The provision of the ordinance of seventeen hundred and eighty-seven under which the people of Michigan claim their right to form a state, admits of but one construction, and can convey but one meaning. Its language is plain: "whenever any of the states shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants, such state SHALL be admitted into the union on an equal footing with the original states, and shall be at liberTY to form a permanent constitution and state government." The population of Michigan exceeding sixty thousand free inhabitants, she is authorised to form a state; the trammels of her territorial condition fall off; and she has performed the act which makes her sovereign and independent.

The essence of freedom is self-government. Of no rights should the people be so tenacious as those which are political. Under the constitution and laws of the land, we are secured in the exercise and enjoyment of our personal rights. The moment the national legislature vests in the citizen his land or other property, his possession becomes absolute and it is protected by the tribunals of the country. The rights and privileges of a petty corporation secured to them by law, are held sacred and inviolable. Are not the political rights of a community of freemen equally to be observed and protected? Are the privileges of self-government derived from nature and secured by compact now to be denied us? The faith of the nation is pledged for the observance of this compact.That faith once violated amongest ourselves and it will be in vain to demand a respect and obedience to the laws. The confidence of the people is the greatest security by which the government can act. It rests for its support upon their affections, not their fears; its strength is moral, not physical. Let us then beseech the general government, with that patriotism and wisdom which now and has ever distinguished its councils, to weigh well the grave question before them. It involves considerations above the interests of a day.

The articles of the ordinance of July thirteenth, seventeen hundred and eighty-seven, are declared to be "articles of

compact between the original states, and the people and the states in the territory ceded by Virginia, and to be FOREVER UNALTERABLE—except by common consent." Michigan is one of the parties to this compact. The government of the

United States is bound by the most solemn forms to fulfil the obligations of the compact; a compact which from its provisions carries with it all the weight and binding force of a treaty. Treaties are held most holy and sacred among all nations, and that government is justly marked with infamy which violates its faith. The general government are now called upon to redeem their pledge. No just reason exists by which they can be released from its binding force. The language of the compact of seventeen hundred and eighty-seven is explicit; but if tortured into doubt, the first principles of international law declare, "that in all doubtful cases treaties shall be construed in favor of these for whose benefit they were made." The compact of seventeen hundred and eighty-seven was made for the government and benefit of the inhabitants of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio, of whom the people of Michigan constitute a portion. The general government are then required to fulfil the pledge for the admission of Michigan as a state, and preserve from pollution our hitherto unsuspected and unstained government.

seven.

If there ever was a time when this nation ought to set an example of good faith it is now, when we are involved in an unsettled controversy with a foreign power. This controversy involves all the principles which are now called in question by the ordinance of seventeen hundred and eightyThe eyes of the civilized world are upon us, and it is trusted and believed, that our government will not violate that law which they demand others to observe. The charac ter of the proceedings of France has been pronounced by the indignant voice of the nation with an unanity not to be mistaken, and seldom if ever equalled. Our national faith has never been suspected or violated, and we may hope that

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it is not to occur for the first time with our own citizens. the contrary we may trust that the general government by a fulfilment of its obligations with the people of Michigan, will give a pledge to the world, that the United States will as eagerly protect honor from the suspicion of violated faith, as from the insults and injuries of foreign aggressors. A manly sense of national dignity has been inspired by our controversy with France, which if encouraged by every department of the federal government, cannot fail to become the sure foundation of national prosperity and glory.

The incidental question of boundary has been connected with our application for admission as a state, and seems to be attended with some difficulty of adjustment. It is alleged by the parties interested, that tho boundaries of Michigan as designated in her state constitution, encroach upon those claimed by the states of Ohio and Indiana, and that Michigan should not be admitted until she yields all claim to the territory involved in dispute by this confliction of boundary. The objection is not tenable. The act of congress of January eleven, eighteen hundred and five, by which Michigan received her political existence, described our southern boundary in conformity with the ordinance of seventeen hundred and eighty-seven, and designated it, to be "a line drawn east from the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan until it shall intersect Lake Erie." Our state constitution embra. ces this boundary. The state of Indiana claims and exercises jurisdiction north of this line under an act of congress; Ohio claims by her own will and power. In the case of Indiana it is contended, that her boundaries have become vested under the act of eighteen hundred and sixteen, authorizing her citizens to form a constitution and state government. this argument is entitled to weight with congress, may it not be asked if the vested boundaries of the people of Michigan under the act of eighteen hundred and five, are not entitled to equal consideration. By the ordinance of seventeen hundred and eighty-seven and the act of eighteen hundred and

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five, our boundaries are designated as claimed by us, and the right of admission as a state is expressly authorized and secured when our population should equal sixty thousand free inhabitants. It was the people of that part of the territory of the United States lying north of the east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan, and none other, who were authorized on the happening of this contingency to form a permanent constitution and state government. The boundaries of the territory thus set apart, became absolute and fixed and congress reserved no power to alter them.

In eighteen hundred and sixteen, when Michigan was unrepresented in congress, the then territory of Indiana procured the passage of a law encroaching upon and violating the boundaries of the territory of Michigan, as established by the compacts of seventeen hundred and eighty-seven and eighteen hundred and five. This legislation was inadverted on the part of congress, and was urged for the purpose of secretly securing to Indiana the mouth of the St. Joseph river on Lake Michigan, the line designated in the law being supposed to include the mouth of that river. Had Michigan been represented in congress, or had the question been agitated, it is not to be believed that our boundaries as established by the act of eighteen hundred and five, would have been encroached upon or attempted to be altered.

If then the error first originated with congress, it may scarcely be deemed competent for that body to cancel an act of injustice, by a repetition of injury. The act of eighteen hundred and five was passed eleven years previous to that of eighteen hundred and sixteen, and if their provisions conflict with each other, it is not within the province of congress to determine upon the constitutionality of its own measures.— There is another tribunal of the country which holds the exclusive cognizance of such cases. Acts of congress can never quiet claims to vested rights. Additional legislation by

congress on the subject of boundary, can never bar a right of

appeal to the supreme court. The admission of Michigan as a state, will hasten this appeal in all cases where we may believe our rights have been violated, and instead of the angry and unhappy controversies attending upon our exclusion from the union, the question at issue will be amicably adjusted in the peaceable mode pointed out by the constitution.

In reference to the claims of the state of Ohio, we have nothing to yield, but will endeavor to maintain our jurisdiction, awaiting patiently the decision of the constitutional tribunal. It may, however, be remarked, that the territory in dispute not having been confirmed to Ohio previous to the formation of the constitution of Michigan, it has become a legitimate part of the state of Michigan, and the question is taken from the hands of congress; it constitutes legally a part of the territory of the state in conformity with the act of eighteen hundred and five, and any attempted legislation of congress to bestow it upon Ohio, on bare questions of expediency would be unauthorized and unconstitutional. If the territory in contestation does not legally belong to Ohio, the time has passed when congress have a right to present it to her as a gift, on the exclusive ground of expediency. rights of the people of Michigan are held by no such slender

tenure.

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The claim of Indiana, however, is of a different character, and merits graver consideration. She holds the territory under an act of congress, and has exercised jurisdiction over it since the time of her admission as a state. It has never been the intention of the people of Michigan, to attempt the extension of jurisdiction over this territory, unless sustained in the act by the previous decision of the supreme court of the United States. If they had the strength enabling them to effect it, they have seen the reprobation of the nation stamped too plainly upon a precedent before them, to justify on their part the premeditation of such a measure. As I have before stated, the supreme court alone can quiet our claim, and the people of Indiana hazard nothing by awaiting