Michigan Civil War Blog

Purely Michigan

More publicity's been given recently to the Pure Michigan 2012 photo winner: "Sean Chess of Coldwater has been announced as the winner of the Pure Michigan Moments Photo Contest. Chess’ photo of the St. Joseph Lighthouse in St. Joseph, Mich. (below) will be featured in the 2013 Pure Michigan Travel Guide." See it here: Presser

It is indeed a beautiful photo, with a multi-hued sunset over Lake Michigan, and it got the most favorable comments from the "voters." It perhaps goes without saying -- but bears saying -- that the image would not be the same without the historic structure and setting. As we think of Pure Michigan, it is not just the amazing natural resources that make our State so great; it is equally the amazing cultural resources, the history and heritage, without which we would not be who and what we are.

Toledo War is back on!

"Petition asks Obama to give Toledo back to Michigan. By The Detroit News, Thursday, November 15, 2012

The Michigan-Ohio War is far from over — and it has nothing to do with college football.

Kyle B. of Toledo on Thursday launched a drive at the White House's website for citizen petitions that enjoins President Barack Obama to return Toledo, Ohio, to the state of Michigan.

Michigan lost the border city to Ohio in the Toledo War from 1835-36. In exchange, Congress gave Michigan the Upper Peninsula.

The petition says the city was "wrongfully taken" and asks Obama to issue an executive order that would also require Ohio to pay Michigan $10 trillion in compensatory and punitive damages "for the illegal occupation that has caused the citizens of the State of Michigan to suffer extreme emotional distress in knowing that their brethren were subjugated by the City of Toledo government."

Just three people have signed the return Toledo petition at the "We The People" website, set up by the White House. Petitions that get 25,000 signatures will be reviewed by White House officials, who will issue a response.

Since Obama's re-election, people have created petitions seeking permission for every state to secede from the union and govern themselves. A petition seeking Michigan's secession has garnered 17,994 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.

The Toledo petition can be found at https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/give-toledo-ohio-state-michigan/0cvjC4fn."

A great resource is Don Faber's book, The Toledo War, published in 2008: UofMPress. Also check out the same author's just-released bio of Stevens T. Mason, who was a central figure in the War: BoyGuv

Notes from the election

Interesting to still see much analysis of the recent national plebiscite. Two items of interest that haven't been heard much. One is from history: no candidate since James Polk in 1844 has won election without winning either his birth or resident state. Mitt Romney lost both his home state of Michigan and Massachusetts, his current residence. The other is from exit polls here: more voters described themselves as moderates -- 39 percent -- followed by 35 percent who said they were conservative and 26 percent who said they were liberal.

As a card-carrying independent who would have described himself as he exited the voting booth as "moderate", it is interesting to find oneself in the company of a plurality of Michiganders.

Then there is this curiosity: Michigan is said to be one of 20 states for which signatures are found on the White House website to secede from the Union following the President’s re-election. News reports indicate that the petition is entitled: "Peacefully grant the State of Michigan to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government." Apparently, if it nets 25,000 signatures in 30 days, a response will issue from the White House.

I wonder what our Michigan Civil War vets, as well as the contemporaneous generations, would have said about the matter.

What are Michiganders like?

From Laura Berman's column in yesterday's Detroit News:

'After conducting focus groups in the Detroit area in late July, Dan Carol, a senior fellow at the New Policy Institute, was struck by how "tough-minded" Michigan residents and their counterparts elsewhere are. "They are like venture capitalists," he said. "They have many questions. They support spending their tax dollars for smart economic development and job creation but they want to make sure it's done in a smart way. They want these investments to last."

Michigan's survivors are increasingly wary of empty promises. Stoney [an underemployed person quoted in the story] said she supports the Legislature's move to end welfare after four years — "that's enough," she says, having never received any. Her adult sons now pay her rent and grocery bills, while she job-hunts. The Labor Day crowd applauded the idea that Detroit is — as Obama said, quoting a Chrysler commercial — "a city that's been to heck and back."

Yes, we're all gritty and tough and still, miraculously, here.'

The kind of sentiments expressed in the dedication to Michigan and the Civil War.

Zachariah Chandler ejected

Are those who opposed his anti-slavery, pro-Union views during the Civil War having the last laugh? The senator from Michigan who was one of the radical Republicans during the conflict, who served on the War Committee, who opposed any expansion of involuntary servitude and worked to pass the Reconstruction Amendments, is finally being removed from the halls of Congress. Well, at least a statue of him is: Detroit News

In a sidebar, the News sums him up thusly, giving his positions but not really reflecting his impact:

About Zachariah Chandler

• Born: 1813 in Bedford, New Hampshire.
• Moved to Detroit in 1833, where he ran a general store, engaged in land speculation and was a founder of a bank.
• In 1851 was successfully sued by Ulysses S. Grant, then a lieutenant stationed in Detroit, for not clearing the ice and snow in front of his home. Chandler was fined six cents and court costs of about $8.
Vigorous anti-slavery activist for the Whig party and later Republican party.
• Mayor of Detroit, 1851–52.
• Four-term U.S. Senator from Michigan, 1857–75, 1879.
• Secretary of the Interior under President Ulysses S. Grant, 1875–77.
• Active in the campaign to impeach President Andrew Johnson, whom he viewed as an incompetent.
• Died in 1879, buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit.

A modern, fuller exposition of his contributions to America can be found in Michigan and the Civil War: A Great and Bloody Sacrifice, in a chapter entitled "The War Politicians".

The significance of a date

Today is the 174th anniversary of the day that Michigan became a State. Pretty significant for those of us here who would rather not be residing in a territory, and given these provisions of Article IV of the U.S. Constitution:

"Section 3. New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress.

The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular state.

Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence."

A bit of a difference, there.

Just as a bit of a difference can have enormous historiographical import: Lincoln pardon altered

History all around us

For those who say that history is boring and irrelevant ... just look around, and read or listen to the media. A few examples:

"Rick Snyder, the businessman who moved from the boardroom to the state’s executive office, called for historic changes in the government and culture of Michigan in his first State of the State address Wednesday." (Detroit News, 1/20/11)

In a story comparing Miguel Cabrera's stats at this point in his career to Hank Greenburg: "According to baseball historian Bob Broeg, 'Except for Ted Williams, no hitter of prominence lost as much time to military service as did Greenberg.'" (Detroit Free Press, 1/16/11)

"Among those who didn't pop out of their seats at the suggestion of a MBT repeal was one of the taxes' authors, Sen. Steve BIEDA (D-Warren), the House Tax Policy Committee Chair in 2007. Bieda said he'd like to see some changes to the MBT, too, but he said he wants to make sure that the business tax burden doesn't get put on the backs of ordinary citizens. 'I've heard this before with the Single Business Tax (SBT). They eliminated it without a replacement on the table and we ended up with the MBT,' said Bieda. 'I don't like to see history repeat itself.'" (MIRS 1/19/11)

"'In recent history, the opposing party used their response to criticize and undermine the governor. That's not why I am here tonight,'" said Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) in the Democrat's formal response after the State of the State." (Gongwer 1/19/11)

Of course, we are making history right now -- with every moment that passes -- so it must be something important, right?

New Governor quotes Lincoln

Michigan Governor Snyder invoked Abraham Lincoln during his inaugural today:

'President Abraham Lincoln was looking to America’s future during the darkest times of the Civil War when he said: “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise to the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.”

We can heed his words and enter this new year with a clean slate.'

Snyder and Grant

A portion from a story in today's Detroit News:

The novice behind Snyder's big victory

New gov's inexperienced campaign manager used military background to plot course

Paul Egan / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Lansing— When political novice Rick Snyder went looking for a campaign manager, he hired another political novice.

Jeff Barnes, the man behind Snyder's landslide victory in Tuesday's election for governor, had never managed a campaign.

He had, however, commanded tanks and other armored vehicles for the U.S. Army during two tours of duty in Iraq.

Now, just as military experts study the campaigns of Napoleon, Ulysses S. Grant and other great generals to learn from their triumphs, political strategists will likely want a look at Barnes' campaign playbook.

"Certainly, in a combat environment you grow used to pressure-filled situations," said Barnes, 35, whose unit of the 7th U.S. Cavalry was the first to go from Kuwait to Baghdad in 2003.

In military and political campaigns, "you have to run a disciplined yet fluid operation" that can respond quickly and smoothly to changed conditions on the ground and external attacks, said Barnes, adding he shares credit with Snyder's volunteers and paid campaign workers.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20101104/POLITICS02/11040372/1022/local/The-novice-behind-Snyder%E2%80%99s-big-victory#ixzz14KKmQzeO

A new day in Michigan

The electorate has spoken, and there will be major changes in Michigan because of the outcomes they chose last nite. One clear statement from Governor-elect Snyder shows he's a Lincolnite, not a generic-call-us-whatever-"ian": "There is only one label that matters and that label is Michigander."

He went on to repeat the use of the term with a message of hope:

"Our culture is broken in this state. We've been beaten up for too many years," he said. "We've become too negative...we've gotten caught up too much in a win-lose attitude. It is time for us to stand up as Michiganders and say here is a vision for the future, here is a plan, here is an attitude of action in a positive, forward-looking inclusive fashion. And by doing that, we will create more and better jobs, we will keep our young people here and will be a great state again."