USA > Michigan > History of Michigan, civil and topographical, in a compendious form; with a view of the surrounding lakes > Part 21
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overture was soon after made by a few of the older chiefs, who had not been present at the former council ; and at seven o'clock in the evening a treaty was concluded, in which they ceded to the United States a tract of land, four miles square, commencing at the Sault, and extending two miles up and the same distance down the river, with a depth of four miles including the portage, and the site of the old fort, and the village ; reserving to themselves the right of fishing at the falls and of encamping upon the shores. The calumet hav- ing been smoked, and the shaking of hands having been con- cluded, the signatures of the Indians were obtained to the treaty, for which they were paid on the spot in blankets, knives, broad cloths, and silver wares .*
At that period the interior of Michigan was a mere rang- ing ground for savages and wild beasts, intersected by Indian trails, which wound through the oak lands, and studded at wide distances along the banks of the lakes or streams by a hut of a Frenchman or the soliary post of a fur trader. The extensive traet of forest bordering the upper lakes, was devoted to the interests of the North-West and American fur companies ; and the Island of Mackinaw was enlivened by barges of the voyageurs and the canoes of the Indians laden with furs for the trading establishments at those points. The Indian trade at that time was prosecuted on the upper lakes chiefly by the American Fur Company, conducted in that quarter by Messrs. Stuart and Crooks, its agents. This com- pany had extensive establishments on the Island of Macki- naw, and also on the St. Louis River and other streams run- ning into Lake Superior, which had before been occupied by the North-West Company.
In 1818, when Illinois was erected into a State, the limits of Michigan had been extended by the annexation to the territory of all the land lying north of that State and Indi- ana. A partial extinction of the Indian title had been effect- ed in the year 1785, by a treaty held at Fort Mackintosh
.* For an account of this transaction, sce a narrative of the Expedition under Governor Cass, by Henry R. Schoolcraft, a member of the expedition.
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with the Wyandot, Ottawa, Delaware, and Chippewa tribes, by which a tract of land, six miles broad, from the strait ex- tending from the River Raisin to Lake St. Clair, and also twelve miles square at Michilimackinac, were ceded. This treaty was confirmed at Fort Harmar in 1787; and in the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, the cession of the belt of land embracing Detroit was confirmed, and twelve miles square at the Miami Rapids, and the Islands of Mackinaw and Bois Blanc were ceded to the United States. In 1804 a land of- fice had been established at Detroit, but its object was to settle the land titles of the territory, because no lands were then brought into market. Many of the early settlers, who had derived their claims from the French and English command- ants of the posts, or who had settled on the land without au- thority, were anxious to have a solid title to the land which they claimed by occupancy. Cadillac, the founder of Detroit, had made grants of land, which were confirmed by the king of France ; and the Governor and intendant of New France and Louisiana, in 1735 and 1737, had also made similar grants, which were also confirmed. Numerous grants had also been made without authority, by Bellestre and other French commandants of Detroit, and enlargements of original grants. Other posts on the upper lakes, which had never been con- firmed, and similar claims, were based on alleged grants of English commandants when they obtained possession of the country. But few of these grants were held by legal titles. It became an important object, therefore, to establish these claims by act of Congress, so that the old settlers might be secure and quiet in their possessions. In order to accomplish that object, an Act of Congress was passed, in 1807, confirm- ing to settlers the lands which they had occupied continuous- ly from the year 1796 to the date of the act ; and subsequent acts embracing the settlements on the upper lakes, established the claims of these old settlers. Besides the cessions of land which had been made under the administration of Governor Hull, a treaty was held in 1821 at Chicago, with the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatamie tribes, in which a tract lying west of the cession of 1807 and 1819, and reaching from the
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southern boundary to the Grand River, and its most northerly source, was secured to the United States. These cessions of land from the Indians, which were required to be made before a full and complete title could be acquired by the United States, were honorable to the American Government. What- ever may be the abstract right, founded on the purposes of nature, of civilized nations to wrest from barbarians the soil which is not employed in agriculture, it is clear that the Go- vernment of the United States had a right to the land by con- quest. They had a just claim by conquest from the English, and subsequently from the Indians in Wayne's war and the war of 1812; while they only claimed the right of pre-emp- tion when the Indians should see fit to sell their lands.
In 1S23 the territory of Michigan was invested with a more energetic and compact government, by an act of Con- gress providing for the establishment of a Legislative Coun- cil, which was to consist of nine members. These members were to be appointed by the President of the United States, with the consent of the Senate, out of eighteen candidates elected by the people of the territory ; and, with the Governor, they were invested with the same powers which had been before granted by the ordinance of 1787 to the Governor, Legislative Council, and House of Representatives of the north-western territory. By that act, the legislative power of the Governor and Judges was taken away, the term of ju- dicial office was limited to four years, and eligibility to office required the same qualifications as the right of suffrage. On the 7th of June, 1824, the first Legislative Council of Michi- gan was held at the council-house in the city of Detroit. Governor Cass at that time delivered his message, in which he briefly reviewed the progress of the territory, and marked out what he considered the proper line of its policy as well as its existing condition. In reference to the devastations under the war of 1812, he remarks, " The whole population was prostrated at the feet of relentless savages ; and with such atrocious circumstances as have no parallel in the annals of modern warfare, menaces, personal violence, imprisonment, and depopulation, were indiscriminately used, as either ap-
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peared best calculated to effect the object, which avowedly was to sever our citizens from the allegiance they owed to their country. Fortunately their patriotism and energy re- sisted these efforts, and probably in no portion of the Union was more devotedness to the general cause manifested than here."*
At that period the few roads which had been constructed through the wilderness along the sparse settlements were in a miserable condition ; and the Governor called the attention of the council to that subject, as well as to the organization of a solid and effective system of jurisprudence. As the clouds of war had cleared away, and the public lands were in market, additional motives were presented for settlement, and emigration began to flow into the country. The log- houses of hardy pioneers studded the wilderness, and the forests resounded with the echo of the woodman's axe. As the population became thus scattered, it was found neces- sary to devise a system of Township Government, by which the local affairs of the different sections might be regulated by its own local police. In 1825 an Act of Congress was passed, probably in accordance with the recommendation of the Governor, providing that the Governor and Council of the territory of Michigan should have the right to divide the ter- ritory into townships, to incorporate the same, to define their privileges, and to provide by law for the election of their officers, and repealing all laws inconsistent with this Act which had been embodied in the ordinance of 1787, or in the laws of the United States. The same Act also granted to the Governor the power, with the consent of the Legislative Council, to ap- point the civil officers of the territory ; and the number of the Legislative Council was increased to thirteen. During the first session of the Legislative Council great efforts were also made for the establishment of roads through the territory by the General Government, and a memorial for that object was draft- ed, in order to call the attention of Congress to this subject.
The progress of Michigan during the remaining portion of
* Gov. Cass's message to the first Legislative Council in 1824.
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the administration of Governor Cass, abounds with no sud- den crisis and startling facts which belong to great emergen- cies, and which marked the whole period of its growth.
The cannon and the bayonet had now given place to the axe, the plane, and the plough ; and these were accomplishing the victories of peace. Emigration, in its silent progress, was gradually scattering its settlers over the forest. By examina- tion it was found that the report which had been made by Gen. Brown, who had been appointed to examine the quality of the land in this region, was entirely inaccurate, as his judgment had been formed without due investigation and upon narrow premises. The settlers advancing into the in- terior, found a fertile, dry, and undulating soil, clothed with the richest scenery, intersected by clear and rapid streams, and studded with lakes abounding with fish. These facts having spread abroad, invited the emigrant from the more barren sections of the country, which contained a more dense population, and where the avenues to wealth and distinction were mainly occupied. During the first few years after the administration of Governor Cass but a small portion of the land had been brought into market, and this was in the east- ern portion of Michigan, and was included in the land dis- trict of Detroit. The system which was introduced into the territory of Michigan, of surveys, which is understood to have been recommended by Gen. Harrison, is of remarkable accu- racy as well as beauty ; and it now prevails. Two straight lines were drawn through the centre of the territory, north and south, and east and west. The line north and south, was denominated the principal meridian, and the line east and west, the base line. The territory was then surveyed into townships six miles square, these were subdivided into sections a mile square, and these townships were numbered numerical order, increasing from the meridian and base lines. The mathematical certainty of this mode of survey, and the fact that cach section and township were blared or marked by the surveyors on the trees at the corner of each section, and the lines of the sections also marked by shaving off the bark of the trees, furnished clear landmarks as to the actual
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boundaries of each tract. The smallest lot which can be purchased at the present time is eighty acres, or a fractional lot which is made by a township line or the course of a | stream. Amid the clearings of the forest, the lonely log-hut of the pioneer curled its smoke to the heavens from the banks of the lakes and streams ; and amid the stumps and felled trunks of the trees, little patches of wheat glowed in the sun like green islands amid the vast and magnificent ocean of wilderness. At that time no important settlements had been made in the interior.
The increasing settlements of Michigan soon called for the construction of public works which might facilitate the emigration into its different sections, and also lay open to public view the resources of the soil. As early as the 12th of May, 1820, a report had been made to Congress in refer- ence to the construction of a road across the Black Swamp ;* and extraordinary efforts were also made to secure the aid of the General Government in advancing these works of internal improvement. These calls were liberally responded to on the part of the General Government. An appropriation was made for the opening a road between Detroit and the Miami, and it was expended on that work with great advantage. Bills also passed Congress, providing for the construction of a road from Detroit to Chicago, and also a road from Detroit to Fort Gratiot, as well as the improvement of La Plaisance Bay. Liberal grants of land were also made for the objects of edu- cation ; and as early as 1804,t a township of land was granted by Congress for the support of a college. Section number sixteen in each township was also granted for the support of common schools ; and in 1826 an additional grant had been made for the support of a seminary of learning, which now amounted to two townships ; and authority at the same time was given to make these locations in small tracts.
The grand roads which were thus projected, tended to fur- nish important avenues to the different points of Michigan at
* By Hon. William Woodbridge.
+ In 1817 a law was passed by the Governor and Judges, providing for the establishment of the Cathole pestemiad, or University of Michigan
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which they terminated. These roads, says Governor Cass, commencing at Detroit, the great depot of the country, passing through the most important parts of the peninsula, and ter- minating at the borders of the great lakes which almost encircle / it, are essential to the security and prosperity of the country. There was, however, but little interest manifested on the part of the General Government in providing a solid defence to the Michigan frontier when this would seem to have been most required. In reference to the military works about Detroit, Gov. Cass remarked : " The fort at Detroit is in a dilapidated state. No repairs have been made on it since 1812, and it is, in fact, incapable of defence. The platform could not bear the discharge of an eighteen-pound gun, nor is there a single piece of artillery mounted upon the works. The pickets and abbattis are rotten, and the gates unhung. It is in a far worse condition than it was at the commencement of the late war. The military works at Fort Wayne, Fort Gratiot, Sault de St. Marie, at Green Bay and Mackinaw, were in but little better condition. During the year 1825 Detroit progressed as rapidly as could be expected under the existing circum- stances. Fifty-eight new buildings were constructed during that year ; twenty-two of which were two stories in height, seventeen were one and a half, and nineteen were of one story.
In 1827 the right of electing the members of the Legislative Council was granted to the electors of the territory, and the representation was ordered to be apportioned among the seve- ral districts or counties according to their population ; and in 1828 an Act was passed, confirming certain claims to land in Michigan ; and another Act, authorizing the Governor and Council to take charge of those lands which had been granted for the support of common schools.
The construction of that gigantic work, the Erie Canal, first suggested by Governeur Morris in 1777, a glorious mo- nument of the patriotism and genius of Dewitt Clinton, which was commenced in 1817 and opened to Buffalo during the year 1825, unfolded a new avenue to the prosperity of Michi- gan. Itself a wilderness, and bounded on the east by a great lake, which was skirted by a wilderness, removed by this lake
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from the more densely settled States, the territory was obliged to grapple with the obstacles springing from its remote posi- tion, and the want of convenient modes of transportation of articles of large bulk over the land between Albany and Lake Erie. The establishment of this work, connected with the river and lake navigation to New-York, brought the trade of the great commercial metropolis of the Union to its own doors, and from that period it sprung forward with powerful strides. Emigrants could now be provided with cheap and easy transportation for themselves and their merchandise, and this line of communication continued to be crowded with set- tlers who broke up their establishments in the less generous soil of the east, and were advancing to plant themselves in the land of promise on the lakes. No events of an extraordina- ry character marked the progress of the country. With clear skies, a bonutiful soil, and a sparse population, the means of subsistence were ample. As population advanced, the re- sources of the country were gradually developed. The in- creased extent of the sales of public domain had induced thousands from the eastern States to leave their sterile lands, and to emigrate to her fertile plains ; and with the increasing facilities for travel through western New-York and across the mountains, came the increase of emigration. Although small settlements had been made in the interior, the important points which now constitute the florishing villages of Ann Arbor, Ypselanti, Tecumseh, Adrien, Clinton, Marshall, and St. Joseph, had not then been founded. Farms had been es- tablished at the three first-named points, but they were there located with the same prospects, and for the same objects, as those on the other streams of the peninsula. But the prospect soon broadened and brightened. A mighty enterprise was at work under the action of free and equal laws, and it scattered its influence through the forests of Michigan ; and the Indian, as he ceded his domain to the General Government, retired farther and farther into the wilderness, and his bark wigwam gave place to the log-hut of the settler. The echo of the set- tler's axe started the wolf from his den, and he soon followed in the track of the savages. The inland seas, which for centuries
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had mirrored little but the setting sun upon their surface, unbroken, except by the Indian, the missionary, or the trader, or dashed their surges in solitary grandeur along the shores, were now studded with ships and steamboats, and all the ma- chinery of commerce ; and as it passed on, the canoe of the Indian shot into the retired bays which border its banks. It is to the Erie Canal that the first rapid advance of Michigan can be traced, and it is upon internal improvement furnishing the means and motives for transportation that its future growth must depend. This, as well as the other western States, owe, in fact, their nnexampled growth more to me- chanical philosophy acting on internal improvement, than to any other cause. What stupendous consequences does Ame- rican mechanical philosophy, the characterizing feature of the present age, exhibit throughout the country ? The rail-road, the canal, the steamboat, the thousand modes and powers by which machinery is propelled, how vastly has it augmented the sum of human strength and human happiness. What glorious prospects does it open before us ! It has bound to- gether the wealth of the north and the south, the east and the west, the ocean and the lakes, as a sheaf of wheat ; and urged forward the progress of improvement in mighty strides. Pouring its millions into the wilderness, it has sent forth, not serfs, but hardy, practical, enterprising men, the founders of empires, who have finished the work of erecting States be- fore the wolf and the panther had fled from their dens. Be- striding the lakes and the streams which discharge their wa- ters through the Mississippi, it has studded them with nearly seven hundred floating palaces, to conquer winds, waves, and tides .* In a single day it lives almost a century. It has built short and certain paths along the Atlantic, which has abridged the distance at least two-thirds ; and the English flag, which floated in the docks of Bristol and Liverpool, are, four- teen days after, seen waving in our ports, above a foreign crew and foreign merchandise. More powerful than Xerxes when he threw manacles into the Hellespont, it has chained the
* There are at present about six hundred steamboats on the waters of the Mississippi.
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
currentof rivers by the dam, the mill-race, and the water-wheel ; and made them its slave ! It has almost nullified space, by en- abling us to rush across its surface like the wind ; and pro- longed time, by the speed with which we can accomplish our ends. It can do the work of innumerable armies and navies in war and in peace. It has constructed rail-roads across the mountains; and in the sublime language of another, the "backs of the Alleghanies have bowed down like camels."
As early as 1821 a treaty was perfected at Chicago through the agency of Governor Cass, by which all the country within the boundaries of Michigan, south of Grand River, which had not before been ceded, was granted to the United States. In 1823 Governor Cass also concluded a treaty with the Delaware Indians, which resulted in the cession of valu- able tracts of land on the Muskingum in Ohio ; and, two years afterwards, in conjunction with Gen. Clark, he concluded a treaty of general pacification with the north-western savages at Prairie du Chien. Besides these several treaties, there was also one treaty perfected at Green Bay, and another at St. Jo- seph, in the year 1827. During the following year another treaty was also held at Greenville, and another at St. Joseph, and a valuable cession was also made for Indiana.
One important advantage derived from the expedition upon the north-western lakes under Governor Cass, in 1820, was the fact, that the boundaries between the Indian tribes on their waters, which had been long the source of great contention, were defined and established. The tomahawk, which is the last reason of savages, as is the sword of civilized nations, had been lifted up ; and these tribes had been long in a state of war regarding these limits. In order to adjust these disputes, facts were collected from tradition and evidence, and the assent of the Indians was acquired to certain well-known geographical bounds. By this adjustment much bloodshed was prevented, and also further disputes upon the same grounds. From State documents, which were submitted to Congress on the 27th of January, 1825, it appears that there were then twenty-eight thousand three hundred and sixteen Indians, exclusive of the Chippewas, upon Lake Superior and the heads of the Mississippi.
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MICHIGAN AFTER THE WAR.
During the year 1825, a memorial was submitted by Governor Cass to the Committee on military affairs, to whom had been referred a resolution making inquiry what further measures were necessary to be adopted for the protection of the north-western frontier. This memorial was designed to set forth the actual position of the territory of Michigan at that time, and to invoke aid from the General Government for its defence. Its proximity to a long line of British coast, and the unstable character of the Indians, which made them liable at any moment to break out into open war, made an augmented defence necessary for its protection.
Besides the roads which were encouraged by the General Government, from Detroit to the Maumec, Saginaw, to Fort Gratiot, to Chicago ; another road was also projected by the United States from La Plaisance Bay to intersect the Detroit and Chicago road, and also from Detroit to the mouth of the Grand River; and appropriations for that object were passed in 1832. Provision was also made, in 1831, for the erection of light-houses at the head of Lake Erie, on Bois Blanc Island near Mackinaw, at Fort Gratiot at the entrance of Lake Hu- ron, at St. Joseph River, Lake Michigan, on outer Thunder Bay Island in Lake Huron ; and also for the establishment of a light-boat in the straits between Lakes Huron and Michigan ; and also buoys on the flats of Lake St. Clair.
The principal settlement was as yet confined to the eastern portion of the peninsula of Michigan, and the interior was an almost unbroken wilderness. By consequence, counties were organised only so far as the advance of settlements establish- ed the necessity of a direct representation and a frame of lo- cal policy. As early as 1826 the counties of Michillimacki- nac, Saginaw, La Peer Shiawassu, St. Clair, Macomb, Oak- land, Washtenaw, Wayne, Lenawee, and Monroe, were erect- ed ; and township governments were organised within their bounds ; while an immense extent of country west of the principal meridian, extending to Lake Michigan, which had not been surveyed, and which was then but sparsely settled, was subject to the counties of Monroe and Oakland. In 1830 the population of Michigan had grown to 31,639. By
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