Christensen 1
Mason Christensen
Professor Fonash
English 015
3 August 2006
Toledo Belongs to Michigan
Through an act of partisan politics nearly 200 years ago, an area of land 486 mi2called the Toledo Strip was unjustly taken away from Michigan due to its status as a territory. This unjust theft has resulted in Michigan being deprived of good restaurants, another good art museum, a fine port facility, and close to 1 million residents (Brickey). Most importantly, because of being deprived of the extra population, Michigan is denied additional Congressional representation that could have helped get something done for the state.
The confusing process that led to this theft started back in 1787 with the writing of the Northwest Ordinance,which stated that Ohio’s northern boundary was to be an east-west line atthe same latitude as the southern tip of Lake Michigan. This was done in the belief that line of latitude would be north of the mouth of the Maumee River but it actually lies south. By 1817, both Ohio (Harris Line) and Michigan(Fulton Line) did their own surveys to mark the borderline and what resulted was a large gap between the two survey lines. Michiganin its survey claimed the border went from the southern tip of Lake Michigan in a straight line to Lake Erie while Ohio claimed that it went from the mouth of the Maumee to the southern tip of Lake Michigan (Ohio History Central).
From its creation, Michigan had possession of the Toledo Strip (Hemans 111). When Michiganapplied for admission as a state, Ohio blocked its admittance because they believed that the Strip belonged to them under their own constitution. By mid-1835, troops from both sides were sent to the Toledo area and chaos ensued. At this time, both Michigan and Ohio held elections, with threats of arrest if one participated in the Ohio election. While trying to arrest someone who voted in Ohio’s election, a Monroe County, Michigan deputy sheriff was stabbed.He became the Toledo War’s first and only casualty (Wikipedia).
While this Toledo War was going on, President Jackson realized it was in his best interest politically to support Ohio. Unlike Michigan, Ohio was actually a state, with many electoral votes. Indiana and Illinois had much to also lose if Michigan won (no one quite knew the precise location of the state borders compared to Lake Michigan) and therefore their political power also played a role in his decision of which side to support (of the three, only Illinois voted Democratic in both 1836 and 1840). Against three states, Michigan had no chance as it lacked even a single vote in Congress. With the urging of Ohio, President Jackson removed the Governor of Michigan Territory from office and the war was over (for the most part). Michigan was forced to concede the Toledo Strip but gained the mineral rich Western Upper Peninsula in return (Wikipedia).
I propose to reverse this action of giving Toledo to Ohio and instead give it back to Michigan. To do this, I propose that Congress pass a measure that would change Ohio’s boundaries back to what they in effect were before Michigan statehood. By switching the borders, Congress would be undoing a wrong carried out over a century ago and making the distribution of political power (in the form of congressional representation) fairer by increasing Michigan’s population.
Other than some minor details, changing the border should be very feasible. All it requires is an act of Congress. What is more complicated is what would need to be done afterwards. No state office buildings should have to be built or sold because they can just be transferred from Ohio to Michigan. Maps will have to be revised but the changes can just be shown in the next year’s series of maps. One of the more expensive drawbacks to changing the border is that many signs will have to be changed. The number of highway route number and place name signs with references to Ohioin northwestOhio must run into the thousands. The cost of replacement would probably reach well into the millions but not to a prohibitively high level. Another consequence is that state workers would have to switch insurance plans. This, however, is only an inconvenience and is not much of a reason to oppose a switch.
If Wisconsin wants its part of the Upper Peninsula back, I would say let them have it. In the past 170 years, most of the mineral resources of the region have been mined out. What is left in this area (the size of RI, CT, MA, VT, and NH combined) is only a human population that is far less than in the Toledo Strip. The area is isolated from most of Michigan anyway and would probably be better off being governed by Wisconsin.
One might be asking, why now? Does there really need to be a specific reason? The buildup to the war in Iraq was not caused by any specific event. It was in a way it just came out of the blue. Acts of legislation dealing with such issues as illegal immigration are introduced without any specific reason for their timingother than politics. This changing of the border should happen now because there is no better time than the present to fix the wrong caused by Ohio.
Works Cited
Brickey, Homer. "A size matter." Toledo Blade 17 Jan 2006 06 Aug 2006 <
Hemans, Lawton. Life and Times of Stevens T. Mason. 2nd ed.. Lansing: Michigan Historical Commssion, 1930.
“Toledo War." Ohio History Central. 2005. Ohio Historical Society. 6 Aug 2006 <
"Toledo War." Wikipedia. 2006. 6 Aug 2006 <