History of Monroe County, Michigan, Part 33

Author: Wing, Talcott Enoch, 1819-1890, ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York, Munsell & company
Number of Pages: 882

USA > Michigan > Monroe County > History of Monroe County, Michigan > Part 33

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This report elsewhere says the Michigan forces entered Toledo on Sunday, the 6th, where they remained until Monday, and some part of them until Tuesday following, when they dis- appeared entirely, with the exception of a straggling band, who afterwards returned in search, as pretended, of the judges of the court, but engaging in the customary excesses and proceeding to acts of violence against certain of the citizens. The inhabitants were aroused to resistance, and they were forcibly expelled. Their whole number upon entering Toledo, appears to have been not to exceed 1,100, and to have been reduced at the time of their re- treat to between 500 and 600. General Brown subsequently stated that his main force halted at Mulhollen's, some eight miles from Toledo, where they remained Sunday night, he having sent Colonel Warner Wing forward with 100 men, to watch the judges and arrest them if they attempted to hold court. The main force reached Toledo the next day.

More or less of excess in drinking and carous-

ing took place with the Michigan troops, and especially in petty robbery of property, al- though such action was against the will of the officers in command. That Major Stickney should be made conspicuous in that connection is not remarkable, he being an object of special hostility with that side. It was stated that the major, on finding a man in the garb of a Miehi- gan soldier in his garden, in the act of pulling up potatoes, asked what he was doing, when the trespasser replied that he was "drafting potato tops, to make the bottoms volunteer." The major was subsequently paid $300 by the State for damages suffered during that contro - versy, besides costs and expenses incurred by him in connection with his arrests May 8th and July 20, 1835, and being taken to the jail at Monroe.

As already mentioned, the body of the Michi- gan forces detailed to prevent the holding of court at Toledo stopped at Mulhollen's on Sunday, the 6th. At that place ex-Governor Mason, although then nine days out of office, issued an address to the troops; in the charac- ter of "the executive," in which he notified them that the command was by him at that time "assigned to Brigadier General J. W. Brown," and enjoined on them due observanee of that officer's orders. On the same day Gen- eral Brown issued from Toledo his address to the militia, elosing with this appeal :

" Our cause is just. We assemble to defend from invasion our constitutional privileges. The voice of law calls us to the field, and al- though young in history, Michigan must be placed by us in the proud attitude of seeking to do no wrong, and never shrinking to defend the honor of the country and the inviolability of her soil."

The manner in which these movements in Ohio were received by the authorities and peo- ple of Michigan is further seen from the follow- ing article, taken from the Michigan Sentinel, published at Monroe, under date of Septem- ber 12, 1835 :

" WOLVERINES OF MICHIGAN !- In anticipa- tion of the proposed organization of the court of Ohio at Toledo, and the approach of Lucas's ' Million,' Acting Governor Mason made a large requisition on the brave Wolverines of Michigan; and on Saturday last (September 5th) they approached our town under arms by hundreds, from the counties of Monroe, Wayne,

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Washtenaw, Lenawee, Oakland, Macomb and St. Joseph. The whole body entered the dis- pnted territory on Monday, accompanied by Governor Stevens, Generals Brown and Has- kall, and Colonels Davis, Wing and others, to the number of 1,200 to 1,500, and encamped on the plains of Toledo. Governor Lucas did not make his appearance. The court is said to have been held at the dead of night, by learned judges dressed in disguise ; and the insurgents of Toledo fled precipitately from the scene of action."

The Michigan view of this result was no doubt fairly stated by Hon. A. L. Millard, of Adrian, in an address delivered July 4, 1876. He said :

" The result was, that Ohio, influential and powerful with her twelve members on the floor of Congress, prevailed against her younger and weaker sister Michigan, with her single dele- gate, and he without the right of voting; and before Congress would admit her into the Union as a State, she was required to assent to the change in her boundaries and to adopt the boundary claimed by Ohio. But in order to make her some amends, the Northern Penin- sula, then no part of Michigan, was offered her. At first this overture was rejected. A conven- tion called to act upon it, refused to give the assent required. Her people at the time felt keenly upon the subject. They felt that her right to the territory, under the ordinance (of 1787), and under the act of Congress of 1805, was unquestionable, and there are few, in this State, at least, who have examined the question, who do not regard it so to this day. But this decision of the convention did not finally pre- vail. A large and influential portion of the citizens -some from public considerations, and others, perhaps, from private reasons, thought it highly desirable that the State be speedily admitted into the Union. Another convention was accordingly called, not by the governor or other legal authority, but by a Democratic Cen . tral Committee, requesting the people in the several townships to elect delegates. The con- vention met, and in the name of the people of the State gave the required assent. This, after considerable discussion, was accepted by Con- gress as a compliance with the condition, and the State was admitted by an act passed on the 27th of January, 1837, and thus the controversy ended. The people of Michigan were ill-satis-

fied at the time, being little aware of the min- eral value of the Upper Peninsula, which they acquired in lieu of the strip surrendered. But the subsequent development of that region has shown that they got an ample equivalent, and that the bargain, though in a manner forced upon them, turned out to be not a bad one for Michigan."

It was only after such repeated appeals to Congress for the interposition of its authority for the settlement of the question, that Ohio, in 1835, acting in its own sovereign capacity, set out to assert and settle her rights in the case. It was at such suggestion that Messrs. Rush and Howard were sent as commissioners by the President for the adjustment of the difficulty. By the agreement made between those commis- sionersand the Governor of Ohio, April 7, 1835, it was provided :

" 1st. That the Harris line be run and re- marked, withoutinterruption. 2d. That the civil elections under the laws of Ohio having taken place throughout the disputed territory, the people residing there be left to their own choice as to which of the parties should be accepted as authority in government until the close of the next session of Congress." This Ohio as- sented to, with the proviso that Michigan be compelled to abide by the terms of the compact ; and especially, that all prosecutions begun under the authority of that Territory against citizens of Ohio, be discontinued.

The case having been by arrangement finally referred to Congress, the discussion became active there, and was ably presented on the part of Ohio by Governor Lucas and the Sen- ators and Representatives from this State. In a letter to the Secretary of State at Washington, November 10, 1835, the Governer stated that he was informed by General Haskall, a mem- ber of the Michigan legislature, that Governor Mason procured the key to the United States Arsenal at Detroit, and in that way came into possession of government arms for use by his forces. Governor Lucas expressed the belief that such use of the arms was made " by private special permission of the Secretary of War" (General Lewis Cass). The Governor stated that in private letters to friends in Ohio and seen by him, Secretary Cass stated that while not appearing publicly in the controversy, he was doing all he could privately in support of the Michigan claim. Governor Lucas attrib-

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uted to the secretary the responsibility of the entire controversy.

In a letter of November 19, 1835, Secretary Cass alludes to this expression by Governor Incas, and protests against the same as grossly unjust. On the contrary, he stated, that while fully believing in the justice of Michigan's claim, and advising the exercise of jurisdiction over the disputed territory by the use of ordi- nary civil power, he at all times discounte- nanced the resort to force which Governor Mason made.

In a report made March 1, 1846, the Judici- ary Committee of the Senate, of which Hon. John M. Clayton, of Delaware, was chairman, discussed the matter with much clearness and detail, going over the essential points and facts. The immediate matter in hand was the " bill to settle and establish the northern boundary line of the State of Ohio," which provided "that the northern boundary of the State of Ohio shall be established by, and extend to, a direct line running from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the most northerly cape of the Miami Bay ; thence northeast to the northern boundary line of the United States ; and thence, with said line, to the Pennsylvania line." The result of the committee's investi- gation was to the effect, that aside from the declaration made in the constitution, the State of Ohio could have no claim to the line therein set forth. Thus, the whole question turned up- on the validity of that declaration as a basis for the claim made by Ohio; while such basis could not be valid, without the " assent of Con- gress."

The bill endorsed by the Senate committee fixed the boundaries of Michigan and Indiana, as well as the northern boundary of Ohio, and passed the Senate March 10th by a vote of thirty-seven to three, and went to the House of Representatives. March 22d a bill was intro- duced into the Senate by Mr. Benton to estab- lish the northern boundary line of Ohio and to admit Michigan into the Union, upon condi- tions therein expressed, which bill passed the Senate April 2d, by a vote of twenty-four to eighteen, and went to the House. This bill differed from the one passed March 10th, in that it contained a proviso that the boundary line of Ohio should receive the assent of a convention of delegates of the people of Mich- igan, as a condition of the admission of Mich-

igan into the Union. For this reason the sec- ond bill was not satisfactory to the larger por- tion of the Ohio delegation in Congress, who preferred the unconditional terms of the Clay- ton bill, and were not willing that the question be left open for further doubt and agitation. In the House the question of precedence in action upon the two Senate bills was raised, and decided in favor of the Benton bill, and June 13th it passed, by a vote of one hundred and fifty-three to forty-five. June 15th the Clayton bill, unconditionally fixing the north- ern line of Ohio, passed the House without a division, and thus was the long.deferred and much-disputed boundary question and the " Toledo War " definitely and finally settled.

For reasons which seemed to have been more political than substantial, it was deemed advis- able by the friends of the administration to connect the admission of Arkansas with that of Michigan, by which association the adjustment of the boundary question probably was delayed for six months. A prominent, if not the con- trolling, consideration in the matter, was the sleepless jealousy of southern politicians, with whom it had come to be settled that no free State should be added to the Union unless as- sociated with a new slave State, to the end that equilibrium in the political power of freedom and of slavery might be preserved. This fact will explain the precedence given the Benton bill over the Clayton bill in the House. The same spirit of jealousy was constantly mani- fested as long as slavery continued to be a cause of sectional discord. To the same fell spirit was the country subsequently indebted for the annexation of Texas, in order that ad- ditional territory for slave States might be ob- tained ; and to the same, for the like object, the Mexican War ; and neither of these recourses being found effective, as a last resort came the attempt, through the repeal of the Missouri compromise, to subject free territory to the es- tablishment of slave States. It was the failure of this device that drove the slaveholding power to the fatal madness of rebellion and an attempt to destroy the Union it was no longer able to control to its purposes, and led to the sudden and total destruction of the interest so long and so desperately defended.

In this connection, the particulars of the Michigan forces as furnished by the pay-roll of her soldiers, now among the archives of the

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State, will be of interest. That roll gives the Northwest, as well as civil governor of Michi- name of every soldier (officer and private), the amount of pay received, and in most cases his receipt therefor. The list has the names of 1,160 men. The pay of Major-General Brown, commander of the territorial army, was $200 per month. He had for aid-de-camp, Alpheus Felch, afterward Governor and United States Senator, who received $50 per month. Colonels were paid 875, captains $40, lieutenants $30, ensigns $20, sergeants $8, and privates $6.66 per month. Considering the " currency " in which they were paid (" Wild-cat" bank notes), these rates do not seem to be excessive. The several organizations of the Michigan forces were known as follows: The Oakland detach- ment of 192 men ; Major Bucklin's regiment of 159 men ; Colonel T. D. Davis's rifle brigade of 248 men ; Second Regiment (Colonel Warner Wing), 140 men ; Captain J. Wood's company of light horse of 61 men; Shelby Volunteers of 60 men; Acting Brigadier-General Martin Davis's detachment of 47 men ; Colonel Davis Smith's Eighth Regiment of 247 men. Total force, 1,254. The aggregate expenditure of Michigan in connection with the boundary controversy, is placed at $13,658.76.

The people of Michigan, in that controversy, labored under two serious embarrassments. In the first place, as already stated, theirs being only a territorial government, the crea- ture of Congress, wholly subject to Federal rule, it could have no recognized authority even over its domestic affairs, and much less over its relations to other governments. This condi- tion of tutelage deprived it of the political status which State organization and power alone could confer. In the next place it was largely handicapped by an unfortunate head of what government it possessed. In 1814, General Lewis Cass, then of the United States army, but a resident of Marietta, Ohio, was made military governor of Michigan Territory. Subsequently he was made civil governor, with William Woodbridge, also of Marietta, as sec- retary, both appointments being fortunate for the Territory. The administration of Governor Cass will always stand prominent among those of Western Territories. He was specially ser- viceable in his relations with the Indians, with whom he concluded important treaties and largely maintained friendly relations, being superintendent of Indian affairs for all the then

gan. He it was who negotiated at Fort Meigs in September, 1817, the important treaty by which the Seneca, Delaware, Wyandot, Shawa- nese, Pottawatomie and Chippewa tribes sur- rendered to the Government about one-fifth of the territory comprising the State of Ohio, be- side large districts in Michigan and Indiana. Beside this treaty, sixteen others were nego- tiated, chiefly under his management, and in their results transferring to the United States vast extents of lands, both east and west of the Mississippi. In 1831, Governor Cass was called to Washington to serve as secretary of war in President Jackson's cabinet. The loss of his services, made so highly valuable by his long experience and intimate knowledge of the affairs of the Territory, was much regretted at the time ; but the measure of the loss was made more fully known only through the man- agement of succeeding years. In 1830, the Territory had attained to a population of 32,538, and was self-supporting. With such advance in numbers, the people had be- come possessed of an exceptional degree of local pride, no doubt largely due to the posi- tion which Governor Cass's administration had given the territorial government. Hence, the succession to that officer was a matter of more than ordinary concern with them, and they were very desirous that it should fall upon one of several prominent citizens of the Territory, instead of being utilized in the promotion of political interests elsewhere. Secretary Wood- bridge and Austin E. Wing were looked upon as specially suitable for the governorship. Such desire, however, had so little considera- tion at Washington that John T. Mason of Virginia, a brother-in-law of Postmaster Gen- eral Barry, was appointed secretary of the Territory, to act as governor until the latter office should be filled. The appointee, how- ever, did not accept, but went abroad on some private agency, and the office was transferred to his son, Stevens T. Mason. The choice of a non-resident for purely political and personal reasons, was bad enough ; but that of a mere boy - but nineteen years of age -added greatly to the disappointment and chagrin of the peo- ple, who sent to him a committee for confer- ence, when he acknowledged his minority.

This feeling was greatly intensified by the fact that in consequence of Governor Cass be-

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ing removed to become secretary of war, the people of Michigan set about the organization secretary would become the acting governor, with full executive responsibilities. All pro- tests, however, proved unavailing. The Vir- ginia " lad " became Michigan's governor.

A. B. Porter of Pennsylvania was appointed governor, and had he devoted his time and attention to the office, the presence of the " Boy Governor" would have been less offensive. The latter by cultivating geniality through the social customs of the day, and a course of con- ciliation, in a measure modified the intensity of the feeling against him, whereby the people were led to endure what they could not cure Thus matters stood when, in the winter of 1834-5, the action of the Ohio legislature on the boundary question raised an issue which with the people of the ambitious Territory soon overshadowed that of their governorship. Some three years of experience in office had measurably fitted Secretary Mason for the place; and appreciating the opportunity for commending himself to popular favor furnished by the Ohio action, he at once entered in the most spirited manner upon such measures of resistance as he could employ. The result was, that he soon largely removed the feeling existing against him. But in doing this, he displeased the powers at Washington, whose deep concern for the political bearing of the controversy had led them to favor the Ohio side of the question. Hence it was, that in September, 1835, with the boundary question yet unsettled, John S. Horner, another young man, ignorant of the country, was appointed governor of the Territory. He came on, and sought by a policy of conciliation to induce an adjustment of the boundary difficulty, whereby he seriously displeased the people, who looked upen him not as the executive of the Territory, but as simply the tool of political masters at Washington, whose sole interest in the matter was to manage it for the greatest partisan ad- vantage. This state of things was made the more offensive to the people by the fact that at that time they had organized a complete State government -- in form -- with a legisla- ture and United States Senators chosen. Ere long Governor Horner left the peninsula, for a portion of territory beyond the limits embraced in the State organization.

During the summer of 1835, and while the boundary question was yet undetermined, the

of a government in which they could have some power. To this end they held a conven- tion ; framed a State constitution, which was adopted by the people, who at the same time chose State officers and a legislature. Secretary Mason was chosen governor, and Edmund Mundy, lieutenant governor; while Lucius Lyon and John Norvell were chosen United States Senators by the legislature, and Isaac E. Crary as Representative in Congress. Such action, unauthorized by existing law, was not approved at Washington, and especially as its tendency was to complicate and intensify the boundary issue. The admission of the State under such state of things was out of the ques- tion. Then it was that the compromise, on which the whole trouble was finally settled, was proposed, to wit: That Michigan yield the disputed territory, and in lieu of that accept the Lake Superior peninsula. This proposition was submitted to the people of Michigan, who sent delegates to a convention held at Ann Arbor, September 4, 1836, by which the offer was rejected. Steps were then taken for an- other convention, which, in reality, was little more or less than an administration scheme for forcing terms upon the people. For such purpose, delegates were chosen " direct from the people," in local cancuses, without even the semblance of authority in law. The body thus chosen met at Ann Arbor, December 6, 1836, and assuming to speak for the people of Mich- igan, proceeded to accept the terms proposed ; and by an act passed January 26, 1837, Con- gress declared that a State government had been duly formed by the people of Michigan, and the same was admitted as a member of the Union, and the vexed question of boundary was forever settled. A large portion, and prob- ably a majority, of the people, with their pseudo State officials, indulged in a liberal degree of indignation and protest; but that was the only consolation accorded them. They could accom- plish nothing in resistance to the wrong they felt. Governor Mason indulged in emphatic rhetoric about the ontrage committed, to meet with little more than ridicule of himself as "the hero of the bloodless plains of Toledo."

The people of Michigan regarded it as a matter of grave wrong that their Territory should be deprived of the few square miles of lands which they had hoped would be included

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in their prospective State. And when, as a matter of compensation for such loss, Congress proposed to give them the great peninsula of Lake Superior, with allits rich mineral deposits, the people of Michigan rejected the offer; and the arrangement was consummated only through the unauthorized manipulation of local politicians.

The views thus given on this question, while they have now no practical bearing, seem to be proper, as due to all parties concerned. The time-has come when the people on both sides of the line should be able speak freely and frankly of differences in the past, and in the

spirit of amity and mutual confidence address themselves to the many important matters which they have and are to have in common. Who was right or who was wrong half a cen- tury ago, is now comparatively of small con- cern ; but how the affairs of the future may be made promotive of the highest possible welfare of all, is a matter of grave concern. It is just cause for common gratulation, that asperities arising from past antagonism are gradually yielding to more considerate relations, with very little now left, outside the record, to indi- cate that differences ever existed.

CHAPTER XVII.

MONROE STEAMERS AND SAIL VESSELS.

PRIOR to the settlement of the French on the banks of the River Raisin, the only facili- tics for transportation was the use of the light and graceful bark canoes which glided swiftly over the river and lakes, propelled by Indians with their paddles and oars. At that time roads were not constructed through any part of the Territory. As civilization extended westward the bark canoe was supplanted by improved means of conveyance -the bateau was introduced by the French, subsequently other styles of crafts by the English and Ameri- cans. Voyages were very tedious, requiring great patience and energy ; yeta work of great importance was gradually accomplished in the establishment of missions and trading posts, thus paving the way to the settlement of the country.

Up to the beginning of this century a very limited number of sailing craft had ever spread their white pinions to the breeze. The first was the Griffin, built by Lasselle near Buffalo. She was destined for Lake Superior, and was expected to take on a quantity of furs at Macki- nac, but never made her appearance or com- pleted her round trip. She is thought to have been lost with all on board, as she sailed from Green Bay, September 18, 1679, and was sup- posed lost in the gale of the following day, though the only indication of her loss was a number of packages of furs found on the shore of Lake Michigan by the Indians. At the com- mencement of this century nearly all the better class of sail vessels had from four to six berths fitted up for passengers, and numerous emigrant families reached the West thereby. The first steamer, Walk-in-the- Water, was built at Black Rock in 1817 ; made several trips to Mackinac and Green Bay, but was lost in November, 1821, near Buffalo, in a gale.

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History of Monroe County, Michigan, Part 33

Author: Wing, Talcott Enoch, 1819-1890, ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: New York, Munsell & company Number of Pages: 882

Author: Wing, Talcott Enoch, 1819-1890, ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York, Munsell & company
Number of Pages: 882