CONSTITUTIONS

COLONIAL CHARTERS, AND OTHER

ORGANIC LAWS

OF THE

STATES, TERRITORIES, AND
COLONIES

NOW OR HERETOFORE FORMING

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Compiled and Edited

under the Act of Congress of June 30, 1906

By

FRANCIS NEWTON THORPE, Ph. D., LL. D.

Member of the Pennsylvania Bar; Fellow and Professor of American Constitu-
tional History at the University of Pennsylvania, 1885-1898; Member of
the American Historical Association; Author of The Constitutional History
of the United States, 1765-1895; A (State) Constitutional History of
the American People, 1776-1850; A Short Constitutional History
of the United States; A (Social and Economic) History of the
American People; A History of the Civil War; Editor of the His-
tory of North America, Volumes IX, XV, XVI, XVIII, XIX,
XX; Author of The Government of the People of the
United States; Benjamin Franklin and the University
of Pennsylvania; The Life of William Pepper, etc.

VOL. IV
Michigan-New Hampshire

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

MICHIGAN"

For organic acts relating to the land now included within Michigan printed in other parts of this work see:

Virginia Act of Cession, 1783 (Illinois, p. 955).

Deed of Cession from Virginia, 1784 (Illinois, p. 957).
Northwest Territorial Government, 1787 (Illinois, p. 957).
Virginia Act of Ratification, 1788 (Illinois, p. 963).
Northwest Territorial Government, 1789 (Illinois, p. 963).
Territorial Government of Indiana, 1800 (Illinois, p. 964).
Extension of Michigan Territory, 1834 (Iowa, p. 1111).
Enabling Act for Illinois, 1818 (Illinois, p. 967).

TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT OF MICHIGAN-1805"
[EIGHTH CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION]

An Act to divide the Indiana Territory into two separate governments

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the thirtieth day of June next, all that part of the Indiana Territory which lies north of a line drawn east from the southerly bend, or extreme, of Lake Michigan, until it shall intersect Lake Erie, and east of a line drawn from the said southerly bend through the middle of said lake to its northern extremity, and thence due north to the northern boundary of the United States, shall, for the purpose of temporary government, constitute a separate Territory, and be called Michigan.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That there shall be established within the said Territory a government in all respects similar to that provided by the ordinance of Congress, passed on the thirteenth day of July, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, for the government of the territory northwest of the river Ohio; and by an act passed on the seventh day of August, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine, entitled "An act to provide for the government of the territory northwest of the river Ohio;" and the inhabitants thereof shall be entitled to and enjoy all and singular the rights, privileges, and advantages granted and secured to the people of the

@ The French explored the land near Detroit in 1670, and established a colony there in 1702. This was ceded to Great Britain, with all of the other French possessions east of the Mississippi River, by the treaty of Paris, February 10, 1763, and was annexed by royal proclamation to the British colony of Quebec. It was relinquished to the United States by Great Britain by the treaties of 1782-'83, although a British garrison was maintained until 1796.

The boundaries of Michigan, as established by this act, were necessarily changed by the acts of Congress approved April 9, 1816; June 18, 1818; June 28, 1834, and April 20, 1836.

The act of 1818 extended the Territory westward to the Mississippi River, and the act of 1834 added the territory between the Mississippi River on the east and the Missouri and White Earth Rivers on the west. Michigan Territory then extended from Lakes Erie and Huron westward to the Missouri River, and from the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri northward to the British dominions.