Michigan Territory

“ All laws now in force in the territory of Michigan, which are not repugnant to this constitution, shall remain in force until they expire by their own limitations, or be altered or repealed by the legislature. ”

“ In the four years, 1832 to 1836, the entire region from the Illinois line north to the Wisconsin, the Fox, and Green Bay, and from the Mississippi to Lake Michigan, was checked off into townships and sections. Hardy, resourceful government surveyors, with their crews (usually two chainmen and one axman) traversed every square mile, whether prairie, forest, valley, or bluff. In 1834 a land office was opened at Mineral Point for the sale of lands in the western portion of Michigan Territory (as it was then) . ”

“ In 1833, the people of Michigan, a territory ten times the size of Connecticut, announced that the time had come for them to enjoy the privileges of a commonwealth. All along the southern border the land had been occupied largely by pioneers from New England, who built prim farmhouses and adopted the town-meeting plan of self-government after the fashion of the old home. The famous post of Detroit was growing into a flourishing city as the boats plying on the Great Lakes carried travelers, settlers, and freight through the narrows. ”

“ In the Ordinance of 1787, providing for the administration of the Northwest Territory, we have only the familiar general declaration that: "Schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged," but an ordinance adopted ten days later provided that in addition to the school lot in every township: "Not more than two complete townships are to be given perpetually for the purposes of a University, to be laid off by the purchaser or purchasers as near the center as may be, so that the same shall be of good land to be applied to the intended object by the Legislature of the State." ”

“ Suppose you deprive the people of Michigan of a territory to which they all believe, however erroneously, they have a right, and transfer it to Ohio, and then drive them from your door and refuse to admit them into the Union; can any Senator here view the probable consequences with composure? They are a high-spirited and manly people. ”

“ Michigan thus existed as a separate Territory for fifteen years with a population less than half as great as that of western Wisconsin now. Each of the above named Territories, now grown into populous and prosperous States, were organized into separate Territories with much less population than that of western Wisconsin, at a time too when the nation was burdened with a debt of many millions.
“Your memorialists therefore pray for the organization of a separate territorial government over that part of Wisconsin Territory lying west of the Mississippi River.” ”

“ Each of the 34 districts shall elect 1 senator. Counties entitled to 2 or more senators shall be divided into senatorial districts as herein provided equal to the number of senators to be elected; said districts shall contain as nearly as may be an equal number of inhabitants and shall consist of convenient and contiguous territory; and said districts shall be arranged during the year 1953, by the board of supervisors in such counties assembled at such time and place as prescribed by law.
Representatives ”

“ Michigan.Territory of Michigan.—For a lighthouse on a proper site at Pottawatamie island, situated at the entrance of Green Bay, in Lake Michigan, five thousand dollars. For securing and completing the foundation of the lighthouse on Turtle island, in Lake Erie, two thousand dollars. ”

“ The legislature shall provide by law for the dissolution of township government whenever all the territory of an organized township is included within the boundaries of a village or villages notwithstanding that a village may include territory within another organized township and provide by law for the classification of such village or villages as cities. ”

“ Every stockholder in a bank is made individually liable to the amount of his stock at its par value in addition to the said stock. And all banks are subject to the inspection and supervision of the commissioner of the state banking department, who is appointed by the governor with the approval of the Senate for a term of four years.
History.—From 1613 until 1760 the territory now within the borders of Michigan formed a part of New France, and the first Europeans to found missions and settlements within those borders were Frenchmen. ”

“ In Michigan, nearly all the ceded lands have been surveyed and brought into market. The unsurveyed portion is situated in the neighborhood of Saginaw bay; a part of which may be ready for market within the current year.
In the Wisconsin Territory, west of lake Michigan, all the lands in the Wisconsin district, which lies between the state of Illinois and the Wisconsin river, have been surveyed; and in addition to the lands already offered for sale in the Green Bay district, about 65 townships, and fractional townships, have been surveyed and are ready for market. ”

“ Secondly, that was it not for the purpose of comprehending the settlement of Detroit within the jurisdiction of the new government a more compact and better shaped District for a State would be for the above described line to proceed from the Miami Fort and village along the river of that name to Lake Erie, leaving in that case the settlement of Detroit and all the territory north of the rivers Miami and St Joseph's between the Lakes Erie, St Clair, Huron, and Michigan to form hereafter another State equally large, compact and water bound. ”

“ Michigan.In Michigan.—From Monroe, by way of Raisinville, Kidzie’s Grove, and Adrian, to Tecumseh, in the territory of Michigan. From Detroit, through Mount Clemens, to Fort Gratiot. From Maumee, in Ohio, through Blissfield, Tecumseh, Saline, and Ann Arbor, to Pontiac. ”

“ After the War of 1812 was over, the Northwestern Territory was held by our Government by a kind of military occupation for some twenty years, when, the Indian title having been extinguished, white settlers began to occupy Northern Illinois and Wisconsin. The Sacs and Foxes, having repented of their surrender of this fair country, reentered it in 1832, but after a short contest were expelled and driven westward, and the working period commenced. Large cities have sprung up on the Lake shores, and the broad expanse of Lake Michigan is now whitened by a thousand sails ”

“ There is evidence of acts of dominion and possession of some of the disputed islands while Wisconsin was yet a territory. Almost from the day of her admission, the state has continuously possessed, asserted title, and exercised jurisdiction and dominion over all of the islands within the boundary claimed by her. ”

“ Whenever any question is required to be submitted by a political subdivision to the electors for the increase of the ad valorem tax rate limitation imposed by Section 6 of Article IX for a period of more than five years, or for the issue of bonds, only electors in, and who have property assessed for any ad valorem taxes in, any part of the district or territory to be affected by the result of such election or electors who are the lawful husbands or wives of such persons shall be entitled to vote thereon. All electors in the district or territory affected may vote on all other questions. ”

“ Let the old world bid them God speed in their work. Only it would be well if they could be brought to acknowledge from whence they have learned all that they know.
Our route lay right across the State to a place called Grand Haven on Lake Michigan, from whence we were to take boat for Milwaukee, a town in Wisconsin on the opposite or western shore of the lake. Michigan is sometimes called the Peninsular State from the fact that the main part of its territory is surrounded by Lakes Michigan and Huron, by the little Lake St. ”

“ Michigan looks broad and blue as the Mediterranean. Large farm-houses stud the country, and houses which must be the retreat of merchants and citizens of means; and when the train, leaving the land altogether, dashes out on a pier and causeway built along the borders of the lake, we see lines of noble houses, a fine boulevard, a forest of masts, huge isolated piles of masonry, the famed grain elevators by which so many have been hoisted to fortune, churches and public edifices, and the apparatus of a great city ”

“ No organized county shall ever be reduced by the organization of new counties to less than sixteen townships as surveyed by the United States, unless in pursuance of law, a majority of electors residing in each county to be affected thereby shall so decide. The legislature may organize any city into a separate county, when it has attained a population of twenty thousand inhabitants, without reference to geographical extent, when a majority of the electors of a county in which such city may be situated, voting thereon shall be in favor of a separate organization. ”

“ Nearly one half the area of Pennsylvania and Virginia is within its limits. Michigan is united with it by the Wisconsin River, and Texas by the Red River; whilst Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, Wisconsin, Illinois, Tennessee, and Mississippi, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Louisiana, and Arkansas own almost exclusively its sway.
And who will dare erect the feeble barriers designed to seclude the great valley and its products from either ocean, the Lakes, or the Gulf, or persuade her to hold these essential rights and interests by the wretched tenure of the will of any seceding State? ”

“ It would seem that her natural destiny was with Wisconsin, or some possible new State embracing the iron and copper, forest and shipping areas of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota on Lake Superior. The lower peninsula of Michigan is the daughter of New York and over twelve per cent of Michigan's present population were born in that State, and her traits are those of the parent State. Over half her population is of foreign parentage, of which Canada and England together have furnished one-half, while the Germans outnumber any other single foreign element. ”

“ The purpose of the statute of Michigan is to assess the forest products of the state,-things which are a part of the general property of the state. Those 'in transit' are assessable according to their destination. ”

“ Michigan is greatly undervalued because greatly unknown. The tide of emigration sweeps past us to Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, because the public do not know—what is but the sober truth—that Michigan possesses advantages unrivaled by any sister State in the Northwest, and an undeveloped wealth that will far exceed any one of those named. ”

“ Michigan is the place for you. It is the home of the Sweet Singer and the abiding place of the Detroit Free Press. We can't throw any such influences around you here as those you have at your own door.
Do not despair, Rosalinde. Some day a man, with a great, warm, manly heart and a pair of red steers, will see you and love you, and he will take you in his strong arms and protect you from the Michigan climate, just as devotedly as any of our people here can. ”

“ Nevertheless this growth was at first slow and it was not until Michigan became a state in 1837 that the rapid increase in settlers from New York and New England changed so completely the character of the people that it became in a few years a predominantly agricultural, instead of a primitive fur-trading community. ”

“ In these acts of Congress, and especially that of June 23, 1836, the proceedings of the people of Michigan are spoken of as valid. The constitution is mentioned as one 'which the people have formed,' and propositions are submitted to the 'legislature of the State of Michigan,' &c., &c. ”

“ Why Michigan was not occupied by New York men at an earlier period is at first sight not easy to understand. Perhaps the adverse reports of surveyors who visited the interior of the State, the partial geographical isolation, and the unprogressive character of the French settlers account for the tardy occupation of the area. Certain it is that while the southern tier of States was sought by swarms of settlers, Wisconsin and Michigan still echoed to Canadian boating-songs, and voyageurs paddled their birch canoes along the streams of the wilderness to traffic with the savages. ”

“ Michigan occupies an exceptional position. Lying within the embrace of the three largest of the Great Lakes, it possesses a coast line longer in proportion to its area than that of any other state in the Union. Further, the coast waters possess many good harbors and are navigable for large craft. Ships of 2000 tons can sail within sight of land all round the State. The surface of the State is in general level and monotonous, the northern peninsula being somewhat rugged and rocky. ”

“ The Chief of the Michigans, a huge black-bearded man with an enormous voice, bellowed suddenly for silence. In seconds the place was absolutely quiet, except for the shuffle of men closing in to see and hear a little better.
"Sawyer of the Missouris has something to tell you," shouted Michigan. "You listen hard. Because what he's got to say will make the difference whether we fight or hold our peace." ”

“ The act has subserved its purpose, and has become extinct; and whatsoever has followed in no wise rests on a foundation so frail. The delegates invoked assembled in May, 1835. They devised the form of a constitution and State government. They defined the boundaries within which it should extend. They demanded of Congress, in proper and set phrase, that their proceedings should be sanctioned and confirmed; and that Michigan, thus constituted, should take her place as a recognized member of the Union. ”