USA > Michigan > Outlines of the political history of Michigan > Part 27
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430
INDIGNATION MEETING.
[CHAP. XIV.
the administration ; and a committee was ap- pointed to ascertain the facts, which was composed of Messrs. Mckinstry, Andrew Mack, Shubael Co- nant, Oliver Newberry and John E. Schwarz. The meeting having been held on Saturday night, they waited on Mr. Mason (who had just returned from Washington) on Monday, and learned from him that. he had that day received his commission and qualified,-that his age was as had been repre- sented, and that the President had appointed him with full knowledge of the circumstances. They reported accordingly to an adjourned meeting on Monday evening, and a further committee was appointed, (consisting of Eurotas P. Hastings, Henry S. Cole, D. C. Mckinstry, Oliver Newberry and Alexander D. Fraser) to prepare resolutions and a memorial to the President for his removal, to be signed by the meeting and circulated in the Territory. The resolutions were confined to the illegality and impropriety of appointing a mi- nor to such a position, which was declared to be "a violation of the principles of our fundamental law, and of the genius and spirit of the constitu- tion ; and in the highest degree derogatory to the freemen over whom he is thus attempted to be placed ;" and declared that " we hold it to be our duty to take prompt measures with a view to his removal from that office."
The proceedings of this meeting, and the memorial, produced much comment in the leading journals of the country ; and the propriety of the
431
CHAP. XIV ] STEVENS THOMSON MASON.
appointment was not maintained, but it was claimed by the Globe-(then the official organ)- that having been appointed, he should not be re- moved except for actual misconduct. As many removals had been recently made without cause of that kind, the argument was not conclusive, and it did not touch the point of minority. He was not removed, but, toward the end of the next session of the Senate, he was nominated and con- firmed, in July or August, 1832, when he had barely reached his majority.
The appointment and arrival of Governor Porter rendered the position less anomalous, and the frank and gentlemanly reply of Mr. Mason to the action of the meeting did much to disarm criticism, and awaken kind feeling. His conduct had never been arrogant, and while he had his share of the youthful qualities which, though not discreditable, are nevertheless not entirely suited to great public responsibilities, he was manly and generous, and very well adapted to obtain sym- pathy. He intimated in his reply that a young man would be more ready to accept the guidance of his elders than one of riper age. It was not very long before he had mentors enough; and among his most devoted adherents were some of his early critics. His public career, when the burdens of state again fell upon him, was for a considerable time very popular, and he never lost his personal popularity. He died young, and he is remembered very kindly.
432
POLITICAL EXCITEMENTS.
[CHAP. XIV.
It often happens that when party issues are obscure, and personal questions prevail, there is much less restraint in controversy than when men are occupied with serious political problems. While Mr. Mason paid proper respect to his more ex- perienced advisers, his companions of the same age naturally gathered about him, and became demonstrative. There were many things which were more or less exciting to older. politicians, and there has never been a time in Michigan when there were so many personal quarrels and rencoun- ters on political and semi-political grounds. The use of weapons in private disputes has never been approved in this community, but for a year or two there were affrays altogether too frequent, in which more or less blood was shed in a small way, but, fortunately or unfortunately, with no fa- tal results. Such ebullitions do not last long. People very soon discover that men may differ from them without being totally depraved, and learn to live in charity, or at least in tolerance. And while the disputes on national questions were very bitter for several years, the interests of the Territory were more pressing, and upon these there was something approaching unanimity.
Governor Porter is not known to have incurred any political or personal enmity. He was an able man of good feeling and popular manners, with a considerable knowledge of agricultural as well as public affairs. He took that interest in the Ter- ritory which might be expected of one who in-
CHAP. XIV.] GOVERNOR PORTER. OHIO LINE. 433
tended to remain in it. He was, among other things, very active in encouraging the improvement of stock, and some of the best animals in the State are descended from those he introduced. He did not remain in office long enough to ac- complish very much, but his administration was judicious, and creditable, and his death was sin- cerely regretted as a public loss.
The year 1831 passed without much that is deserving of record, beyond the removals and ap- pointments, which operated here as they did else- where, and are of no present importance. In the spring of the year, a resolution was passed by the Council, authorizing the Governor to negotiate with Ohio to adjust the boundary line on the basis of a cession of all east of the Maumee, for an equivalent westward. Nothing seems to have come of this proposition. It had not yet been supposed there was any grave doubt about the rights of Michigan in the lands afterwards dis- puted. Roads were laid out and other improve- ments contemplated, and the future storm was not visible.
The county seats of Hillsdale, Kalamazoo, Sag- inaw, Lapeer and Jackson were located this year. That of the latter county was first named with the imposing title of Jacksonopolis. A year or two after it was Anglicised into Jacksonburgh. Its next metamorphosis was into its present shape of Jackson, where it will probably remain. The early statute books contain many ambitious names which
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434
JOHN TRUMBULL.
[CHAP. XIV.
have one by one disappeared, until the State is reasonably free from the ridiculous titles that once adorned its paper cities, whose ambitious clapboard palaces, erected in an unbroken wilderness, were never inhabited, and have ceased to surprise the straggling explorer of their deserted avenues.
On the 10th day of May, 1831, John Trum- bull died at Detroit at the advanced age of 82. He had not lived in the Territory more than six or seven years-having come out to pass the re- mainder of his days with his daughter, the wife of Judge William Woodbridge. Judge Trumbull was a prominent and honored citizen during the American Revolution, as well as afterwards, and his poem of McFingal was one of those well- timed and well-written satires which sometimes perform an important part in public emergencies. It was a very felicitous sketch, which became in- stantly popular, and produced as marked an effect in the United States as Hudibras did in England. It is one of those productions which are valuable, not only for their keen satire and amusing hits, but for their preservation of past manners and ways, which are seldom depicted by grave writers, yet are necessary to the comprehension of both law and history. American literature is not rich in those unstudied productions which might place us in the same familiar relations with the olden time in this country, which we are enabled to en- joy with the days of Pepys, and Boswell, and Alexander Carlyle, and Horace Walpole. Judge
435
CHAP. XIV.] JUDICIAL CHANGES. STATE CONTEMPLATED.
Trumbull was not without distinction in various public offices, but as an early writer, thoroughly American in all things, and possessing both learn- ing and genius, he is entitled to honored remem- brance. His placid and kindly face was not known to many of this generation, but he ought not to be forgotten by the citizens of his latest home.
In 1832, Judges Woodbridge and Chipman were superseded by George Morell of New York, and Ross Wilkins of Pennsylvania. Both of these gentlemen' were prominent in judicial life after the State was admitted into the Union, as well as during the Territory, and their reputation is familiar to all our people. They were very important and active agents in the development of our juris- prudence.
On the 29th of June, 1832, a statute was passed to call an election on the first Tuesday of Octo- ber, to determine "whether it be expedient for the people of this Territory to form a State gov- ernment." At this election all free white male inhabitants of the age of twenty-one years were allowed to vote. The result of the election was a very decisive expression in favor of the change.
In the early spring of this year, Black Hawk, a Sac chief who had moved beyond the Missis- sippi, and by repeated conventions had agreed to stay there, came across the river with a band of Sacs and Foxes, and committed depredations in
436
BLACK HAWK WAR. [CHAP. XIV.
northern Illinois, and southern Wisconsin, which was then in the Territory of Michigan. The Gov- ernor of Illinois sent up a force under General Whiteside, who left Beardstown on the 27th of April, with 1,800 men, for the mouth of Rock River. General Atkinson moved up from St. Louis early in April, with a force of regulars. Colonel Henry Dodge of Michigan raised a force of Territorial volunteers, and rendered very im- portant services, having taken measures to prevent mischief from the Winnebagoes and other doubt- ful Michigan Indians, and then entered vigorously upon a decisive campaign. Many sharp fights took place during the spring and summer, and on the 2d of August the last battle was fought, in which Colonel Dodge and Colonel Zachary Taylor, afterwards President of the United States, had command in the advance, and the Indian force was nearly annihilated. Black Hawk was held as a prisoner for several months, being last confined in Fortress Monroe. He was. in June, 1833, taken out of that fort, and escorted through the principal towns back to the Mississippi; and during the remaining seven years of his life he behaved himself with propriety, and made no fur- ther trouble. The officer who first took him down the river to Jefferson barracks was, then known as Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, of the United States Army. Although intelligent, and having some causes of grievance, Black Hawk was not one of the best types of Indians. The Sacs and Foxes
437
CHOLERA
CHAP. XIV.1
had a bad reputation when the French first came to Detroit, and they never lost it. Black Hawk's own story shows him to have been very treach- erous. He was an old man of 65 when this last Indian war broke out, and was in the British in- terest as long as they provided for him. He seems to have had an idea that the British gov- ernment would help him. He had never kept informed of the American settlement of Michigan, and nothing surprised him more than the changes in Detroit and the other settlements, with which he had been familiar during the war of 1812. He had not learned before that Malden had ceased to plague the Northwest.
The losses of men by the casualties of battle in the Black Hawk war were not so great as might have been feared. There was, however, a worse enemy than the Indians, and the ravages of the Asiatic cholera were fearful. This dreadful disease did not reach many of the troops while in the field, near the seat of war. But it inter- cepted them on the way, and broke up a part of the expeditions sent out from the seaboard.
The coming of the cholera had been expected, as it had been making its way steadily westward from Asia for many months. The Michigan Legis- lative Council passed laws early in the summer, for the proper organization of boards of health, and had given large powers to the municipal bodies. But while cleanliness was known to be essential, no remedies had yet been discovered to
438
CHOLERA.
[CHAP. XIV.
check or cure the disease; and while the physi- cians were diligently studying how to meet it, all manner of nostrums and preventives were resorted to by the terrified people. It reached Detroit be- fore midsummer, and at once the large body of laboring people, who had nothing to keep them in the city, fled into the country, with exaggerated stories of horrors, which were bad enough at the best. Many citizens were attacked by the cholera in a severe form, and a large share of them died. A church building was converted into a hospital, and all was done which could be to mitigate the sufferings of the victims. Business was hardly thought of. The air, whether really or in fancy, appeared unusually oppressive; and at nightfall, at the street crossings and all along the public ways, as well as at private houses, great kettles of burning pitch blazed, and threw up dark columns of smoke late into the night. The customary so- lemnities of burial were shortened, and sometimes neglected. A rigid quarantine intercepted the or- dinary course of travel. But the omission which at first was most noted, was that of the tolling of the bell. A custom had prevailed for a long time of ringing the passing bell, immediately after the death of any person in the town. The build- ings were mostly within a small compass, and the bell of the First Protestant Society, which was used for all public purposes, could be dis- tinctly heard everywhere. In such small commu- nities the death of any one interests the feelings
439
CHAP. XIV.] MOVEMENTS OF TROOPS.
of all; and the tolling which announced that some one had just departed, was always heard with solemn emotions. But when the victims of the cholera began to multiply, the frequency of these knells added to the general panic, and it became necessary to discontinue them. The cus- tom once broken was not renewed, and was soon forgotten.
A considerable force of United States troops was ordered to the seat of war, and they were all sent up by steamboats from Buffalo, bound for Chicago. These detachments reached Detroit early in July. The Michigan volunteers from De- troit had left before the cholera became fatal, and marched across the country; but their services were not required, and the orders were counter- manded before they reached Lake Michigan. Colonel Garry Spencer's cavalry troop had marched beyond the St. Joseph's River, but the infantry had not gone very far before they were recalled. The first detachment of regulars, con- sisting of 220 men, accompanied by Major General Winfield Scott, went up on the steamboat Sheldon Thompson. When she left Chicago on the re- turn trip, one officer and 51 men had died, and So were sick. General Scott and several other officers had mild attacks of the cholera, but soon recovered.
On the 8th of July it was known in Detroit that of 370 who had gone up after General Scott's party, under Colonel Twiggs, and had been
440
CHOLERA VICTIMS. TERRITORY EXTENDED, [CHAP. XIV.
compelled to land below Fort Gratiot, only 150 remained-a large number having died of cholera and the rest deserted. Very few of these panic- stricken wretches reached Detroit. Most of them died in the woods and on the road, and of these many were devoured by wolves and other beasts. A third detachment, under Colonel Cum- mings, had at first encamped at Detroit, where several died. The survivors were embarked on the William Penn, but in a short time were com- pelled to return. They were put in camp again at Springwells, and there was afterwards compara- tively little mortality among them. It was reckoned that more than half of the aggregate commands were swept away. Of six companies that left Fortress Monroe, but 180 men returned; and the losses among others were in similar pro- portion.
Among the more prominent citizens who died during this summer, were Father Gabriel Richard, and General Charles Larned, -a distinguished lawyer, who had been Attorney General of the Territory. Jacob M. Howard, and Franklin Sawyer, (afterwards Superintendent of Public In- struction,) were students in his office.
On the 28th of June, 1834, all the territory west of the Mississippi River and north of Missouri, as far as the Missouri and White Earth Rivers, was attached to, and made a part of the Territory of Michigan. The Legislative Council was also authorized to hold an extra session, on
441
DEATH OF GOVERNOR PORTER.
CHAP. XIV.]
the call of the Governor. The necessity of this arose from the annexation.
On the 5th of July, Governor Porter died of cholera, which was during that summer very fatal. Seven per cent of the population of Detroit died in a single month. His funeral services were celebrated in the Capitol, and were attended by a very large concourse of people, who held him in great respect. His death would have been a loss to the Territory at any time, and it was at this time especially lamentable, as the public affairs soon became critical, and would have been all the better for his good sense and prudence.
The Council was called together by Acting Governor Mason in September. The western ter- ritory was set off into the Counties of Dubuque and Des Moines, and put in the same circuit with the County of Iowa, east of the Mississippi. A law was passed for taking a census of the Territory. Provision was also made for appoint- ing boundary commissioners, to adjust the southern boundaries with Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Noth- ing came of this latter project.
Governor Porter's place was never filled. General Jackson sent to the Senate for confirma- tion the name of Henry D. Gilpin. This nomina- nation was rejected. The President and Senate were not at this time in full accord, and Mr. Gilpin was obnoxious as having been connected with some of the matters which had given rise to the difficulty. This arose chiefly from the appoint-
442
POPULATION.
[CHAP. XIV.
ment of Roger B. Taney as Secretary of the Treasury, and his removal of the public deposits from the United States Bank, which led to resolu- tions of censure on the part of the Senate, and to a new political organization and the merging of the old parties. Mr. Taney's nomination was held over by the President until the end of the session, when he was rejected at once. General Jackson made no further nomination after Mr. Gilpin's rejection. Afterwards he had entertained the idea of filling the vacancy by an appointment during the recess. Finding this could not be done, he left Secretary Mason in charge of the executive department of the Territory, until he became dis- satisfied with his course during the period before the establishment of the State government. As
this occurred but a few weeks before Governor Mason was elected and assumed office under the State, it was too late to be anything but a source of some trouble to the estimable - but impru- dent - gentleman who last undertook to govern Michigan as a Territory.
The census, which was completed before the adjournment of the Council, showed that, within the boundaries of the original Territory of Mich- igan, there were 87,273 free inhabitants. This was an increase of 61,768 beyond the 26,505 re- ported by the census of 1830. More people had come into Michigan in four years than the 60,000 which entitled her to become a State. This did not include the large immigration west of Lake
443
WISCONSIN.
CHAP. XIV.]
Michigan, whereby Wisconsin had already obtained a population which would give her, if a Territory, the right to a complete popular legislature. The Legislative Council of Michigan, in December, 1834, memorialized Congress upon the subject of establishing a Territorial government for Wisconsin. This had been mooted for some time, and " Huron" Territory had been the very inappropriate name before suggested for it. The Hurons had not lived there, and Lake Huron did not touch it. The name finally selected was appropriate and satisfactory. Nothing was done by Congress to set apart this Territory until Michigan was ready for admission, when Wisconsin was set off, and her new career of independence began on the 4th of July, 1836. But the last delegate to Con- gress from Michigan Territory, George W. Jones, had been purposely allowed to be chosen from Wisconsin ; and the Michigan authorities had done all in their power to advance the admission of that region as a separate Territory.
On the 26th of January, 1835, an act was passed, which, after reciting the act of 1805, whereby the territory north of an east and west line, running from the southerly bend of Lake Michigan to Lake Erie, was set off as the Terri- tory of Michigan, and the people, whenever there should be 60,000 free inhabitants, were authorized to form a permanent constitution and organize as a State, appointed an election of delegates to form a convention to adopt a constitution and State
444
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. BOUNDARIES. [CHAP. XIV.
government. The election was to be held on Sat- urday, April 4. 1835; and the convention was to meet at Detroit, on the second Monday of May. The delegates were to be adult citizens of the United States, and the voters adult free white male inhabitants. The inhabitants of the strip of land attached to Indiana were allowed to vote in the districts and counties immediately north of them. This Indiana strip had never been included in the. organized counties of Michigan, and the Council disclaimed any design to assume control over it, until their rights could be adjudicated.
Up to this time Michigan had been in peaceable possession of the country east of Indiana, and north of the latitude of the southern point of Lake Michigan, as surveyed in 1818, and the authority of Ohio had not been in force there. It had been included in 1827 in the Township of Port Law- rence, laid out at the same time with the earliest township divisions in the rest of the Territory. The first act laying out Territorial roads, in 1828, had established such a road from Port Lawrence, through Adrian, in Lenawee County, to intersect the Chicago Road, and the authorities had sur- veyed and laid it out, and opened it, at the ex- pense of the Territory. The Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad was chartered in 1833, from Port Law- rence to Adrian, and thence to the Kalamazoo River ; and the only authority whereby lands were obtained for its line was under the laws of Michigan.
445
BOUNDARY DISPUTE
CHAP. XIV.]
In the beginning of this year, (1835,) Governor Lucas of Ohio sent in to the Legislature of that State a message asserting jurisdiction over the territory south of the mouth of Maumee Bay, and urging legislation to possess and control it. The Legislative Council of Michigan, upon receiving notice of this by a message from the acting Gov- ernor, passed an act on the 12th of February, 1835, "to prevent the exercise of foreign jurisdic- tion within the limits of the Territory of Mich- igan," whereby it was made highly penal for any one to accept or exercise any public office, in any part of the Territory, except by commission from the United States or from Michigan. On the 23rd of February, the Ohio Legislature passed a series of acts and resolutions, asserting jurisdiction over the land in question, declaring that measures should be taken by all the departments of the State government to establish it; extending or- ganized counties so as to cover it, and directing commissioners to run the boundary line; and re- quiring all public officers to extend their authority over it. Governor Lucas at once notified the county officers to exercise their functions, and the " major general under whose command the new dis- tricts were placed to enrol the inhabitants in the militia ; and he determined to attend the spring elections in person, to see to the complete re-or- ganization, and appointed commissioners to meet him at Perrysburgh, on the Ist of April, to run the line. The Territorial authorities brought the mat-
446
BOUNDARY DISPUTE.
[CHAP. XIV.
ter to, the attention of the President. Congress had adjourned without passing an act giving the land to Ohio, which had been sought by Ohio but had failed at two recent successive sessions. Governor Mason ordered General Joseph W. Brown, commanding the Michigan militia, to hold himself in readiness to resist any attempt of Ohio to carry out the threatened measures; and the Council appropriated money to enable the execu- tive to enforce the laws of the Territory. The Michigan authorities used such force as was ne- cessary, to repel intrusion and arrest offenders against the law, and the difficulties became very menacing. The Attorney General of the United States, Benjamin F. Butler, (of New York,) de- cided that the Michigan authorities were in the right, and such was the view of the President and his advisers ; but Messrs. Rush and Howard were sent out as commissioners, to conciliate matters if possible. It was afterwards claimed by Governor Lucas, but denied at Washington, that these gen- tlemen had made an agreement that the Ohio line should be run as claimed, and the people be al- lowed to follow their individual predilections as to which government they would obey, until the close of the next session of Congress. It never was pretended that the Michigan authorities consented to this; and if the commissioners had possessed any authority, which the Secretary of State ex- pressly denied had been attempted to be bestowed on them, - such an arrangement as the latter,
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