of New England training, so that the adoption of the system to which they were accustomed was entirely natural. A second reason was the influence of Governor Cass. He was thoroughly democratic in his views and urged the people to use the privileges which they had, and he increased their privileges and responsibilities whenever he could do so.

th

Page of the journal kept by Sergeant Charles Floyd, on the Lewis and Clark expedition. From the original owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society.

CHAPTER XVII

THE ADMISSION OF MICHIGAN AND WISCONSIN

THE fourth section of the Northwest Territory to enter the Union was Michigan. This State was admitted in 1837, nineteen years after Illinois had achieved statehood. This delay is explained partly by the location of Michigan. It was too far north to attract emigrants from the southern States, and it could not be reached by way of the Mississippi and its branches. It was thus denied that ease of communication with the southern and central States which had much to do with the rapid settlement of the three southern States of the Northwest Territory. Again, there was an abundance of fertile land in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois which was open to settlers, so that there was no particular object in going so far north, where the winter was much colder, and where, according to the reports of surveyors, the interior of the peninsula was made up of a very poor quality of land.

On May 6, 1812, Congress passed an Act appropriating six million acres of land for the payment of soldiers who should serve in the war against Great Britain. Of this amount two million acres were to be set apart in the State of Michigan. The surveyor who was sent to lay off this land in Michigan reported that there were no government lands in that Territory fit for cultivation, and April 29, 1816, an act was passed by Congress relieving the soldiers from being compelled to accept this apparently worthless