Toledo War
What was the Toledo War?
How was the Toledo War resolved?
What was the significance of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 in the Toledo War?
What was the Pains and Penalties Act?
What role did President Andrew Jackson play in the Toledo War?
Toledo War, conflict that took place in 1835 between the U.S. state of Ohio and the territory of Michigan over ownership of the Toledo Strip—468 square miles (1,212 square km) of land along Ohio’s border with Michigan. Most of the “war” consisted of dueling legislation, charged rhetoric in capitols and newspapers, and minor violence in Toledo (then a small town). Ownership of the Strip was decided in favor of Ohio in 1836, when Michigan accepted compensation in the form of statehood and territory on the Upper Peninsula. This territory proved to be rich in natural resources, and it is generally agreed that Michigan was ultimately the greater beneficiary of the conflict.
Background
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 used what proved to be inaccurate maps to draw a border between Michigan and Ohio. Subsequent surveys led to the drawing of two different state borders. The strip of land between these borders contained Toledo and the mouth of the Maumee River. Ohio considered both Toledo and the intersection of the Maumee and Lake Erie essential for access to river and canal trade. The inclusion of the Maumee in its territory was written into the Ohio state constitution in 1803. This put Ohio in direct conflict with the Northwest Ordinance, and many officials, even outside Michigan, considered Ohio’s claim to the Toledo Strip illegitimate. When Michigan began to seek statehood, Ohio congressmen blocked Michigan’s bid and refused to negotiate. They insisted that they would not relent until Michigan accepted Ohio’s claim to the Strip.
Eruption of the conflict
By 1835 the state and the territory had entered into open conflict. In February, in response to Ohioans’ assumption of public offices in the Strip, Michigan passed the Pains and Penalties Act. This law made it a criminal offense, punishable by a fine or imprisonment, to carry out official functions in Michigan’s claimed jurisdiction by any authority other than the Michigan or U.S. government. In March, Ohio mustered a militia squadron, and Michigan did the same. When Ohio approved a $300,000 military budget, Michigan approved a $315,000 one.
Tensions in Toledo—whose residents generally favored Ohio—were high during this period. In early April, Michigan Sheriff Joseph Wood led a group into the town and arrested prominent pro-Ohio citizens and removed the Ohio flag.
On April 26 the grandly titled Battle of Phillips Corners took place when a group of Michigan militiamen in the Toledo Strip encountered several men from an Ohio surveying party. Some members of the party ran, and the Michiganders fired their guns in response. Other members were caught and taken to jail in Michigan on the charge of violating the Pains and Penalties Act, only to be released because evidence was lacking or bail had been posted.
Hostility between Michiganders and Ohioans flared again in the summer. In June, Ohio Gov. Robert Lucas turned the Toledo region into a county (named after himself) and appointed a sheriff and judge. In Toledo itself Sheriff Wood led Michiganders several times to make arrests and engage in occasional vandalism, such as destroying the offices of the pro-Ohio Toledo Gazette.
July 15 saw the only bloodshed of the Toledo War, when Sheriff Wood entered a Toledo tavern to arrest either Benjamin Franklin Stickney, who had sided with Ohio, or his son Two Stickney (accounts differ as to Wood’s original target). A scuffle broke out in which Two Stickney (the younger brother of One Stickney) stabbed Wood nonfatally with a penknife and then fled. The outraged Michigan territorial governor, Stevens T. Mason, offered a $500 reward for Two Stickney’s capture, but Governor Lucas refused extradition.
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Resolution of the conflict
As the situation escalated, U.S. Pres. Andrew Jackson decided to intervene. He was inclined to favor Ohio’s claim—possibly because of the upcoming presidential election, in which Ohio was considered a toss-up—and sent arbitrators to both Ohio and Michigan to offer a compromise: Michigan would refrain from interfering with Ohio surveyors; Toledoans would be free to live as before, without interference from either Michigan or Ohio; and the U.S. Congress would determine the status of the Strip later. Governor Lucas agreed to the compromise, but Governor Mason refused. Consequently, in August, Jackson replaced Lucas with a more amenable governor.
Despite the cessation of open conflict between governors and capitols, Michiganders and Ohioans continued asserting their claims. In accordance with Governor Lucas’s decree assigning Toledo to Lucas county, Ohioan judges were dispatched on September 7 to hold the town’s first court. To prevent such a move, on September 6, Detroit militiamen assembled in Monroe, Michigan, planning to enter Toledo the following day. But the judges entered Toledo at 1:00 am on the 7th and held court by candlelight; then they left before word could reach the Michigan militia. A brief crisis ensued when it was realized that one of the judges had lost his hat as the group fled (the hat contained the minutes of the court, the only written evidence that it had taken place), but the hat was retrieved and Ohio’s claim was strengthened by proof that Toledo was already within its jurisdiction. All that the Detroit militia could do in response was to destroy a few gardens and orchards. By September 10 the militiamen had disbanded and returned home.
Despite Ohio’s administrative success, the Ohioan loyalties of Toledo residents, and the intervention of President Jackson, Michiganders were not prepared to give up their claims to the Strip. Jackson’s replacement governor pardoned and freed all Ohio men held in Michigan prisons, but his popularity was so low that he resigned within weeks, and Mason was reelected.
In June 1836 Congress passed a law that Michigan’s statehood would be accepted only if the territory gave up the Strip in exchange for land on the Upper Peninsula. But at Michigan’s first constitutional convention, delegates rejected these terms, maintaining Michigan’s claim to the Strip. Only when it became clear that Michigan was nearing bankruptcy did delegates relent and ratify the statehood deal, on December 14, 1836. On January 7, 1837, Toledoans celebrated their official incorporation into Ohio, and on January 26, Michigan was admitted to the Union as a state.