USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. I > Part 15
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"Mr. Franklin at this time was seventy-eight years of age, a very old man to put into such a responsible place. In October. Henry Strachey was sent over to assist Mr. Oswald, and in some ways I think Mr. Strachey was a sharper, brighter man than Mr. Oswald was, although Mr. Oswald was probably a very good man for the position. I think, however, that diplomatically, the repre- sentatives of the United States were the greater men. Henry Strachey was sent over to assist Oswald and particularly to aid him in fixing the boundary lines. The matter was thought to be of too great importance for one man and Lord Townshend, in introducing Strachey to Oswald, told him that Strachey would share the responsibility of fixing the boundaries, which was great, with him,
"If any of you have ever had occasion to read the treaties of 1782 and 1783 carefully, you will find that in outlining the boundary line, one line was omitted. The draft that I found of this treaty is in the handwriting of Jolm Jay, and certainly Mr. Jay as a lawyer ought to have been sufficiently conversant with real estate transfers to have drawn a proper deed ; but one line is omitted, and that is the line extending from the south end of the St. Mary's River to Lake Superior, and that omission has been eopied in every copy of the treaty that has since been made, so far as I have been able to ascertain. The map that was used on the occasion was a large wall map of Mitchell, printed some years previous to 1783. I got the original map that was used on that occasion,
EARLY VIEW OF WOODWARD AVENUE, LOOK- ING NORTHWARD FROM CAMPUS MARTIUS
CAMPUS MARTIUS, LOOKING SOUTH ON WOODWARD, IN THE SUMMER OF 1894
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and on that I found a large, heavy red line drawn straight across the country from Lake Nipissing to the Mississippi. That was one line. The other line running as we now know the boundary, through the center of the lakes. This map I hunted for several days, but finally fonnd it in the public record office in Chancery Lane.
"On November 5, 1782, the commissioners nearly broke off all negotiations from quarreling about the boundary lines, and were about to quit when they concluded to try it once more, and went at it. A new draft of the treaty was made November 8th, on which the boundary line was fixed at the forty-fifth degree of north latitude. That would run straight across the country through Alpena. If that line had been accepted, and it came very nearly being ac- cepted at one time, the entire northern peninsula of Michigan, and all the land in the southern peninsula north of Alpena, would have been British possessions, while the land across the river from us here at Detroit would have been part of the United States. When this draft was sent over to England, an alternative line was the line that we know as the boundary line, along the lakes. In sending over this proposition, Strachey said that the draft of the treaty must be pre- pared in London, and the expressions contained in the treaty made as tight as possible 'for these Americans are the greatest quibblers I ever knew.' The above draft of the treaty was handed to Richard Jackson, and he remarked on its margin, that it looked more like an ultimatum than a treaty, and in a letter of November 12, 1782, he wrote: '] am, however, free to say that so far as my judgment goes and ought to weigh, I am of opinion in the cruel, almost hopeless, situation of this country, a treaty of peace ought to be made on the terms offered.'
"On November 11, 1782, at 11 o'clock at night, Strachey writes that the terms of the treaty of peace have finally been agreed upon. 'Now we are to be hanged or applauded for thus rescuing you from the American war. I am half dead with perpetual anxiety, and shall not be at ease till I see how the great men receive me. If this is not as good a peace as was expected, 1 am confident that it is the best that could have been made.' A few days later he writes, 'The treaty is signed and sealed, and is now sent. God forbid that I should ever have a hand in another treaty.' The final treaty of peace was signed at that time, and a few days later, on the 30th of January, 1783, the treaty of peace on which it depended, that is, the treaty between the other governments of Europe and England, was signed and the war was at an end."
By the definitive treaty, signed September 3, 1783, the territory now com- prising the State of Michigan became part of the public domain of the United States, though England retained possession of Detroit and the other north- western posts for more than a decade after the conclusion of the treaty. An interesting bit of history regarding this retention of the territory in the face of the treaty was given by Dr. James B. Angell, former president of the Uni- versity of Michigan, in his address at the centennial celebration of American occupation of Detroit, in July, 1896. Doctor Angell said :
"The speakers who have preceded me have suggested that one of the reasons why Great Britain retained this and other frontier posts for thirteen years after the treaty of independence, was their donbt whether we were really going to be able to retain our independence. Under the weakness of our old federation this doubt on the part of the English was perhaps not unreason- able. But may I call your attention to the surprising fact that long after the
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establishment of our stronger government under the constitution the English seemed to cherish the same doubt.
"In 1814, at the opening of the negotiations for the Treaty of Ghent, the very first proposition made by the British commissioners to ours, and made as a sine qua non of the treaty, was that we should set apart for Indians the vast territory now comprising the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and a considerable portion of the states of Indiana and Ohio, and that we should never purchase it from them. A sort of Indian sovereignty under British guaranty was to be established in our domain. Coupled with this was a demand that we should have no armed foree on the lakes. There were other demands searcely less preposterous. (There was, however, a counter proposal to annex Canada to the United States.) Think of making sueh 'cheeky' demands as these to John Quiney Adams, Henry Clay, James A. Bayard, Albert Gallatin and Jonathan Russell. It did not take these spirited men many minutes to send baek answer in effect that, until the United States had lost all sense of independenee, they would not even listen to such propositions. They threatened to go home. Castlereagh, the prime minister, happening to reach Ghent on his way to Vienna, ordered an abatement of the British demands and an honor- able peaee was made. But the same idea of a 'buffer state' of Indians under British influence, to be used as a means of regaining power here, was cherished at the outset as was entertained in 1790."
COLONIAL CLAIMS
Possibly the English attitude toward the United States at the close of the Revolution received some support from the conflicting claims of the colonies. Connectieut, Massachusetts, New York and Viriginia all claimed territory northwest of the Ohio River and their elaims so overlapped each other that all was confusion. If these disputes should result in serious confliet, Great Britain, by retaining possession, would be in a position to regain much of the territory she had lost by the Revolution.
In October, 1778, about three months after the capture of the British gar- risons of Kaskaskia, Saint Vincent and Cahokia by Col. George Rogers Clark, the Virginia legislature passed an act that "all citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia, who are already settled there, or shall hereafter be settled on the west side of the Ohio, shall be included in the district of Kentucky, which shall be called Illinois County." Col. John Todd was appointed county lieu- tenant, or military commandant, and it appears that under his administration a court was established at Vineennes and none of the other colonies questioned the jurisdiction or aets of this tribunal. In negotiating the treaty in 1783, the British insisted on the Ohio River as the northwest boundary of the United States, but the American claims for the Lakes and Mississippi was that Clark had conquered that country and that Virginia was in possession.
The contention among the four colonies, over their respective claims and boundaries, was a great handicap to Congress, whose desire was to form a strong and permanent union of states. About two years after the ereetion of Illinois County, and almost three years before the final treaty of peace that ended the Revolutionary war, Congress adopted the role of peacemaker. An act was passed providing for the relinquishment of all colonial claims to the terri- tory northwest of the River Ohio, and that the territory so relinquished, when a sufficient population had settled therein, should be divided into states, each
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of which should be admitted into the Union, with all the rights, privileges and immunities of the original thirteen states. Under the provisions of this act, New York relinquished her claim on March 1, 1781; Virginia, March 1, 1784; Massachusetts, April 19, 1785; and Connecticut, except the tract known as the Western Reserve, September 14, 1786. These several cessions placed about three hundred thousand square miles of domain in the hands of Congress, to be erected into states for the common welfare of the nation. This vast terri- tory now comprises the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wis- consin, and that part of Minnesota east of the Mississippi River and a line drawn from the source of that stream due north to the boundary line between the United States and the British possessions.
PLANS PROPOSED
The Articles of Confederation, the first organic law of the United States, possessed serious defects and was not a success as a basis of government. At the close of the Revolution, many of those who had served in the colonial army grew dissatisfied with the failure of the government to make what they con- sidered suitable reward for their services and sacrifices. As early as December, 1782, a number of army officers petitioned Congress, in behalf of the soldiers, but Congress was then unable to do anything in the way of relief, chiefly for want of funds. In April, 1783, in anticipation of the relinquishment of claims by the colonies, some of the leading generals proposed to reward the soldiers by giving them grants of land in the Ohio country. This was known as the "Army Plan."
Closely allied to the Army Plan was one proposed about the same time by Alexander Hamilton and Theodore Bland. It provided that lands should be substituted for commutation of half-pay and arrearages due the army ; that a tract for this purpose be set apart in the country northwest of the Ohio; that the lands so set apart should be divided into districts, each of which might become a state when the inhabitants numbered twenty thousand or more; and that ten per cent of the land be reserved by the Government as a public domain, the rents and profits of which should be used for the erection of forts, founding seminaries, etc. This was known as the "Financiers' Plan."
On March 1, 1784, the same day Virginia ceded her title to the United States, a committee, of which Thomas Jefferson was chairman, reported to Congress a plan "for a temporary government of the territory northwest of the River Ohio." It provided : 1. For the division of the territory into states. 2. That each state should be eligible for admission into the Union when the number of inhabitants reached twenty thousand. 3. That each state so admitted should be liable for its share of the Federal debt. 4. That the government of the states thus created should be republican in form. 5. That after the year 1800 neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should be tolerated in any of the districts or states. A second report of the same committee late in March, 1784, made some changes in the boundaries of the districts and extended the time for the abolition of slavery to 1801. These committee reports were debated at length, but no act or ordinance embodying their recommendations was passed.
THE OHIO COMPANY
On January 9, 1786, Gen. Rufus Putnam and Gen. Benjamin Tupper, two of the colonial generals during the Revolution, formulated a plan for set-
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tling soldiers in the country beyond the Ohio River and issued a call for a meeting to be held in Boston, March 1, 1786, to consider their plan and take the necessary steps to carry it into effect. At the Boston meeting was organized the "Ohio Company," with General Putnam, General Tupper, James Mitchell Varnum, Samuel Holden Parsons and Return Jonathan Meigs as its most active members. A large tract of land near the confluence of the Ohio and Musk- ingum rivers was purchased, a land office under the management of General Putnam was established at the month of the Muskingum, where the City of Marietta now stands, and inducements were offered to immigrants, particularly veterans of the Revolution.
ORDINANCE OF 1787
The energy displayed by the Ohio Company stirred Congress to action, to provide some adequate form of government for the population which was soon to come. At the next session the reports of the Jefferson committee were again ealled up, debated, amended, and on July 13, 1787, was passed the ordinance "for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio." The ordinance provided that the territory should constitute one district, subject to division by Congress. It conferred on Congress the power to appoint a governor, secretary and three judges for the execution of the laws and administration of affairs in the Northwest Territory.
The governor was to be appointed for three years and the secretary for four years, unless sooner removed by Congress. Both were required to reside in the territory. The governor was also required to have a freehold of 1,000 acres of land and the secretary of 500 aeres. The commissions of the three judges were to continue in foree "during good behavior" and each judge was required to have a freehold of 500 acres. Other provisions of the ordinance were as follows: That where there were 5,000 free male inhabitants of full age in the district, they should be authorized to elect members of a General Assembly, to be composed of the governor and a house of representatives; that the in- habitants of the territory should be entitled to trial by jury and the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus; that the territory might be divided by Congress into not fewer than three nor more than five states, each of which should be admitted into the Union when the population numbered sixty thousand or more; that "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, otherwise than in punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly con- victed," though any slave escaping into the territory might be reclaimed by the owner.
Gen. Arthur St. Clair, then president of Congress, was appointed governor ; Winthrop Sargent, of Massachusetts, secretary; Samuel Holden Parsons, of Connecticut, James Mitchell Varnum, of Rhode Island, and John Armstrong, judges. Armstrong declined the appointment and John Cleves Symmes was chosen in his place, February 19, 1788. Governor St. Clair was removed by President Jefferson in November, 1802, after Ohio was admitted as a state. On June 28, 1798, Winthrop Sargent was succeeded by William Henry Harri- son, who served until the erection of Indiana Territory in May, 1800, when he was succeeded by Charles W. Byrd.
BRITISH INTRIGUE
All this time the post at Detroit remained in the hands of the British, though repeated efforts had been made by the United States authorities to get
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possession of the territory conceded by the treaty of September 3, 1783. In fact, one such effort was made before that treaty was concluded. On July 12, 1783, President Washington, acting upon the assumption that the British would be governed by the terms of the preliminary treaty of November 30, 1782, sent Baron Steuben to Canada to secure the delivery of Detroit. Armed with the proper credentials, the baron set out upon his mission. On August 3, 1783, he arrived at Chambly and wrote to Gen. Frederick Haldimand, lieutenant- governor of Canada, that he would arrive in Quebec in three or four days, and outlining the object of his visit. Upon his arrival there General Haldimand received him with courtesy, but instead of furnishing him with the desired order for the evacuation of the post and the necessary passports, sent him back with a letter to Washington, dated April 11, 1783, in which it was stated that the treaty was "only provisional" and that no orders had been received from London for the surrender of the posts on the upper lakes. There was therefore nothing left for Steuben to do except return and make his report.
The second effort was made after the definitive treaty had been ratified by the two governments. On May 24, 1784, Col. William Hull, afterward the first governor of Michigan Territory, set out for Quebec, where he arrived on the 12th of July. General Haldimand's excuse of a "provisional treaty" was no longer valid and he was now reduced to the extremity of making a peremptory refusal to deliver any portion of the territory, in accordance with the terms of the treaty. This he did without assigning any reason therefor.
About two years later John Adams, United States minister to England, wrote to Congress that he had made a formal demand for the relinquishment of the western posts and had been refused, the British prime minister giving as a reason for the refusal that several of the states had violated treaty obliga- tions regarding the payment of debts.
Negotiations went on and other demands were made, but they were refused upon one pretext or another. Meantime such unprincipled English agents as Alexander McKee, Matthew Elliott and Simon Girty were laboring among the Indians to induce them to stand by the British interests and inciting them to attack the American settlements. There is no doubt that the object of all this intrigue was to bring on a serious clash between the United States and the Indians, which would enable England to hold control of the valuable fur trade indefinitely, and perhaps force the American republic into a new treaty re- storing to Great Britain the sovereignty over the territory.
AMERICAN OCCUPATION
Then followed the Indian wars which ended with General Wayne's sweep- ing victory at the battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794. The defeat suffered by the Indians in this engagement so disheartened them that they re- fused to listen further to English blandishments and the next demand for the evacuation of Detroit met with more consideration. Early in the year 1794 John Jay was sent to London as a special minister, to negotiate a new treaty defining the boundary lines and adjusting other disputes between the United States and Great Britain. On June 23, 1794, Jay wrote from London that the British government positively refused to surrender the posts of Detroit and Michilimackinac. When news of Wayne's brilliant achievement reached London, coupled as it was with discouraging reports from English officials in America, the ministry was more willing to listen to Mr. Jay's presentation of the case.
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The result was the conclusion of a treaty on November 19, 1794, which settled a long-standing dispute. It provided for the adjustment of the boundary line between the United States and the British possessions; for the payment of claims growing out of illegal captures during the Revolution; and for the evacuation of the western posts on or before June 1, 1796.
The order for the evacuation of Detroit was dated at Quebec, June 2, 1796, and was signed "George Beckwith, Adjt. Gen." Evidently the British com- mandant at Detroit did not receive the order for some time, as the actual evacua- tion was delayed for more than a month. The order directed the withdrawal of all troops and supplies belonging to the British, "except a captain and fifty of the Queen's Rangers, sent to Detroit and Fort Miami in April of the present year, who shall remain as a guard for the protection of the works and public buildings until the troops of the United States are at hand to occupy the same, when they will embark."
On July 7, 1796, Col. John F. Hamtramck, commanding at Fort Miami, dispatched Capt. Moses Porter and sixty-five men (artillery and infantry) on two small sloops, to receive the surrender of Detroit. Colonel Hamtramck followed a few days later and on the 17th wrote to General James Wilkinson, commanding the troops at Greenville in the absence of General Wayne, as fol- lows :
"Detroit, July 17, 1796.
"Sir :
"I have the pleasure to inform you of the safe arrival of the troops under my command at this place, which was evacuated on the 11th instant and taken possession of by a detachment of sixty-five men, commanded by Capt. Moses Porter, whom I had detached from the foot of the Rapids for that purpose. Myself and troops arrived on the 13th instant.
"J. F. Hamtramck."
The British flag was lowered exactly at noon on July 11, 1796, and the Stars and Stripes hoisted in its place. Lanman's "Red Book of Michigan" says: "The retiring garrison of English troops, to show their spite against the Americans, locked the gates of the fort, broke the windows in the barracks, and filled the wells with stones." A rumor also says that they destroyed the windmills and left the key of the fort with a negro.
TERRITORY OF INDIANA
On May 7, 1800, President John Adams approved an act of Congress erect- ing the Territory of Indiana, which embraced all the Northwest Territory west of a line drawn due north from the mouth of the Big Miami River. This left Detroit in the Northwest Territory. Gen. William Henry Harrison was appointed governor of Indiana Territory and John Gibson, secretary.
By the act of April 30, 1802, Congress authorized the people residing in what is now the State of Ohio to form and adopt a constitution, and when ad- mitted into the Union the region including Detroit should become a part of Indiana Territory. The constitutional convention met at Chillicothe on No- vember 1, 1802, and remained in session until the 29th. The constitution was not submitted to a vote of the people, but it was accepted by Congress and on February. 19, 1803, Ohio became the seventeenth state in the American Union. The eastern half of what is now the State of Michigan was thus automatically
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added to the Territory of Indiana, which then included the present states of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, and the eastern part of Minnesota.
Governor Harrison's capital was at Vincennes, four hundred miles from Detroit, through a wild region in which the only roads were the dim Indian trails. The most available method of communication was by canoe. over the Wabash, Maumee and Detroit rivers and Lake Erie. This route included the somewhat difficult portage between the Maumee and the Wabash at Fort Wayne and few undertook the journey unless it was absolutely necessary. Under these conditions the territorial officials paid but little attention to the northern part of the territory. They realized that the rapid settlement of the country would necessitate a division of the territory within a short time and left the people of Detroit largely to themselves.
It is true that Governor Harrison issued a proclamation on January 14, 1803, defining the boundaries of Wayne County, with Detroit as the county seat. At an election held on September 11, 1804, a majority of 138 voted in favor of a general assembly. Governor Harrison then issued his proclamation calling an election for the first Thursday in January, 1805, for members of the general assembly. The proclamation failed to reach Detroit in time and no election was held in Wayne County. Representatives from other parts of the territory met at Vincennes on Friday, February 1, 1805, and on the 7th selected the names of ten persons to be sent to the president, who was to choose five of the ten to constitute an upper house, or council. Among the ten names sent to the President were those of James Henry and James May, of Detroit.
TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN
In the meantime the people of Detroit grew restive over being so far re- moved from their seat of government and receiving so little consideration from the territorial officials. They felt that some attention was due them on account of the sinister attitude of the English, who were still working among the Indians, striving to keep alive their hatred for the United States. Large num- bers of savages were frequently gathered at Malden and the trustees of the Town of Detroit kept sentries posted day and night to spread the alarm in case of danger.
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