USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 9
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With the citizens in general revolt against the prevailing regime, it is not surprising that so delicate a transaction as the distribution of hundreds of lots should be attended with much dissatisfaction on all sides. This, coupled with the postponement of the adop- tion of any definite survey for the new city, proved the last straw. By the time the winter of 1806 had passed without the erection of one new dwelling, the inhabitants were well nigh driven to virulent anarchy.
As provided by the federal enactment, the governor and judges sat in the fall of 1806 as a land board. After due deliberation, which seems to have been devoted to determin- ing the best means of producing revenue, the board decided that only inside lots should be given away, corner lots being reserved for sale. This proposition met with instant disap- proval and within a month an indignation meeting was held by the citizens. Even the most arrogant of the officials was forced to realize the extent of the popular disaffection. Threatening protests bore fruit in the form of an official request for a counter proposal from the inhabitants.
Toward the middle of October such a plan was presented to the officials and was finally adopted. The new arrangement classified the inhabitants at Detroit at the time of the fire as those owning lots, those who occupied houses, and those who lived within the town but who were not possessed of any real property. Governor Hull took it upon himself to per- sonally adjudicate the rights of all claimants and to supervise the distribution of the free lots.
Of this plan Farmer's History of Detroit and Michigan says: "Those persons in the first class who had improved their lots subsequent to the fire were allowed to retain the land occupied or enclosed by them; but as the lots, according to the new plan, were in some instances larger than they had before occupied, they were required to pay from two to three cents per square foot for any excess in size. Towards Christmas the governor by agreement * * located the donation lots; and about New Year every person, male * and female, who lived in the town when it was burned, and whom the governor judged eligible, to the number of two hundred and fifty-one drew their donation lots.
"About three weeks afterward the board came together, and the governor introduced the question 'Whether those who came to Detroit since it was given up to the Americans by the British, who had not taken the oath of allegiance, should receive donation lots,' and delivered a lengthy speech in favor of said class of claimants. Judges Woodward and Griffin also at first inclined to favor giving them lots, but the final decision was against such claimants. About two-thirds of the two hundred and fifty-one persons who had drawn donation lots but a few days previously were by this decision deprived of them. So the farce went on, the people being alternately threatened and cajoled until many of them became almost ready to yield their old holdings and leave the territory.".
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Though the purpose of the congressional act of 1806 was clearly that of alleviating the distressed condition of the people of Detroit, all such intent was defeated by the gov- ernor. The administration decided that the hoi polloi should have no opportunity of acquiring valuable locations. Corner lots and other choice bits of ground were not only sold to certain privileged individuals, but the common citizens were forced to accept inside lots and whatever crumbs the governor was pleased in his generosity to let fall to them.
These acts of presumption on the part of the executives were only equaled by similar acts in which both the legislative and executive rights of the people were clearly usurped. Whenever the executive branch of the government, vested entirely in the governor and judges, found itself embarrassed by any regulation limiting its power, a most convenient transition was made with bewildering swiftness; the same individuals, adjourning tempo- rarily as executives, without leaving their chairs, convened as legislators; any inconvenient law was repealed or repaired as best suited the exigencies of the occasion; the "legislature" adjourned and whatever executive business had been originally before the autocrats was again taken up under more favorable circumstances.
While Judge Woodward's elaborate plans for the fashioning of a magnificent city were still in progress of development in accordance with his aesthetic ideas, Governor Hull decided to carry into execution certain designs of his own. These designs were character- ized by details none the less striking than those of Woodward. Hull decided upon the necessity of an army. By virtue of his office as governor, he was commander-in-chief of militia; and this opportunity for the exercise of authority had been overlooked! In Sep- tember, 1805, directions were given for repairing this oversight. Hull ordered the recruiting of two infantry regiments and one legionary corps. Aides-de-camp, quarter- masters general, colonels, adjutants general, majors, captains, lieutenants, surgeons and chaplains sprang into immediate being. Again the town assumed a martial aspect; from their own resources the populace were required to contribute to the formation of a body of soldiery so equipped as to inspire the country with the grandeur of the governor's ideas. Of the Detroit militia, "Landmarks" says:
"According to his (Hull's) orders, the privates were directed to clothe themselves in long coats of dark blue cloth, the skirts reaching to the knee, and they were to be orna- mented with large white buttons. Their pantaloons were to be of the same material for winter wear and of white duck for summer. The vests were to be of white cloth all the year. Half-boots or gaiters were to be their foot gear, and round black hats, ornamented with a black feather tipped with red, were required for head covering. Officers of the first regiment were to wear similar clothing, to which was added a red cape for the coat, silver straps and epaulettes to designate their rank, and a cocked hat with a white plume. The coats were to be faced with buff. Artillerymen were to have coats turned up with red, and a red cord running down their trousers, and red plumes. Riflemen were to have green uniforms with short coats and the plumes on their hats were to be green. Taken altogether, the uniforms required were better adapted for the clothing of a royal body guard than for the dressing of a backwoods military corps. They were entirely beyond the means of the men who were ordered to purchase them. * * * There was method in the governor's madness. The men were ordered to appear on duty in full uniform after June 1, 1806.
"Before issuing the order Governor Hull had taken the precaution to stock his store with cassimeres, ducks, hats, plumes, silver braid, buttons and epaulettes, and his unforms were planned so as to create a sale for this stock and give him a big profit."
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Of Governor Hull's propensity for so performing his "duty" as to promote at the same time his personal welfare materially, one John Gentle, who wrote extensively of the hap- penings of the times for a Pittsburg paper, reported as follows:
"On the 6th day of June, 1806, the people of Detroit were gratified with the pleas- ing intelligence that Governor Hull had arrived at Fort Malden, where he was received with a royal salute and every royal distinction due to his high merits as a distinguished officer of the United States. The next day he crossed the river to Detroit. * * He brought with him a number of carpenters and bricklayers and a barge of dry-goods, con- sisting of clothes, chiefly blue cassimeres, and a quantity of swords, epaulettes, tinsel ware, etc. So soon as his shop was put in order for business, he issued his general orders, com- manding all the militia in the territory to provide themselves with complete suits of uniform clothing, viz .: blue coats, white small clothes for summer, and blue for winter, black hats and feathers, short boots and gaiters. The chief of the officers complied with his orders, but the soldiers, more from poverty than from contumacy, did not comply. Blue cloth could not be got at that time at any of the stores where the people were accustomed to traffic and they could not command money to purchase their uniforms at the governor's shop."
This inability upon the part of the rank and file to buy proved a severe disappointment to the governor. The extent of his wrath can be imagined when it is remembered that the "legislature" had passed a militia law in 1805, requiring military service from every male resident between the ages of fourteen and fifty years. From a report made by Lieutenant Colonel Philip Chabert de Jonclaire it appears that some six hundred and twenty-five men were liable to such service,-a sufficient number, exclusive of officers, to give promise of generous returns from the governor's store. This bit of profit it seems was too good a thing for a man of the governor's inclinations to let slip, and he accord- ingly sought means of forcing the unwilling ones to contribute.
The most convenient avenue of persuasion lay through the courts, which were con- veniently at the service of the governor, who had but recently districted the territory and appointed several justices. The militia was again ordered to procure uniforms on pain of arrest and imprisonment,-a formidable method of persuasion, considering the fact that two of the justices were officers of militia who had themselves been forced to purchase uniforms.
For those who were incapable of obeying the governor's orders there was no avenue of escape. Many such persons fell victims to the "law" and were clapped into prison, where they seemed quite content to remain.
Notwithstanding the dispatch of petitions of protest to Washington and the expres- sion of dissatisfaction to the territorial officers, a considerable body of uniformed militia was enrolled. Many managed to meet the expense of self-equipment. Inspections were held, training days established and, as Mr. Gentle informs us, "by means of this bare-faced imposition he (Hull) emptied a considerable store of money out of the pockets of the people in a direct line into his own."
During 1806 untoward events connected with America's shipping interests and what were considered to be threatening acts on the part of the western Indians gave rise to additional alarm at Detroit. War rumors were on every tongue. It occurred to the people that an army of fighting men was much more a necessity to the safety of the community than the governor's militia. These "pretty soldiers" had become the laughing stock of all who were not more seriously affected by the governor's orders. No one in the territory
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was aware of any signal ability of the governor as a military commander, and no one had much of confidence in his leadership. Those who foresaw the helplessness of the Ameri- cans in case need for a real leader should arise drew up the following petition :
"From the circumstances of our being on a frontier in a double sense, it is peculiarly necessary to have an officer of judgment and of military science. This gentleman (Hull) has a kind of reputation of that sort, from his having served as a major in the army and from having been a general in the militia; but we have enough to satisfy us here that it is unmerited. We judge from what we see with our own eyes."
Supplementing the above and other petitions addressed to President Madison relative to Hull's actions, the following presentation was made by the citizens at about this time : "In upper Canada African slavery has always existed, and the labor of their slaves is the principal reliance of many families on both sides for subsistence. Mr. Hull has counte- nanced the runaways * * by embodying them into a military company, and supply- ing them with arms from the public stores. He has signed a written instrument appoint- ing a black man to the command of the company. This transaction is extremely dishon- orable to the government on this side of the river; violates the feelings of the opposite side; essentially injures their interests; and eventually injures our own people, by exciting the others to retaliate in the same way."
No one at Washington was inclined to heed these complaints against Hull, it seems, and that officer was allowed to continue the farce of his militia establishment unhindered. Though the matter of the uniforms threatened to bring trouble from the grand jury, the "drills" continued. Reluctant soldiers were dragged from their homes if occasion demanded, and forced into line. In indignation Mr Gentle wrote: "The farmers were commanded to quit their harvest fields and repair to the city, armed and accoutred with pick-axes and shovels, all day, to dig trenches and plant pickets around Brush's farm, adjoining the city, without fee or reward, and to stand guard over their lords and masters during the silent night, with hungry bellies; whilst their families in the country are exposed (if the danger was real) to the scalping knife and their grain to the rot."
So despotic did the governor finally become in the execution of what he termed the militia law, that the executive was brought into an open clash with the secretary of the territory, Stanley Griswold. The secretary was accused of inciting certain militiamen to insubordination and was arrested and tried before Justices May, McDougall and Smythe. Both May and McDougall were militia officers and they accordingly held the secretary to his personal recognizance in the sum of one thousand dollars, though Smythe was loud in dissenting from such a verdict. Shortly after this, Griswold's term of office expired and he left Detroit.
Thus the autocracy was continued. To make its continuance doubly secure, the terri- torial act incorporating the town of Detroit, passed in 1802 by the same body that later was responsible for the appointment of the governor and judges, was, in September, 1806, set aside by these worthies. This superseding act placed the control of local affairs entirely within the hands of the governor, who was by its provisions empowered with the appoint- ment of a mayor. As this latter official was given full powers, and was directly responsible to the governor for appointment and continuance in office, nothing could escape Hull's watchful dictation. Once such an act became effective, the people were powerless despite their indignation. They were allowed to elect an upper and lower town council, to be sure; but this blessing proved itself to be limited by so many restrictions that but one such election was held until the repeal of the act in 1809. During the year following the latter
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date the governor and judges had the effrontery to repeal all the laws of the territorial legislature and thus to continue their absolute supremacy.
Of the act of 1806, Mr. Gentle is quoted as having written: "This summer the legis- lative board passed a law incorporating the town of Detroit into a city. The governor conferred the mayorship upon Solomon Sibley, who advertised the citizens to assemble for the purpose of choosing a first and second council, to consist of three members each. Accordingly the following persons were elected: First council, Stanley Griswold, John Harvey, Peter Desnoyers; second council, Isaac Jones, John Gentle, James Dodemead. A few days after the election Solomon Sibley relinquished his mayorship and Elijah Brush was appointed by the governor mayor of the city in his stead. Some time in the month of December following the governor and judges were committing some depredations upon the streets of the new town, entirely blocking up one, laying it out in lots and disposing of them at an enormous price, to the great damage of the adjoining settlers; and removing another street about fifty feet on purpose to make the bank form the corner of the two streets and enlarge the avenue to the governor's mansion, to the great damage of the principal range of houses in the new town. These flagrant infractions on the rights and privileges of the citizens did not fail to attract the attention of the city council. They assembled to examine for the first time the corporation law and to ascertain the extent of their jurisdiction. But how great was their astonishment when they discovered that the whole of the corporation powers centered in the mayor alone.
"That the election of the councils was a mere mockery and an insult to the understand- ings of the citizens will evidently appear from the following extract from the corporation law itself: 'And be it further enacted that every bill or act having passed by a majority of both chambers before it becomes a law shall be presented to the mayor, and if not approved by him shall not take effect or become a law, but shall be returned with his objections to the chamber in which it last passed,-there to remain (for here it stopped) in statu quo until the day of judgment, without further reconsideration.' But they ought to have added a few more words to the following effect: Who shall enter the objection at large on their jour- nal and proceed to reconsider it, and if after such reconsideration two-thirds of that cham- ber shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other chamber, by which it shall also be reconsidered and if approved by two-thirds of them, it shall become a law, etc. Then the power of the two chambers would be complete and in exact similitude with the power vested in every other body corporate in the Christian world. But as the Detroit corporation act now stands, of which the foregoing extract is the most important part, I defy the most enlightened age to produce anything so ridicu- lously absurd. By it the mayor is clothed with an absolute negative in all cases whatsoever, and by it the two councils are clothed with absolute insignificance. They are, if I may be allowed the expression, a body without guts. Instead of having power to open one street and prevent the removal of another, they have not power to open a hog pen or prevent the removal of a hen roost."
All this, however, was far within the limits of the presumption of the despots. Before Governor Hull took oath of office; before, indeed, he came west to enter upon his duties in Michigan Territory, he conceived the idea of establishing for the suffering tradesmen of the frontier nothing less than a bank "of deposit and exchange." He even went so far, it seems, as to present the matter to certain of his friends in Boston. These persons looked with favor on such an enterprise for the upbuilding of trade in the west. Incidentally, it was conceived that such an institution might prove itself somewhat profitable to its promoters.
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In the spring of 1806, therefore, six Boston financiers asked leave to establish the Bank of Detroit, the pioneer of the city's financial enterprises. It was set forth at the time that the promoters proposed a capitalization of no less than four hundred thousand dollars and, later on, one William Flannigan presented a bond in the sum of fifteen thou- sand dollars for the faithful performance of the duties of cashier, "if the bank is organized."
Evidently agreeable to the satisfaction of the desires of his eastern friends, Governor Hull introduced a bill before the territorial "legislature" providing for the chartering of such a bank. His bill having been conveniently referred to its sponsor by his colleagues, the Bank of Detroit was, after due deliberation, of course, formally incorporated by the act of September 19.
For the subsequent history of this financial stronghold and its relations to the Michi- gan territory and to the world in general, we are again indebted to Mr. John Gentle, who took particular note of the affairs of his times. Mr. Gentle wrote:
"In 1805, a few days after Governor Hull and Judge Woodward arrived, the writer accidentally stepped into the legislative board while the honorable members were deliber- ating on the situation and circumstances of the territory and the measures necessary for its future elevation. Judge Woodward said: 'For my part I have always considered these territorial establishments at best a most wretched system of government. And the measures hitherto pursued by former territorial governments have all proved exceedingly defective. We will, therefore, adopt a system for the government of this new territory that shall be entirely novel.' Governor Hull then observed : 'Before I left Boston I had a very imper- fect idea of this country, but since I arrived I am quite delighted with it. Gentlemen, this is the finest, the richest country in the world, but from its remoteness it is subject to many inconveniences which it behooves us to remove as speedily as possible. And the first object which merits the special attention of this honorable board is the establishment of a bank. Yes, gentlemen, a bank of discount and deposit will be a fine thing for this new territory. Before I left Boston I spoke to several of my friends on this subject and they were quite taken with it and even made me promise to allow them to be connected with it.' A bank, said I to myself, a bank of discount and deposit in Detroit? To discount what? Cabbages and turnips? To deposit what? Pumpkins and potatoes? Thinks I to myself, These folks must either be very wise men, very great fools, or very great rogues. A bank in Detroit, where the trade is all traffic and the bills all payable in produce! A bank in the bosom of the deserts of Michigan! That will be a novelty indeed !
"The following fall Governor Hull and Judge Woodward went down to congress and during the winter and spring they settled the necessary preliminaries with their Boston friends for the establishment of the Detroit bank. Early in the summer of 1806 Gov- ernor Hull returned and about six weeks afterward Mrs. Hull and the rest of the family arrived, escorted by Mr. Flannigan, cashier of the proposed Detroit bank. He brought along some strong iron doors and several tons of bar iron to strengthen the vaults. Mate- rials were soon collected, the governor stopped his works, and all his workmen were employed to expedite the erection of the bank.
"Nothing was done that summer and nothing thought of but the bank. Early in Sep- tember Judge Woodward and Messrs. Parker and Broadstreet, both proprietors in the pro- posed bank, arrived with nineteen thousand dollars in bright guineas of Britain's Isle to pay the first installment of Boston shares in the Detroit bank; and they also brought an immense cargo of bank bills not filled up. The real capital of the Detroit bank is twenty thousand dollars, eight thousand dollars of which has been expended in building the bank
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and in other contingent expenses. The nominal capital is one million dollars, divided into ten thousand shares of one hundred dollars each, eight thousand of which is already engrossed by the people of Boston. Towards the last of September, while the principal inhabitants of the territory were in town attending the supreme court, a subscription of the remaining two thousand shares was opened for a few hours only at Smyth's hotel, by Parker and Broadstreet, who informed us that it was not yet decided what the amount of the first installment would be; but at the same time assured us that it would not be less than twenty-five dollars nor more than fifty dollars per share. Being uninformed of its object, only ten or twelve shares were taken up at this time. We saw no more of the sub- scription until about three weeks afterward. In the interim the legislature met and framed a charter for the bank; also a law making it lawful for Michigan Territory to hold shares in the bank; and empowering Governor Hull to purchase ten shares for the Territory of Michigan with money from the territorial treasury; and also making the Detroit bank notes a lawful tender in all payments wherein the territory was concerned.
"The bank being nearly completed, the subscription was again offered, not publicly as before, but only to a few gentlemen of spirit and enterprise; but the first installment, which only three weeks before was not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than fifty dollars, was now reduced to two dollars per share; and instead of giving every person an oppor- tunity of subscribing, Messrs. Parker and Broadstreet, at one dash, swept off for themselves and friends in Boston the fifteen hundred shares which remained after satisfying their new converts in Detroit. When Parker and Broadstreet opened the subscription at Smyth's hotel they asserted that they did not know what the amount of the first installment would be, but assured us that it would not be less than twenty-five dollars nor more than fifty dollars. They knew then that they asserted a falsehood; for they brought just money enough with them to pay for the Boston installment at the rate of two dollars per share. At the same time they were deceiving the public with fifty dollar installments to prevent a general connection. Meanwhile they were busily engaged in sounding the moral char- acters of certain individuals whose opposition they dreaded, whose support was indispens- ably necessary, and whose virtue, alas, was too flexible to resist the golden allurements of the Detroit mint.
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