CHAPTER X.

Lewis Cass appointed Governor of the Territory.-Its Condition at that Time.-Public Lands brought into Market.-First Steamboat on the Lakes.-University Founded.-Expedition to Explore the Lakes.-The Clinton Canal.-Mr. Porter appointed Governor.-Mode of making Surveys.-Controversy with Ohio.-Mr. Mason elected Governor.-State Organized. -Internal Improvements.-Education.-Conclusion.

MICHIGAN now emerged into a new existence. Colonel Cass, who had served with great credit during the war, was appointed governor of the territory, and under his administration it gradually advanced in prosperity.

Hitherto there had been but little inducement for immigration from the East: the public lands had not been brought into the market, and recently the country had been suffering under the devastation of war.

The beautiful oak-openings on the Kalamazoo, the fertile tracts on the borders of Grand River, the prairies of the St. Joseph, and the rich and inviting slopes along the shores of Lake Michigan, were traversed only by the wild beast and the savage, and the streams navigated only by the bark canoe. The feeble settlements on the frontier had been converted into scenes of desolation; no

roads through the interior had been constructed; and the only access to the country by land from the East was through the trackless wilderness distinguished by the name of the Black Swamp, and by the military road along the Detroit River. Everything, therefore, was to be done to develop the resources of the territory, and to secure to it the advantages which, from its position and the fertility of its soil, it was entitled to enjoy.

It would appear, however, that the character of the country in regard to the latter particular was at that time but little understood, as is shown by the following fact. In 1812, Congress had passed an act providing for the survey of the bounty-lands to be granted to the soldiers enlisting for the war which had then just commenced, and this survey was directed to be made in the territory of Michigan. The persons employed for this object, how. ever, made so unfavourable a report in regard to the soil, representing it as marshy and everywhere steril, that in 1816 the act was repealed, and the quantity of land required for this purpose was ordered to be surveyed in Arkansas and Illinois. The surveyors either did not make a thorough examination of the soil, or, what perhaps is more probable, they were deceived by the sandy nature of the oak-lands, which have a yellowish colour before they are brought into cultivation, but which,

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from the quantity of lime they contain, turn black after they are exposed to the action of the sun and air by the plough.

During that year, however, and the two following, the country was more fully explored, and numerous tracts of fertile land, with a rolling surface, variegated by groves and lakes, were discovered. These lands were forthwith surveyed, and in 1817 and 1818 portions of them were offered for sale,* showing the superiority of our enlightened and liberal laws, contrasted with the narrow policy of the former possessors of the soil. A great change now took place in public opinion in regard to the value of these lands, and subsequent surveys more fully confirmed the inaccuracy of the impressions which had hitherto prevailed in relation to them.

With the introduction of steam navigation upon its vast inland seas, a new era may be said to have commenced in the history of the progress of the West. This was in 1819, when the first steamboat, the Walk-in-the-Water, made her appearance on Lake Erie, crossing that lake and passing up to Mackinaw.†

By the census taken about that time, the population of Michigan was ascertained to be eight thousand eight hundred and ninety-six. Detroit contained two hundred and fifty houses, and fourteen *Biddle's Discourse. † Schoolcraft.

hundred and fifteen inhabitants, independent of the garrison. The island of Mackinaw, which continued to be a central mart for the fur-trade, had a stationary population of four hundred and fifty, which was at times increased to not less than two thousand by the Indians and traders who resorted there from the upper lakes. The settlement at the Sault de Ste. Marie contained only fifteen or twenty houses, occupied by French and English families.

Although, by the ordinance of 1787, lot number 16 was directed to be reserved in every township for the support of common schools, no measures had yet been taken to introduce a system of public instruction, if we except the act passed by the governor and judges in 1817 for the establishment of what was styled in it the Catholepestemiad, or University of Michigan. This act, which was drawn up by Augustus B. Woodward, chief justice of the territory, is a very curious document. He was a gentleman possessing extensive acquirements, but was not a little eccentric in his character, and the views he entertained on this and some other subjects were certainly not very practical. The phraseology of the act is not its least singular feature, and would seem better suited to the age of my Lord Coke than to the understanding and condi. tion of a race of new settlers engaged in clearing

away the forest.

This University was to have

thirteen didaxia or professorships,* each of which was to be liberally endowed, and it was designed to lay broad and deep the foundations for a thorough education.

Indeed, all Judge Woodward's projects seem to have been upon no very moderate scale. Detroit is indebted to him for a plan of the city laid out in the form of a cobweb, with public squares, a circus, a Campus Martius, streets, cross-streets, avenues, &c., more vast in its conception and more complex in its design than ancient Rome, and requir. ing a longer period to fill it up than from the time of Romulus to our own day. The utilitarian ten. dencies of his successors, however, have made strange havoc with this magnificent plan, the traces of which are now nowhere visible but on

the map.

On the admission of Illinois into the Union in 1818, all the territory lying north of that state and Indiana was annexed to Michigan; and the follow. ing year Congress passed an act authorizing the election of a delegate from the territory to the national Legislature, who should have the right of speaking, but not of voting. This was of great advantage to the inhabitants, as they were thereby provided with a representative through whom they

* See Territorial Act of 1817.