1818
1837
By that time Michigan had begun to urge her claims to statehood, insisting on the southern boundary prescribed for the fourth and fifth states by the ordinance. The state of Virginia, as the chief donor of land, was asked to intercede in behalf of Michigan. Virginia officials were in accord with Michigan’s contention, but failed to produce any effect on Congress, to whose dominant party the political sympathy of the actual state of Ohio was more important than the good-will of the prospective state of Michigan. Without waiting for an enabling act, a convention held at Detroit in May and June, 1835, adopted a state constitution for submission to Congress, demanding entry into the Union, “in conformity to the fifth article of the ordinance.” The boundaries sought were those established by the fifth article. That summer there were a few disturbances in the disputed territory, and some gunpowder was harmlessly wasted. In December, President Andrew Jackson laid the matter before Congress in a special message. Congress quietly determined to arbitrate the quarrel by giving the disputed tract to Ohio and offering Michigan the whole of what is today her Upper Peninsula. However, Michigan did not want this supposedly barren and worthless country to the northwest, and protested against what was deemed an outrage. It was declared that Michigan had no interest in the north peninsula, and was separated from it by natural barriers for one-half of the year. It was further pointed out that the upper peninsula rightfully belonged to the fifth state to be formed out of the Northwest Territory. But Congress demanded the settlement of this dispute before the admission of Michigan into the Union. In September, 1836, a state convention, called for the sole purpose of deciding the question, rejected the proposition on the ground that Congress had no right to annex such a condition, according to the terms of the ordinance. A second convention, however, approved it on December 15 of the same year, and Congress at once accepted this decision as final. Thus Michigan came into the Union on January 22, 1837, with the same boundaries which she possesses today.
The creation of Michigan Territory in 1805 had left Indiana Territory with the Mississippi River as its western border, the Ohio River as its southern, the international boundary line and the south line of Michigan as its northern, while its eastern limits were the west line of Ohio, the middle of Lake Michigan and the meridian of Mackinac. This included the present states of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, part of Minnesota, and the greater part of the Michigan upper peninsula.
1848
1858