An Eye For An Eye Will Only Make The Whole World Blind – Part Four
The Toledo War, 1835
A combination of inaccurate cartography and shoddy legislative drafting can cause no end of problems as the border dispute between neighbouring states, Michigan and Ohio, over a slither of land in which the city of Toledo is situated shows.
It all started with the Northwest Ordinance, drafted by Congress in 1787, which decreed that the expanse of land around the Great Lakes was to be carved up to form a number of new states and that the border between Ohio and Michigan was to run on “an east west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan.” Unfortunately, the best available map was inaccurate, putting the southern tip somewhat north of its true position and leaving the mouth of the Maumee River and what would become Toledo in Ohio rather than Michigan.
Matters were compounded when in 1803 Ohio was admitted to the Union, the crafty Ohioans inserting a clause in their constitution to the effect that the land around the Maumee River was theirs, come what may. No one seems to have paid much attention to this at the time but as the Michigan Territory became more organised, the representatives from Michigan argued that more accurate maps showed that the 468 mile slice of land known as the Toledo Strip was theirs.
It was not just an academic dispute because by 1825 the Erie Canal had been finished, linking the Great Lakes with the east coast of America and Toledo was poised to become a thriving commercial centre. The Michiganders took the initiative, settling the region, building roads, holding elections and collecting taxes. The Ohioans, on the other hand, protested to Washington and even blocked a Michigan petition for statehood in the early 1830s.
Matters escalated out of control with the election in 1834 of 23-year old Steven T Mason as the Michigan governor. He immediately asserted his territory’s rights to the land, stating “we are the weaker party, it is true, but we are on the side of justice…we cannot fail to maintain our rights against the encroachments of a powerful neighbouring state”. Just for good measure he passed, in February 1835, the Pains and Penalties Act which levied harsh fines and prison sentences on a Ohioan caught exercising jurisdiction in the disputed area. The Ohio governor, Robert Lucas, retaliated by getting a team of surveyors to remark the border and both sides raised militias.
There were skirmishes. On 9th April 1835 several Ohioan officials were arrested in Toledo and the Ohio flag was torn down, dragged through the streets and then burned. A few days later a militia of 60 Michiganders intercepted a border survey team and on 26th April shots were fired over the heads of a survey team in what was known as the Battle of Phillips Corner. Remarkably, the only casualty in the dispute was Michigan sheriff, Joseph Wood, who was stabbed by a penknife an Ohio partisan named Two Stickney.
In September the Ohio governor announced plans to hold a court session in Toledo to establish his state’s rights to the land. In retaliation, Mason raised a force of 1,200 to prevent the meeting taking place but the crafty Ohioans had pre-empted them, holding a midnight session and then fleeing the scene.
Eventually, tempers cooled and Congress agreed to re-examine the matter. On 14th December 1836, in return for admission to the Union, Michigan ceded their claim to the land. One Toledo resident, at least, was pleased, commenting that she couldn’t stand the Michigan weather.
As a consolation prize Michigan was granted 9,000 square miles of land on the Upper Peninsula between Lakes Michigan and Superior, described at the time as a barren wasteland of “perpetual snows.”
It was found to contain valuable copper and iron ore deposits!
