CHAPTER III.

POLITICS IN THE TERRITORY.

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The dispute over the boundaries of Wisconsin was earnest, sometimes bitter, and continued from the organization of the territory until the question was finally settled by the admission of the State into the Union, and the lines were definitely fixed by the Congress. The Ordinance of 1787 (Article 5) provided that "there shall be formed in said territory not less than three nor more than five States"; and it then went on to define the boundaries of each State, but not very clearly, and then it added this proviso, which opened the door for much controversy: "Provided, * * that the boundaries of these three States shall be subject so far to be altered, that, if Congress shall hereafter find it 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." If it had been determined to carve only three States out of this Northwest territory, instead of five, there would have been no controversy, and had this been done, probably the State of Wisconsin would never have been heard of; but there were five States, and ours was the last one to be constructed; hence the angry and fruitless controversy. When Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan were admitted into the Union, each one was allowed a large slice of territory which did not properly belong to it by any fair construction of the Ordinance of 1787, and the result was that Governors Dodge and Doty contended that Wisconsin, as the fifth State, had been despoiled of a rich portion of her birthright, and all the Territorial Legislatures, and both conventions which met to frame a constitution, took the same view of it. The object of this alleged robbery on the part of our neighbors was to gain harbors on the great lakes, and no man

can say now that the Federal Union is not stronger for it. Ohio began the trespass, and the others followed suit. If the deal had been a square one, as the territorial statesmen viewed it. Wisconsin would have had the Upper Peninsula part of Michigan, a strip sixty miles wide along the north end of Illinois, including the ground now occupied by the city of Chicago, and on the north the land upon which the cities of St. Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth now stand! A magnificent territory truly, and it is no wonder that the first settlers in Wisconsin made earnest objection to the injustice of what they considered a shameful transaction. They did protest vigorously, but as all the other States had been admitted, and their boundaries fixed by the act of Congress, they had to submit, and take what was left or continue under territorial vassalage. As Ohio and Michigan nearly came to blows over their boundary line, so the Governors and the Territorial Legislatures of Wisconsin made it unpleasant for the people of Northern Illinois and the Congress of the United States. Governor Dodge issued proclamations and warned intruders off the disputed territory. He had local elections held in fourteen of the northern counties of Illinois, and, strange as it may now seem, the vote showed that the inhabitants preferred to be attached to Wisconsin. But under Doty's lead the Territorial Legislature of 1843 1844 took up the subject of the "ancient" boundaries, meaning thereby the lines supposed to have been fixed by the Ordinance of 1787, and addressed Congress in very plain and threatening language. The resolutions adopted by the Legislature informed Congress that if Wisconsin could not come into the Union with her boundaries fixed about as she wanted them, she "would be a State out of the Union," and carry on business on her own account. The resolutions were undoubtedly written by Doty himself, as the style is precisely the same as that employed by him in 1840 in his celebrated manifesto published while he was a delegate in Congress, and intended to aid in the defeat of Martin Van Buren for the presidency. The humorous part of the whole proceeding was the attempt to bully Congress into an agreement to carry out a system of internal improvements as a compensation for the damage that had been done to Wisconsin's

boundaries. These improvements contemplated a railroad across the State, making navigable the Fox, Wisconsin and Rock rivers, and the improvement of all the principal harbors on Lake Michigan. It is needless to say that Congress paid no attention whatever to these imperious demands, nor to the belligerent attitude. assumed by the Territorial Legislature, whose language was more defiant and less respectful towards the federal authorities than the decision of our Supreme Court ten years later. When Wisconsin adopted a constitution, after two trials, "republican in form”— having purged herself of contempt-she was admitted into the Union "on an equality with the other States," and she has since proved her loyalty to the old flag and to constitutional liberty by sending 90,000 of her sons to fight in defense of the integrity of the nation!

A few important points should not have been overlooked by our territorial fathers in this boundary discussion. (1) The Ordinance of 1787 is practically in its essential features the same as the Ordinance of 1784, which was presented to Congress by Mr. Jefferson on the same day that Virginia relinquished her claim to her portion of the Northwest territory, for the government of the same. (2) The proposed Ordinance of 1784 contemplated the making of ten States, instead of five, and herein Nathan Dane, Richard Henry Lee and Manasseh Cutler improved upon the draft of Jefferson three years before. Had there been ten States, Wisconsin would not have been as well off as she is now. (3) Congress had complete and absolute control over the whole matter in dispute from the start. (4) Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, being admitted into the Union, and their boundaries defined by act of Congress, it would have been difficult and unprecedented for the Congress to have made any alterations afterwards. (5) Wisconsin has a magnificent area as the lines are now fixed, quite expansive enough for all practical purposes, considerably larger than either Indiana or Ohio. She possesses now more than one fifth of all the territory which was covered by the Ordinance of 1787.

A bitter and long protracted quarrel in the Democratic party during the years of 1843 and 1844-if Doty could be called a

Democrat-enlivened the life of the local Democracy, and furnished amusement for the Whigs and anti-slavery men. Judge James Duane Doty, who had been appointed Governor by President John Tyler as a reward for his work in helping to defeat Van Buren, got into a long controversy with the Legislative Assembly, and the Governor got the worst of it. When the Legislature assembled Doty refused to recognize it, for the reason, as the Governor alleged, that there was no money to pay its expenses, though the real reason undoubtedly was that Doty feared an official investigation into his conduct as treasurer of the funds appropriated by Congress to build public buildings at Madison. After several vain attempts on the part of the Legislature to obtain recognition from the Governor and proceed with the business of the session, the Legislature addressed a memorial "To John Tyler, President of the United States," setting forth all their grievances at great length, and ended by saying: "For the reasons above set forth we respectfully, yet earnestly, request your Excellency to remove James D. Doty from the office of Governor of the Territory of Wisconsin." This memorial passed the Council unanimously, and in the House there were only two votes against it. Henry Dodge, who had been removed from the office of Governor to make way for Doty, was then the territorial delegate in Congress, and he owed Doty no good will. As soon as Dodge had received this memorial from the Legislature, he addressed an official communication to the President, praying for Doty's removal and assigning many weighty reasons therefor, none of which had any effect upon Tyler. The Legislature adjourned from the tenth day of December to the last Monday in January, 1843, when they found Governor Doty was still incorrigible and would hold no communication with them. The Legislature then adjourned until the 6th of March, when it was convoked by Doty's proclamation, but before it dissolved it fired the following parting shot at Governor Doty:

"Resolved, That the conduct of Governor Doty, in again refusing to meet the Legislature, after he has been officially informed that an appropriation has been made by Congress to defray its expenses, is another evidence of his violation of law, and utter