How the States Got Their Shapes Too_ The People Behind the Borderlines - Mark Stein [65]
What the people of Michigan didn’t know, but soon learned, was that young Mason was an extraordinarily talented individual. Public opinion changed as Mason deftly navigated the territory through difficulties involving the Black Hawk War during the absence of the new governor, George B. Porter. When Porter died in 1834, Mason became acting governor, now with considerable support as he led Michigan in its bid for statehood.
In 1835 Ohio Governor Lucas issued a directive to commence surveying in the newly created counties. In response, Michigan Governor Mason issued a directive, too. “The [Pains and Penalties Act] must be rigidly enforced,” he directed the commander of Michigan’s militia. “You are authorized to call to your aid, in the event that the posse comitatus of the sheriff should be insufficient, any assistance that may be required to resist the strength the military authorities of Ohio may bring against you.”
President Jackson sought to dissipate the tension by submitting Michigan’s Pains and Penalties Act to his attorney general for an opinion regarding the jurisdictional issues. Jackson’s neutrality was suspect; the 1836 presidential election was just around the corner, and Jackson’s favorite, Martin Van Buren, would need Ohio’s electoral votes. Michigan, having no electoral votes, viewed Jackson’s gesture as a clearly political gambit. But Michigan modified that view when Attorney General Benjamin Butler reported back that “the act of the legislature of Ohio extending the jurisdiction of that state over the Territory of Michigan is … repugnant to the act of Congress.”9 Butler commented that Congress had the authority to determine the line, but that until it did so, “it will be the duty of the president to consider [the 1787 line] as the boundary of the Territory of Michigan.”
The effect of the attorney general’s opinion was to give Michigan the ammunition it needed to load—literally—the muskets of its militia. Three weeks later, Ohio’s legislature, at the behest of Governor Lucas, appropriated $300,000 to equip and dispatch 500 troops to the disputed region.
President Jackson quickly dispatched two mediators to meet with the governors in April 1835, one of whom was the nation’s preeminent diplomat, Richard Rush. The Ohio State Journal reported:
Our last week’s paper gave the gratifying intelligence, received at the hour of going to press, that all fears of disturbance in the disputed territory were for the present removed … [due to] the advice or instructions of the Commissioners, Messrs. Rush and [Benjamin C.] Howard.… But the scene has changed. On Wednesday night, at a late hour between twelve and three o’clock, a [Michigan] posse … came to Toledo … prowling about the streets and taking some of the citizens.… A number of the Toledians [sic] have been indicted for accepting office under Ohio law.
At this time Michigan began its self-declared statehood convention, amid continuing violence that included the stabbing death of a deputy sheriff.10 The rhetoric of both governors reflected, if not abetted, the rage in the region. Ohio Governor Lucas declared to his legislature:
Some [residents of Toledo] have been driven from their houses in dread and terror, while others are menaced by the authorities of Michigan.… And for what? Is it for crime? No, but for faithfully discharging [one’s] duty as a good citizen of Ohio.… The authorities of Michigan countenanced prosecutions against the citizens of Ohio … with a degree of reckless