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Michigan,

Was discovered and settled by French missionaries and furtraders. As early as 1610 the site of Detroit was visited by Frenchmen, and in 1641 some Jesuits reached the falls of St. Mary. The first European settlements within the present limits of Michigan were made there by the establishment of a mission by Father Jacques Marquette (q. v.) and others in 1668. Three years later Fort Mackinaw was established, and in 1701 Detroit was founded. Michigan made slow progress in population from that time until it was made a Territory

Seal of the State of Michigan.

of the United States. It came into possession of the English by the treaty of 1763; suffered from the conspiracy of Pontiac (q. v.); and it was some time after the treaty of peace, in 1783, before the British gave up the territory. The Americans did not take possession until 1796. At first it was a part of the Northwest Territory, and afterwards it formed a part of the Territory of Indiana. It was erected into an independent Territory in 1805, with William Hull (q. v.) as its first governor. In August, 1812, it fell into the hands of the British (see Detroit), and remained so until the fall of 1813, when General Harrison reconquered it (Thames, battle of the). In consequence of alarming despatches from Hull, in Detroit, in July, 1812, a force to support him was organized at Georgetown, Ky.; but before it had crossed the Ohio news of the surrender at Detroit reached them. That event stirred the patriotic zeal of the whole Western country, and the greatest warlike enthusiasm prevailed. Volunteers gathered under local leaders in every direction. Companies were formed and equipped in a single day, and were ready to march the next. They passed over the Ohio from Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Virginia; and the governor of Ohio sent forward 2,000 men under General Tupper for the recovery of Michigan. General Harrison was appointed commander-in-chief of the Army of the Northwest. For several weeks volunteers found employment in driving the hostile Indians from post to post, in Ohio and Indiana, on the borders of the extreme western settlements. They desolated their villages and plantations, after the manner of Sullivan in 1779, and thereby incurred the fiercest indignation of the tribes.

Harrison took steps early to relieve the frontier posts—Fort Harrison, on the Wabash; Fort Wayne, at the head of the Maumee; Fort Defiance, at the junction of the Auglaize and Maumee; and Fort Deposit. At Vincennes General Hopkins had assembled about 4,000 mounted Kentucky militia to chastise the Indians on the borders of Illinois. They penetrated the Indian country beyond the Wabash; but, becoming alarmed, returned to Vincennes, and left the honors of the campaign to be gathered by Ninian Edwards, governor of the Territory of Illinois, who had advanced up the Illinois River with about 400 men to co-operate with Hopkins. He succeeded in destroying several Indian villages above Peoria. Harrison, meanwhile, was busily employed in pushing forward provisions to forts towards the lake, whence his troops were to march for concentration at the rapids of the Maumee, where another depot was to be established.

It was a miserable country to pass over —swampy, wooded, and made almost impassable by heavy rains. The troops became discontented and mutinous. Orders given to Tupper's division to advance to the Maumee Rapids were not, or could not be, obeyed; it fell back to Urbana. [178] Harrison had been very anxious to retake Detroit before winter; but the nature of the country compelled him to wait for the freeing of the swamps. Another expedition, under Hopkins, marched up the Wabash to Tippecanoe, in November, 1812; but the approach of winter and insufficient clothing of his troops compelled him to return to Vincennes after destroying one or two Indian villages. So ended in failure the effort to recover Michigan in the autumn of 1812. To this end Harrison had labored incessantly all through the months of October, November, and December.

The lands of Michigan were first brought into market for public sale in 1818, and from that time it dates its prosperity. The Territory was authorized in 1819 to send a delegate to Congress, and in the election the right of suffrage was extended to all taxable citizens. Afterwards the Indians made important territorial concessions, and in 1836 all the lower peninsula and part of the upper were freed from Indian titles. The same year Wisconsin Territory was formed from the western portion of Michigan. The legislative power of Michigan was vested in the governor and judges until 1823, when Congress transferred it to a council of nine persons, selected by the President of the United States from eighteen chosen by the citizens. The council was increased to thirteen in 1825; but two years later the citizens were allowed to elect the councillors without the interference of the President or Congress. In 1835-36 there was a territorial dispute between Ohio and Michigan that, at one time, threatened civil war; but it was settled by Congress admitting the latter into the Union as a State, on condition that it should relinquish its claim to the disputed territory and accept in its stead the upper peninsula. In January, 1837, Michigan was admitted. In 1847 the seat of government was removed from Detroit to Lansing. In 1850 a new constitution was adopted, which, with subsequent amendments, is now in force. This State took a decided stand for the Union in the anxious days of 1860. Its legislature met at the beginning of January, 1861, when its retiring governor (Moses Wisner) denounced the President of the United States as a partisan, and the Democratic party as cause of the alarm, resentment, and discontent in the South, by persistent misrepresentations of the principles and intentions of the Republican party. He declared the personal liberty act of his State to be right. “Let it stand,” he said; “this is no time for timid and vacillating counsels while the cry of treason is ringing in our ears.” The new governor (Austin Blair), who was inaugurated Jan. 3, took substantially the same ground. He recommended the legislature to take action for the support of the national government, and they responded by passing resolutions, Feb. 2, pledging to that government all the military power and material resources of the State. They expressed an unwillingness “to make compromises with traitors,” and refused to send delegates to the peace conference (q. v.). The best men of the State, serving in the Union army, redeemed this pledge. Michigan furnished to the National army, during the Civil War, 90,747 soldiers, of which number 14,823 perished. The expenditures of the State for carrying on the war were $3,784,408; by counties, cities, and townships for the same purpose, $10,173,336; and for the relief of soldiers' families by counties, $3,591,248, or a total of nearly $17,600,000. Population in 1890, 2,093,889; in 1900, 2,420,982. See United States, Michigan, in vol. IX.

Territorial governors.

Name.Term.
William Hull 1805 to 1813
Lewis Cass 1814 to 1831
George B. Porter 1831 1834
Steven T. Mason 1834 to 1835

State governors.

Steven T. Mason 1836 to 1840
William Woodbridge 1840 to 1841
James W. Gordon 1841
John S. Barry 1842 to 1846
Alpheus Felch 1846 to 1847
William L. Greenley 1847
Epaphroditus Ransom 1848 to 1850
John S. Barry 1850 to 1852
Robert McClelland 1852 to 1853
Andrew Parsons 1853 to 1855
Kingsley S. Bingham 1855 to 1859
Moses Wisner 1859 to 1861
Austin Blair 1861 to 1865
Henry H. Crapo 1865 to 1869
Henry P. Baldwin 1869 to 1873
John J. Bagley 1873 to 1877
Charles M. Crosswell 1877 to 1881
David H. Jerome 1881 to 1883
Josiah W. Begole 1883 to 1885

[179]

State governors—Continued.

Name. Term.
Russell A. Alger 1885 to 1887
Cyrus G. Luce 1887 to 1891
Edwin B. Winans 1891 to 1893
John T. Rich1893 to 1896
Hazen S. Pingree 1896 to 1900
Aaron T. Bliss 1900 to —

United States Senators.

Name. No. of Congress. Term.
Lucius Lyon24th to 25th 1837 to 1839
John Norvell 24th to 26th 1837 to 1841
Augustus S. Porter 26th to 28th 1839 to 1845
William Woodbridge 27th to 29th 1841 to 1847
Lewis Cass 29th to 30th 1845 to 1848
Thomas Fitzgerald 30th 1849
Alpheus Felch 30th to 32d 1847 to 1853
Lewis Cass 31st to 34th 1851 to 1857
Charles E. Stuart 33d to 35th 1853 to 1859
Zachariah Chandler 35th to 43d 1857 to 1875
Kinsley S. Bingham 36th1859 to 1861
Jacob M. Howard 37th to 41st 1862 to 1871
Thomas W. Ferry 42d 1871
Isaac P. Christiany 44th to 46th 1875 to 1879
Zachariah Chandler 46th 1879
Henry P. Baldwin 46th 1879 to 1881
Omar D. Conger 47th to 50th 1881 to 1887
Thomas W. Palmer 48th to 51st 1883 to 1889
Francis B. Stockbridge 50th to 53d 1887 to 1894
James McMillan 51st to — 1889 to —
John Patton, Jr. 58d to 54th 1894 to 1895
Julius C. Burrows 54th to —1895 to —

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