ground for his humble dwelling and plants whatever seed he has brought with him. Then comes another settler and another, until perhaps a dozen families are established near. Two wants are now felt: Roads or at least paths from house to house, from hamlet to market town, and a schoolhouse for the multiplying children. There is no central authority to provide these things, but the settlers meet and voluntarily vote to tax themselves. The services of a supervisor, collector, clerk, constable, and justice of the peace are required."*

In this way local government commenced in Michigan. The immigration to the territory was largely from New England and New York, and consequently the institutions of those places were transplanted to the new Territory, with such changes and modifications as the circumstances and conditions of the pioneer settlements seemed to require. Michigan took the lead among the Western States in the adoption of the town-meeting as an agency for local government. In the neighboring States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, the Virginia County System was the basis for regulating local affairs in early days, but as the years have passed it has largely been supplanted by institutions originating in the New England Town Meeting. In Michigan, while it remained under territorial government, the county system was used principally for judicial purposes, as already stated. In subsequent chapters, both of these civil institutions as they exist in the State of Michigan at the present time will be fully described.

Michigan Becomes a State.-In the year 1832, the population of Michigan had increased so enormously that the people began to consider and discuss the advisability of

*Local Government in Michigan and the Northwest, Edward W. Bemis, Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, Vol. I.

applying for admission to the Union as a State, and an election was held in that year to ascertain the opinion of the people on the question. A large majority of the votes were in favor of statehood, but further action on the subject was delayed by the outbreak of Black Hawk's War and by an epidemic of cholera which ravaged the Territory for two years.*

A census was taken in the year 1834, and it was found that there were 87,273 free inhabitants in the original Territory, and that Michigan had added to its population more than 60,000 persons during the preceding four years.** The Ordinance of 1787 provided that whenever there were more than 60,000 inhabitants within that portion of the Northwest Territory which was to form one of the five States to be created from it, a state government should be established. This provision was held to be a compact between the general government and the people of the Territory, and as Michigan now had more than the requisite population, the desire for statehood became universal throughout the Territory.

A convention, composed of delegates elected by the people, assembled at Detroit in May, 1835, and adopted a State constitution, which received the approval of the people at an election held in October of that year. But the admission of Michigan to the Union was delayed still further by a dispute which arose as to the boundary between that State and Ohio.*** It was finally proposed by Congress to settle the controversy by yielding to Ohio the land in dispute, and to compensate Michigan by the cession to it of an extensive tract, which is now known as the Upper Peninsula.

* Cooley's History of Michigan, page 212.

**Campbell's Political History of Michigan, page 442.

***A complete and interesting account of this controversy is contained in Chapter XI of Cooley's History of Michigan.

This compromise was rejected by a convention called to consider the proposition at Ann Arbor on September 4, 1836, and no settlement of the dispute seemed at hand.

The political status of Michigan at this time was unusual. A state government had been formed and officers elected, all of whom were performing their duties, yet the State, while within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, was still not a member of the Union. This condition of things could not continue long, and another convention was assembled at Ann Arbor on December 6, 1836, which ratified the proposition for the settlement of the boundary trouble, and on January 26, 1837, Congress declared that Michigan had become a member of the Federal Union.

The constitution which had been adopted by the people of the Territory became the fundamental law of the new State, and remained in force until the year 1850, when the present State constitution went into effect.

CHAPTER XVII.

STATE GOVERNMENT OF MICHIGAN.

We come now to study the government of the State of Michigan as it exists to-day under the Constitution of 1850. This Constitution was adopted on August 15, 1850, by a convention composed of delegates chosen by the people, which met at the capitol in Lansing. It was subsequently ratified by a vote of the people, and went into effect on January 1, 1851.

The States are forbidden by the constitution of the United States to exercise any of the powers which have been given exclusively to the Federal Government, as those powers are such as affect all of the States, and therefore could not be exercised by the States separately with any degree of uniformity or harmony. It would cause a vast amount of confusion and trouble if each of the fortyfive States of the Union had the right to exercise such national prerogatives as coining money, imposing customs duties, regulating patents and copyrights, making treaties with foreign nations or maintaining a military and naval establishment.

For this reason the Constitution has prohibited the States from exercising any of the powers of the national government, and in furtherance of the same purpose has expressly and specifically provided that no State shall attempt to do any of these things. With these restrictions

the State government of Michigan can do almost anything that its own constitution and the acts of its own legislature permit.

Scope of State Government.-To show the vast range of subjects which are under the control of the State government, the following words of a learned writer upon the subject are quoted in full:

"All the civil and religious rights of our citizens depend upon State legislation; the education of the people is in the care of the States; with them rests the regulation of the suffrage; they prescribe the rules of marriage, the legal relations of husband and wife, of parent and child; they determine the powers of masters over servants and the whole law of principal and agent, which is so vital a matter in all business transactions; they regulate partnership, debt, credit and insurance; they constitute all corporations, both private and municipal, except such as specially fulfill the financial or other specific functions of the Federal Government; they control possession, distribution and use of property, the exercise of all trades and all contract relations; and they formulate and administer all criminal law, except only that which concerns crimes committed against the United States, on the high seas or against the law of nations. Space would fail in which to enumerate the particulars of this vast range of power; to detail its parts would be to catalogue all social and business relationships, to examine all the foundations of law and order."*

We shall now present an outline of the general structure of the State government of Michigan, and show how its legislative, executive and judicial departments are constituted, and the powers of each, but some of the provisions of the constitution, such as those relating to revenue, edu

*Woodrow Wilson, The State.