Summary: <p>You may have wondered, especially if you didn’t grow up in this state, why some of us call ourselves Michiganians and some Michiganders. Yesterday I heard from one gentleman who has strong feelings on the topic. He hates the term Michigander.</p><p>He wrote to me, “Michigan Radio disserves the listeners every single time it utilizes the term Michigander. Regardless of the result of a recent popular opinion poll, the usage is just plain wrong.”</p><p>He added that “Michigander is a derogatory term imposed on us,” by a freshman congressman from Illinois way-back-when.</p><p>Well, it is always good to think about words and what they mean. But in this case, I have to profoundly disagree.</p><p>I am a Michigander, I have always been a Michigander, and intend to always be one. And that’s because this is a word that is not only unique, but which has a rich history.</p><p>Yes, it was indeed coined by a new congressman – but one named Abraham Lincoln. Nor was he disrespecting us as a state. He was poking gentle fun back in 1848 at a political opponent, Lewis Cass, who was pretty much the political godfather of Michigan.</p><p>Cass was the Democratic nominee for President that year; Lincoln was a Whig. They disagreed on the Mexican War; Cass supported it, Lincoln did not. Though we today think of Lincoln as a marble statue, in his own time, he was famous for a sharp and sometimes biting sense of humor, and in a debate over the war, Lincoln said of Cass, “and there he sits, the great Michigander.”</p><p>By the way, it wasn’t lost on anybody that Cass, who became quite corpulent in his later years, sort of looked and walked like a goose. But Lincoln, like most great humorists, could also be self-deprecating. In the same speech where he poked fun at Cass, the future president went on to make fun of his own military record. </p><p>While Cass had served as a general in the War of 1812, all Lincoln could claim was a few months stomping about as a volunteer in a now mostly forgotten struggle known as the Black Hawk War. He told Congress: “If (Cass) ever saw any live fighting Indians, it was more than I did, but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitos. It is certain I did not break my sword, for I had none to break, but I bent a musket pretty badly on one occasion.”</p><p>Michigander, then, is a term coined by one of history’s greatest leaders about Michigan’s greatest early statesman. People in this state at the time don’t appear to have resented it.</p><p>Michigan voted for Lincoln both times he ran for President. Cass lost his presidential election, but went on to distinction as senator and Secretary of State.</p><p>Later, when the Civil War broke out the two men found themselves on the same side. Cass was a strong supporter of the union, and encouraged men to enlist in the Civil War.</p><p>Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But Michigander has about as rich a history as any word. And I feel that if it’s good enough for Abraham Lincoln, it’s good enough for me.</p>
