The government of Michigan

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Historical Sketch 9

II. Schools 19

Chapter I

The French. — While the English were settling along the Atlantic coast the French in canoes were pushing up the St. Lawrence River and along the Great Lakes. With mixed motives of adventure, trade, conversion of the Indians and the extension of the domains of France, bushrangers, traders, priests and soldiers came to the region we now call Michigan.

Few came to cultivate the soil or to build permanent homes. The desire to obtain beaver skins from the Indians and to save their souls was largely the reason for the establishment of temporary trading posts and mission stations. But as early as 1668, fourteen years before Philadelphia was founded, Pere Marquette established a mission at the Falls of St. Mary (Sault de Ste. Marie), which proved to be the first permanent settlement in our present state.

Another Frenchman, no less renowned than Father Marquette, who explored this region was La Salle. In 1679 he launched the first sailboat upon the Great Lakes, came up the Detroit River, named Lake St. Clair and sailed on to Lake Michigan.

The most important settlement made by the French within the limits of our state was Detroit. Cadillac, who had observed the advantages of the location for trade with the Indians, brought a few settlers and soldiers in 1701 to occupy it. He endeavored to have his people cultivate the soil, become self-supporting and give the settlement stability. In time Cadillac's dream came true and Detroit became the most important French town in the West.

Other settlements made by the French were at St. Ignace, Mackinac and Frenchtown, later called Raisinville, and now Monroe.

The French and Indian War. — The English, however, were getting a firmer foothold upon America than the French, and when they came into conflict in the French and Indian War the English crushed the French power on this continent. Together with Canada and the whole Northwest, Michigan passed under the control of the English in 1763.

Pontiac's Conspiracy. — An Englishman could not get along as well with the Indians as a Frenchman could, and the red men of the Northwest were not well pleased with the change of government.

There happened to be at this time a great Ottawa chieftain in the West named Pontiac. He was a man of ability and ambition. He saw that the English occupation was different from the French and meant in time the driving out or suppression of the Indians. He felt that the only way by which they could save their hunting grounds was by a quick and vigorous blow.

Pontiac, therefore, obtained the cooperation of many tribes and formed a strong combination to drive out the English. Many forts and settlements were surprised and destroyed. Among them was that at Mackinac, where the savages, apparently friendly, engaged in a game of ball near the fort while their women came inside the walls with weapons hidden under their blankets. The garrison, off their guard, lounged outside the walls, watching the ball game. The ball having been thrown into the fort, the warriors rushed through the open gate, seized their weapons from the squaws and captured the stronghold.

At Detroit Pontiac was less successful, although his plot there was a shrewd one. The Indians cut off their gun barrels so that they could be hidden beneath their blankets. They then went to the fort and asked for a council with the English. Upon a given signal from Pontiac they were to attack the unsuspecting white men and gain possession of the fort. But the plan was revealed to Major Gladwin, the commander, by an Indian girl, and when the Indians arrived they found the soldiers ready for them. Foiled in his attempt to capture Detroit by strategy, Pontiac undertook to take it by siege, and the garrison was closely shut in by the savages for months. At last reinforcements arrived from the East and the siege was raised.

The Revolutionary War in the Northwest. — At the beginning of the Revolutionary War Colonel Hamilton was the British commander at Detroit. He hired the Indians with large quantities of rum and with firearms to attack the small scattered settlements of Americans in Kentucky and Pennsylvania. By offering rewards for scalps he earned the name of "hair buyer." Often during the war Detroit was enlivened by returning bands of Indians with their prisoners and scalps, and many a scene of savage revelry and drunken debauchery followed.

The activity of the Indians, encouraged as it was by the English,' aroused the Kentuckians, and George Rogers Clark determined to capture the British posts in the Northwest. With a band of about one hundred and eighty men he marched across the country and captured Kaskaskia and other places in what is now Illinois. Colonel Hamilton marched from Detroit to Vincennes, an old French settlement in the present State of Indiana, and prepared to drive Clark back. The latter, however, made a very difficult march in the winter time, the soldiers for a considerable distance wading across flooded lands with the water nearly to their necks, and surprised and captured Vincennes and Hamilton himself.

Clark wished to attack Detroit, but was not able to do so. His expedition, nevertheless, had practically put the Northwest into the hands of the Americans, and when the treaty of peace was made in 1783, that region, including Michigan, became a part of the United States.

The British, however, were loath to give up the splendid country about the Great Lakes, and for thirteen years after the treaty they held the fort at Detroit and other posts. They wished to keep control of the profitable fur trade as long as possible. Then, too, they knew that the United States was a weak nation and that the thirteen states were jealous of each other and often quarreled among themselves, and they hoped that, in case the new Union should break up, they could retain the western country at least, even if they did not bring back the whole country under the government of England. But they had some excuse for holding the posts, for the different states had made it practically impossible for English merchants to collect debts contracted by the Americans before the war.

After Jay's treaty was made, Detroit was turned over to our government, and the stars and stripes, following the lily of France and the union jack of Great Britain, were for the first time unfurled to the breezes of Michigan, July 11, 1796.

The Land Cessions. — The region between the Ohio River, the Mississippi and the Great Lakes, including Michigan, was claimed by the states of Virginia, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York. These claims were based upon their early colonial charters or upon grants made by the Indians. At about the close of the Revolutionary War, however, these states surrendered their claims to this region to the Federal government.

Ordinance of 1787. — After the northwestern country had been turned over to the United States, settlers began to move into it, and some form of local government became desirable. This was provided for by a law passed by Congress, called the Ordinance of 1787, which was a very important document in our history. It organized the first territory of the United States, encouraged the settlement of the western country and paved the way for the formation of the great states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.

It contained many wise provisions. It provided for legislative, executive and judicial officers, and for a framework of government. It promised future statehood for the region, not less than three nor more than five states to be formed out of it. Slavery was forbidden forever. It stated that " Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.' '

The Territory of Michigan. — The Northwest Territory, as it was called, remained undivided until 1800. In that year it was divided into two parts by a line running north and south nearly through the middle of the present lower peninsula of Michigan. The eastern part retained the old name of the Northwest Territory, while the western portion was called Indiana Territory.

In 1802, when Ohio was formed into a state, what is now Michigan was included in the Territory of Indiana.

Michigan became a separate territory in 1805. It consisted of the region north of a line drawn due east from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan and east of a line drawn through the middle of that lake to its northern end and then due north. It thus included the southern peninsula, the eastern end of the upper peninsula and a narrow strip of northern Indiana and Ohio.

From the time that Illinois was admitted as a state in 1818 until Michigan itself became a state in 1837, the territory of Michigan embraced the lower and upper peninsulas, Wisconsin and the part of Minnesota east of the Mississippi. Between the years 1834 and 1836 our territory was even larger than that, extending westward as far as the Missouri River. Thus Michigan had been under three flags and of various sizes and shapes by the time it became a state.

The early settlers in the territory were mostly French, and not many others came in for many years. The country was but little developed before the War of 1812; Detroit was not a large town; and the few other settlements were still smaller. The French settlers were not very progressive or enterprising.

The government was carried on by a governor, a secretary and three judges, all appointed by the president. The governor and judges constituted the legislative body. The people, it will be seen, had no part in governing themselves.

The War of 1812 in Michigan. — General Hull was governor of Michigan Territory when war with England broke out in 1812. He was put in command of a military force and carried on some operations along the Detroit River, at one time pushing some distance into Canada. He soon withdrew, however, to the American side of the river and shut his little army up in Detroit.

To this place a British force advanced and Hull, contrary to the advice of his officers and against the wishes of his men, who were eager to fight, surrendered Detroit without striking a blow.

Hull was tried for this by a court-martial, found guilty and sentenced to be shot; but the president pardoned him because of his services during the Revolutionary War. He maintained that his force was not large enough to hold out against the British and Indians, and that if he had offered resistance and then the town had fallen into the hands of the enemy, the Indians would have massacred the inhabitants, including the women and children.

A military force, coming from Kentucky to recapture Detroit, was massacred on the river Raisin in the winter of 1813. But Commodore Perry won a brilliant victory over the British fleet on the western end of Lake Erie, September 10, 1813, when the British troops left Detroit and retreated into Canada, leaving Michigan again under the stars and stripes.

Growth and Development. — General Lewis Cass was made governor of the territory in 1813 and his energy and administrative ability were soon felt in its development. Americans came into the territory in increasing numbers, bringing improved methods of farming and of carrying on other business. Changes were also made in the form of government, so that the people gradually began to share in its administration.

General Cass remained governor of the territory until 1831. He was eminently fitted for the position. He understood the Indians and exercised great control over them. He made many treaties with them in behalf of the United States by which he secured title to large parts of Michigan for the white man. During his long administration many counties were organized, roads were built, settlements were made, farms were cleared and the territory forged rapidly ahead.

By the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 and by the use of steamboats on Lake Erie, the first of which, "Walk-in-the- Water," arrived at Detroit in 1818, people from New England and New York were enabled to reach Michigan much more readily than formerly, and the population increased rapidly.

Admittance as a State. — By 1835, Michigan was ready for statehood. A convention was held and a constitution was drafted. But a boundary controversy with Ohio now arose which delayed admittance to the Union for some time.

The people of Michigan maintained that the southern boundary of the new state should be on a line drawn from the southern point of Lake Michigan due eastward until it intersected Lake Erie, according to the Ordinance of 1787.

Ohio claimed that her northern boundary was on a line drawn from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the northern side of Maumee Bay.

It was not so much the strip of land in controversy (a strip a

few miles wide running from Indiana to Lake Erie) that each wanted as it was the mouth of the Maumee River and the promising town of Toledo.

The quarrel waxed so warm that the militia was called out on both sides and war seemed imminent. Bloodshed was averted, however, and the "Toledo

The Disputed Territory

War " was settled by a compromise which was forced upon Michigan by Congress. Ohio was given the disputed tract and Michigan was given the upper peninsula, which was not considered valuable at that time.

Michigan was admitted to the Union in January, 1837.

Later History. — The history of the state since 1837 cannot be told here. The population has continued to increase, and the country has been largely developed. For many years lumbering was the greatest industry. Farming has superseded it, however, and today Michigan is one of the great agricultural states of the Union. Vast deposits of copper, iron and other minerals are being mined, and manufacturing has become one of the principal industries of the people.

Michigan has had three constitutions; the first adopted in 1835, the second in 1850 and the present one in 1909.

The state bore its share in the Civil War, and in other ways it has taken an honorable part in the life of the nation. Its people have come from all parts of the civilized world and have become good Americans. On the whole, "life is worth living" in the Wolverine State.

References. — Pupils should be encouraged to study more extensively the history of the state from the following books: Remans' "History of Michigan"; Cooley's "Michigan"; The Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society's " Collections"; Parkman's "La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West"; Mowry's "Territorial Growth of the United States": Hinsdale's "Old Northwest,"

Chapter II Schools

Outside of their homes, boys and girls usually first come in contact with government in the school. They may sometimes ask such questions as these: "What right has the teacher to govern us?" "How does she get her pay?" "Who built and paid for the schoolhouse?" "Who furnishes the desks, the crayon and erasers, the maps, the dictionary and the wood or coal? "

Doubtless most of the boys and girls know that the school board hires and pays the teacher and gives her authority to take charge of the school and govern the children. The school board also had the schoolhouse built, and it buys the things that are needed in the schoolroom and the fuel to warm it. In fact, the board has general charge of school matters and the running of the school.

The school belongs to all the people, but the board is chosen by the people to manage it for them; that is, the board represents the people.

Who May Vote. — But not all the people may take part in choosing members of the board. Those persons who are citizens of the United States, tw^enty-one years of age or over, who have resided in the school district for three months just before the election and who are the parents or legal guardians of a child of school age (i.e. between the ages of five and twenty) living in the district, may vote for members of the board and upon any other question that may come up in school meetings, except such as do not directly involve the raising of money by taxation. Those persons who are citizens of the United States, twenty-one years of age or over, who have resided in the school district for three months just before the election and who have property assessed for school taxes in the district, may vote for members of the board and upon all other questions that may arise, including the raising of money by a tax. Notice, therefore, that there are two classes of persons legally qualified to vote at school meetings, and also that women may vote just the same as men at these meetings.

Annual Meeting. — The members of the school board are chosen at the annual school meeting, which is held on the second Monday of July, except in a few cities, usually at the schoolhouse. Special meetings of the voters for the transaction of school business may also be called by the board.

Besides electing members of the board, the qualified voters at the annual meeting have the power : to select a site for a schoolhouse, and they may direct the board to purchase such a site; to provide for building a schoolhouse or for making additions to it; to vote to raise money for certain purposes by taxation; and to do various other things.

School Board. — In rural districts the school board consists of three persons, one being elected every year for a term of three years. Any one who is qualified to vote on all questions at the annual meeting may be elected a member of the board.

SCHOOLS 21

It is the business of the board to carry out the resolutions voted at the annual and special school meetings; to hire teachers; to keep the schoolhouse in good condition; to vote taxes sufficient for maintaining the school; to purchase maps, globes, dictionaries, books and other supplies and apparatus; to decide upon any studies to be taught in addition to those which must be taught as provided by law; to select the textbooks to be used; to adopt such rules and regulations for the management of the school as it may think necessary; to buy fuel; to hire janitors; to purchase books for poor children; and to suspend or expel disorderly pupils.

Officers of the Board. — One member of the board is chosen at the annual meeting as moderator. He presides at all meetings of the board and of the voters of the district. He also countersigns all orders for money drawn by the director upon the treasurer.

Another member is elected director. He is secretary of the board and of the school district and keeps a record of the proceedings of all meetings. He gives notice of the annual and special meetings of the district. He draws orders upon the treasurer whenever money is to be paid out for school purposes. He buys the apparatus and supplies that have been ordered by the board, and such other things as are necessary for carrying on the work of the school. He is the executive officer of the board.

A third member of the board is elected treasurer. He receives and keeps the money for the district until paid out upon orders drawn by the director and countersigned by the moderator. He must keep an account of all money received and paid out.

Graded Districts. — For villages and cities a somewhat different kind of school district, called a graded district, is formed. Any district containing more than one hundred children of legal school age may be formed into a graded district by a majority vote of the qualified voters present at a school meeting. In such a district a high school is usually established and a superintendent of schools employed. In a graded district the board is composed of five members elected for terms of three years, one or two going out of office each year. The board elects from its own number a president, a secretary and a treasurer, who have the powers and duties respectively of the moderator, director and treasurer of the rural board. In some of the larger cities the school board consists of a different number of members. The board in a graded district has about the same powers and duties as the board in a rural district, with a few additional ones.

Organization and Size of Districts. — School districts are formed and their boundaries fixed or changed by the township board. Any number may be formed in a township, and their number and size vary considerably in different townships.

Township Districts. — Sometimes instead of being divided into school districts, the whole township is organized into one district called a township school district. This may be done whenever a majority of the qualified school voters shall vote for it. The school board of such a district consists of five members elected for a term of three years. This board manages all the schools of the township and may employ a superintendent of schools and may establish a high

SCHOOLS 23

school for the children of the township. Not many township school districts have yet been formed in Michigan except in the upper peninsula.

School Census. — Every year the director or secretary of the school board, or some one appointed by the board, takes a census of all children of legal school age, that is, between the ages of five and twenty, living within the district. This is done sometime during the last fifteen days of May, except in incorporated cities of 3000 inhabitants or over, where it may be taken during the last twenty days of May. It is done for the purpose of determining the proper share of money from the state for each district, as the state distributes money every year among the school districts according to the number of children of legal school age living in each of them.

Compulsory Education. — The law requires that every child between the ages of seven and sixteen years shall attend a public school continuously during the entire school year. The following children are excepted : those who attend a good private or parochial school; those who have received an eighth-grade diploma; those physically unable to attend ; those over fourteen years of age whose services are essential to the support of their parents; those under nine years of age whose parents do not reside within two and one-half miles of a public school; and those between the ages of twelve and fourteen while attending church confirmation classes.

A county truant officer is appointed by the commissioner of schools to enforce this law in rural districts, and the board of education appoints one in each graded district. Penalties of fines and imprisonment are provided for parents who do not obey this law.

Payment of Tuition by School Boards. — The board of education in any district not maintaining a high school is required to pay the tuition of any child who has completed the studies of the eighth grade at any one of the three nearest high schools. In order to secure this payment of tuition a parent of the child must give written notice to the board of education of the district wherein he resides on or before the fourth Monday in June. The school board may also pay for the transportation of such children to and from high schools.

Suggestions. — Pupils should attend an annual school meeting and observe the procedure.

A copy of the latest edition of the school laws should be in the school library for reference. It may be obtained without cost from the county commissioner or from the state superintendent of public instruction.

Require pupils to draw a map of the school district.

A debate might be carried on by the class as to the relative merits of the small district and the township district.

1. May every one who votes at township, county and state elections vote legally at school elections?

2. Are there any who vote at school elections who may not vote at township, county and state elections?

3. How does the director or secretary give notice of school meetings?

4. Have you ever attended a school meeting? Are children permitted to attend?

SCHOOLS 25

5. How many persons usually attend in your district?

6. Why do not more attend?

7. What is the shortest time that school can be legally maintained during the year?

8. The treasurer of a school board must give bonds. What does that mean?

9. What is the number of your school district? Describe its boundaries.

10. What is a fractional district? How is it created?

11. How much money per child did the state pay your district last year?

12. What two meanings has the term " school district"?

13. Do members of the school board in your district receive pay? If so, how much? Should they be paid?

14. How does your school enrollment compare with the school census of your district?

Chapter III

The word " township" is sometimes used to indicate a tract of land and sometimes the people living upon a certain tract organized for civil and political purposes. When it has the former meaning it is usually a congressional township; when the latter meaning, it is a civil township.

Congressional Township. — A congressional township is a tract of land about six miles square. It is called "congressional" because the Congress of the United States as far back as 1785 made a law that the land of the new states and territories should be surveyed into townships six miles square.

The Survey. — When surveyors were sent into the Territory of Michigan by the United States government to survey lands for the early settlers, they first laid out two main lines from which to reckon. One, called the base line, was run due east and west. It crosses the state between the second and third row of counties counting from the south. The other, called the principal meridian, runs due north and south. It crosses the base line on .the boundary between Jackson and Ingham counties, running close to the city of Jackson.

Townships were then formed by running lines six miles apart parallel to the base line and to the principal meridian. These congressional townships were not named by the surveyors but were numbered, counting from the base line and the principal meridian. Thus a township in the first row north of the base line is called " township one north"; in the second row, " township two north/' and so on. One in the first row south of the base line is called "township one south/' and so on. A township in the first row or range east of the principal meridian is read "range one east"; in the second row, "range two east/' etc. One in the first row west of the principal meridian is V

read "range one west," and so on.

Correction Lines. — Lines running due north and south are not exactly parallel, as they are surveyed according X to the compass and the needle of the compass points to the north magnetic pole yj

of the earth. Hence north

and south lines would gradually approach each other as they go farther north and would meet at the north magnetic pole. Starting at the base line, townships are made six miles wide, but farther north they would get narrower, or less than six miles from east to west. To prevent them from becoming too narrow, five correction lines are run across the state. The location of these may be seen upon a good map of Michigan. Starting on the north of each of them, the townships are each made six miles wide again.

B

D

A

C

II

So it will easily be seen that townships are not exactly square, being a little narrower on the north side than on the south side. Neither do they contain exactly thirty-six square miles, but usually somewhat less. For the same reason, the sections into which townships are divided are sometimes not exactly a mile square and

consist of less than 640 acres.

Sections. — In order to make it easy to describe definitely the location of different tracts of land, each township is divided into thirty-six sections, each approximately one mile square and containing about 640 acres. They are numbered like this, commencing at the northeast corner of the township :

Sections are surveyed into still smaller divisions so that the location of smaller pieces of land may be described exactly. Let us suppose that the following diagram represents section 10 of township 7 north, range 5 west.

A is described as the N. W. \ of Sec. 10, T. 7 N., R. 5 W. 160 acres.

B is the N. W. I of the N. E. | of Sec. 10, T. 7 N., R. 5 W. 40 acres.

C is the S. E. I of the S. W. \ of the N. E. \ of Sec. 10, T. 7 N., R. 5 W. 10 acres.

A

B

E

F C

D

D is the N. \ of the S. E. \ of Sec. 10, T. 7 N., R. 5 W. 80 acres.

What is E?

Describe F.

The Civil Township. — A civil township is the organization for purposes of government of the people living upon a certain tract of land. The people living upon a congressional township are usually formed into a civil township, but not always. When the population is sparse, the people upon two or more congressional townships are sometimes organized into one civil township. For instance, at present Oscoda county is composed of sixteen congressional townships, but all of the people are organized into four civil townships. The congressional township is designated by number, as has been seen, but a civil township is given a name.