USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 18
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and a perpetual lease of the Toledo and Adrian line was obtained. Another line was built from Monroe to Adrian with the idea of making the road a connecting link between the two most southerly Michigan ports-Monroe, on Lake Erie, and New Buffalo, on Lake Michi- gan. After spending about one million dollars on the construction of the line the state debt became burdensome and, the credit of the commonwealth being at a very low ebb, the road was sold in 1846 to a corporation for five hundred thousand dollars. The purchasing com- pany concluded to make the western terminus at Chicago, instead of at New Buffalo or some other Michigan port."
As the people of Detroit and of Michigan generally were anxious to promote in every way the interests of the new railroads the companies entering Detroit were granted every privilege. The Pontiac line was allowed to run its cars down Dequindre street and the Gra- tiot road to a station situated near the present site of the Detroit Opera House, while the Michigan Central Company was granted the use of the Chicago road, Michigan avenue, and a station site on the southeast corner of Michigan avenue and Griswold street, on the present city hall site. The Pontiac company, however, made itself objectionable to Gratiot avenue property owners by neglecting to make passabe that part of Gratiot not occupied by its tracks. After several orders of the council directing the company to remedy the evil had been ig- nored, the citizens took the matter into their own hands and initiated a series of night attacks in which the company's track was torn up. Guards and the arrest of the belligerent citizens brought the company no relief. Finally ground on the river front was purchased and the line was extended across Jefferson avenue to the Brush street station, which was first used in 1852.
Prior to 1855 a company had been incorporated for the purpose of building a railroad from Pontiac to a point on Lake Michigan. This was called the Oakland and Ottawa line. Early in the above year the legislature granted authority for the combination of the Detroit and Pontiac line with the Oakland and Ottawa road, the two properties to be known as the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad. Grand Haven was selected as the objective point on Lake Michigan and in 1858 the line was completed to that place, passing Owosso and Ionia. In the following year two transports were put into operation between Grand Haven and Milwau- kee, thus opening through transportation between Detroit and the latter city. Both parties to the consolidation were heavily involved financially at the time the combination was effected and as a result of the non-payment of mortgages given for construction the entire property was later sold to the Great Western Railroad Company which was in turn subsequently ab- sorbed by the Grand Trunk.
In the meantime the Michigan Central had been steadily pushing its rails westward. An elaborate entertainment was given Governor Mason and a party of distinguished guests from Detroit on the occasion of their excursion to Ypsilanti when the first train was run from Detroit to that place, in February, 1838. In the fall of the following year a second excursion and celebration marked the arrival of the rails at Ann Arbor. At this time the Detroit terminal was extended down Woodward avenue from the Campus Martius towards the river and sidings were laid for the accommodation of merchants between the latter thoroughfare and Brush street. This track was later abandoned, however, and in 1848 Mich- igan Central cars ran into a station that stood on the site of the present Third street depot. In 1846 the track had been completed as far west as Kalamazoo, from which place a line of stages carried passengers to New Buffalo. From there the trip to Chicago, the objective point for all western traffic, was completed by steamer.
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The whole state was anxious for the completion of the line as far as the Lake Michigan shore and great satisfaction was voiced upon the publication of the following notice under date of April 25, 1846, by the president of the board of internal improvements: The pas- senger train will, after the Ist of June next, leave Detroit for the west at 8 o'clock a. m., arriving at Marshall at 3:30 p. m. They leave Marshall at precisely 9:30 a. m., arriving at Detroit at 5 p. m. There is at the western terminus a line of coaches always ready to carry passengers to St. Joseph-ninety miles in twenty-two hours. From St. Joseph to Chicago by steamboat-sixty-nine miles in six hours. This was thirty-six hours from Detroit to Chicago, and for thus being whirled across the state the traveler was assessed six dollars and fifty cents.
Though the operation of the Michigan Central had shown a steadily increasing profit from its first year, the financial straits into which the state was now thrown as a result of its attempts at rapid development necessitated the realization of at least a portion of the public funds so invested. It was therefore decided to sell the road. After failing to negotiate a sale at Albany, which would make possible the cancellation of part of the millions of dollars in state bonds then outstanding, the attorney general, H. N. Walker, and George F. Porter organized a purchasing company in New York. This corporation took over the road Septem- ber 23, 1846. For the agreed price of two million dollars the state transferred a going prop- erty that had cost it within forty-five thousand dollars of that amount.
The new company, which had found a special charter from the legislature awaiting its formation, promptly placed in operation a line of steamers between Detroit and Buffalo, thus forming an eastern connection; at the same time the promoters hastened forward the western extension of the line. State-wide interest now centered in the race for the Lake Michigan shore between the Michigan Central and the Michigan Southern, the state's inter- est in which was also sold in 1846. The Michigan Central's steel was laid to New Buffalo, the western terminus under that company's charter, in the spring of 1849. The Southern was pushing on toward Chicago, the goal toward which both companies were striving. The public protest against the extension of either line into Illinois made necessary the resort to some strategy to reach beyond the charter limitations. The Central acquired stock in and eventually leased an Indiana road beyond New Buffalo and effected traffic agreements with the Illinois Central whereby the Michigan Central gained entrance to Chicago. The South- ern also completed traffic arrangements with an Indiana road, thus covering its Chicago en- trance, but so active had been the Central management that that road was enabled to send its trains into Chicago May 21, 1852, one day in advance of the Southern.
The Great Western Railroad, originally chartered in 1834, was the first line to complete an all-rail connection with the east. This line was projected to run between Hamilton, On- tario, and Niagara, but found an active rival in the Detroit & Niagara, which was chartered two years later. The Michigan Central, seeking an eastern feeder, interested itself in the Great Western, however, and soon after the expiration of the charter of the Detroit & Nia- gara, invested between one hundred and fifty and two hundred thousand dollars in the com- pletion of the Great Western. Nearly four thousand five hundred dollars were spent by the city of Detroit in celebrating the arrival at Windsor of the first train from the east, January 17, 1854. A public dinner was given, whistles were blown, guns were fired and the citizens paraded, the whole community taking part in the general jubilee. Until 1867 passengers and freight were transferred from the Canadian side, and vice versa, by ferry, but in that year through trains began running between Chicago and the east, via the New York Central the Canadian line and the Michigan Central.
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The climax of what was known as the railroad conspiracy occurred in 1851. Though the people had welcomed the railroads and had originally supported liberally every trans- portation project furthered by the state, a reversion of feeling soon followed the acquire- ment of the properties by foreign investors. This was particularly true in the case of the Michigan Central. Disputes over settlements for damages brought many farmers living along this line into bitter enmity with the company. Upon their failure to secure, through peaceful means, redress for losses, the farmers prosecuted what was at first a mild system of annoyance. Growing bolder, some of the more lawless began derailing trains, tearing up and blockading tracks and destroying railroad property. Growing still bolder, the malcon- tents burned the road's freight station at Detroit, inflicting on the company a loss of nearly one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The fire took place in November, 1850, but not until six months later were the railroad's representatives able to gather sufficient evidence to justify arrests. In April, 1851, thirty-eight suspects, many of them well-to-do men, were confined in the Wayne county jail to await trial, which began toward the last of the following month. Though twelve men were sentenced as conspirators, the railroad company's prop- erty was not safe from further vengeance, the Detroit car shops being burned in 1851 and the Detroit passenger station being laid in ashes by incendiaries three years later.
During the year 1838 Detroit was kept in a furor of partially suppressed excitement by the occurrence of the "Patriot war" in Canada. This was the result of the rebellion of a large portion of the Canadian citizens against the high-handed practices of those who pleased to consider themselves the aristocracy. The latter party controlled the upper house of par- liament and made the commons subservient in so galling a way as to bring about open hos- tility and bloodshed. In Michigan, as in the other border states along the Canadian frontier between Detroit and Niagara, much sympathy was manifest for the Patriots. In several instances this materialized in the form of assistance to the rebels on the part of American citizens, and even participation in expeditions against the Canadian government. Though constant endeavor was made by the authorities to maintain a strict observance of the neu- trality laws, Detroit became a hotbed of Patriot supporters.
Though the spirit of rebellion had been smouldering in Canada for many years, the first overt act of importance was the fortification of Navy island, in the Niagara river. Supplies for the island were shipped aboard the steamer "Caroline," at Buffalo, by the rebels and several trips were made between the states and the armed fortification. As the good wishes of the Americans began to take the shape of arms for the rebels, President Martin Van Buren issued a proclamation of warning against such assistance and sent General Scott to the frontier to preserve the peace. Finally the British sent a party aboard the "Caroline," on December 29, 1837, to whom the vessel was obliged to surrender after a short fight. The entire crew was captured and the vessel was burned. The arrival of Canadian refugees at Detroit further stimulated the sympathies of many of the citizens and three days after the capture of the "Caroline" a mass meeting was held in a Detroit theater. At this assembly a popular subscription was started to raise funds for the Patriot cause. Plans were promptly laid for the capture of Malden, many of the wilder spirits along the border joining the rebels in an enterprise which sought the rendezvous of a force at Gibraltar for the attack. The better class in Detroit realized fully the magnitude of such a breach of neutrality and proceeded to block any attempt to carry supplies across the river from Michigan. The first step was the secretion of several stands of arms in the Detroit jail, where it was thought they would be safe from seizure. But on January 5th the jail entrance was rushed and the guns were forcibly taken. Provisions were hastily gathered by the adventurers and these
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together with the arms and ammunition were placed aboard the ship "Ann," which was seized for the expedition. Evading both the English and American authorities, the "Ann's" party proceeded to Gibraltar, the agreed rendezvous, and was there joined by a small force under T. J. Sutherland, who assumed command. Sutherland led the Canadian militia who opposed him a fox and goose chase among the islands of the lower river and finally landed at Fighting island, only after his attempt to take Bois Blanc had been frustrated. The "Ann" was soon captured, whereupon the rebels retired to Gibraltar. Beside keeping beyond reach of the British, Sutherland evaded an expedition led against him by Governor Mason, who sought to retake the filched arms. So rapidly had the residents of Detroit become infected with Patriot sympathy that the officials were for a time in doubt as to the city's general attitude with reference to observing a careful neutrality. Only after a mass meeting held in the city hall had been addressed by several of the more conservative were the governor and mayor assured of the support of the community. A few days prior to this meeting the government arsenal at Dearborn had been broken open and a considerable quantity of arms carried off. These, however, were found hidden in Detroit. Provisions were also stolen in several instances and attempts were made to seize ships lying at their moorings in the river. The arrival of General Scott, who came to Detroit to personally superintend the policing of the frontier in this vicinity, temporarily checked such attempts.
Though Governor Mason induced the Patriots assembled at Gibraltar to disperse, they immediately reassembled and retook their position on Fighting island. There they were attacked February 25th by the British, who were equipped with artillery. The rebels were soon dislodged and forced to seek refuge on the American shore, where they were met and disarmed by American troops. Desultory skirmishing was kept up along the river throughout the spring and summer of 1838, in spite of the watchfulness of the American officials, who were charged in Canada with favoring the Patriot cause. Not until early in December was the backbone of the local struggle broken. On that date a detachment of nearly two hundred rebels crossed the river from Detroit, landing above Windsor. Proceeding down stream the invaders burned barracks at that place, several loyal troops losing their lives in the fire. While the attack on the barracks was in progress reinforcements of British regulars were marching to Windsor from Sandwich and Malden. Before such troops the thin line of the rebel forces quickly melted, disaster, death and capture attending an attempt to retreat in small boats to Belle Isle.
Though ugly charges were made by the hotheads in both the States and Canada, the British and American forces co-operated effectively and harmoniously throughout the entire trouble. Happily, good sense prevailed; the counsels of the conservative were heeded and all danger of an international entanglement was avoided.
CHAPTER XVIII
Campaign of 1840-Formation of the Whig Party-Retirement of Governor Mason-Detroit Whigs Erect Log Cabin-Vice-President Johnson Attends Democratic Meeting in Detroit-General Cass Democratic Nominee for President-State Capital Perma- nently Located at Lansing-Constitutional Convention of 1850-Detroit Opposition to Slavery-Arrest of the Blackburns, Fugitive Slaves-The Anti-Slavery Associa- tion-Formation of the Republican Party-The Underground Railroad-Detroit an Important Station-Zachariah Chandler-Plans for John Brown's Raid Completed in Detroit-Bingham Elected Governor of Michigan-Substantial Development in Detroit-Campaign of 1860-The Cloud of Civil War-Attack on Fort Sumter- Patriotic Attitude of Detroit and Michigan-Governor Blair Calls for Volunteers- Regiments Organized-Military Activity in Detroit-Troops Mustered in at Detroit in 1861-2-Michigan Losses in the War-Malcontents Interrupt Patriotic Meeting on Campus Martius-Disgraceful Mob Attack on Detroit Negroes-Attempt to Lib- erate Confederate Prisoners on Johnson's Island-The Plot Frustrated - Precau- tions for the Protection of Detroit-News Received of Lee's Surrender-Tributes to the Martyred President-Work of Michigan Relief Societies During the War- Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument Erected in Detroit.
With the exception of the second Adams administration, the Democratic party had been in power for forty years. But now the malcontents among the Democrats joined with the shattered Federalists to form the Whig party, which brought forth the candidacy of William Henry Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe and the Thames, for the presidency, in opposition to Van Buren's ambition for re-election. In Detroit, as elsewhere, the strong partisan feeling evinced by the supporters of both parties made the campaign one of the most exciting in the history of American politics. In addition to charging Van Buren's administration with responsibility for the financial depression under which the country was struggling, his opponents were loud in decrying his alleged extravagance and mismanage- ment. A similar feeling was evident in Michigan against the state's former idol, Governor Mason, who, under the influence of the popular clamor, was forced to withdraw from public affairs in 1840.
The Democrats hailed Harrison's simple frontier life with derision, ridiculing him by such names as "Log Cabin Candidate," "Hard Cider Campaigner." These terms the Whig leaders were quick to appropriate as the shibboleth of their party. To fully develop the idea, the Detroit Whigs built a real log cabin of generous dimensions, at Jefferson avenue and Randolph street, and in it opened their campaign April 21st. The cabin was head- quarters for a political mass meeting at which campaign oratory, hard cider, baked beans and other frontier delicacies flourished. Richard M. Johnson, who had led the center of attack at the battle of the Thames, was at this time vice-president of the United States. To counteract the enthusiastic support accorded Harrison because of his military record- this support being particularly strong throughout the Northwest-Johnson was invited to be present at a barbecue given in Detroit by the Democrats September 28th. The vice- president accepted and the Detroit Democrats sacrificed their every interest to the rallying of their forces for the celebration; but the response fell far short of equaling the attend-
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ance at the Whig meetings, which truly presaged the subsequent victory of the Harrison- Tyler ticket.
Following the Harrison campaign, the people of Michigan began to take a more active interest in national affairs, and much of this centered very naturally at Detroit. Here, as elsewhere, the principle of state rights, which had been so hotly debated during the Jackson administration, and the division between the northern and southern states, which was even then making itself insidiously felt in relation to the slavery question, were topics for general discussion. In the two ensuing national campaigns, of 1844 and 1848, Lewis Cass was twice a candidate for the presidency. In the campaign of 1844 Cass was defeated for the nomination by James .K. Polk, who was finally elected over Henry Clay, a slave-holder. In the next campaign Cass secured the Democratic nomination, but was defeated by the Whig candidate, Zachariah Taylor.
In 1847 came the state-wide fight over the final location of the state capital. In this struggle Detroit put forth every effort to retain the seat of government, Wayne county and the city co-operating in opposition to the efforts of representatives of nearly every other section of the state, all of which were anxious to secure such a prize. After the committee on location had failed to come to an agreement at several heated sessions, how- ever, the opposition joined forces in support of the selection of a site at Marshall. Still no agreement could be reached. Finally James Seymour presented a compromise, offer- ing a site for the capital buildings at a point in Ingham county, near which he had secured considerable holdings. As a solution of the dispute both the senate and lower house voted to accept the Seymour proposal and the present location at Lansing was thus officially selected.
The rapid growth in population and the experiences through which the state had passed during the days of the fever for internal improvement, now necessitated a further development of the constitution. This was accomplished at what is known as the consti- tutional convention of 1850, which met on June 3d of that year, in the new capital build- ings at Lansing. The work of this convention consisted mainly in formulating additions and amendments to the old constitution of 1835, concerning the judiciary, the salaries of state officials, taxation, the elimination of any interest on the part of the state in corpora- tions, the limitation of state indebtedness (this was placed at fifty thousand dollars, save in case of war) and the right of franchise.
The passage of the famous "Omnibus Bill," the compromise of 1850, in the discussion of which Henry Clay and Daniel Webster bore so memorable a part, roused the people of Detroit to increased opposition against slavery. Though the holding of human beings in bondage had been practiced at Detroit since the time immediately subsequent to the founding of the settlement by Cadillac, the ordinance of 1787, under which the Northwest Territory was created, forbade slavery. During the British occupation, of course, no con- gressional act was in effect. Following the evacuation by the British in 1796, slaves con- tinued to be held under that provision of the Jay treaty which stipulated a strict observ- ance of personal-property rights. Under the law of 1827 it became illegal for any slave to remain within the bounds of the territory and every colored person was obliged to reg- ister himself before a county clerk and to file a five hundred dollar bond. This bond pro- vided for the negro's support in case he became dependent. In 1833 two colored residents of Detroit, one Blackburn and his wife, were arrested and imprisoned in the jail as fugitive slaves. Forty years prior to this time the dominion government had enacted rigorous anti- slavery laws and, as the arrest of the Blackburns threw Detroit's colored population into a
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panic, many negroes at once took refuge in Canada. But a considerable number of blacks remained in Detroit and these participated in a hostile demonstration before the jail. To so high a pitch were the feelings of both the white and black citizens aroused that the sheriff feared to deliver the prisoners for transportation south and both escaped. The woman was assisted to freedom by a ruse and the man was finally liberated and helped into Canada by a mob of blacks who overpowered and wounded the sheriff.
This occurrence awakened public interest in what was known as the Anti-Slavery Society, which had been established as early as 1837. The association included among its members some of the most prominent citizens of Detroit and Michigan, the local society working in conjunction with a state organization which sought absolute abolition. Almost from its inception the society gained strength with remarkable rapidity, but the passage of the "Omnibus Bill" gave it its greatest impetus. Included in this bill was the famous fugi- tive-slave law, which served to postpone an open breach between the north and south by providing for the capture, retention and return of any runaway slave apprehended in any portion of the Union, including its newly made states and territories. Prior to this time slave hunting had been largely a matter of indifference to most northerners, but when regularly appointed officers of the United States began to hound unfortunate refugees from alley to alley in Michigan cities, the compromise law began to assume a vastly different aspect. Many states passed "personal-liberty" laws in opposition to the compromise, but in Michigan a movement of much greater breadth was inaugurated. This was nothing less than the formation of the Republican party,-the party that afterward elected Abraham Lincoln to the presidency of the United States, the party that forced the seceding southern commonwealths to a recognition and an observance of the principles of true Americanism. It was only natural that the abolition motives of the New England states should find ready reflection in those sons of Massachusetts who had come to the northwestern frontier.
In 1850 a repetition of the rioting which followed the arrest of the Blackburns threat- ened to break out in Detroit upon the capture of a fugitive slave named Rose; only the prompt assembling of the militia prevented bloodshed. This further popularized the cause of the Anti-Slavery Society and roused sympathy and support for the promoters of the "Underground Railroad." The "stockholders" in this organization were allied closely with the anti-slavery associations and formed a successful series of rendezvous reaching toward the Ohio river, for the harboring and assistance of escaping negroes en route to Canada. Detroit's location on the border naturally made it one of the centers of Underground inter- est, and Zachariah Chandler, the city's mayor in 1851, was not the least enthusiastic of the system's supporters.
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