USA > Michigan > Outlines of the political history of Michigan > Part 13
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There were, in 1786, and thereafter, some mutual
190
VIOLATION OF TREATY.
[CHAP. VIII.
grounds of complaint for alleged violations of the treaty, but none in 1783, '84 or '85, that were set up as solid pretexts for retaining the posts. There can be no reason to doubt the conclusion of General Washington, that the mother country meant to speculate on dissolution, and to retain the unsettled country and western forts if she could. In 1784, it would seem, however, that the Canadian Governor may possibly have expected to be compelled to comply with our demands ; as he removed the pub- lic records from Detroit to Quebec, where they were retained until Lord Dorchester, in 1789, sent out Judge Powell to establish a court. At this lat- ter period, it seems to have been assumed that the United States would be compelled to submit to losing the posts. That removal of records was in direct violation of the treaty, and the records so removed were never put in American custody until the present decade, when they were partially res- tored, (as far as found,) by order of Her Majesty's Government. The responsibility of the British authorities for the intentional and unprovoked re- tention of the posts does not rest on surmise. On nearly every occasion when attempts were made to treat with the Indians, they represented they could not act without the consent of the Detroit Com- mandant. When Brant went to England, after the formation of his confederacy in 1785, he asked an explicit assurance that the British would stand by him, which Lord Sidney, the Colonial Secretary, evaded, but did not discourage. John Johnson, the
191
BRITISH AND INDIAN DEALINGS.
CHAP. VIII.]
Indian Superintendent, on his return, gave him that assurance in writing, and impressed upon him very strongly not to allow the Americans to come into the country, or to approach the posts, saying : "It is for your sakes, chiefly, if not entirely, that we hold them." * * "By supporting them, you encourage us to hold them, and encourage the new settlements, already considerable, and every day increasing by numbers coming in, who find they cannot live in the States." Lord Dorchester was more explicit, and speaking through Captain Mathews, whom he sent to command at Detroit, he expresses regret that the Indians have consented to let the Ameri- cans make a road to Niagara, but, notwithstanding this blameworthy conduct, the Indians shall never- theless have their presents, as a mark of approba- tion of their former conduct; and then proceeds : " In future his lordship wishes them to act as is best for their interests. He cannot begin a war with the Americans because some of their people en- croach and make depredations upon parts of the Indian country ; but they must see it is his lord- ship's intention to defend the posts, and that while these are preserved, the Indians must find great security therefrom, and consequently the Americans greater difficulty in taking possession of their lands. But should they once become masters of the posts, they will surround the Indians, and ac- complish their purpose with little trouble." * * * * In your letter to me, you seem apprehensive that the English are not very anxious about the defence
192
SCHEMES TO RETAIN MICHIGAN. [CHAP. VIII.
of the posts. You will soon be satisfied that they have nothing more at heart, provided that it continues to be the wish of the Indians, and that they remain firm in doing their part of the business, by preventing the Americans from coming into their country, and conse- quently from marching to the posts. On the other hand, if the Indians think it more for their interest that the Americans should have possession of the posts, and be established in their country, they ought to declare it, that the English need no longer be put to the vast and unnecessary expense and inconvenience of keeping posts, the chief object of which is to protect their Indian allies, and the loyalists who have suffered with them.'
The proofs are abundant that the British depended on the Indians to keep the Americans from approaching the forts to get possession, and that this was not done for any claims of violated treaty, but because they desired to retain the western country and its trade for their own pur- poses.
In 1784, as before mentioned, a new lieutenant governor was sent out to Detroit, and in 1789 it was brought under partial civil government. This was also, if we may credit the information received from our diplomatic agents in England, in pursuance of a definite plan whereby Lord Dorchester was vested with enlarged powers.
I Stone's Brant, iii , 271.
193
CHAP. VIII.] CANADA DIVIDED.
During the period of unlawful possession, there was apparently no restraint put on the acquisition of Indian grants, and, unless the chiefs were ubiquitous, it appears in some cases as if no par- ticular care was taken to be sure of their identity. Congress had at once, upon the peace, prohibited any such purchases.
Very few facts of local interest are noted within the next few years. The Ordinance of 1787, which furnished a wise constitution for the territory northwest of the Ohio, did not become practically operative in this region until the Americans gained possession. Before that time, although no laws passed after the treaty could attach except for the time being, yet, so long as the country was held by Great Britain, all trans- actions were governed by the law of the pos- sessors.
In 1792, Quebec was divided into Upper and Lower Canada ; and Colonel John Graves Simcoe was made Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, the Governorship General covering both divisions. The Quebec Act, so far as it applied to Upper Canada, was repealed, as well as all legislation under it abrogated. Upper Canada was made a common law country, and trial by jury was intro- duced in both civil and criminal cases.
Simcoe, who had commanded during the Revolution the Queen's Rangers, a regiment of American tories, first raised by Rogers, and
13
194
BORDER DIFFICULTIES.
[CHAP. VIII.
somewhat noted for their cruelties, took no pains to conceal his sentiments. The Upper Canada Legislature established permanent courts in the regular way at Detroit and Mackinaw, as posts of the Province. In 1789, provision was made for granting lands in the Province to American refugees, and the region lying east of the Detroit River and north of Lake Erie was largely settled by Dutch tories from New York. The result was to excite among the Americans who afterwards settled in Michigan a fierce animosity against that class of their neighbors, which was of long standing. In regard to the other British people, the feeling was more kindly, except as to the Indian agents and emissaries, who were never forgiven for their share in the massacres of the Americans.
The results of St. Clair's disastrous defeat in 1791 rendered it more difficult to treat with the Indians, and their depredations were multiplied. It became evident that, unless some peaceable arrangement could be made, the American people would be obliged to resort to effectual measures to put an end to these scenes. The western people had desired again and again to be allowed to take mat- ters into their own hands. But in this troubled period the Governor General, Lord Dorchester, and the Lieutenant Governor, Simcoe, went great lengths in urging on the Indians, and both evidently believed that the time was at hand when Great Britain would regain the whole
195
WAYNE'S CAMPAIGN.
CHAP. VIII.]
Indian country. Negotiations with the Indians having failed, General Wayne began his effective campaigns. Simcoe not only favored the sav- ages, but built a fort in 1794 at the Maumee Rapids, and garrisoned it with regular British troops. Wayne arrived in the neighborhood in August, and on the 20th defeated the Indians and their allies, driving them under range of the guns of the fort, and destroying Colonel McKee's stores, and everything else of value up to its very walls. The post commander took no part in the battle, and the Indians were very much incensed at such cold support. Wayne could not, under his orders, attack the fort, unless assailed, and the British officer in charge had similar orders. Gener- al Wayne went as far as he could to induce that gentleman to attack him, but without effect. The Indians were, however, aided in the fight by a body of Canadian militia, under Colonel Baby ; and Sim- coe, McKee, Elliott and Girty were not far off. In September these four persons held a council at Malden to prevent a peace, and to induce the Indians to cede their lands to the British ; promis- ing that the latter could then guarantee their pos- session, and join in a general attack which would sweep the country clean of Americans. Although this was aided by presents, and other inducements, the Indians were divided, and many of them com- plained that the British had urged them on into ruinous wars, and had not helped them.
January 29th, 1795, the tribes made a prelimin-
196
TREATY OF GREENVILLE. INDIAN GRANTS. [CHAP. VIII.
ary treaty of peace at Greenville, with General Wayne. They appointed the next June, at the same place, for the final treaty. The conferences lasted through July, all of the chiefs giving and receiving full explanations, and laying the previous hostilities to the encouragement of the British authorities. The treaty was signed on the third of August.
In November, 1794, a treaty had been executed between Mr. Jay, as American Minister, and the British Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Lord Gren- ville, whereby it was agreed the posts should be given up on or before June 1, 1796. News of this reached the country in due time, and at once a last effort was made to render it abortive. In 1783, the Northwest Fur Company had been organized to control the fur trade, not reached by the Hudson's Bay Company, and the Detroit traders were all interested in keeping the country, as far as possible, unsettled. All of Michigan away from the Detroit River and the Island of Mackinaw, was a wilderness, and so was the adjacent belt of country in northern Ohio and Indiana. Between the treaties of January and August, grants, or pretended grants, were obtained to Jonathan Schiefflin, Jacobus Visgar, Richard Pattinson, Robert Innis, Alexander Henry, John Askin Senior, John Askin Junior, Robert Mc- Niff, William Robertson, Israel Ruland, and John Dodemead, of various parcels of land, covering the whole country from the Cuyahoga River westward to about the centre line of Michigan, and northward
197
CHAP. VIII.]
AMERICAN POSSESSION. WAYNE DIES.
to Saginaw Bay, including all the land that was then supposed possibly available for settlement for ages.
The time at last came for taking possession. The British garrison evacuated the fort some time before the Americans arrived, and left it in very bad condition, with the wells filled up with rubbish, and with other mischief to the premises.
General Wayne came with Winthrop Sargent, the Secretary and acting Governor of the Northwest Territory, and took possession of the fort, putting Captain Porter in command. Mackinaw was also garrisoned. On the first of July, 1796, Michigan, for the first time, became an American possession.
On his return from this duty, General Wayne started eastward, to deal with charges made against him by General Wilkinson, who had acted a very ungenerous part in striving to belittle the exploits of an officer whose fame has been amply vindicated by time, and with whom now his assailant's reputa- tion will bear no comparison. No one ever had a stronger hold on the administration of the western people than Mad Anthony, and his memory has not faded.
The brave soldier, who had escaped the perils of many battles, was seized on his way to Erie with a violent attack of gout which proved speedily fatal. He was buried at Erie. Many years afterwards, when his son disinterred the remains to remove them to a place among his kindred, the body was found uncorrupted and sound as if it had been embalmed.1
I Burnet.
CHAPTER IX.
MICHIGAN UNDER THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY AND INDIANA.
THE peninsula of Michigan was not allowed to pass into American hands without a struggle. It was not until two days after the time fixed by Jay's Treaty for surrendering the western posts, that the Legislature of Upper Canada reluctantly passed an act to discontinue holding courts at Detroit and Mackinaw.
In the summer of 1795, when it became cer- tain that the execution of the Treaty of Green- ville would remove the last obstacle to the posses- sion of the country by the Americans, a plan was formed by several merchants residing in Detroit and in the Parish of Assumption in Canada across the river, to secure the control of the Territory, by purchasing all the land. To do this it was thought necessary to impress upon the minds of congressmen the idea that no reliance could be placed on the peaceable disposition of the Indians, and that the Detroit merchants were the only persons that could control them. Where such persuasion failed to produce conviction, a gigantic
199
CONSPIRACY TO REGAIN MICHIGAN.
CHAP. IX.]
system of bribery was to be used to accomplish the desired end. A company, the known western members of which were the two Askins, Jonathan Schiefflin, William and David Robertson, Robert Innis and Richard Pattinson, was organized, with a proposed stock of forty-one shares, of which five were for the Detroit partners, six allotted to Ebenezer Allen, of Vermont, and his eastern associates, six to one Robert Randall, of Phil- adelphia, and his associates, and the remaining twenty-four to members of Congress, with the understanding that they could take money instead, if they preferred it. Ebenezer Allen and Charles Whitney, of Vermont, and Robert Randall, of Philadelphia, were to deal with the members. Randall and Whitney began the task, and approached several representatives. They desired to obtain from Congress a grant of the whole Lower Peninsula of Michigan, for which they offered to pay half a million of dollars, or, if need be, a million, and to assume the risk of getting up the Indian title.
Among others applied to were Theodore Sedgwick, William Smith of South Carolina, Mr. Murray of Maryland, William B. Giles of Virginia, and Daniel Buck of Vermont. They conferred with the President, and by concert all avoided exciting the suspicion of the agents, and managed to get precise information of the whole extent and details of the scheme. Mr. Sedgwick was entrusted with the memorial, to present it to the House.
200
RANDALL AND WHITNEY ARRESTED. [CHAP. IX.
On the 28th day of December, 1795, these gentlemen, after the petition had been presented and referred, arose in their places and divulged the whole matter to Congress. Randall and Whitney, who were the only ones that had approached either of them, were arrested, and ordered to answer for contempt. Whitney, who does not appear to have done much, answered fully and was finally discharged. Randall was more pugnacious, and was punished by imprison- ment. He claimed to have obtained pledges from several members, who took no part in expos- ing him. The House, with a very ill-judged squeamishness, objected to having names of mem- bers given, and questions calling for them were ruled out. It is sadly to be feared that it was not impossible, in those days, for members of Congress to be attracted by an operation with a certainty of great profit in it.
Of course, after this exposure, the scheme failed. The Indian purchases before referred to, which would have been legalized if Congress had made this sale, were no doubt concocted with a view to it. That it was not designed to keep the country for American purposes, will appear from the fact that, under Jay's Treaty, all the partners residing on the American side of Detroit River made their election in writing. to remain British subjects ; and all but Schiefflin afterwards retired to Canada. ยท
It is needless to speculate on the probable
201
CHAP. IX. ] BRITISH ADHERENTS.
results of the success of such a scheme. Michigan would never have become a prosperous American State, and the whole northwest might have been a British Province. No part of the country was Americanized for a long time, except the country immediately depending on Detroit and Mackinaw. The white settlers at the Sault Ste. Marie, and about Green Bay, remained attached to the British interests, and raised volunteers to aid in the capture of Mackinaw in the war of 1812. Mack- inaw itself, as appears from the State Papers of the United States, was infested by treasonable inhabitants, who were never adequately dealt with for their treachery, beyond receiving a good share of contempt among their neighbors.
How Schiefflin withdrew from his election, or how he became rehabilitated as an American citizen, does not appear; but he certainly became one, and, not many years after, he was a judge of common pleas in Detroit, and a useful delegate at Chillicothe. He had large landed possessions, and failed to make out a good title to many more, which he claimed from Indian grants. He was a favorite among the Indians, and an adopted member of some of the tribes, being styled in a grant from the Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawa- tamie tribes as "our adopted brother and chief in our said Nations,' by the names of Ottason and Minawinima."1
I Ottason (with the French pronounciation Atasson,) signifies a store- keeper or trader. Minawinima, a foul talker. This last name was that of a chief who probably exchanged names with Schiefflin .- Vide Baraga.
202
SOCIAL RELATIONS.
[CHAP. IX.
He subsequently returned to his old home in New York, and lived to a good old age. In 1797 he, with Jacobus Visgar, Richard Pattinson and Robert Innis, sold their Indian title to the south-eastern part of Michigan to William S. Smith of New York City, for two hundred thousand pounds York currency, or half a million dollars, taking back a mortgage (never paid) for the entire purchase money. If any further ex- periments were made with Congress, they were not published, and the speculation failed.
The change of allegiance made no change in the social relations of most of the citizens. They had been old associates and good neighbors, and had no personal quarrels over it. It was generally felt that in the main the course of the British sympathizers was such as might fairly have been expected from those who had felt no political grievances, and it was also known that the British Ministry, in its extreme courses, did not fairly represent the British people, from whom the entire heritage of American liberty had descended. The tory refugees from New York were not, however, looked upon with much complacency by the Americans ; and the new comers from the Eastern States were not much better received by the French, who had a vague dread of being talked out of their farms before they knew it, by these glib-tongued bargainers. But time, and the enforced companionship of a little frontier town, soon smoothed away their prejudices; and Detroit
203
LEGAL AFFAIRS.
CHAP. IX.]
was, in its early days, a place of more than usual social harmony.
It now became evident that the policy of pre- venting settlements had produced one very fortu- nate result. The amount of land lawfully owned or claimed by private persons in actual occupancy, was so insignificant, that the change from French to English, and from English to American rule, was not felt in our legal relations. As there had never been any law regularly administered, unless for a very short time, and as, under the Quebec Act, wills could be made according to either English or French law, no questions were likely to arise except as to inheritances ; and here the American law was more like the French than the English, as it did not devolve estates by primogeniture. It was very common for French land-owners to make disposition of their estates among their children, which became operative before their own decease. The ordinance of 1787, which attached when the cession was com- plete, produced no shock whatever ; as the English traders had always followed the common law, which was the basis of all proceedings under the Ordi- nance.
As the statutes of Upper Canada had all been passed during the usurpation, they required no repeal ; and, although some rights had grown up under them, they were not important legally, and are of small consequence historically, unless, per- haps, in relation to slavery. The Ordinance of 1787 had declared that "there shall neither be
204
PROVINCIAL LEGISLATION.
[CHAP. IX.
slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said Terri- tory, otherwise than in the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." Not only had slavery always existed in Canada, but, in 1790, an Act of Parliament authorized the Gov- ernor to grant licenses to import negroes and other slaves into the Province. A very early Act of the Legislature of Upper Canada prohibited further importations, and provided for the emancipation of all slave children thereafter born, on reaching the age of twenty-five. An Act was also passed for greater caution, and not from any real difficulty, whereby all marriages solemnized theretofore by magistrates, commanders of posts, adjutants or surgeons, acting as chaplains, were legalized. By the remarks of some of the advocates as well as of the opponents of the Quebec Bill, it appears that some doubts arose originally in regard to the legal powers of the clergy and others in various cases, and there were times when there were neither Pro- testant nor Catholic ministers in some of the settle- ments. When Father Richard arrived at Detroit, in 1798, he celebrated with the rites of the church many marriages that had previously been performed civilly. No other provincial legislation requires reference.
The only provisions of Jay's Treaty, under which litigation subsequently arose, were Article 2, which protected all traders and others in the enjoy- ment of all their property of every kind, and which allowed them though resident to retain their old
205
WAYNE COUNTY.
CHAP. IX.]
allegiance, by declaring their intention within a year after the evacuation of the posts; and Article 9, which allowed existing estates to be transferred, or to descend, without reference to alienage.
On the 18th of August, 1796, Winthrop Sargent, acting Governor of the Northwest Territory, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal, set apart the new County of Wayne. Its boundaries extended from the Cuyahoga River westward about to the dividing line now existing between Indiana and Illinois, and thence northward to the national boundary line, including all of the subsequent Territory of Michigan, and a portion of Ohio and Indiana. The county seat was Detroit, which is still the county seat of the County of Wayne, much shrunken from those generous dimensions.
At or about the same time Governor Sargent organized the militia, and the Court of Common Pleas for Wayne County, which was, like the former Canadian court of the same name, a court of record of extensive jurisdiction, presided over by lay judges, who were business men chosen for their probity and intelligence. Louis Beaufait was first Senior Justice, and James May, Charles Girardin, Patrick McNiff and Nathan Williams, were early Justices. The appointments to all judicial offices were made by the Executive. There was one session at Detroit each year, of the Supreme Court of the Territory. Those judges were appointed by the President and Senate, and, at the time of the organization of
206
COURTS. PUBLIC LANDS.
[CHAP. IX.
Wayne County, were Rufus Putnam, John Cleves Symmes, and George Turner. Putnam resigned the same year, and was succeeded by Joseph Gillman. Turner had left the Territory in the spring of 1796, and resigned while absent. Return J. Meigs was appointed to succeed him in. 1 798. By the laws then in force one judge could hold the court. Judge Symmes attended every term that was held in Detroit, until Michigan was separated from Ohio.
As the Ordinance of 1787 was the constitution of the whole northwest, it demands some refer- ence, although familiar to the readers of American history. After the peace of 1783, it became a serious question what to do with the lands be- longing to the United States, and not within any single State. All of Michigan and Wisconsin, and parts of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, were un- questionably treaty acquisitions ; while the re- mainder of the Northwest Territory was claimed by conflicting States. The Articles of Confeder- ation did not provide for such an emergency expressly, and the government of the confeder- ation was not adapted for ordinary legislation, having neither executive nor judiciary.
The States having pretensions over the country finally made cessions of it, upon jealously drawn conditions, not for their own benefit, but for that of the people of the Territory. The whole trans- action was more in the nature of a supplementary treaty, or convention, than of a law; and the
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