laying out of sixty-six state 
 roads ; eleven railroads had been chartered and 
 nine banks ; and permission had been given to 
 construct thirteen darns upon navigable waters for 
 manufacturing purposes. Much of this legisla- 
 tion was premature, as we can very plainly see 
 now ; but it did not then seem so to the people. 
 General causes were inflating prices and inciting 
 to speculation all over the country; the market 
 values of land were rapidly increasing, and the 
 imaginations of men were so far excited by the 
 great changes which were taking place on every 
 side, that it seemed impossible to suggest a scheme 
 so wild or so improbable that it should be with- 
 out plausibility in some minds. Speculators were 
 eagerly making entry of all the government land 
 for which they could raise money; and in illustra- 
 tion of the spirit in which this was done, an in- 
 stance is given in which two brothers made pur- 
 chase together in a single day of upwards of two 
 hundred and forty quarter sections of land, with- 
 out even taking the precaution to have them first 
 visited and examined. But sales by individuals 
 were quite as active as sales by government ; the 
 great majority being made upon small payments 
 down and the purchasers expecting to make for- 
 tunes from the rapid rise in prices. Thus every-
 
 256 . MICHIGAN. 
 
 body seemed to be growing rich ; and though much 
 of the appearance was fictitious, even the coolt-st 
 heads could see that the apparent prosperity had 
 some foundation, and that in the rapid settlement 
 of the State there was reason for a steady and 
 considerable increase in values. 
 
 The currency of the country naturally and nec- 
 essarily demanded early attention. At this time 
 it consisted almost exclusively in issues of state 
 banks. President Jackson's famous specie circtriar 
 had made it necessary that payments for govern- 
 ment lands should be made in gold and silver, but 
 what was made use of for this purpose did not 
 readily find its way into the channels of trade, 
 and if it had done so, the amount of coin in the 
 country would have been found wholly inade- 
 quate to the demands of business. Nearly all 
 financial transactions were therefore necessarily 
 carried on with bank paper, and the most of this 
 had its origin outside the State. A hasty glance 
 at the condition of the currency in territorial 
 times seems a necessary introduction to any ac- 
 count of early state legislation. 
 
 The people of Michigan had had an experience 
 in currency as extensive and diversified perhaps 
 as that of any other people in the world. Much 
 of the earliest trade was with wampum ; and when 
 this proved insufficient for the wants of the trade, 
 furs and peltry became a substitute, the beaver 
 and other skins commonly dealt in having each a
 
 CONDITION OF THE CURRENCY. 257 
 
 recognized value in the market, by which flour 
 and other provisions, liquors, etc., were bought and 
 sold. But these primitive devices were found 
 quite insufficient to meet the demands of trade 
 during the period of the American Revolution, 
 and merchants made their due-bills which were 
 received as change in business transactions, under 
 an expectation that they would pass from hand to 
 hand as currency. In 1779 an appearance of 
 legality was given to this practice by the gov- 
 ernor, who permitted the merchants to issue bills 
 expressly designed for currency ; the quantity is- 
 sued being limited to the estimated value of their 
 stocks on hand. The merchants all received each 
 other's bills, and had a set time in which to make 
 their exchanges ; and though losses sometimes oc- 
 curred from bankruptcy, the percentage was not 
 great, and the system answered for the time a 
 very good purpose. All the while there was some 
 coin in circulation ; and this consisted largely in 
 Spanish dollars, which for convenience in change 
 were cut into halves, quarters, and eighths. The 
 subdivision invited cheating, which became after 
 a time so general and so serious that in 1798 the 
 grand jury presented the cut money as a nuisance, 
 and it was driven out of circulation. 
 
 The attempt made in 1806 to establish a bank 
 
 at Detroit has. already been referred to. The men 
 
 concerned in this scheme and who were to supply 
 
 the capital had ample means, and there is no 
 
 IT
 
 258 MICHIGAN. 
 
 reason for the belief that anything fraudulent, or 
 which seemed to them improper, was contem- 
 plated. But the local needs required no such 
 bank ; and if it acquired a circulation at all com- 
 mensurate to its capital, it must find it in distant 
 parts of the country. Congress disapproved of the 
 charter, and the bank was forced to discontinue 
 business, which it did without, so far as we know, 
 any considerable loss to creditors. A few of the 
 bills failed to be returned for speedy redemption, 
 and Judge Woodward, the first president, was an- 
 noyed some years afterwards by threats of suits 
 upon them. He was more annoyed by bitter and 
 unscrupulous newspaper attacks upon him for his 
 connection with the scheme, which, though pub- 
 lished at Pittsburgh, circulated freely among his 
 enemies in Detroit. 
 
 The presence of the army in Detroit caused a 
 considerable expenditure of government money, 
 which ceased with the capture by the British. 
 Colonel Proctor, the British civil governor, then 
 undertook to supply to some extent the want of 
 local currency by issuing a proclamation making 
 army and commissariat bills legal tender, under 
 penalty of two hundred dollars for refusal to re- 
 ceive them as such ; but this was in the nature of 
 a forced military loan, and the bills disappeared 
 when the British occupation ceased. After the 
 war much money was brought in from other states 
 to meet government expenditures, but there was
 
 CIRCULATION OF OHIO CURRENCY. 259 
 
 no specie in circulation, and merchants and other 
 individuals and corporations issued small due-bills 
 for change ; and these were of all denominations 
 from five dollars down to one cent. Eve"n churches 
 contributed to the wants of trade by this " shin- 
 plaster " currency, which was easily counterfeited, 
 as Father Richard found to his cost when his bills 
 issued for St. Anne's began to come in for re- 
 demption. 
 
 In 1817 it seemed to the business men of Detroit 
 that the time had come for a local bank, and in 
 December of that year a charter was obtained, 
 and the bank put in operation the next season. 
 But the principal circulation in the territory was 
 now Ohio bank bills ; and of the banks which 
 issued them little was or could be known. Some 
 were supposed to be good and some doubtful, and 
 in 1819 the merchants of Detroit appointed a 
 committee, which may be styled a vigilance com- 
 mittee, to give warning of danger in respect to 
 this currency as occasion should arise. But Ohio 
 currency continued to be more abundant than any 
 other for many years, and serious complaints were 
 made that the disbursing officers of the general gov- 
 ernment made their payments in it. The wrong 
 in this was very considerable ; for though the bills 
 were nominally received at par, they were really 
 at a discount of from twenty to twenty-five per 
 cent. Merchants could not make use of them in 
 New York or Boston where their purchases were
 
 260 MICHIGAN. 
 
 principally made, and a large sacrifice upon them 
 was inevitable. As the banks had a great tempta- 
 tion to hold out inducements to the circulation of 
 their bills at a distance from the point of redemp- 
 tion, their payment by officers on public demands 
 was always open to a suspicion of official cor- 
 ruption, and the suspicion generally found voice 
 among those who felt that they were wronged by 
 being forced to take the paper. But for this there 
 seemed to be no remedy : the general fact~Vas 
 that the people took in their ordinary business 
 transactions whatever (hey found in circulation as 
 money, and if they distrusted it for any reason, they 
 were only the more prompt in passing it off. By 
 the year 1822 small coins had again found their 
 way into circulation to an extent that left no 
 excuse for the fractional currency issued by indi- 
 viduals, and in a public meeting it was resolved 
 no longer to receive it. New York, New England, 
 and Kentucky bank-bills were now to some extent 
 circulating in the territory, but the need of local 
 banking facilities was becoming urgent, and five 
 years later two banks were chartered, only one 
 of which, however, was organized. In 1829 two 
 more were chartered and went into operation, in 
 1832 another, and in 1835 five. Of these last 
 one was located west of Lake Michigan, and two 
 were railroad corporations with liberty to organize 
 for banking purposes also. Eight banks were in 
 existence when the state government was organ-
 
 GENERAL BANKING LAW. 261 
 
 ized, and seven more were established within its 
 limits under state charters before the State was 
 formally admitted to the Union. For the most 
 part they were in good hands and managed hon- 
 estly, but the charters were almost entirely want- 
 ing in provisions for the protection of bill-holders 
 or other creditors. A " safety fund " was pro- 
 vided for by general law, through the payment 
 annually to the state treasurer of one half of one 
 per cent, upon the capital stock paid in, and it 
 was to be applied to the payment of the debts 
 of any bank that should become insolvent. A 
 bank commissioner was also provided for, with 
 full powers of examination of books, papers, and 
 securities, and with authority to take steps to 
 enjoin any bank which was proceeding illegally or 
 improperly. 
 
 It would seem that fifteen banks, which was an 
 average of one for less than ten thousand people 
 in the State, ought to have been ample for the 
 transaction of its business ; but at the very next 
 session of the legislature the number of new char- 
 ters applied for was so great that it was de- 
 termined by general law to provide the means 
 whereby any association of persons who could fur- 
 nish the necessary means, and give proper securi- 
 ties for the protection of the public, might by 
 voluntary action assume banking powers. The 
 cry of monopoly was already in the air ; and this 
 general provision for converting everybody at
 
 262 MICHIGAN. 
 
 pleasure into a banker was adopted " upon the 
 plausible principle of introducing a free competi- 
 tion into what was considered a profitable branch 
 of business heretofore monopolized by a few fa- 
 vored corporations." The common belief was, 
 that in banking, as in other kinds of business, de- 
 mand would regulate supply, and that banks would 
 come into existence only when and where there 
 was need for them, and where capital was available 
 for the purpose. Then if it was found on -trial 
 that a bank was not needed, it would simply wind 
 up its affairs and go out of existence, as a mer- 
 chant might close out his business and engage in 
 something else ; and the experiment, if the public 
 was suflicientl}' protected by the law of organiza- 
 tion, would harm no one. Let the law be care- 
 fully framed, it was said, and under proper super- 
 vision everything might be left to the ordinary 
 operations of trade and business. With senti- 
 menls like these prevailing, a general law was 
 passed March 15, 1837, under which any ten or 
 more freeholders of any county might organize 
 themselves into a corporation for the transaction 
 of banking business, with a capital of not less 
 than fifty nor more than three hundred thousand 
 dollars, on furnishing the required securities. 
 
 The provisions made by the law for the protec- 
 tion of the public were : that no bank should com- 
 mence operations until thirty per cent, of the 
 stock should be actually paid in, in specie ; that
 
 FINANCIAL DISASTER. 263 
 
 securities in bonds and mortgages on real estate, 
 or in bonds executed by resident freeholders and 
 approved by the county treasurer and clerk, should 
 be given for the payment of all debts and the re- 
 demption of all bills ; that the banks should be 
 subject to the safety fund act, and that a failure 
 to pay the bills and notes on demand, or within 
 thirty days thereafter, in lawful currency, should 
 operate as a dissolution. And when, added to 
 these, the banks were made subject to the con- 
 stant supervision of the bank commissioner, it 
 seemed to the public of that day that a banking 
 system of exceptional security had been estab- 
 lished. 
 
 The legislature which passed this act adjourned 
 March 22, 1837, to November 9th following, but 
 long before that day events had happened which 
 rendered a special session imperative. The wild 
 speculations of the country had been rapidly ap- 
 proaching a climax. Money, during the preceding 
 winter, had commanded exorbitant rates of inter- 
 est, ranging from two to four per cent, a month to 
 persons in good financial standing and in regular 
 business, and it was impossible that this state of 
 things should long continue. In the spring busi- 
 ness houses in the leading cities of the country be- 
 gan to fail. So many suspended that a panic was 
 started, and at the beginning of May there was a 
 run upon the banks of New York. A great meet- 
 ing in that city besought the president to rescind
 
 264 MICHIGAN. 
 
 the specie circular, as a necessary relief to the 
 business pressure, and the " Washington Globe " 
 responded that " there is no pressure which an 
 honest man should regret." But the pressure was 
 greater than the banks could sustain, and in a few 
 days the banks of New York, Philadelphia, Bos- 
 ton, and Baltimore suspended specie payments 
 and the suspension became general throughout the 
 country. The banks paid out each other's bills, 
 and the people, unable to get other currency ^jvere 
 compelled to take and use them, but every one of 
 the banks was, in a legal sense, in a condition of 
 practical insolvency. Legislatures were called to- 
 gether to devise a remedy for the consequent evils, 
 and, under a belief that the banks had assets suffi- 
 cient to meet all demands upon them when the 
 present stringency should be over, the temporary 
 suspension of specie payments was legalized. 
 
 The Michigan legislature was convened in 
 special session June 12th. Up to this time no 
 banks had been actually organized under the gen- 
 eral banking law, though preliminary steps had 
 been taken in several cases. Governor Mason in 
 his message, after depicting in vivid language the 
 financial and commercial embarrassments of the 
 country, proceeded to point out as their causes over- 
 banking, over-trading, and extravagance among 
 the people. He spoke particularly and strongly 
 of excessive bank issues, which he declared to be 
 a violation of the simplest principles of political
 
 POSITION OF THE GOVERNOR. 265 
 
 economy. The evil effects were depicted in detail 
 and in strong colors, and his views were empha- 
 sized by a review of the present condition of the 
 country and with some prophecy of the immediate 
 future. 
 
 How far the governor, in what he was saying, 
 was expressing settled convictions in his own 
 mind, and how far he was merely repeating the 
 current talk in the political circles to which he in- 
 clined, it would be difficult now to determine. If 
 he believed all he said of the evils of excessive 
 bank issues, and if he saw a financial crisis ap- 
 proaching, as his message would indicate that he 
 did, it would naturally be expected of him that 
 he would recommend such legislation as would re- 
 move the causes which were still active in the 
 multiplication of the evils he pointed out : espe- 
 cially might it be expected of him that he would 
 recommend the repeal of the general banking 
 law, so far, at least, as it authorized corporations 
 for which proceedings had not already been origi- 
 nated. But the truth probably is, that he com- 
 prehended very imperfectly the actual crisis. In 
 this regard he was no more lacking in foresight 
 than the community in general. Everything about 
 him was still excited and speculative ; values were 
 nominally maintained ; dealings in wild lands and 
 town property at fancy prices were still active 
 though mostly on credit, and the notion floated 
 vaguely in people's minds that there was wealth
 
 266 MICHIGAN. 
 
 in land as such, independent of labor and improve- 
 ment. But as the State was still rapidly settling, 
 any one could see that land must continue to be 
 bought and sold, and as private and public im- 
 provements spread over the State, the hope that 
 the market value would continue to go up did not 
 seem wholly chimerical. The same legislature 
 which bad passed the general banking law had 
 authorized the governor to borrow five millions of 
 dollars for railroads, canals, and other improve- 
 ments, and it was plausibly argued that when 
 these improved highways had been made to pen- 
 etrate every part of the State, as was proposed, 
 farming lands would approximate in value to those 
 in western New York, and prosperous villages 
 would rise up all along the lines of internal com- 
 munication. The governor, therefore, so far from 
 recommending the repeal of the general banking 
 law, expressed his strong opinion that the banks 
 of the State were generally in a sound condition, 
 and that what was to be feared was, that as a 
 consequence of specie suspension, elsewhere, runs 
 would be made upon Michigan banks which, not- 
 withstanding they had ample assets, would force 
 them to suspend operations. He, therefore, rec- 
 ommended the passage of a law legalizing the tem- 
 porary suspension of specie payments, and the 
 legislature, adopting his suggestion, authorized 
 the suspension until May 16, 1838 ; the banks in 
 the mean time being prohibited from paying divi-
 
 OPERATION OF LEGISLATIVE ACTS. 267 
 
 dencU while in a state of suspension, and also from 
 selling gold or silver at a premium and from buy- 
 ing their own notes at a discount. An amend- 
 ment to the bill, taking from the banks the privi- 
 lege of collecting their own demands in specie 
 while not paying specie themselves, was defeated. 
 This was the most important outcome of the 
 special session, and it was certainly very extraor- 
 dinary legislation. It left the general banking 
 law in force, with full authority to organize banks 
 under it, and to begin the business of issuing bills 
 in a state of suspension ; to flood the State with an 
 irredeemable currency, subject only to the condi- 
 tion that the associates should give security for 
 the ultimate redemption of their bills and the pay- 
 ment of their other debts, and that they should 
 pay in thirty per cent, of their capital stock in spe- 
 cie before commencing business. Wild lands that 
 had been recently bought of the government at 
 one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre were now 
 valued at ten or twenty times that amount, and 
 lots in villages that still existed only on paper 
 had a worth for banking purposes only limited by 
 the conscience of the officer who was to take the 
 securities. Any ten freeholders of a county must 
 be poor indeed if they could not give sufficient 
 security to answer the purpose of the general 
 banking law. The requirement of the payment 
 of thirty per cent, of the capital stock in specie 
 was more difficult to be complied witk But as
 
 268 MICHIGAN. 
 
 the payment was to be made to the bank itself, 
 the difficulty was gotten over in various ingenious 
 ways, which the author of the general banking 
 law could scarcely have anticipated. In some cases, 
 stock notes in terms payable in specie, or the cer- 
 tificates of individuals which stated untruly 
 that the maker held a specified sum of specie for 
 the bank, were counted as specie itself ; in others, 
 a small sum of specie was paid in and taken out, 
 and the process repeated over and over until^the 
 aggregate of payments equaled the sum required ; 
 in still others, the specie with which one bank was 
 organized was passed from town to town and made 
 to answer the purposes of several. By the first 
 day of January, 1838, articles of association for 
 twenty-one banks had been filed, making, with the 
 banks before in existence, an average of one to 
 less than five thousand people. Some of them 
 were absolutely without capital, and some were 
 organized by scheming men in New York and else- 
 where, who took the bills away with them to cir- 
 culate abroad, putting out none at home. For 
 some, locations as inaccessible as possible were 
 selected, that the bills might not come back to 
 plague the managers. The bank commissioners 
 say in their report for 1838, of their journey for 
 inspection : " The singular spectacle was presented 
 of the officers of the State seeking for banks in 
 situations the most inaccessible and remote from 
 trade, and finding at every step an increase of la-
 
 THE GOVERNOR'S POLICY. 269 
 
 bor by the discovery of new and unknown organi- 
 zations. Before they could be arrested the mis- 
 chief was done : large issues were in circulation 
 and no adequate remedy for the evil." One bank 
 was found housed in a saw-mill, and it was said 
 with pardonable exaggeration in one of the public 
 papers, " Every village plat with a house, or even 
 without a house, if it had a hollow stump to serve 
 as a vault, was the site of a bank." The suspen- 
 sion act, which under these circumstances gave 
 free license to scheming parties for frauds which 
 the general banking law sufficiently invited, was 
 very justly characterized as " a high crime against 
 society." 
 
 The governor, when he delivered his annual 
 message in January, 1838, still had confidence in 
 the general banking law, which he said " offered 
 to all persons the privilege of banking under cer- 
 tain guards and restrictions," and he declared that 
 " the principles upon which this law is based are 
 certainly correct, destroying as they do the odious 
 feature of a banking monopoly, and giving equal 
 rights to all classes of the community." But he 
 thought there had been abuses of the system for 
 which the legislature should provide remedy, and 
 he reiterated his opinion of the evils of excessive 
 paper issues. He recommended a law for the with- 
 drawal of small bills, that gold and silver might 
 take their place as currency, and he expressed 
 the opinion that it would be wise to create a
 
 270 MICHIGAN. 
 
 state bank with a capital limited to the amount of 
 the state loan he had been authorized to make. 
 A most extravagant recommendation, which if 
 adopted might have involved the State itself in 
 the bankruptcy which was then impending over 
 so many of the people. 
 
 The aggregate amount of private indebtedness 
 had by this time become enormous, and the pres- 
 sure for payment was serious and disquieting. 
 Property on the market was as abundant as eYer, 
 but sellers were numerous and eager, while buyers 
 were few, and conversion into money was almost 
 impossible. Wheat, which was worth two dollars 
 and a half a bushel in 1836, had now gone down 
 to a dollar, and other agricultural products in like 
 proportion, and the depression affected all other 
 prices. The people must have relief ; and what 
 relief could be so certain or so speedy as more 
 banks and more money? More banks therefore 
 continued to be organized, and the paper current 
 flowed out among the people in increasing vol- 
 ume. The legislature, in December, had under- 
 taken to improve the banking system somewhat, 
 and had provided for the appointment of three 
 bank commissioners who should inspect every 
 bank at least once in three months, and had also 
 prohibited the suspension of specie payments by 
 any bank which might be organized after the first 
 of January following. But the prohibition was 
 of no moment. Twenty-eight banks were organ-
 
 EVASION OF THE LAW. 271 
 
 ized after that date, and succeeded in getting their 
 issues afloat, which was all that in many cases the 
 promoters expected or cared for. The banks cre- 
 ated under the general banking law were appro- 
 priately christened by the public " wild cats," and 
 it was easy for any one to obtain their bills who 
 could give reasonable assurance that he would cir- 
 culate them at a distance and keep them afloat. 
 
 The bank commissioners when they entered 
 upon the duty of inspection encountered, as was 
 to be expected, a combination, organized and vig- 
 ilant, to deceive and mislead them. The specie 
 found by them at one bank was sent by hurried 
 journey ahead of them to be counted at the next ; 
 " gold and silver flew about the country with the 
 celerity of magic ; its sound was heard in the 
 depths of the forest, yet like the wind one knew 
 not whence it came or whither it was going." It 
 was found in some cases that large packages of 
 bills sent to a distance for circulation were not 
 entered on the books or reported ; that the books 
 were intentionally prepared for deception ; that 
 kegs of specie kept for show and credit were kegs 
 of nails with a little silver on the top ; and that 
 every conceivable device had been resorted to, in 
 order to make that appear sound and worthy of 
 trust which was rottenness and fraud in its very 
 birth. But distrust had come to be universal. 
 Whoever took the bills of the banks did so in- 
 tending to pass them off at the earliest possible
 
 272 MICHIGAN. 
 
 moment. They were at a great discount as com- 
 pared with Eastern bills ; the issues of one bank 
 were at a discount as compared with those of an- 
 other ; merchants kept couriers by whom they 
 hurried off to the banks of issue the bills they 
 were compelled to take, that they might if possi- 
 ble exchange them for something in which they 
 had more confidence. No " circulating medium " 
 ever before circulated so rapidly. Ihe commis- 
 sioners were vigilant in taking steps to wind up 
 the concerns of banks which had been demon- 
 strated to have no soundness, but new banks still 
 continued to be formed. When a bank failed it 
 was of course that laboring men and farmers should 
 be the principal losers ; for they had neither the 
 means of keeping well informed concerning the 
 condition of the banks, nor the facilities for put- 
 ting off doubtful bills which were possessed by the 
 merchants. At the beginning of 1839 the bank 
 commissioners estimated that there were a million 
 dollars of bills of insolvent banks in the hands of 
 individuals and unavailable. Yet the governor, in 
 his annual message delivered in January, found it 
 a " source of unfeigned gratification to be able to 
 congratulate [the legislature] on the prosperous 
 condition to which our rising commonwealth has 
 attained," though he thought there should be a 
 correction of abuses in the banking system, but 
 of what nature were the abuses, and how to be 
 remedied he failed to be specific in pointing out.
 
 DEPRECIATION OF CURRENCY. 273 
 
 He was careful to say, however, that there ought 
 to be no war upon the banks, for " the banks have 
 their rights and should be protected in them," but 
 he added at the same time, as if to warn them 
 against any possible inclination to misbehavior, 
 that " they are not above all law, both human and 
 divine." 
 
 How far the actual fact corresponded to this 
 last remark, there might possibly be differences 
 of opinion. It was very certain that in the man- 
 agement of the affairs of many of the banks no 
 moral obligations whatever had been recognized ; 
 and it was equally certain that from first to last 
 their operations had contemplated the circum- 
 vention and defeat of all such laws of the state as 
 had protection of the public in view. And the 
 general fact was that the mischief was done be- 
 fore any legal remedy could be applied. The 
 hopeful governor reiterated his opinion in favor 
 of a great state bank, but he had acquired no con- 
 verts to his plan, and it received little attention. 
 The insolvent banks were rapidly passing out of 
 existence ; by the end of 1839 forty-two of them 
 were in the hands of receivers, and only two of 
 the chartered banks arid four of those which were 
 organized under the general banking law were 
 still keeping open doors for business. A very 
 large share of all the currency of the State had 
 become absolutely worthless in the pockets of the 
 people, and was as much lost to the owners as 
 
 18
 
 274 MICHIGAN. 
 
 though it had been committed to the flames. Mar- 
 ket values of merchantable property had depreci- 
 ated in proportion to the reduction of currency ; 
 there was no sale for lands and little for anything 
 else except the bare necessaries of life ; distrust in 
 business circles was universal, and business was 
 utterly prostrate. Distress had taken the place of 
 the unnatural excitement, extravagance, and ela- 
 tion of fictitious wealth. It was a natural se- 
 quence to this condition of things that a revo- 
 lution should take place in the political control 
 of the State, and that the Jackson party, which 
 had held undisputed sway to this time, should 
 be deprived of power. The Whigs in the fall 
 of 1839 chose a majority of the legislature, and 
 elected William Woodbridge governor. The revo- 
 lution was the result of general causes, operating 
 throughout the country, though every state had 
 an experience of its own, with peculiar features. 
 
 But no political change could stop the vicious 
 consequences of the wild-cat banking, which were 
 attributable to no one party, and which were con- 
 tinued by suspension laws through several years. 
 All the important legislation of the State for some 
 time, and especially all that concerned public im- 
 provements and the collection of debts, was shaped 
 in view of the depression which followed the finan- 
 cial dissipation. But the measures of relief only 
 aggravated and prolonged the evils of a worthless 
 currency : " a compound," as a writer of the day
 
 OUTCOME OF FREE BANKING. 275 
 
 justly said, " of folly and wickedness." " Of course 
 the people were swindled out of a million or two 
 of property, and this was a lesser evil than the 
 frightful inroads made upon their moral princi- 
 ples, for a doubtful currency contaminates all 
 hands that touch it." Then came stay laws, and 
 laws to compel creditors to take lands at a valua- 
 tion. They were doubtful in point of utility, and 
 more than doubtful in point of morality and con- 
 stitutionality. The federal bankrupt act of 1841 
 first brought substantial relief: it brought almost 
 no dividends to creditors, but it relieved debtors 
 from their crushing burdens and permitted them, 
 sobered and in their right minds, to enter once 
 more the fields of industry and activity. 
 
 The extraordinary history of the attempt to 
 break up an " odious monopoly " in banking by 
 making everybody a banker, and to create pros- 
 perity by unlimited issues of paper currency, was 
 brought at length to a fit conclusion. There had 
 always been in the minds of sound lawyers serious 
 doubts of the constitutionality of the general bank- 
 Ing law ; and in 1844 the matter was brought to 
 judicial test. The constitution declared that " the 
 legislature shall pass no act of incorporation unless 
 with the assent of at least two thirds of each 
 house;" and this provision it was believed con- 
 templated that each proposed corporation should 
 be considered and determined upon separately. 
 It was not in the minds of the people that a great
 
 276 MICHIGAN. 
 
 number of corporations should be created or pro- 
 vided for by a single act, by a legislature which, 
 if considering the necessity or expediency of any 
 single one of them, might disapprove of it alto- 
 gether. The provision was restrictive, having its 
 origin in a distrust of corporations which was 
 prevalent among the people, and was meant to 
 impose an important and effective restraint upon 
 their easy and free multiplication. This was the 
 view taken by the court, and the law was "held 
 void in its inception. The banks were conse- 
 quently illegal institutions; the securities given 
 for the payment of their debts were void ; the 
 obligations they had taken from individuals were 
 nullities. Even the receiverships which had been 
 created for winding up their concerns were of no 
 legal importance further ; for the banks having 
 never had existence could have no creditors to ac- 
 count to, and such receivers as were in possession 
 of assets which they could make available, pock- 
 eted them. But in many cases there were no 
 assets to pocket. Such were the fruits of the ex- 
 periment of giving equal and practically unlim- 
 ited rights in banking to everybody who wanted a 
 shorter road to wealth than that trodden by labor 
 and honest industry. 
 
 The new State, under the bold but inexperienced 
 guidance of its youthful governor, disdaining the 
 lessons of history, had determined to try for itself 
 the experiment of manufacturing riches by the
 
 SUBSIDENCE OF THE BANKING MANIA. 277 
 
 printing - press. The condition after the experi- 
 ment might be compared to a forest after a cy- 
 clone : everything was prostrate, and everything 
 was in confusion. The State was now paying the 
 cost of its lesson in the destruction of credit, the 
 loss of all the fictitious and much of the actual 
 wealth of the people, the bankruptcy of great 
 numbers, and several years of stagnation of busi- 
 ness. General and forced economy was a neces- 
 sity of the situation ; but this was a blessing. 
 After 1841, the few chartered banks which sur- 
 vived were able to maintain their position as spe- 
 cie paying, and by their legitimate assistance the 
 people patiently and with steady industry ad- 
 dressed themselves to the development of the re- 
 sources of the State and to the improvement of 
 their own condition. Thousands never recovered 
 from the bankruptcy and discouragement which 
 followed the financial collapse ; but the State at 
 large was soon rapidly accumulating substantial 
 wealth, and acquiring an independent and self- 
 respecting population. 
 
 Thereafter wild-cat banking was a by-word in 
 the State ; but the lessons it taught needed to be 
 learned at some time, and were not likely to be 
 learned except with experience as teacher. One 
 of its lessons was that neither real estate nor any- 
 thing else not immediately convertible into money 
 can support the credit of bank currency. But for 
 the experience of the several States in banking,
 
 278 MICHIGAN. 
 
 in the years 1837-39, who shall say that the na- 
 tional currency act, when it came to be passed, 
 might not have been as little guarded against 
 dangerous schemes as some of its state predeces- 
 sors?
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE STATE ENTERS UPON INTERNAL IMPROVE- 
 MENTS. 
 
 THE years 1835, '36, and '37 were years for the 
 building of air castles everywhere, but especially 
 in the new West. Nowhere were the imagina- 
 tions of the people more active, or more excited 
 with visions of great prosperity than in Michigan, 
 and nowhere was there greater excuse for it. 
 Every steamboat on Lake Erie was loaded with 
 people on their way to the Peninsular State, and 
 the road through the Black Swamp from Cleve- 
 land to the Maumee exhibited a continuous mov- 
 ing caravan of emigrant wagons slowly and labo- 
 riously dragged along. The Erie and Kalamazoo 
 railroad, with its little cars of stage-coach fashion, 
 was doing what it could to help the procession 
 move on into Michigan : it carried " baggage at 
 the risk of the owners," but its speed was not 
 such as to put life at much risk, except perhaps 
 when a broken strap rail ran a*" snake head " up 
 through the car floor. In the interior might be 
 heard on every side the sound of the woodman's 
 axe and the crash of falling trees ; new houses,
 
 280 MICHIGAN. 
 
 very primitive but each sheltering a family, were 
 being put up everywhere ; and crops were being 
 gathered where only the year before all was wil- 
 derness and solitude. A magical transformation 
 was going on before the eyes of the people, which 
 had been rendered possible through the construc- 
 tion of the Erie Canal, whereby De Witt Clinton, 
 Myron Holley, and their associates had added so 
 vastly to the wealth and importance of the Empire 
 State, and won for themselves immortal renown. 
 It was a striking evidence of what improved means 
 for the transportation of persons and property 
 might do for a state ; and the proof that the peo- 
 ple were awake to its importance is seen in the 
 fact that in forming their constitution, prepara- 
 tory to admission to the Union, they took pains to 
 impose upon the legislature the duty of following 
 the example of New York. The provision to this 
 end was the following: "Internal improvements 
 shall be encouraged by the government of this 
 state ; and it shall be the duty of the legislature 
 as soon as may be, to make provision by law for 
 ascertaining the proper objects of improvements, 
 in relation to roads, canals, and navigable waters ; 
 and it shall also be their duty to provide by law 
 for an equal, systematic, and economical applica- 
 tion of the funds which may be appropriated to 
 these objects." As this section neither gave power 
 to the legislature nor undertook to set bounds to 
 power otherwise possessed, it was obviously out of
 
 THE TEMPTATION TO BUILD RAILROADS. 281 
 
 place in the constitution, where only the outlines 
 and fundamental principles of government are 
 looked for ; but it was indicative of prevailing 
 thoughts and aspirations, and had no little influ- 
 ence upon subsequent state action. It may there- 
 fore be regarded as a significant landmark in the 
 history of the State. 
 
 The laudable ambition of the first governor to 
 distinguish his own administration and to advance 
 the growth and prosperity of the State would 
 naturally lead him to act promptly upon this man- 
 datory provision. The surface of Michigan was 
 such as to admit of easy and economical construc- 
 tion of both railroads and canals, and it might well 
 be deemed a reproach to the State should it be 
 behind the rest of the Union, in these great and 
 now indispensable conveniences. Accordingly the 
 governor in his annual message reminded the 
 legislature that " the period has arrived when 
 Michigan can no longer, without detriment to her 
 standing and importance as a state, delay the ac- 
 tion necessary for the development of her vast re- 
 sources of wealth. Nature has bestowed upon us 
 the highest advantage*} of climate, a fertile soil 
 and peculiar facilities icr commerce ; and with a 
 prudent and wise fovocfv,st to be exercised by the 
 legislature and the people, we cannot fail soon to 
 reach that high destiny which awaits us." It is 
 impossible to mistake the spirit of this message : 
 the emphatic words are words of action : we can-
 
 282 MICHIGAN. 
 
 not longer delay : we must soon not by steady 
 and measured steps, but immediately " reach 
 that high destiny which awaits us," if we have 
 the " prudent and wise forecast " which perceives 
 the opportunity for greatness, and embraces it 
 without hesitation or faint-heartedness. 
 
 Accordingly the governor recommended surveys 
 to determine how and by what routes the waters 
 of Lake Michigan might be connected by canals 
 with the waters of the eastern part of the Stte ; 
 and he suggests a series of state railroads, and the 
 purchase by the State of certain roads which had 
 already been begun by corporations. The legisla- 
 ture responded promptly to this action. An act 
 was passed for the location and construction of 
 three lines of railroad across the State : one from 
 Detroit to the mouth of the St. Joseph River ; one 
 from Monroe to New Buffalo, and one from the 
 mouth of the Black River to the navigable waters 
 of Grand River or to Lake Michigan. The sum 
 of five hundred and fifty thousand dollars was 
 appropriated to begin the construction, and further 
 sums were voted for the survey of a canal route 
 from Mount Clemens to the mouth of the Kala- 
 mazoo River, and of a canal around the falls of the 
 St. Mary, and for various minor projects which 
 may now be suffered to rest in the oblivion to 
 which the State long since very properly consigned 
 them. To provide funds for these purposes, the 
 governor was authorized to borrow on the credit
 
 THE STATE PLUNGES INTO DEBT. 283 
 
 of the State the sum of five million dollars, at an 
 interest which should not exceed five and a half 
 per cent., and to issue state bonds therefor. The 
 sum borrowed was to constitute an internal im- 
 provement fund, and it was declared that the pro- 
 ceeds of all railroads and canals constructed by 
 the State, the interest on all loans which might 
 thereafter be made by the State from the in- 
 ternal improvement fund, and the dividends aris- 
 ing from all bank stock owned or which might 
 thereafter be owned by the State, so far as neces- 
 sary, should constitute a sinking fund for the pay- 
 ment of the principal and interest of this loan. 
 The bonds were not to be sold at less than par. 
 The sum to be borrowed was subsequently in- 
 creased by two hundred thousand dollars, that the 
 State might advance to each of two railroad com- 
 panies then engaged in building roads the sum of 
 one hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 Five million two hundred thousand dollars was 
 a large debt for a state whose people, less than 
 two hundred thousand in number, were still strug- 
 gling under the hardships and privations of pio- 
 neer life ; and a little more experience in the man- 
 ner in which public moneys are expended in state 
 works would have satisfied any considerate person 
 that this amount would be only the beginning of 
 what would be required to complete the magnifi- 
 cent system of public works which the legislature 
 had planned. This, however, was not generally
 
 284 MICHIGAN. 
 
 understood at the time : the calculations of cost 
 were low ; it was only the calculation of returns 
 that was magnificently large. The committee of 
 the legislature that reported the scheme had no 
 difficulty in demonstrating, by facts and figures, 
 that the income from the railroad from Detroit 
 across the State must be thirty per cent, annu- 
 ally upon the cost ; a most splendid and satisfac- 
 tory result, as all must admit, to flow from acting 
 promptly with proper confidence in the future of 
 the State. The cost of the road, it is true, with 
 all its station houses and other buildings, was esti- 
 mated at only a million and a half ; but this was 
 for a single track only, and the surplus earnings, 
 after providing for the interest of the cost and 
 paying off the principal, were expected to be am- 
 ple for the building of an additional track as fast 
 as needed. Such were the crude and ignorant 
 calculations upon which, in the early days of rail- 
 roads, states were induced to plunge into debt and 
 to peril their credit and good name, sometimes al- 
 most beyond hope of protection or rescue. 
 
 In his annual message for 1838, the governor 
 was able to say that under the act authorizing the 
 five million loan he had made such arrangements 
 as would enable the State readily to command 
 any portion of the amount, and that five hundred 
 thousand dollars of the bonds had already been 
 sold in the American market at the very hand- 
 some premium of six per cent., and the remainder
 
 PRUDENCE CREEPING BACK. 285 
 
 had been put upon the European market. He 
 also reported that the improvements which had 
 been entered upon were progressing to his satis- 
 faction. But there were indications that the gov- 
 ernor was becoming circumspect, and perhaps be- 
 ginning to fear that the State had entered upon 
 undertakings which were likely to test its powers 
 unduly. He questioned whether the sum the State 
 had undertaken to borrow would be sufficient, 
 even with the most rigid economy, to provide for 
 the construction of the works undertaken, and he 
 submitted the propriety of leaving the minor 
 works to individual enterprise ; the State con- 
 structing the great and leading communications 
 only. The minor enterprises, however, as well as 
 the greater, were already entered upon, and as 
 nobody was proposing their construction as indi- 
 vidual enterprises, it was not at all likely that 
 state expenditures upon them would be suffered 
 to stop while the larger works were progressing. 
 When a great system of internal improvements is 
 entered upon, sections and localities have claims 
 they will not suffer to be ignored ; the questions 
 involved are largely questions of local advantage, 
 and the state, in the distribution of its favors, 
 must consider all, and be impartial to all. 
 
 In his message for 1839 the governor still speaks 
 in hopeful terms of the progress of public improve- 
 ments, but the information he has to communicate 
 respecting the loan is not agreeable. The sale of
 
 286 MICHIGAN. 
 
 bonds to the amount of five hundred thousand dol- 
 lars had fallen through after two hundred thousand 
 had been paid for, and he was obliged to look 
 elsewhere for a purchaser. He had found one in 
 the Morris Canal and Banking Company, for a 
 part of the sum required, and that company as 
 agent for the State had closed out a sale of the 
 remaining bonds to the Pennsylvania United States 
 Bank. The terms were not what the State had 
 expected to make : the sale was in fact below par, 
 but was made nominally at par by an allowance 
 under the name of commissions. One million 
 three hundred thousand dollars had actually been 
 received into the state treasury, and the governor, 
 while not satisfied with what had been accom- 
 plished, assured the legislature it was the best 
 that was possible in the existing state of the 
 money market. This was a great disappointment 
 to the State, and subjected the governor to serious 
 criticism. But worse news was to come : it was 
 soon to be a question not of the loss of a percent- 
 age merely, but of the loss of the major part of 
 the loan. The Morris Canal and Banking Com- 
 pany failed ; the Pennsylvania United States Bank 
 failed; the two had possession of all the state 
 bonds and had paid for some of them ; upon the 
 remainder only a small percentage had been paid, 
 but the bankrupt institutions, without right or 
 authority, had hypothecated the bonds for their 
 own debts. Only about one half the face value 
 had been received by the State.
 
 THE STATE BROUGHT TO A HALT. 287 
 
 This was a startling condition of things. The 
 State not only had urgent need of the whole 
 amount of the loan for the works already begun, 
 but it had now become manifest to the most san- 
 guine that a much larger sum would be necessary 
 for their completion. Nothing, it was now seen, 
 was to be realized from earnings which could be 
 applied to construction. If the loan failed even 
 in part, progress upon the works must be stopped, 
 or at least greatly delayed. But it now appeared 
 that while the State was to receive scarcely half 
 the expected loan, the whole amount of the bonds 
 was in the hands of parties who would insist that 
 they were purchasers for value, and demand full 
 payment. The State must then pay, or it must 
 expect to be classed in the money market of the 
 world in the ranks of repudiation. Repudiation 
 is the lowest depth of state degradation ; it had 
 already brought some states into disgrace ; and a 
 people might justly be sensitive to its imputation, 
 even when their purpose was right and honorable. 
 
 To narrate in detail all that took place after- 
 wards would make a long and dreary story which 
 may well be left untold. The results are all that 
 are now important. The bank crash came with 
 its attendant ruin and bankruptcy, and the State 
 was soon in condition rendering it impossible to 
 pay the interest on even the full-paid bonds. 
 Work on the state railroads was likely to come to 
 a stop, and it was only kept in progress by means
 
 288 MICHIGAN. 
 
 of an issue of state script payable in lands, of 
 which half a million acres had been donated by 
 the United States to the State for internal im- 
 provement purposes. The sacrifice upon this script 
 was necessarily very great, and its use was a 
 wasteful expenditure of state resources. The ordi- 
 nary expenses of government could not be met 
 without borrowing, for it would have been impos- 
 sible to raise by taxation sufficient to meet all 
 demands without causing great distress. As~*the 
 amount payable on state bonds was now in con- 
 troversy, the interest was necessarily in dispute, 
 and no part of it was provided for, or was likely 
 to be until the controversy was in some manner 
 determined. To add to public embarrassments, it 
 was now made known that the details of the nego- 
 tiation for the loan had not at first been fully 
 communicated, and that some of the terms were 
 so unusual and so detrimental to the interests of 
 the State as justly to call for censure. 
 
 Regarding the bonds which had been intrusted 
 to the Morris Canal and Banking Company, and 
 which were now in other hands, the State took at 
 the outset a position which was deemed just, and 
 maintained it firmly. The bonds which had been 
 bought and paid for should be paid in full, prin- 
 cipal and interest. There should be no repudia- 
 tion ; and if payment of interest was delayed, 
 interest should be paid upon the deferred pay- 
 ment. But as to bonds not sold in fact, but upon
 
 THE CREDIT OF THE STATE MAINTAINED. 289 
 
 which something had been paid, the State would 
 recognize an obligation to the extent of the pay- 
 ment, but no farther. It was not believed the 
 holders of those bonds were entitled to claim 
 the rights of bond fide holders : they stood in the 
 shoes of the Morris Canal and Banking Company, 
 and of the Pennsylvania United States Bank, 
 neither of which could have equities against the 
 State entitling it to demand upon the bonds more 
 than it had paid for them with interest ; and the 
 State, even at the risk of misconstruction, would 
 refuse to go, in recognizing the bonds, farther than 
 equity and the rules of law as between individuals 
 would require. On the part-paid bonds being 
 surrendered, the State- would issue full-paid bonds 
 for the sum equitably due upon them. More 
 than this it was not believed that justice could 
 demand. The proposition of the State was not 
 immediately accepted by the bond-holders, but it 
 was not long before the part-paid bonds began to 
 come in, and in the end all were retired. The 
 episode was a disagreeable one for the State, but 
 when it was over the state credit was good, and 
 the debt was not beyond its ability to pay in due 
 season. 
 
 The works of internal improvement still re- 
 mained on the hands of the State, and in the day 
 of its poverty and trial they were continually 
 calling upon a depleted treasury for money to 
 keep them in progress. But now that the great 
 
 19
 
 290 MICHIGAN. 
 
 bubble of speculation and inflation was burst, it 
 became plain to the comprehension of the dullest 
 that some of the state projects were wild and 
 chimerical, and they were abandoned altogether. 
 Such was the case with the projected canal from 
 Mount Clemens to the mouth of the Kalamazoo 
 River, which it was now seen would be worthless 
 if constructed. The only works of much prom- 
 ise were the central and southern of the three 
 railroads, which were now very well under way. 
 But doubts were arising in the minds of the peo- 
 ple whether the State had been wise in undertak- 
 ing the construction and management even of 
 these : whether it was possible for the State to do 
 either the one or the other With the same prudence 
 and economy as could private owners. These 
 doubts soon matured into a settled conviction that 
 the management of railroads was in its nature es- 
 sentially a private business, and ought to be in the 
 hands of individuals. By common consent it came 
 to be considered that the State in entering upon 
 these works had made a serious mistake ; and the 
 legislature, in an act for funding the loan bonds, 
 invited proposals from state creditors for the pur- 
 chase of the state railroads. The times were not 
 then propitious; but in 1846 the Central and 
 Southern Railroads, so far as they were then con- 
 structed, were sold by the State to corporations 
 which had been chartered for the purpose of pur- 
 chasing. The aggregate price was two million and
 
 THE STATE BINDS ITSELF TO PRUDENCE. 291 
 
 a half, a sum very much below what had been 
 their cost to the State. But the people felt that 
 the roads were well off their hands, and as has 
 been said by one familiar with the whole history, 
 " Here virtually ceased to exist all our works of 
 internal improvement. Nothing but the debris 
 of our airy castles remained, and that only to 
 plague our recollections." The two great rail- 
 roads when taken up by corporations went rapidly 
 forward to completion, and they soon became great 
 national highways whose utility to the State was 
 quite equal to the highest expectations ever formed 
 concerning them. 
 
 Having all their bitter experience with internal 
 improvements fresh in mind, when they formed a 
 new constitution in 1850, the people resolved to 
 put it out of the power of the legislature again to 
 involve them in extravagant projects. And here 
 we reach another landmark, significant in itself, 
 but especially notable when contrasted with the 
 provision respecting internal improvements which 
 has already been quoted from the constitution of 
 1835. In 1850 the people deemed it necessary to 
 prohibit what in 1835 they commended; and they 
 now provided that " the State shall not subscribe 
 to or be interested in the stock of any company, 
 association, or corporation," and also that " the 
 State shall not be a party to or interested in any 
 work of internal improvement, nor engaged in car- 
 rying on any such work, except in the expenditure
 
 292 MICHIGAN. 
 
 of grants to the State of land or other property." 
 These were very positive provisions ; and by adopt- 
 ing them the people believed they had rendered it 
 impossible that projects of doubtful wisdom and 
 utility should be engaged in at the public cost. 
 
 But diseases in the body politic, like those in 
 the human system, are likely to take on new forms 
 from time to time, and they are not to be exor- 
 cised by words, or kept off by constitutional inhi- 
 bitions. The mania for internal improvements 
 at the cost of the public, when it returned fifteen 
 years later under the administration of Governor 
 Crapo, took on the form of aid to railroad corpora- 
 tions by the several municipal bodies in the State. 
 Such aid was being given in other states, and 
 railroads as a consequence were being constructed 
 with a rapidity never paralleled. Michigan was 
 lagging behind the rest of the country : Why 
 should this be so? Every town which should sub- 
 scribe to the stock of a railroad would immediately 
 receive a full return in the enhanced value of its 
 landed property, and would have the stock besides. 
 This was what was commonly said and commonly 
 believed; and the legislature, well reflecting the 
 common desire, passed a general law under which 
 townships and cities were to be permitted to vote 
 aid to railroads. The railroads, under another 
 general law, might be laid out anywhere by the 
 projectors at pleasure ; so that monopoly in these 
 public conveniences seemed to be effectually pro-
 
 RKSTRICTWNS ON MUNICIPAL EXTRAVAGANCE. 293 
 
 vided against. The governor vetoed the railroad 
 aid act, but the legislature passed it over his veto. 
 The business of voting aid to railroads was soon 
 active ; and the most visionary scheme was found 
 as likely to receive aid as any other : perhaps more 
 so, for more work would be done for it. Nothing 
 is so easy as to build railroads if it can be accom- 
 plished by dropping votes into a box. Only fos- 
 sils and croakers will disturb .the public mind by 
 reminders that the sums voted must at some time 
 be paid, and that the roads when built may pay 
 nothing towards them. The State in detail by its 
 corporations was fast plunging into indebtedness 
 which had already reached an aggregate of several 
 million, when the process was arrested by a decis- 
 ion of the state Supreme Court that the act under 
 which the voting had taken place was unconstitu- 
 tional. The decision was a bitter disappointment 
 to many, and the public clamor for a time was 
 loud and earnest ; but a movement to obtain an 
 amendment to the constitution which would per- 
 mit such municipal aid to railroads was unsuccess- 
 ful, and the excitement soon died out. The people 
 had taken the " sober second thought," and had 
 become convinced that municipal corporations in 
 their power to contract debts or to expend public 
 moneys should be confined closely to proper muni- 
 cipal purposes. And this conclusion may be taken 
 as a third conspicuous landmark in the history of 
 internal improvements in Michigan.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ECONOMY, RECUPERATION, AND PROGRESS. 
 
 THE ascendency of the Whig party in the State 
 came to an end in the great reaction which~fol- 
 lowed the death of President Harrison, and the 
 quarrel of his successor with the party which had 
 elected him. In 1841, John S. Barry, the Demo- 
 cratic candidate for governor, was chosen, with a 
 legislature of the same political faith to support 
 him. The new governor was a man peculiarly 
 adapted to the station in the present condition of 
 state affairs. The State was just beginning to re- 
 cuperate after its wild and disastrous financial 
 extravagances, and an executive was needed who 
 would bring the most careful and rigid economy 
 into the administration of government. In Barry 
 the State found such an executive : his New Eng- 
 land hard sense had been strengthened, solidified, 
 and broadened by pioneer life, and he was a fitting 
 leader to bring the State back to ideas and prac- 
 tices of economy and frugality, without at the same 
 time lowering its character or tainting its admin- 
 istration with meanness. He had been much in 
 public life, but without at any time neglecting his
 
 GOVERNOR BARRY'S EXAMPLE. 295 
 
 business as a merchant, and he had accumulated 
 what was thought in those days a considerable for- 
 tune, by strict attention to business in all its de- 
 tails, and by prudent foresight and frugality in 
 expenses. His honesty in public life was scrupu- 
 lous, and it was a matter of course with him that 
 he should expect, on coming to his new office, to 
 give practical effect in state affairs to the pruden- 
 tial rules and principles which he knew must be 
 sound and wise for the public, because they were 
 profitable and expedient when applied to the busi- 
 ness of individuals. He was much lacking in 
 popular manners, but he had been chosen governor 
 in the belief that he would give the State a safe 
 and economical administration, which above all 
 things was what the people desired and the State 
 needed at this time. The public expectation 
 was fully justified: the public economy was rigid 
 and well maintained during his administration ; 
 and when men whose projects he frowned upon 
 went off calling him a bear, and circulated by way 
 of ridicule the story that "he mowed the state 
 house yard to sell the grass and put the money in 
 the state treasury, the hard-working farmers of 
 the State knew instinctively he was the proper 
 executive for the time, and proceeded to give him 
 a reelection. A bear before the treasury seemed 
 quite in proper place just now, and no economy 
 was ridiculous which pointed a moral. In spite 
 of the governor's cold and repelling demeanor, he
 
 296 MICHIGAN. 
 
 acquired a popularity to which few of his succes- 
 sors attained ; and it may be said of his four years' 
 service, that no other period of four years in the 
 history of the State has been more useful to the 
 people, who were now slowly but steadily and 
 surely laying the foundations of a solid and per- 
 manent prosperity. The works of internal im- 
 provement were managed with prudence and econ- 
 omy, and the offer which had been made to state 
 creditors to sell them and receive in paymenfe*the 
 outstanding state obligations was before the pub- 
 lic, and preparing the way for the sale that soon 
 afterwards took place. 
 
 Emigrants continued to come into the State in 
 considerable numbers, and the process of clearing 
 off the forest and improving the land went on 
 rapidly, but the people were able to add to their 
 possessions only slowly and for the most part by 
 hard labor and strict economy. Following Gov- 
 ernor Barry came Alpheus Felch, who resigned in 
 the second year of his service to accept the seat 
 to which he had been elected as senator in Con- 
 gress, and was succeeded for the remainder of the 
 term by William L. Greenly. Then came Epaph- 
 roditus Ransom, elected in 1847, in whose term 
 the capital was removed from Detroit, where it 
 had hitherto been, and located in the woods of 
 Lansing forty miles from any railroad. In this 
 same term are to be noted two exceptions to the 
 general fact that the emigrants to Michigan came
 
 MORMONS IN MICHIGAN. 297 
 
 singly or in families, and not in organized bodies 
 of colonists. In 1847 a party of Hollanders, com- 
 ing from their native land for greater religious 
 liberty, under the leadership of Rev. Albertus C. 
 Van Raalte of the Dutch Reformed Church, 
 founded the village of Holland and also Hope Col- 
 lege, ; and they were followed from year to year by 
 many others who also settled in the same part of 
 the State, where they had schools and publica- 
 tions in their native language and established 
 many churches. They were sufficiently numerous 
 to give a distinctive character to the population 
 of many localities in that section of the State. 
 But it was a good character and the people were 
 not incongruous with the existing population of 
 the State. 
 
 A colony of a very different character settled 
 on Beaver Island, led by James J. Strang, who 
 had been a Mormon elder at Nauvoo and high in 
 the confidence of Joseph Smith, the first prophet. 
 After his superior was murdered, he claimed to 
 have been designated as his successor, but he was 
 defeated in his aspirations of leadership by Brig- 
 ham Young, and driven off by excommunication. 
 He went first to Voree, Wisconsin, where he 
 started a colony on the community plan, but in 
 1846 removed to Beaver Island, where he founded 
 a settlement which was called after himself, St. 
 James. Over this settlement he assumed the au- 
 thority of high priest and king, and he made laws
 
 298 MICHIGAN. 
 
 for it which were implicitly obeyed. He estab- 
 lished and enforced rules of strict morality, pro- 
 hibited entirely the sale of ardent spirits and en- 
 forced the prohibition, observed the seventh day 
 as the Sabbath, built a tabernacle, and collected a 
 tenth from the people for religious and all other 
 public purposes. For two successive terms he was 
 elected a member of the legislature, and performed 
 the duties with ability, and for the most part to 
 general acceptance. But in 1849 he introdirt?ed 
 polygamy, and though it never spread much 
 among his people, it led to some secessions, to 
 continuous trouble thereafter with the " gentiles," 
 and to some armed collisions. In 1856 he was 
 assassinated by renegade Mormons and the col- 
 ony scattered, leaving behind it no trace in Michi- 
 gan of this strange delusion. 
 
 Governor Barry was reflected in 1849. Up to 
 this time the constitution of 1835 had remained 
 in force, and been satisfactory to the people. But 
 now radicalism was in the air the world over, and 
 discontent with existing institutions was rife in 
 every civilized country. In France, Italy, Hun- 
 gary, and Germany there were revolutions, or at- 
 tempts at revolution with considerable success, 
 and everywhere the aspiration of the people was 
 for greater liberty and more privileges to the indi- 
 vidual and less power to the rulers. For the over- 
 throw of existing governments there could be no 
 excuse in the United States, but uneasiness and a
 
 REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION. 299 
 
 desire for change was general, and existing condi- 
 tions in law and in society encountered sharp and 
 persistent criticism. The current of anti-slavery 
 agitation was particularly strong and uncompro- 
 mising, and in 1848 the Democratic party of the 
 country temporarily went down under its blows. 
 An agitation in favor of greater rights and more 
 distinct individual recognition of married women 
 in the law went to some extent hand in hand with 
 the agitation against slavery, but it found advo- 
 cates in every party, and a general concession 
 that some of its demands were proper. The gov- 
 ernor's power of appointment under the existing 
 constitution was particularly complained of: he 
 appointed the judges and all the heads of depart- 
 ment; and this seemed an imputation upon the 
 judgment of the people. To most persons there 
 seemed to be no good reason why they should not 
 elect all of their officers as well as a part of them. 
 That the various questions in government then 
 agitating the public mind might be properly con- 
 sidered, a constitutional convention was called, 
 which met at Lansing on the first Monday of 
 June, 1850, and proceeded to revise the constitu- 
 tion of the State with much thoroughness, under 
 the influence of the prevailing radicalism. A few 
 of the more important provisions it will be inter- 
 esting to notice. A married woman, it was de- 
 clared, shall hold her property, whether acquired 
 before or after marriage, to the same extent as if
 
 800 MICHIGAN. 
 
 single, and may dispose of it by contract, deed, or 
 will at pleasure, No more charters of private in- 
 corporation shall be passed ; but corporations shall 
 be formed under general laws, which shall at all 
 times be subject to legislative control and repeal. 
 By this provision the doctrine of the Federal Su 
 preme Court in the Dartmouth College case, that 
 the charter of a private corporation is a contract, 
 a doctrine from which there had always been 
 much dissent, was meant to be altogether^x- 
 cluded in respect to corporations thereafter formed. 
 Aliens were given the liberty to hold real property 
 with the same freedom as citizens. Judicial offi- 
 cers from highest to lowest were required to be 
 elected by the people, and so were all the heads 
 of department and all other important officers. 
 And various provisions were adopted to bring the 
 exercise of power as near as possible to the people 
 concerned, and to make the responsibility constant 
 and direct. Representatives in the lower house 
 of the legislature were required to be elected for 
 one legislature only, and in single districts. Tlie 
 county board of supervisors was made an impor- 
 tant body, with considerable powers of local legisla- 
 tion, and with authority to pass finally and exclu- 
 sively upon all claims against the county. The 
 old abuses of the Court of Chancery in England 
 were remembered, and inspired a provision for 
 abolishing the court, and handing its jurisdiction 
 over to the courts of law. The temperance senti-
 
 RESTRICTIONS ON INDEBTEDNESS. 801 
 
 ment found expression in a provision that licenses 
 for the sale of intoxicating drinks should not be 
 granted. The evils of unrestricted banking were 
 still fresh in mind, and it was declared that no 
 banking law should be passed without submission 
 to the people, nor without individual liability on 
 the part of officers and stockholders ; and the leg- 
 islature was to have no power to authorize a sus- 
 pension of specie payments. The grand jury was 
 done away with as cumbrous and generally un- 
 necessary, though one might be ordered for special 
 cases. A very important and humane provision 
 was that a homestead should be exempted from ex- 
 ecution for debts, and also not less than five hun- 
 dred dollars of personal property. And the legis- 
 lature was required to make the public schools 
 free. 
 
 Many restrictions were imposed on the legisla- 
 tive power of the State, but the most notable of 
 these were such as concerned the finances. The 
 State was now in debt, but its credit was good, 
 and it was determined that this should be sus- 
 tained and the debt paid as speedily as possible. 
 The legislature was therefore required immedi- 
 ately to provide a sinking fund, which should be 
 increased annually at least five per cent, until 
 the whole debt was extinguished. The State was 
 to be at liberty to contract debts to meet deficits 
 in revenue, but not to exceed at any one time 
 fifty thousand dollars ; and also to repel invasion,
 
 802 MICHIGAN. 
 
 suppress insurrection, or defend the State in time 
 of vvur. The issue of state sciipt was prohibited. 
 These provisions, with a prohibition against the 
 State loaning its credit to individuals or corpora- 
 tions, or engaging directly or indirectly in works 
 of internal improvement, were thought ample to 
 give protection against the consequences of a re- 
 turn of the mania under which the five million 
 loan had been contracted. 
 
 The provisions respecting salaries of state offi- 
 cials are deserving of notice, as indicating the ten- 
 dency of public thought at the time. It is first to 
 be remarked that the convention determined to fix 
 the salaries, so that it should not be in the power 
 of the legislature to increase them under the in- 
 fluence of extravagant ideas or of lobby pressure. 
 Next it is to be observed that the sums named 
 were very small; small even for the time, and soon 
 to appear ridiculously so when the expenses of liv- 
 ing should be greatly increased, and the State be- 
 come populous and wealthy. The salary of the 
 governor was fixed at one thousand dollars ; that 
 of the circuit judges, who were then also judges of 
 of the supreme court, one thousand five hundred 
 dollars, while the other state officers were to re- 
 ceive, some of them a thousand and some eight 
 hundred dollars. The people of that day, who 
 were only through the most rigid economy and by 
 slow and patient steps advancing to a condition 
 of financial independence in their private concerns,
 
 THE EFFECT OF LOW SALARIES. 303 
 
 thought these salaries sufficient. They were equal 
 to the average expenditure of well-to-do people ; 
 and provision to that extent, it was thought, should 
 content the public servants. At these figures the 
 salaries, with the exception of those of the circuit 
 judges, which have been raised to twenty-five hun- 
 dred dollars, have remained ever since. It has 
 been deemed, by many, a reproach to the State 
 that this has been the case. The opinion is often 
 and very strongly expressed, that to secure the 
 best talent in the service of the State, the compen- 
 sation must be equal to what the best talent se- 
 cures in the various branches of private business. 
 There is some degree of truth for this opinion ; at 
 the same time it is probably true that no citizen 
 of Michigan ever declined one of its leading offices 
 for the reason solely that the salary fixed by the 
 constitution was inferior to what he might reason- 
 ably look for in private life. And it is also proba- 
 bly true that the low compensation for public ser- 
 vices has had a powerful tendency to keep alive 
 ideas of economy and frugality in official circles 
 and in all branches of state expenditure, and 
 even among the people at large ; and that we may 
 justly attribute to it some influence in securing 
 the remarkable exemption from official pecula- 
 tions and legislative scandals and corruption which 
 the State for the most part has enjoyed. 
 
 The constitution was adopted, and it has con- 
 tinued to be the fundamental law of the State, with
 
 304 MICHIGAN. 
 
 slight amendments, to the present day. One of its 
 provisions is that every sixteenth year the question 
 of a revision shall be submitted to the people. It 
 was so submitted in 1866, and decided in the af- 
 firmative ; but when a revision was prepared by a 
 convention elected for the purpose, the people re- 
 jected their work. In 1882 the question of re- 
 vision was negatived by popular vote. Thus since 
 1850 no disposition has been manifested to tinker 
 the constitution, but conservative ideas have st-ead- 
 ily prevailed. The most important amendment 
 was made in 1875, in the repeal of the provision 
 forbidding licenses, which was adopted in order to 
 make way for heavy taxation of the liquor traffic, 
 after prohibitory legislation had been in exist- 
 ence for twenty years. Now and then complaints 
 are made of the system which makes the judges 
 elective, but these are based not so much upon 
 experience as upon theory, and no considerable 
 disposition has at any time been manifested among 
 the people to change the system. Those who 
 note carefully the results have not perceived that 
 the people have shown less inclination to be in- 
 dependent of party or of improper influence in the 
 choice of judges than have been executive officers 
 when vested with the appointing power. 
 
 A brief paragraph will bring us to the time 
 of the great civil war. Robert McClelland was 
 elected governor for one year in 1851 and was 
 reflected for two years in 1852, but resigned to
 
 REPUBLICAN ASCENDENCY. 305 
 
 become a member of the cabinet of President 
 Pierce. Andrew Parsons, the lieutenant-governor, 
 was left to serve out the unexpired portion of his 
 term. Up to this time, from 1841, the Democratic 
 party had been in power in the State, but in 1854 
 the newly formed Republican party obtained the 
 ascendency and maintained it unbroken for twenty- 
 eight years, electing Kinsley S. Bingham gov- 
 ernor in 1854 and 1856, and Moses Wisner in 
 1858. Austin Blair was elected in 1860 and be- 
 came the " war governor " of the State ; a title 
 which by his integrity and patriotic vigor he made 
 one of lasting honor.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE STATE PKOVIDES FOR UNIVERSAL EDUCA- 
 TION. 
 
 THE founders of a state soon pass away ; btit in 
 their aims and purposes, and to some extent in 
 their personal characteristics, they build them- 
 selves into the structure they create, and give to 
 it a character and individuality of its own. Ages 
 afterwards it may be found that the germinal 
 thoughts which took root under their planting are 
 still growing and expanding, and that the ideas 
 with which they quickened the early polity are 
 dominant in the life of the mature commonwealth, 
 though possibly those who act upon and give effect 
 to them may have lost the recollection of their 
 origin. 
 
 If the general education of the people is im- 
 portant to the state, Michigan was fortunate in 
 the persons to whom the destinies of the territory 
 were committed in its early days. In their minds, 
 as we find them expressed in the laws they 
 adopted and the institutions they founded, two 
 ideas appear to have been dominant from the earli- 
 est period. These were, that, the means of rudi-
 
 BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATIONAL WORK. 307 
 
 mentary education should be placed within the 
 reach of every child in the political society ; and 
 that the opportunity for thorough culture should 
 be given as speedily and as completely as the 
 circumstances of the people would permit. And 
 these ideas were never lost sight of until full effect 
 was given to them after the admission of the 
 State to the Union. 
 
 The early schools in the territory were of course 
 French, and connected with the church. Their 
 main purpose was to give religious instruction, 
 and they were attended to some extent by Indian 
 children. But private schools in which English 
 was taught were in existence from the time of the 
 outbreak of the Revolutionary war; poor affairs, 
 and scarcely worth remembering now. When 
 Father Richard came, he made an endeavor in 
 the direction of better church schools, and with 
 considerable success. In 1804 he established a 
 school for girls, with four young ladies as teachers, 
 and also a Latin school for young men. Both of 
 these were broken up by the great fire of the next 
 year, but schools of less ambitious character were 
 established shortly afterwards, and Father Richard 
 in 1808 reports six of such schools, three of which 
 were taught by Indian teachers. The instruction 
 in the schools for girls embraced sewing, spinning, 
 knitting, and weaving, and to the Indian children 
 this part of the instruction was probably the most 
 valuable. Father Richard thought his schools
 
 308 MICHIGAN, 
 
 ought to receive public assistance, and he applied 
 to the legislature for the grant of a lottery fran- 
 chise ; but though the evils of lotteries were not 
 so well understood then as now, his application 
 failed of effect, and his schools continued feeble 
 and of low grade. 
 
 The future promised better things. Before the 
 territory was detached from Indiana, it had become 
 the settled policy of the United States to reserve 
 from sale the sixteenth section of every surveyed 
 township, and to set it apart for the use of the 
 township for the support of common schools. It 
 had also become customary to make some smaller 
 donation of public lands for the endowment of a 
 university, and one township of such lands had 
 been appropriated to Michigan, in contemplation 
 of its becoming a separate government. But for 
 a long time these donations must of necessity be 
 of little value : value must be given to them by 
 the settlement and improvement of the country, 
 and in the mean time they would constitute the 
 promise of an endowment for education rather 
 than the endowment itself. All early education, 
 if any was given at the public cost, must therefore 
 be provided for by direct taxation of the people. 
 
 In 1809, while as yet the population of the ter- 
 ritory was under five thousand, an act was adopted 
 which provided for the laying off into school dis- 
 tricts of all the settled portions of the territory, 
 and for an enumeration of the children between
 
 THE EARLY SCHOOLS. 309 
 
 the ages of four and eighteen In each of the dis- 
 tricts. From these districts annual reports were 
 required of the moneys expended in the support 
 of schools and the construction of school buildings, 
 and the territory was to levy an annual tax of not 
 less than two nor more than four dollars for each 
 child reported within the ages above mentioned. 
 The sum collected was to be apportioned among 
 the districts ; not, however, in proportion to the 
 number of children in them respectively, but in 
 proportion to the sums they had expended in the 
 year preceding for school purposes. The gift of 
 the territory was thus made in aid of schools, but 
 was so apportioned as to invite and encourage lib- 
 erality on the part of the people in making pro- 
 visions from their own means for them. 
 
 The schools which were established under this 
 act must have been very few in number, and very 
 primitive in all their appointments. Eight years 
 afterwards, however, something in the direction of 
 higher and better education was attempted. Rev. 
 John Monteith, a well-educated Presbyterian cler- 
 gyman, had come to Detroit in 1816, where he had 
 collected a congregation composed of various de- 
 nominations of Protestants, to whom he preached 
 on Sundays. He soon formed the acquaintance of 
 Father Richard, and friendly intercourse between 
 them brought out the fact that both were greatly 
 concerned at the want of means of education for 
 the youth of the territory, and willing and de-
 
 810 MICHIGAN. 
 
 sirous to assist in supplying them. From Gov- 
 ernor Cass they found ready and hearty coopera- 
 tion, and the eccentric chief justice also lent assist- 
 ance. The latter in August, 1817, drew up and 
 secured the adoption of " An act to establish the 
 Catholepistemiad or University of Michigania," 
 in which an elaborate plan for a university was 
 marked out. The plan was crude and pedantic, 
 but its author had grasped certain principles 
 which were of the very highest importance^ and 
 which from this time became incorporated in the 
 polity of the territory, and subsequently of the 
 State also. In every state, as he believed, the 
 education of the people is important to the state 
 itself, and should be assumed as a state duty. It 
 should not be restricted to elementary education 
 merely, but the state ought to place within the 
 reach of its youth such higher education also as is 
 commonly given in the colleges of the land. And 
 this education should be non-sectarian. In rec- 
 ognition of this duty the act provided that fifteen 
 per cent, should be added to the regular territo- 
 rial taxes, to be appropriated to the support of 
 the university. Students entering the university 
 should pay small fees if able, but if not able to 
 pay, the fees should be a public charge. Sectari- 
 anism in the university was not expressly legis- 
 lated against, but its absence for the time was most 
 effectually secured by the appointment of Mr. 
 Monteith as president and Father Richard as his
 
 A UNIVERSITY IN NAME. 311 
 
 principal assistant in instruction. The Presbyte- 
 rian and the Catholic, it was very certain, would 
 not cooperate in sectarian work. 
 
 This was an ambitious project for the young 
 and feeble territory, which as yet was almost 
 wholly without available means, and whose few 
 schools were only of the most primitive character. 
 It must have been very plain to every one that 
 the complete realization of such a project could 
 only be accomplished after many years ; but the 
 earnest and enthusiastic parties who had taken 
 hold of it determined to do immediately whatever 
 should be found within their power. The people 
 of Detroit were solicited for contributions towards 
 the erection of a university building, and the 
 foundations of the building were soon laid with 
 appropriate ceremonies and public rejoicings. But 
 though a school was soon begun, the education 
 given in it was necessarily of the most elementary 
 character. A building and a high-sounding name 
 could not make a university : there must be stu- 
 dents competent to receive collegiate instruction, 
 and as yet there were no such students in the terri- 
 tory. But it is something to have high aspira- 
 tions, and to have made an effort in the direction 
 of their realization. 
 
 Nor while leading men among the white people 
 were thus engaging in the preparatory work of 
 education, were the Indians found indisposed to 
 contribute some share to so important an object.
 
 312 MICHIGAN. 
 
 The same article in the fundamental ordinance for 
 the government of the territory which enjoined 
 that "the utmost good faith shall always be ob- 
 served towards the Indians," had also affirmed the 
 necessity of religion, morality, and knowledge to 
 good government and the happiness of mankind, 
 and required the encouragement of schools and 
 the means of education. This immediate associa- 
 tion of religion and learning with good faith to 
 the Indians was emphasized by the fact thaUthe 
 teachers of the Indians were also their religious 
 guides ; and these had always been found to be 
 their best friends, and their most reliable protect- 
 ors against the rapacity and greed of their white 
 neighbors. Possibly in the great conference of 
 Governor Cass and General McArthur as com- 
 missioners on the part of the United States with 
 the chiefs of the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potta- 
 watamie tribes of Indians, held at Fort Meigs on 
 September 29, 1817, the governor may have ven- 
 tured with diplomatic skill and caution to bring 
 freshly to their minds the labors of their priests 
 and teachers for their good ; and possibly the In- 
 dians, who were seldom justly chargeable with 
 forgetfulness of kind treatment, may have needed 
 no reminder to incline them to make suitable ac- 
 knowledgment. But whatever the fact may be as 
 to the incentive, the value of religion and learning 
 are found recognized by the treaty in a grant of 
 six sections of land in equal shares to the Church
 
 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. 313 
 
 of St. Anne at Detroit and to "the College at 
 Detroit." The Indians made the grant, as they 
 say in the treaty, because of being " attached to 
 the Catholic religion, and believing they may wish 
 some of their children hereafter educated." The 
 gift to the college was not a large one, and it would 
 have seemed insignificant if made before the In- 
 dians had alienated the principal portion of their 
 domain to the government ; but its merit must be 
 estimated by what they had retained for their 
 own use, rather than by the extent of their orig- 
 inal possessions. The gift, moreover, was fully 
 equal in positive value and prospectively superior 
 to the gifts for like purposes which made John 
 Harvard and Elihu Yale immortal, and quite as 
 justly entitles Tontagini and his associate chief- 
 tains to grateful remembrance among the founders 
 of colleges. 
 
 The act for the organization of the university 
 was revised in 1821, and relieved of its pedantic 
 features. To obtain preparatory schools, trustees 
 were empowered to establish from time to time 
 "such colleges, academies, and schools depending 
 upon the said university as they may think 
 proper, and as the funds of the corporation will 
 permit ; " and the_ name was changed to the Uni- 
 versity of Michigan. In the same act religious 
 distinctions in the governing board, the board of 
 instruction, and in the privileges of students were 
 forbidden.
 
 314 MICHIGAN. 
 
 But the university was still but a plan : beyond 
 its name there was as yet but little to it. The 
 practical development of the common school sys- 
 tem was much move rapid, and gave promise that 
 at length the University idea would be realized. 
 Early in 1826 Congress was induced to grant an 
 additional township of land towards the endow- 
 ment of the university ; and Governor Cass, in call- 
 ing the attention of the legislative council to this 
 grant in the following November, strongly luges 
 the establishment of schools to be supported by 
 taxation. In no other way, he thinks, will pro- 
 vision be made sufficiently extensive and suffi- 
 ciently permanent to embrace all who require in- 
 struction, and who have not the means of obtaining 
 it. The governor specially emphasized the politi- 
 cal aspect of the subject, and urged the importance 
 that all who were to be rulers of the State should 
 be given the means of acquiring fitness for their 
 duties. 
 
 These wise views were quite in advance of any 
 then prevalent in any part of the country. The 
 legislative council responded by making such 
 changes in the school laws as seemed to the mem- 
 bers to tend in the direction recommended. In 
 1829 the laws were completely revised, and a 
 department of education was established, at the 
 head of which was to be a superintendent of com- 
 mon schools appointed by the governor. The 
 legislation does not, however, appear as yet to
 
 THE FREE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 315 
 
 have been entirely satisfactory to the governor, 
 and lie again recurs to the subject in his message 
 of the following May. No wiser or juster tax, 
 he argues, can be levied than one devoted to the 
 education of the poor ; and he reiterates and am- 
 plifies his view, that political institutions whose 
 foundations rest upon public opinion can never be 
 secure unless the people are educated. " Public 
 opinion, to be safe, must be enlightened." 
 
 It cannot be important to follow in detail the 
 subsequent legislation of the territory, and it will 
 suffice to say that it was in the direction pointed 
 out by the governor, and that provision was made 
 whereby schools were required to be kept in every 
 district for at least three months in each year by 
 teachers of approved competency, in which the 
 children of the poor were to be instructed free of 
 charge or tax. The rate bill was not abolished 
 for those who were able to pay it ; but the door of 
 the school-house was set open to the poorest, and 
 the people united in the expectation expressed by 
 President Monteith in his first annual report, that 
 "thus the public will be benefited by genius and 
 talent which would otherwise have died in ob- 
 scurity." 
 
 But the schools at the time state government 
 was established were still very primitive affairs. 
 There were as yet no professional teachers. Some 
 farmer or mechanic, or perhaps a grown-up son or 
 daughter, who had had the advantages of the com-
 
 316 MICHIGAN. 
 
 mon schools of New York or New England, offered 
 his or her services as teacher during the dull sea- 
 son of regular employment, and consented to take 
 as wages such sum as the district could afford to 
 pay. A summer school taught by a woman, who 
 would be paid six or eight dollars a month, and a 
 winter school taught by a man, whose compensa- 
 tion was twice as great, was what was generally 
 provided for. But in addition to wages the teacher 
 received his board ; " boarding around " among the 
 patrons of the school, and remaining with each a 
 number of days determined by the number of pu- 
 pils sent to the school. If we shall incline to visit 
 one of these schools in the newer portions of the 
 State we shall be likely to find it housed in a log 
 structure, covered with bark, imperfectly plastered 
 between the logs to exclude the cold, and still more 
 imperfectly warmed by an open fire-place or by a 
 box stove, for which fuel is provided, as the board 
 for the teacher is, by proportional contributions. 
 The seats for the pupils may be slabs set upon 
 legs ; the desks may be other slabs laid upon sup- 
 ports fixed to the logs which constitute the sides 
 of the room. The school books are miscellaneous, 
 and consist largely of those brought })j the par- 
 ents when emigrating to the territory. Those who 
 write must rule their paper with pencils of lead of 
 their own manufacture, and the master will make 
 pens for them from the goose-quill. For the most 
 part the ink is of home manufacture. There are
 
 THE AVERAGE DISTRICT SCHOOL. 317 
 
 no globes ; no means of illustration ; not even a 
 blackboard. Even President Monteith, it is said, 
 drew his mathematical figures in sawdust for want 
 of anything better ; but in the common schools the 
 higher mathematics are unknown, and the pupil 
 who has mastered vulgar fractions and the rule of 
 three is likely to be the best of the school. Order 
 is the first law, and the rod the accepted means of 
 enforcing it. The pupils are classified according 
 to attainments, but not unfrequently the master 
 has little competency to do more than give out 
 the lessons as he found them in the book, and to 
 hear recitations without comment or explanation. 
 Such in many cases was the Michigan school. 
 Better school buildings were now springing up, 
 with better furnishing ; but as a rule nothing 
 could seem more dreary or dispiriting than the 
 average district school. Nevertheless, many an 
 intellect received a quickening in these schools 
 which fitted it for a life of useful and honorable 
 activity. The new settlers made such provision 
 for the education of their children as was possible 
 under the circumstances in which they were placed, 
 and the fruits of their labors and sacrifices in this 
 direction were in many cases surprising. 
 
 The territorial council granted charters for acad- 
 emies, but the name in most cases indicated rather 
 an aspiration than an existence. In two or three 
 places good service was being done ; notably at 
 Ann Arbor by Mr. O. C. Thompson, a graduate of
 
 318 MICHIGAN. 
 
 Princeton, sent out for missionary work by the 
 Presbyterian Church. But farther back in the 
 woods, a young graduate of Brown, while thread- 
 ing his devious way through the forest from one 
 lonely cabin to another, by trails that required the 
 fording of rivers and the crossing of treacherous 
 marshes, that he might minister in sacred things 
 to those in need, was at the same time consider- 
 ing the means of popular education, and making 
 it the subject of deep and earnest thought."* He 
 was quite in accord with the governor as to the 
 duty of the State to provide for the education of 
 its youth, and the questions he dwelt upon were 
 questions of methods and means. 
 
 John D. Pierce had been sent out in 1831 by 
 the Congregation alists as a home missionary, and 
 had held the first religious meetings in the coun- 
 ties of Jackson, Calhoun, and Eaton. He had 
 also solemnized the first marriage and officiated at 
 the first funeral ever taken in charge by a Prot- 
 estant clergyman in western Michigan. He was 
 an enthusiast in his work, but his enthusiasm was 
 tempered and controlled by thorough practical 
 sense, and he joined to the earnestness and self- 
 abnegation of the devoted missionary the level- 
 headedness so essential to success in the ordinary 
 walks of business life. He had brought with him 
 into the wilderness as a bride an intelligent and 
 refined lady whom he had married in the State of 
 New York, and we catch occasional glimpses of
 
 FRONTIER MISSIONARY LIFE. 319 
 
 her as she is conveyed in an open ox-cart from 
 Detroit to distant Marshall, often drenched in rain 
 and sometimes fast in the mud, catching at night 
 as best she may such unrefreshing rest as a bed of 
 boughs or a blanket on the floor of a log cabin may 
 afford. It is a time when emigration comes by 
 caravans ; and though at nearly every house may 
 there be found entertainment for man and beast, 
 the accommodations are meagre and quite below 
 the demands upon them. To the bride, delicately 
 trained and unfamiliar with hardships, the log 
 cabins of Michigan, in which many of the ordinary 
 comforts of home life were as yet unknown, must 
 have seemed sufficiently forbidding ; but she was 
 not long permitted to share her husband's labors 
 and privations, for in the very next year the Asi- 
 atic cholera in its devastating march across the 
 country sought her out in the wilderness and made 
 her its victim. The missionary was left alone with 
 his labors ; but he had devoted his life to the work 
 to which he had been called, and he addressed 
 himself with patience and trust to his laborious 
 and absorbing duties. 
 
 The constitution <il convention of 1835 had rec- 
 ognized the supreme importance of education, and 
 had made the position of superintendent of public 
 instruction a permanent constitutional office. It 
 had required a school to be kept in each school 
 district for at least three months in every year, 
 and had pledged the faith of the State to the pres-
 
 320 MICHIGAN. 
 
 ervation of all donations for schools or for the 
 university, as permanent funds for the purposes 
 for which they were given. But as yet the State 
 was not admitted to the Union, and it was not 
 known what form any donation by the federal 
 government would take. General Isaac E. Crary, 
 a neighbor of the young missionary, had been a 
 member of the constitutional convention, and the 
 two had frequently discussed together the subject 
 of state education, and had enlightened them un- 
 derstandings, so far as the books of the day would 
 enable them to do so, by information respecting 
 what was being done in Prussia and other coun- 
 tries. They agreed that education ought to be an 
 independent department of the state government; 
 and it was made so by the constitutional convention. 
 They also agreed that the lands granted by the 
 general government for school purposes ought to 
 be granted directly to the State as trustee, instead 
 of being given to the townships as had been cus- 
 tomary. With the State as trustee of the lands, 
 there would be reason for hope that the endow- 
 ment for schools would be carefully preserved and 
 utilized, but in the hands of the townships the 
 experience of other states had not been such as 
 to justify confidence in like preservation. Fortu- 
 nately for the State, General Crary was its first 
 representative in Congress ; and through his pru- 
 dent and cautious management the grant by the 
 general government was so shaped as to meet his
 
 THE STATE SYSTEM OF SCHOOLS. 321 
 
 views. This was a great and lasting advantage, 
 and the ultimate results were equal to the highest 
 expectations of those who had secured it. The 
 State faithfully observed its duty as trustee ; no 
 part of the school-fund grant was ever lost ; none 
 of the funds derived from it were ever squandered 
 or misappropriated. 
 
 But the services of General Crary to education 
 were not confined to those performed at Washing- 
 ton. On his way to the seat of government he 
 had called upon Governor Mason at Detroit, and 
 had taken the liberty to urge upon him the im- 
 portance of placing the subject of education in com- 
 petent hands. He had gone farther than this, and 
 recommended the young missionary as the suitable 
 person for superintendent of public instruction. 
 The governor was favorably impressed with his 
 views, and sent for Mr. Pierce, with whom he had 
 a long and satisfactory interview. The result was 
 his appointment to the office, and the commit- 
 ment to his control of the whole subject of state 
 education, with the charge and management of a 
 million acres of land. The legislature called upon 
 him to prepare and report a system of common 
 school and university education, and the report 
 was made, approved, and adopted the very year 
 the State entered the Union. The system re- 
 ported has in the main been in existence ever 
 since. 
 
 It would not be important to enter here upon 
 21
 
 322 MICHIGAN. 
 
 an examination of the state common school sys- 
 tem in detail. It will suffice to say that it con- 
 templated the establishment of a primary school 
 within the reach of every child in the State, and 
 that it gave full power to the voters of every 
 school district to establish free schools if they 
 should see fit to do so. The time had not yet 
 come for making the maintenance of free schools 
 compulsory : public opinion in some quarters was 
 not yet educated up to it. But the law then 
 adopted was a long step in that direction ; and 
 the distribution to be annually made among the 
 school districts, of the income derived from moneys 
 received on sales of school lands, would do some- 
 thing towards encouraging them to make the 
 schools free, and towards lightening the burden 
 of doing so. 
 
 The plan for the organization of the university 
 was not so readily accepted as that for the primary 
 schools. Mr. Pierce encountered at the outset a 
 prejudice against state universities, and a disbelief 
 in their success, based upon the failure that had 
 generally attended the effort to establish them. 
 He encountered also, to some extent, the opposition 
 of the several religious denominations, each of 
 which wanted a college of its own, and was also 
 jealous lest some other might obtain control of a 
 state institution. But the superintendent had faith 
 in himself and faith in the people ; and he pro- 
 ceeded to mark out a plan which he proposed to
 
 THE PLAN OF THE UNIVERSITY. 323 
 
 put in operation on a non-sectarian basis, and with 
 a curriculum of studies not inferior to that of any 
 college in the land. The government of the uni- 
 versity was to be in a board of regents of execu- 
 tive appointment, with the state officers as ex offi- 
 cio members, and its support was to come from 
 the income derived from the sale or leasing of uni- 
 versity lands. No more than ten dollars was to 
 be demanded for admission to the university, and 
 residents of the State were to be charged nothing 
 for tuition. The plan contemplated a department 
 of literature, science, and the arts, a department of 
 law, and a department of medicine, to be estab- 
 lished successively as the funds at the control of 
 the regents would permit. In the appointments to 
 the several chairs of instruction it was intended 
 that the leading religious denominations should be 
 suitably represented, and that no just cause of 
 complaint should be open to any one on the score 
 of religious partiality in the governing board. 
 
 This was the general plan. But obviously it 
 was a plan whose complete realization must be 
 postponed for some considerable period. It was 
 not proposed that there should be in the university 
 any preparatory department ; and the old diffi- 
 culty, that there were no students prepared to re- 
 ceive the higher instruction, was still as apparent 
 as ever. In the whole State, also, there were not 
 more than one or two schools in which the neces- 
 sary preparatory training could be had. Prepara-
 
 324 MICHIGAN. 
 
 tory schools seemed, therefore, to be the first ne- 
 cessity ; and partly to provide them, and partly to 
 give agricultural education, the regents were em- 
 powered to establish branches of the university 
 when their means would allow of it. 
 
 The department of literature, science, and the 
 arts was shortly established, with beginnings 
 which were very humble. But its five students 
 for the first year were added to in each successive 
 year, until the department attained the dimensions 
 of a respectable college. In 1850 the department 
 of medicine was established, and something of the 
 university form began to appear. By the new 
 constitution, adopted that year, the organization 
 of the board of regents was popularized by giving 
 the election to the people by direct vote. The 
 term, moreover, was made a term of eight years, 
 and the board was given complete control of the 
 university and its funds, to the exclusion of legis- 
 lative dictation. This was felt to be a most valu- 
 able and important change : it secured steadiness 
 in plan and conservatism in management, and it 
 placed the university beyond the dangers that 
 might spring from popular excitements and preju- 
 dices, and from political overturns. A few years 
 later was founded the department of law, giving 
 symmetry to the university, and bringing strength 
 to the other departments. 
 
 Meantime the curriculum of the university was 
 being enlarged and liberalized in many ways, and
 
 THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM. 325 
 
 especially in giving to students a latitude in the 
 choice of studies quite beyond what had before 
 been allowed in similar institutions. The fact 
 was recognized that the needs of intellectual train- 
 ing and acquirement were not the same in differ- 
 ent occupations and different walks in life, and 
 that to prescribe the same course of instruction 
 for all was to compel a waste of time and effort 
 by many, when the same time and effort might 
 usefully be employed in the acquisition of knowl- 
 edge that would have special importance and 
 value. Many parallel courses of instruction were 
 therefore marked out, and a liberty of choice given 
 that was greatly to the advantage of those who 
 desired to avail themselves of university training. 
 New schools were also established : the school of 
 pharmacy, the school of homoapathic medicine, 
 the dental school, the school of music, and the 
 school of political science ; so that the university 
 came to have many departments, instead of the 
 three originally contemplated. To give all these 
 schools due support, the income derived from the 
 sale of university lands was found quite inade- 
 quate, and the State by taxation supplied the de- 
 ficiencies, though observing in doing so the same 
 rigid economy that had always characterized its 
 expenditures for services rendered to the public. 
 The regents also, disregarding antiquated preju- 
 dices, and the prophecies of evil with which ultra- 
 conservatism was so ready, threw open the doors
 
 326 MICHIGAN. 
 
 of every school to women, and thereby offered to 
 them every opportunity for liberal education winch 
 was placed within the reach of the other sex. 
 This was a measure of justice, and its advocates 
 soon had the satisfaction of knowing that none 
 of the prophesied evils followed from it. It was 
 adopted as soon as the demand for it was sufficient 
 to justify incurring the necessary additional ex- 
 pense, and it had from the first and has retained 
 the popular approval. -* 
 
 The branches of the university which the re- 
 gents established were not long maintained, for the 
 sufficient reason that they were not long needed. 
 The common schools of the State came in time to 
 do admirable work, and in the leading towns they 
 grew into high schools, with numerous teachers, 
 where the classics were taught, and where young 
 men and women could be and were prepared for 
 college. Admirable work was done by some of 
 them in this direction ; and one the school at 
 Ann Arbor annually for the ten years preced- 
 ing 1884 graduated an average number of pu- 
 pils, with full preparation to enter upon a regu- 
 lar university course, greater, it is believed, than 
 is fitted for college in any other public school in 
 the country. These high schools are the acad- 
 emies of the State ; the work they do is of the 
 most satisfactory and substantial character, and 
 the State is justly proud of them. 
 
 The constitution of 1850 made it the duty of
 
 INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLS. 327 
 
 the legislature, within five years from its adoption, 
 to make provision in every school district for free 
 instruction at least three months in the year. 
 The duty was only in part performed within the 
 time prescribed; but the high schools as a rule 
 were soon for the most part made free, and the 
 rate bill is now at last abolished throughout the 
 State. Free instruction in the common schools 
 has thus "become the right of every child of proper 
 age in the State. 
 
 Such in brief has been the progress of instruc- 
 tion in the common schools, which are the founda- 
 tion of the state system of education, and in the 
 university which crowns and completes the struc- 
 ture. But between the common school and the 
 university are other institutions, each of which has 
 its appropriate place in the system, and is neces- 
 sary to complete it. Foremost of these are the 
 State Normal School at Ypsilanti, and the State 
 Agricultural College at Lansing. A school for 
 the deaf and dumb at Flint and another for the 
 blind at Lansing are liberally supported by the 
 State, and make ample provision for such educa- 
 tion as those unfortunate classes are capable of 
 receiving. In 1874 a state school for depend- 
 ent children was opened at Coldwater. Into this 
 school are gathered orphan children who are 
 without means of support, and children who be- 
 come inmates of county almshouses, and they 
 are not only given the ordinary instruction of
 
 328 MICHIGAN. 
 
 schools, but the benefits of family life as well. It 
 is a part of the plan of the school that suitable 
 homes where they may be adopted, or places 
 where they can receive remunerative employ- 
 ment, shall be found for the pupils. In this way 
 many who would be in danger of drifting through 
 want and neglect into vice and crime are saved to 
 useful and honorable lives. 
 
 Such is the educational system of Michigan. 
 Its founders took position in advance of* the 
 thought of their day, and those who followed 
 them have endeavored to give effect in full meas- 
 ure to their views. No commonwealth in the 
 world makes provision more broad, complete, or 
 thorough for the general education of the people, 
 and very few for that which is equal. It has been 
 the settled conviction of the people for many 
 years, that there can be no more worthy expen- 
 diture of public moneys than in the training of 
 men and women in useful knowledge ; and they 
 have acted upon that conviction. The newer 
 states of the Union in framing their educational 
 systems have been glad to follow the example of 
 Michigan, and have had fruitful and satisfactory 
 success in proportion as they have adhered to it. 
 And for all that has been accomplished, Michigan 
 is indebted to the intelligence, the unselfishness, 
 and the far-seeing wisdom of some of its own em- 
 inent citizens, who with the public confidence for 
 their support have not waited for older but more
 
 EDUCATION IN MICHIGAN. 329 
 
 provincial states to point the way, but have trust- 
 fully moved on from step to step in the direction 
 of an ideal excellence which WHS early in their 
 minds, and has been steadily adhered to since. 
 
 No feature of the educational work of Michigan 
 is more satisfactory in the retrospect than the 
 unity of effort in prosecuting it ; all classes, as a 
 general fact, having given it liberal support. This 
 is true of the immigrant as well as of the native 
 born citizen ; and of the Germans, who were most 
 numerous of the later immigrants, it may justly 
 be said, they were as active and helpful in sup- 
 port of the schools as they were industrious and 
 thrifty in their private business.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE WAR IN DEFENSE OF THE UNION. 
 
 A GREAT war was now about to convulse the 
 Union, of which slavery would be the occasion, 
 but which would present issues far transcencfing 
 in importance any which were involved in the 
 further continuance of that institution, great as 
 were the evils which necessarily sprung from it. 
 The states of the Union, which at the time of the 
 separation from the mother country were thirteen 
 in number, had added other commonwealths one 
 by one until the whole number had become thirty- 
 three, united under a constitution which gave to 
 the weakest for all purposes of protection the 
 strength and resources of all, and which, by pro- 
 viding for the peaceful consideration and adjust- 
 ment by regular tribunals of all controversies, 
 which might otherwise give occasion for appeals 
 to force, gave to the whole family of states the 
 best security for amicable and profitable relations, 
 and to civilization the best protection that it is 
 possible for statesmanship to devise. The same 
 constitution, while it insured peace to the states, 
 diminished immensely the danger of hostilities
 
 THE PROPOSAL FOR DISUNION. 331 
 
 with foreign nations, not only because it made 
 the states thus united sufficiently powerful to 
 command respect, but also because it left interna- 
 tional relations exclusively to the federal govern- 
 ment, and put it out of the power of any single 
 state, or even of any number of states, to disturb 
 the peace of the world without the general con- 
 sent given through the federal Congress. Under 
 the influence of the passions excited by the con- 
 troversy over slavery it was now proposed to break 
 up the Union into sections. That great evils were 
 likely to flow from this was certain ; only the 
 number and extent were in doubt. It would be a 
 distinctively retrogressive step, taken in a century 
 when civilization was progressing more rapidly 
 than ever before ; it must abolish, as between the 
 states, in different sections, the methods provided 
 for the peaceful determination of controversies ; if 
 it could be accomplished peacefully, which was 
 more than doubtful, it would still multiply im- 
 mensely the dangers to peace among the states, 
 and would make the very proximity of states 
 friendly in union a continual menace and danger. 
 And the claim of a right to disrupt the Union was 
 planted upon a principle of disintegration whose 
 very acceptance would not only be justification in 
 advance for further separations, but would be a 
 constant and tempting invitation to discontented 
 parties to reject the adjustment of controversies 
 by regular tribunals, and substitute the arbitra-
 
 832 MICHIGAN. 
 
 ment of the sword. The proposed disruption of 
 the Union must therefore, irrespective of its effect 
 upon the institution of slavery, be a distinct loss 
 to civilization, in that it would destroy or at lenst 
 diminish the securities which statesmanship had 
 contrived for the peace of the world, and especially 
 for the peace and prosperity of the American 
 world. It would also, in its demonstration that 
 the written constitution of the leading federal 
 government of the world was inadequate tq^the 
 strain and crucial test of a heated domestic con- 
 troversy, tend to weaken very greatly the popular 
 tendency towards free institutions, and the har- 
 monious cooperation of free states which was char- 
 acteristic of the age. 
 
 But slavery was an element of discord in the 
 Union which it was daily becoming more difficult 
 to deal with peacefully. It had had its origin at 
 a time when it was not condemned as it now was 
 by the enlightened conscience of the civilized 
 world. There were slaves in Virginia when the 
 Pilgrims landed at Plymouth ; and every Ameri- 
 can colony became slaveholding, and continued to 
 be so when, by their declaration of Independ- 
 ence, the united colonies declared liberty to be an 
 inalienable right. When independence was ac- 
 knowledged by Great Britain, only one state had 
 as yet become non-slaveholding. So accustomed 
 were the people to the institution, that its right- 
 fulness was seldom questioned, and only now and
 
 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 333 
 
 then did any one venture to remark upon the in- 
 consistency of a people fighting for their own lib- 
 erties while holding others in bondage. The first 
 damaging blow to slavery may almost be said to 
 have been inadvertent : it was when the people of 
 Massachusetts, without chattel slavery in mind, 
 declared by the constitution of 1780 that " all 
 men are born free and equal, and have certain 
 natural, essential, and inalienable rights ; among 
 which may be reckoned the right of enjoying 
 and defending their rights and liberties." This, 
 as the courts decided, of its own force put an end 
 to slavery within the state. The second and far 
 more important blow was given when Congress 
 incorporated in the ordinance of 1787 the anti- 
 slavery proviso. This was a great and notable 
 event ; and was prophetic of others, for it was a 
 precedent for putting the government distinctly 
 on the side of freedom. And then in 1820 came 
 the Missouri Compromise legislation, by which 
 slavery was prohibited in all the territory then 
 belonging to the Union lying to the north of lat- 
 itude thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes. 
 
 It seemed at the time that the Missouri Compro- 
 mise insured to the non-slaveholding states an 
 eventual preponderance of power in the Union; 
 but this was put in peril by the large acquisitions 
 of territory from Mexico at the conclusion of war 
 with that republic. In the justice of the war with 
 Mexico there had not been entire unaminity of
 
 334 MICHIGAN. 
 
 opinion on the part of the American people. Many 
 had believed it was begun and carried on solely 
 for the purposes of an extension of slavery, and for 
 obtaining territory which would eventually become 
 slave states ; and they deemed it their duty, while 
 the war was still in progress, to render such a re- 
 sult impossible, by annexing a condition to any 
 appropriation for the acquisition of territory, that 
 in whatever should be acquired there shoukj^be 
 no slavery. 
 
 General Cass was at that time in the Senate of 
 the United States, to which he had been elected 
 in 1845. He opposed the condition, on the grounds, 
 among others, that it would probably defeat alto- 
 gether any acquisition of territory from Mexico, 
 and also that at most it would be a mere declara- 
 tion of present legislative intent on the subject, 
 and would bind no subsequent Congress when 
 practical legislation came to be adopted. A lit- 
 tle later he wrote his famous Nicholson letter, in 
 which he laid down the doctrine that no power 
 had been granted to Congress by the constitution 
 to legislate generally for the territories, and that 
 its authority must be limited to the establishment 
 of territorial governments when needed, leaving 
 to the people of the territories the regulation of 
 their own domestic concerns, in subordination to 
 the constitution. This would leave to the territo- 
 rial legislature the full control over the subject of 
 slavery. Upon the platform of this letter General
 
 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 335 
 
 Cass was nominated for the presidency in 1848, 
 but was defeated. He returned after the election 
 to a seat in the Senate, which he had vacated 
 pending the canvass, and took part in the adoption 
 of the compromise measures of 1850, which it was 
 hoped would put an end to an exciting and dan- 
 gerous controversy. 
 
 But the compromise of 1850 was not even a 
 truce between hostile and opposing forces : it was 
 rather an agreement by parties assuming to stand 
 between such forces that there should be no more 
 contention, while at the same time the real bellig- 
 erents remained as hostile as ever, and awaited 
 the opportunity for an encounter. The opportu- 
 nity was not long delayed : the Kansas-Nebraska 
 bill in 1852, and the state of civil war in Kansas 
 which resulted, created the most intense excite- 
 ment throughout the country, and strengthened 
 very greatly the anti-slavery sentiment in all the 
 Northern States, while intensifying in the South- 
 ern States the opposite sentiment. In Michigan a 
 political revolution took place in 1854, one of the 
 results of which was that General Cass failed of a 
 reelection to the Senate, and Zachariah Chandler 
 succeeded him. 
 
 In the presidential election of 1856 the question 
 of setting bounds to the further extension of sla- 
 very was the paramount issue, and it continued 
 to be the leading and almost the sole issue in na- 
 tional affairs until after the election of 1860, when
 
 836 MICHIGAN. 
 
 the party which avowed its determination to pre- 
 serve the territories for freedom, while disclaiming 
 any purpose to interfere with the institution of 
 slavery in the states, succeeded in electing Abra- 
 ham Lincoln to the office of president. But par- 
 ties, as was inevitable with the issue which was 
 made, had divided on sectional lines. 
 
 Immediately after the election, distinct and au- 
 thoritative announcements began to be made in 
 the Southern States that it would not be submitted 
 to. It was declared that the election of president 
 by a party hostile to slavery was a wrong and 
 a menace to all the slaveholding states, which 
 neither their interests nor their honor would per- 
 mit them to acquiesce in. It was declared further 
 that the states, which had assented to the constitu- 
 tion and become members of the Federal Union, 
 had an undoubted right to withdraw that assent 
 at any time and to secede from the Union ; and 
 several of the states in a short time had called 
 conventions composed of delegates chosen by the 
 people, by which ordinances of secession from the 
 Union were adopted. These states assumed to be 
 thereafter no longer under the federal jurisdiction, 
 and they formed among themselves a confedera- 
 tion and adopted a provisional constitution. 
 
 The people of the Northern States, as a general 
 fact, neither agreed that the slave states had been 
 wronged in the election of an anti-slavery presi- 
 dent, nor assented to the right of a state to secede
 
 THE BORDER STATE COMPROMISE. 337 
 
 from the Union. Assent to the constitution they 
 regarded as irrevocable : it made the states a na- 
 tion, and imposed upon the nation the obligation 
 to enforce its laws in every state regardless of any 
 action the state or its citizens might take to the 
 contrary. The border slave states took a position 
 different from those taken to the north and the 
 south of them. The people for the most part 
 sympathized with their Southern brethren, both 
 in their view of the wrong that was done them in 
 the election, and in their belief in the right to se- 
 cede ; but they deprecated the action which the 
 extreme Southern States had taken, as being calcu- 
 lated to lead to civil war. How to avert such a war 
 now that the action had been taken was the ques- 
 tion. It was assumed in the border slave states 
 that those states, occupying as they did a position 
 between the others, both geographically and po- 
 litically, were entitled to speak with some author- 
 ity as pacificators, and that it belonged to them 
 to propose some compromise, whereby the hostile 
 sections by mutual concessions could be brought 
 again to their ancient harmony. Accordingly Mr. 
 Oittenden, one of the senators from Kentucky, 
 took the lead in proposing a compromise ; but its 
 concessions were not such as to satisfy the extreme 
 South, while at the same time they were more than 
 the North would consent to make. When this re- 
 sult became certain, a peace conference, as it was 
 called, to be composed of commissioners from each 
 22
 
 338 MICHIGAN. 
 
 of the states, was invited to convene in Washing- 
 ton in February, 1861, to consider and if possible 
 agree upon and report to Congress some plan of 
 compromise and conciliation, by the adoption of 
 which the seceding states might be won back to 
 the Union. What was desired was that each state 
 would send its most eminent and conservative 
 citizens as commissioners ; and it was then hoped 
 that tlieir aggregate wisdom would be sufficient to 
 devise a plan of conciliation and harmony adequate 
 to the emergency, and that the influence of their 
 united counsel would secure its adoption. 
 
 Certain concessions by the North it was gen- 
 erally supposed would be absolutely essential. 
 Among these was a provision by constitutional 
 amendment for the more effectual return of fugi- 
 tive slaves escaping to Northern States, and for 
 payment of their value when they escaped by rea- 
 son of assistance given them. But one of more 
 importance was that the territories should be open 
 to settlement by slave owners with their slaves, 
 and that all power in Congress to legislate against 
 slavery in the territories should be taken away by 
 express constitutional provision. It was in respect 
 to this last feature of the proposed concessions that 
 the chief difficulty was likely to be encountered, 
 for it was a concession of the very principle on 
 which the recent election had been won. 
 
 Nevertheless the Union was in peril, and twenty- 
 two states sent commissioners to the conference.
 
 THE STAND TAKEN BY MICHIGAN. 339 
 
 Michigan by the deliberate act of her legislature 
 refused to participate in it. The name of peace 
 conference seemed to the people of the State a 
 misnomer : the conference was to be held under 
 an implied threat of war unless one section of the 
 Union surrendered altogether its leading political 
 principle. Mr. Buchanan in his annual message 
 had declared that he found in the constitution no 
 authority for coercing states withdrawing from the 
 Union, but his conclusions found little support in 
 Michigan. Governor Wisner, who had just left the 
 executive chair, had said in retiring : " Michigan 
 cannot recognize the right of a state to secede from 
 this Union." If individuals, whether as private 
 citizens or as officers, attempted to take their state 
 out of the Union, the nation must deal with them, 
 not by way of coercing the state, but to compel 
 individuals to obey the laws of the United States, 
 and to perform national obligations. Austin Blair, 
 the new governor, had repeated and amplified tlie 
 sentiments of his predecessor. " 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. . . . Secession is revolution, and 
 revolution in the overt act is treason, and must be 
 treated as such." These utterances expressed the 
 sentiments of the State. The Union had not been 
 formed on any understanding that it might be dis- 
 solved at will by dissatisfied parties, and to con- 
 cede the right would be destructive of all its ad-
 
 340 MICHIGAN. 
 
 vantages. If constitutional obligations had been 
 violated in the election other considerations woVld 
 be presented, but the voters of the State bad done 
 nothing but exercise their undoubted right in tak- 
 ing part with others in the election of a constitu- 
 tional officer in a perfectly constitutional way ; 
 acting, in doing so, upon matured convictions and 
 according to the dictates of their consciences. 
 They therefore had nothing in their action to re- 
 gret, nothing to withdraw, nothing in point of 
 principle to compromise away. They were at 
 peace now without the aid of the peace conference, 
 and they would remain at peace unless war should 
 be opened upon the Union of which the State was 
 a part ; and if war should thus come, all the grand 
 results which had been anticipated in the forma- 
 tion of the Union and which so far had been re- 
 alized would be at stake, and nothing would re- 
 main but to put forth such effort to save the Union 
 as might be within the compass of state power 
 and resources. Such were the views which found 
 expression at Washington through the representa- 
 tives of the State in Congress. Senator Chandler 
 in a speech in the Senate said : " The people of 
 Michigan are opposed to all compromises. They 
 do not believe that any compromise is necessary ; 
 nor do I. They are prepared to stand by the con- 
 stitution of the United States as it is ; to stand by 
 the government as it is ; to stand by it to blood if 
 necessary." And a little later he said it would
 
 THE UPRISING AFTER SUMTER. 341 
 
 be more reasonable to join .a tribe of savages than 
 to live under a government that had not power to 
 enforce its laws. 
 
 The peace conference was abortive, and on Fri- 
 day, April 12, 1861, war upon the Union was inau- 
 gurated by the attack on Fort Sumter. On the 
 following Sunday the officer in command lowered 
 h:s flag in surrender, and the captors marched in 
 with rejoicings as for a great victory. The victory 
 was a fatal one for slavery ; any earnest and pro- 
 longed contest for the preservation of the Union 
 necessarily involved the existence of that institu- 
 tion. It also necessarily referred to the arbitra- 
 ment of war the dogma of the right of states to 
 secede from the Union. On the same Sunday 
 that Sumter was evacuated, the people of Michigan 
 in their several localities were gathering after 
 church services, in parks and other public places, 
 to counsel together respecting the alarming crisis 
 that was now upon them, and to prepare for the re- 
 sponsibilities which were involved in a struggle for 
 national existence. The most eminent and trusted 
 citizen was in every place the speaker. At Ann 
 Arbor, the seat of the state university, Dr. Henry 
 P. Tappan, its eminent and respected president, 
 addressed the assembled people, impressing upon 
 them with great force and earnestness the neces- 
 sity of the Union to the peace, prosperity, and 
 happiness of the people of all the states, and the 
 duty of every citizen to defend it at any necessary
 
 842 MICHIGAN. 
 
 sacrifice. Slavery as the occasion of the war was 
 rarely alluded to in these meetings ; the issues of 
 the opening contest rose far above any question of 
 domestic policy, constitutional law, or party poli- 
 tics. 
 
 When Sumter surrendered, Lewis Cass, who in 
 the cabinet of President Buchanan had done all 
 that was in his power to hold every state to its 
 place in the Union, was living in retirement at 
 Detroit. A great public meeting was convened 
 in that city on one of the dark days which fol- 
 lowed, and he was called upon as its most distin- 
 guished citizen to preside. Naturally his mind 
 reverted to the day, nearly fifty years before, when 
 near the very spot where the meeting was being 
 held, an American general, who had lost the cour- 
 age and vigor of his youth, had subjected the peo- 
 ple to dishonorable capitulation. The venerable 
 statesman was himself now old and feeble; youth- 
 ful ardor had given way to some degree of de- 
 spondency ; but he had lost nothing of his attach- 
 ment to the Union, and he thanked God as he 
 took the chairman's seat that the flag of the Union 
 still floated unmutilated above him. His remarks 
 were brief, but they expressed the general senti- 
 ment and determination of the people of the city 
 and of the State. " It is the duty of all zealously 
 to support the government in its efforts to bring 
 this unhappy civil war to a speedy and satisfactory 
 conclusion, by the restoration in its integrity of
 
 THE RESULTS OF THE WAR. 343 
 
 that great charter of freedom bequeathed to us by 
 Washington and his compatriots." The address 
 was brief but significant, and there was inspiration 
 for others in the fact that the venerable statesman 
 did not tolerate the thought of a divided country. 
 The history of Michigan in the war is part of 
 the general history of the country, and nothing 
 need be said of it here but that the State did its 
 full duty, putting more than ninety thousand men 
 into the field, of whom many thousand were left 
 to rest in soldiers' graves. The four years' war was 
 unsettling and demoralizing, as all wars necessa- 
 rily are, and its effects were perceived in a spec- 
 ulating feeling in business circles which gradually 
 extended so as to bring within its mischievous vor- 
 tex classes of persons who had never ventured be- 
 fore. They were perceived also in a weakening 
 of the sense of the sacredness of life and of private 
 property ; and in some degree of the family senti- 
 ment also ; and in a great increase of crimes of 
 all sorts, but especially of crimes of violence. No- 
 where in the Union were the rejoicings more 
 hearty when the news came that Richmond was 
 in the hands of the federal authorities, and that 
 the preservation of the Union was made certain. 
 A task which had seemed to other nations too 
 desperate to be undertaken had been accomplished, 
 and in the process of accomplishment the great 
 domestic evil that had been the occasion of the 
 war had been overthrown completely and forever.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE STATE AND THE NEW UNION. 
 
 THE great civil war had been fought on the part 
 of the government to preserve the Union, an4 for 
 no ulterior purpose whatever. " The constitution 
 as it is and the Union as it was " was the rallying 
 cry of the people, and the platform upon which 
 Mr. Lincoln in his inaugural address proposed to 
 found the policy of his administration. The acts 
 of secession being deemed altogether void, the gov- 
 ernment would endeavor to hold, occupy, and pos- 
 sess the property and places belonging to it in all 
 the states, and to enforce everywhere its laws, and 
 thereby bring the people everywhere to a recog- 
 nition and observance of federal authority and of 
 their duties in respect to it. The political depart- 
 ments of the federal government disclaimed alto- 
 gether the right to interfere with any constitu- 
 tional exercise of state authority, even in respect 
 to the institution of slavery, though slavery had 
 become the occasion of civil war. Loyal parties, 
 whatever had been their political affiliations be- 
 fore, agreed in pledging devotion to the constitu- 
 tion as it had been formulated and adopted at the
 
 VALUE OF A WRITTEN CONSTITUTION. 345 
 
 beginning, and their purpose to maintain it unim- 
 paired. 
 
 The peculiar excellence of the American con- 
 stitutions was supposed to consist in the fact that 
 they liad been deliberately framed as written char- 
 ters of government, so that they expressed all that 
 was within the intent of the framers, and would 
 stand as agreed upon without being subject to that 
 gradual modification and change which is an in- 
 herent quality when the constitution is unwritten. 
 In the latter case, as in the conspicuous instance 
 of the constitution of England, there will be grad- 
 ual building up and growth, which may at the 
 time be wholly imperceptible, and only apparent 
 in results ; but the written instrument comes into 
 existence with the understanding and purpose that 
 its several paragraphs and provisions shall mean 
 forever exactly what they mean when adopted ; 
 and if a change is to take place in the constitution, 
 it must be brought about by the steps which in 
 the instrument itself are provided for, and must 
 consist in such modification of the language and 
 provisions of the instrument, or of such emenda- 
 tions or additions as shall be formally and deliber- 
 ately made. By this means we are supposed to 
 have at all times a written instrument which em- 
 bodies the whole constitution ; and when we reach 
 a proper interpretation of the powers it confers 
 and the limitations it imposes upon those powers, 
 as they stood in the minds of the people when
 
 846 MICHIGAN. 
 
 adopting it, we are to give effect to that interpre- 
 tation, in whatever may be done under the con- 
 stitution at any time in the future. 
 
 Such is the theory underlying American govern- 
 ments. But the theory can be true only in the 
 most general sense. No instrument can be the 
 same in meaning to-day and forever, and in all 
 men's minds. Its interpretation must take place 
 in the light of the facts which preceded and led 
 to it; in the light of contemporaneous history, 
 and of what was said by the actors and the ends 
 they had in view. And as men will differ upon 
 facts and differ in mental constitution, so will 
 they differ in interpretation ; and in the case of a 
 written constitution, the divergences are certain 
 to increase when it comes to receive practical 
 application. And if at any time the people are 
 subjected to a great constitutional crisis, they are 
 not thereafter precisely the same in ideas, sen- 
 timents, desires, hopes, and aspirations that they 
 were before : their experience works changes in 
 their views and in their habits of thought, and 
 these may be so radical that they seem altogether 
 a new people. But as the people change, so does 
 their written constitution change also : they see 
 it in new lights and with different eyes ; events 
 may have given unexpected illumination to some 
 of its provisions, and what they read one way be- 
 fore they read a very different way now. Then 
 the logic of events may for all practical purposes
 
 SCHOOLS OF INTERPRETATION. 347 
 
 have settled some questions before in dispute ; and 
 nobody, in his contemplation of the constitution, 
 can separate it if he would from the history in 
 which its important provisions have had a part, 
 or be unaffected in his own views by that history. 
 In constitutional countries there must be schools 
 of interpretation and construction, in which men 
 will range themselves according to the spirit and 
 intent which they respectively discover in the char- 
 ter of government. In the United States these 
 have existed from the first; and they have been 
 given the names of Hamilton and Jefferson, because 
 those great statesmen, when called to the perform- 
 ance of important functions in government which 
 involved a construction of the constitution, discov- 
 ered respectively a different spirit and tendency 
 in that instrument. Hamilton discovered in it a 
 purpose to create and give vigorous energy to a 
 great nation ; and in so far as the administration 
 of the government fell to him, he deemed it his 
 duty to give effect to this purpose. He was the 
 ablest man of the day holding these views ; and 
 being eminently endowed with the qualities of a 
 leader, he became the natural head of the great 
 national party. Jefferson read in the constitution 
 a purpose to preserve the states in their integrity 
 with all their powers, so far as was consistent with 
 the existence of a confederacy having such author- 
 ity as a strict construction of the constitution 
 would give it. He also was a natural leader of
 
 348 MICHIGAN. 
 
 men, and became the head of the state -rights 
 school in constitutional interpretation. Holding 
 such antagonistic views, it was natural and perhaps 
 inevitable that these great leaders should suspect 
 each other's motives and actions ; and that while 
 Hamilton should come to think it was the pur- 
 pose of Jefferson to set the states above the na- 
 tion to the destruction of effective unity, Jefferson 
 on the other hand should believe that his great 
 rival was endeavoring to do whatever should-*be 
 possible, in perverting the constitution to a con- 
 centration of power in the federal government 
 which the states had never agreed upon, and which 
 if deliberately proposed would never have had 
 their assent. From them the mutual suspicions 
 extended to their friends and followers; and their 
 several public measures were regarded with jeal- 
 ous eyes as having purposes in view which their 
 authors would not venture to avow. The funding 
 schemes of Hamilton for federal and state debts 
 were not, in the eyes of Jefferson, so much vicious 
 in themselves, as vicious in their purpose and ten- 
 dency to concentrate power and rob the states of 
 their due importance ; and when, under the ad- 
 ministration of John Adams, affairs with France 
 assumed a threatening aspect, other persons be- 
 sides Jefferson were ready to suspect that Hamil- 
 ton was willing war should result, not so much be- 
 cause the conduct of France seemed imperatively 
 to require it, as because he expected from the
 
 STATE SOVEREIGNTY AND NATIONAL UNITY. 349 
 
 necessary concentration of power and expenditure 
 in the general government, as a result of war, a 
 great extension of its relative importance. 
 
 The war of 1812 was attended by some peculiar 
 circumstances, which had the effect to neutralize 
 tendencies that might otherwise have appeared. 
 The administration of the government was at the 
 time in the hands of the state-rights party ; and 
 its avowed principles would restrain it from tak- 
 ing centralizing ground. A much more important 
 circumstance was that some of the most influential 
 states were in control of the party which had op- 
 posed the war, and the general government was 
 from that cause hampered and weakened through 
 the whole of it. But afterwards and long before 
 the great crisis of 1860, the construction of the 
 constitution in its leading features had been de- 
 termined by successive decisions of the federal 
 Supreme Court in accordance with the views held 
 by the school of Hamilton. The views of Mr. 
 Jefferson had also in a measure become discredited 
 with the people, mainly through the nullification 
 episode and the patriotic fervor at that time in- 
 spired in defense of federal authority. But as 
 the legislative and executive departments of the 
 government had generally been in the hands of 
 the party most strenuous for the preservation to 
 the states of all their powers and rights, the ten- 
 dency to centralization was kept perhaps as much 
 in check as in the nature of things was possible.
 
 850 MICHIGAN. 
 
 State sovereignty and national unity was a favorite 
 phrase which was supposed to be a terse expres- 
 sion of the leading ideas and purposes of this party 
 in government. If a doubt at any time arose re- 
 specting the relative province of state and nation, 
 the principles of this party afforded an easy and 
 simple test for its solution ; for presumptively all 
 power was in the state until it could be shown 
 how and in what provision of the constitution it 
 had been given to the Union. 
 
 The change when the great civil war came on 
 was very great. The revolution of parties would 
 account for some of this ; for the party which had 
 succeeded in the recent presidential election was 
 for the most part of the school of Hamilton. Jef- 
 ferson had now been further discredited by the 
 fact that those who were endeavoring to disrupt 
 the Union claimed to be his followers and disciples, 
 and quoted papers prepared by his hand in justifi- 
 cation of their disintegrating doctrines. And it 
 was easy to do this ; for under the strain of intense 
 political feeling, when the federal government was 
 adopting legislation of the most questionable char- 
 acter, and which he believed was not only unwar- 
 ranted by the constitution but subversive of lib- 
 erty, he had secretly formulated for his followers 
 the famous resolutions of '98 and '99, which 
 seemed on their face to contain the germ of nulli- 
 fication if not of secession. But the Abolitionists 
 might, with quite as much reason, have claimed
 
 SUBORDINATION OF STATE RIGHTS. 351 
 
 him as their prototype and leader ; for his condem- 
 nation of slavery had been planted on the highest 
 ground of morality and natural justice, and he had 
 been prompt to legislate for freedom on the very 
 first opportunity. Nevertheless, Jefferson for the 
 time being was discredited in the public mind, 
 and the correctness of Hamilton's views of gov- 
 ernment was thought to be demonstrated by the 
 attempt at secession, and by the need of extraordi- 
 nary powers in the government to prevent it. It 
 seemed to be the duty of patriotic citizens to 
 strengthen the federal government in every pos- 
 sible way, and remonstrances from any quarter, 
 however well they might be grounded in constitu- 
 tional law, and however honest their purpose, were 
 listened to with impatience. The party of seces- 
 sion had claimed to found their dogmas upon con- 
 stitutional state rights, and to represent such 
 rights in their rebellion ; therefore, as the war pro- 
 gressed with its intense excitements and varying 
 phases, the very term " state rights " became ob- 
 noxious to patriotic ears as one which represented 
 principles and interests standing in antagonism to 
 the tremendous national interests, in defense of 
 which the people were now so freely expending 
 blood and treasure. 
 
 Under the influence of sentiments like these, 
 many clear infractions of the constitution were 
 excused by the public as being justified by an 
 overruling necessity ; such, for example, as the in-
 
 352 MICHIGAN. 
 
 terference by federal forces with state elections 
 in Kentucky. The longer the war continued ami 
 the more numerous were the excesses of power, 
 the more they came to seem in the minds of many 
 persons to be in harmony with the spirit of a 
 constitution which was designed to insure the per- 
 petuity of the Union, and might therefore be sup- 
 posed to contemplate the doing of whatever was 
 essential to that end. " We break the constitution 
 that we may save it," was sometimes said : a par- 
 adox, the mischief of which was not universally 
 perceived until calmer times brought cooler heads. 
 It was the opposite view that the constitution 
 might be appealed to for protection even by those 
 who were seeking to destroy it that seemed at 
 the time preposterous. When, therefore, men were 
 tried and condemned for treasonable practices be- 
 fore military tribunals in Indiana, the proceedings 
 were approved by a prevailing contemporary sen- 
 timent, which held that the protections to liberty 
 incorporated in the constitution were subject to 
 an implied exception, and might rightfully be set 
 aside when great emergencies required it. 
 
 Many such things are inseparable from a state 
 of civil war ; and they are recorded afterwards 
 not so much for the purpose of fixing the respon- 
 sibility for them upon individuals, as to guard 
 against their being accepted as lawful, and thereby 
 leading to mischief in the future. But in this 
 connection they are to be noted also as accounting
 
 CENTRALIZING INFLUENCES. 353 
 
 in some degree for the rapid strengthening of 
 federal power while the war was in progress. A 
 violation of the constitution, even when disap- 
 proved by public sentiment so that it fails to be- 
 come a precedent, may nevertheless have impor- 
 tant influence upon the public mind, in accustoming 
 it to accept as quite in order other questionable 
 acts which before would have been promptly con- 
 demned. A wholly baseless claim vigorously in- 
 sisted upon, especially when the power of present 
 enforcement exists, may be as likely in public 
 affairs as in private business to lead to compromise 
 by concession of some part of what is claimed. 
 
 But the centralizing forces which raised no ques- 
 tion of constitutional right or authority were now 
 powerful. The government was making vast mili- 
 tary expenditures; it was giving out enormous 
 contracts in which the profits might be large, and 
 the birds of ill omen gathered about the depart- 
 ments in great flocks, as eager for their feasts and 
 as reckless of anything else as the vultures upon 
 the fields of battle. The government was all the 
 while drawing in and paying out large sums of 
 money ; and the financial currents were to and 
 from Washington, not to or from the state capi- 
 tals except as the states were acting as subordi- 
 nate auxiliaries in the war. With a new admin- 
 istration, according to the vicious custom still 
 prevalent, came an expectation of an entire change 
 in the civil force; and from every part of the 
 
 23
 
 854 MICHIGAN. 
 
 country men flocked to Washington demanding 
 recognition of political claims, and forgot the im- 
 pending peril of their country in their eagerness 
 to turn others out of office and obtain their places. 
 Many new offices were now necessarily created ; 
 and for the time being the national government 
 was the great dispenser of favors, privileges, valu- 
 able employments, and profitable contracts, whose 
 executive, by a dash of the pen, was giving offices 
 which gratified the ambition of a life-time, wirile 
 heads of departments by their favors were enabling 
 others to lay the foundation of enormous fortunes. 
 All these things not only for the time affected the 
 relative interest of the people in their state and 
 national governments, but they greatly and perma- 
 nently affected the imaginations of the people ; 
 diminishing the states and their rights and powers 
 relatively to the Union, and making them appear 
 in a constitutional point of view less and less like 
 sovereignties, and more and more like subordinate 
 sections of a state. It was also natural while this 
 process was going on, and while the needs of the 
 government and the demands upon its strength 
 were so great, that the people should come to look 
 upon the constitution as an instrument which a 
 just regard to its purpose required should be liber- 
 ally construed, in order that it might accomplish 
 the ends for which it was established, and that it 
 should no longer be looked upon as an instrument 
 in which the grants of power to the federal govern-
 
 SLAVERY AND THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT. 355 
 
 ment must be found expressed ; as even Marshall, 
 the great expounder of the preceding generation, 
 hud conceded was the case. The attempt of states 
 to break up the Union had put everything at stake 
 in a life and death struggle on the battle-field. 
 For all these reasons a rapid and very radical 
 change was going on in respect to the view to 
 be taken of the constitution ; so that even when 
 the letter remained unchanged, the change in spirit 
 and practical expression made it almost a new in- 
 strument. 
 
 Nothing in this regard affected the imaginations 
 of the people more than the destruction of the in- 
 stitution of slavery in a considerable portion of 
 the Union by executive proclamation enforced by 
 the army. It had been from the first agreed by all 
 schools of constitutional construction that the fed- 
 eral government had no power over the institution 
 of slavery in the states, except in the matter of 
 the reclamation of fugitives, or perhaps as slaves 
 became the subject of interstate commerce. The 
 states, by the constitution, had been left to regulate 
 their own domestic institutions in their own way ; 
 that of master and servant as much as that of mar- 
 riage. But Mr. John Quincy Adams had advanced 
 the idea, which at the time appeared to most per- 
 sons unworthy a moment's serious thought, that 
 the fact would be otherwise in time of war ; for 
 the general government might then deal with slav- 
 ery as any existing emergency might seem to re-
 
 356 MICHIGAN. 
 
 quire. The people of the United States would 
 have scouted this notion even at the time of the 
 breaking out of the civil war, and the most of them 
 for a year thereafter. The conservative portion of 
 the people, including Mr. Lincoln himself, showed 
 a readiness to avoid as far as possible anything 
 which could injure the institution of slavery, and 
 even the army was for a time to some extent made 
 use of for sustaining it. But the time speedily 
 came when it seemed that it might become Bces- 
 sary to choose between slavery and the Union ; and 
 with the supreme purpose in view to save the 
 Union, the effect upon slavery began to be dis- 
 cussed chiefly in its bearings upon the accomplish- 
 ment of that purpose. Mr. Lincoln in his open 
 letter to Horace Greeley, written in August, 1862, 
 put in a few epigrammatic sentences his policy 
 and purpose at that time. 
 
 "I would," he said, "save the Union. I would 
 save it in the shortest way under the constitution. 
 The sooner the national authority can be restored, 
 the sooner the Union will be * the Union as it 
 was.' If there be those who would not save the 
 Union unless they could at the same time save 
 slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be 
 those who would not save the Union unless they 
 could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not 
 agree with them. My paramount object is to save 
 the Union, and not either to save or destroy slav- 
 ery. If I could save the Union without freeing
 
 CONGRESS AND THE CURRENCY. 357 
 
 any slave I would do it ; if I could save it by free- 
 ing all the slaves I would do it ; and if I could 
 save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, 
 I would also do that. What I do about slavery 
 and the colored race I do because I believe it helps 
 to save this Union ; and what I forbear I forbear 
 because I do not believe it would help to save the 
 Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe 
 what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do 
 more whenever I believe doing more will help the 
 cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown 
 to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast 
 as they shall appear to be true views." 
 
 It will thus be seen that the question in Mr. 
 Lincoln's mind, how slavery should be dealt with, 
 had become one of mere expediency ; and when 
 he decided, as he shortly did, that the destruction 
 of slavery would conduce to the restoration of the 
 Union, he gave the fatal blow. It may have been 
 an act of questionable constitutional right, but it 
 \vas irreversible when done, and it went a long 
 way in strengthening the growing impression that 
 in time of war whatever in government is found 
 expedient must be legally admissible. 
 
 Then Congress undertook what it had never 
 attempted before to provide the whole currency 
 of the country. It had power by the constitution 
 to coin money ; but coin had always constituted 
 a small percentage of the whole currency, the 
 most of which had been the bills of state banks.
 
 858 MICHIGAN. 
 
 Twice a national bank had been chai-tered as an 
 expedient agency in government, but the consti- 
 tutional power had always been contested, and, 
 though affirmed by the judicial, had been denied 
 at last by the political departments of the govern- 
 ment under the lead of Jackson, and the judg- 
 ment of the people might be said to stand recorded 
 against the judgment of the court. But now Con- 
 gress assumed to give corporate powers not to one 
 national bank merely, but to banks in every Bar- 
 ter of the country, sufficient in number for all the 
 demands of business ; and the question of power 
 to do so was scarcely made in any quarter. Con- 
 gress did not stop at authorizing national banks ; 
 it undertook to destroy the state banks to make 
 place for them. It was not claimed or pretended 
 by any one that this might be done directly and 
 avowedly ; for state power to create banks of 
 issue was unquestionable, and what the states had 
 lawful power to create, Congress could not have 
 lawful power to destroy. If the state banks were 
 destroyed it must therefore be done by indirection ; 
 the purpose must not be avowed even though it 
 might be evident and palpable. Chief Justice 
 Marshall had said, in overruling state taxation of 
 the national bank, that " a power to tax is a power 
 to destroy ; " meaning and intending by this epi- 
 grammatic phrase, that the power to raise a rev- 
 enue from a subject might require to be exercised 
 over and over again to the degree of absolute ex-
 
 PROHIBITION UNDER GUISE OF TAXATION. 359 
 
 haustion. But Congress availed itself of the ex- 
 pression, and by its action said in substance, " We 
 desire to destroy state banks of issue ; we have the 
 power to tax them and we will put forth that power 
 for their destruction. We will impose upon their 
 circulation a burden under the name of tax which 
 it will be impossible for it to bear, and thus compel 
 withdrawal." The obvious comment upon this 
 is, that the power to tax is a power to raise rev- 
 enue, existing in government for that purpose 
 and for no other; and this legislation was not 
 adopted for purposes of revenue, for no revenue 
 was expected or desired from it. The law, there- 
 fore, was not a tax law, but in its essence it was a 
 law prohibiting under penalty the issue of bills by 
 state banks. The legislation was made to assume 
 the form and take the name of taxation, because 
 under its true name its adoption would confessedly 
 have been incompetent. A further very obvious 
 comment is, that if one class of state corpora- 
 tions may constitutionally be thus legislated out 
 of existence by Congress, that body must have the 
 like power to destroy at pleasure other state cor- 
 porations ; and it might perhaps, on some view of 
 national expediency, tax out of existence all cor- 
 porations for insurance purposes except such as 
 Congress itself might charter for the District of 
 Columbia and other territories and places within 
 its exclusive jurisdiction ; thus taking to itself 
 this whole subject as completely as if control over
 
 860 MICHIGAN. 
 
 it had been expressly conferred. This would be 
 making the power given to Congress for the pur- 
 poses of revenue a power of destruction irrespec- 
 tive of revenue. But the tendencies of the times 
 w-T6 such that the legislation was sustained with 
 little question and less opposition. The feeling 
 was general that the country was well rid of state 
 bank bills which in times past had been infinitely 
 mischievous, and nobody troubled himself with 
 the question whether a dangerous precedent^ was 
 not being established in the process of getting rid 
 of them. 
 
 The government also issued bills of its own, 
 and declared that they should be legal tender as 
 between individuals ; not merely for such debts as 
 should be thereafter contracted, but for preexist- 
 ing debts contracted when gold and silver alone 
 were legal tender. Then came the question, 
 Whence did the government derive the power to 
 give this effect to the evidences of its own indebt- 
 edness? It is not to be found expressly con- 
 ferred by the constitution : there is nothing in the 
 debates of the convention which framed that in- 
 strument indicating a purpose to confer it. Leg- 
 islators and lawyers looking for it in the constitu- 
 tion suggest that it may be referred to the power 
 to borrow money, or the power to coin money, or 
 to some other specified power ; but at any rate it 
 may be. referred to the war power, which is so 
 tremendous in its scope that those wielding it can
 
 JURISDICTION OF FEDERAL COURTS. 361 
 
 alone set bounds to it. If in their opinion the is- 
 sue of legal tender currency is a necessary expedi- 
 ent when war puts the existence of the Union in 
 peril, then the issue must be as lawful as the em- 
 ployment of men or artillery in the field. Such 
 was the reasoning of many at the time. But when 
 it is once determined that the power of Congress 
 may be grounded in necessity, it logically follows 
 that it cannot be limited to the time of war. The 
 necessity that makes for itself the law, knows no 
 times ; it is conceivable that it may be slight in 
 time of war and urgent in time of peace ; and 
 when the groundwork of right is admitted, the 
 power which passes upon the necessity cannot be 
 restricted in the occasions. And necessity under 
 such circumstances can mean only expediency. 
 We thus reach a stage when Congress on its own 
 view of expediency may exercise the tremendous 
 power over contracts, of making them payable in 
 something besides the money which the parties 
 understood they were bargaining for: something 
 which may or may not be of equal value ; though 
 if it were of equivalent value, there could in gen- 
 eral be no occasion for imparting to it the legal 
 tender quality. 
 
 The nation also during the war began to extend 
 in various directions the jurisdiction of the federal 
 courts. To some extent this was made necessary 
 by the confiscation acts and the great increase in 
 the revenue system ; but much of the legislation
 
 362 MICHIGAN. 
 
 for the transfer of cases from state to federal 
 courts was based on reasoning which was only 
 plausible ; and it was as often adopted for the 
 purpose of increasing the number of courts and 
 making desirable places to be filled by federal ap- 
 pointment as for any other reason. One of the 
 immediate and necessary consequences was to cast 
 upon the federal Supreme Court an amount of 
 business quite beyond its power to deal with, to 
 the great detriment of suitors and of the country. 
 Lawyers and legislators now busy themselves with 
 the problem how to relieve the court of last resort, 
 and various plans are suggested every one of which 
 its opponents can show has fatal defects ; but the 
 easy, simple, and effectual plan of retracing all 
 steps which were improvidently taken, and all 
 steps for which the reasons have now passed away, 
 is suggested by no one. 
 
 But tli at which perhaps at the time seemed 
 most of all to belittle the states and to swell to 
 greatest proportions the central power, was the 
 process of reconstruction of states which began 
 with Virginia, soon after the war opened, and was 
 continued for several years. The theory of the 
 government at all times was that the seceding 
 states were never out of the Union : their constitu- 
 tions and laws remained notwithstanding seces- 
 sion ; and what was needed was that the people 
 should be brought back to the performance of na- 
 tional duties. But in bringing them back they
 
 THE TARIFF A PROTECTIVE ONE. 363 
 
 were for a time subjected to military rule, and 
 terms were dictated as conditions to their read- 
 mission to their places in the Union. The most 
 important of these conditions were the distinct 
 negation of slavery and the elevation of the freed- 
 men to the dignity of citizens and voters. Giving 
 the elective franchise to the freedmen was a great 
 and confessedly a hazardous experiment, and few 
 if any of the states woitld willingly have consented 
 to it ; but the country was supposed to be still in 
 the grasp of an imperious necessity, and the states 
 had no choice but to accept the terms. The blacks 
 had been freed, and now they must be protected ; 
 and the best and only effectual means of self-pro- 
 tection seemed to be the ballot. As the constitu- 
 tion had not contemplated the extraordinary cir- 
 cumstances in which the country was now placed, 
 and therefore had not provided for them, recon- 
 struction presented a problem in legislation which 
 was unique, and, as the power of Congress was 
 irresistible, its judgment upon the problem was 
 necessarily final. 
 
 The war made heavy taxes a necessity ; and the 
 government, following its ordinary course, raised 
 these for the most part as indirect taxes. In so 
 far as they were levied upon imports, the levy 
 afforded opportunity to discriminate for the pro- 
 tection and encouragement of American products. 
 The heavy tariff thus became in large degree a 
 protective tariff. When the war was over, a fear-
 
 364 MICHIGAN. 
 
 ful load of national debt remained, and the war 
 taxes were continued for the gradual extinguish- 
 ment of this debt. But when the debt had so far 
 diminished that the heavy taxes could no longer 
 be defended on that ground, the protected inter- 
 ests were found to be so numerous and so power- 
 ful, that they were quite able to prevent success in 
 any attempt at considerable reduction. The tariff 
 thus became distinctively a tariff for protection ; 
 and all the protected interests looked to the fed- 
 eral government as being at once, to some extent 
 at least, the source and the protector of their pros- 
 perity. 
 
 It will be interesting now to note the position 
 of Michigan relative to this form of taxation. For 
 this purpose the year 1880 may be taken, up to 
 which time the heavy taxes had been maintained. 
 
 Michigan had now become, in all that goes to 
 the making of great states, conspicuous and power- 
 ful in the Union. From having been the twenty- 
 sixth State at the time of admission, it has now 
 in point of population become the ninth. In 
 wealth, prosperity, and promise, it is entitled to 
 still higher rank. Only New York, Pennsylvania, 
 Massachusetts, Ohio, Illinois, Connecticut, and 
 New Jersey have more capital invested in manu- 
 factures ; only Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio produce 
 more wheat ; only Ohio, California, and Texas 
 raise more sheep. In the production of iron ore 
 and copper, and in the manufacture of salt and
 
 NATIONALITY FOSTERED BY PROTECTION. 365 
 
 lumber, Michigan is preeminent in the Union, and 
 the shipments from its mines and forests deter- 
 mine the markets for the country. The State 
 has thus become a grand and noble common- 
 wealth ; the little settlement so weak and so far 
 in the wilderness when Cass was sent to govern 
 and foster it, has grown to mighty dimensions. 
 Its agriculture is excellent ;' its manufactures are 
 greatly diversified and generally profitable ; its 
 channels of commerce are all that can be desired ; 
 its people are intelligent, hardy, industrious, and 
 thrifty, and in natural resources it is unsurpassed 
 by any state. State pride may surely find ample 
 gratification in the contemplation of so magnifi- 
 cent a presentation of happy circumstances. 
 
 But some of the facts which have been named 
 are calculated, while the protective system is con- 
 tinued, to concentrate the attention upon the na- 
 tion rather than upon the State. The pine for- 
 ests of Michigan, which challenge comparison 
 with any in the world, border upon lakes and riv- 
 ers which furnish easy avenues to market. But 
 only a few miles away, Canada, also, has vast for- 
 ests quite as favorably situated for transportation 
 to market, and the Canadian lumberman would 
 compete successfully with the lumberman of Mich- 
 igan at every leading mart in the country, if he 
 were suffered to do so on equal terms. If, there- 
 fore, other manufacturers are to be favored by 
 discriminating duties, the manufacturers of lum-
 
 366 MICHIGAN. 
 
 ber may point to the contiguity of their competi- 
 tors as constituting a reason for favoring them, 
 also, in like manner. 
 
 Whether for the permanent interest of the State 
 it is best that the lumber interest should be thus 
 favored, is a question about which the owners of 
 forests and mills will not very much concern them- 
 selves. Protective duties enable them more quickly 
 and more profitably to convert their forests into 
 money, and they therefore favor them. But^he 
 duties operate as a premium to a speedy conver- 
 sion of that which, in its natural condition, is yearly 
 growing more and more valuable ; and perhaps if 
 Canada were suffered for the time being to supply 
 in part the American market, the permanent in- 
 terest of the State would be subserved thereby. 
 But when wealth is coming in, every one wishes 
 " the golden stream " to be " quick and violent." 
 
 The salt manufacture of Michigan finds its chief 
 competition in New York, and cannot be pro- 
 tected against it. But the same duty on foreign 
 salt which would favor the manufacture in New 
 York would favor it in Michigan ; and, though the 
 interest needs no protection to make it remuner- 
 ative, being generally profitable without, yet as 
 the business employs a considerable number of 
 men, and protective duties are supposed to foster 
 labor and increase its compensation, the reasons 
 for protection to salt are the same which support 
 protection in the case of many other industries.
 
 SELF-INTEREST ENCOURAGES PROTECTION. 367 
 
 It perhaps goes without saying that the iron 
 interest will be favored by protective duties if any 
 is ; and the protection when compared with others 
 has generally gone to the verge of liberality. Of 
 the copper mines of Michigan, one has been the 
 most productive and profitable on the globe ; and, 
 if that alone were to be considered, protective du- 
 ties for. the purpose of adding to the already enor- 
 mous profits would seem monstrous ; but many 
 other mines have never made fairly remunerative 
 returns, and their abandonment might be a neces- 
 sity unless copper also received some degree of 
 protection. 
 
 Great quantities of cheap foreign wools are im- 
 ported into this country, and the impression is 
 common, if not general, among the wool growers of 
 the United States that these coarse wools so far 
 compete with the finer and higher priced wools of 
 this country as to affect the price. Whether this 
 impression is true or false, it has had its influence 
 upon sheep growers in inducing them to demand 
 protection, and upon Congress in acceding to the 
 demand. 
 
 And so these great leading Michigan interests, 
 of lumber, salt, iron, copper, and wool, to say noth- 
 ing of many less important interests which are 
 also favored by protective duties, have sufficed to 
 rank the State with those favoring the protective 
 system, and, while influencing the political course 
 of the people, to make them feel at the same time
 
 368 MICHIGAN. 
 
 that very much of the prosperity of the State was 
 dependent not upon what the State could do to 
 foster and protect them, but upon what could be 
 done and was being done by the general govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The superabundant revenue that has come to 
 the government as a result of heavy taxation has 
 made Congress over-liberal in the matter of ex- 
 penditure. Schemes of doubtful public utility have 
 easily found support ; proper national works Tiave 
 readily obtained extravagant appropriations ; and 
 sometimes it has seemed that money was voted 
 without discrimination, so many of the persons 
 who cast the votes appearing to look for the 
 benefit in the tax from which the money came, 
 rather than in the purpose which was to be accom- 
 plished by its expenditure. 
 
 The geographical position of Michigan is such 
 that the State has had an interest quite as great 
 in the expenditure of the moneys realized from 
 protective duties as in the duties themselves. 
 With its two peninsulas it has, in proportion to 
 area, a longer coast line of navigable water than 
 any other state. The rivers St. Clair and St. Mary 
 are great national highways, but the passage of 
 the one is impeded by shallows, and that of the 
 other by rapids, and a considerable expenditure of 
 money has been necessary to make safe and suffi- 
 cient channels for commerce. The State has nu- 
 merous other rivers flowing from the interior with
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF PENSIONS. 369 
 
 harbors at their mouths, some of them of large 
 importance, and some that only the most optimis- 
 tic could see value in ; but such of them as are 
 important have needed improvement, and in the 
 river and harbor bills Michigan has been able on 
 p'ausible claims to secure extensive recognition, 
 and the claims have been allowed to an extent 
 that has seldom left ground for complaint. And 
 to every locality that has received a grant from 
 the general government, the grant has somehow 
 seemed like a mere gift, as if in some providential 
 way the money had come to the national treasury 
 without cost to the people, and the nation was 
 distributing it in benefactions. The State would 
 be powerless to make such benefactions except at 
 a cost of direct taxes ; and the people of the State 
 would never assent to the levy of taxes for such 
 .purposes. In fact, they have prohibited it by their 
 constitution. 
 
 An overflowing national treasury has also en- 
 couraged liberal pensions, and gradual additions 
 to the classes of pensioners, until the number of 
 persons dependent upon the nation for bounty of 
 this nature has become enormous. The coinci- 
 dence of interest between these classes and those 
 in whose behalf heavy taxes are laid seems direct 
 and close ; and the more their number is increased, 
 and the greater their interest, the more in their 
 minds is the nation elevated, and made continually 
 present as an entity of power and importance at 
 the expense of the Stute. 
 
 24
 
 370 MICHIGAN. 
 
 The nation has also since the war made gifts of 
 vast areas of land for the construction of railroads, 
 and loaned large sums of money which might al- 
 most as well have been made gifts. It has added 
 to its postal service something of an express busi- 
 ness, which has within it the prophecy of greater 
 things to come. The question of annexing the 
 telegraph to the postal service is being urged, and 
 the question of the nation assuming the regulation 
 of railways has for some time been before Con- 
 gress, and is certain to receive at some time in the 
 near future an affirmative solution. 
 
 Then the number of federal office-holders has 
 increased until they constitute a mighty army : 
 an army greater in number than that with which 
 Wellington at Waterloo changed the history of 
 the world ; greater than that with which Meade 
 won the decisive victory at Gettysburg in the cri- 
 sis of the civil war. It has been deemed necessary 
 to legislate to prevent elections from being im- 
 properly influenced by the labors and pecuniary 
 contributions of so large a body, directed and ex- 
 pended as they are likely to be by the political 
 machinery of the party in power. 
 
 After all these important changes, these great 
 additions to federal power, federal activity, federal 
 beneficence to individuals and localities, and fed- 
 eral agencies and servants, it needs scarcely be 
 said that it is not state action and state legisla- 
 tion that most attract attention, even when the
 
 THE UNION THAT 18 TO BE. 371 
 
 citizen in the quiet of his own home or in neigh- 
 borhood gatherings is discussing public affairs. 
 Everything gravitates to Washington ; the highest 
 interests and the most absorbing ambitions look 
 to the national capital for gratification ; and it is 
 no longer the state but the nation that in men's 
 minds and imaginations is an ever present sover- 
 eignty. And this is as true of the states of which 
 Jefferson and Calhoun have been the idols as it is 
 of Massachusetts or Michigan. 
 
 " The constitution as it is and the Union as it 
 was " can no longer be the motto and the watch- 
 word of any political party. We may preserve 
 the constitution in its every phrase and every let- 
 ter, with only such modification as was found es- 
 sential for the uprooting of slavery ; but the Union 
 as it was has given way to a new Union with some 
 new and grand features, but also with some en- 
 grafted evils which only time and the patient and 
 persevering labors of statesmen and patriots will 
 suffice to eradicate.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ABBOT, Governor, 91. 
 Academies, 317. 
 Adams, John Quincy, 219, 355. 
 Adrian, 239. 
 Aigrement, 29. 32. 
 American Fur Company, 192. 
 Amherst, General, 40, 41, 75. 
 Ann Arbor, 239, 317. 
 Astor, John Jacob, 191. 
 
 Barry, John S., 294, 298. 
 
 Bates, Judge, 150. 
 
 Beauharnais, 35, 36. 
 
 Bellestre, 43. 
 
 Bingham, Kinsley S., 305. 
 
 Bird, Captain, 102. 
 
 Black Hawk War, 212. 
 
 Blair, Austin, 305, 339. 
 
 Boundary controversy, 214 el seq. 
 
 Bradstreet, General, G3, 68. 
 
 Brandy, trade in, 31-33, 51, 52. 
 
 Brant, Joseph, 106-109, 113, 116, 117. 
 
 British posts, detention of, 107, 114, 
 
 115, 118. 
 
 Brock, General, 174, 175, 177. 
 Buchanan, President, 339. 
 
 Cadillac, La Motte, 14, 17-34. 
 
 Cahokia, 96. 
 
 Campbell, Major, 60. 
 
 Canada, colonization of, 5; govern- 
 ment of, 8-10, 26 ; surrender to the 
 British, 40-44 ; despotic government 
 of, 46, 66-78. 
 
 Carleton, Sir Guy, 75, 76, 85, 110, 112, 
 114. 
 
 C artier, Jaques, 2. 
 
 Cass, Lewis, Colonel, 167, 172, 175; 
 made military governor, 187 ; ap- 
 pointed civil governor, 189 ; treaties 
 with Indians, 194 ; visits the upper 
 lakes, 195, 196 ; his bravery, 196 ; 
 his democratic tendencies, 201, 205, 
 206 ; organizes counties, 201 ; be- 
 comes secretary of war, 203 ; his 
 habits, 204 ; favors general educa- 
 tion, 310, 314 ; obtains grant to Uni- 
 
 versity, 312 ; Nicholson letter of, 
 334 ; favors compromise of 1850, 
 335 ; speaks for the Union, 342. 
 
 Catholepistemiad, 310. 
 
 Champlaiu, Samuel de, 3. 
 
 Chandler, Elizabeth Margaret, 243. 
 
 Chandler, Zachariah, 335, 340. 
 
 Charlevoix, 35. 
 
 Charter contracts, 300. 
 
 Chicago, abandoned in 1812, 181. 
 
 Cholera in 1832-34, 212. 
 
 Cincinnati, 111. 
 
 Civil war, 1861-1865, 330-343. 
 
 Clarke, George Rogers, 93-104. 
 
 Clay, Henry, 165, 166. 
 
 Colbert, 109. 
 
 Coles, Edward, 138, 139. 
 
 Colonization, European, 1 ; French, 5. 
 
 Company of the Colony of Canada, 26. 
 
 Company of the Hundred Associates, 
 6,7. 
 
 Congress of Nations, 16. 
 
 Constitution of the State of 1835, 225 ; 
 of 1850, 299-304; amendments of, 
 304. 
 
 Constitutions, American, peculiar ex- 
 cellence of, 345 ; must necessarily 
 change, 347. 
 
 Conventions, state, 223, 249 ; " frost- 
 bitten," 224. 
 
 Copper mines, 16, 20, 78, 364. 
 
 Corporate charters, 300. 
 
 Coureurs de bois, 21, 81, 232. 
 
 Craig, Governor-General, 166. 
 
 Crapo, Henry H., 292. 
 
 Crary, Isaac E., 220, 320, 321. 
 
 Crittenden, John J., 337. 
 
 Croghan, George, 63. 
 
 Currency, early, 254 et seq. ; cut, 257 ; 
 national, 357-361 ; wild - cat, 267- 
 278. 
 
 Pablon, 11, 12. 
 Dalzell, Captain, 61. 
 Dane, Nathan, 167. 
 Dearborn, Fort, 181. 
 Dearborn, General, 174.
 
 374 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Defiance, Fort, 182. 
 
 Dejean, Judge, 74, 75, 98-100. 
 
 De la Barre, 22. 
 
 Delegate in Congress, William Wood- 
 bridge, 199; Solomon Sibley, 199; 
 Gabriel Richard, 199 ; Austin . 
 Wing, 200. 
 
 Deuonville, 22. 
 
 De Peyster, Captain, 91, 101, 102. 
 
 Detroit, importance of, 14, 15 ; found- 
 ing of, 16-39 , siege of, by Pontiac, 
 40-65 ; military government of, 66- 
 78 ; illegal grants at, 68-70 ; impor- 
 tance of, in the Revolution, 85-103 ; 
 surrender to the United States, 
 118 ; incorporation of, 141 ; destruc- 
 tion of, by fire, 152 ; Woodward, 
 plan of, 154 ; surrender of, by Hull, 
 175; Colonel Proctor, governor of, 
 180 ; evacuated by Proctor, 187 ; 
 condition in 1837, 237 ; capital re- 
 moved from, 296. 
 
 Detroit Bank, 155, 257, 258. 
 
 Detroit Young Men's Society, 239. 
 
 Dollier, 16. 
 
 Dongan, Governor, 22. 
 
 Dubuisson, 34. 
 
 Du Lhut, 15. 
 
 Du Monts, 3. 
 
 Dunmore, Governor, 88. 
 
 Education, state, review of, 306-329. 
 Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad, 279. 
 Erie Canal, 203. 
 Explorations, early, 1, 12, 16. 
 
 Federal relations in 1837, review of, 
 226 ; after the Civil War, 244-371. 
 
 Felch, Alpheus, 29G. 
 
 Findlay, Colonel, 107. 
 
 Fort Stauwix treaty, 108, 111. 
 
 Forts, Dearborn, 181 ; Defiance, 182 ; 
 Le Boeuf, 56, 60; Meigs, 186; Mi- 
 ami, 43, 56, 60, 115-117; Niagara, 
 56, 00, 62, 03 ; Ouatanon, 43, 56, 60 , 
 Pitt, 56, 60 ; Pontchartrain, 19, 29 ; 
 Sandtisky, 66, 60 ; Stephenson, 186 ; 
 8t. Joseph on St. Clair River,' 15 ; 
 St. Joseph on Lake Michigan, 56, 
 60 ; Fenango, 66, 60. 
 
 Fox, Charles James, 84. 
 
 Free schools, 303-329. 
 
 French farms, 190, 233. 
 
 Frenchtown massacre, 182-184. 
 
 Frontenac, Count, 9, 10. 
 
 Fur trade, American, 4, 22, 23, 29, 191. 
 
 Galline'e, 16, 17. 
 Gallissoniere, 37. 
 General Banking Law, 261, 262, 267, 
 
 275 
 Gilpiu, Henry D., 212. 
 
 Girty, Simon, George, and James, 92. 
 Gladwin, Major, 57. 
 Grand Council at Huron Village, 109. 
 Greenly, William L., 296. 
 Greenville, Treaty of, 117. 
 Griffin, Judge, 150. 
 
 Haldiman, Governor, 107. 
 Hamilton, Alexander, 347-349, 351. 
 Hamilton, Governor, 75, 85, 90. 
 Harrnar, General, 112. 
 Harrison, William H., governor, 135 ; 
 
 general, 182, 186. 
 Holland Colony, 297. 
 Homer, John 8., 221. 
 Hull, William, 148-163. 
 Hundred Associates, 6, 7. 
 Hurons, 4. 
 
 Illinois, attempt to legalize slavery in, 
 
 137-139. 
 Immigration to Michigan, 197, 202, 
 
 203, 296. 
 Indian affairs, bad management of, 
 
 47-54. 
 
 Indian massacres in Northwest Ter- 
 ritory, 111, 112. 
 Indian trade, rivalry for, 4, 22, 23, 
 
 29 ; pathway of, to Quebec, 16. 
 Indian treaties, how obtained, 159, 
 
 169. 
 Indiana, attempts to legalize shivery 
 
 in, 133-139. 
 Indians, conversion of, 20, 21, 23, 38, 
 
 142-144 ; use of, in the Revolution, 
 
 86-94. 
 
 Industries, household, 234. 
 Internal improvements, 279-293, 2%. 
 Iron mines, 364, 367. 
 Iroquois, 4, 10, 36, 106, 108, 109. 
 
 Jackson, President, 207, 218-220, 222. 
 
 Jay's Treaty, 118, 136. 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, 125, 126. 130, 147 ; 
 
 constitutional views of, 347-349, 
 
 351, 371. 
 
 Jesuits, 4, 5, 10, 25, 27, 28. 
 Johnson, Sir John, 110, 112. 
 Johnson, Sir William, 43, 53, 62-64, 
 
 88. 
 
 Joliet, 12, 13. 
 Joques, 10. 
 Jonquiere, 37. 
 Judicial officers, election of, 300. 
 
 Kaskaskia, capture of, 95, 96. 
 Kentucky settlements, attacks on, 92- 
 
 94. 
 King, Rufus, 127. 
 
 La Foret, 135. 
 Lamothe, 99, 100.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 375 
 
 La Motte Cadillac, 14, 17-34, 39. 
 
 Land claims, early, about Detroit, 145. 
 
 Land speculations, 255. 
 
 Langdale, Captain, 91. 
 
 Lansing, capital removed to, 296. 
 
 La Roche, 3. 
 
 La Salle, 15-17. 
 
 Lawyers, early, 248. 
 
 Le Baye, 56, 63. 
 
 Le Boeuf , Fort, 56, 60. 
 
 Legal-tender acts, 360. 
 
 Liberty, English, 45, 46. 
 
 License laws, 300, 301, 304. 
 
 Lincoln, President, 336, 356. 
 
 Liquor traffic, 144. See Trade, In- 
 dian. 
 
 Livingston, Robert, 24 
 
 Loan, state, for internal improve- 
 ment, 283. 
 
 Logan, Chief, 88. 
 
 Lucas, Governor, 218. 
 
 Lumber, protection for, 365, 366. 
 
 Lyon, Lucius, 220. 
 
 Mackinaw, 102, 118, 143, 170. 
 
 Maiden, evacuated by Proctor, 187. 
 
 Marest, 14, 29. 
 
 Marietta, 111 
 
 Marquette, Jaqnes, 4, 10-13; founds 
 St. Ignatius, 12 ; death of, 13. 
 
 Marshall, village, 239. 
 
 Marshall, Chief Justice, 358. 
 
 Mason, John T., appointed territorial 
 secretary, 207. 
 
 Mason, Stevens T., territorial secre- 
 tary, 208 ; acting governor, 208, 220 ; 
 not of age when appointed, 208-210 ; 
 elected governor of state, 219 ; pro- 
 tests against act of admission, 224, 
 225 ; on banking, 264-266, 269, 272, 
 276 ; on internal improvements, 
 281-285. 
 
 Massacre of Frenchtown, 183, 184. 
 
 MeArthur, Duncan, 167, 175, 312. 
 
 McClelland, Robert, 304. 
 
 McDougill, Lieutenant, 60. 
 
 Meigs, Fort, 186. 
 
 Miami, Fort, 43, 56, 60, 115-117. 
 
 Michigan Territory, organized, 140 ; 
 ignorance concerning, 192, 193. 
 
 Michigan University, 310-329. 
 
 Michilimackinac, 11, 14, 18, 27, 30, 
 38, 78; mission at, 12, 13, 15, 28; 
 surrender to the British, 43, 44; 
 capture by the Indians, 60, 61 ; be- 
 comes Mackinaw, 102. 
 
 Miller, Colonel, 174. 
 
 Money, early, 254-278,357-361. 
 
 Monopoly in banking, 261, 269, 275. 
 
 Monguagon, fight at, 174. 
 
 Monroe, 239. 
 
 Montcalm, 28. 
 
 Monteith, John, 200, 309, 315. 
 
 Montreal, 3, 40. 
 
 Moravian town, fight at, 187. 
 
 Mormon colony, 297. 
 
 Morris Canal and Ranking Company, 
 
 286. 
 
 Mundy, Edward, 219. 
 Murray, General, 75. 
 
 National banks, 357, 358. 
 
 Negro riot, 213. 
 
 Newspapers, early, 202. 
 
 Niagara, Fort, 56, 60, 62, 63. 
 
 Northwest Territory, conquest of, 79- 
 104 ; reluctant surrender of, 105, 
 119; land controversy concerning, 
 105, 120-125; government for, 111, 
 125. 
 
 Norvell, John, 220. 
 
 Nouvel, 12. 
 
 Office-holders, federal, 370. 
 
 Offices as spoils, 207. 
 
 Ohio, boundary controversy with, 214 
 
 et seq. ; currency from, 259, 260. 
 Ordinance of 1789, 125, 127-138, 211. 
 Ouatanou, Fort, 43, 56-CO. 
 
 Parsons, Andrew, 305. 
 
 Patriot war, 253. 
 
 Pawnee slaves, 131. 
 
 Peace conference of 1860, 337, 341. 
 
 People of the State in 1837, 232 et seq 
 
 Perry's victory, 186. 
 
 Pierce, John D., 318, 321. 
 
 Pitt, Fort, 56, 60. 
 
 Pontchartrain, 18, 27, 28, 30. 
 
 Pontchartrain, Fort, 19, 29. 
 
 Pontiac, Chief, 40-66. 
 
 Pontiac, village, 239. 
 
 Population of territory, 203, 213. 
 
 Porter, George B., 210, 212. 
 
 Presque Isle, Fort, 56-60. 
 
 Prevost, Sir George, 166, 174. 
 
 Printing-press, the first, 202. 
 
 Proctor, Colonel, 180-187. 
 
 Public lands in market, 195. 
 
 Quakers, 247, 248. 
 
 Quebec, founded, 3 ; captured, 40, 45 
 
 Radicalism in 1849, 298. 
 
 Railroads, early, 249; sale of state, 
 
 289-291 ; voting aid to, 292, 293. 
 Randolph, John, 134, 162-166. 
 Ransom, Epaphroditus, 296. 
 Raymbault, 10. 
 Reconstruction of states, 362. 
 Relief measures, 270, 274, 275. 
 Religion, early, 245, 248. 
 Repentigny, Chevalier de, 38. 
 Richard, Father Gabriel, 141, 199, '200,
 
 376 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 309; delegate in Congress, 199; 
 
 notes of, for St. Anne, 259. 
 River Raisin massacre, 182-184. 
 Rivers and harbors, 368. 
 Roads, territorial, 197, 198. 
 Roberval, 2. 
 Rocheblave, 91. 
 Rogers, Major Robert, 41, 78. 
 Ruin of Indian trade, 144 
 
 Safety fund for banks, 2C1. 
 
 Salaries, state, 302. 
 
 Salt manufacture, 3G5, 366. 
 
 Sandusky, Fort, 56, 60. 
 
 Sastaretsi, Chief, 33, 34. 
 
 Sault St. Marie, 10, 15, 38, 63, 144. 
 
 Schools, public, 307, 329 ; endowment 
 for, 321. 
 
 Schuyler, General, 89. 
 
 Secession, 336. 
 
 Sibley, Solomon, 199. 
 
 Simcoe, Governor, 114, 117. 
 
 Six Nations, 4, 10, 36, 106, 108, 109. 
 
 Slavery, 129, 130, 131, 332-343, 356. 
 
 Speculative mania, 255, 265, 267, 274, 
 289. 
 
 Sports, early, 250-252. 
 
 State and Union in 1837, 226-231 ; 
 after the Civil War, 344-371. 
 
 State Agricultural College, 327. 
 
 State credit, not to be loaned, 302. 
 
 State currency, taxed out of exist- 
 ence, 359. 
 
 State debt, for internal improvements, 
 283-302 ; sinking fund for, 301 ; lim- 
 itation upon, 301 . 
 
 State economy, 303. 
 
 State government, right to, under or- 
 dinance of 1787, 211, 213, 220 ; peti- 
 tion for, 213 ; established, 219, 220, 
 232 ; recognized by Congress, 224. 
 
 State Normal School, 327. 
 
 State products in 1880, 364. 
 
 State railroads, sale of, 289-291, 296. 
 
 State School for Dependent Children, 
 327. 
 
 State script, 287, 288. 
 
 St. Anne's Church, 199, 259. 
 
 St. Clair, General, 110-113 ; governor, 
 130, 151, 152. 
 
 Steamboat, first, 202. 
 
 Stephenson, Fort, 186. 
 
 Steuben, Baron, 107. 
 
 fit. Ignatius mission, 12. 
 
 St. Joseph, Fort, on St. Clair River, 
 15 ; on Lake Michigan, fit'., 60. 
 
 Strang, John J., 297, 298. 
 
 Suspension of specie payments, 203- 
 267. 
 
 Tappan, Henry P., 341. 
 
 Taxation, federal, 363. 
 
 Tecumseh, Chief, 160-162; his re- 
 proach of Proctor, 186; his death, 
 187. 
 
 Tecumseh, town, 239, 247. 
 
 Temperance laws, 300, 304. 
 
 Territorial government, vote on 
 changing, 198 ; changes made, 200, 
 201. 
 
 Thompson, O. C., 317. 
 
 Thurlow, Lord, 84. 
 
 Toledo war, 218. 
 
 Tontagini, Chief, 313. 
 
 Tonty, 19. 
 
 Trade, Indian, rivalry for, 4 ; monopo- 
 lies in, 4-8, 21, 26 ; intermeddling 
 with, 73. 
 
 Traders, Indian, 21, 50-53, 71, 87. 
 
 Turnbull, Captain, 74. 
 
 Union and State in 1837, 226-231; 
 
 since the civil war, 344-371. 
 University of Michigan, 310-339. 
 
 Van Home's defeat, 173. 
 Van Raalte, Albertus C., 297. 
 Vaudreuil, 29. 40, 44. 
 Venango, Fort, 56, 60 
 Vincennes, 96-98. 
 Voltaire, 45. 
 Voyageurs, 45, 81. 
 
 War of 1812, 163. 
 
 Washington, George, 37, 115. 
 
 Water highways, 368, 369. 
 
 Wayne, General, 115-119. 
 
 Wild-cat banking, 267-278. 
 
 Winchester, General, 181-183. 
 
 Wing, Austin E., 200. 
 
 Wisner, Moses, 305, 339. 
 
 Woodbridge, William, territorial sec- 
 retary, 190; delegate in Congress, 
 199 ; acting governor, 205 ; removed 
 as judge, 210 ; governor of state, 
 274. 
 
 Woodward, Judge, 136, 149, 180, 258. 
 
 Wool in Michigan, 364, 367.
 
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