of ground-plot, and of providing for their unimpeded growth and expansion, while the cultivation of the unsettled parts is not sacrificed.

To defeat, therefore, the establishment of a great city at this site, to say that from the grand circus to the river, and from the lower line of the Brush farm to the upper line of the late Macomb farm, is room enough for it to grow to a reasonable size, to prevent the whole of the ten thousand acres from being attached to it, and the whole of the farms under satisfactory arrangements, for some miles above and below the existing buildings, is contrary to sound and good policy.

It is to mutilate, it is to destroy the splendid plan on which it is laid out. It is to render it nugatory and ridiculous. It is to sacrifice the time, the labor, the expense, which have been bestowed on the object, for a succession of years, from personal resources. It is the dictate at once of folly, of malignity, and of iniquity.

Sixth. Because it would be comparatively an easy operation to rectify the lines and courses of the farms, and to render them conformable to the lines and courses of the avenues and grand avenues of the city, even if the ground is pretended to be sold irrevocably, and without any condition for the free passage of streets and avenues.

When the deviation from a direct course in the avenue leading from the strait to the forest was originally made, and an angle awkwardly and injudiciously placed in the course of the communication, and the width reduced to sixty feet, it was done, as I understand, to gratify the said James Witherell, one of the judges, in two ideas, one of which was utterly unfounded in point of fact.

He supposed that the passage of the avenue across the rear part of the Macomb farm would be disagreeable to the proprietor. I ascertained that this apprehension was fallacious, by an inquiry from the proprietor himself.

That farm is now become the property of the said Lewis Cass, governor of the Territory, and I have ascertained by personal inquiry that such an apprehension would be equally unfounded as to him. He has indeed consented to its free passage under his signature.

It is indeed obvious to common sense that the passage of that avenue through the rear part of that tract of land, instead of diminishing its value, would enhance it tenfold. If the land in that direction were worth fifty cents per acre before, it would be worth five dollars an acre after the passage of that main communication through it.

But it is immaterial whether the proprietor should or should not really or pretendedly maintain one or the other positions. He ought to be compelled to yield to the public good whether the former, or the present, or any other character, in the same manner as the law provides for other citizens.

A second idea was that the alteration in the course of that main communication would more equally divide the ground, intervening the Brush and Macomb farms, so that as outlots their size might be made more similar.

A lane without a permanent street might have answered this insignificant object. Even if a lane, or a street of moderate width, should be expedient in such direction it might have been laid down without checking the course of the main communication.

But the accommodation of the poorer inhabitants of the town with ground as commons, for the pasture of cows, ought to have been a conclusive objection against such an indiscreet, precipitate, and unlawful disposition of this property.

In all populous places there are, and there are likely to be, poor persons, who cannot afford to purchase an out-lot. Public grounds, adjacent to a town, and not yet wanted for building purposes, are the natural commons for the accommodation of such persons. It was a privilege long enjoyed by the inhabitants of Detroit, and it was a cruelty to deprive them of it. Nor has it redounded to the public interest. No funds have been raised from it. What little was in contemplation has been dissipated and lost. The property has been sacrificed for nothing, and speculators and individuals have got hold of it, nor will it be easy to replace it on its lawful footing. Obstacles will be interposed by those characters at every step. Collision of sentiment among those who have disposition of the fund, and a want of firmness in repressing the audacity of unrelenting and grasping speculators, will gradually give strength of their pretensions, and much of this property is, to all practical purposes, effectually lost to the fund* for which it was appropriated by the act of Congress.

For the reduction of the avenue in its width, and converting a main communication from an avenue one hundred and twenty feet broad, to a street sixty feet wide, no satisfactory reason can be conceived.

The farms of one hundred and sixty acres in a square form are based on the irregular direction of that main communication.

By the original plan the grand avenues were directed to the cardinal points, north, south, east and west. Subordinate avenues to the number of eight; that is to say, two between each cardinal point, entered at angles of thirty degrees. The effect was to divide the whole ground plot into parallelograms of about one hundred and sixty acres. The sides, I believe, would be three thousand four hundred and sixty-three and a half feet, by two thousand feet. A specimen of one is presented on the plot beginning at the center of

*The Detroit fund.-C. M. B.

See Vol. XXXVI, p. 615, this series.

14

the grand circus, and running thence north sixty degrees east two thousand feet, thence south thirty degrees east three thousand four hundred sixty-three and a half feet, thence south sixty degrees west two thousand feet, thence north thirty degrees west to the beginning. By laying out the whole ground plot into parallelograms of this size, and of these courses, and by reserving the right of a free passage for the streets, avenues and lanes, and location for the squares, circuses, and public spaces, exactly conformable to the actual subdivision of the parallelogram above described, whenever they should come to be built upon as town ground, the public rights and interests would be conserved, the interests of individuals would be promoted, the laws would be obeyed, uniformity, regularity, and beauty would be maintained, the prosperity of the city would be secured, the convenience of our successors on the theatre of life consulted, and that of the present race not sacrificed, not injured, but even alike advanced.

By the present operations, confusion and irregularity, a permanent sacrifice of future and present interests; the convenience of succeeding and even of existing inhabitants, the rights of the people, the sanctity of the laws, are violated, prostrated, and trampled under foot by the demons of opposition, of discord and of prejudice.

Nor let it be said that the expense is an obstacle.

It is admitted that the survey of the ten thousand acres into the parallelograms above mentioned, instead of the square farms laid out by Mr. Fletcher, under the direction, it is presumed, of the said Lewis Cass, governor of the Territory, would not cost three hundred dollars. The undersigned will cheerfully meet that expense, if by that means so great a public mischief may be averted.

It will be obvious that on the plan which has been explained by the aid of an accurate plot of the subdivisions of a parallelogram as aforesaid, all valuable buildings, if they were palaces themselves, and calculated to endure for five hundred, or for a thousand years, may be so placed as not to require the least disturbance when they are taken into the city. Even fences, hedges, walls and other enclosures may be made with a like correspondence.

The straight course of the streets and the free passage and location of communications and reservations are objects dear to the hearts of the inhabitants, and for which also they would make sacrifices if the perverse intentions of their inexorable enemies could be thus averted. Many, even of the purchasers of the out-lots, have signified to me their willingness to subscribe to those conditions, under a conviction of their propriety and fairness.

When I before maintained that these deviations and their confusion and irregularity were introduced at the instigation of the said James Witherell,

one of the judges, and under a total misapprehension of the facts connected with the subject, and of their general bearings, I am under a full presumption that no person who hears me supposes that either of the two other persons concerned; that is to say, William Hull, late governor of this Territory, and the said John Griffin, one of the judges, were apprised or particularly cared about the consequences of the measures they were pursuing.

It is therefore clear that to rectify the lines of the partitions of the ten thousand acres, to render them conformable to the lines of the city, and to annex a condition for the free passage and location of communications and reservations, could be, and actually are, even now, comparatively an easy operation.

Seventh. Because the funds now possessed are adequate to all reasonable practical purposes, and require no indirect and crooked measures, productive of derangement and confusion, to obtain supplies; even if such supplies were rendered either more certain, or more abundant, by such irregular measures, both of which are denied.

Eighth. Because the assemblage of the governor and judges, in the autumn of the year one thousand eight hundred and seventeen, was not on the day appointed by law, but on a different day, without adequate or regular notice, and therefore intriguing, violating public laws, iniquitous, and corrupt, and the governor and judges cannot be separated into two distinct bodies, one to be called a land board, and the other to be called a legislature, under any existing act of congress.

Ninth. Because a vote was given to sell a part of a public alley in the city of Detroit, thereby also impairing confidence in the laws, and in the public faith.

Tenth. Because the season of the sale is peculiarly injudicious, being the first Monday in June, not calculated to meet the fair demand, but calculated only to gratify a few speculators in the vicinity, whereas a sale on one notice, regularly made, without violating any laws or the public faith, in the month of October, would produce an entirely different pecuniary result.

Eleventh. Because the signing of blank deeds, to be delivered to some unknown persons, at some future indefinite time, with false dates, and when others than the signers may be in authority, in the manner now proposed to be done, is unlawful, intriguing, iniquitous, and corrupt.

Twelfth. Because no hour has been notified for the sale.

Thirteenth. Because no terms of sale have been properly notified. Fourteenth. Because no access has been afforded to an actual inspection of the land to be sold.

Fifteenth. Because no plots have been properly made of the land offered and pretended to be sold.

Sixteenth. Because by preceding the United States sales in July and September, an evident sacrifice will be made of the property.

Seventeenth. Because improper construction has been attached to the expression, old town, as used in the law.

Eighteenth. Because the water lots have been neglected.

For the foregoing and for various other reasons, the undersigned solemnly protests against the sales proposed to be held this day. City of Detroit, June 1, 1818.

A. B. WOODWARD.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE CASE OF THE EARL OF SELKIRK

Michigan to wit: To the Clerk of the Supreme Court.

Issue capias for James Grant vs. Thomas (commonly called) Earl of Selkirk, action of trespass with force and arms, damages $50,000 returnable next term.

Indorse "This action is brought to recover damages for the illegal imprisonment of James Grant by defendant and the illegal taking away of said James from within the United States into the territories of the King of Great Britain, and the forcible and violent seizure of his property and for other enormities by the said defendant committed upon the person and property of said plaintiff in September and October, 1816."

Surety for costs.

A. G. WHITNEY, Attorney.

Michigan to wit: The United States of America to the Sheriff of the County of Wayne.

You are hereby commanded that you take Thomas (commonly called) Earl of Selkirk, if to be found within the Territory of Michigan, and him safely keep so that you have his body before the judges of our Supreme Court to be holden at Detroit on the third Monday of the present month of September; then and there to answer James Grant in an action of trespass with force and arms, to the damage of the said James Grant, as is said, fifty thousand dollars, and of this writ make due return. Witness, Augustus B. Woodward, presiding judge of our said Supreme Court, the fourth September one thousand eight hundred eighteen.

PETER AUDRAIN, Cik S. C. T. M.