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Toledo War

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1835–1836 Ohio–Michigan dispute

Toledo War<br>The portion of the Michigan Territory claimed by the state of Ohio known as the Toledo StripDate1835–1836LocationMichigan Territory, primarily near Toledo, Ohio<br>Result<br>InconclusiveTerritorial<br>changes<br>Ohio gains control of the Toledo Strip, Michigan gains the entire Upper PeninsulaBelligerents<br>Ohio militia<br>Territory of Michigan militiaCommanders and leaders<br>Robert Lucas<br>John Bell<br>Stevens T. Mason<br>Joseph W. BrownStrength<br>600<br>1,000Casualties and losses<br>None<br>1 wounded<br>In exchange for ceding the Toledo Strip, all of what is now known as the Upper Peninsula was included within Michigan's bounds when it was admitted into the Union in 1837 (only the easternmost portion of the peninsula had been claimed in Michigan's 1835 statehood petition).<br>The Toledo War (1835–1836), also known as the Michigan–Ohio War or Ohio–Michigan War , was a boundary dispute between the state of Ohio and the adjoining Michigan Territory over the Toledo Strip . Control of the Maumee River's mouth was seen by both parties as a valuable economic asset, due to the inland shipping opportunities that it offered and the good farmland to the west.

Poor geographical understanding of the Great Lakes helped to produce conflicting state and federal legislation between 1787 and 1805, and varying interpretations of the laws led the governments of both Ohio and Michigan to claim jurisdiction over a 468-square-mile (1,210 km2) region along their border. The situation came to a head when Michigan petitioned for statehood in 1835 and sought to include the disputed territory within its boundaries, and both sides passed legislation attempting to force the other side's capitulation. Ohio Governor Robert Lucas and Michigan's 24 year-old "Boy Governor" Stevens T. Mason both instituted criminal penalties for residents submitting to the other's authority. Both states deployed militia forces on opposite sides of the Maumee River near Toledo, Ohio, but there was little interaction between the two forces apart from mutual taunting. The single military confrontation of the war ended with a report of shots being fired into the air, incurring no casualties. The only blood spilled was the non-fatal stabbing of a law enforcement officer.

During the summer of 1836, the United States Congress proposed a compromise whereby Michigan gave up its claim to the strip in exchange for its statehood and the remaining three-quarters of the Upper Peninsula. While the northern region's mineral wealth would become an economic asset to Michigan, the compromise was considered a poor deal at the time for Michigan, and voters soundly rejected it the following September. The Michigan government was facing a dire financial crisis and pressure from Congress and President Andrew Jackson, so it convened what was called the "Frostbitten Convention" to accept the compromise and resolve the Toledo War.

Origins<br>[edit]

Map of the Northwest Territory as established by the Congress of the Confederation in the Northwest Ordinance, shown with present-day state borders, and correct spatial relationship between Lakes Michigan and Erie<br>In 1787, the Congress of the Confederation enacted the Northwest Ordinance, which created the Northwest Territory in what is now the upper Midwestern United States. The Ordinance specified that the territory was eventually to be divided into "not less than three nor more than five" future states. One of the boundaries between them was to be "an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan".[1] When Congress passed the Enabling Act of 1802, which authorized Ohio to begin the process of becoming a U.S. state, the language defining Ohio's northern boundary elaborated on that, but was fundamentally the same: "an east and west line drawn through the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan, running east ... until it shall intersect Lake Erie or the territorial line [with British North America, now Canada], and thence with the same through Lake Erie to the Pennsylvania line aforesaid".[2]

"Mitchell Map" of the region, from the late 18th century, used to create the Ordinance Line of 1787. The southern tip of Lake Michigan is depicted as being farther north than Lake Erie.The most highly regarded map of the time, the "Mitchell Map",[3] showed the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan at a latitude north of the mouth of the Detroit River, suggesting that an east–west line would not intersect with Lake Erie at all, until well across the international border. The framers of the 1802 Ohio Constitution therefore believed it was the intent of Congress that Ohio's northern boundary should...