VOL. III.

No. 3.

WHILE the errors of the past constitute the wisest lessons of the future, the following episode in western history may be read with profit. The story is not new, but may derive some additional interest from the individual experience of the writer.

The years 1835, 1836 and 1837 were to Michigan one of those "periods of unexampled prosperity" with which our country has been periodically favored. In its character and results no better example has occurred in our history. This prosperous condition had begun to manifest itself in the extraordinary demand for wild lands, and in the sudden appreciation of the immense advantages possessed by a great number of places in the "west," and particularly in newly opened Michigan, for the building up of large cities. That the Peninsula possessed unequalled "water privileges" could not be doubted by anyone who recognized its position on

the map of the United States, almost surrounded by the waters of the great lakes. Interior lakes, too, were numerous, and large and rapid streams everywhere intersected the land. At least this was the case so far as the country was known, for the government surveys had extended over not more than onethird of its surface. These surveys had opened to sale at the low price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, a most beautiful and varied country of "oak-openings" and timbered lands, with occasional small rolling prairies, all interspersed with lakes and streams. What a mine of wealth lay in a few thousand, or even a few hundred acres of such lands at the low price of a dollar and a quarter per acre.

From the very beginning of the period we are considering, and even before, a steady stream of immigration had begun to pour into the territory. It consisted mostly of people of means and

respectability from the older states, led by the prospect of cheaper lands. Wagons loaded with household goods and surmounted by a live freight of women and children—the men trudging on foot-were constantly entering by the almost only door, Detroit, in great numbers, bound for some paradise in the new Eldorado. A curious spectacle at one time presented itself-literally a drove of men-Frenchmen from lower Canada-taken on by an adventurer to be settled upon the River St. Joseph, at the mouth of which, in the olden time, their countrymen had built a "fort" among the savages. Each had his pack, bound up in a blanket, upon his shoulders, and the baggage followed in a wagon, for the United States government had opened a road in that direction leading from Detroit to Chicago.

Men who never before saw a wilderness were tempted to set forth, on horseback and on foot, in the spirit which prompted so many gentlemen adventurers, in the early settlement of the New World, to swell the ranks of the colonists-the prospect of speedy and golden fortunes. The numbers that

crowded to the search soon converted the ordinary slow process into a race.

Three land offices had been opened by the government in Michigan-one at Detroit, one at Monroe, another near the western extremity of the known portion of the territory at Kalamazoo, then called Bronson. The strife and eagerness which prevailed at these offices passed all sober bounds. They were besieged long before the hour

arrived for opening; crowds of anxious faces gathered about the doors and blocked up the windows, each eager to make "entry" of some splendid tract of farming land, or better still, some magnificent site for a town, before an equally greedy speculator should discover and pounce upon the treasure.

One of these land-lookers, who had been for days traversing the woods and "taking notes," if he chanced to fall in with some one who was suspected of having seen the coveted tract, secretly hurried off, in the dead of night, determined to steal a march upon the others and secure the prize. Often, after an exhausting ride and a still more tedious waiting for his turn, he obtained his chance at the window, only to learn that a more wary applicant had been beforehand with him. What exaltation if he found himself in time! What execration upon his ill fate if too late! At the hotels were gathered animated crowds, from all quarters of the country, of speculators in lands. Every one who had secured some fortunate entry was busily proclaiming his good luck, and calculating his gains. The less fortunate, and those who were unable to convert themselves into woodsmen, were satisfied to take the accounts of others on trust, and buy at second hand, of course at a very large advance, expecting in their turn to realize a handsome increase.

Beautifully engraved maps of new city plots were executed in all haste, on which the contemplated improvements were laid down. Hotels, warehouses and banks were here erected, like

palaces in fairy land; piers projected into the harbors, and steamboats were seen entering. Wherever a crowd could be collected auctioneers were knocking down lots to eager buyers, and happy was he who secured one with a "fine water privilege," at a price a thousand fold beyond its first cost of a few days before. Nor were these improvements all upon paper. In an incredibly short time small clearings had been effected, a town plat surveyed-often half a hundred miles from the nearest actual settler-and shingle palaces arose in the wilderness, or amid the burned stumps that were left for time to remove. Prominent among these, and often the only buildings erected preliminary to the sale of lots, were a hotel and a bank.

At the admission of Michigan into the Union, in 1836, the territory contained fifteen chartered banks, with a population estimated at nearly one hundred and fifty thousand. These banks were all authorized to issue "currency." Why should these few enjoy a monopoly of so good a thing as money, which benefited all alike, and of which there could not be too much? Consequently one of the first acts of the new state government, March, 1837, was to pass a general banking law. Thus by a bold stroke monopoly was abolished, while bill-holders were made exceptionally secure by a pledge of real estate. Of Of this everybody held large quantities, and nothing had proved so convertible. Confidence in it was unbounded. Of course every proprietor of a "city" started a bank.

These became so numerous that

money was one of the most plentiful of commodities. The new currency was made redeemable in gold and silver, and every bank was required to keep in its vaults thirty per cent. of its circulation in the precious metals. When to these precautions was added the real estate pledged for the redemption of the bills, and the whole placed under the supervision of commissioners specially appointed, and who were to visit and examine the banks every few months, could reasonable man ask for more ample security?

The banks of eastern states also had a large circulation in the west, and they expanded to the full extent of their powers. The effect of such rapid increase of the circulating medium was to enhance prices of all commodities, and to stimulate speculation. Money became flush in every pocket, and all who had "the fever"—and few had notwere anxious to invest and own one or more of these farms and city lots that were held at such high value, and were making every holder rich. Poor women, who had accumulated a little spare cash, widows and sewing girls were only too thankful when some kind friend volunteered to put them in the way of realizing some such fortunate investment. The southern counties of Michigan were speedily bought up, and the government surveys were not rapid enough to satisfy the greed.

Stimulated by the abounding sunshine, the state, too, had entered the arena, in its official capacity, and undertaken a vast system of internal improvements, for which its bonds were outstanding to