USA > Michigan > A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I > Part 12
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But a small settlement existed at Michilimackinac, which was made up almost wholly, aside from the small garrison, of the traders and coureurs des bois, and they were of the character to be expected, con- sidering the environment from which they came and the lack of re- straint with which they were surrounded. While among them were to be found men who had come from refined and educated families, in- cluding in some instances those from families high in royal favor, they were for the most part of a far different cast, as, for instance, such as those heretofore spoken of who had at an early day been gath-
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ered from the prisons of France, brought to New France for a private colonizing purpose and, meeting with adverse conditions, had been compelled to subsist on an island in a wild state for a term of years, and were then given a measure of relief by being assisted by the French government to engage in the Canadian fur trade. Such an element could not be expected to maintain a very high standard of morality and decency, and it is probable that in the colony at Michili- mackinac this element furnished a larger percentage of representatives than in that at Detroit, where a feeble attempt at permanent coloniza- tion and cultivation of the soil was being made.
So far as white population and real civilization were concerned, Michigan really was but an insignificant quantity at the time the col- onies of the east declared their independence. Although Michilimack- inac had been third in the permanent settlements within the present territory of the United States, being ranked in priority only by St. Augustine and Jamestown, her early settlers gave their attention to the attempted Christianizing of the savages and to the commercialism of the fur trade, making practically no effort at colonization except as an incident to one or the other of those objects.
This territory was in English control and was the scene of English activity during the Revolutionary struggle, and while Cornwallis was engaging the colonial forces in Virginia, General Haldimand was bus- ily fitting out an expedition which was sent forward from Detroit. This was made up of regulars under Captain Bird, of the Detroit militia, under Joncaire, and a large body of Indians, also under Cap- tain Bird. The savage excesses of the Indians in the scalping of the settlers were too much even for their military associates, and after terrible experiences of that nature in Kentucky Captain Bird con- cluded to return to Detroit, but not, however, until the acts of the In- dians had so exasperated the Kentuckians that they determined to cut off the retreat, which they did, and in the doing of this they succeeded in scattering the Indian forces.
Captain Sinclair succeeded De Peyster, at Michilimackinac and he was made lieutenant governor and also superintendent of Indian affairs for the province. It was on his arrival, in 1779, that the post was transferred from the south side of the strait to the island. With- out waiting for authority from Governor Haldimand, he built the new fort on the island, but his report thereof was approved by that officer against the protests of residents of the settlement. At his re- quest the name of Michilimackinac was retained and the post was called "Fort Mackinac."
Thus concluded the history of old Fort Mackinac, and thereafter the locality is withdrawn as an important agent in the making of the history of Northern Michigan.
NORTHERN MICHIGAN BECOMES AMERICAN SOIL
During the entire period of the American Revolution the posts of Michilimackinac and Detroit were occupied by British garrisons, and, although the treaty of Paris of 1783, which terminated the war, pro-
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vided for their surrender to the United States, Great Britain retained possession of them until July, 1796, when Michigan became in reality, for the first time, an American possession.
But by treaty and the extension of civil government the area of the present Michigan was American soil and included in the vast "ter- ritory northwest of the Ohio river" nearly a decade before it was formally relinquished by the British. After the Americans gained actual possession of the territory, the Lower Peninsula formed the single county of Wayne in the Northwest territory and was entitled to one representative in the territorial legislature.
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CHAPTER IV CIVIL GOVERNMENT FOUNDED
ORDINANCE OF 1787 -- NORTHWEST TERRITORY DISMEMBERED-SLAVERY IN MICHIGAN-FOUNDING OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT-STATUS OF LAND TITLES-ERECTION OF FIRST COUNTIES-TABULAR HISTORY OF COUN- TIES-SOURCES OF NAMES-BASIS OF STATE GOVERNMENT-IDENTI- FIED WITH STATE GOVERNMENT-SERVED IN THE LEGISLATURE.
As has been stated, although the ordinance creating the Northwest territory was passed by congress in 1787, the retention of Michigan posts by the British until 1796 made the latter year the practical be- ginning of the American territorial period. This great civil instru- ment contains six articles of compact between the original states and the people and of the territory to be carved into commonwealths of the Union, and it provides that these articles shall forever remain un- alterable except by common consent. As organized by that ordinance, the Northwest territory included what are now the states of Ohio, In- diana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, and that part of Minnesota east of the Mississippi river.
ORDINANCE OF 1787
The following interesting and broad epitome of the establishment of civil government in Michigan is taken from Alvah H. Sawyer's "History of the Northern Peninsula:" "Prior to that (the passage of the 1787 ordinance), this territory, following the signing of the treaty, was nominally controlled by the Jefferson ordinance of 1784. which provided the first American government for this territory and by which Jefferson attempted to abolish slavery in the United States north of the Florida line. Up to 1784, there were no United States surveys of western lands and therefore no lawful western settlers. ex- cept on old French or British grants, and grants to the attaches of military posts. In 1785 an ordinance was passed by congress provid- ing for surveying lands into townships six miles square, and for sub- dividing these into sections one mile square, and for their sale by sections and lots; and this ordinance provided for the reservation of section sixteen in each township for school purposes. This opened up a way and offered an inducement to settlers, for now titles could be acquired that could be relied upon.
"The Northwest territory ordinance of 1787, which was passed by
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congress after a vast amount of consideration, involving heated debates on important points and principles, was considered by many as one of the greatest achievements ever attained in the way of government. Of it so a great a constitutional writer as Justice Cooley said: 'No charter of government in the history of any people has so completely stood the tests of time and experience.' While the ordinance provided a model temporary government of the great territory, its greatest value was found in the enduring principles provided by it to be engrafted into the government of the states to be erected therefrom.
"It provided :
"1. For religious liberty.
"2. The right of habeas corpus, trial by jury, proportionate rep- resentation, inviolability of private contracts, etc.
"3. 'Religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.'
"4. That navigable waters are to remain free public highways.
"Shortly thereafter, these principles, that gave to the ordinance re- ferred to references as 'immortal,' were embodied in the constitution of the United States, and have become the vital part of our supreme law. "Following the revolution, as the westward journey of the 'star of the empire' was again taken up, the movement to Ohio was forwarded by the Ohio Company of Associates, organized in 1786, on call of Gen- eral Rufus Putnam and General Benjamin Tupper, after they had made an exploratory trip into that country, but not until the summer of 1787 were they able to secure the action of congress, organizing the territory and providing for the sale of government lands. The general agent of the company, also largely instrumental in its organization and in the drafting and passage of the ordinance of 1787, was Manasseh Cutler, of Connecticut. In 1788 the first delegation from the Associates, under Mr. Cutler, reached Ohio and founded Marietta; though numerous 'squatters' had preceded them and settled in advance of the govern- ment survey. Eevrything in the way of settlement was haphazard until the coming of the Ohio Company, which took up and forwarded the or- ganization of a regular government.
"General Arthur St. Clair, governor of the territory, with other ap- pointed officers, arrived at Marietta, Ohio, in July, 1788, and there on the 17th of that month, with due ceremony proclaimed the first civil government of the United States over the territory now within the state of Michigan. Up to that time this territory had been controlled by the French and English under military rule administered from the centers at Detroit and Michilimackinac.
"Before any headway could be made with the government land sur- veys and the sales of government lands, it became necessary to acquire in some way the claims of the Indians to those lands; and for that pur- pose a commission had been appointed in 1784. This commission treated with numerous individual tribes, but ignored the northwestern confed- eracy, and the confederacy in turn ignored the various treaties with the individual tribes; so that really nothing was accomplished toward the desired end for some two years or more, during which time the Indians
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became restless, and, through their confederacy, they communicated their grievances to congress, in December, 1786, by means of a docu- ment supposed to have been prepared by Joseph Brant, in which it was said :
"'We think the mischief and confusion which has followed is ow- ing to your having managed everything respecting us in your own way. You kindled your council fires where you thought proper without con- sulting us, at which you held separate treaties, and have entirely neglected our plan of having a general conference. . . Let us have a treaty with you early in the spring. We say let us meet half way, and let us pursue such steps as become upright and honest men. We beg that you will prevent your surveyors and other people from coming on our side of the Ohio river.' This address was unheeded, as Governor St. Clair considered the confederacy of the tribes was not enduring, and he believed it best to continue negotiating with the individual tribes, but his mistake became apparent later, November 4, 1791, at 'St. Clair's defeat' on the Wabash.
"Hostilities continued until finally the treaty of Greenville was signed August 3, 1795, following the defeat of the confederated tribes by the forces of General Anthony Wayne a year previous. Among the numerous tribes of this confederacy which joined in this treaty of Greenville were the Ottawas and Chippewas, from this section of the territory. When General Wayne, in the summer of 1794, was, with his force of twenty-six hundred well drilled soldiers and one thousand mounted Kentuckians, pressing hard upon the centers of the confed- eration, he made another effort to carry out Washington's desire to secure peace and avoid war, and he sent a message to the chiefs offer- ing the terms of the Muskingum treaty as a basis of lasting peace. This was refused, and the refusal is attributed to the fact that the Indians were influenced by the English who were still holding posses- sion of the territory, and by their assurances of superior strength, with which they had been infused by their victory over Governor St. Clair.
"The belief that the English were aiding and abetting the Indians in their fight against the United States finds further basis in the fact that the Indians, on rejecting the proffered peace, retired to the Eng- lish Fort Miami, which had been constructed by Governor Simcoe, in 1794, long after the English had ceded their rights in this territory to the United States. When General Wayne, on the 20th of August, 1794, advanced to within one mile of Fort Miami the confederated tribes were prepared to meet him, strongly barricaded by fallen trees. The Indians were soon routed, many slain, and the others scattered, and the English fort came into possession of the Americans.
"Major Campbell, who was in charge of the garrison at Detroit, protested against the possession of the British fort by General Wayne, but met with a sharp defiance and was reminded that the British were occupying American soil, and had built the fort thereon since the sign- ing of the treaty. The decisive victory of General Wayne, which was at least in part on Michigan soil, and was participated in by Ottawas and Chippewas from Michilimackinac and Sault Ste. Marie, was im- Vol. I-6.
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portant in many ways, and had unquestionable influence in the results that soon followed, including Jay's treaty, in November of that year, and the treaty of Greenville in August of the following year, followed by the evacuation of Michigan territory by the British pursuant to the terms of Jay's treaty. It also put an end to the terrible Indian warfare that had continued throughout the territory, and thus opened up to settlement a large region of fertile lands, over which there started that ever-increasing horde of western emigrants that pushed forward to the west, and upon tangents to the northward, with the final result we now perceive; the entire Northwest territory divided into and mak- ing up five of the most prominent states of the Union, and a consider- able contribution to another like prominent state."
In 1798 the Northwest territory became entitled to elect a territorial council with representatives of the various districts of the territory. The district of Wayne included the Lower Peninsula and parts of Ohio and Indiana, and was entitled to one representative in the coun- cil. Consequently, in December of that year, an election for the dis- trict of Wayne was held in Detroit, at which James May of that city is supposed to have been chosen as such representative, and the people of that section were given their first opportunity of exercising the glorious privilege of the elective franchise. No record of the election can be found and it is supposed to have been considered void, for a new election was held in January following. The representatives met at Cincinnati, February 4, 1799, and chose ten freeholders to consti- tute the territorial council, the first legislative council in which the people of any part of Michigan were represented.
The ordinance organizing the Northwest territory provides, that "As soon as a legislature shall be formed in the district the council and house, assembled in one room, shall have authority, by joint ballot, to elect a delegate to congress." Pursuant to this provision, William Henry Harrison was, in 1799, elected the first delegate to congress to represent the Northwest territory, and in March, 1800, he was appointed chairman of a committee of congress on the division of the Northwest territory. As the result, the territory was divided into two districts by a line running from the mouth of the Kentucky river north to the Canadian boundary, the western part being called "Indiana territory" and the eastern part "Territory Northwest of the River Ohio," the boundary line dividing what is now Michigan, into two parts. Har- rison was appointed governor of Indiana territory and also Indian agent, and held the office until his appointment, in 1813, as major gen- eral in the American army.
NORTHWEST TERRITORY DISMEMBERED
The territory was dismembered by the formation of the state of Ohio, by act of congress passed April 30, 1802, and thereupon what is now Michigan became part of the territory of Indiana. Thus was blotted from history the name "Territory Northwest of the River Ohio."
Nothing of importance to Michigan. history occurred during the brief union with Indiana except the passage of a congressional act, in
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1804, "providing for the disposal of the public lands within the ter- ritory to which the Indian title had been extinguished. By this act section 16 in each township was reserved for the use of schools within the same, and an entire township was to be located in each of the dis- tricts afterward forming Michigan, Indiana and Illinois for a seminary of learning. This was the germ of the university fund in Michigan and of the primary school fund."
SLAVERY IN MICHIGAN
The ordinance of 1787 had provided that "there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."
Under both French and English rule there had been a few slaves in Michigan. Some were brought in, but most of them were Indians purchased from the savages who had captured and held them as house- hold servants. Under Jay's treaty the right of ownership in both these classes was held to be good. There is no record to show the num- ber, but it is probable that there were a few of these Indian slaves in the region of the straits, both on the island of Mackinac and on the southern mainland. In fact, in some of the writings of the early Jesuits references are made to the slaves held by the Indians of that region. None were returned in the census of 1800, when Wayne county was attached to the territory of Ohio. In 1810 the county comprised the entire territory of Michigan and was divided into four civil dis- tricts. Twenty-four slaves were returned by that census, of whom seventeen were in the civil district of Detroit, four in Erie, two in Huron and one in Mackinaw. In 1820 no slaves were returned, and in 1830, thirty-two were enumerated. Of these all but one were from the territory now forming a part of Wisconsin. One slave was returned from Oakland county, a female between the age of fourteen and twenty- four. With the census of 1830 ended the slavery records of Mich- igan, which, furthermore, mostly concerns the Detroit district and has little to do with Northern Michigan.
FOUNDING OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT
On January 11, 1805, congress passed an act for the organization of Michigan territory, and on March 1st, President Jefferson appointed General William Hull its governor and Indian agent. The governor and other territorial officers arrived at Detroit on the 12th of June, that year, only to find that the capital (which had been but a two-acre town of little houses surrounded by a palisade of strong pickets) had been destroyed by fire. When they took the oath of office on the second Tues- day in July some of the houses had been erected on the old site.
Despite this unfavorable outlook for the territorial government, "a judicial system was established and the territorial militia was disciplined and brought into the field. The attention of congress was also called to the land claims which were made by the settlers, founded on occu-
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pancy, or grants under the French and English governments. On October 10, 1805, a report was made of the affairs of the territory and forwarded to congress, and in May, 1806, the first code of laws was adopted and published for the territory, called the Woodward code after Augustus B. Woodward, one of the judges. The code was signed by Governor Hull and Augustus B. Woodward and Frederick Bates, judges, by which a civil government for the territory covered by the present state of Michigan was at length established, and military rule, whether by French, British or American commandants, forever abol- ished in times of peace.
As stated, prior to the organization of the territory what is now Michigan had been included in Wayne county of the Northwest ter- ritory, which boasted a crude "court of common pleas," with head- quarters at Detroit. This court was continued when the territory of Michigan was created in 1805.
STATUS OF LAND TITLES
It was not until 1806 that congress began in earnest to consider the status of land titles in Michigan. In that year Judge Woodward made a report to the secretary of the treasury which was laid before con-
LEWIS CASS
gress in which he stated that the total amount of land in cultivation did not exceed 150,000 acres, or a little more than six townships. He described the farms as from two to four acres front on the river, the houses about twenty-five rods apart, and the people "honest beyond comparison, generous, hospitable and polished." He reported in all 422 farms, with dates of settlement running from 1763 to 1801. Nearly
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all were held on French claims, bordered on rivers, with from two to five acres frontage and forty acres depth (a French acre was about four- fifths of an American acre). As appeared from the report made by the register of the land office at Detroit in December, 1806, only six of these farms embracing less than 4,000 acres had valid titles.
The appointment of Lewis Cass as civil governor of Michigan in 1813 was the commencement of a stable order of things in the matter of land titles, as of all else, and marked the starting point of the sub- stantial development of Michigan. Under him the government acquired by various treaties all lands south of Grand river to the headwaters of Thunder Bay river, as well as such as were required to make the post at Fort Mackinac safe against Indian attacks, thus safeguarding the interests of traders and settlers in Northern Michigan.
Great Britain possessed Michigan from the time of Hull's surrender in August, 1812, until Perry's naval victory of September, 1813, and the Americans reentered Detroit on the 29th of that month. Lewis Cass was appointed civil governor of Michigan territory October 9, 1813, but Fort Mackinac was not evacuated by the British forces until the spring of 1815.
The survey of public lands was begun in 1816 and two years later had progressed sufficiently to permit the authorities to begin the sale. With the settlement of the interior, which practically began in 1818, came substantial growth and prosperity to the southern part of the Lower Peninsula which gradually extended northward.
ERECTION OF FIRST COUNTIES
Until 1817 there had been but one county organization-that of Wayne. In that year Monroe, the second county in the territory was established, and named in honor of the president who was then expected, and who, in August of that year, visited the territory, accompanied by a number of distinguished civil and military officials. It was in this same year that the University of Michigan was created, and primary schools were established at Detroit, Monroe and Mackinaw.
In January, 1818, Macomb county was established, as the third county of the state, and it was followed in October of that year by the organizing of Michilimackinac, Brown and Crawford counties. Mich- ilimackinac included the whole of the Upper Peninsula and a part of what is now Wisconsin, and was therefore the fourth Michigan county organized. It had its seat at Michilimackinac. Brown county included the eastern part of the present state of Wisconsin, with seat at Green Bay; and Crawford county included the western part of the present state of Wisconsin, with seat at Prairie du Chien.
Soon after General Cass became governor of Michigan, in 1813, he issued a proclamation erecting the county of Michilimackinac, of which Mackinac (on the island) became the county seat. This county was bounded by the Cheboygan river on the east, by the Manistee river on the south, west by the Manistique and north by Canada; so that it included substantially the northwestern section of the area covered by this history, as well as the eastern half of the Upper Peninsula. The
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center of the fur trade had long been transferred to the Island of Macki- nac and its activities to the country north of the straits, and for several years after the accession of Cass to the gubernatorial chair the traders clamored for some legal means by which disputes among themselves and with the Indians might be legally settled. It is true the laws of the territory provided a system of county courts, and Mackinac county maintained such a court after its organization. This court was, how- ever, presided over by a layman, and naturally slight realization of legal remedies resulted. It was an expensive proposition to resort from various parts of the county to Mackinac, with witnesses to a legal con- troversy, and this fact, together with the questionable chance of get- ting justice at trial, caused many grievances to be overlooked, or to be fought out in the open arena of their origin, where the question of right became one solely of might. True there was an appeal from the county court to the supreme court at Detroit, and on appeal in those times, the case could be tried by jury ; but it was an expensive proposi- tion to the people of this then remote region; and this was not all-the supreme court had its session in Detroit once a year, and that in the very last of September, so that navigation to the northward was very likely to be closed against the vessels of those days, before the litigants could return after the trial was over.
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