the plan I have submitted to you, to direct that the reports of the officers should be transmitted to Captain Douglass, by whom they will be incorporated with his own observations, and will appear in a form best calculated to promote the views which you entertain upon the important subject of the internal geography of our country.

"Very respectfully, sir,

"I have the honor to be

"Your obedient servant,

"HON. J. C. CALHOUN, Secretary of War.”

"LEWIS CASS.

The above communication originated Major Long's second expedition, and the expedition of Henry R. Schoolcraft, in 1832, to Itosca lake, the head waters of the Mississippi river; and for a discovery of these head waters, the world is indebted to General Cass; nor is it presuming too much to add, that General Cass was mainly instrumental in finally obtaining that internal geography of the western country which Mr. Calhoun favored; and had he not followed up his expedition, described in this chapter, with unremitting efforts to obtain an accurate knowledge of the topography of the regions to which he referred in the foregoing communication, it is problematical whether civilization would not have been a quarter of a century, at least, behind its present advancement, in all the frontier settlements of this north-western country.

CHAPTER X.

Progress of Settlement--Land Sales-General Cass' Purchase-Scarcity of Roads-Public SurveysPopulation of Michigan-Extinguishment of Indian Title-His Journey to Chicago-Treaty with the Indians-He prohibits the Use of Whiskey-The Pardoning Power-New Counties-Public Conveyances-Travelers-He recommends a Change of Government-Legislative Council.

Most of the year 1820 was thus occupied by General Cass. He devoted himself attentively, upon his return from the Mississippi, to the executive duties constantly claiming attention at Detroit. Public lands had been brought into market, and sold, in most instances, to actual settlers. With the progress of settlement came the necessity of extending the protecting arm of the government. The laws were to be enforced, and hence courts must be instituted, and officers appointed to administer justice, who would keep the fountain pure. Besides, in a newly settled country, it is necessary that the relations of neighborhood should be maintained on a different basis from what is observed in older communities. The ledger is not as often posted; the accounts between creditor and debtor are kept in the mind, and left to memory for the total footings, instead of being carefully and methodically transcribed, and left to paper and ink. Occasional chalkings, and imperfect and badly written and worse spelled figures and words often comprised the trade-books of the merchant; and as for the mechanic and artificer in iron, like the earliest of which we read in all antiquity, they never were at pains to go beyond a hieroglyphic, if even they stopped to do that; whilst the sturdy and indefatigable tiller of the soil squared his scores as he went along, especially on the credit side. If his annual surplus crops did not yield enough to balance the bill for groceries and merchandise and farm expenses, "the open, running account" was continued, and another year checked upon to close it. As in longer settled countries, so in this, occasionally a sharper would make his appearance on the surface, well fed with random bait carefully stowed away in his maw, and, to the surprise of the honest mechanic, laborious artificer, and simpleminded farmer, by some wonderful legerdemain, gradually, but

surely, swallow up their frugal gains. This would disturb the peace of society, and mar the accustomed harmony of the little neighborhood, if it did not tear the character of individuals.

To obviate, or rather forestall, crime, and save the hardy pioneer' from such pitfalls, it became imperatively necessary to start the wheels of government in the right direction, and to select engineers that knew how to run them, and knowing how, would have the integrity to do so. This delicate duty was ever uppermost in the mind of their Governor. No speculator himself, and destitute of all disposition to be one, yet he had seen too much, and read too much, of the endless transactions of business, not to be aware of the existence of such a disposition in others. Consequently, in all his communications with the general land office, he constantly urged the policy of giving preference, in all reasonable ways, to the settler. Lands, in small parcels, and at low prices, was his invariable recommendation. The extent of General Cass' speculations in real estate, is, for the most part, comprised in two purchases-one, of five hundred acres, on the bank of Detroit river, at the price of twelve thousand dollars, in the year eighteen hundred and sixteen. His neighbors told him that the sum paid was exorbitant; and if any thing was wanting before, that act was enough to confirm them in the belief that he must rely upon other sources than mere traffic, for the respectable maintenance of his family. It is true that the price paid for this purchase, (and it was paid, after the example of his puritanic ancestry, in cash upon the delivery of the deed,) then appeared high, and most extravagantly so; but General Cass, at that early day, intended to make his then residence permanent, and he bought the property, in fact, for a homestead. And if, forty years afterwards, the ingathering shall multiply the value of the land, thus purchased, by fifties of thousands, until it reaches nearly two thirds of a million of dollars, the philosopher, in his reasoning upon this aggregation, must not fail to overlook the fact, that it is the result of natural position, and the beneficent measures of the territorial government.

The ordinance of '87 required the Governor, as a qualification, to hold, in his own right, twelve hundred acres of land. This qualification was complied with by General Cass. The tract of twelve hundred acres was situated at or near the mouth of the Detroit river. This tract, and the tract of five hundred acres, were bought of private individuals.

The public sales of 1820-21, gave a new impetus to the rising destinies of Michigan. Several cessions of land had been procured from the Indians, and these were necessary before a full and complete title could be acquired by the United States. They were honorable, too, to the American government; for, whatever may be the abstract right, under the laws of nature, of civilized nations to wrest from barbarians the soil which is not employed in agriculture, it is manifest that the government of the United States had a paramount right to these lands by conquest. They had a valid and indisputable claim by conquest from the English, and, subsequently, from the Indians themselves, in Wayne's war and the war of 1812; and yet they only claimed the right of preemption when the Indians saw fit to sell their lands.

At that period, but few roads had been constructed along the sparse settlements through the wilderness, and these were in a miserable condition, and hardly passable for the traveler. The constantly increasing settlements were calling for the construction of public works to facilitate emigration into different sections, and promote easier communication with each other. General Cass made extraordinary efforts to obtain the aid of the general government in advancing these works for the improvement of the Territory.

These calls were liberally responded to by the general government. Bills passed Congress, and appropriations were made for opening the road between Detroit and the Miami river; also, for the construction of a road from Detroit to Chicago, as well as a road from Detroit to Fort Gratiot, and the improvement of La Ploisance Bay.

The beautiful system of surveys of the public domain was carried into Michigan. Two straight lines were drawn through the center of the Territory-north and south, east and west. The line north and south was denominated the principal meridian, and the line east and west, the base line. The Territory was then surveyed into townships, six miles square; these were subdivided. into sections, a mile square; and these townships were numbered in numerical order, increasing from the meridian and base lines. The mathematical accuracy of this kind of survey, and the additional fact, that each section and township were marked by the surveyors on the trees at the corner of each section, and the lines of the section, also, marked by shaving off the bark of the trees,

furnished unmistakable land-marks of the true boundaries of each tract surveyed.

Thus far under the administration of General Cass, but a small quantity of land, compared with the whole, had been brought into market; and this was in the eastern portion of Michigan, and lay in the land district of Detroit. But emigration, in silent progress, was now gradually scattering its settlers over the forest. And as they advanced into the interior, they found, frequently to their surprise,-for the representations of surveyors in many instances had been of a different character,-a fertile, dry, and undulating soil, clothed with the most charming scenery, intersected by limpid and rapid streams, and studded with small lakes well stocked with delicious fish. These facts were not concealed from their friends and acquaintances left behind in less inviting sections of the country, or where the leading avenues to wealth and distinction were already occupied. The interior contained no important settlements, but amid the clearings the lonely log cabin curled its smoke to the heavens from the borders of its lakes and rivers; and among the stumps and riven trunks of its large and stately trees, small patches of wheat glowed in the sun-green and inviting islands in a vast and magnificent ocean of wilderness.

To enable these settlers to be overtaken by others, and to increase the facilities for commerce and open communications to market, General Cass favored the immediate construction of highways. These roads, he insisted, commencing at Detroit-the great depot of the Territory,-passing through the most important parts of the peninsula, and terminating at the borders of the great lakes which almost encircle it, were essential to the security and prosperity of the country. He was not unmindful, neither, of the importance of guarding the frontier with military works. In reference to this subject, he remarked, in one of his communications to the department, as proof of the necessity of its attention, that "the fort at Detroit is in a dilapidated state. No repairs have been made on it since 1812, and it is, in fact, incapable of defense. The platform could not bear the discharge of an eighteenpound gun, nor is there a single piece of artillery mounted upon the works. The pickets and abattis are rotten, and the gates unhung. It is in a far worse condition than it was at the commencement of the late war. The military works at Fort Wayne,