Swamp, and numerous avenues were opened into the interior. In consequence of these improvements, the country became better known, a spirit of speculation was awakened, and, in addition to the actual settlers, the woods were traversed by numbers in search of desirable tracts, which they purchased at the Government price, in the expectation of realizing large profits from their rapid increase in value.

The method adopted by the Government in making their surveys is one of great accuracy. Two straight lines were drawn across the territory, the one running north and south, the other east and west. The north and south line was denominated the principal meridian, and the east and west line was called the base line. The territory was then divided into townships six miles square, and these were subdivided into thirty-six sections of a square mile each, the townships being numbered in regular order, commencing at the meridian and base lines and increasing as they receded from them. The mathematical accuracy of this method, and the farther circumstance that each section and township, and also the lines of the sections, were blazed or marked upon the trees, enabled the emigrant, even in the depths of the forest, to find clear landmarks to guide his course and to ascertain the actual boundaries of each tract. The smallest lot which could be purchased was one of eighty acres, or a fractional lot made by a township line or by the course of a stream.

Prior to the year 1820, the established Government price for land was two dollars an acre, one-fourth of which was required to be paid at the time of purchase, and the remainder in three annual instalments, the land being subject to forfeiture if these were not punctually paid, while a discount of eight per cent. was allowed if the whole amount was paid in advance. This system, however, was found to be productive of serious evils. The expectation of gain induced many to make large purchases, and while some realized fortunes, perhaps, from their investments, others, who were less successful, were without the means of paying their instalments, and thus the whole became liable to forfeiture. These results led to a total change of the system. The price of the public lands was reduced from two dollars to one dollar and a quarter the acre, the whole of which was required to be paid down at the time the purchase was made. This was attended with the best effects, preventing a vast deal of trouble and loss to the Government, discouraging reckless speculation, and enabling the industrious settler with moderate means to acquire for himself a clear and unencumbered title to his land.

Meanwhile, a controversy sprang up which came near terminating in serious collision with a neighboring State. By the ordinance of 1787 it was provided that any one of the grand divisions within the limits of the Northwest Territory should be entitled to admission into the Union whenever its population amounted to sixty thousand; and Michigan having already that number of inhabitants, claimed the right thus granted. The controversy alluded to was in relation to the boundary-line between the latter and Ohio, as established by the ordinance of 1787. Each government claimed a rich and extensive tract as falling within its limits, which was made still more valuable from the proposed terminus of the Wabash and Erie canal, a work of great promise, being included within it. So much excitement, indeed, prevailed that both parties sent a military force to the disputed frontier. The people of Michigan, having called a convention and formed a State constitution, petitioned Congress to be admitted into the Union, claiming as a part of their territory the tract in dispute with Ohio. Congress, however, decided in favor of the latter State, and assigned to Michigan, in place of

the fertile strip along her southern border, about twenty-five thousand square miles of barren, mountainous country on the shores of Lake Superior.

We here conclude our brief account of Michigan as a territory. We have seen it in the infancy of its settlement, under the blighting effects of feudal institutions similar to those existing in France at that period, being then little more than a mere ranging-ground for the Jesuit missionary and the fur-trader, a waste roamed over by the wild beast and the savage, and designedly kept in this state as a shelter for the fur-bearing animals. We have seen the French banner supplanted by the red cross of England without producing any material change in the condition of the country. And, finally, we have seen the stars and stripes of our own Republic planted on the soil, and witnessed in the extraordinary improvements which have since taken place the wonder-working energies of our free institutions.

HISTORY AS A STATE AND PRESENT CONDITION.

In the foregoing pages the reader has been presented with a picture of Michigan in her youth; it now becomes our duty briefly to consider her attractions and condition as a prosperous matron. From the time when she entered the Union as a State, until she became a distinguished defender of the United States against the assaults of the Great Rebellion, the story of her career is without any peculiar incidents of misfortune or renown. In what manner, and with whose help, she defended the nation in its period of danger, will be fully set forth by another hand, in the succeeding part of this volume, while the present writer will content himself in this and the following chapters with a concise compilation from official documents of the civil affairs of the State down to the present time, together with a glance at some of its later developments.

The act of Congress which finally admitted Michigan into the Union with her constitution of September, 1835, was approved January 26, 1837, and Stevens T. Mason entered at once upon his duties as the first elective governor. Although a Virginian by birth, he had been six years identified with the territory as secretary and acting governor. He was elected governor of the prospective State, however, in October, 1835, and continued in that position until January, 1840. The estimated population of the State in 1837 was about two hundred thousand; and its area was then estimated at forty thousand square miles, which was divided into thirty-six counties. From the very start the genius of her people was exemplified by the enactment of laws, for the building of not less than four railroads, several of which, under new names, were destined to be eminently successful. And then the special attention of her legislators was turned to the cause of education. An act was passed in March of that year for the organization and support of the primary schools, thereby keeping pace with the will of Congress in setting aside for school purposes one thirty-sixth part of the public lands in the State; and, within the same month, the other important act was passed which gave existence to the University of Michigan. It was to be located at Ann Arbor, placed in charge of a board of twelve regents, originally appointed by the governor, but subsequently elected by the people, with the governor, lieutenant-governor, judges of the Supreme Court, and the chancellor of the State, as ex officio members. It was to have three departments, one of literature, science, and art; the second of law, and the third of medicine. It was to have not more than twenty-six professorships; and its support was to be derived from a grant of seventy sections of land, which the superintendent of public instruction, then in office, valued at nearly

nine hundred and twenty-two thousand dollars. Special attention was also directed to the mineral resources of the State; an appropriation of twentynine thousand dollars made for a geological survey; and the appointment of State geologist was conferred upon Dr. Douglass Houghton, who did more than any other man to make known to the world the mineral riches of Michigan. Nor were the pioneer legislators of the new State unmindful of the cause of internal improvement, for they at once passed an act establishing a board of seven commissioners for that purpose, of which the governor was made president, and that board authorized a number of surveys for railroads. For the central route, from Detroit to the mouth of the St. Joseph, they appropriated four hundred thousand dollars; for the southern route, from Monroe to New Buffalo on Lake Michigan, one hundred thousand dollars; for the northern route, from Black to Grand river, fifty thousand dollars; and at the same time legislative acts were also passed incorporating the roads between Detroit and Shiawassee, and Gibraltar and Clinton. The commendable spirit of enterprise thus manifested by the public authorities was seconded by the people at large, as may be seen by glancing at the agricultural statistics published in 1838. The rye crop, for example, amounted to 21,944 bushels; oats, 1,116,910; buckwheat, 64,022; flax, 43,826 pounds; hemp, 524 pounds; neat cattle, 89,610; horses, 14,059; sheep, 22,684; and swine, 109,096. When compared with the present, these figures seem almost insignificant, and yet they told a "flattering tale," and the absence of any allusion to the great staple of wheat will strike the reader as remarkable. It was also in 1838 that appropriations were made for the survey of the St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, and Grand rivers, with a view to the improvement of their navigation.

In 1839 the militia of the State was regularly organized, and eight divisions, with two brigades of two regiments each, were assigned to the following generals: John R. Williams, George Miles, Charles C. Hascall, John Stockton, Joseph W. Brown, Isaac E. Crary, Edwin M. Bridges, and Horace H. Comstock. Another event of this year was the completion of the Penitentiary at Jackson, which was built on the plan of the famous prison at Auburn, New York: and as to the progress of education throughout the State, the official reports gave the number of nearly thirty thousand pupils in the common schools, and the amount of money expended during the year as more than eighteen thousand dollars. With this year also terminated the administration of Governor Mason, who, besides having had the honor of inaugurating the new State, proved himself to be not only a man of ability, but a faithful friend of Michigan. He had emigrated from Virginia to the Territory in 1831, when he was appointed its secretary, in his nineteenth year, and he only lived about three years after retiring from the office of governor of the State, to which he was twice elected, and which he filled with credit and ability.

The second Governor of the State was William Woodbridge, who served in that capacity from January, 1840, to February, 1841, when he resigned to accept a seat in the United States Senate. His advent to the Territory dated as far back as 1814, when he was appointed to the post of secretary; after which, in 1819, he was elected a delegate to Congress, made a judge of the Supreme Court in 1828, took an active part in the Constitutional Convention of 1835, and was chosen in 1837 to the State Senate. After leaving the executive chair, the then lieutenant-governor, J. Wright Gordon, became the acting governor, and served as such for the balance of the term. In looking over the records, we find the leading events of this joint administra tion to have been as follows: The railroad from Detroit to Ann Arbor, a

distance of forty miles, was completed; and branches of the State University were established at Detroit, Pontiac, Monroe, Niles, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Jackson, White Pigeon, and Tecumseh. The population of the State had now risen to more than two hundred and twelve thousand, and the leading towns claimed the following numbers, viz: Detroit, nine thousand one hundred and one; Ypsilanti, two thousand four hundred and nineteen; Pontiac, nineteen hundred and four; Marshall, seventeen hundred and sixty-three; and Monroe, seventeen hundred and three. And after what manner the State was progressing in material wealth may be gathered from the subjoined figures. In 1841 the average price of wheat was seventy cents per bushel, and the crop amounted to $2,100,000: corn was sold for thirty cents, and amounted to $810,000; oats twenty cents, and the yield $800,000; hay five dollars per ton, and the amount $750,000; pork was sold for two cents per pound, and the profit was $900,000; the fur-trade amounted to $425,000: the potato crop to 2,051,000 bushels; whiskey and high-wines, $400,000; maple sugar, $83,151; fish trade, $192,000; wool, $70,000; dairies, $300,000; and home-made goods, $100,000. The exports for that year amounted to nearly four millions of dollars; and as the result of the distribution act of Congress the State became possessed of five hundred thousand acres of public land, many portions of which were selected with great care and were to become the foundation of an important revenue. Associated with the administration of Governor Gordon was the reorganization of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons, with the constitutional number of lodges. Of the early introduction of this order into the Territory of Michigan we have no satisfactory data. The Grand Lodge was first organized at Detroit June 24, 1826; was incorporated by the Legislative Council in 1827; and by a formal resolution, adopted in 1829, masonic labor was suspended. A general meeting of the Masons of the State was called for inquiry in 1840, and in 1841 the former grand officers granted dispensations for several lodges. The first grand master under the original organization was General Lewis Cass. The Grand Royal Arch Chapter was organized in 1848; the Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters was organized in 1858; and the Grand Commandery, Knights Templar, was organized January 15, 1857.

In November, 1842, commenced the administration of John S. Barry as Governor of the State, and he continued in that position until November, 1845. He was an emigrant from New England, and had been a resident of Michigan for many years; and the town in which he settled was Constantine, where he occupied a high position. During the first year of his term he had the satisfaction of seeing the university opened for the reception of students, when the charge for tuition was fixed at ninety-four and a half dollars per annum, or three hundred and seventy-eight dollars for the full course of four years. The Central and Southern Railroads were now progressing rapidly, the former having been finished to Marshall, one hundred and ten miles, and the latter to Hillsdale, sixty-eight miles. The private roads from Toledo to Adrian, and twenty-five miles of that from Detroit to Pontiac were also completed. The number of pupils reported as attending the common schools was nearly fifty-eight thousand, and the school tax for the year amounted to fifty-four thousand six hundred and forty dollars. In 1843 a State land office was established at Marshall, which was invested with the charge and disposition of all the lands belonging to the State, and to Digby V. Ball was assigned the duty of conducting the affairs of the office. In 1844 the taxable property of the State was found to be $28,554,282, the tax being at the rate of two mills on the dollar; the expenses of the State amounted to seventy thousand dollars; the income from the two railroads

was about three hundred thousand dollars; the University had now become so prosperous that its income was ample to pay the interest on the University stock; and the amount of money which the State was able to loan to the several progressing railroads was one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Renewed efforts were now made to increase the efficiency of the common schools, and those who were acquainted with them were beginning to see that the schools of Michigan would be but little behind those of the Eastern States. In 1845 the population of the State had nearly reached three hundred and five thousand, which was a gain in five years of not less than ninety-two thousand; and in his message to the Legislature Governor Barry stated that the indebtedness of the State amounted to $4,077,177, while its resources reached $4,150,000.

The successor of Governor Barry was Alpheus Felch, who took the executive chair in November, 1845, and continued in it until March 3d, 1847, when he resigned to accept a seat in the United States Senate. He emigrated from Maine to Michigan when quite young, and as early as 1836 became identified with public affairs, first as a member of the Legislature, then as a bank commissioner, as auditor-general of Michigan, and also as a judge of the Supreme Court. The leading incidents of his administration was the sale to private corporations of the two railroads belonging to the State, the Central having brought two millions of dollars and the Southern road five hundred thousand dollars. It was in 1846 that the University library was enriched with a choice collection of about five thousand volumes purchased in Europe; the exports for that year amounted to $4,647,608; the tonnage of vessels enrolled in the collection district of Detroit was 26,928 tons; the steam-vessels numbering 8,400 and the sailing vessels 18,527, the whole of them giving employment to eighteen thousand seamen. In 1847 the counties in the State numbered thirty-nine, and the townships four hundred and thirty-five, of which two hundred and seventy were supplied with good libraries, containing in the aggregate thirty-seven thousand volumes. Indeed the common schools seem to have prospered beyond all expectations, for now the scholars numbered about ninety-eight thousand pupils, and in the 2,869 districts were employed twelve hundred male teachers and nearly two thousand female teachers. During the unexpired nine months of Governor Felch's term, the Lieutenant Governor, William L. Greenley, performed the duties of governor. It was while this administration existed that the war with Mexico was commenced and terminated; and in answer to the requisition from the War Department Michigan furnished to the cause one regiment of volunteers, commanded by Thomas W. Stockton, and one independent company, at a cost of about ten thousand five hundred dollars. The people were willing to volunteer, but owing to the imperfection of the militia laws the troops were obtained with some difficulty. In November, 1847, Epaphroditus Ransom became the Governor of Michigan, and served out his term of two years to November, 1849. He was a New England man, and had served in the Michigan Legislature. It was his privilege to sign the bills for establishing the Asylum for the Insane at Flint, and also the Asylum for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind at Kalamazoo, both of which institutions were liberally endowed with lands, and each of them placed in charge of a board of five trustees. The appropriation in 1869 for the deaf and dumb and blind amounted to $81,500. On the first of March, 1848, the first telegraph line was completed from New York to Detroit, and the first despatch transmitted on that day.

With regard to the agricultural interests of the State, their progress was quite unprecedented; and for the benefit of comparison with previous as