situation in the disputed territory, by virtue of any commission or authority not derived from the Territory or the United States Government, was a valid law; and he strongly intimated that if an armed force should invade the Territory for the purpose of establishing the jurisdiction of Ohio by force of arms, the authorities of Michigan might properly repel force with force, in defense of their rights, and if this did not avail, it might become the duty of the President to render more effective aid. A question of national importance arose, and greatly perplexed the authorities at the Federal capital. A hostile collision was imminent. The President was anxious to avoid such a conflict and ardently desired an amicable an amicable arrangement of the matter; and for that purpose appointed two commissioners, Hon. Richard Rush and Hon. Benjamin C. Howard, to visit and intercede with the governors of Ohio and Michigan. They arrived in Ohio April 1, 1835, and for four or five weeks thereafter were engaged in efforts to effect their object, sometimes in Ohio, sometimes in Michigan, often by personal interviews with the governors and sometimes by correspondence. But the effort was not a success, and on the 5th of May they returned to Washington.

During these negotiations Governor Mason stood firmly by the right of Michigan to the long conceded jurisdiction over the tract in dispute and to the enforcing of the laws of Michigan within it, and refused to give any sanction to the organizing of counties or townships or courts within it under Ohio authorities. They proposed to him to allow the jurisdiction of Ohio to be extended, and that Michigan and Ohio should exercise concurrent jurisdiction, and that the officers of both should together exercise authority; but to this he refused his assent. They urged him to abandon all idea of force and withhold his assent to the exercise of it, but he considered it his duty to preserve the integrity of the Territory and to allow the executive officers to enforce the laws of Michigan within its borders, and if the circumstances demanded it, he would refuse no aid which the executive might properly furnish.

This controversy gave great annoyance and trouble to Governor Mason. A young man nearly twenty-four years of age had to bear responsibilities and perform official duties which

required the wisdom and experience of an older man. This controversy brought him into sharp collision with men in high official position and distinguished for long experience and eminent ability. His correspondence on the subject is marked by its directness, its clearness of statement, its cogency of argument. His voluminous correspondence with the President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Governor of Ohio, and with Messrs. Rush and Howard, the commissioners, and his messages to the legislative council, all evince ability of more than ordinary power, and a zeal in urging the claims and defending the rights of the Territory, whose chief executive officer he was. With the Governor of Ohio he was, of course, brought into sharp collision. With the wishes of General Jackson, then President, and whom above all men he admired, he could not comply; and preferred to retire from his office rather than decline to do what he thought duty demanded of him.

But on the real question at issue, the question as to the true boundary line under the acts of Congress, and the legality of the proposed action of Ohio in extending her jurisdiction. and establishing and maintaining her offices by force within the Territory, there is no evidence. that General Jackson took any view different from that of Governor Mason; and it is certain that the attorney general, his legal adviser, was clear in his opinion that Michigan was right in her view on this point, and that the executive should maintain the established jurisdiction, and that too by force, if invaded from abroad. And this, too, was the expressed view of at least some of the members of the cabinet.

But the President was anxious to avoid all trouble, and it was said that he was particularly anxious to pacify and conciliate the State of Ohio, whose large vote might be important in the presidential election which was near at hand. He was willing to avoid the threatened collision by allowing Ohio for the time being to establish her jurisdiction, and her newly appointed judges and other officers within the Territory; and that the executive of Michigan should abstain from resistance in the meantime, and cease to perform what in the view of the governor was his sworn official duty. On this they disagreed, and Governor Mason was removed from office.

In this long and bitter controversy, Governor

Mason at no time stood alone. The legislative council were always with him, and by their legislative acts they not only proclaimed their rights but provided sufficient means for securing and defending them. The poople were with him, and most heartily and zealously supported him and his measures, and gloried in the chivalrous spirit with which he defended their

cause.

On the 11th day of September, 1835, the troops having returned from Toledo to Monroe, they were received by Governor Mason, and the hearty acclamations with which his short address was received, gave ample evidence of the strong hold which he had upon the affections of the people. But this was the last act of Governor Mason as Territorial governor. His removal from office followed almost immediately after. But on the first Monday of October succeeding-a short month after-he was elected governor of the State of Michigan under the constitution of 1835, by a vote of nearly eight thousand to about eight hundred given for the opposing candidate.

Governor Mason was succeeded in the office by John S. Horner, who was appointed secretary of the Territory by General Jackson. His official term was short and by no means a pleasant or an exultant one. He arrived in Michigan but ten days before the election was to take place under the State constitution of governor and other State officers, and succeeded a man whose popularity was at that time unbounded, and whose praise was on the lips of all.

With the departure of Governor Horner and the cessation of the Territorial government, the State organization at once succeeded. The governor and members of the legislature elected in October under the constitution took the oath of office early in November, and put the State government in complete operation in all its departments. From this time until the passage of the final act of admission by Congress, January 26, 1837, Michigan was a State government fully organized, and its executive, judicial and legislative departments in complete operation, yet a State not admitted within the circle of the Union, nor was the Territorial government formally abrogated or annulled. The two jurisdictions stood face to face, but fortunately for all parties and for the public peace, no collision occurred, nor were

any of the troublesome questions which the anomalous condition suggests, ever mooted. In the performance of executive duties Governor Mason was assiduous and untiring. As a man he was genial, kind and companionable, and his personal popularity never ceased.

From the organization of the State, the genius of her people was exemplified by the enactment of laws for the building of four railroads, several of which under new names were destined to be eminently successful. For a history of the railroads of the State the reader is referred to chapter entitled Railroads.

Special attention was given during Governor Mason's administration to the cause of education. An act in March of 1837, for the organization and support of the primary schools, according to an act of Congress setting apart for school purposes one thirty-sixth part of public lands in the State, and within the same month another important act, was passed which gave existence to the University of Michigan, which was located at Ann Arbor. For the history of the University the reader is referred to the chapter under that head.

Special attention was also given to the mincral resources of the State. An appropriation of $30,000 was made for a geological survey, and the appointment of State geologist was conferred upon Dr. Douglass Houghton, who accomplished more than any other man to make known to the world the mineral resources of the State.

It was during his administration that internal improvements of the State were projected, the State prison completed at Jackson, and the militia of the State organized. With the year 1839 terminated his administration, having had the honor of inaugurating a new State and proved himself to be not only a man of ability, but a true and valuable friend to Michigan. He emigrated to this Territory in 1831, when he was appointed its secretary in his nineteenth year, and after the expiration of his second term as governor entered upon practice as a member of the legal profession in the city of New York, but lived but about three years thereafter and died in New York City.

etta in 1806, and was afterwards a member both of the assembly and senate of that State. He came to Michigan in 1814 under an appointment by President Madison as secretary of the Territory, and continued in the office of secretary until 1827. In the course of that period the secretary was often called upon to perform the duties of Governor Cass.

He was the first delegate to Congress from Michigan, a judge of the Supreme Court of the Territory, a member of the convention that drafted the State constitution in 1835. His long intimacy with Michigan and its varied interests, and the ability and integrity with which he had performed every official duty, gave him exceptional qualifications for the position of chief executive officer of the State, and his fellow citizens did not fail to appreciate these qualifications. In 1841, he was chosen by the legislature to the Senate of the United States. He was a man of extensive reading and much and varied learning, a modest and retiring man, yet genial and kind in his feelings. He died in October, 1861.

After Governor Woodbridge left the executive chair, the then lieutenant governor, J. Wright Gordon, became the acting governor, and served as such for the balance of the term. The leading events of this joint administration were the completion of the railroad from Detroit to Ann Arbor, and the establishment of the branches of the State University at Detroit, Pontiac, Monroe, Niles, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Jackson, White Pigeon and Tecumseh. As a 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 to become the foundation of an important

revenue.

During Mr. Gordon's administration the Grand Lodge of Free Masons was reorganized with the constitutional number of lodges. Of the early organization of this Order we are not informed beyond the fact that the first Grand Lodge was 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 enquiry in 1840, and in 1841 the former Grand officers granted dispensations for several lodges. The first Grand Master 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 Selected Masons was organized in 1858, and the Grand Commandery Knights Templar was organized January 15, 1857.

John S. Barry, the third governor of the State, and successor of Governor Woodbridge, was a native of the State of Vermont. He resided at Constantine, and his occupation was that of a merchant. His first term commenced in January, 1842. He was again elected for the term commencing in January, 1844, and subsequently for the term beginning in January, 1850. The repeated call to this high office by his fellow citizens shows clearly the high estimate in which he was held by the people, and their confidence in his integrity and capacity.

His first two terms embraced a time of great embarrassment in business affairs. He guarded the public treasury with watchful eye. The economy of his administration was proverbial, yet he did not hesitate to pledge his own personal responsibility, when the public interest required, for the payment of a public obligation.

In 1845 it became necessary for the State to purchase railroad iron to be used on the State railroad. The iron was contracted for in New York, but the vender was not satisfied with the responsibility of the State and would not deliver the iron unless the governor would personally guarantee the payment of the bonds. This he did, and the iron was delivered on the road. It was by law to be paid for out of the income of the road, but at the expiration of his term of office a considerable amount remained unsatisfied. He had expected it would be liquidated before his term expired, and if it had been, no man would ever have known from him of the responsibility he had voluntarily assumed. The debt was, however, paid in due time.

During his first term he had the satisfaction of seeing the University opened for the reception of students, the Central and Southern railroads progressing rapidly, the former having been finished to Marsball, one hundred and ten miles, and the latter to Hillsdale, sixtyeight miles.

The fourth governor of the State was Alpheus Felch, of Monroe, who entered upon the

duties of the office in November, 1845, and continued therein until March 3, 1847, when he resigned to accept a seat in the United States Senate. He emigrated from Maine to Michigan, entered the legal profession and practiced, having Hon. Hiram Stone as a copartner. As early as 1836 he became identified with public affairs, first as a member of the legislature, then as a bank commissioner, as auditor-general of Michigan, also a judge of the Supreme Court, and subsequent to his term in the United States Senate was appointed commissioner to settle the land claims.

The leading incident of his administration was the sale to private corporations of the two railroads belonging to the State. The Central was sold for $2,000,000, and the Southern $500,000. It was in 1846 that the University library was enriched with a choice collection of about five thousand volumes purchased in Europe. The reader is here referred to the "Bar of 1837," for life of Governor Felch.

Epaphroditus Ransom, fifth governor of the State, after serving as justice of the Supreme Court from 1843 was elected governor of the State in November, 1847, entered upon its duties January 1, 1848, and served out his term January 1, 1850. He was a New England man, had served one term in the Michigan legislature, and was a regent of the University. President Buchanan appointed him receiver of the land office for one of the districts in the State of Kansas, and he there died before the expiration of his term.

It was during his administration as governor that bills were passed establishing the Asylum for the Insane at Flint, and 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 capital under the act of 1847 having been removed from Detroit to Lansing, temporary buildings for the use of the legislature and State officers were occupied during his term.

As before stated, Governor Barry was reelected and served from January, 1850, to January 1, 1852. During this his third term the bill was passed that established the State Normal School, which was endowed with lands and placed in charge of the board of education, consisting of six persons.

4

ing his term and another event of great importance the trial of the "great railroad conspiracy" case. A series of unlawful acts had been committed on the property of the Michigan Central Railroad Company along the line of their road, and especially at Leoni and Michigan Center in Jackson county, culminating in the destruction by an infernal machine in 1850 of the depot in Detroit. Of the thirtyseven brought to trial, twelve were convicted. The conspirators were defended by Hon. William H. Seward, of New York; the prosecution conducted by Alexander D. Frazer, of Detroit. The judge who presided on this occasion with great ability was the late Warner Wing.

The successor of Governor Barry was the Hon. Robert McClelland, of Monroe, who entered upon his duties January 1, 1852, was re-elected and inaugurated January 5, 1853. His administration terminated in March, 1853, when he resigned to accept a seat in the cabinet of President Pierce as Secretary of the Interior, when Andrew Parsons, lieutenant governor, became acting governor the rest of the term. He became a citizen of Michigan in 1833; was for a number of years a member of the Monroe bar, and co-partner of the late Warner Wing; was a member of the legislature and speaker of the House of Representatives in 1843; also a representative of the State in Congress, 1847-1849; a member of the constitutional convention from Monroe county of 1835 and 1850, and the convention of 1867.

During his administration the pupils that attended our common schools numbered 175,000, an increase in four years of over 43,000. Such victories of peace are what Michigan has always prided herself upon, and are in harmony with the victories of war in behalf of the Union, upon which she justly prided herself in the Mexican War of 1847, and in the war in behalf of the Union from 1861 to 1865.

From January 1, 1855, to January, 1859, the executive chair was occupied by Hingsley S. Bingham, who arrived in Michigan in 1833, settled in Green Oak, Livingston county, was postmaster, supervisor, judge of probate and brigadier-general of militia. Represented his county in the State legislature in 1837, 1838 and 1839, and 1841 and 1842. Was Speaker of the House in 1838 and 1839, and Representative in

Died at Oak View, Livingston county, Michigan, October 5, 1861.

The most notable event of his administration was the completion of the ship canal at the Sault Ste. Marie. August 26, 1852, an act of Congress was approved granting to the State of Michigan 750,000 acres of land for the purpose of constructing a ship canal between Lakes Huron and Superior. February 5, 1853, the legislature of Michigan accepted the grant made by Congress and provided for the appointment of commissioners to select the donated lands and to arrange for the building of the canal. A company of enterprising men was appointed, and a contract entered into by which the canal was to be completed in two years. Every article of consumption, machinery, working implements and material, timber for the gates, stone for the locks, as well as men and supplies, had to be transported to the site of the canal from Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago and other lake ports. The stone for finishing the locks was brought from Marblehead, near Sandusky City, and from Detroit River. The rapids which had to be contended with had a fall of seventeen feet and were about one mile long. The contracting parties completed the work in May, 1855, accepted by the commissioners and formally delivered to the State authorities. In consideration of its national character as a highway between the lower lakes and Lake Superior, and in view of the sound character of the work, the originators and builders of this work deserve the gratitude of the country. The disbursements in the construction of the canal and selection of the lands amounted to $999,802, which absorbed the full amount of the Government grant.

The successor of Governor Bingham was Moses Wisner, elected November, 1859; entered upon the duties of executive January, 1860. He was born in Aurelius, Cayuga county, New York, in 1818; received a good education; removed to Michigan in 1839, settled in Pontiac, studied law and entered upon the practice of his profession in 1842. In 1843 was appointed prosecuting attorney for Lapeer county. Continued to practice law until elected. Soon after his term expired the mutterings of the great rebellion began to be heard.

Governor Wisner, on retiring from the executive chair at the close of his term, delivered an eloquent and patriotic address to the legis

lature of 1861. After presenting in the usual way full and well-considered summaries of all the essential facts regarding the important and varied interests of the State, he took up the discussion of the grave condition of the country at that time, over which a dark cloud had been cast by the recent passage in several Southern States of ordinances of secession, foreboding most dire results. In his language there was not a shadow of faltering, no tinge of disaffection, no uncertain sound. With intense earnestness he breathed devotion to the Union and the flag in every sentence. Every paragraph was a stirring counseling the maintenance of the Union, denouncing treason and invoking patriotism. We quote from these inspiring utterances words which fell upon the ear of patriots amid doubt, disloyalty and danger: "This is no time for timid and vacillating councils, when the cry of treason and rebellion is ringing in our ears. The constitution, as our fathers made it, is good enough for us, and must be enforced upon every foot of American soil. Michigan cannot recognize the right of a State to secede from the Union. We believe that the founders of our Government designed it to be perpetual, and we can not consent to have one star obliterated from our flag. For upwards of thirty years this question of a right of a State to secede has been agitated. It is time it was settled. We ought not to leave it for our children to look after. I would calmly but firmly declare it to be the fixed determination of Michigan that the Federal constitution of the States must and shall be preserved."

It was but a short time before personal example followed these glowing words, this noble advice. His fidelity to the Union and the honor of his State prompted him soon to take the field, offered his services, was assigned to the command of the Twenty-Second Michigan Regiment of Infantry, where a short and promising career gave the name of Moses Wisner to the long list of Michigan martyrs to American. liberty, for while on his way to the seat of war he was prostrated by sickness in Lexington, Kentucky, where he died January 5, 1863, a man of fine mind, a good friend and worthy citizen.

Following the valedictory of Governor Wisner, the legislature of 1861 listened with intense interest to tense interest to the inaugural of Austin