LaPorte County, Indiana - Chapter 6: The -Three Northern Boundary Lines, 1904

There are three northern boundary lines which1 have to do with LaPorte county, and there has been much confusion concerning them ; con¬ fusion as recorded in history and confusion still remaining in the minds of many of our people. It is not likely that there would have been such confusion but for a faulty map of the locality; which the United States Congress used in its deliberations. "Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth." A slight mistake in topography may plunge nations into war.

If any one will take a map covering the area of Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, he will see that the northern boundary of Ohio is not on a line with the northern boundary of Indiana. The northwest comer of Ohio does not join the comer of Indiana, but is farther down and runs a little upward, or north of due east, and terminates at the most northern cape of Maumee bay, leaving that bay within the bounds of Ohio. The ques¬ tion is, What has made this difference in the boundary lines ? and the answer involves the his¬ tory of three different boundary lines which have to do intimately with the area of LaPorte county.

In 1778-9 George Rogers Clark, a young Vir¬ ginian of extraordinary character, who has well been called the Hannibal of the west, captured Kaskaskia and Vincennes, thus cutting off the supplies of the Indians. He had been sent out by the government of Virginia, and that state there¬ fore laid claim to all the territory northwest of the Ohio river, which was the same territory ceded to Great Britian by France in the treaty of 1763. On March 1, 1784, through her authorized dele¬ gates in Congress, Virginia ceded this territory to the United States. She stipulated that it be divided into states but specified no boundaries. By virtue of ancient royal charters, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut also claimed large territories north of the Ohio river, but these claims were all transferred to the United States, Connecticut alone reserving a tract which was called the Western Reserve until May 30, 1800, when she surrendered her jurisdictional claim over this tract to the United States. Thus the general government obtained the jurisdiction over the Northwest Territory, and of the lands, subject however to the proprietary rights of the Indians.

When Congress assumed the jurisdiction there was no established government anywhere in the territory. The French commandants of the posts had administered the laws dictated by France, the British succeeded them and pro¬ claimed the Common Law of England to be in force, Virginia also had extended her laws, but there were no courts to enforce any of them. The question of forming some kind of government for the newly acquired territory at once attracted the attention of Congress.

At first a report was made providing for the formation of the territory into ten states with fanciful names, but no action was taken upon it. This was Thomas Jefferson's scheme. From the time of its acquirement by the Government until 1787, there was no organized control over the Northwest Territory. The people who were settling in it were left to struggle along as best they could. But on April 23, 1787, a committee consisting of Mr. Johnson of Connecticut, Mr. Pinckney of South Carolina, Mr. Smith of New York, Mr. Dane of Massachusetts, and Mr. Henry of Maryland, reported an ordinance for the gov¬ ernment of the new territory. It was discussed from time to time and very greatly amended, and finally, on the 13th of July, it passed Congress.. This is the celebrated ordinance of 1787, a docu¬ ment which, next to the Constitution of the United States, perhaps has occasioned more dis¬ cussion than any other, on account of its sound principles, statesmanlike qualities, and wise pro¬ visions.

It is Article 5 of this ordinance that has most intimately to do with our present subject. That article provided for the formation in said terri¬ tory of not less than three nor more than five states, it fixed the western, the southern, and the eastern boundaries of what became Illinois, Indi¬ ana and Ohio, and then the ordinance said, "If Congress shall find it hereafter expedient, they shall have authority to form one or two states in that part of the said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan." We call special attention to this line, for it is the first northern boundary line with which we have to do, and has been of exceeding great importance in the so called boundary line dispute. It is now known as the old Indian boundary line. It used to mark the northern limits of LaPorte before certain ad¬ ditions were made. It runs along North street westward, crosses the Lake Shore Railroad tracks diagonally at the foot of Tipton street, runs through the King and Fildes woolen mill and across Clear Lake, crosses Pine Lake road at the junction of Weller avenue, and continues across Stone Lake due west to the most southern point of Lake Michigan near where Millers Station now is. It runs due east and west without end. But for a strange combination of circumstances and long continued strife, this would have been the northern boundary of Indiana, and of LaPorte county. It is called the ordinance line because it was specified in the great Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest Territory.

On May 7, 1800, Congress divided the North¬ west Territory by a line running from the mouth of the Kentucky river to Fort Recovery, and thence due north to the Canadian line. It will be seen that this line is not the same as that prescribed in the ordinance, which was a line from the mouth of the Miami river to Fort Recovery and thence due north, making the boundary line due north and south all the way, from Canada to the Ohio river where the Miami empties into it. The mouth of the Kentucky river is several miles west of the mouth of the Miami, and a line from the mouth of the Kentucky to Fort Recovery runs east of north. This threw a three-cornered piece of territory, shaped like a church spire with its base resting on the Ohio river, into Ohio, which, when the states were organized, was included in Indiana according to the ordinance, and afterwards Ohio from time to time set up claims to this tract.

All the region east of this line was still to be the Northwest Territory, and that on the west was erected into the Indiana Territory, of which latter General William Henry Harrison was ap¬ pointed governor, and his administration com¬ menced on July 4, 1800, with Vincennes as the capital. It will be seen that this division threw about one half of the Michigan country into Indi¬ ana and left the other half in the Northwest Territory.

And now for the first time the line which runs along the north of LaPorte, the ordinance line, the east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan, comes into prominence ; for all that portion of the east Michigan country which lay north of this line was organized as Wayne county of the North¬ west Territory, and its settlers supposed that their fortunes were thenceforth identified with those of Ohio.

The ordinance of 1787 had provided for the admission into the Union of the prospective states of the Northwest Territory as follows : "When¬ ever any of the said states shall have sixty thou¬ sand free inhabitants therein, such states shall be admitted by its delegates into the Congress of the United States on an equal footing with the origi¬ nal states in all respects whatever, and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and state government, provided the constitution and gov¬ ernment so to be formed shall be republican and in conformity to the principles contained in these articles ; and so far as can be consistent with the general interests of the confederacy, such ad¬ mission shall be allowed at an earlier period, and when there may be a less number of free inhabi¬ tants in the state than sixty thousand" (Article 5).

The Northwest Territory was rapidly filling with settlers, and in accordance with the above provision the whole population, including Wayne county, were agitating the question of statehood. On April 30, 1802, Congress passed an enabling act, the first of its kind, according to which Ohio might frame a constitution and establish a state government, if it was deemed expedient. In that act the old ordinance line running due east and west "through to the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan" was specified as her northern bound¬ ary. The ordinance of 1787 seemed to prescribe this as the dividing line between the three states south of it and the two which might be formed north of it, and so it seems to have been regarded and accepted at the time. In harmony with the enabling act, a convention met at Chillicothe, Ohio, on November 1st, to frame a constitution for the new state. It is related in the "Historical Transactions of Ohio" that while the convention was thus engaged an old hunter whose curiosity led him thither appeared on the scene, and, learn¬ ing of the prescribed boundaries, informed the delegates that the southern extreme of Lake Mich¬ igan lay much farther south than they supposed, or than the maps in use indicated. This statement at once awakened great interest and was the sub¬ ject of careful deliberation. The map used by Con¬ gress in prescribing the ordinance line of 1787, was the one made' by Mitchell in 1755, as may

This map had been accepted as accurate by the Ohio state-makers, until the statement of the old hunter occasioned them to pause and consider. According to this map a line due east from the southern bend of Lake Michigan would strike the Detroit river a little south of Detroit ; if, how¬ ever, the old hunter's statement were true and the line were further south, Ohio would be deprived of much of her territory. Accordingly, after much deliberation, the convention embodied in the constitution the boundaries prescribed in the enabling act, but with the following proviso : "If the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan should extend so far south that a line drawn due east from it should not intersect Lake Erie east of the Miami (now the Maumee) river of the lakes, then * * * with the assent of Con¬ gress of the United States, the northern boundary of this state shall be established by, and extend to a line running from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the most northerly cape of the Miami (now the Maumee) bay, thence northeast, etc.," or straight on through Lake Erie and Ohio to Pennsylvania. With this proviso the constitu¬ tion was adopted on November 29th.

The congressional committee on the admission of Ohio refused to consider this proviso, because, first, it depended on a fact not yet ascertained, and, second, it was not submitted as were other propositions of the constitutional convention. Congress therefore, ignoring the proviso, received Ohio into the Union.

The inhabitants of Wayne county were very indignant that Congress should specify the ordi¬ nance line as the northern boundary of the new state. More indignant still were they when Con¬ gress received Ohio into the Union and left Wayne county out in the cold. They contended that it was illegal to treat them thus, that the ordinance of 1787 forbade the further division of the Northwest Territory, until the northern part of it could be made a state, that to exclude the county from Ohio would ruin it. But all their protests were in vain. The reason was a political one. The Democrats, or as they were then called, the Republicans, had just secured the presidency in the election of Thomas Jefferson. Ohio as ad¬ mitted into the Union was on their side; but if Wavne county were a part of the state it might be thrown into the ranks of their opponents the Federalists. Governor St. Clair declared that to win a Democratic state the people of Wayne coun¬ ty had been "bartered away like sheep in a market."

The act enabling the people of Ohio to form a state provided that Wayne county might be at¬ tached to the new state if Congress saw fit. Congress did not see fit, but on the contrary attached it to Indiana Territory, and in 1803 Governor Harrison formed a new Wayne county which comprised almost all of what is now Michigan. North and east it was bounded by Canada, but on the other sides it was bounded by a "north and south line through the western extreme of Lake Michigan" and "an east and west line through the southern extreme of the same." Here the same old ordinance line appears again, as the southern boundary of what is now Michigan. Just beyond where North street, or the King and Fildes woolen mill, or the junction of Weller avenue and the Pine Lake road is now, was Wayne county. But the Michigan country thus united was too strong to remain long a part of a territory, and hence, on January 11, 1805, Michigan Territory was formed by act of Con¬ gress. It was bounded on the west by a line ex¬ tending through the center of Lake Michigan, and on the south by a line running due east from the southern extreme of the same.

It will be seen that even at this time Michigan was deprived of a strip of land on the west shore of Lake Michigan, which as Wayne county Con¬ gress had given her. Had she contended for that as persistently as she did for the strip in Ohio, she would have sought something more valuable, for Chicago is situated in that very strip. That spot was comparatively worthless then, and the future is hidden from states as from individuals. It is interesting, however, to think what would have been the result if Michigan had retained the boundary lines which she had as Wayne county.

But the fact which concerns us here is, that the ordinance line appears again. After January 11, 1805, and until 1816, north of King and Fildes woolen mill, north of Clear Lake, north of Stone Lake, was not Indi¬ ana at all but Michigan Territory, whose southern boundary was a line running due east and west from the southern extreme of Lake Michigan ; and though it had not yet been ascer¬ tained accurately just where that line would come out in Ohio, enough was known about it to make not only Ohio but the people of Indiana object very strongly to the southern boundary of Michi¬ gan Territory, as public documents abundantly show.

The boundary dispute was now transferred to Ohio. No sooner had the Ohio congressmen taken their seats after her admission into the Union, than they began working to secure formal congressional assent to their proviso about the boundary line. Senator Worthington secured the chairmanship of a committee to consider the ques¬ tion, but to no purpose ; both houses of Congress were unmoved. The boundary of so distant a state was an unimportant matter. When the terri¬ tory of Michigan was organized, effort to have the neglected proviso confirmed was again made, but in vain; and the southern line of the territory was described precisely as Ohio did not wish. Then Ohio, in session after session of her legis¬ lature, instructed her Congressmen to endeavor to secure the passage of a law defining the northern boundary line of their state. It was certainly quite necessary that this be done. The lands near the Rapids of the Miami (now the Maumee) had recently been ceded to the govern¬ ment by the Indians and were rapidly filling with settlers. Michigan magistrates exercised author¬ ity over the district, while the president had ap¬ pointed a collector to reside at the Rapids, de¬ scribing the place as in Ohio.

The appeals of Ohio became so urgent that Congress was willing to consider the matter. Representative Morrow of Ohio proposed a bill confirming the northern boundary as specified in the constitution of his state, and was made chair¬ man of a committee to consider the question. But the bill which passed provided for surveying the boundary as established bv the enabling act of 1802, the ordinance line. Congress had not sufficient knowledge of the country to venture to change the line, and it is probable that the line prescribed in the ordinance of 1787 was regarded as inviolable. The bill to survey the boundary was passed in 1812, when the government was engaged with hostile Indians, and with the war against England, and hence nothing was done for three years, or until 1815, and even then but little was accomplished. Had the survey been made at once, before the disputed strip became more populous, the question might have been settled; but during the delay the tide of immi¬ gration was pouring into the Miami region, and the question of jurisdiction was becoming more and more important. Again the Ohio authorities urged the survey of the state line, and the presi¬ dent complied with the request, and ordered it to be done according to the act of 1812. The survey was made in 1816. The surveyor general of Ohio employed a Mr: Harris to run the line ; not, however, according to the president's direc¬ tion but according to the proviso of the Ohio state constitution, from the southern extreme of Lake Michigan to the northernmost cape of Maumee bay. The Harris line is the second of these two northern boundaries.

The third soon appeared. On April 19, 1816, Congress passed the enabling act for the admis¬ sion of Indiana as a state, fixing the northern boundary by a line drawn due east and west "ten miles north of the southern extreme of Lake Michigan." Indiana was required to ratify this boundary, which she did by a duly elected conven¬ tion which sat at Corydon, June 10 to 29, 1816, and framed a constitution, and she was formally admitted into the Union on December nth. Mov¬ ing the boundary to the north, cut oflf from Michi¬ gan a strip ten miles wide and one hundred miles long, which she claimed had been guaranteed to her by the ordinance of 1787, and by several other acts of Congress ; but she allowed the act to pass unchallenged at the time, probably because she was engaged in her contention with Ohio, and be¬ cause the strip thus taken away from her was sparsely settled and little known.

To justify depriving Michigan of her terri¬ tory in this manner it was argued that the ordi¬ nance of 1787 expressly stipulated that the bound¬ aries it laid down would be subject to changes which Congress afterwards might make, and Mich¬ igan was only a territory - that Indiana needed not only river communication with the south but lake communication with the north - that this would facilitate and encourage the building of connecting canals and the influx of settlers by way of the lakes - that the ordinance line of 1787 would deprive Indiana of all this and give all the lake frontage to Michigan - and, moreover, that if shut out from northern waters, then, in case of national disruption, the interests of Indiana would be to join a western or southern confed¬ eracy. The new boundary was of immense ad¬ vantage to La Porte county. For even though Ohio finally won in the contention, and the Harris line prevailed, if that had been also Indiana's northern boundary it would not have given us any lake front, nor have been of much benefit to us ; for here the Harris line does not diverge very far north from its starting point.

As soon as General Cass, governor of Michi¬ gan Territory, heard that Ohio had surveyed the Harris line, he wrote to the surveyor general of that state, asking why the line was not run due east from the southern extreme of Lake Michigan, and saying that a disputed jurisdiction was one of the greatest of evils, and that the sooner the business was investigated the better. To this General Tiffin of Ohio replied that Harris had found the southern extreme of Lake Michigan to be more than seven miles south of the northern most cape of Miami (or Maumee) #bay, and that he had run the line between the two points. He sent General Cass a map illustrating the two lines, saying that the proper authority should decide which should govern, but for his part he believed that the Harris line was the true one, because it was according to Ohio's proviso, and the state had been received into the LTnion with that proviso in her constitution.

Hearing of this correspondence, the governor of Ohio sent to his next legislature a message urging that the matter be settled at once, and that body settled it as well as they could by passing a resolution to the effect that Congress had ac¬ cepted the proviso in accepting the Constitution of Ohio, and therefore that the northern boundary of the state was the Harris line. Hearing of this, acting Governor Woodbridge, in the absence of Governor Cass, wrote to the Governor of Ohio assuring him that the act was unconstitutional. He also wrote to John Quincy Adams, tfien Secretary of State, and there was some very strong 'correspondence on the subject, too ex¬ tensive to include here.

Illinois Territory had been formed in 1809. It included all the country north to the Canadian line; that is. what is now Wisconsin and a part of Minnesota. In 1818 the legislature of Illinois passed a resolution requiring Nathaniel Pope, the delegate in Congress, to present the petition for admission into the Union. The committee to which that petition was referred instructed Pope to prepare a bill for the admission of the new state. On April 18th, of the same year, Congress passed an enabling act and provided that Illinois might elect delegates to a convention to frame a state constitution. Illinois elected her delegates on the first Monday in July, and the two days following; they were elected in all the twelve counties, and were authorized to meet in convention at Kaskaskia, in August following, "and if deemed expedi¬ ent to form a constitution and state government, the same to be republican in form and not repug¬ nant to the ordinance of 1787, excepting so much thereof as related to the boundaries of the states therein formed." This exception was. very im¬ portant. It seems that the bill for the admission of Illinois had specified the ordinance line as the northern boundary, but this exception permitted Delegate Pope to amend the bill for admission, so that the northern boundary was moved up to where it is now. Judge Pope stated that the ob¬ ject of his amendment was to gain for the pro¬ posed state a coast on Lake Michigan, and that this would afford additional security to the perpe¬ tuity of the Union; inasmuch as Illinois would thereby be connected with states lying to the eastward. Thus was Chicago thrown into Illinois instead of into Wisconsin. Indeed, when ex-Presiden Van Buren was in that city on July 3, 1842, a letter followed him directed to "Martin Van Buren, Chicago, Wis." Thus was the ordinance line, the old Indian boundary which runs just north of La Porte, ignored against the contention of Michigan, and the northern boundary of Illi¬ nois moved about sixty miles to the north. This helped to keep the boundary dispute before the people. Michigan's constant contention had been that the ordinance line was the true one, that Congress had no right to change it, and that it should be the lower boundary of the northern tier if states west of Lake Michigan as well as east.

In 1818 the governor and judges of Michigan Territory protested against Ohio's, claim to the disputed strip, and also against the right of Con¬ gress to give to Indiana a strip lying further west. They knew that it was too late to alter the northern boundary of the new state, but they said. *'\Ye take this way to preserve the just rights of the people of this territory * * * that it may not hereafter be supposed that they have acquiesced in the changes which have been nade.,? They left the final discussion to the

The dispute with Ohio was another matter. There the contested st^ip lay in a most fertile region, near the center of population of Michigan, and the question of possession must continually arise. In 1818 the authorities of Michigan Terri¬ tory sent to Congress a memorial stating that the line run by Harris was not the one which Con¬ gress had ordered marked, but another running several miles further north. They also sent a committee to Washington to press the claims of the territory. In response, President Monroe, under the advice of a house committee, directed that the northern boundary of Ohio be marked according to the provisions of the Act of May 20, 1812. Mr. Harris declined to do the work; and so, in 1820, one Fulton was commissioned, who ran the line due east and west from the most southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan. The Fulton line was not a new one but the old ordinance line correctly surveyed. Two years later the presi¬ dent notified Congress that the northern bound¬ ary of Ohio had been marked according to the law of 1812. The Ohio members complained that the Fulton line had been run not by order of Con¬ gress blit at the request of General Cass, and asked to have it remarked according to the Harris survey. The House refused, but neglected to declare the line marked by Fulton to be the true boundary. Thus the matter apparently was as far from being settled as ever.

In 1821 the Ottawa, Chippewa and Pottawottomie Indians ceded to the United States their lands east of the south bend of the St. Joseph river, and north of the ordinance or Fulton line, and in 1826 the Pottawottomies ceded their lands west of said river and north of the same line. This use by the government of the ordinance line as a boundary, encouraged Michigan to hope in its stability.

In 1824 Senator Benton tried to have Con¬ gress erect Wisconsin into the Territory of Chip¬ pewa. The people of that country signed the peti¬ tion, but the legislative council of Michigan at once sent to Congress a memorial protesting against the division of the territory, and the matter was dropped. In 1827 Judge Doty made a similar attempt, calling the proposed territory.

Wisconsin. The Michigan legislative council urged that this request be granted. The House accordingly passed a bill for the creation of the territory, calling it, Huron. But objections were raised to the boundaries and the Senate failed to consider the bill. The objection was to the north¬ ern boundary of Illinois. The ordinance line was claimed as the irrevocable boundary. From such facts we see how the old Indian boundary which runs just north of LaPorte has figured in history, and how tenacious Michigan was that it should be the dividing line between the northern and south¬ ern tier of states.

In 1826 there was much excitement over the matter. The Ohio delegation in Congress secured the appointment of a committee to consider the expediency of marking the line dividing Ohio from Michigan Territory, this time not claiming that it be done according to their constitutional proviso. Probably they were becoming wary. The proposal was not considered, but Michigan was on the alert. In her next council she voted to instruct her delegate in Congress to prevent any change in the territorial boundary, and announced that she had "acquired absolute vested rights" by the ordinance of 1787 and the act of 1805. A little later, in 1827, Michigan organized the town¬ ship of Port Lawrence in the very heart of the disputed tract without causing any protest from Ohio. The battle for the present was to be fought in Congress.

In 1827 a bill was passed without difficulty, providing for the marking of the northern bound¬ ary of Indiana. This was the first time it had been surveyed. The line was run by E. P. Hend¬ ricks, under the authority of the surveyor general of the United States, and the work was begun October 8, 1827. Our northern boundary line therefore may well be called the Hendricks line.

At the next session of Congress a bill was in¬ troduced to ascertain the latitude of the southern extreme of Lake Michigan "for the purpose of fixing the true northern boundary lines of the states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois but this measure failed to receive attention at this or the following session.

But by 1831 the boundary, question began to assume a serious aspect. The Ohio legislature petitioned Congress for the speedy and permanent establishment of the dividing line between that state and the territory of Michigan. Governor

Cass was anxious. He sent to the council of the territory a very serious message referring briefly to the attempt of certain counties to separate from the territory, and to the possession by Indiana of a portion of the territory. He advised against urging any claim to the 'latter, as Indiana was already in possession, and it was better to leave the tract unclaimed until Michigan too should be a member of the tribunal which must decide the question. But with regard to Ohio he urged sending to Congress a memorial which would state the rights and sentiments of the people of the territory. Before referring the matter to Con¬ gress, the legislative council authorized Governor Cass to negotiate with the governor of Ohio with a viewr to a compromise, which he did ; but as this was in vain, a memorial was sent to Congress. About the same time the legislature of Ohio memorialized Congress, and for the first time out¬ lined their claims. The result was the passage of an act to provide for determining the latitude of the southern end of Lake Michigan and other points, preparatory to an adjustment of the Ohio and Michigan boundary.

The year 1833 marked the beginning of the end, the contest was on and waxed warmer until the people of the two states faced each other in battle array, and both defied the central govern¬ ment as only the seceding states have ever dared to do. Both parties were active, there was a sharp and continued contest in Congress ; there were memorials and counter memorials.

On the 1 1 th of December, 1833, Michigan made her first formal petition for admission into the Union, which was refused. In 1835 she tried again, with the same result. She had more than the requisite number of inhabitants, 110 one doubted that she should be admitted, but many doubted the right of admission with the bound¬ aries which she so uncompromisingly claimed. Failing in the second attempt to obtain permission to form themselves into a state the people of Michigan determined to go on without permission. In January, 1835, the legislative council called a convention to meet the following May, to form "for themselves a constitution and state govern¬ ment," which they did. Meantime Congress was considering the matter of the disputed line. The Senate passed a bill according to the desire of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, which was killed in the House by John Quincy Adams. Indiana and

Illinois had turned against Michigan, because her insistence that Congress had no right to disregard the fundamental provisions of the ordinance of 1787 made them fear that their own northern lines might be in danger ; since both had been run regardless of the ordinance.

In 1835 the governor of Indiana mentioned the boundary dispute in his message, and so much of his message as treated of that subject was re¬ ferred to a select committee who considered the matter, and made an exhaustive report covering eight royal octavo printed pages. After the proper announcement, and a reference to the importance of the subject, the report says,

"A portion of territory ten miles in width, extending across the entire breadth of our north¬ ern boundary, embracing a most fertile tract of country, and that part of Lake Michigan which we have been taught to prize as all important to the trade, commerce and agricultural interests of the northern part of the state, and which we have always regarded as properly secured to us by the ordinance of 1787. by the law' of Congress author^ izing us to form a state government, and by the express acceptance and ratification of the terms of that law by the convention who met to form a constitution for the government of this state - has been claimed in positive terms by the terri¬ tory of Michigan."

The report quotes Article 5 of the ordinance of 1787, which specifies the boundary "'line due east and west from the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan the report mentions the acts of Con¬ gress which relate to the matter and then says,

"Michigan founds her claim to the territory in dispute between her and Indiana, upon the authority of the 5th article of the ordinance of 1787, and the act of Congress of 1805, insisting that what she calls the 'fundamental' line running east and west 'through the southerly bend or ex¬ treme of Lake Michigan,' shall be recognized as the true line of division between her in her right, asth eState of Michigan, and the states of Indiana and Ohio."

The report then argues that ''southerly bend" means not the extreme southern point but the *hole bend of Lake Michigan; that it would be partial legislation for Congress to give so fair a lake portion to Ohio and Michigan and none to Indiana; that Michigan, even without the ten mile strip, was larger than Indiana ; that the ordi¬ nance of 1787 did not mean that the line it speci¬ fied should be the southern boundary of the twro states formed north of it, but simply that those two states should be formed somewhere north of it and not south of it. The House had passed a resolution containing instructions to inquire into the expediency of addressing a memorial to the state of Virginia, calling upon her to ratify the boundaries of Indiana as established by Congress, but the committee decided that there w'ould be an impropriety in requesting Virginia to ratify and confirm any proceedings of Congress. It would imply that Congress had not acted with proper authority ; Congress and Indiana were the contracting parties, not Virginia and Indiana, and not 'Michigan and Indiana. The committee there¬ fore recommended the adoption of the following joint resolutions: -

Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana , That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our representatives requested, to resist the establishment of the southern bound¬ ary of Michigan on a line drawn east and west from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan ; and also that they insist upon the present northern boundary of Indiana, as prescribed in the act of Congress of 1816, providing for her admission into the Union.

Resolved further as the sense of this General Assembly , That having the fullest confidence in the wisdom and integrity of Congress, this Gen¬ eral Assembly cannot believe that any measure will be adopted by that body, w'hich, by seeking to de¬ prive this state of any portion of her territory as secured to her by the aforesaid act of Congress, and the ordinance of the convention of this state ratifying the same, would without the consent of this state thereto obtained, be unauthorized, un¬ constitutional and void, and only operate as a pretext for future controversy.

Resolved further , That our Senators in Con¬ gress be instructed, and our representatives re¬ quired, in the event of the passage of an act of Congress for the formation of a state in the terri¬ tory of Michigan, to use their exertions to have incorporated in such act a provision restricting the territory of such state from extending south beyond "an east and west line drawn through a 'point ten miles north of the southern extreme of Lake Michigan."

The report and recommendation of the com¬ mittee were accepted and adopted as a joint reso¬ lution, and approved February 7, 1835. Thus did Indiana turn against Michigan and sym¬ pathize with Ohio in the controversy.

When the people of Michigan heard that the Senate had passed a bill according to the views of Ohio, there were rumors of war. Michigan de¬ clared to Congress that she would submit the question to the Supreme Court, but until a deci¬ sion was reached she would resist, "let the attempt be made by whom it may, all efforts to rob her of her soil and trample upon her rights." She offered to negotiate with Ohio and Indiana re¬ garding their conflicting claims. Indiana ignored it, and Ohio declined it ; but instead the governor of Ohio advised that the counties of the state be extended to a line running from the southern ex¬ tremity of Lake Michigan to the most northern cape of Maumee bay. The advice was promptly accepted, the legislature passed an act to that effect, and directed the governor to appoint three commissioners to survey and remark the Harris line. The people of the disputed tract desired it. They wished to come under the jurisdiction of Ohio. The Miami canal was in process of con¬ struction, from the mouth of the Maumee to Cin¬ cinnati, and the settlers desired to secure the full benefit of it.

Two weeks before this, the council of Michi¬ gan had passed an act to prevent the exercise of foreign jurisdiction within the limits of the terri¬ tory of Michigan. Governor Lucas now sent to acting Governor Mason of Michigan a copy of his message to the Ohio legislature, and that young man issued orders to Brigadier General Joseph W. Brown, of the Michigan militia, and prepared to resist Ohio by force. The blood of each party was up, each claimed to be a sovereign state and each resented interference by the national government, though Michigan was will¬ ing to await a decision of the Supreme Court. On the first of April General Brown and a force of volunteers, had already encamped at Monroe, just north of the contested strip, and he was now joined by Governor Mason. On April second Governor Lucas and staff, and the commission to remark the Harris line, accompanied by Gen¬ eral Bell and his troops, arrived at Perrysburg, just south of the contested strip. The election of officers in the disputed strip, under the auspices of Ohio, passed off quietly ; the tug of war would come when those officers attempted to exercise their functions ; then Michigan would begin civil processes against them, and back it up if necessary by force of arms. The rival governors had re¬ ceived notice from President Jackson that he had sent peace commissioners who were on the way. Governor Mason now wrote to Governor Lucas asking him to desist from enforcing the Ohio law until the president's mediators appeared. Lucas did not deign to reply by writing, but sent an oral message saying he had already written to the president a letter which would prevent in¬ terference, and that Ohio did not desire the service of mediators.

At this juncture the mediators appeared. Richard Rush, of Philadelphia, and Benjamin C. Howard, of Baltimore, had traveled night and day, which meant much in those days, and on April third they arrived in Toledo. They sought by diplomacy to appease the wrath of each gov¬ ernor, but failed. The men elected under the Ohio act were beginning to assume office, civil processes were issued against them under the Michigan act, and General Brown with his forces was ready to execute them. The people of the disputed strip were between two fires, and yet their fortunes were bound up with the government of Ohio. They begged the Ohio authorities to protect them. The commission to survey the boundary began to run the Harris line, and had proceeded as far west as Tecumseh, where Ohio people say they were attacked, Michigan people that they were arrested. Governor Lucas called an extra session of his legislature to increase his army. The peace commissioners proposed that Ohio run her line, and that there be concurrent jurisdiction until settlement by the federal judi¬ ciary. Lucas consented to both. Mason was will¬ ing to let the line be run, but spurned the idea of concurrent jurisdiction.

At length the Ohio legislature voted to abide by the proposals of the peace commissioners if the United States would compel Michigan to do so ; but as a safeguard Ohio passed an act against kidnappers, and appropriated $300,000 to carry out her plans. During the same time the Michigan constitutional convention was in session at De- troit, and declared that Ohio might run the line, but no authority on earth save that of the United States should be exercised in the disputed strip. Ohio began to carry out the proposal of concur¬ rent jurisdiction, resulting in renewed prepara¬ tions for war. On the seventh of September, >835, the Ohio judges went to hold court at Toledo. Again troops were mustered on both sides. But the court was held at midnight, and adjourned just as the Michigan forces came up. The troops were therefore dispersed ; the people on either side, from many considerations, were as willing to follow their leaders to peace as to war, the Toledo war, or the Governor Lucas war, was over, and the dispute was destined to be settled by politicians at Washington.

President Jackson had submitted the boundary dispute to Attorney General Butler, who had de¬ cided that the disputed strip belonged to Michigan. John Quincy Adams also, then Secretary of State, said, "Never in the course of my life have I known a controversy of which all the right was so clearly on one side and all the power so over¬ whelmingly on the other, where the temptation was so intense to take the strongest side, and the duty of taking the weakest was so thankless."

But the president was in a difficulty. The following year a presidential election would occur, and he desired that Martin Van Buren be the successful candidate. Indiana and Illinois, each of which states of course preferred its more northern boundary, naturally sympathized with Ohio. These three states had a large number of votes. On the other hand Michigan, though hav¬ ing a state government, was only a territory. Again, Arkansas as well as Michigan aspired to statehood, and the administration was anxious to have both admitted in time to vote at the next presidential election, as both were supposed to be Democratic. Moreover, one was a slave state the other a free state, and if only one were ad¬ mitted the other would take offense. Clearly the only way to remove all difficulties was to settle the boundary dispute. The decision of the at¬ torney general, though seeking to be just to Michigan, pointed out to the president that he might remove Governor Mason, and appoint for Michigan a governor who would not violate the law and yet who would not push matters to violence, until the question could be settled by Congress, an ex¬ pedient to which the president finally resorted. This occasioned John Quincy Adams to say that the attorney general's decision "was perfumed with the thirty-five electoral votes of Ohio, Indi¬ ana and Illinois."

Acts for the admission of both states were approved June 15, 1836. Arkansas was admitted unconditionally, but Michigan on condition that she give the disputed district to Ohio, and receive as compensation the upper peninsula. In a con¬ vention at Ann Arbor on the fourth Monday in September, Michigan rejected these conditions by a strong majority. But her senators and repre¬ sentatives were anxious to take their seats in the national Congress, men at Washington feared losing money on lands sold in Michigan, the ad¬ ministration was anxious to have the state ratify the act for her admission, and all these interested parties brought pressure to bear. Arguments in favor of the state's yielding were put in circula¬ tion and after much shrewd management a popu¬ lar conventipn was held at Ann Arbor on Decem¬ ber 14th, which assented to the terms of the act of admission. This convention was not duly called, and it acted wholly without the proper authority; but strange to say both houses of Congress by large majorities passed an act ap¬ proved January 26, 1837, accepting this conven¬ tion as meeting the requirements of the case, and so Michigan was admitted into the Union.

But for some years Michigan did not re¬ linquish her claim to her lost tracts of land. In 1838, and again in 1842, the question was brought up in the Michigan legislature, and eminent law¬ yers were consulted as to her right to the dis¬ puted tracts. And it is probable that she would have made a legal test of the question long ago but for the development of the immense wealth of her mines in the upper peninsula, which had been given her as a compensation for what she lost to Ohio. This development began about the year 1845, and soon convinced her that her lost strips bore no comparison in value to the rich mining region which she had acquired.

Such are the three northern boundary lines ; first, the ordinance line, the Fulton line, or as it is now called the old Indian boundary ; second, the Harris line ; and third, the Hendricks' line ; and such is the correct history of the boundary dispute, so far as we can give it in the present space. From the foregoing we may see that the seemingly insignificant line just north of LaPorte, has been of exceeding great importance in the history of the Northwest, being the occa¬ sion of a dispute which lasted for forty-nine years, through twelve administrations, extending over the periods of seven presidents, and which occasioned great contention, employing much of the best talent of the country, engaging many of our strongest characters, and very nearly result¬ ing in a bloody war.

During the dispute Indiana had no occasion to act save through her representatives at Wash¬ ington. Her northern boundary had been fixed satisfactorily to herself, and she rested in the authority of the national government. She natur¬ ally sympathized with Ohio, and the matter was discussed more or less by her public men ; but that was all. Whatever struggles might have been had afterwards, the main dispute which actually existed was between Michigan and Ohio, and wholly with regard to the tract east of Indiana. The ten mile strip which had been given to Indi¬ ana was another matter, it was bounded by a dif¬ ferent line. The matter was discussed in LaPorte county, and a certain interest was taken in it here; for the citizens were intelligent people. Their influence was exerted through those who represented them in the state legislature and in the national Congress. Rut the scene* of action was too remote for it to cause any great excitement here. Had there been the rapid means of com¬ munication which exist today, the case might have been different ; but the telegraph was unknown in America, railroads had not invaded' the west, mails moved slowly, and the news of the Toledo war, and of the strife at the national Congress, and of the agitation in the legislatures of the states which were interested in the matter, did not reach LaPorte county until it was tOo late to be¬ come excited over it. The county was more in¬ terested in her own development and prospects than in anything else, even politics were lost sight of in the united efforts of all parties to develop the resources of the county, her northern boundary had been fixed by Congress, and she rested' secure in her organization.