The Toledo War ends.
Mason’s successor Horner proved to be extremely unpopular as governor and his tenure was very short. Residents disliked him so much they burned him in effigy and pelted him with vegetables upon his entry into the territorial capital. In the October 1835 elections, voters approved the draft constitution and elected the popular Mason as state governor. The same election saw Isaac E. Crary chosen as Michigan’s first U.S. Representative to Congress. Because of the dispute Congress refused to accept his credentials and seated him as a non-voting delegate. The two U.S. Senators chosen by the state legislature in November, Lucius Lyon and John Norvell, were treated with even less respect, being allowed to sit only as spectators in the Senate gallery.
On June 15, 1836, Jackson signed a bill that allowed Michigan to become a state, but only after it ceded the Toledo Strip. In exchange for this concession, Michigan would be granted the western three-quarters of what is now known as the Upper Peninsula.Because of the perceived worthlessness of the Upper Peninsula’s remote wilderness, a September 1836 special convention in Ann Arbor, Michigan, rejected the offer.
As the year wore on, Michigan found itself deep in a financial crisis and was nearly bankrupt, because of the high militia expenses. The government was spurred to action by the realization that a $400,000 surplus in the United States Treasury was about to be distributed to the 25 states, but not to territorial governments. Michigan would have been ineligible to receive a share of the money.
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Congress offered the region in red to the state of Michigan in exchange for the Toledo Strip, as a compromise.
The “war” unofficially ended on December 14, 1836, at a second convention in Ann Arbor. Delegates passed a resolution to accept the terms set forth by the Congress. The calling of the convention was itself controversial. It had only come about because of an upswelling of private summonses, petitions, and public meetings. Since the legislature did not approve a call to convention, some said the convention was illegal. Whigs boycotted the convention. As a consequence, the resolution was rejected and ridiculed by many Michigan residents. Congress questioned the legality of the convention, but accepted the results of the convention regardless of its concerns. Because of these factors, as well as because of the notable cold spell at the time, the event later became known as the Frostbitten Convention. On January 26, 1837, Michigan was finally admitted to the Union as the 26th state, without the Toledo.