Pioneer history of Ingham County, compiled and arranged by Mrs. Franc L. Adams, secretary of the Ingham County pioneer and historical society.

REPORTS OF PIONEER HISTORICAL MEETINGS

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inserted in the bill by the committee of the whole. When the
report came before the House efforts were made to strike out
Lansing and insert, first, Detroit, then Marshall, Jackson, Ann
Arbor, Battle Creek, Albion, Utica, Corunna, Eaton Rapids,
Dexter and Copper Harbor, one after the other. A vote was
finally reached and the amendment of the committee of the
whole inserting Lansing was concurred in by a vote of 35 to 27.
The bill was on the 12th of February ordered engrossed and read
a third time by a vote of 40 to 24.
On the next day it came up for final passage in the House, and
after many unsuccessful motions to recomilit, it was passed by a
vote of 48 to 17.
On the 14th it went to the Senate, where it experienced a career
similar to that in the H-ouse. A Senate bill for the same purpose
was pending at the same time, and location was the troublesome
thing all the way through. After trying to have some other
place named as the Capital, and much inserting and cutting out
done, the Senator from this district, Hon. E. B. Danforth, moved
to reinstate the "township of Lansing, in the county of InghaIn,"
and the same was done by a vote of 11 to 10. So it was carried in
the Senate by a majority of one only. How many fates have at
different times hung on a single vote!
This was on the 8th of March. An earnest contest followed to
strike out Lansing and insert other places, without success, however, and on the following day the bill passed by a vote of 12 to 8.
The act received the approval of the executive on the 16th of
March, 1847. Like many other laws of great importance, this
act is not lengthy.
It is as follows: "An act to locate the Capital, pursuant to
section nine of article twelve of the Constitution of the State.
Section 1-Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the State of Michigan that the seat of government
of this State shall be in the township of Lansing, county of Ingham. Approved March 16th, 1847."
By a subsequent act, also approved on March 16, provision was
made for selecting the site in Lansing for the erection of temporary
buildings, for the platting of a town, the name of which was to be
"Michigan," and for the removing of archives and offices to it by