Accident Undone

Lansing has a local brand as a charming and weird town. You get your milk and ice cream at the convenience store. Its best barbecue joint occupies an old cell phone store. It’s a Vietnamese restaurant too. The shopping mall Frandor is a death trap.

Which is why I was always drawn to a popular charming, weird story about how Lansing became Michigan’s capital sort-of by accident.

The legend: in 1847, nobody could agree on which established city to make Michigan’s permanent capital. Marshall, Jackson, Detroit, and others made bids and wouldn’t back down. Lansing, then seen as a “howling wilderness”, was put up as a sort of ultimatum in case the Legislature couldn’t agree. A dart thrown in the bullseye of the Mitten. Being politicians, they couldn’t agree, and Lansing became the capitol.

The story felt very, well, Lansing. I’d heard before that Lansing first became an American settlement because some speculators straight up lied to investors about a bustling town when, in actuality, the area that is now Lansing was mostly swamp.

Lansing, an accident of a city, was an accidental capital.

But it turns out that that whole legend of Lansing’s “coronation” is just a myth.

The Michigan Historical Review Spring 2022 edition has a thoroughly researched paper by historian Eric Dobberteen on how things really went down. The real story is a helpful guide to how things get done in Lansing today.

Regional Bickering

Back in 1847, the cities along the “Territorial Road”, which connected Detroit, Ann Arbor, Jackson, Marshall, Kalamazoo, and Benton Harbor, had the money, power, and people. Their legislators ran together, and they enriched each other. They gave each other the nice roads, the first university, and the railroads.

But they were at each other’s necks when it came to naming a new Capital. Detroit, the current capital, of course wanted the status quo. Nobody else did. Not only would that make Detroit way too powerful, it also would be a national defense concern, a state capitol stone’s throw from our border with the British Empire. The prospect of another war one day, and an easy raid for the British, was quite conceivable. So the coalition fractured into individual cities lobbying for the honor. Marshall even built a “Governor’s Mansion” in their bid.

This matters because legislating is a numbers game. You either have enough votes or you don’t.

While the southern county legislators bickered, the ones who represented areas north of what is now I-96, from Macomb County to Allegan, from St. Clair to Ottawa, saw an opportunity. If they made a bloc to support a capital north of the centers of power, they together had a good chunk of the votes needed to win outright.

A Clear Message

The “Northern Rangers,” as they themselves, also had the benefit of a clear binding message as opposed to stuff like:

“It’s in Detroit already, we’re doing fine right? Why change?” 

“Hey, we here in Marshall have waited our turn. Ann Arbor got a college. Jackson got a prison. Don’t screw us!”

If you weren’t from these cities, these arguments were weak sauce.

The Lansing pitch was clear and forward-looking. The state was going to grow over time - in West MI,Central MI and further north. We had just added a boatload of territory in the UP. Lansing, equidistant from just about every then-major population center, was a place where Michigan could come together. And where nobody had to spend *too* much time in a carriage.

One supporter drove the point home, pinning up a massive banner in the Legislature hall with Lansing at the center, and a bunch of emanating lines showing distances to the major cities. All roads one day will lead to Lansing. Branding.

Money and Politics

Now rational thinking, clear messages, or ESPECIALLY anything remotely forward-looking, alone do not guarantee victory in the Michigan Legislature. But here, they planted the seeds for more…practical…matters to close out the deal.

A Genesee County banker James Seymour had recently bought up all the land around what would become downtown Lansing. Except for where a Capitol would go. He pitched to the Legislature that he would build a Lansing capitol building for free. Of course he had his own interests. But all that mattered for some Legislators, in the middle of an economic panic, was that someone else would foot the bill.

Still, though, nobody along the Territorial Road was budging. It was time for some good old-fashioned politics.

One lawmaker convinced the Detroit delegation that if they passed Lansing out of the House, the Senate would surely kill the plan. I mean, come on, once you kill the other factions, who would pick Lansing over Detroit? Detroit’s lawmakers, blinded by their optimism, played along, passed Lansing out of the house, and Detroit…never gained steam in the Senate. Because still, nobody but Detroit wanted to pick Detroit!

Lansing needed just two more votes in the Senate.

Throughout the year, rumors flew that some lawmakers had been angling for sweetheart real estate deals in whichever city would be chosen. Lobbyists certainly offered such. Somehow, the names of two senators - both from Marshall - landed atop on the rumor list. After just enough pressure, the two men, to show their virtue and clear their name, cast their votes for Lansing. 

Lansing was Michigan’s capital.

Lansing’s coronation as Michigan’s capital was no accident. It was a carefully orchestrated victory. And for me, it shows how little some things change in Michigan politics. And to question stories that seem too good to be true.