1834 September 1, 1834

From Journal of the Legislative Council (Extra Session), pp. 4-7 To the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan:

You have been called together at this time fellow Citizens, in obedience to an act of Congress, passed in conformity to a request made by you, at your late session, for power to hold an extra session of the Legislative Council. In fixing upon so early a day for your meeting, I have not been insensible to the personal inconvenience which many of you may experience, from leaving your homes and business at this season of the year: But the expediency of ascertaining and preparing, for the action of Congress, at an early day of their next session, a full, complete and correct Census of the population of our Territory, precluded any delay of action on the part of the Executive; however desirable it may have been to consult the individual wishes and interests of the members of the Council; and I entertain a confident hope, that the regard and anxiety you cherish for the public welfare will, on the present occasion, supercede all private considerations.

The short interval which has elapsed since the close of your last session, affords few topics of sufficient importance to be introduced in an executive communication. I am not aware that many material changes are needed in the existing laws of the Territory. Such defects as require immediate legislation, will suggest themselves to your own minds, in the course of your deliberations. Others not essential may wisely be deferred to the period, when the colonial shall yield to the more free, salutary and enduring condition of a sovereign State government.

The leading purposes of your present session contemplates the speedy admission of Michigan into the Union. Preliminary and essential to the effectuation of this desirable object; a census of the inhabitants of the Peninsula, as well as of those west of Lake Michigan, ought, it is respectfully suggested, to be immediately ordered & taken. The details are properly confided to the wisdom of the Legislative Council. But, the time has arrived when Michigan is called upon to act for herself. She has petitioned Congress, again and again, to extend to her the same measure of liberality and justice, which has been extended to all the Territories heretofore admitted into the Union as States. None of these Territories had, at the time of their admission, a population equal to sixty thousand souls; a population on the attainment of which we are authorized, by the ordinance of 1787, to claim an incorporation with a

republican Constitution into the Union, on an equal footing with the original States. All, or most of the Territories have been admitted when they possessed a number of inhabitants equal to the then ratio of representation in the then house of representatives of the United States. Congress, under the influence of the policy which at present guides their deliberations, have failed to accede to the reiterated applications of Michigan, with a population greater by far than that of other favoured Territories, for power to form a constitution and State government. She has but one course left for the assertion of her equal rights. It is to ascertain her population, which is beyond doubt, more than sixty thousand; to proceed in that event, to the calling of a convention for the institution of a State Government, and to the election of a representative and Senators to Congress. The State of Michigan will then have a right to demand admission in the Union; and it is not to be anticipated, that the Congress of the United States will hesitate to yield as a matter of right, what they have heretofore refused to grant us as a favour.

You will find materially connected with the policy of instituting a State government, and depending essentially upon the action of the Legislative Council on this subject at its present session, the consideration and ultimate decision of the dispute with Ohio in relation to our Southern boundary. It has become manifest, that as a Territory, we have but little weight in the deliberations of Congress, on subjects connected with our vital and permanent political and territorial rights, and that they are decided upon principles of expediency, with a view to other interests than our own. Notwithstanding the efforts of our Delegate to Congress a bill passed the Senate, at the last session, giving to Ohio the contested territory, which clearly belongs to Michigan. The bill was defeated in the House of Representatives; but it is not to be doubted, that the representation from Ohio will renew her claim, and redouble their exertions to secure it. To prevent the success of these exertions, it is submitted to you, whether interest and duty do not require the adoption of the Legislative Council of some act declaratory of our determination in the event of our possessing a population of sixty thousand, to claim admission into the Union, and respectfully asking Congress to abstain from legislating on a question which ought to be left to the adjustment of the two sovereign States, in the mode prescribed and pointed out by the constitution. I need not recur at this time to the arguments by which our right to the Southern boundary as claimed by Michigan has been and may be incontestibly maintained; but simply refer you to the able, unanswered and unanswerable views of our Delegate to Congress last session, a copy of which is herewith transmitted, to be spread upon your journals there to remain, whatever may be the final decision of the

question, as an indelible record of the unrighteous and unwarrantable claim of Ohio.

An Act of Congress having attached to Michigan all that district of Country North of the State of Missouri, and west of the River Mississippi, an extension of the laws of the Territory over that district has be come necessary. The inhabitants on the western side of the Mississippi are an intelligent, industrious and enterprising people, and their interests are entitled to our special attention. At this time they are peculiarly situated. Without the limits of any regularly organized local government, they depend alone upon their own virtue, intelligence and good sense as a guaranty of their mutual and individual rights and interests. Spread over an extensive country, the immediate organization for them of one or two counties with one or more townships in each county, similar to the organization of other parts of the Territory is respectfully suggested and urged. A Circuit and County Courts will also be necessary, authorizing and making a special circuit for the Counties west of the Mississippi, in as much as it would be unreasonable to require the attendance of the inhabitants of that section at the Courts east of the river. I confidently, however, rely upon your diligence and wisdom for all the measures demanded by the annexation of the new territory to the limits of Michigan.

Under instructions from the Secretary of War, the survey of a route for one or more railroads across the Peninsula, is about to be commenced by competent engineers detailed from the Army for that service. This measure is one of vast importance to the interests of Michigan. The expense of the surveys is to be defrayed either by voluntary subscriptions, or legislative appropriation from the territorial treasury. The contemplated object being connected with the general prosperity of the Territory, I earnestly suggest the propriety of an appropriation by the Council for that purpose, before its adjournment.

A late Act of Congress makes appropriations for the improvement of our territorial roads. The improvement of these roads will be rendered the more beneficial to the public, if parts of other connecting roads, were required to be repaired and kept in repair, by the respective counties through which they pass, or by appropriations from the treasury of the Territory. The condition of the Chicago road as far as its intersection at Sheldon's by the Territorial road, is referred to as an illustration of the propriety of this suggestion.

One subject I approach with great diffidence and submit it to the Council with due respect for the opinions of those who may dissent from the views which I entertain in relation to it. At each of your two preceding sessions, a bill was introduced, but unsuccessfully acted on, to abolish imprisonment for debt. I am, nevertheless, constrained by a

sense of duty, as well as by feeling, to urge upon your consideration a renewal of the efforts to mature some bill having this important object in view, and to expunge from the statute book that enactment of barbarous legislation, by which the body of a free Citizen is allowed in Civil actions, to be incarcerated within the walls of a prison, for no crime perpetrated; but for unavoidable misfortune, or at least by misfortune brought on him by indiscretion and want of forecast. I consider imprisonment for debt a flagrant violation of personal liberty, entirely at war with the spirit and genius of our institutions, and a stain upon. the legal code of the Country. When the debtor has surrendered all his property for the benefit of his creditors, he has done all that they or society can consistently with the dictates of humanity or sound policy require from him. His incarceration only deprives him of the opportunity of exerting his talents, his labor, or his energies for the support of his family, as well as for the future payment of his creditors. As a preventative to the incurring of debt, imprisonment has entirely failed, while the experience of one or two States of the Union demonstrates the fact, that the abolition of imprisonment for debt, has diminished the facility for contracting debt, as well as its amount and extent. If the debtor commits an actual fraud in the contracting of debts, or fraudulently with-holds any portion of his property from his creditors, that is a misdemeanor for which a specific punishment should be prescribed by law; and the offence ought to be clearly defined by statute, before it can be properly punished.

These fellow Citizens, are some of the subjects, which appear to me to be worthy of your attention at the present session of the Legislative Council. Others heretofore submitted to your consideration, remain before you, subject to legislative action at your discretion, with precisely the same importance which intrinsically belongs to them.

Temporarily placed in the station from which I now address you, by the untimely death of his excellency the late Governor Porter; an event deeply felt by society and by his family and friends, and invoking all our sympathies and our sorrow; I shall studiously endeavor to perform its duties to the satisfaction of the people of Michigan. The task committed to me on a contingency provided for by law, is assumed with hesitation and reluctance, and with a consciousness of my inability to overcome its difficulties. Utterly indeed, should I despair of discharging the responsibilities of the executive, were I not satisfied, that in you I shall find able counsellors, and that your assistance, guidance and support will be cheerfully afforded me on every trying occasion. With such views, hopes and expectations you will realize a ready co-operation on my part in all the business of your session.

STEVENS T. MASON.