The Toledo War
-Chrissie
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By the middle of the 1830s, the Michigan Territory was sufficiently populated to begin statehood proceedings. The transition from territory to statehood for what had been the Northwest Territory was a fairly straightforward process: once an area had five thousand free (white) men over the age of 21 who could become voters, it became a federal territory. The voters chose a territorial legislature to govern the area and sent a non-voting representative to the Federal House. Once the population grew to 60,000 people (not only white men of voting age but any people who were not part of the native tribes), the territorial legislature could petition for statehood.
By 1833, Michigan had over the requisite 60,000 residents, but the House Committee on Statehood did not take up the issue because of a border dispute with the state of Ohio. This dated back to a mistake in how the southern border of Lake Michigan was measured decades prior. It turned out that the lake stretched a bit further south than it was labeled, and if the border of Ohio and Michigan were to remain a straight line from the southern tip of that lake, the city of Toledo and the port on the Maumee River would fall within Michigan, not Ohio. This area was very important to Ohio’s economy and they did not want to lose it. Michigan also claimed the 468-square-mile “Toledo Strip” (as it came to be called), because the people who lived there counted themselves as living in Michigan, not Ohio. The discrepancy was realized during the proceedings making Ohio a state in 1803, but there was no great urgency to address it as long as the area around it remained in a territorial status. It was forgotten in the upheaval around the War of 1812 and did not come to be addressed until Michigan’s petition for statehood forced the issue.
1834 saw Michigan Territory get a new governor: Stevens T. Mason. He decided to push the issue of statehood by presenting it to Congress as a fait accompli. The same method had worked for Tennessee a few decades previously, so Mason so no harm in trying. He called a special session of the Territorial Legislature and ordered a new census be taken to establish the population as sufficient for statehood. The census showed there were 85,000 in the Lower Peninsula (the upper was not yet being considered), more than enough for statehood. A state constitutional convention was called to begin in May 1835 and they completed the document in a short forty-five days. An election was then scheduled for 5 October 1835. The ballot asked first if the voter approved of the new constitution for the state; if they did, they then voted for governor, lieutenant governor, and their state representative. The constitution was overwhelmingly approved, and Mason had been chosen the state’s governor. The new government was to begin on 1 November.
Having not yet gotten full federal authorization, Governor Mason cautioned the state legislature to pass few laws right away, though they prepared many for after the expected approval. By the time the new year began, that approval had not come, and the territorial and state governments were coming into conflict. This was worsened by Governor Mason’s response to the Ohio legislature putting up markers along what they perceived as their border: Mason ordered that anyone working in the Toledo Strip in a governmental capacity from Ohio was to be fined. At one point, Mason led a portion of the Michigan state militia into the territory to personally issue such fines. The Ohio state militia was called in response and for a short time it appeared that the issue would come to blows. Though there was a great deal of rude shouting at each other, it never did come to violence. Mason was removed as the militia’s leader and the group disbanded.
The House Committee on Statehood took up the issue early in 1836, eventually coming up with a solution that was hoped would be an effective compromise: Ohio would keep the Toledo Strip, but Michigan would be expanded to include the territory now known as the Upper Peninsula. The compromise was approved by Congress and President Andrew Jackson signed the law making Michigan a state on 15 July 1836, contingent on Michigan accepting the boundary compromise. People in both the Upper and Lower Peninsulae pushed back against the idea: the Lower saw little value in the Upper, and the Upper wanted to be its own state. Michigan held a convention in September to consider the compromise; the delegates refused it after four days’ debate.
As convention members returned home, they began to have second thoughts, understanding that if they did not accept this arrangement, statehood could be out of their grasp. A second convention was called for October, during which it was decided to accept the compromise. Michigan officially became a state on 26 January 1837.