USA > Michigan > Outlines of the political history of Michigan > Part 24
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The treaty of peace with Great Britain did not put an immediate end to the bad feeling. This stipulated for the immediate restoration of all places captured, with all papers, public and private, and for determining, by commissioners, the boundary line in those waters where the position of islands or other difficulties made it
378
BORDER VEXATIONS.
[CHAP. XIII.
doubtful, and pledged each government to place the Indians where they were in 1811.
The British officers near Detroit paid no at- tention to the boundary lines, but pursued desert- ers into the United States, and on some occasions undertook to assert jurisdiction over American citizens on Grosse Ile and in American waters. An Indian was killed at Grosse Ile in the act of attempting to murder an American, and the com- manding officer at Malden, Colonel James, directed an inquest, and offered a reward for the per- son who killed him. Governor Cass at once issued a proclamation enjoining the proper asser- tion and protection of American jurisdiction. Colonel Butler, commanding at Detroit, had also occasion to hold a sharp correspondence with Colonel James, concerning various infractions of right. In addition to other grievances, it was understood that Mackinaw was not likely to be surrendered, and that the Indians (which probably meant Dickson and the traders) meant to hold it. Malden was retained until such arrangements were made as ensured the delivery of Mackinaw. On the first of July, 1815, Malden was turned over to the British, and an American force sailed for Mackinaw, and took possession.
But the distance from headquarters, or some other cause, rendered some of the British officers in this region extremely insolent, and for a year or two there were continued aggressions. The American navy on Lake Erie had been dismantled,
379
SEARCH OF LAKE VESSELS.
CHAP. XIII.]
and the naval officers at Malden, in 1816, under- took to visit and search American vessels, under pretext of looking for deserters, thus renewing on the lakes the outrages which had led to the war. General Cass, on being informed of these insults, wrote a strong letter to the Malden officials, and laid the matter before the authorities at Washing- ton, where no doubt the acts were repudiated, as they were not repeated, and were probably ex- cesses of instructions and mere private impertin- ence. The intrigues with the Indians were kept up, both about Detroit and in the north, and American territory was used in that region for purposes very unfriendly to the United States. The trading companies paid no heed whatever to law or international obligations. It was not until two Indians were hung for murder at Detroit, instead of being as usual despatched in more summary fashion, that a full check was put to their outrages in that neighborhood.
The first necessity of the country was more people. No lands had been surveyed before the war, except the old private claims. In 1812, among other war legislation, an act was passed setting aside two millions of acres of land in Michigan, as bounty lands for soldiers. As soon as the war was over, and circumstances permitted, Mr. Tiffin, the Surveyor General, sent agents to Michigan to select a place for locating these lands. Their report was such as to induce him to re- commend the tranfer of bounty locations to some
380
REPORT ON BOUNTY LANDS. [CHAP. XIII.
other part of the United States. They began on
. the boundary line between Ohio and Indiana,
(which was the ivestern limit of the lands sur- rendered to the United States by the Indian treaty of 1807,) and, following it north for fifty miles, they described the country as an unbroken series of tamarack swamps, bogs and sand-barrens, with not more than one acre in a hundred, and probably not one in a thousand, fit for cultivation. Mr. Tiffin communicated this evil report to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, Josiah Meigs, and he and the Secretary of War, Mr. Crawford, secured the repeal of so much of the law as applied to Michigan. They were stimulated by a second report of the surveyors, who found the country worse and worse as they proceeded. In April, 1816, the law was changed, and lands were granted, instead, in Illinois and Missouri.
This postponed settlements, but it saved Mich- igan from one of the most troublesome sources of litigation which has ever vexed any country. It was in that way a benefit. But the report of the surveyors is one of the unaccountable things of those days. Surveyors are usually good judges of land, and not likely to be deceived by the water standing on the surface of the ground, where the nature of the vegetation shows the soil cannot be marshy or sterile. A few instances have been found in our Territorial and State experiences, where surveyors made imaginary sketches of large tracts, and returned them as actual surveys, when
381
CHAP. XIII. ]
DISHONEST SURVEYS.
they had never visited the places. That trick was of later invention. It may be that the surveyors did not desire to run lines which bordered on the Potawatamie country, for fear of personal risks, which were certainly possible. But the country was not unknown. It had been traversed fre- quently by traders, and others, and was, not very long before, frequented by buffaloes in great numbers. The fact that Michigan contained so many Indians was proof that its lands were good, for they seldom congregate except in eligible regions. Mellish had published, a few years before, a very accurate general account of the whole Lower Peninsula, in which the country is as well described as it could be in as few words to-day. . Some have supposed the surveyors were bribed by those who wished to prevent settlements. Although there were persons interested in that direction, there is no evidence that they interfered. It is nevertheless possible that they either bribed- or more probably adopted the cheaper course of scaring - the surveying party.
It has already been stated that during Hull's administration there were no counties laid out ; and the divisions were all into districts. General Cass, who had much clearer notions about popu- lar institutions, began carly to establish the ordinary American divisions. Wayne County, as originally laid out in the Northwest Territory, was not exactly coincident with Michigan Terri- tory, even in its diminished proportions. But a
382
LOCAL DIVISIONS.
[CHAP. XIII.
single county, covering the same geographical extent with an entire State or Territory, would be an anomaly, and a county split up into sever- al supreme judicial districts, would be more anomalous. Assuming that the surveys would be made, and the bounty lands located, General Cass, on the 21st of November, 1815, began the county system, by laying out that part of the Territory in which the Indian title had been extinguished, into Wayne County, with its seat of justice at Detroit. At the same time he divided the whole Territory into road-districts, coincident with the several militia-company districts, which were already de- fined. No provision had yet been made for establishing townships, and until the people became indoctrinated with ideas of self-govern- ment, which the Ordinance had not assumed as one of their early prerogatives, there was no place for these small republics.
In 1812, Congress had directed the President to have the northern boundary of Ohio surveyed, in accordance with the law authorizing that State to form its constitution, "and to cause to be made a plat or plan of so much of the boundary line as runs from the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan to Lake Erie, particularly noting the place where the said line intersects the margin of said lake." (Act of May 20, 1812.) The war interrupted this, and it was not surveyed until some years thereafter. Meanwhile Indiana had obtained a population large enough to entitle it
383
CHAP. XIII.] INDIANA AND ILLINOIS,
to admission into the Union. On the 19th of April, 1816, the people of that Territory were authorized to form a State; and its boundaries, instead of being left as they were when Michigan was set off, were fixed on the north by an east and west line ten miles north of the southern point of Lake Michigan, thus taking a strip ten miles wide off from the southern portion of Mich- igan Territory. As our people had then no representatives, and there was no public journal in the Territory, this encroachment necessarily remained for future settlement. The State was
admitted December 11, 1816. On the 18th of April, 1818, Illinois was authorized to form a con- stitution, and its boundary was continued north- ward beyond that of Indiana, to latitude 42° 30', to that extent curtailing the future State of Wis- consin. Illinois was admitted on the 3d day of December, 1818. All of the old Northwest Terri- tory north of Indiana and Illinois, was from this time made a part of the Territory of Michigan.
On the 14th of July, 1817, the County of Monroe was established. In the previous month provision had been made for the erection of a jail at Mackinaw for the use of a future county. The immediate occasion for the organization of Monroe County was probably the expected visit of President James Monroe, who had then started out on his tour through the Northern States. He arrived at Detroit about the middle of August,. accompanied by several distinguished officers. On
384
PRESIDENT MONROE FINANCES. [CHAP. XIII.
the 14th he reviewed the troops. On that occasion Governor Cass, on behalf of the State of New York, presented to General Alexander Macomb, a magnificent sword, in honor of his conduct at the Battle of Plattsburgh. Generals Brown and Wool were present, and probably General McNeil, as he went north soon after. The Detroit Gazette, the first regular newspaper of any permanence established at Detroit, made its appearance at this period. It was conducted by John P. Sheldon and Ebenezer Reed, and was an able but very caustic and personal journal.
The financial affairs of the Territory were not satisfactory. The currency chiefly in vogue was Ohio paper, (which was becoming of very poor credit,) and private bills or shinplasters, which very soon became much more abundant than the prosperity of the country required. In parts where the press had not penetrated, business was carried on upon the system of barter, or "dicker" as it was then called, and occasionally specific articles became practically legal tenders. Among other things it is related that in one community nests of wooden bowls became current for small change, as shingles were subsequently in the pine country. There were financiers, nevertheless, who understood their position ; and it is related of one shrewd gentleman that, being in an adjoining State where he was personally unknown, and where some of his shinplasters circulated, he took part in the abuse lavished on them, and induced some of his
385
CATHOLEPISTEMIAD.
CHAP. XIII.]
traducers to join with him in manifesting contempt for such trash, by burning it; - he setting the example, by throwing a large parcel into the flames.
In the prospect of a future growth in popu- lation, it was deemed proper to organize the University, for which provision had been made several years before. On the 26th day of August, 1817, just after Monroe and Cass had departed southward, an act was passed to incorporate the Catholepistemiad or University of Michigania. This institution, which was identical in law with the present University, contained thirteen didaxiae or professorships, which were sufficiently compre- hensive. These were to embrace (1) cathole- pistemia, or universal science, the incumbent of this chair being President ; (2) anthropoglossica or language, embracing all sciences relating thereto ; (3) mathematics ; (4) physiognostica, or natural history ; (5) physiosophica, or natural philosophy ; (6) astronomy ; (7) chemistry ; (8) iatrica or medical sciences ; (9) oeconomia, or economical sciences ; (10) ethics ; (11) polemitactica, or military sciences ; (12) diegetica or historical sciences : (13) ennoeica or intellectual sciences, embracing all the epistemum or sciences relative to the minds of animals, to the human mind, to spiritual existence, to the Deity, and to religion, - the Didactor or professor of this being Vice President. The didactors or professors were to be appointed and commissioned by the Governor, - each might hold
25
386 .
CATHOLEPISTEMIAD.
[CHAP. XIII.
more than one chair, and their salaries were pay- able out of the public treasury, the taxes being increased 15 per cent. for that purpose. The united faculty formed the corporation, with power not only to regulate its concerns, but to establish colleges, academies, schools, libraries, museums, athenaeums, botanic, gardens, laboratories, and other useful literary and scientific institutions con- sonant to the laws of the United States of America and of Michigan ; and to appoint teachers through- out the counties, cities, towns, townships, and other geographical divisions of Michigan. These sub- ordinate instructors and instructrixes were also to be paid from the treasury. Four lotteries were authorized to raise funds. The students' fees were not to exceed fifteen dollars a quarter for lectures, ten dollars for classical, and six for ordinary in- struction ; and the expense for poor students was to come from the treasury. On the same day the salaries of the professors were fixed at twelve dollars and a half, instructors twenty-five dollars, President twenty-five, and Vice President eighteen dollars. Appropriations were made at the same time to pay all of these, and a further sum of one hundred and eighty dollars, to apply on lots and building. A gift of two hundred dollars more was made a few weeks later towards enclosing the building.
This plan was adopted in view of movements already begun, and it went at once into opera- tion. Rev. John Monteith and Rev. Gabriel
387
DONATIONS.
CHAP. XIII.]
Richard were appointed to the various professor- ships, and they forthwith established primary schools in Detroit, Monroe and Mackinaw, and a classical academy and college in Detroit.
On the 29th of September, 1817, a treaty was made at Fort Meigs, between Generals McArthur and Cass and the Chippewas, Ottawas, Potawat- amies, Wyandots, Shawanoes, Delawares and Senecas : whereby the Chippewas, Ottawas and Potawatamies, in view of their attachment to that church, and their desire to have their children educated, gave to St. Anne's Church, Detroit, and to the College of Detroit, each an undivided half of six sections reserved to those nations by Hull's treaty of 1807, - three of the sections being on the Macon Reserve on the River Raisin, and the re- mainder to be selected thereafter. There were also many private gifts and subscriptions to estab- lish the Detroit schools and College. One thou- sand pounds ($2,500) was subscribed in a single day in aid of the building. Probably the same liberality prevailed in the other towns. From that time on Detroit never lacked good schools. The first University building was of brick, twenty-four feet by fifty. It was used for school purposes more than forty years.
The pedantry of this act, which was drawn by Judge Woodward, and his selection of phrases which are neither Greek, Latin nor English, led to much ridicule. But the scheme itself was approved, and carried out. It is by no means
388
UNIVERSITY. NEW COUNTIES.
[CHAP. XIII.
likely that he did very much more than put in this questionable shape a plan already agreed on. The other members of the Legislative Board were as well educated as himself, and as zealous in the interests of education. In many respects it is an admirable system, but it was found afterwards that it lacked accuracy and completeness, and was not by any means perfect. When the Territorial statutes underwent a general revision in 1820-1, this was replaced by a less pretentious act, and it was never published by the Governor and Judges except in the newspapers.
In considering the plan of the Catholepistemiad, the suspicion naturally arises that in providing for a chair of catholepistemia, or universal science, the worthy Chief Justice may perhaps in his mind's eye have seen a new Bacon in the in- cumbent, who would vary his judicial pursuits by devising a newer Organon, and discourse to in- genuous youth de omnibus rebus et quibusdam alüs. But Dîs aliter visum. The Governor lacked ap- preciation, and another received the office.
The land surveys had made such progress that sales were ordered in the fall of 1818. All the country to which the Indian title had been ceded, or which contained settlements, was laid out into counties. Macomb County was established January 15th, 1818, and Michilimackinac, Brown and Crawford, on the 26th of October, 1818. Brown County took in the eastern part of Wis- consin, with its county seat near the mouth of Fox
389
CHAP. XIII.] COUNTY AFFAIRS PROSPERITY.
River; and Crawford County the western part, with its county seat at Prairie du Chien.
On the 30th of May, 1818, the duties of man- aging county affairs were tranferred to county com- missioners, three of whom were to be appointed in each county by the Governor.
The Territory was now in a very fair way of growing. There were very few roads as yet, and facilities for land travel did not abound for many years. But the business of Detroit was flourish- ing, and the country, in spite of the report of the surveyors, was believed to be worth seeking. The lakes were not yet much navigated, and all trav- ellers by water were obliged to take advantage of occasional schooners, of small capacity. Never- theless, the sums received in 1817 for the carriage of passengers over Lake Erie to Detroit amounted to $15,000. This indicates a good business. The military road had been finished about ten miles beyond Monroe, and some travel came over that. In 1818 the exports of fish and cider amounted to $60,000.
The ponies which abounded in the woods, were very serviceable for travelling through the country upon the trails. These tough and sagacious ani- mals ran at large, and droves of them, branded, usually, with the name of some owner or reputed owner, were to be met everywhere near the set- tlements. When the seasons were dry, they would come in to the streams for water in large troops, and sometimes in the night they would gallop
390
WILD HORSES. PACKING.
[CHAP. XIII.
through the streets with a great clatter, but doing no harm unless where salt barrels were left ex- posed, when they would break them in to get at the salt. On a journey they were usually span- celled with a strap, or fettered, at night, and the bell which each one wore was freed from the straw which had bound the clapper through the day. They rarely strayed far from a camp. They lived on what they picked up on the road, and were very free from the diseases which attack animals more tenderly raised.
In March, 1818, shoes were sent up from Detroit to Green Bay for the troops, by pack-horses. That town had been garrisoned in September, 1817, and the American jurisdiction had never be- tore been exercised there effectually, unless by Judge Réaume, whose authority seems to have belonged to universal jurisprudence. The use of pack-animals instead of vessels, shows the limited
extent of water carriage. The abundance of horses, and the small expense of their sustenance, made this less costly than might be supposed. The winter carriage in the upper country was for many years conducted by dogs, and people were very expert in devising contrivances for their animals. The pack-saddle was made of light wood, so padded and shaped as not to gall the horse's back or shoulders, and everything was dis- pensed with which could be spared. It is not very many years since Indian cavalcades of these pack- horses were not unfrequently met in the forest,
391
WAYS OF TRAVELLERS.
CHAP. XIII.] '
carrying the tent-poles and other movables of the wigwam, and the utensils of all sorts belonging to the household, with more or less of the members of the family perched on the pack-saddle, or peering out from the loading.
On these journeys, travellers, of whatever rank, were compelled to take such provisions as were least burdensome. Hulled corn was one of the staples, and this, with a modicum of fat meat or tallow, was the chief reliance of voyageurs and engagés. Maple sugar was largely used with the corn. Such game, fish, fruit, or other articles as were found along the road, were welcome additions to the frugal meal. A common form of condensed food was called praline, composed of parched corn, pounded fine and mixed with maple sugar. Corn was also used by the French and Indians in the form of a soup or broth called medaminabo. All wise travellers who could afford it took along a generous supply of tea, and after their evening meal and copious draughts from their tin cups, they rolled themselves up in their blankets, with a saddle or log for their pillow, and slept soundly with no other shelter.
The population had now reached the number authorized under the Ordinance to form a repre- sentative government. It having been submitted to a popular vote in the spring of 1818, whether this step should be taken, it was voted down by a large majority. It is difficult for us, who have been educated under a system of self-government
392
POPULAR GOVERNMENT REJECTED. [CHAP. XIII.
to comprehend the feelings of those who have been brought up under a paternal government. The brief period of representation in the Assem- bly of the Northwest Territory had not habituated the French settlers to our notions, and the absence of any local system in township and county ad- ministration left them entirely ignorant of its ad- vantages. Those who reached middle age before the people in the Territory became entitled to vote for their own officers, were not always pleased with the change, and some of them, who survived to a very recent period, never ceased to sigh for the good old days, when the commanding officer was the whole government.
General Cass was in advance of any states- man of his time in his ideas of popular inter- ference in the selection of all grades of public officers. There is much difference of opinion now concerning the policy of electing by general vote those officers whose functions are not representa- tive. He adhered to the doctrine with tenacity, that the people should have a direct voice in ap- pointments generally ; and some matters which, in his subsequent national career, were occasions of difficulty and opposition, were the direct results of his consistency in his opinions on this subject. A man who occupied such offices as he filled at various times can rarely be dealt with impartially, until the political excitements and prejudices of the period have been removed. But it is due to his memory by all candid men, whether political
393
GENERAL CASS.
CHAP. XIII.]
adherents or opponents, to admit that he was not only a patriotic and energetic officer, but above all things a sincere and devoted admirer and up- holder of America and American institutions. When we look at the circumstances attending the early existence of the Territory, and the difficul- ties besetting its progress, the importance and value of his services as Governor can hardly be exaggerated.
The difficulties of the Legislative Board might very well have disposed him to desire a change in its composition. With too much good humor and good sense to become involved in any per- sonal difficulties, the want of harmony between his judicial associates, and the occasional present- ation, as an excerpt from the laws of other States, of such a piece of language run mad as the charter of the Catholepistemiad, must have been sorely annoying. That queer production was acted upon in his absence, though not against his wishes. He was prompt in aiding to endow the University ; but the two soldiers who negotiated the Treaty of Fort Meigs had some respect for good English, and named their beneficiary the College of Detroit. It would have tried the skill of some of the interpreters to turn that mixture of jargons into the dialects of the woods.
In March, 1818, the people were called upon to perform another solemn duty. It had been a matter of much difficulty to identify or bury any of the victims of Winchester's unfortunate mas-
394
HONORS TO CAPTAIN HART
CHAP. XIII.
sacre at the Raisin ; and, after all their efforts, the authorities were only able to determine the burial place of Captain Hart. His fate had been singularly sad, and no one had been more la- mented. He was not singular in his self-devo- tion, for in that all his companions were like him. But his admirable personal qualities, and his promise of eminence, as well as the peculiar circumstances of his death, made his name con- spicuous. Left behind at Frenchtown after the British went to Malden, and not being sent. for by a personal friend who had promised to send for him, and who was under obligations for kind care during his own sickness, he was finally slain while on the road to Malden, by reason of a dispute between his guides. When it became practicable to perform the last honors to his mem- ory, a meeting was called, at which the Governor presided, and preparations were made for his re- interment at Detroit, with all due solemnity. A committee of the principal citizens made the necessary preparations, and on the 17th of March his funeral rites were celebrated, with all the tokens of respect and sorrow which were due to him, not only for his own sake, but as a repre- sentative of the noble dead whose lives had been spent for the people who now mourned him.
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