As for Detroit, it would be better to give up, buy the inhabitants out, and burn the place down. That was the conclusion of one General Duncan McArthur, who was stationed at Detroit in 1814.
Two years later, the surveyor general of the United States, Edward Tiffin, made it official. Michigan was worthless. In a report to President James Madison, Tiffin said that Michigan consisted of “swamps, lakes and poor sandy soil not worth the cost of surveying.”
Even worse, the climate was naturally unhealthy; this area was, believe it or not, prone to malaria epidemics.
Well, guess what. They were wrong. I don’t know why anyone would have taken Tiffin’s report seriously anyway; he was the first governor of Ohio. So, how did we survive all that bad publicity?
Lewis Cass, our territorial governor and political godfather, understood the importance of PR. He got another surveying party together, produced a different report, and turned opinion around.
We’ve always been a place of boom and bust, fighting for respect. Detroit burned down in 1805, at a time when Detroit was pretty much all there was of civilization in Michigan.
We just shrugged and built it back up again. That long-ago disaster is mostly forgotten now, but it gave the city its official motto, words which are especially apt for the whole state:
“Speramus meliora; Resurget Cineribus,” which means, “We hope for better things; it will rise from the ashes.‘
We’ve gotten rather good at rising from the ashes, something we need to remember. We also need to not only hope for, but believe in better things, and remember these words of ancient wisdom:
You never can tell.
Misfortune sometimes leads to opportunity. Michigan fought an actual war with Ohio in 1835, lost, and got cheated out of Toledo. But as a compensation prize we got the Upper Peninsula, which made this state rich half a century later.
Detroit was so slow to become a major city that most of the other major league baseball owners opposed giving it a team in 1901. Place was too small for major league sports, they said.
Well, that changed in a hurry. The auto industry is on the ropes now. But not for the first time. Henry Ford’s first two ventures went bankrupt. Car sales fell off 75 percent during the Great Depression, a time which makes our present difficulties look like a picnic.
People slept in the parks and the governor closed all the banks. And yet we came roaring back, because that’s what we do. That’s what we’ve always done.
We’ve had race riots and environmental disasters. Half a century ago Michigan was on the rocks because the state government couldn't pay its bills. We came back.
And I think we will again. It won’t be easy; it’s never been easy, which we sometimes forget. We need a little retooling, intellectual as well as otherwise. Si quaeris amoenam peninsulam, circumspice.
If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you. Still works for me. I’m staying here for the next chapter. I’m not about to let some long-dead governor have the last word.
I’m not about to let some long-dead governor of Ohio have the last word.
Posted by: You're welcome | April 28, 2009 at 10:44 AM
retroactively, thank you!
Posted by: Jack Lessenberry | April 28, 2009 at 05:40 PM