On January 9, 1901, Governor Hazen Pingree, in his final message to the Legislature, wrote that it was the body’s “special privilege and duty to bring the so-called ‘merchant princes and captains of industry’ in this country to a realization of the fact that our laboring men are something more than tools to be used in the senseless chase after wealth.”
Originally coaxed into running for governor in 1896 to assist President William McKINLEY’s chances in Michigan, Pingree attempted to serve as both governor and mayor of Detroit, but was ultimately told by the state Supreme Court in March 1897 he was not legally able to do so.
Source: Stewards of the State, The Governors of Michigan, Detroit, Mich. : Detroit News ; Ann Arbor, Mich. : Historical Society of Michigan, 1991. 2nd edition, 203pp.