The British held possession of Michigan until the Jay Treaty of 1796, although the Treaty of Paris (1783), closing the War Of the Revolution, had ceded it to the United' States. Previous to that war the Quebec' Act (q.v.) of 1774 applied to the government of Michigan well as to Canada. The population increased but slightly; a few British merchants and trad ers came' to Detroit, and a few families set tled on the shore lands above and bdow that point. At the outbreak of the Revolution, Henry Hamilton was appointed lieutenant governor at Detroit, by whom supplies of tomahawks and scalping knives were distributed liberally among the Indians, and whose reports to General Carleton of the success of scalping expeditions in the settlements Oar acterize his administration. The retention of the posts at the close of the war was alleged to be justified on several grounds; among the real reasons was the desire to retain control of the rich fur trade. The policy of giving presents to the Indians was long continued. In 1787 the military force at Detroit was increased by two full regiments, the fortifications were strength ened, and large supplies of presents were dis tributed among the Indians, which so increased their hostility against the American settlements that the United States Government had to send troops against them; first under General Har mer who was defeated in 1790; then under Gen eral St. Clair who was also defeated in 1791; and finally, under Gen. Anthony Wayne, whose force was of sufficient strength to insure victory. On 20 Aug 1794 Wayne defeated the combined force of British and Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. By the Treaty of Grenville, 3 ' Aug. 1795, the Indians ceded a large strip of Michigan land, six miles wide and extending from Lake Saint Clair to the Raisin River, also Mackinac Island, Bois Blanc Island, and other important lands. Following these successes came the treaty negotiated by John Jay with Great Britain in 1796, according to a stipulation in which the British garrison was withdrawn from Detroit, 16 June 1796; on 11 July a detachment of United States troops took possession, One of the earliest acts of the new Federal Government was to organize a territorial gov ernment for the Great Lakes region. The ((Ordinance of 1787,D adopted for the North west Territory, provided a government in winch a governor and three judges made lavis, to be enforced by these judges as the highest court. It contained a guarantee of religious liberty, a bill of rights, a provision for general edu cation, a declaration against human' slavery, and the means of erecting new States from these lands. In 1800 the Territory of Indiana was erected, which included the western half of the Territory of Michigan and the eastern end of the upper peninsula; the remainder of both peninsulas was added in 1802. On 30 June 1805 the whole was separated into two Terri tories, Indiana and Michigan (the lower peninsula), and the Ordinance of 1787 was made the law of Michigan Territory. In 1800, Michigan's white population was 3,206, which in 10 years increased to 4,762 people, of whom 1,650 were in Detroit. Detroit was the capital. President Jefferson had appointed as governor, William Hull, of Massachusetts, an officer of honorable service in the Revolution, but now of advanced age, and temperamentally unfitted to be the chief officer of a frontier settlement. In 1807, by the Treaty of Detroit, Hull se cured from the Indians the cession of a large area of land in southeastern Michigan; • but by 1809 the Indians had begun to realize the seri ous meaning of the treaty, and to make .trouble which he was unable to quiet. The battle of Tippecanoe, 7 Nov. 1811, in which Gen. Wil liam Henry Harrison defeated the Indians near Lafayette, Ind., drove them over to the British, and made Michigan the scene of the opening campaign of the War of 1812. In December 1811, Hull went personally to Washington, to beseech Congress to strengthen Michigan's defences, but he unwisely accepted personal command of a force which was much too small for the purpose. In the following war, which was declared against Great Britain, 18 June 1812, Mackinac was captured by the British on 17 July, which Hull deemed decisive as to the control of the Great Lakes. The arrival of British reinforcements before Detroit, under the British General Brock, demanding sur render, together with the threatening possibility of an Indian massacre similar to that at Macki nac in 1763, decided Hull to comply with the British demands (16 Aug. 1812) to the indig nation of his soldiers and of the nation. It is still believed that he might have been able to resist an immediate attack, and that he would have been speedily reinforced; at the time he was court-martialed, and sentenced to be shot, but was pardoned by President Jefferson on account of his honorable record in the Revolu tion. The immediate result of the surrender was to place the settlements at the mercy of the Indians. On 23 Aug. 1813, following the capture of General Winchester at Frenchtown on the Raisin River, the Indians, with scarcely any restraint from the British General Brock, foully massacred nearly the entire garrison See BATTLE The victory of modore Perry on Lake Erie (10 Sept. 1813) which made possible that of General Harrison on the river Thames (5 Oct. 1813)
Michigan to the United States.
On 13 Oct. 1813, Lewis Cass, who had served as a brigadier-general under Harrison, was ap pointed governor of Michigan Territory, and until 1831, when he was appointed a member of Andrew Jackson's Cabinet, his exceptional talents were used for the npbuilding of the .•thinsnoirovetdth. His intimate knowledge of Indian character was specially useful in wean • Mg the tribes from their British sympathies and gaming their respect for the United States government By the Indian treaties of 1819 '.and 1821 he secured the cession of large areas of land adjacent to and including the Saginaw and Grand River valleys. In 1836 the Indians ceded ;practically all the remaining portion of the Lower Peninsula, and the eastern half of the Upper Peninsula; and before 1840 they had been removed to Western reservations. With -the first public land sales. at Detroit in 1818, the beginning of steam navigation on the Great Lakes, the opening of an all-water route to the Atlantic seaboard • through the Erie Canal in 1825, the settlement of Michigan made rapid strides, especially in the closing years of the Territorial period, which brought the popula tion from 31,639 in WO tip to 87,273 in 1837.
The admission of Michigan the Union was delayed by a dispute with Ohl, , about Michi gan's southern boundary. In 1835 the people of Michigan adopted a State constitution, elected a complete set of State officers and later this 'constitution of 1835 was accepted by Congress without readoption; the original delegate was seated in Congress without re-election, and the original State officers continued to serve with out re-election after the formal admission of the State by Congress (26 Jan. 1837)., From 1 Nov. 1835 was de. facto a State, though not technically a State in the Union. The boundary question was settled in 1837 in favor of Ohio, when Michigan acquired, as compensation for the loss on the south, the Upper Peninsula, then but little known. At the very outset, the State was seriously crippled by the financial panic of 1837, and the failure of Eastern companies with which the State had placed a $5,000,000 loan for public improve ments. The improvement scheme, which in volved the building of three trans-peninsular railroads, had to be abandoned, and the debt was not entirely paid until long after the Civil War. The improvements made, mainly on the Michigan Central and the Michigan Southern railroads, were. carried on however by private enterprise, the former road being completed to Chicago in 1852. In 1850 a new State consti tution was adopted, prohibiting the State to engage in any similar undertaking. In accord ance with a provision of the constitution of 1835, the question of the permanent situation of the State capital was taken up by the legislature in 1847, with the result that it was located at Lansing. During the Civil War, Michigan put into the field nearly 100,000 men; among the many who won distinction for service was Gen. George Armstrong Custer(q.v.), leader of the famous Michigan Cavalry Brigade. Michigan's "war governor' was Austin Blair. In this period began the career of Zachariah Chandler, who served three terms as United States senator (1857-75). While Mr. Chandler was in the National Senate, Michigan had seven governors, alt but one of whom served two terms.
Since the Civil War, Michigan has gained rapidly in population, wealth and prosperity. Agriculture has continued to be the leading in dustry in the southern peninsula, and mining in the northern; pine lumbering, in the years immediately following the war, developed to enormous proportions in lower Michigan, but is now carried on principally above the Straits. The conditions of labor have favored rapid immigration; only one serious strike has oc curred in Michigan's history, in the Copper Country, in 1913. After the war there ensued a great activity in railroad building, aided by national and State land grants totaling nearly 6,000,000 acres. For the original Sault Sainte Marie Canal the national government granted 750,000 acres of land, and in 1881 assumed con trol on completion of the Weitzel lock, which it had constructed at a cost of more than /2,000,000. The establishment of public insti tutions has kept pace with the State's growth in material wealth, coming rapidly into exist ence between 1870 and 1885. Many subordi nate departments of government have been or ganized as the administration of the State's affair have became more complex. In 1879 a new capitol building at Lansing was completed and occupied. Legislation has been in the di rection of a more equitable distribution of taxes, greater freedom in elections, and increased control of local government by municipalities. The system of *county option,* with high license, is now in force, the State having re pealed in 1876 the prohibition law of 1855. At various times the question of a general revision of the constitution has been submitted to the people, in 1867, 1874, 1892 and 1898, but defeated, until 1908, when a new constitution was adopted, which went into effect 1 Jan. 1909. In politics Michigan was strongly Demo cratic previous to the Civil War, until the formation of the Republican party in 1854, since which time Michigan has elected Repub lican governors, except in 1882, 1890, 1912 and 1914.