OUTLINES

OF THE

POLITICAL HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY.

THE political history of Michigan, as a community governed by its own laws, dates back but half a century. In the summer of 1824 the first Legislative Council met, composed of nine members, selected by the President and confirmed by the Senate of the United States out of eighteen persons chosen by the voters of Michigan Territory. In 1827, for the first time a Council of thirteen sat, who were chosen directly by popular vote. Since that time the affairs of the people have been controlled by their own representatives, subject, during the territorial stage, to a veto of the Governor appointed by the United States, and to revision by Congress; and since the organization of the State to a qualified veto by their own Governor.

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INTERESTING ERA.

[CHAP. I.

If that only is political history which covers the life of the people as a political commonwealth, it would be safe to begin at the period of enfranchisement, and to confine our attention to the fortunes of this region since that time. The whole population of European descent was then less than twenty thousand. The cultivated lands, if placed together, would not have covered a single county. For about half the year there was no intercourse with the outer world. The completion of the Erie Canal was opening the way for that great course of emigration which has since brought into the West more people than were at that time to be found in all the Northern States; and for some years thereafter a large share of those who left New York and New England to find new homes in the Northwest settled in Michigan. Several of our flourishing

towns were founded then or soon after.

The times were notable for other reasons. Some disputed questions of boundary and indemnity under treaties with Great Britain had just been determined, and the line between the British and American islands in the dividing waters of this frontier had been ascertained, so that the limits of our jurisdiction were fixed for the first time.

The completed half century of the republic found us in treaty relations with the Empire of Russia, and with the new American Republics of North and South America, which our example

CHAP. I.]

ORIGIN OF INSTITUTIONS.

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The first combined

had led to independence. arrangements had been made with Great Britain for checking the slave trade, which the completion of the century finds practically abolished. The history of Michigan, from that period, is one of very rapid progress, and the last fifty years have been remarkable years for the whole civilized world.

But the earliest days of the life of any people must always have some influence on the future, and usually one which determines in no small degree the character of popular institutions and progress. The institutions of the United States are mostly natural developments from those of the earliest settlements; and those, again, were modifications of the older British customs, which have been vigorous and adaptable since times more distant than any of which we have complete histories.

The settlements in Michigan were made very early, and the Canadian annals, to which our first history belongs, date back of most of those of the English colonies. The beginnings of Canadian colonization appeared more promising than those of New England or Virginia. None of the thirteen commonwealths that declared their independence had ever been watched by Great Britain. with that solicitude which was spent on the French provinces by their home government, or which has been bestowed on Canada since the other British possessions separated from it.

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EARLY FRENCH WRITERS.

[CHAP. I.

If the commonwealths within the United States. prospered under neglect, and their neighbors suffered from too much home attention, perhaps the experience of a region which has been through both experiences may not be altogether without value as an example of what may be followed, and what may be shunned.

The leading features of the colonial history of Michigan, so far as they show its experience in matters of government, may be given briefly. No sketch would be complete without them. The purposes of this outline will not allow an extended narrative of those romantic adventures which add so much life to the annals of this

region. Historians have loved to dwell upon them, and under the hands of such artists as Parkman they have assumed the shape and color of present reality. served many brilliant events of their times.

The older writers have pre

sketches of the remarkable Hennepin, always graphic, if not always reliable, was one of the first, if not the very first, who gave a minute description of the country about the great lakes, and who detailed the beginnings of La Salle's discoveries more faithfully than their sequel. La Hontan, who has also been charged with exaggeration in some things, and with some sheer inventions, is nevertheless fully corroborated by other witnesses, in a great part of his personal narrative, so far as it concerns our affairs. Charlevoix, who was historian as well as traveller, has left works of sterling

CHAP. I.]

COLONIAL DISCORDS.

5

merit and great interest, and his style is very attractive. He too has left much unsaid, and has, probably without sinister intentions, colored his picture according to the strong prejudices of his order.

The discoveries made among the old records of the Department of the Marine, and in family and other collections, have rendered much of the old histories very unreliable. These papers, which are now coming to the light, show a very strange condition of affairs. There seems never to have been a time when harmony prevailed among all the influential persons or authorities. The Governor was frequently and perhaps generally at war with the Intendant, upon questions of vital policy. The ecclesiastics were opposed to the views of the civil officers, and the religious orders were arrayed secretly or openly against each other. Official letters written in one sense were qualified by private despatches in another. Every leading man had spies upon his conduct, who were themselves watched by other spies. The whole truth seldom reached France from any source; and the only means of redress open to many of the leading spirits of the colony against those who persistently thwarted the Royal intentions in their favor, was a personal appeal to the King or his ministers in the mother country. As it was shrewdly remarked by one of the ministers, the King's orders lost their force when they crossed the Bank.