The civil administration of Governor Hull presents but few salient points. His military administration, ending, as it did, by the ignominious surrender of Detroit to a British force far inferior to his own, was fraught with irretrievable ruin to himself, as well as temporary disgrace to the American arms.

What was the actual moving cause of this disgraceful capitulation will probably never be known, till the final day. Time, however, has somewhat softened the harsh judgment which was passed upon him at the time; and some of the earlier impressions, which attributed his conduct to money, the price of treason, have been removed. But the most that charity can do is to attribute it to ⚫ cowardice and imbecility. Efforts have, from time to time, been made to rescue his name from obloquy; but such efforts have universally proved failures. It is enough for an American to know that he surrendered his command to a force of less than one-third his own strength. General Hull's principal excuse was, that he was short of ammunition and provisions. He does not allege that he was destitute-the contrary was well known to be the case-but that he apprehended that he had not enough to last till the final issue of the campaign. But this, instead of being an excuse for an unconditional surrender, was the stronger reason for promptitude and energy. After ammunition and provisions fail, the worst disaster that can befall an army is that which he forced upon his command before a blow was struck.

The situation was briefly this: He had been instructed to protect Detroit. The invasion of Canada was left discretionary with him. He did neither. It is true he crossed the river, but only to make a disgraceful retreat. When followed, and summoned to surrender, he complied with the demand; only holding out long enough to increase the pomposity of the enemy, and provoke the curses of his command. His flight commenced at the bridge of the Canards, and terminated in the American fortress. His retreat was without a reason, and his surrender without a parallel. Nothing but the memory of other and prouder days, and gallant deeds, can rescue the name of Hull from unmitigated contempt; and the kindest judgment which a dispassionate posterity can pronounce upon him is to ascribe his errors to cowardice and imbecility.

CHAPTER XXIX.

GENERAL CASS APPOINTED GOVERNOR-DEFENSELESS CONDITION OF THE TERRITORY-INDIAN DEPREDATIONS AROUND DETROIT-BRAVERY AND ENERGY OF GENERAL CASS-HIS TREATY WITH THE INDIANS -CONDITION OF MICHIGAN AT THE CLOSE OF THE WAR-EXPEDITION OF GENERAL CASS TO THE UPPER PENINSULA-DISCOVERIES-PROSPERITY OF THE TERRITORY UNDER CASS' ADMINISTRATION-THE TREATY OF CHICAGO-EXECUTION OF INDIANS.

A NEW era now dawned upon the Territory of Michigan. General Lewis Cass, who had served, with great credit and distinction, through the war of 1812, was appointed Governor of the Territory. At that time its prosperity and advancement may be said to have commenced. Up to this time, there had been no inducement whatever for the immigration of people from the Eastern States. The country had just emerged from a bloody and devastating war, and the public lands had not been brought into market. The beautiful and fertile lands of the lower peninsula, now studded with happy homes and flourishing cities, and traversed in every direction by the locomotive, were traversed only by wild beasts, and wilder men. The streams, now white with the sails of noble ships, and dotted with manufactories, were navigated only by the bark canoe. The feeble settlements along the frontier had been converted into scenes of desolation; not a road had been constructed through the interior; and there was no means of access to the country except by the rivers and lakes, and the military road along the Detroit river. The British garrisons were broken up, it is true, and Tecumseh was no more, but the people were by no means free from the calamities of war. The ill feeling of the Indians continued unsubdued, and their propensities to murder, rob and plunder, were still as great as when Tecumseh led them to battle. The British flag still waved over Mackinaw, and the intermediate country was filled with fur

traders who regarded their interests as antagonistic to the United States.

At this time, it must be remarked, all of the province of Canada which had been held in submission by the British army, was

ISAAC NEWTON SWAIN, one of the earliest pioneer settlers of the interior and western parts of the lower peninsula of Michigan, was born near Sackett's Harbor, in Jefferson county, New York, November 20th,

now subject to the order of the Governor of Michigan, and upon him rested the responsibility of protecting the rights of the people on the east side of the river, in common with the citizens upon the west side. How long the war would continue, or how it would end, or whether Canada would eventually become a part and parcel of Michigan, no one could tell. But it was sufficiently obvious to the mind of General Cass that the peninsula of Michigan, at least, was to remain under the Stars and Stripes; and he set himself to work, with great wisdom and industry, to provide for the future welfare of the people intrusted to his charge. In order to do this effectually, it was first necessary to inspire the people with confidence in their personal safety, and to assure them that their property was protected by the sleepless vigilance of the law. His first act was to tender his resignation as brigadier-general in the army, believing that such extensive civil and military powers should not be vested in the same person. His resignation was accepted, with the proviso that he should, in his capacity as Governor, take charge of the defenses of the Territory.

The seat of war at this time having been transferred to the East, Michigan was left with only a company of twenty-seven soldiers for her defense. With this feeble force, and the local militia, the Governor was required to defend the Territory against the

1807. He yet distinctly remembers hearing the reports of the first guns fired in our second war with England in 1812. His home was the scene of some of the most exciting events of that final contest with Britain, and he thus early imbibed indelible hostility to the "red coats," notwithstanding both sides of his ancestry, being of the Quaker order, came early from the south of England. They were numbered among the first settlers of Rhode Island and Nantucket.

When only nine years old, his parents and their family of five children, of whom he was the youngest, removed and settled on the "Holland Purchase" (so called), in western New York, now Royalton, in Niagara county. This was several years before the existence of the Erie canal, and at a period when the products of the settlers had scarcely any cash value. Money was a great rarity among the people there, in those days, and when an occasional shilling was discovered in the neighborhood, its possessor at once became an object of considerable attention.

Such was the condition and customs of the infant settlement in which

bands of hostile Indians who were constantly hovering around Detroit.

It was at this time, when Detroit was thus exposed, that a war party of savages issued from the dense forests which skirted the town, and marked their irruption by one of those deeds of blood which have made the early history of Michigan a record of trials, sufferings and hardships without a parallel in the annals of frontier life. The strength of the party was not great, as it afterwards appeared, but, as it was unknown, the excitement and alarm of the inhabitants were intense. But Governor Cass was equal to the emergency, and in a short time rallied his undisciplined troops, pursued the savages to their native haunts, and, after a sharp and bloody conflict, returned to Detroit victorious. It is within the memory of men now living, how the people of the town were terrified, upon the return of the victorious band, by the scalp halloa that was raised by some friendly Indians, to indicate the victory of the party. The horrid sound, which has curdled the blood of the stoutest hearts in many a lonely cabin in the wilderness, and tells the tale of blood before the gory trophies are exhibited, broke the silence of the evening air. The helpless women and children, whose husbands and fathers had gone forth to fight in their defense, had no means of knowing whether the

Mr. Swain spent the largest part of his youth. At length, however, roads were opened, and when these were connected and made passable, at least, by "bridges built by the frosts of winter," the dense forests were awakened by occasional teams. A few loads of the best "Genesee wheat were transported from that "far off western country," and carried more than fifty miles over rough and troublesome roads to a small hamlet, then the nearest cash market, and now the prosperous city of Rochester, New York. There this grain was sold at twenty-five to twenty-eight cents per bushel, and added very considerably to the circulating medium of the pioneer settlement. The erection of the first school house in the settlement is an event not easily forgotten by Mr. Swain. It was constructed by a “bee,” and occupied but one day for its completion. This is the more surprising since the building was transformed from standing trees to a temple of science in this short space of time. The "neighbors all turned out," and at four o'clock in the morning the sound of their axes, the falling of heavy trees, and the