The Toledo War (1835-36), also known as the Michigan-Ohio War , is an almost infinite boundary border between the US state of Ohio and the adjacent region of Michigan..
A poor geographical understanding of the Great Lakes helped result in conflicting state and federal legislation between 1787 and 1805, and various interpretations of the law led the Ohio and Michigan governments to both claim jurisdiction over 468 square miles (1,210 km 2 ) region along the border, now known as Toledo Strip . The situation arose when Michigan petitioned for statehood in 1835 and attempted to enter the disputed territory within its borders. Both sides passed legislation attempting to force the capitulation of others, while Ohio Governor Robert Lucas and 24-year-old Governor Boy Gov. Stevens T. Mason helped institutionalize criminal penalties for citizens subject to the authority of others. The two countries deployed militia across the Maumee River near Toledo, but apart from mocking each other, there was little interaction between the two powers. The single military confrontation of the "war" ended with a report of shots fired into the air, leaving no casualties.
During the summer of 1836, Congress filed a compromise in which Michigan relinquished its claim on the strip in exchange for its status as a state and about three-quarters of the Upper Peninsula. The compromise was considered a bad result for Michigan. Voters at the state convention in September clearly rejected the proposal. But in December, the Michigan government, facing a terrible financial crisis and pressure from Congress and President Andrew Jackson, called another convention (called the "Frostbitten Convention") that received a compromise that solved the Toledo War.
The discovery of later copper and iron deposits and large amounts of timber in the Upper Peninsula more than offset the Michigan economic losses in handing Toledo.
Video Toledo War
Origins
In 1787, the Confederation Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance, which created the Northwest Territory in what is now the central western part of the United States. The ordinance states that the territory was eventually divided into "no less than three or more of five" states in the future. It has been determined that the north-south boundary for these three states is "east and west lines pulled through the southern or extreme turns of Lake Michigan" (now known about 41.62 Â ° N, near Marquette Park, Gary, Indiana).
At that time, the true location of this extreme is unknown. The most highly respected map of the time, "Mitchell Map", placed it at the latitude near the mouth of the Detroit River (about 42.05 Â ° LU). This means that the entire coastline of Lake Erie in western Pennsylvania will belong to the state that became Ohio. When Congress passed the 1802 Activation Act, which authorized Ohio to begin the process of becoming a US state, the language that defines Ohio's northern border slightly differed from that used in the Northwest Act: the border should be "retractable east and west lines through the extreme south of Lake Michigan, running east... until it will cut Lake Erie or the territorial [[North American England]] line, and then with the same through Lake Erie to the Pennsylvania line above ".
Since the territorial border between the United States and the United Kingdom of North America (in particular, the provinces of Quebec up to 1791 and Up Canada afterward) flows through the middle of Lake Erie and then rises to the Detroit River, combined with the prevailing beliefs about the location of the southern tip of Lake Michigan, the formulator of the Constitution Ohio Ohio Ohio Ohio believes it was Congressional intent that northern Ohio boundary must have been north of the mouth of the Maumee River, and possibly even on the Detroit River. Thus, Ohio will be granted access to most or all of the shores of Lake Erie to the west of Pennsylvania, and other new states carved in the Northwest Territories will have access to the Great Lakes only through Lake Michigan, Huron, and Superior.
During the Ohio Constitution Convention in 1802, delegates allegedly received reports from feather traps that Lake Michigan extended far south than previously believed (or mapped). Thus, it is possible that the east-west line extending east from the southern edge of Lake Michigan may intersect with Lake Erie somewhere east of Maumee Bay, or worse, probably will not cut the lake at all; the farther south that Lake Michigan is completely extended, the more Ohio land will disappear, perhaps even the entire shoreline of Lake Erie to the west of Pennsylvania.
Addressing this possibility, the Ohio delegation included a provision in Ohio's draft constitution that if the trap report on Michigan Lake's position is correct, the country's border line will be tilted to the northeast so as to cut Lake Erie in "the northern edge of the Gulf of Miami [Maumee]." ensuring that most of the Maumee River basin and all the southern shores of Lake Erie in western Pennsylvania will fall in Ohio. The draft constitution on this condition was accepted by the United States Congress, but prior to Ohio's recognition to the Union in February 1803, the proposed constitution was referred to the Congressional committee. The committee's report states that the clause defining the northern boundary depends on "unconfirmed facts" (extreme latitude south of Lake Michigan), and its members "think it is not necessary to take it [provisions], at that time, consider."
When Congress created the Michigan Territory in 1805, it used the Northwest Ordinance language to define the southern boundary of the territory, which is therefore different from that in the Ohio state constitution. This distinction, and its potential consequences, did not seem to be noticed at the time, but it established the legal basis for the conflict that would erupt 30 years later.
Maps Toledo War
Toledo Strip Making
The location of the border was contested throughout the early 19th century. Residents of Port of Miami - who will later become Toledo - urge the Ohio government to resolve the border issue. The Ohio legislature, in turn, passed a resolution and repeated requests called for Congress to raise this issue. In 1812, Congress approved the request for an official survey of the line. Delayed due to the War of 1812, only after the entry of Indiana to Union in 1816 working on the survey began. US Surveyor General Edward Tiffin, in charge of the survey, is a former Ohio governor. As a result, Tiffin hired surveyor William Harris to conduct the survey instead of the Ordinance Line, but the line as described in the Ohio Constitution of 1802. When completed, "Harris Line" puts the mouth of the Maumee River completely in Ohio. When the survey results were published, Michigan's territorial governor Lewis Cass was unhappy, not being based on the Congressional-approved Ordinance Line. In a letter to Tiffin, Cass stated that Ohio's biased survey "only adds strength to the strong, and makes the weaker still weaker."
In response, Michigan commissioned a second survey conducted by John A. Fulton. The Fulton Survey was based on the original 1787 Ordinance Line, and after measuring the line eastward from Lake Michigan to Lake Erie, found the Ohio boundary to lie south of the mouth of the Maumee River. The area between the Harris and Fulton survey lines forms what is now known as the "Toledo Strip". The ground band between northern Ohio and southern Michigan stretches five to eight miles (8 to 13 km), where both jurisdictions claim sovereignty. While Ohio refused to submit his claim, Michigan quietly occupied it over the next few years, setting up local government, building roads, and collecting taxes throughout the region.
Economic significance
The soil is known as the Toledo Strip and is still an important commercial area. Prior to the advent of the railroad industry, rivers and canals were the main "highway of trade" in the Midwest America. The small but important parts of the Strip - the area around Toledo and Maumee Bay today - are in the Great Black Swamp, and this area is almost impossible to navigate by road, especially after spring and summer. Flowing into Lake Erie, the Maumee River is not necessarily suitable for large ships, but it provides an easy connection to Indiana Fort Wayne. At that time, there were plans to connect the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes through a series of canals. One of the channel systems approved by the Ohio legislature in 1825 was the Miami and Erie Canals that included connections to the Ohio River and the outflow to Lake Erie via the Maumee River.
During the conflict over the Toledo Strip, the Erie Canal was built, connecting New York City and the Eastern coast to the Great Lakes in Buffalo. The canal, completed in 1825, soon became the main route for trade and migration. Corn and other agricultural products (from the Midwest) can be delivered to the eastern market at a much cheaper cost than the old route along the Mississippi River. In addition, the migration of settlers to the Midwest increased sharply after the canal was completed, turning Buffalo and other port cities into boomtown.
Erie Canal's success inspired many other canal projects. Since the western edge of Lake Erie offers the shortest land routes to the border of Indiana and Illinois, Maumee Port is seen as an important and valuable place. Detroit is 20 miles (32 km) above the Detroit River from Lake Erie, and faces a tough barrier from the Big Black Marsh in the south. Therefore, Detroit is less suited to new transportation projects such as canals, and later trains, than to Toledo. From this perspective on the thriving Midwest of the 1820s and 1830s, the two countries had many advantages by controlling the land on the Toledo Strip.
In addition, the Strip west of the Toledo area is a prime location for agriculture, because the clay is fertile and fertile. The area over the years produces a large amount of corn and wheat per acre. Michigan and Ohio both wanted what seemed strategically and economically doomed to become an important port and a prosperous region.
Prevent conflict
In 1820-21, a federal land survey had reached a disputed territory from two directions, advancing southwards of the baseline in Michigan and to the north of the one in Ohio. For unknown reasons, Surveyor General Tiffin ordered two surveys to approach the Northwest Ordinance (Fulton) line, rather than the Harris line, possibly lending implicit support to Michigan's claim to Ohio. Thus, cities established north of the line consider them to be part of the Michigan Territory. In the early 1820s, the growth area reached a minimum population threshold of 60,000 to qualify for state status. When Michigan attempted to convene a state constitutional convention in 1833, Congress rejected the request because of the controversial Toledo Strip.
Ohio insists that the limit has been established in its constitution and thus the citizens of Michigan are merely intruders; the state government refused to negotiate the matter with the Michigan Territory. The Ohio Congressional delegation was active in blocking Michigan from reaching statehood, lobbying other countries to vote against Michigan. In January 1835, frustrated by a political deadlock, Michigan acting Governor Stevens T. Mason called for a constitutional convention to be held in May of that year even though Congress refused to approve acts that allowed authorizations such as the state constitution.
In February 1835, Ohio passed a law regulating local government in the Gaza Strip. The area where Toledo sits will, then in 1835, named after incumbent Governor Robert Lucas, a move that further aggravates the growing tension with Michigan. Also, during this period, Ohio tried to use its power in Congress to revive a previously rejected border law that would formally set the country's borders to become Harris's Line.
Michigan, led by young and level-headed Masons, responded with the passage of the Pains and Punishment Act just six days after Lucas County was formed; it made it a criminal offense for the Ohio people to take government actions in the Gaza Strip, under penalties of up to $ 1,000, up to five years in hard labor, or both. Acting as the region's supreme commander, Mason appointed Brigadier General Joseph W. Brown of the Third Brigade to head the state militia, with instructions to be ready to act against the Ohio intruder. Lucas gained legislative approval for his own militia, and he immediately sent troops to the Strip area. The Toledo war has begun.
Former US President John Quincy Adams, who at that time represented Massachusetts in Congress, supported Michigan's claim. In 1833, when Congress rejected Michigan's request for a convention, Adams concluded his opinion on the dispute: "Never in my life's journey, I have known the controversy where all rights are so clear on one side and all the powers so great on the other."
War
Acting as supreme commander of the Ohio militia, Governor Lucas - along with General John Bell and about 600 other armed militia members - arrived in Perrysburg, Ohio, 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Toledo, on March 31, 1835 Soon Governor Mason and General Brown arrived to occupy Toledo precisely with about 1,000 armed men, intent on preventing Ohio's progress into the Toledo region and stopping further border marking of the venue.
Presidential Intervention
In a desperate bid to prevent armed combat and to prevent the resulting political crisis, US President Andrew Jackson consulted with Attorney General Benjamin Butler for his legal opinion on border disputes. At that time, Ohio was a growing political force in the Union, with nineteen US representatives and two senators. In contrast, Michigan, still a territory, has only one non-voting delegation. Ohio is an important state in the presidential election, and that would be very damaging to the Democrats who are just beginning to lose voting votes in Ohio. Therefore, Jackson calculates that his party's best interests will be served by maintaining the Toledo Strip as part of Ohio.
The response Jackson received from Butler was unexpected: The Attorney General declared that until Congress dictated otherwise, the land belonged to Michigan. This presents a political dilemma for Jackson that spurs him to take action that will greatly affect the outcome of the "war".
On April 3, 1835, Jackson sent two representatives from Washington, D.C., Richard Rush of Pennsylvania and Benjamin Chew Howard from Maryland, to Toledo to mediate the conflict and present a compromise to both governments. The proposal, presented on April 7, recommended that a re-survey to mark the Harris Line begins without further disturbance by Michigan, and that residents of the affected area are allowed to choose their own country or territorial government until Congress can definitively settle the matter.
Lucas reluctantly agreed to the proposal, and began disbanding his militia, believing the debate had to be resolved. Three days later, elections in the region were held under Ohio law. Mason refused the deal and he continues to prepare for possible armed conflict.
During the election, Ohio officials were harassed by Michigan authorities and local residents were threatened with arrest if they were subject to Ohio authorities. On April 8, 1835, Monroe County, Michigan sheriff arrived at the home of Major Benjamin F. Stickney, an Ohio partisan. In the first contact between the Michigan partisans and the Stickney family, the sheriff captured two Ohio men under the Pains and Dale Act on the grounds that people had voted in Ohio.
Battle of Phillips Corners
After the election, Lucas believes that the actions of the commissioner have alleviated the situation and he once again sends the surveyor to mark the Harris Line. The project went on without a serious incident until April 26, 1835, when the survey group was attacked by fifty to sixty members of General Brown's militia in what is now called the "Battle of Phillips Corners". The name of the battle is sometimes used as a synonym for the entire Toledo War.
The Surveyor wrote to Lucas later that while observing "blessings from the Sabbath", the Michigan militia forces advised them to retreat. In the ensuing chase, "our nine men, who did not leave the ground on time after being shot by the enemy, from thirty to fifty shots, were taken captive and taken away to [Tecumseh]." While details of the attack were moot - Michigan claimed that they did not shoot and only took out some bullet rifles in the air when the Ohio group retreated - the battle further angered both Ohioans and Michiganders and brought both sides to the brink. all-out war.
Blood spill in 1835
Responding to allegations that Michigan militia fired on Ohio, Lucas called a special Ohio legislative session on 8 June 1835 to convey some controversial acts, including the establishment of Toledo as the administrative center in Lucas County, the establishment of a Common Pleas Trial in the city, a law to prevent the forced kidnapping of Ohio citizens from the area, and a budget of $ 300,000 to implement the law. Michigan's territorial legislation responded with a budget allocation of $ 315,000.00 to fund its militia .
In May and June 1835, Michigan drafted a State Constitution, with provisions for bicameral legislatures, supreme courts, and other components of functional state government. Congress is still unwilling to allow Michigan entry into the Union, and President Jackson vows to deny Michigan statehood until border issues and "wars" are resolved.
Lucas ordered his generous adjutant, Samuel C. Andrews, to do the militia count, and was told that 10,000 volunteers were ready to fight. The news became excessive when he traveled north, and soon after that the Michigan territorial press dared "millions" of Ohio to enter the Strip when they "welcomed them to a friendly tomb."
In June 1835, Lucas sent a delegation composed of US Attorney General Noah Haynes Swayne, former Congressman William Allen, and David T. Disney to Washington D.C. to negotiate with President Andrew Jackson. The delegate presented the Ohio case and urged the President to act quickly to resolve the situation.
Throughout the middle of 1835, the two governments continued their one-upmanship practice, and battles and arrests were ongoing. Monroe County residents join together in the posse to make arrests in Toledo. Partisans from Ohio, angered by the abuse, targeted the perpetrators with criminal prosecution. Lawsuits are not only rampant, they also serve as the basis of retaliation claims from opposing parties. Partisans from both sides organize spying parties to oversee sheriffs from Wood County, Ohio and Monroe County, Michigan who are entrusted with border security.
On July 15, 1835, tension and emotion eventually overflowed and blood spilled. Monroe County, Michigan, Deputy Sheriff Joseph Wood went to Toledo to arrest Major Benjamin Stickney, but when Stickney and his three sons refused, the whole family was conquered and detained. During the fight, Two Stickney, the main son, stabbed Wood with a pen knife and fled south to Ohio. Wood injury is not life-threatening. When Lucas refused Mason's request to extradite Two Stickney back to Michigan for trial, Mason wrote a letter to President Jackson for help, indicating that the matter was referred to the United States Supreme Court. At the time of the conflict it was not established that the Supreme Court could resolve the state border dispute, and Jackson rejected the offer. Looking for peace, Lucas began to make his own efforts to end the conflict, again through federal intervention through the Ohio congressional delegation.
In August 1835, at the urging of members of the Ohio Congress, President Jackson moved Mason as Michigan Territorial Governor and appointed John S. ("Little Jack") Horner as his successor. Before his successor arrived, Mason ordered 1,000 Michigan militia to enter Toledo and prevent an important symbolic first session of the Ohio Pleas General Court. While the idea was popular among Michigan residents, the effort failed: the judges held a midnight trial before quickly retreating south of the Maumee River, where the Ohio troops were positioned.
Frostbitten and Final Conventions of the Toledo War
Mason Horner's successor proved very unpopular as the governor and his tenure was very short. The population did not like him so they burned him with statues and threw them with vegetables as he entered the territorial capital. In the October election of 1835, voters approved the constitution and elected Mason, who was popular as a state governor. The same election saw Isaac E. Crary was elected the first US Vice-Congressman to Congress. Because the congressional dispute refused to accept its mandate and placed it as a non-voting delegate. Two US Senators elected by the state legislature in November, Lucius Lyon and John Norvell, treated with disrespect, were allowed to sit only as spectators in the Senate gallery.
On June 15, 1836, Jackson signed a bill allowing Michigan to become a state, but only after handing the Toledo Strip. In return for this concession, Michigan will be awarded three quarters of what is now known as the Upper Peninsula (the easternmost part has been incorporated within state boundaries). Because it is considered worthless from the remote wilderness of the Upper Peninsula, the special convention of 1836 September in Ann Arbor, Michigan, rejected the offer.
As time passed, Michigan found itself in a financial crisis and almost bankrupt, due to high militia costs. The government is driven to act with the realization that the $ 400,000 ($ 9.48 million in 2016) surplus in the US Treasury will be distributed to 25 states, but not to the territorial government. Michigan is not eligible to receive a share of the money.
The unofficial "war" ended on December 14, 1836, at the second convention in Ann Arbor. Delegates issued a resolution to accept the terms set by Congress. The convention call itself is controversial. It only happens because of increased personal calls, petitions, and public meetings. Because the legislature does not approve of the call to the convention, some say the convention is illegal. Whigs boycotted the convention. As a result, the resolution was rejected and ridiculed by many Michigan residents. Congress questioned the legality of the convention, but accepted the outcome of the convention regardless of its concern. Due to these factors, as well as due to the famous cold spell of the moment, the event came to be known as the Frostbitten Convention.
On January 26, 1837, Michigan was finally accepted at Union as the 26th state, without the Toledo Strip.
Next history
The Toledo strip becomes a permanent part of Ohio, while the Upper Peninsula is considered a desert that is worthless by almost everyone familiar with the area. The vast mineral wealth of the land is unknown until the discovery of copper on the Keweenaw Peninsula and iron in the Upper Peninsula; This discovery led to a long-running mining boom until the 20th century. The economic benefits of this resource more than offset the Michigan losses that survived the surrender of Toledo.
Differences of opinion about the exact boundary location continued until a definitive re-survey was conducted in 1915. The re-survey protocol would typically require the surveyor to follow the Harris line exactly, but in this case, the surveyor deviates from the line in place. This prevents certain population situations near the border that are subjected to changing country residences, or landowners who have packages on both sides of the border. The 1915 survey was described by 71 granite markers, 12 inches (30 cm) wide by 18 inches (46 cm) tall. Upon completion, the governors of both countries, Woodbridge N. Ferris of Michigan and Frank B. Willis of Ohio, shook hands at the border.
Traces of Ordinance Ordinance can still be seen in northwest Ohio and northern Indiana. The northernmost boundaries of Ottawa and Wood districts followed suit, as well as many municipal frontiers in the Fulton and Williams areas. Many north-south streets are offset as they cross the line, forcing traffic to the eastern jog while traveling north. This line is identified on the US Geological topographic map as "South [Boundary] Michigan Survey", and in Lucas County and Fulton County District maps as "Old Country Line".
While land borders were firmly established at the beginning of the 20th century, the two countries are still at loggerheads on the eastern border, on Lake Erie. In 1973, the two countries finally obtained a hearing before the United States Supreme Court for their competing claims in the waters of Lake Erie. In Michigan v. Ohio, the court upheld a special master's report and ruled that the boundary between the two states on Lake Erie sloped to the northeast, as described in the Ohio state constitution, and not the east of the west-line straight. One of the consequences of a court decision is a small Turtle Island outside Maumee Bay and originally treated as fully in Michigan, split between the two states.
This decision is a final frontier adjustment, ending years of debate over official borders. In modern times, although the general rivalry between Michiganders and Ohioans continues, clear conflicts between states are restricted primarily to the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry in American football and to a lesser extent for the rivalry between the Detroit Tigers and the Cleveland Indians in the League America. baseball; The Toledo war is referred to as the origin of hostility that is represented in today's competition.
See also
- The Michigan Constitution
- List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States
- A list of Michigan county name etymologies
- Ohio Lands
- Toledo Strip Timeline
References
Foot Records
Works cited
Further reading
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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