USA > Michigan > Outlines of the political history of Michigan > Part 15
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Movements were now set on foot which were to terminate in the speedy establishment of a new State. Wayne County was not consulted by the promoters of the scheme, as Judge Burnet states, for political reasons. On the 30th of April, 1802, an Act of Congress was passed authorizing the people in that part of the Territory east of Indiana, and south of the line running east from the southerly point of Lake Michigan, to adopt a constitution. All north of that line was annexed to Indiana but Congress reserved
224
ANNEXATION TO INDIANA.
[CHAP. IX.
power either to make it a separate State or to attach it to Ohio. The people of Wayne County were very much incensed at being given no voice in the determination of their future, and at being deprived of the right of representation ; while there was a similar feeling in some parts of Ohio, arising from a conviction that it was a political trick to secure particular results. Judge Burnet published in his Notes on the Northwestern Territory some interesting documents showing the extent of the feeling concerning the treat- ment of Wayne County.
The union with Indiana was so brief that it has left no traces behind it. The Legislative power being thrown into the hands of the Gov- ernor and Judges, the people lost their voice in the Government. If there were any laws passed in the interval they are not accessible to ordinary research, and they never affected rights in Michi- gan appreciably.
The town of Detroit made use of its new prerogatives concerning the prevention of fires, and the use of streets as bowling alleys. There had been some changes in the town since the French days, but not many. The streets were, as before, sixteen and twenty feet wide, and the Chemin de Ronde twelve feet wide, but with some jogs and angles widening it further in places. The main fort was outside of the town, and north of the River Savoyard. In front, on the Detroit River, were two commodious wharves. Governor
225
CHAP. IX. J BUILDINGS IN DETROIT.
Hamilton had replaced the original chateau by a large and fine house of hewn timber. The houses generally were well-built block-houses, one-and-a- half stories high, with peaked roofs starting but a few feet from the ground, and dormer windows. The only sidewalks that could be afforded in such narrow ways were single timbers, squared and about a foot in diameter. East of the stockade were the navy garden and navy yard and ceme- tery, extending a little east of Woodward Avenue. There were probably some scattered dwellings on the Domain outside. A space of one arpent wide sold from the westerly side of the Askin or Brush Farm, which joined the Domain on the east, was built up from the river to Michigan Avenue with for the most part good buildings, that survived the fire of 1805. The lots within the old town were too small and closely built to afford room for courts or gardens. A few, however, had purchased enough to indulge in this luxury, and these were men of wealth who could afford to follow their tastes and beautify their abodes. The houses, like those built after 1805, were furnished with stout doors and shutters, and the outer door, as in the ancient New York mansions, was divided in two, so that the lower half might be kept closed and the upper half open, allowing all the benefit of light and air without the intrusion of trespassers of the human or brute creation. No vehicles were used that could not be drawn by a single pony. In the centre of each house arose an enormous chimney
15
226
CHIMNEY ARRANGEMENTS.
[CHAP. IX.
with flues of large capacity, not reaching far above the roof, but affording a vent to the great volumes of smoke that arose from generous fire places kept heaped with long beech and maple or hickory wood. Cooking-stoves were not invented yet, and the baking was done in large dome-like ovens, built in the yard or attached to the chimney, or else in bake-kettles or Dutch ovens, where coals beneath and coals on the broad iron cover ac- complished the work speedily. The crémaillère, or crane, (made classic by Longfellow's beautiful poem, the " Hanging of the Crane,") swung from stout staples in the side of the chimney, with its array of pots and kettles, hung on the pot-hooks and trammels that gave names in our youth to the first efforts of the penman ; and the savory roast turned before the fire beneath the chimney-piece and under the open flue, or on long horizontal spits before a tin reflector. These low roofs and great chimneys were not without their inconveni- encies. It is told of a gentleman who in early times was an exemplary judge and magistrate, that, notwithstanding his dignity, he on one festival oc- casion, when a good neighbor was preparing a grand banquet, went up to the roof, and without Caleb Balderstone's necessities, dropped a line with a fish-hook down the kitchen flue, while a confederate sent off the cook for a moment, and attached the hook to a fine turkey that had just reached the proper brownness. The frightened servant, returning when the bird had flown up the
227
CHAP. IX. CIVIC MISDEMEANORS.
chimney, was firmly convinced the disappearance was due to nothing short of witchcraft. In 1828, on a bright summer afternoon, the passers-by on Jefferson avenue were surprised and startled to see a large bear promenading along the ridge- pole of Mr. Thibout's house (directly opposite the Michigan Exchange) ; and although the alarm given brought out half the settlement, Bruin escaped safely to the woods.
The records of the Trustees show a large weekly list of fines, against the inhabitants who failed to keep their water-butts full, or their leather buckets complete and within reach, or their fire- bags (large canvas bags for removing goods) empty, or their ladders sound. The zeal with which these precautions were followed up shows the constant fear and danger of fires; and was almost prophetic. It was no slight charge to keep up a water supply, for there were few wells, and no means of drawing water but from the river by carts, or in buckets swung on shoulder-yokes. There were no engines, and at fires the people formed double lines to the river, the men to pass the full buckets and the women and children the empty ones.
The other misdemeanors most common were horse racing and bowling. Canadian ponies and their masters were as prone to racing as the he- roes of the turf in England; and no amount of fining could keep the prosperous burghers from trving their speed in the narrow streets of the
228
PASTIMES. BRITISH FORT.
[CHAP. IX.
town. But a more dangerous pastime was rolling cannon balls in the streets. Ninepin alleys required more room than the short blocks afforded, and the narrow highways were tempting substitutes, while an eighteen-pound ball required strength and skill to send it swiftly and straight along the ground. It is not without interest to see that the culprits brought before the Trustees for these transgressions were not vagabonds and loafers, (for the brisk settlement had no toleration for such nuisances), but the solid men of business, who indulged in these simple amusements with the same overflowing mirth that made their kinsmen in Auld Reekie spend Saturday at e'en at high jinks.
The change of the sovereignty took many of the wealthiest merchants into Canada, where a part settled in Sandwich and a part at Amherst- burgh. The British Government at once prepared to build a fort at the mouth of the river on Bois- blanc Island, which had been the seat of the Hu- ron mission, and commanded the entrance to Lake Erie. Objection was made by the United States, and the question was serious enough to induce the British to change their plan and build on the main land, near by.' Under the Treaty of 1783, the boundary line was to run along the middle of the water-communication between Lake Erie and Lake Huron, and nothing was said about particu- lar channels or islands. It was not until the close
I Weld's Letters.
229
DISPUTED BOUNDARY.
CHAP. IX.]
of the last war with Great Britain that provision was made, in the Treaty of Ghent, for ascertain- ing the ownership of the various islands, by a commission appointed under the 6th article of that treaty. Peter B. Porter and Anthony Barclay were appointed commissioners by their respective governments, and, on the 18th of June, 1822, they determined that the line should run west of Bois- blanc. The channel between that island and Am- herstburgh was the main ship channel, and under the common usage of nations (as recently con- firmed by the award of the Emperor of Ger- many on the San Juan boundary question on the Pacific coast) the national boundary line is generally presumed to follow that channel. The nearness of Bois-blanc to the British mainland made it very unpleasant to have such a foot- hold for a possible enemy, and it probably would not have been agreed to had attention been called to it. The decision of the commissioners was equitable, and no one has found fault with it. In 1796 it was found necessary, in order to protect the Indians, that the United States should establish trading posts, where goods were to be furnished at a low profit and of good quality. The agents and their employees were restrained, under heavy penalties, from dealing on their own account, directly or indirectly, and from purchasing from the Indians any articles of use in hunting, cooking, or husbandry, or any articles of clothing. The laws providing for this, which were temporary,
230
INDIAN TRADE. PUBLIC LANDS.
[CHAP. IX
were extended from time to time until after the erec- tion of Michigan into a Territory. The plan was not perpetuated, although it had some advantages, as it was liable to fraud. The Indians who received annual presents from the British and from our own government of guns, hatchets, knives, cloth, blankets, kettles, and many other articles of use as well as of personal adornment, generally disposed of a large share of these articles before they left the set- tlements; and when they reached home they were not much better off than when they started, be- sides having been exposed to the temptation of drunkenness. They would no doubt have taken much better hold of civilization if the appliances had always remained in their possession.
On the 26th of March, 1804, an act was passed providing for the disposal of the public lands within the Territory, to which the Indian title had been extinguished, and directing all claims under the French and English Governments to be presented to the Registers and Receivers of the several Land Offices for proof. By this act, sec- tion 16 in each township was reserved for the use of schools within the same, and an entire town- ship was to be located in each of the districts afterwards forming Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, for a seminary of learning. This was the germ of the University Fund of Michigan, and of the Primary School Fund. No surveys could be made with safety until it was known what valid private grants existed. The Register and Receiver of the
231
MICHIGAN TERRITORY CREATED.
CHAP. IX.]
Detroit (or Michigan) District did not complete their labors until after the erection of the new Territory. In March, 1806, George Hoffman, Re- gister, and Frederick Bates, Receiver at Detroit, reported to the Secretary of the Treasury that only six valid titles had been made out before them, outside of the town.
It was under these circumstances that, on Janu- ary 11th, 1805, Congress enacted "that from and after the 30th day of June next, all that part of Indiana Territory which lies north of a line drawn east from the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan, until it shall intersect Lake Erie, and east of a line drawn from the said southerly bend through the middle of said lake to its northern extremity, and thence due north to the northern boundary of the United States, shall, for the pur- poses of temporary government, constitute a sepa- rate Territory, and be called Michigan."
Detroit was made the seat of government, and the ordinances of 1787 and 1789 were adopted as the charter of the Territory.
CHAPTER X.
GOVERNOR HULL'S CIVIL ADMINISTRATION.
THE transition to a separate territorial existence was not in all respects fortunate. The people were entirely deprived of self-government, and the times were such that the use of the Territories as political counters, and as rewards for political services, was becoming a recognized practice. The discontented citizen of our own time, who repeats with sadness the perennial story that the former days were better than these, can have no intimate knowledge of those former days. The course of time has removed from sight all but the more prominent features of the period. Those who were on the whole useful and sagaci- ous have been forgiven their lesser delinquencies and unworthiness, and the mutual charges of political corruption and dishonesty, which people forget as easily as they make them, have been lost sight of in the quarrels of their successors. Then, as now, most men who were not very soon cast out, were probably in the main well-meaning and patriotic; and like modern politicians, they persuaded themselves for the time that their personal or party success was so essential to the
233
POLITICAL ASPERITY.
CHAP. X.]
public welfare that it was better to use means questionably good, or unquestionably bad, than have the country ruined by falling into other hands. It is not pleasant for sensitive men to have their names and reputations bandied about and smirched, as recklessly as it is too often done by careless writers of items and editorials; but there was not an early statesman, from Washington down, who has not had meaner things said of him than are often ventured on by decent papers now concerning any one. The first half century of the Republic was conspicuous for the malignity of political quarrels, and the utter disregard of the sanctity of the private reputation of public men. In our day men who abuse each other in print, or on the stump, do not generally carry their warfare into social intercourse; and a person who allows his politics to lead him into discourtesy and malevolence in private life, is justly considered unworthy of respect. But in the early years of this century, men believed as well as spoke all manner of evil against their antagonists. Diplomacy had not yet lost the habit of lying and duplicity, and weak nations or communities had no rights which stronger ones respected. The reign of George the Third was a time when many great and patriotic statesmen did honor to their re- spective countries on both sides of the Ocean. It was also a time when political morality, and the manners as well as ethics of public life, every- where presented ample room for improvement ;
234
POPULATION.
[CHAP. X.
and they have been very much bettered. While, therefore, we may find in the history of this region plain marks of bad and selfish management, it would be quite unfair to lay too much stress upon it. Our territorial governments have been im- proved in some respects, but selfishness and mis- rule have not yet ceased to be found among them.
The country which became Michigan Territory after the 30th day of June, 1805, contained at that time no white settlements except Detroit and Frenchtown, and the river settlements, and Mackinaw. Beyond these there may have been a few straggling traders, but no communities. In 1800 the population, (not including Indians,) was only 3,206. This census return must be nearly correct, as in 1799 there were three representa- tives, each representing at least five hundred free male inhabitants. In 1810 the population had only increased to 4,762. Of these 144 were Indians taxed or colored persons, 24 of whom were slaves. In 1810 there were 2,837 free white males, and 1,781 free white females, showing an excess of males of 1,036. It is evident that a large portion of the immigration was of single men. In 1810 Detroit had a population of 1,650, or more than St. Louis, and nearly as many as Vincennes and Kaskaskia combined, these two being the chief Indiana settlements. There was not a hamlet or farm in the Territory five miles away from the boundary. Immediately across the Detroit River was a province which had begun to improve, and
235
CRITICAL POSITION OF MICHIGAN.
CHAP. X.]
increased in population very fast. Its people had representative government, and were kindred in blood and actual relatives of a large share of the people of Michigan, and on the most friendly terms with them. Surrounding all the white settlements in Michigan, and lying between them and the other American States and Territories, were gathered considerable numbers of the Indians of the northwest, who had settled down in Michigan and northern Indiana and Ohio, and still retained title to all but a trifling part of the lands in the Territory. Each of these tribes was in the regular receipt from Great Britain of arms, annuities and supplies, and great pains were taken, without resistance by our Government, to keep up respect and attachment for the British. With the previous warning derived from the withholding of the posts and the encroachments on American territory, it might have been foreseen to be danger- ous to leave thus isolated from American sur- roundings or attachments a community whose allegiance had just been changed, and not changed by their own procurement. It offered a strong temptation to our neighbors across the Strait, to make a further effort to get back the peninsula before it could be settled; and, while it is not established that the British Government was directly responsible for all that was done, the sequel showed that the land was coveted, and the effort was speedily made at a terrible cost to the border.
236
UNWISE APPOINTMENTS.
[CHAP. X.
The selection of rulers for such a country, who were to have the entire control both of legislation and of administration, required more care than it received. The appointments were not open to any apparent objection, and perhaps the wisdom that comes after the fact should not blame what was not generally supposed to be unsafe. The principle of appointment followed then is very generally followed now, and none more dis- creetly. No sufficient heed was given to the char- acter of the population or its ways. No wiser or better men were to be found in the United States than those who had settled in the Northwest Ter- ritory after the Revolution. They were men of sagacity and adaptability, with large experience of old as well as new countries, accustomed to every kind of society, and possessing the confidence and regard of their neighbors. The Indians also knew both their worth and their prowess, and had a wholesome respect for the Long Knives. The Governor of Indiana, General Harrison, had been wisely chosen from this class, and that Territory had gone on rapidly in improvement, while the new State of Ohio was increasing with wonderful speed. Michigan needed a western governor and western ideas, but it failed to get the benefit of either.
It is a great mistake to suppose the adoption of good laws is a necessary sign of prosperity. If they emanate from popular bodies, they may indicate (though not always) the popular sense.
237
TERRITORIAL OFFICERS.
CHAP. X.]
But there are often good laws upon our statute books that have never really governed the action of the people, and there are bad laws which have never hurt them, because never carried out fully. It is not on legislation, so much as on the actual conduct of affairs, that prosperity depends. The rottenest governments have had written codes which have been greatly admired, but which never prevented mischief. The codes adopted by the Governor and Judges of Michigan were substan- tially like those of their neighbors, and were not complained of. But the first decade of the Ter- ritorial life was unfortunate. As the time ap- proached for organizing the Territory, Mr. Jeffer- son sent to the Senate for confirmation the names of William Hull for Governor, Stanley Griswold for Secretary, and Augustus Brevoort Woodward, Samuel Huntington and Frederick Bates as Judges. Mr. Huntington declined the office, and in 1806 his place was filled by John Griffin. As the Gov- ernor, under the ordinance, had the entire control of establishing local offices and appointing officers, the character of the local organization depended almost entirely upon his judgment.
Of these persons, Governor Hull was an old Revolutionary officer from Massachusetts ; Mr. Griswold an able man but a red-hot politician from Connecticut, who had left the pulpit to be- come an editor, and who was only comfortable when he had his own way; Judge Bates was a resident land officer at Detroit, of sterling worth,
238
TERRITORIAL OFFICERS.
[CHAP. X.
and admirably fitted in all respects for his place ; Judge Griffin was a man of elegant accomplish- ments, but no great force of character or con- victions; and Judge Woodward was one of those strange compounds of intellectual power and wis- dom in great emergencies, with very frequent ca- price and wrongheadedness, that defy description.
Two of the three Judges, Bates and Griffin, were Virginians by birth, and old friends of Jeffer- son. Woodward, though generally credited to Vir- ginia, was not, it is believed, a native of that State, but of New York. He resided in the District of Columbia, and had attracted considerable attention from some ambitious writings of a somewhat specu- lative character, to which Mr. Jefferson had taken a fancy. They had many points of resemblance in their tastes. The executive officers were doubt- less selected (being otherwise regarded as compe- tent) because of their peculiar prominence as his supporters, in a region where he was not very popular.
Mr. Griswold, who had made himself useful in various ways in land matters, was for some reason unable to harmonize with the Governor, and it is said desired to supersede him. In this, however, he failed, and was himself removed at the end of his first term of three years; and his place was filled by Reuben Atwater of Vermont. This gen- tleman was universally respected for his integrity and good sense; and having been uniformly cour- teous and diligent. and having attended to his own
239
ARRIVAL AT DETROIT.
CHAP. X.]
business without disturbing or squabbling with his neighbors, he has failed to make as conspicuous a place in our local annals as if he had been less exemplary.
Judge Bates remained on the bench a little over a year. He found his associations unpleas- ant, and with Judge Griffin more than unpleasant. so much so as to have nearly led to a duel. He resigned his commission in November, 1806, and during the next winter was made Secretary of Louisiana Territory, at St. Louis, where he remained continuously in this and other responsible posi- tions, and died in 1825, while Governor of the State of Missouri. His resignation was a serious misfortune for Michigan. After he left there was no interruption in the unseemly quarrels and in- trigues which brought the legislative board and the court into contempt, and effectually checked the prosperity of the Territory. But in the out- set, and apparently until Griffin came, there was no serious clashing. The latter apparently was not entirely above mischief-making between Woodward and his colleagues; and while he generally ad- hered to the views of Woodward, he never struck out in any original path of good or evil.
The judges were appointed during good be- havior, and Judge Woodward was presiding judge. He arrived in Detroit on the 29th of June, 1805. The Governor reached the town on the Ist of July. On Tuesday, July 2d, the Governor admin- istered the oath of office to the other officers, and organized the government
240
DETROIT BURNED.
[CHAP. X.
They found a very sad state of affairs. On the 11th day of June, 1805, a fire destroyed every public and private building in the town, except a warehouse owned by Angus Mackintosh, and a · log-built bakery on the water's edge below the bluff. The warm season had enabled the people to camp out without discomfort, and those who could not find refuge in the hospitable abodes near by, and in Canada, had found rude shelter on the domain adjoining. Some had already put up new houses. The narrow streets and small lots in the old town were not well fitted for the growth of a settlement, and it was seen by all that a more commodious plan should be devised. In the uncertainty that existed concerning the ownership and control of the domain, it was con- cluded to lay out a town, and provide for the present emergency, leaving all questions to be settled in future. Lots were disposed of enough to meet the necessity, and the case was held over for the action of Congress.
Within the next three months a code of laws was prepared, and adopted seriatim in sections from day to day, by unanimous concurrence. The statutes were well drawn and judicious, so far as can be seen. Judicial matters received early at- tention.
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