By John Lindstrom
Publisher
Posted: January 25, 2013 4:11 PM

Saturday is Michigan’s statehood day, marking the Mitten’s 176th anniversary as the 26th state in the union.

A trivia question for you, something sure to win a bar bet as you toast the pleasant peninsulas (as surely you will) on January 26: what was the first law the Legislature of 1837 passed?

Well, now, according to the ancient books, the public laws of 1837, that very first law was to elect U.S. senators from Michigan.

However, there already had been two chaps elected to serve in the U.S. Senate. So how did that work?

Recall, that Michigan’s first Constitution was the Constitution of 1835 and there was expectation that Michigan would be admitted to the union that year.

Also recall, until the adoption of the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, U.S. senators were elected by a state’s Legislature.

So on November 10, 1835, the Legislature meeting in the Capitol in Detroit elected Lucius Lyon and John Norvell to the posts in advance to be ready for when Michigan took its place in the parade of states.

But Congress had other plans. Politicians, as anyone who has hung around Lansing for any length of time knows well, conform to no calendar, no law of physics, no good solid argument that cannot be put off.

The growing conflict over slavery made it nearly impossible for either a free state, such as Michigan, or a slave state to gain admission on its own unless one or the other was in the line for admission as well.

So first Arkansas had to be admitted, in June 1836, and then Michigan was admitted in January 1837. Better late than never, after all.

Once admission was done, the first law the Legislature adopted set forth all the details, and there were many details, on making the election of the senators all nice and neat and official.

Mr. Lyons remained in the Senate until 1840. Mr. Norvell until 1841.

Who were elected after them? That’s the stuff of another bar bet next January 26.