LIFE AND TIMES OF STEVENS THOMSON MASON THE BOY GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN

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This Volume is for
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STEVENS THOMSON MASON

the

BOY GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN

BY
LAWTON T. HEMANS

LANSING

MICHIGAN HISTORICAL COMMISSION

1920

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STEVENS THOMSON MASON
From a portrait hi oil In the Art Collection of the University of Michigan.

PREFACE

ON several occasions I have heard Mr. Hemans
remark, " There seems to be no work in Michigan
covering the period from 1837 to 1845, the most eventful
years of the State, as it was the period of her birth,
and filled full of the trials subsequent to such an event. ' '
He said he could never find data on the political parties
of that time, nor on Governor Mason and other promi
nent men of the day, unless by consulting old newspapers
and pioneer -collections. He determined to gather
together all these fragments of historical knowledge,
even if in an unsatisfactory manner to himself, place
them together in one work and call it the "Life and
Times of Stevens T. Mason — the Boy Governor."

"When a child, Mr. Hemans had been told that Gover
nor Mason, the first Governor of this State, had died in
a gutter after an evening's debauch. As he grew to
young manhood and stood before the beautiful painting
of the Governor in Representative Hall at Lansing and
gazed upon that face so full of culture and refinement,
the desire was born in his heart to try and refute this
criticism and other calumnies heaped upon the Boy Gov
ernor.. As he began collecting and reading, he became
more and more convinced that many unjust remarks had
been showered upon Governor Mason, that the beautiful,
upright conscientious character of the man had never
been shown in its true light, Mr. Hemans7 desire grew
stronger as his knowledge became deeper in his subject,
and I really know that he had the greatest love and
admiration for Governor Mason. We all know that if
love fills our hearts our hardest task becomes easy. So
Mr. Hemans, so deeply in love with his subject, put his

life's best endeavors into collecting and putting together
and writing this story of the Boy Governor, and it was
his pride to think of presenting it to this great State of
Michigan, for which State I believe Mr. Romans gave
his life. But his last two years were filled so full of
physical pain and suffering that he was unable to finish
this work, and Mr. William L. Jenks has kindly written
the last chapter.

I remember so distinctly Mr. Hemaius entering the
home one evening and remarking, " Governor Manon has
a living daughter in Newark, N. J., and I must get into
communication with her. 7 7 He immediately wrote to her
and received a charming, helpful letter in return. The
daughter, Mrs. Wright, suggested that Mr. Hemans
write to Miss Emily V. Mason, a sister of Stevens T.
Mason, who was still active and interesting at the age
of 93.

The friendship between Miss Mason and Mr. Hemans
was an unusual one. She seemed almost to consider Mr.
Hemans as a brother, and the information she gave him
helped him wonderfully in the story of her brother
Stevens.

The Governor had another sister, Mrs. Laura Chi-
chester who lived in Virginia, and whom Mr. Hemans
visited during his researches. Lexington, Ky. was once
the old home of the Mason family, also other towns in
that State, and Mr. Hemans visited all these and secured
pictures of the old homes which are found in this work.
Nearly all of the pictures included in this volume have
been collected by great endeavors and at a great expense.
Many of them were from old brooches, daguerreotypes,
almanacs, paintings and from old things pulled from rub
bish heaps. The pictures Mr. Hemans and myself have

PREFACE 5

paid hundreds of dollars for. He could not content him
self when he got on the trail of a picture unless he
secured it, regardless of labor or expense, so deep was
his interest in his work. His greatest regret, as I remem
ber, was not to secure the picture of John Norvell, early
Detroit postmaster and Michigan statesman; his labors
in this direction were almost endless. Miss Emily Mason
endeavored to secure this picture but the search had to
be given up.

Nearly all of the chapters concerning the family and
their home life have been gleaned from letters from
Miss Mason. In her delightful manner she wrote many
letters of their charming home life. These letters I have
in Mr. Hemans7 Historical Collection and they with the
above collection will some time be a part of the Michigan
Pioneer and Historical Collection.

When Mr. Hemans discovered that Stevens T. Mason
died and was buried in New York, he began wishing that
he might be the means of bringing the remains of the
Boy Governor back to the State of Michigan. His
endeavors were crowned with success and Governor War
ner appointed Mr. Hemans as one of the three commis
sioners to go to New York and bring back the remains
and place them in a suitable burial spot in Detroit. Then
began his personal acquaintance with the daughter and
sisters of Governor Mason. The grandson, Edward
Wright, Jr. of Newark, N. J., a young man of great
culture and ability piloted the commission to the Gover
nor's last resting place, pictures of which are found in
the pages of this volume. So the friendship between
the Mason family and Mr. Hemans grew, and also the
interest in his work deepened and became a part of his
life.

6 PREFACE

This story was written entirely in the evenings after
the hai*d day's work upon his usual daily tasks at his
office. This for many years was his source of pleasure,
all he seemed to yearn for; he seemed to love this Boy
Governor and Ms life and times like a sweetheart. Page
after page flew from his fingers only to be rewritten time
and again; never would a page be considered to be
perfectly right or fit until I had carefully listened to his
reading of it; the chapters and the story became so
familiar to me that 1 knew it almost as well as he. In
my memory there stands out so vividly Mr, Zlcmans at
Ms table in our old Mason home, pen in hand happily
engaged in his work. His fear was that he would never
see it finished or that it might not be worthy of print
when finished, but he would remark, "Wife, it has been
worth all the effort/7

I have spent days in the Detroit Public Library read
ing old Detroit newspapers of the years 1837-1845, care
fully reading those old musty pages to get some inter
esting item for him. Also I spent some time at Marshall,
Mich, with Mr. John Patterson, a Marshall pioneer, who
had a valuable collection of early newspapers. All my
labors were labors of love and the delight expressed on
his face when I would return from a search of that kind
was a payment enough for me.

Now if in return the people of Michigan will read this
volume and find in it any interesting and helpful thoughts
it will be a great pleasure to me and somehow I feel that
Mr. Hemans from "The Beautiful Isle of Somewhere77
will know that his labor of love was not all in vain.

MRS. HEMANS.
Mason, Michigan,
November 4, 1918.

CONTENTS

Chapter. Page.

I. In the Old Dominion 11

II. The Sojourn in Kentucky 21

III. Life in Michigan Territory 38

IV. Secretary Mason 56

V. A Year of Stirring Events 73

VI. Advancing Towards Statehood 88

VII. The Boundary Dispute with Ohio 107

VIII. The Boundary Dispute with Ohio (Con.) 131

IX. The Constitution of 1835 152

X. A Sovereign State Out of the Union 178

XI. Organizing the State Government 201

XII. Conditions in Michigan in 1837 218

XIII. Michigan Admitted to the Union - 239

XIV. Legislation of 1837 255

XV. Financial Difficulties and the Election of 1837. . 284

XV L Governor Mason's Second Term 313

XVII. The Patriot War 330

XVIJ I. Banks and Banking 362

XIX. Internal Improvements 389

XX. Internal Improvements and the Five Million

Dollar Loan 423

XX I, The Fourth Legislature 445

XX LI. The State Pusses to Whig Control 465

XXII L "Tippecauoe and Tyler Too" 484

XXIV. The Closing Years 504

Index 521

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page.

Abbott, Robert 112

Adam, John J 144

Barry, John S 192

Black Hawk 96

Brown, Gen. Joseph W 128

Capitol Building, Detroit 176

Capitol Square Park, Detroit 416

Cass, Lewis 64? 80

Central Railroad right-of-way 320

Clay, Home of Henry 48

Clinton Canal 336

Comstock, Oliver C 144

Constitution of 1835 before restoration 144

Constitution of 1835, first page 160

Constitution of 1835, in office of Secretary of State ICO

Crary, Isaac K 256

Doty, James I) 112

Edmunds, James M 384

Erie and KaJamaxoo passenger coach 288

Farnsworth, Elon 224

, Pelch, Alphens 192

First State Election, 1835, Detroit 160

Fletcher, William Asa 224

Fuller, Philo C 304

Gidley, Townsend E 304

Homer, John S 176

Hough-ton, Dr. Douglass 272, 320

Howard, Benjamin C 128

Howard, Henry • 352

LeRoy, Daniel 224

Lucas, Robert 112

Lyon, Lucius 320

McClelland, Robert 240

Mason coat-of-arms 518

Mason, Gov. Stevens T Frontispiece, 64, 176, 208, 384

Mason, Stevens T., grandfather of Gov. Mason 16

Mason, Mrs. Stevens T., grandmother of Gov. Mason 16

Mason, John T., father of Gov. Mason 48

Mason, Mrs. Julia Phelps, wife of Gov. Mason 80

Mason, Emily Virginia, sister of Gov. Mason 48

10 ILLUSTRATION

Chilton, Mrs. Laura Mason, sister of Gov. Mason 80

Wright, Mrs. Dorothea Mason, only child of Gov. Mason. . 208

Mason home on Raspberry Plain, Va 16

Mason home near Lexington, Ky 64

Mason home in Mt. Sterling, Ky 32

Mason home in Detroit * 192

Mason's commission for Oren Marsh as captain, 1838. . . . 368

Mason, letter from Gov • 256

Mason, tomb of Gov. Stevens T 400

Mason, commissioners at tomb of Gov 416

Mason, Statue of Stevens T 400

Morell, George 240

Mundy, Edward 208

Ohio boundary dispute — diagram 130

Pierce, John D 272

Pitcher, Dr. Zina (. . . . 272

Porter, George B , 96

Poster : "Settlers Beware" 336

Ransom, Epaphroditus 240

Roberts, Elijah J , * 352

Roineyn, Theodore 352

Rush, Richard 128

Schoolcraf t? Henry R 256

Sehwarz, John E 368

Steamer, "Michigan," 1834 288

Stuart, Charles E 384

Transylvania University 32

Trowbridge, Charles C/. 288

Vickery, Stephen , 304

Williams, Gen. John R 9g

William $nd Mary College 32

Woodbridge, "William 308

LIFE AND TIMES OF
STEVENS THOMSON MASON

CHAPTER I

IK THE OLD DOMINION

ON the 3rd of September, 1651, was fought the memor
able battle of Worcester, where the ill-starred army
of Prince Charles went down to irretrievable defeat
before the onslaught of Cromwell and his " Ironsides.'7
"Worcester was the last battle of the Civil War, and
Cromwell was wont to refer to it in after times as the
"crowning mercy of God," because it crushed the present
hopes of the Royalists for the restoration of the throne
and crown.

From the blood-stained field, whereon lay six thousand
of his faithful followers, the young prince fled under
cover of the night, a fugitive in mean disguise, to be
the central figure in many an adventure and romantic
escape until weeks later he was landed upon the shore
of France. Many a cavalier of noble lineage and proud
estate who had cast his future with the son of the be
headed king surrendered property and estate and sought
personal safety in voluntary banishment from the scenes
of his native land. Many fled to Holland, France and
adjacent countries, while • still many more sought an

12 STEVENS T. MASON

asylum amid the newer scenes and larger opportunities
of Virginia, the colony of the new world which was then
giving new direction to the thoughts and imagination of
Englishmen.

Among the many who at this time and for this reason
became emigrants to the Old Dominion was one George
Mason of Staffordshire. The long centuries tell little of
his life story before he landed at the primitive village
on the James. The family name appears among the
members of the second parliament of Charles I, and a
family tradition has preserved the story of his having
commanded a troop of horse among the defeated at the
battle of Worcester. The early colonial records of Vir
ginia contribute but meager notice of George Mason
the emigrant. They show that as the owner of an exten
sive estate he was a forceful character in the now com
munity, ever active and equal to its demands; but his
chief claim to distinction will always bo that he was a
progenitor of one of the most illustrious families of the
new world. A son? Lieutenant-Colonel George Mason, in
1700 became Commandor-in-Chief of the Jamestown
militia, and held other offices of honor and distinction in
the colony. A third George Mason, son of the latter, like
wise won a reputation for exceptional attainments. Early
in life he became a Justice of the Peace, the office at that
time being one of first importance in the judicial affairs
of the colony. He likewise became Sheriff of the County
of Stafford, and when in 1716 Governor Spottswood and
his "Knights of the Golden Horaoshoe" accomplished
the then famous journey acrosH the Blue Ridge Moun
tains to the Shenandoah Valley and took formal posses
sion of the country by firing a volley and drinking to the

IN THE OLD DOMINION 13

health of the king: in champagne, to the health of the
princess in burgundy, and to the rest of the royal family
In claret, Colonel Mason was one of the number.

In 1721 George Mason married Ann Thomson, the
daughter of Stevens Thomson, Attorney General for
Virginia during a portion of the reign of Queen Anne.
Their two sons, George and Thomson, were destined
to fill larger places during the later days of the colonial
period and the earlier days of the republic. Five miles
from Mount Vernon on an inlet of the broad Potomac
stands Gunston Hall, the colonial home of George
Mason, who in his day was the trusted friend of Wash
ington, of Jefferson, of Patrick Henry and that galaxy
of great Virginians who wrought so nobly in the cause
of liberty, and for the upbuilding of a new government
dedicated to its cause.

In statecraft George Mason ranked with the men of
first abilities. His great mind conceived and his hand
penned the famous Declaration of Rights and the first
constitution of Virginia. To tell the incidents of his
service to his country would require the limits of a vol
ume rather than a paragraph. To Gunston Hall went
Lafayette as an honored guest, and there likewise went
the patriots of the day to catch the inspiration of his
master mind. It is not strange that the Negroes and
simple folk of the neighborhood still believe that the sage
who was once the master, at intervals yet returns to
walk at night its spacious grounds, recalling the olden
days. It is befitting the honor of the Old Dominion
State that the form of George Mason, cast in deathless
bronze, should stand with that of John Marshall and
the other illustrious sons of the early day about the

14 STEVENS T. MASON

equestrian statue of Washington upon the campus of
the Capitol at Eichmond.

Thomas Mason, the younger brother, was likewise a
man of more than ordinary intellectual grasp and power.
He studied law in the Temple at London and at his death
in 1785 ranked with the first in ability and attainments at
the bar of Virginia. As early as 1774 he published a
series of papers urging open resistance to the demands
of the mother country. In 1778 he was appointed a mem
ber of the first Supreme Court of his State, He was
twice a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and
served in other capacities which at once bespoke the
reality of his abilities and the confidence of his constitu
ents.

The home of Thomas Mason was in Loudoun County,
Virginia, where he became the owner of a vast tract of
land. His manor house was erected at Raspberry Plain,
some four miles from the village of Leesburg, where the
Blue Kidge Mountains are lost in the gentle swells of a
yich, undulating country, which the present-day inhabi
tant will tell you is "the garden spot of the world."
Thomson Mason was twice married. The eldest son of
his first marriage was Stevens Thomson Mason, born
in Stafford in 1760. This young man, Thomson Mason —
young, for he died in 1803 — had all the fire and vigor
of his ancestors. At the age of twenty he had reached
the rank of Colonel in the Revolutionary Army and later
saw service in many a hard campaign. He was a member
of the Virginia Convention of 1788 and of the United
States Senate from 1794 to the date of his death. His
wife was Mary Armstead, a lady who possessed a mind

IN THE OLD DOMINION 15

of great strength and power as well as a face and figure
of more than ordinary charm and beauty.

The home life of Stevens Thomson Mason had all of
the charm that surrounded the home life of the best days
of Virginia. Raspberry Plain and extensive lands were
his portion of his father's estate. The old manor house
with its spacious halls and broad veranda, its setting
of native forest trees with the double line of locusts that
marked the drive to the highway a quarter of a mile
away, were all marks of a hospitality inborn and gracious
that was there enthroned. There was even an element
of fascination and delight in the row of whitewashed
cabins where the numerous company of servants which
the establishment supported were given the means of
every physical, comfort. Slavery at Raspberry Plain
and indeed upon the plantations of the Masons generally
was an institution that imposed quite as many duties
on the master as burdens on the servant. The bond
between them was genuine and real, as both demonstrated
on many occasions. George Mason was a member of the
convention which framed the Federal Constitution, and
no man of his State took more advanced ground than did
he on the great question of human slavery; while the
brother Thomson left evidence of the reality of his inter
est in the form of substantial bequests insuring the future
comfort of the servants whose fidelity he recognized as
a claim upon his bounty.

The Mason home, moreover, was not the home of
either vanity or indolence. It was the home of the old
Virginia aristocracy where pride of family, culture and
appreciation of the true dignity of labor were all relig-

1G STBVENS T. MASON

iously inculcated. To this end the will of Thomson
Mason contained a provision that neither of his younger
sons "should reside on the south side of the James Eiver
or below Williamsburg before they respectively attain
the age of twenty-one years, lest they should imbibe
more exalted notions of their own importance than I
could wish any child of mine to possess.'7

Such were the surroundings and social atmosphere of
the home in which Senator Stevens T. Mason lived and
in which his children, two sons and two daughters, were
born. The sons were Armstead Thomson Mason, mem
ber of Congress and a general in the War of 1812, and
General John Thomson Mason, who became Secretary of
Michigan Territory and who was the father of Stevens
Thomson Mason, the first Governor* of the State.
Although Senator Stevens T. Mason died in 1803, ho
lived long enough to impress his personality upon his
sons, and inspire them with an aspiration for high attain
ments. Men of learning, wit and eloquence, the leaders
in the larger affairs of the State and Nation, were fre
quent partakers of the hospitality of Raspberry Plain,
imparting to the lads a degree of refinement not other
wise obtained, while their minds were opened to the vast
world beyond the plantation limits by occasional vitltt
with their father to the city of Philadelphia and other
places where official and other business called Mm. In
1808 John T. Mason had progressed "beyond the instruc
tions of the private tutor who in that d&y was an adjunct
in every family of considerable estate, and was a student
in the famous college of William and Mary at Williams-
burg, which even then could count scores of names made
eminent in the highest walks of life, who claimed it as

STEVENS THOMSON MASON
Of Raspberry Plain, Vn,. 1700-1 SO."!, Grandfather of Gov. Stevens Thomson Mason.

, .ruv'.i

1

MARY ARMISTEAD, VA,,

juitflitov of Robert Anuistead, Grandmother of Gov, Stevons Thomson Mason
of Michigan, From a colored crayon by James Sharpless, probably in 1794,

IN THE OLD DOMINION 17

their Alma Mater. It was here that John T. Mason met
Elizabeth Moir, the daughter of a Scotch family long
domiciled upon Virginia soil. The chance meeting was
the commencement of an attachment that a year later
resulted in his taking her as his bride to his Loudoun
County home.

John T. Mason had already come into possession of his
share of his father's estate, which portion was consid
ered an ample fortune for that day. On a portion of
the old plantation thus inherited he erected a model
dwelling to which he gave the name of Moirfield, in honor
of his bride, although it was only for a short time their
residence. He had begun the practice of the legal pro
fession for which he had made preparation, and for a
time the nearby town of Leesburg, the county seat of
Loudoun County, was his home. There are letters in
existence which lead us to believe that it was while living
here that the subject of this volume, Stevens Mason
Mason, was born, much as we would like to believe, as it
has been sometimes stated, that he was born in the old
manor house at Raspberry Plain. The date of his birth
was October 27, 1811, and we may be sure that the advent
of this son, the first among the children of the Senator
and his queenly wife, — although a daughter had been
born the year before, — was the occasion of genuine
rejoicing in the family. We can well imagine the scene
when a little later the army of kinsfolk gathered at the
little church for the christening of the baby with the
name of his illustrious grandfather, Stevens Thomson
Mason. The solemn service concluded, the company
repaired for the concluding festivities to the old manor
which was fittingly garnished for the important occa-

18 STEVENS T. MASON

sion; a family reunion, Christmas and a wedding were
the only events of more importance than a christening.
Familty tradition tells of christenings when from far and
near as many as three hundred of the kinsfolk gathered
to partake of the joys of the occasion, and we may be
sure that upon this event they were equally loyal. In
keeping with family custom the broad halls and spacious
rooms of the old homestead were bright with the festoons
of autumn decorations. It was a day of gaiety for the
"quality," and long after it had passed was a theme of
conversation among the servants.

The career of the future Governor of Michigan on Vir
ginia soil was destined to be of short duration, but as
so frequently happens in human experience, accident
rather than design was the occasion for the fact that his
boyhood was spent in the State of Kentucky. At this
time the two sisters of the father were in the charm of
their young womanhood. They were, as might be
expected, drawn to "Washington as participators in its
social gaieties. There Catherine, the elder, met and
became the wife of Honorable "William T. Barry, then a
young Kentucky congressman, later Postmaster General
in the Cabinet of President Jackson. Mary, the younger,
became the fiancee of Honorable Benjamin Howard, also
a member of Congress from Kentucky, who at about that
time had become Governor of the Territory of Louisiana
from which the Territory of Missouri was later formed.
The mother was reluctant to give her consent to a mar
riage that would remove her youngest daughter so far
from kith and kin as Missouri; but the lovers had a
strong champion in the brother Jojin, who not only was
loyal to his sister in her love, but became a convert to

IN THE OLD DOMINION 19

the claim of the greater opportunities of the newer West
where the glories of the empire were in waiting. The
romance, if such it may be termed, ended in the marriage
of the lovers, and they with the family of the brother
started as emigrants to the land beyond the Mississippi.
Such a venture in 1812 was not a matter of small moment,
for it meant the passage of the mountains and weary
weeks in the wilderness and upon the rivers, with a com
pany that approached the magnitude of a caravan, for
the family of the father had now been augmented by the
arrival of the maternal grandparents who had come from
"Williamsburg to make a home with their daughter. A
lumbering coach-and-four provided for the ladies and
children ; the gentlemen were in the saddle ; while a score
of servants from the grandfather's estate trudged on
afoot or rode the .wagons that conveyed the effects and
provisions for so large a company. But fate had seem
ingly decreed that they were not to reach their intended
destination. Upon arriving at the city of Lexington,
Kentucky, weary from weeks of journey, Indian upris
ings upon the frontier and portentious war movements
were the factors which persuaded them to make that
place their home until both had passed away.

John Mason at once set about the conservation of
his moderately extensive property interests until affairs
should permit the prosecution of his original intention.
Governor Howard tendered his services to the Govern
ment, which gave him a commission as Brigadier Gen
eral. In the meantime the war continued. Congress
created the Territory of Missouri and gave the governor
ship into other hands. In the early spring of 1813 an
event happened that had more to do with determining

20 STEVENS T. MASON

the intentions of the family than had either war or poli
ties. Death entered the family circle and claimed the
bride of a year, the sister of John Mason, the wife of
General Howard. It is probable that all intention of
proceeding farther westward was then abandoned; if not
it certainly must have been when a few months later the
broken-hearted husband was laid beside the wife and
sister.

CHAPTER II
THE SOJOURN n>r KENTUCKY

r I ^ O the Virginia emigrant of the early days, Kentucky
-*- was a land of rich and varied charms. Then as now
the gentle undulations of the central blue-grass country
awoke enthusiasm in the "breast of the beholder. Its
mighty forests, fertile soil and deep flowing rivers
bespoke for it a future of more than ordinary hope and
promise. Long before John Mason set his face west
ward thousands of Virginians had crossed into the land
of Boone and Kenton and had laid the foundations and
raised the superstructure of a State. As early as 1812
Lexington was a town that could boast of all the refine
ments of communities long tempered by age. Schools
and churches of high character had made their advent,
social graces and the lighter accomplishments had many
votaines. It was as large as Cincinnati and four years
later a traveler said of it, "The inhabitants are as pol
ished and, I regret to add, as luxurious as those of Bos
ton, New York or Baltimore."

It was natural that John Mason should have readily
accepted the fate which had brought him hither and that
he should have at once entered into the business and
social life of the community. With but short delay he
took up the practice of his profession at the bar where
the names of Clay, Barry, Breckenridge and others were
already famous, and soon won for himself a respectable

22 STEVENS T. MASON

clientage and the reputation of a solid and responsible
citizen. The first three or four years of residence at
Lexington developed little of exceptional family interest.
Acquaintanceship was extended and the father looked
forward with every assurance of a prosperous career.
During the first two years' residence, two sons were born
to die in infancy, although young Thomson continued to
develop into sturdy boyhood. The maternal grandpar
ents were still inmates of the home and the grandmother
found as much delight as did the children in recounting
the stories of the Revolution and the colonial days of old
Virginia. Even before Tom had essayed to solve the
mystery of books and lessons, he knew by 'heart the
stories of the students at William and Mary's College,
the old days at Williamsburg and the great doings at
the Capitol before the war. The second sister, Emily
Virginia, who in later years became the trusted confidant
of the brother, was born in 1815. A little later the
father purchased a large estate some three and one-
half miles from town to which the family were removed.
Even before this time John Mason had acquired many
large and valuable properties both in Lexington and in
the surrounding country and for some years thereafter
his real estate holdings were upon a scale quite beyond
the ordinary. The country home was located upon what
was then known as the Boonsborough Road, now the
Lexington and Richmond Pike, a short distance beyond
" Ashland, " the famous home of Henry Clay. Although
the lapse of years had swept away every old-time asso
ciation, the old manor still stands, a sad arid silent wit
ness of a forgotten generation. The house, built by
Colonel Levi Todd in 1780, is said to be the first brick

THE SOJOURN IN KENTUCKY 28

house west of the Alleghany Mountains. Many historic
associations are connected with the old homestead, for
Colonel Levi Todd was the ancestor of Mary Todd, the
wife of Abraham Lincoln, and the old house in later years
when it had passed into other hands was the scene of
their entertainment and the home of other illustrious
personages in Kentucky history.

Upon its becoming the home of the Masons it was
given the name of "Serenity Hall" after the home of the
father's maternal grandfather, Eobert Armstead, of
Louisa County, Virginia. The days at "Serenity Hall"
were the joyous days of the family residence at Lexing
ton. It was an estate of between two and three hundred
acres of the famous blue grass. The old house at that
time could claim an approach to the appointments and
dignity of a palace. The old servants were again about
the family recalling the old days and early associations.
"Granny Peg" who had been purchased as a child from
a slaver on the James Eiver as an act of compassion by
William Moir, as the mother's maid, was here at liberty
to scold while she rendered tireless, faithful service.
Here Tishey the cook, and Jackson the coachman, in
unconscious servitude performed their daily duties with
pride of place and association. The home and farm main
tained a company of more than twenty servants who in
the homestead, spinninghouse, shop and field made a com
munity that was quite self-supporting. Even in such a
home, life was simple; satisfying pleasure abounded in
field and forest and in the social intercourse with friends
and neighbors. Sundays always found the families at
the Episcopal Church where all were communicants and
where each found mental and social as well as spiritual

24 STEVENS T. MASON

satisfaction. Young Tom, now a lad of six years,^with
Ms sister Mary a year Ms senior, were now receiving
daily instruction from Mr. January, the tutor, who had
come out from Virginia. The monotony of the school
days was varied by a romp about the quarters with Sam,
Eobert, Evelena or Coty, or perhaps in listening to some
folklore tale from the lips of old Peff or Granny Peg,
whose store of wonders was well nigh inexhaustible. At
infrequent intervals the family was treated to the delight
of a journey back to the old Virginia home. The father
did not relinquish his professional labors even when he
assumed the cares of a farm proprietor, and time brought
still others. In 1817 a branch of the United States Bank
was organized at Lexington and John Mason became one
of its directors. WMle other enterprises claimed his
interest and attention, yet on occasions the father found
time from his business and professional career to join
in those trips back to his own boyhood home.

Long years afterwards, the joys of those journeys
remained with those who participated in * them. It
required the better part of three weeks for the old coach
and its four-horse team to cover the distance. The trav
elers never tired of the changing scenes amid the hills
and valleys that filled the way. Daily the midday meal
was devoured beside some spring or babbling brook, while
the nights were spent beneath the roofs of the homes
of the pioneers where they were treated to the crude but
unstinted hospitality of that early day. . In later years
one of the children 'recalled that it was the custom of
the mother on these journeys to charge the one who rode
ahead to find the stopping places for the night, to select
the house that had curtains at the windows, reasoning

THE SOJOURN IN KENTUCKY 25

that curtains were a true mark of both affluence and
gentility. The arrival at the old home at Raspberry
Plain and the meeting of the numerous kinf oik was the
crowning joy of the journey. At times pressing business
required that the father should forego the companion
ship of his wife and children and should make the journey
hurriedly and alone. One such occasion plunged the
family into deepest sorrow. It was when in the early
days of 1819 a swift messenger brought the sad tidings
that the father's beloved and only brother, Armstead
Thomson Mason, had been killed in a duel with his cousin,
Colonel John McCarty. At Leesburg the old inhabitants
will still tell you the old story as it has been handed from
the father to the son : how the quarrel started between
Mason and McCarty, who were opposing candidates for
congress; how they met with rifles on the famous dueling
ground at Bladensburg, Maryland; how at the signal
both rifles cracked with one report; how the bullet from
Mason's weapon shattered McCarty 's arm and how the
one from McCarty 's rifle struck the lock of the one in
Mason's hands, split in two, one-half burying itself in
the heart of the victim. They will tell you further of how
because of the tragedy a beautiful young lady refused
to become McCarty 's bride and how later they were
brought together by the magic of a song, and they may
tell you how years later their child and first born of their
union, dead from a weapon in his own hands, lay in the
same room at old Easpberry Plain that had been the
death chamber of Armstead Thomson Mason. The death
of this brother was a sore blow to John Mason, for the
tie between them was of the tenderest, the only son of
the former having been given the name of the cousin,

26 STEVENS T. MASON

Stevens Thomson Mason, destined to meet the death
of a soldier as an officer of the Union forces in the war
with Mexico.

This same year an event transpired that may have
had some bearing on the later career of the "Boy Gov
ernor " of Michigan. James Monroe was then President
of the United States. Years before and while John
Mason and his young wife were still residents of Lou-
doun County, "Oak Hill," the country home of James
Monroe, was but a moment 7s drive from the Mason home
at Easpberry Plain. Between the two families there had
long been the most cordial and friendly relations, indeed
Monroe had stood as the godfather for the infant daugh
ter Mary before the family had emigrated to Kentucky.
Even then he had held many high places in the gift of
his state and nation, having served with George Mason
in the famous Virginia convention of 1788 ; been gover
nor of his State, member of the United States Senate and
minister to France. Now as President he was making
a tour promoting "the era of good feeling. " Lexington
was one of the cities whose fortune it was to lay in
the course of his itinerary. Its citizens made becoming
preparations for the reception and entertainment of
their honored guest. "Whig sentiment was strong in Lex
ington, as it was strong in Kentucky generally at that
time; and one cannot repress a smile as he scans the
columns of the Lexington Gazette of that time and notes
the strenuous objection of the paper to the preparations
made and especially to the company of cavalry that was
detailed to act as the honorary escort into the city as
being unsuited ;to that simplicity that should be regarded
by the head of a republic; but the cavalry and other

THE SOJOUEN IN KENTUCKY 27

military companies joined in tlie reception. A public
dinner was given the President and Ms suite at Keen's
Hotel. A town address was delivered by a select com
mittee of which. John Mason was a member and responses
were made by the distinguished guests. The festivities
lasted for three days with a Sunday intervening and
during the time the President and his suite enjoyed the
hospitality of his old Virginia friends. Among the com
pany at "Serenity Hall" there was a wounded hero who
was eyed with special veneration by the youthful Tom,
for he was the popular idol of the hour, his fame advanc
ing in every corner of the new republic. It was General
Jackson, the hero of New Orleans, fresh from Ms Florida
campaign. He was then in the full vigor of Ms years
but somewhat weakened from the effects of the wound
received in his duel with Dickinson thirteen years before,
and the children of the home always remembered him as,
resting on the sofa, he took a toddy from their mother's
hand. In after years when Andrew Jackson had become
president of the Eepublic and young Mason had need
of a friend in high place, how much he owed to this chance
meeting and to the fact that Old Hickory had once
enjoyed the hospitality of his father's home, the records
will never tell.

In the latter part of the year 1819 John Mason parted
with "Serenity Hall" and many of the servants and soon
became interested with other gentlemen in the develop
ment of the iron deposits in the vicinity of OwingsviUe
and Beaver creek. He still retained considerable prop
erty in Lexington and vicinity and from old family letters
we find that for the next two or three years the family
made several changes in its place of residence. Some-

28 STEVENS T. MASON

times they were at the "Swift" house and sometimes
at the "Higgins" house. Even before they left "Seren
ity Hall" young Tom had begun the preparatory work
for entrance into Transylvania University where in
later years he became a student. Daily in company -with
young John Barry and other youthful associates he rode
his pony into the town, returning when the day's lessons
were learned and recited. We find that during these boy
hood days young Mason was anything but an effeminate
lad; he had both the spirit and the courage of youth
and on more than one occasion seems to have been will
ing to engage with riding-whip and fists in the contests
that decide boyish claims of honor. It was in 1822 that
Tom suffered his first great bereavement which came in
the death of his sister and playmate Mary. To him the
loss of this sister was the cause of most poignant grief
and to the fond parents the occasion of a lasting sorrow.
And now, as if disasters were destined never to come
singly, the fortunes of the father, which but a few years
before had seemed of the brightest, were beginning to
darken. At first a material loss through the failure of
business associates for whom he had become surety was
borne with the belief that he might in time retrieve from
the wreckage of them who had brought him his loss, but
the continuing shrinkage in value of the property from
which he sought to realize, left him but little in the equi
ties ; and then it was that he turned his attention to his
iron properties at Owingsville and on the Beaver and to a
distillery 'at or near Mount Sterling. Although the
financial reverses that had been suffered were consider
able, John Mason was still reckoned among the men of
affairs in the community and he went resolutely to work

THE SOJOURN IN KENTUCKY 20

to rehabilitate Ms fortune. The Kentucky Assembly in
1823, evidently taking notice of his efforts in the develop
ment of the iron industry at the Beaver Forge, gave
legislative sanction to the creation of a " lottery for the
opening and improving of the road from the Olympian
Springs to the Beaver Creek iron works." Lotteries of
this character were institutions quite common in that
day and of this particular one John Mason was made
one of the managers. At this time the family removed
to Jowetts Farms or " Indian Fields" that the wife and
children might be near the father, although there is
reason to believe that Tom remained at his books at
Lexington.

These were the days of care-free joy for the children,
especially during the long summer days when young Tom
was free from school restraints to be the leader in their
frolics afield. Sometimes for weeks they were at the
Olympian Springs or Mudlicks, drinking in strength and
vigor as much from the air of the hills as from the water
which broke pure and sparkling from many springs. The
incidents of the Bath County residence long continued
a subject of delightful reminiscence and pleasant reflec
tion. It had not been intended that the family should
take up a permanent residence among "The Knobs" as
the Bath County country was called, and upon the death
of the grandmother at Raspberry Plain in 1824 the family
returned to Lexington, which was better suited to the
profitable employment of the servants who now came to
the father from the mother's estate. John Quincy
Adams, on being elected President the same year called
Henry Clay to his Cabinet as Secretary of State, and the
next year, 1825, John Mason became a tenant of "Ash-

30 STEVENS T, MASON

land" where the family resumed a most happy existence.
The sister Emily was now a student in Colonel Denhani's
school, and a little later a student in the famous French
school of Madame Mantelli, to which she rode daily
behind the brother on his pony, with John Jackson, the
coachman, riding one of the carriage horses close at hand
to see that no harm befell. Of this latter school the sister
Emily three-quarters of a century later said: "Here
we danced and sang and were as gay as only French
people can make a house. Madame played the violin,
her son Waldemar, the clarinet, and Mam'selle Marie
danced with a grace beyond anything I ever imagined,
while Mam'selle Louise made the best waffles ever eaten.
It was a happy household, giving happiness to all within
its reach, and here I got on rapidly."

At this time the great Lafayette was on a visit to the
nation by invitation of Congress, and in May, 1825, he
was the guest of the town of Lexington, whose citizens
were not outdone by those of other cities in demonstra
tions of enthusiastic welcome with which he was every
where greeted. It was a day that made a lasting impres
sion upon the mind of young Tom, for the stories of the
Revolution and the part his ancestors had taken therein
had made its heroes all beings of special veneration to
him. And then it was a day in which the youth and chil
dren took an active part. Tom and his mates were in
the gay procession, and his sister among the white
gowned company that scattered flowers along the way.
The ball given in the evening, upon which Tom and his
sister were permitted to look for a time, long remained
to them the crowning scene of gaiety and splendor. Year

THE SOJOUEN IN KENTUCKY 31

after year they would sometimes call to mind one of the
songs composed for the occasion:

Let Brandywine the story tell,

And Monmouth loud acclaim,
Let York in triumph loudly swell

The measure of his fame.

For Auld Lang Syne, my dear,

We never can forget
When dangers pressed and foes were near,

Our friend was Lafayette.

He crossed the broad Atlantic wave,

And swore we should be free;
He led the bravest of the brave

To death or victory.

For Auld Lang Syne, my dear, etc.

But little less impressive than the honors paid to
Lafayette were the solemn memorial services following
the death of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on the
same day, July 4, 1826. Then as on the former occasion
there were the processions, but now instead of flowers
they wore black sashes as a badge of mourning, the cere
monies closing with an oration delivered from a rostrum
in the open air by the uncle, Hon. William T. Barry.

The family continued to reside at Ashland until 1827.
Young Tom had now become a man of stature, tall for
his years; his handsome face and figure and his frank
engaging manner were the subjects of frequent mention
in the letters of his friends and relatives. A cultured
home and an alert and active mind had made it possible
for him to make progress in books and education much
beyond his years. Although Ms attainments were not
markedly different from those of the average youth who
were likewise fortunately surrounded, he yet possessed

32 STEVENS T. MASON

certain manly qualities which, with an absence of arro
gance and vanity, brought him even in his youth the
notice and friendship of men many years his senior, some
of whom had made for themselves names of distinguished
honor ; among whom may be mentioned the Hon. Richard
M. Johnson, who later became Vice President, and who
was ever willing to respond with kindly counsel in the
days when official burdens came to the Boy Governor.

Had it been the will of Providence that the life of
Stevens T. Mason should be spent in old Kentucky, it
would seem that his youthful abilities and friendly asso
ciations might reasonably have been taken as the token
of a bright and successful future amid the scenes and
companions of his boyhood; but Providence had seem
ingly decreed that the theater of his manhood activities
was to be in a region far distant from the home of his
early years, and that his fame was to be wrought in a
sphere quite foreign to any that his boyhood dreams or
aspirations had conceived. John Mason still retained
his interest in the iron industry among the Bath County
hills. The methods of production were necessarily crude
and the means of transportation slow and uncertain.
Except such as went by wagons to the more or less
remote localities, the only means of transportation for
the manufactured product was by flat boats floated down
the Slate or Beaver creeks to the Licking Eiver and
thence to the broad Ohio, from whence the comparatively
small cargoes were distributed to the towns which at
1 intervals had come into being upon its shores. At about
this time Mason had intrusted to an agent such a cargo
of bar iron and castings to be sold at the Ohio ports.
The cargo was disposed of, but 'the agent defaulted in

fi 3

in

Ǥ*

t/2

H sj

THE SOJOURN IN KENTUCKY 33

accounting for the proceeds to the amount of more than
eight thousand dollars. Although to the great iron com
panies of today such a loss would be of small moment,
it was far different in 1827 when such a cargo represented
long weeks of labor and a material portion of the capital
invested. To John Mason the loss was a financial dis
aster. It meant inability to meet his own obligations
and suits and resulting executions to deplete still further
his already reduced possessions. This misfortune again
sent the family to the Bath County "Knobs." They
spent the summer at the Olympian Springs, and the fol
lowing winter at the quaint village of Owingsville, which
is still one of the most interesting towns of Kentucky.
In the spring of 1828 they removed to Mt. Sterling,
which was their last Kentucky home. They were now a
numerous family, for if Providence had visited the father
with some misfortune, He had bestowed the blessing of
many children. It was while residing here that the eighth
daughter and last child was born. The little life was
doomed to be of short duration. One of the pathetic things
of the "Mt. Sterling days," which was in after years
recalled, was the death of the little one, and how for the
want of a clergyman, the father stood by the open grave
and in faltering voice read the service of the church as
the family knelt about.

It is one of the blessings of life that adversity cannot
cloud the joys of childhood, and so while many a burden
of care and trouble rested upon the heart of the father
and the mother, who keenly felt their altered circum
stances, the children found in the new scenes and sur
roundings the essentials of a joyous existence. The resi
dence was at the border of the town and in its appoint-

34 STEVENS T. MASON

ments furnished all of the comfort, and for that day,
some of the elegance to be desired in a home. Its lawn
studded with lilacs and roses, sloped to a green meadow
beyond, and its spacious garden furnished the means of
many an hour's delight. A few of the old servants still
remained with the family, and the father strove with
renewed energy to gather in the remnants of his fortune.
Tom was not unconscious of the changed conditions of
his father's affairs, and with a desire to lighten the fam
ily burden, with true American spirit, became a grocer's
clerk; and the sister recalled in later years that the pen
nies, so dear to the children in those days, came to them
from the earnings of * * Brother Tom. " For many months
young Mason applied himself with energy in his humble
calling, devoting the hours of night with his sister Emily
in learning the lessons marked for them by the father,
to be recited when he returned from the iron works or
from some distant "circuit." The father had collected a
choice and for that day a moderately extensive library
of both legal and general literature, and from the latter
both Tom and his sister read with keen avidity. It was
then the brother began the practice he afterwards at
times continued, of writing out the choice passages of
the favorite authors he perused.

Had John Mason been born to the situation and envi
ronment by which he was now limited, or had he been a
man of less restless energy, he might have found all of
the essentials of comfort and contentment in his present
station, for he still had the means of a livelihood; he
had that satisfying pleasure that conies to a parent from
a talented and interesting family and was a part of a
society that was not without a good degree of the charm

THE SOJOURN IN KENTUCKY 35

of culture and refinement. But like many another man,
John Mason could not shut out the past; he still hoped
to retrieve the fortune of other days. There is nothing
to indicate that as yet -he had ever taken more than a
general interest in things political. His ambition had
been for professional and business success and never
for politics as a business or profession. Years later
when the son was the central figure in the political affairs
of the new commonwealth of Michigan, he urged profes
sional and business attainments rather than political
preferment as the more worthy object of his ambition.
All the reasons that may have influenced John Mason to
seek a political appointment, it is not now possible to
ascertain. Among such reasons, a desire to remove from
the witnessing associations of his misfortune, to provide
an assured support for a numerous family while he built
up a business in the new community or while he turned
his energies and attentions to enterprises of a character
that might or might not yield immediate profit, were
undoubtedly reasons of a more or less persuasive char
acter.

Andrew Jackson was elected President in 1828, and
on the 4th day of March, 1829, assumed the duties
of his office. The following months were of more than
ordinary political activity and interest. Not only were
great questions engaging the attention of statesmen, but
Jackson had assumed office with the lesser official posi
tions of the country filled with his political enemies who
were not averse to using their power to the detriment
of his administration. As a matter of self defense, many
of such officials were removed and friends of the Presi
dent and his policies appointed in their places. William

36 STEVENS T. MASON

T. Barry was now a member of the President's Cabinet,
being the first Postmaster General to occupy a Cabinet
position. With such motives and under such political
conditions, John T. Mason either sought or had tendered
to him the office of Secretary of the Territory of Mich
igan, which for many years had been filled by Hon.
James Witherell, General Lewis Cass being then the
Governor. The political prospect was an exceedingly
pleasing one to young Tom. The contest of the preced
ing campaign had intensified his enthusiasm for General
Jackson, who was already the military hero of the Nation,
and quickened his interest in those great political princi
ples for which his ancestors had done battle for more
than a century upon American soil. Moreover, Michigan
and her mighty lakes had a strong hold upon his youthful
imagination. In the war of 1812 a large number of the
soldiers who had marched to the northern border were
from the homes of Lexington and surrounding country.
Many a time he had listened with rapt attention to the
recital of the sufferings of those brave Kentuckians who
were with Winchester at the battle of the Raisin; with
Shelby and Harrison beyond Lake Erie, and who rode
with Johnson at the final battle of the Thames where
the brave Tecumseh fell with his face to the foe.

John T. Mason received his appointment on the 20th
day of May, 1830, but before that time both father and
son had said good-bye to mother and sister and had taken
their way back to the old Virginia home, where after
hasty greetings and adieus, they hurried to Washington
where the father concluded the duties preliminary to
entering upon his official station in far-away Michigan.
From Washington by the slow conveyances of the day,

THE SOJOURN IN KENTUCKY 37

through Philadelphia, New York, Albany and the Erie
Canal, they sought the distant village of Detroit where
they arrived on the 18th day of July. In time a home
for the reception of the family was procured, and as the
as the father at the time was Acting Governor in the
absence of General Cass, Thomson returned in the early
autumn to bring the family to its new home. The last
days in Kentucky were spent at Owingsville with Mr.
Ambrose Dudley Mann, who had been a student in the
office of John Mason at Lexington, and who in later years
represented the Government in the diplomatic service at
Trieste, Hanover and Berlin, closing his official career
as a Commissioner from the Confederate States to some
of the continental countries of Europe from 1861-65. Of
these last days this distinguished man later wrote, "They
were passed with my wife and myself with mingled joy
and sorrow on all sides, — joy in charming associations,
sorrow that it could not be continued."

In early October, when from the hilltops they looked
across the wooded valleys resplendent in vestments of
crimson and gold, the family took its departure, Granny
Peg and one or two servants accompanying, faithful even
into the land where their freedom was assured. After-
many days of travel over hill and through vale to the
city of Cincinnati and thence northward, the numerous
family with their effects joined the father at Detroit;
and no one could see, even in the dim realm of fancy,
what the future held for them in store.

CHAPTEE III

LIFE IN MICHIGAN TERRITORY

IN 1830 Michigan Territory included not only the terri
torial limits of the present State of Michigan but also
that of the present State of "Wisconsin. In this vast
territory civilization had as yet done little more than
plant a few outposts from which to penetrate the wild
interior. Immigration into the Northwest had been into
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Michigan, by the force of
events, was compelled to await the settlement of these
former States before the stream of emigration turned
towards her borders. In 1830 Michigan Territory,
although it was the land of the 'Northwest first touched
by the foot of European, could boast a population of but
32,531, and a little more than three thousand of these
were in the region west of Lake Michigan, where settle
ment had been made at Green Bay and Mineral Point,
numbers having been drawn to the latter place by the
lead mines discovered there.

This territory was the remnant of the old Northwest,
and its government had passed through various trans
mutations from the system inaugurated under the Ordi
nance of 1787. Under the paramount* control of the
President and Congress, its government was now in
trusted to executive and judicial branches appointed by
the President with the advice and consent of the Senate,
the legislative branch being vested in a Territorial Coun
cil of thirteen members, chosen by the vote of the people,

LIFE IN MICHIGAN TERRITORY 89

as was also the Territorial Delegate who had a seat in
the national Congress. The Governor was the execu
tive head of the Territory and Secretary of Indian
Affairs within its limits. He had the power to pardon
offences against the laws of the United States. He had
likewise the power of appointing in the counties of the
Territory all Justices of the Peace, Judges of Probate
and Judges of County Courts, Sheriffs, Clerks and judi
cial officers generally.

The Territorial Secretary had various administrative
duties and in the absence of the Governor discharged
as Acting Governor the duties of his superior. The
supreme judiciary was a court of one presiding judge
and two associate judges who had both common law and
equity jurisdiction, and who held their court in stated
places in the Territory. From this court an appeal might
be taken to the Supreme Court of the United States and
to it appeal might be taken from the courts of lesser
jurisdiction. At this time likewise a provision had been
made for a District Court to provide for the needs of
that distant region known as the County of MacMnac.
The Territorial Council, gathered at Detroit from the
near and distant places of the Territory, had authority
to legislate; for territorial affairs and their enactments
had the force of law until Congress refused approval.
Under its authority counties were laid out, townships
organized and the machinery of local government pro
vided.

As late as 1818 there were but six counties in the
entire Territory; Wayne, Monroe, Macomb and Mack-
inac were in Michigan proper, while Brown County, with
the county seat at Green Bay, included the eastern half

40 STEVENS T. MASON

of the present State of Wisconsin, and Crawford County,
with county seat at Prairie du Chene, was the western
half. Such was the growth of population that by 1830
the country east of Lake Michigan had been carved into
twelve organized and twelve unorganized counties;
eleven of the number had been laid out in 1829, eight
of which had been given names for the President, Vice
President, members of the Cabinet, and Governor Cass.

Highways even in the organized counties were as yet
a rarity, the principal ones being the few military roads
projected by the Government and paid for by appropria
tions from the national treasury. The first of these was
the road from Detroit 'to Perrysburg through the " Black
Swamp " at the head of Lake Erie, a region that had
figured so disastrously in the War of 1812, for which an
appropriation was made in 1824. Three years later mili
tary roads were under construction from Detroit to Chi
cago, to Saginaw Bay, and to Fort Gratiot at the outlet
of Lake Huron ; while still another was to connect Detroit
with Monroe, the River Raisin and the road to Sandusky.
From these main highways radiated the blazed trails
which led to the isolated settlements of the border.

Of the counties east of Lake Michigan, Wayne, Wash-
tenaw, Oakland, Macomb and Monroe contained practi
cally all of the population. A house or two at the Soo
kept alive its claim to being the oldest settlement of the
Territory; Fort Mackinac frowned from the heights of
the enchanting island of the northern Straits, and there
in season the traders and gay voyageurs, the Indians
and the coureurs de bois gathered to make ready for the
trade of another year, which was to take some of them
as far westward as the tributaries xrf the Missouri. From

LIFE IN MICHIGAN TERRITORY 41

lake to lake southward the mighty forest stood unscarred
by the ax of the woodsman, except in a few places where
from the older days the white man had met the Indian
for trade or council, or upon the southern border where
the settlers were beginning to carve their clearings. At
Saginaw, General Cass had met the Chippewas in council
in 1819, when the treaty was signed whereby the Govern
ment took over the lands of eastern Michigan. At this
place there was now little more to the "city" than the
stockade fort erected by the General Government a year
later, together with the buildings of the American Fur
Company; the fort had been abandoned in 1824 because
of the illness of the greater number of the garrison from
the fever and ague that was contracted from the marshes
of the region.

Frenchtown of the earlier days had become the more
pretentious village of Monroe. Tecumseh was on the
extreme frontier. General Joseph W. Brown, Musgrove
Evans and Austin E. Wing, prominent names in the later
days of the Territory, had laid its foundations in 1824.
Samuel Dexter and a few neighbors were at the village
that still bears his name, while Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti
were villages of pretentious character. Their supplies
were packed through the woods from Detroit, drawn by
ox teams from the same place by way of an old road
through the village of Plymouth, or poled up the Huron
from Eawsonville, then called Snow's Landing. Mt.
Clemens, which had assumed the dignity of a village
many years before, couldn't yet show more than a few
score of inhabitants. A few clustering buildings marked
the modest beginning of the thriving city of Pontiac,
which was to be for some little time the northern ter-

42 STEVENS T. MASON

minus of the Detroit and Saginaw Bay Turnpike. Here
and there a log dwelling or pioneer tavern may have
marked the site of other places now grown to busy marts
of trade and industry, but they differed little if any from
the primitive habitations which were the homes of the
far separated settlers in the isolated " clearings."

The only place along many miles of coast where the
eye of the voyager caught sight of the homes of men
long domiciled upon the soil was upon the beautiful
Detroit above and below the city of that name. From
the river 's shore extended the ribbon-like farms of the
French habitants, their houses and barns brought in close
proximity, forming in many places a country street back
of which the old orchards of the apple and the pear
formed a charming background. In such homes dwelt
the French habitants in Arcadian simplicity. Their care
free gaiety had become as a proverb, and the moss-grown
crucifix everywhere present on house and barn was the
sign of his continuing devotion. His little farm, the
industry within Ms home and the slow revolving wind
mills that dotted every few miles of shore, supplied his
every comfort as well as the luxuries of his simple exis
tence. Detroit was the metropolis of the territory by a
large majority, a century and quarter having raised it
to the dignity of a city of two thousand people. Although
old in years the town was essentially modern, for the
fire of twenty-five years before had swept away every
vestige of the old days with the exception of one or two
buildings. Its business portion was well confined
between Jefferson Avenue and the river and between
(Jriswold and Bates Streets. At the northwest corner
of Jefferson and Cass stood the old time hostelry known

LIFE IN MICHIGAN TERRITORY 41

as the " Mansion House/' while the then famous ^Steam
boat Hotel" where Uncle Ben Woodworth was for many
years the host, was at the northeast corner of "Wood-
bridge and Eandolph. At the corner of Larned and Bates
the imposing pile of Ste. Anne's was then approaching
completion. The territorial capitol was at what is now
Capitol Park, at that time so far "out on the Common"
as to occasion much criticism because of the distance.
The Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians had all
provided places of worship. The first named society had
begun the erection of its church edifice at Gratiot Avenue
and Farrar Street, which time demonstrated was so far
upon the "Common" as to be unsuited for its purpose
and was ultimately abandoned for a site " nearer town";
the two latter societies had their houses of worship on
Woodward Avenue between Larned and Congress
Streets, the church grounds being a part of what before
the fire had been known as "The English Burying
Ground." The homes of the people were upon Jefferson
Avenue east, Larned and Congress Streets, and dotted
a district as far north as the Campus Martins. Jef
ferson Avenue extended but a short distance to the east
ward, and from the Grand Circus the lines of tenantless
streets radiated into the adjacent forest.

More than one-half the inhabitants of Detroit con
versed in the French tongue and lived the gay, light-
hearted existence of the French people. The conveyances
upon the streets were the two wheeled pony carts in
summer and the carioles in winter drawn by the sturdy
French or Indian ponies. Old habits and pleasing cus
toms long survived to give color and variety to the days
of Old Detroit; with them likewise survived institutions

44 STEVENS T. MASON

of an older and less charming character. In the old
market-place on the south side of Jefferson Avenue in
the center of Woodward stood the stout oaken whipping
post where the knout was vigorously applied until abol
ished in 1831. Imprisonment for debt, afflicting culprits
•with ball and chain, and selling the poor into servitude
were some of the survivals of those cruder times. Even
the gallows and a public execution was exhibited to the
populace of Detroit as late as September 30, 1830, when
one Simmons was marched to the gibbet to the music of
three drums and a fife with an escort of "Oakland County
Scouts" whose distinctive uniforms were blue shirts and
"stove pipe" hats, — presenting a make-up at which it
was said the condemned man smiled as he faced eternity.
But even while the old survived, the new era was close
at hand. As early as 1818 the "Walk-in-the-water," the
first steamboat on the upper lakes, was plying between
Buffalo and Detroit; the current making it necessary
that the craft be towed in the vicinity of Black Rock,
twenty yoke of sleek oxen being used for the purpose,
which were facetiously termed "the horned breeze."
Although this pioneer craft was wrecked in 1821, her
machinery went into the more staunchly built Superior,
which with the Eric, the Daniel Webster and perhaps
others, continued for many years the means of easy pas-
age from Buffalo westward. The opening of the Erie
Canal in 1825 was the occasion of a rising tide of emi
gration to the region of the Northwest, which by 1830
had assumed proportions of considerable magnitude. To
accommodate this growing . volume of travel there was
organized in the year last mentioned the Great Western
Stage Company. It supplied a line of four horse post

LIFE IN MICHIGAN TERRITORY 45

coaches running from Detroit to Chicago, when the Chi
cago highway was in condition, and astonishing the west
ern world by making the two hundred and eighty-eight
miles with passengers and mails in the surprisingly short
space of five days.

With the steamboat and stage coach, the refining insti
tutions of the older communities were being transplanted
even though it was to take some time for them to obtain
a fast hold upon the soil. As early as 1809 Father Gabriel
Richard had started a newspaper. It was of short life,
and was followed by other journalistic enterprises of a
more or less precarious existence; but in 1830 the North
western Journal, and the Courier, at Detroit; the Oak
land County Chronicle at Pontiac ; The Western Emigrant
at Ann Arbor, and the Inquirer at Monroe, were an
earnest of the press as a continuing factor in the pioneer
communities.

The means of education were as yet exceedingly lim
ited. A few primitive structures designed for school
houses graced the pioneer settlements, and in Detroit a
twenty-four by fifty foot, two story brick structure stood
at the corner of Bates and Congress Streets designed
for the 4< University of Michigania," or "Catholepis-
temiad," as it was euphemistically, if somewhat pedant
ically called in the act of incorporation drawn by the
eccentric Judge Woodward. Although this structure was
built in 1817, it was for many years a place of experi
ment rather than one of practical results in the cause
of education. Private schools were common until the
later establishment of the state system of primary
schools ; but it should not be assumed that the Territory
was lacking in men of ability, or that there was wanting

46 STEVENS T. MASON

a good degree of culture and refinement. The emigrant
from New England and New York brought with him in
many instances the best that the schools and colleges of
the East could give, the early government of Michigan
calling to the service of the State an unusually large
number of men of high training and ability. Detroit
was in that day exceptionally situated to promote among
its people a high degree of culture and refinement. The
fort and military establishment called many men of edu
cation to the post, and as the territorial capitol it like
wise became the home of the executive and judicial
officers of the Territory, not only of those then in office,
but likewise of those who had come out in previous years
and who had remained after the close of official tenure
to follow other occupations. The federal and territorial
courts at Detroit had drawn to the city a bar of eminent
ability, among whose members were Lewis Cass, William
Woodbridge, Charles Lamed, Elon Farnsworth and
others of equal prominence in that and later days ; while
other professions were represented according to the
needs of the community.

As the principal means of communication with the out
side world was by the lakes and the river, Detroit was
practically in a state of isolation for several months in
each year. Even the mails then came through by the
slow medium of horse and sleigh, or in severe weather
upon the back of the hardy carrier. It was not uncom
mon even in later years for the city to pass periods of
more than two weeks without a New York mail. Such
seasons furnished the occasion for the height of social
gaiety. The frozen surface of the river was the scene of
almost daily contests between the fleet ponies and their

LIFE IN MICHIGAN TEBRITORY 47

vociferous drivers ; balls and merry makings not uncom
monly filled the hours of night close to the coining of the
morning. The more cultured portion of the community
had recourse to literary and kindred societies where each
one gave of his talents and from which all derived both
profit and entertainment. It was in this capacity that
Douglas Houghton was first made known to Michigan,
who had been induced by Governor Cass and others to
come to Detroit to deliver a course of lectures on the
subject of chemistry during the winter of 1829. Poetical,
prose and scientific papers were prepared and read, to
be occasionally varied with dramatic productions by the
Thespian Corps, an organization composed largely of
army officers. Men of such finished scholarship as Major
Thomas Eowland, Mr. Charles C. Trowbridge, Major
John Biddle, General Lewis Cass, Major Henry Whiting
and Mr. Henry B. Schoolcraft, were willing contributors
to the Lyceum and Historical Society; the four last
named gentlemen delivered a series of essays subse
quently gathered into the volume entitled Historical and
Scientific Sketches of Michigan, now so highly prized for
its historical and literary excellence.

Although the relation between Kentucky and Michigan
was much closer than it is today, because of the many
citizens of Kentucky who had participated in the Michi
gan campaigns of the "War of 1812 of whom some had
found homes in the Territory, yet the transition from
Lexington to Detroit was quite as marked as they had
been in countries foreign to each other. John T. Mason
and his family were soon a welcome addition to the
official and social life of the community. The first few
days following their arrival were passed as the guests of

48 STEVENS T. MASON

Colonel Stephen Mack and his good wife of the Mansion
House. A little later they were comfortably located in a
commodious house on Congress Street in the rear of
which is now (1912) the Detroit Savings Bank.

The aged grandmother was still a member of the home,
the evening of her life reflecting the charms of tranquil
joys. Granny Peg, now decrepit and no longer able to
perform her old time services, was likewise a part of
the household, where her fidelity was remembered
although her usefulness was passed; and well she merited
it, for she had given to both the mother and the Mason
children long years of watchful care exceeding that which
she had given to her own offspring, but Granny Peg with
all her virtues was not without her failings, and one of
the most grievous was her love for the dram. The
family would gladly have shut off the source of tempta
tion and supply, but the young idlers about Detroit tav
erns soon became acquainted with the mirth provoking
loquacity and volubility of the old Negress when her
tongue was properly loosened by liquor, and so it some
times happened that Granny Peg would return with much
more than the day's marketing for which perchance she
had been sent. Such incidents were always followed by
reprimand and apparent repentance accompanied by the
most solemn promise that it would never occur again;
but to the end of her life Granny was occasionally obliged
to seek new forgiveness and renew her promise.

The family were not long in fitting into the ways of
their new associations. Thomson continued his studies
with the father, working with him in the discharge of his
official duties as Territorial Secretary, and occasionally
performing the duties of private secretary to the Gov-

GEN. JOHN THOMSON MASON

Of Raspberry Plain, Va. 17S7-1S">0. father of Governor Mason. Secretary and
Acting Governor Michigan Territory. is:',0-is:!l.

EMILY VIRGINIA MASON
Sister of Stevens Thomson Mason.

si

'A ^

L/l ,£

LIFE IN MICHIGAN TERRITORY 49

ernor, Lewis Cass. During the fall and winter of 1830
the Governor was called from the Territory and at such
times the father became the Acting Governor, as a result
of which the son gained a considerable familiarity with
the routine of the office filled by the father. It has
already been said that the winter months of these years
in Detroit were times of unrestrained gaiety and social
pleasure ; it would have been more than strange if such
features had not had some attraction to the handsome,
spirited son of the Secretary. If not a leader in social
conviviality, he at least joined willingly in those youthful
gatherings where exuberance of spirit was sometimes
exhibited. He found passing pleasure in the balls and
other functions of a social nature, and may at times have
joined with boon companions in more boisterous gaieties
at the tavern or other places of meeting; but such inci
dents were far from indicative of his general character,
which had in it even in youth much serious purpose and
future promise. So that while he had the love of a circle
of vivacious companions he did not forfeit the good will
and kindly interest of by much the larger portion of his
elders. The two older sisters were soon attending the
school of some Belgian sisters, and some two years later
took lessons in French and special subjects from Father
Kundig, a Swiss, and Father Bowdoel, an elegant French
man.

More than seventy-five years later the elder sister,
Emily, set down in a style of youthful exuberance her
reminiscences of the later school day experience, which
we are safe in assuming is a typical portrayal of the
satisfying pleasures which the society of that day
afforded. "What charming recollections of those days

50 STEVENS T. MASON

of simple pleasures crowd upon me," she wrote. "Good
Father Kundig made for us a theater in the basement
of the Cathedral where we acted Hannah Moore's and
Miss Edge worth's pieces to admiring audiences of par
ents and friends. My sister Kate as Mrs. Battle in 'Old
Poz' and Josie Desnoyer as ' William' in hat and cravat
of her father, a world too wide, and his brass buttoned
coat, the tails of which reached to the floor, produced
peals of laughter. My youngest sister Laura with gilt
paper crown and scepter and long white gown was Canute
the Great, bidding the waters retreat. Seized with stage
fright after the first scene she refused to return to the
'boards/ when Father Kundig gravely announced the
* indisposition on the part of King Canute7 and prayed
the audience to excuse his further appearance. Between
acts he played the piano, was candle snuffer, proprietor,
scene shifter, everything, with unfailing interest and
good humor."

Of both the pleasures and refinements which the com
munity offered, the family took its share ; but so far as
young Thomson was concerned there was a third source
from which he may have drawn the inspiration of later
years, a source that reflected a state of public mind which
it is quite necessary to understand if we would compre
hend the history of the time and his connection there-
with; and that is, the thought of the people as expressed
through the legislative body of the Territory, the Terri
torial Council. The meeting of the Council, although it
was composed of but thirteen members, was a matter
of quite as much importance to the people interested
as might be the meeting of a numerous legislative body
of a pretentious commonwealth. The messages of Gov-

LIFE IN MICHIGAN TERRITORY 51

ernor Cass to this small body were prepared with quite
as much, care and covered quite as important topics as do
the like documents of the present day. The second ses
sion of the fourth Council convened at Detroit, Janu
ary 5, 1831, and did not conclude its labors until March 4
following. The Governor's message dwelt at consider
able length upon the attempts of Indiana and Ohio to push
their boundaries northward onto the rightful Territory
of Michigan, thus early bringing to the attention of young
Mason the question which four years later was to become
the occasion of his greatest popularity.

The enactments of the Council, although in the main
sensible and proper, nevertheless contain some matters
that disclose the inability of the legislator of that day
to forecast the great developments of the future. Among
such matters may be mentioned a memorial addressed
to Congress asking for the grant of four townships of
land from the National Government with which to aid the
establishment of a silk industry within the Territory.
The memorial recited as the reason for the desire to estab
lish such an industry, that "the Peninsula on account of
its locality requires that its inhabitants should be engaged
in some branch of industry the products of which will
warrant an inland transportation to a very distant mar
ket, so distant from this Territory are the great marts
of commerce that the common productions of the agri
culturist poorly pay for the labor which they cost after
deducting the cost of transportation." Little could they
then conceive that before the close of the lives of many
of the men who gave their votes to the memorial, the
products of farms thousands of miles still further west
ward would be passing in an almost unending procession

52 STEVENS T. MASON

to the eastern markets, and that in that mysterious West
there would soon be " marts of commerce" surpassing
in population and industry anything that the East to that
time had known.

"With great railway systems crossing the southern lim
its of our State bringing New York and Chicago almost
as close together as the limits of a day's stage-coach
journey in the olden times, we are apt to smile in derision
at the men who in 1837 sought to construct a system of
canals connecting the waters of Lakes Michigan and
Huron. Sometimes writers with a wrong perspective
have pointed to the effort as proof of the limited abilities
of the men who then directed the affairs of State. But
in 1831 when Lewis Cass was Governor and the names of
Henry Schoolcraft and Elon Farnsworth appear among
the members of the Council, a memorial was adopted
addressed to the Congress of the United States asking
for a topographical survey of the country lying between
the waters of the "Sogona" (Saginaw) and Grand Eiver
of the Michigan peninsula preparatory to the construc
tion of a canal joining these waters. The memorial
recited that "Nature appears to have pointed out this
connection by the deep indentation of Sogona and its
recipient, Sogona Eiver; and by the copious waters of
Grand Eiver which take their rise in the secondary table
lands of that country," following with a statement of the
feasibility of the canal's construction, and closing with
the statement that " whoever examines the peninsula of
land drawn upon the maps, with Lake Michigan upon the
west and the arable farming and mining country extend
ing from Green Bay to the Mississippi, must led to per
ceive that whenever that area of country settles and fills

LIFE IN MICHIGAN TERRITORY 53

up, as it is now in process of doing, its products must
seek a market through, the Lakes, and how this market
can be attained without passing through the Straits of
Michilimackinac closed with ice six months in the year
will assume a character of deeper interest. ' 7 The records
indicate that when a few years later the people formed
a Constitution and sought to inaugurate a system of
internal improvements, the idea was not the caprice of
the day, but was in response to a public opinion that had
been years in forming and which had been championed
by many, if not most, of the leading men of the Territory.
During the year 1830 John T. Mason began the per
fecting of arrangements that were to take him to Mexico
and that were to absorb his energies for the remainder of
of his life. He had inherited from his father certain
land claims which had accrued to the father as a Colonel
in the Eevolutionary War. "With failing fortune John T.
Mason sought to convert these claims into a more tan
gible asset. Texas was now known to be a country rich
in possibilities. Colonists from the southern States had
flocked across the border in large numbers and companies
were being formed to acquire lands and take out colonists
under contract. General Mason succeeded in exchanging
his Eevolutionary land claims for an interest in such a
company and soon became associated with others in the
ownership of a vast tract of land upon the Eed Eiver.
The prosecution of this venture soon made it necessary
that he surrender his official position and reside for con
siderable lengths of time in Mexico and at other places
far distant from his family.

There has always been a belief among those associated
with General Mason that his mission to Mexico and Texas

54 STEVENS T. MASON

was of more than a personal character. It is known
that at this time President Jackson was anxious for the
acquisition of Texas and was making use .of both open
offer and secret diplomacy to secure that end. It is quite
probable that the President was at least willing to render
such assistance as might result from continuing the son
in the office of the father while the latter became a factor
in the Texas situation. The support of the family at
Detroit was certainly a matter of much importance to
the father whose mission whether personal or confidential
was to take him to a far distant land.

It was such practical considerations coupled with a
worthy ambition that prompted the son to aspire to the
office about to be vacated by the father. It is impossible
to say when the subject was first canvassed between
father and son, or to tell who of the many partisans of
the President in Detroit were consulted as to the con
templated change in the secretaryship of the Territory.
No notice of the pending matter reached the public,
although it must have been known to certain individuals
for a considerable time. Governor Cass was called to
the President's Cabinet in July, 1831, and long previous
to his appointment he had visited the President; it is
not too much to presume that the whole subject of Mich
igan politics was then thoroughly canvassed ; it was sig
nificant that soon after his return John T. Mason and
his son Stevens T. repaired to Washington to lay the
matter before the President and his advisors. There
was little need of the father calling to the assistance of
the son the powerful political support that through rela
tionship and association was at his command. Either
the claim of friendship started twelve years before, or

LIFE IN MICHIGAN TERRITORY 55

the anticipated services of the father in other fields, or
the spirited but frank engaging manner of the young man,
quite readily won the favor of the President, who on the
12th day of July signed his commission as Secretary of
Michigan Territory^ When young Mason took his
departure the President gave him many assurances of
his kindly interest and requested him to apprise him fre
quently of the trend of events in the distant region where
he was to exercise his official duties. He arrived in
Detroit on the 24th and on the day following was sworn
into office, his superior, Lewis Cass, administering the
oath of office.

CHAPTER IV

m

SECEETAEY MASOET

T T is quite impossible at this day accurately to portray
•*- the ungracious feeling which in 1831 had become a
marked characteristic of the political life of Detroit and
to a less extent of the other communities of the Territory.
The average citizen of the time rendered a loose allegiance
to the principles either of the Democratic-Republican or
of the Whig party; but the most strongly marked division
was between the personal followers of Henry Clay and
Andrew Jackson. Then, as has always been the case,
the division on the personality of the leader was a source
of more bitter controversy than would have arisen from
serious political issues. Quarrels of a personal and semi-
political nature became distressingly common, and there
were few men in public positions so fortunate as to wholly
escape being drawn into one of another of the factions
thus created. The condition was rendered even more
anomalous by the birth and growth of the Anti-Masonic
party, which during its short existence exerted a con
siderable influence in the political affairs of the Terri
tory, being exerted generally against the men and meas
ures of the Democratic-Republican, or Jackson party.

If Stevens T. Mason had had to Ms credit long years
of practical experience and residence in the Territory,
his appointment to so responsible and honorable a posi
tion as Territorial Secretary would not have passed
under the conditions that then existed without more or

SECRETARY MASON .57

less opposition directed against himself as an individual
or as the representative of someone in superior author
ity. When, with such conditions existing Young Mason
embodied both youthful inexperience and subordination
to a hated political superior, it was not surprising that
his appointment should have been the occasion of more
than ordinary protest and opposition.

The news of Mason's appointment to the secretaryship
preceded his arrival at Detroit by a day. It was not long
in circulating to every home in the little city and was
soon the topic of general comment. The word for a pub
lic meeting was at once passed, and when it assembled
in the evening, Colonel David C. McKinstry was chosen
to preside over its deliberations. At the meeting, little
more was done than to appoint Colonel McKinstry,
Andrew Mack, Shubal Conant, Oliver Newberry and John
E. Schwarz as a committee to wait upon the young Secre
tary and authoritatively learn the facts as to his minority
and such other disqualifications as might form the basis
of a remonstrance to be adopted by the assembly on the
following Monday evening, to which time the meeting
was adjourned. The committee was courteously received
by young Mason, who frankly admitted his minority, but
informed them that none of the information which they
sought had been kept from the President, who had
appointed him with a full knowledge of it all. The com
mittee reported at the adjourned meeting, when a second
committee consisting of Eurotas P. Hastings, Henry S.
Cole, David C. McKinstry, Oliver Newberry and Alex
ander D. Eraser was appointed to prepare resolutions
indicative of the sense of the meeting, and a memorial
to the President to be signed by the meeting and circu-

5ft STEVENS T. MASON

lated in the Territory asking the Secretary's removal.
The meetings were the occasion of considerable excite
ment, and, there is no doubt that many citizens acted
from a belief that their rights and interests had been
jeopardized by what they considered the unwise action
of the President; but there is evidence that political
motives were not entirely wanting. There was evident
desire .that the meetings should have the appearance of
being non-partisan in character, and to that end a friend
of the administration, Colonel David 0. McKinstry, was
honored as chairman of the meeting and a majority of
Jackson men were placed upon the committee to inter
view young Mason; but upon the committee which should
draw the resolutions and memorial, and which was to be
the medium of its circulation, the Clay men were in
control.

"The remonstrance," as the resolutions and memorial
were generally termed, set forth the fact of the minority
of the appointee, his lack of the freehold qualification
required by the statute creating the office, and concluded
by declaring that the signers viewed the appointment as
"a violation of the principles of our fundamental law
and of the genius and spirit of the Constitution ; and in
the highest degree derogatory to the freemen over whom
he is thus attempted to be placed;" concluding with the
declaration that ' ' we hold it to be our duty to take prompt
measures with a view to his removal from office." At
the meeting and by subsequent circulation the paper
received one hundred and sixty-two signatures, Shubal
Conant heading the list in which appeared the names of
many men prominent in the business affairs of the com-

SECRETARY MASON 90

munity, but containing few if any name of the men then
connected with, the professional or official life of the city
or Territory. The proceedings of the Detroit meeting
were sought to be copied at Pontiac and one or two other
places, but the attempts met with small response. The
press of the Territory, especially that portion which had
Whig or Anti-Masonic leanings, was unsparing in its
criticism of both the Secretary and the President, while
the incident was the occasion for much comment by the
leading journals of the country generally; few defended
the propriety of the appointment, although some, like the
"Washington Globe, the official organ of the administra
tion, contended that as the appointment had been made,
the appointee should not be removed except for actual
misconduct.

While the opposition were thus engaged, it must not be
assumed that young Mason was idle. Knowing that the
action of the Detroit meeting would be at once forwarded
to Washington, he on the day following the meeting pre
pared and mailed to the President the following letter,
which in its diplomatic handling of the subject marks
him as no ordinary youth :

"Detroit, July 26, 1831.
' ' General Andrew Jackson
"President of the United States

" Washington, D. 0.
"Dear Sir:

"The announcement of my appointment as Secretary
of the Territory preceded me by one day, and I found
on my arrival that certain persons had gotten up an

.60 STEVENS T. MASON

excitement which will result in a remonstrance against
my continuance, by a meeting held in this place. The
motives which originated this course are obvious here.
The agitation of the recent election had not subsided
and the confidence given to the Clay and Anti-Masonic
parties by their success, the first in getting a delegate
to Congress of their choice and the latter by obtaining
a majority in the Legislative Council, has emboldened
them to assail anything coming from the administration.
Some men calling themselves friends of the administra
tion, from jealousy at my promotion or from other pre
texts, which restless spirits have always at command,
have had the weakness to unite in the censure of an act
which they themselves would have recommended had
they been flattered by a previous consultation.

"In this state of things, I have been beset with a sort
of inquisitorial scrutiny, and finding nothing to rest upon
but the fact of my minority, I have been asked to relin
quish my office. To this I replied that having received
my appointment from you, no power but that of the con
stituted authority of the country should drive me from
my place; nor would I yield it except to your wishes;
that no concealment was practiced toward you and that
what your judgment approved I should maintain calmly,
but firmly; that I should consider it even a disparage
ment of yourself to be persuaded to undo what you had
done ; and that you could not approve any act done under
intimidation, were I capable of submitting to it.
. "In this representation I give to the excitement a force
and character which it may not merit, for in truth it is
local and partial in its localities, confined to men who

SECRETARY MASON 61

delight in noise and strife, and who have sinister objects
in view. That it is temporary, the history of similar
ones in this place on occasions equally unworthy, gives
a perfect assurance. For myself I apprehend nothing from
it, nor can it affect any permanent interests here or else
where. That it is designed to strike higher than one so
unimportant as myself, is clear. The bare circumstance
of my being allied to one close in your confidence, is an
incentive to the factions who are in the opposition. That
their objection to me cannot reach you is certain, for that
objection rests upon a fact that forms no disqualification,
and is merely a computation of months and days as to
my age.

"It has happened unfortunately for me that I enter
upon my office when the public mind is in an unusual
state of agitation. The recent warm contests in the elec
tions, the retiring of the present Governor, doubts and
anxieties about his successor; and the duties of Governor
devolving on me so immediately, my opponents have
made their objections as if I was in fact appointed Gov
ernor, or would continue to discharge the duties for
years. This difficulty I trust will soon be removed by the
appointment of a Governor, nor should I have appre
hended the slightest objection to my appointment had the
present Governor continued or his successor been here to
assume the government.

"! write you this as due to the confidence you have
reposed in me ; and especially due to the expression of a
wish (equal to a command with me) to hear from me fre
quently. I desire not to convey the idea that I am in
trouble or difficulty. I see my way clear and feel a confi-

®2 STEVENS T. MASON

dence in maintaining myself against all opposition, if sus
tained by you, of which I feel a perfect assurance.

"With sentiments of high estimation and filial regard,
I have the honor to be

"Your obt. servant

"S. T. MASON

"P. S. I should be pleased to learn that you had
received this."

In the succeeding issue of the Free Press, young Mason
published a statement under the title "To the Public,"
which was at once both so temperate and free from arro
gance that it went far towards turning feelings of oppo
sition to kindly sympathy. In simple language he
recounted his father's emigration to the Territory, the
duties that were now to take him on a "long and hazard
ous journey in a precarious climate77 leaving to him, his
only son and oldest child, the care of a numerous family
"to whose comfort,77 he said "it was well known that
even the petty emoluments of this office were essential.77

His own demerits were frankly admitted in the state
ment, "That there are many in the Territory of higher
qualifications, on whom the appointment might have been
conferred, is broadly and fully conceded. 7? In answer to
the claim that his office at times required its occupant
to discharge the duties of Governor, he appealed to the
generous impulses of his constitutents by saying, "But
suppose those high duties to occur for a momentary
space? Is there any difficulty of getting the advice of
wiser and abler men? The oldest ask advice; and no
man in that respect is independent of the society in which

SECRETAKY MASON 08

he lives. The difference is, youth yields to advice; but
age, seldom or never. "

The appealing character of the communication was
so strong that some of the papers most active in Ms
opposition paid it the compliment of having emanated
from an older and wiser head than the Secretary's, an
insinuation that the many communications from Gover
nor Mason's hand in later years show to have been false.
The Journal conveyed its intimation by saying that
another than the Secretary "may at least have given to
the production some finishing touches," while the Adver
tiser said that if the Secretary were willing to call to Ms
assistance the advice and counsel of older and wiser
men, "why not their pens also?" But the people gener
ally were inclined to accept the reasoning of the appeal,
and with the generosity of a new country to "give the
boy a chance." In a few localities, as at Green Bay,
where Mason's friend, James D. Doty, was the control-
ing spirit, at Auburn, Oakland County, and one or two
other places, the people gathered and passed resolutions
in his favor, which gives color at least to the claim that
at most there was but a division of sentiment. The great
body of the people, busy with their own affairs, soon
forgot their antagonism, and the subject was only kept
alive by occasional notices in the papers.

But Mason knowing that his appointment would come
before the United States Senate for confirmation the fol
lowing year, was continuously alert to strengthen Ms
cause both with the people of the Territory, the Presi
dent, who had given him the appointment, and the Sen
ate, which must confirm it. He secured a copy of the
names appended to the remonstrance against Mm, and

64 STEVENS T. MASON

after each name wrote the business and political affilia
tion of the particular individual. It was thus made to
appear that so far as known, with some ten or fifteen
exceptions, the memorialists were the partisans of Henry
Clay, or members of the Anti-Masonic party. This docu
ment, with an explanatory letter, he forwarded to the
President, while to each member of the Senate upon
whose support he had reason to believe he could count,
he sent a modest letter, after having first submitted its
contents to the approval of his uncle, William T. Barry,
and to the old family friend Richard M. Johnson; the
father before this time having taken his departure for
Mexico, where he continued for a year.

If the practical details were looked after, so likewise
was no opportunity lost by the young man to demon
strate to the people of the Territory that he possessed
capacity for his position. On the 6th of August, George
B. Porter was appointed Governor and was soon at
Detroit to discharge the duties of his office. Governor
Porter was a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where
he was a leading lawyer and one of an eminent family;
his father, General Andrew Porter, had served on the
staff of General Washington during the Eevolution, while
a brother, David R. Porter, was Governor of his State.
Governor George B. Porter was twenty years the senior
of the Young Secretary, having been born February 6,
1791 ; his arrival did much to relieve the Secretary of an
embarrassing position; but on the 13th day of October
business recalled him to Lancaster, and from that date
until the llth of the following June, Mason, as Acting
Governor, was the executive head of the Territory. The
absence of the Governor in a measure revived newspaper

GOT. STEVENS T. MASON
Prom painting owned by Mrs. Samuel Carson, Detroit.

LEWIS CASS

Governor of Michigan Territory 1813-1881. Appointed Secretary of War by
President Jackson IS'Jl

SECRETARY MASON 65

comments, but they were of a character which indicated
waning sentiment. The Detroit Journal in December called
attention to the matter editorially under the heading,
"What has become of the Remonstrance?"; while in Feb
ruary following, it voiced a bit of sarcastic humor by say
ing, "Our Territory is left in rather a novel predicament
just now. We have one Judge and one ' Acting Governor'
who if he lives until next October and no accidents befall
him will be twenty-one years of age. "

The Western Emigrant of Ann Arbor which had be
come the most pronounced advocate of the Anti-Masonic
party in Michigan, was likewise a paper that made fre
quent use of its columns in derogatory comments on "the
stripling," as it habitually referred to the young Secre
tary. On one occasion as Mr^ George Corselius, the edi
tor, was passing upon Jefferson Avenue, he was accosted
by Young Mason who, either to give a practical demon
stration that he was "no stripling" or as he later claimed,
to resent a remark from Corselius questioning the charac
ter of his father, proceeded to administer to the newspaper
man a most vigorous cuffing. For this assault Corselius
procured the Secretary's presentment by the grand jury,
although there seems to be no record that the case made
further progress. The affair seems to have occasioned
but little more than passing comment and was soon for
gotten by everyone save the ruffled editor, and even he
might have done so had not the Ann Arbor Argus, an
opposing paper, at intervals called his attention to the
time when young Mason "warmed his ears."

It was impossible that Mason should have escaped the
many quarrels with which the community was rife. The
very fact that he was opposed by some brought him the

66 STEVENS T. MASON

support of others; and that some were his friends was
sufficient reason for others being his enemies. Yet his
own conduct was quite unoffending. Generally passive,
he yet on occasions retorted in kind. A few articles from
his pen signed "Aristides" published in the Detroit
Courier during the winter of 1831-2, written in that caustic
personal vein which characterized articles appearing all
too frequently in the papers of Detroit at this time, were
the cause of much speculation as to their authorship, and
many an angry expostulation from the individuals who
were singled out for a blistering sting; for while the
characters were given more or less fanciful names, they
were sufficiently descriptive to leave little doubt in the
public mind as to the identity of the individual. In the
case of Augustus S. Porter, subsequently for a short time
Whig Senator from Michigan, his designation as the
"Knight of Black Bock" was seemingly specific enough
to warrant the gentleman in seeking a personal encounter
with the editor of the Courier.

With the younger members of the community "Tom"
Mason, as he came to be familiarly known, was a com
panion of growing popularity. His warm generous
nature made him many friends, and their number con
stantly increased as those of more mature years discov
ered in him real abilities coupled with the polish of a
gentleman and the geniality of youth. If Mason had any
traces of autocracy in his composition, they never showed
in his manner, which was ever wholly democratic and
sympathetic, winning to him, first of all, those whose fate
it was to labor in the harder ways of life.

Early in February, as there were changes impending
on the bench, Judges Woodbridge, Sibley and Chipman

SECRETARY MASON 67

were tendered a dinner from the bar at the Mansion
House. The wit and eloquence of the Territory was
seated at the board. Such banquets in the old days were
not the perfunctory affairs of the present, when a multi
tude of events claim interest and attention. In the thir
ties they were the subject of extensive space in the
pioneer newspapers and the theme of conversation both
before they arrived and after they had passed away. At
the banquet in question, 'among the score of toasts and
addresses which followed, by such men as Witherell, Sib-
ley, Farnsworth, Whiting, Whipple, Rowland and Saw
yer, few commanded more critical attention than did the
address of the Secretary and Acting Governor, who
responded to the toast, " Party Spirit." It was his first
public appearance where he was to voice his own senti
ments with many of his opposers seated about him. So
well did he acquit himself that even the press that had
opposed to him was free to admit that his address was
both "interesting and well received." But the greatest
interest in the bar dinner followed a few days later when
one Ebenezer Eeed, who had formerly been associated
with John P. Sheldon in the publication of the old Detroit
Gazette, sent a vitriolic communication to the Free Press
on both bench and bar. Eeed's production, which was
signed "Consistency," was not wholly dispassionate, for
Charles Larned, a leading member of the bar had once
instituted a suit in libel against the editors of the Gazette,
while Judge Woodbridge had incurred their enmity by
committing Sheldon to jail for the publication of deroga
tory reflections on the judge 's actions. At the banquet a
member of the bar had spoken in complimentary terms
of the retiring members of the bench, while Judge "Wood-

68 STEVENS T. KASON

bridge had spoken with some show of feeling at being
forced from his judicial position, which he termed "a
contemptuous ejection." The opportunity which the sit
uation afforded was used by Eeed without stint. In a
long article filled with trenchant thrusts, among other
things he said, "Can it be possible that all this honeyed
adulation on the part of the lawyers was sincere? Did
the reformed judges really look serious when they per
formed their parts in this pompous melodrama? Can
we believe the toasters sincere and earnest in their flat
tery, or the toastees so dull as not to perceive the ridicu
lous light in which the public must have viewed it? Mr.
Woodbridge in his speech said he hoped to find something
in his past official life that would make him a wiser and
a better man. Had he been a wise man and consequently
a better one, he either never would have been a judge on
the bench or he would still have been there, secure in the
respect and affections of the people and reaping the
reward of that genuine goodness and honesty of purpose
which is true wisdom. But he has chosen to depend upon
the semblance of virtue instead of its substance and his
fate is like that of all others who have based the fabric
of their reputations upon mere shadow."

This article was followed by others and from them it
was made to appear that certain anonymous communica
tions of former years wherein the same judges had been
flayed for their official actions were from the pens of
some of the attorneys who, now that the judges were
retiring from the bench, were loud in their praise. The
articles were highly sensational and in the interest and
excitement which they occasioned, the Acting Governor
enjoyed a valued respite from public discussion.

SECRETAKY MASON 60

With the coming of St. Patrick's Day a splendid gath
ering assembled at the Mansion House to do honor to the
patron saint of Erin. It was a large and enthusiastic
assemblage and everyone who felt the claim of Irish
blood left the banquet with a growing friendship for the
young Secretary, who as the executive head of the Terri
tory honored their festivity with his presence and in mod
est eloquence paid a tribute ,to their patriots and their
storied isle. But such events were hardly of frequent
occurrence; the protracted absence of the Governor
imposed many official cares of more than an incidental
nature upon the Secretary and in addition he had already
begun serious study with the hope that some future day
might see him a'member of the legal profession, — a pro
fession that had been adorned by so many of his ances
tors. Official duties received his careful thought and
attention, while nights were occupied in the father's
library where unaided and alone he diligently studied
the principles of law. If at times he indulged in social
pleasures and other relaxations incident to youthful
years, they were events that marked the exception rather
than his general course of conduct. As all offices con
nected with the administration of judicial proceeding
were filled by executive appointment, it sometimes hap
pened that the factional quarrel from a neighboring
county was transferred to the Governor. Such was the
result of the appointment of one Oanfield over a Mr.
Douglass as sheriff of the County of Macomb. This
appointment brought forth an attack upon Mason by
"Citizen of Macomb" too scurrilous to find publication
in the newspapers to which it was offered and so was
printed and scattered about the streets as a hand bill.

70 STEVENS T. MASON

Explanations, attacks and recriminations followed, from
which some thought with ill success to revive the waning
opposition to the Secretary; for Providence held in the
immediate future more than sufficient to turn the thoughts
and attentions of the people from the trivial affairs of
county politics.

Interest was soon centered in the meeting of the fifth
Legislative Council which was to assemble for its first
session at Detroit on the first day of May. The meetings
of the Council were ever the occasion of more than ordi
nary interest, and this session was looked forward to
with special interest because of the unusual political con
ditions by which the people of the Territory were con
fronted.

Upon the convening of the Council, Governor Porter
was still absent from the Territory, and it became the
duty of the Secretary as Acting Governor to transmit his
message to that body.* It was a document well calculated
to inspire confidence in its author and allay the reason
able fears of such as had opposed him from the honest
conviction that his youth was an insurmountable obstacle
to the discharge of the higher duties incident to his
official station. With tactful modesty he prefaced his
communication by saying, "The temporary absence of
the Governor of the Territory, having devolved upon me
the duties of the Executive Department of the Govern
ment, I have with the diffidence of conscious inexperience
and inability, endeavored to discharge in a satisfactory
manner such of those duties as required indispensable
action. These have been few; and if their execution has
not been attended with any distinguished benefit to the
public interest, I may flatter myself with the hope that

SECRETABY MASON 71

no great injury has resulted from it. The virtue and
intelligence of the people have happily supplied all
defects and rendered it unnecessary for the Executive
to attempt to discharge much more than the formal rou
tine of ordinary official business."

There may have been diplomacy as well as conviction
in the language employed whereby he paid a compliment
to the Council: " Under our limited form of Territorial
Government, " said he, "one of the greatest blessings we
enjoy is the possession of a Legislative body, elected by
the people and responsible to them alone, for the faithful
care ; and our fellow citizens must derive confidence and
performance of the important trusts committed to their
satisfaction from the reflection, that without your con
currence no measure seriously or extensively affecting
their interests can be adopted or changed. To you then,
gentlemen, coming from the different counties of the Ter
ritory, and thoroughly acquainted with the wants and
wishes of your constitutents, is committed the important
task of legislating for their benefit, of enacting new
laws to promote their welfare $nd of applying the appro
priate and adequate remedy to existing defects."

The recommendations of the message were timely and
conservative, relating in the main to the correction of
defects in the judicial system, the taking of a census pre
paratory to an application for admission as a State in
the Union, and to the question of the encouragement and
support of common schools. As the school system of
Michigan was destined to become one of the chief institu
tions of State pride, and the debt for its founding to
continue forever among the claims of the Boy Governor
upon the gratitude of its people, it may be well to remem-

72 STEVENS T. MASON

ber that in Ms first message, written before he had<
attained the rights of the elective franchise, he took occa
sion to say, "To no object therefore can the public funds
raised by taxation or otherwise, be more judiciously or
advantageously applied than to the establishment and
support of common free schools, with a view to the exten
sion of the blessings of education to all classes of the
community. 7 '

W

CHAPTER V

A YEAE OF STZEBHNTG EVENTS

PITH the advancing days of May events were in
progress that were destined to make the year 1832
a memorable one in the history both of the Territory of
Michigan and of its metropolis. The first was the upris
ing of a band of Sac Indians in the vicinity of Rock River
in northern Illinois, under the leadership of a renowned
warrior of the tribe known by the name of Ma-ka-tai-she-
kia-kiak, or Black Hawk, the name of the leader giving
to the uprising the name of the Black Hawk war. Few
border forays in the history of the country embodied
more of national interest, for by some strange cast of
fate, in the forces brought against the doughty warrior
were Zachariah Taylor and Abraham Lincoln, both of
whom were to become President of the United States;
Jefferson Davis, to be later President of the Confederacy,
and Robert Anderson under whose order the first cannon
was to be fired in the war between the states ; while the
list of Governors, Senators and Congressmen who par
ticipated is sufficiently long to be a wearisome recital.

Black Hawk was at this time in the sixty-fifth year of
his age. Although not a chief, he was a warrior of more
than ordinary influence among his people. He had served
with the British in the War of 1812, was at Maiden and
at the battle of the Raisin, and with the great Tecum-
seh at the disastrous battle of the Thames. His hand
had been reddened in many a murderous attack not only

74 STEVENS T. MASON

upon the white settler of the western border, but upon
the neighboring tribes of his own race as well.

In keeping with treaty stipulations the Sacs and Foxes
had removed to the western bank of the Mississippi; but
Black Hawk soon tired of inactivity, and against the
councils of his chiefs gathered a body of several hundred
-malcontents about him and crossed to the vicinity of
Rock River to harass the whites and provoke a border
war ; they soon left a trail of rapine and murder in their
wake. The settlers fled to their stockade forts and barri
caded houses for defence. The first troops dispatched to
the scenes of disorder, underestimating the task before
them, were defeated and driven back in dismay. Intense
excitement followed and the news spread like wildfire
before a gale. Colonel Henry Dodge of the Wisconsin
portion of Michigan Territory, with a force of volunteers
organized to protect the frontier, hurried to the vicinity
of the lead mines to protect the settlements in that country
and hold in check the Winuebagoes who were the natural
allies of the Sacs and Foxes as were likewise the Pota-
watomis of southwestern Michigan proper, and who
might both be swept from their positions of neutrality by
the success of Black Hawk and his band. On May 15, Gov
ernor John Reynolds of Illinois issued a call for troops
stating therein that it was his opinion that the Winne-
bagoes and Potawatomis had joined the Sacs, a statement
which if true meant that the entire northwestern fron
tier would be overrun with marauding bands bent on
rapine and murder. Immediately General Hugh Brady
of Detroit, Commander of the Department of the Lakes,
with Lieutenant Elector Backus of his staff, proceeded
overland to join General Henry Atkinson who had moved

A YEAR OF STIRRING EVENTS 75

up from St. Louis with a force of regulars. On May 18,
T. J. V. Owen, Indian agent at Chicago dispatched a
special messenger to Detroit confirming the report of
depredations in that vicinity and requesting the aid of a
" force of some magnitude/' giving color to the fear that
the Indians might strike the southern border of the penin
sula in an attempt to reach Maiden. At this time General
John R. "Williams was the Major General in command
of the Territorial militia. General Williams was one of
the solid citizens of the Territory, having been born at
Detroit in 1782, elected the first Mayor of that city under
the charter in 1824, and made a Major General by
appointment" of the President and confirmation of the
Senate in 1829.

As public apprehension seemed to increase with each
vague rumor from the border, Acting Governor Mason,
as Commander-in-Chief, on May 22 issued an order
directing General Williams to raise such a number of vol
unteers as in his opinion might be necessary to co-operate
with a force under Brigadier General Joseph Brown
which was to rendezvous at Jonesville. As volunteers did
not readily respond to the call, on the day following Act
ing Governor Mason issued the further order to General
Williams to call out such troops of the Territorial militia
as he might require, concluding his order by saying,
"You cannot but be aware that delay is only calculated
to give rise to false and unfounded reports which may
possibly have an injurious effect upon the emigration to
this Territory. It is expected that you will use every
exertion to meet General Brown f orthwith and that you
will not return to this place until every shadow of danger
from hostile Indians on the frontier is removed. "

76 STEVENS T. MASON

On the 23rd General Williams accordingly issued an
order for that portion of the Territorial militia near
Detroit, consisting of the first regiment, a battalion of
riflemen and the city guards, to assemble at Ten Eyck's,
— as Dearborn was then known, it being the site of that
much frequented old time tavern of Conrad Ten Eyck, a
talented and genial gentleman who had graduated in the
same class with Martin Van Buren. Here a force of
three hundred men was made up, organized, officered and
furnished with arms. By one o'clock on the afternoon of
the 25th the force was marching westward on the old
Chicago Turnpike. At the same time five companies
from the eighth regiment, one each from the towns of
Clinton, Adrian, Tecumseh, Blissfield and Palmyra were
assembling at Tecumseh to march westward under the
command of General Joseph Brown, while a company of
forty-two men and officers organized in Kalamazoo county
were at about the same time mustered into the service.

After the departure of General Williams and his com
mand, a messenger arrived from Chicago bringing to Act
ing Governor Mason the intelligence that the dangers
upon the Michigan frontier had been much exaggerated,
while from another source he was informed that regular
troops from the East, passing byway of the Lakes, would
soon be upon the scene of disturbance. He therefore
issued an order for the recall of the troops, which were
overtaken by the messenger at Saline, from which point
the infantry turned back, while General Williams accom
panied by Colonel Brooks, Major Charles W. Whipple
and Major M. Wilson and a troop of horse known as
Jackson's dragoons pushed forward.

The receipt of such information as caused the Acting

A TEAR OF STIRRING EVENTS ^7

Governor to recall the militia was at once made tlie occa
sion of a public meeting in Detroit, at which the wise
ones adopted resolutions deprecating the " groundless
apprehensions " by which the people had been excited
and asserting that "but one opinion prevails among
our best informed citizens, that there exists not the slight
est cause of alarm. " Conflicting messages to the Acting
Governor from Chicago and other points subsequently
received were the occasion of not a little confusion in
the movements of the militia, and afforded some basis
for the written statement of General "Williams to the
Secretary of War, Lewis Cass, that "The orders of the
Acting Governor are contradictory, inconsistent and
incompatible with military rules. ' ' The Acting Governor
likewise disclosed his state of mind in a letter to General
Williams on the first of June wherein he observed that,
"Should we have to march again from this quarter, the
gentlemen who fight the battles of the country at public
meetings will have to march, if it can be effected.7'

General Williams with his troop of cavalry which was
increased by an addition from General Brown ?s command
pushed on to Chicago, where with the exception of an
excursion to the Naper settlement they remained until
June 22. They were then taken by boat to the mouth of
the St. Joseph, from whence they were marched to Niles
and honorably discharged, the mounted men being
ordered to Detroit under the command of Colonel Brooks.

The people of Chicago and Cook County were deeply
grateful to General Williams and the Michigan militia,
and on the 18th of June at a large and representative
meeting of the citizens of Cook County, resolutions were
adopted indicative of their gratitude to their "patriotic

78 STEVENS T. MASON

fellow citizens of the Territory of Michigan under the
command of Major General Williams. ' J

The war terminated on the 2nd of August at the battle
of Bad Axe. Black Hawk and the Prophet escaped to
the Dalles of the Wisconsin Eiver where they were subse
quently captured, and on the 27th of the month they were
delivered to General Joseph M. Street, the Indian agent
at Prairie du Chien. Black Hawk was to be sent later
down the river to Jefferson barracks under an escort
in charge of Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, there to be held
as a prisoner of war until a year later when he was given
a tour of the principal cities of the country that he might
be impressed with the magnitude of the power he had
attempted to defy.

If the returning members of the Detroit militia could
have looked into the immediate future, they would have
been conscious of exhibiting greater courage in returning
to their homes than in marching against the foe of the
frontier ; for a foe more insidious and more to be dreaded
than the lurking Indians was about to bring terror to the
hearts of the community. ;

For some years the westward course of Asiatic cholera
had been noted. In the fall of 1831 it had appeared in
England and with the early days of the following June
broke out for the first time upon the American continent
at Quebec and Montreal. Inside of sixty days from its
first appearance it was destined to spread to Detroit and
the pioneer cities of the West, in some instances to mark
the course of its fatal progress at the remote settlements
of the interior. In Detroit the news of its steady
approach was not unheeded. Among the last acts of the
Legislative Council, approved June 29th, was one for tht

A YEAR OF STIRRING EVENTS 7&

preservation of the public health in the city of Detroit
and other places in the Territory of Michigan, whereby
it was designed to give to the local authorities power to
fight the terrible scourge.

President Jackson, with characteristic impatience at
the slow progress being made for the termination of
Indian troubles of the western frontier, ordered General
Winfield Scott to proceed to the seat of disturbance with
nine companies of the eastern troops and put an end to
the war. On June 28th Scott and his command took their
departure from Fortress Monroe, and without event
arrived a few days later at Buffalo where four steam
boats, the Sheldon Thompson, Henry Clay, Superior ana
William Penn were chartered as transports for the expe
dition. General Scott with the first detachment of two
hundred and twenty officers and men led the way in the
Sheldon Thompson, Colonel Twiggs following in the
Henry Clay, which with the William Penn had commands
of three hundred and seventy strong, the last detachment
under Colonel Cummings being in the Superior. The
voyage across Lake Erie was without incident, the second
detachment under Colonel Twiggs arriving at Detroit on
the fourth day of July as the people were joyously cele
brating the birth of the nation, a celebration that was
to be followed by panic and consternation. As the Henry
Clay lay moored to the wharf two cases of cholera devel
oped among the troops it carried, one of which proved
fatal before the night. The ship surgeon, terror stricken,
under the plea of illness repaired to a hotel while two
Detroit physicians, Doctors Eandall S. Rice and John L.
Whiting, with courage surpassing military prowess, went
to the succor of the afflicted. Under their directions six-

80 STEVENS T. MASON

teen cases showing symptoms of the disease were at once
removed from the ship to an improvised hospital in the
quartermaster's stores which confronted "Woodbridge
Street not far east of its junction with Jefferson Avenue.
Of the sixteen cases, eleven proved fatal during the night,
and in the morning as the citizens of the town beheld the
lifeless forms ranged side by side just without the build
ing, they awoke to the full realization of the awful afflic
tion that like a pestilential cloud had settled in their
midst.

Under the law which had been recently enacted the
board of health had already provided a corps of assis
tants, three for each of the four wards of the city, among
the twelve members being such well known names as
Shubael Conant, James Abbott, Peter Desnoyer, Solo
mon Sibley and John Palmer. The people had likewise
gathered and voted authority to the common council to
raise by tax such sums as might be required by the exigen
cies of the situation, and a committee was chosen to
accept such contributions as citizens might wish to make
for the purpose of the erection of a hospital. The board
of health at once ordered the transports to Hog Island
(now Belle Isle Park) where they were furnished sup
plies from the city. The Henry Clay soon proceeded on
her way but was compelled to again land when near Fort
Gratiot to care for the stricken soldiery. The ship had
become almost a floating charnel-house. Captain "Walker
in a later letter described the conditions among the men
upon the Henry Clay in the following graphic language :
"The disease became so violent and alarming that noth
ing like discipline could be observed; everything in the
way of subordination ceased. As soon as the steamer

JULIA PI-IBLPS MASON
Wife of Gov. Mason.

LAURA MASON HILTON
Sister of Gov. Mason.

LEWIS CASS,
Governor of Michigan Territory 1813-1831.

A TEAR OF STIRRING EVENTS 81

came to the dock, each man sprang on shore, hoping to
escape from a scene so terrifying and appalling. Some
fled to the fields, some to the woods, while others lay
down in the streets and under the cover of the river bank,
where most of them died unwept and alone." Of the
command of three hundred and seventy, but one hundred
and fifty remained. The story of their fate will never
be written for many died in the depths of the forest, the
victims of disease and the wild beasts that infested the
region. The detachment under Colonel Cummins after a
short encampment at Detroit were embarked upon the
William Penn, but had only proceeded a short distance
when they were compelled to return and go into camp at
Springwells, where after a short time their condition was
much improved. Only two of the transports proceeded
beyond Fort Gratiot. Of the eight hundred and fifty
men who left Buffalo in the early days of July, not more
than two hundred were fit for the field when less than
two weeks later the wasted remnant was landed at Fort
Dearborn.

Before the transports had left the sight of Detroit,
the ravages of the disease had spread to the people of
the city. On July 6 two cases' appeared, one of which
resulted fatally. The upper story of the capitol building
was at once put into use as a cholera hospital. The
streets and alleys of the city were filled with the odor of
burning pitch, from which the smoke arose to hang like
a pall over the stricken town. Up to the 18th of July
there were fifty-eight cases and twenty-eight deaths
among the people of the town. The dread specter entered
the home of the Masons, claiming the old nurse Granny
Peg as its victim, the old soul breathing her last in the

82 STEVENS T. MASON

arms of the daughter Emily, whose courage was as strong
as her love, and who, when the spark of life had fled from
the body of the aged servant, went alone into the night
to call the cart to bear away the lifeless form. Many
fled panic stricken from the city. The people of neighbor
ing villages caught the infection of terror and sought
by every means to keep back the travelers from Detroit.
Pontiac placed sentinels in the road to refuse passage to
all who sought to pass their way. At Ypsilanti, Colonel
Clark called out the militia and posted a guard under
Captain Josiah Burton and Lieutenant Chester Perry
three miles east of the village with orders to intercept
all travel from that direction. On the 10th of July the
stage coach from Detroit bearing passengers, mail and
dispatches for the West attempted to pass the Ypsilanti
quarantine, when one of the leaders of the four-horse
team was shot by the guard. At first it was thought the
horse was killed, but such did not prove to be; after a
time of angry expostulation, in view of the fact that the
stage carried the mail it was allowed to proceed. A few
days later Secretary Mason, bearing messages to the
southwestern border to be delivered at Mottville, was
hurriedly passing along the Chicago highway, and wish
ing to avoid trouble with the quarantine, sought the serv
ices of Samuel Pettibone who resided still east of the
guard to guide him by a circuitous route to a point
beyond the village. The object was nearly accomplished
when a stalwart deputy in the person of Eliphalet Turner
appeared upon the scene and placing Mason under arrest
conducted him before the Sheriff, Dr. Withington, where
after a somewhat stormy interview the Secretary was
allowed to proceed. This act of official authority on the

A YEAR OF STIRRING EVENTS 83

part of the Sheriff cost him his office, for he was promptly
removed by Governor Porter who had returned to Detroit
on the llth of June. In the meantime the disease had
spread to other places. At Marshall it appeared with
special virulence. Here out of a community of seventy
people, eighteen were severely attacked and eight did,
all within a period of eight days ; among the deceased was
the wife of John D. Pierce, a Congregational missionary,
later to be heard from as one of the great names in the
early history of the State.

At Detroit the disorder continued unabated. So fre
quent were the deaths that the custom of ringing the pass
ing bell was discontinued, as its solemn tolling only
tended to add to the panic of the people. On July 19th
many of the people joined in special prayer and supplica
tion in response to the recommendation of the Detroit
Presbytery which had asked that the day be observed
"as a day of humiliation and special prayer to G-od, that
He would avert the pestilence from our land, and in«the
midst of deserving wrath, remember mercy." But amid
the panic and despondency, there were many heroic souls.
Several young men organized themselves into a nursing
band; and the physicians were busy with skill and kindly
ministrations. Among such, the name of Dr. Marshall
Chapin, who through weary days and weeks without
money or other reward, gave his services to the poor, will
deserve well from the memory of men. The greatest
affliction and mortality was among the poor, the dissi
pated and the lower classes of the community. As might
have been expected, the good priest Father Gabriel Rich
ard was day and night among the scenes of the suffering
and death, everywhere ministering to the physical and

84 &TEV&NS T. MASON

spiritual wants of the needy. With the closing days of
July the disorder abated, although it continued into Sep
tember. On the 13th of the month Father Richard was
claimed by the Grim Eeaper to the grief of all the people.
For forty-four years he had been the shepherd of his
flock. He had served as the third delegate to Congress
from the Territory, and had brought the first printing
press to Detroit in 1809. He was a noble soul, his life
one of helpful sacrifice. Death came to him not from
cholera, but from physical exhaustion incident to his
unremitting sacrifice for others. The whole community
followed his remains to their last resting place and his
memory still lingers amid the scenes of his labors as one
of the earth's worthy.

"With the excitement of a border war and the terror
of pestilence in their midst, the people of Detroit were
inclined to pay but little attention to either their own
political interests or the political prospects of others,
although events affecting both were transpiring. In the
latter days of May, John Norvell of Philadelphia arrived,
to become by appointment of the President, the successor
of James Abbott as Postmaster of the city. John Nor
vell became not only a wise counselor and warm friend
of the Boy Governor, but his commanding abilities made
him a leading figure in the community and a helpful fac
tor in guiding the destinies of the Territory, and later, of
the State. "With the return of Governor Porter, likewise
came George Morrell of New York and Boss Wilkins of
Pennsylvania to supersede Judges Woodbridge and
Chipman on the Supreme Bench of the Territory. -These
men were destined to become prominently identified with
the early history of the State, and active agents in the

A YEAR OF STIRRING EVENTS 85

development of its jurisprudence. It was at this time also
that Kintzing Pritchette, a talented young lawyer of
Philadelphia, came to Detroit as the Private Secretary
of Governor Porter, Providence holding in store for him
a close association with many of the stirring scenes of the
State 's history, and later a life of romance and adventure
seldom equalled.

Young Mason was now Territorial Secretary by higher
title than recess appointment. The opposition, so strenu
ous in the beginning, in one short year had quite faded
away. The people had discovered that although a youth
in years, he nevertheless displayed many of the qualities
of maturity. Opposition of ^a kind was still continued,
and even carried to the Senate, but he had a year of satis
factory service to his credit, and this with powerful
friends could not be overcome ; it was nevertheless joyful
tidings when in the latter days of June he received the
following letter from Austin E. Wing, the Territorial
Delegate :

"Washington City
" June 21, 1832

"Sir:
"I am just informed by one of the Senators that

your nomination as Secretary has been confirmed

by the Senate.

"Yours&c.

"A. E. WING

"S. T. Mason, Esq."

The commission from the President, forwarded from
the office of the Secretary of State, arrived in due time.
His official tenure was thereby extended until June 21,

S6 STEVENS T. MASON

1836, unless sooner terminated by act of the Chief Execu
tive.

The question of statehood had now become a topic
of frequent discussion. The Ordinance of 1787 under
which the Northwest became subject to government, had
provided that whenever any of the States to be carved
from that Territory " shall have sixty thousand free
inhabitants therein, such State shall be admitted by its
delegates into the Congress of the United States. " Emi
grants had been coming into the peninsula in great num
bers, and it was believed that by the time a Convention
could be called and a Constitution formulated the pro
posed state would have more than the required sixty
thousand population within its borders. There was
some opposition to a State government among the people
because of the economy of the Territorial government,
which entailed an expense of only about ten thousand
dollars annually and was paid for from the national
treasury; while it was estimated that the State govern
ment would cost from two to three times as much and of
course would have to be paid by the people of the State.
The newspapers and men who led in public thought were
quite generally in favor of the State proposition; the
Legislative Council shared in the same sentiment, and
on the 29th of June it passed an Act submitting to the
voters of the Territory the question "whether it be expe
dient for the people of this Territory to form a State
government or not. ' ?

At the election on the proposition, which was held on
the first Tuesday of the following October, only 3,007
voters registered their preference; 1,817 were in favor
of forming a State government and 1,190 were against

A YEAR OF STIRRING EVENTS 87

it. The counties of Michilimackinac, Chippewa, Iowa
and Crawford took no part in the election, and as 4,435
ballots had been cast at the election for delegates to
Congress two years before, there were many who did
not look upon the vote as decisive ; even Governor Porter
suggested in his message to the Legislative Council which
convened the following January, the propriety of resub-
mitting the question. The Council, however, treated the
vote as decisive, and very early voted a memorial to Con
gress asking the passage of an Act authorizing the people
of Michigan Territory to assemble by their delegates and
form a Constitution and State government. This
memorial received the votes of all the members of the
Council, except Morgan L. Martin, who filed a protest
against it because it sought to include Mackinac Island
within the limits of the proposed State, to which Mr.
Martin as the representative of the country west of Lake
Michigan objected.

With the coming of the winter the people rallied in a
measure from the terrifying experience of summer and
gave their attentions to the numerous demands of daily
life.

CHAPTER VI

ADVANCING TOWARDS STATEHOOD

THE autumn days days of 1832 were happy ones in the
Mason household. Early in August the father had
returned from his absence of a year in Mexico, and with
his return the fears and anxieties of many a dismal day
were forgotten in the joys of the reunion. From the old
letters that passed between the family and their friends
and relatives, we catch glimpses of the home life that is
always filled with simple charm. The evenings are spent
in study or delightful reminiscences; to be varied on
occasions when Colonel Norvell and his beautiful wife,
or Major Rowland, or other intimates of the family were
present to speed the hours over a glass of wine and with
the fragrance of a cigar; and, at times, as participators in
the broader social life of the community. The winter
of 1833 proceeded with all the old time gaiety of previous
seasons ; parties, balls and weddings soon engrossed the
minds of belles and beaux, and even weaned the minds
of the more sedate from the memories of the sad days
recently past. The sister Emily, although but now eight
een years of age, was nevertheless a woman in heart
and mind, talented and beautiful. She had become the
ardent sympathizer with, as well as the trusted confidant
of the brother Tom; while he, to use her own language,
"was the faithful guardian of all my love secrets and
my best adviser." As might be expected, there was a
degree of fascination in the social gaiety of the metrop-

ADVANCING TOWARDS STATEHOOD 89

oils for the charming sister, — and for the brother as well ;
although the sister has given us the statement that, "He
had little time and never much inclination for affairs of
the heart, though so handsome, gay and amiable as to be
much admired by the ladies." Had he been less inclined
to social pleasures, still his official position, combined
with inherent grace and polished manners, would have
been the occasion of considerable demands upon his time
and attention. These conditions and personal character
istics led some people in Ms time, — generally those, be
it said, who were out of sympathy with his political prin
ciples, — to ascribe to him the character of a social votary
and one given to an excess of conviviality; some, indeed,
going to the extent of charging him with excesses beyond
the limits of propriety. These phases of character have
suited the purposes of modern romance where it has
touched the life of the Boy Governor, and have thus
found repetition to his discredit. The falsity of such
imputations is sufficiently attested by the high sentiments
he so frequently uttered, by his connection with the
church and kindred societies, and by the confidence of
the people, which he retained through many trials. Three
years later than the time of which we write, the Adver
tiser, although not in political accord with the young
Governor, yet in a spirit of fairness was constrained to
say of the insinuations that have lived until this day,
that they wer$ without foundation, and that speaking
from intimate knowledge of his official career, during such
time he had been "a gentleman in every sense of the
word. ' '

The Legislative Council continued in session until the
23rd day of April ; its action resulted in little of special

90 STEVENS T. MASON

interest, aside from the steps taken that looked towards
the formation of a State government. The early days of
spring were days of nrnch political interest, for the time
of naming a Territorial delegate and member of the Coun
cil was at hand. The factions were still pronounced
and active, and long before the conventions there was
an air of suppressed excitement in the community which,
as is usually the case, was in inverse ratio to the size of
the community. Young Mason was not of the tempera
ment to view the contest from the standpoint of nonparti-
san interest. Austin E. Wing had been his friend and
he was zealous for his renomination as Delegate to the
national Congress; he could but ill conceal his cha
grin when the opposing faction triumphed in the Con
vention. He took no active part in the contest, but to
the father who in February had been again called to
Mexico he wrote without reserve: "The approaching
contest for the election of Delegate bids fair to be warm
and bitter, but not closely contested. The Democratic-
Republican Convention, as they style themselves, which
met at Ann Arbor, as was anticipated nominated Lucius
Lyon as their candidate and intend making the support
of him the test of every man's faith and principles. The
presumption -of this little faction would almost provoke
one if it were not that their assumption of consequence
has made them ridiculous. The unfortunate people have
set over them a Eegency more formidable than the
famous Albany Eegency itself, and have only to bow
their necks and be trampled on by Andrew Mack, David
0. McKinstry, John P. Sheldon and Elliott Gray.

"The Ann Arbor Convention has constituted those gen
tlemen a committee to regulate all appointments whether

ADVANCING TOWARDS STATEHOOD 91

coming from the Executive of the United States or of
the Territory, and have proclaimed to the world that no
man can receive an office in this Territory without first
receiving the sanction of this committee and procuring
from them an endorsement that he is a true Democrat
dyed in the wool.

" 'Tis said that governments are Republican only in
proportion as they embody the will of the people and
execute it, but if these gentlemen are to be our dictators
and their decisions in all cases (as they contend) should
be considered the will of the people, deliver me from
New York politics. I shall not say aught against them
for I firmly believe that the intelligence of the people
will always in time be found a panacea for every evil
affecting their rights."

He was still in hopes that an independent convention
would be called which would nominate Mr. Wing, and
that the nomination of an Anti-Masonic candidate would
so divide the vote as to insure his election. These antici
pations were in a measure realized, but not in a manner
to bring about the desired result. Austin E. "Wing was
nominated by a series of county meetings, while the
Anti-Masons nominated William Woodbridge. Mason
recognized the strength of this latter nomination, and
in a letter to his father on the 16th of April he gives
voice to some observations which indicate that he had
profited by his short political experience :

"We have three candidates, but only two regularly
organized parties. The Anti-Masons have taken up
Woodbridge. This is a strong nomination and has
injured Wing more than any other nomination which
could have been made. Woodbridge does not run as an

92 STEVENS T. MASON

Anti-Mason, and the convention did not require it of
him; 'he is to represent the people, not the party;7 to
use his own langugae, which is pretty much the language
of an individual who means to represent any one rather
than those who elect him. I am satisfied that parties must
exist under our government; and I would be the last to
discourage party spirit when properly controlled. It
is the surest plan of keeping the people awake to their
rights, and when I see a man declaiming against party
spirit and professing to be for the people alone, I always
begin to suspect him and think that he is for slipping
quietly along, serving his own interests and flattering
himself that no one can see it. 7 ?

He closes the subject by saying, "The result of the elec
tion is doubtful but am afraid that Wing cannot be
elected. ' '

Eesults showed that the fear was well founded. Austin
E. Wing had been elected as a Whig, and later became
a supporter of the administration; consequently he had
no compact organization behind his candidacy, although
but for the nomination of Woodbridge by the Anti-
Masons he could have counted on the Whig support; but
this he could not take from Woodbridge, who it appears
was given the Anti-Masonic nomination without being
asked to surrender his Whig principles.

Lucius Lyon, who henceforth became a prominent
figure in Territorial and State affairs, had elements of
strength that did not depend upon party fealty or regu
larity. Born in Vermont in 1800, he became a citizen of
Detroit in 1822. After one year spent as teacher he took
up the vocation of a surveyor, which he followed until
1832. This calling had taken him to every portion of

ADVANCING TOWARDS STATEHOOD 93

the vast Territory of Michigan. There was hardly a
community either in the peninsula or in that portion of
the Territory west of Lake Michigan that did not count
among its inhabitants some who had sought the advice
of this man as to locations or such other facts as he
was able to impart from his vast store of information.
During the canvass, Mr. Wing and Mr. Woodbridge con
fined their efforts to the older portion of the Territory,
along the southern border of the peninsula; Mr. Lyon,
while he continued in the discharge of numerous duties,
found time during such to serve a banquet to the miners
at Mineral Point, in the Wisconsin portion of the Terri
tory; when the election was held and the votes counted,
to the surprise of many he was elected by a substantial
plurality. He had received the whole six hundred votes
from the sparsely settled region of the lead mines, and
this number insured his election.

The election of Lucius Lyon proved a fortunate event
for Michigan, for few men of the Territory possessed so
large an acquaintance with its people or such accurate
information as to the character and extent of its
resources as he; and the time soon came when Michigan
was to profit by all of the talent he brought to her service.

With the first days of May young Mason started for
the East as the traveling companion of his sister Emily
and the sister Catherine, who was three years Emily's
junior. Lack of school facilities at Detroit had per
suaded the father to send the two daughters to the famous
school of Miss Emma Willard at Troy, New York; and
it was towards this point that they took their way. The
brother evidently believed that education was acquired
as wrell from travel as from the study of books, for he

94 STEVENS T. MASON

altered Ms course so as to include a visit to the cities
of Philadelphia and New York, where wonders and sur
passing luxury were for a brief season spread before
the astonished vision of the young ladies. With the
sisters landed safely at Troy, the brother hurried back to
Detroit where the duties of the governorship awaited
him, as Governor Porter had gone beyond Lake Michigan
to superintend some Indian affairs that were to necessi
tate his absence for the summer.

In a small community, public interest is ofttimes
aroused by trivial affairs, and satisfying pleasure found
in simple things. Detroit was no exception to this rule.
The arrival of the big church bell, its almost ceaseless
clangor, the new clergyman, and the prospect of a visit
during the summer from Lewis Cass, Mr. Barry, and
possibly from the President, were topics of much dis
cussion in the homes of Detroit during the spring days
of 1833; but events were in shaping that were destined
to rank as of the first magnitude in the interest of the
people. One such event transpired on the 16th day of
June, and that too with but slight warning of its
approach.

Long before this time, Detroit by reason of its prox
imity to Canada had become an important terminal of
the " underground railway, " as the route and means of
assistance were called over and by means of which slaves
were assisted in their flight from servitude in the states
to the southward. There were two hundred and sixty-
one negroes in Michigan in 1830, and it is probable that
there were not far from four hundred in 1833. A large
number of these were fugitive slaves, for while Canada

ADVANCING TOWARDS STATEHOOD 95

offered a more secure asylum, Detroit offered the better
opportunities for remunerative labor, and it was there
that by far the greater portion of the race in Michigan
resided. Among them was a stalwart Negro by the name
of Thornton Blackburn who with his wife, Rutha, had
first appeared in Detroit three years before. As a
laborer for Thomas Coquillard he had attracted no more
attention that was given generally to the members of
his race; people were not a little surprised when they
were informed that both he and his wife had been placed
under arrest as fugitives from the service of a gentle
man of Louisville, Kentucky, and that the master was
.then in the city to claim his property. A hasty trial was
had before Judge Chipman, in which Blackburn and the
wife made little defense and w^ere summarily committed
to the county jail to await delivery to the alleged master
who designed their return to Louisville by the steamer
Ohio, which was to leave Detroit at four o'clock on the
afternoon of the following Monday. That evening there
was a gathering of the colored people at the house of one
of their number ; the meeting attracted no attention, and
its purpose was jealously guarded. The next day, being
Sunday, two of the female friends of Mrs. Blackburn, —
a Mrs. Lightf oot and a Mrs. French, — paid her a visit in
the county jail. The visit was protracted until the dusk
of evening. In the meantime Mrs. French and Mrs.
Blackburn had exchanged clothing; and when the fare
wells were said, Mrs. French was left as the inmate
behind the bars, while Mrs. Blackburn lost no time in
crossing to the Canadian shore. The deception was not
discovered until the following morning, when an effort

&6 STEVENS T. MASON

was straightway made to take Mrs. French in the place
of the woman she had liberated; this purpose was at once
frustrated by habeas corpus proceedings.

As the hour approached for taking Blackburn to the
bSat, a few people congregated at the jail, and soon Sher
iff John M. Wilson with Blackburn, his master's son,
and a deputy appeared, at the doorway. A few Negroes
were in the crowd, and these at once assumed a menacing
attitude. Blackburn volunteered to quiet their excite
ment, and as he was manacled he was allowed to step
forward as if to address the people; as he did this he
wrenched his hands to his side, and drew a murderous
pistol and turned with fury on his captors, who all save •
the Sheriff retreated within the jail. At once from the
bushes that grew near the jail, from barns, and from
every means of cover scores of Negroes rushed towards
the jail armed with every conceivable kind of weapon.
The Sheriff courageously stood his ground and used his
pistol to effective purpose, but he was soon felled to the
ground, his skull fractured by the blow of a missile tied
in a handkerchief. The blind horse and creaking dray
of "Daddy" Walker, which as if by the merest chance
was standing by, was backed to the jail porch, and an
old negress known as "Sleepy Polly" performed the only
dexterous feat of her existence by grabbing Blackburn
by the collar and jerking him unceremoniously upon the
dray of his countryman, which at once started down the
Gratiot road with all the speed that could be developed
by the sightless nag. The speed may have been somewhat
accelerated by the shouts of 'the multitude, which now
numbering several hundred, gave pursuit. When near
the present Eussell Street, the Negro left the conveyance

GEORGE B. PORTER,
Governor of Michigan Territory 1831-18:14.

GEN. JOHN R. WILLIAMS

In command of Michigan militia that marched overland from Detroit to Chi
cago to take help to Fort Dearborn and aid in protecting the frontier during the
Black Hawk War of 1832.

BLACK HAWK

Chief of the Sacs and Foxes and leader in the "Black Hawk" War, 1832.

ADVANCING TOWARDS STATEHOOD 97

and plunged into the forest. The manacles were soon
severed and before nightfall Blackburn and his friends
emerged from the woods near the River Eouge where a
boatman was procured, who for the gift of a watch landed
the fugitive on the Sandwich shore. Long before this
time the excitement had risen to fever heat in Detroit.
Bugles were blown, the fire bell was rung, and every
where the cry went "The niggers have risen and the
Sheriff is dead." At once a score or more of Negroes
were placed under arrest, under an old statute requiring
people of their race to give security for their good
behavior. During the night one or two buildings and a
large amount of wood piled by the jail were set on fire
and the word was circulated that the Negroes from the
Canadian side were attempting to burn the town. The
militia was called out and for a week nightly patrolled
the streets.

For a time many Negroes sought the Windsor side of
the river because of the hostile feeling aroused. Black
burn was arrested and placed in the Sandwich jail, and
an effort was made to extradite him on the charge of con
spiring for the murder of Sheriff "Wilson ; but the Sheriff
ultimately rallied from his injuries, although he died
from the effects of them a few years later, and after a
few weeks Blackburn was released. Thus ended the
"Negro Riot," which long continued to be a theme of
conversation, and which was the cause of an excitement
that did injustice to many people who were altogether
unoffending.

Long before the "Negro Riot" had distracted people's
attention from the common routine of affairs, the people
of Detroit had been planning for the celebration of the

98 STEVENS T. MASON

Fourth of July, with all the enthusiasm and interest that
characterized the celebration of Independence Day in
earlier days of the Eepublic. From the letters of the
mother, Mrs. Mason, Mrs. Norvell, and the younger sis
ter, to the absent ones at Troy, we gather an interesting
account of this old time celebration. The festivities opened
on the night of the 3rd by a grand ball at the Mansion
House, given by the gentlemen of the city, where accord
ing to Mrs. Norvell there were more ladies present than
she had ever seen before at a ball in Detroit. The morn
ing was ushered in with the ringing of bells and the firing
of cannon. A little later Major Rowland marched a
procession composed "of drummers and fifers, a company
of infantry, and a company of light dragoons, together
with the turnout of a strolling circus temporarily in the
city, up and down Jefferson Avenue, whence all
adjourned to the Capitol to listen to an oration " which
was very well done,77 by Jacob M. Howard; although this
was a little too long, the defect was compensated by its
patriotism; Thomson read the Declaration of Independ
ence "with uncommon propriety77; and Franklin Saw
yer read a poem that was "exceedingly tiresome.77
Adjournment was then taken to a grand dinner served to
the leading inhabitants of the city, which was concluded
by "General Williams and Charley Whipple making
speeches to each other as tedious as you can well
imagine77; after which Major Eowland again marched
his men a turn on the avenue, as Mrs. Norvell observes,
"to aid their digestive organs.77 The events closed with
the fireworks and a balloon exhibited to the whole city
on the Common near the Capitol.
But the greatest event of the day came when at about

ADVANCING TOWARDS STATEHOOD 99

three o'clock in the afternoon the steamship Superior
arrived with the old warrior Black Hawk, his son, The
Thunder, and a few members of his band under the escort
of Major John Garland, in whose suite was young Lieu
tenant Jefferson Davis. Black Hawk had been held a
military prisoner long enough to feel the hand of govern
mental authority, and now after a trip through "Washing
ton, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, Albany and Buf
falo, he was on the way to his people beyond the Mississ
ippi. Black Hawk's arrival had been heralded, for he
had taken his departure from Fortress Monroe a month
previous ; before the steamer touched the wharf the whole
population was wedged into the restricted limits of its
approach; so great was the crowd that it was not until
the lapse of a considerable time that the carriages con
taining the party were able to proceed. On the morning
of the 5th Black Hawk and his party made a call upon
Acting Governor Mason at the Mason home; the mother's
description of Black Hawk is not without interest :

"He is one of the most benevolent looking men you
ever saw and has a face that resembles the bust of Frank
lin more than anyone else. He dresses in imitation of
General Jackson, a blue surtout coat, a white hat, cane
and spectacles. The others of his party are dressed and
painted in Indian style. His son of whom so much has
been said is a most splendid fellow, his form and carriage
a model for a sculptor. But he has been so much admired,
particularly by the ladies, that he appears to require
every attention wherever he goes. His fingers are cov
ered with rings which have been presented him by m#ny
ladies of distinction. He has a gold box given him by
Kimble while in New York."

100 STEVENS T. MASON

Black Hawk had not been at Detroit since the "War of
1812 and he was greatly amazed at the change which
twenty years had wrought. Two decades had changed
the place from a street of a few scattered houses to a com
munity that was daily taking on the dignities of a city.
Nowhere did the old Indian see more abundant proof of
the irresistible westward advance of the white invader
than here, where but a few short years before the white
men had been so few that he had believed it possible to
drive them away forever. Now he felt the full truth of
his statement to Colonel Eustis at Fortress Monroe when
he said, " Brother, your houses are as numerous as the
leaves upon the trees and your warriors like the sands
upon the shore of the big lake. ' '

Black Hawk's departure did not leave the community
destitute of themes and incidents of interest. Immigra
tion, which had been almost wholly suspended during the
cholera epidemic of the year before, was now in a degree
resumed. Daily, strangers were arriving and gathering
equipment for a start into the interior. Leisurely mov
ing ox teams yoked to heavy wagons loaded with heroic
mother and perhaps a numerous brood of children, with
the absolute necessities of the pioneer home and farm,
were scenes upon the streets of Detroit too familiar to
attract even passing notice. Not unfrequently the rear
of such an outfit was brought up by the sturdy father
and perhaps an elder son leading a cow or two and driving
a half score of sheep whose wool was to make the warm
woolen socks that were to busy the housewife and daugh
ters, during the long evenings of the winter.

As Detroit had now become an important point in the
journey of those who passed from Buffalo to points con-

ADVANCING TOWARDS STATEHOOD 101

tiguous to the Great Lakes, it was frequently the stopping
place, for days, of many gentlemen eminent in official
and commercial life. Young Mason had been nurtured
in a home and atmosphere where hospitality was one of
the cardinal virtues, to be discharged as a pleasure and
not as an obligation. The exclusiveness of many Detroit
homes was quite beyond the understanding of the young
Virginian and his mother, who seemingly felt it to be a
duty to take up and discharge a social obligation that
they believed to be incumbent upon the community. So
it was that sometimes for a considerable space, not a
week passed without a special dinner at the home,
arranged for the entertainment of one or more honored
guests and a few congenial spirits, the spice of whose wit
added flavor to the viands. Many a distinguished visitor,
as well as many a man of influence in the Territory
cemented bonds of friendship with the young Secretary
in the geniality of the paternal home and the hospitality
of its board.

Although the people, of Detroit were continually appre
hensive of the reappearance of cholera during the sum
mer of 1833, it did not develop, the town continuing to be
as free from pestilential disorders as the year previous
had been afflicted; but it raged in many places, among
others being the town of Louisville, Kentucky. One of
the effects of its appearance at this place was to. drive
a theatrical company from there to Detroit, which nightly
for three or four weeks rendered Shakespearian and
other productions to admiring audiences. So enthusias
tic was the reception of this company and so liberal the
public patronage that the question of subscribing funds
for a theater received much consideration. The perform-

102 STEVENS T. MASON

ance was the occasion of not a little amusement at the
expense of Major Whipple, who, it was claimed, had gone
nightly, and by arrangement with the manager was
favored with a seat "behind the scenes," — he alleging
that as he was a "church member " and preferred not
to be seen too often in the audience.

At about this time the Negroes of the city were again
the occasion of some uneasiness. Several of their num
ber had been subjected to short terms of imprisonment
and small fines for the disturbances of some weeks pre
vious, while a few were held awaiting the possibility of a
more serious charge, dependent upon the fortunes of the
Sheriff. The ones at liberty were now demanding their
friends' immediate release. As a moral influence, it is
said, an old Negress bearing a white flag on a pole
marched at the head of a motley procession of her race,
through the principal streets of the town in defiance of
the civil authority. As rumors of threats to do -violence
were again rife, Mayor Ohapin issued a proclamation
ordering all colored people who could not exhibit proof
of their freedom or give security for their good behavior
to leave the city. As General Cass, Secretary of "War,
was then in the city, the Mayor applied to him on the
25th of July for a detachment of United States troops
to be stationed in the city to act under municipal author
ity. The day following, a company from Fort Gratiot
were brought to the city and placed under command of
General Hugh Brady, to be retained as long as he might
deem necessary. As there was at once a scurrying of the
disorderly element to the opposite shore, the troops were
soon ordered back to Fort Gratiot, and public tranquility
was once more established.

ADVANCING TOWAKDS STATEHOOD 10S

One of the acts of the Legislative Council of 1833 had
been to reorganize the Territorial militia ; by one of the
provisions the various companies were to meet "in their
respective beats, on the first Tuesday in May in every year,
at nine of the clock in the forenoon, for the purpose of
improving in martial exercise ; and also once in each year
between the first and last days of October by regiment
or separate battalion, at such time and place as th& com
manding officer of the brigade shall direct for the purpose
of inspection, review and martial exercise." These were
the old time general training days, or " muster days,"
when the pioneer came accoutered, in the language of the
statute, "with a good musket or fire lock, a sufficient
bayonet and a belt, two spare flints and a knapsack, a
pouch with a box therein, to contain therein not less than
twenty-five cartridges suited to the bore of his musket
or fire lock, each cartridge to contain a proper quantity
of powder and ball; or with a good rifle, knapsack, shot-
pouch and powder horn, twenty balls suited to the bore
of his rifle and a quarter of a pound of powder." Gen
eral training served as the safety valve to pent up ener
gies in pioneer vigor, even if it did not produce finished
soldiers. The provisions of the law would seem to indi
cate that every precaution was taken to make the occa
sion one of superior military education; but many a remi
niscence from the aged pioneer indicates that they were
times when some military maneuvers were varied with
some excesses and much of the rough but harmless jollity
of the period. As Commander-in-CMef , in the absence of
Governor Porter, it fell to young Mason to be present
with his staff at the General Musters at Monroe, Ann
Arbor and the other places of rendezvous, and thus the

104 STEVENS T. MASON

early days of October were employed. He made small
pretense of great military knowledge, but of geniality
and good fellowship he had an inexhaustible store, and
his greeting by the backwoods private was far more cor
dial than would have been extended to a general in gold
braid and epaulets; many a friendship which lasted to
the end of his short life had its beginning in the days
of the general trainings.

Young Mason was now in company with several other
young men, making unusual application in hope of secur
ing admission to the bar before the father's return, which
was expected in February. By much industry he and
his friends Isaac S. Rowlands and George N. Palmer
were able to comply with the requirements, and received
their certificates of admission on the llth day of Decem
ber.1 It was an event of more than passing importance ;
and they celebrated it, in the language of the mother
later written to the daughters, "by a tremendous supper
and wine party at Woodworth's to which all the gentle
men in town were invited." This party was followed
a few nights later by one of like character given by Jacob
M. Howard and Franklin Sawyer to celebrate their own
admission as members of the Wayne County bar. The
congenial character of these gatherings may be inferred
from the fact that they resulted in charges being pre
ferred before the Detroit Temperance Society against
one of its members, Mr. George Hand, who was then a
young member of the bar, charging him with having
indulged too freely in the wine portion of the banquet.
The report of the committee appointed to investigate
this charge forces the conclusion that the pledge of a

1. His admission to the territorial supreme court was on July 23, 1834.

ADVANCING TOWAKDS STATEHOOD 105

Detroit Temperance Society in the thirties had relation to
the quantity rather than the quality of the beverage ; for
the report finds "that while Mr. Hand did in a sportive
humor so conduct himself as to cause the belief in the
minds of some of the gentlemen who testified that he was
inebriated, this was nevertheless not the fact," although
the report admits that the behavior indulged in was "well
calculated to excite suspicion." The report closes with
the wholesome observation that in view of the reflection
cast upon the society, its members "cannot be too careful
to abstain even from the appearance of evil." Of Mr.
Hand it should be said that he was a graduate of Yale,
in the class of '29, and later a most eminent member of
the Detroit bar.

With the formalities of his admission to the bar
attended to, young Mason made hasty preparations for
his departure for "Washington, where he went to confer
with those in authority as to Territorial affairs, and from
whence he was to repair to Troy to bring home the sisters
so long absent. Starting with a team and sleigh, on
December 16, he found his conveyance useless in Ohio
for want of snow; but nothing daunted, he took the mail
bags before him upon one horse, while the driver took Ms
trunk upon the other, and thus burdened they pursued
their way. Because of this delay the month of January
was well advanced before, weary from the days of travel
by the slow going stage which floundered in the snow
drifts of New York and the mud of Ohio, and many nights
spent beneath the roofs of the primitive taverns by the
way, they landed at their Detroit home. The home-com
ing of the daughters was the occasion of mingled joy and
sorrow; joy at the glad reunion, and sorrow because in

106 STEVENS T. MASON

their absence the family circle had been broken ; late' in
October, after a few days' illness, death had claimed the
sunshine of the family, Mary, the youngest. It was the
occasion of a pungent grief to each member of the family,
and to the mother a blow from which she never wholly
recovered.

CHAPTER VII

THE BOUITDABY DISPUTE WITH OHIO

Territorial Council convened on January 7, 1834.
Its assembling was an event looked forward to with
more than ordinary interest by the people of Michigan,
because the commencement of a period of transition was
forcing many problems to the fore for discussion and
adjustment.

The people of the peninsular portion of the Territory
had expressed their preference for a state government,
and a considerable number were anxiously awaiting each
step in the program that was to confer the rights and
privileges of sovereign power. Immigration into the
Territory had been unprecedented, and there was every
reason for its people to expect its speedy admission into
the Upion. Under the ordinary progress of such a pro
gram there would have been exceptional interest in the
doings of both Council and Congress; but in Michigan
this interest became much intensified by the development
of conditions of a most unusual character, growing pri
marily out of the question of the southern boundary of
the Territory and proposed State. As the boundary con
troversy developed into a question of first importance,
in both the history of Michigan and in the career of Stev
ens Thomson Mason, it is necessary that a somewhat
comprehensive review be made of the facts and circum
stances connected with its commencement, progress and
final termination.

108 STEVENS T. MASON

The commencement is to be found in the fifth article
of the famous Ordinance of 1787, enacted for the govern
ment of the Northwest Territory. This article, so far as
it related to boundaries, provided in substance for the
positive creation of at least three States from the Terri
tory for which government was then provided. These
three States would have corresponded with the present
States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, except that their
lines of division would have extended northward to the
national boundary. Provision was however made "that
the boundaries of these three States shall be subject so
far to be altered, that, if Congress shall hereafter find
it expedient they shall have authority to form one or
two States in that part of the said Territory which lies
north of an east and west line drawn through the south
erly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan/' This same
articles likewise provided that "whenever any of the said
States shall have 60,000 free inhabitants therein, such
State shall be admitted by its delegates, into the Congress
of the United States on an equal footing with the original
States in all respects whatever and shall be at liberty to
form a permanent Constitution and State government."

The action of Congress with respect to the Territory at
first seemed to indicate that it contemplated the three
State plan, for in 1800 the Territory was divided into two
Territories; approximately the present State of Ohio,
and the eastern half of Michigan continuing the North
west Territory, while all the western portion including
the western half of the Michigan peninsula was organ
ized as the Territory of Indiana. The eastern portion
of Michigan was at once organized into the County of
Wayne, with representation in the Territorial Council

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 109

which met at Chillicothe. At this time the eastern Terri
tory had a population of 45,916, of whom 3,757 were
inhabitants of the County of Wayne. Two years later,
in 1802, an enabling Act was passed by Congress for the
formation of the State of Ohio. The people of Wayne
County at this time were in close sympathy and relation
with their neighbors to the south and desired to be
included in the new State about to be formed. They were
considerably angered and chagrined when they discov
ered that Ohio influence had shut them out of the pros
pective State by prescribing in the enabling Act that the
northern boundary of such State should be the Ordinance
line, which we have seen was a line running due east
and west " through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake
Michigan." Wayne County citizens protested at being
thus excluded, but they were mostly Federalists, and as
Ohio politicians were Bepublicans, their protests fell
upon deaf ears. The enabling act provided that Wayne
County might be attached to the new State if Congress
saw fit, but its people were excluded from all partici
pation in the formation of its Constitution or from voic
ing an expression on the subject. It was a matter of
political good fortune that Wayne County did not become
a part of Ohio, but that it was attached to Indiana Terri
tory instead, for the peninsula was thus united in one
natural subdivision.

In 1803 Governor William Henry Harrison created a
new Wayne County, comprising the territory east of a
north and south line drawn through the center of Lake
Michigan ; this included all of the lower and the eastern
half of the Upper Peninsula. The Chillicothe convention
in forming the Constitution of Ohio evidently became

110 STEVENS T. MASON

suspicious that the northern boundary as prescribed in
the enabling Act might intersect Lake Erie at a point
so far south that the Maumee or Miami Bay which they
coveted would be found to be outside of the State. For
that reason they embodied in their Constitution as the
northern boundary of the proposed State, the boundary
of the enabling Act coupled with the proviso that, "If
the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan should
extend so far south that a line drawn due east from it
should not intersect Lake Erie or if should intersect
the said Lake Erie east of the mouth of the Miami River
of the Lakes, then with the assent of Congress of the
United States the northern boundary of this State shall
be established by and extended to, a direct line running
from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the
most northerly cape of the Miami Bay.'7

When the Ohio Constitution came before Congress for
the admission of that State into the Union, the congres
sional committee to whom the matter was referred
refused to consider the proviso ; they advanced the very
natural objection, first, that it depended upon a fact not
yet ascertained, and secondly, that it was a matter not
submitted to the consideration of the Convention. Con
gress accepted the view of the committee, and on Feb
ruary 19, 1803 passed an Act extending the laws of the
United States over the State, without mention of the pro
viso of its Constitution. As soon as the congressional
delegation of Ohio was seated, it began efforts to secure
formal congressional recognition of the line set forth in
the boundary proviso, but to no 'purpose. Congress
could not be induced to take action in the matter.

In the meantime, Michigan was becoming ambitious

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO • 111

for an independent Territorial government ; and in Janu
ary 1805, this ambition was achieved by the creation of
the Territory of Michigan. At this time Ohio again
sought for recognition of the line extending its northern
boundary; but Congress was evidently impressed with
the inviolable character of the line as fixed by the Ordi
nance of 1787, and so Michigan Territory was created
with its southern boundary "a line drawn east from the
southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan, until it
shall intersect Lake Erie, 9 ' etc. Michigan now not only
went into actual possession of the territory extending to
this line, but began a series of acts of authority and juris
diction over it. For a time the question was dormant,
except for an occasional resolution of the Ohio Assembly
instructing their Congressmen to use their efforts to
secure the passage of a law defining the northern bound
ary. These appeals brought no results until 1812; then,
as the Indian title to the land had been extinguished and
settlers were going into the country, it became necessary
that Congress take some action; now again the action
taken was not in accord with the desires of Ohio, for the
bill which became a law provided for the survey of the
line as established in the enabling Act and which had
been given as the southern boundary of Michigan Terri
tory. Indian hostilities and war with Great Britain soon
absorbed public attention, and the proposed survey was
postponed for three years more; the president then
directed the Surveyor General of Ohio to proceed with
the work in accordance with the provision of the law of
1812. The Surveyor General, December 31, 1816, com
missioned William Harris to run the line; instead of
instructing him to run the line as provided by the law

112 STEVENS T. MASON

authorizing the survey, lie gave instructions for the run
ning of the line in accordance with the Ohio proviso, from
the southerly bend of Lake Michigan to the most north
erly cape of the Maumee Bay; Harris proceeded to do so,
the line thereafter being known as the Harris line.

This line as run by Harris, immediately brought
inquiry from Governor Cass of Michigan Territory to
the Surveyor General as to the authority for such a sur
vey, and when the Assembly of Ohio sought by their
declarations to settle the question according to their
desires, the Governor and Judges of Michigan in 1818
not only adopted a strong memorial to Congress, but sent
a committee to Washington to press the claims of the
Territory; so successful was Michigan that the President
gave orders for the marking of the northern boundary
of Ohio according to the provisions of the Act of 1812.
John A. Fulton was commissioned to run this line ; which
he did, intersecting Lake Erie at a point about seven
miles south of the point of intersection by the Harris
line ; the line took the name of its surveyor, and became
known as the "Fulton line." Two years before this time,
and on the llth day of December 1816, Indiana quite
unopposed had sought and obtained admission into the
Union with her northern boundary ten miles to ike north
of the Ordinance line. As the district thus included was
in an uninhabited portion of the Territory which was
then without a delegate in Congress, Indiana's action
passed unchallenged, if not unnoticed; but it did not
escape notice in the later memorial of the Governor and
Judges, who mentioned it, as they stated, "that it might
not hereafter be supposed they have acquiesced. " When
in 1820 Ohio sought to extend her jurisdiction into the

ROBERT ABBOTT,
First Auditor General of Michigan, Treasurer of Michigan Territory 1S13-1S36.

JAMBS D. DOTY
Member of the Territorial Council of Michigan.

ROBERT LUCAS
Governor of Ohio at the time of the boundary dispute.

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 113

disputed territory, her acts "brought a strong exposition
of Michigan's claims from the then Acting Governor,
William Woodbridge, to the Governor of Ohio, and to the
President through John Quincy Adams, Secretary of
State.

For the time being the question became quiescent, if
not settled. Occasionally Ohio brought forward some
measure relative to the northern boundary, but they did
not receive legislative sanction, nor was Michigan dis
turbed in her possession or jurisdiction. In 1827 the
Territorial Council organized the disputed territory into
the Township of Port Lawrence, where they later col
lected taxes, built roads and enforced the civil and crim
inal law of the Territory. In 1831 it became apparent
to all the parties concerned that a speedy termination
of the controversy was much to be desired. Governor
Cass in his message to the Council of that year gave
a succinct review of the situation and suggested the
expediency of a renewed expression, by a memorial to
Congress, of the views of the Council and the expecta
tions of their constitutents. Such a memorial was sent,
but not until after a futile effort on the part of Michigan
to adjust the difficulty had been made by Michigan offer
ing to accept from Ohio, territory west of the Maumee
Eiver as compensation for such as was yielded by Mich
igan to the east of it.

As the Fulton survey, owing to the failure to establish
the latitude of the southern extreme of Lake Michigan
and the point where the line intersected the Maumee
Eiver and Lake Erie was unsatisfactory the national Con-
gress in 1832 provided for the taking of these observa
tions which were to be completed by December 31, 1835.

114 STEVENS T. MASON

The work was intrusted to Captain Talcott of the United
States Army; the actual work of the observations was
largely performed by a brilliant young graduate from
West Point, later to become known to the world as a
great military genius, the hope of the Confederacy in the
war between the states, — Eobert E. Lee.

The "Talcott line77 practically coincided with the
" Fulton line/7 for they intersected the Maumce not more
than three hundred yards apart. Toledo, or its prede
cessor Port Lawrence, was founded in 1832. It was pro
moted by Ohio capital and its people were ambitious that
it should become the northern terminus of the canal by
which the waters of Lake Erie should be connected with
those of the Ohio at Cincinnati. On January 8, 1833, the
Legislative Council of Michigan adopted a memorial to
Congress asking authority for the people of the Territory
north of the line drawn east from the southerly extreme
of Lake Michigan to assemble by their delegates to form
a State Constitution. On December llth following,
Lucius Lyon, the Territorial Delegate, presented the
first formal petition of Michigan for admission into the
Union. Henceforth the admission of Michigan and the
boundary controversy became inseparable. Ohio insisted
that it was a question which should be settled by Con
gress before the admission of Michigan ; while Michigan
was equally insistent that she should be granted state
hood, and that the question of boundary was the proper
subject of judicial inquiry for the highest court of the
land. As Ohio based her claim on an appeal to what
her representatives termed the "plenary, equitable and
political discretion'7 of Congress, it is apparent why they

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 115

desired the decision of Congress rather than of the
Supreme Court.

Following Michigan's demand for admission, Ohio pro
posed a bill to establish her northerly boundary on the
"Harris line." This bill which passed the Senate, but
failed in the House, drew from the Territorial Council
a most emphatic memorial in which it recited the history
of the facts upon which, it based its claim and declared
that "upon the authority of these Acts, the Territory of
Michigan demands, as the right of the State of Michigan
that the fundamental line running east and west through
the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan and no
other77 should be recognized as their southern boundary.
To the House committee having in charge the bill for
the admission of Michigan, the Territorial Delegate,
Lucius Lyon, submitted an exhaustive argument on the
boundary question which for perspicuity and logical
deductions could not have been surpassed, and which
from the standpoint of legal right remained unanswered.

Such was the status of this famous controversy in the
early days of 1834. Interested as the people of Michigan
were in the question it involved, it did not absorb their
attention to the exclusion of many matters of domestic
concern. The fact that statehood at the very farthest could
be delayed but a short time, was directing the minds of
men into new channels and crystalizing thought about
issues that were to be prominent in the early history
of the State. The Territory now had many men of keen
foresight and sound judgment who were more or less
actively forecasting the material development that was
to follow the creation of State institutions and the

116 STEVENS T. MASON

increase of population. It is probable that at this time
more than one-half of the inhabitants of the Territory
in their passage hither had traveled by the Erie Canal for
some portion of their journey. They had been eye wit
nesses of the great development in western New York
which had resulted from the construction of this great
means of transportation. Michigan had many inhabi
tants who had been residents of Ohio when Marietta was
an outpost of civilization. They had seen the immigrants
swarm to its fertile lands and cities and villages rise as
if by magic. A million people had found homes in Ohio
within the memory of many men who were still in the
fresh vigor of their activities. Thousands of home seek
ers had passed on to near-by States on the prairies of
Indiana and Illinois. Now the tide had turned toward
Michigan, and it required but little imagination to con
ceive for it a future of equal if not surpassing glory.
Ohio had now for nearly ten years been at work upon a
program of extensive internal improvements. A system
of canals was now in course of construction that it was
confidently believed would bring to that State an era of
unexampled prosperity. The practicability of steam as a
motive power in transportation was now beginning to be
realized, and even in distant Michigan there were those
who were ambitious for the early inauguration of the
" railway age." Within nine months after the successful
trip of the " Rocket" in England and before there was a
mile of track in use for general traffic in the United
States, an Act was passed in the Michigan Legislative
Council to incorporate the Pontiac and Detroit Eailway
Company, the Act bearing date July 31, 1830. This was
followed by the chartering of the Detroit and St. Joseph

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 117

Eailroad Company, January 29, 1832, designed to connect
Detroit with the month of the St. Joseph Eiver; and of
the Erie and Kalamazoo Eailroad Company, April 22,
1833, to connect Port Lawrence, now Toledo, with Adrian
and ultimately to be projected to some point upon the
Kalamazoo Eiver. In his message to the Legislative
Council, January 8, 1834, Governor Porter said:

"Permit me to call your attention to the laudable exer
tions now making by our citizens in different sections of
the Territory, to procure the aid of the General Govern
ment in the construction of a railroad through the penin
sula. A liberal provision has heretofore been made for
works connected with the internal improvement of the
Territory. Is there any subject more worthy of their fos
tering care than the construction of this railroad? A
large revenue is derived from the sale of the public lands
within this peninsula. Nature has prepared the ground,
and the small expense 'which would be incurred in con
structing a railroad would be soon reimbursed by the
increased amount of the sales and the numerous other
advantages that would result as well to the government
as to the individuals/'

The Governor's message likewise suggested improve
ments to the St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, Grand and Clinton
Eivers and to the St. Glair Flats, recommending a
memorial to Congress praying governmental aid for these
worthy objects. These recommendations were undoubt
edly in accord with the ambitions of the people and in
keeping with their judgment and forecast of develop
ment as well. These recommendations of the Governor,
acts of the people and previous memorial of the Legisla
tive Council, are important as bearing on later events in

118 STEVENS T. MASON

the history of the State when internal improvement
became a matter of State policy, in place of formative
suggestions and discussion. Not a few who have written
on the history of Michigan have treated the question of
internal improvements as though it was a policy peculiar
to Michigan, and even there inaugurated and prosecuted
in opposition to the sound judgment of the people;
whereas it was a policy common to many States, in
accord with the sentiments of the people then entertained
and as had been repeatedly expressed through the legis
lative and executive branches of their governments.1

At this session the Council passed Acts incorporating
the Shelby and Detroit Kailroad Company, both com
panies being empowered to "transport, take and carry
property and persons, by the power and force of steam,
of animals, or of any mechanical or other power or of any
combination of them.'7 Incorporation was likewise pro
vided for a company to construct a canal connecting the
waters of the Fox and "Wisconsin Eivers, at or near the
place known as the "Wisconsin Portage. " Otherwise
the legislation of the Council was of the routine and ordi
nary nature.

On the 6th day of July the people were shocked to learn
of the sudden death of Governor Porter. He had been
but a short time among the people of the Territory, but
the association had been such as to earn him their confi
dence and high esteem. He had entered heartily into

State activity in the matter of internal improvements both in
Michigan and other States of the Northwest was no doubt
much accelerated by the fact that the making of internal
improvements at Federal expense was a question at this time
upon which political parties were far from agreed and over
• which now and at later times great congressional contests
were waged.

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 119

their hopes and aspirations, and the large concourse that
gathered at the capitol for the ceremonies of his funeral
was more than a mark of respect to his official station.

Stevens- T. Mason, as Acting Governor, was now again
the executive head of the Territory. Three years had
served to remove most of the animosity occasioned by
his appointment. His courtly manners and real abilities,
his disposition to advise with men of judgment had made
many of his early opposers his staunchest supporters.
At the charter election in April previous, he had been
chosen one of the aldermen at large of Detroit, and had
proceeded with the discharge of the office with commend
able diligence and attention. As drunkenness had become
disgracefully common upon the streets of the city, Mason
took advantage of his official position in an effort to
correct the condition by preparing and having enacted an
ordinance whereby all dispensers of intoxicants were
required to pay an annual license fee of fifty dollars and
were prohibited from selling liquors in quantities of less
than one gallon. The ordinance marks one of the first
restrictive measures for the control of the liquor traffic
within the Territory.

On the first of August the people of Detroit were sud
denly horrified by the dreadful intelligence that the spec
tre of Asiatic cholera was again active in their midst.
Almost without warning it began its ghastly work of
decimation. Two years before it wrought its fearful
havoc in the homes of the poor and among the desolate ;
now it was an impartial scourge, visiting with especial
fatality the homes of culture and refinement. Seven per
cent of the population of Detroit died in the single month
of August. It again spread to various places of the

120 STEVENS T. MASON

interior, Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti being special sufferers.
More than a qnarter of the population of Detroit fled
from the town; for weeks an air of desolation hung over
the stricken city ; day after day the August sunshine beat
down in almost deserted streets. Many of the stores
were closed and but one or two small schooners swung
lazily at their moorings upon the river. In regular runs
the Henry Clay and one or two other steamboats touched
the port, but more often to take away than to discharge
passengers.

Father Gabriel Eichard now had a worthy successor in
the person of Father Martin Kundig, who rightfully
became known as "The Apostle of Charity. " The local
authorities again sought the use of the Capitol as an
emergency hospital, but were refused ; then it was that
Bishop Eese tendered the use of the edifice subsequently
known as Trinity 'Church, then undergoing repairs to fit
it for church uses. The building was hurriedlv put in
condition for a temporary hospital, and Father Kundig,
the tall, handsome Swiss priest, placed in charge. Of
the work of this good man no better recital can be Driven
than to quote the words of that other eminent citizen,
Charles C. Trowbridge, at that time Mayor of the city:

" Amidst the panic which ensued, a few stood calm and
resolute. Among these no one wras more distinguished,
none so much admired as Father Kundig. Fearless and
serene, he seemed to be ubiquitous among the stricken
of the plague. At his personal expense he provided an
ambulance, he went forth from morn till night on his
errand of mercy, cheerful and cheering everyone. When
some victim of the plague was found who was without
friends or medical care, he carried the unfortunate to

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 121

his ambulance and drove to the hospital in the old church.
When the church was reached, he carried the sufferer on
his shoulders to the ward of the hospital where a band
of young physicians, who had volunteered as nurses (and
by the way not one of these young heroes was attacked
by the plague) took charge until recovery or death
decided the case. ' '

Before the commencement of the epidemic, General
John T. Mason had returned from Mexico, to be apprised
of the death of his youngest born. The mother had suf
fered serious illness, which with the mental strain inci
dent to her months of sorrow had greatly impaired her
health. With the coming of the cholera, the father fear
ful of the shock to the delicate mother from the scenes
that must ensue, and not unmindful of the violent con
tagion of the disease, took the wife and daughters to
New York and the old Virginia home; Thomson alone
of the family remained, and with one or two servants
maintained the home while he manfully discharged the
duties intrusted to his care, joining with others in allevi
ating the suffering, sorrow and distress incident to the
direful situation. This was done not only by active
effort, but by example of cheering fortitude and courage.
With the approaching days of autumn the cholera plague
subsided, and so far as was possible affairs assumed
f their normal status.

On the 28th of June, 1834, by Act of Congress, all the
country north of the north line of the State of Missouri,
west of the Mississippi and east of the Missouri and
White Earth Eiver was for the purposes of temporary
government attached to and made a part of the Territory
of Michigan; thus under Michigan Territory was com-

122 STEVENS T. MASON

prehended the Territorial limits not only of the present
State of Michigan, but of the present States of Wiscon
sin, Minnesota, Iowa and the eastern portion of North
and South Dakota, The preceding Legislative Council in
view of the anticipated attachment of the vast extent of
country to Michigan and the necessity of appropriate
legislation to bring it within the pale of civil government,
as well as the need of attention to matters of special
interest to Michigan proper, had petitioned Congress for
the authority to hold a special session. This authority
was granted, and in conformity therewith Acting Gov
ernor Mason convened the body in extra session at
Detroit on September 1 ensuing.

The message of the young executive delivered on the
day following the assembling pf the Council had the ring
of energy and action that ever after characterized his
public utterances. Public sentiment in Michigan was
becoming somewhat aroused. State feeling as distin
guished from national feeling was strong. The people
of the. Territory believed that they had certain rights
guaranteed to them by the Ordinance of 1787, and that
these rights were as sacred as though guaranteed by the
provisions of the Constitution itself. Among these was
the right to the southern boundary as prescribed in the
Ordinance and the right to formulate a Constitution and
create a State government when they should have sixty
thousand free inhabitants; which they now had. The
petitions and memorials from the Legislative Council to
the national Congress asking what the people believed
to be their rights had been treated by that body as though
they were petitions upon the grace of Congress for that
which, it was within their power to grant or withhold at

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 123

pleasure. Weary from entreaty, the people of the Terri
tory resolved upon a program of aggression, and the
message of Acting Governor Mason to the special session
of the Council disclosed that it was a program with which
he was in full sysmpathy and accord.

"The leading purpose of your present session/7 said
he, "contemplates the speedy admission of Michigan into
the Union." After recommending the taking of a census
as a step in effecting the desired object, he proceeded
to say, "The time has arrived when Michigan is called
upon to act for herself. She has petitioned Congress
again and again to extend to her the same measure of
liberality and justice winch has been extended to all the
Territories admitted into the Union as States. None of
these Territories had at the time of their admission a
population equal to sixty thousand souls, a population
on the attainment of which we are authorized by the
Ordinance of 1787 to claim an incorporation with a
Republican constitution into the Union, on an equal foot
ing with the original States. All, or most of the Terri
tories have been admitted when they possessed a num
ber of inhabitants equal to their ratio of representation
in their House of Representatives of the United States.
Congress, under the influence of the policy which at present
guides its deliberations, has failed to accede to the reiter
ated applications of Michigan, with a population greater by
far than that of any other favored Territory for power
to form a Constitution and State government. She has
but one course left for the assertion of her equal rights.
It is to ascertain her population, which is beyond doubt
more than sixty thousand ; to proceed in that event to the
calling of a Convention for the institution of a State

124 STEVENS T. MASON

government and to the election of a Representative and
Senator to Congress. The State of Michigan will then
have a right to demand admission into the Union ; and it
is not to be anticipated that the Congress of the United
States will hesitate to yield as a matter of right what
they have heretofore refused to grant as a favour."

Continuing he said, "It has become manifest, that as a
Territory, we have but little weight in the deliberation
of Congress on subjects connected with a view to other
interests than our own.'7 Surely much that had pre
ceded and much that was to follow was proof of this
assertion.

AnTong other things, the message called attention to
the country beyond the Mississippi that had been added
to the Territory for the purpose of temporary govern
ment; pleaded for the abolition of imprisonment for debt,
"a flagrant violation of personal liberty, entirely at war
with the spirit and genius 'of our institutions and a stain
upon the legal code of the country;" and mentioned that
the Secretary of "War had detailed competent engineers
from the army to make surveys for one or more rail
roads across the peninsula; "in view of its vast impor
tance to the interests of Michigan," he suggested the
propriety of paying for the same by an appropriation
from the Territorial treasury.

It was at this time that Lieutenant John M. Berrien
became associated with the railway projects of Michigan
in the capacity of a civil engineer, an association that
lasted for many years, first for the State and later for the
Michigan Central Eailroad Company when it had taken
over its properties from State control.

The Council in accordance with the recommendations

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 125

of the Acting Governor promptly passed an Act to pro
vide for the taking of a census of the inhabitants of the
Territory east of the Mississippi River, the same to be
taken between the first Monday of October and the first
Monday of November following.

Previous to this time the Territory now embraced
within the State of Wisconsin had been laid out into the
counties of Michilimackinac, Brown, Crawford and Iowa,
the first named also including the northern portion of
the peninsula of Michigan. Milwaukee County was now
created and made to contain some 2,500 square miles of
territory bordering upon Lake Michigan and the north
ern boundary of Illinois. Of the territory west of the
Mississippi, to which the Indian title had been extin
guished, all south of a line drawn west from Rock Island
to the Missouri River and north of the State of Missouri
was constituted the County of Des Moines, while all north
of such line was constituted the County of Dubuque, said
counties respectively being given corporate existence as
the townships of Flint, Hill and Julien. This work being
completed during the first week of the session, at the
expiration of that time the Council adjourned to the
llth of November ; by that time it was expected the cen
sus would be completed and it was hoped that the cholera
epidemic would have subsided so that the public business
might be attended to under conditions less gruesome
and distressing. Adjournment was not taken, however,
until the Council had given expression by resolution to
its convictions on the question of the southern boundary
and its right to form a Constitution and State govern
ment whenever there were sixty thousand free inhabi
tants in the Territory; and inasmuch as such provisions

126 STEVENS T. MASON

were a part of the Act of cession by which Virginia
had ceded the Northwest to the Confederacy, the Council
authorized the Acting Governor to communicate the reso
lutions adopted to the Governor of that State to be by
him laid before the House of Delegates with the request
that they " require of the Government of the United
States a strict compliance with the said Act of Cession
and Ordinance, more particularly by abstaining from any
legislation upon the subject of the northern boundary of
Ohio, and that she will aid our inhabitants in maintain
ing the integrity of the limits of the State or States
to be formed north of the east and west line aforesaid."

On September 10th Acting Governor Mason communi
cated the resolutions to Hon. Littleton W. Tasewell, Gov
ernor of Virginia, accompanying them with a personal
letter giving a history of the controversy from its incep
tion, and closing his review of the facts by saying :

"Michigan feels justified in making an appeal to Vir
ginia, in the fact that she is as it were, her offspring;
springing from an act of disinterested and noble gener
osity on the part of Virginia, she looks up to her as a
parent, and feels a strong degree of confidence in the
belief that her rights will be protected.

"It is with pleasure, Sir, that I address you on this
subject; from whom candor, impartiality and justice can
confidently be expected, and if permitted in addition to
my duties to the people of Michigan, I might allude to
my own feelings, as a native of Virginia, in justifica
tion of the zeal with which I urge a full examination and
consideration of the subject by your Excellency, under a
conviction that you will recommend to the Legislature

0?HE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 127

of your State the adoption of such measures as will be
consistent with -the rights of those interested."

Governor Tasewell responded to the letter with a suav
ity characteristic of the time. Writing of the letter
received from Mason, he said :

"In it you appeal to the justice of Virginia, and found
your appeal a strong representation of the merits of the
case. I could say nothing more and nothing half so well.
It is due not less to you than to the cause of Michigan
therefore that her claim should be presented in the very
words of her own powerful advocate.

"If I transcend the prescribed forms of official duty,
to thank you for the spirit in which your letter is written,
you, who feel that spirit, will excuse me. You style
yourself 'a native of Virginia' and in the sentiments
you utter, I not only recognize you as such, but as a
descendant of those to whom we are indebted for much
of that spirit which we still feel. When Virginia forgets
a Mason worthy of his name, she will dishonor herself,
and when a native Mason of that class forgets Virginia,
he will do no less."

The resolutions and some of the correspondence found
their way into the journal of the Virginia House of Dele
gates, but aside from the fact that they served as the
occasion for the passage of some stilted compliments,
they served no special purpose, for they brought no legis
lative expression on the subject of the controversy.

The cholera epidemic ended almost as abruptly as it
began. From the 5th of August to the 1st of September,
three hundred and nineteen victims had been claimed by
the scourge; and on Wednesday, the 24th of the latter

128 STEVENS T. MASON

month, the people of the city observed a day of Thanks
giving and prayer "for the mercy that had stayed the
visitation. ' '

Acting Governor Mason with a couple of servants was
still the sole tenant of the Mason home. To the absent
sisters he wrote frequent letters in a half serious, half
humorous vein that disclose characteristics at variance
with those he was reputed to possess. To the younger
sister Catherine, he wrote :

"I suppose you have a surfeit of a fashionable city
life and long once more to enjoy the quiet and comfort
of your own home, which is at last the only place where
true happiness is to be found. As for myself, give me
the ease and simplicity of nature unalloyed by what are
called the improvements in society, But what are to me
the heartless and arbitrary regulations of men, made to
play off ' such fantastic tricks as would make the angels
weep.7 The longer I live, the more I hate good society
as it is now rated. Had I an empire of my own, I would
as strictly quarantine the approach of fashion as I would
that of a contagious fever; both are equally dangerous
and one case of either thrown into a community, will soon
spread over it, unless in the former instance the constitu
tions of the citizens are strong enough to withstand dis
ease, and in the latter, their heads sufficiently sound to
resist the contagion of fashion. So recollect, you and
Emily are to bring none of the exquisites of fashion con
cealed in your frock sleeves, or I shall follow the recent
example of Governor Hayne of South Carolina and con
sider it my duty as Chief Magistrate of Michigan to issue
a proclamation against your landing in the Territory.

GEN. JOSEPH W. BROWN,

Commander of Michigan militia in the Black Hawk War.

versity 1839.

Regent of the Uni-

EICHAED RUSH,
Member of the National Commission to adjust the Ohio boundary dispute.

BENJAMIN C. HOWARD,
Member of the National Commission to adjust the Ohio boundary dispute.

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 129

He railed against the cholera and would have none of it.
I'll have none of fashion modernized."

The distinguished English author, Harriet Martineau,
who was now in New York City, soon met the family of
General Mason, by whom she was cordially invited to
include Detroit in her itinerary and to make the Mason
home her abiding place while there sojourning. This
information communicated to Thomson brought a prompt
letter to the sister Emily in which he says: "I have
been daily standing in dread of the arrival of Miss Mar-
tineau, who I am informed has been invited to take up
her quarters with us during her stay in Detroit. I wish
her no harm, but pray heaven she may never arrive.
Imagine to yourself, Miss Martineau amongst us with our
present household, Jemmy the dining room servant, and
Ann, her waiting maid. An earthquake would not pro
duce more terror amongst us than her presence. Every
body about the house trembles at noise of a steamboat.
Even the old gobbler in the yard seems frightened, for the
knock of Miss Martineau at the door of our mansion is
the knell of Ms departure 'to the place from which tur
keys never return.' If a master's hopes, his servants7
petitions, and a gobbler's prayer will avail anything,
heaven will send adverse winds to the vessel that bears
Miss Martineau to our port.7'

Whether there was potency in the hopes, petitions,
and prayers, to which reference was made, will never be
known ; but from some cause the visit of Miss Martineau
was delayed until the following June, when from her sub-
sequently published work Society in America and Retro
spect of Western Travel, it would seem that the impedi-

130

STEVENS T. MASON

ments in the way of her proper entertainment had passed
away, and that from the home of the genial General she
took away memories of the kindliest and most pleasing

nature.

CHAPTER VIII

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO (Coi<r.)

ON November llth the Council reconvened, and on
the 18th the returns of the census of the counties
east of Lake Michigan being completed, — they were com
municated to the Council in a special message from the
Acting Governor. The completed census showed a popu
lation of 85,856 within the Lower Peninsula, a number
almost a third greater than that which the Ordinance
of_ 1787 had fixed as a prerequisite for statehood and
admission into the Union, and much larger than that
possessed by any of the States that had previously been
admitted to statehood from the Northwest. The message
went fully into the question of the propriety of calling a
Convention to frame a Constitution, and detailed at length
the arguments in support of their right to do so. Now that
Michigan proper had a population of sixty thousand, the
Acting Governor in common with a large body of her
citizens was firm in the belief that Congress would impose
no objection to the admission of the State. To the mind
of the Acting Governor, Michigan was now in position
to avail herself of that provision of the fundamental
Ordinance which said that * ' Such State shall be admitted
by its delegates into the Congress of the United States on
an equal footing with the original States, in all respects
whatever, and shall be at liberty to form a permanent
Constitution and State government/' This provision was
quoted in the message with the emphasis indicated. The

132 STEVENS T. MASON

executive sought to make clear that the only discretion
left for Congress to exercise is, to determine that our
Constitution is republican.

That Michigan might be free to work out her scheme
of state building, the Acting Governor urged the impor
tance of memorializing Congress to set off the country
west of Lake Michigan under a separate and distinct
Territorial government. The message closed with a par
agraph indicating that its writer was not unmindful of
the gravity of the program he was recommending, should
it be followed. In his words :

" * Constitutions are the work of time, not the invention
of ingenuity,' and too much deliberation and reflection
cannot in its formation be bestowed upon an instrument
on which the future prosperity of our Territory and the
happiness of her citizens may depend. When a nation is
about to make a change in its political character, it
behooves it to summon to its aid the experience of ages
which have passed and the wisdom and talents of the
present day, and to ascertain clearly those great princi
ples of equal rights and sound policy which effectually
secure the liberties and properties of the people. Such
is the situation of Michigan at present. She is about to
change her political character. Her citizens should
reflect upon the important step they are about to take;
and with the view of bringing before them the numerous
questions of importance which the measure will involve,
I most earnestly recommend the passage of such a law as
I have suggested to your consideration. "

On the day following, the 19th, Acting Governor Mason
sent a second message to the Council in executive session,
from which it appears that his program for " breaking

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO " 133

into the Union'7 was not the product of that youthful
audacity that has been sometimes charged; but was
rather in furtherance of a calculating and well-considered
policy. Stevens T. Mason, young though he was, was not
without a keen appreciation of the odds that were against
the Territory of Michigan in the contest with Ohio. He
realized not only the great power of Ohio alone, but that
Indiana and Illinois were in sympathy with her cause;
for they had projected their northern boundaries much
further north of the Ordinance line than Ohio was now
attempting, — jealousy for their own. interests made them
partisans of Ohio. He had observed enough of politics
to know that the simple consciousness of standing for the
right is a very unattractive reward in a contest of poli
tics and expediency; and as Michigan was a Territory
without electoral votes or political prestige, she had but
little more than this reward of conscience to offer. In
his message he said :

"The general rights of Michigan to admission to the
Union are fully understood by you. The only question
of doubt in your minds can be whether you will immedi
ately call a convention to form a Constitution and State
government, or petition Congress at their next session to
admit us into the Union as a sovereign and independent
State. Under ordinary circumstances, the latter course
would certainly be most to be preferred and should
unquestionably be followed. It would prevent all col
lision with the General Government, and could but be
calculated to increase the common feeling of sympathy
which is entertained by the different States of the Union.
But when the dispute with Ohio is called in question,
we have but one course to pursue. It is our policy to

134 STEVENS T. MASON

avoid, and if possible prevent all legislation whatever
on the part of Congress on that important subject. Under
present circumstances we must be satisfied that Congress
if brought to the test, will decide the question against us.
Our only hope of success is to delay their action until
we become a State, when we can appeal for justice to
the supreme judicial tribunal of the country and maintain
the rights which are secured to us by the Ordinance of
July 13, 1787.

"No bill connected with the admission of Michigan can
be carried through Congress without having cut off from
us the country claimed by Ohio. This state of things
would compel our delegates in Congress to turn about,
and as a matter of duty to his constituents, endeavor
to defeat the very act which you yourselves would ask
to be enacted."

It was in furtherance of this program that Elon Farns-
worth, on November 21, introduced and later had passed
a "resolution asking Congress in the interest of the emi
grants settling west of Lake Michigan, to declare its
intention towards that Territory, whether it purposed
to erect it into an independent State or to admit it as a
part of one State to be formed north of the Ordinance
line. Likewise James D. Doty, member from Green
Bay, submitted a report from the committee on Terri
torial affairs, intended for the United States Congress,
in which he graphically described the conditions west of
Lake Michigan and made representations well calculated
to induce that body to take action looking to the establish
ment of an independent government in that region. Upon
the adoption of this memorial a few days later, Mr. Doty
made an ineffectual attempt to have the islands of Mack-

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 135

inac and Bois Blanc included in the Territorial limits
of the government sought to be created in the region west
of Lake Michigan; the proposition commanded the sup
port of only two western delegates and one from the
county of Oakland.

There were some members of the Council who still
believed that it was possible to reach an amicable adjust
ment of the perplexing boundary question. Through
the efforts of Mr. Doty as the mover, a bill was framed
giving authority to the Governor of the Territory to
appoint three commissioners, with power to enter into
negotiations with such commissioners as might be
appointed by either of the States of Ohio, Indiana, or Illi
nois, or with the Governors of such States, "to adjust
and finally settle the northern boundary of such States
or either of them." The bill ultimately became a law,
but not until after a somewhat spirited contest/ Acting
Governor Mason gave the measure his approval, not
because he believed it would be the means of bringing
about the adjustment contemplated, but because he knew
that nothing would be lost thereby, and that some moral
support might accrue to the Territorial cause by the
refusal of Ohio to accede thereto. In this proffer of
adjustment, Governor Lucas on the part of Ohio, refused
to join, as he held, that inasmuch as Michigan was a
Territory, her commissioners would be powerless to make
an award that would be binding upon the State that would
later supersede her temporary government.

On December 31, the special ses&ion of the Council
adjourned sine die, the second session of the sixth Legis
lative Council convening on the 12th of January follow
ing. On this occasion the message of the Acting Gov-

136 STEVENS T. MASON

ernor entered more exhaustively into the legal and his
torical basis of the boundary controversy and the right of
the people of the Territory to form a Constitution and
State government, than had any previous communication
to the Council. It likewise reiterated his well known views
on the question of imprisonment for debt, which he stig
matized as a " remnant of barbarity.77 It suggested the
propriety of memorializing Congress for an appropria
tion for the erection of a marine' hospital at Detroit, a
need which the National Government recognized in 1854,
by the erection of the hospital which is still in use at that
port. Mason had been tutored in the political school of
Jelfersonian democracy and he looked with scant sym
pathy upon legislation that tended to restrict the indi
vidual initiative or confer special privileges. He looked
upon corporations as sometimes being subject to both of
these political evils, and so we find his message calling
attention to the subject in the language of his school and
time.

"I would with diffidence,77 he proceeds to say, "but
with a conviction of the importance of the subject, call
your attention to the impolicy of granting of private
incorporation. By a reference to our statute book it will
be seen that this system has been already carried to such
an extent, that if persevered in, it cannot fail to fill our
Territory with an innumerable multitude of irresponsible
companies. It must be admitted that individual enter
prise is greatly embarrassed and discouraged by a too
general and indiscriminate creation of corporate privi
leges. Individual enterprise and capital should be left
free to operate, without having to contend against the
consolidated wealth and power of oppressive moneyed

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 1ST

monopolies. I respectfully suggest the importance of
confining your legislation on this subject to such cases
of enterprise originating for the public good as individ
ual effort and capital would be inadequate to accom
plish."

It was bills extending corporate privileges to partic
ular companies that brought the only clash between the
Council and the Executive. All acts of incorporation
under the Territorial and early State period were special
in their character; corporations were not incorporated
under general laws until after the adoption of the Con
stitution of 1850. Some of the Acts of incorporation
passed by the Territorial Council sought to grant to the
companies so incorporated exclusive privileges for long
terms of years. All of such acts were vetoed by the
Acting Governor, and he stated in a somewhat extended
message on the subject that he considered such Acts "a
departure from the principles of republican govern
ment. ' '

As would be expected, the time of the Council was
largely occupied with the issues presented by the contro
versy with Ohio and the formation of a State govern
ment. On January 26, after extended discussion, the
Act to enable the people of Michigan to form a Constitu
tion and State government became a law by receiving
the signature of the Executive. Michigan was thus pro
ceeding to do, without the consent of Congress, that
which she had twice asked the consent of Congress that
she might do. The act was preceded by a preamble
which recited the historic facts upon which the Council
predicated its right to proceed. It provided for a Con
vention of eighty-nine delegates to be elected from six-

138 STEVENS T. MASON

teen districts. Wayne County, as the first district, led
with seventeen delegates, while sixty-three of the dele
gates were from the counties of Wayne, Monroe, Lena-
wee, Washtenaw and Oakland and the counties attached
to the two last mentioned counties for judicial purposes.
The only qualifications required of a delegate were that
he should be a citizen of the United States and twenty-
one years of age. The right to vote at the election, which
was fixed for Saturday the fourth day of the following
April, was extended to all "the free white male inhabi
tants of said Territory, above the age of twenty-one
years, who shall reside therein three months immedi
ately preceding " the date of the election.

The delegates were to meet in convention at the Cap
itol in the city of Detroit on the second Monday of May
following, and the Territorial limits of the proposed
State for which they were to provide a Constitution was
declared to have its southern boundary at the i ' east and
west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme
of Lake Michigan " and its western boundary at a "lino
drawn from said southerly bend through the middle of
said lake to its northern extremity and thence due to
the northern boundary of the United States." These
were the original southern and western boundaries of
Michigan Territoy as constituted in 1805.

Ohio was now far from a disinterested observer of
what was transpiring in the Michigan Council. If the
ambitions of the people of Michigan were to be realized
and they were to achieve statehood without first obtain
ing congressional permission, then the question of bound
ary would become a question for the courts rather than
for Congress, and this Ohio did not desire. On February

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 139

6 when Governor Bobert Lncas transmitted to the OMo
Legislature the intelligence of the action of the Michigan
Council in passing an Act providing for the appointment
of commissioners to adjnst the controversy, together
with his reasons for refusing to accept the offer, he at
the same time recommended to the Legislature the pass
age of an Act declaring "that all counties bordering on
the northern boundary of the State of Ohio shall extend
to and be bounded on the north by the line running from
the southern extreme of Lake Michigan to the most
northern cape of the Maumee Bay." On the 23rd of
February the Ohio Legislature passed an act in con
formity with the Governor's recommendations, extend
ing the northern boundaries of Wood, Henry and Wil
liams counties, to the " Harris line " and created
the townships of Sylvania and Port Lawrence in the
disputed Territory. Thfs Ohio was proceeding to
take that which for thirty years she had, by ask
ing Congress to give it to her, admitted was the
territory of another. At the same time the Ohio Legis
lature made provision for a commission to remark the
"Harris line," while it adopted resolutions declaring
among other things that "It ill becomes a million of free
men to humbly petition, year after year, for what justly
belongs to them, and is completely within their control."
But Michigan statesmen were equal to the occasion.
The news of Governor Lucas7 recommendations to the
Ohio Legislature no sooner reached Detroit than a bill
was introduced in the Council which became a law on the
12th of February, making it unlawful for any person to
exercise official functions within the Territory or any
county therein as then organized, or to accept office within

140 STEVENS T. MASON

the limits of tlie Territory other than from the authority
of the Territory of Michigan or the United States; the
penalty for the violation of this law was fixed at a fine
not exceeding one thousand dollars or by imprisonment
not exceeding five years.

Upon the passage of this law, the Territorial Council
took a recess until March 16 to await developments and
to allow a select committee time to formulate such legis
lation as might be necessary to facilitate the change from
the Territorial to the State government.

In the interim, no man in Michigan was more active
than the young Acting Governor. He was in almost daily
conference with the officials of the Territory and in corre
spondence with the President and those in high authority.
As early as February 28, General Joseph Brown, who
at the time was an officer under the authority of the
United States, was given a coftimission as Brigadier Gen
eral of the Territorial militia and instructions as to
action to be taken, when he should learn of the passage
of the contemplated law on the part of Ohio, extending
her northern boundary.

Two days later, the news of such action being com
municated, Acting Governor Mason, as Commander-in-
Chief, issued a circular to the brigade commanders,
ordering them to hold themselves in readiness to obey
the orders of Brigadier General Brown. Orders from
General Brown now followed in quick succession, and
the Territorial militia was soon in readiness for the fray.
As the Executive and Legislature of Ohio proceeded in
the prosecution of their plan, the young Acting Governor
of Michigan promptly forwarded notice of their acts,
with copies of proceedings to the President at Washing-

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 141

ton, and asked Ms counsel and instructions. But the
authorities at the Capitol were slow to act. Ohio now
had twenty-one electoral votes, Indiana and Illinois had
fourteen more, Michigan had none. This made it neces
sary to approach the case with the utmost caution.

On March 21 Acting Governor Mason, having received
no reply to his numerous communications, dispatched
his aide, Colonel Norvell, as a special messenger to Wash
ington to request of the President his interposition and
defense of the rights of the Territory. He was followed
on the 25th by an extended memorial from the members
of the Council addressed to the President in person,
wherein they temperately reviewed the claims of Mich
igan and the aggressions of Ohio and pledged themselves
to "cheerfully submit" their rights to the " decision of
the Supreme Court of the United States, and not only
endeavor not to procrastinate its action, but to use all
in their power to obtain the earliest decision/' the
memorial closing with a personal appeal to the President,
that in style is strongly indicative of the fashioning hand
of the Acting Governor. "We are aware, Sir," it con
cludes, "of all we ask and of the high responsibility it
involves. But we are aware also that we appeal to a
Chief Magistrate, who during a long life devoted to the
public service, has, by splendid examples of patriotism
and firmness, shown that he shrinks from no duty which
the Constitution and laws impose upon him; and satis
fied we are that if our cause is right, and if our views
of Executive obligations are correct, you will not look
to the relative strength or weakness of the parties, but
to an impartial performance of the high functions com
mitted to you."

142 STEVENS T. MASON

On March 28 the Territorial Council adjourned, and
five days later Acting Governor Mason repaired to Mon
roe to be near the scene o'f action. The Michigan parti
sans at Toledo had petitioned the Territorial Council
and a law had been passed changing the place of holding
the township meeting from Port Lawrence or Toledo to
the " school house on Ten Mile Creek Prairie.7' Here
the Michigan partisans met on the 1st of April and
elected Michigan officials, while the Ohio partisans which
were more numerous assembled at Port Lawrence and
elected officials to act under the laws of Ohio. Governor
Lucas and staff arrived at Perrysburg on the 2nd of
April. General John Bell in command of the Ohio militia
at once began active operations for the organization of
his force. A few companies had arrived from a distance
and volunteers were sought to make up the numerical
strength desired. For many years the citizens of Perrys
burg recalled the stirring scenes of this military experi
ence; and more prominent in memory than the forms
of generals in gold braid and tinsel was that of "Big
Odle," a local character, of giant-like proportions, who,
arrayed in a rifleman's green cloth coat, homespun, and
bark-dyed trousers, each trimmed in black lace, marched
up and down the one long street of the village, vigor
ously beating a drum which seemed a toy in contrast
with his exceptional size; while the purpose of his activ
ity was told by a sign pinned to his tall narrow rimmed
white hat, which bore the ominous legend, "Recruiting
for war."

The Michigan authorities with less demonstrations but
with equal determination, were preparing to resist any
attempts on the part of Ohio to exercise jurisdiction

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 143

nor tla of the Fulton line. General Brown had at first
called out a numerous force of the Territorial militia,
but Acting Governor Mason had urged the necessity of
first exhausting the powers of the civil authority before
calling upon the militia and so the greater part of the
force that had been called to Monroe was allowed to
return home. Mason was of the opinion that the posse
comitatus would answer the preliminary stages of the
contest, and he had hopes, as he wrote General Brown,
that a small force on the part of the Territory might
induce "Old Governor Lucas" to enter the disputed terri
tory and exercise some official function that would sub
ject him to prosecution under the law of February 12;
then the civil officers of Monroe County, with a sufficient
posse, could effect his arrest, — a coup that would cer
tainly have given great pleasure to the people of Mich
igan, even though it would have had no influence in
the settlement of the controversy.

Public interest in the contest was now at high pitch.
The press of the country was giving extended space to
the controversy, and the President was now seemingly
impressed by the gravity of the situation. Early in
March he had laid the matter before Benjamin F. Butler,
the Attorney General, for his opinion as to the power
and duties of the Executive to interfere therein. The
Attorney General, after a careful examination of the
question, had rendered an opinion which practically sus
tained the position of the Territory of Michigan, and
denied the right of Ohio to exercise jurisdiction north
of the Fulton line until Congress, or some competent
tribunal, should extend the boundary to the line desired.
The opinion likewise, held that the act of the Territorial

144 STEVENS T. MASON

Council, in penalizing the attempt to exercise a foreign
jurisdiction within the limits of the Territory, was within
the power of the Council, and had the binding force of
law until annulled by Act of Congress. "In any prose
cutions which may be instituted, there is danger that
forcible resistance may be made to the due execution of
process," proceeds the opinion. In that case, said the
Attorney General, "contingencies may occur which
would demand the active interposition of the President."
To avert these contingencies, the Attorney General gave
direction to the thought that the President might have
recourse to persuasion and remonstrance with Ohio
"until some act shall be committed on their part, involv
ing a practical violation of the Constitution or laws of
the United States," while it was pointed out that the
execution of the laws of the Territory of Michigan could
in a measure be controlled by superseding the official,
active for their enforcement, for one less zealous and
energetic. Such a suggestion was quite extrinsic of exec
utive duties in the premises, and was what John Quincy
Adams styled the "perfume" of the thirty-five electoral
votes of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The President evi
dently thought to try the powers of persuasion and
remonstrance as the first palliative, and to this end on
March 24 he named Richard Bush of Philadelphia and
Benjamin C. Howard of Baltimore, both gentlemen of
eminent abilities, as mediators between the contending
parties. Acting Governor Mason received prompt notice
of the action of the President as well as a copy of the
opinion of the Attorney General. On April 2 he wrote
Governor Lucas a respectful letter, assuring him that the
people of Michigan would surrender no portion of their

DR. OLIVER C, COMSTOCK

Baptist minister, Chaplain to Congress, Superintendent Public Instruction for
Michigan 1843-1845, Member of State Legislature in 1849,

JOHN J. ADAM

Member of first State Constitutional Convention. Member of the State Legis
lature 180941, and later held various State offices.

m

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 145

rightful jurisdiction and added "I feel confident that you
must personally know the character of the people of
Michigan and will do them justice to believe that this
determination has not been made from passion or with
out reflection." The letter likewise conveyed informa
tion as to the appointment of mediators by the President,
and suggested that it was due to the country, to the Presi
dent, and to the parties themselves, that all operations
should be suspended by Ohio until their arrival. This
message was delivered to Governor Lucas by Colonels
John Winder and Isaac S. Rowland, special messengers,
but the irascible Governor made no reply, other than to
verbally inform the messengers that Ohio would accept
no mediation, as her course was determined and that
he had written the President the true statement of the
situation which he had no doubt would induce the United
States Government to desist from any interference in
the controversy. But the commisisoners were near at
hand; by traveling night and day they were enabled to
reach Toledo on the 3rd of April. In diplomatic fashion,
they at once set about the performance of their mission.
The results they achieved were anything but satisfactory.
They found Acting Governor Mason willing to give
assurance of peaceful conduct so long as the authorities
of Ohio kept out of the disputed territory; but when
they sought to persuade Governor Lucas to be satisfied
with such action as his State had already taken and to
leave the question to the final determination of Con
gress, they were met with his firm refusal. He was
insistent that the "Harris line" should be re-marked as
the northern boundary of the State.
Eeluctantly the commissioners returned to Acting Gov-

146 STEVENS T. MASON

ernor Mason, to say what they had hoped not to be
obliged to say, that the President desired the non-enforce
ment of the Territorial Act of February 12. The inti
mation was couched in the most diplomatic language,
but it brought a most prompt and spirited answer from
the young Acting Governor, who characterized the propo
sition of using the removing power to prevent the
enforcement of the law as an "act of executive usurpa
tion and tyranny which would place every department of
the government within the despotic control of a single
officer." Mason was a great admirer of the President,
and it was not without some effort that he took a position
in opposition to what he believed was his desire. On
April 18 he wrote General Cass saying: "I owe much
to General Jackson, and it pains me to think I may be
adopting a course of policy contrary to his wishes" but
his letter made it plain that if the President deemed it
imprudent to carry out the views of Messrs. Rush and
Howard, it would be necessary for another to be
appointed to his place; in which event, said he, "I will
submit to my fate without a murmur, and indeed even be
satisfied with the result." It soon became evident that
as long as he remained Acting Governor, the law would
be rigorously enforced. Governor Lucas disbanded his
army, but the commissioners and surveyors made ready
to re-mark the Harris line; while the local officials,
elected under Ohio laws, qualified for the discharge of
their official functions. The authorities of Monroe
County were soon on the ground armed with warrants
and backed with a numerous posse, and such Ohio officials
as did not betake themselves to the south of the Fulton
line were promptly marched off to jail. The commission-

THE BOtJNDARY ±)ISPtJTE WI*H OHIO 147

ers and surveyors were proceeding eastward from the
northwest corner of Ohio on the Harris line and were
allowed to get well within the County of Lenawee when
Under-Sheriff William McNair appeared upon the scene
accompanied with a posse approaching the size of a com
pany of militia. Nine of the party were placed under
arrest and taken to Tecumseh to answer to the complaints
against them. The three commissioners and the surveyor
found safety in flight; and someone of the Michigan
party, to increase their speed, fired a gun above their
heads, which had every effect that could have been
desired. The arrival of this party at Perrysburg with
a tale of hair-breadth escape was the cause of intense
excitement throughout Ohio. The President, upon the
complaint of Governor Lucas, called for a report of the
proceeding, which in time was made by Under-Sheriff
McNair. He denied that he was accompanied by the mili
tia, and concluded by saying, "I am also happy to inform
your Excellency that the commissioners made good time
on foot through the cotton-wood swamp and arrived safe
at Perrysburg the next morning, with nothing more seri
ous than the loss of hats, and their clothing, like Gover
nor Morey's breeches, without the patch."

Of the parties arrested, two were discharged, six
admitted to bail and one, Colonel Fletcher, refusing to
give bail, was committed to the custody of the Sheriff,
it being claimed at the time that he acted under instruc
tions of Governor Lucas so that it might be claimed to
the citizens of Ohio that their brethren were languishing
in the jails of Michigan.

The news of the arrest of the surveying party, supple
mented in Ohio with all the details of a murderous attack,

148 STEVENS T. MASON

even with the slow means of communication, soon spread
over the country, and in the communities most interested
the greatest of excitement prevailed. Messrs. Rush and
Howard sharing in the belief that civil war was immi
nent, renewed their efforts for a pacific adjustment of
the difficulty that should preserve the public peace until
the assembling of Congress when the matter could again
be submitted to its deliberation.

The terms proposed by the commissioners to Governor
Lucas were :

1. That the pending prosecutions under the Act of Feb

ruary 12, 1835 should be discharged and discon
tinued.

2. That no prosecutions should be commenced.

3. That Harris' line should be run and re-marked by the

authorities of Ohio without interruption from
those of Michigan.

4. That no forcible opposition be made by the authori

ties of Ohio or Michigan to the exercise of juris
diction by the other upon the disputed territory
within the time specified; the citizens residing
upon the territory in question resorting to one
jurisdiction or the other, as they might prefer.

As would be expected, Governor Lucas was willing to
accept this proposition. The first three propositions con
ceded to Ohio all that she should claim, while the fourth
proposition granted to that State a concurrent jurisdic
tion in the Territory, where, under existing conditions,
she was unable to support one. For the very reasons
that the proposals were acceptable to Governor Lucas

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 149

and the people of Ohio, they were highly unacceptable to
the people of Michigan and Acting Governor Mason, who
styled the terms "dishonorable and disreputable." He
was willing to withdraw all opposition to the re-marking
of the Harris line, and the Constitutional Convention
then in session on June 1 received from a committee of
which John Norvell was chairman, a resolution expres
sive of that position and the famous "Appeal from the
Convention to the People of the United States, » elabo
rately presenting the claims and arguments of the Terri
tory upon the question of the southern boundary.

Governor Lucas now called a special session of the
Ohio Assembly which convened on the 18th of June. An
intimation from the President to the effect that he
"might find it necessary to interfere with the power of
the United States, if Ohio persisted in running the line
with an armed escort " had rendered the old Governor
just a little uncertain of his ground, and to the Assembly
he sent the correspondence with special recommenda
tions. The Assembly proceeded to create the county of
Lucas, including Toledo in its limits and made provisions
for the meeting of the Court of Common Pleas at that
place on the 7th of the following September and for the
election of county officers in October. It voted to
abide by the proposals of Messrs. Eush and Howard on
condition that the General Government would compel
Michigan to do .the same; but evidently distrusting Michi
gan's acquiescence in a scheme that required all the sac
rifice to be made by her and giving all the benefits to
Ohio, it enacted a law against kidnappers, designed to
offset the Michigan law against the exercise of foreign
jurisdiction. It likewise appropriated $300,000, subject

150 STEVENS T. MASON

to the discretion of the Governor, with which to main
tain the supremacy of their laws in the disputed terri
tory. The calling of this special session of the Assembly
did not tend to the quieting of the apprehension which
existed both at home and at Washington, and Governor
Lucas found it expedient to send commissioners to Wash
ington to assert his own pacific intentions. Ohio soon
began to carry out the proposed concurrent jurisdiction;
and Michigan began more rigorously to enforce the law
against the exercise of foreign jurisdiction. Major
Stickney was an ardent partisan of Ohio and as an officer
under the laws of that State, he was placed under arrest
and the story was long told of how refusing to walk,
he was placed astride a horse while a stalwart Wolverine
held on to either leg, tiring of which they finally tied
his legs beneath the horse's body and thus brought him
a captive to Monroe. About the same time the attempted
arrest of Two Stickney a son of Major Stickney, resulted
in his stabbing the Deputy Sheriff, Joseph Wood. Two
fled to Ohio, and when indicted by the grand jury of
Monroe, Governor Lucas refused to deliver him on requi
sition, as he claimed that the offense was committed
within the territorial limits of Ohio.

This affair was the occasion of renewed excitement,
and on the 18th of July the Sheriff of Monroe with a
posse of two hundred and fifty armed men proceeded to
Toledo and placed eight officials under arrest; while
others made haste for Perrysburg, where Ohio's jurisdic
tion was more efficiently maintained, if not so vehem
ently proclaimed as at Toledo. Letters from the Secre
tary of State at Washington now persuaded Acting Gov
ernor^ Mason to convene the Territorial Council and lay

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH OHIO 151

the proposals of Messrs. Rush and Howard before that
body. It assembled on August 17 and as promptly
rejected the proposals as had the Acting Governor. The
people were now looking forward to the approaching 7th
of September when the Ohio Court of Common Pleas
was to convene for its first session in the newly formed
county of Lucas. Rumors of military preparations on
the part of Ohio to sustain the Court were soon rife at
Detroit and only aroused the people to a more firm deter
mination to uphold their own jurisdiction and to prevent
what to them was the insolence of power.

CHAPTER IX

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1835

FOLLOWING the death of Governor Porter, the posi
tion of Governor was never filled. Henry D. Gilpin
of Pennsylvania was nominated by the President for the
place; but there was at the time a breach between the
President and the Senate growing out of the removal of
the public deposits from the United States Bank, and as
Mr. Gilpin at the time of that difficulty was United States
Attorney of Pennsylvania, some of his acts in connection
with the matter made him obnoxious to the Senate and
his nomination ^as rejected. There were many poli
ticians ambitious for the appointment, and perhaps their
very number was a factor in no one's being appointed
and young Mason's being left as the executive head of the
Territory.

During the winter of 1834-5 General John T. Mason
had been' in Washington in frequent conference with the
President and other gentlemen connected with the admin
istration. In early March he was in Cincinnati ready to
take the first boat that would bear him to New Orleans
on another journey to distant Mexico. With him this
time was the wife and mother whose failing health had
made it expedient that she seek new scenes and a change
of climate. While the father was yet at Cincinnati, the
son wrote him frequently for advice and counsel in the
boundary controversy, both as to the legal principles
involved and the policy to be pitrsuecl. The father

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1835 153

answered in letters filled with, helpful suggestions always
counseling moderation in the means to be employed and
firmness in the manner of execution. At this time the
Territorial governorship was still undecided and among
those who were being urged upon the attention of the
President f jom the Territory were Colonel Mack,, at that
time Marshal of tlje Territory, and young Mason. The
father in writing of the subject made use of observations
that find application to many a case in this day as well
as to the particular case to which they were addressed,
"I must repeat,'' wrote the father, "the maxim 'Save
me from my friends, I can take care of my enemies.7
Your friends from various motives, and some very inter
ested, urged you upon the President, and placed him in
a very embarrassing attitude. He was doubtful of the
propriety of nominating you on account of your age, and
from apprehension of the Senate seizing hold of that
pretext to reject you, which in my opinion they would
have done in order to mortify the President, knowing
his partiality and fondness for you.". The father
adverted at length to the advantages of his position as
Secretary from which he could step into any position in
the coming State government without feeling that he had
been superseded by another. He also emphasized the
desirability of professional success and the danger of
losing sight of that attainment in the love of political
preferment, and put in succinct form an observation that
unhappily has been common in all history:

" Politics," said he, "are very fascinating, but alto
gether delusive; and I think a poor broken down poli
tician the most miserable of society. Even one honorably
retiring is soon forgotten, and he sickens from neglect.

154 STEVENS !T. MASON

I have seen so much of this unprofitable life that I look
upon your course as full of hazards and disappointments,
as that of every politician must be. But take cure not
to progress too rapidly and be not ambitious of promo
tion. When it comes regularly and unsought for, it has
some stability and secures a foundation to build on."

"You stand infinitely higher as Secretary and Acting
Governor," he concluded, "than if you were Governor
because less is expected from you. y '

The sister, Emily Virginia, a belle of twenty years,
was now the mistress of the house, entertaining the
brother's guests and doing the honors of the home. Not
a little of the brother's growing popularity in these days
could be traced to the graces and accomplishments of this
talented sister. She had just returned from a season at
Washington, where she had found delight in the debates
participated in by Webster, Clay, Calhoun and the other
congressional celebrities of that day; and where to use
her own language, "I came to know the lovely Madame
Servier of the French Legation, Sir Charles Vaughan
and Mr. Pakingham of the English Embassy and Mr.
Calderon de la Barca, whose charming wife T found again
in Paris and Madrid after many years."

No brother ever had a sister more loyal to his ambi
tions than did Tom Mason. She entered into the ques
tions of politics with an interest that was almost per
sonal, and many a document of his compiling gained
in perspicuity from her criticism and suggestion, for she
says, "I was always saying to Thomson, 'Use fewer
words.' "

At the conclusion of the cholera outbreak of the year

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1835 155

previous, the good Father Kundig was persuaded by the
Wayne County Board of Supervisors to remove the poor
creatures that fortune had left under his charge, to the
Wayne County Poorhouse, which was then approaching
completion two miles out on the Gratiot road, and to
likewise become the Superintendent of that institution,
the first of its kind in the Territory. Under the foster
ing care of this kindhearted and esthetic priest, this
abode of misery was transformed into a place of many
charms. "We made it our frequent drive," wrote the
sister Emily, "to take clothing and dainties to his sick
poor, and obliged our beaux to buy the bouquets intended
for us from his garden."

Political activities within the Territory had heretofore
been largely individual in character; the most potent
single influence being centered in the person of Hon.
Lewis Cass whose sagacity, broad tolerance and strong
personality had done much to win favor for the princi
ples of the Democratic-Republican party; but as yet no
strong central organization had arisen to give unity of
effort in support of the principles of either party. How
ever, the growth of population and the prospect of
enlarged political responsibilities were now making such
organizations both desirable and inevitable. Most of
the offices of the Territory were filled with Democratic-
Republicans, and they quite naturally took the initiative
in the formation of an organization that would be in touch
•with, the most distant parts of the Territory. A prelim
inary gathering at Detroit was followed by the first Terri
torial Convention, which assembled on the 29th and was
continued to the 30th of January, 1835, At this Conven-

150 STEVENS T. MASON

tion Democrats paid eloquent tribute "to tlie rights of
freemen/7 selected the machinery of a central organiza
tion, and put it in motion.

The Whigs were prompt in following the example of
their adversaries. They soon had a series of county
meetings called at which later delegates were chosen
and the Democrats roundly denounced for doing what
the Whigs were themselves about to do, namely, hold a
Territorial Convention and perfect a central organiza
tion. The Whig Territorial Convention was held on the
4th and 5th of March following, at which time after
effecting their own organization they proceeded after the
custom of the time to speak their mind through a series
of resolutions, among which the following is not without
interest :

"Resolved, That we have witnessed with regret the
premature and unnecessary introduction into this Terri
tory, by the officers and stipendiaries of the General
Government, of a system of party organization in per
fect subserviency to the plain of executive control in
advance of our becoming a State, with no other object
that we can perceive, than to secure the selfish nomina
tion of political managers and to entail upon the future
State of Michigan the perpetual control of party disci
pline and party leaders. 7 '

The political forces were thus marshaled for the April
election when delegates to the Constitutional Convention
were to be chosen. The Whig press from the first had
taken the position that the calling of the Convention was
wholly without warrant of legal authority and conse
quently the Whigs entered the contest with the handicap
of a lack of enthusiasm added to a normal majority

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1835 157

against them. The Democrats on the other hand were
enthusiastic for the convention program and succeeded
in electing a large majority of the delegates. On the llth
of May the Convention assembled at the Capitol, the
largest representative body that had ever assembled in
the history of the Territory. The personnel of the Con
vention was of a high order. Among the names of the
delegates are seen those of many men who became well
known in State and Nation, among them Edward Mundy,
Eandolph Manning, John S. Barry, John Norvell, John
E. Williams, William Woodbridge, John Biddle, Robert
McClelland, Eoss WilMns, Isaac E. Crary, and Lucius
Lyon, while the names of two score more of those who
achieved lesser fame could be given whose abilities were
in no measure second to their most distinguished col
leagues. Although the Democrats, as has been said,
strongly predominated in its membership, the Conven
tion, organized by selecting John Biddle, a Whig in poli
tics, as its president, and Charles W. Whipple and Mar
shall J. Bacon were chosen as secretaries. On the 13th,
on motion of Edward D. Ellis of Monroe, the president
appointed a committee of 'nineteen to prepare the draft
of a Constitution. When this committee convened, it
was beset with the same difficulty that had confronted
the full Convention ; and so it was that Ellis, the chair
man, Townsend E. Gidley, and two or three others,
secretly met and prepared the draft of a Constitution
which was accepted by the whole commitee and presented
to the Convention on the 19th. That body in the mean
time, having- formally organized, selected its various
committees and spent considerable time in discussing the
advisability of opening the daily session with prayer, a

i58 STEVENS T, MASON

proposition that was at once defeated by a vote of 43 to
42, but ultimately was adopted by a vote of 45 to 37.
The work of the Convention from day to day was ani
mated and earnest, but the journal discloses that the Con
vention was not without members who had evolved ideas
both quaint and curious, which they desired to incorpo
rate in the Constitution of their State, such as prohibit
ing all ministers of the gospel from holding office ; pro
hibiting the collection of debts by process of law; making
all debts, debts of honor, etc. William Woodbridge was
at the same time the most active of what might be termed
the opposition members of the Convention. Isaac Crary
of Marshall was chairman of the committee on education,
and from his hand came the draft of the constitutional
provisions which were the basis of the excellent school
system of the State.

The cherished provision of Acting Governor Mason,
abolishing imprisonment for debt, was lost by a vote of
43 to 37, while a provision offered by "Woodbridge, evi
dently with more intent to forestall the ambitions of
young Mason than to accomplish any general good, to
the effect that no man should be eligible to the office of
Governor who had not reached the age of thirty years,
was defeated by a vote of 59 to 19.

The question of most bitter contest in the "Convention
involved the proposition of the elective franchise. Michi
gan had but recently become the home of many people
of foreign birth who had not yet become citizens of the
United States. Such immigrants were almost wholly
from England,- Ireland and Scotland. They had been
allowed to vote for members of the Convention, which
was considered no innovation, as the Ordinance of 1787

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1835 159

had not required voters to be citizens. There were many
who believed that they should be given the right of fran
chise in the new government, as they had enjoyed it in the
old; but there was perhaps a stronger reason for the
contest than any other question of principle. The British
immigrant was inclined to the principles of the Demo
cratic or Eepublican party as opposed to those of the
Whig party, and therefore his cause was championed by
the one and opposed by the other. The original draft
of the Constitution had contained restrictive provisions
on the right of franchise and numerous amendments had
already been proposed, when -with the purpose of recon
ciling divergent views a secret meeting was called for
the evening of May 26 at the home of John Norvell.
At the time appointed John Norvell, Issac Crary, Ross
Wilkins, John McDonnell and John J. Adam attended as
did also Acting Governor Mason, who was far from a
disinterested observer of the proceedings of the Conven
tion, and who attended by invitation of the other gentle
men to give his views on the question in controversy.
After extended discussion, it was Mason who suggested
the proposition in the form in which it went into the
Constitution, that is, giving the rights of an elector "to
every white male citizen above the ages of twenty-one
years, having resided in the State six months next pre
ceding any election" and "to every white male inhabi
tant of the age aforesaid who may be a resident of this
State at the time of the signing of this Constitution."
These suggestions were finally accepted and it was
agreed that both Norvell and Wilkins should withdraw
amendments which they had pending and that all should
stand for the amendment embodied in Mason's sugges-

160 STEVENS T. MASON

tions which was accordingly done. This action awoke
the vigorous opposition of the "Whig press, and William
Woodbridge. Michael Dousman, Bela Chapman and
Townsend E. Gidley on June 4 had their solemn protest
against the provision entered in the journal of the Con
vention.

At about this time the Secretary of War, Lewis Cass,
was the guest of his old home, and on June 2 presented
to the forthcoming State through its Convention a seal
which he had had engraved for the purpose. The pic
torial design was undoubtedly suggested by the design of
the seal of the old Northwest Fur Company, while the
inscription, "Si Quaeris Peninsulam Amoenam Circum-
spice" (If you would see a beautiful peninsula look
around you) was unquestionably suggested by the con
cluding words of the inscription in St. Paul's Cathedral,
to the memory of Sir Christopher Wren, its great
designer and builder, "Lector, si monumentum quaeris,
circumspice" (Eeader, if thou seekest his monument,
look around).

Perhaps quite as important in the estimate of the Con
vention at the time as the shaping of the Constitution
itself was the preparation and adoption of a report of a
committee of which John Norvell was chairman which
was given the title of "The Appeal by the Convention
of Michigan to the people of the United States." It
was a document of 176 pages designed to give the Presi
dent and Congress full information of the issue involved
in the boundary controversy and to likewise serve as an
appeal to the moral sense of the nation.

The Convention adjourned without day June 24, hav
ing been in session thirty-eight days. The law creating

r

PIRST PAGE OF THE MICHIGAN STATE CONSTITl'TIOX OF 18:55 AFTER

RRSTOR ATTOX.

THE RESTORED ORIGNAL COPY OF THE MICHIGAN STATE CONSTITU
TION OF 1835, IN THE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF
STATE, LANSING.

THE FIRST STATE ELECTION IN DETROIT "TOM MASON" IN THE

FOREGROUND.

From a painting- in Detroit Art Museum,

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1835 161

the Convention had left the question of compensation
to the discretion of the Convention, and the members
modestly voted themselves three dollars per day and
three dollars for each twenty miles traveled by each mem
ber in coming to and returning from the seat of govern
ment. The completion of the Convention's work was sig
nalized at the capital by the boom of cannon and by a
display of fireworks in the evening; but evidently all
were not pleased, for the leading Whig journal of the
Territory said editorially, "If such a Constitution so
manifestly repugnant to the safety of the Union and to
the spirit of our National compact shall receive the sanc
tion of Congress, then may our country with all her glori
ous institutions be soon numbered with those unhappy
Eepublics ' whose glory has departed. ' ' '

Aside from the fact that the Constitution gave the
right of voting to all free adult white male inhabitants
who were residents of Michigan, as heretofore stated,
the instrument contained no peculiar political features.
It contained the usual bill of rights; legislative power
was vested in a Senate and House of Eepresentatives,
the latter to contain never more than one hundred nor
less than forty-eight members and the former in number
always to be composed as near as might be of one-
third the membership of the House. Executive power
was vested in the Governor, or Governor and Senate,
with a veto power in the former over the acts of the
Legislature. The judiciary was to consist of one
Supreme Court and such other courts as the Legislature
might from time to time establish; except that express
provision was made for probate courts and justices of
the peace. The Governor and Lieutenant Governor were

162 STEVENS T. MASON

each elected for terms of two years. State officers were
made appointive by the Governor to be confirmed by
the Senate except the State Treasurer who was to be
selected by the two houses in joint session, while the
Superintendent of Public Instruction was to be chosen
by the two houses in joint session on the nomination of
the Governor. County and township officers, both judi
cial and ministerial, were made elective.

State officers were subject to impeachment for criminal
and corrupt conduct ; and in case of judicial officers where
the misconduct was not such as to support impeachment,
they were to be removed by the Governor upon the
address of two-thirds of each branch of the Legislature.

Slavery and involuntary servitude were forbidden,
except as punishment for crime, of which the party had
been duly convicted. Acts of incorporation required the
assent of at least two-thirds of each house of the Legisla
ture. Lotteries were forbidden, as was the granting of
divorce by the Legislature. The prevailing opinion on
the subject internal improvements was emphasized by a
provision enjoining it as a duty on the Legislature "as
soon as may be, to make provision by law for ascertain
ing the proper objects of improvement in relation to
roads, canals, and navigable waters.7'

Judge James V. Campbell, whose name will ever stand
well towards the top among the names of Michigan jur
ists, has paid the Constitution of 1835 the highest compli
ment by saying that it "was very simple and very much
better adapted to the changing necessities of a growing
State than the present one. While it restrained such
abuses as it thought would be dangerous, it left the
Legislature broad discretion. All who have had much to

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1835 168

do with studying and construing the two instruments,
have discovered that, while a few restrictions concerning
finances and internal improvements have been found
beneficial an necessary, the bulk of the special legislation
contained in the Constitution of 1850 has been a hind-
drance, and not an advantage."

By the schedule of the Constitution, the instrument was
to be submitted for ratification or rejection of the people
on the first Monday of October next ensuing and on the
succeeding day, at which time there was to be elected a
Governor, Lieutenant Governor, members of the State
Legislature and a representative in the Congress of the
United States. The Legislature was to meet on the first
of November following, and the Governor and Lieutenant
Governor were to hold their respective offices until Janu
ary 1, 1838.

Politics had as yet caused no division in public senti
ment in the Territory on the boundary question. Parti
sans of all shades of political belief had found common
ground in the issue presented by the controversy; but
the "Whig press, while supporting the main proposition,
was grudging in its commendation of the men and means
by which it was forwarded. When the Acting Governor
sent his message to the special session of the Council
on the 17th of August, one of the leading Whig papers
paid it the compliment of being "on the whole a very tol
erable production/7 and then proceeded to intimate that
because of its excellence it must have been the produc
tion of another than the Executive. The Constitutional
Convention and the Constitution produced were likewise
either actively opposed or "damned by faint praise " by
the press of the opposition, although an overwhelming

104 STEVENS T. MASON

sentiment for statehood compelled support of the main
issue.

Stevens T. Mason was now the popular idol of the
Territory, and it was anything but gratifying to those
who had ridiculed, slandered and maligned him to see
that his popularity was based upon a continuing course
of prudent official conduct, and that circumstances were
now conspiring to place him at the head of the affairs
of the forthcoming State.

The situation in Michigan was not without embarrass
ing features for the President and his administration.
The proposed State had every lawful and Constitutional
claim for admission. Her population, already much more
than sufficient, was daily growing from an almost con
tinuous stream of homeseekers from the East. The most
prominent lawyers in Congress had already declared
the subject of the southern boundary to be a question for
the courts rather than for Congress. The Attorney Gen
eral had given it as his opinion that the Territorial Exec
utive was within his rights and consequently within his
duty in the enforcement of laws of the Territory, among
which was the law forbidding the exercise of foreign
jurisdiction. But the assertion of these claimed rights
by Michigan in all their detail meant the humiliation
of Ohio, with a precedent to be used against the States
of Indiana and Illinois. Expediency therefore dictated
that the matter be adjusted by Congress, and until that
should be done, Michigan should be the one to yield. To
this end the administration was desirous that in some
manner the Territorial law against foreign jurisdiction
should be nullified. Mason had made it clear that he
would use neither his power to remove officials nor a

THE CONSTITUTION OP 1835 165

sweeping pardoning, power to consummate that end, and
so the repeal of the law was next attempted. Although
Governor Lucas later charged that the Secretary of War,
Lewis Cass, had used his position and influence against
the interests of Ohio, nothing could have been farther
from the truth. As early as the 9th of May, Secretary
Oass wrote Acting Governor Mason a letter which he
said had "been seen and approved by the .President,"
in which while he styled the proceedings instituted by
Ohio to obtain forcible possession of what he believed
to be part of Michigan as "among the most unjustifiable
executive and legislative acts which have taken place in
our country during my time/' he yet advised but the
mildest opposition on the part of Michigan, and closed
with the admonition that Mason, as Chief Executive of
the Territory would "temper the firmness of the com
munity with a due share of moderation." On the 18th
he suggested the propriety of having the Constitutional
Convention repeal or suspend the Act of February 12,
and cited precedents to support the propositions of its
power in the premises. The - Convention having
adjourned without taking the desired action, the propo
sition was later urged by General Cass as the proper
action to to be taken by the Council at its special session.
In this communication which was of the 18th of August,
the intimation was conveyed to Acting Governor Mason
that while "the President feels as friendly as a father to
you, I judge he thinks himself committed to supersede
you, if the Act of February is enforced. ' '

But the sentiment of the people was beyond the control
of any one man and Stevens T. Mason was too wise to

166 STEVENS T. MASON

attempt that control to suit the expediency of the national
administration; much less was he to be influenced by
intimations of his removal from official station. The
action of Acting Governor Mason and the authorities of
the Territory had been and continued to be in keeping
with the principles of men of spirit. In the language of
the illustrious Campbell, they had done "no more than
every civilized government is bound to do, when her
peaceable possession under the law of the land is sud
denly invaded.7' When Acting Governor Mason advised
the Secretary of State that he had convened the Terri
torial Council for the 17th of August, he closed with a
sentiment worthy to be the guiding principle of every
man in official position. " While I will endeavor to dis
charge my duty faithfully as a public officer of the Gen
eral Government," said he, "I feel that I am not to forget
that I have the rights of a high minded and patriotic
people committed to my hands. Those rights are not to
be hazarded until the people themselves cease to value
them."

On the 20th of August, while the Council was yet in
session, a Convention of the Democratic-Republican
party assembled in the village of Ann Arbor to nominate
State officers an$ a member of Congress under the pro
posed Constitution. The Convention was large, and rep
resentative, the citizens of the Territory of the dominant
party assembled with enthusiasm to exercise what they
considered to be their new-born political rights. The
result of the deliberations of the Convention was the
nomination of Stevens T. Mason for Governor, Edward
Mundy of Ann Arbor for Lieutenant Governor and Isaac

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1835 167

Crary of Marshall for member of Congress. Four days
later a committee of the Convention delivered to the
gubernatorial nominee the following notification:

< 'Detroit, August 24th, 1835
"Sir:

"At a convention of the Democratic-Republicans of
Michigan, assembled at the village of Ann Arbor on the
twentieth instant, for the purpose of nominating a Gov
ernor, Lieutenant Governor and member of Congress,
you received the vote of that body, as the candidate of
the Democratic party for the office of Governor; and
the undersigned have been appointed a committee to
advise you of the nomination and to request your accept-
tance of the same.

"In discharging the duty reposed on us by the Con
vention, we avail ourselves of the occasion to assure you
that the utmost of harmony and unanimity prevailed;
the undivided vote of the Convention having been
expressed in favor of your nomination. *

"It may not be regarded as exceeding the power with
which we are clothed for us to express to you the great
satisfaction we derive in being able to state that your
official conduct generally, and especially the wisdom,
energy and prudence displayed by you in resisting the
efforts of a powerful State to strip Michigan of a portion
of her soil, has met with the unqualified approval of the
members of the Convention and of those whom they
represent.

"The undersigned are happy in being made the
medium of communicating to you? Sir, this expression

168 STEVENS T. MASON

of the confidence of your fellow citizens, and indulge
the hope that you will accept the proffered nomination.
"We have the honor to be
' "Sir

"Very Respectfully
"Your Ob. Servants

"CHAELES W. WHIPPLE
"O.K. QUEEN
"E. N. BRIDGES
"J. S. HEATH
"E. P. GARDNER
"E. CONVIS
"G.P.BUCKLEY
"O.D.RICHARDSON
"Hon.
"Stevens T. Mason"

On August 28 Governor Mason addressed to the com
mittee a brief and simple letter of acceptance. Adverting
to the fact of his having been elevated to a position of
public responsibility in early life, he said, "I should
have shrunk from the undertaking had I not been sus
tained by the hope, that by a determined adherence to
the interests of the public whenever committed to my
charge, I should in time remove all preconceived preju
dices and ultimately obtain the confidence of my fellow
citizens. To accomplish this, has been the highest object
of my ambition. Your letter assures me I have done so,
and it affords me the richest reward I could have
desired."

The letter closes with the simple statement that, "If
elected to the responsible office to which I have been

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1835 169

nominated, all I dare promise is, that I will endeavor
to discharge its duties with fidelity to the public. But
whatever may be the fate of my nomination, I shall ever
remember with feelings of gratitude the obligations I
owe to the Eepublican party of the Territory of Mich
igan."

The Ohio Act creating the county of Lucas had fixed
September 7 as the date for holding the Court of Com
mon Pleas at Toledo and the date was now near at hand.
There was grim determination in Michigan that Ohio
should neither hold the court or exercise any other act
of jurisdiction within the contested territory. These
facts were reviewed with not a little apprehension at
"Washington, especially when it was learned at the Cap
itol that the Council had refused to suspend the act of
February 12 or to accede to the compromise proposed
by Messrs. Eush and Howard. The President was now
forced to show a strong hand to Ohio or to weaken the
resistance of Michigan, and he chose to weaken Mich
igan. A Governor would have been appointed long before
but for the fact that the office could not be filled by a
recess appointment. There was no course left but to
supersede the Acting Governor, and this was done on
the 29th by the appointment of Mr. Charles Shaler of
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania as Secretary of the Territory.
On the same date a letter was addressed to Acting Gov
ernor Mason by Hon. John Forsyth, Secretary of State,
apprising him of his removal and informing him that the
President had been "brought with regret to the conclu
sion that your zeal for what you deem the rights of
Michigan has overcome that spirit of moderation and
forbearance which in the present irritated state of feel-

170 STEVENS T. MASON

ing prevailing in Ohio and Michigan is necessary to the
preservation of the public peace."

General Cass at the same time hurried forward a letter
to Mason in which he sought to make the removal accep
table, if not pleasurable, assuring him that he had taken
the pains to see that the matter was set right in Tlie
Globe, which at that time was the recognized organ of
the administration.

But Michigan and her young "Hotspur Governor/' as
Jackson is said to have referred to Mason, were already
moving the militia towards Toledo with the serious pur
pose of putting their previously expressed declarations
into active execution.

The interval of years that separate us from the days
of 1835 gives a touch of humor to the last "campaign"
of the Toledo war that it did not have at the time when
the actors were thoroughly in earnest. The Ohio militia
was expected to arrive at Perrysburg on the evening of
Saturday, the 5th of September, prepared tfc give support
to the Ohio authorities in organizing and holding the
court on the following Monday. Pursuant to the orders
of Brigadier-General Joseph Brown, the Michigan troops
were preparing to oppose it, Governor Mason was at
Monroe upon the third and there is an element of firm
ness in his letter to his aide, Colonel Isaac S. Rowland,
of that date, in which he says : "Have all the ammunition
forwarded by tomorrow's boat. Do not forget the six
pounder. We have balls here." By Sunday, the 6th,
about one thousand officers and men were quartered in
and about Toledo, ready and anxious for the fray. On
the south side of the Maumee were stationed the invad
ing forces less in number and' not at all anxious to invade.

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1835 171

Neither officers nor men were anxious to force a contest
that had every aspect of seriousness, and so the Ohio
authorities resolved to be satisfied with the form of juris
diction in view of the difficulties of obtaining the su-
stance. As the hour of midnight approached, a small
body of horsemen rode out from Perrysburg towards
Toledo. It was the judge and the officers of the proposed
court with their escort. In the quiet of the night they
stealthily entered the sleeping village and before the hour
of three o'clock the court had been organized and
adjourned and the clerk had written the meager record
by the fitful glare of a tallow dip. To celebrate their
achievement they repaired to a friendly tavern and were
about to drink a bumper to the occasion, when a wag:
rushed in and broke the startling intelligence that the
Michigan troops were apprised of their presence and
were then close at hand. It is said that the company
made a mad rush for their horses and rode away with a
precipitancy that indicated that speed was more to be
desired than either valor or judicial dignity. For some
four days the Michigan "boys" camped on the plains
about Toledo quite unconscious of the fact that the court
they sought had come and gone. In the meantime, Mr.
Shaler of Pittsburg declined the appointment to the sec
retaryship. He evidently found little to attract him in
an office whose tenure would terminate in a few months
at the longest, and in w^hich he would be expected, to
perfom a service at once disagreeable to himself and
odious to the people among whom he would be required
to live. It was not until the 8th of September that the
President was able to confer the office upon a gentleman
willing to serve in a position so ill rewarded with profit

172 STEVENS T. MASON

and honors. On this date the appointment was given
to Mr. John Scott Homer of Warrenton, Virginia, who
at once started for the city of Detroit taking with him
the letters of the Government of the 29th of August to
Governor Mason apprising him of his dismissal from
office.

Governor Mason and the Michigan militia were still
at Toledo when the letter of General Cass bearing con
dolence to the Governor arrived at Detroit ahead of the
notice of dismissal from the Government. A swift
courier hurried forward with the message and delivered
it into the Governor's hand as the troops are said to
have been going through the evolution of a dress parade.
Calling an orderly, the Governor gave the bridle rein
into his hand and in a few words announced -to the troops
that he was no longer the Commander-in-Chief . General
Brown at once issued orders for the disbanding of the
troops. The war was over even if peace had not been
declared. To the infinite relief of the citizens of Toledo,
especially to such as were the violent partisans of Ohio,
the troops took their departure. The Governor and his
staff, with many of the troops from the counties of
Wayne and Oakland, took passage by the steamer Brady
for Detroit. It was the 10th of September, the anni
versary of the battle of Lake Erie, which was celebrated
by many a speech, and many a toast drank within the
cabin where small companies of privates sang by relays
during the journey.

Although there was serious purpose back of the expedi
tion to Toledo and had a force attempted to take forcible
possession of the territory there would undoubtedly have
been scenes of blood shed and disaster, and although the

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1835 173

people abated none of their resistance to the claims of
Ohio, they soon caught the humor of the situation. Songs
were sung of how

"Old Lucas gave his orders all for to hold a court,
But Stevens Thomson Mason he thought he'd have some sport ;
He called upon the Wolverines and asked them for to go
To meet the rebel Lucas, his court to overthrow,''

and every community that sent a company to the "front"
was enlivened by jokes and stories told by the wags at
the expense of their more sedate companions, General
Brown having at times to bear the designation of the
"Modern Caesar," while of a surgeon attached to the
Ypsilanti company it was claimed that one night he was
discovered sitting up in his sleep tearing his shirt into
bandages. Major Stickney had been one of the most
active in the furtherance of Ohio's cause, and during the
short stay at Toledo the Michigan boys found much
delight, contrary to the command of their officers, in teas
ing the worthy Major either by "sampling his honey,"
stealing his ducks, or "drafting his potato vines to make
volunteers of the bottoms." The stories of such doings
were long remembered by the depredators as well as by
the embittered Major, although his feelings were perhaps
somewhat mollified and his loyalty to Ohio increased by
an Act of the Legislature of that State which granted
him ample compensation for the damages he had sus
tained.

The removal of Acting Governor Mason, as might
be expected, only tended to increase his popularity and
prestige. Many people of the Territory felt that he had
been punished because he had championed their interest,
and the friends and neighbors of Ms home city, through

174 STEVENS T. MASON

a very representative committee, tendered him a public
dinner at the Mansion House for the afternoon of Wed
nesday, the 16th of September; the invitation reciting
that it was extended on behalf "of a large number of the
citizens of Detroit desirous of testifying their high sense
of gratitude77 to him for carrying out their wishes in
relation to the Ohio controversy and for the "able and
satisfactory manner in which he had discharged his office
since his appointment. Of more value to Stevens T.
Mason than the present honor which the invitation car
ried, was the fact that appended to it were the names
of men who had been loud in their protests against him
when a few years before he had assumed his official sta
tion, the name of David C. McKinstry who had been
chairman of the meeting of remonstration now heading
the list in his praise.

The dinner was in keeping with the style and sump-
tuousness of the old days. It was a large gathering of
the business and political elements of the community,
and many a toast was responded to with wit and elo
quence. When Mr. Mason, as the Ex-Secretary,
responded he spoke at length upon the conditions which
had led to his removal, charging the Hon. John Forsyth,
Secretary of State, with being the controlling influence
in the policy that was caressing Ohio to the detriment
of Michigan. This address, which found its way into
the public press, brought a hot retort from the Honorable
Secretary and a still hotter rejoinder from the deposed
Acting Governor. On the 19th of September, Mr. Horner,
the new Secretary, arrive to take charge of affairs and
soon thereafter Mr. Mason took his departure for Wash
ington on a political mission connected with the, as he

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1835 175

hoped, forthcoming State. On the 5th of October he was
an invited guest and speaker at the banquet in honor of
the old family -friend, Richard M. Johnson, which was
tendered him in New York at Tammany Hall, it being the
anniversary of the battle of the Thames in which he had
taken so conspicuous a part. On the same day and the
day following, the people of Michigan adopted the Consti
tution submitted for their approval and elected Stevens
T. Mason to the governorship, Edward Mundy to be
Lieutenant Governor, and Isaac Crary to be the State's
first representative in the National Congress.

The Constitution was adopted by a vote of 6,299 to
1,359, a total vote on the proposition of 7,658. One gets
an idea of the limits of population at the time by know
ing that of the votes cast, 3,227 of the affirmative and 974
of the negative were cast in the counties of Wayne, Wash-
tenaw, and Oakland, while of -the balance, 2,474 of the
affirmative and 286 of the negative were from the coun
ties of St. Glair, Macomb, Monroe, Lenawee, Hillsdale,
St. Joseph, Cass, Berrien and Calhoun. The combined
counties of Clinton, Ionia, Kent and Ottawa contributed
but 90 votes, six only being in the negative.

The "Whigs had made no nomination for officers under
the Constitution, the tone of their press seeming to be
one of distrust of the power and authority of the people
of the Territory to set up a State government without
first having obtained from Congress authority to do so.
It was quite evident, however, that their criticisms arose
more from the fact that the Democratic party had taken
the initiative in the actions criticised than from any
convictions on the subject. Of the votes cast for the
governorship, Stevens T. Mason received 7,508. Scatter-

176 STEVENS T. MASON

ing votes were given to several gentlemen. Mr. John
Biddle who had been placed in nomination by a body of
citizens who styled themselves Independent Republicans
of Oakland County received 814 votes, which was more
than the number received by all others. At this time
members of the Legislature were likewise chosen in pur
suance with the provisions of the schedule to the Consti
tution, which had provided for the selection of a Senate
of sixteen and a House of forty-nine members pending
legislation on the subject under the Constitution when the
Legislature should assemble.

Wisconsin and the country to the westward was still
a part of Michigan Territory, but the people of the penin
sula were doing all in their power to facilitate her
advance to the rank of an independent Territory to
escape the complications of a dual government. The
Legislative Council at its. special session in August had
made provision for receiving the vote of the electors of
the new counties that had been created, as a congressional
delegate was to be elected in October. It was the pro
gram of the Democratic-Republican party that the dele
gate should be selected from the country west of Lake
Michigan so that when Michigan was admitted as a State
the delegate would be a resident of the Territory he rep
resented. In pursuance of this plan the Democratic-
Republicans of the peninsula allowed their nomination
to be made by their brethren to the west who selected
George W. Jones of Mineral Point, Wisconsin. The
Whigs, with nothing to lose through complications,
especially as they had had very little to do with bringing
them about, nominated as their candidate William Wood-
bridge of Detroit. The early returns from the election

OLD CAPITOL AT DETROIT

Built in 1S23-28. Used by the State Legislature until 1S47.

GOV. STEVENS T. MASON
From oil painting in University of Michigan.

Appointed by President Jackson Secretary and Acting Governor of Michigan
Territory 1S35. Driven to Wisconsin by citizens of Michigan.

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1835 177

seemed to show a majority for Woodbridge, and that
gentleman at once became Insistent that he be given the
certificate of election, which he finally obtained. The
arrival of delayed returns from the west disclosed that
Jones and not "Woodbridge had the majority, and a sec
ond certificate was issued and Mr. Jones allowed to
assume his seat without contest.

CHAPTER X

A SOVEKEIGN STATE OUT OF THE UNIOET

JOHN SCOTT HOBNER was nearly nine years the
senior of the young Secretary whom he superseded,
having been born December 4, 1802. He had graduated
from Washington College in the class of 1819, had
acquired some reputation in his profession as a lawyer,
and was possessed of abilities which, had he come among
the people of Michigan under more happy conditions,
would have gained for him a position of respect and influ
ence. It was the misfortune of Mr. Horner to be cast
among the people of Michigan under circumstances that
gave each an unworthy estimate of the other. The peoplo
quite naturally looked upon Mr. Horner as embodying a
purpose to reverse a policy that, aside from the antagon
isms of party politics, had been eminently satisfactory
to the people at large. Had the task of reversing this
policy been intrusted to a man known to the people for
his integrity and judgment, or to one who approached
the difficulties of the situation with tact and at least a
show of desire to enter into the aspirations of the com
munity, it is possible that the one so entrusted would
have gained the confidence of the people. But, either
through natural inclination or through consciousness of
the hostility of the community, Mr. Horner from the
first assumed a peremptory and assertive manner, little
calculated to modify preconceived opinions. Mr. Horner
arrived at Detroit on the 19th of September. The same

A SOVEREIGN STATE OUT OF THE UNION 179

night he wrote to Mr. Forsyth, Secretary of State, say
ing : i i Late this evening I called on Mr. Mason, to whom
I delivered the communication from the Department."
As the letter proceeds, it discloses a temperament ill
suited to induce conciliation. "On Monday morning
next," it proceeds, "I contemplate taking charge of the
Territorial government, and should have insisted on it
this evening had the emergency made it necessary."

The first week of the new Secretary's sojourn was so
uneventful that he might well have believed all troubles
to be passed; and indeed so it might have proven had he
been content to abide the course of events, but conscious
of his mission, he soon issued pardons for all offenders
against the act of February 12, except Two Stickney.
He wrote to the Secretary of State on September 28 of
such contemplated action, disclosing that he was not
entirely unaware of the results that might be anticipated,
for he says, "I fear, however, it will be unsavory to some
extent." It was soon apparent, however, that the
"extent" was much beyond his anticipations. The act
confirmed in the minds of the people the belief that his
only purpose was to further the interests of Ohio in the
controversy then pending. At a meeting at the Detroit
City Hall, Mr. Horner appeared and addressed the peo
ple. It may be assumed that the address was neither
tactful nor conciliatory, for the assemblage at the conclu
sion of the speech proceeded to organize and adopt reso
lutions of a deprecatory nature, one of which was as
follows :

"Resolved, That if our present Secretary of the Terri
tory should find it beyond his control, either from the
nature of his instructions, his feelings of tenderness to

ISO STEVENS T. MASON

those who had for a long period of time set at defiance
as well the laws of the Territory as those of the United
States, or any feelings of delicacy entertained towards
the Executive of a neighboring State, who have in vain
endeavored to take forcible possession of a part of onr
Territory, to enable him to properly carry into effect the
existing laws of this Territory, it is to be hoped he will
relinquish the duties of his office, and return to the land
of his nativity. "

Emboldened by these proceedings the officials of the
putative County of Lucas began the exercise of official
functions. The result was that the Sheriff of Monroe
with the posse of the county were soon upon the ground
and the ambitious officers were soon pulled from their
official pedestals and started for the Monroe County jail.
That "the views of the Government/' as Mr. Horner
expressed it, might be carried out, he hurried to the scene
of difficulty where he was subjected to an experience that,
to §ay the least, was unique in the annals of government,
and as a matter of reminiscence is not wanting in an
element of humor, especially when we contrast the report
of what transpired as subsequently reported in the
Wheeling (Virginia) Gazette, a paper friendly to Mr.
Horner, and that gentleman's own letter to the Secretary
of State. The Gazette, after detailing that Mr. Horner
had gone to Michigan after Messrs. Rush and Howard
"had utterly failed to make an impression upon the semi-
barbarians whom they went out to pacify and subdue,
and immediately after another distinguished citizen,
Judge Shaler had declined the appointment," proceeded
to relate how the valiant Horner had gone among the ex
cited Wolverines at Monroe and from a stump had made a

A SOVEREIGN STATE OUT OF THE UNION 1S1

speech, "which turned the lion of their nature into the
gentleness of the lamb." Mr. Horner in his letter to
the Secretary of State on October 19 gives a somewhat
different view of the matter, for he says, "My condition
was this : at Monroe the seat of strife, amidst a wild and
dangerous population, without any aid, a friend, servant,
or bed to sleep in, in the midst of a mob excited by the
enemies of the administration and bad men, I could not
enlist a friend as an officer of the Territory. How was
my authority to be enforced or the government in my
hands respected under the circumstances? A design was
formed against my honor and my life. The district
attorney had the effrontery and timidity to say that if he
acted, the mob would throw him and myself into the
river. ' '

In another place he says: "I tried conciliation,
entreaty, appeals to their patriotism, indeed every resort
but force which I should not have been able to obtain had
I desired it," and he adds, "There never was a govern
ment in Christendom with such officers, civil and military,
and filled with such doctrines as Michigan." For more
than a week Mr. Horner was at Monroe and Tecumseh,
where the Lenawee court was in session. He issued par
dons and placed them in the hands of attorneys for the
persons charged under the February Act. When the
pardons were pleaded, it was the complaint of the Secre
tary that the judge at Monroe held the papers In all such
cases under the pretense of curid vidt adrisare; and that
when he urged the prosecuting attorney to enter nolle
pro seguis in the cases he adds that "all his advice and
even persuasion were entirely lost."

In one letter Mr. Horner mentions that the district
attorney, Mr. James Q. Adams of Monroe, tendered his

182 STEVENS T. MASON

"but no counselor in Michigan would accept the office
in either court, for the obvious reason that every man
is looking forward to office under the new government
on the first day of November next."

At last the people wearied of the excitement, and quiet
once more obtained. Mr. Horner, * ' the views of the gov
ernment effected/' now returned to Detroit. While on
his homeward journey he stopped for the night at Ypsi-
lanti, where the rough element gathered and when the
respectable portion of the community we're abed, pelted
his lodging place with stones and other missiles, treating
the distinguished occupant to the indignity of an old-time
charivari. The people generally deprecated such con
duct, and the Whig papers seized upon the occurrence as
one of the direct results of Democratic' precepts and
practices.

At Detroit, Mr. Homer was accorded the courtesies
due his character and station. Here his talented and
agreeable wife, the bride of a year, did much in a social
way to remove what otherwise might have been political
estrangements. Although he continued at Detroit the
sole surviving embodiment of the Territorial govern
ment, his official activities were quite solitary. In Novem
ber the Ohio Commissioner re-marked the Harris line
without molestation and peace reigned in the valley of
the Maumee. Mr. Horner communicated the successful
completion of this work to the department, with the
further intelligence that he anticipated no complications
with the new State government. He did not recognize
the State government, with which all the people were
doing business, as existing, and when, on November 13,
a resolution was introduced in the House of the Michigan

A SOVEREIGN STATE OUT OF THE UNION 183

Legislature expressive of regret for the treatment
accorded the Acting -Governor in certain parts of the
State, the consideration of the resolution was promptly
and indefinitely postponed by a vote of 31 to 5. In May,
1836, Mr. Horner removed to the new Territory of Wis
consin of which he became the Secretary. Here he
founded the city of Bipon, where he died, February 3,
1883. In Ms new environment, he became a forceful and
helpful character, his long life being identified in many
ways with the upbuilding of the great State of Wisconsin.
On Monday, the second day of November, 1835, the
newly elected Legislature assembled and the State gov
ernment went into operation. The Governor was sworn
into office, and on the day following he delivered to the
Legislature and people assembled a short but impressive
inaugural address. Seldom or never in the succeeding
years of the State history has there been enacted within
its borders a scene of more contemplative interest than
the doings of this November day. Although simple in
ceremony, there were doings full of the ideas of con
summation and of prophecy. The peninsula of Michigan,
although first to feel the press of the foot of Europeans,
was destined to be next to the last of the regions of the
great Northwest to come into the realization of sovereign
power as a State of the Union. Within sight of the very
building where the representatives of the people were
now assembled, the Lilies of France and the Cross of St.
George had each in their time waved as the emblems of
authority. In the assemblage were many who had suf
fered the trials and hardships of the war 1812, and who
knew from intimate relation of the prior contests in the
great cause of liberty by which the sovereignty of their

184 STEVENS T. MASON

soil had been transferred from race to race and from
government to government. All were pioneers in whom
the elements of hope and courage were full and strong.
There was a singular appropriateness, to the minds of
many, in the fact that the youthful commonwealth had
selected for its chief executive a man who had demon
strated his power and capabilities and who yet had life
before him. Certain it was, that as Stevens T. Mason
ascended the canopied rostrum of the old capitol to
deliver his inaugural, he typified the new State, whose
destinies, in a measure, had been committed to his keep
ing. In his lineage were generation of worthy honor,
while his presence bespoke a confidence of the present
and an abiding hope in the future. He was now but four
days past his twenty-fourth birthday. His face was
singularly strong and handsome; his eyes in animation
seemed to change from gray to brown, while from a fore
head broad and high was brushed at times in seeming
aimless fashion a mass of wavy dark brown hair; the
blush of youth was in his cheeks, and the vigor of young
years was disclosed in the alert and active movement
of his well-nourished frame, which on this occasion was
clad in the close-fitting lace-trimmed evening dress of the
old days. In a full rounded voice which had the charm
of persuasion, if it lacked the command of eloquence, he
proceeded to express his appreciation and gratitude for
the distinguished honor that had been conferred upon
him by saying :

' ' Summoned by the general voice of my fellow citizens
to the station of chief executive magistrate of the State
of Michigan, it is with feelings which language is inade
quate to express, that I embrace the occasion to convey

A SOVEREIGN STATE OUT OF THE UNION 185

to them my cordial thanks for the distinguished testi
mony of their approbation and confidence. If, under
ordinary circumstances, the suffrages of this enlightened
people had confided to me the exercise of the important
and responsible functions of the first office in their gift,
the sensibilities awakened by so signal a favor could
only have found vent in the silent overflowing of the
heart. But to have realized the honor thus bestowed
upon me by them, at a time when a blow had been received
from another source, to which it would not become me
to refer in a spirit of dissatisfaction, adds to the lively
and deep sense of gratitude, which I will cease to cherish
towards them only with the expiring pulsations of life.
The emotions with which these reflections oppress my
mind are greatly enhanced by the anxiety induced by a
sincere consciousness that the cares before me are above
my ability, and that in venturing upon them, I have con
sulted my capacity less, probably, than the impulses of
a premature ambition. But if the hazardous task has
been undertaken without a sufficiently rigid scrutiny into
the qualifications requisite for its satisfatcory perform
ance, I derive consolation from the reflection that the
deficiencies of the executive Mill be amply supplied by
the talents, the rectitude and patriotism of the coordi
nate branches of the State government. These with the
intelligence and virtue of the people, afford the surest
pledges that the foundations of the policy of this new
and rising State will be laid in the immutable principles
of morality, justice and benevolence; and that, in its
legislation, a comprehensive and correct view will at all
times be taken, of the various interests embraced within
its range. To these sources then, I look with confidence

186 . STEVENS T. MASON

for that direction and support which may bear us tri
umphantly through the difficulties and embarrassments
incident to the new positions in which we are placed."

The address proceeds to discuss in general terms the
merits of the Constitution which the people by their
suffrages had approved; the delicate relation which by
reason of the continuance of the Territorial authority
now existed between the State and National government,
whose difficulties, he predicted, would "readily disappear
before the light of examination and precedent and that a
course of forbearance and respect to the rights and pow
ers of others will smooth our advancement to the high
destiny before us. ' 7

He recommended the choosing of the senators to repre
sent the State in the National Congress, and the enact
ment of authority to fill vacancies in local offices whose
powers and authority had been carried over into the
new government until superseded by legislative enact
ment "All other interests," said he, "which come
within the province of legislation, for the advancement
of the happiness and prosperity of our beloved State,
may perhaps, be safely and judiciously postponed to a
future, yet not distant day." He said in conclusion:

"It remains, fellow citizens, that faithful to ourselves
and to our rights and liberties, we frequently supplicate
that Divine Being who holds in His hands the chain of
events and the destiny of States, to enlighten our minds,
guide our councils, and prosper our measures so that
whatever we may do shall result in the welfare and tran-
quility of the people of Michigan, and shall secure to us
the friendship and approbation of the nation." -

A SOVEREIGN STATE OUT OF THE UNION 187

The policy of doing little in the way of legislation,
so as to avoid collision between State and Federal author
ity, as recommended in the Governor's address, was a
policy that the Governor may have taken from the coun
cils of others, for it was known to be the desire of the
President; and a week after the session had convened,
General Cass, writing to the Governor, took occasion
to say, "You know the President's views. They remain
the same. Try and have as little legislation as possible,
so as to avoid all collision. This should be a cardinal
object."

The Legislature as constituted by the schedule of the
Constitution provided for a House of forty-eight mem
bers and a Senate of sixteen members. The House upon
completing its organization proceeded to the election
of Ezra Oonvis of Calhoun County as speaker, and
George R Griswold of Detroit as clerk. Mr. Convis
had been a resident of Michigan since 1832, a Vermonter
by birth and for many years a resident of Chautauqua
County, New York, where he had received the rank of
General in the State troops. He was re-elected to the
Legislature of 1832, when he was again chosen speaker
of the House. He died suddenly in 1838 and was long
remembered as a man of commanding abilities and force
of character.

Edward Mundy, by virtue of his office as Lieutenant
•Governor, became President of the Senate, while John
J. Adam of Lenawee was chosen Secretary, a position
he filled during two subsequent sessions. Both gentle
men were men of more than ordinary attainments, Mundy
having graduated from Rutgers College, New Jersey,

188 STEVENS T. MASON

his native State, in the class of 1812, while Adam was
a graduate of Glasgow College, Scotland, in the class
of 1826, he emigrating to America in the same year.

Te Legislature had a large Democratic-Republican
majority in both its branches, and when the two Houses
convened on the 10th of November for the nomination
of candidates for the United States Senate, the House
cast forty-seven votes for Lucius Lyon for the long term,
while for the short term, twenty-seven votes were for
John Norvell and twenty for John Biddle. In the Sen
ate Lucius Lyon received the total sixteen votes, while
on the first ballot for the short term Biddle received
eight votes and Norvell eight. "On the third ballot, the
vote stood ten for Biddle and six for Norvell. When
we remember that John Biddle was made President of
the Constitutional Convention and that the votes he
received for United State Senator were cast in greater
number by men of an opposing political faith, it
bespeaks his great popularity and personal worth. In
the joint convention, John Norvell received thirty-five
votes and John Biddle twenty-eight, Lucius Lyon and
John Norvell thus became the first members from Mich
igan in the national Senate.

The Legislature, at the time, agreeable to the recom
mendation of the Governor, did little in the way of legis
lation. . Even the Governor made but one of the appoint
ments he was empowered to make under the Constitu
tion, that of Secretary of State, to which position he
appointed Kintzing Pritchette, his nomination being con
firmed by the Senate on the thirteenth, on which day
they likewise chose John S. Barry President pro tempore.
John S. Barry's long and distinguished service to Mich-

A SOVEREIGN STATE OUT OF THE UNION 180

igan makes little more than the mention of his name
necessary to show the high character of the selection.
A few bills of minor importance were passed and on
November 14th an adjournment was taken to February
1st ensuing, by which time it was believed the State would
be admitted to the full employment of all the rights and
privileges of a sovereign State in the Federal Union.

With the approaching days of winter came the recur
rence of those social gaieties which have ever been
among the most delightful subjects of reminiscence con
nected with the history of the old capitol. The social
graces had ever claimed many votaries at Detroit and
they were now increased rather than diminished by the
changing incidents of commerce and politics. The popu
lation had increased sufficiently to greatly enlarge the
social circle, but not sufficiently to change the costumes
which wrere the charm of tile social functions in which
the people found delight.

The Mason household was now again united, the father
and mother having returned by way of New York in the
early autumn. The first poignant sorrow at the loss of
loved ones had passed away for the time, and Christian
resignation had wrought for this family circle what it
does for all. Entertainment and hospitality was again
the order of the Mason home. From vagrant sources,
old letters, stray newspapers, and the memory of an occa
sional octogenarian, we catch glimpses of the simple but
wholesome social pleasures of the period; of the house
parties where the evening hours were spent in simple
games and blitheful conversation; of the balls where
belles and beaux executed the quadrille, the schottische
and the stately minuet; of the holiday festivities and

190 STEVENS T. MASON

especially New Year's day when the leading gentlemen
of the community, always including the members of the
bar, in faultless evening dress made the round of the
homes of their friends and associates to extend and
receive a word of friendly greeting. The New Year's of
1836 was made especially memorable by the fact that its
festivities began with the Governor's reception at the
American Hotel, where in the spacious hallway the genial
Tom, his sweet faced mother, the charming sisters and
the ubiquitous Charles Whipple stood in line to greet
with honest friendship the assembled friends and neigh
bors. With the increase of duties and responsibilities,
Governor Mason entered less into the social features
of the community than from his years and tempera
ment he would otherwise have been tempted to do;
but neither duties nor responsibilities prematurely
imposed took the jovial, youthful spirit from his nature.
Major "W. 0. Ransom has given us a story of the Gov
ernor that is more or less characteristic. It was in the
early winter of 1835 when, in the language of the narra
tor, the Governor "chanced to be down by the Detroit
River, where a number of rollicking boys were coasting
in a jumper down the steep banks for a slide on the
smooth ice beyond. The Governor, inspired by the spirit
of the occasion, sought and obtained the high honor of
piloting the frail craft for a model trip. Down sat the
Governor, on piled the boys, and, with a whoop and a
cheer, they started on their swift career. Now, unfor
tunately for the success of their voyage, it happened
that a Canuck huckster and wife with pony and pung
were just winding their way to market along the road
that threaded the foot of the river bank. Down went

A SOVEREIGN STATE OUT OF THE UNION 191

Governor and jumper, on came Canuck and pony, and
before either were fully aware of the situation, there
was a crash, a smash, and a wreck. Disastrous to execu
tive dignity, the Canuck came on top, and, in the twink
ling of an eye, sent His Excellency spinning, head first,
into a snow-drift a dozen feet away. ? '

Although by no means an enthusiastic sportsman, the
Governor at infrequent intervals, found relaxation in the
company of a few companions who sought the pleasures
of the chase in the forests which could be found in almost
any direction in less than a day's travel, and it was the
statement of his friends that the crack of his rifle quite
as often brought down the quarry as did the shots from
the weapons of more experienced sportsmen. As a horse
man, the Governor was far less indifferent, and in this
regard he was of a mind with the sister Emily. Each
loved a good horse and not infrequently they could be
seen returning from a ride beside the beautiful Detroit
Eiver, sitting upon their steeds after the manner of
accomplished horsemen.

But the Governor derived his greatest pleasure from
the problems and associations that were furnished by
questions of state and the exigencies of politics. He was
an eager student of the government and institutions of
the country and of the biographies of the men who had
been important factors in their development .and
progress. General Cass was frequently procuring and
forwarding to him from Washington the documents and
debates of previous times, especially such as related to
the Northwest and the admission of the various States
since the adoption of the Federal Constitution. These
he carefully studied, as his messages and addresses

192 - STEVENS T. MASON

clearly indicate. But Ms interest in political subjects
was not confined to their historical and philosophical
phases. He was not long in learning that government
and politics have a practical as well as a philosophical
sideband he was frequently among the gatherings of gen
tlemen which on occasions assembled at "Coon" Ten
Eyck's Tavern, where campaigns were planned and poli
cies of state matured, while the bonds of friendship were
strengthened in many an act of good fellowship.

Congress convened on the 7th of December, 1835, and
from thenceforth the questions of the southern boundary
of Michigan and the admission of the State were insep
arably connected.

Lucius Lyon and John Norvell were already in Wash
ington ready to assume their senatorial duties, as was
Isaac Crary to take up his labors as a member of the
House of Representatives. All were hopeful and expec
tant, for the speedy admission of the State. The Presi
dent and others high in authority, gave encouragement
to the belief that it would be but a matter of a few weeks
at the longest before Congress would pass the appropri
ate Act to extend the laws of the United States over
Michigan. On December 9, the President sent a message
to Congress accompanied with a copy of the Constitution
adopted by the people of Michigan and such other docu
ments as were necessary to make complete the record of
their right to admission. Almost immediately the pros
pects of statehood became less promising. On December
13, Lucius Lyon, who but a few days before had written
his Michigan friends that they might expect admission
by February, wrote that "It is doubtful whether we shall
not be delayed until June next, perhaps longer. "

JOHN S. BARRY

Member of the Constitutional Convention of 1885. Member of the first and sub
sequent State Legislatures, Governor of Michigan 1842-46.

ALPHEUS PBLCH
Member of first State Legislature and Democratic Governor of Michigan 1846-47.

DETROIT HOME OF GOV. STEVENS T. MASON

It was No. 303 Jefferson avenue, between Beaubien and St. Antoine streets.
Twenty-live or more years a#<> tlie third story was added to the building.

A SOVEREIGN STATE OUT OF THE UNION 103

A presidential election was now near at hand. Each
of the great parties was maneuvering for political
advantage and the boundary controversy gave to both
Whig and Democrat the opportuiaity to court the elec
toral support of Ohio. While the question of the bound-
dary was the main issue in the contest, it was complicated
with other questions whose importance were no doubt
magnified for effect upon the main proposition. As with
the admission of every other State in those days, so with
Michigan; the slave power complicated it with the admis
sion of a slave State to balance its political influence
in Congress, Arkansas being the State with which Mich
igan was paired in the fortunes of admission. The liberal
franchise provision that had brought a protest from the
Whigs in the Constitutional Convention was seized upon
by the opposition in Congress, who urged it as an impedi
ment that should require the convening of a second Con
stitutional Convention and the framing of a new Con
stitution, a program that was much desired by many of
the leading Whigs of the new State. But these matters
were of secondary consideration and would have been
readily adjusted, but for the question of boundary.
There is some reason to believe that Congress would
have willingly disposed of the boundary question so as
to have left it to the decision of the judiciary, had the
proposed Constitution of Michigan been so framed as to
facilitated such action without at the same time antagon
izing the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. But the
makers of the Michigan Constitution had been positive
and definite, where it would have served their purpose
better to have been in a measure indefinite. Had they
made the southern boundary, the northern boundaries of

194 STEVENS T. MASON

the States of Ohio and Indiana, the question of where
such northern boundaries were might have been left
open ; but, as if determined to hold what they considered
their own, they had fixed in positive terms the southern
boundary at a line running due east and west through
the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan. This
needlessly antagonized Indiana and Illinois, for it could
not be said that their northern limits were irrevocably
fixed, while Congress was being asked, in effect, to
declare that the Ordinance line was their true northern
boundaries. Whatever might have been urged against
the claims of these States at the times of their admis
sion, it was true that Congress had passed upon them,
and for twenty years Michigan had slept upon her rights.
No one should have expected a reversal of conditions so
long established, and the result of raising the question
was to array the delegations of both States in sympa
thetic accord with the purposes of Ohio, with no com
pensating benefits to Michigan. As in previous years,
a bill for the admission of Michigan and one to settle
the northern boundary of Ohio was given to the Judiciary
Committee. For weeks the questions involved were con
tested in committees. All the arguments were reiterated
and all the evidence produced anew. Select committees
on the admission of both Michigan and Arkansas were
appointed; and singly, and jointly with the Judiciary
and Territorial committees of both Houses, they can
vassed the situation with every outward appearance of a
sincere desire to reach a decision that should be in accord
with the legal rights of the parties. But long before
the committees were ready to report, it was evident that

A SOVEREIGN STATE OUT OF THE UNION 195

their deliberations were for little more than "outward
appearances."

"While there were many in Michigan who were saying,
"The Toledo strip or nothing, " there were a very few
who were saying that if they could not get what they
wanted they would take what they could get. Lucius
Lyon was of this number. No man in the Territory had
done better service for the southern boundary than he,
but when he say the inevitable, he sought to retrieve from
the territory adjacent to Lake Superior.

The credit for obtaining the Upper Peninsula to Mich
igan has been accorded to Mr. Preston, of South Caro
lina; but, unquestionably, the honor in larger degree
belongs to Lucius Lyon. As early as February 4, answer
ing a suggestion of like import from Daniel Goodwin
of Detroit he had said, that if Congress should break
up the southern boundary, "I for one shall go in for all
the country Congress will give us west of the Lakes."
"If that doctrine is to prevail," he says later, "we will
take advantage of it and let the * Devil take the hindmost'
as gamesters say." Two weeks later the proposition had
taken such form that the Senator could say with a certain
degree of assurance, that "the Committee will probably
give us a strip of country along the south shore of Lake
Superfor, where we can raise our own Indians in all time
to come and supply ourselves now and then with a little
bear meat for delicacy." But this facetious statement
was far from representing the Senator's true estimate
of the value of the Upper Peninsula. Lewis Cass and
Henry E. Schoolcraft, each of whom knew the upper
country with a fairly intimate knowledge, were then in

196 STEVENS T. MASON

Washington and there is reason to presume that the
Senator availed himself of their more extensive informa
tion. At any rate three days after the Senator had written
of the Upper Peninsula as a land of bears and Indians,
he wrote to Colonel Andrew Mack of the possible acces
sion, saying, " My- opinion is that within twenty years the
addition here proposed will be valued by Michigan at
more than forty million of dollars, and that even after
ten years the State would not think of selling it for that
sum." On the same day he wrote to Hon. Charles C.
Hascall, a member of the Michigan State Senate, saying,
among other things, "This wiH give Michigan about
twenty thousand square miles of land, together with
three-fourths of the American shore of Lake Superior,
which may at some future time be esteemed very valu
able. A considerable tract of country between Lake
Michigan and Lake Superior is known to be fertile and
this, with the fisheries on Lake Superior and the copper
mines, supposed to exist there, may hereafter be worth
to us many millions of dollars/'

In his view of the upper country, Lucius Lyon stood
quite alone among Michigan statesmen. The people gen
erally were watching the contest in Congress with una
bated interest, and the proceedings and speeches on the
question in that body found extended notice in the daily
papers of Detroit. The great majority of the people of
the putative State met every suggestion of seeking Ter
ritorial compensation on the Lake Superior shore, even
when there was a reasonable certainty that Congress was
going to yield to the claims of Ohio, with the most vigor
ous protest, as being in effect a compromise of the rights
of Michigan. Senator John Norvell and Congressman

A SOVEREIGN STATE OUT OF THE UNION 197

Isaac Crary both, either partook of this sentiment or were
influenced by it to the extent that they at first opposed
any addition to the State in the region of the Upper
Peninsula. Indeed, there seems to have been a general
lack of harmony in the Michigan delegation on all sub
jects, Norvell and Crary being generally opposed to Lyon
on the several questions arising from policies and
appointments and the feeling thus engendered was soon
communicated to the politicians at home. One of the
offices that was much in quest was that of postmaster at
Detroit, a position to be made vacant when Norvell
should be admitted to the Senate. There were some six
or seven patriotic aspirants for the office, with Sheldon
McKnight, editor of the Free Press, in the lead, sup
ported by Senator Lyon and opposed by every other can
didate and his friends. The method pursued to thwart
the realization of McKnight ?s ambition gives an insight
into the bitter political spirit of the time. Some time
before, McKnight had had a personal altercation with a
man by the name of Avery whom he was said to have
struck with Ms open hand, the man dying soon thereafter
from cause which there seems to have been no reason to
believe were connected with the blow he had received from
McKnight. No action was taken in the matter until
McKnight became the leading candidate for the position
of postmaster, when certain of his personal political ene
mies obtained control of the grand jury, DeG-armo Jones
a leading Whig politician being foreman and Benjamin
B. Kercheval an opposition Democrat being secretary;
when, to the surprise of McKnight as well as the com
munity, he was indicted for manslaughter. The news was
at once hurried to Washington to stop McKnight 7s

198 STEVENS T. MASON

appointment. Lyon came to Ms aid with the statement
that it was "undoubtedly a cool-blooded, black-hearted
attempt to prostrate and ruin him and through him to
injure Ms friends. " If such it was, it failed in its pur
pose, for a speedy trial brought McKnight an acquittal,
and his appointment and confirmation followed.

There was likewise lack of agreement in the Michigan
delegation on who should be favored with appointment
to the judiciary, the State Legislature not yet having
attempted to set up a judiciary under State authority.

With these conditions existing, it was to be expected
that when Senator Lyon suggested the propriety of
obtaining an extension of territory to the northwest,
there would be those ready to charge him with bartering
away the rights of MieMgan for a "mess of pottage/'
even though he was acting with a clear discernment of
inevitable results. Lyon foresaw that Michigan was to
lose; for, as a little later he wrote his friend Austin E.
Wing, "An honest man after looking on here a month or
two would laugh at himself for having ever supposed
that the merits of a question like this could have any-
tMng to do with the decision of Congress upon it."

On the 1st of March, the Committee of the Senate,
and a day later the Committee of the House, made reports
on the boundary question wMch confirmed every fear
that the people of Michigan had entertained. Ohio was
conceded her full demands. The news of this action was
speedily transmitted to Detroit, where a considerable
excitement at once followed. A public meeting was *at
once called, which assembled on the evening of March 8.
The veteran Colonel Andrew Mack was chosen president,
John S. Barry and General John Stockton vice-presi-

A SOVEREIGN STATE OUT OF THE UNION 199

dents, and Jacob M. Howard and George B. Martin sec
retaries. Stirring addresses were made by John Biddle
and Benjamin F. H. "Witherell. A numerous committee
was appointed to solicit signatures to a memorial against
the proposed congressional action; while lengthy resolu
tions were adopted to the effect that, "the people of
Michigan have given to no man or body of men authority
to alter by bargain or compromise the boundaries to
which they have uniformly asserted a right ; ' ' asserting
that the evils of the proposed legislation were not "to be
remedied by attaching to Michigan any extent, however
great, of the sterile region on the shores of Lake Supe
rior, destined by soil and climate to remain forever a
wilderness.'7

For weeks the controversy in one form or another was
before Congress. Thomas Benton in the Senate and
John Quincy Adams in the House led the fight for Mich
igan, but their efforts, although masterly and vigorous,
were of no avail when urged against the exigencies of
politics. At times it seemed that even if the State
obtained admission, it would be without the addition of
the Upper Peninsula, and as week succeeded week with no
result, even Senator Lyon at times was persuaded that
Congress would adjourn without providing for admis
sion upon any terms ; but the end was near at hand. On
June 15, 1836, Acts for the admission of both Arkansas
and Michigan were approved, Arkansas being admitted
unconditionally, while the admission of Michigan was
made to depend upon the assent of a duly elected con
vention to a change in boundary whereby the' territory in
dispute was given to Ohio while compensation was given
upon the north by fixing the boundary between Michigan

200 STEVENS T. MASON

and Wisconsin in that region by a line drawn through
Green Bay, the Menominee Biver, Lake of the Desert, and
Montreal Biver. The news of this action, although no sur
prise to the people of Michigan, was anything but agree
able to them. There were loud cries of tyranny and
oppression. Much eloquence was expended and ink
wasted upon the desirability of the State's remaining out
of the Union rather than to enter it "mutilated, humbled
and degraded. ' ' Few men had made more effort to retain
the disputed territory to Michigan than had Governor
Mason; but now, realizing that they were defeated he
took no part in the campaign of denunciation which fol
lowed, although his declarations were not such .as to
drive from Tnm friends who had followed his lead, but
were now less inclined than he to acknowledge the wis
dom of submission. His influence, nevertheless, was dis
creetly used in favor of accepting the terms imposed, a
position the wisdom of which was to be demonstrated
in the development of future years and the details in the
attainment of which were to form another chapter in the
history of the commonwealth.

CHAPTER XI

ORGANIZING THE STATE GOVERNMENT

ON February 1, 1836, the Legislature convened pur
suant to adjournment. The members had separated
on the 14th of the previous November hopeful, if not
confident, that upon their reconvening it would be as
members of a State within the Federal Union. In this
they were destined to disappointment and they were
far from one mind as to the proper course to pursue. A
conservative element more or less closely allied with men
in touch with the Federal administration were in favor
of again adjourning to await congressional action. The
more radical element were for proceeding with the regu
lar course of legislative procedure. The Legislature hav
ing convened, the two houses at once met in joint assem
bly and the Governor delivered his message. It was a
document prepared with much care and deliberation. As
it was intended for the perusal of Congress as well as
to guide a coordinate branch of the State government,
more than one-half of the space it filled was devoted
to a review and discussion of the historical and legal
phases of the boundary and statehood questions then
uppermost in the public mind. It was a strong presenta
tion of Michigan's side of the controversy, but was diplo
matically prefaced by a sentence no doubt intended to
render the vigor of his argument more palatable to Con
gress: "We can but believe, " said he, "the motives
which may govern that distinguished assemblage of
American citizens, the Congress of the United States, in

202 STEVENS T. MASON

the decision they may arrive at, will be pure and patri
otic; neither ought we to doubt but that that decision
when made, will be favorable to our interests and

rights."

Aniid the arguments of the message, the reader meets
passages that may well stand as guides in the science of
government. The following are interesting examples:
"A vigilant regard for our rights should teach us that
power once surrendered is seldom, if ever recovered, and
that although exercised with forbearance at first, it may
become ultimately oppressive."

"The essence of freedom is self-government. Of no
rights should the people be so tenacious as those which
are political.'7

4 'The confidence of the people is the greatest security
by which the government can act. It rests for its support
upon their affections, not their fears; its strength is
moral, not physical."

On the several questions of the internal policy of the
State, his views were set forth with characteristic clear
ness and vigor. The interest of the people in the ques
tion of internal improvement had increased rather thar
diminished since the days when the subject had received
attention in the communications which Governor Porter
had made to the Legislative Council. The impression
has sometimes been conveyed that the financial crisis
through which the State passed during the years of its
early history was the outgrowth of policies matured and
exploited by the Governor, especially with respect to its
experience with schemes of internal improvements and
banking institutions. That the Governor partook of the
general ambition of the people is true ; but a perusal of

ORGANIZING THE STATE GOVERNMENT 203

Hs message clearly indicates that lie had a purpose to
carefully limit and prescribe the State's activities to safe
and beneficial projects. On the general subject of
internal improvements, the Governor said:

"The natural advantages of Michigan for the pur
poses of commerce and agriculture are not exceeded by
any State in the Union, and too much of your attention
cannot be bestowed in maturing a prudent and judicious
system of legislation for the development of those
resources of wealth. The Constitution enjoins upon the
Legislature the encouragement of this branch of our
State policy; and it is made their duty *as soon as may be
to make provisions by law for ascertaining the proper
objects of improvement in relation to roads, canals, and
navigable waters.' The spirit and enterprise, which has
arisen among our citizens, if fostered and encouraged by
the State, cannot fail to lead to lasting prosperity. Your
liberal legislation should embrace within its range every
section of the State. No local prejudice or attachment
should misdirect the equal liberality with which you
should guard the interest of your constitutents. The
wealth of the State must be composed of the individual
wealth of its citizens, and in this respect no portion of
them are independent of the other.

"In obedience to the constitutional provision, which
requires you to provide for an equal systematic and eco
nomical application of the funds that may be appropri
ated to objects of internal improvement, I would suggest
for your consideration the propriety of the appointment
of a competent Engineer, Commissioner or Board of
Commissioners, as may be most conducive to the end con
templated, whose duties shall be regulated by law, and

204 STEVENS T. MASON

who shall be required at each session of the Legislature
to report the result of such investigation as may have
been previously directed. The appointment of the first
named officer would probably meet the object in view,
and would certainly prove most economical, as Ms duties
might be diversified as the interests of the State should
require. Through this medium, the most desirable and
practicable works of internal improvement will be
brought before the Legislature, matured for their action,
preventing the hasty undertaking of useless, if not
impracticable projects, and directing the energies and
resources of the state in such channels as will be pro
ductive of the greatest good to the greatest number of
our fellow citizens. "

Attention was directed to the necessity of at once pro
curing grants of public lands from the National Govern
ment to the State which he predicted "will afford a fund
ample to give effect to our plans of internal improve
ment/' thus indicating that he neither contemplated or
recommended schemes as extensive as those upon which
the State subsequently embarked.

Likewise as to the railroads being then projected in
the State, it was not the opinion of the Governor that
the State should become the sole owner and proprietor
of its railroads, but that the State should become inter
ested as a stockholder, that it might be in position to
obtain information and able to exert a measure of control
that otherwise might be denied it. ""While it is the duty
of the Legislature/7 said the Governor, "to afford every
aid in their power to facilitate the construction of these
important works, it is also desirable that they should
never be beyond at least the partial control of the State.

ORGANIZING THE STATE GOVERNMENT 205

So important is their construction to the permanent
interest and prosperity of the State, that I would recom
mend the passage of a law, authorizing a subscription
in behalf of the State, to a large amount of the capital
stock vested in the companies which have these roads In
the progress of completion."

As we shall see, this policy was not the one which
the Legislature pursued, although many who have given
much thought to the subject have expressed the belief
that it wrould have been a wise and beneficial policy to
have followed. The. message reflected its author's well-
known views on the subject of corporations; he closed
his reflections on the subject by saying, "It is a question
in my mind whether corporate powers should ever be
extended to associations in ordinary trade. That branch
of industry may be considered most thriving when left
free to individual enterprise/'

His recommendations as to banks of issue left little to
be desired in the way of statement of the fundamental
principles that should govern their organization and limit
their operations. On the subject of banks he said:

"In all cases of applications for charters for banking
purposes, the most prudent care should be exhibited by
the Legislature. It is a difficult point to arrive at in legis
lation on this subject, where the issue of paper as a cir
culating medium, will answer the convenience and
demands of the public, without deranging the currency,
and endangering the prosperity of the community for
whose benefit it is intended. Gold and silver have by
common consent been made the representatives of every
species of property. Bank notes are but the representa
tives of gold and silver and derive their valtie from this

206 STEVENS T. MASON

basis. Excessive issues of notes are calculated to engen
der over-trading in the community, drive the metallic
basis from our country, and are apt in case of sudden
emergencies in the money market to be attended with
consequences disastrous to the public. In arriving at
just conclusions on the subject, we need not consult the
theories of political economists, but refer to the practical
history of the country as it is presented before us."

This excerpt is quite sufficient proof that the Governor
was no* a believer in fiat money, and that so far as he
was officially connected with the subsequent passage of
the general banking law under which the ill-famed "wild
cat" banks had an ephemeral existence, his error in
approving the measure arose not from a misunderstand
ing, of the true basis of sound finance, but from sharing
in a general lack of knowledge as to the details neces
sary to maintain that basis.

Governor Mason had already evidenced his deep inter
est in the cause of general education. As yet there was not
a free school within the Territorial limits of Michigan;
but looking forward with an enthusiastic hope, the young
Governor said of this important subject: "Ours is said
to be a government founded on intelligence and morality,
and no political axiom can be more beautifully true;
here the rights of all are equal and the people themselves
are the primary source of all power. Our institutions
have leveled the artificial distinctions existing in the
societies of other countries and have left open to every
one the avenues to distinction and honor. Public opinion
directs the course which our government pursues; and
so long as the people are enlightened, that direction will
never be misgiven. It becomes then your imperious duty

ORGANIZING THE STATE GOVERNMENT 207

to secure to the State a general diffusion of knowledge.
This can in no wise be so certainly effected as by the per
fect organization of a uniform and liberal system of com
mon schools. Your attention is therefore called to the
effectuation of a perfect school system, open to all
classes, as the surest basis of public happiness and pros
perity." He followed with recommendations as to the
conservation of the lands derived from the General Gov
ernment for the purposes of education; venturing the
prophecy that with the careful husbanding of resources,
the University of Michigan which as yet was little more
than a contemplation, would become "an ornament and
honor' to the West." The dream of the young enthusiast
has long since become a reality, and his sentiments for
the great cause of education are worthy to be remem
bered.

Space in the message wTas likewise devoted to the State
finances, the simplification of the judiciary, and the crea
tion of a penitentiary system.

Even at this early date, the question of human slavery
was raising its frowning front and threatening the peace
and stability of the nation. The executives and legisla
tures of Southern States were transmitting to the
authorities of the North protests and memorials against
the pronouncements and activities of the parties demand
ing the abolition of this institution which they conceived
to be purely of domestic concern. Taking notice of the
frequent communications from Southern States, he
expressed bis sentiments in his message saying in part:
"The Federal Constitution has left its regulations among
the reserved rights of the States, and it cannot by any
implication of power be delegated to the General Gov-

208 STEVENS T. MASON

eminent If slavery be a curse to the States in which
it exists, time and their own experience will correct it;
if a blessing, it is their right and cannot be taken from
them. But in a government like ours, where public senti
ment directs its conrse, it becomes the duty of the people
through their representatives, to manifest their senti
ments upon all questions of public interest, and more
especially upon those which agitate and interrupt the
tranquility of the country ;" adding his appreciation of
the seriousness of the question and its possible conse
quences by saying, "It is with this view, fellow citizens,
that I call your attention to this alarming subject; a sub
ject perhaps involving our permanent existence as a
united Nation. "

As a question of ethics, Governor Mason was known to
be opposed to human slavery; but one catches a vein of
hesitancy in the above that reflected the responsibility of
official position. Much more might he have hesitated
could he have discerned the future, have witnessed the
realization of his fear, and seen his own blood and kin
dred upon the opposing sides in a war which staggered
the Nation with the horrors of its strife.

The members of the Legislature were far from one
mind as to the propriety of proceeding with general legis
lation until the State should be fully recognized as a
member of the Federal Union. This was especially true
of the members of the Senate, where John S. Barry led the
conservative element, which desired an adjournment from
time to time until Congress should have taken the desired
action. Resolutions to that effect, to know the mind of
the executive, and solemn protest, were all alike unavail
ing. The more radical element prevailed and the Legis-

MRS. DOilOTHKA MASON NVRHJIIT. XEWAKK. X. J.

Onlv fhiltl Of <H.V. Mason.

GOV. STEVENS T. MASON,
Governor of Michigan 1S35-1S41.

EDWARD Ml-XHY

Member of the fim Constitutional Convention and first Li«'Utenjint Governor

!>f Micfem.

ORGANIZING THE STATE GOVERNMENT 209

lature proceeded to enact laws of general application to
the State government. Acts were passed providing for
the election of county officers ; for the selection of presi
dential electors, and for members of the Legislature.
The duties of the Auditor General and State Treasurer
were defined, and the salaries of State officials fixed;
the Governor being given an annual salary of two thou
sand dollars; the Secretary of State, eight hundred;
Auditor General, two hundred; Attorney General, two
hundred; and the State Treasurer, two hundred; all to
be paid quarterly. The boundary controversy was still in
evidence through the passage of an Act to pay the militia
for "supporting the supremacy of the laws of Michigan
at Toledo,77 which patriotic service by the report of a
committee was found to involve the expenditure of the
sum of $19,341.05. An act was also passed in the form
of an offer on the part of Michigan to submit the question
of boundary between Michigan and Indiana for the deci
sion of the United States Supreme Court, an offer in
which it is needless to say, Indiana never saw fit to
co-operate. Governor Mason was also empowered to
employ counsel to conduct the defense to the Supreme
Court of the United States of one Lewis Brown, a col
lector of taxes in the township of Whiteford, Monroe
County, who in the prosecution of the duties of his office
within said township, but upon territory claimed to be
within the jurisdiction of Ohio, had made distress upon
the gray inare of one Jonathan H. Jerome for taxes due
under the laws of Michigan; and who had been uncere
moniously pounced upon by the constable and posse of
the hated county of Lucas as he was about to sell the
mare to the highest bidder and borne before a magistrate

210 STEVENS T. MASON

at Maumee, and was later incarcerated for a space of
twenty-four hours in the common goal at Perrysburg.
But long before the journey of the case to the Supreme
Court of the United States could be well started, Con
gress had made it apparent that it would be a proceed
ing devoid of both profit and honors.

The creation of a system of State courts was a question
upon which the leaders had exhibited a considerable hesi
tancy; because, with State courts in operation, conflict
between such courts and the Territorial courts operating
under Federal authority would be inevitable, and this
no one desired. The Legislature soon hit upon the
expediency of enacting the required statutes, leaving it
to the Governor to bring them into operation by the
appointment of the judges, at a time when the danger of
conflicting jurisdiction was removed. The Act to organ
ize the Supreme Court and establish Circuit Courts and
an Act to establish a Court of Chancery, were both
approved on March 26, 1836. By the terms of the first
Act, the Supreme Court was to be composed of three
judges, the first named of whom was to be the Chief
Justice. The State was divided into three circuits. The
first circuit was composed of the counties of Wayne,
Macdmb, St. Clair, Lapeer, Michilimackinac, Chippewa'
and the counties attached to such counties for judicial
purposes. The second circuit comprised the counties of
Monroe, Lenawee, Washtenaw, Oakland, Saginaw, Jack
son, Hillsdale, and likewise the counties attached to such
counties for judicial purposes; and the third circuit was
formed from the counties of Branch, St. Joseph, Cass,
Berrien, Kalamazoo, Allegan, Calhoun and Kent and the'
counties that had been attached to them for judicial pur-

ORGANIZING THE STATE GOVERNMENT 211

poses. The judges were to be appointed for the term of
seven years each and were to meet quarterly as a
Supreme Court at Detroit, Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo.
Provision was made for the election of two side or county
judges in each county with terms of office of four years
each. Two terms of court were to be held in each county
yearly. One judge of the Supreme Court was to reside
within each of the three circuits and was to be the pre
siding judge, sitting with the two side or associate judges
in the several counties of his circuit. Provision was like
wise made for justice and probate courts and methods
of appeal provided from lower to higher jurisdiction.
The chancery jurisdiction of the State was by the provi
sions of the Act before mentioned given into the charge
of a Chancery Court to be presided over by a Chancellor,
who was required to hold two terms of court yearly in
each of the judicial circuits of the State. The Chancellor
and Judges of the Supreme Court were prohibited from
practicing in the courts of the State, and, with the excep
tion of the Chief Justice, were granted salaries of fifteen
hundred dollars each per year, the Chief Justice being
granted one hundred dollars additional.

Upon the passage of the Act defining the duties of
State Treasurer and Auditor General, the legislature in
accordance with the constitutional provision met in joint
convention and elected Levi Cook, former Territorial
Treasurer, to the corresponding position under the State
government. Mr. Cook declined the position, and the
Legislature on March 1 elected Henry Howard of Detroit,
who accepted the position and became the first State
Treasurer, a position that he continued to hold until
April 27, 1839. Governor Mason had likewise on the

212 STEVENS T. MASON

23rd of February nominated Eobert Abbott for the office
of Auditor General. Two days later the Senate con
firmed the nomination, and Mr. Abbott at once took up
the duties under the State government which for a con
siderable time he had performed for the Territory.

While the Legislature at this session enacted many
laws of a salutary character, and while none could be
classed as either obstructive or vicious, yet there was con
siderable legislation that indicated ambitions enter
tained by the body of the people which a little later were
to contribute to a period of panic and disaster. Hope
and enthusiasm were in the ascendancy. The future
seemed bright with promise; the wave of prosperity
which had swept westward, raising as if by magic the
proud commonwealths of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, was
now setting full and strong toward the country of the
Great Lakes. The contagion of speculation was in the
air, and the people sought eagerly for the vantage points
from which to gather the increment which they reasoned
would soon result from increasing population. Henry
B. Schoolcraf t? as a Commissioner of the General Govern
ment, was even then negotiating a treaty at Washington
with the Ottawa and Chippewa nations of Indians, which,
with the exception of a few reservations, was to extin
guish the Indian title to the greater portion of the Lower
Peninsula and as far west as the Chocolay River (about
Marquette) in the Upper Peninsula. On March 31,
Lucius Lyon, writing from Washington to the editors
of the Free Press, took occasion to say, "Of the country
purchased, about 4,000,000 acres extending from the
Grand Eiver north is known to be fine land for settle
ment, and within a very few years we shall no doubt see

ORGANIZING THE STATE GOVERNMENT 213

towns springing up at the mouths of all the rivers flow
ing into Lake Michigan, for a hundred miles north, if
not all around the Lower Peninsula. The "Upper Penin
sula is known to contain vast forests of the very best
pine, which is even now much wanted in Ohio, Indiana
and Illinois and the southern part of Michigan and Wis
consin, and must very shortly furnish the material of a
highly valuable trade."

Governor Mason was not uninfluenced by the general
spirit of elation which pervaded the community, and
with characteristic energy set about spreading, in true
American fashion, the news of the great opportunities
that were awaiting home seekers in the new State of
Michigan. The boundary dispute and the contest for
admission were calling the attention of the Nation to the
State, and the Governor supplemented their advertising
by other of a more positive character in the newspapers
of Albany and other cities of the East and by printed
circulars which detailed in glowing terms the advantages
of the country.

The enactments of the Legislature, the newspapers and
the correspondence of the public men all show that the
public at large were anxious to emulate Ohio and New
York in works of internal improvement. As early as
January 16, the settlers from the remote clearings of
Cass and Berrien Counties gathered for a Canal meeting
and other localities followed. "Railroads and canals
will one day make one broad garden of Michigan >? was
the enthusiastic prophecy of the Free Press of March
23rd, a sentiment in which the papers of both political
parties seemingly acquiesced. The Legislature, almost
without division, enacted charters for banking institu-

214 STEVENS T. MASON

tions bearing names which sufficiently designate their
location, as the Bank of St. Glair, the Bank of Clinton,
the Bank of Calhoun, the Bank of Oakland County, the
Bank of Manhattan, the last named being in the County
of Monroe.

The appointment of a Banking Commissioner was pro
vided for, to receive three hundred dollars annually for
making examinations of the various banks every four
months.

Xew York had recently enacted a so-called "Safety
Fund" Act for the benefit of the creditors of banks and
other moneyed corporations, and it was used as the model
for a like enactment for Michigan. It gave to the Court
of Chancery jurisdiction over insolvent banks, and pro
vided that each bank should annually on the first of Jan
uary, pay to the State Treasurer one-half of one per
cent on its capital stock paid in, until a total of three
per cent had been paid in. This fund was to be invested
by the Auditor 'General, and the interest arising there
from was to be used to pay the salary of the Banking
Commissioner, and the balance to be paid to the banks
which had contributed the principal. The "Bank Fund, ' >
as it was denominated, was to be used to make good
the debts of insolvent banks, and was to be replenished
from time to time as demands might be made upon it.
No one seems to have urged that such an Act was not suf
ficient to furnish adequate protectiori against any finan
cial stress through which the banks might be required to
pass, for a condition of crisis and general panic was
neither within their experience or conception.

The Legislature at this session, likewise, gave author
ity for sixty-six State roads in various parts of the State

ORGANIZING THE STATE GOVERNMENT 215

connecting up so far as legal enactments could, the raw
settlement of the interior. Powers to construct dams
upon every considerable stream of the lower portion of
the State was granted to persons eager to harness their
currents to productive industry; but it was in railroad
promotion that the imagination of the enthusiast of 1836
found freest play. The Legislature at this session
granted charters for the Shelby and Belle River, the
Monroe and Ypsilanti, the Allegan and Marshall, the
Clinton and Adrian, the St. Glair and Romeo, the Pal
myra and Jacksonburg, the Kalamazoo and Lake Mich
igan, the Constantine and Niles Canal and Railroad, and
the River Raisin and Lake Erie, while the previously
chartered Detroit and Maumee was given authority to
construct the Havre branch, and the Erie and Kalamazoo
which was nearing completion from Toledo to Adrian
was granted divers amendments to its act of incorpora
tion. These companies clearly indicate that their pro-
motors were yet far from divining the centers of indus
trial development or the course of the great commercial
movements of the region, for the proposed roads varied
from but fifteen to fifty miles in length while the names
Havre, Palmyra, Shelby, and Belle River have long since
passed from the list of even prospective railroad ter
minals.

On March 28 the Legislature adjourned sine die with
many measures pending and unconsidered. That the
adjournment had relation to the boundary question there
is no doubt. The opposition to the action of the Legisla
ture in proceeding with general legislation before the
formal admission of the State had increased, as Congress
had seemingly shown no indication of being influenced

216 STEVENS T. MASON

by it. The hesitance of some member as to the propriety
of such action during the first days of the session took
definite form on the 21st of February when John S. Barry
and four other members of the Senate spread their formal
protest against the " advisability " and "expediency" of
legislation at the time upon the Senate Journal. The
drift of congressional action upon the boundary question
from day to day was clearly against Michigan, and there
was a growing feeling that the independence of the legis
lature was intensifying the situation. Lucius Lyon was
writing frequent letters from Washington to his political
friends in Detroit predicting the result that was to be
expected. The Free Press joined in the demand for an
adjournment, and was commended by Senator Lyon in a
letter to John S. Bagg, its editor, wherein he said among
other things, "I say to you in strictest confidence, that
the course pursued by the majority of our Legislature
has had the effect to create a prejudice against us here."
the letter concluding with the statement, "We shall lose
the disputed country, and by a much larger majority
than I had ever supposed. I understand the bill has
passed the Senate today with but three dissenting votes.
The political influence, together with the prejudice
excited against us is so strong that nobody will open his
mouth in our favor. "

That Senator Lyon in those statements was but stating
what he foresaw was inevitable, and not Ms desire (as
Ms Michigan enemies argued) is shown by his letter of
two days later (March 12) to Dr. Zina Pitcher in wMch
he says, "All parties are courting the electoral votes of
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois and poor Michigan must be

ORGANIZING THE STATE GOVERNMENT 21T

sacrificed. "We shall probably be allowed to come into
tlie Union if we surrender our rights, but the Union of
gamblers and pick-pockets, to a poor traveller who has
just been robbed, is hardly to be desired."

CHAPTER XII

CONDITIONS IN MICHIGAN IN 1837

A LTHOIIG-H the ambitions of the people for statehood
*•** had not been gratified, the faint blush of spring
found Michigan with every outward promise of a highly
prosperous season. The border contest had at least one
beneficial result for the State ; it had advertised its pros
pects and possibilities ; it had created an interest through
out the East in the State's resources and people, and
with the departure of winter's barriers from roads and
streams the tide of immigration, set in with unprece
dented volume. It seemed as though there was hardly a
hamlet of New England or New York that was not send
ing its delegation of pioneers. Everywhere people heard
the crude song of ' i Michigania,' ' the first lines of which
ran as follows :

"Come all ye Yankee farmers who wish to change your lot.
Who've spunk enough to travel beyond your native spot,
And leave behind the village where Pa and Ma must stay,
Come follow me, and settle in Michigaiiia. —
Yea, yea, yea, in Michigania."

Overland through the dismal stretches of Upper Canada,
the white covered wagons of the immigrant moved in
slow procession: three hundred and eighteen such con
veyances passed westward through the town of Chat
ham in ten days. So frequent was the passage of their
wagons from Windsor to Detroit, that the Free Press on
May 24, chronicled the fact that the ferry boat Argo had
brought over twenty such outfits between the hours of

CONDITIONS IN MICHIGAN IN l^JJT 219

nine and twelve o'clock; while on June "2, it contained a
notice to the effect that "the receipts from the sale of
public lands taken at the three land offices in the penin
sula of Michigan during the month of May amounted
to rising of one million dollars." There were ninety
steam-boat arrivals at Detroit during the single month
of May, seven hundred passengers disembarking on the
one day of the 23rd. An estimate made at the time
showed that in the month of June on an average, a wagon
left the city of Detroit for the interior every five minutes
during the twelve hours of daylight.

Miss Harriet Martineau who was now (June 14th,
1836) a guest at the home of Governor Mason, and who
on the following day took her departure overland for
Chicago, has left us in her interesting work Society in
America, a graphic description of the scenes and condi
tions that beset the pioneer on the best highway in Mich
igan, the "Chicago road.7'

"Starting westward in the early morning/' she says,,
"the brimming river was bright in the morning sun; and
our road was for a mile or two thronged with Indians.
Some of the inhabitants of Detroit, who knew the most
about their dark neighbors, told me that they found it
impossible to be romantic about these poor creatdres.
We, however, could not help feeling the excitement of
the spectacle, when we saw them standing in their singu
larly majestic attitudes by the roadside or on a rising
ground; one, with a bunch of feathers tied at the back of
his head; another, with his arms folded in his blankets;
and a third, with her infant lashed to a board, and thus
carried on her shoulders. Their appearance was dread
fully squalid.

220 STEVENS T. MASON " " '

"As soon as we had entered the woods, the roads
became as bad as, I suppose, roads ever are. Something
snapped, and the driver cried out that we were 'broke
to bits/ The team-bolt had given away. Our gentlemen,
and those of the mail-stage, which happened to be at hand,
helped to mend the coach; and we ladies walked on, gath
ering abundance of flowers, and picking our way along
the swampy corduroy road. In less than an hour the
stage took us up, and no more accidents happened before
breakfast. We were abundantly amused while our meal
was preparing at Dannersville. One of the passengers
of the mail-coach, took up a violin and offered to play for
us. Books with pictures were lying about. The lady of
the house sat by the window fixing her candle-wicks into
the moulds. On the piazza sat a party of emigrants who
interested us much. The wife had her eight children
with her; the youngest, puny twins. She said she had
brought them in a wagon four hundred miles, and if they
could only live through the one hundred that remained
before they reached her husband's lot of land, she hoped
they might thrive; but she had been robbed the day
before of her bundle of baby things. Some one had
stolen it from the wagon. After a good meal we saw
the stage passengers stowed into a lumber wagon; and
we presently followed in our more comfortable vehicle.

"Before long something else snapped. The splinter-
bar was broken. The driver was mortified but it was
no fault of his. Juggernaut's car would have been ' broke
to bits' on such a road. We went into a settler's house,
where we were welcomed to rest and refresh ourselves.
Three years before, the owner bought Ms eighty acres
of land for a dollar an acre. He could not sell it for

CONDITIONS IN MICHIGAN IN 1SST 2S1

twenty dollars an acre. He shot, last year, a hundred
deer and sold them for three dollars a piece. He and
Ms family need have no fears of poverty. We dined well
nine miles before reaching Ypsilanti. The log houses,
always comfortable when well made, being easily kept
clean, cool in summer and warm in winter, have here an
air of beauty about them. The hue always harmonizes
with the soil and vegetation. Those in Michigan have
the bark left on, and the corners sawn off close ; and are
thus both picturesque and neat.

"At Ypsilanti, I picked up an Ann Arbor newspaper.
It was badly printed; but its contents were pretty good,
and it could happen nowhere out of America, that so
raw a settlement as that at Ann Arbor, where there is
difficulty in procuring decent accommodation, should
have a newspaper. 9 ?

So the author proceeds through many pages to describe
the scenes and impressions gained from bad roads, set
tlers ' homes and the primitive villages through which
they passed, and where nightly they sought shelter.
Sleeping sometimes, as she says " ranged like walking-
sticks or umbrellas on the shop-counter/' she catches the
spirit of the occasion and is unmindful of the discom
fitures that are ever present. The park-like forests, the
rolling prairies, the ever present flowers and the songs of
the birds lead her to exclaim, "Milton must have trav
elled in Michigan before he wrote the garden parts of
'Paradise Lost.' " Even the following of the blazed trail
and toiling over bottomless roads was relieved from tedi-
ousness by the wit and humor of the immigrant and fellow
traveler, for she says, "Their humor helps themselves
and their visitors through any 'Sloughs of Despond/

222 STEVENS T. MASON

as charitably as their infinite abundance of logs help them
through the swamps and over the bad roads. ' '

If such was the experience of the traveler in comforta
ble conveyance over the best highway the State could
boast, we may well imagine the experience of the sturdy
pioneer who with valiant wife and a numerous brood of
children loaded in a ponderous wagon behind leisurely
moving oxen, sought the locations in the still newer and
more remote counties to the north and west.

But not all the people drawn to Michigan by the fever
of emigration sought homes in the interior; many identi
fied themselves with Detroit, and the boom of the metrop
olis exceeded, if possible, that which came to interior
localities. There were insufficient dwellings to accommo
date the new accession of population, and everywhere
were to be seen the evidences of the growth incident to
the new order of things. Originally, and in a state of
nature, the Cass farm at the intersection of Jefferson
Avenue and Second Street, fronted the river with a high"
bank To render the land suitable for building pur
poses necessitated the grading off of more than a hun
dred thousand yards of soil To accomplish this, a large
force of laborers were employed in the early spring of
1836. But for some cause unknown, but which was
undoubtedly supplemented by liberal potions of strong
drink, the laborers to the number of more than a hundred
fell into a fierce fight of such a character that the officers
were unable to quell it. This circumstance emphasized
what had long been considered, namely, the need of a
military organization that would respond to local author
ities. This led to the organization in the month of May,
of the justly famed Brady Guards, named in honor of

CONDITIONS IN MICHIGAN IN 1837 223

General Hugh Brady, the memory of whom still lingers
as of a man of more than ordinary virtues and attain
ments. Alphens S. Williams was chosen captain, and for
many years the company not only rendered efficient serv
ice in the line of its duty, but became one of the helpful
social adjuncts of the community.

Another organization that exerted a most potent influ
ence in the social and intellectual life of Detroit, the
Detroit Young Men's Society, received its corporate
existence from an Act of the Legislature approved
March 26. This society composed of the younger men of
talent and character in the city, had already had an
independent existence of some four years, and was soon
possessed of the only considerable library in the city that
could be considered public in character. During the
winter months the society held weekly meetings, when
literary exercises and debates were furnished as the
entertainment to large and appreciative audiences. Upon
the platform of this society at this time and in later years,
appeared some of the foremost men of the nation.
Detroit furnished few men in the larger affairs of busi
ness, professions, or politics in the earlier years of the
State Js history who had not been actively affiliated with
the Detroit Young Men's Society. Governor Mason
earlier became a member of this society, a relation he
continued to the end of his life. He frequently partici
pated in the society debates, and upon one occasion, not
far from this time, delivered an extended and carefully
prepared address before the society, taking for his sub
ject "The Northwest," showing in his treatment of the
theme a knowledge of the historic incidents involved that
was quite unusual.

224 STEVENS T. MASON

Historians have devoted considerable space to that
article of the Ordinance of 1787, which provided among
other things, " there shall be neither slavery nor involun
tary servitude in the said Territory, otherwise than in
the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted. " Its authorship has been claimed
for many eminent men of that day and various motives,
all praiseworthy, have been ascribed for its inclusion in
the organic law for the great Territory from which five
States were subsequently formed, States which became
the determining factor, when in subsequent years the
struggle came that settled the question of human bond
age. Dr. Hinsdale, in his admirable work The Old North
west, writing on the subject says, "The first draft of the
Ordinance of 1787 did not contain the prohibition; but
Mr. Dane, who was a member of the committee of July
9th and who wrote that draft, brought it forward on the
second reading apparently on the suggestion from Vir
ginia." Inasmuch as Governor Mason was a Virginian
and intimately related to many of the men of power and
influence in the Dominion of that day, his statement as
to the reason that prompted Virginia to desire such a
provision in the Ordinance, is of more than passing inter
est. In this connection, in his address, Governor Mason
said, " Slavery was forbidden forever. It may not be
unimportant to mention in reference to this provision,
that Virginia made the provision a condition of her act
of cession. The object and policy of Virginia in requir
ing such a condition was for a long time unknown to me,
and is not disclosed by the records of the country of that
day. She was a slave-holding State herself and prohib
ited the increase of slaves States five in number. I find

WMEl LEROY,
Member of the Territorial Or^-il ls'!0-i!l. Fir^r Attorney GeDcral of Michigan,

KLOX FAKNSWOKTl!

...t" the State of Miehigii

1S:;0-1S42.

WILLIAM ASA FLETCHER,
First Chief Justice of Michigan.

CONDITIONS IN MICHIGAN IN 1837 225

upon inquiry, however, that it arose from jealousy of
her own strength in reference to the old States in the
Confederacy. Her delegation in Congress at the head of
which was Mr. Monroe, apprehended that emigration to
the Northwest would diminish her population and thus
lessen her strength in the Federal Councils. By prohib
iting slavery in the States to be formed, her own people,
the holder of slaves would be compelled to remain at
home. Thus whilst New England and New York would
be drained of their population, Virginia would retain
her ascendancy. How short-sighted the policy of man
when the hand of God seems to direct the affairs of this
world. By this narrow act of Virginia an empire of
States has sprung into existence, released and freed from
the blighting course of a system, which we all deplore
though we cannot now remove it."

If such be the true explanation of the motive which
prompted Virginia to assist in the adoption. of this impor
tant provision in the Ordinance of 1787, well may we say
with Governor Mason, "How short-sighted the policy of
man," for had Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois become slave-
holding States, as but for the prohibition of the Ordinance
they would have been, the issue of the great conflict of
1861-65 must have had a far different termination.

News of the congressional action of June 15, which con
ceded the demands of Ohio and gave to Michigan terri
torial compensation in the Upper Peninsula with right
of admission into the Union conditioned upon the accep
tance of the boundaries as fixed by Congress through the
assent of a convention of delegates elected by the people
of the State, was received with evidences of extreme dis
pleasure. Had Congress passed an Act of admission giv-

226 STEVENS T. MASON

ing to Ohio the strip she claimed, and leaving to Michigan
the right to judicial determination of the question
involved in her southern boundary, there would have
been small complaint; but to have the lines fixed and
determined and then to foreclose to appeal to the courts
by making admission depend upon assent through repre
sentatives duly chosen, was to the minds of many, heap
ing insult upon injury. As a sugar coating to the pro
visional Act of admission, Congress passed an Act which
received approval on the 23rd of June, granting to the
State, lands for the following" purposes:

First, Section number 16 in every township of public,
lands ; and where such section had been sold or dis
posed of, then other lands of equal value to the State
for the use of schools.

Second, seventy-two sections of land that had been
granted to the Territory for a seminary of learning
were regranted to the State for the support of the
University.

Third, five entire sections of land to be selected in legal
divisions of not less than one quarter section for the
purpose of public buildings.

Fourth, all salt springs within the State not exceeding
twelve in number with six sections of land adjoining.
Five per cent of the net proceeds of the sale of all
public lands lying within the State, which have been
or shall be sold by Congress from and after the first
day of July 1836, to be appropriated for the making
of roads and canals within the State.

This grant of public lands was not materially different
from the grants of lands to other States by the General

CONDITIONS IN MICHIGAN IN 1837 227

Government at the time of their admission, but in Mich
igan the grant being supplemental to the Act of admis
sion, it was urged as an inducement by those who favored
acquiescence in the terms proposed, — a by no means con
siderable number of the people.

The most important thing in connection with the grant
of the lands for school purposes was, that instead of the
lands being granted to the various townships for the sup
port of the schools within such townships and being dis
sipated by the various townships of the State, they were
granted to the State, and so became the basis of the
State's primary school fund. This highly beneficial
departure from, the system of granting lands to town
ships as had been done previously, was the fruit of the
wise forethought of Hon. Isaac E. Crary, then awaiting
the privilege of a seat in Congress to which he had been
elected by the people of Michigan.

Another event that had a direct bearing upon the
status of Michigan was to be found in the fact that on
April 20, 1836, the Territory of Wisconsin had been cre
ated, to begin her career of independence on the 4th of
July following, so that there was to be no Territorial
appendage to keep Michigan from accepting the terms
proffered. Then as though to give to a few of the lead
ers in the State an incentive for at least not being over-
zealous in their sentiments of opposition to the high
handed program of the Government, Congress on the 1st
of July made due provision for the courts and officers
of the United States, the law to become effective when
the State was admitted. To the offices thus created the
President at once nominated and the Senate confirmed,
Eoss WilMns as District Judge, Daniel Goodwin as Dis-

228 STEVENS T. MASON

trict Attorney and Conrad Ten Byck as Marshal, their
respective commissions to issue upon the contingency of
the State Js admission into the Union.

As soon as Governor Mason received official notice of
the action taken by Congress, he issued his proclamation
convening the Legislature in extra session on Monday,
the llth day of July. Upon the assembling of the Legis
lature, the Governor submitted a message, which very
ably presented the conditions imposed upon Michigan by
the action of Congress, while it clearly argued their injus
tice and diplomatically called attention to the futility of
resistance; although he specifically disclaimed any pur
pose to suggest a policy which should be personal because
the matter had been submitted to the decision of a con
vention to be selected by the people. In view of his past
experience and the state of public feeling, the message
was a document of exceptional dignity and temper well
calculated to at least pave the way for the acceptance
of the inevitable. He did not, however, alienate the con
fidence and support of the friends with whom he had
labored by a spiritless acquiescence in the program that
superior power had dictated. * i I find it difficult, ' ' said the
Governor, "to express the feelings which are naturally
excited upon this occasion, or to allude to this dismem
berment of our Territory in that respectful language,
which is perhaps due to those whose hands it has been
effected. I feel as every citizen of Michigan must feel,
that the decision of Congress has been made in violation
of every principle of justice, and that to put censure
where it is due is the prerogative of the people; that
the result of their labors is but the triumph of might
over right, based upon considerations of temporary

CONDITIONS IX MICHIGAN IN 1837 229

expediency; and that the stamp of its legitimacy is to be
wrung from the unwilling assent of a patriotic and high
minded people. In fact, the question of right between
the parties has been avowedly disregarded by Congress,
and their action placed upon the exclusive ground of
expediency." Speaking further of the injustice of the
action of Congress he said, u However much the people
of Michigan may doubt the power of the General Govern
ment to alter the constitutional boundary of their State,
they would have yielded respect to their legislation from
patriotic consideration, had Congress been content with
the simple exercise of their power. They would have
declared as they now do, the legislation to be unconstitu
tional, but as citizens of the United States, they would
have silently acquiesced in it, appealing to another
tribunal for the peaceable and constitutional redress
secured to them by the institutions of their country. But
they are denied such an alternative, and are driven to
other extremes, — resistance or unqualified submission.
We are told that we shall not question the proceedings
of Congress, that unless we give our assent to a system of
legislation which we believe to be oppressive, illegal and
unjust, we shall be denied admission into the Union on an
equal footing with original States. Thus are we to be
deprived of one right, unless we surrender another equally
sacred, the right of an appeal to the federal judiciary;
a right sacred to the humblest individual, who may desire
to approach a tribunal, framed to protect him against
injustice and oppression, and intended to check the dif
ferent departments of our Government in the exercise of
arbitrary and unconstitutional power."
But however correct the Governor's statement of the

230 STEYE^ OX MASON

situation and their violated rights, he was not led into a
recommendation that their rights be maintained at any
cost. He showed rather that he foresaw the ultimate
outcome when he said, "I trust my fellow citizens will
credit me when I declare, that no one can feel more deeply
than myself the humiliation of the sacrifice we are called
upon to make. The preservation of the integrity of our
Territorial limit, has always been the highest object of
my ambition. The boundaries claimed by us are our
sacred rights, secured by an instrument as binding and
sacred as the wisdom of man could frame it ; and could
we now calculate upon maintaining those boundaries with
any hope of success, it would be our duty still to hazard
the undertaking. In that hope I cannot be sanguine. I
indulge in the reflection that I have shown heretofore,
that no personal interest could govern me in my official
conduct when the rights of those with whom I am identi
fied demanded the sacrifice ; and when I am reminded of
the favor with which that sacrifice has been received by
my fellow citizens, and how much I owe to it my present
elevation, I would prove recreant to my own reputation
and an ingrate to the people, could I now advise an unnec
essary abandonment of their cause. Were I to consult the
first impulse prompted by the feelings which every citizen
in Michigan must acknowledge, I might be led into a de
termination to resist the legislation of Congress ; but as a
public officer, called upon to discard excited feelings,
and warrant that the permanent interests of the State
are not to be overlooked, I should violate my duty did
I recommend to my fellow citizens to embark in a con
troversy, offering so little hope of gain, but the certainty

CONDITIONS IN MICHIGAN IN 1837 231

of permanent loss and lasting injury to ourselves and to
the nation."

It is needless to say that many people did not view
the matter with that judicial temper which the Governor
exhibited. Many were exasperated by what they believed
to be an unwarranted assault upon the rights of Mich
igan, and, not being charged with responsibility, were
for remaining out of the Union forever rather than to
enter at the cost of justifiable State pride. There were
others, Whigs in politics, who a few months before were
characterizing the actions of the Governor in the bound
ary question and on the formation of a State government
as lacking in wisdom and constitutional warrant who now
were equally free with their criticism of the "hero of the
bloodless plains of Toledo," as they saw fit to call the
Governor, for his * ' surrender of the sacred rights of free
people. ' *

The bill or ordinance for the calling of the Convention
as required by the Act of Congress became a law by
the Governor's approval on the 25th of July, but not until
it had been subjected to all manner of previous amend
ment and subjected to committees of conference and other
parliamentary procedure ; for there was a great diversity
of opinion among the members as to how the Convention
should be constituted and as to how the expression of the
people should be taken. The law provided for a Conven
tion of fifty delegates, to be distributed among the coun
ties according to population; the counties of "Wayne,
Monroe, Oakland, Washtenaw, Livingston and Lenawee
absorbed twenty-nine of the number. The election was
provided for the second Monday of September and the

232 STEVENS T. MASON

Convention was to meet on the fourth Monday of Septem
ber next ensuing, at the court house in the village of
A Tin Arbor. The Legislature considered a few other mat
ters of minor importance and adjourned on the 26th of
July. As the law creating the State judiciary, by its
terms went into effect on the 4th of July, and as with the
creation of the Territory of Wisconsin there was no
longer danger of conflict of authority, the Governor on
the 18th of July nominated and the Senate confirmed
the members of the Supreme Court; William A. Fletcher
of Ann Arbor and the second circuit was the first named,
and consequently was Chief Justice; George Morell of
Detroit and the first circuit, and Epaphroditus Ransom
of Kalamazoo and the third circuit, were associate jus
tices. On the same day Daniel LeEoy of Pontiac was
likewise nominated and confirmed as Attorney General ;
while Elon Farnsworth, by the same forms was made
Chancellor. On July 26, the day of adjournment, John
D. Pierce was nominated for the office of Superintendent
of Public Instruction and unanimously confirmed by the
votes of the members of House and Senate in joint
assembly.

William Asa Fletcher, the first Chief Justice of Mich
igan, was born at Plymouth in the State of New Hamp
shire, June 26, 1788. His father, Joshua Fletcher, was
an intelligent farmer of the community, who while not
an ordained clergyman, yet frequently filled the pulpits
of the Congregational Church of his village and the
neighboring town of Bridgewater. The mother, Sarah
(Brown) Fletcher was of a prominent New Hampshire
family. William A. was the sixth son of this sturdy New
England family, and the culture which he received under

CONDITIONS IN MICHIGAN IN 1837 233

the paternal roof was supplemented by the best educa
tional advantages the parents were able to give. In
early life Fletcher embarked in the mercantile business,
residing, as the records would seem to indicate, at both
Salem and Boston. Later he removed to Scoharie
County in the State of New York. It was while a resident
of this place that he took up the study of the law.
Equipped for its practice, he journeyed to Detroit where
he opened an office and soon had a respectable clientage.
The biographical material left by Judge Fletcher is not
extensive, but enough exists to show that he was a man
of more than ordinary talents. At the laying of the cor
ner stone of the old Territorial capitol on the 22nd of
September, 1823, he was selected as the orator of the
occasion, and the same year was selected as Chief Justice
of the Wayne County Court, a position to which he was
again chosen the following year. He also served the Ter
ritory as Attorney General, and in 1830 represented
Wayne County on the Territorial Council. Upon the
creation of the circuit courts in 1833, Judge Fletcher was
appointed to the circuit comprising the territory outside
of Wayne County, and because of that appointment took
up his residence at Ann Arbor, his spacious log house
standing upon land that now forms a part of the Uni
versity campus. He was a member of the Michigan His
torical Society, and generally interested in the various
movements of community progress. In 1836 he was
chosen by the Legislature a commissioner to prepare and
arrange a code of laws for the State. This work was
completed and was ultimately adopted by the Legislature
as the Revised Statutes of 1838. It was Judge Fletcher
who, more than any other judge of the early day,

234 STEVENS T. MASON

traversed the Micliigan wilderness astride Ms faithful
steed, his saddle-bag the repository of his library and
personal necessities. In many of the court journals of
that day the signature of Judge Fletcher can still be seen
testifying to his presence in counties far remote the one
from the other. Judge Fletcher served upon the Supreme
bench until 1842 when he resigned. The last years of Ms
life were unfortunately spent under conditions that weak
ened his hold upon the people. His wife became hope
lessly insane and the judge became addicted to intoxi
cants to a degree that was beyond the tolerance of the
time when even a large degree of conviviality was
allowed. Before his death, however, he rallied from the
habit that had been his undoing, but never to regain
Ms former eminence. He died at Ann Arbor September
19, 1852, without child or relatives in MicMgan to mark or
care for the place of his interment. A few years ago, labor
ers in laying a waterpipe through an abandoned cemetery
in Ann Arbor, which is now Felch Park; came upon a
metallic casket in an unmarked grave. An aged resident
identified the casket as the one in which Judge Fletcher
was buried. The casket and remains were re-interred
and it would be to the honor of Michigan if she marked
in simple style the last resting place of her first CMef
Justice who, though he yielded to some of the weaknesses
of humanity was, nevertheless, an able and incorruptible
judge.1

1. In 1918 under the auspicies of the Michigan Pioneer and Histor
ical Society, the State Bar Association, the University of
Michigan, and the city of Ann Arbor, the remains of Judge
Fletcher were disinterred and and removed to Forest Hill
cemetery, Ann Arbor, where later an appropriate marker will
be placed,— JE£.

CONDITIONS IN MICHIGAN IN 18^7 235

George Morell of Detroit, the associate justice of the
second circuit, was a native of the State of Massachus
etts, having been born at Lenox in that State March 22,
1786. He was a man of refined tastes and liberal educa
tion, having been a student at Lenox Academy and a
graduate of William's College in the class of 1807. His
legal education was obtained in the city of Troy, New
York, where with Reuben H. Walworth and William L.
Marcy he was a student in the office of John EusseL
Admitted to the bar in 1810, he took up his residence at
Cooperstown, New York, which continued to be his home
until 1832, when, by appointment of President Jackson,
he was made one of the United States Judges for Mich
igan. His political activity is evidenced by the fact that
during his residence at Cooperstown he became Clerk of
the Court of Common Pleas for Otsego County, and
Master in Chancery and Judge of the Court of Common
Pleas ; while in 1828 he was elected to a seat in the New
York Assembly. Judge Morell during his New York
residence took a keen interest in military matters and
rose through all the ranks of the State service to the
position of Major General. His son, George Webb
Morell, evidenced the same tastes and was graduated from
West Point in 1835, lived to fill an honorable position at
the bar of New York and to serve with distinction as
a brigade and division commander in the Army of the
Potomac. Judge Morell, although a man of fine ability
and courtly bearing, did not escape the ruthless attack
of the personal and political brigades, who in Michigan
from the years 1830 to 1840 held no name or position
sacred. Upon charges once preferred against Mm by
certain citizens of Macomb County, while they were given

236 STEVENS T. MASON

the dignity of legislative investigation the investigation
resulted in his exoneration. Judge Morell was ambi
tious for reappointrnent to the United States judgeship
upon the admission of the State, as were both Judge Wil-
kins and Daniel Goodwin; Wilkins being from Pennsyl
vania and having the indorsement of his personal friend,
James Buchanan, won, and the Attorney Generalship
going to Goodwin left Morell to be cared for in the State
administration. Upon the resignation of Judge Fletcher
in 1842, he became Chief Justice, holding that position
at the date of his death which occurred at Detroit March
8, 1845. His funeral was attended by the State Legisla
ture and the Detroit bar, which testifies to the fact that
he was a man of rare social graces and one who, as a
judge, presided with great dignity and brought to the
discharge of his judicial duties high legal attainments
and untiring industry.

Epaphroditus Eansom of Bronson (later Kalamazoo)
in the third judicial circuit was likewise a product of
Massachusetts, having been born at Shelburne Falls in
February, 1797. His father, Ezekiel Ransom, had seen
service as a Major in the Revolutionary War, while his
mother was the daughter of General Fletcher of Town-
shend, Windham County, Vermont, It was here that he
grew to manhood, his time being employed either upon
the rugged hillsides of the grandfather's farm, teaching
or attending school. After graduating from Chester
Academy, he determined to become a lawyer, and return
ing to Townshend entered the office of Judge Taft of
that place, having for his fellow student the son of his
preceptor, Alphonzo Taft, later Attorney General of the
United States and father of President William H. Taft.

CONDITIONS IN MICHIGAN IN 1837 237

After two years In the office of Judge Taft, lie entered
the law school at Northampton, Mass., and graduated
with the class of 1823. Following his admission to the
bar he began to practice law, and enjoyed for some years
a successful business. Although a Democrat in politics,
and thus of the minority party, he was returned several
sessions to the lower house of the Vermont Legislature.
In the fall of 1834 the rising tide of Eastern emigration
drew him to Michigan, and no doubt the glowing accounts
from that other Vermonter, Hon. Lucius Lyon, of the
rich prairies of Kalamazoo County determined him to
locate at Bronson, which he did in October when some
twenty houses and not to exceed one hundred souls con
stituted what was to be in time the city of Kalamazoo;
thus he had been hardly two years a resident of Mich
igan when made a member of the Supreme Court. But
Judge Eansom soon impressed Ms personality upon those
beyond the immediate circle of Ms pioneer acquaintances.
Tall and straight, of strong physique, approachable and
simple in his habits, he soon became a man of more than
ordinary popular regard. He was made CMef Justice
in 1843 by appointment of Governor John S. Barry, a
position he continued to hold until elected Governor in
1847. Although elected Governor by a majority of the
vote of every county in the State, he held the position but
one term, his position in support of the Wilmot proviso
raising an issue that defeated him for renomination.
His experience was unique, in that after having served the
State as its chief executive, he served in the State Legis
lature as the representative of Kalamazoo County, Gov
ernor Eansom took a deep interest in agricultural pur
suits; the MicMgan Agricultural Society was organized

238 STEVENS T. MASON

during Ms administration and he became its first presi
dent. Governor Eansom suffered serious financial
reverses in the later years of his life as the result of which
he was led to accept the appointment of receiver of the
Osage Land Office in the Territory of Kansas from Presi
dent Buchanan. He died at Fort Scott, Kansas, Novem
ber, 1859, his remains being subsequently returned for
interment in Mountain Home Cemetery of that place.

CHAPTER XIII

MICHIGAN ADMITTED TO THE

election for delegates to the Convention of Assent
was duly held in the various counties of the State
in accordance with the provisions of the law which the
special session of the Legislature had enacted. The issue
did not pass, however, without comment and heated dis
cussion. The Democratic papers generally, except a few
upon the southern border, were in favor of giving assent
to the conditions imposed. The Free Press offered con
solation in the form of yielding to "preserve the har
mony of the Union ; ' ' offered hope that the Upper Penin
sula might after all be of some value and that it might
be possible to get territory at the expense of Wisconsin.
The Whig press was more inclined to expend rhetoric
on wrongs imposed and rights withheld; and on the
night of September 2nd, the forces of dissent in [Detroit
held a meeting to voice one more protest against yielding
to Ohio. The election passed, and the delegates assem
bled at Ann Arbor on Monday the 26th with forty-nine
delegates present; every county or district was repre
sented excepting only the county of Miehilimaekinac,
whose one representative, if elected, did not appear.
Upon the assembling of the Convention on the following
day to effect the permanent organization, there was an
evident test of strength on the election of officers, the
Dissenters winning by substantially the same vote with
which they carried every proposition in the Convention,

240 STEVENS T. MASON

William Draper, a reputable attorney of Oakland County,
was chosen President, while Chas. A. Jefferies of Washte-
naw and Samuel Yorke Atlee of Kalamazoo were chosen
Secretaries and Martin Davis was made Sergeant-at-
Arms. Austin E. Wing and Edward D. Ellis led the fight
for the Dissenters, and the Assenters went down to defeat
under Ross Wilkins (of Lenawee) and John McDonald
of Wayne. Communications were received as to the
boundary survey from the engineers conducting the same
and from residents upon the disputed territory, solemnly
protesting against the power that would surrender them
to Ohio. Wilkins and his followers sought to have
adopted a preamble and resolution agreeing to the terms
imposed by Congress, coupled with a mild protest against
the power exerted ; but by vote of twenty-eight to twenty-
one the resolution of dissent was adopted. This action
brought a signed protest upon the records from the
Assenters, as it did an "expose" from the same gentle
men when the majority selected Messrs. Andrew Mack
of Wayne, and Austin E. Wing and Robert Clark of Mon
roe as delegates to visit Washington on the part of the
Convention to co-operate with the Senators and Repre
sentatives of this State in " advancing its rights. "

The Convention finished its labors and adjourned on
September 30. In accordance with instructions, Austin
E. Wing addressed a lengthy communication to President
Jackson explanatory of the majority position, and
Edward D. Ellis and four other delegates, under like
instruction from the Convention, issued a lengthy
address to the people again reviewing the history and
injustice of the boundary contest. The address closed
with a rhetorical flourish which, while it may have been

Member of the Staf»- Su

UEURiiE MullKLL

' four! from is,;*;, liir

iit; a Hiitl Justin in 1S42,

BPAPHRODITUS RANSOM,

Member first State Supreme Court, Chief Justice in 1843. and elected Governor

in 1847.

IIOIJBUT Mi'CLELLAM*

Member of the IIN Siu<** ^institutional rmaviition. Hiirii,:' liuv. Ma>««kN
member of *h»* StJin* L<^islatur*\ Lat^r <'hi»'l' spo'iit'siu;,'! of t!i»4 ;i!sti

slaverv ^aiiM- iu XIi<*hi^nn, and «i«iv»i:n»c 4 ilu* Sf;jt*\ ls'1 •»"»'!

MICHIGAN ADMITTED TO THE UNION 241

impressive then, is humorous now. "When we reflect,
fellow citizens, " it concluded, "upon the fearful array
with which you had to contend for the choice of your
delegates to the late Convention, the official influence
exercised, the power of the press enlisted, in short every
argument urged which could effect your avarice, your
ambition, your fears, or your hopes to influence you to
plainly assent to the surrender of a portion of your soil,
we think we have reason to most cordially congratulate
you; and well, fellow citizens, may we be proud of the
name of Michigan! and safely may we say that the
struggle which has just closed, perhaps but for a moment,
has been one of the most glorious triumphs of principle
over the intrigues and management of selfish individuals
that has been achieved since the adoption of the Federal
Constitution.

"Finally, fellow citizens, we solemnly call upon you
to stand upon principle; abandon this and what have
you left? We have addressed you not as the heralds of
a party but as citizens of one and the same community
as yourself, seeking nothing at your hands. Our only
desire is that you unite, like a band of brothers upon
the great question of your Territorial rights, forgetting
minor differences and compromising opinions ; and as far
as the united efforts of more than two hundred thousand
freemen can do, extricate your new State from the diffi
culties and injuries of the past and forever preserve
inviolate its integrity, its character, and its sover
eignty. ' 7

When we reflect that the chairman who penned this
soul-stirring address but a few weeks before as a member
of the State Senate had joined with others in a signed

242 STEVENS T. MASON

protest against all legislative action because of appre
hended conflict with the national authorities and for fear
their action would be construed as lacking in respect to
the "President of the United States and the able and
worthy men who compose his Cabinet," we can imagine
that it failed to convince those gentlemen who were
impatiently awaiting the day when they would be officers
of a State within the Union and those other gentlemen
appointed to federal positions within the State, whose
emoluments were contingent upon the same event. In
the Convention, of the twenty-one votes in favor of
assent, twelve were from the counties of "Wayne and
Lenawee. The Dissenters, by combining the seven votes
of Washtenaw and Livingston with the six from Oaklan 1
and the four from Monroe commanded a majority of five,
while in the division of the twenty votes of the counties
that had from one to two votes each as in some instances,
but one vote for from two to four counties, they received
eleven votes while the forces of assent could rally but
nine. The action of the Convention again precipitated
public discussion and people as usual began to give the
matter the benefit of their second thought. The more
impulsive had freed their minds ; they had entered their
most vigorous protest against a law that was to bring
them into the Union "mutilated, humbled and degraded,"
and had answered in the negative their own question as
to whether they would be sold "like Joseph into Egypt,"
as the price of admission into the Union. They had
written into the records of the State their solemn con
viction that "Congress cannot deprive us of representa
tion, nor can they bestow upon Ohio a part of our domain
without our consent, consistent with the Constitution

MICHIGAN ADMITTED TO THE UNION* 243

and the Ordinance of 1787," and they had insisted that if
such things could be done "then our liberties would
indeed be held by a frail tenure." But after it \vas all
said, their sober second thought told them their terri
torial limits had been mutilated and that Ohio was in
actual possession of the strip carved off and would
be maintained there if need be by the forces of the United
States, and that whether they were to be humbled or
degraded depended largely upon how they looked at it.
It was well enough to say when the excitement was on
that they would remain a State out of the Union but
when the excitement was over there was no one to give
any assurances as to how long they might remain out or
wThat was to be gained by remaining out, while there were
many showing where the State was to suffer very sub
stantial losses by not submitting to the inevitable at once.
The National Government was about to try the experi
ment of distributing the surplus revenue of the Govern
ment among the States. The newspapers now renewed
the assertion that unless Michigan secured formal admis
sion by January 1, she would not share in the distribu
tion and would likewise lose her share of the five per
cent on the sales of public lands, a sum that was variously
estimated at from four hundred thousand to six hundred
thousand dollars. The President was said to have given
extra official confirmation to this statement, and to give
it further evidences of verity, the Secretary of the Treas
ury, Hon. Levi Woodbury, was induced to write a letter
to the effect that the money could not be paid to State
until its admission ; the limit of January lt or any other
time was not specified by him, but of course, readily sup
plied by the imagination of those whose purpose the claim

244 STEVENS T. MASON

best served. Many other considerations were advanced,
but the loss of the money was the proposition upon which
greatest emphasis was placed, for it involved the post
ponement of many cherished projects of internal
improvement. The combined causes unquestionably pro
duced a marked change in public opinion and when on the
29th of October following, the Wayne County Democratic
County Convention assembled, it by unanimous vote of
its one hundred and twenty-four delegates adopted a
preamble and resolutions favoring "prompt acquies
cence" in the terms proposed for admission, and
requested the Governor to issue a proclamation recom
mending an election of delegates to another Convention
to consider the question of assent, when he should be
satisfied that the people of Michigan so desired.

Elections for members of the State Legislature soon
followed, and in many districts the electors expressed
themselves upon the statehood question in a manner to
indicate a marked change in sentiment. Numerously
signed petitions were soon received by the Governor
from places as new and remote as Bellevue'in the County
of Eaton and from counties still farther to the westward
praying for the calling of a second Convention. On
November 9 a Convention assembled at Ann Arbor and
adopted resolutions in effect apologizing for the position
taken by the delegates from the County of Washtenaw
in the former Convention, and requested the calling of
another Convention that Washtenaw might "wipe off the
stain " fixed upon them by the decision of the September
body. A representative committee was appointed to wait
upon the Governor and convey to him the action of the
Convention, On November 13 Governor Mason addressed

MICHIGAN ADMITTED TO THE UNION 245

a lengthy communication to Ezekiel Pray of Superior,
Washtenaw County, who had acted as president of the
recent county Convention. The letter acknowledged the
receipt of the proceedings of the Convention through the
committee appointed for that purpose, while the Gover
nor made plain that, as an official of the State, he was
empowered by neither the Constitution nor the laws to
call such a body, and that even if such power was inherent
in the Legislature there was not then sufficient time for
the assembling of that body and the calling of a second
Convention before the 1st of January. The Governor
then proceeded through much space to argue that if the
people were dissatisfied with the decision of the Septem
ber Convention, "the remedy was with themselves/*
that they had the "inherent and indefeasible right in
all cases or propositions coming before them in their
original capacity to reverse the acts of their agents if
found prejudicial to their interests, and decree such as
accord with their welfare and happiness,77 and he forti
fied his position by reference to incidents connected with
the history of Pennsylvania when it became necessary
to form a constitution upon its separation from the
mother country, which was drafted by a Convention hav
ing its inception in the recommendation of a self -consti
tuted committee of the city of Philadelphia. However
well such an exposition of the law may have been suited
to the exigencies of a particular occasion and however
plausibly it may have appealed to the lay mind, the
student of government and legal forms is hardly per
suaded that in a government of constitutions and laws
their decrees and established forms can be thus lightly
set aside. The Governor did not go into the merits of

246 STEVENS T. MASON

the controversy which had been so long discussed; but
he did not forget to call attention to the fact that, by not
being a State within the Union, they would not partici
pate in the distribution of the surplus revenue soon to be
handed to more favored neighbors, adding that "the
loss of this to the people of Michigan, struggling as they
are, under all the embarrassments incident to the com
mencement and early operations of the government of
an infant State mil prove unfortunate. The benefits to
the State, resulting from its use in the public improve
ments of the country will readily accrue to every citizen. ' '
The Governor's letter gave a hint that a Convention
assembled by the people in their so-called "primary
capacity,' J if it should adopt a resolution assenting to the
fundamental conditions, improved, would be acceptable
to Congress. The leaders were looking for an excuse for
their action, and not for a profound legal opinion upon
its regularity; and we may well imagine that the Gover
nor's letter was not put forth until it had received the
most careful consideration by his party associates as to
whether it furnished the best way out of the difficulty.
This opinion is given credence by the fact that on the
morning following the appearance of the Governor's
letter, David C. McKinstry, Marshall J. Bacon, Ross Wil-
Mns, John McDonald and Charles "W. Whipple, as the
committee of the "Wayne County Democratic Convention,
issued a circular recommending that the electors of the
various counties meet on the 5th and 6th of December in
their respective townships and elect twice the number of
delegates that they had representation in the lower
branch of the State Legislature; that in the election
all legal formalities respecting elections be observed and

MICHIGAN ADMITTED TO THE UNION 247

that the delegates so elected assemble at Ann Arbor on
Wednesday the 14th of December to consider "the
expediency of giving the assent of the people of Michigan
to the fundamental conditions, prescribed by Congress
for their admission into the Union."

The Whig press, which a few weeks before had referred
to the Michigan Legislature as having the power of a
temperance society, now looked upon it as a very respec
table organization, and were sure that the convention
called by it was the only legal body, and that the second
one was altogether lacking in every legal requisite. It
was said that at the election for delegates, a great many
electors refused to participate because of the alleged
illegal character of the proceeding. It is probably true
that the Dissenters did refuse to name opposing candi
dates, but it is equally true that the vote at the second
election was six hundred larger than was polled at the
first. Although in some quarters derided as the "Frost
bitten Convention," the delegates assembled at Ann
Arbor on the appointed day and their Journal shows
eighty-four delegates in attendance, representing every
organized county in the State that had been represented
in the first convention excepting Chippewa, Macomb, and
Monroe.

The delegates were naturally of one mind and quite
unanimous in their proceedings. There were several
delegates who had served in the first Convention, and
among the list of the entire membership, the names of
the men who were active in the Democratic politics of
the State are quite conspicuous.

The Convention proceeded, with little time wasted in
preliminaries, to the election of John R. Williams of

248 STEVENS T. MASON

Detroit as president, Kintzing Pritchette of Detroit and
Jonathan E. Field of Washtenaw secretaries, and John
Haston sergeant-at-arms. The president accepted the
honor of presiding officer with a brief address, stating
his own and the Convention's mind when he said, "The
period has arrived, when we can no longer postpone
efficient measures to secure to our rising political Star
of the confederacy, those advantages inseparable from,
and to be attained only by our admission into the
Union."

A committee selected for that purpose, with equal dis
patch digested resolutions introduced by delegates Eoss
WilMns of Detroit and Peter Morey of Lenawee and
reported a substitute wherein they argued the legality
of their assemblage, expressed doubt as to the constitu
tional power of Congress to impose the condition and
ended by giving the assent required, which report was
unanimously adopted without amendment or qualifica
tion.

A committee likewise prepared and submitted a letter
to the President which was promptly accepted. No voice
was now raised in opposition to the selection of a special
messenger to bear the letter to "Washington, and John E.
Williams was selected for the mission. One cannot read
the letter without feeling that when read by "Old Hick
ory " it must have made a decided appeal to his sense
of humor ; for in arguing the regularity and legality of
their Convention they said, "The condition prescribed
as a preliminary to the admission of Michigan into the
Union had not until now been complied with, and no
absolute recognition of our State authorities had been
made by any branch of the National Government ; ' ' and

MICHIGAN ADMITTED TO THE UNION 249

then, as if explaining the unfortunate plight they were
in, the letter proceeded, "The Territorial Executive had
been withdrawn, the Territorial Legislature had ceased,
— and no power remained, as recognized by Congress, —
but, the People of Michigan in their Sovereign Capacity,
by which the Convention of Delegates should be called,
to yield a compliance with the fundamental condition of
admission as provided in the second section of the Act
of Congress. Had the third section of said Act desig
nated by whom or by what power the said Convention
should be ordered, the whole would have met the cheerful
compliance of the People of Michigan."

One is tempted to believe that in this letter, Judge
WilMns took the opportunity of laughing at the President
and. Congress, who were asking legal formalities from a
body of people from over whom the Territorial govern
ment had been withdrawn and whose State government
was refused just and f uU recognition.

By the provisions of the law providing for the condi
tional admission of Michigan, the State was to be
admitted by proclamation of the President as soon as
the required assent was given. On September 26 the
President received the official proceedings of the first
Convention and on December 24, the official proceedings
of the second Convention ; Congress being then in session,
the President transmitted both communications to that
body with an accompanying message, saying that had the
proceedings of the latter Convention reached him during
a recess of Congress, he would have felt it his duty on
being satisfied that they had emanated from a convention
of delegates elected in point of fact by the people of the
State for the purpose required, to have issued his procla
mation thereon as required by law.

250 STEVEXS T. MASON

Again Congress took up the question. The old issue
of the boundary was dead beyond resurrection, but it
still furnished the subject of much futile oratory. The
principal contention, howeved, was upon the regularity of
the last Convention, but even Congress was not inclined
to draw too fine distinctions; Ohio was in possession of
the coveted strip of territory; Indiana and Illinois had
had their titles confirmed; the election was over; and as
one author has said? * * The political life of the State had
been for nearly two years too irregular and revolutionary
to make any one over-particular regarding the regularity
of admission.'' After a month of debate and considera
tion, Congress on January 26, 1837, passed a law for the
formal admission of the State ; she thus becoming within
the Union wrhat, for more than a year, she had been out
of the Union, — a State in fact.

The news of the State's admission was received at
Detroit, and on February 9 was celebrated with every
demonstration of real joy. The Brady Guards paraded
and twenty-six guns were fired, while in the evening the
event was celebrated by what was then termed "a grand
illumination,'7 a tallow candle being placed behind each
window in nearly every residence in the city, while a
column of revellers, merry makers, and staid citizens
paraded the streets and serenaded the homes of the
prominent residents.

Some historians have devoted considerable space to
showing how the action of Congress was based upon an
illegal proceeding on the part of the so-called ''Frost
bitten Convention," but the discussion never had more
than academic interest. The questions involved were
as effectually settled as though all had been agreed. Gov-

MICHIGAN ADMITTED TO THE TTXIOX 231

ernor Mason advised acceptance of the result. The
Legislature which a few months before had railed at its
representatives In Congress for "bartering away a part
of the State," now passed resolutions thanking them
"for the untiring zeal and unremitting fidelity with which
they had tried to sustain its rights," and appropriated
the public money to pay the delegates and officers who
had participated in the December Convention. Now and
then for the next two or three years, some one brought
forward the question by legislative resolution or written
statement indicating a lingering hope that the disputed
territory might still be regained for Michigan ; but state
hood was bringing new cares and new problems, and the
incident of the southern boundary soon became little
more than a subject for good-natured reminiscence.

The conventions of Dissent and Assent while engross
ing public attention, were not engrossing it to the exclu
sion of all other matters. During the interval between
the two conventions, in response to a numerously signed
petition a considerable body of citizens assembled at
Ann Arbor on the 10th and llth of November and
effected the organization of the Michigan Anti-slavery
Society to affiliate with the national society. Eobert
Stuart of Wayne County was chosen as the first president
of the society, while its numerous list of vice-presidents
and other officers shows that its membership included
men of all shades of political belief.

Of quite a different character was the consideration
that was being given to the Indian. The flow of immi
gration was daily making it more apparent that the
Indian must be removed to the Northwest from the land
where for untold ages he had been the undisputed tenant

252 STEVENS T. MASON

of its forest-glades, its shimmering lakes and sylvan
streams. By the treaty of Chicago,. September 26, 1833,
the Potawatomis, excepting Pokagon and his band, had
parted with their reservations in southwestern Michigan
and had stipulated to remove from them within three
years. Governor Mason in his message of February 1,
1836, had called attention to the importance of the imme
diate extinguishment of the Indian title within the penin
sula, and as he stated, " Their removal to a quarter where,
secure from the encroachments of the whites, they may
be left free to follow their own pursuits of happiness."
Alas ! the place where they were to be free from encroach
ments was beyond the grave ; but this was as unforeseen
by the committee which drafted the memorial to Con
gress on the recommendation of the Governor, as by the
Governor himself, for the memorial after depicting in
words of honest sympathy the unfortunate condition of
the Indians, suggested their removal to a forest country
as best suited to their experiences and life habits, saying,
"In seeking for a country more congenial to their habits
and feelings these tribes have for some time directed
their expectations to the source of the Mississippi — a
region clearly beyond the scope of our future settlements,
and which yet affords advantages in its lakes, savannahs
and rice-fields for an Indian population."

In accordance with if not as a result of these sugges
tions and recommendations, Henry E. Schoolcraf t acting
as a commissioner on the part of the United States, on
March 28, 1836, concluded a treaty with the chiefs of the
Ottawa and Chippewa nations whereby they relinquished
their title to all lands in western and northern Michigan
excepting certain specified reservations. The treaty

MICHIGAN ADMITTED TO THE UNION 253

embraced as estimated, ten million acres in the Lower
Peninsula and six million acres in tlie Upper Peninsula,
for which the Government agreed to pay in annuities and
other stipulated items the sum of $1,601,600. Upon the
conclusion of this treaty, Senator Lyon, ever enthusiastic
for the advancement of the State, wrote to his Detroit
friends: "Of the country purchased about four million
acres extending from the Grand Kiver north, is known
to be fine land for settlement, and within a very few
years we shall no doubt see towns springing up at the
mouths of all the rivers flowing into Lake Michigan for
a hundred miles north of Grand Eiver, if not all around
the Lower Peninsula. The Upper Peninsula is known to
contain vast forests of the very best pine, which is even
now much wanted in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and the
southern part of Michigan and Wisconsin, an$ must very
shortly furnish the material of a highly valuable trade.77
It was shortly after the completion of this treaty, that
Congress passed the act of conditional admission of the
State with the stipulated grants to the State of lands for
universities and other purposes. It was in pursuance of
these grants that the Legislature passed, and the Gov
ernor, on July 25, approved the bill for the appointment
of commissioners to locate the salt springs and contigu
ous lands, as well as the lands to be appropriated for
university and building purposes. As settlers were rap
idly appropriating the valuable lands, Governor Mason
at once selected the commissioners, and had the selections
of the State made and certified. Of the lands thus
selected, not a few descriptions, especially on the Niles
reservation and in the Grand Eiver region, were in the pos
session of " squatters" or settlers who had without legal

254 STEVENS T. MASON

right or authority gone upon the Indian lands with the
design of becoming possessed of the legal title to the same
when the Indian title should be extinguished and the
lands should be placed upon the market. This action of
the Governor, although clearly in the interest of the
State, led to complications that were before the Legisla
ture for several sessions for adjustment, and were sought
to be used, as we shall hereinafter see, to the political
disadvantage of the Governor in his campaign for
re-election to the Governorship.

The general election of 1836 had not been allowed to
pass without exhibitions of interest in its outcome,
although as the Whigs had taken the position that the
State government was illegal in its inception, they had
not been in a position to prosecute a campaign for their
own principles. A Democratic majority had therefore
been returned to the State Legislature and the Demo
cratic electors chosen to vote for Martin Van Bureii for
President and Richard M. Johnson Vice President.
Although Michigan's three electoral votes were not
counted in the election, there will always be a query as
to what the result would have been had Michigan's votes
been the determining factor in the contest.

CHAPTER XIV
LEGISLATION OF 1837

year 1837 opened with dark clouds visible on the
4- horizon of both State and Nation. Yet few seemed
to see or comprehend the storm they portended. For four
years the country had enjoyed almost a bewildering pros
perity and the people could not understand that the omin
ous mutterings were from conditions that would not soon
pass away. The people of Michigan with strong faith
and eager purpose were impatiently awaiting the task
of emulating the achievements of sister States, that to
them it seemed were less favored than they by natural
position and resources. There were many in the State
who had known Ohio when its scattered thousands of
population were struggling for a foothold upon its soil;
they had watched them multiply until now there were
upwards of a million and -a half in her thriving cities
and country homes. They had seen the same transforma
tion in the States of Indiana and Illinois, and none of
them in the same space of time had received such an
influx of immigrants as had come to Michigan, and the
people had faith that they would continue to come if they
but held fearlessly to the path wherein New York, Ohio,
Indiana and other States had found and were still finding
such unprecedented prosperity. But the statesmen of
Michigan could not see that their efforts were to be prose
cuted in a time of transition. They could not look into
the future and see that the canals built by the States of

256 STEVENS T. MASON

New York, Pennsylvania and OMo were soon to be super
seded by other and better means of communication ; they
could not see that even a railroad was to be developed
to a degree of efficiency, that was to make it the chief est
marvel of man's invention; or that the ideas of combina
tion were to be so developed, or that individual or corpo
rate wealth was to so increase, that these means of com
munication were literally to cover the earth with their
network of steel. Neither could the statesman of Mich
igan see that in ways foreign to his experience, financial
depression was to come, and that he was destined to
prosecute efforts for his State amid the wreck of fallen
fortunes and well-nigh universal panic. Because they
were not wise beyond the wisdom of their time, not a few
writers on the period have, with the benefit of their
experience, been inclined to write in a vein of unjust
depreciation and censure of the men who in the early
days of statehood assumed the responsibilities and
labored for the up-building of its institutions.

The second Legislature assembled at Detroit on Mon
day, the 2nd day of January, 1837. In the Senate were
such men as John S. Barry, later to become three times
Governor of the State. Calvin Britain, a man of more
than ordinary public experience and later Lieutenant -
Governor during the first administration of Governor
McClelland; Randolph Manning, later to serve as Chan
cellor and still later as Associate Justice of the Supreme
Court. Of the sixteen members of the Senate, two-thirds
were men of by far more than average culture and public
and business experience. In the House of Representatives
there were likewise many men of high talents and com
manding abilities. In the membership of that body one

HENRY ROW SOHOOLORAFT,

ls22 Indian Ai^nt for the Northwest: 182S-lS'lii nifinl»«T "f th»- Michijraw Terri-

turinl Council; geologist, vxplor^r, auth»ir.

PAC-SLMILB '

' IT OTTBB OF GOT. STBTBS8 I. MASOX

ISAAC E. CHARY.

Member of first State Constitutional Convention, and first meml*: >•£ Con
gress from Michigan, !So5-lS41.

LEGISLATION IN 1837 257

finds the names of Kinsley S. Bingham, who afterwards
became Governor and United States Senator; Alplieus
Felch, who was later to succeed to the governorship, the
senatorship, and to a highly creditable career upon the
Supreme Bench; "Warner Wing, lawyer of distinguished
ability; George W. Wisner, who four years before
had established and become the editor of the New York
Sun; Edwin H. Lathrop, Ezra Convis, and a score of
others who had become and who continued to be leaders
of recognized ability, not omitting Charles W. Whipple,
who was chosen speaker of the House and in later years
became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
Attention is called to the personnel of the two houses
of the Legislature of 1837, because the fact that there
was a Legislature is sometimes seemingly overlooked and
the enactments of the session accredited to the Governor
as though his influence had been the all determining fac
tor. As a matter of fact, the Governor in common with
many other students of government in his day held to the
proposition that the Governor was not warranted in
interposing a veto where the question was one of legisla
tive policy or discretion ; that such questions were solely
within the legislative branch of the government. The
Governor in his message to the Legislature went fully
into the various questions then uppermost in the public
mind. He anticipated the receipt of the surplus revenue
from the National Government and recommended that it
be deposited in various banks upon adequate security,
the interest received to be applied to the purposes of
the State. The perfecting of a penitentiary system of
which the State now stood in grievous need received his
careful attention, and he again urged the abolition of

258 STEVENS T. MASON

imprisonment for debt. The question of the State's rev
enue and the -militia likewise received thoughtful and
extended notice. Perhaps of the minor questions pre
sented to the Legislature he treated of none which for
the time embodied more of originality than did his recom
mendations for a geological survey of the State, a pro-
ject in which his interest was unquestionably enlisted by
that eminent young scientist, Douglass Houghton, .then
in the twenty-eighth year of his age. At the previous
session of the Legislature the newly appointed Superin
tendent of Public Instruction, John D. Pierce, had been
authorized to investigate and report to the Legislature
on the question of the establishment of a school system.
With characteristic pioneer energy, he had sold his house
and lot at Marshall, and with the means thus secured
had started by lumber-wagon for Detroit and the East
in quest of information that might supplement his own
rare judgment and well-stored mind. Before his return,
he had conferred with prominent educators of New York,
Massachusetts and Connecticut, and had attended the two
most important teachers' gatherings of the time, the one
at Worcester and the other at Cincinnati. Thus fortified,
he proceeded to prepare his report to the Legislature,
which was submitted to that body during the first days
of its session. It is within the truth to say that in no
State of the Union before this time had there been sub
mitted a document embracing a more comprehensive
scheme of education nor one so well calculated to meet the
requirements and effectuate the purposes desired. Mr.
Pierce frankly admitted that in the perfecting of his
system, he had drawn from the educational system of
Prussia as expounded by the celebrated Victor Cousin,

LEGISLATION IN 1837 250

who as an authority he frequently quoted. It is needless
to say more of Mr. Pierce Js report than that as its recom
mendations were almost wholly adopted by the Legisla
ture, it made John D. Pierce the father of the Michigan
school system and the pioneer in the scheme whereby a
State placed the means of education within the reach of
all.

Governor Mason, always enthusiastic in the cause of
education, seldom sending a message to the Legislature
without a plea in its. interest, now ably seconded the
report and recommendation of the Superintendent of
Public Instruction, saying among other things upon this
subject, "The State fund for the support of common
schools, with prudent husbandry, will equal our utmost
wants. The University of Michigan will also possess
an endowment which will enable the State to place that
institution upon an elevation of character and standing
equal to that of any similar institution in the Union. I
would, therefore, recommend the immediate location of
the University at the same time the adoption of a system
for its government as well as a system for the govern
ment of your primary schools. In the organization of
your common schools, which are the foundation upon
which your whole system of education must be based,
the first measure essential to their success and good gov
ernment is the appointment of teachers of the highest
character both moral and intellectual. Liberal salaries
should be allowed the instructors, as without this, you
may rest assured you must fail in your object, as indi
viduals in all respects competent to the charge of your
schools will be excluded from them by the parsimonious-
ness of their compensation, "

200 STEVENS T. MASON

Inasmuch as Michigan was to have a State banking
experience which was destined to Eve as one of the
unpleasant memories of 1837-38 and was to be one of the
enactments that was to be charged to the Governor's
administration, it is but proper that the Governor's mes
sage utterances on the subject should be reproduced; for
they are not only interesting as showing his soundness
on the fundamentals of the subject, but they show his
view of the duties of an executive officer with respect
to the exercise of his veto power.

"I find/3 said he? "by reference to the notice of appli
cations to be made to you for legislation at your present
session that you will be called upon to legislate exten
sively upon applications for bank charters.

"This subject involves the currency of the country,
and cannot be regarded with too much interest and care.
The question involved in all legislation upon the subject,
is one of simple expediency and the responsibility
involved, in a great measure, rests upon the Legislature.
The executive officer, strictly construing his veto power,
should confine its exercise to constitutional questions,
unless it be in flagrant cases where facts come before
Mm which have been withheld from the knowledge of the
legislature. Questions of expediency, as a general rule,
should be left to the immediate representatives of the
people. The country, it is true, is laboring at present
under an unprecedented pressure in the money markets.
But it is a mistaken idea that extensive issues of bank
paper mil remove this evil. Banks are rather the effect
than the cause of the prosperity of a State. They may
afford facilities in trade but they are not the foundation
of the public wealth. The wealth of the State has a

LEGISLATION IN 1837 2G1

deeper source ; it springs from the agricultural industry
of the country; it emanates from the labor of the people.
The cause of the existing pressure does not arise so much
from the want of banking capital as from an unnatural
state of trade produced by the wild and reckless spirit
of speculation which has overrun the land and has with
drawn capital from its usual channels. This capital must
return to the channels when it properly belongs before
the entire relief to the community can be experienced;
and as it is generally invested in real estate, its return
will be found to be gradual in its operation. A wise
and prudent economy accompanied by a cessation of
extravagant speculation can alone restore a proper state
of trade and relieve the embarrassment of the country.
Without this a multiplication of banks and bank paper
will but increase the evil"

Passing from a discussion of the fundamental causes
that to his mind had produced the financial stress under
which the country was then laboring, he proceeded to
say, "We must recollect that bank notes are not money,
but merely its representative. Gold and silver are the
basis of our currency, and when your bank notes are not
convertible into this medium at the will of the holder
they must depreciate in value. " He concluded with the
caution, " Every guard should, therefore, be thrown
around your bank charters, which may have a tendency to
satisfy the public mind of the solvency of the institutions
and of their ability to redeem their paper at the will of
the holder."

Governor Mason, as already appears, was outlining
legislation commensurate with a liberal State policy, and
unquestionably the policy in which he in common with the

262 STEVENS T. MASON

people generally entered with the most enthusiasm was
the policy of internal improvement. But enthusiastic as
he was, his utterances and recommendations upon the sub
ject were of a practical and, if the policy was to be entered
upon at all, of a very reasonable nature. Said the Gov
ernor, ' i The first measure to be adopted in carrying into
successful effect this branch of our State policy is imme
diate organization of a board of internal improvement.
Under the direction of this board, the surveys essential
in legislating safely with reference to contemplated
works of improvement should be made during the present
year, so that at the next session of the Legislature meas
ures may be adopted for the immediate commencement of
such canals, railroads, and other public worts as may
then be sanctioned and designated. Competent engineers
should be employed under the direction of the State
board, for without the evidence of their estimates and
investigation no important work should ever be ordered
by the Legislature. "

At the previous session of the Legislature, that body
had authorized the Governor to negotiate for the sur
render to the State of the charters of certain railroad
companies that had been granted incorporation. Of the
companies solicited, only the Detroit and St. Joseph,
later to become the Central, and the St. Clair and Eomeo
responded. Adverting to the offers made, the Governor
repeated liis former suggestion, saying, that in ease "the
Legislature should determine not to receive the exclusive
charge of the public works of the above character, I
would again suggest that the State take such an amount
of stock in the chief routes which have or may be ordered,

LEGISLATION IN 1887 288

as will secure to the people a controlling influence over
them."

Kecognizing the great possibilities of the newly
acquired Upper Peninsula, he recommended the construc
tion of a ship canal around the Falls of the River St.
Mary, and inasmuch as it was a work of national charac
ter, he suggested that Congress be memorialized for an
appropriation to that end. For the carrying out of the
general scheme of public improvements he recommended
a foreign loan thus indicating the general lack of appre
ciation of the extent of the work in contemplation, — or,
what is possible, not contemplating the extensive works
that were ultimately ordered, — by recommending a loan
of five million dollars "as sufficient to accomplish all the
important public improvements demanded by the State
for the present/'

If there was criticism of the Governor's position as
outlined in his message, it was not shown by the press.
Even the Whig paper quite generally commended its
main features, and expressed disapprobation only of the
treatment accorded the statehood and boundary question.
The Legislature at once applied itself to the duties at
hand, following the matters of general interest to the
consideration of the topics suggested in the Governor's
message. The Governor was at once authorized to
appoint a private secretary, the position being given to
Calvin C. Jackson, a young man but recently from New
York. A few days later, a resolution was passed which
marked the beginning of the State Library; placing it
in charge of the Governor's secretary, to be conducted
under such rules and regulations as he, under the direc
tion of the Governor and the approval of the Legislature,

264 STEVENS T. MASON

might establish. For this purpose the Legislature later
made an appropriation of two thousand dollars and pro
vided for an appropriation of one thousand dollars annu
ally for the next five years. The expenditure of this money
was placed in the hands of the Governor, the president
of the Senate and the speaker of the House. Although
Jackson became the official librarian, and as such drew
fifty dollars the first year for his services, a large portion
of the actual duties of the position was performed by
Oren Marsh, a young man who for three years or more
had been connected with the education efforts of the .city
of Detroit.

The first measure of importance to receive legislative
attention was the act creating the office of State Geol
ogist and providing for a geological survey of the State,
which received executive approval on February 23. This
act provided for annual reports to the Legislature and
carried appropriations of three thousand dollars for the
year 1837, six thousand for 1838, eight thousand for
1839, and twelve thousand for 1840. That the pioneer
Legislature was brought to see the value of a project of
this character speaks as highly for the diplomacy of Dr.
Houghton as his subsequent achievements did for his
scientific abilities. For years afterward, stories were
told of certain members who were at first emphatic in
their protests against the expenditure of money for what
they denominated " foolishness/7 after an evening spent
at the home of the genial doctor where no word was said
as respects the pending bill but where they were enter
tained by the well-stored mind of the scientist and made
to see the manifold advantages to be derived from Ms
knowledge in the discovery of the natural resources

LEGISLATION IN 1837 266

of the State, left his home not only the doctor's warm
friends but as the supporters of the bill for a geological
survey. Needless to say that on March 3rd, following
the approval of the act, the Governor nominated, and
four days later the Senate confirmed. Dr. Douglas Hough-
ton as State Geologist, a position in which he was
destined to render most signal service alike helpful to
Ms State and Nation.

In conformity with the Governor's recommendation,
provision was made by resolution for the selection of
three commissioners to study the question of prison man
agement and discipline, and to receive and examine pro-
posals for the location of such an institution and later
to report their conclusions to the Legislature. It was a
year later in pursuance of the report of this commission
that the State Prison was located at "Jacksonburg."
Envious competing localities insisted that they had
offered inducements for the location to the State, while
the citizens of Jacksonburg had been wise in offering all
inducements to the commissioners.

At this session through the personal effort of the Gov
ernor, the good priest Martin Kundig received a belated
and insufficient recognition for his financial sacrifice in
relieving the poor and distressed during the cholera
scourge of three years before, in the form of a gift of
three thousand dollars. This is said to be the single
instance in our history of a reward or pension for philan
thropic service, and surely the State chose a worthy and
exceptional example; for even after the receipt of the
gratuity, his obligations in the care of the poor and needy
which fate had committed to Ms charge, were such that
Ms entire property and personal effects were sold bv the

266 STEVENS T. MASON

the Sheriff to satisfy debts he had contracted through
the prompting of Ms charitable instincts. It was nearly
twenty years later before the good shepherd could say
that he was free from the debts he had contracted while
giving care and comfort to the poor and friendless of
Detroit.

The law for the organization and support of primary
schools received approval on the 20th of March, and car
ried into effect the recommendations of Superintendent
Pierce ; in substance it is still the law of the State in its
application to primary education. On the same day the
University was by action of the Legislature located at
Ann Arbor ; but not until the ambitious village of Palmer,
then the county seat of St. Clair County (now city of
St. Clair), had filed with the Legislature a numerously
signed petition and had exerted all the influence within
its power to secure its location at that place, which could
then boast the possession of three stores, two sawmills, a
gristmill, a chartered bank, a newspaper, a lawyer, four
physicians, and strong hope in all the people that the
town would be made the eastern terminus of one of the
lines of the railway which it was likewise hoped would be
projected westward across the peninsula. The law for the
organization and government of the University had been
approved two days before. The Act and its subsequent
amendment at the same session made provision for three
departments; the department of literature, science and
art, the department of law, and the department of medi
cine. The government was vested in a Board of Regents
to be appointed by the Governor, he being ex-officio pres
ident of the board; the Lieutenant Governor, the Judges
of the Supreme Court and the Chancellor of the State

LEGISLATION IN 1837 367

were by virtue of their offices likewise members of the
board. Three of the appointed members were to vacate
their offices yearly. Besides being the governing body
of the University proper, the Board of Begents, with
the Superintendent of Public Instruction, was empow
ered to establish branches of the University, or acade
mies, in diff erent parts of the State. The branches were
prohibited from granting degrees, but were required
each to maintain a department for instruction in agri
culture and a department for the education of teachers
for the primary schools. The branches were, in fact,
designed to fill the place of preparatory schools or of
high schools, by which they were subsequently super
seded, Governor Mason indicated his hearty interest
in the University, which was as yet without buildings
or professors, by the Board of Eegents he appointed; the
twelve were John J. Adam, John Norvell, Boss WilMns,
Seba Murphy, Isaac E. Crary, Lucius Lyon, Jonathan
Kearsley, Henry B. Schooferaft, Samuel W. Denton, Gor-
den C. Leach, George "Whittemore, and Zina Pitcher,
aU men of the highest character and first abilities. The
board, upon its organization, decided to establish sev
eral branches, rightfully assuming that for a few years
their instruction would necessarily precede the work of
the central University. The University branches author
ized were to be established at Detroit, Pontiac, Centre-
ville, Niles, Grand Bapids, Palmer, Jackson, Monroe,
Kalamazoo, and MacMnac. Several of these institutions
went into successful operation and for many years ren
dered valuable service in the field for which they were
designed. It was not until the next year, 1838, that
the State loaned to the University $100,000 with which

268 STEVENS T. MASON

to begin building operations. The Board of Regents at
this time, to prepare for the opening of the institution,
appointed Dr. Asa Gray, who later achieved a national
reputation as a botanist, to the professorship of botany
and zoology and sent him to Europe empowered to pur
chase $5,000 worth of books as the nucleus of a library,
which has since grown to more than three hundred thou
sand volumes.

During the legislative session, the members evidently
felt the need of the Attorney General at the seat of gov
ernment, and inasmuch as the Attorney General, Daniel
LeRoy, resided at Pontiac, the Legislature by resolution
on the 13th of March provided that it should be thence
forth the duty of the Attorney General to reside at the
seat of government; and provided further that the office
should be deemed vacant upon his failure to do so. It
is quite possible that the $200 salary which was then
paid to the office was not sufficiently alluring to induce
the removal of the Attorney General from Pontiac to
Detroit; at any rate the office was a week later consid
ered vacant and on the 21st the Governor nominated and
the Senate confirmed Peter Morey of Tecumseh for the
position. The salary of the office on the same day was
increased as was that of the Auditor General to $400
annually; while that of the treasurer was likewise
increased to $500, of the Secretary of State to $1,000,
and of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to $1,500
per year.

The three measures passed at this session which more
than any other enactments became the subjects of gen
eral discussion, were the banking law, the law providing
for a system of internal improvements, and intimately

LEGISLATION IN 1837 269

connected with the latter law, the law authorizing the
five million dollar loan. These three laws formed the
basis of a State experience that has been a powerfully
continuing factor in the history of the State. That the
experience was disastrous goes without saying; but it is
equally true that to a great degree the disasters pro
ceeded quite as much from the inopportuneness of the
undertaking, as from fundamental defects in the laws
under which the projects were prosecuted. This is
especially true of the projected works of internal
improvement.

The "wild cat** crisis or panic of 1837 will live long
in the history of the State, but its causes were rather
national than local in character; although as would be
expected the general conditions were either intensified
or alleviated by incidents that were entirely local. Mich
igan, perhaps to a greater extent than enighboring States,
shared both in the delusive prosperity of 1836 and the
enlightening disasters of 1837 and subsequent years, but
the causes in both instances were to be found in large
measure in issues that had to do more with national than
State concern.

Since the reehartering of the bank of the United States
and the commencement of business in 1817, it had grown
to be one of the richest and most powerful corporations
in the world. For twenty years it had furnished a cur
rency that had been freely accepted by the people in
all parts of the country, and because its own notes were
good it exerted a marked influence in requiring the
smaller banks of the various States to maintain their
currency at the same standard. It had paid annual divi
dends of from 8 to 10 per cent and could now show a

270 STEVENS T. MASON

surplus of astonishing proportions. Although, of unques
tioned stability its very strength had brought it enemies
and matured a sentiment that its tremendous powers
were inimical to free institutions. A large and growing
body of citizens were convinced that it was in contraven
tion of both the Federal Constitution and good policy,
that the National Government should be in league with
a corporation that fattened upon the deposits and con
trolled the currency of the country. The charter of the
bank would expire in 1837; and President Jackson, fol
lowing his election in 1833, had made it plain that he
would withhold his signature from any bill that Con
gress might pass to renew it, a position he vigorously
maintained to the end of his political career.

During the twenty years of peace, prosperity had
blessed the land to such an extent, that the national debt
had been cancelled and there was now a surplus of $40,-
000,000 in the treasury above the needs of government.
After a bitter contest, this surplus was withdrawn from
deposit with the Bank of the United States. If this
action induced tremors in the financial institutions of
the country, they were not apparent, for the surplus,
instead of being concentrated in one institution, was now
deposited in the banks of the various States, which
because of their selection became known as the "pet
banks. " As much as $1,895,000 was deposited with the
banks of Michigan, one and a half million dollars being
on deposit with the Bank of Michigan and the Farmers'
and Mechanics' Bank of Detroit.

With the Bank of the United States forced to retire its
circulation and to seek a semblance of perpetuity as a
State bank under the laws of Pennsylvania, as the Penu-

LEGISLATION IN 1837 271

sylvania Bank of the United States, and its deposits
including the great deposit of the National Government
transferred to the various State banks with no national
institution created to take the place of the great bank
eliminated, we can now well understand what happened
even though it could not then be foreseen. State banks,
left as the exclusive occupants of the field, multiplied
with great rapidity. Even before the expiration of the
charter of the Bank of the United States anticipation
had started the increase. The abnormal deposit in the
State banks, coupled with inflated issues of bank cur
rency, at once inflated values far above the normal and
induced an era of the most extravagant speculation,
especially in the unimproved public lands. The unprece
dented immigration to Michigan lent especial emphasis
to this form of investment. The extent of this invest
ment is shown when we know that the total land sales
in all the States and Territories of the Union for 1836
was a little more than $25,000,000, while the sales in Mich
igan alone were $5,241,228.70. But the fallacious pros
perity was soon to end. The national authorities soon
discovered that the bank notes of the State banks were
displacing the metallic currency of the country, and that
the National treasury was accumulating a paper cur
rency of doubtful value in payment for the public lands.
With the triple purpose of putting the finances on a safer
basis, protecting the treasury and putting a stop to the
wild speculation of the time, the Secretary of the Treas
ury under the direction of the President on July 11, 1836,
issued the famous so-called "Specie Circular/7 whereby
government officials were required to accept nothing but
gold and silver in payment for the public lands. This

272 STEVENS T. MASON

new demand for specie sent the paper currency back
to the banks of Issue for redemption, entailing a strin
gency in the money market that forced many banks not
favored with government deposits into liquidation.
Another measure well fitted although not intended to
still further derange the already perturbed financial con
dition of the country, had after long debate in Congress
become a law on June 15, 1836, whereby all of the sur
plus revenue in excess of $5,000,000 then on deposit in
the so-called "pet banks'7 was to be divided after Janu
ary 1, 1837, among the States as a loan, to be recalled
by direction of Congress. By this act $28,000,000 was
taken from the banks and distributed among the several
States. Of this distribution Michigan received $286,-
751.49, which the Legislature placed to the credit of the
internal improvement fund as a loan to be returned when
the contemplated loan for internal improvements was
obtained or whenever requested by the Legislature. The
demand upon the banks for this great sum, which in
many instances had been loaned in the general course of
business, necessitated the sudden calling in of loans, the
still further shattering of public confidence and the pre
cipitation of the panic of 1837, a financial disaster the
like of which had never before been experienced in Amer
ica. It was in conflict with such conditions that the Mich
igan legislators launched the fond-thought enterprises
of their aspiring State, and to the correction of which
they sought to apply remedies of their own devising.

Much has been written in critical and derisive vein
of Michigan's "wildcat" banking law; but time and con
ditions considered, nothing was more natural in legisla
tion than that a State banking law should have been

First Statt

JOHN i». 1'iEin'i:.

i'i»'M ni ri;l»!i,

1H1. ZINA

An n

t t 1 <C.^.

LEGISLATION IX 1837 273

enacted. It was in line with the legislation of other
States, and there was a general feeling that in the devel
opment of the country there was an insufficiency of cur
rency with which to transact the volume of business.
Michigan's disastrous experience with the hanking law
of 1837 resulted quite as much from the rascality of men
who ignored and evaded the requirements of the law as
from defects in the law itself. The salient features
of the law embraced the following provisions : Any num
ber of persons residing within a county including twelve
freeholders among their numbers could organize a bank
with a capital of not less than $50,000 nor more than
$300,000. Numerous safeguards were placed around the
subscribing of the stock; provisions were made insuring
that at least one-third of the stock should always be
owned by residents of the county. Before commencing
business all the stock must be subscribed and thirty
per cent of the same was to be paid in in specie. Ten
per cent of the stock was to be paid in each SLS mouths
thereafter until all the capital was paid in. Before begin
ning operations the president and directors were
required to furnish security in the form of bonds and
mortgages upon real estate within the State or the per
sonal bonds of resident freeholders, to be approved by
the county treasurer and the county clerk and filed with
the Auditor General, which securities were to equal the
full amount that any association might at any time have
in circulation or be indebted. Neither the circulation nor
the loans and discounts were to exceed twice and a half
the amount of the capital stock paid in. Heavy liabilities
were placed upon both stockholders and directors. Pro
vision was made for explicit reports and rigid examin-

274 STEVENS T. MASON

ations by a commissioner to detect and prevent fraud.
The New York Safety Fund scheme was also incorpo
rated in the law, whereby it was designed that each bank
should contribnte semi-annually one-half of one per cent"
upon capital stock paid in until a fund of three per cent
was accumulated. Such a fund it was thought would
be sufficient to make good all deficiencies that might arise
from the failures of single corporations. A general con
dition of bankruptcy and failure without assets was not
within their imaginings.

In the passage of the bill through the Legislature, it
received consistent opposition from but one or two mem
bers. In the House it passed by a vote of 34 to 4; the
34 including such men as Kinsley S. Bingham, "Warner
Wing, George W. Wisner and Edwin H. Lothrop, while
the four in opposition were Jonathan P. King, Alpheus
Felch, Charles W. Whipple and Robert Purdy, all of
whom save Alpheus Felch and Robert Purdy had pre
viously supported the measure at various stages of its
passage. In the Senate the vote was equally decisive,
being 15 to 1 for the bill. John McDonell of Detroit was
the lone Senator in opposition. At the legislative session
of 1836 provision had been made for the appointment
of a banking commissioner, and Governor Mason had
nominated and the Legislature had unanimously con
firmed Robert McClelland of Monroe in the position. The
records do not disclose but it is evident that Mr. McClel
land did not accept and that Marshall J. Bacon was
appointed ad interim. His first report was laid before
the Legislature January 5, 1837. Upon the passage of
the general banking Act of March 15, 1837, the Governor

LEGISLATION IN 1837 275

nominated and the Legislature confirmed Edwin N.
Bridges of Cass County to the commissionership, the
duties of which position were evidently not considered
of an onerous character as the office carried a salary of
but three hundred dollars per year.

One looks in vain in the law itself for the provisions
that were to be warrant for all the financial mischief that
followed its enactment. Of the law, one writer has said,
" There are in these provisions all the elements appar
ently of safe banking, including the payment of capital
stock in specie, personal liability of directors and stock
holders, careful examination by bank commissioners and
frequent examination and sworn statement by the direc
tors/5

John J. Knox? ex-comptroller of the treasury has like
wise told us how near Michigan came to enacting a good
banking law. Said he, "The first State to embody this
principle of requiring banks of circulation to deposit
securities with the governing power, was Michigan, That
State in 1837 adopted a general banking law, by wMeh
the banks were required to deposit bonds and mortgages
and personal bonds. This was in aacord with the
views of Albert Gallatm." In practical operation of the
law, however, the carrying out of its provisions was of
necessity intrusted in many instances to men entirely
wanting in the knowledge of even the fundamentals of
banking, and even had they been disposd conservatively
to follow and conform to all legal requirements, they
would not have had experience sufficient to have pro
moted public confidence, But mistaken guidance and
honest errors contributed but little to the unwholesome

276 STEVENS T, MASON

memory with which the people later viewed the law,
for its every precautionary and salutary requirement
was recklessly and criminally disregarded and it was
made the excuse or means of the most glaring frauds
and deceptions.

In the matter of internal improvements the Legisla
ture joined the Governor in hearty approval of the
scheme, even exceeding his enthusiasm by refusing to
entertain consideration of the conservative restrictions
his message had suggested. His suggestion that the
State become a subscriber to the stock of the principle
works of internal improvements, and thus combine the
State's resources with the interest and enterprise of the
individual, seems not to have been considered at all ; and
his recommendation that no work be undertaken or
appropriation made until the Legislature had had before
it the surveys and estimates of competent engineers was
followed in altogether too limited a degree. The weak
ness of the scheme was soon apparent. Had the State
been able to concentrate its resources and energies upon
one venture of paramount importance, it would have
accomplished results of a very desirable nature ; but the
average member of the Legislature could not contemplate
with satisfaction a scheme of internal improvement
where his own and his constituents' interests were not
to receive a benefit of a direct and positive nature until
years in the future, while in the meantime some other
section h.ad been enjoying the benefits of their contribu
tions. No satisfactory scheme could be worked out that
did not embrace the whole State. Petitions from the
remote places of the State showed that even there the

LEGISLATION IN 1837 277

lonely pioneer was imbued with the desire for a broad
scheme of internal improvements. The opposing party
press even joined in the demand, the Advertiser of Feb
ruary 2nd, 1837, saying editorially, "From all indications
of public opinion in the Legislature, and out of it, we
conclude that the State has determined to prosecute a
magnificent system of internal improvements. This, if
judiciously accomplished, will enrich the State immeas
urably beyond the cost of the work if past and present
experience is not entirely at fault."

In a report nearly twenty pages in length, Mr. Elisha
Ely of Allegan, chairman of the House committee on
internal improvements, with figures and rhetoric told the
House of the marvelous transformation that would be
wrought by the work to be instituted. Says the report,
"The more the subject is investigated, the wider extends
the field and the more worthy it appears of attention.
Its consequences to Michigan are incalculable. Her
future prosperity is, in the opinion of your committee,
inseparably interwoven with the progress of internal
improvement. By it alone, she can attain the political
importance so necessary to protect her from the want
of a due weight in the councils of the nation." In another
burst of eloquence it says, "A few leading routes in
successful operation will excite the enterprise of every
section of the country, while it will create and allure
capital for the more rapid fulfillment of every design."

On March 20, 1837, the law to provide for the construc
tion of certain works of internal improvement was
approved by the Governor. The law provided for the
survey and establishment of three lines of railroads

278 STEVENS T. MASON

across the State, to be designated as the Central, the
Northern and the Southern. The Central involved the
purchase of the Detroit and St. Joseph, then under course
of construction between Detroit and Dearborn; Detroit
and the mouth of the St. Joseph river being established
as its termini; the Southern was to commence at the
navigable waters of the river Eaisin, pass through the
village of Monroe in the county of Monroe, and terminate
at New Buffalo in the county of Berrien; the Northern
was to commence at either Palmer (St. Clair) or at or
near the mouth of Black Eiver in the county of St. Clair
and to terminate either at the navigable waters of the
Grand Eiver in the county of Kent or on Lake Michigan
in the county of Ottawa. Five hundred and fifty thou
sand dollars was appropriated for these works, antici
pating of course a loan that should later be made for
the purpose. Of this sum one hundred thousand dollars
was to be for the Southern, four hundred thousand for
the Central, and fifty thousand for the Northern. Forty
thousand dollars was likewise appropriated for the con
struction of a canal or for a canal part of the way and
a railroad the remainder of the way commencing near
Mi Clemens on the Clinton Eiver to terminate at or near
the mouth of the Kalamazoo Eiver, while fifteen thou
sand dollars was appropriated for the purpose of a canal
connecting the waters of the Saginaw and Maple rivers.
These last two ventures were to be undertaken only in
the event of the commissioners' being convinced of the
practicability of "the work. Surveys were also authorized-
for the St. Joseph, Kalamazoo and Grand rivers with a
view to their improvement by slack-water navigation;

LEGISLATION IN 1837 2T9

and for the purchase of instruments and for the survey
of canal routes and rivers twenty thousand dollars more
was appropriated ; while a like sum was provided for the
purchase of the Havre Branch Bailroad, a railroad
designed to extend from the village of Havre seven miles
above Toledo, westward a distance of about thirteen
miles to the intersection of the Erie and Kalamazoo Bail-
road then in operation from Toledo to Adrian. One
detects here an effort to build up a rival on Michigan soil
to the city on the Maumee thad had preferred to cast
its lot with Ohio. But Havre, like many another "city"
of its day, has long since passed from the minds of all
save those who seek the record of the past.

WMle there was for a time some difference between
the House and Senate over the provisions of this bill, the
differences were ultimately adjusted by a committee of
conference ; the bill passed the House without a dissent
ing vote, while in the Senate it passed with a vote of
13 to 1; the lone opposer was Randolph Manning, and
he opposed details rather than principles.

On March 21, executive approval was given to the Act
appropriating $25,000 for the purposes of the St Mary's
Canal in case the survey and report of the engineers
should be favorable to the project, which was to be under
taken without "any unreasonable delay." On the same
day acts were approved providing for the appointment
by the Governor and approval by the Legislature of a
Board of Commissioners on Internal Improvements, who
were given broad powers in the construction and opera
tion of the State works, and authorized the Governor
to negotiate a loan not exceeding five million dollars with

280 STEVENS T. MASON

interest not exceeding 5% per cent per annum payable
in New York or elsewhere in the United States and
redeemable at the pleasure of the State at any time from
and after twenty-five years from January 1, 1838. The
bonds were not to be sold at less than par; the proceeds
were to be credited to the fund for internal improvements
from which all contingent expenses of the Governor in
negotiating the loan were to be likewise paid. Into this
fund were also to go the contemplated earnings of the
canals and railroads for the eventual repayment of the
principal and interest of the loan.

The Governor at once nominated as members of the
Board of Commissioners of 'Internal Improvements Dan
iel .LeRoy of Oakland, Hart L. Stewert and John Bar-
bour of Berrien, David C. McKinstry of Wayne, Levy S.
Humphrey of Monroe, Gardner D. "Williams of Saginaw
and Justus Burdick of Kalamazoo. The Legislature in
joint convention promptly confirmed all the nominations,
excepting the nomination of Daniel LeRoy, who, the
Legislature still remembered, had refused to remove to
the seat of Government as Attorney General. The Gov
ernor accordingly sent the name of James B, Hunt of
Oakland County to the Legislature, which was at once
accepted and confirmed.

The legislation, aside from the measures mentioned,
was asf would be presumed of an extensive and varied
character involving the organization of townships, the
incorporation of villages, and the creation of corporations
to engage in all the varied enterprises that were just then
so fufl of promise. The Legislature adjourned March 22,
to reconvene the following November 9, by which time

LEGISLATION IX 1837 281

it was presumed the $5,000,000 loan would be negotiated
and other matters matured so as to require legislative
action. Even the organs of the opposition credited the
Legislature with having enacted " highly important meas
ures, most of them conceived in a spirit of enlightened
policy highly creditable to the body;" although two
weeks before, the same paper had said that if they appro
priated money to pay the per diem and expenses of the
"Frost-bitten Convention7' "They will deserve to be
brow-beaten and pelted with billets by a mob assembled
around their bar as the French Revolution assembled in
1790." Such was the contemporary conception of the
relative merits of the issues considered by the Legisla
ture of 1837.

Although the winter had been filled with arduous
duties, which, from the Governor's letters to the absent
members of the family it is apparent he fully appreciated
and zealously labored to discharge, the weeks did not
pass without the usual round of Detroit's midwinter
gaiety, in which the dignitaries of State joined with as
much zest as the more care-free portions of the cominim-
ity. There were interesting meetings at the Young Men's
Society, and lectures at the Capitol. There were recep
tions at the homes of substantial citizens where cultured
hospitality made all at ease, and there were gatherings
at " Uncle Ben's,'7 where the nights were none too long
for the geniality and goodfellowship that there assem
bled. On January 20, the announcement was made of the
arrival of the long-expected locomotive " Adrian," No.
80, from the Baldwin works at Philadelphia, the first
one sent to the Northwest, and the third one west of the

OXJWVJ1LWS X. MAJSUfN

Allegheny Mountains, to supersede horse-power upon the
Brie and Kalamazoo between Toledo and Adrian. It
was a month later, on Washington's birthday, February
22, that the Legislature attended in a body before the
American Hotel, where in the presence of a large gather
ing of citizens, Governor Mason in a speech of patriotic
sentiment, presented to the Brady Guards resplendent
in their smart uniforms, a standard bearing upon one
side a portrait of the Governor and on the reverse side
the picture of a lady, a Brady guardsman, and the Mich
igan coat of arms ; it being unquestionably the first flag
upon which was depicted the design of the State seal.
To the presentation Captain Isaac S. Rowland responded,
and, with standard flying, the company marched back to
their quarters to be later congratulated by press and
public on the grace with which their part in the program
had been performed.

It was but a few days later, on March 13, that the
friends of the Governor, through John Norton, Jr.,
Thomas C. Sheldon and Andrew T. McBeynolds, pre
sented to the State in the following communication the
life-sized portrait of the Governor, which from that day
to this has been the portrait of keenest interest among
all those which adorn the halls of the State Legislature.
"To the Hon. 0. W. Whipple, Speaker
"Of the House of Representatives
"A number of the citizens of Michigan being desirous
to preserve the features of their first Chief Magistrate,
have caused a portrait of their Governor to be executed.
This portrait they offer for the acceptance of the State,
through the medium of the representatives of the people,
with the request that it shaU be placed in the Hall of

LEGISLATION IN 1837 28S

the House of Representatives as an evidence to future
times of the affection of Ms fellow citizens for the man,
and their respect for the magistrate, and as a memorial
of the officer whose virtues have adorned, and whose
talents have dignified, the opening annals of the common
wealth of Michigan.

" JOHN NORTON, JR.
"THOMAS a SHELDON,
"ANDREW McREYNOLDS."

With these and kindred subjects was the public mind
occupied as well as with the serious affairs of State and
National politics.

CHAPTER XV

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES AND THE ELECTION OF 1837

FOB some six or seven years party political feeling
had been growing in intensity and bitterness, as
grave questions of a governmental nature were now
beginning to press for solution. The Democratic-Repub
lican party, the party of Jackson, had governed with a
vigor and with a violation of precedence, which, while it
had made loyal adherents, had likewise made bitter ene
mies. The growing agitation of the Anti-slavery Society
and the constantly growing influence of the great power
against which its efforts were directed, and strain of
adapting government and society to new and untried
conditions, all tended to create issues which under the
state of general education then existing aroused personal
and political antagonism of the most vehement character.
The feeling of the time not only prompted resort to the
political methods best calculated to accomplish desired
ends, but it prompted as well the most ungenerous criti
cism and unjustified reflections upon the honor and
character of political opponents as those intrusted with
the conduct of political affairs. This was especially true
in Michigan, where national issues had been supple
mented by considerations of State concern well calculated
to further divide contending factions. The Whig party
had been growing vigorously since 1832, and the gather
ing clouds of financial disaster now gave it an oppor
tunity for criticism that was to be most telling and effec-

FINANCIAL BIFFICTLTIEB AND THE ELECTION OF 1807 2815

tive ; as arguments addressed to the pocketbook, whether
based upon f act, fiction, or sophistry, always are.

Michigan was now approaching what was to be its
first vigorously contested political campaign wherein
State officers and members of the Legislature were to
be selected. The election of 1835 had been almost with
out organized opposition to the Democratic-Republican
ticket, and so could hardly be dignified as a contest,
There was now likewise a member of Congress to be
elected. The term of Isaac E. Crary who was not allowed
to take his seat until January 27, although elected in
November 1835, expired with the twenty-fourth Con
gress, March 4, 1837. For some reason, perhaps because
it was not known how long the State might be kept out
of the Union, no member of Congress was elected at the
preceding November election, and so the State found
itself without a Congressman after March 4. To remedy
this condition, the Legislature later provided for a con
gressional election to be held on the 21st and 22nd of
August 1837 ; the election was called at this time undoubt
edly so that the State might have representation in the
Lower House of Congress, at the special session which
President Van Buren had called to meet on the 4th of
September following. The politicians of the State were
early canvassing the situation and making ready for the
contest. It was soon evident that the Whigs would make
an eminently respectable showing at the election, for the
financial affairs of the country, instead of mending, con
tinued to grow more distressing as the weeks advanced.
The banks still more severely called in their loans, the
best paper went to protest, and failures became alarm
ingly frequent. Even as the Legislature adjourned, pen-

28$ STEVENS T. MASON

pie wondered if a suspension of specie payment was to
be the outcome of the situation. Every traveler and
newspaper from the East brought doleful tidings of the
financial outlook, and the people were not surprised when
on the morning of May 16, a citizen of Detroit returning
from New York announced that the blow had fallen, that
the banks of that city had suspended specie payment one
week before.

In a few hours hand-bills were on the streets calling a
citizens' meeting at the City Hall, where a few hours
later the gentlemen of business interest in the city gath
ered and listened to a recital of the conditions in the East
and to the reading of the proceedings that had been
taken by certain other cities. The meeting at once passed
resolutions requesting the banks to suspend to save their
specie, which they did the following day, the officers
of the banks a little later assuring the public through
the newspapers that their specie should be held and not
sold for a premium such as then prevailed. Governor
Mason was at once importuned by the leading men of
both parties to call a special session of the Legislature
to legalize the suspension of specie payment, as was
being done by the executives of other State. Petitions
were printed and freely circulated both in Detroit and
in the interior of the State, receiving the signatures of
the leading citizens in the banking as well as in the
business world.

Convinced there was no alternative for Michigan but
to follow the lead of the older and stronger States of the
East, the Governor issued his proclamation convening
the Legislature in special session on June 12, 1837. At
the same time he directed the Bank Commissioner to

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES AND TOT ELECTION OF 1887 281

mate a careful examination of all the banking institu
tions in the State, so that a detailed statement of their
condition could be laid before the Legislature upon its
assembling. As the Legislature was convened to deal
exclusively with the financial situation, the Governor's
message was devoted to the consideration of that one
subject. On the fundamental phases of the subject the
message followed his ideas embodied in the message of
January 2nd and most certainly showed a clear concep
tion of the principles involved, whether he had well in
mind all the details essential to making those principles
effective or not. Said he :

"The present crisis in the moneyed affairs of the coun
try is such as should bring us to a pause and induce us
well to reflect upon the causes that have led to it. It
should teach us, although we many learn the lesson of
wisdom by sad experience, to avoid in future, the seduc
tive career of apparent, but unreal prosperity, which the
nation has lately pursued and which, has brought us ulti
mately to the very verge of general bankruptcy. Let us
seek out the true sources from whence these evils have
arisen, and henceforth avoid them; bearing in mind, that
like causes if hereafter sanctioned by the people, must
again bring about the very like calamitous results which
we now deplore.

"By the universal consent of all nations gold and silver
has been made the currency and standard of value with
the great commercial world, But the scarcity of these
metals has compelled most governments of extensive
trade and commerce to create a representative ourreBey
to answer the immediate purposes of domestic exchange.
In the United States this representative is composed of

£88 STEVENS T, MASON

the paper issues of authorized banking associations, hav
ing a metallic basis created and pledged for its redemp
tion. The notes of these associations are received at
home in all exchanges, and constitute the far greater por
tion of the circulating medium of the country. But, as
a general rule, in the exchange and commercial inter
course with foreign nations the ordinary bank issues fail
to answer the demands of trade, and resort must be had
to gold and silver, or the products of labor through the
medium of exportation.

"The debt owed by one nation to another, cannot be
paid but with real effects, either in coin or commodities ;
where both these sources fail, pecuniary embarrassments
must fall upon the nation, against which the balance of
trade exists, and the debt created can only be cancelled
by bankruptcy. These are the first principles of com
mercial relations; are applicable to nearly all nations,
and are as invariable in their operations as the laws of
nature.

"We may trace, however, in a very great extent, all
our present pecuniary embarrassment to one fatal error
into which the country has fallen. The error is to be found
in our system of over banking. The excess of bank facili
ties and bank issues has made the representative of
money too abundant and has consequently brought in its
train the evil of our over trading and speculation the aug
mentation of prices already high increased unwarrant
able investments in unproductive lands, and foreign im
ports beyond the wants and means of the nation. It is ad
mitted that the great enterprise of the American people
demands, in a greater or less degree, a paper currency,
the precious metals not being sufficiently abundant to

ERIE AM) KALAMAZOO t'lUCII-APRIAS

Owatfd on strap-rail line Iti-nvMi Adrian and Purt i-invrcnce (Tulwlo)

frniii ISM.

CHARLES C. TROWBRIDGE
Regent of the University of Michigan

1S37-1S41, and President of the Bank of
Michigan.

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES AND THE ELECTION OF 1837 289

answer all the ends of the circulating medium required
by the multifarious interests of a widely extended and
constantly increasing country. But this paper medium
must be limited and should be restricted in its circula
tion so as not to exceed in too great an amount the
metallic basis which it is made partly to represent.

"What are the effects of excessive bank issues upon a
community, as proclaimed by the simplest principles of
political economy! They are, the depreciation of bank
paper, an increase of the price of all commodities, an
extension of excessive credits, the neglect of productive
labor, and a country involved in debt. The banks are
called upon for specie to pay the debt of the country;
their specie will not meet their outstanding issues; confi
dence is shaken; runs are made upon them; they are
compelled to contract their loans and call in their dis
counts, and a general pressure, if not bankruptcy, are the
inevitable results that follow.

"The condition of the United States, at the present
time, is a perfect illustration of those principles The
recorded history of the different States show million
of an increase in bank facilities; money or rather its
representative, has become abundapt ; credits have been
unparalleled; our land offices tell of a dead capital of
millions buried in unproductive lands; our custom
houses, deducting profits, freight, and difference of valu
ation, present a balance of trade against us of millions
by importation; our circulating medium has depreciated,
or what is the same thing every other exchangeable com
modity has risen, and Europe has exhibited the strange
phenomenon of under selling us on our own shores in
the exportation of her bread stuffs to America. A revul-

290 STEVENS T. MASON

sion now begins. Our debt must be paid to Europe.
The banks of the Atlantic cities are unable to furnish
sufficient fold or silver on their issues to meet the
demands ; runs are made upon them, and the result has
been a universal pressure and a general suspension of
specie payments in order to prevent general bank
ruptcy/'

After addressing Ms thought to the processes of recup
eration which he said would come "through a gradual
diminution and absorption of bank issues; a curtail
ment of a too extended trade; a cessation from mad
investments of capital in unproductive lands; a resort
to frugality and an application to honest industry, " he
called attention to the crucial question before them, the
suspension of specie payment, reluctantly suggesting
that legislative sanction be given to the proceeding,
because it has been accorded in New York, — "a State/'
as he said, with whom we have "intimate financial and
commercial relations," — arguing that Michigan could
not withstand the current which was everywhere flowing
around her.

"As the only alternative," he concluded, "although a
deplorable and hazardous one, I would recommend the
passage of a law exempting all the banks reported as safe
and solvent by the Bank Commissioner, for one year or
until the resumption of specie payments in New York
and other States from the liabilities of a forfeiture of
charter for declining to pay specie on their notes. A law
to this effect would avoid the constitutional question of
impairing the obligation of contract, and would leave the
billholder his remedy at law against the bank, should he
choose to adopt it.

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES ANI> THE ELECTION OF 18ST 2tl

* i Should you deem the passage of such an Act requisite,
its provisions, however, should be rigidly scrutinized and
strictly guarded so that the public may feel a perfect con
fidence in the ultimate redemption of the issues of the
banks. In the first place, I would suggest, that the law
should be made applicable to the safety fund banks, and
such others, as within a limited period come within the
provisions of the "Act to create a fund for the benefit of
the creditors of certain moneyed corporations, and for
other purposes, " and also that the banks be required to
receive on deposit and in payment of debts due from mdi-
vidiials, the notes of each other. These provisions if
adopted, will give uniformity to the circulating medium,
and prevent any one bank from discrediting the bills
of another. Each bank should be compelled also, if prac
ticable, to retain its specie now on hand, and to exhibit
periodically to the Bank Commissioner the fact that it
is still continued in their vaults with the exception of
such sums, as they may voluntarily choose from time to
time, to pay out in redemption of iheir notes, or for
other authorized purposes. Hie great object to be
desired, is to prevent the banks from selling their specie
at a premium, and you should by your act, visit upon
such institution thus disposing of its specie, the severest
penalties together with the forfeiture of charter.

"It is highly desirable, likewise, that the banks should
be restricted in their issues to such an amount, as will
answer the reasonable wants of the public, without suffer
ing them to expand their circulation to such an extent,
as would retard the resumption of specie payments, a
measure highly demanded by the interests and character
of the country. And in order to secure a rigid enforce-

292 STEVENS T. MASON

ment of the provisions of this law, I would recommend
such an amendment to your present statute, as will clothe
the Bank Commissioner and Chancellor with unrestricted
authority to close by injunction any institution found
violating the rules and restrictions you may prescribe
for them." Accompanying the message was the report
of the Bank Commissioner with detailed statement from
the thirteen banks of the State which showed combined
paid-in- capital of $1,697,305, and that unitedly they had
specie to the amount of $376,306.52, while their combined
circulation totaled $1,417,337.98. The Commissioner
prefaced Ms report with the statement that it " fully
demonstrates that the banks of Michigan were under no
necessity to suspend specie payments except as a meas
ure of defense to protect themselves from the conse
quences that must inevitably result from the suspension
of the banks in New York and elsewhere. "

"Whether one took the cheerful view of the situation
which seems to have imbued the Commissioner or not,
it would seem that all would have agreed that the State
was abundantly supplied with banking facilities for the
time being, especially as their combined deposits
amounted to but $548,747.25, of which nearly $400,000.00
was in the banks of Detroit and their branches. Critics
of the Governor have expressed the opinion that he had
very little real appreciation of the true situation or he
would have recommended a repeal of the general banking
law but it is perhaps more nearly correct to say, that he
as well as the members of the Legislature did not foresee
the rascality and criminality to which certain persons
were to resort to evade the law's plainest mandates and
most obvious restrictions. On June 22, the Governor

FINANCIAL DIFFIOUITriBS AND THB ELECTION OF 1887 29&

approved an Act for the suspension of specie payments
in substantial conformity with the recommendations of
his message. It provided for a suspension until May 16,
1838; required banks to accept their own notes in pay
ment of notes and drafts discounted by them; limited
the circulation of banks already in operation to from
about one and one-half times the capital actually paid in,
for the smaller banks, to an amount equal to the amount
of the capital stock paid in for the banks of $200,000 or
more capital; while all banks thereafter organized were
limited in their circulation to one and one-half times
the specie actually paid in and contained in the vaults
of the bank. Banks were prohibited from disposing of
their specie ; from directly or indirectly purchasing their
own or the notes of any other bank at a discount, and
from declaring dividends during suspension. Banks
were required to make monthly statements and the Bank
Commissioner given enlarged and ample powers to for
feit the charter and wind up the concerns of any bank
he should find to be in a dangerous or insolvent condition.
This bill was passed by substantial majorities in each
House of the Legislature ; even Alpheus Felcfa, who had
been the opponent of the general banking law, giving
his endorsement to the measure for suspension, as did
likewise thirty other members out of the forty present
and voting. Upon approval of the suspension law the
Legislature adjourned and again the people hoped that
the worst was over.

During tUe winter the old home life of the Governor
was disturbed by the separation of the members of the
household; but the later days of June found them re
united, the delicate mother having returned from the

294 STEVENS T. MASON

South, whither she had gone to escape the rigors of the
Michigan winter, and the girls were again at home from
their school at Troy. The legislative session over, the
charm of the old home hospitality mingled with the stern
cares of state and politics. There were now thirty-seven
steamboats plying on the lakes, seventeen of which were
owned in Detroit. There were three arrivals daily, and
during the early days of the summer not a few visitors
of prominence visited the city and were guests at the
Mason home ; among the number was the noted Captain
Frederick Marryatt. The steamboat service between
Detroit and Buffalo was now thought to have attained the
acme of elegance and comfort, and numerous were the
commendatory resolutions carried by the papers which
from time to time were adopted by grateful passengers
testifying to their appreciation of boats and crews. But
while Detroit was thus favored, the western portion of
the State was showing the promise of equal enterprise.
On Wednesday the 14th of June, 1837, the first steamboat
constructed in western Michigan slid from the ways into
Grand River at the pioneer village of Grand Rapids.
She was built by Richard Godfroy and others and was
fitted with engine and machinery taken from the Don
Quixote, — a steamer that had been wrecked upon the
western shore some time previously, while bearing the
press and materials for the first newspaper of the, to be,
second city of Michigan. The new steamer was chris
tened "The Governor Mason/7 and carried an elegant
stand of colors, the gift of the Governor in* recognition
of the honor conferred. The launching of this pioneer
cralt was a matter of far more than local interest and

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES AND THE ELECTION OF 2837 235

was noted by the press of the State as the forerunner of
great things that were to follow. Her trial trip was made
to Grandville on the succeeding Fourth of July. It may
be of interest to know that this first steamboat of the
State's interior, bearing the name of the State's first
executive, ran irregularly to Lyons and to Grand Haven,
and in May, 1840, was wrecked near Muskegon harbor.

Political enthusiasm was now much awakened by the
visit of Daniel Webster to Detroit, his son Daniel F.
Webster having some time before become a practising
lawyer of the place ; Mr. Webster arrived on the 8th of
July and three days later under the auspices of the Whig
organization of the city, he delivered one of his masterful
addresses to a large assemblage of citizens in the grove
on the Cass farm near First Street between Fort and
Lafayette Streets. The address was political in charac
ter, and mainly devoted to a discussion of the financial
conditions of the country and the responsibility of
the dominant party therefor. At the conclusion of the
address some five hundred sat down to a dinner with the
distinguished guest. The meeting was considered a great
success, bringing encomiums from the Advertiser and
sarcasm from the Democratic press. The Michigan Argus
said of his speech, "It should be stereotyped and become
the pocket companion of office-seeking declaimers in all
time to cbme ;" and there is a familiar flavor in its further
comment, as it proceeds to say, "The style, the language
and the manner, so far as can be judged by the language,
are most admirable for his purposes. Full of his hearers
and full of himself; in rapture of the country; and in
ecstacy with his reception, he talks of his being a plain

296 STEVENS T. MASON

man, and a farmer; of wives and children ; tells how they
do things 'at the north' and pats his neighbor upon the
shoulder in exclamation of his own philanthropy. ' '

Bnt even before the Whigs called their meeting, prep
arations were in progress for the holding of a State con
vention by the Democratic-Bepublicans for the nomina
tion of State officers and a member of Congress. The
Convention which assembled at the Court Honse in Ann
Arbor July 20, 1837, met in pursuance of a call issued
by the Democratic central corresponding committee, as
the State organization was then called. Citizens who
now hesitate at the loss of a day for the purpose of a
State convention should ponder over the efforts of the
pioneers who in July 1837, passed weary miles of quag
mire and corduroy at a liberal expenditure of time and
money, to be present at the gathering of party chieftains.
The Convention was called for Thursday, for the week
would be none too long for the coming and returning of
the greater portion of the delegates. The delegates who
assembled were a body of men whom any State at any
time might well be proud. Although clad in homespun,
many of them with bronzed faces and toil-stained hands,
they aptly typified the mental and physical force required
in the building of a State. The gathering was more than a
convention, it was a reunion of men whose bond of union
was both political and fraternal, born of kindred trials
and privations. The Convention proceeded to business
on the morning of the 20th by the selection of Fon. James
Kingsley of Washtenaw as temporary president and
George A. C. Luce of Oakland as temporary secretary.
The report of the committee on credentials showed
twenty-four organized counties of the State as repre-

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES AND THE ELECTION OF 1837 207

sented, each by delegates from among their own citizens,
except the counties of Chippewa and Michilimackinac
which were represented by proxies held by the redoubta
ble George R. Griswold and Conrad Ten Eyck of Wayne
with two other worthy citizens impressed for the occa
sion. The report showed one hundred and four delegates
entitled to seats, nearly all of whom were present, as
many as ninety-six answering to roll call. In the gather
ing were men who were destined to be forceful figures
not only in the political life of the State, but in its busi
ness and material development as well. There was John
Ball of far away Kent, Benjamin 0. Williams of Shia-
wassee and Thos. Fitzgerald of Berrien. There were Gov
ernors and United States Senators to be, in the persons
of William Greenly, Kinsley S. Bingham, and Charles
E. Stuart. There was Randolph Manning, John J. Adam,
Horace BL Comstoek, Charles C. Hascall, and a score
of others whose memories still live through their achieve
ments. From the county of Wayne one finds the names
of John S. Bagg of the Free Press, Garry Spencer, Ben
jamin B. Kercheval, Titus Dort and Eli Bradshaw,
politicians who ranged all the way from the casual to
the practical and the professional, while from Monroe,
Lenawee, Macomb, and Washtenaw, and indeed from
many other counties, one catches an occasional name
once prominent in their respective localities, but now
long forgotten except to him who looks into the records
of the past.

The work of the committee on credentials accomplished,
the permanent officers were selected, in the persons of
James B. Hunt of Genesee as president; Charles C, Has-
calI7 Vincent L. Bradford, Oliver Kellog and Samuel

298 STEVENS T. MASON

Axford as vice-presidents; John J. Adam and Kinsley
Bingham as secretaries, and a committee on resolutions
was appointed, of which John S. Bagg was chairman;
the Convention then adjourned until the following day;
for the companionship was too congenial, the considera
tions too weighty, and the way both in coming and return
ing too arduous to permit of undue haste. On the follow
ing morning the Convention proceeded with due delibera
tion to the nomination of candidates for Governor, Lieu
tenant Governor and member of Congress. The Gov
ernor showed his hold upon the affections of Ms party
by receiving upon a roll call of the Convention the
indorsement of the ninety-six delegates who responded
to the call, and was declared the unanimous nominee of
the Democratic-Republican party for the office of Gov
ernor. Informal ballots for nominees for the offices of
both Lieutenant Governor and member of Congress dis
closed substantial opposition to the renomination of both
Lieutenant Governor Edward Mundy and Congressman
Isaac E. Crary, the ballot for Lieutenant Governor dis
closing fifty-three votes for Mundy, while Warner Wing
led the opposition with forty-one. Crary could secure
but the votes of fifty-one to the forty-two cast for James
B. Hunt. Unable to mate further progress, the Conven
tion referred the two nominations to a committee of eight,
who, after some hours of deliberation, reported to the
Convention that it was likewise unable to agree, when
the Convention again took up the question and on the
first formal ballot nominated Edward Mundy for the
office of Lieutenant Governor, by a vote of fifty-eight to
thirty-seven for Warner Wing, and Isaac E. Crary as

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES AND THE ELECTION OF 1887 390

candidate for congress by vote of fifty-nine to thirty-
four for James B. Hunt.

The committee on resolutions authorized to issue a
future address to the people, offered, and had unan
imously adopted, resolutions pledging loyalty to their
nominees; felicitating Andrew Jackson with the hope
that "he might be as* happy in retirement as he had been
useful in public councils;" resolved their confidence in
the "ability, energy, and democracy" of Martin Van
Buren and bespoke for his administration "a broad and
liberal policy for the advancement of western interests.**
It stated its position as to the cause of the financial
embarrassment of the country, by declaring it to have
sprung "from a spirit of extravagant over trading and
speculation produced and fostered by the rapid increase
of banks and the excessive issues of paper money," and
further declared its conviction "that the best remedy
against a recurrence of the evil is, to establish a broader
specie basis for our banking system." It "discorded"
and "protested" "against the doctrine that the general
government is incapable of fulfilling the objects of its
formation without the assistance of incorporated wealth
in the form of a national bank," and resolved "that the
substantial prosperity of the United States will be best
promoted by an entire separation of their fiscal concerns
from the private concerns of individuals or corporations,
state or national." Its central corresponding committee
selected, the Convention adjourned and the campaign
was on in earnest.

On August 2 following, the Whigs assembled at Ann
Arbor for their State convention; although the votes

300 STEVENS T. MASON

in the Convention seemed to indicate quite as full an
attendance as in the previous Democratic-Republican
gathering, they were less representative; little more
than half the counties sent delegates, a correspondingly
larger number being from the counties of Wayne, Wash-
tenaw and their contiguous territory. Their proceed
ings were executed with as much dispatch as their oppon
ents had taken leisure, and the records of their proceed
ings seem to be correspondingly meager, their party
organs giving but little more than the briefest notices.
Their deliberations resulted in the nomination of Charles
C. Trowbridge of Detroit for the office of Governor,
Daniel S. Bacon of Monroe for Lieutenant Governor, and
HezeMah GK Wells of Kalamazoo for member of Con
gress.

Charles C. Trowbridge was himself a young man at
this time, but thirty-seven years of age; but he was
nevertheless one of the solid, substantial, business men
of Detroit, where he had resided for nearly half his life
time. Coupled with his good business abilities were
literary gifts of no mean order, while his popularity had
already been attested by his election in 1834 to the mayor
alty of Ms city, in which position he had rendered heroic
service during the weeks of the cholera scourge, — a serv
ice that was still gratefully remembered by the people.

Daniel S. Bacon was likewise a man of deserved popu
larity in his home county, where he had resided since
about 1822 ; he had served in the Territorial Council, was
the business partner of Levi S. Humphrey, whom the
Governor had recently appointed to the Board of Inter
nal Improvements and was in every way a gentleman of
rare quality.

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES AJS'JD THE ELECTION OF 1837 301

Hezekiah G. Wells was at this time a brilliant young
lawyer; although but twenty-five years of age he had
nevertheless been four years a resident of the State, had
served as a delegate in the Constitutional Convention of
1835, and had impressed many people beyond the limit
of his immediate acquaintance with the high order of his
abilities.

With such gentlemen upon their ticket and the national
administration bearing the burden of an unprecedented
financial depression, there was, every reason for the
Whigs to look forward with hope of success in the coming
election. But it was quite evident that they were not
sanguine of success in the congressional contest, at least
there remain very few evidences of energetic action to
that end on the part of either the Whig press or party.
Ten days following their Convention the committee on
address of the Democratie-Eepublican party issued its
authorized address to the people of Michigan, reciting at
great length the financial condition of the country and the
causes that had contributed thereto, chief among which
was gibbeted the Bank of the United States. The virtues
and abilities of the candidates were generously recorded
and all Democrats admonished that, if they would pre
serve and protect the free principles of their party, they
"must act with the eternal vigilance which is the guar
antee and the price of liberty." The Whig committee
replied with an address of like character but of import
adjusted to its partisan desires, "unveiled democracy "
and called upon all men who would extricate the govern
ment from the control of incompetence and impending
war to vote for Trowbridge, Bacon, and Wells.

The Democratic papers occasionally reminded the

302 STEVENS T. MASON

Irish and German voters that it was the Democratic-
Republican party in Michigan that had placed in the
State Constitution the provisions which insured his
rights of franchise while the vote of HezeMah G. Wells,
William Woodbridge and other Whigs had opposed; but
otherwise the canvass seemed to pass without comment.

Yet the two days' balloting was spirited beyond evi
dent expectation, for the canvass of the votes disclosed
that a total of 21,729 had been cast, of which Isaac B.
Crary had received 11,430 and Hezekiah G. Wells 10,299,
giving Crary a majority of 1,131. While this was a
fairly decisive majority considering the total vote, yet
as 821 of the majority had been contributed by the coun
ties of Wayne and Monroe, it gave encouragement to
the Whigs for the belief that to achieve success at the
approaching State election they had but to exert the
effort which was well within their power.

From this time forward, at least so far as Governor
Mason was concerned, it was a campaign of the bitterest
invective and most uncompromising personal character.
No move in the so-called game of politics seems to have
been overlooked, and no charge that could be predicated
upon a semblance of facts seems to have been under
stated. An effort was made to place a second Whig
ticket in nomination and a more or less unrepresentative
gathering named William Woodbridge of Detroit for
Governor and William H. Welch of Kalamazoo for Lieu
tenant Governor. The Democrats would have been
pleased to have had the two gentlemen flattered into
accepting the nominations and making the canvass, as it
would have insured the division of the Whig vote, and
their press consequently referred to both gentlemen in

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES AND THE ELECTION OF 183T 308

respectful terms, especially of Mr. Woodbridge, of whom
they said that while he was "a Federalist of the old
school he had always been consistent in the support of its
doctrine." But the project from whatever source it
emanated failed, as both gentlemen declined the prof
fered honors. But if Democratic hopes were frustrated,
Whig efforts in the same direction were destined to meet
with more success. At the height of the campaign, hand
bills on the streets of Detroit announced a meeting at
the State House for the nomination of candidates for
the offices of Governor and lieutenant Governor, At
the time appointed, if we are to believe the Whig organ,
"a numerous delegation from several counties assem
bled ; * ? if we are to credit the account of the Free Press,
the " numerous delegation consisted of just seven self-
appointed members." But numerous or otherwise, they
proceeded to nominate Edward D. Ellis of Monroe for
the office of Governor and John Biddle of Detroit for.
Lieutenant Governor, as candidates of the Jaffersoniaii
Democracy- Mr. Ellis had served in the Coustitutiomal
Convention, in the first Convention of Dissent, and in
the State Senate since the formation of the State govern
ment; the editor and publisher of a newspaper at Mon
roe, he was nominally a supporter of Democratic princi
ples, yet he was of that peculiar temperament that seem
ingly put him out of accord with the party with which
he affiliated, so that his vote in matters of legislation and
policy was more often against than with them. Mr.
Biddle, while he had at times occupied equivocal political
positions, had for more than a year as a delegate to con
ventions, and as a candidate for the State Senate been
actively identified with the Whig party. The nonuna-

304 STEVENS T. MASON

tions whether conferred by a gathering of seven or by
a numerous body, for a time created no small amount of
anxiety in the camp of the Democratic-Republican party.
Mr. Ellis at once announced himself as the candidate of
the "Simon Pure" Democracy and indeed may have
thought himself such, but the charge was made, and
there is reason to believe that it was made upon a basis
of fact, that the campaign of the Jeffersonian Democ
racy of 1837 was financed from the Whig exchequer. In
June a weekly newspaper of the more radical variety,
devoted to the Whig cause and known as The Spy in
Michigan began publication at Detroit. Its comments
and criticisms were even more caustic than in those
papers which had seemingly furnished all that had been
demanded in that line; and now, upon the nominations
of Ellis and Biddle, from the same office of publication
although under different editorship, came the Jefferson-
ian Democrat, a newspaper which though it did not live
beyond the campaign, nevertheless during its brief and
precocious existence zealously attacked the conditions
that were, and incidentally proclaimed the benefits to be
derived to the State through the election of Edward D.
Ellis and John Biddle.

In the gathering interests of the campaign, the young
men of the State were called upon to elect delegates to
a Young Men's Democratic-Republican Convention,
which they did; the delegates assembled in goodly num
ber on October 5 at Ann Arbor, where for the day they
stimulated their enthusiasm with fervid oratory and
brought forth resolutions commending the principles of
their party and pledging allegiance to its nominees. In
the personnel of the Convention were several young men

TO\VXSEXI> E. <';iI>LEY,

of tlu* firs! Stilt** <.V*nstitu-

olition and iu*M'ii!.M*r of th*'1

slutiir*' ls:;ri--t± an*'! ._Jat*.*r

i*4 for *'!«>v*T?iur in isr>l.

PHILO <_'. FFLLEK
IJi'in
<*' in

Mi'inlwr nf t'.i* Stilts
From tk? p;»rtniit i^y Alv;i.i r.ra«!Mi. h

'pivsi^Uiti^N1 Hal! in th»-

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES AND THE ELECTION OF 1837 305

like Hovey K. Clark, Alpheus Felch and Ebenezer B.
Harrington, men who were destined to exert more than
a local influence in public affairs.

The young men of the Whig party, not to be outdone,
followed with a like Convention but not being the result
of as mature plans, it was less numerously attended;
its appeal to the young men was perhaps as effective
as if it had proceeded from a more numerous Convention.
Nearly every county and senatorial Convention now
issued its high sounding address to the people ; the set
tlers gathered from distant places, coming either on foot
or in loads not infrequently drawn by leisurely moving
ox-teams to attend during an afternoon or to sit in the
half-dispelled darkness of some candle-lighted room,
where men like Charles E. Stuart and Jacob M. Howard
extolled the principles of their party and derided the
opposition to the infinite delight of their auditors. Like
wise the anonymous contributor to the weekly newspaper
over the name of "Civis," "dissatisfied Democrat/* <**
"Non office-holding Whig," now filled the columns of
the newspapers with" articles teeming with invectives,
sarcastic allusions and frequently untruthful statements*
One contributor says, "Mason came here a boy of about
nineteen, born and raised in Kentucky with all the attri
butes of a domineering population. His education was
Very imperfect and, it is believed that he could not have
written a page of respectable English. His morals were
still worse but entirely in southern style.'' The article
closed with the statement "Ms time has been too much
devoted to the tavern, the billiard-table, the ball-alley,
and the theatre to admit of much mental cultivation***
Sometimes the opposing editor attempted to refute

306 STEVENS T. MASON

charges with argument and proof, but more often he
quoted the offending article and closed with the state
ment to the effect that "a more malicious, malignant, and
damnable falsehood was never penned by any man."
Small provocation seemed to excite editorial wrath; and
when paper, candidate or party was attacked, the editor
grabbed and hurled back such words as "lies," "knave,"
and "scoundrel," with a license that astonishes the pres
ent day reader of their time-stained pages. One of the
charges brought against Governor Mason of course was
that he had been a "traitor" to the State in that he had
been instrumental in the relinquishment of the land upon
the southern border. Another matter, the occasion of
much comment was the fact that he had been voted the
sum of five hundred dollars as house rent by the Legisla
ture; the constitutionality of the act forming the basis
of the accusation that the money had been wrongfully
taken. Another story which was given columns of news
paper space and dignified as a scandal of the first order,
charged the Governor with vote-buying at the August
election. G. L. Whitney, a Whig newspaper writer of
Rochester, New York, being in Detroit at the time of
the congressional election observed a man who had the
appearance of a laborer, who proved later to have been
John Weese, a local butcher, approach the Governor in
front of the National Hotel and procure from him a
bank note of some denomination; he at once wrote a
highly colored account of the Michigan election to Ms
home paper in which he represented the Governor of the
State as openly purchasing votes upon the public streets
of his home city. The paper was received a few days
later at Detroit, and the story was seized with avidity

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES AND THE ELECTION OF 1837 SOT

and printed in detail by the local WMg press. It mat
tered not that the Governor said that Weese asked the
loan of a dollar on the day mentioned and that he had
accommodated him; that he offered proof of the fact by
others standing by and showed by the records that Weese
had in fact voted the day before the transaction in ques
tion. The story with all the new embellishments that
could be locally suggested was reprinted and carried for
distribution to the distant towns and villages of the
State.

This charge, and the charge of intemperance brought
his only published statement of the campaign ; and that,
too, in strange contrast to the vicious attacks that had
been made upon him. Eeviewing the charges that had
been brought against him, he said: "To all this I have
heretofore opposed nothing and even now my own pride
of character will not permit me to give such imputations
the dignity of a serious refutation. That they are unjust,
those who best know me will give evidence. In private
life I have endeavored to do no man wrong, and it is
with regret that I have seen so much personal vindictive-
ness infused into the present contest. I question no
man's motive; impeach no man's character and I have
yet to learn that I commit an act of moral turpitude by
entertaining political opinions different from those indi
viduals who have become censors upon the occasion. "
This dignified statement only brought the reply that he
was hypersensitive and enjoyed seeing Ms name in the
papers. In October the personal character of the cam
paign became such that some seventy-five of the leading
Democrats of the city of Detroit joined in a lengthy
address to the people of the State in refutation of tbe

308 STEVENS T. MASON

charges personal and official that had been laid against
the Governor, — prefacing their address by saying,
"Because of the conrse of ungenerous denunciation pur
sued by the opponents of Governor Mason, leaving the
usual path of political discussion and official inquiry,
and adopting the scheme of destroying reputation by
misrepresentation and slander, the immediate neighbors
of the Republican candidate who know the falsehood and
injustice of the charges urged against him, are called
upon by an imperious sense of duty to repel them. ? '

The vote-buying story and the excitement it and the
subsequent State election occasioned led a local artist
of that day, Mr. T. H. 0. P. Burnham, to depict the events
of the first election upon canvas. Now when three-quar
ters of a century are past, the actors gone, and the ani
mosities forgotten, this crude picture which hangs in the
Detroit Museum of Art is one of the most interesting
and amusing legacies of that eventful day.

In one of his message utterances the Governor had
suggested that in the adoption of a penitentiary system
of discipline the Legislature should provide the convicts
with the means of useful employment, rather than keep
them in solitary confinement, as a means best tending to
the develompent of a self-reliant member of society. This
recommendation was now seized upon by a society of
artisans in Detroit, known as the Mechanics Society who •
made it the basis of a resolution against the Governor
as the enemy of free labor. The chief interest in the
event is that it discloses that a problem that is still trou
blesome had its beginning before the walls of the first
penitentiary were reared.
In September, Governor Mason betook himself to New

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES AND THE ELECTION OF 1837 30&

York in an effort to negotiate the whole or some portion
of the five million dollar loan. Surveyors and engineers
were already upon the surveys gathering data for sub
mission to the next Legislature through the Board of
Internal Improvements, and it was evident that if the
expectations of the people were met, the loan must of
necessity be in hand. Some effort was made to create
political sentiment in the matter by persistent inquiry on
the part of the "Whig papers as to why the loan had 0ot
been made and insinuation that it never would be made.
In early October the Governor returned and gladdened
the hearts of at least his friends with the tidings that
the loan had in effect been negotiated and only awaited
certain changes of a minor nature in the law before the
matter could be finally closed. There was jubilation
among the Democratic papers when this news was
announced and no doubt it had a material bearing on
the outcome of the election. The last appeal was made
to the settlers who had settled upon the land in the west
ern parts of the State where the Indian title had been
but recently extinguished by treaty, and which had either
not yet been brought into the market, or which under the
act supplemental to the Act under which the State was
admitted, would be subject to the State's election for the
purposes that were in that Act specified. The circulars
conveying the spurious information of the dire calamity
that Governor Mason and his friends were about to
inflict upon the settlers, was hurried across the State
to the village of Grand Eapids and from there distrib
uted to the voters in the remote clearings, in the hope
that the almost solid democratic vote of Kent might 1)e
reduced if not reversed. The Democratic papers gave

310 STEVENS T. MASON

their last notes of appeal and warning and on election
day the voters gathered to do battle in more than a
figurative sense for the candidates and principles to
which they gave allegiance.

The election, so far as the city of Detroit was con
cerned, was a day of great excitement. Never had there
been a political contest of such a character. The banners
and processions which the picture above referred to
attempts to depict were actual incidents of the day. The
Whig procession, with the ship Constitution commanded
by Captain Eobert Wagstaff as its central feature, pre
ceded and followed by the enthusiastic supporters of
Charles C. Trowbridge, was fully equalled by the proces
sion which is seen in the right of the picture, led by James
Stillson the Mayor-domo of the local Democracy. He
is astride the steed of equal rights; on his hat is inscribed
"Gold and Silver currency" and by his side is carried
the banner of the regular Democratic nominee, Stevens
T. Mason. Behind the gaily caparisoned Stillson,
although not shown in the picture, came several yoke
of sleek oxen bedecked with flags and fluttering ribbons
and a marching column of citizens ready and even anxious
|or any fray. The central figure in high boots, black
coat and silk hat is easily recognized as Governor Mason
who is handing a ticket to a " sovereign " whose com
panions to all appearances will hardly miss the rye that
is freely flowing from the black bottle. Near by Colonel
David C. McKinstry, State chairman of the Democratic-
Republican committee, leans upon his staff; by Ms side
Benjamin Kingsbury of the Morning Post, flanked by S.
H. Harris and John Norvell is in earnest dispute with
Franklin Sawyer of the Advertiser who is supported by

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES AND THE ELECTION OF 1837 311

*

George 0. Bates. It is said that the election did not close
without a fight in which some two hundred engaged ; but
if the day had crudities that have been forgotten, it had
amenities that may well be remembered and perhaps
none more deservedly so than the incident in which the
genial Governor in passing to the polls espied his oppo
nent and straightway took him by the arm and said,
"Come let us go and vote for one another," which arm
in arm amid the cheering of the multitude they proceeded
to do.

The contest resulted in a victory for Mason and
Mundy. The vote as canvassed by the Legislature in
joint convention showing 15,314 votes for Stevens T.
Mason and 14,800 for Charles C. Trowbridge, a plurality
of 514 for the Democratic-Republican ticket. Governor
Mason lost the county of Wayne by 68, but carried the
city of Detroit by 38. Washtenaw County, which Isaac
E. Crary lost in the congressional election by a majority
of 159, Mason lost by a plurality of only 27, In Monroe,
the home of Daniel 8. Bacon, candidate for Lieutenant
Governor on the Whig ticket and of Edwin D. Ellis, can
didate for Governor on the Jeffersonian-Democratic ticket,
— and where Crary had received a majority of 357, —
Mason received a plurality of 342. Indeed, the Jefferson
ian-Democratic ticket made a sorry showing for the
effort expended in its behalf, as the returns showed but
311 votes cast for its candidate for Governor.

A majority favorable to the administration was elected
to both House and Senate ; but in both Houses there was
a goodly number of the opposition. William Woodbridge
among other Whigs was returned to the Senate, and
Jacob M. Howard, Townsend E. Gidley, Stephen VIckery

J12 STEVENS T. MASON

and others of the same political faith were given seats in
the House. The majority party was represented in the
Legislature by a number of strong men, John S. Barry,
Warner Wing, Benjamin B. Kercheval, in the Senate,
and Kinsley S. Bingham, Robert McClelland, John Ball,
Alexander W. Buel and Charles Moran being among
some of the better known of the House.

The excitement of the campaign and the election were
still fresh in mind when on November 9, the second Legis
lature reassembled in pursuance of its adjournment of
the preceding March.

CHAPTER XVI
GOVERNOB MASON *s SECOND TEBM

/rTAHE third Legislature assembled on the 2nd day of
-*- January, 1838, only Saturday and Sunday interven
ing between its commencement and the final adjourn
ment of its predecessor. Kinsley S. Bingham of the
Democratic-Republican majority in the House was
chosen speaker and Alexander W. Buel speaker pro tern.
In the Senate Edward Mundy presided by virtue of his
office of Lieutenant Governor, John S. Barry again being
selected as president pro tern.

The session was destined to be one beset with many
difficulties, for not only were there grave and perplexing
problems to be considered, but they were to be compli
cated in a measure by the bitter personal and partisan
feeling that had already been engendered and ihmt was
to be still further fomented by some of the belligerent
spirits of the legislative body who become more intent
upon perplexing those charged with official repsoiisibility
than upon assisting in the solution of the problems which,
uncomplicated, would have been sufficiently difficult.

Complications within the neighboring provinces of
Upper and Lower Canada were likewise approaching a
crisis that was to result in open rebellion in the s0-«mlled
Patriot war ; which, while in did not directly involve the
State government, did enlist the sympathies and to a
considerable extent the activities of many of its citizens
at Detroit and in other towns upon the border. Miefai-

314 STEVENS T. MASON

gan's private and official relation to the uprising was of
such a character as to require treatment in a separate
chapter than incidentally here in the sequence in which
the events occurred, as is likewise true of the main phases
of the State's experience with the same scheme of internal
improvements and the financial questions which were
directly connected therewith.

Upon the opening of the Legislature, before the mem
bers in joint assembly and a numerous gathering of citi
zens the Governor appeared, to publicly take his consti
tutional oath of office; but, before doing so, in keeping
with the custom of the day, he proceeded with a short
inaugural address. The address was short, and felicitous
in character, although there are passages which indicate
a lively remembrance of the contest which had but
recently closed. "With the charity of the victor he admon
ished his fellow officials to remember "that even when
Ms integrity has been assailed, the vilest and worst of
motives attributed to his conduct, he has only to await
the development of time, and trust to the good sense
and justice of the people who will right the wrong done
him. ' ' The address was intended as a message of good
will, and we may well believe that its concluding suppli
cation for the guidance and protection to the Supreme
Ruler of nations was honest and sincere.

The annual message which two days later the Gover
nor delivered to the two Houses of the Legislature con
tained little that was new in point of policy, but was
devoted rather to the emphasizing of propositions and
policies that had received attention in his former mes
sages. He called attention to a deficit in the year's
expenditures for general purposes of $13,353,68 which

GOVERNOR MASON'S SECOND TERM 3EUS

he says "has been brought about by circumstances
unavoidable and beyond the control of the executive,'*
the condition being the result of the special and pro
tracted sessions of the Legislature and the interest pay
ments upon the State loans, coupled with the fact that
several of the counties were in arrears with returns of
State tax to the amount of eighteen thousand dollars*
This embarrassing situation in the State finances he
neither sought to palliate nor deny. He pMaly stated
the facts and recommended the change of the laws in
such a manner as might be found necessary to insure
prompt remittance of State taxes, a thing which was to
be supplemented by "the exercise of the most rigid econ
omy in our expenditures/' correctly observing that in
this regard, the people would not be satisfied by "pro
fession or declamation."

The question of internal improvements, as would have
been expected, was extensively treated, the Governor
being still persuaded that the system of internal improve-
ments was a matter of great importance "to the eiwtnal
and permanent prosperity of the State. ** la tMs por
tion the Governor was in entire aceord with the vote and
sentiment of Abraliaia Lincoln, then a member of the
Illinois Legislature and with many other men whosfc
names have since become known in connection with par
ticular States and the Nation, who in the earlier days
were supporters of schemes of internal improvements
within their respective States upon scales of magnifesei^e
far beyond anything ever attempted by MicMgiua.

The Governor was wffiiag to stand for the promm&m
of the works already undertaken, but there was a B0te of
caution in the message, that leads one to believe he was

316 STEVENS T. MASON

beginning to feel that the Legislature under the pressure
of the conflicting local interests was being involved in a
series of projects beyond both the needs and the financial
ability of the State. The message disclosed that there
had already been $438,551.49 placed to the credit of the
internal improvement fund of which on December 1,
$322,321.42 had been expended, leaving a balance of $116,-
237.07. The expenditure included $139,802.79 paid on
account of the Detroit and St. Joseph Railroad Company
as well as the surveys which had been prosecuted during
the summer months upon the Northern, Southern and
Central Railroads, the Havre Branch road and the Clin
ton and Kalamazoo, the Saginaw, and the Sault Ste.
Marie Canals and the reconnaissance of the St. Joseph,
Grand, and Kalamazoo Rivers, with the design of improv
ing them for the purposes of navigation. Special atten
tion was paid to the proposed canal around the Falls of
St. Mary's River which the report of the engineers said
could be constructed at a cost not exceeding one hundred
and fourteen thousand dollars. The Governor recom
mended that this project be given such an appropriation
as would insure the completion of the work during the
year, so that the State might early secure the benefit, as
he stated, "of the extensive and abundant resources of
the country on the shores of Lake Superior." Some of
the enterprises in the State *s scheme of internal improve
ments were exceedingly ill-considered, yet the Governor's
zeal for the Canal at the St. Mary's was highly com
mendable ; although Ms purposes in that regard through
causes beyond Ms control were doomed to failure. TMs
is more espedally true inasmuch as years later when the
effort to construct the canal was. renewed Henry Clay

GOVERNOR MASON'S SECOND TERM 317

opposed the project, as "beyond the remotest settlement
in the United States/'

The Governor's recommendations on the subject of
internal improvements, the temper of the time consid
ered, were rather conservative than otherwise, "The
loan already authorized for internal improvements/'
said he "amounts to the sum of five million dollars, and
it may be questioned, whether with the most rigid econ
omy that sum will be equal to the construction of the
works now undertaken." He therefore advised that no
more projects be undertaken until the means of the State
increased and her resources developed.

He again referred to the subject of education with all
of the enthusiasm that ever marked his interest in that
part of the State's activity. These sentiments, while not
new, are of a character worthy of both the man who
expressed them and of the system that came into being,
in large measure, from his efforts.

Said he, "Every free Government is called on by a
principle of self-preservation, to afford every facility for
the education of its people. The liberty of a people can
not be forced beyond their intelligence." Again he said,
"If our country is ever to fall from her high position
before the world, the cause will be found in the ignorance
of the people ; if she is to remain where she now stands,
with her glory undimmed, educate every child in the
land."

The financial condition of the State justly received
extensive notice. Frequent attention has been called to
the Governor's statement in this message, relative to the
general banking law under which the "wild-cat banks"
were then in the process of organization. Said he, "The

318 STEVENS T. MASON

principles upon which this law is based, are certainly
correct, destroying as they do the odious features of a
bank monopoly, and giving equal rights to all classes of
the community.'7 This statement was made in relation
to the power of the Bank of the United States. It is not
a defense of the law in all its details nor of all the meth
ods pursued under it. He not only recognized the dan
gers but plainly stated them. "The dangers to be appre
hended from the abuse of the system,'7 he said, "are
over-issues of bank paper, a dangerous extension of
credit, fluctuations in our currency, and consequent
fluctuation in the prices of property and the wages of
labor. It becomes your duty, then, to guard against these
evils. " Preceding these statements he had said, "The
mtrltiplication of banks and bank issues does not produce
real capital The productive labor of the country is the
true foundation of all the capital, and banks are the con
sequence, rather than the cause of a nation's wealth.
Gold and silver is the only medium of exchange recog
nized by the commercial world; bank paper was orig
inally designed as a representative for this metallic
medium but not as a substitute for it. The attempts
to substitute paper, by excessive bank issues for real
capital, disturbs the natural laws of trade, and is always
attended with fluctuations and revulsions."

The orthodoxy of these statements will not be ques
tioned, and they hardly warrant the claim made by his
later day critics that the financial ills of Michigan in
1837 came because the executive was unschooled in the
elementaries of such affairs.

Others have found in the Governor's recommendations
for the establishment of a State bank a vagary from

GOVERNOR MASON'S SECOND TERM 310

which, the State escaped by only the utmost good fortune ;
and yet just such an institution organized at this time
under the laws of the State of Indiana through the days
of perilous financial adventure did a good business, main
tained a safe currency and after several years closed its
affairs without loss.

He again urged the abolition of imprisonment for debt,
commended the scientific and commercial value of the
geological survey and outlined in a comprehensive way
the system of punishment and discipline that should
obtain in the prison about to be established at Jackson,
His recommendation was that convicts be engaged at
productive labor to the end that there might be " refor
mation of the morals of the corrupt and wicked, the
enlightenment of the ignorant, and the employment of
the idly disposed; " although, perhaps, remembering the
opposition of the Mechanics' Society in the election, he
favored the employment of the convicts as far as possible
in manufacturing those things "supplied by importation
from abroad, "

Shortly after the commencement of the legislative ses
sion the Governor procured from Henry R Sahoolcraft,
his warm personal friend, a communication that illus
trates in an unconspicuous manner the Governor's
genuine love for and interest in Ms State ; it was a dcen-
ment prepared at the Governor's request suggesting a
list of geographical names with their derivation that
would be suitable for the newly mapped lakes and
streams and the newly created towns and counties of fee
State. The list prepared by Mr. Schoolcraft was of gir^at
interest, being composed largely of aboriginal names,
which, as he stated, "were both sonorous and signifi-

320 STEVENS T. MASON

cant." But few of the names suggested were later given
to the geographical subdivisions of the State; among
such were loseo, diluvial lands ; Tuseola, flat lands ; C$1-
3mo, honey woods; Oscoda, pebbly plains; Alpena, the
partridge lands, etc. Such names, had they been more
extensively applied, in the language of Schoolcraft, would
have " invested portions of the public domain with his
toric and poetic associations of a noble-minded but down
trodden race.7'

Although the legislative session continued until April
6, few if any laws were enacted that involved anything
new in the way of policy. Under the authority of an Act
of March 22, 1837, the Governor had appointed Jacob
Beeson, EL P. Cobb and H. Stevens, commissioners, to
visit such places in the State as in their opinion pre
sented the greatest advantage for the location of a State
prison; to receive proposals for a site and for building
materials and to gather information as to what system
of discipline was the most humane and -most efficient for
answering the -ends of such an institution. Early in the
session the commissioners made their report to the Legis
lature. WMle the report would come far from express
ing the ideas of the modern criminologist, it showed that
the commissioners had carefully investigated the subject
and from a personal inspection of the prison at Auburn,
N. T.? and the one at Philadelphia, Pa. by one of their
number they recommended that the one at Auburn be
taken as the copy for the Michigan institution. Per
haps not the least determining factor was the fact that
the Commissioners found the prison at Auburn to be
more than self-supporting,— a feature, however, that

oii, MI, Inu.ii., «'!M. -I :u is ... Li in r

H

GOVERNOR MASON'S SECOND TERM 321

they were tumble to give permanency to in the Michigan
copy.

Several towns made spirited competition for the loca
tion of the institution, the village of Grand Eapids being
among the nnmber. Jacksonburg was ultimately selected,
although for a time the citizens of Sandstone, or Barry
as it was then called, a village on Sandstone Creek mm®
four miles west of Jackson, believed that they were t®
be the prison town. Half a century later an old resident
of the competing village who had lingered while almost
every vestige of the town had passed away, but who still
remembered the contest, explained that Sandstone lost
the prison becanse her people made all their offers to
the State, while the citizens of Jackson made their offers
to the Commissioners. The Commissioners were author
ized to begin the immediate construction of one wing of
the prison, and before the following autumn a plank
structure enclosed in a palisade of tamarack logs was
serving as a plaae of detention for the ©osraafas who irare
employed m the braiding of wliat is now Hie w^it wag
of the ymjiB straetea FTOM that ira^ forward *4Tia
Tamaracks" was a term ®£ afaiMar ®nd penal signifi
cance.

Another matter which the Governor approached with
his characterisiie energy and interest was the develop
ment of the saline deposits of the State. For many
years salt springs had been known to exist at vaiwas
places in the State and wtieu the State WES aAuitted, (to
National (Jovenmient had gimted along with tfad school
and other lands, 0ev@Bty4wo sections of Itei to t*
selected contiguous to its salt springs. A large sum ©f

322 STEVENS T. MASON

money was being sent annually out of the State for this
prime necessity; and it was a matter of more than pass
ing Interest when the Detroit Free Press in July, 1838,
announced that it had been presented with a sample of
Bolt manufactured from the watery of a spring situated
on section 15, township 8 north, range 4 west, on the
Maple Eiyer, about ten miles from its mouth, and de
clared its belief that the time was not "far distant when
Michigan will produce within her own borders all the
necessaries as well as some of the luxuries of life."

The location mentioned above was at one of the paper
cities of that day, in the present township of Lebanon,
diatom Comity, known as the village of "Clinton Salt
Works " — the site of the incipient operations of the Clin
ton Salt Works Company, a corporation organized at
tike legislative session of the same year.

The State Geologist upon receiving his commission, the
preceding Spring, had lost no time in effecting the organ
ization of his corps of assistants and was now returned
from a reconnaissance of the State with data for a report
tliat fully justified the creation of Ms office. Governor
Mason entered with enthusiasm into every recommenda
tion, and from the verbal reports of the Geologist he felt
JWified in saying through his message that "The exam-
iaattoQL 4>f ifee Salime Springs has been carried so far, as
to m&^ it 0&rfain that we possess an extensive salt
®piI that -with a trifling expenditure we shall be
to .ipanaf itetare salt in sufficient quantities not
only for fcoaii ap^ampticoi, but that it must become an

The Cbv^mor^s eiifeiisiasni led him to enter into cor
respondence with mm sIBled in the business of well-

GOVERNOR MASON'S SECOND TERM m

boring Q&d salt manufacture and to urge the passage by
the Legislature of an Act authorizing the State Geologist
to commence, as soon as practicable, boring for salt at
one or more of the State salt springs. This the Legis
lature did, and appropriated three thousand dollars to
defray preliminary expenses. When Dr. Houghton made
his report to the Legislature the foEowing year, ha
showed that he had been about the work with character
istic energy; he had transported machinery and equip
ment through the forests and along the streams and
had begun drilling operations at two points, one being
on the bank of Grand Biver three miles below Grand
Bapids, and the other on the Tittabawassee in Midland
County near where it receives the waters of Salt Biver.
These two projects were continued intermittently for the
next four or five years at an expense aggregating not less
than thirty thousand dollars, with results which at the
time appeared of small, value, but which were yet of
greater value than they seemed. It was experimental
work which lad a real value, and in the language of
William L. Webber, one of the men who later developed
ike salt industry of the Saginaw Valley, ^Tfaey demon
strated that ibis work was one of a* slight
It was the pioneer effort in the

of the leading indf^tries of the State, mm industry tfemt
has grown from a few hundred barrels m 1859 to more
than ffiT million barrels annually at the present time.

Among what may be tenned the cariosities of tie
lathre session of 1838 "wms ma Ju&t providing a bounty
two ®ents a poami 0® eadk pound of dry sugw
factored from the beat within the limits of the State.
This Act W&B in substance the duplicate of lawe

324 STEVENS ^ MASON

in other States at the time, in an effort to establish an
industry in America which under the efforts and direc
tions of Napoleon had already been established in France.
Of course no bounty was ever paid under the law and it
is of interest only by reason of the coincidence that in
Michigan sixty years later, the beet sugar industry
should have developed such extensive proportions.

A bill to encourage the manufacture of glass which
passed both Houses of the Legislature met a different
fate, it being promptly vetoed by the Q-overnor, although
he was petitioned by numerous citizens not to do so.
In his communications returning the bill without his sig
nature the Governor said, "This bill although purport
ing to foe a& Act for the encouragement of domestic
manufacture, yet when stripped of its disguise is noth
ing more or less than an Act for the relief of Ebenezer
HaH and Isaac J. Gfrovier, copartners in trade engaged
in a manufacture of glass." The two- gentlemen
referred to were residents of the village of Mt. Clem
ens where the glass business was sought to be estab
lished, and whose citizens seemingly quite unanimously
joined in a petition to the Governor to withhold his veto
from the measure that was to bring their village pros
perity at the public expense.

The banking law, the law for the five million dollar
loan, ike law for internal improvement projects, general
and particular, became the subjects of acrimonious dis
cussion and legislative action, hereafter treated in con
nected detail

That the eifeens of the State were still expectant of
an immediate return of prosperity and continuing devel
opment was evidenced by the Acts of incorporation

GOVEBNOR MASON'S SBCONB TERM 325

granted to the Port Sheldon and Grand Eapids Railroad
Company; the Auburn and Lapeer Kailroad Company;
the Ypsilanti and Tecmnseh Railroad Company; the
MottvOle and White Pigeon Railroad Company; and the
Medina and Canandaigua Railroad Company, and to other
companies organized for more varied efforts.

National policies likewise came in for a share of con
sideration in the Legislature all out of proportion to
the attention they now receive in such bodies. Slavery
in the District of Columbia; the admission of Texas and
the sob-treasury scheme all received the political and
perhaps serious consideration of the Legislature, or at
least of the Whig members of it. On the question of
slavery in the District of Columbia, William Woodbridge
favored a resolution to the effect that it was inexpedient
for the Legislature to express an opinion on the consti
tutionality of the power of Congress in the premises;
Representative Stephen Vickery, later a Whig candidate
for Governor, desired the Legislature to go on jm®®$&
as opposing the annexation of Texas "as unnecessarily
extending the territory of fie United States aad areat-
ing discontent wMch might endanger the stability of the
Union;" while Jacob 1C Howard came forward with a
resolution ocmdenming the suMreasury plan and oppos
ing the policy of the Government in demanding gold and
silver in satisfaction of governmental dues.

With such the temper of fee legislature, we can weB
imagine what happened, when on the 30th day of Janu
ary it was diso0ver©d that the report of the State
nrer, Mr. Henry Howard, whidb had been given
Legislature on the 9th, di&closed that Governor Mason
bad daring his official serviae as Governor, drawn a

386 STEVENS T. MASON

ter salary in advance of service. That it was an error
was at once apparent, for it was plainly shown by the
vouchers which had been issued to the Governor as well
as by the report of the Treasurer which was now printed
and subject to public inspection, and no effort had been
made to cover or distort the fact. The mistake occurred
through the confusion occasioned by the Governor going
into- office with the adoption of the Constitution in
November, 1835, instead of the first of January follow
ing; Ms salary being paid in quarterly payments begin
ning with November, 1835. On May 20, 1837, the Treas
urer, to adjust the payments to the regular quarters of
the year, issued a voucher for the fractional quarter of
November and December 1836, and for salary from Janu
ary 1 to April 1, 1837; as on February 8 the Governor
had received a voucher for a quarter salary which had
included the months of November, December and Janu
ary, the last voucher thus made a quarter payment of
salary in excess of service. As soon as the printed
report was submitted to the Treasurer he recognized the
error, as did the Governor, who at once repaid to the
treasury the amount of the salary overdrawn. There
was perhaps no one who did not appreciate that it was
an error and that if censure was to attach anywhere, it
w&s to the system that made such errors possible; but
Jacob M . Howard was the "Whig champion of the Lower
House ofttte Legislature, and had he allowed the inci
dent U pass with a presumption favorable to the integ
rity of a potefeat opponent, he would have been open
to the elfarge Of violating the political ethics of the time.
At once up&B the diswvery of the emxr, which one had
but to read the report to aee/Mr. Howard proceeded *o

GOVERNOR MASON'S SECOND TERM S2?T

electrify the House with impassioned eloquence on the
Governor's enlpaMlity in connection with the matter;
directly charging the Governor with a corrupt purpose
to obtain money from the Treasury to which he wms not
entitled.

On the same day the charge was made, the Governor
sent a communication to the House requesting the
appointment of a committee by the House to inquire
into the correctness of the charges made against Mm.
After considerable parliamentary sparring, the commit
tee was appointed and a few days later submitted a
report entirely absolving the Treasurer and the Gov
ernor from all intentional or conscious fault in the mat
ter. The report of the commitee was followed by a most
remarkable document in the form of a protest signed
by Jacob M. Howard and nine other members of the
Whig minority in the House. The substance of the pro
test was that the Executive was transoemdiiig Ms rigfet
and authority im asking an inverfigBticm of
ag&imst foi*** 0m the ioor of the Bfo&se, b$©&tug@ in a®
doing he was "atrndgmg lie fre^hm of
The protest was tesed likewise np« the f urther
that the Governor's ee^aimiiiiicatioii was an
of despotic power and was not called for in the exemse
of official duty.

Needless to say, the Advertiser, the Detroit orgal of
the WMg party, for many day® played the " Assault 4$«*
the Treasury^ as the leading sensation of tb©
joined in vigorous ileauneiatloii of tiie e&isetrfive
tion of questioning the statement of a it k

legislative body even when it eo&eeriisd
honor and integrity.

328 STEVENS T. MASON

Nearly seventy years later, on June 4, 1905, when
Michigan had grown rich and strong and when the mortal
remains of Stevens T. Mason were abont to be entombed
in Michigan soil, Rev. David Cooper, then a man bear
ing the weight of years to the number of more than
three score and ten, standing by the side of all that was
earthly of the Boy Governor, said, "I have but one
remembrance of Governor Mason. I was but a lad at
the time, and standing near the old session house on
Woodward Avenue I saw the lithe figure of the Governor
approaching. I shall always remember "Ms appearance,
a shining silk hat upon his head, a shawl such as gentle
men wore in those days swung across Ms shoulders, with
cane in hand he was walking rapidly down the street.
I had been bred a "WMg, and boy-like, I felt that I would
be doing honor to my political principles if I said some
thing insulting to the Governor. I waited until he
approached nearly opposite me and then I shouted, 'Five
Quarter Mason/ and then fled up the steps of the session
house. The significance of the epithet I did not know
then and I do not know now, but it was sometMng I had
heard from my elders. The Governor turned and fol
lowed me, I retreating to the farthest corner in fear of
a just chastisement; but the Governor only sat down
upon the step and drew me to Ms side and talked to me
m a gentile, Mndly way. I cannot remember a tiling he
saicl I think there was a tone of sadness in Ms voice,
for I know lie left ine feeling that I had done H™ and
myself a wrong of wMch I was heartily ashamed, and
from that day to tMs, there has lingered with me a feel
ing akin to affection for the memory of Stevens T.
and turning to the daughter and the aged sister

GOVERNOR MASON'S SECOND TERM 82t

of the Governor who sat upon the rostrum beside him,
the aged clergyman continued, "I am glad that time has
spared me to bring to you, the daughter and the sister,
my acknowledgment of contrition for those words which
even from a child may have brought a wound of sorrow
to the brother.7'

OHAPTEE

THE PATBIOT WAB

so-ealled "Patriot War" or Canadian Rebellion
-*- of 1837-38, was the culmination of a series of griev
ances justly entertained by a large body of the people of
both Upper and Lower Canada. The American Revo
lution had been the occasion of a considerable emigra
tion of citizens, still loyal to the British Government,
from the colonies to Canada; as many as forty thousand
during and shortly following the war having, as stated
by some historians, sought an asylum beyond the north-
em border. These emigrants who, to use a phrase applied
to them in one of the Orders in Council "had adhered to
the unity of the empire'* came to be known as the U. E.,
or United Empire Loyalists. The greater number of these
refugees settled in, what upon the division of Quebec
became, Upper Canada or Canada West. While resi
dents of the Colonies, they had been of the aristocratic
element, being as might be presumed above the average
in education, possessions, and social and family con
nections. As many of them Imd had their estates confis
cated by the colonial authorities, they were from the
first sbbwB marked consideration by the Imperial (Jov-
eramemt in tfee form of special honors, liberal to prodigal
grants of land to themselves and their descendants as
weH as temporary advances for the alleviation of their
immediate needs. To this body of citizens there were
sooia added accretions from the mother country, many

THE PATRIOT WAB mi

of them half -pay officers of the armyj the younger and
impecunious sons of aristocracy and the soldiers of for
tune who while yet loyal to British institutions, sought
in the New World what neither their talents nor influence
would procure for them at home. With these elements
of the population were quite generally united the mem
bers of the learned professions and the clergy of the
established church. These elements, broadly speaHmg,
soon coalesced into what for many years in Canada was
known as the " Family Compact, " the precursor of the
Conservative party.

Upon the division of Quebec into Upper and Lower
Canada, each Province was given a Governor and Legis
lative Council appointed by the King, and each an Assem
bly to be selected by the voters of the Province. .The
majority of the people were poor and illiterate, busily
and laboriously employed in felling the forests and Iraild-
ing homes. It was but a short time before the *
Compae*" tad placed ite partistos in ml! tte
offices of Imtii ilia proviiKies a$d wane bed^Ssg its
favors with a latifii liancL JCiffiogis 01 temm of
lands were bestowed HJH>S the

Bach member of the CJoinim! ^WHS giWB fiw

acres of land and eaah of Ms children one thousand two

hundred acres more. The established ehureii ^wm

endowed with lands in the form of the Clergy Reserre,

a domain of vast extent The Canada Land

a huge land monofwlyv ^&s likewise given

privileges that were out of harmony with ttie sgifcrit df

"the people. For ftiriy jmrs, the lfF^aitf

maintained its ascendancy with unvarying

The districts from wMeh the members of th©

332 STEVENS T. MASON

branch of the Legislature were chosen, in Upper Canada
at least, were so formed as to give the "Family Com
pact " control of the Assembly through vastly dispropor
tionate representation. The most reasonable reforms
sought by the great body of the people were uniformly
defeated. Even when bills to secure them were passed
in the Assembly, they were thrown out in the upper
CounciL Not even courts and juries were free from
the baneful influence of their unrepublican organization,
In Lower Canada the evils of the aristocratic control
were not so grievous, but its place was taken by the racial
question, which was furnished by the joint occupation
of the soil by the numerous but uneducated French and
the less numerous but better educated English, Scotch
and Iriah. The sons of Britain could not look upon the
French as other than a conquered race ; and when a con
stitutional government was provided for the Province,
the British minority sought through unconstitutional
methods to keep control of offices and affairs in the inter
est of what it conceived to be the progress and pros
perity of the Province, unwilling to concede that the
Frenchman was by nature endowed t6 promote the same.
The evils that existed soon brought forward a man in
each Province to stand as the Champion of reform. Wil
liam Lyon Mackenzie, the son of a poor Scotch farmer,
was the editor of a paper known as the Colonial Advo
cate published at Toronto. As early as 1824, Mackenzie
had begun to inveigh against the abuses of the Govern
ment, to agitate for a government that would be respon
sive and responsible, and consequently to strike terror
into the " Family Compact" Mackenzie was later
elected to the Assembly from the County of Tort, and

THE PATEIOT WAE 838

under Ms agitation and leadership the Eeform party
grew in strength and menacing attitnde. Five times from
first to last, the "Family Compact" majority in the
Assembly expelled Mackenzie, and each time the con
stituency of York returned him by an almost unanimous
vote. In Lower Canada the elements of rebellions dis
content rallied around Louis Joseph Papineau, a clever
partisan leader of the French Canadian element P&p-
inean was a brilliant orator, who appealed to Ms coun
trymen with irresistible effect. As a member of the
Assembly, he had been several times elected its speaker,
had been sent to England to nrge redress of grievances
and had acquired an inflnence that bronght the great
body of the French Canadian peasantry into full sym
pathy with his aspirations.

Mackenzie, who had contained to expose the corrup
tion of the administration of affairs and to battle for
a responsible government, now despaired of ike
tion of the one or the attainment of the ofiiaor*
to entertain the ideas of rebeffiop and
With him were associated other daring spirit® by
the seeds of sedition were widely sown. The
spondenee of the factions in Upper and Ixwer Canada
encouraged the belief that the adbiev^n©Bt of indep^rf-
ence for their couiftry was a project of easy accomplish
ment. The military f oroes of tte provinces were so inad
equate as hardly to merit the name. In Tipper Gaaada
•thirteen hundred troops were scattered from Kingston
to PenetanguMieiie, while two thousand more were
soned at Quebec and the other posts of the lower

Emissaries to the adjoining States found many who were
still nursing animosities against the Mother Country

334 Sl'MVWS T. MASON

engendered in the memorable contests tliat were still
* f resh jn the minds of the people, and who were willing
to vouchsafe assistance of a very extensive and substan
tial nature which, had it been coolly and critically exam
ined, would have been found to be based more upon
enthusiasm than upon things tangible.

The crisis that precipitated armed rebellion in both
Upper and Lower Canada came in November 1837 ; it is
not our purpose here to trace the course of this conflict,
except in its relation to Michigan, farther than to say
that it did not end until many lives had been sacrificed
and the people of Canada had tasted in a small degree
the ^horrors of civil strife. These overt acts of rebellion
had no sooner transpired within the adjoining province
than intense interest in the outcome was manifested by
the citizens of Detroit and vicinity, where a considerable
proportion of the population was in hearty sympathy
with any movement that professed to be for larger polit
ical rights and liberties for the Canadian; especially
when, in achieving of those rights and liberties, some
of the unsettled scores of the War of 1812 could be
adjusted; at this time, Detroit had many citizens who
were active participants in that sanguinary conflict.

As early as December 8, 1837, Governor Mason
received a communication from the Department of State
at Washington calling his attention to the fact that a
contest was on in a "Territory of Great Britain adjoin
ing the United States between a portion of the population
and the Government, " and requesting his interference
by arresting all persons concerned in hostile demonstra
tions against the British Provinces.

Not a few people writing on the incidents of the

THE PATRIOT WAR 81$

"Patriot War77 have seemingly sought to add interest
to their story by claiming that Governor Mason was in
league with the Patriot leaders and openly aided and
abetted their cause. That many of the Federal and State
officers in Michigan did entertain a warm interest in the
Patriot cause was unquestioned, and there is no doubt
that the Governor felt a deep sympathy for the refugees
who soon sought shelter in Detroit as well as sympathy
with the efforts for reform in the abuses in the Govern
ment under which the Canadians lived; but there is no
basis for the charge that his sympathies ever controlled
his official action or left him open to the charge of incon
sistency in that he did one thing as an individual and a
private citizen and another thing as a public official.
His every action in the matter evinced a purpose hon
estly to maintain the neutrality of the people of Mich
igan in the contest, and that he accomplished as much
as a&y ™&™ could have accomplished in a community
where a large proportion of the people were a^feve or
passive partisan of thie rebellions m&vmmmi* Alter
a few reverses for $m Patriots about Toronto and Mon
treal, Mackenzie fled f TOTI tl^e Province and witfe other
leaders of the disaffe<3fi<®, m Iteeesajjer 13, 18§7 took
up Ms headquarters upon Navy Mtod, an island ia
Canadian waters in the Niagara Biver some two mjObi
above the Falls, Here a gairison of some four hundred
volunteers soon gathered ami a provisional government
of Canada was organised witli Mackenzie a$ cfaalnBaa
of the executive comijaittee. This provisional govern
ment proceeded to allure reconiite with
teeing to each recruit three hundred acres
$100 in silver payable at Toronto the

336 STEVENS T. MASON

while immediate demands were cared for by the issue of
a shinplaster currency of $1.00 and $10.00 denominations,
as well as by contributions which were now flowing in
from the cities of the border States where enthusiasm
was being created by orators for the Patriot cause. For
several days the opposing forces watched each other
from behind fortifications on both the island and the
shore with occasional exchange of rifle and cannon shots
across the river, until December 29, when an event took
plaee that came near leading to international complica
tions. On the previous day the little steamer Caroline
had been taken from Buffalo and began making trips
from Fort Schlosser, a village on the American main
land, to Navy Island, giving passage for a small fare
to such as desired to visit the Patriot troops and encamp
ment and likewise transporting such munitions as the
Patriots brought for carriage. During the night, as the
little steamer was chained to the wharf at Schlosser it
was boarded by a party of about fifty volunteers from
the British forces across the river under command of
Captain Drew of the British Navy, and after a short
hand-to-hand contest in which one American was Trilled,
the boat's crew was driven ashore, her chains cast off,
an<I she was fired, burning to the water's edge as she
floated dojm the river and stranded on the rocks above
the Fala The Caroline affair aroused great popular
Indignation ttiroughout the United States and President
Van Buren 9* once dispatched Q-eneral Winfield Scott
with large dia^reiionary powers for the protection and
preservation of ibe peace npon the frontier.

Even before the Caroline incident, emissaries of the
Patriot cause had Wen among the people of the Western

Conrad Ten fyrk, C, ,8, Df ar*ik4 lit ft*

' for ik WHiwr Cimfrf,fer tiepreW
fw

. 1 K Mrkt Attortrj, wftMMBM 8aUB*l| N»
Ulltinei witii Ten fcjd KMW fort) or fifty ^««» lire akwlr Icn

.
il

a**

38

A

B

PATRIOT WAR SIP?

Canadian counties and had returned with the inf onna-
tion that it wanted but a strong Patriot force on the
Detroit to raise up recruits by the thousands in Essex
and adjoining counties. Refugees to the number of more
than three hundred had already swarmed into Detroit
and many gentlemen of prominence espoused their cause,
among such being Dr. Edward A. Theller, a gentleman
prominent in the professional and Business life of Detroit
where he had lived since 1832, — born in Ireland, but
having resided for eight years in the city of Montreal.

On December 28, 1837, Governor Mason issued a procla
mation urging upon the citizens of Michigan the obliga
tion of observing the neutrality laws of the United States
and entreating them not to violate the treaty obligations
existing between their country and Great Britain. E&-
citement ran high and the wildest rumors were given
credence. Some one started the story that the colored
people of the "other side" had perfected a design to
come ov&r and bum the 4aty aad the Brady €teyrda ww©
ordered out to protest the towm, wMle tfee Negroes ©f
the city gathered and appointed three of their immber,
Benjamin WiHougiifey, Jdte J. WilMiis and Madison
lightf oot, a committee to prepare mm address to the citi
zens of Detroit protesting their ianoaeBee in ©omneetloa
with any sudk design.

On New Year's Bay the eltkens gathered at MeKia-
ney's Theater, which stood at the southeast corner of
Gratiot Avenue and Farrar Street where addresses
delivered and $134.56 m money and tea rifles were
tributed to assist tlie Canadian refugees in th© «Hy aad
to advance the Patriot cause to the promoting df
the Morning Post now devoted its eoliamas.

338 SGffiVENB T,

IB the meantime the forces in and about Detroit organ
ized the Patriot Army of the Northwest with Henry S.
Haacty of Illinois as Commander-in-chief who was given
authority over the whole of western Canada j James M.
Wilson was commissioned as Major General, Elijah J.
Roberts of Detroit was made Brigadier General of the
first brigade and Edward A. Theller, Brigadier General
to command the first brigade of French and Irish troops
to be raised in Canada. Canada West was now ablaze
with excitement, and General Hugh Brady of Detroit,
United States department commander, with prompt
action, sought with the limited forces at his command to
protect the frontier, sending a detachment of the Brady
Guards to bring the field pieces, arms and ammunition
at Fort Gratiot to Detroit that it might not fall into the
hands of the Patriots. .As a measure of safety, four
hundred and fifty stand of arms had been stored in the
jail which was then located near the site of the present
Detroit public library. Between the hours of two and
three o'clock on the morning of the 6th of January a
company of some twenty or thirty men secreted them
selves near the jail, while one of the number aroused
David Thompson, the jailer, who as soon as he had
opened the door, was pushed aside by the company which
now rushed from the place of concealment into the jail
and soon had possession of the guns. At about the
same time, confederates took possession of the schooner
A?m moored at one of the wharves beside the river, and
long before day break, three iron cannons, the State's
arms, a quantity of provisions and* one hundred and
thirty-two men were laken on board the vessel which
was headed down stream. Adverse winds made progress

THE PATRIOT WAE $89

slow and in the afternoon United States Marshal Ten
Eyck acting under authority of the District Attorney
with a force of citizens proceeded to Ecorse, where they
hailed the vessel and commanded her surrender to the
United States authorities, a command that was derisively
refused. Small boats filled with Patriots put off
the adjoining shore at intervals and their
were transferred to the Ann which proceeded to Gib
raltar, where the party was landed that evening, being
joined by some sixty recruits that had just arrived from
Cleveland on the steamer Erie and by some three hun
dred Canadian refugees. Upon the report of the Marshal
being made that the force in charge of the Ann had
resisted the process and commands of the Federal author
ity, the District Attorney at once made a requisition
upon Governor Mason for troops wherewith to enforce
the authority that had been resisted. The Governor
promptly gave orders for the embodying of a £«ro@ from
the miliifciflL, which was soon accomplished ; as during the
day a meeting had been held at the City Hall in response
to a eatt from the GoiW8i®r t® ilwise mean® to
neutrality at whi^h *tre dblwred fey a

ber of prominent citkena of Betemt, in ocmseqwoim
which much interest WBS created. AKitfmgit it
o?doek in the inomiag^ Governor Mason and MB volun
teer militia at OBTO started for Itopritoraville for arms
from the United State© Areeaal, through r®i& mA p&rt
of the way on fo0t; tine twenty laifes iras eOTW&$y and
by two o'ciodk 0a the afterawB df tie 8% flit
and Ms force, two hundred and twenty ste»agf
board the Brady and the Erie bound for to

arrest the Ann and her warlike crow* tlpw lonrvtiag

340 STEVENS T. MASON

at Gibraltar, it was discovered that the Ann and a large
portion of the Patriot force had crossed to one of the
islands -outside of American jurisdiction, and the Mich
igan forces therefore returned to Detroit where they
arrived a Mtte before midnight.

Some Canadian partisans have been inclined to charge
the Michigan authorities with a lack of honest purpose
in going to Gibraltar at this time, and stories have been
written to the effect that while there the Governor spent
Ms time carousing and drinking wine with the Patriot
leaders; but as Canadian authorities at the time were
not inclined to credit the authorities of the State with
any purpose other than to assist the rebels, all such
stories should be accepted with much discount, as such
charges were totally at variance with the Governor's con
duct both before and after the incident in question.

Meanwhile, great excitement prevailed on the Canadian
shore. The small military forces of Kent and Essex
Counties were hurried to Windsor to prevent the threat
ened invasion. About one hundred strong they were
placed on board the steamer United, which later started
in pursuit of the Aim, but they w^re too late to intercept
that vessel, as they met Governor Mason in the Brady
^tanamg wfeem near Mgfetoag Island* The United, how
ever, ^ontiinied to the lime Kilns some fourteen miles
below wfcere in the moonlight the Aim could be plainly
seen moored IB front of the dilapidated barracks of Mai
den (now Amkerstburg). An occasional flash and boom
from her deck showed that the crew were firing their
one camion at the defenseless town. The United dis
charged her force at the Lime Kilns, from whence on
the coming of morning they marched to Amherstburg,

THE PATRIOT WAB ML

and a little later stationed themselves at Elliott's Point
at the lower end of the town where they took up a
defensive watch for the day, the Patriots evidently
awaiting reinforcements that shonld make more certain
the outcome of their anticipated attack upon the main
land. A body of such reinforcements under General
Sutherland, who had come the day before, took up their
position on a nearby island. The attempt of the Patriots
at Detroit to send forward further fprces was for the
time frustrated although at about three o'clock on the
morning of the 9th, a body of Patriots succeeded in get
ting possession of the Brady as she lay at her dock; but
before they were able to get her away, the authorities
were present in sufficient force to disperse them and take
possession of the arms they had smuggled aboard.

These doings, as well may be imagined, were attended
by the wildest excitement on both sides of the river.
During the day, four of the magistrates at Sandwich
addressed a joint mote to Ckweraor Itaaon f 01%

that an armed venae! f TOI® the State of
already mad© an att&^k Bp®m ifeeii 00natry, a^
inquiry as to whether lie conadbred 0meii m^®$mg f wee
under the protection of the United States and wfcethsr
he would consider it an invasion of th© territorial limits
of the State if the invaders were followed by the Cana
dian f oroes and attacked wherever they eould be found.

To this note the Governor macte an immediate
extended reply. He called the attention of the Ca

authorities to tite division of State a®d Federal
in our Government and made pMm to them that
the power delegated to the Federal Goveraiwut
powers of peace and war, and that under

342 OTHVUNS T. MASON

Qongress had enacted laws for the preservation of neu
trality and guaranteed the faith of treaties between the
United States and other Governments. The Governor
further called attention to the fact that these laws were
enforceable through national anthority and that, as Gov
ernor, Ms duty in the premises began only when Ms
intervention was asked to give effect to the process of
the Federal courts after the same had been resisted.
In ifais connection the Governor proceeded to say, "You
•will find the constituted authorities of Michigan prompt
and ready to discharge every duty incumbent upon them
by the laws of their country;" adverting to the other
subject of inquiry, he added, "I must state that all per
sons proceeding from tMs State and found in arms within
the jurisdiction of the province of Upper Canada have
lost all claim to the protection of the laws of the United
States and of tMs State, and whilst all intercourse
between the United States and foreign powers belongs
to the Federal Government, I cannot permit without
resistance any invasion upon the soil of the sovereign
and independent State over wMeh I preside as chief
magistrate/'

TMs position, wMch every one familiar with the prin-
di ptes of our Government recognizes as correct, was far
frasa satisfactory to the Canadian radical mind and
hasty temper, who could see in the stand of the Governor
only an effort to protect a body of what he termed
"brigands.**

The day at Jbnherstburg wore away with nothing
accomplished. The Patriots were too fearful of their
lack of arms &0d ammunition, to trust a conflict upon
the mainland, while the Canadian were too limited in

PATRIOT WAR 84S

number to become enthusiastic over the project of boaixl-
ing the schooner in a hand to hand straggle. As evening
approached, however, the Canadians crawled doeer to
the river and from convenient covers began a galling
fire upon the schooner which offered a fine target in the
bright moonlight With a purpose to get m a less
exposed position, the schooner left her moorings at about
seven o'clock and sought to tack across to Bois Btome
Island, where a large body of Patriots were posted. As
the schooner began to move away, the Canadians from
the gloom of the shore and from behind trees and otter
obstructions brought every rifle into requisition and
poured a fusillade of bullets into the large looming balk.
The Patriots returned an ineffective fire as they slowly
moved away. The man at the helm was soon shot down;
several of the crew and Patriot force were suff ering from
serious wounds, and, to add to their dlemoralmtioii, the
bullets from the shore by cfeaac© eui ite h^lymardSy letting
the TytaiB sail down. With the schooner thus unman
ageable and helpless, the whole force sought safety in
fee hold. Drifting wtfli the eturrratj Ite wgsdl mi
aground at I31I0tt*& Pdtnt Hei^s CfekOTsl *Hrfter ancE *
few of Ms companions s&ugfai to bring tWr m$mm Sato
play upon the enemy lint they wwe $wu wsip^lted to
surrender to Hie Canadian f oree by whicfa fibey iwro
boarded. The report of the eapter® listed aiaoitg the
items taken 300 muskets, 299 %ay<m€t®9 106 knapsadte,
10 kegs of gunpowder, 2 fifty pound bags 0f dtet^ 3 sfe-
pounders and one nine-launder iron guns, half m keg of
bullets, 60 pounds of lead and a number of sets of
trenaents. The prisoners taken numbered aboiil
among whom were several residents of Monroe tad

S44 STEVENS T. MASON

Michigan towns. General Sutherland of Bois Blanc is
said to have watched the capture of the Ann and to have
at once sought safety on the Michigan side of the bound
ary much to the chagrin of his officers and troops.

The Patriots of Detroit, not yet apprised of the fate
of the Ann, at two o'clock on the morning of the 10th
again sought to gain possession of a boat to carry further
supplies and recruits to the Patriot camp. Their efforts
were more successful than on the night previous, and
after a short contest with General Brady and a few
guardsmen, with the help of sympathizing bystanders,
they had the Erie steaming toward Gibraltar, where,
arriving, more supplies and recruits were taken on and
all taken to the main camp at Sugar Island.

The capture of the Ann and the theft of the Erie now
raised excitement to a fever heal A story gained cre
dence upon the Canadian shore to the effect that during
the night they wer£ to be invaded and attacked by a
force of fifteen hundred from Detroit Again the magis
trates of Sandwich addressed a note to Governor Mason
detailing their fears and praying Ms intervention to stop
the threatened invasion. This appeal was seconded by
the personal representations of certain of the clergymen
from across the border. In response to their entreaties,
tke Governor again repaired to Sugar Island and sought
to persuade the Patriots to relinquish their designs, and
a® he thought, succeeded, as they were induced to break
camp wA m& returned to Gibraltar where they were
landed dwmg iBte night of the llth, the Governor return
ing to Detroit the f olowing day. The Patriots returned
the steamer Erie aaid on the 13th Governor Mason and
the mayor of Detroit joined in a proclamation calling a

TBM PATRIOT WAB 545

meeting of the citizens at the City Hall, which being con
vened was addressed by Daniel Goodwin district attor
ney, Peter Morey attorney general, and by many other
citizens. At the conclusion, resolntions were adopted
pledging support to the Government in its effort to pre
serve neutrality.

On January 27 the Eobert Fulton arrived from
with three companies of United States troops OB
under command of Colonel Worth, who had teem detailed
by General Scott to preserve neutrality on the Detroit
frontier, and who at the sam§ time communicated with
Governor Mason requesting him to furnish from the
militia to General Brady such troops as he might make
requisition for ; but so quiet had matters become that on
the 2nd of February the Governor could write General
Scott, "that tranquillity is entirely restored to this fron
tier." But the Patriots had not yet disbanded and there
were soon indications that tranquillity was to be again
disturbed 13*0 contest® of ths tetter iromld i
it was about this time that Governor Mason

cated wiifa Ool€^dl Priaee ©£ tlbe Canadian iwitis in
regard to the prisoners taken % Mm upon the mpts»
of the schooner ATMI Tk& letter is important for Ifee
insight it affords into the sratiiiiemts and efaairMfer nf
the Governor rather than for any historical bearing it
may have. It is as follows :

"Detroit
"My dear sir:

"As the period approadbes when you may te
to repair to your post at Toronto, I am isMta©©$
address yon on a subject of mekndboly intere0t to

T. MASON

«

and I have no doubt equally so to you, I allude to the
fate of the unfortunate and deluded individuals who have
fallen into the hands of the civil authorities of your
province by the capture of the schooner Arm near Maiden.

"Sensible as I am that I cannot approach the Governor
of Upper Canada in behalf of those individuals in my
official character, my only mode of exerting any influ-
*enee IB their behalf is as a private citizen through the
•agency of yotir humane and Mnd feelings. I cannot nor
do I pretend to justify the act for which they may suffer
the penalty of your laws. But sir, 'To err is human,"
to forgive divine/ Look at the circumstances by which
they have been surrounded; listen to the tales of woe
they may have heard from refugees from the alleged
tyranny of another government; think of the motives
by which they were actuated, I am sure you will say
with me they have been deluded, misguided, and blindly
led into error. Permit me also to refer to your volun
tary offer to intercede in their behalf, in the event that
their associates would abandon their unlawful objects
and deliver their arms to the authorities of this State. I
have used your declaration with effect, and I am happy
to say to you that all those who have assembled with
itoetile intentions against the government or people of
Canada have dispersed and have placed all their arms in
my possession. Those arms I have deposited for safe
keeping in tbe United States Arsenal at Dearbornville.

4<In t^afcm to Dr. Theller, who although he seems
(and I most confess deservedly) to have enlisted little
*of your £ avw, I still beg leave to intercede in his

behalf. His donduet no brave man can justify. But

TBM PATEIOT WAE Sfl

whatever lie may be to the world, his widowed wife and
helpless children claim consideration. He is a husband
and father, and even with the worst those ties are dear
and tender. If then, Theller can ask nothing for himself,
let his dependent family speak for him.

"I would if I eonld consistently address Sir Frauds
himself, but I need not say to yon, sir, that the dbaraetar
of the offense with which the persons for whona I inter
cede stand charged and the drramstatiises attending its
commission preclude an act which would be most gratify
ing to me. I must then beg yon to represent me and I am
sure yon will say all and more than I could say and with
much more effect. Speak then for these unfortunate
persons as a man, forgetting the officer. In your own
language "the brightest Jewel of the British crown is
mercy ;" and that crown sits on the brow of a virgin
qneen the glory of whose reign I feel will never be
dimmed by blood or human tears.

m© for the tremble I may gir® y®% tout I tti
wffl appwdmte the m®nrm fcy wM A I $«
and tterf I M«A only
which I am

"Ycmir oteikat

a

"To Goi John Prince,

One cannot read this fetter without a
of the ability of the writer and wittiOTt a
should acquit MM of tie charge rf l
of Michigan, or in Ms private capacity, gitm

348 STEVENS T. MASON

port to the program involving the invasion of a neighbor
ing country in violation of law and solemn treaty obliga
tions.

On January 13, 1838, Navy Island was evacuated by
the Patriot forces who now despaired of entering Canada
from this quarter, General Donald McLeod, a man of
education who had seen service in the British Army and
a Canadian refugee, was now made General-in-chief of
the Patriot forces. The arms and supplies were secreted,
and from Buffalo were ultimately transferred to farmers'
wagons and transported around the southern shore of
lake Erie. Large bands of men followed the same
coarse. Secret organizations known as Hunters*
Lodges were now instituted in all the border towns and
cities, They were a fraternity whose membership con
sisted of Canadian refugees and Patriot sympathizers,
numbering among them many gentlemen of worth and
standing in the pivil and military affairs of the States,
as well as a goodly number of adventurous renegades,
such as are always ready to attach themselves to any
movement that promises excitement and easy living.
These lodges were said to exist a&f ar south as Kentucky,
westward from New England to Chicago, and as far
north as Port Huron; and in their secret meetings the
womgs of Canada were eloquently depicted and the
sinews of revolt collected.

From the first, the Brady Guards under command of
old General Hugh Brady had formed the only effective
body of men for gsard duty on the Michigan shore. A
detachment of the craap&ny had brought down the arms
from Fort Gratiot as heretofore stated; another detach
ment for some months was op guard at the United States

TOT PATRIOT WAR 340

Arsenal at Dearbornville ; while still another in relays
guarded the river front and when the Patriots sought to
gain possession of arms or boats gave the alarm by ring
ing the bell of the old Presbyterian Church which brought
the remainder of the company and a considerable portion
of the population as well, ready for service.

Mr. George C. Bates, a talented, cultured
orderly sergeant of the Brady Guards, who for
years survived the events of 1838, has left us many inter
esting reminiscences of the time, among which is a pen
picture of the difficulties under which they performed
their duties. Said he, "Not unfrequently jeered at,
sneered at and insulted by crowds of ragged Patriots,
who, shivering with the cold, gathered like gypsies in
large bands around their camp fires, and whenever those
in authority sought to scatter or warn them of danger of
violation of our neutrality laws, they would turn upon
them with ribald, jeers, profane objurations, and
denounce srofa men as Brady and Swtt as *R®Etoe
Tories/ *Ictepittles of the Britidi OFOWB/ and
of the Tories of Ikg^aitd/ " mi fee add© tfcai "Tfce <fif-
fieulty of preaervimg tiia paaa® was gr^aHy enhanced hf
threats a^d denunciations of fib© British authorities at
Sandwich and Maiden," who, he says, "aowtantly vis
ited the American authorities at Detroit, Wyandotte wA
Grosse Isle, and in the moat exalted manner threatened
to burn our houses, destroy our st^m^rs and Teasels and
slaughter our citizens, unless the Patriots were drwem
away baek to their homjes*"

The straggling tends of Patriots wMafe i*0w fe©g&a f®
arrive, renewed the enthusiasm timt had been
depressed by the marksmanship of the Ckmadi
at the capture of the schooner Ann. Oil February

350 STUVENS T. MASON

Governor Mason communicated information as to the
situation to 'President Van Buren, who had already by
proclamation and other means sought to preserve the
neutrality of the United States, saying, "I regret to
inform yon, that contrary to my most confident expecta
tions, this frontier is again thrown into a state of confu
sion by ihe appearance of the force recently disbanded
and dispersed from Navy Island. I have no idea that
ihiB assemblage of persons can make an effective impres
sion on the Canadian shore ; bnt the fact of their appear
ance is calculated to keep this side of the line in a con
tinued ferment, and the opposite shore in a constant state
of alarm and apprehension. ? '

The Governor proceeded to inform the President at
length as to the exact situation and of the necessity for
a law permitting the seizure of such boxes as the author
ities had good reason to believe contained arms and mum-
tions of war, whereby he urged that the forces of disturb
ance might soon be disarmed and permanent tranquillity
restored.

Even as the Governor penned his letter detailing his
apprehensions, General Brady under instructions of Gen
eral Scott made requisition upon the State government
for a •military force wherewith to more effectually pro
tect ike frontier. Governor Mason accordingly called
out six companies of the State militia and on the 12th of
February accompanied them to Gibraltar. The weather
wMeh theretofore had been unusually mild, now became
correspondingly severe. Upon the appearance of the
militia and after conference between the Governor and
the Patriot leaders, the Patriot forces seemingly dis
banded, and the militia returned to Detroit But the

PATKIOT WAS, 351

Patriots seemed to have a habit of disbanding in one
place to gather at once in a new place. Indeed, while
they were being persuaded to disband at Gibraltar, a de
tachment of their force was stealing twelve boxes of arms
that had just been brought from Dearbornville to Detroit
for the use of the militia. Two days later, before they
could be taken from the city, they were discovered in a
garret over a ball alley and returned. On the day fol
lowing the theft of the arms the Patriots succeeded in
replenishing their commissary by the theft of one hun
dred and one barrels of flour from the steamboat General
Brady as the steamer was lying in the river near the
city. With wisdom born of this experience, the Brady
Guards were at once dispatched to convoy provisions
which it was necessary to transport from Gibraltar for
troops then stationed at Monroe.

As the continuing cold weather had now frozen the
river from shore to shore, the Patriots began prepara
tions for a concerted rush across the line. As yet they
were sorely lacking in arms and munitions and at about
this time had recourse to a piece of strategy, which, had
it succeeded, might have resulted in the addition of a few
hundred stand of arms being added to their equipment.
A story was started in Detroit that a volunteer company
was being organized in Canada for the purpose of cross
ing the river and firing the city. The story was told with
a wealth of detail and confirmation calculated to create
a great excitement; the intention being that wh6n the
excitement was at its height to present a petition to the
Governor and induce him if possible to call for volunteers
for the emergency ; then the secret friends of the Patriots
were to come forward in goodly number, be sworn in,

draw arms and ammunition and be off. The Governor
was early advised of the scheme and the people were
warned against unfounded rumor, and as there was no
excitement there was no basis for the issuance of arms.

On February 19 the Patriots who had been about
Detroit in considerable numbers for several days sud
denly decamped, some going up and some down the
river on the 22nd the Brady Guards went as far as
St. Clair to prevent an attack upon Port Sarnia, only
to learn the next day that Patriot forces were gathering
at Thomas' Tavern some five miles below Gibraltar.
Tired and weary the Guards returned to Detroit, only
to be brought from their beds by the ringing of the bell
on the night of the 24th, and to find upon reaching head
quarters that sleighs had been provided and that orders
had been issued for the guards and United States
recruits, which had been increased by one more company
from Buffalo on the 14th, to move down the Detroit
River until they should meet Patriots advancing or until
they should come to the position they had taken up'. It
was known, now the ice had formed, the Patriots were
rallying all their forces available for a dash across the
line, the effort to be timed with other efforts upon the
St Lawrence and from Lake Erie ports. During the
night of the 23rd the Patriots in threie divisions moved
up as far as Ecorse, from whence, shortly after noon on
the 24th, they passed over and established themselves
upon Fighting Island across the national boundary. The
Canadian forces immediately gathered opposite the
island and about 4 P. 1L the Guards and United States
troops under command of General Brady, were drawn
up upon the American shore; Hon. Daniel Goodwin

THEODORE ROMEYN

Detroit Attorney associated with Gov.
Mason in the $50,000,000 loan.

HENRY HOWARD
First Treasurer of the State of Michigan.

ELIJAH J. ROBERTS,

Detroit attorney and newspaper man.
Adjutant General of Michigan 1842-44 and
later in the State Legislature.

THE PATRIOT WAR 363

United States District Attorney, Conrad Ten Eyck
United States Marshal, and Hon. Eoss Wilkins District
Judge, were present as the representatives of the civil
authority. General Brady at once stationed his forces
so as to cut off as far as possible the straggling bands
that were crossing from above and below to the Patriot
camp upon the island. The Patriot force presented little
of the appearance of an army; scantily clad, poorly fed
and but little more than half armed, they shivered about
their camp fires presenting a sorry if not dejected spec
tacle. His camp established and his troops placed, Gen
eral Brady at once dispatched two officers by sleigh with
instructions to proceed to Maiden and there inform Col
onel Basden, commander of the British forces, that the
United States forces under General Brady assisting the
United States civil authorities, had taken a position oppo
site righting Island for the purpose of enforcing the
neutrality laws of the United States, and that they would
prevent all armed persons from crossing to Canadian
territory and would arrest all such as sought to retreat
therefrom; that they were acting under authority. of the
President of the United States and were in good faith
determined to prevent any violation of the laws of the
United States or the personal or property rights of the
British people. A little after night-fall the couriers re
turned and reported a story of rather uncivil treatment
from Col. Basden as well as a reply to the effect that while
he had the highest regard for Gen. Brady, he had none
whatever for the civil authorities of the United States, and
that he should, regardless of Gen. Brady or his command,
attack the "damned vagabonds on Fighting Island before
daylight the next morning; that he would clean them out

354 STEVENS T. MASON

with grape and canister from Ms batteries, and that if
they retreated to the United States he would follow them
and kill them wherever he could overtake them/7

The delivery of this reply raised the lion in the old
general and he at once detailed a detachment to pace off
and mark the national boundary with flags set in the
ice about one hundred feet apart ; this done he brought
Ms forces into line and impressively told them that they
were there to enforce the laws of the United States and
to, arrest all offenders against them. Said he, "My
orders to you are as heretofore, to arrest and prevent
all armed men from proceeding over to Fighting Island;
to capture and turn over to the United States Marshal
as prisoners all men who shall retreat from Fighting
Island to our shore, " Pointing significantly to the line
that had been marked upon the river, he proceeded, say
ing, "Soldiers you see before you clearly marked by
yonder guides the boundary line between the United
States and Canada. If a British soldier or officer in arms
crosses inside our lines, I charge you all to beat them
back, to capture and to kill them if necessary, to protect
our sovereignty/' The orders were received with wild
cheers from the troops who turned in to await the coming
of the morning. With the first gray of the winter's dawn
the Patriots attempted to take a gun carriage from the
Michigan mainland to the island upon which to mount
their one cannon, which for want of a better carriage had
been placed upon a platform of logs and rails. Almost
immediately the* Gana<iian troops began a heavy cannon
ading of the Patriot camp upon the island. The Patriots
replied as best they could from their few muskets and
one cannon wMch at every discharge rolled from its

THE PATRIOT WAB 355

unstable platform and had to be picked up and replaced
for the next shot. As the Canadian troops advanced the
Patriots retreated across the ice to the mainland where
they were disarmed and the leaders taken into custody.
The loyalists advanced to the marked line where they
saluted and returned, Col. Basden not seeming to desire
to make good his threat of the night before. There are
no reliable data as to the casualties upon either side.
The most authentic reports would seem to indicate that
none were killed, although the Patriots had five seriously
wounded who were brought to Detroit for surgical treat
ment.

On the day following, Monday, the 26th, General Scott
arrived at Detroit to give personal attention and direction
to the placing and distribution of the troops upon the fron
tier. In the exasperated and excited state of the public mind
on the Canadian border we may well imagine that citi
zens of the United States were not welcome visitors upon
the Canadian shore even when their mission was peace
ful and law abiding. Not a few such were arrested and
thrown into the Sandwich jail. These incidents brought
prompt although possibly ineffectual protests from Gov
ernor Mason to the Canadian magistrates and others
in authority, and requests that unless the charges made
could be sustained, the person under arrest be discharged
and allowed to return to the United States.

While attempts to invade Canada from Michigan
ceased for the time being with the battle of Fighting
Island, the feeling of exasperation among the loyal sub
jects of Upper Canada towards the authorities of Mich
igan seemingly increased rather than abated. This feel
ing the Canadians made no attempt to disguise. They

STEVBNS T. MASON

began military movements across the border which the
citiz$n& of Detroit could interpret only as preparations
f or offensive warfare. A pronounced spirit of retaliation
W&& soon manifested among the citizens of Detroit even
imong those who were in favor of the preservation of
neutrality in the first instance.

Governor Mason was himself suspicious of the designs
of the British authorities, and on March 6th wrote Presi
dent Van Buren as to the state of public feeling, the
activities upon the Canadian shore, and the defenseless
condition of Michigan in case of rupture. The day fol
lowing, the citizens of Detroit gathered at the City Hall
to consult upon the same questions, as well as upon the
treatment of prisoners which had been taken by the
Oajiadians, The resist of the meeting was the appoint
ment of D. E. Hardbaugh, A. D. Fraser, P. Desnoyer,
C. C. Trowbridge and E, Brooks as a committee to con
sider the situation and report. On the 12th the people
again gathered in a large meeting at the City Hall. The
Committee reported, and the meeting adopted resolutions
favoring neutrality, and protested against statements
said to have been made in the Canadian Parliament to
the effect that the citizens of Detroit were extending
aid and sympathy to the Patriots. A few days later the
Legislature unanimously joined in a signed statement
of the defenseless condition of the frontier, which the
Governor at once forwarded to the Secretary of "War
with a personal letter again joining in the representa
tions made, and calling attention to the activity of the
Canadian authorities in the concentration of their mili
tary forces opposite to Detroit and to their securing com
mand of the best steamers upon the Lakes.

THE PATRIOT WAR 35*

The apprehension of the Governor and of the people
of Detroit did no't seem to be shared by the officers of
the General government, or they were unable to comply
with the requests made for an additional force, for no
such force or equipment was forwarded to this frontier
until the following autumn.

During the summer, from two to three hundred Patri
ots were for a time in camp near the eastern limits of
the city, and with the approach of Fall there were
renewed evidences of activity among Hunters' Lodges
and Patriot sympathizers in all the border towns and
cities. On November 3 the British Minister, Mr. Fox,
transmitted to the Secretary of State at Washington a
communication setting forth at considerable length the
information which the British government through its
secret service had been able to obtain of the contemplated
movements, purposes and designs of the Patriots, which
disclosed a Conspiracy of astonishing proportions if their
information was to be believed. A copy of the cornfhuni-
cation was confidentially mailed to Governor Mason and
his attention directed to its various suggestions. The
Government at once exerted itself to do all in its power
to prevent its territory from being used as a base of op£r-
ations against the neighboring province of Canada. Be-
twe£n the 14th and 16th of November ten thousand mu£-
kets were forwarded to the arsenal at Dearbornville, and
the General Government showed in other ways that it
was determined to stop' the doings of the year before^
so far as they could be said to be in violation of the neu
trality of this Nation. Reports became current that th£
Patriots were gathering at Cleveland and Sandusky.
General Brady chartered the steamer Illinois, ai^d while

$58 STEVENS T. MASON

steaming down the river on November 19th picked up a
schooner in which were discovered some three hundred
stand of arms designed for the Patriot troops. These
were confiscated. Troops were placed at intervals along
the river to prevent disturbance npon the land and the
steamer Erie for the same purpose patroled the river.
On the 21st the Patriots recouped for the loss of the arms
taken by Gen. Brady two days before by stealing the
arms of the Brady Guards, which were retaken however
on the 23rd.

Although hampered at every turn, the Patriots still
clung to their purpose with a tenacity that is difSctllt to
understand. About five hundred refugees had now con
gregated at the pioneer village of Brest, from whence
they moved up to what was then Forsyth farm, now
within the city limits. Here on Sunday, December 2,
they were surrounded during the night by troops under
Gen. Brady; twelve boxes of muskets were captured and
the gathering dispersed. Instead of being discouraged
by the watchfulness of the United States authorities,
the refugees and Patriots were seemingly made more
determined and desperate. On the morning of Decem
ber 4th, at about 2 A. M., a company of Patriots about
one hundred and thirty-five strong stealthily marched
into Detroit to the wharf where the steamboat Cham-
plain lay. Before the authorities were aroused the
Patriots had steam up, their troops and equipment on
board, and were steaming for the Canadian shore, where
tKey landed some distance above Windsor. They were
not discovered by the Canadians until the advancing col
umn was seen through the gloom by the cavalry patrol.
A few shots only followed before the thoroughly sur-

THE PATBIOT WAR 859

prised soldiers at the Windsor Barracks were forced to
surrender, not over a dozen of the one hundred and
twenty-five escaping. The Patriots then proceeded to
fire the Barracks, which burning consumed a couple of
dwellings near by as well as the steamer Thames which
lay at a dock nearly opposite. Five soldiers were said to
have perished in the burning Barracks. The details of
the "Battle of Windsor," as it has been called, would
alone make a chapter. With the coming of the dawn a
force of some four or five hundred Canadian troops were
closing in on the little body of Patriots, and while they
stood their ground for a little time they were soon scat
tered in disorder. Among the casualties in the Canadian
troops there were said to be four killed and four
wounded. Among the former was Dr. John J. Hume,
Assistant Surgeon of the troops, whose grave in the
Sandwich churchyard may still be seen. It is marked
with a stone upon which is engraved the following
epitaph, the same voicing the indignation of its author
Col. John Prince :

SACEED

To the Memoiy of

John James Hume Esqre. M.D.

Staff Assistant Surgeon

who was inhumanely murdered and his body afterwards
brutally mangled by a ga:ng of armed ruffians from the
United States

Styling themselves

"PATBIOTS"

who committed this cowardly and shameful outrage on the
morning of the 4th of December, 1838 : having intercepted

. STEVENS T. MASON

deceased while proceeding to render professional
fiance to her Majestie's gallant Militia engaged at

Windsor, U. C. in repelling the incursion of this rebel

crew Biore properly styled

PIEATES.

The rout of the Patriots was disastrous. Accounts
of the number killed do not agree, but Col. Prince
reported twenty-one. Sixty-five were said to have been
taken prisoners, and ten or a dozen more were said to
have died from exposure the night and day following in the
adjoining fields and forests. Four of the prisoners
taken and some of them desperately wounded, were by
oirder of CoL Prince stood up and riddled with shot.
Prince seemed to have been governed by the fury of a
Savage, and would have continued his work of massacre
had his hand not been stayed by his more humane asso
ciates. Of the little Patriot army that crossed over, not
more than thirty returned, and not then until they had'
been secreted for days by sympathetic Canadian farmers.

The whole population of Detroit watched the sanguin
ary conflict from the opposing shore. The excitement
in the city was beyond description, and^to guard the city
forty watchmen were appointed to patrol the streets that
night, the number being increased to one hundred and
fifty the night following. The battle of Windsor proved
to be the last important conflict of the Patriot war,
although a considerable body of troops were maintained
upon the Canadian shore for a long space of time. Of
the prisoners taken, a few, and among the number Dr.
Theller, escaped from prison. He returned to Detroit
on the- very day of the battle of Windsor. He lived for

THE PATRIOT WAR 361

many years thereafter and in 1841 wrote a two-volume
account of the rebellion and his own reminiscences. For
months the gallows was kept busy, some twenty-five or
thirty paying the forfeit of their lives for their heroic
temerity, while scores of others died or returned after
long lingering years of banishment in the Bermudas or
in Van Dieman's Land.

The rebellion though crushed, and its leaders hanged
and transported, accomplished its purpose. It was the
inevitable result of misgovernment, and Canada and the
mother country profited even by their failure. From the
Canada of the "Family Compact, " and what Lord Dur
ham in 1838 described as a government of "Constituted
Anarchy," there came forth the New Canada, blessed
with the institutions of liberty, equality and justice.

CHAPTER XVIII

BANKS AND

passage of the general banking law and the
causes which led to it have already been detailed.
The first association to perfect its organization under
the law was the Fanner's Bank of Homer, located at
the village of that name, in the county of Calhoun. It
began business August 19, 1837, with a reported capital
of $100,000, a sum that must have been ample for the
needs of the immediate conoanunity in view of the fact
that the next year it was described as 3, village having
a store, a sawmill, a postoffice and about two hundred
inhabitants. Before- the end of the following November
seven more banks had been organized and had commenced
business. As yet there seems to have been no local dis
trust of the associations or of the circulation they were
handing to the public fresh from the printing press. On
December 6 Mr. Edwin N. Bridges, the banking commis
sioner made a report showing the condition of the banks
according to the November returns. He suggested sev
eral particulars wherein the general banking law might
be improved by amendment, but he undoubtedly voiced
a fair measure of public sentiment when he said, "In
supplying a circulating medium at home, the want of
which was already greatly felt, the banks which have
gone into operation under the general banking law have
effected a sensible relief, and have thus acquired a not
unmerited popularity/7 and he adds, "The additional

BANKS AND BANKING 868

safeguards with which it is proper to surround them, will
entitle them to increased confidence and favor." Had
the Commissioner written his report a few weeks later,
it is altogether probable that he would have spoken with
far less optimism, for the month of December witnessed
the organization of twelve associations and the month
of January, 1838, still fifteen more, a total of forty hav
ing completed their organizations by the following May
20. The number was ultimately raised to forty-nine, with
twenty-one more in various stages of their organization,
when the end came through the repeal of the law. That
in the beginning the great majority of the promoters of
these banking associations anticipated the evils that were
to attend these efforts, is not to be presumed. They were
generally men of standing and reputation, who entered
the business ignorant of the science of banking and the
laws of finance, but with honorable purposes. That they
were to be the instruments of a public calamity was as
far from their thoughts as from the thoughts of the men
.who framed the law under which they acted.

The Legislature which convened in adjourned session
in November, 1837, addressed itself to the work of per
fecting the defects which had been disclosed in the bank
ing law during the1 brief time it had been in operation.
On December 30 Governor Mason approved an amend
ment to the general banking law, which while in the form
of an amendment, was really a re-draft of the law. It
retained all of the essential features of the previous law,
adding a few provisions intended to further safeguard
the appraisement of the securities to be given for the
security of bank circulation, and required more frequent
reports, provided for three banking commissioners

364: STEVENS T., MASON

instead of one, and sought to prevent the issue of circu
lation by banks in an insolvent condition by providing,
that before any bill should be issued, it should 'bear the
indorsement of a commissioner; and that in other ways
it sought to enlarge the powers of the commissioners and
the responsibilities of the associations. This amendment
passed both Houses of the Legislature by a vote quite
as unanimous as was given to the original statute.

Contemporaneous with this Act was passed an Act
providing that no bank going into operation after the
first day of January 1838, should be permitted to suspend
specie payment, a measure which it was believed would
seriously limit, if it did not prohibit, the organisation
of new banks, and which likewise indicates a dstwning
distrust of the soundness of the institutions that had
been permitted to issue currency which the general public
could n<yt ask to have redeemed in specie; but the full
realization of the situation was not to come until a few
weeks later.

On January 15, 1838, Governor Mason sent to the Sen
ate the names of Edwin N. Bridges, Charles W. Whipple
and Thomas Fitzgerald as bank commissioners under the
Act of December 30. The nomination of Thomas Fitz
gerald was at once confirmed, and the nominations of
Messrs. Bridges and Whipple rejected. On February 2
the Governor, to fill the two remaining places, sent to
the Senate the names of Alpheus Felch and Kintzing
Pritchette, the latter having in the meantime been
rejected as Secretary of State, to which office Randolph
Manning was nominated and on the 6th of February
duly confirmed. Both Felch and Pritchette were subse-

BANKS AND BANKING 365

quently confirmed, and at once qualified and proceeded
with the duties of their office.

In the larger towns and villages where banks had been
organized, there was at first a disposition to conduct
the business as close to proper standards as the limited
knowledge of the operators would permit; but unfor
tunately, of the many who essayed to prosecute the busi
ness a considerable number were not even honest. As
usual in such cases the trickster and criminal discovered
the weaknesses of the law and the opportunities it offered
for schemes of fraud and trickery before they were dis
covered by the general public.

The law provided that before any bank should begin
operations, thirty per cent of its capital stock should
be paid in in specie. Thus the law provided, in plain
terms, that before associations issued their promises to
pay, bona fide capital in gold and silver to the amount of
thirty per cent of their authorized capital stock, should
be in their * ' strong box. ' ' A mandate so plain, it would
seem, would hardly have been evaded, but it was* a require
ment that in actual operation seems to have been vio
lated with impunity. In the organization of a number
of banks, instead of specie a kind of paper that cam§
to be known as " specie certificate " was used. Such
certificates ~were issued by bank officers, and sometimes
by individuals and firms in general business, and in form
acknowledged the receipt of specie held on deposit.
These spurious substitutes for real coin were plentifully
issued by certain gentlemen and institutions in Detroit,
and at other places, and became the basis upon which
many an institution became a bank of issue. One writer

STEVENS T. MASON

has given a list of twenty-four banks that began business
with these legal evasions as the only items of value in
their capital. In some cases it was said that specie was
borrowed for the occasion, was used and immediately
returfied. Another scheme which must have taxed the
imagination of the organizers was, to take the individual
notes of the stock subscribers denominated "stock notes'7
and, because payable in coin, were received and counted
as specie. Hon. Alpheus Felch in later years, writing
with an intimate knowledge of the tricks and evasions
that characterized the operations of the "wildcat"
banks, tells of one bank, the Oakland County Bank, which
was organized upon a specie certificate for $10,000, and
$5,000 in actual specie borrowed from another bank,
which, to make up the required amount, was paid in three
times and counted as $15,000 was used. The certificate
was given by an accommodating bank to the individual
interested in organizing the Lapeer bank without his hav
ing made a deposit or having anything in the bank to his
credit. The certificate was cancelled by the check of the
pretended depositor which was made simultaneously with
it The Wayne County Bank was said to have been put
in operation by the checks of stockholders which were
never presented, acknowledged or paid. The Bank of
Saline began business on a specie certificate for $15,000
which was taken away as soon as the bank was in opera
tion, while the Farmers and Mechanics Bank of Pontiac
borrowed the necessary specie to be exhibited as capital
stock paid in. The Bank of Sandstone did not even
resort to a subterfuge. It put $38,000 of its bills in cir
culation with no specie either owned or borrowed in its
possession, while the Exchange Bank of Shiawassee

BANKS AND BANKING SOT

floated $22,261 of paper on exactly seven copper coins
and an exceedingly small amount of paper currency in
its safe. The Jackson County Bank acquired $70,000
of indebtedness npon the pompons show of good sized
boxes filled with nails and glass and with a few layers of
silver dollars npon the top. Here a director took his
oath that a certain box of specie was the property of
the bank and later brought an action against the institu
tion to recover it as his individual property, so that in
the end it was found that the $70,000 of circulation
rested upon less than $5,000 of actual assets. The Farm
ers and Merchants Bank of St. Joseph at Centerville
was another institution that dispensed with the legal
formalities that had been prescribed in the statute, and
with little more than a stock of " precious paper prom
ises " had them in the hands of an unsuspecting public
to the amount of $19,860 before their work could be
stopped. Of the notes of this institution, the Attorney
General Peter Morey later said, "They went forth with
a lie upon their very faces, as they purported to be upon
a bank which had, in truth, no legal existence and which'
never possessed, it is believed,, one cent of real capital,
and which had nothing to sustain it but the sublimated
effrontery and fraud of its principal founder."

If the law providing for the specie basis was in many
instances transgressed and evaded, the provision requir
ing mortgage security upon unincumbered real estate
for the ultimate redemption of the bank circulation was
violated with at least equal impunity. This latter pro
vision, as would be at once seen, was designed to make
certain an abundance of security over and above the indi
vidual liability of stockholders and directors and after

368 STEVENS T. MASON

the safety fund had been exhausted. It was considered
to be one of the most salutary provisions of the amended
act, providing as it did that such mortgage security
should cover the full liabilities of the bank both for its
notes of issue and general indebtedness, the security
being upon real estate the value of which was determined
by an . appraisement made by the Sheriff, Treasurer,
Clerk, and Associate Judges of the county, or a majority
of them. But the value of this provision as an added
dement of safety depended entirely upon the fidelity
with which the spirit as well as the letter of the law was
observed, and this under the conditions that then existed
was well-nigh impossible. Speculative standards had not
yet wholly passed away. Values had for a considerable
time been measured in ap inflated currency,, and Etony a
promoter was $ffll honest in the belief that the "paper
cities " and new locations only awaited the passing of
the temporary depression to become thriving marts of
trade. The county officers whose duty it was to fix the
appraisal value of the lands upon which the mortgage
securities were offered, could not entirely resist the influ
ence of the prevailing sentiment, or their friendship for
the numerous bank promoters, or in some instances of
their own personal interests. The result was that in
some instances security was taken that was almost worth
less. For instance, the SMawassee Exchange Bank fur
nished approximately $22,000 of its required security by
a mortgage upkm a fortieth interest in the city of Ports
mouth, a city projected by several gentlemen of Detroit,
among whom was Governor Mason, near the present site
of Bay City. The Detroit City Bank included among
its securities mortgages upon lots in the village of Gas-

GEN, JOHN E, SCHWARZ

Adjutant General of the Territorial mil
itia in 1831 and first Adjutant General of
the State of Michigan. Later a member of
the State Legislature.

WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE

Delegate to Congress in 1819. Judge of the IT. S. Supreme
CJourt 1828-32. Member of the first State Constitutional
Convention. State Senator 183S-9. Governor of Michigan
1840-41, U. S, Senator 1841-47.

GOVERNOR IN AN» OVER THE STATE OF MICHIGAN:

To alhcho shall sw these /»*/»/•///«— Greetm" :

i'fi'iM in Ifte /taJ,.ie h MI, win, {>(.{< f<t>h and utilities oj
in l/n'- mow. and /y. {tit aut/'ouly fj Me '//«/*/£ fjific ffiefe cf

NTAw *, &^^

tie dull* 4

^

tluctfy c/ttttae and teazle M Officers and #0/*fe« unfot, &* wmmit*&&$e vtklttntfo/n*
to xZ^^^^-r^- t&wl/it it & e/titt tnd jctfew MC/£ oic&i*

<ml dttcciw* /torn time 6 tme »$ Mhcmte fcm !& PRESIDENT OF IHE UNITED

STATES OF AMEmCA*wa»* ^ ^ tf&b, * '4» ^ @c*t *t «* &m,

oj

•accetdiny Jo Aw, Ef/iio. Commission 4o umlime <n j(>tw dtoiinj. l/te fifmuli\ cj

e catwet 4&e

CAPTAIN'S COMMISSION FOR OREN MARSH, 183S

BANKS AND BANKING 369

cade in Kent County and also upon lots in White Eock
City in the county of. Sanilac. The Commercial Bank of
St. Joseph showed a measure of local patriotism by giv
ing its security wholly upon St. Joseph real estate,
twenty-eight lots bearing the burden of the greater por
tion, of -$60,650 of mortgage obligations. The Millers
Bank of Washtenaw gave its mortgage security of $48,000
almost exclusively upon the village lots of an outlying
addition to the village of Ann Arbor. Among the great
mass of mortgages given, one finds documents that tell
him of the villages of Livingston, Kensington, Gibraltar,
Brest and Singapore and other places long since for
gotten. In the far greater number of instances, however,
the securities were upon the unimproved lands but
recently purchased from the General Government and
destined during the next few years in a large number of
cases to be sold for the non-payment of the taxes assessed
against them. With such frauds and evasions practiced
in the creation and organization of certain of the banking
associations, one would expect to find kindred rascali
ties in their subsequent operations. Such was in fact
the case, the later examination of the banks disclosing
that in many cases the taint which had marked their
inception increased in virulence with their subsequent
progress. , Through fraudulent design, and incompetency
that invited like results, the books of the banks were in
many instances so kept as to give but the most imperfect
and misleading information as to the particular transac
tions or the general condition of affairs. The reports of
the Bank Commissioners disclose that in numerous
instances there was a wilful purpose on the part of bank
officials to understate the amount of bills which a bank

370 STEVENS T. MASON

had actually put in circulation. It could have been said
that it was almost a practice for banks, under the plea
of facilitating exchange, to put their bills in the hands of
individuals, frequently without any security therefor
and in many instances without any record of the trans
action upon the books of the bank. Speaking of the Bank
of Manchester, one report says, " Previous to the last
report of the condition of the bank, it appeared that the
circulation was $34,000. It was, however, afterwards
ascertained that there were in the hands of individuals,
without security, bills of the bank to the amount of $73,-
334, making a total of bills out of $104,334. ' ' In the case
of the Lenawee 'County Bank it was discovered that the
$30,000 which had been originally paid in as capital stock
was almost immediately after the organization refunded
and the promissory note of one of the stockholders resid
ing at Toledo taken for the amount. The books of this
institution showed a circulation to the amount of $13,2107
"but upon strict inquiry and investigation/' says the
report, "it was ascertained that the sum of six thousand
two hundred dollars or thereabout, was in the hands of
two individuals for exchange purposes, which was not
entered upon the books of the bank among the issues and
for which no charge of indebtedness was made to any
individuai nor security taken." Later when the books
disclosed circulation to the amount of $22,642, outside
investigation revealed actual circulation to the amount
of $42,363, with specie on hand to the amount of $34.20.
The Bank of Brest ultimately disclosed methods that
have never yet been surpassed in the realm of financial
chicanery. An exaipination of the bank at one time dis
closed $9,754.92 in actual gold and silver in its safe, a

BANKS AND BANKING 371

small book showing a memorandum to the effect that
$7,497 of the amount had been paid in the day previous
by Lewis Godard, one of the bank's principal promoters.
A second examination ten days later showed that two
days following the first examination, Godard had dis
counted his note at the bank for $7 ,500 and had been paid
in the bills of the bank, that the bills had at once been '
passed to another individual who repassed them over the
counter and had them redeemed in specie, the specie at
that time being reduced to $138.89. Among the loans
of this institution was one for $16,000, secured by two
bonds executed by the same Lewis G-odard, accompanied
by a mortgage upon one hundred and eighteen village
lots in the village of Brest. This mortgage was subse
quently assigned by the bank to the Brest Company, for
the reason, as stated in the resolution ordering the
assignment, that the Brest Company had received no con
sideration from the bank for the same. While the gen
eral books of this concern showed circulation to the
amount of $39,425, the little memorandum book showed
other bills in Godard ?s hands to the amount of $19,816,
and $25,000 more in the hands of one Lyman A. Spalding
of Lockport, New York.

Numerous other instances alike in character and vary
ing only in degree could be cited showing the utter aban-,
don with which the "high financiers7' of 1838 did their
Work. In speaking of another phase of the frauds prac
ticed, Hon. Alpheus Felch has said, "The discounted
paper of the bank was found in many instances to be
deficient in amount. Some of its was of a character to
excite grave suspicions as to its genuineness. It was
largely given by the officers of the bank or*by the indi-

372 STEVENS T. MASON

viduals who had been active in the organization of it, and
who controlled its action. The same individuals some
times controlled several banks, some being directors in
one an,d some in another of them, and their names
appearing on the discounted paper to large amounts in
all of them. Many of these individuals were entirely
irresponsible and their paper worthless. In some
instances discounted paper had been withdrawn with no
substitute for it. In the frenzy of the times banks be
came a subject of repeated sale and transfer, and in
some cases the retiring stockholders sometimes took to
themselves the discounted paper of the bank, and the
new proprietors furnished a substitute therefor. In
one instance, on such a transfer, promissory notes to the
amount of nearly $100,000 were withdrawn and new
paper substituted, the former of which was subsequently
declared by an investigating committee of the house of
representatives 'to be good, and the latter worthless, if
not forged.' "

Aside from the transactions of dubious character in
which certain of the banking association were actively
engaged, their locations were in many instances impeach
ments of the honesty of their purposes and intentions.
Detroit with nearly ten thousand population out of a
total of one hundred and seventy-five thousand in the
State and, commercially speaking, constituting a far
larger proportion of the State than even its population
would indicate, had 'one banking association organized
under the 'general banking law. It was the Detroit City
Bank, born December 26, 1837, capitalized at $200,000,
and although its officers and directors,, as has been said,
•"were the- best known and most influential of Detroit

BANKS AND BANKING 373

citizens, " it too began life under a cloud, for in its $60,000
of capital paid in there was $20,673 of tlie suspicious
specie certificate. Of the remaining banks it is perhaps
safe to say that fully two-thirds of the number were
located in the villages of less than five hundred people
each, while a number were located in places of too recent
settlement and too limited population to find place in
Blois' Gazetteer of 1838. That the village of Brest, on
Stony Creek seven miles from Monroe, where broad ave
nues and shipping facilities had been marked upon an
attractive plat by the ambitious Brest Company but
where as yet not twenty families lived, should have been
selected as the site of a bank of $100,000 capitalization,
and that it could have prosecuted its organization with:
out exciting the derision of press and people, goes further
in disclosing the public temper and the general knowl
edge of the science of banks and banking than a volume
of detail could do. But Brest with its bank, its malaria
and mosquitos could boast all the metropolitan advan
tages of the village of Barry on Sandstone Creek in
Jackson County, or of Singapore, the name which desig
nated the place where the Kalamazoo Eiver enters Lake
Michigan, of Kensington located in the sylvan recesses
of southwestern Oakland County, or of Shiawassee or
whatever name was given to the forest location of the
Exchange Bank in Shiawassee County when the whole
county had a population of less than twelve hundred.
Gibraltar, Sharon, Superior, G-bodrich Mills, Palmyra
and Auburn were widely scattered villages whose enter
prising citizens organized banking associations and
became partakers of the blessings that were .supposed to
flow from the free competition in their activities. In

£74 STEVENS T. MASON "

the list might likewise well be included the cities of
Grand Rapids, Saginaw and many another that long
siace cast off its village limitations, for in that time
Grand Rapids had a population of less than one thou
sand while Saginaw could not yet number four hundred.
The nominal capital of the forty banking associations
which perfected their organizations and went into oper
ation totaled $3,115,000. H^d the law been observed it
would have required $934,500 in specie distributed in
their respective vaults to be held for the redemption
of their circulation. Many of the banking associations
were under the control of honest me:p, who purposed to
conduct an honorable business. The general public had
likewise disposed to look with favor upon their
when the first few weeks of their
Iiad brought a perceptible although delusive
measure of relief through the inflation of the currency
which for a short time circulated on the basis of public
confidence. But the frauds that characterized some of
the associations were soon known and the public began
to view the new currency with suspicion. The Legisla
ture, responsive to public sentiment, began the consider
ation of various measures affecting particular banks as
well as all banks in general The banks themselves soon
took notice of the rising tide of disapproval, and as
those organized and conducted with the most honest
purpose had discovered certain defects in the law as
well as in the unfavorable general conditions under
which they labored, a general meeting of the representa
tives of the banking associations was called, for the
discussion of subjects of muttial interest as well as to
promote unity of action. TMs , gathering, generally

BANKS AND BANKING 375

referred to at the time as "The Currency Meeting or
Banking Convention," assembled at Detroit the 21st day
of February, 1838, and continued in session until the
evening of the 24th. Thirty-six or thirty-seven banking
associations were represented, being practically the
whole number in the State at the time. Although their
deliberations and proceedings were in secret, they gave
to the public the general results of their meeting in a
series of resolutions, which were to the effect that they
would co-operate with the chartered banks of the State
in the early resumption of specie payment ; their recom
mendation in that regard was that the time to be fixed
should be within thirty days after the time fixed in: neigh
boring States. They recommended that all banks, under
the general law, contract their issue as speedily as possi
ble, and declared their conviction that expansion was
then both unsafe and inexpedient. They sought to per
fect arrangements whereby the notes of all the associa
tions represented should be bankable at some one of the
banking institutions in the city of Detroit. They
appointed a committee to investigate the actual situa
tion of the various institutions under the general bank
ing law and pledged their mutual aid and support to
all such as should be found solvent. A delegate was
selected to attend a national convention in New York
in April. t But perhaps their most important action was
the adoption of a memorial to the Governor and Legisla-
lature, to the effect that the banking associations be
allowed to become the purchasers of the whole or a por
tion of the bonds of the five million dollar loan, then
being negotiated for the purposes of internal improve
ment, upon their furnishing satisfactory security there-

376 STEVENS T. MASON

for, the purpose of the desired purchase being that the
associations might thereby obtain eastern credit. This
memorial, signed by the representatives of the various
banking associations, was published in pamphlet form
and given extended circulation, in the evident hope of
creating sentiment in favor of the proposition as being
in the interest of domestic institutions.

The press generally spoke in complimentary terms
of the Convention and its work, the Advertiser saying
editorially among other things, "In our judgment the
designs of the meeting were highly honorable and patri
otic, and so far from wishing to injure or discredit
any banking institution in the State, it was their ardent
desire to improve and sustain the whole currency. ' ' The
Free Press observed that "The Convention was com
posed of some of the soundest and most intelligent busi
ness men of the State, and their proceedings were marked
with a unanimity of sentiment in favor of making every
practicable exertion to insure a safe currency to the peo
ple of this State which promises well for the future."

The Governor on February 27 transmitted the memo
rial to the Legislature with an accompanying message,
wherein he took occasion to restate some of the advan
tages which he believed would accrue from a State bank,
which he suggested "might by a judicious arrangement
with the associations for the periodical redemption of
their bills to be an effectual agent in restoring confidence
in our currency," The main idea of the memorial how
ever he adroitly but none the less positively opposed,
saying, "I should object to a sale of State stock as
asked by the memorialists; as calculated to affect the
credit of the State and to depredate the value of the

BANKS AND BANKING 377

stock by bringing it into the market through too many
different channels. " Needless to say, no results came
either from the action of the Convention or from, the
G-overnor's message other than to call attention to a
question regarding which there was already rapidly
growing feelings of doubt and distrust

The Banking Commissioners were now energetically
prosecuting their duties, and the revelations that were
soon made through their efforts as well as through
reports the banks were required to make in pursuance
of a legislative resolution of February 2, 1838, were
shaking confidence in every institution that bore the
name of bank as it had not been shaken before, the weak
est and the worst in a measure giving character to the
whole. The suggestive terms of "wild cat," "torn cat,"
"mad cat," and "red dog" now began to be applied
to the bills of the various banking institutions accord
ing to the financial solvency of the institution from which
they emanated. ' Almost in a day the general public that
for weeks had been parting with the dearly bought
products of their thrift and toil awoke to a realization,
that for it all, they held only the dubious promises of
still more dubious institutions. An Ingham County
pioneer sojourning at the time in Detroit, on March 15,
recorded in his diary the following graphic recital of
conditions: "Since the Canadian question has received
its quietus', by dispersing the ' Patriots/ nothing is talked
*ef but the 'wild cat' banks, some of which are showing
the stuff they are made of, and proving themselves rotten
to the core. There is scarcely a single one of the whole
number whose bills will be received at the stores for
goods, while many a farmer has sold his produce and

378 STEVENS T. MASON

some even their farms for the worthless trash. Most
of the laborers and mechanics hold all their receipts
and earnings for the last six months in these worthless
rags which they cannot use. We hear almost daily of
the arrest of presidents, directors and cashiers for fraud
and injunctions placed upon the banks. "

While the above may in some particulars be overdrawn,
the banks had nevertheless reached a condition such that
the Legislature on April 3 passed and two days later the
Governor approved a law suspending the general bank
ing law for a period of one year as to such associations
as had not gone into operation or complied with certain
requirements which the law specified. Many a man who
had invested his honest savings in banks operated by
clever rogues now sought to divest himself of his hold
ings and to pass his loss to another. Banks became as
has been already said, "the objects of frequent sale."
The names of certain gentlemen of Detroit later appeared
frequently in the reports in connection with certain finan
cial activities of this character in a relation anything
but honorable. The bills were at a great discount as
compared with the issues of eastern banks or with' even
the chartered banks of the State, while there was like
wise a wide diversity in the rate of discount as between
the different associations. Brokers in Detroit and a few
other places di$ a thriving business in exchanging the
various kinds 9! money. No one took it without a pur
pose to pass it on for either property or other bills of
supposed greater vaine. In the language of Judge
Thomas M. Cooley, "No emoting medium ever before
circulated so rapidly." Sometimes the bills were taken
to the distant places in netghfc^ring States where their

BANKS AND BANKING ST9

ill-fame had not preceded them and use as the considera
tion for whatever the people 'were willing to part with.
Sometimes the holder hurried to the bank of issue to
obtain redemption in whatever they had to offer. In
Jackson County a story became current of a man who
became possessed of a considerable sum in the bills of
the bank of Sandstone. After his return from the primi
tive village of Barry, where the bank was located and
whither he had gone for the redemption of his currency
he was said to have replied to the inquiry as to what he
.received for his money, that for each ten-dollar bill he
received a millstone; for each five-dollar bill a grind
stone and for each two-dollar bill a whetstone. Through
the succeeeding months the Commissioners applied
themselves to the work of enforcing compliance to the
law, to the discovery, exposure and prosecution of those
guilty of frauds, to enjoining the corrupt and insolvent
from the commission of further mischief, and to securing
by bonds and mortgages as far as possible the liabilities
of the various associations. It was during these investi
gations that the public suspicions were confirmed and
the thorough rottenness of many an institution was dis
closed.

The summer of 1838 was one of abundant harvest,
but the deranged condition of the finances had greatly
reduced the price of the farmers' products when meas
ured in specie and there began to be real distress
throughout the State. Several county conventions were
now called in the more populous counties of the State,
at which after more or less deliberation tfesotutions
were adopted and committees appointed as initiatory
efforts for relief. The action of the Lenawee County

STEVENS T. MASON

Convention was fairly typical of the others and here they
appointed a committee to await upon the Governor and
request him to call an extra session of the Legislature to
expedite the incorporation of a State bank, and to divert
the moneys appropriated for internal improvements, or
if this could not be done to obtain authority for a three
million dollar issue of State scrip to be sold in some for
eign market and the proceeds loaned to the citizens of
the State. Numerous petitions were circulated in various
parts of the State and forwarded to the Governor asking
for similar action. To these appeals the Governor made
answer through the means afforded by the public press,
* arguing the impracticability of the measures suggested
as calculated to afford any immediate relief, and pro
ceeded at length to point out how the sale of State scrip
and the loan of the proceeds to the citizens of the State
"would be the most hazardous measure to the interests
of the State we could possibly adopt/7 He likewise
called attention to what was a plain but perhaps not alto
gether welcome truth, by saying, "The debts we have
contracted can only be liquidated by the slow process of
productive labor. All expedients for creating additional
banks, for shifting the debts of particular individuals
from their shoulders to those of the State, which is the
aggregate body of the people, will leave our debt still
unpaid. The hard earnings, and industry of the people
are -the only sources to which we can look with the hope
of a certain and permanently beneficial result."1

The Bank Commissioners were now Kintzing Pritch-
ette, Alpheus Felch, and Digby V. Bell, the last named

1. Niles IntelUffmcer, Aug., 1838.

BANKS AND BANKING 381

gentleman having been appointed by the Governor upon
thB resignation of Commissioner Fitzgerald who had
been nominated and was subsequently elected a member
of the Legislature. For the more systematic discharge
of their labors, the Commissioners had subdivided the
State into three divisions ; the first judicial circuit being
given to Mr. Pritchette, the second to Mr. Felch, and
the third to Mr. Bell. On January 18, 1839, shortly after
the convening of the Legislature the Commissioners sub
mitted to that body extended reports on the condition
of the banks in their respective districts as well as a
general report, the latter document in thought and com
position reflecting the finished style of Kintzing Pritch-
ette. In the retrospect in which this report indulged,
a summary of the situation is presented that cannot well
be improved upon. Says the report :

"The feature of the Act which authorized banking
under the suspension law, that is to say, giving the sanc
tion of the law to the issue of promises to pay, not liable
to redemption in gold and silver on demand, gave an
irresistible impulse to their career, by opening the door
for the debtor to liquidate his liabilities by transferring
to the public at large his indebtedness to individuals.
The result is well known, and it is believed, that it is not
too strong language to assert, that no species of fraud,
and evasion of law, which the ingenuity of dishonest cor
porations has ever devised, have not been practiced under
this Act.

"The loan of specie from established corporations'
became an ordinary traffic, and the same money set in
motion a number of institutions. Specie certificates, veri
fied by oath, were everywhere exhibited, although these

382 . STEVEN'S T. MASON

very certificates had been cancelled at the moment of
their creation, by a draft for a similar amount, and yet
such subterfuges were pertinaciously insisted upon, as
fair business transactions sanctioned by cutsom and
precedent, Stock notes were given for subscriptions to
stock and counted as specie, and thus not a cent of real
capital actually existed, beyond the small sums paid in
by the upright and suspecting farmer and mechanic,
whose little savings and honest name were necessary to
give confidence and credit. The notes of institutions thus
constituted, were spread abroad upon the community,
in every manner, and through every possible channel;
property, produce, stock, farming implements and every
thing which the people of the country were tempted by
advanced prices to dispose of, were purchased and paid
for in paper, which was known by the utterers to be
absolutely valueless. Large amounts of notes were
hypothecated for small advances, or loans of specie, to
save appearances. Quantities of paper were drawn out
by exchange checks, that is to say, checked out of the
bank by individuals who had not a cent in the bank,
with no security, beyond the verbal understanding, that
the notes of other banks should be returned at some
future time. Such are a* few, among the numberless
frauds, which were in hourly commission. Thus a law
which was established upon principles well digested and
approved, and hedged around with so much care, and
guarded with so many provisions, that few it was sup
posed, would venture to bank t under it, became by base
dishonesty and gross cupidity of a few, who had the
control of the speeie of the country, nothing less than a
machine of fraud.

BANKS AND BANKING 383

"The singular spectacle was presented by the officers
of the State, seeking for banks in situations the most
inaccessible and remote from trade, and finding at every
step, an increase of labor by the discovery of new and
unknown organizations. Before they could be arrested
the mischief was done; large issues were in circulation
and no adequate remedy for the evil. Gold and silver
flew about the country with the celerity of magic; its
sound was heard in the depth of the forest, yet, like the
wind, one knew not whence it came nor whither it was
going. Such were a few of the difficulties against which
the Commissioners had to contend. The vigilance of a
regiment of them would have been scarcely adequate
against the host of bank emissaries, which scoured the
country to anticipate their coming, and the indefatigable
spies which hung upon their path, to which may be
added perjuries, familiar as dicer's oaths, to baffle inves
tigation. Painful and disgusting as the picture appears,
it is neither colored nor overcharged, and falls far short
of the reality/ The result of the experiment of free
banking in Michigan, is, that at a low estimate, nearly a
million of dollars of the notes of insolvent banks are due
and unavailable in the hands of individuals. ' J

To the argument that the banks had furnished the
means of liquidating a large amount of debt, the report
answered: "This may be true, but whose debts have
they liquidated? Those of the crafty and the specula
tive, and by whom? Let every poor man, from his little
clearing and log hut in the woods, make the emphatic
response, by holding up to view, as the rewards of his
labor, a handful of promises to pay, which for his pur
poses are "as valueless as a handful of dry leaves at his

384 STEVENS T. MASON

feet." The report proceeds to depict a state of public
mind, that goes far towards explaining the tolerance
with which the institutions were enabled to "prosecute
their nefarious doings, when it says, "When we reflect,
too, that the laws are ineffective in punishing the suc
cessful swindler, and that the moral tone of society seems
so far sunk as to surround and protect the dishonest
and fraudulent with countenance and support, it impera
tively demands that some legislative actions should be
had to enable the prompt and vigorous enforcement of
the laws, and the making severe examples of the guilty,
no matter how protected or countenanced." The report
pointed out many other evils that attended the general
banking lay, and spoke in just words of praise ef cer
tain institutions, "which had sustained themselves with
honor and credit amid so many temptations and exam
ples of fraud;" it unanimously recommended the repeal
of the general banking law, and with like unanimity
joined with the Governor in the recommendation of the
incorporation of a State bank, under the control of the
State itself, which they urged should be subject at all
times to the most rigid scrutiny, and to the strictest
guard against the tendency of banks to lend too much
and put too many notes in circulation, which they
declared to be "the fruitful source of so much evil. ' >

Some authors, biased by partisan fervor, have sought
to take sentences from the Governor's message to the
Legislature of 1839^ and use them as proof that he had
stood sponsor for a system that had brought the State
to the verge of bankruptcy and ruin. The message bears
no such construction. In it the Governor said, "No State
perhaps, has suffered more from the evils of a deranged

CHARLES K STUART
Kalamazoo lawyer and politician. Mem
ber of the State Legislature in 1842, later
in Congress, ana holder of many public
offices of trust.

JAMES M. EDMUNDS
Member of the State Legislature, 1840-41,
1846-7.

GQV. STEVENS T. MASON
From oil painting in State Capitol.

BANKS AND BANKING '385

currency than our own. A most serious and responsible
portion of your legislative labors, therefore, consists
in supplying an effectual remedy against the disastrous
scenes of the past year. Let your attention be diligently
directed to this object, for experience has shown that
neither a regard for the -rights of the people, a sense
of moral obligation, nor a respect for the injunctions
of the laws' of the land are sufficient to restrain banks
in the abuse of public trust." And again he says, "It
may be a question worthy of serious consideration
whether the high power of stamping paper as a substi
tute for the currency recognized by the Federal Consti
tution should ever have been conferred upon a private
corporation." The Governor's recommendations in the
message of 1839 as in the message of 1838 was for a State
bant modeled on the plan of the State bank of Indiana,
which, as already stated, during its whole career was an
efficient agent for the purposes of its organization. A
bill to incorporate such an institution, to be known as
the State Bank of Michigan, was introduced in the House
at this session by Mr. Fitzgerald, late banking commis
sioner, and after long discussion passed that body by a
vote of 40 to 6 and the Senate by a vote of 10 to 2. It
received the approval of the Governor "on the 2nd day
of April. The Act provided for a bank of two million
dollars capital with nine branches, which by a sup
plemental Act were to be located at Detroit, Monroe,
Adrian, Ann Arbor, Niles, Jackson, Pontiac, Mt. Clemens
and Marshall. One-half of the capital was to be sub
scribed by the State and one-half by individuals. The
bill was carefully drawn and hedged about by every
provision which the experience of Michigan and neigh-

386 STEVENS T. MASON

States could suggest. The affairs of the central
were placed tinder control of a Board of Directors
chosen by the Legislature. The selection of this Board
precipitated a spirited contest, resulting in the choice of
John S. Barry, John Biddle, Charles Noble; Eobert H.
Stuart* G. W. Jermain, B. F. H. Witherell, Zina Pitcher
and Edward Mundy. Q-overnor Mason and many others
had high expectations of the success that was to follow
the work of this institution2 and indeed the care with
which the Act was prepared and the high character of
tie men selected to conduct its affairs were a strong guar
antee for it; but it was destined never to go into
operation. The Act contained a provision to the effect
that if the capital stock was not subscribed and the bank
organized by February 1, 1840, the Act should be null
and void. A strenuous effort was made to organize the
institution, but the financial gloom that had settled upon
the people and the succeeding change in political con
trol of the State made the securing of the requisite cap
ital an impossibility, and the only banking project for
which the Governor stood committed failed of realization.
Great as "was the need, the people seemed to have little
courage to work out new banking experiments. The
Legislature passed and the Governor approved an Act
repealing the so-called general banking law and impos
ing serious penalties upon the perpetration of certain
frauds in coipiedion with the banking business ; but the
havoc was akeady wrought. Even as the Legislature
acted, the report of the Attorney General showed twenty-
nine banks under injunction, and by the close of the year

Howe Doo, No. 29, 1830.

BANKS AND BANKING 887

the number had reached forty-two. A few associations
that had prudently abstained from an over-issue of bills
and discounted only good paper wound up their affairs
and paid their obligations in full; but the great mass of
the bills was a loss to the holders. The last hope of the
billholders vanished when the Supreme Court of the
State in 1844 declared the general banking law to be
unconstitutional. It was a somewhat curious coincidence
that Charles W. Whipple who was speaker of the House
of Representatives when the law was enacted should later
have been the judge to deliver the opinion declaring the
law unconstitutional and that Hon. Alpheus Felch, late
Banking Commissioner, should have been one of the
judges to concur in the decision, and that the attorney
to present the question before the court should have been
Mr. Theodore Bomeyn, a Detroit lawyer of exceptional
ability, but a man nevertheless whose name had been
connected in no enviable relation as stockholder, direc
tor and general promoter of some of the wildest of the
"wild cat" banks of Michigan.

In the decision of the case, Judge "Whipple took occa
sion to say, "It is to be lamented that the grave question
we are now called upon to decide, was not presented to
this court at an earlier period, and immediately after
the passage of the obnoxious Act. Our decision would
have stayed the torrent which has swept over the State
with effects so desolating and preserved individual and
State credit from the stigma and reproach which befell
both."

By the decision, the unconscionable promoter escaped
liability, and it was this consideration which caused the

388 STEVENS T. MASON

Judge to add, "I regret that the question has now been
forced upon our notice, satisfied as I am, that the public
interest under existing circumstances would be best pro
moted by sustaining the law.'"

3. Green ^ Graves, I Doug, Midi. 372, see also, Brooks vs. JSUlt

CHAPTER XIX

IMFBOVEMENTS

coming of the spring days of 1837 found the
commissioners of the Board of Internal Improve
ment in active preparation for the prosecution of the
great work entrusted to their care. On the first day of
May following their nomination and election, they pro
ceeded to organize by appointing Justus Burdick presi
dent, John M. Barbour auditor, Kintzing Pritchette sec
retary, and David C. McKinstry, Levi S. Humphrey and
James B. Hunt as acting commissioners. The chartered
rights of the Detroit and St. Joseph Eailroad Company
and all its equipment was at once purchased and taken
over by the Commissioners on behalf of the State, while
they at the same time busied themselves in the purchase
of instruments, the hiring of engineers and the multi
farious details incident to the survey of three railroads,
as many canals, and likewise as many river improvement
projects. The greater portion of the work was to be
prosecuted in regions where it was necessary to trans
port with difficulty even the simplest and most common
place essentials of the work as well as the means of
sustenance for both men and beasts, when they were not
supplied by meadows and forests.

The various projects were parceled among the three
acting commissioners, Levi S. Humphrey taking the sur
vey. of the Southern Railroad, the Havre Branch Eail
road and the St. Joseph River ; David C. McKinstry was

390 STEVENS T. MASON

given the construction of the Central road from Detroit
to Ypsilanti, being the work under process of construc
tion by the Detroit and St. Joseph Company, the survey
of the remainder of the Central route and of the Kala-
mazoo and Grand Eivers; while James B. Hunt was
assigned the survey of the canal or canal and railroad
from Mt. Clemens to the mouth of the Kalamazoo Eiver,
the Northern Railroad, and the canal connecting the
navigable waters of the Saginaw and Maple Eivers.
Governor Mason, under authority conferred, appointed
John Almy of Grand Eapids, a trained and capable engi
neer, to make a survey tpgether with estimates of the
cost of construction of a canal around the Fall of the
St. Mary.

Chief engineers were appointed for each of the major
enterprises, and in early June each with a company of
subordinates and assistants with trailing pack horses
bearing provisions and equipment could have been seen
wending their diverging ways from Detroit to the State's
interior where they were to blaze the way for the rail
ways and canals that were expected as if by magic to
transform the forests into gardens and fruitful fields.

Through the summer, autumn and even into the early
winter the surveying parties pushed on their work with
occasional visits from the Commissioners who when not
upon their assigned work were in attendance upon
monthly meetings or engaged in the discharge of the
numerous details such projects involved. On the Central
road the work of actual construction which had been
begun by the Detroit and St. Joseph Company was taketi
up and pushed forward with an enerrv that

INTERNAL IMPBOVEMENTS 391

speedy opening of traffic between the cities of Detroit
and Ypsilanti.

On January 23, 1838, the Board of Commissioners
of Internal Improvement made its first report to the
Legislature. It is an exceedingly interesting document,
containing as it does the reports of the several engi
neers on the various works committed to them. Not a
few have commented on the State's projects of internal
improvement in terms of ridicule; but the report dis
closes that to men of scientific and technical training
they appealed with as much persuasion as to the settler
in the remote clearing or isolated village who was shut
off from markets and the centers of population by long
miles of well-nigh impassable roads. It has been said with
truth that the enterprises were far in advance of the
economic needs of the State and that their magnitude
was greatly underestimated; but it should be borne in
mind that the projects were designed as much to promote
State growth and development as to serve the purpoaes
of the people already here. It is likewise true that the
cost of the various works from lack of experience and
reliable data in such constructions was much underesti
mated, still it should be remembered that the estimates
were made upon the primitive plans of the pioneer and
not upon the bnes now required to meet the demands of
a vast and ponderous traffic. Nor with a policy of State
wide internal improvement determined upon was it
strange, as we shall see, that canals and river improve
ments also found favor among the projects proposed.

Of the works surveyed and projected, the railways per
haps deserve first mention. The Northern road seems to

392 STEVENS T. MASON

have been located with little trouble, possibly because
there were very few people along its proposed route
to raise contention. The Legislature had enacted that
the eastern terminus should be either Palmer (St. Glair)
or the mouth of Black River (Port Huron). Palmer
citizens made a very active campaign for the location,
but the Commissioners ultimately fixed upon the more
northern point, for the reason that it afforded better
harbor facilities and was for the better accommodation
of the northern tier of counties; another consideration
and perhaps the most important one was, that by locat
ing at the mouth of Black River, the eastern terminus
of the road would be brought in opposition to the western
terminus of the road from Lake Ontario to Port Sarnia,
which was then being agitated* in Canada and indeed
was located from Hamilton to London. The engineers'
report fully set forth the force of this consideration,
and shows how little they foresaw that the great city
of the West which like a magnet was to draw the course
of commerce to itself was to be at the southern extreme
of Lake Michigan. Says the report: "It appears obvi
ous that the road is to be constructed, not only for the
accommodation of the inhabitants in the immediate vicin
ity of the route and adjacent district, but also as an
es^estiai link in the great chain of railroads finished or
in progress,, from New York and Boston to the valley of
the Mississippi and the far West. It is in fact almost
a direct line to pass from Albany on the great thorough
fare through the principal cities of western New York,
thence through Canada by the Great Western Railroad
to the St. Clair River; and thence through the geograph
ical center of Michigan by the Northern Railroad to L^ke

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 393

Michigan; thence to Milwaukee and Cassville in the cen
ter of the mining district on the Mississippi." The
engineers offered further argument in support of the
-project by saying, "The road when constructed will
receive a very large share of the constantly increasing
travel through this State east and west."

From the mouth of Black River the road was located
to the. west in the language of the report, "passing
through, or as near as the interest of the State would
permit, to the villages of Lapeer, Flint, Owosso or
Corunna, or to both places ; thence to the mouth of the
Maple and keeping on the south side of Grand Eiver, to
the village of Grand Rapids." "Here, says the report,
"good navigation for steamboats to the mouth of the
river commences and no necessity at present exists for
making a railroad by the side of a navigable river."

The survey and estimate, however, was made to Grand
Haven, at the mouth of the river. The distance was
found to be 201 miles and 36 chains, and the cost of con
struction was estimated at $1,409,015.75, or $6,994.36 per
mile, of which ^$3,973 per mile was estimated for the
wooden superstructure or strap-rail construction into
which the iron-rail plate at $85 per ton went as the most
expensive single item. These estimates were for a single
track road without station houses or, equipment. The
engineers stated as their emphatic belief that the esti
mates "were amply sufficient with proper economy to
construct the work on the plans proposed," and they
were equally confident that by the use of a certain block
construction, hereinafter described in the construction of
the Central road, the cost could be still further materially
reduced.

S94f STEYENB T. MASON

In locating the route of the Southern road, the Board
of Commissioners was beset with difficulties and con
fronted with rivalries that had been entirely absent at
the north. No less than four different lines were run
through the southern tier of counties at the instance
either of the Commissioners or in response to petitions
from rival localities. The villages of Tecumseh, Jones-
ville and Mies were especially insistent for themselves
if not in opposition to more southern points. After
listening to many arguments at numerous hearings, the
Commissioners approved a route, the eastern terminus
of which in the language, of the report, "commenced on
the navigable waters of the Eiver Baisin, and running
through the city of Monroe to the limits of said town."
It then proceeded westward passing through the villages
of Adrian, Hillsdale, Coldwater, Mason, Branch, Center-
viHe, Constantine, Motville,, Adainsville, Edwardsburg,
Bertrand and terminated at New Buffalo. Several of
these villages which have long since ceased to exist were
then thriving places of industry whose ambitious citi
zens looked forward to the time when wealth would
come to them and added numbers to their villages with
the advent of the railroad. The line as projected was
18& miles in length and its estimated cost was $1,496,-
37639. *Ebe sain^e survey embraced the Havre Branch
Eailrcmd, a piec^ of road 12.9 miles in length designed
to connect the Brie and KaJamazoo Railroad with the
ephemeral "city" of Havre, a point upon Lake Erie a
short distant north of the Ohio line. The estimated
cost of this project, which was designed to create another
Toledo upon soil that was unquestionably in Michigan,
was but the modest sum of $82,043. Theje is a certain

INTERNAL

humor in the frank statement of the Commissioners as to
what they considered the most cogent argument in favor
of the location of the road as near the State line as
possible. Says the report: "One of the principal argu
ments in favor of the Southern road at the time of the
adoption of our present system of internal improvements
by the Legislature was, that unless our State was first
in the field, the States of Ohio and Indiana would probably
construct a road from Toledo to Michigan City along the
southern boundary of our State and divert the traveling
community from our thoroughfare; thus not only com
pletely isolating us, but compelling a large portion of
our citizens to find a market for their produce in those
States/' The report adds, "The Commissioners con
sider the argument a forcible one in favor of the most
southern location as well as of the Southern road itself."
As already stated, the greater energy had been
expended upon the Central road, undoubtedly because
at the time the work was undertaken by the State the
line was already in progress under the Detroit and St.
Joseph Company. At the time of the sale by the com
pany to the State, the company had a right of way one
hundred feet in width cleared through the forest as far
as Tpsilanti, and from Detroit westward approximately
thirteen miles of roadbed graded after the fashion of
the railroads of that period. At the date of the report
the Commissioners had so far completed their work that
a depot had been established on the Campus Martius;
cars were running regularly to Dearborn with a promise
from the authorities that in early February traffic would
be opened to Ypsilanti. "While work was in progress
upon the line from Detroit to Ypsilanti, surveyors were

30e ST33VBNS T. MASON

also at work from the latter town westward. The line
which they marked and estimated was practically the
route npon which the Central road was later constructed,
except that from Kalamazoo the line was projected
direct to the month of the St. Joseph. The length of the
road from Honey Creek, a point near Ypsilanti, to the
month of the St. Joseph was found to be 153 miles. The
first thirty miles of the road from Detroit to Ypsilanti
showed a cost of $298,506.23. The remainder it was esti
mated would entail a cost of $1,381,040.90, a sum that
did not seem unreasonable in view of the cost of the com
pleted portion.

As thfc line between Detroit and Ypsilanti was for much
of the way over lands of a damp and springy nature, the
engineers had recourse to a somewhat novel plan of con
struction, which :was likewise recommended for use upon
both the Northern and Southern roads as the "block
system." The system would hardly be adapted to the
uses of the modern railroad over which are transported
fast freight and limited express ; but it was considered
an engineering achievement of exceptional merit in that
day, being used not only upon the Central but upon some
of the roads of western New York as well. The mode
adopted as described in the report of the engineer was
as follows :

"Holes were dug to the solid ground, at distances of
eight feet from center to center lengthwise, and five feet
from center to center crosswise of the road; these holes
were from six inches to two feet deep, between which
distances is found, with few exceptions either sand, clay
or gravel. Blocks sawed with parallel ends at right
angles to their length not less than two feet in diameter,

INTERNAL IMPKOVEMENTS 897

and cut in lengths to suit the grade, are set endwise in
the pits, and well settled in their places by ramming,
the tops being from eight to ten inches below the grade
line. Timbers of sixteen, twenty-four, thirty-two and
forty feet in length, dressed upon one side to line, and
of such size as to square not less than twelve inches
are then spotted on to the blocks in such a manner as
to rest fairly and equally upon them, and having their
dressed surfaces correspond exactly with the established
grade. These timbers when placed present two^parallel
strings, five feet apart from center to center throughout
the entire length, and with the blocks form the foundation
of the road. Such portions of the embankment as can
be made from the side of the road, may now be done,
although it is not advisable to cover the stringers until
the ties and rails are laid. In cuts the blocks are dis
pensed with, and timbers hewed on two sides, or sawed
timbers from the mills, are bedded in parallel trenches.
In two places where hard bottom could not be found
short of from five or six feet, piles have been substituted
for blocks; and also in one instance where the roadway
is elevated from twelve to fourteen feet; these places
will be embanked.

"The stringers and sills being laid, cross-ties framed
in the usual way are placed three feet apart from center
to center, and spiked to the sills at each end with a six-
inch wrought spike. White oak rails, five by seven
inches, are placed and firmly wedged in the gains of the
cross-ties. This being done, the upper surface of the
rail is dressed to a line in exact parallelism with the
established grade, and about three-fourth of an inch
champered off the inside.

308 - STEVENS GP. MASON

"The timbers are now ready_£or-the iron bars, which
are fastened with 4% inch pressed spikes; connecting
plates one-fourth of an inch thick, six inches long and
of the width of the bar are used tinder the joints. The
iron bars used are 2% x % inch, fifteen feet long.

"The structure being completed in this way, the
embankments are finished and carried up within three
inches of the irons and having a width of fifteen feet
at top and slopes of 1% base, to one in height. The
width of the track is four feet 8y2 inches measured
between the inner edges of the irons.

"Upon the graded road, and through cuts, sills sawed
5 x 12 inches or if dressed out along the line, not less than
6x10, and of any convenient length have been bedded
in two parallel trenches with connecting planks 2 x 12
and not less than three feet long under the ends. The
ties, rails and irons are then placed and secured to the
sills and the grading completed as above.

"Either of the plans above described are believed to
be as permanent as a timber road can be made and both
of them possess more than ordinary strength. The block
road is sufficiently firm to travel on at a moderate rate
without grading, and when graded the settling of the
earth around the timbers will not only add very mate
rially to the strength of .the road but effectually prevents
any tendency to derangement from the rapid passage of
heavy trains. "

Such was. the construction of the old "strap rail" road,
of short life and unpleasan^ memory. It has been, usual
to say that the railroads projected by the St^te could
not have been constructed for five timeg the five million
dollars appropriated by the ambitious Legislature; yet

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 390

in actual demonstration, as has been said,, the thirty miles
of road between Detroit and Ypsilanti including depots
and equipment sufficient for the pioneer demand was at a
cost of less than ten thousand dollars per mile ; showing
that, when we consider the abundance of timber and the
topography of the country, the estimates of the engineers
on both the Northern and Southern and remaining por
tion of the Central were not so inadequate as we have
been led to believe, but woefully inadequate if we apply
them to the roads which a few years' development
showed were required to meet the demands of inland
transportation.

To many people of a later day the spectacle of a com
monwealth building railroads where as yet few if any
people lived and where likewise commercial demands had
-not arisen therefor, has been taken as something of an
anomaly; but still more anomalous has it seemed, that
just as the country was beginning to appreciate the pos
sibilities of railway transportation they should have
made substantial appropriations for the digging of
canals and for making navigable the tortuous channels
of the Kalamazoo, the St. Joseph and the Grand Eivers.
These projects have been made the subject of much ridi
cule by some who have given them written attention;
but when we consider them in connection with the experi
ences of the people, they become projects that are neither
strange nor unreasonable, much less ridiculous; the
Erie Canal with its 352 miles of length and 568 feet rise
from Albany to Buffalo had cost $7,600,000, and its prac
tical benefits had been brought under the personal obser
vation of more than one-half the people of Michigan,
Ohio was at this time vigorously prosecuting work upon

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 401

charge its commerce into Lake St. Glair, was planned
to intersect the Kalamazoo Eiver at Allegan and have a
total length of two hundred and sixteen miles and •
seventy-eight chains. It is interesting to note that by the
survey, the summit level of this proposed canal was
found to be a quarter of a mile west of the city of Pontiac,
and within thirty miles of Lake St. Clair. From here
a level of a little more than forty-two miles to the west
ward was secured that was 344.61 feet above the surface
of the waters of Lake St. Glair, and 336.11 above the
waters of Lake Michigan, requiring a lockage of 349.61
feet on the eastern, and 341.11 on the western declivity.
The estimates showed 27,313 cubic feet of water per
minute required to supply the canal, with more than
98,846 cubic feet per minute available; while upon the
summit level, 8,915 cubic feet per minute was available,
to supply a demand of 4,833 cubic feet per minute. Later
a survey was made from a point on the original line two
miles west of Howell down the valley of the Cedar and
Lookingglass Eivers to the Grand at Lyons, a route that
was thought to offer greater advantages both as to cost
of construction and extent of country to be served. Both
surveys were made upon the basis of a canal 32.5 feet
width of bottom, fifty feet at top water line, with five
feet depth. Such a canal it was estimated could be con
structed at from sixteen to eighteen thousand dollars
per mile.

The Northern or Saginaw Canal by which it was pro
posed to connect the waters of the Maple with those of
Bad Elver and thus make connection with the waters of
the Grand and Saginaw Eivers, while a far less ambitious
scheme than the Clinton and Kalamazoo, yet because

402 STEVENS T. MASON

of its seeming practicability was looked upon with
much fayor at that time and has continued a subject of
some interest to the present time. The project contem
plated the improvement of nearly seven miles of the
channel of Bad River at an estimated cost of $57,829.38,
and a connecting canal 13 and 65/100 miles long through
the intervening ridge. This canal was designed to have
a water-line width of forty-five feet with a depth of four
feet, to cross the divide with seven locks, and to be
constructed at a cost of $121,830.24. A more extensive
improvement was suggested, at an increase of some thirty
thousand dollars in cost.

The report upon the St. Mary's Canal, which Governor
Mason had likewise caused to be surveyed, disclosed
favorable conditions. Engineer Alma reported a dif
ference in elevation to be overcome of 18 feet for which
he recommended a canal 4,560 feet in length, the same to
have a width of seventy-five feet at the surface, a bottom
width of 'fifty feet, with a depth of ten feet in the rock
cuts. Three locks were provided, with dimensions of
one hundred feet in the clear for length and thirty-two
feet for width, with average lifts of six feet each. Such
locks the engineer asserts "will accommodate the largest
class of sail vessels now used on any of our lakes." This
work it was the confident assertion of the engineer could
be executed for $112,544.80 ; the only item of the estimate
upon wMch he expressed doubt being the cost of labor
at a point so far removed from the centers of population.

The third field of effort for works of internal improve
ment was to be in the improvement of some of the rivers
of the State, that they might serve jthe purposes of com
merce for light crafts. This was to' be done by removing

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 403

drift wood and sand bars, "by the construction at certain
points of side cuts for the passage of rapids and at other
places by a series of dams with locks to provide for what
was known as " slack- water navigation." These projects
were likewise but the evolution of more primitive
attempts to make these natural highways of use to the
people. The early settler penetrated to the interior of
the State, especially upon the western shore, by either
the Grand, the St. Joseph or the Kalamazoo Eivers.
These rivers from the first had served as important ave
nues of commerce. As early as 1831 there had been
steam navigation to the mouth of the St. Joseph. It
became regular after 1834, at which time keel-boats,'
"arks" and flat-boats began the navigation of the river;
the Antelope, the Constantine and the St. Joseph, crafts
of from 35 to 40 tons, being among the first. In the year
mentioned the Constantine brought down the first cargo
of wheat from Three Eivers. From here likewise came
the " Kitty Kidango" and the "Three Eivers" a year
or two later. These boats came down with the current
and were either sold upon arriving at the river mouth or
worked back by slow and painful process. Flat-boats
capable of carrying as much as twenty barrels of flour
were sometimes floated down, and after the discharge of
their cargoes were drawn back by wagons. The steamer
Newburyport reached Berrien Springs as early as 1832.
Next came the Matilda Barney, a stern-wheeler, followed
in 1834 by the David Crockett, a vessel of like construc
tion drawing about three feet of water, wMch was
wrecked upon a rock seven miles above Berrien Springs
a year later. This boat was followed by the Patronage
in 1836 or 1837 and by the Pocahontas in 1838. The

404 STEVENS T. MASON

Kalamazoo was likewise serving as a burden bearer,
while upon the Grand at this time, through a canal or
side cut around the rapids constructed as a private enter
prise by the Kent company, steam crafts were bringing
to the river mouth cargoes from as far inland as Lyons.

Nothing could have been more natural than that the
Legislature should have included these rivers within the
scheme of internal improvement as projects likely to
return large benefits for correspondingly small expendi
tures.

The St. Joseph, which from Lake Michigan to Union
City was found to have a length of one hundred and sixty
miles, was found likewise to have all but forty-three
miles of its length within the State of Michigan. The
engineers' report upon this project comprehended some
excavations, side cuts, the removal of drift wood and
the construction of a series of 42 dams varying from two
and one-half to five feet in height. By these improve
ments it was estimated that five feet of water could be
secured from St. Joseph to Three Rivers and three feet
from Three Rivers to Union City. This work it was
estimated could be done for $183,433.60 for that portion
of the river within the State of Michigan, and $93,134.60
for that portion of the river within the State of Indiana.
With the details of this improvement the engineer sub
mitted estimates for a canal four feet in depth and
twenty-eight feet bottom from Union City to Homer, a
distance of twenty miles, with a lockage of ninety-eight
feet, to be constructed at a cost of $144,008.56 ; while a
reconnoissance was made as far east as Dexter. The
Kalamazoo was to be likewise improved, by a series of
twenty-one dams having an aggregate height of seventy-

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 405

five feet between Allegan and Kalamazoo, at a total cost
of $125,924, and the Grand was to be given a full four-
foot channel to the mouth of the Maple for $67,309.90;
$43,751.40 being the estimated cost of passing the " grand
rapids M at the village of that name.

One of the secondary inducements held out in support
of the improvements upon the St. Joseph and the Kala-
mazoo was the vast amount of water-power that would
come, thereby into the possession of the State, and which
the engineers confidently asserted would exceed in value
the cost of the entire improvemnts upon those rivers.

The total or gross estimates of all the prospects upon
which surveys were made showed a prospective cost of
approximately nine million dollars, a little more than
one-half being for the three lines of railway, a sum that
was unquestionably much less than would have been
required for the-ultimate completion of all the enter
prises, even upon the meager scale upon which they were
projected.

The scheme of internal improvements was fast disclos
ing the inherent weaknesses that required pnly time to
develop. It had started with the Governor recommend
ing that the State become interested as a stockholder in
certain of the leading enterprises that might be organ
ized for the facilitating of transportation within the
State to the end that the State might both encourage
their construction and more effectually exert a controll
ing influence upon them; but it ended by the State becom
ing the sole proprietor, and prosecuting projects for
which there was no present economic need in order to
allay objection and secure support for other projects
for which there might be said to be present economic
necessity. As there h^d been contests between sections

406 STEVENS T. MASON

that each and all might partake of the benefits from
improvements that were to be constructed at the expense
of all, so now there began to be contests between locali
ties of the same section for the location of the particular
improvement that was no longer divisible. No sooner
did the Board of Commissioners announce its determina
tion as to the, location of a given improvement than a
flood of remonstrances and petitions from disappointed
citizens of other localities were sent to the Board, the
Governor and the Legislature. The legislative session
of 1838 had but just begun when petitions from citizens
of the southwestern counties began to be presented, pray
ing not only for a change in the location of the Southern
road but for a legislative investigation of the action of
the commissioners in the location they had made. Their
petitions brought heavy remonstrances from Monroe and
other localities. Resolutions by narrow votes passed the
Legislature requiring the suspension of work upon the
Southern road for thirty days, and of the letting of any
contracts upon the Havre Branch until after the sixteenth
of the following April,* while like resolutions suspending
work upon the Northern road failed of passage by only a
narrow margin. In the meantime, the work upon the
Central was pushed with unabated vigor. To be ready
for the inauguration of traffic, the Commissioners had
before the close of navigation purchased and brought on
from Messrs. Eaton and Gilbert of Troy, New. York,
two passenger coaches which were not unlike the old
stage coaches in outward appearance except they were
somewhat larger, being designed to carry twenty-four
passengers each. They were transferred to the State's
railway yard near the Capitol and the public awaited the

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 407

days when they might enjoy the luxury of travel they
seemed to promise. Imagine the indignation and disap
pointment of the people of Detroit when a little later the
Sheriff of Monroe armed with a writ of replevin
appeared upon the scene and took the cars into his pos
session in a suit brought by the agent of the River Raisin
and Lake Erie Railroad Company who made claim that
they had been first purchased by that company and pri
vately marked by it before the sale to the State. We
may well imagine that there was more chagrin over the
fact of the loss of the cars by Detroit to Monroe than
over any inconveniences their removal occasioned.
Whatever the result of the legal proceeding was, the cars
were lost for the opening of the road; but undaunted,
the authorities soon had John G. Hays, a local crafts
man at work upon a new car which was soon completed,
as a number of car wheels and other essentials for car-
building had been purchased of the Detroit and St.
no manner inferior to the ones of which they had been
christened the "Governor Mason" had a capacity of
thirty-six person, and in elegance and equipment was in
no manner inferior to the ones of which they had been
deprived by judicial process.

On Saturday the 3rd day of February, 1838, the first
passenger train upon the Central Railroad to run be
tween Detroit and Tpsilanti, made its initial trip. It was
an event of more than ordinary importance, and prepa
ration was made to celebrate it with befitting pomp and
ceremony. On the morning of the day in question the
population was out in mass to witness the departure
of a train that would now be in strange contrast to the
ones that almost hourly through the day are departing

408 STEVENS T. MASON

over, the various lines that enter the metropolis. Then
the crude little locomotive with the cord-wood piled high
upon the tender was followed by the "Governor Mason,"
then by three cars of lesser elegance and three rough
cars that had been improvised for the occasion. The
Governor and the State officers were granted the distin
guished honor of passage at the head of the train, after
them the members of the Legislature, then the Brady
Guards and distinguished citizens. Slowly this railway
cavalcade pulled out for Ypsilanti, where it arrived with
out mishap three hours later, although it was the boast
of the newspapers afterwards, that when in motion the
train was able to make as high as fifteen miles an hour.
At Ypsilanti the village population and the settlers from
a distance were present in force to give a hearty and
perhaps a boisterous welcome. A dinner for several
hundred was served. Gen. John Van Fossen on behalf
of the citizens of Ypsilanti delivered to the Governor
an engrossed copy of a congratulatory address phrased
in the exuberant style of the old days. To this the Gov
ernor responded, the band played and before the after
noon was far advanced the train began its homeward
journey with its load of enthusiastic excursionists, but
before they were well under way the mechanism of the
locomotive refused to do its work, causing frequent stops
and at last when they had reached Ten Eyck's (Dear-
bomville), the boiler sprang a leak rendering its further
progress Impossible until repaired. After some consid
erable delay teams were procured and hitched to the cars
which were thtts drawn into Detroit where they arrived
about midnight One team balked onihe way, and by the
hilarious passengers were voted Federalists, but their

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 409

place was soon supplied by another which proved more
reliable.

During the remainder of the winter, snow and ice seri
ously impeded traffic, but it was nevertheless of such a
volume as to offer substantial encouragement to those
who had assumed the burden of the State 's policy. Oppo
sition to the Board of Commissioners, however, seemed
to increase rather than to lose in force; petitions and
remonstrances, questioning not only their judgment and
discretion but their integrity as well, continued to be
presented, as did likewise numerously signed representa
tions in support of their actions and decisions. These
matters ultimately became the subject of legislative
investigation and inquiry; which, however, brought few
tangible results aside from intensifying public feeling
and an order from the legislature, that the route of the
Southern road be so curved as to touch Dundee, and that
a new survey be run from Centerville to Mies.

At the regular session of the Legislature the law gov
erning the Board of Commissioners of Internal Improve
ment was amended so as to provide further safeguards
to the funds, while appropriations were of a character
to indicate a determination to renew the improvement
campaign during the next summer with unabated zeal.
Appropriations of $350,000 were given to both the South
ern and the Central roads, $60,000 to the Northern road,
$250,00 for the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal, $45,000
for the Saginaw Canal and $25,000 additional to the
amount already appropriated, making $50,000 in all, for
the St. Mary's Canal; $30,000 for the improvement of
the Grand and Maple Rivers, and $8,000 for the Kala
mazoo. All moneys appropriated for the Clinton and

410 STEVENS T. MASON

Kalamazoo Canal and for the Central and Southern
Railroads, it was stipulated should be expended upon
their eastern sections.

The Governor, to avoid the contest and recrimination
which he evidently feared Vouldj follow, delayed, the
nomination of members of the Board of Commissioners
of Internal Improvement until near the close of the ses
sion. As the year before the House and Senate had
received the nominations in joint session, so now, April
2, 1838, the Governor sent a message informing the two
Houses that he was ready to submit nominations to them
in joint assembly. To this the Senate replied that it
would act upon the nominations as a separate body.
Apprehensive that the action of the Senate was designed
to retain members no longer desired, or to force the
appointment of gentlemen not in all respects agreeable to
the administration, there was at once assembled at
"Republican committee rooms" in Detroit, a very rep
resentative gathering of citizens from various parts of
the State which diverse missions had brought to the
metropolis. The meeting was soon regularly organized
and after what evidently was a very plain discussion of
affairs, a committee was appointed to draft resolutions
expressive of the sense of the meeting. The resolutions
were prefaced with a preamble expressive of "undimin-
ished confidence in His Excellency, Governor Mason, his
purity of character and Ms intention to administer the
Government of this State with a strict regard to its pros
perity and the happiness of its people, " and closed with
the declaration that, " whether right or wrong, " the pol
icy pursued by the Board of Commissioners had been

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 411

such as to create a "want of confidence" in the very
system of internal improvements itself.

The meeting viewed the action of the Senate with
"astonishment and alarm," and resolved, "that with
a view to harmonize all difference of opinion, and to put
an end to an intriguing policy, we respectfully recom
mend to His Excellency, Governor Mason, regarding the
various perplexing and harassing petitions, memorials
and remonstrances presented to him respecting the con
duct of the present Board of Commissioners, the pro
priety of nominating an entire new B.oard to consist of
the most pure, consistent and efficient members of the
Democratic party whom he can select;" the resolutions
further urging, "that if any of the old Board were re
tained, they be of the least exceptionable character."
From this meeting a committee of thirty gentlemen was
selected from various parts of the State to wait upon the
Governor at eight o'clock the same evening with a copy of
the resolutions adopted and to accompany them with such
verbal explanations as it should deem necessary.

The result of this interview does not appear, but on
the morning of April 4, Governor Mason sent to each
House of the Legislature in separate session the names
of Lansing B. Mizner of Wayne ; Levi S. Humphrey of
Monroe; James B. Hunt of Oakland; William A. Burt
of Macomb; Edwin H. Lathrop of Kalamazoo; Hiram
Alden of Branch ; and Bix Eobinson of Kent as members
of the Board of Commissioners of Internal Improve
ment. All were promptly confirmed, except the nomina
tion of Hiram Alden, which was rejected, and a communi
cation was sent to the Governor requesting that he send

412 STEVENS T. MASON

another nomination. The Governor replied that he had
no other nominations to submit ; which at once drew from
the House, and especially £rom the Whig members, a
flood or oratory and a resolution of censure which was
laid upon the table by only a vote of 16 to 15. The vote
on the rejection of the nomination of Hiram Alden was
the next day reconsidered and confirmed by a substantial
majority.

The Legislature adjourned upon the 6th of April, and
for a time the public mind was engrossed with the increas
ing stringency in financial affairs of the country in gen
eral and which, through "wild cat" banks, could be said
to bear upon Michigan in particular. "With difficulties
on the Board of Commissioners momentarily quieted,
that branch of the service seemed for a time destined
to fulfill public expectations. The citizens of Monroe,
overjoyed at the appropriation that had been made for
the Southern road, served a sumptuous dinner at which
the Governor was the honored guest; and with the activ
ities of returning spring, the Central road began busi
ness of a character that seemed to augur great things
for the future. Two trains a day were running between
Detroit and Tpsilanti, and on May 19, 1838, the Journal
and Courier voiced its pleasure by saying, "It is gratify
ing to know that the freight and travel on this State road
are increasing rapidly. The average receipts for several
days^ast have been upwards of three hundred dollars
per cE>y. On Monday they were $326, on Tuesday $431,
on Wednesday $310 and on Thursday $372. " A report
of the 18th of July disclosed that for the week ending
July 17, the thirty miles of road showed eatings of
$2,957.52.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 413

Contracts for the construction of the work upon the
Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal from Mt. Clemens to
Utica were let; and Mt. Clemens, not to be outdone by
more pretentious places, proceeded to fittingly celebrate
the inauguration of the important event. On July 20,
the day set for the commencement of work, the people
gathered from far and near to witness the breaking of
the ground. Colonel James L. Conger of Belvidere as
president of the day, lead the procession to the Canal
right-of-way accompanied by Governor Mason, Judge
"WilMns and United States Marshal Ten Eyck. Here a
barrow was provided and with appropriate dignity Col
onel Conger presented a spade to Governor Mason, who
while a cannon boomed from a neighboring knoll, and
while the people cheered and a "buckskin" band dis
coursed martial airs, stripped his coat and proceeded to
fill the barrow with soil, which was wheeled away by
Colonel Conger and dumped upon the embankment. The
procession reformed and marched back to Mt. Clemens
where a dinner was served beneath an arbor which had
to be covered with canvas on account of the showers
which continued to mar the day. Here the addresses
of the day were delivered. The principal one, as would
be expected, was delivered by the Governor, and the
tenor of his remarks was in keeping with the occasion;
although the presence of the now venerable Judge Chris
tian Clemens by Ms side did not fail to induce reminis
cences of the days of 1831, when in need of friends and
supporters he had gone to Mt. Clemens and in the person
of Judge Clemens had found one who had said, "Do
your duty, boy, and we will stand by you."

From this time forward during the season work was

414 STEVENS T. MASON

pushed forward with as much vigor as might have been
expected in view of the disturbed financial condition of
the State and Nation. In July contracts were let upon
the Northern road for the clearing of the right-of-way
from Pqrt Huron to Lyons; for grading upon a "four
mile section from Flint westward, and upon a ten mile
section from Lyons eastward, and a considerable force
of men was soon employed in prosecuting the work.
Upon the Southern road construction was pushed for
ward so that by autumn the superstructure was approach
ing completion to Leroy, a settlement in Palmyra Town
ship some thirty miles to the westward of Monroe, while
the right-of-way was being cleared as far west as Hills-
dale* The Commissioner in charge of the Central road
had placed it under contract as far as Jackson; but the
work of actual construction showed little progress, owing
as it was claimed by the contractor to sickness which had
incapacitated his laborers. Indeed a form of malarial
sickness was general over the State in the summer of
1838 and greatly retarded operations upon all the State
works. Improvements on the lower portions of the
Grand and Kalamazoo Eivers were likewise carried
forward, and a company of some fifty laborers were for
a time employed upon the Saginaw Canal, to which point
approximately $5,000 worth of provisions had been f or-
warded from Detroit by the State for the support of
the laborers, to be deducted from the contractors' esti
mates as earned. As the appropriation for the Sault
Ste. Marie Canal was made with the proviso that it was
not to be available in case an appropriation for the pur
pose could be obtained from Congress at the then present
session, no contracts were let upon the work until Sep-

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 415

tember 7; at which time it appeared that the General
Government was to render no assistance, and the Com
missioner in charge let the work upon the upper level
of the Canal to Messrs. Smith and Driggs, a firm of con
tractors of the city of Buffalo, who at once began prepa
rations for active operations in the coming spring.

At the ensuing legislative session the Board of Com
missioners, or certain members of it at least, did not
escape the general denunciation which now seemed to
flow from .the continuing financial depression of the
country and the partisan rancor which increased rather
than lessened in intensity. As an independent policy,
aside from the inherent defects in the policy itself, there
was nothing in the progress of the works or in their
prospective utility, the standards of the day considered,
that warranted bitter criticism and censure. The real
trouble and defect seemed not to have yet been discov
ered. No one made complaint of the policy as such.
No one yet seemed to see that to satisfy "all the people "
the State had undertaken projects for which there was
no economic need and that by so doing it had divided its
energies and resources so that insufficient remained for
the energetic prosecution of any project. The fac
tion of disaffection could see fault only in the individuals
charged with responsibility.

* The Governor's message was highly congratulatory
on the progress that had been made. It disclosed that
up to that time there had been expended by the Depart
ment of Internal Improvement the sum of $888,301.0^
of which $572,789.69 had been expended upon the dn-
tral; $216,825.70 upon the Southern; $20,998.69 upo?a the
Northern; $34,098.84 upon the Clinton and Kalamazoo

416 STEVENS T. MASON

Canal; $17,203.99 upon the Saginaw; $1,946.75 upon the
Sault Ste. Marie, and $24,139.64 upon the different
so-called navigable streams. With special felicity did
the -Governor call attention to the fact that from^the 3rd
of February 1838 to the 18th of December following, the
earning on the twenty-eight miles of the Central road
had been $81,604.54, a sum which exceeded the cost of
operation by $37,283.74. "When it is borne in mind,"
said he, "that the receipts as above stated, have accrued
on only twenty-eight miles of the road, it is fair to con-
cli^Jf, that in progress of time, when the entire work
is completed, the resources of the State developed and
the enterprise of our increasing population actively
employed, it will yield a return of income beyond our
most sanguine expectations." But with a growing sense
of caution the Governor added, "But this flattering exhi
bition must not lead us* to forget the caution and economy
with which our expenditures should be made. We have
adopted a system of internal improvements, which will
for its success demand the exercise of our most rigid
economy." The necessity for this economy he pro
ceeded to show, by enlarging upon the works undertaken
and in progress, the estimates for the construction of
which, he feared, would fall far .short of their actual
cost He concluded the subject by abjuring the Legis
lature to "examine rigidly the expenditures^ the Com
missioners." Said he, "Let no complaint pass unheeded.
Direct your committee to investigate fully the proceed
ings of the present and previous boards of commission
ers, that it may be distinctly known to the people of
Michigan, if there has been any profligate expenditures
or improper use of the pubMc moneys."

§1
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525 S-

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INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 417

On January 16, 1839, the Commissioners filed with the
Legislature their annual report which disclosed no facts
of interest not heretofore mentioned, but it formed the
basis for the appointment in the House a few days later
of a committee of five members to investigate the doings
of the past and present Commissioners of Internal Im
provement. For some reason the speaker in appoint
ing this committee deviated from the general rule in the
appointment of committees in political bodies, and gave
to the Whig minority of the House the majority thereon.
The committee prosecuted its investigations until April 6,
when it presented to the House a report in which only
the Whig members of the committee joined. The work
of the committee had been made sensational in charac
ter and the report was no less so. One finds difficulty
in ascertaining the true condition from the report.
Some matters set forth would, unexplained, seem of a
questionable character, but they are so combined with
charges that are clearly of a bitter partisan character
that it is difficult to separate the one from the other.
The report criticized Colonel M'Kinstry to some extent,
but was principally devoted to Commissioners James B.
Hunt and Levi S. Humphrey, who were specifically
charged with misdoings of a grave and serious nature.
General Humphrey was directly charged with being a
defaulter to the State in the sum of nearly $20,000. The
report at once drew replies from both the gentlemen
accused, denying the allegations brought against them,
and a counter statement from another committee show
ing that, so far as the charges against General Hum
phrey were concerned, they resulted from an error made
by the investigating committee itself. Both James B,

418 STEVENS T. MASON

Hunt and Levi 8. Humphrey survived by many years
the days of the State's efforts f <MC internal improvements,
'and perhaps the strongest refutation of the charges that
were at this time brought against them is to be found in
the high esteem in which, both were thereafter held and
the responsible positions to which they were thereafter
called in the business and political affairs of the country.
The agitation however was not without results. Towards
the end of the session there began to be evidences of a
growing conviction that there were defects in the policy
as well as cause for criticism of the officials charged
with the duty of administering the laws. On Aj)ril 11
Senator Kereheval introduced and sought ineffectualfy
to have passed a resolution authorizing negotiations
looking to a reduction of the State loan from five million
to three million dollars, coupled with a declaration to
the effect that all appropriations should be limited to
those works which would be likely to produce income
approximating the interest upon the money they would
cost. The Legislature was not yet ready to make the
confession such a resolution implied; but the increasing
financial embarrassment of the people made retrench
ment imperative, and so, without subscribing to the for
mal declaration, it reduced the appropriations to $100,-
000 each for the Central and Southern roads; $40,000
for the Northern road; $60,000 for the Clinton and Kala-
mazoo Canal; and $25,000 each for the St. Joseph River
and for a canal around the rapids on the Grand. This
was about one-third the amount of the appropriation
the year previous.

To further decrease expenditures, the Board of Com
missioners of Internal Improvement was reduced from

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 419

seven to three members, to which positions the Governor
nominated and the Legislature confirmed Rix Eobinson
of Kent, Levis S. Humphrey of Monroe and William B.
Thompson of Washtenaw. During the following sum
mer despondency was a chronic business condition
throughout the country and the works upon which Mich
igan had embarked with so much enthusiasm two years
before were now prosecuted with a languishing zeal.
Even had the faith of the people been still full and
strong, the treasury was without funds to meet in full
the reduced appropriations. In May the Commissioners,
persuant to a resolution of the Legislature, advanced
the sum of $5,000 to the contractors upon the Sault Ste.
Marie Canal, who with a force of workmen repaired to
the north to begin operations. In the meantime the War
Department at Washington had been informed by an
officer at Fort Brady of the work about to be projected
by the State, and further advised that the Canal if con
structed would interfere with certain improvements at
the place that had been made by the United States Gov
ernment, among which was a mill race through which
water was conveyed for the operation for a sawmill. The
War Department forwarded instructions to the post com
mander to apprise the contractor that in the execution
of his contract he would not be allowed in any way to
interfere with the raceway, although the Government
would make no objection to the construction of the work
through the military reservation or grounds, provided it
did not seriously injure the Government interests. The
contractor at once upon arrival was informed .of ,tfie
instructions from the War Department, and although
there seems to have been abundant room where the con-

.420 STBVBNS T. MASON

tractor might have prosecuted Ms work pending notice
to the State authorities and settlement of the difficulty,
which was later adjusted, he proceeded on the morning
of May 13 with about fifty laborers to the very point in
dispute, seemingly to force the issue. Little or nothing
had been accomplished by the contractor and his men
when Captain Johnson of Fort Brady with thirty regu
lars armed with muskets appeared upon the scene and
ordered a discontinuance of operations. As no attention
was paid to the order, the regulars acting under com
mand of their officer proceeded to forcibly remove the
foreman and his men. This action terminated work
under the contract and no doubt delayed the construc
tion of the Canal for many years. It has been usual to
charge this failure to the unwarranted and illegal inter
ference of the National Government. Q-overnor Mason
and Governor Woodbridge later gave the matter
extended consideration, and even Hon. James V. Camp
bell has characterized the action of the military as "a
very gross outrage." And indeed the failure of the War
Department to call the matter to the "attention of the
State authorities before marching an armed body of men
to forcibly drive the laborers from a work of State con
cern comes very close to Judge Campbell's characteriza
tion; but there are other facts, it would seem, that should
absolve the War Department from the whole responsi-
Mlity. By August 9, 1839, an agreement was reached
by the State and by the War Department that permitted
the continuance of work upon the canal. The Board of
Commissioners thereupon Ordered the contractors to pro
ceed under their contract. The fact that they refused to
comply lends color to the intimation in the report of

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 421

Tracy McCracken, the engineer, that the contractors,
having been advanced $5,000 by the State, were fur
nished a strong inducement to begin work at the one
point where they were sure to be stopped, thereby fur
nishing the basis for an almost undisputable claim for
damages in being kept from the performance of their
contract by circumstances not under their control. When
the end of the season came, the sum total of the advance
upon the State works could be summarized as a few miles
of grade and one hundred and ten miles cleared and
grubbed on the Northern road; the Southern road under
contract from Monroe to Hillsdale and completed as far
as Adrian; the Central under contract to Jackson, with
cars running daily to Ann Arbor, to which point the line
was opened October 17, 1839. The opening of the line
to this point was an event that was celebrated by the
Brady Guards and some eight hundred citizens of Detroit
in conjunction with the citizens of Ann Arbor. The
Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal was under contract from
Mt. Clemens to Eochester and partially completed; five
miles of the Saginaw Canal had been placed under con
tract and one mile completed ; the Grand had been made
navigable to the rapids, and the Kalamazoo put in like
condition for boats of not over four feet draught
from its mouth to Allegan; a large number of surveys
had been made, and the State had expended $1,510,315.
Looking back from the closing days of his administration
and reviewing his own official recommendations in the
matter of internal improvements, Governor Mason could
say: "The result of the legislation upon these execu
tive recommendations was, after months of warfare
between conflicting local interests, a conference between

432 STEVENS T. MASON

the two Houses of tlie Legislature, resulting in the unan
imous adoption of the present system of internal im
provements. No party action was brought to bear upon
the subject, and the error if error there is was the emana
tion of that false spirit of the age which forced States
as well as individuals to over-action and extended pro
jects. If Michigan has overtaxed her energies and
resources, she stands not alone, but has fallen into that
fatal policy which has involved in almost unparalleled
embarrassment st> many of her sister States."

Thus truthfully did the Boy Governor of Michigan
diagnose the causes that had contributed to the failure
of a cherished policy and thus manfully did he share
the burden of the responsibility for the error, which,
as he said, had emanated from a false spirit of the age.

CHAPTER XX

IETTEBNAJL, IMPBOVEMENTS AND THE FIVE MILLION DOLLAR

LOAN

TNTIMATELY connected with tlie State's scheme of
•*- internal improvements, and perhaps more disas
trous to Governor Mason's political reputation than any
other connected with his administration were the inci
dents connected with the negotiation of the five million
dollar loan authorized "by the Legislature in March, 1837.
From the very first Governor Mason undertook with
hesitancy the duties imposed by this Act, for he realized
better than anyone else the great responsibility incident
to such an undertaking and his own lack of knowledge
and experience requisite to its proper discharge. Had
he foreseen the added difficulties of the task that were
to be imposed by the financial stress under which the
country was to labor, it is quite probable that he would
have refused to assume the duties that were so foreign
to his office, but these things were as imperfectly fore
seen by the Governor as by the great body of the people.
Upon the opening of navigation in the spring of 1837,
Governor Mason repaired to New York to take up the
negotiation of the loan. Inasmuch as a loan for $100,000
authorized by the Legislature of 1835,1 for the current
expenses of the State government had been successfully
negotiated by Mr. John Delafield, a prominent banker of
New York who was then acting as the agent of the State

1. Passed Nov. 14, 1835.

424 STEVENS T. MASON

for the payment of the interest on the. loan, Governor
Mason quite naturally sought the assistance of Mr. Dela
field in the negotiation of this larger responsibility.
After some time spent among the capitalists of New
York, the Governor returned to Michigan satisfied that
it would be exceedingly difficult if not impossible to effect
a sale of the State bonds under the then disturbed finan
cial conditions of the country; but before returning he
delegated to Mr. Delafield a general agency to correspond
with capitalists both in this country and in Europe look
ing to the placing of the loan. The summer passed with
out the attainment of the desired end, and as political
capital was being made out of the failure or delay, Gov
ernor Mason in September again repaired to New York
to give his personal attention to the matter. He now
learned from Mr. Delafield that, notwithstanding the
most persistent effort upon his part, no portion of the
loan had been placed, and that in his opinion under the
then present financial conditions it could not be nego
tiated unless the interest on the bonds was increased to
six per cent and both interest and principal made pay
able in Europe. The Governor was assured that, could
these changes be made, Mr. James King of the highly
respectable brokerage firm of Prime, Ward and King,
who was about visiting Europe would take charge of
the loan and give personal attention to its negotiation,
and that there would be little or no question as to a
successful termination. Indeed, so sanguine was Mr.
Delafield that the bonds would find sale in London, that
he offered, in the event of the law being changed to con
form to his suggestion as to interest and place of pay-

FIVE MILLION DOLLAR LOAN 425.

ment, to advance to the State $150,000 in anticipation of
the amount realized upon the sale.

Highly elated, the Governor returned to Michigan, and
in the excitement of the campaign, then raging, his report
of the prospects of a successful issue was, treated as
equivalent to a consummation. Almost immediately on
the reassembling of the Legislature in the adjourned ses
sion of November 9, 1837, a bill was introduced and
promptly passed which received approval on the 15th,
amending the act authorizing the five million dollar loan
so that the interest might be six instead of five and one-
half per cent, and providing payment in Europe as well
as in the United States should the Governor find it
advantageous to so contract. The amendatory act fur-
there provided that, in case of the placing of the loan or
any part of it in Europe, all benefit to be derived from
difference of exchange should inure to the benefit of
the State, that the bonds should be redeemable at the
rate of $4.44 for every pound sterling of Great Britain or
the guilder of Holland at the rate of forty cents each.2
The Governor had determined that the bonds should not
be negotiated for any considerable amount in advance
of the need of the funds for the purposes of internal
improvements and, still believing that there would now
be little difficulty in selling the bonds as the work pro
gressed, he caused bonds to the amount of $1,500,000 to
be prepared and executed in conformity to the amended
statute. Bonds to the amount of $500,000 were soon sold
to Mr. Oliver Newberry, the veteran steamship builder
of Detroit, at a premium of six per cent, while $1,000,000

2. Act No. 1, Public Acts of

42^ STEVENS T. MASON

of the bonds were placed in the hands of Mr. Delafield.8
Of the latter bonds $300,000 par value were turned over
to Messrs. Prime, Ward and King, and by them con-
sig^d to Baring Bros. Co., London, where together with
certified copies of the law under which they were issued
they were received in December/ About the same time,
in keeping with the understanding with Mr. Delafield and
to relieve the exchange between Detroit and New York,
drafts were drawn against him for the sum of $150,000.
Contrary to the expectations of the Governor, Mr. Dela
field met this draft not by an advance, but by a draft in
like amount upon the Baring Bros. Co. of London.

On February 12 the Legislature, reflecting the public
interest in the loan, by resolution requested information
from the Governor, as to the state of the negotiations,5
which the Governor supplied a few days later through a
communication which exhibits the degree of assurance
which he felt for the successful outcome of the transac
tion. Mentioning the fact that he had attempted to pro
cure but $1,500,000, as sufficient for immediate needs, he
said: "This sum, however, may be certainly calculated
upon, and the legislature can safely appropriate to that
amount. If the Legislature of the present session should
require it, I am confident the whole loan or any additional
portion of it may readily be negotiated. ' ' Again on April
6th he communicated to the Legislature the informa
tion that, he was advised, in the course of sixty days he
would be able to draw from three to four hundred thou
sand dollars against the balance of the million of bonds

3. Home Journal, 1838, p. 188.

4. Mich. Hist. Colls., VH, p.145,

5. House Journal, 1838, pp. 165-188,

FIVE MILLION DOLLAR LOAN 427

then in the hands of Messrs. Prime, Ward and King.6
Notwithstanding the optimistic reports that the Gover
nor was receiving and from time to time transmitting
to the Legislature, he was unable to free himself from
a feeling of distrust of his own ability for so exceptional
a service. A man in the high position of executive of a
State can hardly refuse to assume the duties that the
Legislature may see fit to impose upon Trim, even when
they are of a nature foreign to the office; and for that
reason the desires of the executive in that regard are
quite generally respected, although in this instance they
did not seem to avail. As the Governor has, been made
to bear the responsibility for all the failures attending
the subsequent negotiations of the loan, it is perhaps
just that his efforts to escape the imposing of the respon
sibility should be given. On March 22 the Governor sent
to the Senate a message devoted to the subject, in which
he said:

"I am constrained by a sense of public duty to call the
attention of the Legislature to the importance of provid
ing some proper agency for the management of the State
loans alreadyx authorized or hereafter to be authorized
by the State. At present the exclusive and unrestricted
negotiation and management of loans as well as the sale
of all exchange derived from that source is left to the
discretion of the Governor of the State. This is wrong
in principle as it gives to the control of one individual
millions of the public money without any corresponding
check or responsibility. But in addition to this objec
tion on the ground of principle, it will readily occur to
you that the public interests demand that this important

6. Ibid. pp. 472-473.

428 STEVENS T. MASON

branch of our State policy, the management of its
finances, should receive the undivided attention of a dis
tinct department organized for that purpose. It is im
possible for the executive to bestow that attention to
the subject which its importance demands, without the
neglect of other imperious duties. But whilst as an
officer of the State, I am willing to discharge any duty
imposed upon me by the public, I feel that it is due to
myself that I should not incur the heavy responsibility
of controlling the loans of the State when they can receive
but a limited portion of my time and service. I would
therefore earnestly recommend the creation of a Board
of Loan Commissioners, the members to be chosen by the
Legislature, to whom the negotiation and management
of all loans shall be entrusted/

A bill to provide for such a commission passed the
House and with some amendments passed thg Senate,
but was lost through House and Senate failing to agree ;
thus the Governor was forced to assume a responsibility
not within the purview of his official duties and from
which he had respectfully requested of the Legislature
that he might be relieved. To add to the difficulties of
the situation, no sooner had the Legislature adjourned
than the Governor received advice that the negotiations
which had promised the sale of a million bonds in London
had been terminated by the Baring Bros. Co. discover
ing that there were certain ambiguities in the amended
statute authorizing the loan. Their view of the law was,
that while it was positive as to the payment of interest
in Europe, the payment of the principal in Europe was
to be inferred only by implication; they likewise pro-

7. Senate Journal, 1888, p. 275.

FIVE MILLION DOLLAR LOAN. 420

f ess.ed to believe that the law in fixing the pound sterling
at $4.44 had fixed the rate of exchange, so that while a
premium of ten per cent would yield Michigan $4.88 per
pound sterling, still the State would only be required to
repay at the rate of $4.44. In vain the Governor wrote
them that the valuation of $4.44 upon the pound sterling
had nothing whatever to do with the rate of exchange,
but was only intended to stipulate the par value in Amer
ican money of the pound sterling, the State still being
chargeable with the exchange incident to the transmis
sion of funds. In vain likewise were several other
efforts to satisfy the cautious London bankers. It was
finally found necessary to bring back the $300,000 of
bonds and remit $150,000 to Baring Bros. Co., London,
to cover the draft that had been made upon them for
the advance in prospect of sale.8 "While efforts con
tinued for some months to interest the Eothschilds and
others, they were to no purpose. The ambitious projects
of internal improvement in many of the States were
flooding the money centers of Europe with securities, at
which, under the disturbed financial conditions of the
country, financiers looked with anything but eager inter
est. Of the bonds taken by Oliver Newberry, a portion
were placed upon the London market where they sold for
ninety-five and some as low as ninety-three cents on the
dollar. It was soon evident that he would be unable to
fulfill his contract. Indeed he was later compelled to
seek the cancellation of his contract and return $300,000
of the $500,000 which his contract embraced.

The Legislature adjourned, on the 6th of April, with
appropriations for the purposes of internal iniprove-

8. Souse Docs. 1838, No. 44.

430 STEVENS T. MASON

meats payable from the proceeds of the loan of more
than $1,000,000,° while provision had been made for a
bond issue of $100,000 for the aid of the Allegan and
Marshall Railroad Company10 and a like issue for the
Tpsilanti and Tecumseh Railroad Company.11 Contracts
had been let upon the various projects and contractors
were busily engaged in the collection of materials and
forces necessary for the work, while as yet there had
been realized upon bonds actually sold the sum of $161,-
000. 12 Another factor in the situation, as has been before
stated, was to be found in the chaotic condition of the cur
rency and pervading sense of financial disaster that soon
possessed everyone from the banker to the settler in the
new-made clearing. Everyone had his pockets filled with
the bills of the "wild cat" banks which were of varying
degrees of badness; specie was in the hands of the
favored few, so that in the hands of the people generally
there were hardly any funds that would discharge obli
gations in the East. Among the farmers, the merchants,
and in financial and commercial circles there was a gen-
. eral desire that the loan be negotiated as speedily as
possible and that the proceeds be allowed to flow out to
public relief through the channel of internal improve
ments or from institutions where for the time being it
might be upon deposit. At the same time the situation
was rendered more and more difficult by the spirit of par
tisan polities which infested it, and which impelled Dem
ocrats to yield to expediency and Whigs to charge every

a PutUeActs, 1838, pp.

10. JW,25&

11. /Md.,259.

12. JBTotwe Doc*n 1838, No. 44, p. 18.

FIVE MILLION DOLLAR LOAN 431

show of hesitancy and conservatism to inefficiency and
failure.

That many of these considerations had influence with
the governor we may well presume; but the fact that
the appropriations of 'the Legislature had been already
made and contracts let which would subject the State
to heavy claims for damages if it was unable to perform
together with the fact that if the loan was not negotiated
it meant the disorganization of the whole system of inter
nal improvements which had been deliberately adopted
and well nigh universally approved, was the decisive
consideration with turn. In the late days of April the
Governor, apprehensive from long delays that the
European negotiations were to be fruitless, again
repaired to New York in order if possible to bring mat
ters in connection with the loan to a successful termina
tion. Quite naturally again, the Q-overnor took up nego
tiations with Edward E. Biddle, one of that eminent
family of which Major John Biddle of Detroit who had
been the opposing candidate against Governor Mason
in his first election, and Nicholas Biddle of both the Bank
of the United States and the later United States Bank
of Pennsylvania were also members. On May 8 a tenta
tive contract was entered into between the Governor and
Mr. Edward E. Biddle, who represented himself and cer
tain claimed capitalists of Philadelphia, for the entire
loan at par. The sum of $80,000 was paid at the time
of the execution of the contract, and the Governor was
hopeful that the matter was disposed of ;.but after some
two weeks of waiting it was found necessary to surrender
the contract in consequence of the inability of the con
tracting parties to meet the stipulated payments. Gov-

432 STEVENS T. MASON

ernor Mason was now brought into negotiations with
the Morris Canal and Backing Company, a corporation
organized tinder the laws of New Jersey with banking
office in the city of New York of which Edward E. Biddle
was president. To add piquancy to the story, the Morris
Canal and Banking Company has been sometimes com
pared to the "wild cat" banks with which the people of
Michigan were sadly familiar, but no such comparison is
warranted by the facts.13 The Morris Canal and Banking
Company had been incorporated in 1824 to construct a
canal between the Passaic and Delaware Eivers which
was extended later to the Hudson Eiver at Jersey City.
This canal which was said to have cost the company
$4r,OQO,00014 was at the time practically completed. In
addition to it the company was the owner of many other
valuable properties consisting of wharves, docks, farm
ing and mineral lands.15 As was common with many other
corporations of this character in that day, it was author
ized to do a banking business in connection with its
transportation activities, its additional capital stock for
banking purposes being limited to $1,000,000. Three
years before this time the stock of this company had sold
at a premium of fifty cents upon the dollar;16 its circula
tion was practically at pa!r;1T men of the highest charac
ter were upon its board of directors, among whom might
be mentioned Washington Irving, of literary fame ; Sam
uel L. Southard, twice Secretary of the Navy; Isaac H.
Williamson, for twelve years Governor of New Jersey;

13. MicUgw, as Province, Territory <m& State, III, p. 134.

14. House Doos^ 1841, No. 18, p. 6.

15. J&td, p. 10.

16. Encyc. Americam, XVI, "Wall Street"

17. BickneU's Bank Note List, June 1, 1837.

FIVE MILLION DOLLAR LOAN 433

and Garrett D. Wall, a 'United States Senator from the
same State • while associated with, these men were such
men as Edwin Lord, John Moss, James B. Morrey, Henry
Yates and many others representing the first rank of
professional, mercantile and banking circles of New
York and Philadelphia. Its financial operations had been
of an extensive character, it being then entrusted with
the negotiation of the internal improvement loan of the
State of Indiana.

The negotiations between Governor Mason and the
Morris Canal and Banking Company finally resulted in
a contract between the parties under date of June 1,
1838. By the terms of this contract the company was
to become the agent of the State for the sale of the
whole issue. The principal and interest was made pay
able in New York, to which city the company was t'o
guarantee the safe delivery of all funds derived from the
sale of bonds in Europe or elsewhere. It likewise became
the guarantor to the State that it should receive the par
value of the aggregate amount of the bonds sold; that
is, if in the sale of the bonds it was obliged to dispose
of them at a less price than par, it was to make up to
the State the deficiency between the price received and
the par value. The sum of $1,300,000 of bonds was
to be delivered to the company upon the execution of
the contract, and it was in turn to pay $250,000 in cash
to the State and $1,050,000 was to be subject to its order.
The remainder was to be paid in quarterly installments
of $250,000 each, beginning with the first day of July
1839 and to continue until the whole sum was paid, and
that whether the company had sold the bonds or not. The
bonds were to be delivered to the company as the install-

434 STEVENS T. MASON

ments became due, so that it would have in hand a million
dollars of bonds in advance of actual payment, the com
pany to have the right to take all the bonds and pay
over the remainder of the five million dollars at any time
upon a thirty day written notice to the Governor, In
the event of sales at more than par the contracting parties
were to divide equally all premiums up to five per cent,
the company to take in addition all in excess of five per
cent. For the execution of the contract, which was made
irrevocable, the company was to receive a commission of
two and a half per cent on thje proceeds of sales, which
was to be in lieu of all other expenses.18

It will be observed that by the terms of the contract
$1^050,000 was immediately made subject to the State's
order, in addition to the $250,000 dollars of present pay
ment. On June 4 a so-called supplementary agreement
was made between the contracting parties.19 It pro
vided that the company, having passed to the credit of
the Governor on the Michigan loan the sum of $1,300,000,
the Governor was to accept in payment of that sum the
bOls of the Morris Canal and Banking Company and dis
burse tbyem so far as the exigencies of the State might
allow. These bills were to be received, $250,000 dollars
on August 1 next ensuing, $100,000 on September 1, and
$100,000 on the first of each month thereafter. This has
been generally treated by the Governor's critic^ as an
unlawful modification of the original contract which
involved a material interest loss to the State;20 in fair-

is. Home Docs^ 18^9, No. 44, p, 7.

19. m&t p. 11.

20. *Hou8t Does., 1841, No. 18, p. 61 ; Mich, a& Prov. Terr, and State,

III, 185:

EIVE MILLION DOLLAR LOAN 435

ness to the Governor it should be said that it was his
contention that it was not a modification or departure
from the original contract, but was in fact a part of the
original terms of sale, embraced in a separate memoran
dum because it related to the first payments which were
to be made upon the amount passed to the credit of the
State as fast as they could be prepared and issued.21
Unquestionably this contract violated the spirit even
though it kept within the letter of the law. It had been
clearly specified that the sale should be for at least par,
while a commission of two and one-half per cent was in
effect a sale at ninety-seven and a half cents, although
the Governor hoped and no doubt was given encourage
ment to believe that the bonds would be sold so that the
State's share of the premiums would make up this defi
ciency. The justification for a sale at this figure
and upon these conditions was, of course, the exigencies
of the situation arising from the peculiar circumstances
in which the State was placed and the then distressed
condition of the money market, the details of which the
Govenor subsequently submitted to the Legislature.

On the 8th of June Governor Mason being about to
start for Michigan, bills of the Morris Canal and Banking
Company to the amount of $110,397.70, the same being
$10,397.70 of a balance due on the first payment of $250,-
000 and $100,000 as the August installment, were brought
over from the company's banking house at Jersey City
to the branch in New York City. Theodore Romeyn
of Detroit having been in the city during the Governor's
negotiations with the company, although not under

21. Mason Romeyn pamphlets (Burton Historical Colls.)

436 STEVENS T. MASON

employment, had nevertheless interested himself in the
"business, to the extent of giving the Governor his friendly
counsel and advice. Now that the bills of the bank were
ready for transfer, Mr. Bomeyn at the request of the
Governor procured for "Mm a small trunk for the pur
pose; and the trunk and its contents were the occasion
of a mystery that supplied gossip for a generation, it
is correspondingly proper that the facts surrounding the
mystery be fully stated.

The money as it was being prepared for shipment was
not counted by the Governor but was several times
counted by the bank clerks, who stamped each bill
upon the back in red as a protection against robbery on
the journey to Detroit The bills were then done into
packages, with the amount of €fach package marked upon
the band of the paper around it ; and the various packages
were then placed within the trunk, which was ,then
locked and the key delivered to the Governor who con
veyed it to the Astor House where it was put in charge
of the bookkeeper during the evening meal. Mr. Bomeyn,
having signified his intention to remain in his room for
the evening, at the request of the Governor consented to
take charge of the trunk until the Governor, who was
going out, should return. Returning about midnight the
Governor found the trunk safe in Mr. Komeyn ?s posses
sion it was then opened and several articles of Mr.
Bomeyn placed therein, after which it was removed to
the room of the Governor where several more articles
were included and the trunk locked. Its subsequent
journey is illustrative of travel in the olden days, and
may well be given in the language of the Governor him-

FIVE MILLION DOLLAR LOAN 43T

self, as detailed to a subsequent legislative committee of
investigation.22

"On the next morning after receiving the trunk, I left
New York in the six o'clock boat; the trunk was not out
of my sight more than ten minutes, and then under the
lock of my room until it was placed on board the Albany
boat; when on the boat, I requested Mr. Romeyn to
have it placed in the captain's office, having attached
his name to the trunk. My reason for identifying the
trunk with Mr. Romeyn, as well as my reason for request
ing him to purchase it, was, that as it was generally
known I was negotiating a loan in New York, I might
be followed for the purpose of stealing it on the road
home. At Albany the trunk was kept in my room, and
when I was out I had the key of my room in my pos
session. I was in Albany one evening, between that
place and Utica, when it was under the lock of the bag
gage car. From Utica to Syracuse it was in front of
the stage under the driver's seat. We left TTtica about 4
o'clock in the afternoon and reached Syracuse at about
one or two o'clock in the morning. At Syracuse it was
not out of my keeping. From Syracuse to Oswego it
was on the deck of the canal boat for about half a day.
At Oswego for one afternoon it was under lock in my
room. From Oswego to Niagara it was in the office of
the captain of the boat for one night. From Niagara
to Buffalo it was on the top of the railroad car and I
rode on the outside in the night with it. At Buffalo it
remained in my room under lock. On Lake Erie it was
placed in the captain's office and delivered to me at

22. House Docs., 1839, No, 44, p. 27.

438 STEVENS T. MASON

Detroit. When I arrived home I took from the trunk
the articles belonging to Mr. Eomeyn and myself and
delivered it to the treasurer. At no time on the journey
was the trunk opened by me, nor could I at any time
observe that the overcoat on the top had been moved.
On opening the trunk at home, everything seemed to
me as I had placed them. The package of ten thousand
and three hundred and ninety-seven dollars was on top,
as I had placed it, and was immediately delivered to the
treasurer as part of the cash payment, counted by him
and found to be correct. "

The trunk and its contents were then deposited in the
vault of the Michigan State Bank. Here a few days later
the $100,000 of the August installment was counted and
then the discovery was made that from the packages of
fives, tens, and twenties, bills had been extracted to the
amount of $4,630. The bills were all replaced and a com
munication of the theft at once sent to the Morris Canal
and Banking Company. On the same day that the com
pany received the governor's letter apprising it of the
loss of the money, it received through the New York
postoffice a package which enclosed all the abstracted
bills save fifty dollars, the same being returned as mys-
teriou&ly as it had been taken. The company subse
quently remitted the bills returned atid the Governor
paid the fifty dollars so that the theft resulted in no
loss to the State. The incident soon became known and
for many weeks furnished the newspapers and the gen
eral public with a topic of conversation. Suspicions and
speculations were rife and many an apocryphal tale in
explanation of the various phases of the mystery became
current, to be repeated in the recollections of the occa-

FIVE MILLION DOLLAR LOAN 439

sional pioneer after the lapse of half a century. The
Governor entertained suspicions as to who abstracted
the bills, but to the committee of investigation of the
succeeding Legislature he refused to express them, say
ing, "I am unwilling to express my opinions or suspi
cions where no positive testimony exists."

The whole subject of the loan now presented an added
question for political agitation. The opposition press
was loudly clamorous that all the details of the negotia
tions be given to the people; growing sarcastic and
vituperative when the Governor remained silent or said
he would report his doings to the Legislature when it
should convene.

The Governor, made apprehensive for the safe deliv
ery of the subsequent installments by his experience in
guarding the first remittance from New York to Detroit
and the theft of a large sum notwithstanding his vigil
ance, after counseling with his friends dispatched John
Norton Jr., cashier of the Michigan State Bank and fiscal
agent of the Legislature, to New York to effect a change
in the method of remitting the various installments as
they should fall due. The Morris Canal and Banking
Company considered that it was a valuable advantage
to have its bills placed in circulation, but on July 14 a
contract was entered into between the company and Mr.
Norton whereby it was agreed that Mr. Norton should
draw bills from Detroit upon the company payable at
an average of not less than ninety days after the install
ments severally became due and payable. This conteact
was subsequently .the occasion of much comment. It
was claimed that it entailed a considerable loss to the
State, although it was the assertion of the Governor that

440 STEVENS T. MASON

"the installments and every draft was credited to the
State at par* on the very day each became due." Under
this arrangement the various installments were remitted,
giving to the Detroit banks the benefit of eastern
exchange and eliminating the hazard incident to the ship
ment of the currency. It is evident from the Governor's
correspondence that he had full confidence that the Morris
Canal and Banking Company, in the discharge of its
agency, would seek in every way to promote the interests
of the State. He had faith that it would dispose of the
bonds as was necessary to meet the various installments
and that by such sales it would be able to realize suf
ficient premium to repay the two and one-half per cent
commission and thus make the bonds net par to the State.
The Governor seemed not to consider that the company
would be principally desirous of making such disposi
tion of its trust as would enable it to claim the two and
one-half per cent, or $125,000 commission in the shortest
possible time, and that too with a disregard of the inter
ests of the State, and yet this was the situation he was
soon called upon to face.

On the 10th of November, Edward E. Biddle of the
Morris Canal and Banking Company communicated to
the Governor a gloomy prospect for Michigan securities,
together with the information that it was now possible
for the company to pass the whole amount of the loan
to the credit of the State at par— less, of course, the
two and one-half per cent commission — provided there
was an immediate delivery of the residue of the bonds,
the obligation of the Bank of the United States in Penn
sylvania to be taken for three fourths and the Morris
Canal and Banking Company for one-fourth of the aggre-

FIVE MILLION DOLLAR LOAN 441

gate amount of the bonds and for the payment upon
the seveial installments when by the original contract
they should become due. The Governor's reply to this
communication shows his keen disappointment. "It is
with regret," said he, "I perceive that the state of the
European market is such as to render the sale of Mich
igan bonds a matter of hazard and doubt. My expecta
tion under the contract with you institution was, to
realize at least par for the stock, and it is with extreme
disappointment that I have presented to me the prob
ability of losing the two and one-half per cent commis
sion which covers your charges. I still cling to the hope
that an immediate sale may not be imperatively neces
sary." And then, evidently more because he was unde
cided as to the proper course to pursue than because
he wished to shirk responsibility, he added, "But as
the negotiation of this loan has been a most thankless
and perplexing undertaking on my part, I feel unwilling
to advise you in the premises."

The company required no further intimation or advice
to clearly see its duty to the State. Almost the return
mail brought intelligence that the sale had been consum
mated; the Governor being, at the same time, felicitated
upon the advantageous deal that had been closed, while
he was solemnly assured that "no small inducement for
closing the sale" was that they thereby brought to the
aid of the State all the security that could bo derived,
from the capital of i the Bank of the United States and
the benefit that would accrue to it in its future financial
transactions, — the aid which in fact did come to tHe State
was confined almost wholly to .the lessons of loss and
disaster that resulted from the association.

442 STEVENS T. MASON

The Legislature assembled on January 8, 1839, and
the Governor's message, as he had promised, went fully
into the details of the loan and the various transactions
incident to it. While the message seeks to justify the
various transactions incident to the business, one reads
in it a vein of disappointment and regret that he was
unable to report a more satisfactory result from his
efforts ; but, knowing the rectitude of his own purposes
and the fidelity with which he had striven to perform
the duty intrusted to him, he asked of the Legislature
the appointment- of a committee to investigate "all such
matters as present an unfavorable aspect " to any por
tion of the legislative body; demanding for his own con
duct the most rigid inquiry. In accordance with this
recommendation a joint committee was appointed, con
sisting of seven from the House and seven from the
Senate. In the main the gentlemen selected were the
stronger members of their respective bodies. The House
members were comprised of five Whigs and two Demo
crats, while the Senate membership was made up of four
Democrats and three Whigs. The Governor's political
opponents were thus given a free hand in the investiga
tion, with Daniel S. Bacon, the late Whig candidate for
Lieutenant Governor as chairman of the joint commit
tee, and William Woodbridge and James Wright Gordon,
who a year later became respectively Governor and Lieu
tenant Governor on the Whig ticket, ;among the members.
On April 10 Hon. Damiel S. Bacon presented the report
of the committee. It was an eminently fair and temper
ate statement of all the facts connected with the loan
and its negotiation. The law providing for the loan had
said that it should be negotiated for at least par. The

FIVE MILLION DOLLAR LOAN 443

committee very properly said, "Your committee does
not enquire if the compensation stipulated to be paid
to the Morris Canal and Banking Company was exorbi
tant, nor whether a sale of the bonds could have been
made on more advantageous terms ; they refer to the act
of the Legislature as their only rule of action." On the
question of the substitution of drafts for the notes of the
Morris Canal and Banking Company they were likewise
correct in reporting that they could not "discover the
necessity or authority for such action." In relation to
the abstraction of the bills the committee reported that it
had called many witnesses and accumulated a large mass
of testimony but 'that there was nothing in it "which
would tend to identify the person guilty of the foul trans
action before a judicial tribunal. It sleeps in the bosom
of him who perpetrated the crime. It is due to G-ov.
Mason and to the public to say, that no imputation what
ever rests upon him."

Theodore Eomeyn was called as a witness before the
committee, and in view of subsequent charges that grew
out of the transaction, two statements of Mr. Eomeyn
became material. One was that he had read the Gov
ernor's statement of the transaction and that it was
true ; and the second was, "I have never directly or indi
rectly drawn any money from the State for my own pur
poses neither have I received from Governor Mason any
accommodation or advances." This last statement has
especial significance when read in connection with state
ments from the same gentleman made a little more than
a year later when the exigencies of politics seemed to
demand that the Governor be ruthlessly assailed and Ms
reputation blackened.

444 STEVENS T. MASON

"With, the full facts before the public, there were few
who did not understand that the requirements of the
law authorizing the loan had been exceeded ; but the feel
ing was also quite as general that the terms obtained
were perhaps as favorable as could have been expected
under the circumstances. Not all members of the Legis
lature coincided with the various steps that had been
taken in the matter, but no one wished to assume the
responsibility of rejecting what had been attempted or
suggesting means of improvement so, by silence and
inaction, they gave assent to what had been done.

As the subsequent incidents in connection with the
five million dollar loan followed the political revolution
which turned the state and the administration of its
affairs to Whig control, they may be better left to be told
in connection with that event.

CHAPTEE

THE FOTJBTH LEGISLATIVE

TN" the four preceding chapters extended notice has
x been given to the incidents of the Canadian Rebellion,
the State banks, internal improvements and the five mil
lion dollar loan, becanse they were all matters of far-
reaching importance and in the relation of their incidents
could be best told with continuity of detail; but it must
not be inferred that at the time they absorbed public
attention to the exclusion of all other matters of social
and political interest. Even as "Patriot" bands were
being dispersed and "wild cat" banks were collapsing,
Whigs and Democrats were lining up their forces for
the spring election, preparatory for the legislative and
congressional campaign of the following November. The
Detroit election for the spring of 1838 was looked for
ward to with more than usual interest, and there is some
reason to believe that its near approach may in some
measure have tempered the severity with which under
other circumstances the neutrality of the United States
might have been maintained by the citizens of Michigan
at Detroit.

At the previous State election the Whigs had charged
the Governor with having sought to influence a voter
at the- preceding congressional election by the payment
of a dollar; they had extolled political virtue and con
demned corruption with most vigorous rhetoric. That
their standards in this regard were subject to some varia-

446 STEVENS T. MASON

tions is evidenced by the following notice* which appeared
in the Advertiser of March 30, 1838 :

"To the Poor — The Whigs will distribute one hundred
dollars in bread and pork among the city poor to-morrow
evening. Due notice of the hour and place will be given
in the morning paper. ' '

The Whigs had timed their philanthropy for the Satur
day preceding the city election, leaving the Democrats
to appeal through the less satisfying means of glare and
tinsel on the election day. The scenes that were enacted
at the distribution of provisions can not be better
described than in the language of Silas Beebe, an eye
witness, who entered in his diaxy the following interest
ing not^s :

" April 2nd. — Election cjLay for ejiarter officers of the
city of Detroit, and such a fuss, a rumpus, and a rioting
I never witnessed in a State election. The hand bills,
flags, processions, and a band of music, with a marshal
mounted on a richly caparisoned horse with gilt trap
pings, were only equaled the Saturday before by the
opposite party (Whigs) getting up a farce of distribut
ing to the poor, evidently for political effect and elec
tioneering purposes. It is difficult to describe the scene
to one who never wittnessed it. Fish, pork' and bread
were the only articles handed out by the committee to
the 'hungry' applicants as they presented themselves on
all sides of the stand. Many of them were Canadian
women and children who had come across the river on
the invitation, and some were well fed farmers who lived
out of the city; but they were chiefly French and Irish
who would crowd up again and again, get their baskets
filled, go and empty them and hurry back for more.

THE FOURTH LEGISLATURE 447

Most of the WMgs were sufficiently disgusted before the
farce was ended. I left before the election waxed hottest,
but learned that there was fighting, broken heads and
bloody noses and that the Whigs were the successful
party. "

This result was the occasion of considerable Whig ela
tion and corresponding chagrin in the Democratic camp.
As the summer advanced events seemed to bring increas
ing encouragement to the Whigs, who were promptly out
with a call for the meeting of their congressional con
vention and let no opportunity pass that served to de
nounce their political adversaries or to stimulate the
enthusiasm of their partisans. The Democratic-Bepublic-
' ans on the contrary, with the approach of the campaign
began to show certain evidences of incipient disorganiza
tion. The financial disorders of the country in general
and of the State in particular, were placing the domi
nant party upon the defensive; immigration that short
time before had been almost phenomenal had now almost
ceased, and such as had become established upon the
new farms had not yet been able through productive
labor to maintain the prosperity in the community which
it first felt from the expenditure of the money they
brought with them from Eastern homes. As heretofore
detailed the five million dollar loan was proving most
difficult to negotiate and the grand scheme of internal
improvements from which great results had been
expected, was for the same reason moving with lagard
steps. All of these elements were contributing to the
feeling of reaction which while not yet pronoimeed was
none the less apparent. To add to these factors of dis
organization in the body of the party there began to be a

448 STEVENS T. MASON

lack of harmony among the leaders of the party as well.
From the beginning Senator Lyon had found that he was
not in full accord with his colleague, Senator Norvell, nor
with the member of Congress, Mr. Crary, — they being
generally united in opposition to him. This lack of accord
related to appointments rather than to public questions
and while not a matter of press comment, as time passed
became known to an ever widening circle of friends who
likewise became partisans in the strife. This division
was not so much because of loyalty to any one of the
gentlemen at Washington as because of the attainment
or defeat of individual ambitions ; for with many a man
that statesman is the most sagacious and profound who
is most influential in providing a place for the particular
admirer in the public service.

The Whig Convention assembled at Ann Arbor on the
5th day of September 1838. It was a representative
gathering from the several counties of the State. Dis
tance was no deterring factor at this time, and it was
one of the noteworthy incidents of the Convention that
"one old veteran walked in over sixty miles to carry the
wishes of his fellow citizens," The preliminary organ
ization and the preparation and adoption of resolu
tions consumed the greater part of the time of the
Convention for the nomination was jnade upon the
first roll call. Hezekiah G. Wells of Kalamazoo,
the defeated candidate of the year before was nomi
nated, receivng 131 votes out of a total of 164 cast.
The remainder of the vote was divided between James
L. Conger, William Draper, Edward L. Fuller, Daniel
S. Bacon, Norman Little, Jacob M. Howard and John
Renwick. Many of these men subsequently developed

THE FOUBTH LBGISLA.TUBB 440

more than ordinary influence in both their party and the
State at large.

The resolutions, from the committee of which Jacob
M. Howard was chairman, were more denunciatory than
constructive in tone. The sub-treasury scheme was de
nounced as designed to "give gold to the office holder
and rags to the people;" the Senators were condemned
for having helped to build up "executive power;'1 while
Isaac E. Crary was said to have proved himself "the
pliant tool of power and the betrayer of his country's
best interests/' and was further characterized as "not
possessed of the ability or honesty requisite to form an
enlightened statesman or distinguished legislator, ' ' The
loss of the Toledo strip again formed the basis for much
rhetorical flourish, that event being charged to "the
feebleness of our State administration, pardonable only
on the ground of juvenile indiscretion. The five million
dollar loan together with the theft of the $4,500, was
set forth as showing the incapacity of the Governor, and
an article in the Detroit Free Press of the year previous,
to the effect that the loan had been negotiated, was made
the basis of a declaration that the Governor had "con
nived" at the publication. The resolutions made this
charge the basis for a demand that the Legislature inves
tigate the Governor's "deception."

The Democratic-Eepublican Convention assembled at
Ann Arbor the following Tuesday, September 11. It was
likewise well attended; but its proceedings evidenced that
the delegates were in quite a different frame
from that of the delegates who formed the

week previous. That there wa& the pdssibHtf 'of

STEVEN9 T. MASON

o| harmonious action on the part of the Convention
was a thing whispered among9 the faithful for weeks
before it in fact convened. The resnlt was a large attend
ance of gentlemen of official station who were present not
as delegates but as friends anxious that the machinery
of organization be subjected to no strain and that it
receive no jolts or jars that might loosen their hold upon
its levers. The temporary and permanent organization
of the Convention was effected without show of hostility
from any quarter; but the first ballot for candidate
brought forward the names of twelve gentlemen for the
nomination. Kinsley S. Bingham headed the list with
35 votes, Isaac E. Crary followed with 24 votes, Thomas
Fitzgerald 18, Alpheus Felch 14, Henry Smith' 12^ and
Warner Wing 9. Thirty more votes were cast either
as blanks or divided among the half-dozen remaining
candidates. At this juncture an adjournment was taken
until the following day, and during the interval the Crary
partisans used their persuasive powers to such good
advantage that upon the fourth ballot that gentleman was
accorded a nomination by a few more than a majority
vote, with Warner Wing a close and somewhat disap
pointed second. The resolutions adopted were as com
mendatory as those of the Whigs had been denunciatory.
They expressed confidence in the National and State
admin^tm&on, supported the sub-treasury scheme, com-
m&Bcied tbe passage of the pre-emption law; resolved
for tk& spf edy completion of the works of internal im-
provemepit^ f or the organization of a State bank and
closed with a plea for vigorous and harmonious action.
The resolutions as originally reported contained a brief
and seemingly guarded references to the administration

THE FOURTH LEGISLATURE 451

and as to the State bank project; amendments to both
subjects in strong and forceful language were offered
and adopted by almost unanimous vote, but the few votes
recorded in opposition were evidence of a certain defec
tion that was destined to increase rather than diminish.
The Young Men's Democratic Association assembled in
convention at Ann Arbor on September 19, and sought
through contact and resolutions to aid the cause. A
series of " Union Clubs'' were organized throughout the
State to give support to the Democratic candidate which
brought from the Whigs unmeasured condemnation as
"offshoots of Tammany." Legislative and county tick
ets were soon in the field and for two months press and
public revelled in the vituperation and slander of an old-
time campaign.

For several days preceding the election, which occurred
upon the 5th and 6th of November, the papers published
formidable lists of party vigilance committees. These
committees in some instances numbered as many as sixty
to a voting precinct andj indicate to the present-day
reader preparations sufficient to cope with riot and civil
war rather than aids as at lawful election.

The contest resulted in the re-election of Isaac E.
Crary as the member of Congress but by a majority of
204 as against a majority of more than a thousand the
year before. Both Houses of th£ Legislature were like
wise of the Democratic-Republican majority, the Whigs
however having elected 6 of the 17 members of the State
Senate and 21 of the 50 members of the House of Repre
sentatives.

There was one figure of State proipinence whose pres
ence had been lacking in the campaign and that was the

452 STEVENS T. MASON

figure of the Governor himself. Shortly following the
convention of his party at Ann Arbor the Governor had
quietly taken his departure for the East, leaving affairs
of State to the care of Lieutenant Governor Mundy. If
the negotiation of the five million dollar loan had brought
a burden of perplexities and cares, the Governor could say
that it had brought to him a large measure of compensa
tion. The Governor's mission had thrown him in con
tact with many gentlemen in the financial circles of New
York. Among the number was Mr. Thaddeus Phelps, a
moderately wealthy leather merchant and financial oper
ator of that city. As a guest at his home the Governor
met his charming daughter, Julia, and proceeded at once
to lose his heart. Whatever criticism could be visited
upon the Governor's financial negotiations none could be
offered for the zeal or ardor with which he pressed to
a successful issue the negotiations for the young lady's
hand. To the repository of all his secrets, his sister
Emily, he confessed Ms tender passion, and claimed for
the object of his affection the possession of all the charms
that were ever bestowed upon the daughters of Eve. ' ' In
sweetness of character and real worth, " he wrote his
sister, "she surpasses every other woman I have ever
known. " As early as the month of May the public had
been taken into the Governor's secret by a two or three
line newspaper item conveying the rumored information
the "the Governor was about to become a Benedict,"
and so we may beEeve that when in the days of early
autumn the Governor took his departure for New York
to attend to matters of State concern there were those
who knew that his quest embraced more than stocks

THE FOURTH LEGISLATURE 453

and bonds and that his interest would be in an affair
quite aside from statecraft and politics.

Governor Mason and Julia Elizabeth Phelps were
quite unostentatiously married at New York on Novem
ber 1, 1838. With a reasonable allowance for a lover's
enthusiasm, we may well believe that Miss Julia in grace
of form and feature, in strength of character and tran-
quility of temper was all that her lover claimed for her.
The Governor at this time was but four days past his
twenty-seventh birthday and the bride almost seven years
his junior. For nearly one-third of his life Stevens T.
Mason had lived in the white glare of public scrutiny;
he had learned something of the insincerity of the praise
that sometimes follows success, and the injustice of the
blame that sometimes follows failure. He was to know
more of trial and care ; more of the sting of ingratitude
and more of the hurt that follows slander than he had
ever known before ; but all were to be more easily borne
because of the loyalty and serene faith of the wife who
for a few short years was to share every trial as eagerly
as she shared each joy.

For a few weeks the Governor remained in New York,
during which time as the correspondence shows he was
busy with certain phases of the five million dollar loap.
and other matters intrusted to his care. With the early
days of December the Governor and his bride began the
long and tedious journey through New York and Upper
Canada for Detroit where they arrived two weeks later.
Their arrival was signalized by a welcome that was both
gracious and unaffected, being a social event of mtjch
interest in an especially brilliant season.

454 STEVENS T. MASON

The fourth, legislature of the State assembled at
Detroit on Monday, the 7th day of January, 1839. On
the day following the House organized. By a strict party
vote Kinsley S. Bingham was re-elected speaker, the
Whig vote being cast for Daniel S. Bacon of Monroe.
By the same vote Elijah J. Boberts was chosen clerk,
As Mr. Roberts was a leader among the " Patriots'' it is
quite probable that his selection was not entirely dis
associated from that fact, although he was a man of
talent and well fitted for the position. On the same day
the Senate effected its organizations. The two Houses
thereupon convened in joint session and the Governor
submitted his message. The opening paragraph of the
message evinced the Governor's determination not to
again be a candidate for the governorship. Aside from
reference to the reports from the various departments
of the State government, the greater portion of the mes
sage was devoted to the consideration of the problems
presented by the banking situation, by the projects of
internal improvement and the five million dollar loan.
As in previous messages although at less length, the
Governor again emphasized his deep interest in the cause
of general education. He cautioned the careful hus
bandry of the endowment which the General Government
had bestowed upon the State for the purposes of educa
tion, and the exercise of care in the amendment of the
school law until time had developed positive defects.
He voiced his enthusiasm for the work of the Geological
Survey, and with the vision of young years was pro
phetic of the great development which time has made a
reality. The Governor found in the practical working
of the judicial system, so far as it related to the Supreme

THE FOUBTH LEGISLATUBE 455

and Circuit Courts, much to be desired. Said he, "At the
organization of our State government the judicial power
was vested alone in one Supreme Court, the Judges of
which were to perform the duties of Circuit Judges.
That system exists at the present day; but from the
increase of business in the different counties and from
original defects, it is rendered inadequate to the accom
plishment of the ends designed by its institution. One
objection to the present organization is, that as the
Judges of the Supreme Court are required to review
their own decisions made as Presiding Judges of the Cir
cuit Courts, the very natural and almost inevitable
result must be, -that it tends to less the public confidence
in the administration of justice. The Judges of the court
of last resort, whose decisions in the law and in equity
are final upon matters of the greatest moment to indi
viduals and the whole community, ought, so far as the
law is concerned, to be placed beyond the liability of all
suspicion or imputation. " Wise as this observation was,
it was many years before the reform was made effective.
In connection with the reform of the judicial systenj, the
message called attention to the administration of the
criminal law, which because of the inadequate compen
sation paid prosecuting attorneys, he asserted had "be
come almost inoperative." This condition the Governor
suggested might be remedied by a law providing for
district prosecuting officers, who from the larger terri
tory they might serve could be paid adequate compensa
tion.

From the Territorial government the State had inher
ited many statutes requiring fees and licenses to be paid
for the carrying on of certain lines of business. To the

456 STEVENS T. MASON

whole system the Governor was opposed. Adverting to
the broad subject he said, "The only method of raising
the revenue of a republic should be by drawing them
openly and directly from the people. Then they know
and feel what their burdens are. It need not ever be
apprehended that they will not render freely what is
necessary for the support of the government, according
to a just and equal system of taxation. To suppose
the contrary is to contend that the people are incapable
of self gpvernment. With such views I am against all
restraints and impositions upon the ordinary pursuits of
the citizen. "

The question of slavery, although foreign to any con
trol by the Legislature, was yet a question agitating the
public mind and as such was given more than passing
notice. Like thousands of the public men of the day,
the Governor conceded that the institution of slavery
was "pernicious" in its relation "to advancement and
permanent prosperity" of the communities in which it
existed; but he argued that it was an institution recog
nized by the Federal Constitution, and urged that, but
for the recognition, a Federal Union could not have been
formed. With these views he characterized those of the
North who were agitating the question of abolition as
actuated "by misdirected philanthropy," which if suc
cessful, he proceeded to say, "must not only subvert the
domestic institution of their southern neighbors but
endanger the union of the States as well. 9 '

In positive language the Governor deprecated the zeal
which had led a portion of the citizens of the State to
disregard the laws of the country and show contempt

THE FOURTH LEGISLATURE 4®l

for national faith by joining in armed incursions against
the British territory adjacent to us.

As the Legislature of 1838 had authorized the Gover
nor to consult some eminent jurist of the country as to
the State's legal claim to the Toledo strip, the Governor
now laid before the Legislature an opinion which he had
procured from Chancellor James Kent and David B.
Ogden of New York. The opinion was of course against
the right of the State to review the question and marked
the last attempt of the State authorities in the matter.

This message has not escaped the criticism of later-
day writers, who think they find in it a degree of optim
ism not warranted by the then existing conditions; but
by the average citizen of the time both in Michigan and
at Washington it was accorded high commendation.

The Legislature was soon at work upon a mass of
bills of general character and unworthy of special men
tion. The new compilation of the laws of the State was
now in printed form as The Revised Statutes of 1838.
A more critical examination of the work disclosed that
it required many amendments to make it conform to what
the Legislature had intended and directed should be
included in it. Imprisonment for debt, which had been
so many times the subject of the Governor's condemna
tion was now abolished. As a state prison was now in
course of construction a law was enacted for the govern
ment and discipline of its officers and inmates. It pro
vided a set of regulations which insured humane treat
ment of the prisoners, but made small provision for any
of the privileges and amenities now considered a part
of prison discipline. The financial stringency had not

458 STEVENS T. MASON

yet taken hope of immediate betterment from the people
and there were still many seeking charters for varied
and pretentious enterprises. Incorporation was granted
to the Genesee and Saginaw Navigation Company, whose
amMtioTis purpose was to connect the Flint and Cass
Rivers by a canal and thus provide the means pi naviga
tion between Flint and Saginaw. Samuel W. Dexter,
wl\ose memory still continues as a sound, conservative
business man, headed a company that was given corpo
rate powers to construct the Dexter Branch Canal, which
was to extend up the valley of the Huron and intersect
the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal in the county of Liv
ingston. Many charters were given to educational insti
tutions. In view of the fact that three-quarters of a cen
tury later the beet sugar industry became one of the lead
ing industries of the State, there' is more than passing
interest in an Act of this session which authorized a
loan of $5,000 to the White Pigeon Beet Sugar Company,
which was said to be the first institution of its kind in
the United States.

The punctilious attention which the legislative com
mittees paid to the petitions and other matters, some
times trivial, that were referred to them was quite at
variance with present-day legislative practice, when peti
tions and bills are more often referred to committee for
burial than for attention. To a petition praying that no
trains be allowed to run upon the State roads upon Sun
day, the committed responded, "The moral sentiment
which it breathes is pure, and it is entitled to the unquali
fied respect of the Legislature," although the Legisla
ture found no way to comply with the request. Certain
citizens of Wayne County petitioned for authority to

THE FOURTH LEGISLATURE 459

construct and operate a race track. This petition was
referred to the committee upon agriculture and received
the eminently practical reply that, "The universal em
barrassment of the country calls for industry and not idle
ness, for sobriety and not dissipation ;" "and it seems,"
continued the report, "much more desirable that the citi
zens of Michigan should be engaged in running the plow,
than running horses for sport." Petitions signed by
1,354 citizens asking the prohibition of the sale of intoxi
cating liquors were referred to the committee on State
affairs. This committee faced the issue in a lengthy
report wherein it accorded to the motives of the peti
tioners its unqualified respect, but was none the less
firmly opposed to any legislation which. might go to the
extent of prescribing "the length of our coats, the
fashion of our whiskers or the temper of our drinks."

The measure of greatest public and legislative interest
was as would be expected, the bill for the creation of
the State bank. This bill was before the Legislature
for many days and was finally passed by a vote of 10 to 2
in the Senate and 40 to 6 in the House. Interest in this
measure was unquestionably much increased by the fact
that while it was under discussion, on the 25th of Febru
ary, 1839, The Michigan State Bank, of Detroit, sus
pended. This bank had been incorporated in 1835, and
its organization perfected with $200,000 capital. Its
cashier, Mr. John Norton Jr., had been constituted "Fis
cal Agent" of the State and the bank became the deposi
tory of the State funds which at the time of suspension
amounted to more than $500,000,— $350,000 being above
all offset claimed by the bank. It subsequently developed
that the Governor, in January, learning of the precarious

400 STEVENS 0\ MASON

condition of the bant had obtained from its board of
directors a bond for $500,000 for the protection of the
State's deposit. The State was ultimately, as were all
other creditors, paid in full, but the jeopardy of so large
a sum was necessarily the occasion of much well-founded
apprehension while it furnished the theme for a consider
able political agitation against the administration of
State affairs.

For the first few weeks of the session the Democratic-
Republican majority in both Houses proceeded without
any open rupture but was soon apparent that there was
anything but harmonious relations between certain of
the members. This became stiE more manifest as the
time approached for the election of "United States Sen
ator to succeed Hon. Lucius Lyon w!j.ose term of office
expired on the 4th of March 1839. Senator Lyon had
rendered service to his State that clearly entitled him to
a re-election; but in his official life he had been more
inclined to follow his convictions of what he believed to
be right than what * he might have been persuaded was
politic, and moreover he was entirely lacking in the arts
of political intrigue. The result was that from the very
beginning there was danger that he would fall between ,
those who opposed him for his independence of character
on the one hand and those who were ambitious for his
place upon the 6ther. The Hon. Warner Wing who,
upon failure to be nominated for the office of member
of Congress had been nominated and elected to the State
Senate, was among the latter. It was upon the 5th of
February that the two Houses proceeded to ballot for a
•United States Senator. In the House the Whig minority
stood compactly for Augustus S. Porter of Detroit, while

THE FOURTH LEGISLATURE 461

the majority was split among a half -dozen candidates.
In the Senate the vote disclosed even more candidates,
with Warner Wing heading the list with five votes to his
credit. For two days the balloting continued with vary
ing but undecisive result. On the 8th after many fruit
less ballots in which from 3 to 5 Democrats had voted
for Mr. John Biddle, the 12th ballot was taken and suf
ficient Whigs joined with the Democrats to give Mr.
Biddle 26 votes to 18 for Warner Wing with 7 for as
many more candidates. Mr. Biddle thus stood as the
nominee of the House. The prospect of a Whig Senator
elected by a Democratic Legislature filled many Demo
crats with chagrin and apprehension. That the warring
Democratic members might adjust their differences with
some semblance of privacy, a Democratic caucus was
called, and at this gathering Warner Wing was given
the majority indorsement. The Free Press, the party
organ, demanded that all Democrats abide by the party
caucus; pressure was applied from many sources^ but
there was a number of Democrats who refused to be
bound by the caucus or to obey the dictates of party
leaders. Upon the 13th a ballot in the Senate gave War
ner Wing a majority in the body, but not without the
assistance of three Whig votes. This action on the part
of the Senate brought forth a protest from three Demo
cratic Senators, duly entered upon the journal of that
body, and, the day following, a published address to the
people of the State signed by 15 Democratic members
of the House and Senate setting forth their opposition
to the election of Mr, Wing as a member of the National
Senate. They based their opposition to the gentleman
upon the ground that being a member of the State Steoate

462 STEVENS T. MASON

he was ineligible under the State Constitution, that
instrument providing that no member of the Legislature
should be eligible to any civil appointment within the
gilt of the Legislature of the State. The two Houses,
having made nominations, met in joint session on the
14th and proceeded to ballot for a candidate, but after
six ballots the joint convention was obliged to adjourn
as neither candidate was able to obtain a majority of
the joint body. On the 16th of April the Democrats of
the House, who were now somewhat chagrined at the
senatorial situation, were able to get together and by a
vote of 26 to 17 passed a resolution appointing Hon.
Alpheus Felch Senator in the Congress of the United
States to fill the vacancy occasioned by the expiration
of the term of Mr. Lyon. This resolution went to the
State Senate where it was promptly amended by a vote
of 8 to 7 substituting the name of Warner Wing for that
of Alpheus Felch. Upon the resolution being returned to
the House its further consideration was indefinitely post
poned. This proceeding the party organ now heartily
commended, agreeing that if Mr. Wing was to be elected
by Whigs he could not be trusted by Democrats.

While the senatorial contest was in progress, a bill
was passed the ostensible object of which ^as to allow
settlers who had located upon lands that were subse
quently selected for State and University purposes to
purchase the same at the regulation price of $1.25 per
acre. There is a tradition well verified, to the effect
that the real purpose of the bill was to enable a combina
tion of schemers to gain possession and ownership of
some of the most valuable lands in the State at a nom
inal figure. The Governor, ever watchful of the educa-

THE FOURTH LEGISLATURE 463

tional interests of the State, at once discovered the sus
picious character of the measure and after an investi
gation interposed a veto. His message fully justified
his action and unquestionably saved to the University
a large portion of its endowment as well as other lands
that were dedicated to the State for certain specified
uses.

The report of John D. Pierce as Superintendent of
Public Instruction had again shown TIITYI to be a most
efficient officer, imbued with the highest ideals and
endowed with the clearest pf mental vision. To the joint
convention of House and Senate assembled to elect a
Superintendent of Public Instruction the Governor again
sent the name of John D. Pierce and the Convention did'
him the honor of a well-nigh unanimous vote for re-elec
tion. Peter Morey, whose nomination had been rejected
by the Senate a year before had nevertheless been kept
in office and had rendered good service; his nomination
was now sent to the Senate and after a time was con
firmed. The new compilation of the laws had made pro
vision for a fourth judicial circuit, and to the judge-
ship the Governor nominated and the (Senate confirmed
Charles W. Whipple. The Senate had seemingly shown
a disposition to reject a large number of the Governor/s
appointments without apparently good reason, confirma
tion being refused in a number of instances to notaries
public, masters in chancery, auctioneers and many other
minor offices which under the Constitution of 1835 were
filled by appointment of the Governor. It may have been
because of this temper of the Senate that John Schwarz,
who was serving as Adjutant General and Eobert Abbott,
the Auditor General, who desired to retire from office,

464 STEVENS T. MASON

held the same until after the adjournment of the Legis
lature and then resigned, giving the Governor the oppor
tunity to fill the vacancy. On the 16th of April the Gov
ernor appointed, Isaac S. Rowland, Captain of the Brady
Guards, to the office of Adjutant General. April 27
Peter Desnoyers of Detroit was made State Treasurer,
and four days later the late State Treasurer Henry How
ard was made Auditor General. The selection of Peter
Desnoyers as Treasurer was a highly commendable one
as he had demonstrated his fitness and capacity in many
positions of trust and honor and had the confidence of
all the elements of the Detroit population whose servant
he had been.

The Legislature adjourned Saturday, April 20, having
by several days exceeded the length of "any previous ses
sion. Some people, and among them the editor of a
denominational paper called The Michigan Observer were
much scandalized by the fact that upon the last night
of the session the members indulged themselves in hilar
ity unbecoming statesmen and actually prolonged their
session, while waiting for the enrollment of bills, into the
early hours of the Sabbath morning, Much legislation
of a minor but at the same time desirable character
had been enacted, but the length of the session, the lack
of harmonious action and more than all the failure to
"choose a United States Senator increased rather than
weakened the spirit of disaffection already well devel
oped in the majority party.

CHAPTER
THE STATE PASSES TO WHIG CONTROL

Legislature of 1839 had hardly become a reminis-
cence when the political forces of the State began
maneuvering for the third gubernatorial campaign. The
financial troubles of the country increased rather than
lessened. The people looked to the General Government
for relief through the enactment of laws, and were far
from satisfied with the statement that the period of dis
aster which they were passing was the inevitable result
of the period of speculation, over-confidence and over
trading that had preceded it. The conditions that were
to result in_ the defeat of Van Buren and the election
of Harrison to the Presidency were being felt to the
remotest corner of the Nation and were being effectively
urged against the men and policies of the majority party
everywhere.

The Whig press of Michigan was not slow in discover
ing the weak places in the opposition armor; "wild cat"
banks, the five million dollar loan, and the general admin
istration of State affairs was now made to bear all the
burden of the "hard times " and other disturbances that
were national in character. The Loco Foco was depicted
as a partisan whose only zeal was for the destruction
of his country and the ruin of his State. The Democratic
press replied with invective, retold the story of "the Whig
party's Federalist^ parentage and aristocratic sympa
thies, and laid the country's ills to the machinations of

466 STEVENS T. MASOK

the WMgs through the United States Bank, asserting
that through the power of wealth they had designed to
destroy what they could not rule. The position of the
parties made Democrats the defendants, arid in politics
the,ca|ji}86 of a defendant is seldom popular even when
the, defense is complete.

Jameii Wright Gordon of Marshall had been a popular
Whig mwber of the last succeeding State Senate, and
no doubt if as the controlling influence with his -party
organisation in the selection of his home town as the
meeting place at the Whig State Convention, . although
the town itself was attracting much attention because
of its then rapid growth and bright prospects. What
ever the considerations were, the pioneer Whig politi
cians-demonstrated their loyalty by traveling one hun
dred and ten strong, to the distant village to participate
in their Convention which assembled on the 28th day
of August, 1839. The first ballot of the Convention for
the nominee for Governor showed 51 votes for William
Woodbridge of Detroit, with 59 votes distributed between
Augustus S. Porter, Zina Pitcher and John Biddle.
Woodbridge had the united support of the delegates from
the northern and western portions of the State, and,
after the third ballot, was declared the unanimous choice
of the Convention. One ballot was all that was required
for th,e selection of James Wright Gordon as the candi
date for Lieutenant Governor. George C. Bates, Thomas
J. Drake and .Daniel S. Bacon were selected as delegates
to the Whig JS^tion&l Convention which had already been
called to meet at Harrisburg, Pa., for the following De
cember 4. The resolutions put the English language to
the test in conveying their disapprobation of opposing

THE STATE PASSES TO WHIG CONTROL 467

men and measures : " We abominate the sub-treasury sys
tem in all its details, " was the unique phraseology of one
resolution, while another resolution proclaimed that the
effort to establish this institution was an attempt to
" rivet the chains of despotism upon the American peo
ple/' which, it was further declared, " cannot and must
not be tolerated. " The State administration was de
nounced in the most vigorous style, and most caustic
exception was taken to the assumption of the name
"Democratic-Republican" by the party of the opposi
tion. "We will not," say the resolutions, "directly or
indirectly acquiesce in the assumption by our opponents
of a name as dear to us as it is inapplicable to them."
Eulogistic reference was made to both candidates named,
and Henry Clay was declared to be the great champion
of Whig principles and the "favorite of the real Democ
racy of Michigan," although the party support was
pledged to ^hom ever might be nominated at the Harris-
burg Convention. A State organization was effected and
the Convention adjourned,.the delegates seeking their dis
tant homes by the slow medium of stage-coach and pri
vate conveyance.

The Democratic State Convention assembled at Ann
Arbor, September 11, 1839, with 145 delegates in attend
ance. Scenting danger from Whig harmony and activ
ity, the delegates set about the work of the Convention
with a unanimity that had for some time been lacking
in their councils. The first ballot showed 104 votes for
Hon. Elon Farnsworth as the nominee for Governor,
while the first ballot for Lieutenant Governor was nearly
as decisive for Thomas Fitzgerald, and both were accorded
with unanimous indorsement of the Convention. Alpheus

468 STEVENS T, MASON

Felch, Kinsley S. Bingham and Elijah B. Mitchell were
selected as delegates to the National Convention, which
subsequently assembled at Baltimore, May 5, 1840. The
resolutions of the Convention, which came from a commit
tee of which Senator Norvell was chairman, disclose the
facile style of that cultured gentleman. In language free
from offense they extolled the principles of the old time
Democratic faith, declared for a strict construction of
the Federal Constitution, for the independent treasury,
for the restoration of a sound constitutional currency to
the country and for a reduction of the public revenue
to the wants of the public service. They voiced their
party opposition to the National Bank and to the
National Government's engaging in schemes of internal
improvement. There were well-phrased references to
the desirability of light taxation, caution in the creation
of public debts and rigid accountability in public office.
An appeal was made for "conciliation" and " zealous
effort" and a committee instructed to issue an address,
to the people of Michigan "repelling the misrepresenta
tions and Calumnies cast upon Democratic men and meas
ures by the party which acts upon no other principle
in common than that of uncompromising hostility to
them." The most important feature of the resolutions
was their silence on matters of State concern. Neither
the Governor nor the State administration received men
tion, although a majority of the committee who reported
the resolutions were at that time or had been members
of the State Legislature and as such had participated
in the State 7s legislative program.

The campaign which followed was lacking in some of
the more striking details of the campaign of two years

THE STATE PASSES^O WHIG CONTROL 469

before ; but it was not lacking in many elements of absorb
ing public interest or devoid of those bitter personalities
so characteristic of the time. In the nomination of Hon.
Elon Fame-worth for Governor, the Democrats had
selected a gentleman of the very highest character and
best abilities and consequently very little of a personal
nature was urged against him, although the fact that
he was filling an important position on the State judici
ary, a position which he retained during the campaign,
was made the subject of extended discussion. Thomas
Fitzgerald was a gentleman of equal character, but he
had served in the capacity of Banking Commissioner,
and this gave the opposition the suggestion for the epi
thet "The Nurse of the Wild Cats," which they were
not slow in applying to him. Neither side escaped the
strictures applied both to party principles and to the
character of their leaders. The Whigs referred to Gov
ernor Mason as a worthy successor to Benedict Arnold
and Democrats referred to Woodbridge as "A blue light
Connecticut Federalist; a filcher from the U. S. Treas
ury; a disfranchiser of foreigners and the poor, a tyrant
judge and an office seeker in his dotage." But as a
practical political asset, the rallying cry of the Whigs
was far more effective with the voters of the State than
the mutual "compliments" that were bandied between
the partisan press and which were unquestionably much
discounted by the people at large. From their Conven
tion to the day of election, from the press and from the
stump, the Whigs shouted, "Woodbridge, Gordon and
Eeform." This phrase became the campaign shibbo
leth of the party and more than a generation later the
lingering pioneer recalled these watchwords as the most

470 STEVENS T. MASON

distinguishing and magical feature of the canvass. It
was a time when for reasons that were logical and for
reasons that were fallacious there was potency in the
word " Reform." Aside from the considerations that
have been mentioned there were other factors that were
influential for the popularity of the cry. The temper
ance question was now beginning one of its periods of
ebulition. A petition bearing more than 1,300 names ask
ing the prohibition of the liquor traffic had been pre
sented to the previous Legislature, and on the 26th of
September a large and representative convention of tem
perance workers gathered at Jackson to give stimulus
to the cause. Another factor of influence was to be foiind
in the disbanded "Patriots," who could find little to
evoke their enthusiasm in either State or National
authority. As the campaign progressed, bankruptcy and
ruin grew more threatening in proportion as public and
private enterprise faltered under the stagnating influ
ence of the continuing financial disturbance. Prices were
falling precipitately; wheat that had been selling the
previous winter at $1.20 per bushel was now selling at
75 cents and other produce had fallen in proportion.
Men who a few months before had yielded to the spell of
speculation and who had lent their influence to f atuitous
schemes and projects were now awake to real conditions
and seeking relief from their own folly.

The Democrats made an active but spiritless campaign
and the election resulted, as was not unforeseen, in the
choice of William Woodbridge for Governor, by a vote
of 19,070 to 17,782 for Elon Farnsworth; and James
Wright Gordon for Lieutenant Governor by a vote of
18,871 to 17,512 for Thomas Fitzgerald. The State ticket

THE STATE PASSES TO WHIG CONTROL 471

likewise carried witli it a safe Whig majority in both
Houses of the State Legislature and insured a free hand
for the mending of conditions and the correction of
alleged abuses.

Governor Mason, while taking a keen interest in the
outcome of the canvass, was hardly an active partici
pator in it. Following the adjournment of the Legis
lature, accompanied by his wife he had gone to New
York, where, leaving her he had returned to take up
the duties of the State Government in an especially try
ing time. In July he again returned to New York, and
in the early days of August communicated to the mother
and friends at home the joyous intelligence of the arrival
of a lusty baby son who was a few days later christened
as Stevens Thomson Mason, the first of the fourth gener
ation to bear the name.

A short time later the Governor reluctantly bid loved
ones adieu and retraced his steps to Detroit where impor
tant duties awaited his coming. The protracted financial
stress upon the country had begun to Occasion the Gover
nor some uneasiness as to the institutions to which the five
million of bonds of the State had been intrusted and
upon the solvency of which depended the prompt pay
ment of the future installments of the loan. His appre
hensions were in a measure confirmed by intimations
from high officials in the institutions with Which the State
had contracted; and shortly following Ms return he
placed such information as he had received as well as the
substance of his fears before the proper State officers
and a select few of the gentlemen of Detroil of financial
reputation, and sought their counsel as to the course
that should be pursued to best serve the inte-ttest of the

472 STEVENS T. MASON

State. The result was that Mr. Kintzing Pritchette,
who was about to visit Philadelphia was commissioned
hy the Governor to treat with The Morris Canal and
Banking Company and The Bank of the United States
of Pennsylvania for the abrogation of the terms of the
contract by which they had become possessed of the
bonds of the State -so that the State might obtain a
return of the bonds which were to be paid for by the
installments falling due after January 1, 1840, the State
and the two banking institutions to be thereby placed in
their original positions so far as about two and one-half
million of bonds was concerned.

In the details of the transactions connected with the
five million dollar loan no action of Governor Mason
evinces a more zealous regard for 'the interests of the
State than his effort at* this time to obtain the return,
without loss to the State, of the obligations for which
she had not yet received consideration. Had the Gov
ernor's efforts been supplement by wise legislative action
instead of a program of partisan politics there is good
reason to believe that the State would have been the
gainer by many thousands of dollars, and the story of the
five million dollar loan would have had a very different
sequel than was given by the sequence of events.

It was at this time, while the Governor was facing the
most perplexing problems and bearing the most trying
burdens of his administration, that he was visited with
the most pungent sorrow of his life. The father had for
long months been absent on one of his numerous jour
neys to Mexico and Texas and was expected soon to
return. In early Autumn the mother had repaired to
New York, to welcome him and accompany him to Mich-

THE STATE PASSES TO WHIG CONTROL 473

igan. It was while here on the 24th of November almost
without warning that she was stricken in death. She
had ever been her son's most loyal counselor and truest
friend, and he had repaid her with the deepest affection
of his ardent nature. Her death was to him a deep and
lasting sorrow.

The fifth Legislature assembled on the 6th day of Janu
ary, 1840, with a Whig majority of twenty-one in the
House and four in the Senate. On the first day of the
session as Lieutenant Governor Mundy was leaving the
capitol at the noon recess he was viciously assaulted by
Col. Edward Brooks of Detroit, whom the Democratic
press referred to as a "Whig leader. " This incident
while universally condemned was the occasion of
extended comment and gave the Democratic papers the
opportunity of prefacing the announcement of the open
ing of the new administration as the commencement of
"The Reign of Terror."

The House organized by the election of Henry Acker
of Jackson as speaker and M#rk Howard of Washtenaw
as clerk. The Democratic vote was cast for Robert
McClelland for speaker and for Elijah J. Roberts for
clerk. In the Senate Daniel W. Kellogg of Washtenaw
was chosen secretary over Samuel Yorke At Lee of Kala-
mazoo, the Democratic candidate.

As it was then, as now, the custom in many States for
the outgoing Governor to send a retiring or exaugural
message to the Legislature, Governor-elect Woodbridge
expressed to Governor Mason the propriety of his send
ing such a message to the Michigan Legislature, a propo
sition with which Governor Mason after some reflection
fully agreed. He at once prepared a message, unccm-

474 STEVENS T. MASON

scions that it was to be the occasion of his own humilia
tion. '

The message disclosed the Governor's clear compre
hensive grasp of State affairs; it did not seek to min
imize the conditions of distress under which public and
private enterprise was laboring, nor did he seek through
it to absolve himself from his just share in whatever
criticism might be placed upon the mistakes and failures
of the preceding years. It breathed the most kindly and
tolerant spirit and conveyed information and suggestions
of much practical value. The question of taxation and
the necessity of retrenchment in both appropriations and
general expenditures were extensively treated. The pub
lic temper which led to the inauguration of the extensive
system of internal improvements was clearly set forth;
the progress and expenditures they had entailed were
reviewed and the necessity for suspension of work upon
somes of the projects was clearly foreshadowed. The
Geological Survey, the State Penitentiary, the State
Militia and the questions involved in the currency, the
suspension of specie payment and the banks were all
carefully considered. His enthusiasm kindled in the cause
qf education; and in the university he saw an institution
in which was to be " realized their highest expectations"
and which was in time to "prove an honor and blessing
to the State." "While the message could not tender con
gratulations for prosperity then enjoyed it had in it
the ring of hope and courage. "If there is one duty
fronf us, higher than another," said he, "it is to assert
and defend' the youthful fame of our rising common
wealth. When she is charged with want of resources,
point to her fertile fields and abundant harvests; when

THE STATE PASSES TO WHIG CONTROL 475

she is thought to be broken in spirt, look to the energy
of her army of husbandmen, and when she is said to be
burdened with taxation, refer to your statute books, and
ask how limited is her taxation compared to that of
neighboring and sister States.'7 In the concluding para
graph of the message there was a touch of pathos and
kindly reference to his successor that is worthy of repe
tition, as it should have insured for his communication
at least the generous courtesy of its reception. Said he,
"My official relations with you, fellow citizens, now ter
minate, and it only remains for me to take my respectful
leave.- On reviewing the period of my connection with
the executive branch of the government of Michigan I
find much both of pleasure and of pain, — pleasure
derived from the recollection of the generous confidence
reposed in me by my fellow citizens and pain for the
many unkind emotions to which my position has given
rise. But seeking in private life that tranquility and
good will heretofore denied me, I part from official' sta
tion without one sigh of regret. I shall cling t6 every
recollection making a claim upon my gratitude or service,
and endeavor to forget the painful occurrences of the
past. I cannot be insensible to the many errors I may have
committed. But I derive consolation from the reflection
that they will be amply repaired by the service of one
whose experience is acknowledged, whose ability is
known and whose patriotism is unquestioned. Identified
with the early history of Michigan as a State, she shall
have, wheresoever the vicissitudes of life may place me,
my earnest and continued desire for her prosperity and
welfare, and my anxious and fervent prayer that he who
holds in his hands the fate of nations and the destinies

476 STEVENS T. MASON

of men will bestow upon her every blessing a free and
enlightened people can desire. ' ?

It was hardly to be expected that a communication so
void of all that might be occasion for offense would bo
received with contumely or disrespect, but the virus of
bitter partisanship was still active and the Whig major
ity was still exultant if not arrogant in their victory.
The message had been given to the papers for publica
tion in anticipation of its delivery at the opening of the
session, but upon presentation to the Legislature it was
denied acceptance, treated with resolutions of ridicule
and sarcasm and denied a place in the records of the
State.

On the 7th Governor Woodbridge delivered a short
inaugural, and on the day following sent in his message.
It was a document conservative in tone but advancing
very few specific recommendations. Attention was called
to the State ?s inadequate representation in the National
House of Representatives, and legislation recommended
which would make provision for the election of a United
States Senator to fill the vacancy that then existed.
Economy and retrenchment were urged in general terms.
The system of internal improvement was given extended
notice, although the gist of both discussion and conclu
sion upon the subject was contained in almost the opening
paragraph, in which he said: "This scheme, so bold in
its conception, so splendid in its design, so captivating
to a fervid imagination, but yet so disproportionate to
our present local wants, and so utterly beyond our pres
ent means, must, I fear, as a whole at least, be given
up." The currency and banking situation was likewise
extendedly discussed, but more in retrospect than in

THE STATE PASSES TO WHIG CONTROL 477

prospect, the only direct recommendation upon the sub
ject being, that representation of the views of the legis
lature be made to the National Congress, who had brought
about the whole difficulty "by not letting well enough
alone." A hint was given that State relief might be
obtained by hypothecating the accruing installments of
the five million dollar loan and using the proceeds as the
basis for an increase in the issue of one or both of the
remaining Detroit banks (The Bank of Michigan and The
Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank).

The action of the Legislature in refusing to receive
the message of the retiring Governor at once became a
political incident of the first magnitude. The Whig press
promptly characterized the action of Governor Mason
as one of gross impropriety, while the Democratic press
published the message in full, and in Michigan and
adjoining States used the fact of its rejection as an
example of Whig intolerance.

It was very soon apparent that Governor Woodbridge
much preferred that his predecessor should suffer the hu
miliation of the position than to- take any embarrassment
to himself and others by a generous avowal of his own
part in the transaction. As a statement had been published
in the Detroit Advertiser to the effect that in sending a
message to the Legislature Governor Mason did not have
the concurrence of Governor Woodbridge, Governor
Mason addressed a letter to that gentleman requesting
a statement from him as to the truth or falsity of the
newspaper item. Interviews and much correspondence
followed which finally reached the public prints to still
further increase the public interest and discussion^ but
Governor Woodbridge never came much nearer to a

478 STEVENS T. MASON

direct answer of the question propounded to Mm by
Governor Mason than to say to Mm, "I am incapable of
the intention to do yon injustice or to evince towards
you other than that courtesy which I have ever received
from you.'7

The first law to be passed by the Legislature was one
to provide for the election of a United States Senator.
Two days following the approval of the bill, Augustus
S. Porter of Detroit was given the united WMg vote in
both House and Senate, and in joint convention was later
declared elected to the Senate of the United States!
Thomas Eowland was likewise elected Secretary of State,
Bobert Stuart State Treasurer, Eurotas P. Hastings
Auditor General, the State Treasurer aiid Auditor Gen
eral .being elected to fill vacancies wMch .the Governor
by /a .rather * abstruse course jof reasoning l^ad found to
exist.

The most of the legislation of the session was of a
minor character. The most important action taken was
the reorganization of the Board of Internal Improvement
and the passage of the resolution suspending the letting
of any new contracts or the reletting of any old contracts
on any of the works of internal improvement. Another
measure well calculated to create a considerable public
discussion was a law authorizing the Auditor General to
sell to the Bank of Michigan and the Farmers' and
Mechanics' Bank, certain of the installments of the five
million dollar loan. The law was enacted by practically
a unanimous party vote and must have been designed
to give assistance to the banks as well as advantage to
the public. The advantage to the banks came through
the fourth section of the law, 'which provided that no

THE STATE BASSES TO WHIG CONTROL 479

proceeding should be brought to forfeit the charter or
wind up the affairs of either bank until the first Monday
of February following, nor during the same time could
they be required to pay their notes in specie. As Mr.
Charles C. Trowbridge was president of the Bank of
Michigan and Levi Co.ok was president of the the Farm
ers' and Mechanics', and both influential in Whig poli
tics, the things that were said by Democrats about the
law can be well imagined; but as the Morris Canal and
Banking Company and the Bank of the United States of
Pennsylvania soon thereafter suspended payment upon
accruing installments there was little left to protest
against.

At this session thirty-two counties in the northern
portion of the Lower Peninsula were organized, twenty-
nine of them were given the sonorous Indian names
taken from the language of the tribes who had once
roamed within their limits. In 1843 some sixteen of
these were changed to names drawn largely from the
Emerald Isle, so that Kaykakee, Negwegon, Wabassee,
Anamickee, Meegisee and many other beautiful and
appropriate names were lost to the nomenclature of
Michigan. This session likewise marked the incorpora
tion of the Lake Superior Fishing and Mining Company,
the pioneer company in the development of the wonder
ful region of the Upper Peninsula, The session
adjourned April 1, the majority of the Legislature having
demonstrated that it was much easier to criticize evils
than to cure them through constructive legislation.

What was intended to be the political sensation 0f
the session was the report of a committee in the Sepate
of which Mr. DeGarmo Jones was chairman pretending

480 STEVENS T. MASON

to find most suspicious circumstances connected with the
efforts of Governor Mason and Kintzing Pritchette for
the return of a portion of the bonds of the five minion
dollar loan, to which attention has been already called,
Upon the return of Mr. Pritchette from New York with
copies of the correspondence that had passed between
himself and the parties representing The Morris Canal
and Banking Company and The United States Bank of
Pennsylvania, ex-Governor Mason at once wrote to Mr.
Hastings, the Auditor General, apprising Tiim of the, fact
that in the later days of his administration, to use the
language of his letter, " feeling a deep apprehension that
loss might occur to the State from its sale of five mil
lion of bonds to the Bank of the United States and the
Morris Canal ajid Banking Company in consequence of
the unprecedented depression in the money market, "
which, he adds, "these institutions have felt severely, "
he had intrusted a negotiation to Kintzing Pritchette
to obtain the return to the State of two and one-half
million of bonds. The letter further expressed regret
that the correspondence had not been at hand so that it
could have been placed before the Legislature at the com
mencement of the session. Governor Woodbridge, as
soon as the communication was called to his attention
by the Auditor General, sent a message to the Legisla
ture asking the appointment of a committee to treat with
the Morris Canal and Banking Company for the modifi
cation or abrogation of its contract. He ignored Gov
ernor Mason in the matter and treated the information
as having been received direct from the Morris Canal
and Banking Company. The committee which was
appointed, instead of taking up and endeavoring to bring

STATE PASSES TO WHIG CONTROL 4&1

to a successful issue the negotiations which Mr. Pritch-
ette had instituted and carried to a point where there
was reasonable prospect that success might be attained,
proceeded to search for something that would support
the charge that both Governor Mason and Mr. Pritchette
had been actuated in their negotiations by some sinister
and ulterior purpose. On March 10 the majority report of
the committee was submitted to the Senate. ATI effort to
have twice the usual number of the report printed failed,
but it disclosed the real purpose. The report instead of
disclosing that the whole matter had been brought to
the attention of the Senate through a communication
from Q-overnor Mason and that all the correspondence
had been turned over as a part of the communication,
gave rather the impression that the whole matter had
been unearthed through the. diligence and astuteness of
the committee. Needless to say the majority of the com
mittee in a long and labored document were able to
report among other things that, "had the Act been con
summated at the time and in the manner proposed it must
have been entirely illegal, a daring fraud upon the inter
ests of the State, highly discreditable to all parties con
cerned," and also, "had the Act been completed, the
stigma of violated faith, must ere this, have been indeli
bly fixed upon our escutcheon and the credit of the State
irretrievably gone." There is % certain humor in this
language when taken in connection with the fact, that
in less than thirty days the institutions holding the bonds
defaulted in their payment and the bonds upon which
they had made no payments were gone beyond the possi
bility of recovery by the State. Samuel Etheridge of
Coldwater was the minority of the committee and was

482 STEVENS OX MASON

well capable of setting forth his Views of the matter, but
th§re is reason to believe from some of the language
employed, that the minority report which he filed had at
least been seen by Governor Mason. It too was a lengthy
document, intended in a measure for political consump
tion. Two paragraphs of it are worthy of reproduction,
for they disclose the motive which prompted Governor
Mason's efforts, and his views of the motives of those
who were now traducing him*

Said the minority report: "Should the purchasers
of the State bonds fail to meet their engagements with
the State, it is difficult to imagine an occurrence fraught
with the consequences more fatal to the future prosper
ity of Michigan. Burdened w^th the i&ter§st on five ipil-
Hoik qf c(oE&rg for twenty yeaxs a^id the principal at tl^e
expiration of that period, without having received but
little more than two million of that amount, is a picture
calculated to startle the boldest. Had such a catastrophe
occurred, as there was every prospect, without any
effort to prevent it, when would the sound of the clamor
have ceased against the Executive for his culpable remiss-
ness in neglecting the most vigorous measures to save
the State. " The catastrophe which the Governor feared
in fact happened, fortunately less direful in its results
than feared ; but the sound of clamor against the Execu
tive who made the only effort to avert it that was made,
did not cease until another generation was active in the
affairs of Michigan. On the second proposition the
report said: "No effort has been spared to place the
monetary affairs of our State before the world in their
worst possible form. These constant and clamorous
assertions of the absolutely desperate condition of Mich
igan, is everywhere producing the most disastrous

THE STATE PASSES TO WHIG CONTROL 489

effects, and in the end, these predictions of ruin will
bring about their own fulfillment. No motive appears
strong enough to prevent every thing from being dragged
into the political arena. Every good custom and well
established principle vanishes before the demand for
political capital. No art is too low, no tongue too base to
be used in trumpeting to the world everything which
seems calculated to ruin the credit of the State abroad
and depress her interests at home, provided that a polit
ical object can be obtained."

The Whig press exhausted its vocabulary in its effort
to show the " degradation" from which the State had
been saved with many an assurance that it had been
rescued none too soon. To the mock sensation and the
bitter personal attacks upon him Governor Mason made
no reply, although Mr. Pritchette who was later made
the subject of a second report because he had called atten
tion to the fact that a material part of his correspond
ence had been omitted from the first report, answered his
accusers through the medium of a formal address to the
people of the State.

With the adjournment of the Legislature Governor
Mason was given a respite from political attack; for
political forces were already marshaled for the memor
able campaign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" which
for a season was to absorb attention as never did any
other political campaign in the history of the State.

OHAPTEE XZIU

"TlPPECANOE AKD TYLER Too"

HP HE lesson of the defeat administered to the, Demo-
•*- cratic-Republican party at the election of 1839 was
not lost upon its leaders. The superior organization and
activity of the Whigs had shown Democrats that these
factors could not be compensated by confidence in their
own party strength. • The warring factions were very
soon conscious that actual defeat and divorce from official
station which each had planned for the other, was a very
different matter when the plans of both had succeeded.
The Whig National Convention had nominated William
Henry Harrison for the presidency, John Tyler, a Cal-
houn Democrat for the Vice Presidency and adjourned
without adopting a platform so that every divergent
political element might be combined against the Demo
cratic opposition. Harrison had always enjoyed a high
degree of popularity in Michigan, for his official stations
as Governor of Indiana and commanding general of the
northwestern army in the War of 1812 had brought Mm
into close relations and personal acquaintance with many
of the older inhabitants. His candidacy increased the
possibilities of the Whigs again carrying Michigan,
which meant the election of a Whig member of Congress,
and a Whig successor of Senator John Norvell by the
Legislature of 1841. These possibilities, not to mention
the loss of county offices and other positions, were most
efficient factors in the promotion of Democratic harmony.

TIPPBOANOB AND TYLER TOO 485

The Legislature of 1840 was hardly tinder way before
means were being taken for the gathering of the conven
tion of the Democratic-Bepublican party at Detroit for
the sole and only purpose of bringing the leaders together
and promoting the enthusiasm of the members. The Con
vention was called for the 22nd of February, and on that
day convened with a large and representative delegatiton
in attendance. Hon. Lucius Lyon was honored by beijig
selected to preside, and the usual quota of "Resolves"
were soon prepared and adopted. The resolutions cov
ered the whole range of State and National issues, but
perhaps the one most expressive of hope was the one
which affirmed that "we have no reason to believe that
3ur State has deserted her Eepublican creed and gone
Dver permanently to our Federal opponents, " a convic
tion being likewise expressed to the effect that "the
sober second thought will the ensuing fall marshal her
again side by side with her sister, States in the rank of
Democracy." The afternoon and evening were devoted
to speech making by the old-time Democratic orators,
upon the fervor of whose utterances their partisans hung
with never tiring interest. Governor Mason was among
the number who were paid especial honor. ,

On the same day the Whigs assembled in convention
at Ann Arbor for the purpose of putting in nomination
candidates for presidential electors. Thomas J. Drake,
John VanFossen and HezeMah G. Wells were duly nomi
nated and the proprieties and festivities of the occasion
duly observed. This gathering was succeeded by one a
week later at "Uncle Ben" Woodworth's Hotel where
in wine and eloquence they ratified the nomination of
Gen. Harrison, as well as that of Dr. Zina Pitcher f 01

486 STEPHEN P. MASON

Mayor of the city, the commonalty having first been
served with resolutions at the City Hall. This was an
event given public designation as a " grand fete," its
primary purpose being to stimulate enthusiasm for the
city election of the following Monday, March 3, an event
that was looked upon as second only to the State elec
tion. The throng that attended, the grandiloquent toasts
that were proposed and drunk left little to be desired
for the occasion, but the oratory must have lacked in
efficacy, for the day following the election, hand bills were
upon the streets announcing a " Great Democratic Jubi
lee" for the evening, the Democrats having carried the
city, the Mayor excepted, Dr. Pitcher being elected by
a majority of eight votes.

Stevens T. Mason was still the beau ideal of the young
Democracy. The criticism that had been visited upon
him by political antagonists had not served to lessen
the loyalty of his many friends, for in the frank and
unaffected democracy of his nature, the spirit with which
he resisted attack and the natural urbanity of his manner
there was that which typified the sentiment of his time.
Following his retirement from office he had formed a
copartnership with Kintzing Pritchette and opened an
office for the practice of his profession under the firm
name of Mason* & Pritchette. This step was taken by the
governor with a determined purpose to apply himself
to the mastery of legal principles and with no design to
continue a factor in the official politics of the State;
but he had been too long and too intimately connected
with its history to easily resist the importunities of
those who had been his supporters and defenders. On
fhe evening of the "Democratic Jubilee" a vociferous

TIPPECANOE AND TYLEK TOO 487

crowd filled the City Hall to overflowing. The meeting
was no sooner organized than there was a shout of
* ' Mason ! Mason ! Mason ! ' 9 The ovation which greeted
his arrival and subsequent address showed that he still
had a place in the hearts of the people. Filled with
enthusiasm the partisans of the meeting were inclined
to continue their exultations, and adjourned the meeting
to the following Saturday evening when Governor Mason
was again forced to become the principal speaker of the
evening. The campaign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too"
was now on, and Governor Mason whether he willed it
or not was to be a conspicuous figure on the hustings.

The Democrats had been quite universally successful
at the April elections and looked forward with rising
hopes for the Autumn contest. Writing to a Kentucky
friend Governor Mason said: "Tell Judge Hickey he
shall hear a good account from Michigan in November,
that we have beaten the Federalists at all the April elec
tions, and that even the potent charms of 'Log Cabin
and hard eider,' 'gingerbread generals and small bekr'
cannot redeem their sinking cause ;" but events were to
prove that the Governor had under estimated the potency
of log cabins and hard cider. By the Fourth of July there
was scarce a town where a log cabin had not been erected
to serve as the Whig headquarters. The one at Detroit
was located at the northeast corner of Jefferson Avenue
and Randolph Street. For days the Whig patriots
assisted in drawing the logs from the adjacent forest and
fitting them for the building. On April 15 a large crowd
assembled for the "raising" and before nightfall they
had reared a structure forty by fifty feet in dimensions,
a bottle of hard cider having been placed beneath each of

488 STEVENS T. MASON

its four corners as one of the important parts of the
ceremony. The cabin was profusely decorated with arti
cles tacked to its sides or suspended from the rafters
suggestive of pioneer life. A live bear and a few stuffed
owls, wild cats and raccoons were added by way of attrac
tions, and a crude chandelier formed from the roots of
a small tree bearing many tallow candles was suspended
from the roof and in the evening furnished the principal
illumination of the room. The dedication, which was
set for the 21st of April, was a very important affair.
Due notice of the event had been given in the Advertiser,
and the ladies had been called upon to furnish for the
occasion "cornbread and such other log c^bin fare as
their Mnd hearts and ingenuity may dictate." Needess
to say they responded liberally to the call and at the
appointed hour had loaded the tables about the cabin
sides with johnny-cake, pork and beans and the substan
tial fare of pioneer Michigan. A large crowd gathered
and in the fitful glare of the tallow dip listened to the
oration of the occasion, dispatched the provisions pro
vided and concluded the festivities with many a toast
drunk with hard cider. From this time forward to elec
tion the political rally was the order of the day, the
Whigs meeting regularly at the Cabin and the Democrats
at the City Hall. At the meeting of the "Democratic
Association " as the city club of the Democratic party
was called, Governor Mason was upon many occasions
the speaker pressed into service, the newspapers having
preserved the records that he was " greeted with that
heartfelt and peculiar enthusiasm which always attends
his appeara#ce. ' '
A letter from Governor Mason to his sister Laura at

TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO

this time is expressive of the Governor's activities, of
public conditions and affords a glimpse of some of the
personal qualities that were distinguishing features of
his nature.

"For the winter," reads the letter, "I have endeavored
to confine myself to the quiet routine of an attorney's
life, but as might have been expected, all my efforts have
failed, I had hoped when retiring from public life, I
might have some respite from the toils * of politics, but
find myself as deep in the game as ever; so, that with
the divided allegiance, between law office and political
speech making I am more occupied than ever." Advert
ing to public conditions he proceeded to say, "You will
find Detroit sadly changed. The bubble of false pros
perity has burst from under us and we are down again
to the realities of earth. The streets every day look like
Sunday, and in every direction you hear nothing but
the croakings of hard times ; but we may extract a jewel
from the uses of adversity, and will learn wisdom enough,
to last us in after life." He proceeds to more intimate
personal matters and does not omit to sing a proud fath
er's praise of a baby son. Says he, "You have yet to see
your nephew whose praises have been so often recorded.
He may be considered the greatest prodigy of the age;
and although I say it, he is the most beautiful and intelli
gent youngster in the Eepublic. In a few days he mounts
his short dresses— the first great epoch in his onward
march to manhood. I shall turn him over to you and
Emily, when you arrive, and rest assured, youTl have
your hands full, for he is already the very personifica
tion of mischief." The sister Kate had now become Mrs.
Isaac S. Rowland, and there is much of human interest in

490 STEVENS T. MASON

the brief statement of the Governor that her home "is
on Woodward Avenue, and although not very extensive,
is all sufficient to answer her wants." "In fact," he
concludes, "a peasant's cot has to her all the charms
of a palace."

It is quite evident that the Sunday aspect of Detroit
of which the letter makes mention was subject to some
very marked exceptions, although be it said, they were
mostly political in character. On June 11, 1840, an im
mense gathering of Whigs was convened at Fort Meigs
on the rapids of the Maumee, the scene of one of Harri
son 's military exploits in the War of 1812. General Har
rison and other gentlemen of national prominence were
present. * Speeches were made by the leaders of the Whig
party; a sham battle was fought and the "ocfcagion made
in every respect the most important political gathering
that had ever assembled in the West. Delegations to the
celebration from Michigan came to Detroit frotia every
part of the State. They were entertained with free lunch
at the Cabin ; the people were out in mass, and with flying
banners and beating drums they marched to the wharf
where five steamboats were loaded with the enthusiastic
political pilgrims.

Two weeks later, on June 24, the Democratic-Bepub-
licans journeyed to Marshall to participate in a State
Convention to nominate presidential electors and a can
didate for member of Congress. Jonathan Kearsley of
Detroit was made president of the Convention, which
promptly set about its labors. The balloting showed that
Hon. Isaac E. Crary still had a very respectable follow
ing; but on the fourth ballot the nomination for member
of Congress went to Alpheus Felch, then of Monroe.

IPPECANOE AND TYLEB TOO 491

Charles Moran of Wayne, Kinsley S. Biugham of Liv
ingston and Charles E. Stuart of Kalamazoo were named
as electors. The National Democratic-Republican Con
vention which had assembled at Baltimore, Md. May 5,
had renominated Martin Van Buren for the Presidency,
but had referred the nomination for Vice President to
the several States. The Marshall Convention was there
fore unique, in that it was the only one in the history
of the State to participate as such in the nomination of
a candidate upon the national ticket, which it did by the
unanimous adoption of the following resolution :

"Resolved, that reposing full and undiminished confi
dence in the talents, integrity and Democratic principles
of Eichard M. Johnson, we do hereby nominate Trim for
a re-election on the part of the Democracy of the State
of Michigan.77

Various committee were selected, the two most impor
tant being a State Central Committee of seven and a com
mittee of like number charged with issuing an address
to the people of the State. Q-overnor Mason was made
a member of each committee. The dedication of Whig
log cabins and counted Democratic demonstrations were
now the chief diversion of the people. The Whig Con
vention for the nomination of a candidate for member
of Congress was convened at Jackson on September 10,
1840 ; John Biddle was chosen to preside, and four ballots
taken before a majority was secured for Jacob M. How
ard who was then declared the nominee. The resolutions
referred almost exclusively to national affairs, with apt
quotations from Thomas Jefferson, designed no doubt to
show that they were the true followers of his creed.

During the campaign Vice President Johnson made a

402 STEVENS T. MASON

tour of several of the States and Detroit was included in
the itinerary. For weeks before, Democrats looked for
ward to the event, and elaborate preparations were made
for the entertainment of the old hero who nearly twenty-
six years before had been the most prominent figure in
the battle of the Thames. The celebration was planned for
the 28th of September, and on that day an immense
throng gathered at Detroit to welcome the distinguished
guest. Just before noon the steamer Gen. Scott arrived
with Col. Johnson and his suite aboard. From the wharf
the party were escorted to a stand erected for the occa
sion before the National Hotel. Here Governor Mason
delivered an address of welcome on behalf of the Democ
racy of the State, to which responses were made by vari
ous members of the party. On the Cass farm a barbecue
of extensive proportions was served to the assembled
multitude, and there in the afternoon the addresses or
the day were delivered, the principal speeches being
mad'e by Col. Johnson and Congressman Steenrod of Vir
ginia. The Vice-Presidential party took its departure
for Ann Arbor the day following and later for Adrian,
holding a large meeting at each of these places as well as
at some of the points intervening. While Democrats were
thus exulting, the Whigs were planning a counter demon
stration to be held at Detroit two days later. Stimulated
by the success of the Johnson meeting, couriers scattered
hand bills through the adjacent counties urging every
Whig to action. The meeting had been previously adver
tised and with the early dawn of September 30 the whole
country-side was journeying toward Detroit. One hun
dred and three wagons bearing a delegation of six hun
dred came from Farmington alone. The Dearborn

UPPBOANOE AND TYLER TOO 493

gation arrived in a mounted log cabin drawn by twenty
yoke of oxen. Plymouth, Livonia and other nearby ham-
lets sent in monster companies in unique and nondescript
conveyances. It was estimated that fifteen thousand peo
ple were in attendance before evening. Every delega
tion brought additions to the food supply, which was
deposited upon long tables in Williams & Wilson's ware
house to be later doled out to every applicant. An
immense procession was the feature of the day and in
the evening large meetings were addressed at the Capitol,
City Hall, log cabin and a large warehouse hastily made
ready for the occasion.

The Democrats made a spirited campaign, but there
was that in the times and in the magic of "Old Tip/'
log cabins, coon skins and hard cider that appealed to
the pioneer enthusiasm of the West and that could not
be overcome. The election was a victory for Harrison
and Tyler in both State and Nation. They carried the
State by a vote of 22,933 to 21,096 the greater portion of
the Whig majority being furnished by the counties of
Washtenaw, Jackson, Lenawee and Kalamazoo. Har
rison's vote likewise insured the election of Jacob M*
Howard as member of Congress, but by the reduced
vote of 22,759 to 21,464. The Legislature which the year
before had been overwhelmingly Whig was now danger
ously near a tie. This result seems to have been antici
pated, for at the conclusion of the voting in Hamtr&mck
Township where Democratic majorities of from 126 to
130 were given to all other candidates, the Democratic
guardian of the ballot box containing the ballots cast for
members of the Legislature, was filled with strong ctrink
through the hospitality of a Whig friend, and when h$

4fcfc STEVENS T. MASON

recovered consciousness it was without knowledge of
wb&t had become of the ballot box or its contents. With
out the vote of Hamtramck, six Whig members of the
legislature were elected from Wayne county, with the
vote of Hamtramck there was every reason to believe
that six Democrats had been elected. The canvassers
gave certificates to neither set of candidates but returned
the fact to the Legislature. The Democrats sought upon
the assembling of the Legislature for the immediate
passage of a law calling a new and immediate elec-
tioai for Wayne County, but the Whigs did not propose
to exchange a certainty for an -uncertainty, and by a vote
of 22 to 21 seated the Whig claimants, ihuR insuring a
free hand in their legislative program. The Democrats
entered solemn? protest, the press fulminated and crim
inal proceedings were pressed; but the Whigs held their
seats and the only man to suffer was the poor custodian
of the ballot box who had partaken of Whig hospitality.
The Legislature assembled at Detroit for the com
mencement of the sixth Legislative session on January 4,
1841. Owing to the contest in the House that body did
not proceed to organize by the election of a speaker until
January 6, at which time Philo C. Fuller of Adrian was
selected, he having teen elected pro tempore on the first
assembling of the Legislature. On January 7 Governor
Woodbridge delivered his message, a lengthy document
which- entered into the details of many matters of minor
importance and into others that were wholly of national
concern. The report of the Commissioners of Internal
Improvement disclosed that on November 23 previous,
cars had commenced running upon the Southern road
from Monroe to Adrian and the Central had progressed
to within four iniles of Dexter, with a considerable

T1£PECANO£ AM) TYLBK TOO 4&§

amount of construction done between that point and Jack
son. An effort to remove a quantity of railroad iron
from Monroe for the completion of the line into Dexter
had been met with open hostility upon the part of the
"Independent State," as Monroe came to be designated,
and the commissioners were forced to retreat or become
parties to a breach of the peace. The Clinton and Kala-
mazoo Canal was reported as approaching completion
between Frederick and Rochester, and both the Grand
and St. Joseph Rivers were mentioned as worthy of
further appropriations. While the reports in no place
recommend that any particular work be cast off, there
was plain intimation that the condition of the State's
finances made it imperative that some one or more of
the projects be selected to receive such aid as the State
in its crippled condition would be able to bestow. The
Legislature, however, found it quite as difficult to let go,
as their predecessors had to limit the objects of State
aid, although there were evidences that the Central and
Southern roads wo-qjld be the final projects to which the
State would confine its efforts. Construction upon the
first was authorized to Kaianmzoo and upon the second
to Hillsdale. The Northern road was given an appro
priation of $30,000 for the purpose of converting it into
a wagon road. The appropriation to the Saginaw Canal
was withdrawn, and $5,000 ordered to be expended upon
the Saginaw turnpike. Twenty-five thousand dollars was
given to the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal and some
small unexpended appropriations ordered spent upon the
Kalamazoo and St. Joseph Rivers. The Legislature was
still willing to assist in the development of the salt indus
try, and for the first time in the history of the St&te

49e STEVENS T. MASON

gave attention to the possible production of copper,
through a resolution looking to congressional action
encouraging the collection and dissemination of knowl
edge relating to mining and smelting of copper ores.

The finances of the State were still in a chaotic condi
tion ; taxes were unpaid and the only source of payment
for a considerable portion of the general expenses of the
State as well as interest upon the loans was by dis
counting the dubious prospects on the five million dollar
loan. Again the Legislature provided for the suspension
of specie payment as well as special protection to the
Bank of Michigan and the Farmers' and Mechanics
Bank, an Act that was far from popular with the people,
who were beginning to say, "It is time for the banks
to pay up or wind up. 9 '

In the senatorial contest the Democrats demonstrated
that they could unite much better in defeat than in victory.
The great majority of the Whigs in both House and
Senate were loyal supporters of James Wright Gordon,
the Lieutenant Governor, for the senatorship. There is
a tradition, attested by the reminiscence of many an old
politician that James Wright Gordon was the clear choice
of the senatorial caucus of his party, and that in the late
hours of night as in wine and flow of soul he celebrated
his prospective honors with his loyal friends, the Demo
crats sealed a compact for his defeat with a half dozen
Whig malcontents. Gordon was promptly nominated in
the Senate by the unanimous Whig vote of .eleven. But
in the House he could never command the vote of more
than twenty. On February 3> the two Houses met in joint
session and the Democrats cast their united support for
their old enemy Governor William Woodbridge, who

TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO 497

elected by the help of the few "Whigs who had deserted
their own party choice. The generous encomium which
the Free Press passed upon Governor Woodbridge after
his election was in marked contrast to the expressed sen
timents of former days and tended more to exasperate
the Whigs than the defeat of their candidate. The
Advertiser undoubtedly diagnosed the situation correctly
when it observed that "the motive of the minority is
sufficiently obvious, first to excite personal heartburnings
and secondly to excite the westerly portion of the State
against the easterly portion by concentrating all the
important offices at Detroit.

It certainly amounted to a concentration, for Governor
Woodbridge continued to exercise the duties of the gov
ernorship until about the time he took up the duties of
United States Senator, March 4. Upon the retirement of
Governor Woodbridge, James Wright Gordon by virtue '
of his office as Lieutenant Governor became the Acting
Governor of the State, a position he continued to hold
until the expiration of the term. The Whigs, however,
were not to let the session pass without an effort at the
accomplishment of something that would serve the pur
pose of political capital. The five million dollar loan
which had served so long the purposes of political " thun
der " Was to be the third time investigated and made to
furnish a sensation of most astounding character. The
Legislature of 1840, refusing to avail itself of the nego
tiations introduced by Governor Mason and conducted by
Mr. Pritchette, had sought rather to grant new powers
to Eobert Stuart, the new State Treasurer, to open nego
tiations for security for the unpaid installments upon
the loan. On January 14, 1841, Governor Woodbridge

498 STEVENS T. MASON

submitted a message to the Legislature accompanied by
th,e report of the treasurer, to which was appended an
extended document in the form of a bill in chancery on
the part of the State of Michigan against The Morris
Canal and Banking Company and addressed to the Chan
cellor of the State of New Jersey. No case of the nature
indicated by the bill seems to have been instituted in
the Chancellor's Court of New Jersey and just the pur
pose of the document is not clear. If designed to blacken
the character of Governor Mason, it was most skillfully
adapted to the purpose. The message and accompany
ing documents, upon being referred to the finance com
mittee of the Senate, of which DeGarmo Jones of Detroit
and James M. Edmonds of Ypsilanti were the controll
ing members, was at once made the subject of a most
-mysterious investigation. Governor Mason was at the
time in the East, his time being occupied in the cities
of Washington, Baltimore and New York. As it was
known that he was not to return until after the opening
of navigation in the Spring, some of his friends sought
to protect his interests before the committee >ut were
refused the privilege. Berg. F. H. "Witherell, a promi
nent attorney of Detroit and at that time a member of
the State Senate, at once volunteered Ms services in
Governor Mason's behalf, and upon being refused the
right of producing or cross-examining witnesses before
the committee he took the matter to the floor of the Senate,
where by a party vote he was again refused and Gov
ernor Mason, although his reputation was to be blackened
and his character aspersed was refused the privilege of
a hearing or defense. The malicious product of this
"investigation" was in keeping with the spirit that had

TIPPECAKOE AND TYLER TOO 499

been exhibited by the committee and the majority 'that
had supported it. The report was filed on the 27th of
March 1841. Upon the testimony of Theodore Eomeyn,
who seems to have been willing to admit his own want
of honor that he might assist in besmirching the reputa
tion of Governor Mason, the committee based their
charges and insinuations against the Governor of pecu
lation and corruption. Before the committee of 1839,
Mr. Eomeyn had testified "I have never directly or indi
rectly drawn any money from the State for my own pur
poses, neither have I received from Governor Mason any
accommodations or advances." This solemn statement
seems to have in no manner interfered with his making
claim before the committee of 1841 to the effect that he
and Governor Mason had sought and had derived finan
cial profit from the State's loan.

Governor Mason and family returned to Detroit in the
early spring, but not before he had received a letter from
Mr. Eomeyn saying among other things, "I think if I
could see you in person that we could arrange answers
that would be more satisfactory than if published with
out consultation. " This letter brought from the Gover
nor a most stinging rebuke. As soon as possible after
his return the governor set about the preparation of his
defense to the slander which the committee had under
cover of its official position passed against him. On
May 11 he issued an address to The People of Michigan,,
in the form of a pamphlet of some forty pages. Against
the men who had so persistently and maliciously pursued
him it was a forceful and bitter arraignment. He speaks
of them as "Assassins of private character " who had
found encouragement to do their office upon his name

§00 STEVENS T. MASON

before he could return among them. The story of Robert
Stuart as contained in the bill of complain he dismissed
with t^ie statement that "nothing could be more false."
Of DeG-armo Jones and James M. Edmonds of the Sen
ate committee he speaks as "my violent personal and
political enemies" as searching for "pliant instruments
to aid their work of infamy" and as having found them
in "the one a starveling refugee from abroad and the
other an unacquitted felon of this city. " " Such, * ' he con-
eluded, "were the instruments chosen by the committee
to blacken my reputation during my absence from the
State."

The charges themselves were answered in a patient,
clear and explicit manner. In nearly every instance he
fortified his own claim by reference to unquestioned doc
umentary proof. In the conclusion of this somewhat
unusual document the Governor said: "I have thus,
fellow citizens, endeavored to place before you a full
answer to all the accusations preferred against me by
the committee. Whilst I am free to acknowledge that
there is no external reward so dear to me as the good
opinion of my fellow citizens, even to secure that reward
I would not mistake the grounds of my defense. I act
as a private citizen unjustly and ruthlessly assailed.
Circumstances render it probable that I shall never again
be a candidate for your suffrages. I have therefore no
political purpose to effect. I strike in defense of my
name and all that is dear to me. I have left your service
poorer than I entered it ; and if I have any earthly boast,
it is that T have never intentionally wronged the public.
That I have felt the imputations cast against me I do not
pretend to deny; but the consciousness -of my own integ-

TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO 501

rity of purpose, has afforded me an inward pride and
satisfaction that the world can not rob me of. To the
people of Michigan I owe many obligations, and with
the last pulsations of life I shall acknowledge and remem
ber their kindness."

There is a certain pathos in the concluding sentence
when we remember that life's "last pulsation " for him
was only a -short time away.

The address was answered by one from Theodore
Bomeyn in which he sought to show their joint wrong
and to argue that the Governor was guilty of still other
official wrong doing. This the Governor answered with
a single sheet of documentary refutation, which closed
the controversy so far as formal documentary charges
were concerned.

It has never been contended that the verdict of the
people sustained the charges made, but unfortunately
their judgment could not be entered as was the slander
in the annals of the State.

As the term of John D. Pierce as Superintendent of
Public Instruction was about to expire, the two Houses
on April 6 in joint session elected Franklin Sawyer Jr.
to the position. Mr. Sawyer was a gentleman well quali
fied for the place, a graduate of Harvard University
he had come to Michigan about 1830, had acquired a legal
education and practiced for a time in company with
Jacob M. Howard. Later he took up newspaper work,
first as editor of the Courier and then as editor and
one of the proprietors of the Daily Advertiser, a
work much more suited to his taste, which was decid
edly literary in character. On April 13 the Legisla
ture adjourned, the last Whig Legislature to assemble

802 STEVENS T. MASON

in the State. The administration that had been heralded
with great promise of reform had in many important
particulars -failed to meet the expectations of the people;
there had been more of promise than performance. So
many of the conditions for which a remedy was being
demanded were the result of causes general and national
in character that only the slow recuperative processes of
constructive labor in development and production could
mend; While the Whig administration at its close could
show little or no betterment in the conditions against
which it had directed its most bitter denunciation, it was
nevertheless a most helpful interregnum, for it made it
much more easy for the succeeding administration to
place the affairs of state in harmony with the abilities and
conditions of the people.

The national administration was to prove even more
of a disappointment than had the administration within
the State. On April 4 President Harrison died. Vice
President Tyler was thus elevated to the Presidency
within a month of the inauguration. He retained Har
rison's Cabinet and promised to carry out his policy, a
thing that by reason of training and conviction he was
not able to do. A special session of Congress had already
been called to assemble May 31. It met and continued
its labors until September 13th. The most distinguish
ing feature of the session was the bitter quarrel that
developed between flie Whig majority and the President,
resulting in the resignation of all the members of the
Cabinet except one1 and in a manifesto from the Whig
m'embers to the effect that all political relation between
them and John Tyler was at an end. The cry of "Tippe-

1. Daniel Webster Sec. of State.

TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO 503

canoe and Tyler too" had lost its charm; there was
no longer interest in log cabins or potency in hard cider.
In Michigan the Whigs were facing a State campaign
with dejection and . dissension where twelve months
before all had been enthusiasm and confidence.

CHAPTEE XXIV

THE CLOSING YEARS

Governor Mason's retirement from office in
January, 1840, came the necessity of engaging in
some occupation which would secure for himself and his
growing family a respectable livelihood. The ceasing
of his official salary compelled retrenchment and econ
omies. The business outlook in general was dark, and
the personal antagonisms arising and continued from
the heated political strifes of the years covering the
governorship were many and bitter. Mason's own cour
teous manner and thorough kindness even to his polit
ical opponents took away much of the sting of personal
animosity to him, but it was not easy to forget or forgive
all that was said.

Detroit had a population of 9,000, and, as the entry
port of the State, transacted a large amount of business
with consequent litigation; so that with his prestige of
high official position and large personal acquaintance,
the opportunity offered to him in Detroit for entry into
the practice of the profession to which he had been
admitted might seem attractive. The bitter personali
ties, however, and the attacks through the Legislature
in consequence of the five million dollar loan all com
bined to turn the thought of the young man — now 28

to other fields.

The natural bent of young Mason's mind had been
toward the law, and in the intervals of his duties as Sec-

THE CLOSING YEARS 505

retary of the Territory, he had found time to read suf
ficient law to enable him to pass without difficulty the
examination required of applicants for admission to the
bar; on Dec. 6, 1833, he had been admitted to practice
in the Wayne County Circuit Court, and on the 23rd
of July following was admitted to the Supreme Court.

In anticipation of his retiring from office he had
arranged to take up the practice of his profession. He
began with a short-lived partnership with E. B. Har-
rmgton, a capable young lawyer who had come to Detroit
in 1838 from Port Huron, where he had established a
newspaper ; the Lake Huron Observer, edited it and prac
ticed law, had been appointed Master in Chancery by
his future partner, who had also appointed him together
with E. J. Roberts in January, 1838, to oversee the pub
lication of the laws of the State compiled by Hon. W.
A. Fletcher. He was also appointed in 1839 first
Eeporter of the Chancery Court of Michigan, and died
in 1844 a young man of 35 years. After the termination
of this partnership in the summer of 1840, the firm of
Mason & Pritchette was established, and lasted till Mason
removed to New York. The junior member of this firm,
the senior in age, had come to the Territory in 1831
with Governor Porter, and had rapidly established a
close friendship with the young Secretary; and when
the latter became Governor of the State, his first appoint
ment to office was to make his friend Secretary of State.
The law business of this firm was not extensive. An
occasional suit at law or in chancery or the foreclosure
of a mortgage are all that the records disclose. His
wife's connections lived in New York City, and they no
doubt urged the opportunities the large city presented to

606 STEVENS T. MASON

the talented young man of such unusual experience and
acquaintance. After a year spent in the nominal prac
tice of his profession he determined to remove to New
York. In January of 1841 he was in the latter city for
some time, and upon his return sold his household goods
and in the Fall of the year, after the election campaign
was over, he left Detroit forever.

Upon his arrival in New York he arranged for board
ing at a house on Leonard Street, near Broadway, and
at oiice plunged into the hard work of a law student.
He was determined to succeed, and it was necessary not
only to familiarize himself with the laws of New York
State, but to deepen and broaden his legal foundations.
He had some old friends and rapidly made new ones.
His father suggested that Baltimoffe inight be an even
more advantageous location than New York, but in April,
1842, the young lawyer wrote that he had already formed
an extensive acquaintance, had obtained admission to all
the courts and already had about ten cases, and that he
had no fear of the ultimate results.

In the same month of April, with a view both to econ
omy and health for himself and family, he moved over
to Staten Island. He confessed that he had formed but
a limited idea of the difficulties of his undertaking in
coming to New York, that his absolutely necessary living
expenses were $1,500 a year, and that his only capital
consisted of hope, energy and perseverance. These quali
ties however he had in abundance and he needed them
alL His family increased in March, 1842, by the birth
of a boy, thus giving him three young children besides
himself and his wife to support. The business conditions
were very bad ; his father-in-law, Mr. Phelps, who seems

THE CLOSING YEARS 507

to have been very pessimistic over the future, had retired
from business and prophesied a long period of financial
disaster.

Mason not only had optimistic qualities, but also dis
cernment and judgment. In July, 1842, he wrote to his
father that in New York humility and modesty were not
appreciated, that a man to succeed must keep up appear
ances and seek the society of those who could benefit Mm
in his profession, otherwise he would starve to death.

It is not probable that he needed to apply much of the
worldly wisdom to his own actions. He was of the stamp
who would make friends everywhere through following
his natural inclination and habits. During the summer
and fall of 1842 enough business, — some small part crim
inal cases, — came to him so that he was able to pay his
way and to feel that he had "a very respectable docket
for a new beginner. ' '

A ready speaker, he was glad to extend his acquain
tance and influence by public addresses, and the last
public act if his life was to deliver a lecture about two
weeks before his death to the Richmond Lyceum on
Staten Island. The subject was "The History of the
Northwest, " and we may well imagine that his audience
had an unusual treat in having this subject presented by
a man who had helped so greatly in making the history
of an important part of that very Territory.

When cold weather came on he brought his family back
from Staten Island to New York and entered the winter
with good prospects, certainty of hard work, and high
hopes of a happy and prosperous future, — with dreams
no doubt of a time when he should have attained fame
and success in the metropolis o? the country, won by his

508 STEVENS T. MASON

own efforts and ability, and when he would return, a
visitor, to the scene of his youthful official career, justify
ing the hopes and expectations of his friends and bring
ing derision to the scoffs and criticisms of his old enemies.

These prospects, these hopes, these dreams all went
for naught. As a sudden frost destroys the buds and
opening blooms, Death interposed its hand and the
earthly career of Stevens T. Mason came to a sudden
and most unexpected termination. No language could
better describe the event than the letter from the heart
broken father to the young and beloved sister at Detroit.
It is dated at New York, Jan. 5, 1843 :

"I attempted to write you last night but found myisili
unequal to the task, and am now little better prepatecl
to "announce to you a most heartrending event. Our
fight siffictions for the last year we bore not without
repining, but they were temporary and susceptible of
aleviation. Now we have to summon to our aid the
strength we possess and to call to our relief the only
power that is capable of it, — the power of religion, — the
trust in €rod that all His ways are best. Your beloved
brother is no more — I cannot yet realize the awful truth,
— but it is nevertheless so. — He now lies a corpse in this
house. His sickness was not considered dangerous till
two hours before his death, and it was so sudden, so calm
and free from pain, that to look on him this moment 'the
serenity of his countenance cheats you into the belief that
he still lives. Yes! he does, but in another world, the
destined abode of us all. He was taken on the night of
the first with a vomiting, — on the second complained of
a sick headache and did not go out, — on the third sent for
Dr. Boyd who pronounced his disease an inflammatory

THE CLOSING YEARS 506

sore throat, applied leaches and gave Mm medicine. On
the fourth I became alarmed and called Dr. Grayson, who
saw him in consultation with Boyd, and hoth considered
his case not dangerous. Accidentally Dr. Mott came on a
visit, ten minutes after his physicians left, and told me
he was dangerously ill, and feared he could not live, —
and unless relief came immediately two hours would ter
minate his existence, and said his case was a suppressed
scarlet fever. His predictions were alas ! too true, and
at 3 o'clock he expired without a groan, and in such
entire absence of pain, that he seemed to fall into a com
posing sleep. Little did we apprehend that it was the
sleep of death, — from which he can only awake at the
resurrection, — such is the will of God, and we must sub-*
mit ; and in true faith believe that this decree is accord
ing to His wisdom and goodness, for the best, — hard as
it is for us to bear the- infliction.

" Julia is in a state of distraction and I can hardly tell
the character of my own mind. I shall write to you again
in a day or two but it is impossible for me to afford
consolation other than your own minds will present: a
submission to the will of God, — to whom I commend you,
and pray that He may give you strength to sustain you
under the heartrending calamity which it has been His
pleasure to award us.

' * Your affectionate father,

"JOHN T. MASON,"

The body was placed in the vault of Ma'son's father-
in-law in Marble Cemetery in New York City, a small
cemetery in the block bounded by the Bowery and Sec
ond Avenue, Second and Third Streets, and there it

#10 STEVENS T. MASON

remained for sixty-two years, when it was brought to
Detroit, the place where in spirit he had hoped fondly
to return; and here his remains now lie, covered by a
monument erected by the great State whose early career
he had so deeply influenced.

The news o£ his death reached Detroit January 12,
and the unanimity of sorrow and grief felt and expressed
by all from all ages, classes and political parties was
most remarkable. The bitter partisan antagonism which
had been so rampant completely disappeared, and with
one voice his old friends and his former political enemies
joined, in tributes to his memory. The Free Press came
out with heavy mourning lines between its columns and
in a long editorial the writer spoke feelingly of his many
virtue, his endearing qualities, and his sterling merits.
14 ©aftecl J4m ^ifce BK>st honored citken and universally
beloved friend of Michigan, the gifted orator, the tal
ented statesman, the high souled patriot, the warm
hearted, frank, generous, noble and magnanimous
friend.''

The Gazette, whose editor, Sheldon McKnight, had
long been a warm friend and admirer of Mason, spoke
of him in high terms. "He was an excellent son, and a
devoted husband and father. His abilities were of a Mgh
order, his information general and extensive, his elo
quence ardent and impressive. If he had political ene
mies they were fewer than ever fell to the lot of any
other public man. If he had defects they too were slight
and unobserved amidst the good qualities which excited
admiration. ' '

The Advertiser, the organ of Gov. Mason's political
enemies, added its voice to the universal chorus. "We

THE CLOSING TEARS fill

cannot forbear to mingle our tears in the general sorrow.
His career here was indeed an uninterrupted political
struggle and yet few men have left behind them more
personal friends among all parties, and now when the
hand of death has laid him low we cannot but count our
selves happy to have been permitted to be of that number.
Vale, amice, valel

The Legislature was in session. In the Senate, on the
15th Wm. L. Greenly, Democratic Senator from Adrian
and later Governor of the State, arose and made the
following announcement:

"Mr. President — Since our adjournment on yesterday,
the mournful intelligence has been received of the death
of the Honorable STEVENS T. MASON, the former
and first Governor of our State.

"The first political relations of his life were with us,
and as soon as he had attained his majority he was by the
almost unanimous suffrages of our people elected to the
chief magistracy of our State.

"In all his relations with us both as a ^citizen and a
magistrate, he was courteous, generous and liberal;
deeply imbued with all those noble qualities which were
the governing principles of his life, and created strong
attachments which existed between the deceased and the
citizens of Michigan.

"After our political relations were terminated by his
voluntary withdrawal from political life, he removed to
the city of New York to follow the profession of . the law
and enjoy the quiet of domestic life. But his earthly
happiness was destined to be of short duration. In the
midst of his usefulness and in the pride of Ms manhood,
by the interposition of an overruling Providence he has

512 STEVENS T. MASON

been called to that ' bourne from whence no traveler
returns9 — and while our tears of sympathy flow freely
with those who are personally afflicted by this dispensa
tion, let us invoke the Father of All Mercies to smile
upon and console his bereaved family and relations.

"THEBEFORE BE IT RESOLVED, That we deeply sympa
thize with the relations of the late STEVENS T. MASON
in their sudden and afflictive bereavement, and in this
public manner would tender our heartfelt tribute to the
memory of the deceased, as an individual who was deeply
imbued with all the sterling virtues of public, social and
private life."

In the House on the same day similar resolutions were
offered by Edwin H. Lothrop of Kalamazoo County, a
prominent Democratic member, and promptly adopted.
A joint committee from both Houses was appointed to
prepare public funeral services for the late Governor.
These were held on Sunday, January 15, at the Episcopal
Church. The gathering was the largest that had ever
been seen on such an occasion in Detroit; a procession
was formed in front of the Capitol, headed by the Scott
and Brady Guards, followed by the officers of the United
States Army who were stationed at Detroit, the Gover
nor, Lieutenant Governor, heads of the State Depart
ments, Judges of the Supreme Court, members and
officers of the Senate and House of Representatives, the
Mayor and Aldermen of the city, members of the Bar,
the Detroit Young Men's Society, the Detroit Typo-
' graphical Society, and citizens.

The procession marched to St. Paul's Episcopal
Church, then located on Woodward Avenue near Con-

THE CLOSING YEARS §13

gress Street, where Bishop Samuel A. McCroskrey
preached the funeral sermon.

To the sorrowing family in New York and Detroit
poured in from all directions evidence of sympathy and
regret. The Bar of New York City and of Detroit, the
Common Council and Board of Education and other
bodies and societies adopted resolutions testifying to
their regard and respect for the departed, and their
appreciation of his character and abilities. Such solace
as words can give was furnished in abundance, and it
must have been a source of satisfaction and pri<Je^to
see how unanimous and strong was the voice of sorrow.
It was evident that the eleven years spent by him within
the confines of the Territory and State had not only
gained for him respect and admiration for his ability,
but in even greater degree had brought him friendly
feeling and affection.

And so the name of Stevens .T. Mason became a mem
ory in Michigan. His portrait painted by Alvin Smith,
and presented fay his friends to the Legislature in ,1837
was hung on the( walls of the old Capitol BuikMmg in
Detroit, moved to Lansing in 1847 with the removal of
the Capitol, took its place in the new State House and
when the present building was completed it was placed
in the Governor's room where it now hangs and gazes
down on the throngs of visitors who stop and admire
the youthful and attractive countenance.

Years passed on. The wife and two of the children,—
the boy, young Tom, and the girl on whom their fothsr
had spent so much pride and affection died. The fofeer
John T. Mason passed away in 1850, and the

514 STEVENS V. MASON

child, Dorothy, married Col. Edward H. Wright of New
ark, N. J.; their children are numerous enough to bid
fair *to carry the blood of the Boy Governor down through
the ages. The beloved younger sister, Emily, who
returned to Virginia and took an active and prominent
part during the Civil War on the part of the Confederacy,
had always desired to have the mortal remains of her
brother brought back for their final resting place to
Detroit, the scene of his youthful prominence.

February 18, 1891, Representative John Minor of
Detroit, introduced in the Michigan House of Represent
atives a concurrent resolution reciting the fact of the
burial of Governor Mason in New York City, and con
tinued, " Whereas, Gov. Mason's patriotic services i®
the State, his tireless energy im behalf of her interests,
and notably his great service in the establishment and
in defending the interests of the State of University in
its infancy, and in projecting the development of her
mineral wealth, and in the maintenance of the integrity
of her territory, are inseparably connected with the his
tory of the State of Michigan, and are a part of the
foundations of her prosperity," followed by a resolution
that the family be invited to permit his body to be
interred in the grounds of the Capitol. This resolution
was favorably reported out on May 14, passed the House
unanimously May 22, and the Senate by a like vote five
days later.

It appears from the resolution that the Trustees of
the Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit had also tendered a
lot for the interment of the body, but notMng was done
to bring the reippns to Michigan.

Fourteen more years passed away. In the winter of

THE CLpSING YEARS 515

1904, Hugo A. Gilmartin, representing the Detroit
Press in Washington, met Miss Emily Mason and learned
of the desire of the Mason family that the body of their
relative be moved from its resting place in the New York
Cemetery, and correspondence was had with Hon. Law-
ton T. Hemans and Gov. Warner. The result was the
sending of a communication on May 18, 1905, by the Gov
ernor to the Senate enclosing correspondence with Hon.
George P. Codd, Mayor of Detroit, showing that the
Common Council had offered Capitol Park as a suitable
place for the final placing of the remains, and recom
mending that arrangements be made for the removal of
the remain from New York City and their interment in
Detroit.

On reading of the communication Mr. Charles Smith
from Hancock, offered a concurrent resolution which was
unanimously adopted, using much of the same language
found in the resolution of 1891, and. concluding : "That
the Legislature of the State of Michigan deems it emi
nently fitting that the mortal remains of Governor 3ta&on
should rest in the soil of the State he loved and served
so well," and that committees of the House and Senate
be appointed to act with the Committee of the Common
Council of Detroit in preparing suitable ceremonies, and
that representatives of the family of the former Gov
ernor be invited to attend the ceremonies. It also pro
vided for the appointment of three commissioners Sy ibe
Governor to arrange for the transfer and burial of the

remains.

This resolution was transmitted to the House -
adopted there unanimously on May 22. The
appointed as the Commission, Daniel

516 STEVENS T. MASON

Bapids, Lawton T. Hemans of Mason, and Arthur L.
Holmes of Detroit. A subsequent resolution, passed at
the same session authorized the Committee to procure
designs and plans for a suitable monument, -with esti
mates of cost.

The Commission went to New York, arranged for the
examination of the Phelps Vault and found the remains
encased in a mahogany coffin upon which was a silver
nameplate bearing the inscription: " Stevens T. Mason,
Died Jan. 4th, 1843. " Invitations were issued to the
family and the descendants of Governor Mason to accom
pany the Commission to Michigan for participation in
the re-interment ceremonies as guests of the State. In
response to the invitation there came with the Cowitnis-
sion, arriving at Detroit June 4y 1905, .Miss Emily V.
Mason, the sister, Mrs, Dorothy Wright, the daughter
and only surviving child, Capt. William Wright and
Edward H. Wright, Jr., grandsons and Stevens T. Mason,
a grand-nephew. Upon arrival at Detroit they were met
by Gov. Warner and staff, Mayor George P. Codd, a
Committee of the Common Council and Committees of
the Senate and House of the State Legislature. Com
pany A of the Detroit Light Guard, representing the
military body of which Governor Mason was once a mem
ber, was in attendance, and together with a platoon of
police, escorted the Basket to the Light Guard Armory.
In the afternoon at the same place, before an audience
of 2,000 persons, impressive ceremonies were held. Rev.
D. M. Cooper, who had a vivid recollection of a meeting
with Gov. Mason offered a prayer followed by short
addresses by the Mayor and Gov. Warner. The principal
address was delivered by Mr. Clarence M. Burton^ at the

THE CLOSING YEARS 517

time President of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical
Society, which was replete with information and interest
about his subject. Mr. Lawton T. Hemans followed with
a thoughtful and eloquent tribute and then a procession
was formed, marching on Jefferson Avenue to Wood
ward Avenue, up Woodward to Michigan Avenue, on
Michigan Avenue to Rowland Street, on Rowland to Cap
itol Square, then with simple services the casket was low
ered to rest under the foundations of the old Capitol
building which had witnessed seventy years before the
installation of the young "man as the first Governor of
the new State.

The next session of the Legislature met in January,
1907, and on the 16th of that month the Commission
which had been appointed by the Governor made its
report, and on the same day Senator Smith of Houghton
County introduced a resolution providing for tlte pro
curing arid placing of a statue of Stevens T. Mason,, first
Governor of Michigan, at the place of his interment in
Capitol park in the City of Detroit. February 19 -the
resolution was passed unanimously and ordered to take
immediate effect. The House acted promptly with like
result. The resolution appropriated ten thousand dollars
for the erection of a suitable monument, and as the coin-
mission had reported the donation to the State by ihe
Government through the kind offices of United States
Senator Russel A. Alger, of sufficient bronze, the main
duty of the commission which was continued was the
selection of the design and sculptor. *

Albert Weinert of New York was selected as the scnli>~
tor and on Decoration Day,:1908, the monument erected
in Capitol Square Park was unveiled. Hon. Thomas W,

&fc& STEVENS T. MASON

Pafaner presided, and Emily V. Mason, then 91 years of
age, was present and performed the ceremony of unveil
ing the statue. The address of. the occasion was delivered
by Rev. Walter Elliott, C. S. P., of "Washington, D. C.y
who was born in Detroit and came of a family of his
torical abilities. His choice was probably due to his per
sonal acquaintance with Miss Mason, but the address was
worthy of the occasion. It was followed by remarks from
Hon. Lawton T. Hemans, Mayor W. B. Thompson and
Governor Warner, and a few final words from Dr. James
B. Angell, President of the University of Michigan
who drew attention to the valuable services of Gov. Mason,
in protecting the interests of the University, and which
have been recognized by keeping his picture hung upon
fee wall of the Memorial Building and by naming the
north wing of the University Building, Mason Hall.

And there the statue of Stevens T. Mason stands today,
and we trust will stand forever, an enduring monument
to a young man of fine abilities, high ideals, lovable
character, a fitting first magistrate of a new Common
wealth in. the young and vigorous West.

INDEX.

INDEX

Abbott, Robert, first Auditor General, 212 ; resignation, 463

Acker, Henry, elected speaker of House, 473

Adam, John J., in Constitutional Convention of 1825, 159; chosen Secre
tary of Senate, 187; member of Democratic State convention in
1837, 297

Anti-Masonic party, William Woodbridge for Territorial delegate to
Congress in 1833, 91-93

Anti-slavery, organization of Michigan Anti-slavery Society, 251; see
also Slavery

Asiatic cholera, see Cholera

Bacon, Daniel S., brief biographical sketch, 300 ; report of investigation
of five million dollar loan, 442-443

Banks and banking, Governor Mason on, 205-206, 260-261; situation in
183»7, 269-272 ; Michigan's "wild cat" banking law, 272-276 ; in Gov
ernor Mason's message to special session of Legislature in 1837,
287-292; Governor Mason on "wild cat" banking system, 317-318;
situation under the general banking law, 362-384 ; State bank recom
mended by Governor Mason in annual message of 1839, 385; bill to
provide for State bank passed, 385-386, 459; repeal of general
banking law, 386 ; Michigan State Bank suspended, 459-460 ; see also
Money ; Panics

Barry, John S., Senator in 1835, 188, 216 ; Senator in 1838, 312, 313

Bates, George C., on Brady Guards, 349

Beebe, Silas, on spring election in Detroit in 1838, 446-447.

Biblography, TJie Revised Statutes of 1838, compiled, 457

Biddje, Edward R,, contract with for five million dollar loan, 431

Buddie, John, vote for in 1835, 176 ; for Lieutenant Governor in 1837, 303

Biographical sketches, Bacon, Daniel S., 300; Fletcher, William Asa,
232-234; Mason, George, 12-14; Mor&ll, George, 235-236; Ransom,
Bpaphroditus, 236-238; Trowbridge, Charles C., 300; Wells, Heze-
kiah G., 301

Blackburn, Thornton, trial as fugitive slave, 95-97

Black Hawk, visit to Detroit, 99-100

Black Hawk war, see War

Boundaries, Michigan-Ohio boundary dispute, 107-151, 164-166; last
"campaign" ot the Toledo .war, 170-173 ; Michigan-Ohio . boundary
question before Congress, 192-200; opinion of jurists on right of
State to Toledo strip, 457; see also Michigan Territory; Ohio

Brady Guards, work during Canadian Rebellion, 348-349, 352-354

Brest* Bank of, financial chicanery of, 370-371

Bridges, Edwin N., report on condition of banks in 1837, 362-363

Brown, General Joseph, in Black Hawk, war, 75-77; commander of
Michigan troops in "Toledo War," 140, 143, 170-172

Campbell, James V., quoted on Constitution of 1835, 162T163

Canadian Rebellion, see War , . /

Canals, see Internal Improvements; St Mary's Falls ship canal

Cass, Lewis, seal of State presented to Constitutional Convention of:
1835, 160; on Michigan-Ohio boundary dispute, 167, 187 '

522 INDEX

Census, see Population

Chilton, Laura Mason, in school, 50; activities of Governor Mason and
public conditions in 1840 revealed in letter to, 489

Cholera, Asiatic, in Michigan Territory, 78-84 ; return in 1834, 119-121

Cities, in Michigan Territory, 41-44

Constitution of 1835, provisions of, lgl-162 ; vote on adoption, 175

Constitutional Convention of 1835, Act to provide for, 137-138 : work of.
157-161

Cooper, Rev. DaviS, remembrance of Governor Mason, 328-329

Counties, in 1830,' 39-40 ; organization of, 479

Counts, see Judicial system

Crary, Isaac B., vote for in 1837, 302 ; re-elected Congressman, 450-451

Currency, see Money

Delafield, John, aids in placing five million dollar loan, 424

Democratic-Republican party, convention in 1833, 90-91; organization
of, 155; strength in Constitutional Convention of 1835, 157; State
Convention in 1835, 166-168 ; State Convention in 1837, 296-299 ; elec
tion campaign in 1837, 301-312 ; lack of harmony in party in 1838,
447-448; State Convention in 1838, 449-451; split over election of
United States Senator ifc 1839, 460-462; State Convention in 1839,
467-468 ; meeting at Detroit in 1840, 485, 486-487 ; State Convention
in 1840, 490-491; campaign of 1840, 491-493

Detroit, in 1830, 42-44; cholera in, 79-83; Negro riot of 1833, 95-97;
Fourth of July celebration in 1833, 97-99; !BlacJ$; ECawk's visit,
99-100; immigration through, 100-101; ordinance to restrict sale of
liquor, 119 ; return of Asiatic cholera in 1834, 119-121 ; social life in
1835-36, 189-191 ; growth of in thirties, 225-223 ; young men's society,
223; events of winter of 1837-38, 281-282; steamboat service at*
294; election day in 1837, 310-311; sympathetic interest of people!
in Canadian Rebellion, 334-335, 337 ; organization of Patriot Arniy:
of the Northwest, 338 ; case of schooner Ann, 338-344 ; arrival of*
United States troops to preserve neutrality, 345 ; meeting of citizens
to consider defense of frontier, 356 ; banking convention, February,
18S8, 375-3f6 ; spring election in 1838, 446 ; conditions in 1840, 489 ;
Governor Mason's remains removed to, 515-518

Detfr, James D., part in Michigan-Ohio boundary dispute, 134-135

Edmunds, James M., member of finance committee investigating five
million dollar loan in 1841, 498 ; Governor Mason's opinion of, 500

Education, in Michigan Territory, 45-46; views in Governor Mason's
message, February, 1836, 206-207; lands granted by Congress for
schools, 226-227; work of John D. Pierce, 258-259; Governor Mason
on school system in message, 1837, 259 ; legislation for organization1
and support of school system, 266-268; Governor Mason's annual
message, 1S38, 317; John D. Pierce re-elected Superintendent of
Pufepe Instruction, 463

Elections, Territorial delegate, 90-93; vote on Constitution of 1835, 175;

btate election in 1835, 175-176 ; yote on Oongressman in 1837 302 •

vote in State election in 1837, 311 ; spring election in Detroit, 1838/

446-447; -Congressional election in 1838, 451; United States Senator

in 1839, 460-462; State campaign in 1839, 469-470; results In 1839

470-471; results in April, 1840, 487; presidential campaign of

487-493; results in 1840,^3-494; United Stages'

496-497- " "

Elective franchise; "see Suffrage

Ellis, Edward D,, for Governor in 1837, 303

INDEX 52&

Factions, see Politics

Farnsworth, Elon, for Governor in 1839, 467 ; vote for in 1839, 470

Fees, see Licenses

Felch, Alpheus, on "wild cat" banks, 366, 371-372: for Congressman in
1840, 400

Finances, see State finances

Fitzgerald, Thomas, for Lieutenant Governor, 467 ; vote for in 1839, 470

Five million dollar loan, authorized, 279-280; negotiation undertaken,
309," 423-424; interest increased and bonds issued, 425-426; sale of
bonds terminated in London, 428-429; arrangements with "Morris
Canal and Banking Company, 432-435; theft of bills for Morris
Canal and Banking Company, 435-439; arrangements for payments
subsequent to theft, 439-440; sale of Michigan securities consum
mated, 440-441; transaction investigated by legislative committee,
442-444 ; Governor Mason's attempt to save State from loss, 471-472 ;
investigated by Legislature of 1840, 480-483 ; investigation of in 1841,
497-501

Fletcher, William Asa, biographical sketch, 232-234

Fort Meigs, Whig gathering in 1840, 490

Franchise, see Suffrage

French, in Michigan Territory, 42

Fugitive slaves, see Negroes ; Slavery

Fuller, Philo C., elected Speaker of House in 1841, 494

Fulton, John A., surveys southern boundary line of Michigan, 112

Genealogy, Mason family, 12-17

Geological survey, recommendation of Governor Mason in 1837, 258;
legislative appropriation for", 264; Schoolcraft's communication to
Governor Mason in 1838, 319-320

Gidley, Townsend E., in Constitutional Convention of 1835, 157, 160;
elected to House in 1837, 311

Gordon, James Wright, for Lieutenant Governor in 1839, 466 ; vote for
in 1839, 470; for United States Senator in 1841, 496

Governor, see Mason, Stevens Thomson

Great Lakes, see Lakes, Great

Greenly, William L., announcement on death of Governor Mason, 511

Handy, Henry S.» commander-im-chief of Patriot Army of the North
west, 338

Harris, William, survey of soittMern boundary line of Michigan, 111-112

Harrison, William Henry, vote for in Michigan, 493

Hastings, Burotas P,, elected Auditor General, 478

Kfealth, measures to preserve during cholera epidemic, 78-80

Highways, see Internal improvements; Roads

Hinsdale, Dr. Burke Aaron, on slavery provision in Ordinance of 1787,
224

Horner, John Scott, appointed Secretary of Michigan Territory, 172;
'difficulties as Secretary, 178-183

Houghton, Douglass, first State Geologist, 258 ; reports, 322, 323

Howard, Benjamin C., mediator in Michigan-Ohio boundary dispute,
144-148

Howard, Henry, discloses overdrawing of- Governor Mason's salary

- 32^-326 , , , • - , * , - .,/>.' i,- <;"< .if ,l,;

Howard, Jacob Wt., on overdrawing of Governor M$s@n'& sajaajy^ 326-
327 ; for Congressman m 1840, 491; yete 'tor fa 1840, 493 ., .. ., » ,,, M

Immigration, to Michigan in 1837, 21^-^19 , , , , : , i

Indians, Black Hawk war, 73-78; extinguishment of title to lands in
Michigan, 251-253.

524 INDEX

Internal improvements, railroads chartered in Michigan Territory,
116-118 ; Governor Mason's message, February, 1836, 202-205 ; roads
and railroads authorized by Legislature in 1836, 214-215; Gov
ernor Mason quoted on in 1837, 262-263; plan of Legislature of
1837, 276-280; Governor Mason's annual message, 1838, 315-317;
railroads incorporated in 1838, 325 ; organization of Board in 1837,
389-390; railroads surveyed and projected in 1837, 392-399; canals
projected in 1837, 399-402 ; improvement of rivers planned in 1837,
' 402-405; contests between sections and between communities, 406;
' first train on central railroad, 406-409 ; appropriations for in 1838,
409 ; selection of members of Board in 1838, 410-412 ; situation in

1839, 417-422; charters granted in 1339, 458; situation in 1841,
494-495 ; see also Roads ; St. Mary's Falls ship canal

Jackson,' Andrew, letter of Stevens T. Mason on opposition to his
appointment as Secretary of the Michigan Territory, 59-62,; hand in
Michigan-Ohio boundary dispute, 143-144

Jeffersonian Democratic ticket, in 1837, 303-304

Johnson, Vice President, visit to Detroit during election campaign of

1840, 492

Jonesi De Garmo, chairman of committee to investigate Mason's effort

for return of part of five million loan bonds, 479
Jones, George W., elected Territorial delegate, 176-177
Judicial system, creation of court system in Michigan, 210-211; changes

recommended by Governor Mason, 455

Knox, John J., quoted on Michigan's general banking law, 275
Kundig, Father Martin, work during cholera in 1834, 120-121 ; paid for
'* ^care of poor during cholera, 265-266
Lafayette, guest of Lexington, Ky., 30
Lakes, Great, steamboats on in thirties, 294-295
Land, valuable in Upper Peninsula, 212-213; granted by Congress to

Michigan, 226-227 ; extinguishment of Indian title, 251-253 ; selected

under grant of Congress, 253-254 ; veto of bill fixing price of State

and University lands, 462-463

Laws, The Revised Statutes of 1838, compiled, 457
Legislature, * see Banks ancl banking ; Education ; Internal improve- f

ments; Mason, Stevens Thomson; Prisons
Lenawee County Bank, condition of, 370
LeRoy, Daniel, first Attorney General of Michigan, 232
Licenses, Governor Mason on, 456
Liquor, ordinance in Detroit to restrict sale of, 119
Lucas, Governor Kobert, part in Michigan-Ohio boundary dispute; 139,

142, 145, 146-150
Lyon, Lucius, elected Territorial delegate in J.833, 90, 92-93 ; credit for"

obtaining Upper Peninsular due to, 195-197; disagreement with
-' • colleagues in Congress, 197-198 ; quoted on value of Upper Peninsula,

212-213; quoted on boundary question, 216-217; character, 460"
McClelland, Robert, member of Constitutional Convention of 1835, 157;

offered, appointment as Bank Commissioner, 274; elected member

in 1837, 312; candidate for speaker of House in 1840, 473
Mackenzie, William Lyon; champion of reform in Canada, 332-333
Martineau, Harriet, visit to Michigan, 129-130 ; on scenes and conditions

on Chicago Road, 219-222

Mason, Emily, school work, 30; quoted on social life iii Detroit, 49-50
Mason, George, career, 12-14

INDEX 525

Mason, General John T., education, 16; law practice, 17; interest in the
West, 19; removal to Kentucky, 21-32; misfortune, 33-34; appoint
ment and service as Secretary of the Territory of Michigan, 36,
47-50; mission to Mexico, 53-54; letter to Stevens T. Mason quoted,
153-154 ; letter on death of Stevens T. Mason, 508-509

Mason, Stevens Thomson, ancestors, 12-17; birth, 17; early life in
Kentucky, 21-24; education, 24, 28; becomes grocer's clerk, 34;
removal to Michigan Territory, 37 ; experience in government affairs,
48-49; appointed Secretary of Michigan Territory, 55; opposition
to appointment, 57-64; Acting Governor, 64-65; youthfulness cause
of newspaper comment, 65-66 ; social life, 66-69, 88-89, 101, 189-192 ;
message to Legislative Council in 1832, 70-72; orders to militia in
Black Hawk war, 75-78 ; nomination as Secretary of Michigan Ter
ritory confirmed, 85-86 ; quoted on election of Territorial delegate,
90-92 ; eastern trip in 1833, 93-94 ; admission to the bar, 104-105 ;
Acting Governor on death of Governor Porter, 119 ; admission of
Michigan and boundary dispute, 123-124, 126-129, 131-137, 140-141,
143, 144-145, 146, 149, 228-231, 244-246, suggested franchise clause
in Constitution of 1835, 159 ; acceptance of nomination for Governor
in 1835, 168-169; removed from office of Secretary of Territory by
President Jackson, 169-170; removal increases popularity, 173-174;
vote for in 1835, 175; personal description of, 184; inaugural
address, 184-186 ; message in February, 1836, 201-208 ; Virginia and
slavery clause in Ordinance of 1787, 224-225; on extinguishment
of Indian titles to land, 252; recommendation to Legislature of
1837, 257-263 ; life-sized portrait of presented to State, 282-283 ; mes
sage to special session of Legislature in 1837 'on financial crisis,
287-292 ; vote for in 1837, 311 ; recommendations in annual messagfe
of 1839, 314-319; charged with overdrawing salary, 325-329; Cana
dian Rebellion, 335, 337, 339, 341-342, 344-347, 350; on State bank,
376-377, 385; answer to appeals for financial relief in 1838, 380; on
progress of work on internal improvements, 415-416 ; five million dol
lar loan, 309, 423-425, 426-428, 431-442 ; five million dollar loan investi
gated by Legislature of 1839, 442-444 ; trip east and marriage, 452-
453 ; message to fourth Legislature, 454-457 ; attempt to save State
from loss through five million dollar loan, 471-472 ; retiring message,
473-476 ; efforts for return of portion of five million loan bonds inves
tigated by Whigs, 480-483 ; popularity in 1840 illustrated, 486-487; on
election of 1840, 487; legislative investigation in 1841 of five million
dollar loan, 497-501; law partnership, 505; removal to New York
City, 505-508 ; death and burial, 508-510 ; expressions of sorrow in
Michigan, 510-513; surviving t members of family, 513-514; legisla
tive action in 181 to remove remains to Michigan, 514; removal of
remains to Michigan, 515-517 ; status at place of interment, 517-518

Mason, Thomas, career, 14

Messages, Governor's, see Mason, Stevens Thomson

Michigan State Bank, see Banks and banking

Michigan Territory, government, of, 38-39; question of statehood before
people, 86-87; boundary dispute with Ohio, 107-151; population in
1834, 131; Constitutional Convention of 1835, 157-161; question of
admission as State before Congress, 192-200; admission consum
mated, 239-250; see also Boundaries ; Cholera; Counties; Elections;
French ; |£ ason, General John T. ; Mason, Stevens Thomson ; Militia ;
War

®2tJ INPB3C

Militia, Territarial, reorganization in 1833, 103-104; 'see also War

Mi&es-and minerals, interest in salt industry in thirties, 321-323

Money, Governor Mason's views om, 206, 287-292; Act to suspend specie
payments, 293 ; <kwild cat'* bank bills, 378-379 ; report of bank com
missioners quoted, 381-384; situation in 1838, 430; see also Banks
and banking; Panics

Monroe, President James, tour through Lexington, Kentucky, 26-27

Mdrell^ George, biographical sketch, 235-236

Morey, Attorney General Peter, on notes of Farmers and Merchants
Bank of St. Joseph, 367

Morris Canal and Banking Company, Governor Mason's arrangements
with, 432-435; sale of five million dollar loan bonds consummated,
440-441

Mtindy, Edward<, nominated for Lieutenant Governor, -166-167; elected

r lieutenant Governor, 175 ; renominated in 1837, 298
'Negroes, number in Michigan in 1830, 94 ; riot in 1833, 95-97 ; again occa- '
s %sion of -uneasiness, 102; see also Slavery

*Kewspapers, in Michigan Territory, 45 ; comment on youthf ulness of
Mason, 65-67 ; on dinner to Judges Woodbridge, Sibley and Chipman,
67r68; comment of The Miohi&m Argus on Webtser's speech in
Detroit, 295-296 ; expressions of sorrow on death of Governor Mason,
510-511

Moxthwest Territory, plan of Congress for division into' states, 108409;
see also Boundaries; Michigan Territory; Mason, Stevens Thom
son-; Ohio

^orvell, John, postmaster at Detroit, 84; elected* United States Sen
ator, 188

Ohio, State created and admitted, 109-110; bill to establish northern

- m boundary on "Harris line," 115 ; measures to hold northern boundary

against Michigan's claims, 138-139; action of assembly to exercise
jurisdiction over disputed territory, 149-150 ; see also Boundaries ;
Michigan Territory; Population
Ordinance of 1787, boundary provisions, 108

Panics, in 1837, Governor Mason on, 261; effect of crisis of 1837, 269-
275, 285-286; legislative measures to lessen effect, 286-293; mone
tary situation in 1838, 430 ; see also Banks and banking : Monev
Patriot War, see War .

Petitions, consideration by legislative committees, 458-459
Phelps, Julia Elizabeth, marriage to Governor Mason, 453
Pierce, John D., report on school system, 258-259; reelected Superin-

• • tendent of Public Instruction, 463

Pitcher, Dr. Zina, letter of Lucius Lyon to, 216 ; appointed member of
Board of Regents of University, 267 ; member of Board of Directors
B of State Bank, 386 ; elected mayor of Detroit, 486

Politics, partisan action on appointment of Stevens T. Mason as Secre
tary of Michigan Territory, 57-59; factional quarrel over executive
appointments, 69; organization of parties in Michigan Territory

" r^Z ' fa settlement of Michigan-<0hio boundary question, 193-194 •
lack of harmony in Michigan delegation in Congress in 1836 306-
IWj'j see also Anti-Masonic party; Constitutional Convention of
1&S5; Demo^atie-Reptiblican party ; Elections; Whig party
eare -of during cholera by father Martin Kundig, 265-266
te&oa, Negroes im Michigan Territory in 1830, 94 ; in -eastern half of
Northwest Territory in 1800, 109; in Michigan Territory in 1834
lol; see also Immigration; Michigan Territory

INDEX 527

Porter, Augustus S., elected United States Senator, 478

Porter, George B., appointed Governor of Michigan Territory, 64 ; quoted
on construction of railroads, 117; death, 118

Prison, State, provision for, 265 ; recommendation in Governor Mason's
message, 1838, 319 ; location of decided, 320-321 ; law for government
and discipline, 457

Pritchette, Kintzing, private secretary to Governor Porter, 85 ; report in
1839 as bank commissioner quoted, 381-384 ; effort for return of por
tion of five million loan bonds investigated by Whigs, 480-483

Prohibtion, see Liquor "

Public Instruction, Superintendent of, see Education ; Pierce, John D.

Railroads, see Internal improvements ; Roads

Ransom, Epaphroditus, biographical sketch, 236-238

Reed, Ebenezer, on judges of Supreme Court of Michigan Territory,
67-68

Richard, Father Gabriel, work during cholera pestilence, 83-84

Rivers, see Internal improvements

Roads, in Michigan Territory in 1830, 40 ; appropriation for in 1841, 495 ;
see also Internal improvements

Roberts, Elijah J., Brigadier General of first brigade of Patriot Army
of the Northwest, 338 ; clerk of House in 1839, 454 ; candidate for
clerk of House in 1840, 473 ; selected to help oversee publication of
compiled laws, 505

Romeyn, Theodore, testimony on five million dollar loan, 443, 499

Rowland, Thomas, elected Secretary of State, 478

Rush, Richard, mediator in Michigan-Ohio boundary dispute, 144-148

St. Mary's Falls ship canal, construction of recommended by Governor
Mason, 263 ; appropriation for in 1837, 279 ; contract let for construc
tion of, 414-415; trouble with War Department, 419-421; see also
Internal improvements

Salt industry, see Mines and minerals

Sawyer, Franklin, Jr., elected Superintendent of Public Instruction, 501

Schoolcraft, Henry R., treaty with Ottawas and Ohippewas, 252-253

Schools, see Education

Schwarz, John B., on committee to learn facts concerning Mason's age,
57; Adjutant General of Michigan, 463

Slavery, Governor Mason's message, February, 1836, 207-208; origin of
provision in Ordinance of 1787, 224-225; Governor Mason on in
1839, 456; see also Anti-slavery; Negroes

Social life, in Detroit in 1835-36, 189-191

State finances, condition in 1838, 314-315 ; in 1841, 496 ; see also Banks
and banking; Money; Panics

Steamboats, see Transportation

Stuart, Charles E., presidential elector in 1840, 491

Stuart, Robert, elected State Treasurer, 478

Suffrage, issue in Constitutional Convention of 1835, 158-160

Superintendent of Public Instruction, see Education ; Pierce, John D.

Supreme Court, dinner to retiring judges, 66-68

Territory of Michigan, see Michigan Territory

Theller, Dr. Edward A., espoused cause of Canadian Rebellion, 337

Toledo strip, jurists on Michigan's claim to, 457; see also Boundaries;
Michigan Territory

Towns, see Cities

Transportation, means of to Michigan Territory, 44-45 ; on Great Lakes
in thirties, 294-295; steam navigation on rivers in thirties, 403-404;
see also Internal improvements; Roads

§28 INDEX

Trowbridge, diaries €., quoted on !Fat|ier ^Cai^i Kundig, 120-121 ; brief
.,»;• ^©graphical skesfceji ^f, 3@0 ; vote f ©* IB 18W* 311
Tyler, Jota, vote lor to Ml«t^am ;fe 18^0^^i| ;,A S ,

f Michigan, see jatahqpott : ; ''S'VvL "^ < ' , ' L
stila, attached to I&vrer F&i$&$«]|$k fcy < Gwgre^
, Stepben, eiect«d to House in 1837, 311 ; o^P^tton 1*
<, .rn oC Texas, 325 ,< - ' - ' ^

itry Blacfc Haiwk war, T3-T8 ; last "campaigji" of tke Toledo /

1*73; ^alWolfe war, 330-361 ;
Wayme, Conixty of, organization, 108-109; dissatisfaction of citizens

e^^iaigtpjL from State of Obio, 109
We&ster, f)anlel, visit to Detroit in 1837, 295

Wells, ^ezekiab G., brief biograpnical sketch, 301; vote for in 1837,
^ 3 302; for Congressman in 1838, 448

%Mg party, organization of, 156 ; on Constitution of 1835, 163 ; State con-
c' /I venktlom^in 1837, 299-330; election campaign in 1837, 301-312; spring
• election in Detroit in 1838, 445-447 ; State convention in 1838, 448-
presidential campaign in 1840, 485-493 ; see also Democratic-Repub
lican party ; Politics
Wbipple, Judge Charles W., on unconstitutionally of general banking

law, 387

Wliite Pigeon Beet Sugar Company, loan to in 1839, 458
"Wild-cat" banks, see Banks and banking ; Panics
Williams, John R., in command of militia during Black Hawk war,

75-77 * - ' •< .- / 1 •

, Wing, Austin E., for Territorial delegate to Congress in 1833, 90-93
Wing, Warner, for United States Senator in 1839, 460-462
Wisconsin, Territorial delegate elected, 176-177

Woodbridge, William, enmity of Reed and Sheldon, ,67-68; for Terri
torial delegate to Congress on Anti-Masonic ticket in 1833, 91-93;
for Territorial delegate in 1835, 176-177 ; for Governor in 1839, 466 ;
„ vote for in 1839, 470 ; first annual message, 476-477 ; elected United
States Senator in 1841, 496-497

1 02 884