Editing Alpheus Felch (section)

==Political career==
Felch moved to [[Monroe, Michigan]], in 1833 and continued the practice of law. In 1835 he was the aid-de-camp to General Joseph Brown during the mustering of troops for the Ohio–Michigan Boundary Dispute (the [[Toledo War]]). He was elected three times to the [[Michigan State House of Representatives]], serving from  1835 to 1837. He was appointed state bank commissioner in 1838 and resigned in 1839. As bank commissioner, he did much to expose frauds which had been made possible by a general [[wildcat banking]] law which he had opposed, and which was afterward declared unconstitutional by the [[Michigan Supreme Court]].<ref name=acab /> He was state auditor general for a few weeks in 1842 before being appointed associate justice of the Michigan Supreme Court in 1842, where he served until his resignation in 1845, after being elected governor. He served as [[Governor of Michigan]] from 1846 to 1847 and during those fourteen months, state statutes were amended and the state capital was relocated to [[Lansing, Michigan|Lansing]].

Felch resigned as governor on March 3, 1847, after being elected by the Michigan legislature as a [[U.S. Democratic Party|Democrat]] to the [[United States Senate]]. He served in the [[30th United States Congress|30th]], [[31st United States Congress|31st]] and [[32nd United States Congress|32nd]] Congresses, from March 4, 1847 to March 3, 1853. In the U.S. Senate, he was chairman of the committee on public lands for four years.<ref name=acab />

In March 1853, he was appointed by U.S. President [[Franklin Pierce]] to the [[Public Land Commission|land claims commission for California]] to settle Spanish and [[Mexico|Mexican]] land claims arising from the [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]] which ended the [[Mexican–American War]] and served as president of the commission until 1856. He returned to live in [[Ann Arbor, Michigan]], that year and made an unsuccessful attempt at a non-consecutive term as governor against the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] incumbent [[Kinsley S. Bingham]]. He resumed his law career and served as the Tappan Professor of Law at the [[University of Michigan]] from 1879 to 1883.