CHAPTER II.

DRAWING PARTY LINES.

The first official term of Governor Dodge was not characterized by any political excitement. All the federal officers felt secure in their places and there was no effort made to displace them. That sublime old scriptural poet, Job, probably had the contented and well-paid officeholder in his mind's eye when he made the sarcastic inquiry: "Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over his fodder?" If these questions had been asked during Dodge's first term, they would have been answered in the negative. Men's minds were too much engrossed in those days with business cares, the improvement of farms, the division of counties, the location of county seats, and the laying out of wagon roads, to care much for office. They were busy organizing new townships, carving out new school districts, breaking prairie, building houses, bridging rivers, and doing all the necessary work in developing a new empire. The people were fully alive to the necessity of improvement of rivers and harbors by the general government, although the dominant sentiment in the territory was Democratic, and it was well known that the national Democratic party at that time was decidedly opposed to such a system. Governor Dodge, however, warmly endorsed the policy of internal improvements in his first message to the first territorial Legislature, and acting upon his recommendation, it petitioned Congress for large sums of money to improve the harbors of Lake Michigan. The Governor's views on this important subject are expressed in the subjoined extract:

"The improvement of the navigation of Rock river I consider a subject of vital importance to the future prosperity of this territory. This river waters a large extent of fertile country and a small appropriation by Congress would be sufficient to remove