USA > Michigan > Outlines of the political history of Michigan > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
extending imprisonment beyond three months were to require the Royal approval, but there was no limit to the imposition of fines or forfeitures. No provision was made for the regulation of courts, which were left entirely at the pleasure of the King, to create and regulate as he chose. An attempt to introduce a right to the writ of habeas corpus was opposed by the Ministry, and defeated. The claim that a repre-
156
QUEBEC ACT.
[CHAP. VIII.
sentative legislature should be introduced, was resisted on the ground that there were less than four hundred Englishmen in the Province, and that although the French population had become numerous, the idea that they should have any such civil rights was preposterous. They were spoken of as if they had no claim to be regarded as British subjects, but only as a conquered peo- ple holding all their privileges by favor. When Lord Mansfield was attacked by Lord Camden for his course in sustaining the bill, as incon- sistent with his former advocacy of the rights of the Canadians, he practically recanted his old assertions, and went all lengths with Thurlow. Mansfield, with all his ability as a judge, was no friend to freedom. The House of Lords, on the return of the amended bill from the Commons, was compelled to listen to Chatham and Camden, who with sound law and manly eloquence denounced the atrocious measure, and were answered with nothing better than the impudent audacity of men who cared nothing for colonial liberty, or for any human rights beyond the four seas. Even Ireland was pressed into the service, to show that Canada was treated in the same way, and that there were already places under the control of the Government where the writ of habeas corpus was denied.
It was soon made manifest that Canada was to be governed by unmixed Royal prerogative, and used to annoy the other colonies. The control of
157
CHAP. VIII.] PETITIONS AGAINST THE QUEBEC ACT.
Indian affairs was taken away entirely from the English-speaking colonies, and centred in Quebec. Judges were appointed who had no knowledge of French law, and the Governor and Council showed no desire to supply the deficiencies of the Act. Sir Guy Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester, was much respected, but not calculated to manage civil reform.
Within a few months repeated protests and peti- tions came to England from the British and French people of the Province, but when they reached official custody they were laid aside without notice.
When Lord Camden presented such a petition in the House of Lords, he was much abused for doing so, and the Lords on the Government benches admitted that they had received and suppressed such documents, and insisted he had no right to introduce it. Chatham and Camden labored zeal- ously for the repeal of the Quebec Act, and claimed that its mischief had now become palpable. But they failed, and their bill was defeated, after a hard fight in both houses. It is stated that an intimation was given to the petitioners, (who especially de- manded an assembly and habeas corpus,) that they might have what they chose if they would allow the principle to be maintained that Parliament had an unlimited right of legislation over the colonies. This principle apparently was not manifest to the petitioners. In the original Quebec Act, as it went down to the Commons, the right in the colonial authorities to levy any taxes whatever was pro-
158
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR FOR DETROIT. [CHAP. VIII.
hibited. In the Commons an amendment was ob- tained, allowing the council to impose such taxes as the inhabitants of the various local districts should vote for roads, buildings, and other local purposes ; but this was all.
It is a matter worth recording that at the head of the Quebec committee on the principal petition, which was signed by nearly every leading person of British origin in Quebec and Montreal, stands the name of Zachary Macaulay. This patriotic gentle- man, from his peculiar name, must have been a kinsman of the able man who afterwards became one of the principal supporters, if not the origina- tor, of the movement against the slave trade, and was a friend and counsellor of Clarkson and Wil- berforce, and the other "wise men of Clapham," who were always on the side of free institutions. The fame of that second Zachary Macaulay has been overshadowed by that of his eminent son, Lord Macaulay, the historian. His relationship to the Quebec merchant is not known.
Although in the lower parts of the Province, where the settlements were more dense, the system of government assumed an external appearance of legal formality, no attempt or pretence was made to relieve the western region from martial law. A lieutenant governor was sent to Detroit, who had almost, if not quite, absolute authority. Henry Hamilton was first appointed in that capacity, and he arrived at Detroit in 1775. The old system was to terminate May 1, 1775. It was not till 1788 that
159
COURTS ESTABLISHED
CHAP. VIII.]
any courts whatever were established in Upper Canada. In that year, on the 24th of July, Lord Dorchester, by proclamation, created four districts in Upper Canada. The District of Hesse embraced all the country west of Long Point, on Lake Erie ; and as Detroit was still retained in British posses- sion, it came within the jurisdiction of that district." The courts were called Courts of Common Pleas, being courts of record, with a clerk and sheriff. Their jurisdiction was plenary, with no appeal unless to the Governor and Council.
These judges were not bred to the law, as there were no lawyers in Upper Canada until 1794. They were generally men of wealth and influence, and in civil matters their judgments were probably just. They knew nothing of criminal law, and banished, imprisoned, whipped or pilloried, such unlucky cul- prits as were convicted before them. It is errone- ously stated by Canniff that the first person hanged in Upper Canada was convicted before Judge Cart- wright, of the Mecklenburg District.2 The honor (or dishonor) of that judicial exploit belongs to Judge Dejean, although there were perhaps some court-martial capital convictions before.
These lay officials of all ranks in the remote districts magnified their office. The Wisconsin annals contain many curious anecdotes of one Réaume, who in early times had a commission as justice of the peace at Green Bay, which is said (perhaps incorrectly) to have run through various
I Canniff, 506.
2 Canniff, 508.
160
ROUGH JUSTICE.
[CHAP. VIII.
régimes without renewal, and to have served as a support for judicial powers at discretion. An an- cient settler, in his reminiscences, speaks of it as rather creditable to Judge Réaume, that he never inflicted capital punishment. In emulation of the great Oriental potentates, but lacking a signet, he summoned parties before him by sending his jack- knife, in lieu of process ; and no one who saw the
symbol ventured to disobey. His judgments were also Oriental. Where specific duties had been violated, he granted specific performance. In other cases, he served the ends of justice by requiring the party or parties in fault, (for sometimes he gave judgment against both,) to furnish him a supply of wood, or work in his garden. As, during his long term of service, he was within the jurisdiction of Michigan, we can safely claim the fame of this worthy magistrate for our own glory, whereof pars magna fuit. He has not been without followers in our State county courts, when for a few years the Law Reformers assumed the mantle of Jack Cade, and tried causes by the light of nature. A very upright magistrate of this stamp, some twenty-five or thirty years ago, having a culprit before him, charged with larceny, of which there was no proof, deemed it his duty, nevertheless, to convict him ; because, though innocent of the charge in question, he had committed depredations on the judge's woodpile, and thereby disturbed the peace and dignity of the State of Michigan.
I Grignon's Narrative.
161
COURT OF COMMON PLEAS.
CHAP. VIII.]
The Common Pleas Judges of Detroit were usually educated and intelligent gentlemen, whose decisions received and deserved respect. It was not remarkable that such of them as were of French extraction, and entirely ignorant of British law, should commit blunders and exceed their powers. These latter have not generally been guilty of intentional wrongs, but it was a long time before they had the means of knowing any- thing about legal matters, and under martial law they went very far.
The first Judge of Common Pleas for the District of Hesse was the Honorable William Dummer Powell, whose reputation has not been questioned. He was appointed in 1789, and assumed his functions in 1790. It is supposed the office had been declined by some previous appointee,' (conjectured to have been William Robertson,) as all the other judges, and the clerk of Hesse, were appointed in 1788. Gregor McGregor of Detroit was appointed by Lord Dorchester sheriff, and Thomas Smith of the same place, as clerk and commissioner of the peace, on the 24th day of July, 1788, the day when the districts were created.2 Thomas Smith according to General Cass, was in 1794 captain of a company of militia associated with the Indians, when Wayne routed them before the British fort at Maumee, and was killed in that battle.3
I Canniff, 507. 2 Wayne Records, C., 380. 3 Cass, Historical 1.ecture.
11
162
DELAY IN CIVIL GOVERNMENT. [CHAP. VIII.
The court held its first session in 1790, and an execution sale of lands (an innovation on the common law) was made by Sheriff McGregor, under a judgment rendered in August, 1790."
But this is anticipating. Until the action of the Governor General, in 1788, the Detroit settle- ment and its dependencies, including all the western posts, remained without any civil govern- ment. Although the preamble of the Quebec Act gave as a reason for its enactment the fact that, under the King's Proclamation of 1763, there were several colonies and settlements which had been left without any provision for civil govern- ment, neither the act itself, nor the administration under it, made any approach toward such a provision, until five years after the Treaty of Peace of 1783 had rendered the retention of possession of Detroit by the British a wrongful and arbitrary usurpation.
Accordingly we find Mr. Dejean continuing in his old functions. As he kept the public records, any new appointments would probably have been recorded as carefully as the old ones. He was evidently one of those men who had qualities which made him useful, and possibly gave him the means of securing himself against opposition. In October, 1774, he used the public records in his custody to perpetuate an apology from George Meldrum,2 for some abusive language used by the
I Wayne Records, C., 380.
2 Id., A., 278.
163
LEGAL FORMALITIES
CHAP. VIII.]
latter at a public assembly, and for which he declared his regret as having been the result of intoxication. What the particular charges were which the wine unloosed, does not appear, nor is anything said of their falsehood, but it is plain it was not safe to offend Mr. Dejean.
In March, 1775, occurs a curious illustration of the limits of his judicial powers under his old commission to the presidency of a board of arbitration. One Francis Milhomme was charged by John Peck with having stabbed him in the stomach. Thereupon James Sterling, John Porteous, (British merchants,) and Dupéron Baby and Benoit Chapoton, (French citizens,) were chosen arbi- trators, but did not agree. William Edgar, having been made umpire, gave his opinion, to which the rest assented, that Milhomme "do pay unto the said John Peck sixty Pounds New York currency, and give such security for his future behaviour as the Commandant may think proper." Mr. Dejean then, as justice of the peace, took Milhomme's recognizance with sureties, to keep the peace and for his good behavior, reciting that he was then detained in prison for the offence. The instrument is drawn up in French, but is an exact and formal recognizance, answering precisely to the best precedents. Dejean had evidently a good knowledge of legal forms, and although, perhaps wisely, he paid no attention to that part of his commission which directed him to use the English language, he was well enough
164
RESTRAINT OF LIQUOR SELLING.
[CHAP. VIII.
qualified, so far as intelligence went, for his
position. His records of depositions and legal entries, as well as his conveyances, show him to have been thoroughly educated. There must have been some good reason undisclosed why such a man was confined by the earlier commandants to the business of a conservator of the peace, and allowed no broad powers. So long as Detroit remained subject to the rule of the commanding officer, before the Quebec Act, there was nothing made public to indicate that Dejean had done or could do anything seriously out of the way. The commanders did not venture to trust his discretion.
In the beginning of June, 1775, for some reason or other, the merchants of Detroit found it necessary to take steps themselves to prevent the sale of rum to the Indians, and they adopted very stringent rules to bind themselves, and to keep others from transgressing. James Abbott, James Sterling, Alexander Macomb, and John Porteous, were appointed a committee to enforce the rules. A penalty of three hundred pounds York currency was imposed for any infraction. All questions were to be settled by arbitration, and the committee were empowered to distrain property to enforce the award. The whole matter was carefully kept out of the courts.
The arrival of the Lieutenant Governor made a change in various ways, and the few circum- stances which have come to light during this period show unmistakable evidence of a more
165
ARBITRARY ACTION.
CHAP. VIII.]
arbitrary system. The Boston Port Bill which changed the government of Massachusetts, and that for trying American offenders in England and depriving them of trial by a jury of the vicinage, were introduced with the Quebec Bill, and as parts of one scheme. The Ministry had inaugurated a period of high prerogative. Ham- ilton came out prepared to be as tyrannical as circumstances might require. Although Detroit was not within reach of communication with any of the English common-law settlements, it com- manded the whole Indian country, and he was ready to use any means to hound on the Indians against the American malcontents. In December, 1775, appears the first and apparently the only case where any one in the settlement came under suspicion of disloyalty, and the subsequent exper- iences of this gentleman seem to show that, while he was probably loyal enough, in the proper sense, it was not safe in Detroit to be very plain spoken. Garret Graverat, (a name very familiar to the old residents of Michigan,) one of the Albany traders who settled in Detroit, was, in December, 1775, compelled, (so far as appears without any complaint or showing,) to give bail in four hundred pounds sterling, conditioned that he "does not correspond with, carry intelligence to, or supply any of his Majesty's Enemies, nor does anything Determental to this settlement in Particular, or against any of his Majesty's good subjects, during the space of one year and one
166
CRIMINAL PROSECUTION. [CHAP. VIII.
day," &c. The form of this document is not equal to Dejean's own recognizances, although nominally taken before him, and it is very com- prehensive and open to dangerous construction.1
On the 18th of March, 1776, a transaction took place which has been much discussed, and was certainly peculiar. It shows Dejean going very much beyond his old commission, and it has been assumed as the act of an ignorant and mulish magistrate, incited or favored by a lieutenant governor, careless of law and propriety. Facts recently discovered, and not before published, show that the proceeding was not a hasty one, as it was not one done in ignorance. How far they divest it of its supposed atrocity cannot be so easily determined. It is evident there is much in its unwritten history yet unknown.
On that day a mixed jury of twelve persons (six English and six French) found a special verdict, in the form of an inquest, convicting a Frenchman named Jean Contencinau, of stealing furs from Ab- bott & Finchley, (a commercial firm in Detroit) and Ann Wyley, a negro slave, of stealing or being accessory to stealing a purse of six guineas from the same, found on her person. They were both tried for attempting to set fire to the house of Mr. Abbott, but as to this the jury were not satisfied, although they said the circum-
The narrative of Mr. Dodge, of his treatment at Detroit during the Revolution, by Hamilton and Dejean, places them in a very unfavorable light.
167
PRISONERS HANGED.
CHAP. VIII. ]
stances were very strong against the prisoners. Up- on this verdict Dejean sentenced them to be hanged on the Domain, and this sentence was carried out a few days afterwards. Dejean's address to the pris- oners has been preserved, and is published, with the verdict, in Lanman's History.1 There is one serious error in the translation, which represents him as stating Ann Wyley was "accused " of the crime of stealing, whereas she was found by the jury to have been "accessory " to it, and doubtless this is what the judge said. It is said that Carleton and the Chief Justice proposed, when they heard of this execution, to have both Hamilton and Dejean ar- rested and taken to Quebec for trial. If so, the stirring times probably interfered to prevent it, for both remained in Detroit more than two years un- molested. Sir Guy soon left his office for military duty, and was succeeded by Haldimand.
Recent searches have brought to light the result of two preliminary examinations of Contencinau held by Dejean as justice of the peace; and it appears that, instead of being a summary proceed- ing, nearly a year and a half elapsed between examination and trial, and a much longer time between the commission of the offence and the conviction. And it also shows either that the ex- amination was unfair, (and this does not seem likely) or that some of the testimony failed before the trial. Ann Wyley made no confession-or at least signed none. Contencinau signed two, or
1 Pages 133, 134, 135.
168
EXAMINATION OF THE PRISONERS. [CHAP. VIII.
rather affixed his mark. At the second, Captain Lernoult, the commanding officer, was present, and certified that the statement was read to the prisoner in his presence, and he confessed to its several articles. From this confession it would appear that on the 24th of June, 1774, Ann Wyley, who was a domestic slave of the house, gave Contencinau a cartridge to use in setting fire to the house. He took it and wrapped it up with more powder in a linen cloth, and when the family were at dinner put it on a shelf and fired it, and then carried off the money-box and gave it to Ann. That evening she gave him several dollars in specie and bills, and also handed him the casket to burn, which he did. He
·
and one Landry both confessed to stealing furs, and
Contencinau admitted stealing some knives. Jane Wassenton, (Washington,) a soldier's wife, testified to having various articles left with her on false pretexts by both Jean and Nancy, and that the latter, in sending a lot of soiled linen for the wash, included some of Jean's shirts, in a pocket of one of which she found a green purse containing six guineas, which Jean claimed he knew nothing about, and charged Nancy with concealing there. The last examination was November 2, 1774. The evidence was enough to put the respondents on trial. The only explanation of the delay is that no one was authorized to try a prisoner for a capital felony, and Captain Lernoult probably did not care to venture on exercising or conferring such a power. Under the Quebec Act,
169
PROCEEDINGS BEFORE TRIAL.
CHAP. VIII.]
the offence could have been punished, if there had been any court, or any ascertained venue, but Detroit was unattached to any county, and there were no courts. The delay of a year, from the spring of 1775 to that of 1776, was too long to be accounted for, except on the idea that Hamilton either consulted the authorities at Quebec, or sought light from some quarter. As both he and Dejean were both afterwards within reach of civil and criminal jurisdiction, and not only were not prose- cuted, but Hamilton was made Governor General of Canada, it may be doubted whether the state- ment of their intended arrest was not erroneous. The trial was apparently a fair one, and the jury did not convict of arson which was made out on the examination. If there was any irregularity, (although Ann Wyley could not technically have been held on such a finding,) it did not go to the general merits ; and the jury was made up of the best citizens of Detroit. The punishment was according to our notions beyond justice, but it was in accordance with the spirit of the laws of England. Dejean's address was humane and temperate. It seems difficult to believe that after such long delays he would have ventured upon an act which he had shrunk from before, without some assurance of its legality or some powerful prompting ; and the case was not otherwise one of public concern. Of course the act was illegal, and both he and the Lieutenant Governor were liable to punishment for it.1
I The appointment by the Crown of a special trial commission, would have involved creating auxiliary local officers and magistrates, which would
170
DEJEAN A PLURALIST.
[CHAP. VIII.
There is, on the other hand, full reason to regard him as implicated with Hamilton in his various official transactions, and he was evidently a favorite and confidant, and probably a very accommodating one. He was made Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor, and given the only remaining lucrative post in the settlement-that of King's Receiver ; so that he was at once justice of the peace, judge, notary, auctioneer, recorder, receiver of moneys, and private secretary. A man must have been very virtuous, or very subservient, to get control of all the paying public business of the post; and events showed that Mr. Dejean felt safest with his patron.
There is very little of interest to be learned con- cerning the Michigan settlements during the revolutionary period. Under the illegal Indian grants, which the commandants had found it neces- sary or desirable to sanction, (as their own were usually much larger than those of private citizens,) settlements crept slowly along the great water- courses, reaching the St. Clair River to the north and the Raisin on the south. Several grants were made by the commanders at Mackinaw, on the mainland, and on Bois-blanc Island. Grosse Ile and Hog Island, in Detroit River, were granted-the former, with some smaller islands near it, to Alexander Macomb, and the latter to George McDougall.
The sentiments of the French settlers towards Great Britain were in general loyal. They had no
have given permanent civil government. While this was promised by the implications of the Quebec Act, it was not intended by the Ministry to be fulfilled.
171
FRENCH INHABITANTS.
CHAP. VIII.]
intimate relations with the American colonies, and had never been in the enjoyment of such civil rights as made the British rule irksome, merely because despotic in form. There were other grievances which they felt heavily, but which did not form any peculiarly close bond of sympathy with their Amer- ican neighbors. The old war with France on this continent was conducted effectively by American troops, and there had been for a long time a jealousy between Canada and the other colonies. One im- mediate object of the Congress at Albany, in 1754, was to furnish more effective protection against French hostilities. But the evident disregard of England for the feelings and customs of the Cana- dians, the cruel treatment of the Acadians, and the haughty insolence which for many years after the conquest the original settlers of Cana- da had encountered, as if they had no rights in the country, did not fail to dampen their attach- ment for their new sovereignty, although it failed to excite them to rebellion. The greatest evil of the French colonial system was its complete centralization. Nothing was left to people or com- munities ; and however desirous the settlers might have been to assert themselves, they lacked those habits of organization which from inheritance and usage were instinctive in British and American so- ciety. They were brave and manly, but they had not learned to make their own leaders. Their dis- content impelled them as a body to nothing more dangerous than neutrality, and when they went into
172
SENTIMENTS OF THE PEOPLE.
[CHAP. VIII.
the military service at all, it was not strange that they enlisted under the British flag and fought with spirit. Some care seems to have been taken at Detroit to conciliate Frenchmen of influence, and commissions in the militia were given to prominent citizens. There was no period during the Revolu- tion when any success worth mentioning attended the efforts of the Americans to conciliate the French Canadians, except in Kaskaskia and Vincen- nes, although a close alliance was kept up with France, and many natives of that country were found in our own army as well as among the auxil- iaries. The British residents, as is not unusual in colonies, were more bitter and vindictive than any other portion of the King's subjects. If there were any American sympathizers in Detroit, their names have not come down to us; unless Garret Graverat was one, which is not altogether unlikely.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.