VII. Outline of the plan of study Having chosen Michigan and Ohio as typical states, and Detroit and Cleveland as typical cities, for the study of American municipal government in its constitutional relations, I will devote the following chapters to a somewhat detailed consideration of the course of development of the relations between city and commonwealth in the two states. First, the adoption of constitutional provisions and the debates of conventions in Michigan will be discussed. Then the chapter on the doctrine of local self-government in Michigan will show the interpretation given to the constitutional provisions by the Supreme Court. In like manner two chapters on Ohio will deal with the adoption of constitutional provisions and their interpretation by the legislature and the Supreme Court. After this a chapter each will be devoted to the charters of Detroit and Cleveland, and another chapter will present a review and summary of the main features of their governmental experience. The last two chapters will be more theoretical, presenting a few general conclusions in regard to the elements of a city charter and the relation of the city to the state. CHAPTER II. CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS FOR CITIES IN MICHIGAN. MICHIGAN was admitted to the Union as a state in 1837, under a constitution adopted for that purpose two years earlier. In those times municipal corporations had as yet attained constitutional recognition in very few of the states. The only restriction imposed by the first Michigan constitution on the discretion of the legislature in providing for the government of cities and towns was the general provision that no act of incorporation should be passed without the assent of at least two-thirds of each house of the legislature.1 I. The Convention of 1850, and its work. In the years preceding 1850 Michigan was not exempt from the general corporation craze, and the reactionary distrust that caused so many constitutional prohibitions of special incorporation acts. At the same time there seems to have been a steady growth in the popular faith in local self-government. This led to a careful distinction in the constitution of 1850 between private and municipal corporations. The question of prohibiting special legislation for cities seems not to have been seriously debated in the convention. It is true, a motion was made to introduce this section, "It shall be the duty of the legislature to provide by general laws for the organization and regulation of cities and villages."3 But the proposition was voted down almost at once after a delegate "asked if gentle 343] 1 Constitution of 1835, art. xii, sec. 2. 2 Constitution of 1850, art. xv, secs. 1, 8 and 10. 3 Convention Debates, 1850, p. 595. 25 men really thought it possible to make a general law applicable to all the particular cases that must necessarily arise. The wisdom of Minerva and of the gentleman from Kent combined could not do it." The most important action taken by the convention was in regard to the right of local autonomy. The following provisions were adopted by the convention and are the constitutional law of the municipalities of the state to-day: (1) "The legislature may confer upon organized townships, incorporated cities and villages, and upon the board of supervisors of the several counties, such powers of a local, legislative and administrative character as they may deem proper."a (2) "Municipal courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction may be established by the legislature in cities."3 (3) "The legislature shall provide for the incorporation and organization of cities and villages, and shall restrict their powers of taxation, borrowing money, contracting debts, and loaning their credit." 4 (4) "Judicial officers of cities and villages shall be elected and all other officers shall be elected or appointed at such time and in such manner as the legislature may direct."5 (5) "Private property shall not be taken for public improvements in cities or villages without the consent of the owner, unless the compensation therefor shall first be determined by a jury of freeholders, and actually paid or secured in the manner provided by law."6 (6) "Previous notice of any application for an alteration of the charter of any corporation shall be given in such manner as may be provided by law." 7 The most important, perhaps, of these provisions, was the 1 Convention Debates, 1850, p. 596. ? Constitution of Mich., art. iv, sec. 38. 4 Ibid., art. xv, sec. 13. • Ibid., art. xv, sec. 15. 3 Ibid., art. vi, sec. I. fourth. As first adopted by the convention and referred to the "Committee on Phraseology and Arrangement," it read thus: "All judicial officers of cities and villages shall be elected at such time and in such manner as the legislature may direct. All other officers of such cities and villages shall be elected by the electors thereof, or appointed by such authorities thereof as the legislature shall designate for that purpose." The committee reported it back to the convention in much briefer form: "Officers of cities and villages shall be elected at such times and in such manner as the legislature may direct." On motion of Mr. McClelland, of Detroit, it was amended to its present form. It was the particular desire of the convention to guarantee the popular election of all judicial officers, for they had been the last to yield to the growing tide of democratic feeling. It was also seen that some municipal officers might be better appointed than elected, and for the sake of brevity the manner of their appointment was left simply to the discretion of the legislature. The first provision also, which gave the legislature authority to delegate local legislative and administrative powers, was important. It seems to have been intended to encourage the granting of large privileges of local autonomy, which some thought the legislature was hardly authorized to provide for in the absence of special constitutional provisions. II. The Convention of 1867. Another convention met in 1867, and adopted a constitution which the people rejected. Its provisions and the debates over them are valuable, however, as furnishing an index of the growth in importance of the city problem, and as showing the remedies that suggested themselves to the constitution-makers of thirty years ago. In the early days of the convention a resolution was introduced to the effect, "That the committee I Convention Debates, 1850, p. 594. Ibid., p. 904. on organization and government of cities and villages be instructed to inquire into the expediency of requiring the legislature to provide for the organization of cities and villages, by general laws, and prohibiting amendments thereof of a merely local character." Later, when the article on the Legislative Department was being considered, it was moved to add to the section authorizing the grant of powers to local bodies, copied from the constitution of 1850, the words: "The legislature shall provide by general laws for organizing townships, cities and villages, on such conditions and subject to such regulations as may be prescribed. No special acts to create any such organization, or defining their powers, except cities containing over 10,000 inhabitants, shall hereafter be passed by the legislature." In the discussion of this proposition many objections were raised to any cast-iron rule, because of the diversity of needs in various cities and villages. The delegate who had introduced the resolution quoted above, interpreted the plan now under discussion as meaning that the legislature could make a skeleton of law, to be filled in by the particular localities, according to their needs. In the objections raised against the measure, the American idea of enumerated powers comes out very strongly, in the assumption that a general law could not enumerate all the provisions required by all the localities. The second part of the proposition was voted down, thirty-one to twenty-one. In the consideration of the article on cities and villages, taken up in committee of the whole later, the chief debate on municipal matters took place. The first question arose on a motion to put “restrict" in place of “regulate" in the section requiring the legislature to regulate the financial powers of cities and villages.3 It was argued that "regulate" gave the legislature a more extended power over the internal affairs of 1 Convention Debates, 1867, vol. i. p. 76. 2 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 95. |