of the state was doubled, and lands in enormous quantities were held for speculation, much of it under purchase money mortgages far exceeding actual value.

The story of what followed, if given in detail, would show how, to realize the flattering hopes of speedy wealth, the state was induced, under the leadership of its sanguine governor, to enter upon an extensive system of internal improvements by canal and railroad, when it had not money to dig a mile of ditch or build a mile of road; how for this purpose it mortgaged its future by a loan far beyond its ability. to pay even the interest; how bonds were issued for this loan and by a breach of trust put upon the market when only a moiety of the loan had been received; and how to meet its current expenses and interest resort was had to state scrip of doubtful constitutionality. The great crash soon came, when the bubble of speculation broke. The market value of land went down faster than it had even gone up; wild lands became unsalable at any price; debts contracted in buying them bankrupted the purchasers, and the over-trading which had been a part of the general inflation was succeeded by such sharp reactions. as made disaster general. In two years from the time when speculation was at its highest, and expectation most buoyant, the business of the state was prostrate; credit, public and private, destroyed, bankruptcy general, and large numbers of persons looking about anxiously for the means of subsistence. Only among the officers of the law, who were busy in bringing suits and serving writs, was prosperity apparent, and they had found their harvest time.

The bubble had burst, but another that had been inflated at the same time to dangerous proportions was now further expanded as a means of relief. And here we open another chapter of state history which can only be mentioned, but not entered upon: the chapter which concerns that species of financiering appropriately termed wildcat banking-banking without legitimate banking means or convertible security, and therefore only calculated to play the part of a beast of prey. Enormous amounts of worthless paper were issued; the wild banking and the wild speculating going on hand in hand until the latter collapsed, threatening to pull down the worthless banking system with it, when the legislature interfered and authorized suspension of bank payments. Even then the process of creating banks was not stopped, and the extraordinary spectacle was witnessed of banks coming into existence in a state of suspensionborn bankrupt and lifeless except for plunder. Before the year was over in which the state was admitted to the Union, it had gone

1

through all the stages of unreasoning speculation; it had been compelled to refuse recognition of state obligations disposed of without consideration received, though the refusal subjected it to a plausible but unjust charge of repudiation; it had begun railroads and canals it had no means to construct and did not yet need, and it had legalized a great brood of banks which had flooded the country with dishonored currency now sinking rapidly to utter worthlessness. Such was the mortifying results of the attempt to find an easier road to wealth and greatness than by the common highway which industry and frugality open. The suffering from the collapse of this fictitious prosperity was general, but here, as in all similar cases, losses from bad currency fell in largest measure upon persons of limited means, who had fewest opportunities to keep advised of what was com'ng, or to provide against it when it was perceived.

At the beginning of 1839 the lowest depths had been reached and the golden visions which had dazzled the eyes of the people had faded away. State and people alike were oppressed by debt, and the public works were unfinished and unprofitable. Nothing but a long course of sober and persistent industry, with strict economy, could bring effectual relief. But reason was now restored, and it was an inspiriting spectacle to see with what unhesitating confidence the people put the past behind them, and beginning at the very bottom, applied themselves to planting, in steady labor, in frugal living and in honest dealing, the foundation of public and individual prosperity.

The errors of Governor Mason as executive are very patent, but in some particulars he is to be highly commended. He was a man of public spirit and good purposes, and had the best interests of the state at heart. His judicial appointments, among which were those of George Morell, Epaphroditus Ransom and Elon Farnsworth, were excellent, and he did an incalculable service to the state when he made John D. Pierce superintendent of public instruction, and gave him the assistance he needed in putting in force his views upon common school and university education. And here he had the help of Isaac E. Crary, the first representative of the state in congress, well qualified by culture and ability to be a safe adviser. Nor must we forget that it was during the administration of Governor Mason that a geological survey of the state was provided for and put in charge of that enthusiastic student of nature, Douglas Houghton -a survey which has been carried on to this day with most valuable results. The good he did, therefore, fully justifies the warm

place the boy governor of the state still holds in the hearts of the people.

The financial crash carried down with it the Democratic party, which had been in power when madness ruled the public councils. In the election of 1839 William Woodbridge, a native of Connecticut, was chosen governor. He had been in the territory twenty-five years, and had held the offices of territorial secretary, delegate in congress and judge of the territorial supreme court, which last office President Jackson had taken from him to confer upon one of his own supI orters. He did not serve out his term as governor, being transferred to the Federal senate to succeed John Norvel, who, with Lucius Lyon, had been the first members. Mr. Lyon had previously given place to Aug. S. Porter. Lieutenant-Governor J. Wright Gordon then became governor.

The Democratic party was restored to power by the election of 1841, with John S. Barry as governor. Mr. Barry was a native of Vermont, who in agricultural and mercantile pursuits had acquired a reputation for a prudence not too narrow to be thrifty, for methodical business habits and for integrity. He had been sufficiently in public life to be known to the people of the state, and his characteristics seemed to indicate him as a suitable man for executive at a time when the people were still burdened with public and private debts, and when, in the management of public affairs, strict economy and accurate business habits were of the first importance. He was not chosen for popular manners, for he neither had them nor apparently cared to acquire them, but he was, nevertheless, reëlected in 1843 and again recalled to the office in 1849, after having been four years in retirement.

The administration of Governor Barry was eminently useful to the state. It gave to the state an illustration of rigid economy and careful method in the management of public affairs, which determined the character of financial management for the state thereafter. It was of value also for its influence upon private habits and expenditures, and the state and the people from that time went on steadily and strongly in the direction of improvement and accumulation. The times demanded an executive to whom the facile and flattering tongue of the demagogue was denied, but who could make austere and uncompromising public virtues acceptable to the people, and Governor Barry fully met its requirements.

In the election of 1845 Alpheus Felch, a native of Maine, still living, and worthily associated with state history from the first, was made

Governor Barry's successor. Under his administration the state relieved itself by sale of the incubus of its railroads. The sale was demanded by a public sentiment practically unanimous, and it has never been regretted. The state was at once put in condition which made payment of its indebtedness easy, and its financial credit became unquestioned and unquestionable. And now for a second time the state lost a good executive by the transfer of the governor to the Federal senate. William L. Greenly, the lieutenant-governor, succeeded him, giving way, in 1848, to Judge Ransom, a native of Massachusetts, who had retired from the bench three years previously.

The old pioneers of the state were gratified by the nomination of Governor Cass to the Presidency in 1848, naturally preferring him, as they did, to any other candidate of his party. The governor, after serving in the cabinet of President Jackson, had been sent as minister to France, and on his return was elected to a seat in the Federal senate. He resigned his seat pending the Presidential election, but dissensions in his party proved fatal to his prospects, and a man without known political principles was elected over him. Governor Cass was a statesman of the old school, upright, patriotic and decorous; but he was overwhelmed by a rising tide of anti-slavery sentiment, which he could neither resist nor fully understand, and new men, who were ready to grasp with aggressive ardor the living issues of the time, soon supplanted him in public notice. In this he but shared the fortunes of his great contemporaries, Webster, Clay and Benton, who, for a time, struggled vainly to master the logic of events, hoping against hope that by new compromises they might preserve the National peace and repress a conflict which the laws of mind and morals made irrepressible.

During the last administration of Governor Barry, the time seemed to have come for that peaceful and undisturbing revision of the fundamental law which is always provided for in the American constitutions, and which enables new ideas to assert their supremacy without the revolutionary violence that might be a necessary concomitant in some other countries. The period was one of uneasiness and unrest the world over; the thrones of Europe were shaking, and the people, with arms in their hands and behind barricades, were demanding the abolition of oppressive special privilege and for themselves a larger share in the government. America escaped the calamities of insurrection and civil war, and the radical wave which swept across both continents spent its force upon constitutional

changes, which brought the agencies of government more directly within the reach of the popular voice and made, in some important particulars, a better adjustment of individual rights. A notable change in Michigan was the requirement that judicial officers and heads of executive departments should be chosen by popular election. In an entire revision of the state constitution, made in 1850, we find restrictions upon over-legislation in the provision for biennial sessions of the legislature, and in the limitations imposed upon the exactness of private, social and local laws. Exemptions of property from forced sale for debts were largely increased, and married women were relieved from the hard rules of the common law which gave their property to their husbands. Very low salaries were prescribed for all state officers-that of the governor being one thousand dollars only. The possible consequences of corporate aggrandizement were aimed at in a provision requiring all corporations to be formed under general laws which were to be always subject to alteration or repeal. Banking laws must be approved by popular vote, and the state was prohibited from engaging in internal improvements or taking part with or loaning its credit to any person, association or corporation. These last are significant provisions, born of the great revulsion, but as wise in policy as they are noticeable in origin.

The succession of the executive office fell, in 1851, to Robert McClelland, for a term shortened to one year in the change of constitutions. Governor McClelland was a native of Pennsylvania, but had emigrated to Michigan before it became a state, and had served for three terms in the popular branch of congress where he had made for himself a National reputation. He was reëlected governor in 1852, but resigned to become secretary of the interior, and was succeeded by Lieutenant-Governor Andrew Parsons. Charles E. Stuart, who had also served with credit in the lower house of congress, was now advanced to the senate to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Senator Felch, who had accepted a Federal appointment.

The great anti-slavery uprising which followed the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill had the same disintegrating effect upon political parties in Michigan as elsewhere; and the Free-soil party now almost wholly absorbed the Whigs and had sufficient reinforcement from the Democratic party to enable it to take control of the state. Kinsley S. Bingham, who had served two terms in congress and made a good record, led the Democratic contingent into the Free-soil ranks.