USA > Michigan > Cass County > A twentieth century history of Cass County, Michigan > Part 5
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
The appeals of Ohio became so urgent that Congress was willing to consider the matter. Representative Morrow of Ohio proposed a bill confirming the northern boundary as specified in the constitution of his state, and was made chairman of a committee to consider the question. But the bill which passed provided for surveying the boundary as estab- lished by the enabling act of 1802, the ordinance line. Congress had not sufficient knowledge of the country to venture to change the line, and it is probable that the line prescribed in the ordinance of 1787 was re- garded as inviolable. The bill to survey the boundary was passed in 1812, when the government was engaged with hostile Indians and with the war against England, and hence nothing was done for three years, or until 1815, and even then but little was accomplished. Had the survey been made at once, before the disputed strip became more pop- ulous, the question might have been settled; but during the delay the tide of immigration was pouring into the Miami region, and the ques- tion of jurisdiction was becoming more and more important. Again the Ohio authorities urged the survey of the state line, and the president complied with the request and ordered it to be done according to the act of 1812. The survey was made in 1816. The surveyor general of Ohio employed a Mr. Harris to run the line; not, however, according to the president's direction but according to the proviso of the Ohio state constitution, from the southern extreme of Lake Michigan to the north- ernmost cape of Maumee bay. The Harris line is the second of the boundary lines that pertain to our present discussion.
The third soon appeared. On April 19, 1816, Congress passed the enabling act for the admission of Indiana as a state, fixing the northern boundary by a line drawn due east and west "ten miles north of the southern extreme of Lake Michigan." Indiana was required to ratify this boundary, which she did by a duly elected convention which sat at Corydon, June 10 to 19, 1816, and framed a constitution, and she was formally admitted into the Union on December 11th.
Moving the boundary to the north cut off from Michigan a strip ten miles wide and one hundred miles long, which she claimed had been guaranteed her by the ordinance of 1787, and by several other acts of Congress ; but she allowed the act to pass unchallenged at the time, probably because she was engaged in her contention with Ohio, and be- cause the strip thus taken away from her was sparsely settled and little known. To justify depriving Michigan of her territory in this manner it was argued that the ordinance of 1787 expressly stipulated that the
LAKE MICH
LAKE
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MICHIGAN
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LAKE ERIE
HARRIS LINE 1
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- TOLEDO VERS
MAUMEEO
PERRYSBURG
INDIANA
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Pennsylvania line
-
- ORDINANCE LINE
umeeR.
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LINE RELATIVE TO POSITION OF LAKE MICHIGAN AND LAKE ERIE, AND SEAT OF TOLEDO WAR.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
boundaries it laid down would be subject to changes which Congress afterwards might make, and Michigan was only a territory-that Indi- ana needed not only river communication with the south but lake com- munication with the north-that this would facilitate and encourage the building of connecting canals and the influx of settlers by way of the lakes-that the ordinance line of 1787 would deprive Indiana of all this and give all the lake frontage to Michigan; and, moreover, that if shut out from northern waters, then. in case of national disruption, the interests of Indiana would be to join a western or southern confederacy.
This ten-mile strip thus given to Indiana in no way affected the in- terests of Cass county, except from the standpoint of speculative history. When this boundary was decided on, there were no settlers in the region now called Cass county, and few, if any, in all the strip in question. But had Ohio's victory in the contention that the Harris line should form the inter-state boundary also prevailed to establish the northern line of Indiana, it is possible that Cass county might have embraced a quite different area of country from what it does to-day.
As soon as General Cass, governor Michigan Territory, heard that Ohio had surveyed the Harris line, he wrote to the surveyor general of that state, asking why the line was not run due east from the southern extreme of Lake Michigan, and saying that a disputed jurisdiction was one of the greatest of evils, and that the sooner the business was in- vestigated the better. To this General Tiffin of Ohio replied that Harris had found the southern extreme of Lake Michigan to be more than seven miles south of the northernmost cape of Miami (or Maumee) bay, and that he had run the line between the two points. He sent General Cass a map illustrating the two lines, saying that the proper authority should decide which should govern, but for his part he believed that the Harris line was the true one, because it was according to Oliio's proviso, and the state had been received into the Union with that proviso in hier con- stitution.
Hearing of this correspondence, the governor of Ohio sent to his next legislature a message urging that the matter be settled at once, and that body settled it as well as they could by passing a resolution to the effect that Congress liad accepted the proviso in accepting the con- stitution of Ohio, and therefore that the northern boundary of the state was the Harris line. Hearing of this, acting Governor Woodbridge, in the absence of Governor Cass, wrote to the governor of Ohio, assur- ing him that the act was unconstitutional. He also wrote to Jolin
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
Quincy Adams, then secretary of state, and there was some very strong correspondence on the subject, too extensive to include here.
Illinois Territory had been formed in 1809. It included all the country north to the Canadian line; that is, what is now Wisconsin and a part of Minnesota. In 1818 the legislature of Illinois passed a reso- Intion requiring Nathaniel Pope. the delegate in Congress, to present the petition for admission into the Union. The committee to which that pe- tition was referred instructed Pope to prepare a bill for the admission of the new state. On April 18th of the same year. Congress passed an enabling act and provided that Illinois might elect delegates to a conven- tion to frame a state constitution. Illinois elected her delegates in July and they were authorized to meet in convention in August following "and if deemed expedient to form a constitution and state government, the same to be republican in form and not repugnant to the ordinance of 1787, excepting so much thereof as related to the boundaries of the states therein formed." This exception was very important. It seems that the bill for the admission of Illinois had specified the ordinance line as the northern boundary, but this exception permitted Delegate Pope to amend the bill for admission, so that the northern boundary was moved up to where it is now. Thus was the ordinance line ignored against the contention of Michigan, and the northern boundary of Illi- nois moved about sixty miles to the north. This helped to keep the boundary dispute before the people. Michigan's constant contention had been that the ordinance line was the true one, that Congress had no right to change it, and that it should be the lower boundary of the northern tier of states west of Lake Michigan as well as east.
In 18IS the governor and judges of Michigan Territory protested against Ohio's claims to the disputed strip, and also against the right of Congress to give to Indiana a strip lying further west. They knew it was too late to alter the northern boundary of the new state, but they said, "We take this away to preserve the just rights of the people of this territory * * that it may not hereafter be supposed that they have acquiesced in the changes which have been made." They left the final decision to the future, as they said, "when the people of this country can be heard by their own representatives."
The dispute with Ohio was another matter. There the contested strip lay in the most fertile region, near the center of population of Michigan, and the question of possession must continually arise. In 1818 the authorities of Michigan Territory sent to Congress a memorial
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
stating that the line run by Harris was not the one which Congress had ordered marked, but another running several miles further north. They also sent a committee to Washington to press the claims of the terri- tory. In response. President Monroe, under the advice of a house com- mittee, directed that the northern boundary of Ohio be marked according to the provisions of the act of May 20, 1812. Mr. Harris declined to do the work: and so, in 1820, one Fulton was commissioned, who ran the line due east and west from the most southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan. The Fulton line was not a new one, but the old ordi- nance line correctly surveyed. Two years later the president notified Congress tliat the northern boundary of Ohio had been marked according to the law of 1812. The Ohio members complained that the Fulton line had been run not by order of Congress but at the request of General Cass, and asked to have it re-marked according to the Harris survey. The house refused, but neglected to declare the line marked by Fulton to be the true boundary. Thus the matter apparently was as far from being settled as ever.
In 1821 the Ottawa, Chippewa and Pottawottomie Indians ceded to the United States their lands east of the south bend of the St. Joseph river and north of the ordinance or Fulton line, and in 1826 the Potta- wottomies ceded their lands west of the river and north of the same line. This use by the government of the ordinance line as a boundary encouraged Michigan to hope in its stability.
In 1826 there was much excitement over the matter. The Ohio delegation to Congress secured the appointment of a committee to con- sider the expediency of marking the line dividing Ohio from Michigan Territory, this time not claiming that it be done according to their con- stitutional proviso. Probably they were becoming wary. The proposal was not considered, but Michigan was on the alert. In her next council she voted to instruct lier delegate in Congress to prevent any change in the territorial boundary, and announced that she had "acquired absolute vested rights" by the Ordinance of 1787 and the Act of 1805. A little later, in 1827, Michigan organized the township of Port Lawrence in the very heart of the disputed tract without causing any protest from Ohio. The battle for the present was to be fought in Congress.
In 1827 a bill was passed without difficulty providing for the mark- ing of the northern boundary of Indiana. This was the first time it had been surveyed. The line was run by E. P. Hendricks, under the
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
authority of the surveyor general of the United States, and the work was begun in October, 1827.
By 1831 the boundary question began to assume a serious aspect. The Ohio legislature petitioned Congress for a speedy and permanent establishment of the dividing line between that state and the territory of Michigan. Governor Cass was anxious. He sent to the council of the territory a very serious message referring briefly to the attempt of certain counties to separate from the territory, and to the possession by Indiana of a portion of the territory. He advised against urging any claim to the latter, as Indiana was already in possession, and it was better to leave the tract unclaimed until Michigan too should be a member of the tribunal which must decide the question. But with regard to Ohio he urged sending to Congress a memorial which would state the rights and sentiments of the people of the territory. Before referring the matter to Congress, the legislative council authorized Governor Cass to negotiate with the governor of Ohio with a view to a compromise, which he did; but as this was in vain, a memorial was sent to Congress. About the same time the legislature of Ohio memorialized Congress, and for the first time outlined their claims. The result was the passage of an act to provide for the determining of the latitude of the southern end of Lake Michigan and other points, preparatory to an adjustment of the Ohio and Michigan boundary.
The year 1833 marked the beginning of the end, the contest was on and waxed warmer until the people of the two states faced each other in battle array, and both defied the central government as only the se- ceding states have ever dared to do. Both parties were active, there was a sharp and continued contest in Congress; there were memorials and counter memorials.
On the IIth of December, 1833, Michigan made her first formal petition for admission into the Union, which was refused. In 1835 she tried again with the same result. She had more than the requisite number of inhabitants, no one doubted that she should be admitted, but many doubted the right of admission with the boundaries which she so uncompromisingly claimed.
Failing in the second attempt to obtain permission to form them- selves into a state, the people of Michigan determined to go on without permission. In January, 1835, the legislative council called a convention to meet the following May, to "form for themselves a constitution and state government," which they did. Meantime Congress was consider-
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
ing the matter of the disputed line. The senate passed a bill according to the desire of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, which was killed in the house by John Quincy Adams. Indiana and Illinois had turned against Michigan, because her insistence that Congress had no right to disre- gard the fundamental provisions of the Ordinance of 1787 made them fear that their own northern lines might be in danger; since both had been run regardless of the ordinance.
When the people of Michigan heard that the senate had passed a bill according to the views of Ohio, there were rumors of war. Mich- igan declared to Congress that she would submit the question to the supreme court, but until a decision was reached she would resist, "let the attempt be made by whom it may, all efforts to rob her of her soil and trample on her rights." She offered to negotiate with Ohio and Indiana regarding their conflicting claims. Indiana ignored it, and Ohio declined it; but instead the governor of Ohio advised that the counties of the state be extended to a line running from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the most northern cape of Maumee hay. The advice was promptly accepted, the legislature passed an act to that effect, and directed the governor to appoint three commissioners to survey and re- mark the Harris line. The people of the disputed tract desired it. They wished to come under the jurisdiction of Ohio. The Miami canal was in process of construction, from the mouth of the Maumee to Cincin- nati, and the settlers desired to secure the full benefit of it.
Two weeks before this, the council of Michigan had passed an act to prevent the exercise of foreign jurisdiction within the limits of the territory of Michigan. Governor Lucas now sent to acting Governor Mason of Michigan a copy of his message to the Ohio legislature, and the latter issued orders to Brigadier General Joseph W. Brown, of the Mich- igan militia, and prepared to resist Ohio by force. The blood of each party was up, each claimed to be a sovereign state and each resented in- terference hy the national government, though Michigan was willing to await a decision of the supreme court. On the first of April General Brown and a force of volunteers had already encamped at Monroe. just north of the contested strip, and he was now joined by Governor Mason. On April second Governor Lucas and staff. and the commis- sion to re-mark the Harris line, accompanied by General Bell and his troops, arrived at Perrysburg, just south of the contested strip. The election of officers in the disputed strip, under the auspices of Ohio, passed off quietly; the tug of war would come when the officers at-
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
tempted to exercise their functions; then Michigan would begin civil processes against them, and back it up if necessary by force of arms. The rival governors had received notice from President Jackson that he had sent peace commissioners who were on the way. Governor Mason now wrote to Governor Lucas asking him to desist from enforcing the Ohio law until the president's mediators appeared. Lucas did not deign to reply by writing, but sent an oral message saying he had already written to the president a letter which would prevent interference, and that Ohio did not desire the service of mediators.
At this juncture the mediators appeared. Richard Rush, of Phil- adelphia, and Benjamin C. Howard, of Baltimore, had traveled night and day, which meant much in those days, and on April third they arrived in Toledo. They sought by diplomacy to appease the wrath of each gov- ernor, but failed. The men elected under the Ohio act were beginning to assume office, civil processes were issued against them under the Mich- igan act, and General Brown, with his forces, was ready to execute them.
The people of the disputed strip were between two fires, and yet their fortunes were bound up with the government of Ohio. They begged the Ohio authorities to protect them. The commission to survey the boundary line began to run the Harris line, and had proceeded as far west as Tecumseh, where Ohio people say they were attacked, Mich- igan people that they were arrested. Governor Lucas called an extra session of his legislature to increase his army. The peace commissioners proposed that Ohio run her line, and that there be concurrent jurisdic- tion until settlement by the federal judiciary. Lucas consented to both. Mason was willing to let the line be run, but spurned the idea of concur- rent jurisdiction.
At length the Ohio legislature voted to abide by the proposals of the peace commissioners if the United States would compel Michigan to do so; but as a safeguard Ohio passed an act against kidnappers, and appropriated $300,000 to carry out her plans. During the same time the Michigan constitutional convention was in session at Detroit, and de- clared that Ohio might run the line, but no authority on earth save that of the United States should be exercised in the disputed strip. Ohio be- gan to carry out the proposal of concurrent jurisdiction, resulting in renewed preparations for war. On the seventh of September, 1835. the Ohio judges went to hold court at Toledo. Again troops were mus- tered on both sides. But the court was held at midnight, and adjourned
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
just as the Michigan forces came up. The troops were therefore dis- persed : the people on either side, from many considerations, were as willing to follow their leaders to peace as to war. the Toledo war. or the Governor Lucas war, was over, and the dispute was destined to be settled by politicians at Washington.
President Jackson had submitted the boundary dispute to Attorney General Butler, who had decided that the disputed strip belonged to Michigan. John Quincy Adams also, then secretary of state, said, "Never in the course of my life have I known a controversy of which all the right was so clearly on one side and all the power so overwhelmingly on the other, where the temptation was so intense to take the strongest side, and the duty of taking the weakest was so thankless."
But the president was in a difficulty. The following year a presi- dential election would occur, and he desired that Martin Van Buren be the successful candidate. Indiana and Illinois, each of which states of course preferred its more northern boundary, naturally sympathized with Ohio. These three states had a large number of votes. On the other liand Michigan, though having a state government, was only a terri- tory. Again, Arkansas as well as Michigan aspired to statehood, and the administration was anxious to have both admitted in time to vote at the next presidential election, as both were supposed to be Democratic. Moreover, one was a slave state and the other a free state, and if only one were admitted the other would take offense. Clearly the only way to remove all difficulties was to settle the boundary dispute. The de- cision of the attorney general, though seeking to be just to Michigan, pointed out to the president that he might remove Governor Mason, and appoint for Michigan a governor who would not violate the law and yet who would not push matters to violence, until the question could be settled by Congress, an expedient to which the president finally resorted. This occasioned John Quincy Adams to say that the attorney general's decision "was perfumed with the thirty-five electoral votes of Ohio, Indi- ana and Illinois."
Acts for the admission of both states were approved June 15, 1836. Arkansas was admitted unconditionally, but Michigan on condition that she give the disputed strip to Ohio, and receive as compensation the upper peninsula. In a convention at Ann Arbor on the fourth Monday in September, Michigan rejected these conditions by a strong majority. But her senators and representatives were anxious to take their seats in the national Congress, men at Washington feared losing money on lands
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
sold in Michigan, the administration was anxious to have the state ratify the act for her admission, and all these interested parties brought pressure to bear. Arguments in favor of the state's yielding were put in circula- tion and after much shrewd management a popular convention was held at Ann Arbor on December 14th, which assented to the terms of the act of admission. This convention was not duly called, and it acted wholly without the proper authority ; but strange to say, both houses of Con- gress by large majorities passed an act approved January 26, 1837, ac- cepting this convention as meeting the requirements of the case, and so Michigan was admitted into the Union.
But for some years Michigan did not relinquish her claims to her lost tracts of land. In 1838 and again in 1842, the question was brought up in the Michigan legislature, and eminent lawyers were consulted as to her right to the disputed tracts. And it is probable that she would have made a legal test of the question long ago but for the development of the immense wealth of her mines in the upper peninsula, which had been given her as a compensation for what she lost to Ohio. This de- velopment began about the year 1845, and soon convinced her that hier lost strips bore no comparison in value to the rich mining region which she had acquired.
Such are the three boundary lines: first, the ordinance line, the Fulton line, or, as it is also called, the old Indian boundary; second. the Harris line ; and third, the Hendricks' line, which is the present state line between Michigan and Indiana. From the foregoing we may see that the location of the line which now forms the south boundary of Cass county and of the state has been of exceeding great importance in the history of the Northwest, being the occasion of a dispute which lasted for forty-nine years, through twelve administrations, extending over the periods of seven presidents, and which occasioned great contention, em- ploying much of the best talent of the country, engaging many of our strongest characters, and very nearly resulting in a bloody war.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
CHAPTER IV. EARLY SETTLEMENT.
In writing history the events and the personages of the past always fill more of the canvas than is given to the affairs and actors of the period within our ready remembrance. "No one has written a true history of his own generation." Events that are near deceive us because of their very proximity. To obtain their true relation to each other, all objects, historical as well as material, must be viewed "in perspective." We may chronicle events of a recent date, or place in some sort of statistical order the various activities and their representatives; but to do more is to incur the risk of having all such historical judgments set aside in the future.
There is another reason, not based on the historical difficulty just stated, why "first things" should receive a seemingly disproportionate share of our attention. It is to the pioneer generation of every locality that its present inhabitants owe most of the advantages they enjoy. The American youth of to-day enters into the full use of a magnificent heritage that has been won only through the toil and struggle of others. He begins life among luxuries that hardly existed in the wildest dreams of liis ancestors. All the superstructure of civilization, its home and insti- tutional life, rests upon a foundation laid at the cost of tremendous self- sacrifice and effort by generations that have passed or are now passing.
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