CHAPTER XVIII.

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1837.

During the twelve years of the political existence of Wisconsin under its new and final territorial form of government, the proceedings of the Congress of the United States, in relation to matters affecting its welfare, were of especial interest to its inhabitants.

It is true that by the organic law a local legislature was provided, the power of which extended to all rightful subjects of legislation, but with the qualification that

"All the laws of the Governor and Legislative Assembly shall be submitted to, and if disapproved by the Congress of the United States, the same shall be null and of no effect."

A further limitation was that no session in any year should exceed seventy-five days.

The expenses of the Legislative Assembly, as well as the compensation of the Governor, Secretary, Judges, and all United States officers of the Territory were to be paid by appropriations made by Congress, and the chief interest in its proceedings was directed to bills making appropriations for these objects as well also as for the survey and improvement of harbors, the erection of light-houses, and the survey, opening, and construction of roads.

Another subject of congressional action in which the early settlers, especially those between Rock river and the lake, felt an interest paramount to any other, was the renewal and extension to them of the provisions of the pre-emption laws.

It was in the twenty-fourth Congress that the great advantage to the inhabitants of the newly established Territory of Wisconsin of being represented by a delegate elected by themselves, and from among themselves, whose thoughts, feelings, interests, and pioneer experiences were homogeneous with theirs, was first manifested.

GEORGE WALLACE JONES was born near the beginning of the nineteenth century in the State of Missouri. His father was a prominent member of the convention which framed the first constitution of that State, and one of the judges of the Supreme Court. The son having been graduated at the

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Transylvania University of Kentucky, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1826. But the slow-going town of Cape Girardeau, and the limited opportunities which it furnished in the practice of law for the exercise of his energetic faculties, could not long retain the genius it had reared. In 1827 he migrated to the lead mines of the Upper Mississippi, and located at Sinsinawa Mound, in the southwestern township of Wisconsin, where he successfully engaged in mining and smelting. He took an active part in the Black Hawk war in 1832 as the aid de camp of Gen. HENRY DODGE, and filled various civil offices, among which was that of judge of the county court of Iowa county.

Gen. JONES having in 1835 been elected delegate in Congress to represent the "contingent remainder" of the old Michigan Territory, served as such during the first session of the twenty-fourth Congress, and was elected as the first delegate from the new Territory of Wisconsin, by a vote nearly unanimous in every county except Iowa, where, for reasons already given, the vote was divided nearly equally between him and MOSES MEEKER, his only opponent.

The commencement of the year 1837 found the newlyelected delegate at his post in the House of Representatives, fortified in the successful discharge of his duties by a fresh indorsement of a newly-created constituency. His opportunities, which he had well improved during the preceding session, had given him an extensive acquaintance with the members of that Congress, and he was able, not by his much speaking, nor by rhetoric or oratory, but by a kind and amiable temper, a fascinating and persuasive manner, an untiring industry and perseverance, a clear and forcible presentation of the wants and needs, as well as the just claims of his constituents, to secure an early and favorable consideration of the various measures proposed to promote their welfare.

One of the most important and effective means to secure such favorable action; especially when such a continuous contest for the precedence of business is ever going on; and which was largely due to his indefatigable labors, was to induce the House to set apart a specific time for the consideration of bills affecting the territories.

Of all the members of the 24th Congress none was more devoted to the interests of Wisconsin than LEWIS F. LINN, one of the senators from Missouri. He was the half brother

of Gov. DODGE, and upon all occasions was watchful for and attentive to every measure affecting the Territory of which his kinsman was the chief executive officer.

On the 19th of December, he introduced a series of resolutions which were adopted by the Senate, giving instructions to different committees as follows:

The committee on public land to inquire into the expediency of establishing a Surveyor General's office for Wisconsin Territory; also of appropriating for the purpose of constructing roads and bridges in the Territory, the value of all rent lead received at the United States lead mines on the upper Mississippi river; also of making appropriations in land and in money for the construction of roads in the Territory of Wisconsin from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi river through the United States lead mines.

The committee on commerce to inquire into the expediency of improving harbors and constructing light houses on the coast of Lake Michigan, in the counties of Milwaukee and Brown, and of constructing a pier and beacon light at the head of Green Bay, and of placing buoys in its channel; also of amending the act of July 2, 1836, laying off certain towns in Wisconsin.

The committee on Indian affairs to inquire into the expediency of appropriating money to hold treaties with and the purchase of the land belonging to the Sac and Fox, Sioux, and Winnebago Indians and to provide for their removal west of the Mississippi River.

Several of these measures received the favorable action of Congress.

The first act of the second session of the 24th Congress possessing any special interest to the people of Wisconsin, was "An act to admit the state of Michigan into the Union, upon an equal footing with the original states" approved January 26, 1837.

This act was the final consummation of the compromise of the serious question of boundary between Ohio and Michigan. A compromise which was a flagrant violation of the fifth of the "articles of compact," which by the ordinance of July 13, 1787 (older than the constitution itself) were to "forever remain unalterable, unless by common consent." By this compromise, the northern peninsula (so called) lying between Lakes Superior and Michigan and bounded on the southwest by the Menomonee river of Green

Bay and the Montreal river of Lake Superior, and containing about one third of the territory naturally and properly belonging to Wisconsin (the fifth state of the Northwest Territory), was given to the state of Michigan, as a compensation for the small strip, "north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan" of which she had been robbed in the establishment of the boundaries of the state of Ohio.

The act recited, that whereas in pursuance of an act of Congress of June 15, 1836,

"A convention of delegates elected by the people of the said state of Michigan for the sole purpose of giving their assent to the boundaries of the said state of Michigan as described, declared and established in and by the said act, did on the 15th day of December, 1836, assent to the provisions of said act, therefore" it was enacted "that the said state of Michigan shall be one and is hereby declared to be one of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, in all respects whatever."

This act was an outrage upon all geographical propriety and upon the inchoate rights of boundary which the people of the State of Wisconsin were in the near future to possess. But these considerations were of no avail, and this unjust measure of infringement upon the boundaries of the future State of Wisconsin was consummated.

On the 3d day of September, 1836, a treaty was negotiated at Cedar Point, on Fox River, near Green Bay, between HENRY DODGE, Governor of the Territory and Commissioner on the part of the United States, on the one part, and the chiefs and head men of the Menomonee nation of Indians of the other part, which was ratified by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, on the 15th day of February, 1837.

By this treaty the Menomonee nation ceded to the United States two separate tracts of territory. One embraced all the country between Green Bay and Fox River on the east and southeast, and the Wolf River on the south, southwest and west, the northern portion of the boundary being a line extended northeastwardly from the Wolf to the upper forks of the Menomonee River. The northern boundary extended from the upper forks of the Menomonee River to the Escanaba River, thence following that river to its mouth in the Bay de Noquet. This tract was estimated in the treaty at four million acres, and embraced a portion of Michigan as well as Wisconsin.

The other tract ceded began at a point on the Wisconsin River a short distance below Grand Rapids, in Wood county,

"Thence running up and along said river forty-eight miles in a direct line, and being three miles in width on each side of the river."

The Indians agreed to remove from the ceded country within one year after the ratification of the treaty.

In consideration of this cession the United States agreed to pay to the Menomonees annually for the term of twenty years, the sum of twenty thousand dollars in money, three thousand dollars worth of provisions, five hundred dollars per year for farming utensils, cattle or implements of husbandry, two thousand pounds of tobacco and thirty barrels of salt per annum; to appoint and pay two blacksmiths, erect two blacksmiths' shops, and supply them with the necessary iron, steel and tools. Also to pay the debts of the Indians according to a schedule annexed to the treaty, amounting to about one hundred thousand dollars.

To the "relatives and friends of mixed blood" of the Indians, eighty thousand dollars.

And the further sum of seventy-six thousand dollars in consideration of the release of the United States from certain provisions of certain former treaties.

The total amount of the sums agreed to be paid by the United States would amount, during twenty years, to but little, if any, less than eight hundred thousand dollars.

There was appropriated by act of Congress of March 3, 1837, for carrying this treaty into effect the sum of two hundred eighty-eight thousand, five hundred and forty dollars.

Some other Indian treaties were negotiated during the year 1837, but as they were not ratified until the subsequent year, they are not here noticed.

The civil and diplomatic appropriation act, of March 3, 1837, contained an appropriation "for arrearages for the expenses of the Legislative Assembly for the year 1836, fifteen thousand, seven hundred and thirty dollars and sixteen cents," which discharged all the obligations of the territorial government.

The same contained an appropriation of nine thousand, one hundred dollars "for compensation of the Governor, Judges and Secretary."