USA > Michigan > Outlines of the political history of Michigan > Part 35
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567
CHAP. XVI. ] SEIZURE OF THE PHILO PARSONS
won a well deserved respect and renown for bravery and other good and soldierly qualities.
Our own borders were somewhat annoyed by the gathering of Southern refugees and agents on the Canada side of the Detroit River. Reports, more or less founded in probability, were received from time to time of projected mischief. On the 19th of September, 1864, the steamboat Philo Parsons left Detroit for Sandusky, taking on board at Sandwich and Amherstburg several persons with what was supposed to be baggage, but was really a supply of weapons. This expedition was intended to cooperate with another force designed to capture the armed steamer Michigan at Sandusky, to release the rebel prisoners at Camp Johnson near Sandusky, and then to com- mit depredations on the lake cities. The designs on the Michigan having failed, the Parsons was brought back to the Detroit River, and left at Sandwich in a sinking condition from various injuries. The mischief was arrested by timely action, and the vessel refitted. During the raid some other captures were made of United States soldiers and of the steamer Island Queen. On the failure of the plot at Sandusky, the persons on board the boats were safely landed, and no lives were taken. This was the only scheme which produced any actual damage, unless a few incendiary fires were set by some of the same parties, which is not absolutely known.
568
GOVERNORS BLAIR AND CRAPO. [CHAP. XVI.
From the opening of the war until the close of the year 1864, Austin Blair was Governor of Michigan, and performed his public duties with zeal and devotion, to the great, prejudice of his private interests. During all that period his whole time was necessarily given up to the interests of the country, and almost entirely at his own ex- pense. The salary of $1,000-a miserable pittance at any time-was made by war-prices, and the depreciation of currency, but a mere fraction of its ordinary value. The policy which prevents men of modest means from filling the offices of State is not only poor economy, but con- trary to the cardinal principles of representative government.
His successor, Governor Crapo, was also a very conscientious and valuable public servant, and his careful supervision saved the State from mismanagement in some of the multitudinous con- tracts which require almost the eyes of Argus to watch them. His great business experience and strict economy and integrity induced him to give a degree of personal supervision to the details of road-building and other outlays, which was more than any one man could devote to such work without injury to himself. His untimely death was owing to neglect of his health in attending to the details of public affairs. He no doubt carried this attention to details to excess,-as other persons could and should have borne a share of the burdens. It is not the duty of the chief executive
569
SUPREME COURT.
CHAP. XVI.]
to perform every variety of public service, and it is impossible to do it. But that sort of devotion is not so much to be deprecated, as it is to be praised, unless it prevents due attention to more peculiarly personal obligations, which it never did in Governor Crapo's case. Both he and Governor Blair were well seconded in most of the State business by competent heads of departments, and other assistants.
In the year 1857, in pursuance of the Con- stitution, a separate Supreme Court was provided for, to be organized on the first of January, 1858. Its four terms were originally divided between Detroit and Lansing, but are now held entirely at Lansing. George Martin was the first chief justice, and Randolph Manning, Isaac P. Christi- ancy and James V. Campbell associate justices. Judge Martin was chief justice until his death, in December, 1867. After that time the office was made to fall upon the justice whose term was next to expire, so as to change every two years. Judge Manning died on the 31st of August, 1864, and was succeeded by Thomas M. Cooley, who, by repeated re-election is still on the bench. Benjamin F. Graves was elected in the place of Judge Martin, and is still in office by re-election. Judge Christiancy was elected to the United States Senate, in January, 1875, and Isaac Marston was chosen as his successor. Judge Campbell is yet a member of the court.
This relieved the circuit judges of appellate duties. The circuits have been divided repeatedly
570
BINGHAM. HOWARD. FERRY. [CHAP. XVI.
and increased in number to twenty-one. The Upper Peninsula has been brought within the circuit system. In 1859, provision was made there for county prosecuting attorneys, and the office of district attorney abolished. By some cu- rious manoeuvre, the act whose title was "An Act to abolish the office of District Attorney for the Upper Peninsula, and provide for the election of Prosecuting Attorneys of the several counties therein," while by the two earliest sections it made provision for the prosecuting attornies, con- tained a third section declaring that the office of district attorney should not be abolished. As under the Constitution no part of an act can be repugnant to its title, this created a muddle, which seems to have been supposed to need further legislation. It 1864, another law was passed abolishing the office without ambiguity.
Governor Bingham was elected to the United States Senate in 1859, and died in office in 1861. In 1862, his place was filled by Jacob M. Howard, who was succeeded, in 1871, by Thomas W. Ferry, the present presiding officer of the Senate. Mr. Howard was a man of great force and intel- lectual resources, and was second to none of his Senatorial associates in the qualities desirable for his position. To vigorous and manly eloquence he united habits of laborious and profound research, and tenacity of purpose. His ability in the arraying of facts and discussion of evidence has seldom been equalled, and his great powers of reasoning were made more effective by a style
571
· CHAP. XVI.|
SENATOR CHANDLER. GOVERNOR CRAPO.
which was weighty without losing its vivacity, and polished and enriched with learning, while entirely free from meretricious ornament. His death was
a loss to the whole country. His colleague Mr. Chandler, the present Secretary of the Interior, obtained credit for his Senatorial services, espe- cially during the war, and was twice re-elected.
The principal political occurrences during Gov- ernor Crapo's time were the attempted revision of the Constitution, and the contest which he carried on against the dangerous and unconstitu- tional attempts of the Legislature to authorize railroads to be subsidized by county and other municipal aid and taxation. The early experience of the State had induced the framers of the Con- stitution of 1850 to peremptorily confine the bus- iness of building works of internal improvement to private enterprise; but for a time there appeared to be a notion that railroads could not be too dearly purchased, whether capable or not of any remunerative use, and contractors and builders, who were the only persons really bene- fitted in many cases, endeavored to saddle their schemes on the public treasuries. The plan was not only illegal, but as dangerous as most illegal schemes always turn out. The collapse of a majority of the secondary railroads has shown on a small scale the utter ruin that would have be- fallen the people if these attempts had gone as far as it was desired to drive them. These schemes were pushed through the Legislature
572
CONSTITUTIONAL REVISION.
[CHAP. XVI.
against the opposition of the governors, who were called on to consider them, and the execu- tive objections were sustained by the Supreme Court, which held the laws void. Every constitu- tional amendment which has sought to validate them has been rejected.
A Constitutional Convention was held in May, 1867, and its labors lasted through the summer. It was composed of able men of both parties, and its work was done carefully. The proposed con- stitution contained several new provisions, upon which there had been no popular agreement. It was defeated by an enormous majority, composed in great measure of the aggregate of the oppo- nents of single parts of the instrument, which were not all obnoxious to the same objectors. The same fate has befallen every attempt to submit amendments together and not separately. It is entirely manifest that the faults of the present Constitution are found in some of its details and specific provisions, and not in its general plan. Single amendments have passed and will probably pass hereafter on their own merits. But every one can now see that the people are not disposed to allow a good amendment to carry through one which they disapprove. Logrolling and swapping measures are more easily carried through select bodies, than through a popular election.
The last attempt at revision was at the extra session of 1874. A commission selected by the Governor had sat during the previous year to
573
CHAP. XVI. ] AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE GRANTS.
devise amendments. They prepared a series of articles which amounted in effect to a revised con- stitution. The members were well chosen, with- out distinction of party, and many, if not most of their suggestions, were generally approved. Others were not as well received. Their work was adopted with some changes, by the Legislature, and submitted to the people as a whole, except as to a small portion voted on separately. This was also decisively rejected. In addition to other objections, which were probably the fatal ones, there was a feeling among many that the Legis- lative function of proposing amendments did not extend to framing a revision of the whole con- stitution, or of considerable parts of it, and that a constitutional convention should be representative and not appointed. Among other propositions, one to give the right of voting to women, was presented separately, and defeated by a large majority.
In 1863, the United States made large grants to the several States for agricultural and military · education. The State of Michigan accepted the grant, and applied it in aid of the existing Agri- cultural College. This was thereby put on a better footing ; and has become a useful institu- tion, with a promise of more utility in the future, as the value of the necessary preliminary experi- ments becomes more thoroughly tested.
In 1859, the business of making salt began to assume importance. The discovery of rich wells,
574
SALT AND MINERAL SPRINGS. FORESTS. [CHAP. XVI
and the economy of connecting the work with the steam saw-mills, thus economising labor and fuel, led to the creation of a very extensive industry particularly on the Saginaw River. In some of the borings the discovery of mineral springs, valu- able for curative properties, has led to still more profitable results, and opened pleasant places of resort.
The extension of roads has facilitated the busi- ness of lumbering, and the country is being rap- idly despoiled of its pine and hardwood timber. The frequent prevalence of extensive fires has furnished some reason for the voluntary destruc- tion, for lumber, of what might be otherwise lost. The year 1871, which witnessed the burning of Chicago, was peculiarly fatal to the northern woods, and immense tracts were rendered value- less, or greatly diminished in value by the fires. The rapid settlement of the Lower Peninsula has led to the removal of woods from the greater part of its southerly moiety, and the effect on climate and streams is very marked, and prejudi- cial. The moisture which was once retained by the vegetation and shade, and tempered the air, now runs off rapidly, and without soaking into the ground. Streams have dwindled and disappeared, and the country often suffers from drought, while it is believed to be much more exposed than formerly to extreme cold.
After the war was over, and when the fever of speculation began to abate, the State settled
575
PROGRESS. NEW CAPITOL.
CHAP. XVI.]
down again to quiet ways. Within the last ten years the public interest has been more and more directed to things of permanent importance, and valuable executive suggestions have been carried out in the broad and liberal spirit which prompted them. Much more attention has been paid to education and philanthropy. New asylums have been planned, the University and other schools have been aided, prisons have been improved and remodelled, and progress has been made in the highest work of civilization. The State has be- come populous and wealthy, and able to carry out any proper schemes.
In 1871, preparation was made for building a permanent Capitol. After much examination and reflection plans were adopted and contracts let. The corner stone was laid in 1873. A superin- tending board, consisting of Messrs. Shearer, Chapoton and Grosvenor, have had constant super- vision of the work, which will be finished in 1877. Mr. Myers, the architect, and Messrs. Osburn, the contractors, have planned and built thus far a beautiful and satisfactory building, in which no un- sound material has been placed, and into which all the funds appropriated have honestly entered. When other communities have been so badly cheated in such enterprises, it is certainly worth recording that Michigan has been served with strict integrity.
The poverty of the State for many years made it necessary to use more than common economy
576
STATE LIBRARY.
[CHAP. XVI.
in all its expenditures. This necessity not only prevented the earlier building of a Capitol, but the accumulation of an adequate library. Some of the earlier purchases of books were very judicious and valuable, but neither space nor means existed for placing the library in proper condition. Since it has become certain that books if purchased will be preserved and made accessible, a great change has taken place, and the present collection is already assuming importance. By a careful system of exchanges, the Law Library has become very complete in American Reports, and fairly supplied with other English and American publications, and is constantly improving. The General Library is also advancing rapidly. Gover- nor Baldwin while in office ventured upon what was then the untried experiment, of appointing a lady, Mrs. Harriet A. Tenney, to be State Libra- rian. Her nomination was cheerfully ratified, and the choice has been abundantly justified by the result. The neatness and care with which the library room and its contents have been arranged and kept, and the quiet and decorum prevailing, are in themselves a great advantage, not always found in State libraries. The Librarian has shown a thorough knowledge of books and their selec- tion, and an enthusiastic desire to make her charge a literary treasury. A department of American antiquities, and valuable relics has also been planned, and some collections already made of documents, pictures, and other things of historical
577
FALSE ECONOMY.
CHAP. XVI.J
value, not least of which is the Roll of Honor of the Michigan Soldiers who died in the Rebellion. The wisdom of choosing a competent woman to such an office has been recognised in some other libraries in the State, which have also been for- tunate in securing the right persons to act for them. No one doubts that such places furnish appropriate and legitimate scope for feminine tact and accomplishments.
There is one matter in which the State has no cause for self-gratulation. The Constitution of 1850, instead of leaving official salaries to be de- termined by the Legislature, as changing circum- stances might require, fixed the pay of all the principal executive and judicial officers permanent- ly, and at very low rates. There are few if any of these persons who receive as large pay as their own subordinates, or who can afford to devote their whole time to their official duties. It is re- markable that this state of things has not led to greater mischiefs than have befallen the common- wealth from it. Since Mr. Mckinney's time the treasury has been in the hands of competent and wealthy men, whose services have been practically almost gratuitous, but have been faithful and valu- able. The Auditor General's office has been, so far as is known, entirely above suspicion. The management of public lands has on some occa- sions been questioned. Frauds have been com- mitted against the State by persons purchasing lands, and it has been imagined that they were
37
578
LEGISLATIVE DISCRETION.
ICHAP. XVI.
not committed without the misconduct of some one in the department. The impeachment of Mr. Edmunds, the Commissioner, in 1872, while it was not followed by his own conviction upon charges of crime, indicated that there had been a course of business in the office which was not conducted on proper business principles, and which needed, as it has received, amendment. The penurious system which prevailed prevented that thorough and systematic management imperatively required by so important a branch of the public service, and the property squandered very much exceeds the money saved. In general the incumbents have rendered good service without adequate pay. But it is not good policy to make it difficult for a faithful officer to hold office without great per- sonal loss. Where the fixing of salaries has been left to the Legislature, they have never been ex- travagant. The disposition to suspect Legislative bodies of liability to sinister influences in such matters is absurd. If corruption is dreaded, and if they are not to be trusted where it is possible, they may as well be abolished at once. The general power of legislation affords infinitely more room for misconduct than that which relates to a few offices. When the representatives of the people are to be presumed unfit for their respon- sibilities, republican government must cease. It cannot exist without honesty, and it must be pre- sumed, as it is true, that honesty is usually to be found. The wisest constitutional restrictions are
579
PROGRESS.
CHAP, XVI.]
intended to prevent haste and misjudgment, and honestly intended encroachments tempted by pe- culiar circumstances. They seldom, if ever, are designed to indicate a distrust in personal integrity. It is very much to be hoped that the people will soon become convinced that honest work should be honestly paid, and that a generous confidence, rationally guarded, is safer as well as more cred- itable than perpetual distrust.
This year, of so much interest to the people of the United States, finds Michigan furnishing a hopeful illustration of the results of the experiment made a hundred years ago. She was then governed by martial law, with few people, and but one civil settlement. For twenty years after the Declaration of Independence, she remained under British control, and was intended to be reserved as a refuge for savages and a haunt of beasts of the chase. A few years later she fell again for a short time under the same governance, as much to the surprise of the captors, as to the disgust and rage of the surrendered. But with the re- capture came the beginning of progress. Multi- tudes of the Revolutionary patriots and of their children came westward, to enjoy the inheritance earned by the struggle for independence. The laws and customs of the new land were fresh copies of those of the older colonies, changed only where change was needed. In every village churches and schools stood foremost in the estima- tion of the people, and ignorance, idleness and immorality, were under the ban.
580
PAST AND PRESENT.
[CHAP. XVI.
The beginning of our existence as a State was rendered unfortunate by the mistaken notion that wealth and capital could be made up out of con- fidence, instead of patient industry. The land was rich and lay directly in the pathway to the further west, where the unerring instincts of our wander- ing race have always led them in search of em- pire. The future was sure, but too uncertain in date to be wisely discounted. No one then dreamed of the shortening of time and space by improved railways and telegraphs, nor was there any confidence in the quick passage of the ocean by steam, whereby it has become possible to crowd and multiply immigration faster than the country can absorb it. And yet in a vague way the hopes of the new settlements kept up with all the possibilities.
Many people are yet living who remember well the whole course of the Territory. Very many more are familiar with all the fortunes of the State. The population which would not have crowded a large village has now extended beyond a million and a third. The improved lands ex- ceed five and a half millions of acres, and there are more than 113,000 farms occupied almost entirely by owners and not by tenants. Besides agricultural products, the products of industry in- clude lumber, copper and iron, and all the shapes in which they may be wrought, as well as sugar, fish, salt, and an infinite variety of manufactured articles. The railroads in the State exceed 3,700
·
581
CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOM.
CHAP. XVI.]
miles, at a cost of more than 140 millions of dollars, in view of which the five million loan, which was such an incubus on the State, appears very insignificant. The ordinary school houses re- present a value of $9,000,000, and the annual school expenditures approach $3,500,000. The bonded debt of the State is less than $1,600,000 -less than $1.20 for each person.
During the whole period of the State existence there has been unbroken peace with her neigh- bors, and, since her admission into the Union, no quarrel with any other State. No capital sentence has been executed during this time. There has been no general famine, and no very fatal epidemic. Political rancor has not degenerated into treason or sedition, and serious riots have been rare and confined with narrow bounds. Only one State officer has been convicted of malversation in office, and only one more has been put upon his trial.
The people are thoroughly American in their habits and sympathies, attached to their State and attached to the Union. They have gained their prosperity by constitutional liberty, and they re- cognise in the preservation and enforcement of constitutions and laws their best safeguards against the dangers that beset a civilized com- monwealth.
THE END.
INDEX.
A
ABBOTT, Edward, Commander at Vin- cennes, 173.
Abbott, James, on committee of tra- ders to prevent sales of liquor, 164; James, his son, Judge of Common Pleas, 251.
Abbott, Robert, Auditor General, 348; State Treasurer, 399.
Absolute system of French government, 5, 77, 171 ; of English after the con- quest of Canada, 132, 156.
Acadians, 108, 117.
Adams, armed vessel captured at De- troit at surrender, 281 ; recaptured as the " Detroit,"' 336.
Aigremont, Clérambaut d', reports on Detroit, 61, 65, 68, 75.
Aikins, Captain in British army, be- friends American prisoners, 349.
Akansas, tribe visited by Joliet, 30. Albany traders at Detroit, 116.
Allen, Lieutenant Colonel, killed at Frenchtown, 338, 342. Allouez, Father, 12. Amherst, Sir Jeffrey, 116, 129.
Amikoué or Beaver Indians, at Beaver Islands, 547.
Ancrum, Major William, conmanding at Detroit : dealings with the Mo- ravians, 187.
Anderson, Colonel John, Michigan of- ficer, 242, 305.
Anderson, Lieutenant John, at surren- der of Detroit, 300, 309.
Angell, James B (LL.D.), President of University, 554.
Anioton, an Indian chief, 102.
Anthon, Dr. George Christian, receives grant from Pontiac, 120, 140.
L'Arbre Croche, an Indian settlement, 94; good character of people, 94, 119, 517.
Armistice in War of 1812, 323, 325.
Askin, John, befriends the Moravians, 187 ; engages in plan to secure con- trol of Michigan, 199; retains Brit- ish allegiance, 200.
Askin, John, Junior, at capture of Mackinaw, 283.
Asylums, 515, 531, 574.
Atasson or Ottason, Schiefflin's name, 201 2.
Atiochiarontiong, (one of the forms of Taochiarontiong, or Teuchsa Gron- die), a Huron name for the region about Detroit and Lake Erie, 37, 48, 56.
Atwater, Reuben, Territorial Secretary, 238 ; warns Hull of danger, 276. Audrain, Peter, a public officer De- troit, 350-1.
584
INDEX.
B
BABY, Colonel Francis, of Canada, 195; ransoms American prisoners, 349.
Baggattaway, an Indian game of ball, used as a device to enter Mackinaw in 1763, 121 ; attempted at Detroit, 124.
Bailey, Lewis E., his horse, 448.
Bagley, John J., Governor" of Michi- gan, 545, 556
Baker, Ensign, story of his adventures after Battles of Frenchtown, 348.
Baldwin, Henry P., Governor of Mich- igan, 545, 556, 561, 576.
Ball-play at Shawnee village between Indians and squaws, 210.
Bank of Detroit chartered, but annulled by Congress, 244.
Bank of Michigan chartered, 400.
Banking system of Michigan carried to excess, 489-492, 513.
Barclay, Captain, defeated by Perry, 367.
Barre, Governor de la, friendly to set- tlements, 41 ; controversy with Don- gan, 42.
Barrow, Captain, of British army, be- friends American prisoners, 349.
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