American statesmen

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY

LIBRARY

OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

Class

g>tanDaru ilibrarp dBDitton

AMERICAN STATESMEN

JOHN T. MORSE, JR.

IX THIRTY-TWO VOLUMES
VOL. XXIV.

DOMESTIC POLITICS: THE TARIFF
AND SLAVERY

LEWIS CASS

American Statesmen

LEWIS CASS

BY

ANDREW c. MCLAUGHLIN

PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Of THE " \

UNIVERSITY

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
(Cbe tfitoersi&c press,

Copyright, 1891 and 1899,
BY ANDREW C. McLAUGHLIN.

Copyright, 1899,
BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.

All rights reserved.

ffio

< U

Of THE

PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION

THIS volume does not pretend to give a com
plete and detailed account of the life of Lewis
Cass. Even some of the more important facts in
his public career are omitted, or only alluded to in
passing. He has been studied as a representative
of the old Northwest, and one of the chief purposes
of the book is to show the development of that
section, to trace the growth of its political life.
Evidently this could not be done in detail ; all the
manifestations of the Western spirit could not be
dwelt upon, nor was it possible to estimate exactly
the power and influence of Western sentiment in
the councils of the nation, or to weigh accurately
the Western ingredient in our national character.
But students of American history have come to
see that the course of events is not explicable if
one pays attention to the work and the princi
ples of Eastern men alone, and I am led to believe
that, by studying the career of a man who thor
oughly embodied for many years the nature of the
newer West as it was before the civil war, I may
have thrown some light upon the general history of

£05848

vi PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION

the United States. Whether I have succeeded in
this or not, one may say with confidence that a
series of American statesmen would not be com
plete if it did not contain the biography of a
typical Northwestern man, and show some appre
ciation of the fact that one of America's heaviest
tasks and greatest achievements was to transform a
wilderness into populous, organized communities,
and that, as years went by, this Western country,
full of eager, active, energetic men, who were made
by natural circumstances self-confident and assert
ive, impressed itself upon the national life, and
did something to shape the destinies of the United
States. Some of the acts of Cass, which I be
lieved, when preparing the first edition of this
book, were due in large measure to personal char
acteristics or peculiarities, I have come to look
upon as somewhat representative. His continuous,
unbending opposition to England, for example,
seems to have been a part of the exuberant patri
otic enthusiasm of the West; and coupled with
this was the feeling of " manifest destiny," which
undoubtedly influenced him when considering such
questions as the annexation of Texas and the " re-
occupation " of the whole of Oregon.

In the preparation of this revised edition, I have
not thought it best to make many changes. I have
added something to the text of the first edition,

PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION vii

and have made a few changes that seemed to me to
be desirable. I have altered slightly the account
of the surrender of Hull, thinking that the state
ment did not make sufficient allowance for the
difficulties with which he was surrounded, and that
it did not sufficiently take into consideration the
fact that to some extent he was the victim of an
incompetent military administration. But on the
whole the judgments of the earlier edition must
stand as they were first written.

Little material was found ready at hand for
writing this biography, and I have been somewhat
hampered by not having the correspondence or
any considerable quantity of the private papers of
Cass. Mr. W. L. G. Smith, while writing " The
Life and Times of Lewis Cass," seems to have
had access to a diary kept by Cass when on a tour
to Greece and the farther East. Of the original I
have found no trace, and have felt at liberty to
refer to Mr. Smith's excerpts. In other particu
lars the pages of the public documents and of
established authorities have furnished me with
materials. I have not attempted to strengthen my
assertions by reference to my sources of informa
tion ; but in a few instances I have indicated by
a footnote the material used, when I have con
sciously taken a suggestion from a secondary writer
or borrowed a phrase or statement of fact. Occa-

viii PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION

sionally a novel or important assertion has been
supported by a reference to authority.

To those who are unacquainted with the details
of the life of Cass, it may seem that I have given
him praise where none was due, and at times made
forced and unjustifiable excuses. This is the nat
ural failing of a biographer ; but I believe now, as
I did when preparing the first edition, that on the
whole my estimate is not far from right, although
I admit, of course, that I may be mistaken, know
ing how difficult is the task of forming such a
judgment. While preparing the book I conferred
with political foes of Cass as well as political
friends, and found a remarkable consensus of
opinion. I am not ready to believe that, if he was,
as is often charged, a time-server and a " dough
face," bartering the approval of his conscience
in exchange for political preferment, the men
whom I consulted, and whom I knew to be men
of probity and sound judgment, who were well
acquainted with Cass in his lifetime, and some of
whom were his earnest political opponents, would
have had unswerving confidence in his sincerity.
I may venture here to call the attention of the
reader to a fact mentioned in the text and given on
the testimony of the late Alpheus Felch, that the
Michigan delegation in Congress approved of the
Nicholson letter before it was published, which

PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION ix

certainly is an indication that it was not a mere
political subterfuge, but was the expression of
honest opinion.

In the preparation of this book I received valu
able suggestions from James V. Campbell, Isaac
P. Christiancy, George V. N. Lothrop, and Al-
pheus Felch. All these persons were well ac
quainted with the public career of Cass, and three
of them knew him intimately. I obtained some
material through the kindness of the late Charles
H. Bell of Exeter, New Hampshire. Grateful
acknowledgments are also due to Professor Isaac
N. Demmon, and to Professor Thomas M. Cooley,
the learned writer on Michigan history.

ANDREW c. MCLAUGHLIN.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN,
April 18, 1898.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. THE OLD NORTHWEST 1

II. EARLY LIFE 34

III. THE WAR OF 1812 53

IV. GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY . . 88
V. SECRETARY OF WAR 133

VI. MINISTER TO FRANCE 167

VII. A DEMOCRATIC LEADER ; THE ELECTION OF 1844 197
VIII. SENATOR ; CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY ;

SQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY 225

IX. SENATOR ; THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 . . 262
X. THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE ; THE

NORTHWEST FORMS A NEW PARTY . . . 293
XI. SECRETARY OF STATE; SECESSION; THE LAST

YEARS 328

INDEX 367

ILLUSTRATIONS

LEWIS CASS Frontispiece

From a photograph by Brady in the Library of the
State Department at Washing-ton.

Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Boston
Public Library.

The vignette of Mr. Cass's home, Detroit, Mich., is
from a drawing1, after a photograph furnished by C. M.
Burton, Esq., of that city. Page

WILLIAM HULL facing 84

From a painting- by Rembrandt Peale, after Stuart, in
the possession of Hull's grand-daughter, Mrs. Sterling-
Smith, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Boston
Public Library.
JAMES BUCHANAN facing 200

From a photograph by Brady in the Library of the
State Department at Washington.

Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Boston
Public Library.
HOWELL COBB facing o28

From a photograph by Brady in the Library of the
State Department at Washington.

Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Boston
Public Library.

LEWIS CASS

CHAPTER I

THE OLD NORTHWEST

THE five States north of the Ohio River form
an historical and a geographical unit. They have
their individual peculiarities, but possess common
traditions and doubtless a common destiny. Their
history does not begin with the Ordinance of 1787.
Long before this characteristic American constitu
tion was passed, or the Puritan of New England
sought a new home west of the Alleghanies, this
portion of our country had its records and its an
nals. In its later development under American
auspices it felt the fashioning influences of the past.
Tendencies strengthened by age cannot be counter
acted in a moment. Time and trial are necessary
elements in such a transformation as that which
rejuvenated the old Northwest, filled it with vigor,
with energetic American life and modern zeal for
industry and political activity. The United States
was the third power to occupy it. The earlier
tenures by France and England furnished obsta
cles in the way of later American progress.

"2 LEWIS CASS

The Northwest is the first foster child of the
Republic. The principles of Americanism now
seem inborn and inbred ; but foster child it is, and
its growth has been influenced by its parentage
and early training. Into parts of the country
north of the Ohio the people from the South and
East came suddenly and in swarms, which changed
the face of nature so quickly that the historian has
been content with exclamation. But Michigan
was not thus re-clothed and energized in a mo
ment. Wisconsin lagged and shuffled in her pro
gress. Even Illinois and Indiana were slightly
retarded by inherited incumbrances. It is true
that "north of the Ohio the regular army went
first,"1 and the settler followed in its wake. But
the regular army does not transform and renovate
or sweep away on its bayonets the customs of a
century's growth.

American statesmanship is not confined to
waging political warfare or to winning victories of
diplomacy. A good portion of the life of Lewis
Cass was spent in striving to Americanize Mich
igan and other portions of the Northwest, to intro
duce popular government, modern methods of legal
procedure, modern habits of life, modern civiliza
tion. In the development of Michigan from terri
torial confusion and uncertainty to the order of
statehood, there were constant exertions to over
come inertia and to break away from the sluggish
forces of the past.- While guiding and directing

1 Roosevelt, Winning of the West, vol. i. p. 24.

THE OLD NORTHWEST 3

these exertions, while inculcating democratic ideas,
while holding forth attractions to settlers, while
struggling for the independence of the Northwest
against British aggressions, Cass was performing
the work of a national statesman and his efforts
were of national concern.

Popular government was but slowly introduced
into a territory which had been long contentedly
under the sway of absolutism. Sault de Ste.
Marie was established fourteen years before Phila
delphia; Detroit but nineteen years after her
Quaker sister. And yet, a hundred and twenty-
five years after Penn begged his colonists not to
be "so governmentish," the inhabitants of Mich
igan were living without capacity to appreciate or
desire to know the delights of political controver
sies, which were so dear to the Americans of the
coast. For more than a century after the explo
ration of the Northwest its history pertained to
that of Canada, and that portion of the country,
which was first settled and first came under Cana
dian influence, was the last to free itself from
trammels of Celtic bondage and provincial igno
rance.

The French with gracious ease seemed to insinu
ate themselves into the western country, following
the watercourses as great 'high ways to the unex
plored interior. Long before the institutional
Englishman plodded his way westward to the Alle-
ghanies, the Frenchman had traversed the country
of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi valley,

4 LEWIS CASS

and was familiar with the haunts of the beaver.
The proselyting spirit of religion and the spirit
of trade vied with each other in efforts to lead the
way. Early in the seventeenth century, Recollet
fathers landed at Quebec, prepared to begin a
work of conversion among the Indians. Five
years before the founding of Plymouth Champlain
knew something of the great West. Gradually,
by way of the Ottawa River and Georgian Bay,
the Western country was discovered, French sol
dier or priest boldly entering unexplored rivers
or skirting the coasts of unknown lakes with calm
courage or with a simple faith which drove out
fear. Wisconsin was known before Rhode Island
was settled; and the hardy Jesuits began their
work in northern Michigan before Puritanism had
more than emerged from behind its stockades in
a corner of rocky New England.

But the Iroquois could not be charmed by
chanted vespers nor softened by Christian influ
ence. The priest endured tortures and prayed
without ceasing and without avail. Had he been
successful, the Indians of western New York and
northern Ohio would have been won over to pur
poses of French statecraft. They would have
become an implacable enemy to Dutch aggression,
an impassable barrier to the advance of English
traders. As it was, England's enemies were pushed
northwest into the upper lake region, and the Ohio
valley was kept by the savage, until the English
farmer, in response to demands of trade and agri-

THE OLD NORTHWEST 5

culture, carried with him over the mountains the
Penates of a constitutional state. Ohio had no
history until the American colonist was ready to
enter the country, ready to establish there real
nerve centres of English influence, real vital and
life-giving homes of English politics and English
civilization.

There is nothing more interesting in the course
of history. The heathen and savage guarded till
the fullness of time a land destined to become the
home of American constitutionalism, not to be
blighted by imposed governments ordained by
Richelieu and the state-absorbing monarchs of
France. Long after Illinois and Wisconsin were
known and their rivers described with some pre
tense at accuracy, Ohio was a terra incognita, the
shores of Lake Erie unknown, the Ohio and the
Wabash confused. Not till after the middle of
the last century was there anything like an accu
rate knowledge of that portion of the Northwest
which was nearest to English settlements and
naturally the most accessible to the French. Even
the Connecticut Land Company in 1796 found,
by its surveys, that the Connecticut Reserve had
a million acres less than geographical ignorance
had anticipated.1 This explains to some extent
why the occupancy of Ohio, signalized by the
landing of the "new pilgrims," at Marietta, differs
from the occupation of many other portions of the
Northwest.

1 Hinsdale, The Old Northwest.

6 LEWIS CASS

Neither the daring voyages of Hennepin, whose
lies reveal a glimmer of truth and cloud an envi
able reputation, nor the explorations of Joliet and
Marquette need be recounted here. The journey
of La Salle, who in 1682 floated his canoe down
the Mississippi and took possession of the country
in the name of King Louis, proclaimed the birth
of New France with its two heads, as Parkman
has so graphically expressed it, one in the cane-
brakes of Louisiana and the other amid the snows
of Canada. But the task of connecting these two
heads, of vitalizing the whole monster, of filling
its veins with life-giving blood, was difficult and
in the end impossible. Efforts were strenuously
made to hold firmly the portions first known to
French influence. Jesuits and traders settled in
"Wisconsin and Michigan. In 1671 Saint-Lusson,
in solemn fashion, in presence of Indian braves
and Frenchmen at the Sault, took possession of
the surrounding country with overawing pomp and
splendor. The great historian of French America
may well suggest that all that remains of this
pompous sovereignty is the "accents of France on
the lips of some straggling boatman or vagabond
half-breed." Yet this occupancy meant the intro
duction of French ideas, of French methods and
policy of state, of French civilization guarded or
retarded by the dictates of an absolute monarch.
It meant that a century and a half was to pass
before Michigan could cast aside her foreign trap
pings and take her place as a prosperous Ameri-

THE OLD NORTHWEST 7

can territory with progressive American ideas.
Ohio, which hardly knew the face of a white man
until the New Englander came over the mountains
with school-book and hymnal in his hands, was
ready for statehood in fifteen years from that im
migration. Michigan had to serve a dreary and
necessary tutelage of nearly one hundred and sev
enty-five years from its first settlement before it
struggled irregularly to its place beside the neigh
boring States. Wisconsin, discovered by the
pushing fur trader two hundred and fifty years
ago, has seen only within the last half century
the beginnings of agricultural and manufacturing
life.

The fur trade induced the French to take pos
session of Michigan and to hold it against all
English aggression. Late in the seventeenth cen
tury there were efforts on the part of the English
of New York to attract the Indians with English

O

goods and rum, but all efforts to turn the fur trade
from Montreal to New York were unavailing. If
these attempts had been successful, the history of
the northern lake region would have been totally
different. Michigan would have been an English
colony before Georgia, and in all probability would
not for a century have lagged behind that State
in progress. Nothing but concentrated and patri
otic action could win the Northwest to England.
For Louis XIV. took thought for the fur trade,
and every element of Canadian progress or failure
was of interest to him. He "subsidized nearly

8 LEWIS CASS

every branch of trade and industry, and in other
instances did for the colonists what they would far
better have learned to do for themselves." 1 What
ever revenue he obtained from Canada was derived
from the fur trade, and this trade must be sup
ported by the power and cunning of France. He
was ready to salve his conscience with the state
ment that brandy not only secured the trade of
Indians but drew them from English Protestantism
within the blessed influences of the true religion.2

S

Yet the Northwest was really held for France
by those whom Governor Denonville himself de
scribed as the damaging element in Canadian life.
The fur trade was "hardy, adventurous, fascina
ting." Every effort was made to keep it under
the control of the government, that the king might
find remuneration for vast outlays and that the
colonists might not feel its fascinations too strongly.
Trade was put in a straight- jacket and chained to
Montreal; monopoly succeeded monopoly in suc
cessive failures. But trade is aggressive if it ex
ists at all, and it broke from its fastenings and
flung away restraints. The Indians were inter
cepted on their way to Montreal, were "drenched
with brandy," and their beaver skins bought for
a song. Finally the adventurous and reckless
among the settlers fled to the western woods, where
they might live or trade as they desired. These
law-breakers did now for France the work which

1 Parkman's Old R'gime in Canada, p. 284.

2 Ibid. p. 327.

THE OLD NORTHWEST 1)

she was not quite ready to do for herself. These
wandering bush-rangers held the Northwest against
the English, and became the first white settlers
of the Northern States. The English of New
York were feeling their way in the direction of
the fur country, and even before the end of the
seventeenth century the Northwest might have
fallen into the grasping clutches of English trade,
to be settled by Englishmen and ruled with Eng
lish methods, if the hardy, lawless coureur des
boix had not pushed his way into the coveted coun
try.

The bush-rangers hated England and adored
the France wiiose laws they disregarded. They
established trading posts throughout the wilder
ness some years before they made the attempt at
permanent settlement. With an accurate know
ledge of the topography of the country they took
positions which in later years have been singled
out for purposes of trade as well as defensive war
fare. Du Lhut established a post on the northern
shore of Lake Superior to prevent the possible
approach of the Hudson Bay Company from the
north. Governor Denonville was obliged to ask
this man, who at one time was in danger of attract
ing all the youths of New France to the woods, to
fortify the straits as a barrier to English advance
in the South. In spite of restrictive laws and the
displeasure of Louis himself, who, with a natural
love of order and method, was sorely annoyed at
the irregularities of the straggling coureurs des

10 LEWIS CASS

bois, who seemed to be destroying his fondest
hopes of systematic and concentrated settlement
along the St. Lawrence; in spite also of hardships
and privations, the reckless bush-rangers increased
in numbers, until it was said that every family of
quality in Canada could count its friends and re
latives among the rollicking outlaws, while the
despairing English, longing for the beaver of Mich
igan, announced that they too must have "bush
lopers."

A "picturesque " element were these men in the
life of early Canada, picturesque on their return
to brawl and gamble in the settlements after a
long, successful journey of fur hunting, and "ar
tistic,"1 as with courage and reckless thoughtless
ness they made their way into the western wilder
ness. But they were more than picturesque and
artistic. They early influenced the savages to
hate the English, and to look upon the French as
their allies, and this was of vast importance in the
after efforts for domination. Moreover, with a
marvelous adaptability, many assumed Indian hab
its and ingratiated themselves by becoming In
dians. After years of law-breaking or wood-ran
ging, unused to the amenities of civilization or the
restraints of law, they settled through the western
country with Indian wives or concubines, raised a
brood of half-breed children, and passed their days
in worse than savage idleness.

When the time came to change French for Eng-
1 Parkman's Old Rtgime in Canada.

THE OLD NORTHWEST 11

lish control, the Indians reluctantly consented, and
down to the middle of the present century, although
the British were generally preferred to the Ameri
cans, the French were greatly preferred to either.
"Whatever may have been the reason," said Gov
ernor Cass, "the fact is certain that there is in
the French character peculiar adaptations to the
habits and feelings of the Indians, and to this day
the period of French domination is the era of all
that is happy in Indian reminiscences."1 At the
Sault de Ste. Marie, in 1826, a Chippewa chief,
addressing the American agent, thus pathetically
referred to the happy days of the French dominion
in the West: "When the Frenchmen arrived at
these falls they came and kissed us. They called
us children and we found them fathers. We lived
like brethren in the same lodge, and we had always
wherewithal to clothe us. They never mocked at
our ceremonies, and they never molested the places
of our dead. Seven generations of men have
passed away, but we have not forgotten it. Just,
very just, were they towards us." 2

"The French empire in America," says Park-
man, "could exhibit among its subjects every
shade of color from white to red, every gradation
of culture from the highest civilization of Paris
to the rudest barbarism of the wigwam."3 The
savoir vivre of these people displayed itself. With

1 Historical Sketches of Michigan, p. 24.

2 Mrs. Jameson, Winter Studies, etc. p. 130.
8 Conspiracy of Pintiac, p. 69.

12 LEWIS CASS

their influence over the Indians and their traditions
of inertia, their hatred of innovation and their
utter lack of ability to understand constitutional
principles or legal procedure, they formed a con
ditioning element in the development of the West.
An experienced observer writing in 1845 assures
us that the average French-Canadian voyageur
had less perception and general intellectual capa
city than his Indian companion.1 These men, and
their fathers before them, living in ignorance, fell
to a plane below the ignorant savage with whom
they mingled. At the present day the half-breeds
form a large shiftless element among the woods
men of the northern lake region. Many of these
bush-rangers, leading Indian lives, were scattered
among the western tribes, but besides these a large
number of watermen, retired from active employ
ment, formed rude settlements along the streams
and bays which open into the great lakes. Here
in unambitious content the}r spent their lives and
perpetuated their lazy characteristics in a numer
ous progeny. Often Indian wives tilled the fields
while the gossiping voyageur smoked away the
day. In some of the more regular settlements
there were French women, and though there was
a remarkable ignorance of agricultural methods,
the men succeeded in raising enough to keep their
families in comfort.

The first settlements in Wisconsin were all of
this irregular kind. Retired watermen, in their

1 H. R. Schoolcraft, Onfota.

THE OLD NORTHWEST i:-{

narrow farms fronting the river, lived in blissful
ignorance of any aim in life except to live. The
coureur des bois settled thus as fancy dictated.
Such an irresponsible settlement was the one at
Prairie du Chien. And a like settlement grad
ually grew up at Green Bay, begun near the mid
dle of the last century, and slowly augmented by
the advent of unemployed engageex. Their small
farms were tilled with care sufficient to secure the
necessary crops of wheat and peas. At the begin
ning of this century it was impossible to tell what
blood flowed in the veins of the settlers. There
was only one woman, we are told, in the latter
settlement who pretended to be "all white," and
she had been "accidentally" imported. Neverthe
less the manners of these simple people were fas
cinating, for in spite of the admixture of the blood
of the red man, who has his own dignity and stately
ease, they never lost the graces of old France.
Here at Green Bay there were good examples of
what these semi-French conceived to be govern
ment. Many are the amusing stories of how Jus
tice Reaume, in patriarchal fashion, enforced his
own sweet will as the law of the land. Well on
in the present century, when Wisconsin was fairly
under American government and there was an ef
fort to introduce popular methods, this curious old
justice knew much more of Coutume de Paris
than of the common law. His jackknife in the
hands of an extemporized constable performed the
functions of a common seal, and he gave his unique'

14 LEWIS CASS

decisions in his broad French or broken English

O

without reference to anything but the law of preju
dice.

Turning to Michigan, we find there various
settlements of this kind, founded under similar
conditions; but these did not become centres of
growth and development under the French regime.
Michigan was the home of the beaver, and the
French authorities soon realized the importance of
securing this portion of the West by responsible
settlements. La Motte Cadillac seems first to
have entertained the idea of making "the straits"
a centre of French control in the West, to defend
the fur trade, prevent English encroachments, and
assure permanent influence over the neighboring
Indian tribes. Already renowned as a faithful
officer and soldier, he at last gained the end of his
desires, and in 1701 reached Detroit with his com
pany of soldiers and artisans. These early settlers
were not lowborn or lawless. Everything was
conducted in an orderly and systematic manner,
under the auspices of government. The slur
passed upon the citizens of Detroit by Governor
Hull and Judge Woodward in October, 1805,
was a needless one. "When it is remembered,"
they said, "that the troops of Louis XIV. came
without women, the description of persons consti
tuting the second generation will not be difficult
to conceive."1 La Hontan's graphic description
of how women were sent over in cargoes to become

1 Michigan Pioneer CoL, vol. viii. p. 404.

V ' /

X C/J |c.^->M\fX ^

THE OLD NORTHWEST 15

the wives of the Canadian settlers is well known.
Mother Mary, not entirely pleased with such con
signments of mixed goods ("?me marchandaise
melee "\ complained of "beaucoitp de scatidale.''
Doubtless Canada has been feebly blessed by these
persons and their descendants. But such were
not the early settlers of Detroit. The whole his
tory of that city shows that the residents were of
no mean birth, surely not in a demoralized condi
tion, or from a low and depraved ancestry. Into
various portions of Canada many respectable and
even noble persons immigrated, and the permanent
settlements of Michigan were not less favored.

For various reasons Detroit developed but slowly
after this auspicious foundation. At times the
French authorities were unfriendly to colonization.
They were encouraged in their hostility by the mis
sionaries on the one hand, who feared the vices of
civilization, and who desired that the Indians should
come in contact with none but themselves, and by
the fur trader on the other, who was naturally
averse to the advance of the homes of men into
the midst of the lodges of the beaver. Moreover
there was no instinctive appreciation of the fitness
of things. Land was granted under the most ab
surd feudal restrictions, so to be held until Ameri
can practical sense disposed of the absurdities.
The place was, however, a centre of French influ
ence in the West, and gradually assumed perma
nence and a degree of prosperity. It was not an
ill-formed, straggling village, where rough water-

16 LEWIS CASS

men and half-breeds passed their lazy lives. We
have reason to believe that from the first there
was comfort, and occasionally even an approach to
elegance, in the houses that clustered in and around
the stockade. For some of the early townsmen
were artisans, who desired by work and by a very
moderate thrift to establish themselves and their
families in comfort. It will not do, however, to
banish entirely from the colony the picturesque
bush-ranger. The town, which had been placed
in the very midst of his hunting grounds, was
often visited when savings were to be squandered
in merriment and riot; the descendants of these
happy trappers and watermen were the boatmen
of the earlier part of this century ; their frail ca
noes carried Cass to many a treaty ground, from
Detroit to the head of Lake Superior, to Green
Bay or Chicago.

Seventy-five years ago Detroit was still a French
settlement, and fifteen years ago its French char
acteristics were evident to the stranger in a casual
visit to the city. The few Scotch who came in
during the latter years of the English dominion
affiliated with the French and appreciated their
conservatism. In consequence of this ancestry,
there has always been a steadiness and sobriety in
business and a caution and reserve in society. It
has not felt until recently the stir of American
life as has Buffalo, or Cleveland placed in the
heart of "New Connecticut." It can scarcely be
doubted that conservative French Catholicism has

THE OLD NORTHWEST 17

had its influence in giving a peculiar tone and set
ting a dignified pace. It is true that after Detroit
had been ostensibly an American city for forty
years, the introduction of New England life gave
the town a look of prosperity and activity which
was lacking to the Canadian towns across the river.
But the comparison rather accentuates than con
tradicts the previous assertions. Not long ago,
easily within the memory of men now living in De
troit, the well-to-do French peasant held his acres
and refused twice their value, or demanded per
haps that the city put a rail-fence on each side
of the street which eminent domain had forced
through his land. In 1818 the people of Michigan
refused to take upon themselves the popular privi
leges offered by the charter of 1787. A number
of other examples might be given of how conserva
tism has influenced Michigan and its chief city in
their development into modern American life.

For a long time Detroit was practically Michi
gan. For French and American tendencies are
different. If the Americans had first settled
Michigan, the farmer would have pressed into the
country in the footsteps of the fur trader, farms
would have appeared in secluded places in the
forests, and a town would have grown up from
natural causes and developed as the needs of the
farming community of the back-country dictated.
But as the gregarious and social tendencies of the
French have made Paris the centre of their life,
so in the western woods all roads led to the rude

18 LEWIS CASS

metropolis, and it had an unusual dignity and
importance. We are enabled, therefore, to con
centrate our attention; and in examining with
some care the life of Detroit and its vicinity we
shall see the lives of the better element of the
French settlers in the northwest. Their habits
are the best guide-posts to their characters, and
best indicate the peculiar position of these people
in northwestern history.

Down to 1763 the city grew slowly by the im
migration of discharged soldiers or settlers from
Canada. In the time of the English domination
there came a few English traders and a few canny
Scotch with their habits of thrift and deftness.
But the French habitant does not allow his ease to
be interfered with. Everywhere the world pre
sents the same roseate hue to his contented vision.
After 1796 some Americans, making their way
into the territory, jostle him about a little, insist
on trial by jury, talk to him of popular elections
and other incomprehensible problems, suggest the
idea that Detroit may become a great commercial
centre. He is called upon by an impudent inves
tigating committee to show the title deeds to the
farm which his father and father's father held be
fore him. A look of uncertainty and mild inquiry
occasionally appears on his placid face. The nar
row streets are filled with Indians rushing to ex
change their peltries for American goods, and to
pay enormous prices for inferior articles. After
the war of 1812 a few Marietta settlers find their

THE OLD NORTHWEST 19

way to the Straits, and a few educated families
from New England form a conspicuous* element in
the city's life. But the Frenchman passes this all
by with a shrug at the curious activity of the en
ergetic " Bostonais." His social life flows smoothly
on in the same old channels. Until the people
from New England and New York begin to pour
into the territory through the newly-opened Erie
canal, one can trace few changes in the general
characteristics of the place. Detroit in the first
quarter of this century has still the tint of a by
gone age. One feels, as he looks at her, that he
has slipped back into the Middle Ages, long before
there was any prophetic consciousness of the dust,
din, and uproar of the busy and scientific nine
teenth century. He sees a picture of unpreten
tious comfort and happy listlessness. Without
even the knowledge that Protestantism was a reli
gion, the habitant clung to his beloved Catholic
worship. His daily life was graced with interrup
tions of picturesque festivals, cheered with merry
makings and adorned with highly-colored ceremo
nies. Like the neighbors of Goldsmith's good
vicar, he "observed festivals and intervals of idle
ness and pleasure; kept up the Christmas carol,
sent true-love knots on Valentine morning, ate
pancakes on Shrovetide, and religiously cracked
mi ts on Michaelmas eve." "With the simple joy
which comes with the consciousness of irresponsi
bility, he took part in games and jollities, which
are far below the responsible dignity of later,
American money-making.

20 LEWIS CASS

The habitants, whose farms stretched back from
the river, with scarcely a gap between them from
Lake Erie to Lake St. Clair, had in general the
characteristics of the better class of Canadian
farmers,1 They were honest, hospitable, religious,
inoffensive and uninformed, possessed of simplicity
and civility. Without ambition and attached to
ancient prejudices, they sought no more than the
necessaries of life. Many, as a result of happy
inaction, were poor without realizing their poverty ;
some were well-to-do without boasting of their
wealth. Strangers were received with unembar
rassed politeness, without traces of rusticity in
manners or speech. Mrs. Jameson, the delightful
critic of Shakespeare, who visited this western
country in 1837, writes, in wondering admiration
of the polished address of the simple farmer : " If
you would see the two extremes of manner brought
into near comparison, you should turn from a
Yankee store-keeper to a French Canadian." His
language, too, betokened his pure descent; for the
patois of the French settler of the Northwest is
largely a myth created by the reasoning imagina
tion of thoughtless travelers or indiscriminating
writers. The bushranger, whose settlements have
been described, doubtless often cumbered his speech
with Indian words and confused it with half-re
membered constructions. But such was not the
case with the habitants near Detroit or the average
farmer of Canada. It was "curious " but not un-

1 George Heriot, Travels in Canada, London, 1807.

THE OLD NORTHWEST 21

usual to find in the western wilderness "a perfect
specimen of an old-fashioned Norman peasant —
all bows, courtesy, and good humor;" and his
speech was not less purely Celtic than were his
unalloyed courtesy and grace.

The Frenchman is dependent on companionship.
The pioneer life of the American farmer ripens
individuality and intensifies salient characteristics,
until the word "character" itself is synonymous
with person ; but nothing is more evident than the
utter lack of individuality or aggressive personal
ity among the Western Frenchmen. When one
of a class is seen all his fellows are known to us.
The Frenchman could not think of going alone
into the woods to cut out of the very forest a home
for himself and family, a feat of wonderful self-
sufficiency so common to the independent Ameri
can farmer. One farm must be within hailing
distance of another, or the French farmer is miser
able in his loneliness. Down the Detroit River
the farms extended back from the stream, each
having its own water frontage. Such "pipe stem "
tracts may still be seen in the vicinity of Detroit,
like those of the quaint settlements along the St.
Lawrence and its tributaries. The social farmers
could shout to one another from their doorsteps,1
and would carry on their gossipy conversations
when they ought to have been tilling their fields.
The stream-haunting Canadian has been happily
compared to the beaver or the muskrat. At times

1 Bela Hubbard, Memorials of a Half Century, p. 116.

22 LEWIS CASS

he seemed to live in the waters and marshes around
him, building his cabin where it was accessible
only to a canoe. The miasma which he breathed
seemed to furnish him with food rather than en
gender disease. A century and more after the
founding of Detroit the farms still clung lovingly
to the river banks, and a mile back from the
streams was still seen the untouched forest. The
troops, who came from Ohio to Detroit in 1812,
found only one muddy road winding along between
stream and wood, a situation which offered the
lurking savages every opportunity for ambush and
attack. What roads there were, the water- loving
habitant despised; but over his rough highways
he jogged merrily to market with a two-wheeled
Norman cart and rough dwarfish pony, a curious
mongrel animal of unknown pedigree, but with
an endurance and possible speed which delighted
the simple peasant or his rollicking sons.

Covetousness was the most infrequent vice ; for,
although they did not know the best arts of hus
bandry, these simple farmers nevertheless provided
from their own resources everything necessary to
supply their wants. The arts of the tailor and
mason were often added to the clumsy skill of the
agriculturist ; while tanning and shoemaking were
not uncommon acquirements. Their implements
were crude, rough, and heavy; their methods of
tillage ludicrous to the modern farmer. The cum
bersome plough, to which was attached a pony, or
mayhap a cow or steer, was used somewhat effect-

THE OLD NORTHWEST -jtf

ively, but the corn was tilled with the Indian hoe
in the simple fashion learned from the red man.
In fruit-raising they excelled; beautiful orchards
were often crowded into the narrow farms ; cher
ries and peaches furnished by distillation an ex
hilarating drink, and cider continually provided
a mild stimulant. But the French farmer did not
succeed in becoming the ruling spirit and progres
sive citizen of the West, because, as a French
traveler gravely suggests, he talked too much and
consulted his wife too often, and spent his time in
argument rather than in work.

The ordinary habitant, however listless and un
ambitious, did not lack many comforts. Gay and
happy with a little, he often indulged even in the
pomps and vanities of life. Some of the families
had plate and silks and luxuries of various kinds,
which, though not paraded, revealed noble descent,
and argued the existence of at least the traditions
of wealth.1 The houses were simple, of hewn logs,
occasionally covered with clapboards, and lighted
in the low upper story with quaint dormer win
dows, which gave, to those in the town especially,
a Dutch appearance, and suggested to the New
York immigrant, as he entered the territory, the
Knickerbocker region of his own State. Here
the people lived in simple and picturesque fashion.
Their amusements were many, and their gayeties
intense. When Detroit under its American rulers
began to take on business airs, many were the

1 Campbell, Outlines of Political History of Michigan, p. 212. '

24 LEWIS CASS

grumblings at the ordinances which prevented
horse-racing through the narrow streets, or inter
fered with the jolly game of ten-pins, for which
the street was used as an alley, and a cannon ball
as a missile. When winter set in, the people gave
themselves up to pleasure-seeking. Their shaggy
ponies, which had been allowed all summer long
to roam the woods or scamper uncontrolled along
the river banks, now became their special pride.
The swiftest of the herd was dearly cherished;
and the highest ambition of the farmer was to
drive the fastest pony. The frozen river was the
theatre of delights, or the "Grand Marais " 1 a
few miles above the city, swollen with autumn
rains, offered its icy attractions. Sunday, as in
most Catholic countries, was a day for enjoyment
as well as solemn worship, and Saturday was gen
erally an occasion of unrestrained merry-making.
Indeed, one need not single out days. Sleigh-
riding, dancing, feasting, and uncontrolled levity
filled up the passing winter weeks. A summer's
providence was easily lost in a winter's mild dissi
pation.

Such was the life of a simple and illiterate peo
ple, and such it long continued to be. Years after
the introduction of American farming methods,
business enterprise and governmental policy, we
find the same unprogressive spirit, unaffected by
the serious humor with which the American under-

1 Sheldon, Early History of Michigan, p. 371 ; Memorials of a
Half Century, p. 141.

THE OLD NORTHWEST L>5

takes both his work and his pleasure. One natu
rally lingers over this picture of early social sim
plicity and unrestrained gayety; for, leaving out
of consideration the influences on history and de
velopment, all that now remains is a "pipe-stem"
farm or a huge old pear-tree, to remind us of this
mediaeval mosaic snugly fitted into modern civili
zation.

One must not think, however, that all the set
tlers were of this fortunate, light-hearted, comfor
table class, who labored lazily in summer and
spent the winter in energetic frivolity. These
formed the majority at Detroit and in the eastern
portion of Michigan. But two classes can be
differentiated. There were some of the lower class
who gave up a life of wandering but never became
used to the graces and loose restraints of such
civilization. A few retired watermen and bush
rangers settled there, in despair over their vanish
ing profession. The "dark-complexioned imps
with high cheek-bones and indescribably mischie
vous eyes," whom Harriet Martineau described as
Flibbertigibbets rowing or diving or playing pranks
on the shores of Michigan, were the half-breed
progeny of these men, who joined themselves in
informal wedlock with the beauties of the forest.
There were some of these bronzed watermen, un
attractive though picturesque, even in Acadian
Detroit; and they formed the most ignorant and
the rudest element of early Michigan.

Frenchtown, where Monroe now stands, had 'a

26 LEWIS CASS

goodly number of farms nestling up to each other,
with their heads on the banks of the River Raisin;
and these were mostly inhabited by French Cana
dians quite inferior to those near Detroit. They
exhibited more than the usual density of ignorance
and stupidity in tillage. As late as 1816 General
Cass, in a letter to the secretary of war, stated
that not a pound of wool was manufactured by a
person of Canadian descent in the Territory, al
though four fifths of the inhabitants were of that
descent ; the fleece of the sheep was thrown away
or used to cover up a cellar window'. The making
of soap for family purposes was an American inno
vation. Especially the Raisin settlers, it is appar
ent, were slothful to the point of poverty. In the
destruction and desolation left by the war of 1812,
they seemed caught in the meshes of ignorance
and despair; and the bounties of government were
needed to extricate them. In 1807 the farmers of
Canada had begun to adopt from the English the
idea of fertilizing their exhausted farms ; l but
long after that the French of Michigan dumped
all fertilizers into the rivers.2

Once more a comparison between Michigan and
Ohio will show how different were the American
and the earlier French settlers. One of the first
acts of the Ohio Company was to provide for the
services of a suitable person as a public teacher
for the settlement on the Ohio. The directors

1 Travels in Canada, George Heriot.

2 Cass's Letters, State Archives. Lansing1, Michigan.

THE OLD NORTHWEST 27

were "requested to pay as early attention as possi
ble to the education of youth and the promotion
of public worship among the settlers," and to
employ an instructor "eminent for literary accom
plishments." In Michigan, a hundred years -after
its settlement, general education was unthought
of. A few of the more wealthy and worldly of
the Detroit townsmen sent their sons to the East.
An occasional school was of no influence, no cen
tre of enlightenment. In 1817 the "Gazette," a
struggling newspaper of Detroit, thus encouraged
the French to effort: "Frenchmen of the Territory
of Michigan, you ought to begin immediately to
give an education to your children. In a little
time there will be in this Territory as many Yan
kees as French, and if you do not have your chil
dren educated the situations will all be given to
the Yankees," —a touching utilitarian appeal to
come in the very year when curious old Judge
Woodward was coining from his inventive brain
"Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania."
For just at that time the Yankee minority were
beginning to think of the text-book and the ferule.
Many a year after this editorial the French seemed
fully convinced that it is folly to be wise. Few
children learned to read, but the patient priest
taught them their catechism and showed them how
to tell their beads with devotional regularity.1
The people were ignorant of the English language,
and often did not know of the legislation enacted

1 Hubbarrl, Memorials of u Half Century, p. 140.

28 LEWIS CASS

by their new rulers. In 1810 a petition was
presented requesting the publication of laws in
French as well as English.

The slow method of conducting legal business,
coming in with the Americans, was a source of
never ending surprise to the ordinary inhabitant,
who had rarely come into contact with any but the
sharp edge of the law. The proceedings of the
new courts puzzled him. Unaccustomed to trial
by jury, he could see no advantage in that intri
cate and tedious method of deciding a suit which
would have been disposed of in a moment by the
French or the English authorities before the ar
rival of the technical American. For a long time
all legal business, where a Frenchman was con
cerned, was carried on through the medium of an
interpreter — a clumsy method at the best. The
attorney was a new species, which seemed, ghoul-
like, to fatten on other's misfortunes, and to take
a gruesome pleasure in seeking out forgotten titles
and undivided interests. The Americans have not
unjustly been called a litigious people. Often the
enthusiastic Western lawyer encouraged litigation,
and there was every temptation at Detroit to peer
into neglected corners; for scarcely a landholder
in the Territory knew how he held his land. The
French, on the other hand, were exasperating to
the busy Yankee ; for they never did to-day what
could be delayed till the morrow.1

1 Report of Committee of House of Representatives relative to
State of Territory of Michigan, 1807.

THE OLD XORTHVVEST l>9

The first public building in an American settle
ment is the court-house, the second the jail, and
the third the schoolhouse, where religious services
are sometimes held.1 The first thing the French
do is to erect a church under the direction of a
fatherly priest, and the village clusters around it,
or stretches out from it along the river bank.
The noticeable feature to-day in the antique vil
lages of Canada is the little chapel surmounted by
a cross. By its side are the priest's tidy dwelling
and flower garden, all in a neat and holiday attire
in comparison with the houses which crouch in
humble penitence near by.

Kaskaskia and Vincennes and other settlements
were places of importance in Northwestern history,
and there, too, the French influence is discernible.
But though more than once French conservatism
acted as a brake on the wheels of progress, Illi
nois and Indiana did not feel the burden of the
old occupancy as did Michigan. The old towns
of these two States had passed a century of listless
existence, not varied by the introduction of new
ideas, or bothered by needless civilization, when
the pushing American settler came to turn them
upside down with his provoking hurry and energy.

Lewis Cass was a statesman of the Northwest.
He was for a number of years engaged in the ad
ministration of Northwestern affairs ; and when he
passed to a broader field, he remained for years

1 Schoolcraft, Journey in Central Portion of Mississippi Valley,
p. 37.

30 LEWIS CASS

the most conspicuous representative of the people
of the Northwest. In the earlier period he was
a leader, and guided rather than obeyed the reins
of the popular will. When in later years he
ceased to guide, he long represented his constitu
ents. Their progress can be seen in a study of
his life. His life can be seen in studying the
progress of his section of the country. No ade
quate portrait of the man can be obtained, unless
there is a background, which will throw his char
acteristics into relief. In the pages which follow
there will be no effort to measure exactly French
resistance to American civilization and govern
ment, or to determine accurately the weight of
Cass's influence in making Michigan American.
Such tasks are from the nature of things impossi
ble. But there will be an attempt to recount his
work, and to exhibit him in proper perspective.
It is evident that there were difficulties to be over
come. The Northwest was a natural pendant to
the St. Lawrence Valley ; but won by the English,
and later won from them by the Americans, it
became pendant to the country east of the Appala
chians. Its political allegiance was thus deter
mined. But its social existence, its real political
life, its individuality could not be recreated by
force and arms. Perhaps one is not altogether
wrong in thinking that as the civil law and French
custom remained in Louisiana after its acquisition
by the United States, Michigan, too, might in no
small measure have retained the permanent im-

THE OLD NORTHWEST 31

press of French ideas, had it not been for the en
ergy of one of the most American of American
statesmen. However that may be, the character
istics of the French settlers have their importance
in Northwestern history, and even if we admit that
this element in Michigan was submerged by the
inflowing tide from the Eastern States as early as
1830 or 1835, a narrative of Northwestern develop
ment must take its beginnings in an account of the
French occupation, and must consider the nature
of French life and habits of thought and action.
The habitants were not a source of danger; they
were not treacherous conspirators; the descendants
of the more intelligent and well-to-do became sub
stantial citizens of Detroit and of other cities.
And yet one must see that the assimilation of this
element was not an unimportant task. Doubtless
Judge Schley spoke in exaggerated phrase when
he wrote of Detroit, in 1802: "Nothing frightens
the Canadians like taxes. They would prefer to
be treated like dogs, and kenneled under the whip
of a tyrant, than contribute to the support of a
free government." But this exaggeration, if such
it be, leads one to realize the underlying truth,
and to see how different was the situation in no
small portion of the Northwest from that obtaining
in other parts of the United States in early times.

One other phase of Northwestern history needs
to be examined if we are to understand the devel
opment of the country, or appreciate the work of
its statesmen. The possessors of the St. Lawrence

32 LEWIS CASS

valley had a traditional control over the Indians.
Wolfe's victory on the Plains of Abraham has
been called the most important date in modern
history, and the beginning of the history of the
United States. It had its influence on the North
west. English rum took the place of French
brandy. English presents supplanted French tact.
For the rest of the century the Indians looked to
the English for encouragement and protection.
During the Revolution, Detroit was the centre of
their dealings. Hamilton, "the hair buyer," paid
the bounty on American scalps, and doled out
rum in enormous quantities. "I observe with
great concern," wrote Governor Haldiman, "the
astonishing consumption of rum at Detroit, amount
ing to the rate of 17,500 gallons per year."1 By
the peace of 1783 the Northwest was ceded to the
United States, but the military posts were not
given up by the British. The Indians were en
couraged 2 to prevent the Americans from entering
the country north of the Ohio, and only a corner
of that region was occupied before Wayne's vic
tory over the Indians in 1794. As the French

1 Haldiman Papers, Michigan Pioneer Collection.

2 A full examination of the original material of the period en-
ahles one to say with assurance that the English government at
no time openly instigated the Indians to hostilities against the
United States. But the English officials in this country sympa
thized with the Indians in their desire to retain all the country
north of the Ohio ; and some of them at critical juncture gave
material aid to the red men in the way of food and blankets, if
not ammunition.

THE OLD NORTHWEST 33

fur trader had hindered the encroachments of the
British, so now the fur trader of English Montreal
sought to prevent the Americans from entering
the fur region of the Northwest. Detroit was not
given up till July 11, 1796. It is said that, on
leaving the fort, the English filled the wells with
rubbish, and destroyed the windmills of the vicin
ity. This is only an ill-humored tradition; but
beyond all doubt they left behind them the rub
bish of a cruel and unnecessary occupancy, much
less easily removed and much more inimical to the
advancement of American interests than was any
material debris. The Indians long remained de
pendents of the British and attached to British
interests. A great portion of the life of Cass was
devoted to winning the Indians to their proper
allegiance, and obtaining a proper respect for
American authority. All the energies of this
Northwestern leader were not absorbed by two
tasks, counteracting British influences and intro
ducing American democracy. But these first pre
sented themselves as he entered the field of na
tional statesmanship ; these form the starting point,
and explain many a circumstance throughout the
whole course of his life.

CHAPTER Tl

EARLY LIFE

ONE who examines the genealogical records of
New England will observe that the name Cass
appears not infrequently. One branch of the
family is traceable to John Cass, of Hampton,
born in 1644. From him descended Jonathan
who, in the days before the Revolutionary War,
was living in Exeter, N. H. He seems to have
been a young man of exceptional vigor and pro
mise. The place of his residence is pointed out
with interest, and the local historian finds reason
to describe him in a manner likely to enlist sym
pathy and attention. At the outbreak of the
Revolution Jonathan was an energetic young black
smith,1 too full of life and eager restlessness to be

1 William T. Young1 in his Life of Lewis Cass, published at
Detroit in 1852, and written doubtless in some measure from in
formation obtained from Cass himself, calls Jonathan a " me
chanic." W. L. G. Smith, in his Life and Times of Lewis Cass,
says that the father was a part of the time engaged in cutting1
logs and making lumber. The late Charles H. Bell of Exeter,
who has written the history of that place, assured me after ex
amining the town records that he was a blacksmith. Probably
he was not engaged permanently in any one employment ; but I
am led to believe that he was not shiftless and did not live in
poverty.

EARLY LIFE 35

wedded to the fiery joys of the forge, and too full
of patriotism to await the second call to arms when
the battle of Lexington proclaimed that war was
actually begun. His comrades afterwards remem
bered him as an erect handsome man with keen
black eyes, and so he appears in the artistic por
trait still preserved by his descendants.

He must have been in his twen ty- third * year
when he entered the army, which he is said to
have done almost immediately after Lexington.
He was present at the battle of Bunker Hill, and
seems to have been actively engaged at Princeton,
Trenton, Monmouth, and all the other important
battles of the war in the central and northern part
of the country. His merits won him an ensigncy
as early as 1777, and by the close of the war ho
had secured a captain's commission. At that time
he returned to Exeter, to remain till other duties
called him once more to a life of greater excitement
and activity when the presence of British emissa
ries in the West demanded a second enlistment.

In 1781 he married Mary Oilman, who belonged
to a branch of the Oilman family which traces its
ancestry back to Norfolk, England, where, in
1558, were living the forefathers of those who in
1635 landed in Boston, and began life in the New
World. In a house which stood on the east side
of Cross Street, now Cass Street, Exeter, Lewis
Cass was born October 9, 1782. The house was

1 Niles, vol. xxxix. p. 157 ; Evarts, Mnskingum County, Ohio,
p. 352. Contra, Smith's Life and Times of Lewis Cass, p. 15.

36 LEWIS CASS

not, as Mr. Smith describes it, a "small unpre
tending wooden dwelling-house," nor is there any
reason for crediting the tradition that young Lewis
was cradled in "a sap-trough." The building was
large for those days, or at least far from small and
humble. It was one of the customary pine boxes
of New England, with a central chimney and a
front hall, on each side of which opened large,
square, comfortable rooms. Jonathan no doubt
was able to furnish a good cradling for his first
born. Lewis was the eldest of six children, the
youngest of whom was only eight years his junior.
His boyhood fell in the uneasy anxious times of
the Confederation. The air was full of political
clamor, and electric with dreaded disaster. State
selfishness and political greed were the accompani
ments of personal selfishness. Avarice and dis
honesty were the natural effects of a demoralizing
war. All, who thought, hoped desperately or fore
told the worst. In after years Lewis Cass looked
back upon those boyhood years with a memory
retentive of their deep impressions. If in later
years he had a never-failing love for the Union
and the Constitution, he might trace it in part to
the relief that came when the Constitution was
adopted, and the Union was no longer a shadow.
"You remember, young man," he said to James
A. Garfield in 1861, "that the Constitution did
not take effect until nine States had ratified it.
My native State was the ninth. It hung a long
time in doubtful scale whether nine would agree;

EARLY LIFi: 37

but when, at last, New Hampshire ratified the
Constitution, it was a day of great rejoicing. My
mother held me, a little boy of six years, in her
arms at a window, and pointed me to the bonfires
that were blazing in the streets of Exeter, and
told me that the people were celebrating the adop
tion of the Constitution. So I saw the Constitu
tion born, and I fear I may see it die."

His native State had known, before that joyful
ratification, much of turbulence and disorder.
The paper-money mob of 1786 was one of those
explosions which were only too common through
out the distraught Confederation. Paper money
had played many a prank in colonial times, but
the favors of an unlimited issue were still eagerly
sought by those whom the war had impoverished,
and by those who, restless when the war was over,
demanded new opportunities, and were dissatisfied
because a war for liberty had not brought them
wealth, honor, and the golden age which had been
preached as the ever-present heaven of democracy.
The contest which ensued between the supporters
of law and the mob is graphically described by
local historians.1 Jonathan Cass, whose zeal for
authority and love of order are apparent through
out life, was so carried away by enthusiasm, tradi
tion tells us, that in his eagerness to charge upon
the grumbling mob he leaped his horse over a
well. A trivial incident this, no doubt, but it
shows what sort of blood was in the family veins.

1 History of New Hampshire, by MeClintock, p. 371. '

38 LEWIS CASS

It usually falls to the lot of a biographer to
narrate at least a few instances of prophetic pre
cocity. But none are to be told of Lewis Cass.
It is clear that in early years he was fond of study,
and evinced a capacity which encouraged his father
to give him a good education. In 1792, when the
boy was scarcely ten years old, he entered the
academy in Exeter, and came into the stimulating
presence of Benjamin Abbott. The stern discipline
and accurate scholarship of the principal had a
moulding influence on the minds of his pupils, and
the years spent at the academy were important
ones in the life of Cass. Nothing especial, how
ever, is known of this period of his career. Pre
sumptions of fine scholarship have been made,
perhaps not without warrant. Webster thirty years
afterwards remembered him as "a clever fellow,
good-natured, kind-hearted, amiable, and obli
ging." Perhaps he was one of those considerate
school-fellows who refrained from laughing at the
rustic manners and uncouth appearance of the
youthful Daniel, and thus won his grateful remem
brance.

Meantime his father, who had been unsuccess
fully presented to Washington as a suitable mar
shal for the State, had accepted a commission in
the army raised for the defense of the western
frontier, and was with "Mad Anthony" in his
cunning and vigorous campaign. Major Cass was
left in command of Fort Hamilton, and retained
command until the treaty of Greenville. Here he

EARLY LIFE 39

continued to live for some time while Lewis was
carrying on his studies in the academy.

There have been many conflicting statements,
needlessly inaccurate, concerning the education
which Cass received. There is still in existence
in Exeter a certificate, supposed to be a copy in
the handwriting of Cass himself, which very plainly
sets forth the advantages which he secured. It is
there stated that he had been a member of the
academy for seven years, and had acquired the
principles of the English, French, Latin, and
Greek languages, geography, arithmetic, and prac
tical geometry ; that he had made "valuable pro
gress in the study of rhetoric, history, natural
and moral philosophy, logic, astronomy, and nat
ural law." The usual testimony of good moral
character follows this enumeration of his acquire
ments.

The course of Cass's life immediately subsequent
to his residence at the academy is not easily dis
cernible. His father had returned from the West
some time after the treaty of Greenville, and in 1799
was stationed, probably in some military capacity,
at Wilmington, Del. A few months, passed in
teaching in an academy at that place, seem to have
satisfied young Cass that the uneventful life of the
schoolmaster was not to his liking. The major had
brought home from his Western sojourn such glow
ing accounts of opportunities, that pedagogics
were laid aside for the hardships and excitement
of pioneering. Nothing could be much more in-

40 LEWIS CASS

congruous than Lewis Cass in the class-room in
those restless days of his young manhood when he
was energetic to the very point of wastefulness,
and burned with an ardor for trial, activity, corn-
bat. The family slowly made their way into the
Ohio valley.1 Lewis, with his bundle on his back,
plodded over the mountains into the "Old North
west," which was yet young enough, and bore the
wrinkles of age only where the Frenchman had
introduced antiquity and sloth. Major Cass re
signed his commission at Pittsburgh, and pushed
on into Ohio.

The wilderness which he had left after the treaty
of Greenville was a wilderness no longer. Now
at the beginning of the new century towns were
starting up as apparitions, here and there, with
ghost-like quickness. The long stretches of lonely
forests, which he had known, were now alive with
busy farms and bright with wheat and maize. All
down the Ohio valley were the buzz and bustle of
industry. The New Englanders were there with
their thrift and their parsimony and their shrewd
business methods which astonished and annoyed
the easy-going Southerner. For the slave owner,
too, was there, a slave owner no longer. Many
such had moved to the unshackled northwest, now
that the fear of the Indians was removed, and with
a magnanimity useless on the plantations of the
South had given freedom to their slaves. Virginia,

1 The family seems to have spent a short time at Harper's
Ferry and Winchester. See Smith, Life and Times of Cass, p. 19.

EARLY LIFE 41

Kentucky, and North Carolina lost many energetic
citizens, who sought the untarnished freedom of
that new land, where the curse of slavery could
not be bequeathed to their children. Still other
immigrants from the South, however, never gave
up the hope of introducing the system which the
Ordinance of '87 forbade. At Marietta and in
its vicinity were the driving sons of Puritanism,
who had begun a settlement with much of the same
serious purpose and the same sad energy which
had marked their ancestors of the rock-bound
coast. School and church were there; and much
of the puritanic ideal alloyed with modern zeal for
material prosperity. But farther to the west, in
the direction of Cincinnati, were Southerners full
of characteristic hospitality and magnanimity and
Jeffersonism, and a few full of ignorance and sloth
and the lazy disposition of more sunny and smiling
skies. This was no place, one would say, for him
who was not ready to make his way with hoe and
axe. Yet in southern Ohio there still remains a
certain modicum of this unprogressive, indolent
element, continually presenting the query, whence
came the motive and the energy to move to the
northern woods at all.

Major Cass seems to have brought his family
to Marietta in October, 1800, and to have gone
north to the vicinity of Zanesville the next year.
Lewis Cass probably settled in Marietta in the
latter part of 1799, 1 and began there his study of

1 It is almost impossible to determine this date with accu-

42 LEWIS CASS

the law in the office of Mr. R. J. Meigs, who was
afterwards governor of the State of Ohio. The
major located forty land warrants, for one hundred
acres each, in the vicinity of Zanesville, and Lewis
spent at least a portion of his time in the wilder
ness, helping his father to hew his way to comfort.
Solomon Sibley on his way to Detroit found his
friend of after years pounding corn in a hollow
stump before his father's door, and the traveler
was invited to partake of the evening meal, the
preparations for which were thus primitively be
gun. The young man, eager for a career, and
fond of study, learned from experience the priva
tions of frontier life. He felt the impulses, gen
erous and strong, which come to the woodsman.
The settlers in the West of after years needed to
tell him nothing. He knew their needs, he real
ized their capacities, he sympathized with their
longings. All this appreciation of Northwestern
characteristics moulded his career and increased
his usefulness.

There were various and different elements in
the population of Ohio, as already suggested; but
everything in frontier life calls for activity and

racy. I have thought best, in spite of strong1 evidence for the date
1800, to adopt the one given in Young's Life of Cass, inasmuch
as Mr. Young is supposed to have had the advice of Cass himself
in the preparation of the book, and the copy from which I take
the statement was the general's own copy. If such an evident
mistake had been made, I am inclined to think that it would
have been indicated on the margin by the subject of the memoir.
There are many other reasons for deciding upon this date.

EARLY LIFE 43

stimulates to energy. Only those of restless dis
position or fearless independent thought were apt
to leave their homes in the East to begin life again
in the West. There were no prescribed customs,
no rut for thought's progress, no smothering upper
crust of wealth and aristocracy. Everybody knew
what everybody else was worth, and measured with
rude exactness the height of the true man with
out reference to the length of the purse or to the
pedestal of inherited position. Intimate acquain
tance with Nature suggested to the settler breadth,
generosity, and the spirit of sturdy independence.
Land was almost his only possession, and from
the time of Tacitus land-owning and Anglo-Saxon
freedom have been curiously interwoven. Is there
no indication of race decay in these latter days
when Americans give over to Germans and Swedes
the title to their western prairies ?

In those days, when the common man, by virtue
of his own inherent vigor, was pushing his way
to independence, there came a faith in the energy,
the sagacity, the proper impulses of this same
common man. Though Cass in his study for the
bar spent much of his early manhood in Marietta,
a town of New England prejudices, he was carried
away with enthusiasm for popular sovereignty and
faith in the people, the loudly proclaimed doctrines
of Jefferson, who with wondrous cunning was
shaping for practical political service in America
the edge-tools of Rousseau, which, roughly han
dled, had cut so many grievous wounds in the body

44 LEWIS CASS

of distressed France. Jefferson was to American
ize and make practical the French extravagances.
Yet all the antecedents of Lewis Cass were Feder
alist. Can it be fairly charged, as it was in after
years in the heat of party contests, that he became
a disciple of the new school only for office and
lucre? It would seem not. Meigs was a Jeffer-
sonian. Others of the pushing politicians were
Virginians. The Federalists, in the dread of the
nightmare Jeffersonism, opposed the entrance of
Ohio into the Union, and even Manasseh Cutler
himself was in opposition to a policy which the
ambition of youth desired. Surely, if prejudice
does not blind, one can see other forces than ava
rice driving the young barrister into the camp of
the Democracy. Ohio, in her haste to become a
State, and in her hatred of those who hindered
her, in her dread of the meddling policy repre-
sented by St. Clair, adopted a constitution which
ought to have warmed the heart of the loudest ad
vocate of a \veak government, and came into the
Union as a Jeffersonian State.

The first certificate of admission to the bar
under the new constitution of 1802 was given tc»

O

Lewis Cass, probably in the autumn of 1802. Eb-
enezer Zane had cut a post-road from Wheeling
to Lewiston, perhaps the first piece of "internal
improvement " undertaken by the government.
"Zane's trace," a winding bridle-path with "cor
duroy" bridges, earned for its creator three sec
tions of land on the Mu skin gum, and there in

EARLY LIFE 15

1799 Zanesville was founded. Soon after his ad
mission to the bar Cass began practice in this
little town, which was then struggling up in the
wilderness. The "streets," filled with underbrush
and lined with blackened stumps, offered but slight
aesthetic attractions; but in 1804 Muskingum
County was created, and Zanesville assumed the
dignity of a county seat. Cass this year was
elected prosecuting attorney and began his public
career. The reputation of the young lawyer seems
to have been already somewhat widely diffused.
This was partly due to his influential friends in
Marietta and to his acquaintance in other portions
of the State.

In those days a young barrister's duties were
not confined to hanging out a sign and listening
for a client's footsteps. The county seats were
widely separated by long stretches of wilderness.
Journeys of a hundred or a hundred and fifty miles
were not uncommon. Judge and lawyers mounted
their horses and started on the circuit. Occasion
ally an old Indian trail offered unusual facilities
for travel. Sometimes eight or ten days were
spent on a journey, the travelers finding shelter
where they best could, at times thankful for dry
ground to lie upon, and again warmly welcomed
to a lonely log cabin, where some trustful farmer
from over the mountains was endeavoring to sub
sist with his crap of Indian corn planted at ran
dom in a half -cleared field. Danger often added
dramatic interest to weariness. Streams swollen

46 LEWIS CASS

with rains1 must not be regarded as barriers, and
the horse which could not swim was of little use
to the barrister. Cass in after years merrily re
called "the dripping spectacle of despair" which
he exhibited when in crossing Scioto Creek his
faithless horse threw him and his luggage into the
water. "These, however, were the troubles of
the day; but, oh, they were recompensed by the
comforts of the evening, when the hospitable cabin
and the warm fire greeted the traveler ! — when a
glorious supper was spread before him, — turkey,
venison, bear's meat, fresh butter, hot corn bread,
sweet potatoes, apple sauce, and pumpkin butter !
— and then the animated conversation, succeeded
by a floor and a blanket and a refreshing sleep ! " 2

Courts were held where necessity or convenience
dictated, often in a log court-house with generous
interstices neither chinked nor daubed; at times
in a public house where judge, jury, lawyers, and
witnesses were huddled together in perplexing
confusion; not infrequently in a settler's cabin
where a court-room was quickly improvised, and
the judge made use of the bed for his august
bench. In these curious journeys there was mer
riment as well as danger and fatigue; and in
these strange court-rooms there was much of legal
learning and forensic skill. There was also rare
opportunity for sharpening wit and increasing self-
reliance. Justice was meted out with a quickness

1 Letters from Illinois, p. 61, London. 1818.

2 France, its King, Court, and Government, by Lewis Cass, p. 121.

EARLY LIFE 47

and directness often unknown in these artificial
days of the dilatory plea. Perhaps it was a result
of communion with Nature, but however this may
be, certain it is that he who was not ready, direct
and keen, fitted into no place in the judicial sys
tem of Ohio in those days of itinerant courts and
direct justice.

The constitution of Ohio provided that no person
should be a representative who had not attained
the age of twenty-five years. In October, 1806,
Cass completed his twenty-fourth year, and in
spite of ineligibility was that month elected to the
legislature and took his seat on the first Monday
of December. lie became at once an influential
member. A new country bestows no premium on
the experience of age ; young men are for counsel
as well as for war.

This year Burr began his sinuous operations in
the West. The affair was long a puzzling episode
in our history. Burr, fallen from his high estate,
was prompted by a restless ambition to win new
glories in the West. Did he mean to establish a
colony on the Washita River? Was he planning
an expedition against the Spanish Dons? Did he
fancy himself sitting on the throne of the Monte -
zumas? Did he actually so misinterpret South
western spirit that he hoped he might detach the
Western States from the Union ? Only recent in
vestigations 1 have given decided answers to these
questions. The first was his ostensible design,

1 History of the United States, Henry Adams.

48 LEWIS CASS

the last his fondest hope. He possibly dreamed
of being able to make his colony, or perchance
New Orleans, the basis of other conquests, relying
on his star of destiny to guide him to Mexican
wealth and grandeur. But he seems to have sought
much fouler fame as the leader of a Western revo
lution. The plaudits of the Southwestern cities
in an earlier visit had kindled his .desires and
fanned into a blaze his cynical ambitions. He
lacked all moral basis for his intellectual judg
ments. He was unable to appreciate moral enthu
siasm as distinct from personal greed. He could
not sympathize with the generous patriotism and
devotion and the warm love of country in the
hearts of an open-hearted people, whose grum
blings he would torture into treason. Parton tells
us in an adroit paradox that the public mind was
prepared to believe anything of Burr, provided
only that it was sufficiently incredible. But Burr
himself also, in the dark recesses of his bright
mind, was curiously credulous of the impossible.

Blennerhassett, a fanciful Irish gentleman, had
expended a good portion of a modest fortune in
the purchase and adornment of a small island
in the Ohio River some twenty miles southwest of
Marietta. Peace, tranquillity, innocence, idyllic
repose, were said by the eloquent Wirt to be the
tutelary deities of this new Eden. Into this gar
den of primitive bliss or modern folly Burr came
with his insinuating manner and winning address.
Mrs. Blennerhassett was charmed, and her imagi-

EARLY LIFE 49

native husband soon quivered with eagerness for
colonization and conquest. It is true he was so
near-sighted that on his gunning expeditions a
servant aimed his gun for him and told him when
to pull the trigger; but he was now ready to hunt
for Spanish Dons and to begin with Burr a mili
tary expedition, the end of which he must have
partly understood.

Blennerhassett's island was taken as a rendez
vous for the conspirators. But General Wilkin
son, on whom Burr had relied for assistance,
concluded that he did not wish to become a " Wash
ington of the West;" and President Jefferson,
not loath to suspect, and yet surprisingly blind,
dispatched a "confidential agent" to the scene of
the incipient expedition. By him Governor Tiffin
was informed that there was something of strange
purport going on within the limits of the State.
A message stating the suspicions of the governor
was sent by him to the legislature, and that body
was advised to take necessary measures of precau
tion. Cass was a member of the committee ap
pointed in pursuance of the governor's recommen
dation. He had often visited the island, and had
listened to the eulogies which the giddy Blenner-
hassett lavished upon Burr, and now that his sus
picions were aroused he soon found reason for
hardening them into conviction. Young as he
was, he seems to have been the influential and
active member of the committee. He drafted a
bill which the committee reported, and he vigor-

50 LEWIS CASS

ously supported it before the House. The gover
nor was authorized to use the forces of the State
for suppressing the undertaking, and he acted with
corresponding promptness and decision. Boats,
gathered at Marietta, were seized by the militia,
and some companies of young woodsmen and farm
ers, who were gayly bent on adventure and had
been charmed with the novelty and possibly the
glory of the enterprise, were intercepted on their
way to the place of rendezvous. This was the
"first blow" to the conspiracy, as Jefferson con
fessed. A presidential proclamation was issued
shortly before the Ohio law. Burr, meeting on
his way down the Mississippi with the news of
disaster, resolved to trust the wilderness rather than
the courts of law. He was captured, brought to
trial at Richmond, but acquitted for lack of evi
dence of participation in an overt act of treason.

In the mean time, at the instigation of Cass, the
Ohio legislature adopted a resolution expressing
to President Jefferson its attachment to the gov
ernment, its confidence in his administration, and
its abhorrence of rebellion and insurrection. This
won from the President a politic reply, in which
with charming adroitness he magnified popular
sovereignty and pushed his pet principle of the
necessary vigor of state authorities under the Con
stitution. He was still somewhat fearful of slum
bering conspiracies, and is said to have suggested
to Governor Tiffin the advisability of removing all
postmasters west of the mountains who might be

EARLY LIFE 51

fairly suspected of "being unfriendly to the unity
of the nation." Practical civil administration
would always teach that postmasters are ex officio
dangerous conspirators.

President Jefferson did not forget the young
advocate who had so effectively supported his gov
ernment, and in 1807 Cass was tendered a commis
sion as United States marshal. He hesitated to
receive it, fearing that it would interfere with the
practice of his profession. But he recognized that
the appointment, coming as it did, was a distinc
tion and an announcement of the President's con
fidence and gratitude. So he accepted and re
tained the office until after the outbreak of the
war of 1812.

In 1806 Cass was married to Miss Elizabeth
Spencer, a descendant of General Spencer of Rev
olutionary reputation. The history of his domestic
life is the simple one of uneventful happiness.
So even and uniform was his private life, so
blessed with a paucity of annals, that nothing
more than this direct assertion is needed to em
brace the whole truth. About the time of his
marriage he built on his father's farm what was
then considered a handsome "double" house. It
was of logs, as all the mansions were in those
days, and part of it is still standing. Here his
elder children were born, and this was his home
for nearly ten years.

The legal profession in Ohio in early days was
not a remunerative one, and yet in the first few

52 LEWIS CASS

years of practice, Cass had achieved reputation
and accumulated a little property. He was known
as one of the foremost men at the bar. His natu
ral capacity for grasping legal distinctions and for
mastering details was aided by continuous industry
and by a vigor and dignity of speech which were
always impressive, often eloquent, and seldom
failed to influence. One of his very last acts as
a practicing lawyer was the defense of two judges
of the State of Ohio, who, in the plenitude of their
judicial authority, had ventured to declare an act
of the legislature unconstitutional, and were im
peached for their presumption. This is an amus
ing instance of how completely Ohio, framed on
the shores and ways of Federalism, once fairly
launched, had swung into the current of ultra-
democracy. The trial of the judges was sensa
tional. The State was filled with excitement.
The speech of Cass on this occasion was masterly
and convincing, — an epoch in the judicial and
constitutional history of Ohio, possibly an epoch
in the judicial history of our country. The ac
quittal of the judges was a victory for the young
lawyer ; but it meant also a victory for the dignity
of a collateral branch of the state government. It
had its influence in counteracting a dangerous
tendency in the political thought of the period.

CHAPTER III

THE WAR OF 1812

IN many ways the history of our country in the
first forty years of its existence as an independent
nation does not furnish a story to be read with
unmingled delight. The fierce opposition to the
adoption of the Constitution perpetuated itself in
party opposition and obstruction after 1789. And
scarcely had the infant state been given vigorous
development by the tender care of the party which
had stood sponsor at its birth, when it was turned
over to those who had been its opponents and
might still prove untrustworthy managers of its
affairs. Political feeling ran high in 1801, when
the Federalists in their horror of Jefferson plotted
seriously to bestow the chief magistracy on Burr.
With a sense of strange familiarity one comes into
that atmosphere of sectional strife. It is discour
aging to see how long there has been "solidity"
north and south of Mason and Dixon's line. The
British cruiser boarded New England vessels and
impressed New England seamen. Napoleon
pounced upon our defenseless commerce, and skill
fully avoided all consideration of redress. Nor
was it because a Boston merchant thought more

54 LEWIS CASS

of his cargo than he did of his countrymen, doomed
to fight as Englishmen whether they would or not,
that he bore English cruelty with patience, and
fumed only at the arrogance of France. It was
largely because the southern party, the party of
Jefferson, which the New Englander detested,
could see no wrong in French aggressions that the
New England Federalist saw very clearly the re
verse. Nor is the exasperating timidity of Jeffer
son to be overlooked. In pursuance of the " terra
pin policy " of his administration the country had
drawn itself within its shell, in the hope of being
coaxed out by sweet concessions. But the em
bargo, which was said at one time to be a measure
for the protection of commerce, and at another to
be retaliatory, proved destructive of no interests
save our own. Instead of building frigates and
sloops of war that might protect New England
shipping, Congress spent money in constructing
the ridiculous gunboats which in the end proved
of little or no value. Yet the Eastern States were
developing a commerce of no mean proportions,
flourishing in stealthy trade in spite of the damage
inflicted by the combatants of Europe. But their
commerce never entirely recovered from the disas
trous effects of non-intercourse and the embargo.
By a singular irony of fate, Madison, on whose
shoulders had fallen the peaceful robe of Jefferson,
was driven into a war of conquest and aggression,
a war for which a timorous policy had ill prepared
the country. It is not to be wondered at that the

THE WAR OF 1812 55

war of 1812 was a sectional and party contest, and
that, by merely bringing it to a close, the adminis
tration won unprecedented popularity.

Our attention in this volume is confined to the
progress of events in the West, where from the
first hostilities were fathered with a warm affec
tion. Madison and his fellows of the agricultural
party had been set in motion by an infusion of
young blood from the South, and especially the
Southwest, which played strange pranks in the
veins of the old Democracy. Vigorous and active
was this young Democracy. It made itself felt
in Congress in the persons of Clay and Grundy.
It was strong in Ohio and in the Territories, which
had not yet put on the toga virilis of statehood.
For the occupation of new territory is an employ
ment analogous to conquest. Only in the more
settled portion of Ohio had the rifle as yet been
relegated to an ornamental position in the chimney
corner; the farmer in the other portions of the
Northwest still considered it an implement of hus
bandry. Moreover, the remembrance of British
intrigues, hostile to the safety of the settler, was
still fresh in his mind, and his hatred of England
had not entirely passed away. He readily attrib
uted the present uneasiness of the Indians to her
artful and cunning interference.

The plantation owner of the South might possi
bly clamor for a war which would in all likelihood
damage chiefly the commerce of his political oppo
nent. But the pioneer of the West had not the

5G LEWIS CASS

spirit of sectional prejudice, nor was he hypocriti
cal in his zeal for war ; he knew full well that, if
hostilities began, the Indian war-whoop would be
his reveille. There was a strong national pride in
this portion of our country, which had been held
as a national domain while the other States were
wrangling as selfish members of an impotent con
federation. The pride of the Northwestern settler
was not narrowed by petty traditions of a neigh
borhood. He at the very least divided his affec
tions between his old Eastern home and his new
Western one. He might believe theoretically in
the sovereignty of his new State, but he felt that
he had brought over the mountains a portion of
the holy fire which was still burning on the altar
of the mother Republic. State sovereignty or
spiteful sectionalism could not grow in rank luxu
riance in the Northwest, as the one did under the
fierce heat of slavery, and the other in the equally
torrid zone of trade and tariff.

The suspicions of the Western settler were not
unfounded; for British interference in the affairs
of this countr}r was not confined to impressment
of seamen and the seizure of our merchantmen,
nor was all hope of the disintegration of the Union
relinquished when the frontier posts were at last
delivered in 1796. For many years after that,
there was an astute surveillance of Western affairs,
and an attentive sympathy on the part of the
English government for the Indian hunter, who
was losing his hunting ground at the advance of

THE WAR OF 1812 57

the American farmer. As the war cloud in Eu
rope became darker, and the relations with Amer
ica became more strained, there was renewed in
terest on the part of England in the welfare of
the poor red man. Efforts to attach the Indian
to the British interests were evident. There was
a feeling of uneasiness in Detroit as early as 1806.
In 1807 direct solicitations for the Indian alliance
were begun by the English.1 In 1810 and 1811
presents were handed out at Maiden to the visiting
Indians with excessive generosity. The value of
goods dealt out in the latter year exceeded that of
common years by twenty thousand pounds sterling.
"All their peltries," said Governor Harrison,
"collected on the W abash in one year, if sold in
the London markets, would not pay the freight of
the goods which have been given to the Indians."2
The efforts of Tecumseh and the prophet to form
a complete confederation of the tribes of the West
may be attributed to lofty Indian patriotism 011
the part of this red Alexander the Great and the
medicine man, his brother. But there is little
reason to doubt that much of their energy was
due to British instigation,3 and that the battle of

1 American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. i. p. 746.

2 Farmer's History of Detroit and Michigan, p. 273 ; American
State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. ii. pp. 798--802.

3 A Chapter of the War of 1812, by William Stanley Hatch, p.
102 ; North American Review, vol. xxiv. p. 381 ; Outlines of Po
litical History of Michigan, Campbell, p. 257 ; Eg-gleston's Tecum
seh, pp. 91, 92, 126, 127, etc. ; Drake's Life of Black Hawk, pp.
i>2, 60.

58 LEWIS CASS

Tippecanoe, in 1811, where Governor Harrison
met and defeated those who had been enticed into
the goodly fellowship of the prophet, was the real
beginning of the war of 1812 in the West.1

Claims have been made that it was because of
American greed and cruelty that the English were
successful where the Americans desired to be ; but
such assertions are without basis in the facts.
During the Eevolution the English government
put a bounty on an American scalp as it might on
the hide of a wolf; and as the war of 1812 came
on, the United States government endeavored to
persuade the Indians not to yield to the solicita
tion of British agents, but did not endeavor until
late in the war to procure assistance 2 even from
those tribes which could not be brought into the
British alliance.

The remembrance of these facts has faded from
the memory of those who goad themselves to a
pitch of patriotism by recalling the arrogance of
Britain on the sea. But these are facts, and there
is no desire to heighten animosity by a recoloring
of what may very well fade into indistinctness.
The judgment of history, however, needs to be

1 The situation in the West seems to have been much the same
as it was twenty years before. The Indians were furnished with
ammunition and supplies and were held as firm allies, but there
was no attempt to incite them to hostilities before the war with
America was begun. See Report of Canadian Archivist, 1893, p.
47, etc.

2 Governor Hull's address to Indians, 1809, Michigan Pioneer
Coll., p. 597.

THE WAR OF 1812 59

just. So long as such a book as James's "Mili
tary Occurrences " is seriously read and referred
to in England as history, a plain statement of
truth cannot be amiss. The Indians themselves
on more than one occasion said that "their Great
Father, the President, did not ask them to involve
themselves in the quarrels of the white people, but
to remain quiet spectators."1

All this may seem to have little to do with the
young lawyer, whom we left practicing his profes
sion with diligence, and performing his official
duties as United States marshal. But it has much
to do with him; it is a part of his life. His whole
career was changed by the outbreak of the war;
a great portion of his life was devoted to counter
acting the effect of British influence over the In
dians; and an intimate acquaintance with Eng
land's ambition and diplomatic stealth made him
through his whole life suspicious of her.

Cass himself said in 1827 that the hope of pos
sessing Canada had no more influence upon the
declaration of war than the possession of Paris in
1814 by the allies had upon the origin of the Na
poleonic war. It is true that the United States
would not have begun the war simply for purposes
of conquest ; she was driven into it by a succession
of annoyances which had grown absolutely un
bearable. But Cass, when he made this state
ment, must have forgotten the enthusiasm of his
earlier days. Clay's proud boast that with a few

1 American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. i., passim.

60 LEWIS CASS

Kentuckians he could conquer poor, oppressed
Canada, found an echo in all the country west of
the Alleghanies. There was an intense desire to
invade the neighboring province, and ask England
how she liked to wear the boot on the other foot.
A firm belief in the blessings of American liberty
persuaded the Western citizen that the Canadian
was waiting with impatience the opportunity to
make such blessings his own. In no one had this
adulation of Americanism developed more strongly
than in Cass, and it was coupled with a fierce
energy which seemed an augury of success.

On February 6, 1812, Congress authorized the
President to accept and organize certain volunteer
military corps; and on April 10 he was authorized
to require the executives of the several States and
Territories to take effectual measures to organize
and equip their respective portions of 100,000
militia. Ohio was called upon for her quota of
men, and in May twelve hundred volunteers were
called together at Dayton. They were divided
into three regiments. Colonel McArthur had com
mand of the first, Colonel Findlay of the second,
and Lewis Cass was colonel of the third.

Cass here made his first address to his troops:
"Fellow-citizens, — The standard of our country
is displayed. You have rallied around it to de
fend her rights and to avenge her injuries. May
it wave protection to our friends and defiance to
our enemies ! And should we ever meet them in
the hostile field, I doubt not but that the eagle of

THE WAR OF 1812 01

America will be found more than a match for the
British lion ! " These exclamatory antitheses were
said to have been received with " rapturous enthu
siasm."

In May Governor Hull, who at that time held
the governorship of Michigan Territory, was ap
pointed brigadier-general. He had at first refused
appointment partly because he differed from the
administration as to the advisability of a land ap
proach to Canada, without support on the lakes,
and partly also, doubtless, because he desired to
shun responsibility, and dreaded to go back to
Detroit as an active commander, where he had
miserably failed as a civil governor, because of
his pompous vacillation and ponderous indecision.
However, he finally accepted, took command of
the troops at Dayton, and marched to Urbana,
where he was joined by the fourth regiment of
regular infantry, about three hundred strong, un
der the command of Colonel Miller. This regi
ment had seen service under General Harrison in
the Tippecanoe expedition, and was made up of
tried men. The march to Detroit was a burden
some one. Part of the way had to be cut through
the persistent underbrush, and from the Maumee
northward the road in its normal condition was
primeval mud and water. On June 26, when he
was not far from the Maumee, General Hull re
ceived word from Washington, written early on
the 18th, the very day on which war was declared,
urging him to proceed to Detroit with all possible

62 LEWIS CASS

speed. The same day Colonel McArthur received
a letter from Chillicothe stating that before the
letter reached him war would be begun. But the
actual announcement that war had begun was not
received until July 2.

There is no need of covering up the multitude
of sins of the Madison administration with any
cloak of charitable inferences. It is simply inex
cusable that the British at Maiden should have
received word two days earlier than Hull did, and
that every effort was not made to give full infor
mation to our army, which was marching practi
cally into the very face of the enemy. In fact the
message did not reach Cleveland until the 28th,
ten days after the declaration. The administra
tion was creeping like a snail complainingly to
war. But that does not entirely excuse Hull for
trusting his baggage and papers to a vessel which,
sailing on the 1st from the Maumee, was captured
by the English off Maiden. He seems to have
taken very literally the trenchant irony of Ran
dolph, who portrayed a "holiday campaign" in
which Canada was to "conquer herself" and "be
subdued by the principle of fraternity."

It will be necessary in delineating this portion
of Cass's life to enter somewhat fully into this
inglorious campaign. For the wisdom of Hull's
action is still a subject of discussion, and his de
scendants, with an amiable regard for his memory,
have endeavored to defend his actions as wise,
humane, and based on good military principles;

THE WAR OF 1812 63

while Cass, who was the chief witness afterwards
against the general, has been accused of unworthy
motives, as being the tool of an impotent adminis
tration, and a vile intriguer for favor.

On July 5 the army reached Detroit. The men
were quite ready to rest. Cass himself recalled
in after years his feeling of gratification that the
long journey was over. The "raw militia" of
whom Hull complained had marched over two
hundred miles through forest and swamps, build
ing bridges over smaller streams, and enduring
hardship and fatigue. They found Detroit a
French-American village of quaint aspect, a piece
of old France partly inoculated with Americanism.
An entirely new stockade had been erected by
Governor Hull in 1807, and everything had a
well-kept appearance. Cass afterwards stated that
he thought some of the embrasures defective and
the platform in need of repair. This may have
been true, yet Hull is probably not justly charge
able with negligence for not putting the fort into
better condition.

There were in the whole of Michigan at that
time about five thousand persons, and in Detroit
proper not far from a thousand. The Americans
in the Territory had used every means to acquaint
the government with their dangers. They were
a "double frontier," they said, for no farm was
protected by another. With a trust that the gov
ernment would help those who helped themselves,
they had raised four companies of militia, which

64 LEWIS CASS

were at this time commanded by Judge Witherell,
an experienced Revolutionary officer. They were
men accustomed to the privations of frontier life,
and had been in continual readiness for war since
1805. Hildreth's estimate l that the militia of the
Territory raised Hull's force to 1800 is a very low
one. Nor will it do to pass over men of this kind
with a slur at "militia." The militia of Michigan
were no weaklings, and the Ohio troops were of
the material which by many a hard fight has given
the American volunteer system a glory above a
sneer. That Hildreth's estimate, evidently based
on Hull's own statement,2 is too low is quite appa
rent from the fact that Judge > Wither ell stated
that he received a letter from Hull, dated June
14, announcing that he would soon be at the River
Raisin with about 2200 men; and that the general
also wrote to the secretary of war that he was
confident that his force would be superior to any
which would be opposed to it, inasmuch as the
"rank and file " exceeded 2000. The roll of troops
at Fort Findlay showed 2075 men. Hull's de
fenders 3 do not deny that this number is substan
tially correct, but he asserted that there were 392
men more than the President had ordered, and
that he had no authority to take any surplus under
his command. There were something like four
hundred men4 in the Michigan militia, and there

1 Hildreth, Hist, of U. S., vol. vi. p. 338.

2 Hull's Defense (Appendix to Trial), p. 42.
8 History of the Campaign of 1812.

4 Hull's Memoirs, p. 125 ; Hull's Trial p. 94.

THE WAR OF 1812 G5

can be no doubt that Hull's effective army, after
liberal deductions because of garrison duty, ill
ness, and other causes, reached over two thousand
on July 6.

Now was the time for action. The enemy at
Maiden had an advantageous position; for they
were south of Detroit, and could easily cross the
river and intercept supplies. Hull afterwards said
that, had he not been ordered to Detroit, he would
have begun an attack upon the British from an
other quarter. This is all ex post facto imagina
tion. He knew when he left Dayton that he was
bound for Detroit. And now when he was at De
troit he refused to enter Canada until he received
authority from Washington. He preferred to
leave the enemy their advantage rather than take
active measures of hostility.1

The morning after the arrival of the army at
Detroit, Colonel Cass was sent to Maiden with a
flag of truce to obtain, if possible, the baggage
and prisoners taken from the schooner which Hull
had trustfully sent to Detroit from the Maumee.
He was led blindfolded into the presence of the
commanding officer, and his demands were re
fused ; but before he reached the fort he was able
to make a casual survey, which induced him to
believe that it was indefensible, and he so declared
to General Hull. An examination of it a year

1 It must be said that Hull realized and stated at the beginning
the desirability of controlling the lake if anything effective was
to be done in Upper Canada.

66 LEWIS CASS

later convinced him that his first assumption was
Avell founded, and, inasmuch as Hull in previous
years had been at Maiden several times, there was
no reason why he also should not have appreciated
its weakness. On the 9th orders were received
from Washington authorizing the army to cross
into Canada and begin offensive operations. A
council of war was called, and Cass argued eagerly
for immediate action. Deserters from Canada ac
quainted the Americans with the numbers of the
British forces, and gave clear indication of the
feeling prevailing among the inhabitants of upper
Canada. Offensive operations were determined
upon in the council, and the young officers were
jubilant. But Hull was not hopeful. He advised
the secretary of war not to be "too sanguine,"
as the "water and the savages" were commanded
by the enemy. He did not care to burn all argu
mentative bridges behind him, even when he must
have known that his force greatly outnumbered
the enemy; and it is to be hoped that in after
years, in his peaceful, bucolic existence, he found
true satisfaction in the remembrance of his lugu
brious reports. In the latest review of this cam
paign, written with rare judgment and impartial
ity, the statement is made that Hull from the first
"looked on the conquest of Canada as a result of
his appearance."1 The extract just made from
his letter to the secretary of war, his hesitation in

1 History of the United States of America during the First Ad
ministration of James Madison, by Henry Adams, vol. ii. p. 302.

THE WAR OF 1812 67

accepting the commission in the first place, his
timid policy and delay, are hardly reconcilable, it
seems to me, with this lenient interpretation of his
conduct.

Cass, we are told, took his stand in the bow of
the first boat in which the troops were conveyed
across the river, and was the first American to set
his foot on Canadian soil after the declaration of
war. This well suggests the ardor of the young
colonel, whose zeal for war left no room for inde
cision and hesitation. He had used every means
of obtaining information, and was satisfied that
a prompt and bold attack would insure the fall of
Maiden and the conquest of Upper Canada. The
troops reached the Canadian shore just above the
present town of Windsor, and the young Ohio
colonel, who was always in the lead, hastened to
raise the stars and stripes over the sleepy French
settlement of Sandwich. A detachment of the
enemy had abandoned their position opposite De
troit, and had hastened beyond the Canard River,
nearer to the fort, which was twenty miles to the
south of Hull's position.

Two hundred copies of a proclamation, in which
the fraternity theory was given full vent, were at
once distributed. Subsequent events clothed it
in a humorous garb, but it was declared able and
vigorous by the press of the day, and there can be
no doubt of its influence. No less an authority
than Judge Campbell, in his "Outlines of the Po
litical History of Michigan," attributes this docu-

68 LEWIS CASS

ment to Cass ; 1 others whose means of information
were good, and who were his personal friends, have
made the same assertion. It certainly bears marks
of the pomposity and incisiveness of Cass's earlier
style. The American army was said to have come
to rescue the perishing Canadians from the dragon
of tyranny, to pour the balm of liberty and fra
ternal love into their wounds. They were called
upon not to raise their hands against their "breth
ren." No assistance was required, for a force
was at hand which would "look down all opposi
tion," and was a mere "vanguard" of the host
which was to follow. Rare sport had the cunning
pamphleteers afterwards with this confident an
nouncement of success. The "Wars of the Gulls "
represents Madison, the "Great Mogul," solilo
quizing as follows: "By proclamation my illus
trious predecessor defended this extensive region
during a long and warlike reign of eight years,
and brought the belligerent powers of Europe to
his feet. By proclamation I have commenced this
great and perilous war, and by proclamation I
will carry victory into the very chimney corner of
the enemy."

The inhabitants of Canada were warned, in this
circular, that they need expect no quarter if found
fighting by the side of an Indian, and that "the
first stroke of the tomahawk, the first attempt of
the scalping-knife " would be the signal "for an
indiscriminate scene of desolation." This clause

1 Soo also Smith's Life and Times of Cass, p. 38.

THE WAR OF 1812 69

was the occasion of some contention between the
commissioners at Ghent, where the American re
presentatives attempted to disown the whole pro
ceeding, asserting that it was unauthorized by
their government. But such was not the fact.
"Your letters, . . . together with your proclama
tion, have been received," wrote Secretary Eustis
on August 1, 1812. "Your operations are ap
proved by the government." The English com
missioners shuddered in well counterfeited horror
at the idea that an invading army should encourage
treason and rebellion among the inhabitants of a
neighboring province. But there is no doubt that
such was the principle of the "fraternal" conquest
of Canada; and it is equally true that England
on her own part attempted to stimulate into open
enmity the New England Federalists, who grum
bled without ceasing at the party war which bade
fair to leave nothing more substantial than a re
membrance of their commerce, which the embargo
had already "protected" into debility.

The effect of this proclamation was immediate.
Vaporous as it seems in the light of subsequent
events, it was admirably adapted to win the disaf
fected, and to encourage the French habitants,
who naturally sympathized with the Americans.
The commander at Maiden wrote despondently to
General Brock, \vho was governor in Upper Can
ada, and who, released from his civil duties, soon
became the inspiring genius and hero of the war.
" Hull's invidious proclamation," wrote Brock

70 LEWIS CASS

to Governor Prevost, "herewith inclosed, has al
ready been productive of considerable effect on the
minds of the people. In fact, a general sentiment
prevails that, with the present force, resistance is
unavailing." 1 So widespread was the despondency
that some of the militia in Upper Canada peremp
torily refused to march, as many as five hundred
settlers in the western district sought the protec
tion of the enemy,2 and the Indians on the Grand
River refused to take up arms. Even Hull was
encouraged to hope for success, and continued to
"look down'' all opposition with a masterly inac
tivity which never deviated into generalship.

The Ohio colonels were eager for action. Cass
urged that the army move immediately upon Mai
den, to take a position at least as near as the
Canard River, which was some five miles distant
from the British fort. One cannot say with assu
rance that Hull should have made an attack at
once. And yet if he could not take the place his
situation was full of danger from the very begin
ning. Even the safety of Detroit depended on
the ability of the American army either to capture
the British position or to hold the enemy com
pletely in check, inasmuch as the line of commu
nication with the south could be easily broken in
upon. Whatever was to be done must be done
quickly and with energy. But these were just the

1 Brock to Prevost, July 20, 1812. Tapper's Life and Corre
spondence of Sir Isaac Brock, p. 203.
- Ibid. p. 204.

THE WAR OF 181ii 71

qualities that Hull lacked; and if his subordinates
were wrong in asking for prompt action, he was
unable to impress himself upon them or to bring
them to respect his more experienced judgment.

No forward step was now taken. The Ameri
can army remained quietly at Sandwich, some
twenty miles from the enemy, and awaited devel
opments. Colonel Miller, with a few troops, made
an expedition into the country, and, returning
with provisions, demonstrated the weakness of the
enemy. Cass, because of his much asking, was
allowed to take two hundred and eighty men and
push his way as near as possible to the enemy's
stronghold for the purpose of ascertaining its con
dition. He wanted nothing better. The river Ta-
rontee, as the Indians called it, which has gen
erally figured in history under its French name of
the Canard, is a stream of considerable depth,
flowing through low, marshy ground into the De
troit. Here a detachment of the enemy was posted,
and here was fought the first battle of the war.
Cass, to divert the attention of the enemy, left a
company of riflemen near the bridge which crossed
the stream not far from its mouth. He proceeded
with the rest of his troops five miles up the stream
to a ford, and came down the left bank. An im
petuous charge upon the hostile line threw it into
confusion. Three times the British formed, and
were as often beaten back. But night was falling.
Cass recalled his men to the bridge, and sent word
of his success to General Hull.

72 LEWIS CASS

This first victory of the war was accepted through
the country as prophetic of success, and Cass was
hailed as the "Hero of the Tarontee."1 "Hold
the bridge, and begin operations at once," was the
eager advice of the young officers. But Hull
thought the position too exposed, finally saying
that Miller and Cass might use their own judg
ment; they withdrew, for they insisted that the
commanding officer ought to have the responsi
bility. A withdrawal meant a proclamation to all
Canada that the American general considered him
self as yet too weak to take a stand nearer than
twenty miles from the enemy, who were then, un
doubtedly, greatly outnumbered. The young offi
cers now openly murmured. They had hardly
expected that sluggishness would degenerate into
absolute immovability. There is little reason to
doubt that from this time the feeling of distrust
of their general steadily increased, until McArthur,
Findlay, and Cass actually plotted his deposition
and the installation of McArthur as the command
ing officer. Cass constantly urged movement and
action, except on one occasion, when he deferred
to the superior technical wisdom of the artillery
commanders. In various skirmishes he showed
his ardor for the conflict.

General Hull had charge of more than the mili
tary operations in Upper Canada ; he was, as well,
governor of Michigan Territory; yet for some
reason, he took no step to announce the outbreak
1 Lossing's Field-Book of the War 0/1812, p. 265. t

THK WAR OF 1812 7:i

of hostilities to the American garrison at Macki
naw, and the first announcement they received
was the summons to surrender, accentuated by the
frowning muzzles of British artillery, which had
been cleverly placed to command the fort at the
weakest point. Of course the island was surren
dered, and a post which might have retained a
controlling influence over the northern Indians
was turned over to the British. This has been
attributed to the criminal remissness or imbecility
of the secretary of war.1 But the truth of this
assertion is no justification for Governor Hull's
failure to put himself into communication with the
different portions of his territory. The army in
Canada was now distracted, restless, grumbling.
The general had no confidence in himself or in
others, and the fall of Mackinaw took away even
that which he had. Hourly the northern Indians
might appear upon the scene, and Hull was borne
down with a dread of their barbarous warfare.

Colonel Proctor arrived at Fort Maiden with
some reinforcements, and an aggressive warfare
on the part of the English began. Word was
received that the provisions and men for which
Hull had been calling had been sent forward by
Governor Meigs, and were at the River Raisin.
Captain Brush, who was in command of these
reinforcements, asked for an escort ; for the Brit
ish could easily cross the river and intercept him
on his way to Detroit. Hull hesitated. But the

1 Lossing's Pictorial Field-Book of the, War of 1812, p. 271.

74 LEWIS CASS

Ohio colonels forced him into compliance. An
inadequate force was then sent under Major Van
Horn. They were repulsed with loss, and Hull's
mail fell into the hands of the British authorities.
Again Cass and the other colonels said: "Send
five hundred men to escort Brush to Detroit."
"I can only spare a hundred," 1 replied Hull from
behind his defenses at Sandwich. At length, on
August 7, stung into motion by the insistence 2 of
his subordinates, he announced a general and im
mediate attack on the British fort. The army
were joyfully engaged in active preparations when
Hull summoned his officers and told them that he
had decided to recross to Detroit, and on August 8
the army slunk back to its own territory disheart
ened, mutinous, and surly. The situation was
now discouraging, and Hull proposed to give up
Detroit and retreat beyond the Maumee. Had
he at any time tested properly the strength of the
enemy or shown the requisite energy and confidence,
there might have been little opposition to this
plan; for any one must have been able to see that
Detroit could not be permanently held unless the
army was strong enough to guard its line of com
munications. But when Hull suggested the pro
priety of retreating, Cass informed him that the
Ohio militia in a body would refuse to obey such
an order.

1 Lossing, p. 277.

2 Forbes's Report of Trial of Brigadier-General William Hull,
p. 57.

THE WAR OF 1812 75

Another force, under Colonel Miller, was sent
down the river to escort Captain Brush. When
they had completed about half the distance to the
Raisin, a deadly fire was opened upon them from
Indians and English in ambush. The men re
sponded gallantly to Colonel Miller's "Charge!
boys, charge!" and one of the most brilliant en
gagements of the war resulted in a victory for the
Americans. But the victory had to be followed
up, or Proctor would hurry across from Maiden
with more troops ; for he well knew that Hull had
given up all idea of offensive action. Colonel
Miller reported his success, and asked for provi
sions. He had been injured by a fall from his
horse, but he did not ask to be recalled. On the
way to Detroit his messenger met Colonel Cass,
and that officer, learning of Miller's condition,
added the following characteristic dispatch : " Sir,
Colonel Miller is sick; may I relieve him? L.
Cass."1 But the eagerness of Cass and the brav
ery of Miller must go for naught. Miller was
immediately ordered back to Detroit, while the
general contented himself with lamenting that the
blood of seventy -five men had been shed in vain.2

The colonels now seriously thought of deposing 3
their general; but they finally agreed that Gover-

1 Lossino-'s Field -Book of the War 0/1812, p. 282. The only
authority I can find for statement in the text.

2 Armstrong's Notices of the War of 1812, vol. i. p. 80.

8 A Chapter of the War of 1812, William Stanley Hatch, p. 40,
and other references ; Letter of Cass to Secretary of War, Sep
tember 10. 1812.

76 LEWIS CASS

nor Meigs should hasten to Detroit with assistance,
and they hoped that he would accept the command.
Cass at once wrote a cautious letter to the gover
nor, hinting at Hull's incompetence, and stating
that Maiden might have fallen, but that the
"golden opportunity " had passed. Before the
letter was signed the following significant post
script was added: "Believe all the bearer will tell
you. Believe it, however it may astonish you, as

much as if told by one of us. Even a C is

talked of by the - — . The bearer will fill the
vacancy." l

Brock, a general of dash, vigor, and wonderful
self-confidence, now arrived at Maiden. A few
regulars and nearly three hundred militia 2 accom
panied him. The numbers of the Indians had
lately increased somewhat, although none of the
northern Indians appeared at Detroit until some
time after the catastrophe of this serio-comic
drama. Brock erected a battery where it might
effectually play upon the American fort. But no
attempt was made to prevent the erection of this
work or to drive the enemy from it ; General Hull,
with admirable sententiousness, replied to Captain
Dalliby, who asked permission to open fire upon
them: "Mr. Dalliby, I will make an agreement
with the enemy that, if they will never fire on me,
I will never fire on them. Those who live in glass
houses must not throw stones."

Events now hurried to a crisis. On August 14
1 Niles's Register, vol. iii. p. 39. 2 Life of Brock, p. 335.

THE WAR OF 1812 77

McArthur and Cass with three hundred and fifty
men were sent as an escort to Captain Brush, whc
had determined to find his way to Detroit by a
trail which ran some thirty miles back from the
river. These young officers were becoming alto
gether too restless, and might be seriously thinking
of mutiny, or, more terrible still, of fighting! On
August 15 Brock sent Hull the following letter
" The force at my disposal authorizes me to require
of you the immediate surrender of Detroit. It is
far from my inclination to join you in a war of
extermination; but you must be aware that the
numerous body of Indians, who have attached
themselves to my troops, will be beyond my con
trol the moment the contest commences. You will
find me disposed to enter into such conditions as
will satisfy the most scrupulous sense of honor.
Lieutenant-Colonel McDonell and Major Glegg
are fully authorized to conclude any arrangement
that may lead to prevent the unnecessary effusion
of blood."1 Hull detained the messenger some
two hours, and then returned an answer fairly
bristling with defiance.

HEADQUARTERS, DETROIT, August 15, 1812.

I have received your letter of this date. I have no
other reply to make than to inform you that I am pre
pared to meet any force which may be at your disposal,
and any consequences which may result from any exer
tion of it you may think proper to make.2

I urn, etc WILLIAM HULL, etc.

1 Tapper's Life of Brock, p. 231 ; Hull's Memoirs, p. 95.

2 Hull's Memoirs, p. 96.

78 LEWIS CASS

Immediately the British guns opened on Detroit,
and the American guns replied. Some damage
was done to the frail structures of the town, which
was beginning to present a spectacle demoralizing
and pitiful. The people of the neighborhood had
crowded into the place for protection. Trembling
women and bewildered children pleaded by their
presence for a bold stand against Indian cruelty
and vengeance. All had lost confidence in their
obsolete general, and he, tenderhearted and com
passionate, was overwhelmed with dread and op
pressed with responsibility. Occasionally the old
Revolutionary spirit awakened within him, but it
was generally smothered by the kindly weakness
and hesitancy which prompted to pity and ended
in cruel inactivity.1

The quiet, beautiful Sabbath morning of August
16 was rudely disturbed by the booming of the
British cannon. Again were pictured forth to the
general's mind awful scenes of Indian atrocities,
the unspeakable horrors of the tomahawk and
scalping-knife. His memory of border tales and
fables furnished food to his greedy imagination.
"My God! " he exclaimed, "what shall I do with
these women and children?" He sat on the
ground, with his back toward the wall of the fort,

1 " Desperate the situation seemed to be ; yet a good general
would have saved Detroit for some weeks. . . . Doubtless his
fears were well founded, but a general-in-chief whose mind was
paralyzed by such thoughts could not measure himself with Isaac
Brock." Adams's History of the United States during the First
Administration of James Madison, \ol. ii. p. 327.

THE WAR OF 1812 79

overcome with anxiety and distress. "He appar
ently unconsciously filled his mouth with tobacco,
putting in quid after quid more than he generally
did; the spittle colored with tobacco juice ran
from his mouth on his neckcloth, beard, cravat,
and vest."1 The enemy cross the river; not a
shot from American guns or cannon threatens
them. They march toward Detroit along a nar
row road, where a well-posted battery can shatter
their lines. Not a gun is fired to check them;
but a ball from the battery at Sandwich takes
effect in the fort ; women are carried away sense
less; men are killed, and a white flag flutters over
the bastions of the American defenses.

That was the end of the " proclamatory " inva
sion of Canada. Cass and McArthur were hurry
ing back, hoping to reach the fort before there
was any real danger, or to attack the enemy in
the rear if he was on the American side of the
river. But the white flag had spiked the British
guns, and, as they neared Detroit, not a cannon
shot awakened the echoes to summon them to ac
tion. They soon found that Hull had included
them and their force in his capitulation, without
giving them a chance to escape. Cass, exasper
ated beyond endurance, snapped his sword in

1 Hull's Trial, p. 40. Testimony of Major Snellin?. There is
some testimony to the effect that Hull conducted himself pro
perly ; but the overwhelming weight of evidence seems to be that
he was at this time utterly unfit for the responsibilities of the
moment.

80 LEWIS CASS

twain, rather than disgrace himself by its sur
render. "Basely to surrender without firing a
gun ! " he moaned in mingled anger and chagrin.
"Tamely to submit without raising a bayonet!"
Even Brush and his men were included in the sur
render at Hull's own instance. For forty years
to come Detroit citizens could not remember the
occurrence without flushing with mortification.
Hull did not have the courage of brave Croghan,
who, with his little garrison surrounded by thirty
times its numbers, answered a summons to surren
der with the reply, " When the fort shall be taken
there will be none to massacre." On this sad
16th of August a band of Kentucky volunteers,
collected to reinforce Hull, were listening at
Georgetown to the eloquence of Clay, who pictured
in joyful anticipation the capture of Maiden and
the conquest of Upper Canada.

It is difficult to ascertain with exactness the
number of the men surrendered or of those com
manded by Brock. Hull estimated his own effec
tive force at less than 1000,1 Cass at 1060,2 not
including either the 300 Michigan militia on duty
or the detachment sent to meet Brush. Brock,
intoxicated with success, reports the capture of
2500 men.3 This was undoubtedly an exaggera-

1 Hull's Memoirs ; Clarke's History of the Campaign of 1812,
etc., p. 386.

2 Niles's Register, p. 38 ; Cass's Letter to the Secretary of War;
Hull's Trial, Appendix No. II. p. 27.

3 Tupper's Life of Brock, p. 247.

THE WAR OF 1812 81

tion. His own men, however, aggregated, accord
ing to his own report, 1330, including 600 Indians.
Possibly he underestimated, for his own glorifi
cation, the number of his savage allies. To an
inferior besieging force, for the Indians are noto
riously useless in attacking a fortress, Hull sur
rendered with such indecent speed that he made
no provision for the Canadians who had deserted
to him, nor for the men who were with him and
had been eager to fight by his side.

No proper steps had been taken by the govern
ment to protect the distant frontier, and Hull had
already sent orders for the evacuation of Fort
Dearborn, where Chicago now stands; and in spite
of the intercession of those who realized the danger,
Captain Heald obeyed the order, withdrew his
garrison and the families from the fort, and began
the long, dreary march to Detroit. They knew
that they were marching to their doom, and as
they left their fort, their little military band is
said to have struck up the Dead March in Saul.
It was at least appropriate. Men, women, and
children were murdered in a desperate conflict,
scarcely any escaping to tell of the event.

One problem remains to be examined: how to
account for Brock's rash attack upon a strong for
tress defended by a superior force. The answer
has been already suggested. He discovered Hull's
trepidation, was sure that his opponent was weak,
faltering, and despondent. He thus exultingly
wrote to his brothers on September 3 : —

82 LEWIS CASS

Some say that nothing could be more desperate than
the measure ; hut I answer that the state of the province
admitted of nothing but desperate remedies. I got pos
session of the letters of my antagonist addressed to the
secretary of war, and also of the sentiments which hun
dreds of his army uttered to their friends. ... It is
therefore no wonder that envy should attribute to good
fortune what, in justice to my own discernment, I must
say proceeded from a cool calculation of the pours and
centres.1

The soldiers were paroled, and went, shamefaced
and angry, to their homes. Hull was taken to
Montreal, but was released by his captors, perhaps
in hopes that his loud laments over the imbecility
of the administration might heighten disaffection.2
Cass, paroled, under Colonel McArthur's orders,
hastened to Washington, and made a report to the
secretary of war, which, full of indignation and
disgust, was yet a fair statement of the disastrous
incompetence of the general. The people were
wild with excitement, and poured out abuse on all
concerned in the childish totterings of the cam
paign. The administration and its feeble generals,
quite willing to secure a victim for the sacrifice,
led Hull, complaining, to the altar. A court-
martial met at Albany in January, 1814. Major-
General Dearborn, whose considerate and peaceful

1 Tupper's Life of Brock.

2 A letter from Prevost to Bathurst says, " Hull has been
allowed to go to Boston on parole . . . for the purpose of just
ifying1 his conduct to his government." Report of Canadian
Archivist, 1893, p. 73.

THE WAR OF 181li 83

mode of warfare had prevented him from making
a diversion in Hull's favor, sat as president, and
Martin Van Buren appeared as special judge advo
cate. Cass was the first witness. His testimony
was convincing and overwhelming, and was cor
roborated by that of McArthur and others. Yet
his statements have been attributed to sinister
motives. He has been charged with duplicity as
a tool of the administration, although it is per
fectly evident that his enmity towards Hull began
in those dreary days in Canada, when Hull's en
ergy was absorbed in summoning councils and dis
covering excuses for fatal delay. A letter written
by Cass to his brother-in-law, Silliman, a few
days before the surrender, introduced by Hull to
prove the inconsistency of his accuser, has been
forced to carry that burden even by later writers.
But a fair interpretation will show neither incon
sistency nor equivocation.

The court-martial was probably prejudiced
against Hull; and yet one cannot say that its find
ings were altogether unwarranted. Dearborn him
self had been inefficient, and was in part to blame
for the perilous situation in which the arrival of
Brock with reinforcements placed the western
army. The war department also had expected too
much of Hull, and had not taken prompt and
active measures either to keep the enemy occupied
in the East, or to give Hull other necessary assis
tance in his undertakings. And yet any one look
ing over the evidence will be likely to say that he

84 LEWIS CASS

was not fit for his arduous and difficult task, and
that, deficient at first in activity and energy, he
showed at the end culpable indecision and a timid
ity which seemed to many of the onlookers nothing
less than cowardice. Perhaps he would have been
justified in retiring beyond the Maumee, as soon
as he heard of Brock's approach, or saw that he
could only with the greatest difficulty, if at all,
keep his communication open; but he was not
entirely guiltless of producing the state of affairs
which provoked the threat that the militia would
refuse to obey an order to retreat.

The court found General Hull guilty of coward
ice and neglect of duty, and sentenced him to be
shot. Madison, tempering justice with mercy,
approved the sentence, but remitted its execution,
out of respect for the past services of one who, as
a boy fresh from college, entered the patriot army
immediately after Lexington, fought with cool and
fearless energy, endured sufferings and fatigues
with noble cheerfulness, and received acknowledg
ments of faithfulness from Washington himself.
His last years were spent in comfort, but not in
luxury. Presiding with simple unaffectedness at
the "bounteous Thanksgiving dinner," or watch
ing his merry grandchildren dancing in time to
the music "of old Tillo's fiddle,"1 he was much
nearer his proper occupation than when command
ing a rough, boisterous, backwoods army in a dan
gerous and important campaign.

1 Memorial and Biographical Sketches. James Freeman Clarke,
p. 439.

THE WAR OF 1812 85

In December, 1812, Cass was appointed major-
general in the Ohio militia, but he was not yet
exchanged, and was prevented by his parole from
entering into active service. In January the Presi
dent determined to raise two regiments of regular
troops in Ohio, and Cass, instructed to raise one,
was appointed a colonel in the army, February
20, 1813. l His parole was removed about the
middle of January, and he then proceeded with his
task. Ohio and Kentucky were furious at the
defeat and surrender of Hull. A perfect tidal
wave of patriotism and resentment swept over
these States, and Cass had no difficulty in obtain
ing his quota of men. The government, confiding
in his fidelity and energy, now made him briga
dier-general2 in the regular army, to act under
Major-General Harrison in the West.

In January, 1813, General Winchester had
marched toward Detroit with a fine army of stal
wart Kentuckians, the foremost young men in the
State, who were burning to avenge the surrender
of Detroit, and to give a sound whipping to the
Indians, whose successful insolence was madden
ing to a Kentucky pioneer. The massacre at the
River Raisin was the sad end of their hopes.
Robbing, plundering, murdering, scalping, vile
mutilations, barbarities too horrible to mention,
followed the fall of the brave Kentuckians, who
had come so full of eager pride and bravery. From

1 Records of War Department.

2 March 12, 18 13. Records of War Department.

86 -LEWIS CASS

that time to the battle of the Thames the Indians,
unrestrained by the infamous Proctor, were a con
tinual menace to the whole territory of Michigan.
Their cruelties were constant. Property was wasted
or destroyed; everywhere were confusion, misery,
and fear.1

General Cass was actively engaged in the cam
paign of 1813. He was, as before, energetic and
hopeful, a strong support for General Harrison,
who relied upon his advice and trusted in his wis
dom. They worked well together. After years
found Cass a courageous defender of the "Hero
of Tippecanoe," when political scribblers fought
the battles over again, and sought to prove the
victor a slovenly child of fortune. Some manreu-
vrings in the neighborhood of Sandusky were
without importance to the main body of the army,
though rendered famous by Croghan's courageous
defense of his fort. On September 10 Commodore
Perry sent Harrison his famous laconic, "We
have met the enemy, and they are ours." The
victorious fleet at once conveyed Harrison to Can
ada. In spite of the taunts of Tecumseh, who
likened the retreating general to a "fat dog that
drops his tail between his legs and runs off," Proc
tor abandoned Maiden and retreated to the inte-

1 Michigan Pioneer Collection, vol. iv. p. 320 ; Wisconsin's His~
torical Collection, vol. iii. p. 318, Witherell's Reminiscences ; Niles'g
Register, vol. i. p. 91, giving- Judge Woodward's letter to General
Proctor ; Barbarities of the Enemy, A Report of the Committee
of the House of Representatives (1813), Troy, 1813.

THE WAR OF 1812 87

rior. He was pursued and defeated at the battle
of the Thames. "Kentuckians, remember the
River Raisin ! " was the inspiring battle-cry. Te-
cumseh, a braver and abler general than his white
chief, was there killed by Colonel R. M. Johnson.
Only a small portion of Cass's command was pre
sent at this fight. He acted, therefore, as aide-
de-camp to General Harrison, and was rewarded
with a complimentary notice of his services in the
general's report to the secretary of war.

CHAPTER IV

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY

THE battle of the Thames secured the Northwest
to the Americans. General Harrison, desiring to
cooperate with our army in eastern Canada and
New York, left the command of Detroit and the
subjugated portion of western Canada to General
Cass. The situation was not a simple one. The
Indians, excited by the bloodshed and pillage of
the preceding winter and spring, were restless and
a constant menace to the little village and the
people of the whole region, which was already
desolated by the war. On October 29 the Presi
dent appointed Cass governor of Michigan Terri
tory. He prepared at once to assume the arduous
duties of his new office. During a portion of the
succeeding winter he attended the trial of Hull at
Albany, where he was the chief witness. With
the exception of some such temporary absences as
this, he was continually resident in the Territory
for the next eighteen years, giving to its people
the energy of his young manhood and vigorous
middle age, and inseparably connecting his name
with the foundation and progress of Michigan and
the development of the Northwest.

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 89

Life at the frontier post was occasionally ro
mantic, but never free from grave responsibility
and anxiety. At the outset duties pressed upon
him in battalions. Although General Harrison
had concluded an armistice with the greater por
tion of tribes, many hostile Indians were still in
the neighborhood, and must be kept in subjection.
The homeless fugitives, robbed of their all by the
hirelings of Proctor, needed protection and sup
port. Detroit, itself in confusion and anarchy,
demanded the careful, firm, and kind hand of
friendly authority. Through the whole winter of
1813-14 Michigan Territory was in a pitiful con
dition. The poor people from the Raisin district,
whose houses had been burned or left in desola
tion, without food or means to obtain it, hovered,
clamoring, in the village where the young governor
was expected to turn the stones into bread. The
lives of the French people had been spared by
the Indians because of the general friendliness be
tween the two races, but the hungry savages had
killed their cattle, carried off the fruit from the
orchards, burnt the fences and the floors of the
houses, and left the habitant in the direst destitu
tion. Above all, many Indians, 110 longer sup
plied from the train-bands of the British army,
>vere themselves thrown on the mercy and human
ity of the Americans. The public stores were
used to drive away actual starvation ; but so great
was the want and poverty that a petition for help
was sent to Washington ; in response to which tho

90 LEWIS CASS

President asked Congress for a special appropria-
tion.

Nothing can be said in exaggeration of the deso
late state of Michigan for about two years after
its recovery by the Americans. The French at the
River Raisin, who, with all their ignorance of
farming, had had comfortable cabins, as well as
fields and orchards which supplied their humble
wants, were reduced to such penury on their re
turn to their farms that even very meagre food
was obtained with difficulty. They lacked the
nervous tension and vigor which tones up the
American pioneer to resist expected danger and
surmount difficulties. Light-hearted and cheerful
in all ordinary trials, their easy-going dispositions,
their unfamiliarity with the common devices which
necessity begets in the frontier life of the inventive
Yankee, their content with the past, and faith in
the unearned blessings of the future, kept them
penniless and breadless when keener intelligence
might have lifted them above want. The settlers
near Detroit were in woeful straits, but everything
seems to show that the French of the River Raisin
were more ignorant and less thrifty than the habi
tant to the north, and upon them had come the
extreme cruelty and destruction of the war. Cass
worked for his hungry Territory with untiring vigi
lance, distributing largesses from the public stores,
calling upon the government for aid, organizing
and instructing with zeal and energy. No portion
of his career is more worthy of admiration than

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 91

this, when his direst enemies were anarchy and
hunger. A true picture of the governorship of
Cass and the early history of the reclaimed Terri
tory will be shaded into its proper depth of color
by a remembrance of the peculiar trials attending
them.

Besides the general poverty and distress of the
Territory, other dangers confronted the people of
the "double frontier." When the Indians, threat
ened by starvation, were not praying for suste
nance at the hands of the authorities, they seem
to have been satisfying their hatred of the "big
knives," as they called the Americans, by unex
pected attacks upon them and their property.
They beleaguered the little village, pillaging, mur
dering, and scalping in the ruthless fashion which
they had adopted under Proctor's tender instruc
tion. Cass felt that his great task was to restore
confidence to the cowering people, to induce them
to return to their homes, and to begin again their
peaceful lives. As a first step to this end, he de
cided that these annoyances from the savages must
cease. A bold attack upon the Indians seemed
the most satisfactory method of procedure; and,
successful in that, a stockade might be built and
blockhouses reared at the expense of the general
government, to protect the frontier and overawe
the red men. In September, 1814, the settlement
was in especial danger from these marauding
bands, and the young men of the village organized
for an attack. General Cass led the little com-

92 LEWIS CASS

pany into a bloody skirmish, in which the Indians
were beaten. During the whole affair Cass dis
played that calm ignoring of danger which was so
characteristic of him, and which powerfully influ
enced the impressionable savage. Riding at the
head of his men, he was advised by one of his
company, Major Whipple, to fall back to the
centre, as, should he be killed, it might create
confusion; but he answered, "Oh, major, I am
pretty well off here; let us push on." Various
sallies of this character upon the Indians skulking
along the river soon freed the people of their more
abject fear. All had confidence in their young
governor, and willingly followed him into any
danger. "His constant, unremitting vigilance
and energetic conduct saved our people from many
of the horrors of war, and he was sustained by our
habitants."1

The savages had rendered the British such effi
cient service that in 1814 our government strove to
obtain like aid. Possibly we can plead in justifi
cation that this was merely a defensive measure,
but we cannot deny the fact. July 22, 1814,
General Harrison and Governor Cass met in coun
cil with a number of Indians at Greenville, Ohio,
and there entered into an agreement in which the
Indians promised assistance, and the commissioners
pledged protection. Cass returned to Detroit, ac
companied by a band which became personally
attached to him. Fortunately his influence over

1 Witherell's Reminiscences, Wisconsin Hist. Col. vol. iii. p. 324.

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 93

them was so great that the disgraceful scenes of
Proctor's occupation were not repeated. The use
of savages in civilized warfare is inexcusable; but
in this case the disastrous consequences were re
duced to a minimum.

In spite of the successful vigor of Cass, his situ
ation was perilous and anxious until the close of
the war. Having resigned his military commission
April 6, 1814,1 he found himself in the anomalous
position of bearing responsibility unassisted by
the requisite authority. The few United States
troops that had been left at Detroit objected to
receiving commands from a civil officer; the con
stant presence of threatening Indians, and the
disordered condition of the defenses of the town
called for action in preparation for a possible re
currence of the events of 1812. Should our army
prove ineffective in the East, or should affairs in
Europe suddenly take a different turn, Detroit
might again, in an instant, become a salient point
and a position of great strategic importance. A
letter of August 13, from the secretary of war,
authorized the governor, in the absence of a gen
eral officer, to take command of all the forces at
Detroit in case of attack. But with such half
hearted trust he was not content. All save a very
few troops were bravely sent to the East to assist
the movement of our army on the Niagara fron
tier, and he was obliged to rely mainly on the
volunteer services of the weary and pillaged in-

1 Records of War Department.

94 LEWIS CASS

habitants of the Territory. Even in these straits
he did not stand all the day idle, complaining of
his helplessness; but with his "pet Indians" he
gave material aid in the progress of the war by
making feints against the Canadian inhabitants
and property in the eastern portion of Upper
Canada. He asserted, however, in his communi
cations to the War Department, that should a
general attack be made by the British forces, he
should retire from the Territory, unaided as he was
by the militia from the south, which he had had
every reason to expect. Amid all these troubles
and anxieties, the work of bringing order and
tranquillity into the disordered Territory went
bravely on.

Peace came to a jubilant country before another
campaign brought its load of mingled victory and
defeat. Men wept in each other's arms in joy
that the war was over, — a war conducted with
neither energy nor skill, and concluded by a treaty
that was little more than an armistice, settling
none of the questions for which we had blustered
into the war, with our armor rusty and our flint
locks out of repair. Our victories on the sea had,
however, beaten into our opponents a modicum of
respect for us. Now, at last, to the happy people
the sky seemed spanned by a bow of promise, -
no more impressments, no more highway robbery
of men and goods from well-behaving neutrals.
The pot of gold at the foot of this rainbow did
not, however, lie in the neighborhood of Detroit.

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 95

Peace for a moment shed its warming rays into
that desolate country; but it served only to render
more visible the havoc of the war, and to show the
immensity of the task of restoring prosperity and
confidence and of raising the Territory into a self-
sustaining portion of the country.

The work of General Cass's governorship natu
rally divides itself into a series, of undertakings,
which clearly present themselves as one glances
back over the period, and the importance of which
he, at the time, fully realized. By his apprecia
tion of the peculiar duties laid upon him, he made
them more distinct, and gave to his administration
a singular completeness and unity. His greatest
problem, embracing or touching all the rest, was
to convert the French settlement, at present tor
tured by actual want and, at its best, defenseless,
foreign, and slow, into an active American commu
nity, prosperous and progressive in peace, capable
of self-defense in war, a real buckler to that
Northwest which never ceased to tempt the covet
ous eyes of the English. Michigan must be Ameri
canized and colonized ; its strategic value must be
estimated aright and its physical charms displayed ;
the whole Northwest must be so protected and
guided that the tide of immigration which had set
in over its southeastern border would encounter
no wall in its onward sweep, until it had carried
the schoolhouse and the newspaper into the far
thest corner of that land where the Jesuit had, a
century before, planted his cross and sung his ave.

96 LEWIS CASS

In 1846-47, thirty years after the first trials of
his governorship, Cass was struggling in the Sen
ate for the possession of the far Northwest above
the line of 49° ; that contest was the afterglow of
the fire of his younger life, which had been de
voted to the extension of his country's civilization
into its remote and seemingly unattractive corners.
The distress consequent upon the British and
Indian occupation of Michigan was, as has been
said, partly relieved before the war was finished.
But through the whole summer of 1815 many of
the inhabitants needed assistance. In May, 1815,
the War Department authorized Governor Cass to
distribute $1500 among the poor of the Territory.
This trifling sum, which would hardly keep star
vation at bay, much less provide for making the
people self-supporting, he was directed to spend
with care and economy, and to draw for more if
necessary.1 The national government was not so
freighted with a surplus after the war that it could
afford to do more than dribble out its dollars.
This money, spent in flour to be given to the
Raisin settlers, was a temporary relief, but not
a remedy for the ills of the Territory.2 So many
of the people were without the fundamental ideas
of sensible farming that thrift and prosperity could
not be purchased by occasional alms. The happy
French farmers near Detroit were content with
their big orchards and shaggy ponies. The poorer

1 Archives in State Department of Michigan.

2 Ibid.

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 97

ones, brought for the time being out of actual suf
fering, began again their careless farming, making
no attempt to push back into the unbroken forests
which hemmed them in to the river's brink. Cass
proclaimed the need of American enterprise and
skill. If a few Eastern farmers could display
before the astonished eyes of the French Canadian
their habitual providence and energy, the old
wooden ploughshare and clumsy hoe might give
place to more modern implements. With this idea
in mind, Governor Cass proceeded to make its
necessity evident by direct statement of his de
sires. But the indirect method seemed, on the
whole, more efficacious. If lands were offered
freely for sale, and their attractions and value
demonstrated by successful tillage, Americans from
the older States might be attracted into the Terri
tory. His efforts towards the accomplishment of
this purpose furnish in detail an interesting study.
The following outlines are suggestive.

By an act of Congress, passed at the beginning
of the war, 2,000,000 acres were to be selected in
Michigan, to be given as bounty lands to volun
teers. Cass desired that these surveys should be
quickly made in order that at least a few settlers,
taking advantage of the gift, might make their
homes in the Territory, and introduce a larger
American element on which and with which to
work. But disappointing delays awaited him.
The surveyors, to whom had been given the task
of running the proposed meridian line from the

98 LEWIS CASS

Au Glaize River due north, beginning their task
in the early winter, returned to Ohio after a short
absence with a most lugubrious account of the
cheerless territory. Cass had been in communica
tion with the Indians, and was able to assure the
surveyors that there was no reason to fear; but
either hardship and fatigue, or dread of attack,
had so perverted their judgment of the country
that they described the interior of Michigan as
one vast morass, its monotony occasionally broken
by sandhills without the covering of attractive
vegetation. The President, assured by the com
missioner of the land office that scarcely one acre
in a thousand was fit for cultivation, advised Con
gress, in February, 1816, that the quota of bounty
lands assigned to Michigan might better be located
in other parts of the Northwest.

The people of the Eastern States, receiving this
official condemnation of the country, believed for
years that the rich, rolling lands of the southern
peninsula of Michigan were a barren waste. The
great American desert has been a very movable
spot in our geography. Cass was never entirely
successful in relieving the Territory of the weight
of this truthless description. For years it lay
like a millstone on the shoulders of the struggling
young province. Disappointed and discomfited,
the governor did not despair. Insisting upon the
good character of the soil and climate, he finally
secured, in 1818, the location of a public land
office; lands were offered for sale, and the history

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 99

of Michigan, as an American settlement, began.
Slowly it rose to a position of dignity and power,
as its resources and beauties were made known.
Some twenty years later Harriet Martineau, riding
through the Territory, charmed by the luxuriant
woods, with their beautiful openings, and the wild
flowers scattered in profusion by the roadside, ex
claimed: "Milton must have traveled in Michigan
before he wrote the garden parts of ' Paradise
Lost.' " 1 The progress of the State was slow, but
its advance was due to the tireless devotion of its
second territorial governor.

The work of Governor Cass in bringing Michi
gan out from its Gallic sloth was coupled with the
task of asserting Northwestern independence and
our national dignity in opposition to British inter
ference. In its more evident form this arrogant
intermeddling with our concerns ended about two
years after the war. But the insidious efforts of
the English authorities to render insecure the
American occupation of the Northwest continued
with more or less heartiness through the whole of
Cass's governorship, and, indeed, can be detected
until within two or three years of the Ashburton
treaty of 1842. In case of another war with
America, the Great Lakes and the States border
ing upon them would offer special inducement for
naval and military movements. An idea of the
mighty growth of the young republic permeated
the English mind but slowly. It was only during
1 Society in America, vol. i. p. 325.

100 LEWIS CASS

the Rebellion that a sense of our power was first
conveyed to the average Englishman by our enor
mous armies and our naval enterprises. In conse
quence of this long ignorance and contempt, for
years after the Northwest was a vigorous and well-
settled region, the English cultivated its scattered
tribes of Indians with remembrance (indistinct, it
is to be hoped) of the character of their services
in the war of 1812. As we can now look back
on the fruitlessness of such efforts and notice the
steady advance of the pioneer into the forests and
over the plains of the West, we can pass the fact
by with a shrug, half of amusement at the persist
ence of our fond mother country, who so long
yearned for her wayward child. But for at least
ten years after the treaty of Ghent, these efforts
were far from amusing, and, while the "era of
good feeling " was casting its genial warmth upon
the Eastern partisans, the Northwest was in danger
of having its progress retarded by hostile Indians,
whom British presents incited to animosity against
the Americans and won to loyalty and respect for
the Union Jack. Had a war with England broken
out before 1840, in all likelihood a great portion
of the Indians would have gone where British
presents and brilliant tinsel called them. These
dangers Cass fully appreciated ; and the insult to
American independence and American humanity
he deeply resented. So keenly did he feel the
injustice and perversity of England that he never
recovered from his suspicions of her. His dislike

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 101

of her aggrandizement was natural, and, under
the circumstances, justifiable; it colored his whole
public career. With annoying frequency, through
the whole of his governorship, arose these evi
dences of British influence. Nothing but his own
good sense, promptness, and bravery, checked the
insolence of the red man thus encouraged and
abetted, and rendered the Northwest habitable and
peaceful.

It has been suggested by our general historians
that England entered into the treaty of peace of
1783 with the hope that our loose-knit confederacy
would soon burst its bonds and give her a chance
to absorb the repentant, disconsolate States singly ;
but our people have perhaps not realized the lon
gevity of that hope. A series of incidents, which
I shall not attempt to give in chronological con
nection with the other events of Cass's governor
ship, will substantiate the general statements al
ready made.

The bold, ill-concealed interference with our
affairs and the projecting of British authority into
our territory are partly attributable to the reck
lessness of local authority, partly, it must be
thought, to that widespread feeling of our helpless
ness, which prompted adherence to the search and
impressment doctrine long after the war of 1812.
Vessels were stopped and searched on their way
to Detroit as late as the middle of 1816. Gover
nor Cass collected sworn testimony, and transmit
ted it to Washington. Expostulating with the

102 LEWIS CASS

British authorities, he insisted that the conduct
of the boarding officers was arrogant and imperi
ous, and that such actions were contrary to the
law of nations and destructive of friendly relations
between the two governments. His remonstrances
apparently stopped these open violations of our
rights upon the Lakes.

Before this, there were various troubles with
the soldiers in Canada. A series of letters 1 which
passed between Governor Cass and Colonel James,
in command of the forces across the river, discloses
these difficulties and the unwarranted attitude as
sumed by the English. The ill feeling and law
lessness of the Indians, some of whom still re
mained in Canada and received sustenance from
the public stores, were continually exhibited in
petty acts of annoyance and in deeds of violence,
for which there was no excuse. The agent of our
government, left temporarily in charge of stores
at Amherstburg, was insulted and assaulted by
these lawless braves. There was no strong reason
for not sending them away and ceasing to recog
nize them as allies; but the English authorities,
in excuse, pleaded the force of compassion and the
difficulty of controlling them. On the other side,
it cannot truthfully be asserted that the Americans
were always courteous and honest. The stragglers
in a disorganized country, demoralized by war,
are apt to cause annoyances to a hated enemy so
temptingly near as were the troops and people in

1 In the Archives of the State Department at Lansing.

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 103

Canada. But while the Indians were still kept
in idleness and mischief by the presents from the
British, Cass was authorized,1 May 25, 1815, not
to give the Indians presents, inasmuch as the
reason for doing so had passed away. To our
former enemies the necessities appeared quite dif
ferent.

In September, 1815, nine months after the close
of the war, a robbery and desertion from a British
man-of-war gave an opportunity for an offensive
violation of our sovereignty. A lieutenant and
boat's crew, sent out to arrest the culprit, sought
him on American soil. They prosecuted the search
arrogantly, entering and examining several houses,
and evidently conducting themselves in such a
domineering spirit that the citizens were aroused
to resistance. One resident of Detroit at the time
related that the English "placed sentinels on our
highway, one of which fired at a citizen."2 The
deserter for whom they were searching was seized ;
but meanwhile the behavior of the invading party
had so exasperated the citizens that they flew to
arms, and turned the tables upon the intruders by
arresting the lieutenant and conducting him with
due pomp to the fort, while the boat's crew hur
ried their captive on board their vessel. Colonel
Miller gave up jurisdiction in the matter to Gov
ernor Cass, as the head of the civil authority.

1 Letter to Cass from War Department, Archives, Lansing1.

2 Niles, vol. ix. p. 104. Also ibid. p. 187. Letters in State
Department, Lansing.

104 LEWIS CASS

Commodore Owen demanded the return of the
lieutenant. Cass answered at some length. With
only a half-starved Territory at his back he knew
how to resent contempt and neglect for well-known
principles of law.

Lieutenant Vidal was arrested and brought to me for
apprehending forcibly a person in the Territory and
conveying him on board a British armed vessel. In so
doing he has violated the laws of the country, and sub
jected himself to the penalty it prescribes for such con
duct. Permit me to observe that your demand for Lieu
tenant Vidal, without offering to restore the person seized
and transported by him, was not to have been expected.
There are no treaty stipulations between the United
States and Great Britain for the restoration of persons
deserting from the service of the one and seeking refuge
in the territory of the other. Such an arrangement was
proposed by our commissioners, but not acceded to. The
subject, therefore, rests upon the general principles of
international law, and I need not remind you, sir, that
that law gives no right to a British officer to enter the
territory of the United States and forcibly transport
thence any person, whatever may be his description or
of whatever crime he may be accused. . . . But, sir, the
subject involves considerations of greater interest than
those personally affecting the offender. An armed force
in the service of her Britannic majesty has apprehended
a person within this Territory. ... It becomes, there
fore, my duty to request of you his immediate return.1

The circumstances under which this intrusion
had taken place partly extenuated it; but it was

1 Letters in Archives of State Department of Michigan.

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY lor,

a transference to land of that abominated claim,
that deserters from English ships could be seized
and forced back to their allegiance, a claim which,
when carried out with exasperating additions, had
inflamed our country, and driven us into a war
for the defense of our self-respect. Cass was
determined to take a bold stand upon principle.
Vidal was imprisoned, tried, convicted, and fined.
An appeal for his release was sent to Washington
by the English authorities. Our government ex
pressly ratified the action of Governor Cass ; but,
in order to avoid possible complications and ill-
feeling, advised the return of the money received
as a fine, if it had not been covered into the trea
sury. The advice came too late. The hungry
coffers of the Territory had quickly absorbed such
an unexpected addition to their store.1

Another instance, occurring in October, 1815,
illustrates more clearly the desires and the assump
tion of the British. Colonel James, in command
at Sandwich, wrote to Cass, complaining that an
Indian had been "murdered under most aggrava
ting circumstances, in a canoe close to Grosse Isle,
by a shot fired from an American boat." "I need
not point out to you," said the choleric colonel,
"the line of conduct necessary on this occasion.
I shall direct an inquest to be held to-morrow
morning, and I beg leave to remind you that the
murder has been committed on the body of an
unoffending Indian, and my pointing out the cus-

1 Letters in Archives of State Department of Michigan.

106 LEWIS CASS

torn of the savages would be unnecessary in the
present instance."

The last allusion, a petty threat, awakened the
ever-watchful dignity of the young governor. He
informed Colonel James that he would make in
quiries. "If a murder has been committed by
American citizens, and the perpetrators can be
detected, they will suffer the punishment which
the laws of civilized nations provide for the of
fense. In an application of this kind it was un
necessary to allude to the Indian custom of retali
ating upon innocent individuals injuries which any
of their tribe may have received. The laws of
the country operate with rigid impartiality upon
all offenders, and confident I am that no dread of
the consequences will ever induce the courts of
justice to punish the innocent or screen the guilty." l
An examination speedily proved that the Indian
had been killed not only in self-defense, but on
American territory. "The event," wrote Cass to
James, "was connected with the predatory system
pursued by Indians on the islands at the mouth
of the river, and which, if not checked, will be
attended with still more disastrous consequences.
The Indian was killed within territorial jurisdic
tion of the United States, and a British officer
has, therefore, no right to ask, nor ought an
American to give an explanation."2

In connection with the same event came a letter

1 Letters in Archives of State Department of Michigan.

2 Ibid.

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 107

from James, inclosing one from a British Indian
agent, which set up claims made by the Indians
for some horses stolen from them by the Ameri
cans. Cass answered in a trenchant letter quietly,
but sharply, asking that questions which did not
concern Canadian authority or jurisdiction might
be left out of consideration by over-zealous offi
cials. "We do not acknowledge in principle, nor
shall we ever admit in practice, the right of any
foreign authority to interfere in any arrangement
or discussion between us and the Indians living
within our territory." That statement was the
basis for the work of his whole governorship. His
rights and duties were logically presented, — should
horses be stolen in Upper Canada and brought
upon American soil, all reasonable efforts would
be made to return them. But in this instance
such was not the case. "In application of these
principles, I have only to observe that Stony
Island, whence these horses were stated to have
been taken, is in this Territory, that the horses
were not taken from there to Canada, and that
a British officer has consequently no right to
make a claim in behalf of the Indians on the sub
ject,," 1 This application, of no special importance
in itself, was part of a general programme for
retaining the affection and dependence of the In
dian, for perpetuating his distrust of the Ameri
cans, for rendering his presence in the Northwest
a menace to American settlement, and for giving

1 Niles's Register, vol. ix. p. 242.

108 LEWIS CASS

him an exalted idea of the friendship, dignity,
and power of the British government. On Octo
ber 18 there issued from the magistrate of the
western district of Canada a circular announcing
that a Kickapoo Indian had been "willfully mur
dered," and offering a reward of five hundred
dollars for the capture of the perpetrators of the
deed. This insidious announcement, shrewdly cal
culated to attract the Indians and possibly in
tended to induce some avaricious Americans to
transport their fellow-citizens to Canada for pun
ishment, was deeply resented by Governor Cass.
He at once published a stirring counter-proclama
tion, stating that the Indian was killed on Ameri
can soil, that the affair was entirely without the
jurisdiction of the officious magistrates, and that
such pretensions were unfounded and unjustifiable.
He called upon the citizens of the Territory to
repel by force any attempt "to apprehend any
person on the west side of the middle water com
munication " between Lakes Huron and Erie.

A letter to Secretary Monroe from Cass, in ex
planation of this affair, charges that such difficul
ties were due to the "ungovernable temper of
James and to designs, which every day more fully
discloses, of using every incident which occurs as
a means of acquiring and strengthening their in
fluence over the Indians. . . . On the other side
of the river the design is avowed of serving their
process upon any part of the river or upon any
islands of it. The tenor and the object of their

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 109

measures is to teach the Indians to look to them
selves for protection. Much sensation is thereby
excited, and it is surprising with what eager
ness they gave credit to the report that the British
would punish the man who killed their country
man." l

In this letter he called attention to the fact that
dollars, the American currency, instead of pounds,
were offered in the circular as a reward, with the
intent, evidently, of influencing persons in Ameri
can territory. Even more explicitly were the pre
tensions of England stated by Colonel James a
few days after this controversy. He acknowledged
the receipt of the stolen horses, which had been
returned through the generous efforts of Cass,
and added a few telling words. The treaty of
Ghent, he asserted, amply provided for the Indians
who had been in alliance with Great Britain;
all the tribes, even those whose country extended
as far as the Mississippi and who were included
in the treaty, looked to the English for a ful
fillment of an "agreement which insured to them
ingress and egress through all parts of America,
the same as previous to the year 1811. "2 The
acts of the British Indian agents for many years
after this speak more loudly than words of a
design to protect their past allies and to keep
a guardian hand on all, as far west as the Missis
sippi.

1 Letter in Archives of State Department of Michigan.

2 Letters in Archives of State Department of Michigan.

110 LEWIS CASS

The patriotic zeal of General Cass was applauded
in the East as his deeds of bold opposition were
recounted in the papers. But few have gathered
any idea of the continuance of this trouble, which
presented itself in its most virulent form in the
first three years of his administration. A study
of the Indian treaties which he negotiated shows
him continually trying to win the affection and
respect of many who were inclined to believe in
the power and generosity of the British govern
ment. The radius of his influence was constantly
lengthening, and the fear and respect for the power
which he represented increased. When he began
his governorship, he strove to overcome Indian
antipathy in the very neighborhood of Detroit.
Twelve years later in northern Wisconsin and
Minnesota he relieved the Indians from want, and
with gentle reproof took from the necks of theii1
chieftains their British medals, and placed in their
stead a miniature of their great and mighty "Fa
ther at Washington." But in spite of the widen
ing circle of successful management, he cannot be
said to have been entirely relieved of his task until
he left the Territory. In June, 1819, George
Boyd, the Indian agent at Mackinaw, wrote to
Cass: "A large body of Indians took their depar
ture hence three days ago for Drummond's Island
for the purpose of receiving, it is said, large dis
bursements of Indian presents at the hand of the
Duke of Richmond, and perhaps with a view to
influence their attendance on the treaty about to

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 111

be held by your excellency the ensuing fall at
Saginah."1 In May, 1822, the same agent wrote
again 011 this interesting question : " At all events,
I trust that the stand now taken by the govern
ment . . . will not be lightly abandoned. To
temporize with them, as regards their intercourse
with the British posts, will, in the end, prove as
injurious to them as it will be disgraceful to us,
and I see no better time to draw the strong line
between American and British Indians than the
present. Whenever I shall have met them fully
in council, the result shall be immediately commu
nicated to your excellency."2 Other words in this
letter suggest the present fear of English influence,
and the danger that, should another war occur,
the Indians would be attracted to our open-handed
enemies.

One or two other facts will add to the evidence
of British intrigue and intrusion. December 4,
1823, nearly ten years after Cass had been ordered
to cease furnishing presents to the tribes lingering
around Detroit, we find him writing to Calhoun,
the secretary of war, in a tone not of the utmost
confidence, and as if the troubles were well known
and discouraging, that he will use every effort
which prudence dictates to prevent the Indians
from passing through the country to Maiden to
receive gifts, and that a celebrated half-breed has
just gone through for the purpose of extending

1 Boyd Papers, in the Library of Wisconsin Historical Society.

2 Ibid.

112 LEWIS CASS

British influence among the Indians.1 In Septem
ber, 1829, Niles quoted from the Canadian "Co
lonial Advocate" the statement that "about sixty
tons of Indian presents are on their way to Am-
herstburg and Drummond's Island ; they are chiefly
distributed among British Indians, but great num
bers of Indians from the United States territories
also partake. Fifty or sixty tons more of presents
are on their way up the Alciope. There is no
doubt but that they cost the British government
an immense sum annually." A large body of In
dians at that time passed through northern Ohio
on their way to the field of tinsel and brass. The
sage Niles remarks mildly that this "policy of the
British government should be checked by prompt
measures." One of the scenes familiar to the
people of Detroit, the remembrance of which has
not yet passed away, is that of the tippling, ca
rousing red men, who, loaded with knickknacks
and gewgaws in Canada, came across the river,
and, exchanging what of their treasures they
might to obtain some beloved firewater, held their
maudlin encampment on the attractive camping
ground below the city.

In the north, near the head of Lake Huron,
these gifts were made to American Indians as late
as 1839. Had the Caroline aft'air brought on
the war which at one time seemed imminent, the
tomahawk and scalping-knife might have done
their execution ; or, had the northeastern boundary

1 Archives, Governor's Office, Lansing. Michigan.

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 113

trouble been more sanguinary than the "battle of
the maps," the war-whoop might again have been
heard through northern Michigan and Wisconsin.
Without presuming to cast the horoscope of a hy
pothetical past, one may insist that these assertions
have more than a visionary foundation. Mrs.
Jameson, in her "Winter Studies and Summer
Rambles in Canada," has left us a graphic, art
less, and interesting picture of a great Indian
council held upon Great Manitoulin Island, in
which the policy of the English government is well
presented. She prefaces her description by a con
fession that the assembling of all Indians within
British territory "who are our allies and receive
our annual presents seems reasonable and politic."
By this time it was the policy of Great Britain to
gather the Indians together from the northern
part of the United States, to settle them in British
territory, and bind them to British allegiance by
annual bestowal of gifts. Can this be charged to
sheer philanthropy, to a desire to take the poor
red man from our jurisdiction, and to lay the bur
den of his sustenance upon the grumbling taxpayer
at home, to a willingness to increase the weight
of the great Indian problem to the British and
Canadian governments?

In the council of 1837, as described by Mrs.
Jameson, the Indians were informed that their
"Great Father the King" would continue to give
presents to the Indians of Canada, but that only
"for three years, including the present delivery,"

114 LEWIS CASS

should the tribes within the limits of the United
States be so treated ; the United States, the agent
said, justly complained against this policy, which
gave "arms and ammunition to Indians of the
United States, who are fighting against the gov
ernment under which they live;" the people of
England grumbled at the great expense. "But,
children!" he continued, "let it be distinctly un
derstood that the British government has not come
to the determination to cease to give presents to
the Indians of the United States. On the con
trary, the government of your Great Father will
be most happy to do so, provided they live in the
British empire ; " l the giving of presents to those
residing without the jurisdiction of England would
"bring on war between your Great Father and
the Long Knives." This needs no interpretation.
At least as late as the Ashburton treaty England
had on our northern frontier a body of dependent
allies, a band of savage mercenaries bought by
beads and calico, ready at her word to collect in
war-paint and feathers, and to enter upon the
dastardly horrors which Michigan had learned to
fear. It was due to the efforts of Governor Cass
that many were brought to fear and respect him,
and that so many were turned from their devotion
to the implacable mother of our country.

Observing this work of Governor Gass with the
Indians, we find a career of monotonous responsi-

1 Mrs. Jameson's Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Can
ada, vol. ii. p. 289.

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 115

bility broken at intervals by romantic and pictur
esque incidents. Until April, 1816, Michigan in
cluded all the land east of a line drawn through

O

the middle of Lake Michigan and north of a line
drawn from the southern end of that lake eastward
until it intersected Lake Erie. In 1816 Indiana
was admitted to the Union with a slice pared from
the southwestern portion of Michigan. After
April, 1818, all land east of the Mississippi and
north of the northern line of Illinois was under
the supervision of Governor Cass. For the re
maining years of his governorship he had control
of this vast region. He was ex officio superintend
ent of Indian affairs in the territory. He had,
in addition, for a great portion of the time, charge
of agencies at Chicago, Fort Wayne, Piqua, and
other sub-agencies. In the capacity of special
agent and commissioner he came into contact with
the Indians of the whole Northwest. He entered
into a score of treaties of such importance, and
his personal influence was so great, that there is
little exaggeration in claiming that the actual pos
session of the Northwest was due to his exertions.
He traveled through the wilderness, enduring hard
ship and fatigue, everywhere and always studying
how he might open up all the vast region for peace
ful settlement, how he might win the red man to
civilization and comfort. He was the first white
man to ride over the Indian trail which became
the great highway between Detroit and Chicago.
The merry voyageurs carried him in their bark

116 LEWIS CASS

canoes over the lake and stream until the North
west, with its resources and splendid possibilities,
was familiar to him. For weeks at a time he was
absent from home on long voyages, accompanied
by one or two companions of his liking and by
the hardy boatmen whose steady, swinging stroke
carried him over the waves of the Great Lakes.
It is still remembered how the ringing boat-song
would awaken the little village on his return, as
the long canoe came flying down the river, and
the cheery boatmen, bending to their work, lifted
their voices in measured cadences of weird and
fascinating music.

Duncan McArthur was appointed in 1817 to
cooperate with Cass in obtaining land in northern
Ohio and Indiana. By a successful treaty this
commission acquired for settlement a great deal
of land, and obtained the grant of three sections
for the " College at Detroit," a gift of value, after
ward, for higher education in Michigan. The
following year Cass met the Indians at St. Mary's,
in Ohio, and entered into a fruitful negotiation
for a vast stretch of territory. At Saginaw, in
1819, a large portion of Michigan was secured,
and at Chicago, in 1821, he obtained all the south
western part of the State of Michigan, south of
the Grand River. In the latter part of Novem
ber, 1819, he wrote to Secretary Calhoun for au
thority to make an extended tour along the south
ern shore of Lake Superior, thence to the source
of the Mississippi, and home by way of Prairie du

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 117

Chien and Green Bay. He desired to investigate
the Indian tribes, to induce them no longer to go
to Canada for presents, to obtain plots of ground
at Sault de Ste. Marie and other places, and to
investigate the mineral resources of the country,
with special reference to copper, which was re
ported to exist in abundance. "All that will be
required," he said, "is an ordinary birch bark
canoe, and permission to employ a competent
number of Canadian boatmen." He suggested,
in addition, an "officer of engineers to make a
correct chart," and "some person acquainted with
zoology, botany, and mineralogy." The plan was
received favorably at Washington. A topographi
cal engineer was attached to the expedition. Mr.
Henry R. Schoolcraft was selected to conduct the
scientific researches, and has left an account of
the incidents and discoveries of the journey in his
book entitled "Discovery of the Sources of the
Mississippi River."

The voyagers, in three birch canoes, left De
troit, May 24, amid the shouts and acclamations
of the people, who were deeply interested in the
efforts of Governor Cass. Schoolcraft gives a
vivid description of the strange scene. The In
dians, who had been secured as the hunters of
the expedition, were in one canoe, vainly striving
to pass by the hardy Canadians, who, in their
turn, starting their familiar boat-song, began their
steady strokes, and soon gave evidence of their
firmer muscle and more enduring nerve. The large

118 LEWIS CASS

orchards and windmills, and the quaint houses
lining the river for miles, added a foreign flavor.
Skirting the storm-battered shores and long-wind
ing beaches of Lake Huron, the expedition, after a
journey of more than three hundred miles, came
to Mackinaw on June 6. A few days later they
reached the Sault de Ste. Marie, where it was
Cass's intent to obtain possession of a piece of
ground formerly conveyed to the French, our right
to which the Indians had acknowledged in various
treaties.

The braves, evidently restless and out of humor,
assembled to meet the Americans. Arrayed in
their best attire, and many of them adorned with
British medals, they seated themselves with even
more than their wonted solemnity and dignity,
and prepared to hear what Governor Cass desired.
At first pretending not to know of any French
grants, they finally intimated that our government
might be permitted to occupy the place if we did
not use it as a military station. The governor,
perceiving that their independence and boldness
verged on impudence and menace, answered deci
sively that as surely as the "rising sun would set,
so surely would there be an American garrison
sent to that point, whether they received the grant
or not." The excitement which had been ready
to break forth now displayed itself. The chiefs
disputed among themselves, some evidently coun
seling moderation, others favoring hostilities. A
tall and stately -looking chieftain, dressed in a

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 119

British uniform with epaulets, lost patience with
moderation and delay. Striking his spear into
the ground, he drew it forth again, and, kicking
away the presents that lay scattered about, strode
in high dudgeon out of the assembly.

The Indian camp was on a small hill a few
hundred yards from that of the Americans. The
dissatisfied chiefs went directly to their lodges,
and in a moment a British flag was flying in the
very faces of the little company of white men.
The soldiers were at once ordered under arms.
Every one expected an immediate attack, for the
Indians, greatly outnumbering the Americans, had
not disguised their insolence and contempt. In
an instant Governor Cass took his resolution.
Rejecting the offers of those who volunteered to
accompany him, with no weapon in his hands and
only his interpreter beside him, he walked straight
to the middle of the Indian camp, tore down the
British flag, and trampled it under his feet.1
Then addressing the astonished and even panic-
stricken braves, he warned them that two flags of
different nations could not fly over the same terri
tory, and should they raise any but the American
flag, the United States would put its strong foot
upon them and crush them. He then turned upon
his heel and walked back to his own tent, carrying
the British ensign with him. An hour of indeci
sion among the Indians ensued. Their camp was
quickly cleared of women and children, an indica-

1 Trowbridge's account, Wisconsin Historical Collection.

120 LEWIS CASS

tion that a battle was in immediate prospect. The
Americans, looking to their guns, listened for the
war-whoop and awaited attack. But the intre
pidity of Governor Cass had struck the Indians
with amazement. It showed a rare knowledge of

o

Indian character, of which his own companions
had not dreamed.1 Subdued by the boldness and
decision of this action, the hostile chiefs forgot
their swaggering confidence, and in a few hours
signed the treaty which had been offered them.
The friends of Governor Cass who witnessed the
scene never wearied of describing it and of com
menting on his bravery. One whose knowledge
of Indian character was almost equal to that of
the governor was wont to remark that for fair,
frank courage in the face of danger this action
surpassed all others he had ever known.2 The
habitual courage and dignity of Governor Cass,
coupled with honesty and mercy, won from the
Indians a respect and even love for their "Great
Father at Detroit," and gradually forced westward
and northward allegiance to Britain and undue
respect for her power.

From the Sault de Ste. Marie the party skirted
the southern shores of Lake Superior to its western
end. By way of the Fond du Lac or St. Louis
River, and by means of various portages, they
reached the Mississippi, and proceeded up it a

1 Schoolcraft's Summary Narrative, etc., p. 80.

2 Mr. C. C. Trowbridge, companion and secretary of the gov
ernor.

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 121

distance estimated at three hundred and fifty miles
to what was known as Red Cedar Lake, but which
Schoolcraft on his map and in his report named
Cass Lake, in token of the "energy and enlight
ened zeal of the gentleman who led the expedi
tion." Had it not been for the low state of the
water, General Cass would in all probability have
discovered the true source of the Mississippi as
early as 1820. From this point the company pad
dled between the beautiful banks of the mighty
river to Prairie du Chien, and thence made then
way across Wisconsin to Green Bay. Here Gen
eral Cass caused a series of investigations to be
conducted for the purpose of discovering the truth
or falsity of the theory that there were tides in
the Great Lakes as in the ocean. Experiments
seemed to prove complete irregularity in the rise
and fall of the water-fluctuations, which were in
all probability due to the wind and the currents
of the lakes. In later years Cass made more
extended tests, and published the results of his
studies. At Green Bay the company divided, one
part going north, the other, including the gover
nor, to Chicago, whence he proceeded overland to
Detroit by the old Indian trail. The expedition
had been a most successful and profitable one.
Mr. Schoolcraft, in his report to the secretary of
war, affirmed that the mineral resources of the
country were great, and called special attention
to the indications of wonderful copper and iron
deposits. The Indians were visited, and given

122 LEWIS CASS

an object lesson in the daring and resolution of
the Americans. The topography of the country,
described with some detail, furnished basis for
further explorations and induced greater immigra
tions.

During these years the internal political affairs
of the Territory were not neglected by Governor
Cass. When he came into office, the first system
of government established under the Ordinance of
1787 was in vogue. The governor and judges
were omnipotent, save as they were restrained by
the general terms of their fundamental charter.
The citizens had taken no interest in the manage
ment of the Territory. The habitant could not
conceive of the necessity or the pleasure of inter
ference with the divine right of government. But
their new governor intended that democratic prin
ciples should hold sway as widely as possible under
his guidance. The people were tempted into self-
government. The laws were codified and pub
lished, and, so arranged, have since been known
as the "Cass Code." Counties were laid out as
rapidly as convenience directed. As the Ameri
cans came into the Territory in greater numbers,
the governor allowed the settlers of each locality
to suggest names of persons to be appointed to
local offices, and thus practically deprived himself
of a prerogative which he might have used for his
own ends. He adhered with tenacity to the doc
trine that the people should have a direct voice in
appointments and in other political affairs in the

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 123

Territory. In the spring of 1818, the people were
invited to decide by a general vote whether or not
to proceed to the semi-representative government
permitted by the Ordinance. But the lethargic
French and others, who appreciated the good they
had, voted against change. For five years the
governor and judges retained their autocratic posi
tion, at the end of which time the second form
was established; a council of nine came into exist
ence, the members of which were selected by the
President and confirmed by the Senate from eigh
teen names presented as the choice of the people.
In 1819 the right to elect a delegate to Congress
was granted. In 1825 thirteen councilmen were
allowed, and in 1827 the people chose the whole
number. The judicial system was gradually elabo
rated to meet the growing needs of the Territory.

The industrial condition of the Territory rapidly
improved after 1818. Cass, appreciating the needs
of the people, urged upon Congress the building
of a road around the end of Lake Erie, as a high
way for commerce and an actual necessity for
military movements in case of war. National aid
was secured. A portion of the small resources
of the Territory was appropriated for making a
suitable wagon road to Chicago. The stagnant
province, even before 1820, took new life, showing
by the census a marked increase in population.
Before 1830 the barren waste, Michigan, was act
ually exporting flour to the East, and there was
an air of comfort 011 her borders and an appear-

124 LEWIS CASS

ance of thrift along her inland roads, which spoke
of the success of Governor Cass's efforts to attract
eastern knowledge and energy. By the third census
of the century Michigan was shown to have over
30,000 people, and to have just claims for speedy
admittance as a State. The little frontier settle
ments which Governor Cass was summoned to de
fend in 1813 "had extended and spread to the
dimensions of a commonwealth under his judicious
and statesmanlike care and nurture."1 The set
tlers in Michigan were from New York and Mas
sachusetts. Many of those from the former State
had previously lived in New England. In conse
quence, the political spirit which was being breathed
into the nostrils of Michigan was the spirit of local
self-government in church and state, and in many
crises of our history she has given evidence of her
parentage. Cass encouraged in every way the
growth of political feeling among the people. He
was a "democrat by conviction, and not merely in
a party sense."2 "In proportion as all govern
ments recede from the people, they become liable
to abuse. Whatever authority can be conveniently
exercised in primary assemblies may be deposited
there with safety." 3 This was his published creed.
Intellectually and socially the Territory made
advances. Governor Cass extended his democracy
from politics to learning. Appreciating that reli-

1 Michigan, by Thomas Mclntyre Cooley, p. 203.

2 Ibid., p. 205.

8 Journal of the Legislative Council of Michigan, 1826.

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 125

gion, morality, and knowledge were "necessary to
good government and the happiness of mankind,"
he assisted the church and gave his public encour
agement to the school. The percentage of illiter
acy in Michigan was very large in its early years
as an American province; but in accordance with
the comprehensive suggestion of Governor Cass,
a broad and generous basis for public education
was established, on which has been reared a school
system which has become the model for the newer
States of the West, and stands to-day as the most
perfect embodiment of popular American educa
tion in our country. The foundation for this
structure bears marks of the broad sympathetic
democracy of General Cass. He was a Jefferson-
ian in all that related to education, and used his
influence for popularizing the school-book and the
ballot.

"Of all purposes," he declared, "to which a
revenue derived from the people can be applied
under a government emanating from the people,
there is none more interesting in itself, nor more
important in its effects, than the maintenance of
a public and general course of moral and mental
discipline. . . . Many republics have preceded us
in the progress of human society; but they have
disappeared, leaving behind them little besides
the history of their follies and dissensions to serve
as a warning to their successors in the career of
self-government. Unless the foundation of such
governments is laid in the virtue and intelligence

126 LEWIS CASS

of the community, they must be swept away by
the first commotion to which political circumstances
may give birth. Whenever education is diffused
among the people generally, they will appreciate
the value of free institutions; and as they have
the power, so must they have the will to maintain
them. It appears to me that a plan may be de
vised which will not press too heavily upon the
means of the country, and which will insure a
competent portion of education to all youth in the
Territory." 1 Such views as these were in advance
of the thinking of the time. Platitudes upon en
lightenment and liberty grew in plenty ; but these
practical propositions of Governor Cass mark an
era in the history of Michigan and of popular
education in the United States.

In Indian affairs Cass was not idle in the decade
between 1820 and 1830. The treaty of Chicago
has already been mentioned and its importance
suggested. Other negotiations were soon under
taken. For a long time the constant warfare be
tween the Sacs, Foxes, Sioux, and other tribes in
the West, had given vexation to the general gov
ernment and endangered the peace of the frontier.
In company with Governor Clark of Missouri,
Cass met the Indians at Prairie du Chien in
August, 1825, and secured a treaty determining
boundaries and promising peace. The following
year, accompanied by Colonel Thomas L. Mc-

1 Journal of Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan,

1826.

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 127

Kenney, he journeyed to Fond du Lac, and en
tered there into negotiations with the Chippewas
for peace with the other tribes. The Indians were
encouraged by direct aid to lead civilized lives,
money was promised them for a school, and the
United States was granted permission to search
for minerals throughout the North. Colonel Mc-
Kenney's "Tour to the Lakes"1 contains the inci
dents of the journey, related in the charming, ro
mantic, personal style of fifty years ago. Other
treaties were obtained this year by the governor
in the more southern portion of the Northwest.

It was necessary to make still further arrange
ments for determining definite boundaries between
the tribes in the West. In the summer of 1827
General Cass was absent from Detroit for two
months, engaged in one of the most important
and perilous of his undertakings. Proceeding to
Green Bay, with Colonel McKenney as associate
commissioner, he found that the Winnebagoes,
whom he had expected to meet with the other
tribes, were not there. Humors that they had
put on the war paint were in the air, and Cass de
termined as usual upon crushing out hostilities by
prompt and decisive action. He neither delayed
nor sent a messenger. He manned his canoe,
and made his way up the Fox and down the
Wisconsin rivers, for the purpose of discovering
the actual condition of things and of communica
ting with the forces at St. Louis by the quickest

1 Baltimore, 1827.

128 LEWIS CASS

possible method. On his way down the "Wiscon
sin he landed boldly at a Winnebago village.
There were indications of hostile movements. He
remonstrated with the chiefs and warned them of
the results of war. As he turned to leave, a
young brave aimed his gun at him and pulled the
trigger. The gun missed fire, however, and his
life was saved. The older chiefs, realizing what
the death of Governor Cass would involve, seized
the offender and soundly upbraided him; but
smouldering discontent was evident. The canoe
hurried on its journey to the south and west.
Evidences of war became more clear. The citizens
of Prairie du Chien, in momentary dread of at
tack, had crowded together and hastily thrown up
some rude defenses. Alarm, consternation, and
confusion appeared throughout the mining district
of northern Illinois; the roads were lined with the
frantic and fleeing people who had dared to enter
the wilderness in the delirium of the lead fever of
1826-27. The little village of Galena was filled
with the settlers of the outlying districts, and
overwhelmed by disorder and panic. Governor
Cass quickly organized the people for defense at
Prairie du Chien; brought confidence to Galena
by his energy and decision; collected volunteers
at the latter place, and sent troops immediately
up the river where there was more actual danger.
He then hastened on to St. Louis to confer with
General Atkinson, who at once moved northward
with a force sufficient to overawe the Indians,

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 129

who, finding themselves overtaken in their designs,
abandoned their hostile purposes with ill-concealed
chagrin. The promptness of the governor's action
prevented a devastating war over the whole north
western frontier. He returned to Green Bay, by
way of Chicago, and completed the negotiations
he had intended to conduct. The incidents of his
flying trip to St. Louis, the light canoe flitting
through the dark night down the Mississippi, the
silence, the wildness of the scenery, the intense ex
citement and anxiety lest his efforts should be too
late, made the deepest impression upon his own
imagination and memory. Years after, in the
palace of St. Cloud, the scene came back to him
with all its vividness, and he compared the timid
Seine with the mighty Mississippi and the even
more mighty Missouri, remembering how he was
whirled along through the night on a race for
peace and the lives of his people.1

During these latter years he had opportunity
for literary work and for a more general interest
in politics. He was summoned to cooperate with
Governor Clark in outlining for the government a
plan for the treatment of the Indians and for the
rearrangement of the concerns of the Indian depart
ment. The Territory, now independent and eager
for advancement, appreciated his work and honored
him. In 1831 he was called to leave his tasks in
the Northwest and to take his part in the broader
fields of national politics and administration.
1 Three Hours at St. Cloud, by an American (L. Cass).

130 LEWIS CASS

The great factor in his successful administration
was honesty. That there was scrupulous honesty
in the business of the Territory needs no proof.
But fair, honorable dealing with the Indians was
a rarer virtue, and in this he never faltered. He
was wont to say in after years that he never broke
his word to an Indian and never expected to find
that the red man had broken his. Every exertion
was made to have the funds and the allowances
ready on the day upon which they had been pro
mised. Promptness and boldness in action, a firm
self-reliance, a presumption that the power of the
United States was mighty and would be obeyed,
appealed to the Indian sense of awe and reverence.
Treaties were negotiated with fairness, and he
warned the general government that if benignant
peace was to smile upon the Northwest, the letter
of the agreement must be fulfilled. He did not
seek to secure the greatest possible advantage in
the present without looking to the future or with
out considering the equities of the case. He in
formed the department at Washington that neither
justice nor the policy of far-seeing wisdom would
prompt him or them to take advantage of tempo
rary wants and sufferings. He not only strove to
carry out every promise or understanding with an
Indian in the most liberal fashion, but he included
in his treaties plans for the betterment of the race
and for attracting them to peace and civilization.
Their beloved fire-water was' the Indians' curse.
He took every available opportunity to induce

GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 131

them to give up its use. At Prairie du Chien he
addressed the assembled braves on the sin and
folly of drunkenness, and to point his moral by
showing that stinginess was not actuating him,
he broke in the heads of several casks and allowed
the liquor to rush out upon the ground amid the
despairing cries of the thirsty warriors. His keen
eye was ever on the watch for those who were
seeking to violate the law, cheat the childish red
man, and give him the cursed drink.

The respect and even affection which the In
dians had for their "Great Father at Detroit " was
often manifested, and once felt was not forgotten.
Twenty -five years after his governorship was ended,
he came unexpectedly into a meeting of Indian
chiefs in Detroit; in a moment, forgetting the
object of their conference and losing their stoical
dignity, they crowded around him to grasp the
hand from which they had received so many fa
vors.1 For he had always stood ready to help
them and to treat them with kindness. During
many years after the war, when they had once
been brought into subjection, they were continu
ally in Detroit, often with frank curiosity or open
friendship making their way unannounced into
his house, and expecting to be met with courtesy.
They made large and unexpected demands upon
a generous hospitality ; for the British across the
river would often welcome the chiefs to their tables,
and it would not do for the governor, who appreci-

1 Smith, Life and Times of Lewis Cass, p. 115.

132 LEWIS CASS

ated their sensitive natures, to rebuff them openly.
His tact, careful study of Indian nature, his punc
tilious respect for his word, his dignity, his kind
ness, all display themselves in brilliant contrast
with many of the brutal dishonesties which have
given "Ramona" and such sentimentality more
than a fanciful foundation.

CHAPTER V

SECRETARY OF WAR

THE dissolution of President Jackson's first cabi
net occasioned great excitement throughout the
country. It was considered high-handed and au
tocratic. Former presidents had retained their
cabinet officers, except when necessity dictated a
change, and only in the case of the elder Adams
had there been anything like a sudden reorganiza
tion after the administration had fairly begun.
This reconstruction, however, was arranged with
some skill, with something of the deftness that
might be expected where the shrewd Van Buren
was concerned — so deftly, indeed, that it was not
at first evident why the resignations were given
or what was the animus of the whole affair. In
fact, two causes cooperated. The President dis
covered, by a disclosure from the piqued Craw
ford, that Calhoun, to whose interests part of the
cabinet was devoted, had some twelve years before
been in favor of punishing him for his conduct in
the Seminole difficulty, and for his unwarranted
proceedings in Florida. Jackson never forgave.
From this time forth Calhoun was his enemy.
The general's mind was so constituted that no one

134 LEWIS CASS

could occupy middle ground ; whoever was not for
him was against him. Those in the cabinet who
could consider with any degree of complacency the
probable succession of the Carolinian to the presi
dency were, in his view, unfit to be his advisers,
and absolutely incapable of fair and honorable
service. The warrior President was in a contin
ual contest with persons. Persons' principles,
not principles per se, always filled the lens of his
vision. The cabinet ministers devoted to Calhoun
were therefore regarded by Jackson not only as
personal enemies, but as hostile to his administra
tion.

But, possibly, a much more trivial and absurd
reason had even greater influence in bringing
about the transformation. The President, with
all the energy of an old Indian fighter, espoused
the cause of Mrs. Eaton, the wife of his secretary
of war, and insisted that she should be received
within the charmed circle of Washington society.
The victor of New Orleans discovered, however,
that mere forcible denunciation would not pene
trate into the holy precincts or break down the
strong barriers of social prejudice. Mrs. Cal
houn, with quiet determination, refused to meet
Mrs. Eaton or to recognize her as an equal, and
declined to be commanded in her social intercourse
by mandates from the White House. The wives
of several members of the cabinet as quietly and
firmly upheld their independence, while Van Buren,
the courtly widower, ingratiated himself with the

SECRETARY OF WAR 135

President by bestowing on the social outcast his
sweetest smiles and studied attentions. It is a
curious commentary on the dignity of free govern
ment that, by careful politeness to a woman, to
whose skirts still clung the dust of an ambiguous
past, the secretary of state was enabled to become
the recognized heir-apparent of a great popular
hero, who, as the "tribune" of the common peo
ple, had begun a "reign" of arrogance and anger.
Jackson was incapable of discerning the relative
importance of things. He lived on a dead level
of intensity ; every matter which enlisted his sym
pathies or aroused his attention was of tragic im
port. He fought "Peggy" Eaton's battles with
the same burning vigor he had used against the
British at New Orleans or the Spaniards and In
dians of Florida. He threatened to send home
the minister from Holland "and his wife," because
the Dutch dame had treated his secretary's wife
with scant courtesy, by refusing to sit by her at
the ball given by the Russian minister. He swore
that justice must be done, acted the "roaring
lion, "and intimated, through the medium of Colo
nel Johnson, that at least when large parties were
given, Mrs. Eaton must be invited, if the cabinet
was to retain its present composition; he would
"be cut into inch pieces on the rack" before he
would allow either Major Eaton or his wife to be
injured by vile calumnies; for the woman was
pure and innocent as a babe, and he would show

136 LEWIS CASS

foreign ministers and cabinet officers that persecu
tion and conspiracy would not be tolerated.1

Early in 1831 a reorganization of the cabinet was
determined upon ; for the Eaton difficulty was much
too stimulating to the presidential temper, and
Calhoun's hopes of the succession must be crushed
by depriving of public office and influence those
who might favor him. As early as 1829 the canny
ones among the politicians had begun intrigues
in favor of the secretary of state, and he himself
had by this time taken Jackson's heart by storm.
His assiduous attentions to Mrs. Eaton, his defer
ence and continual kindness were of much more
value than even his considerable ability in states
manship. His coolness and calmness, his quiet
and affable manners, the unruffled composure with
which he smiled at the important trivialities which
vexed the irritable general, endeared him to the
old warrior, whose nerves were quieted by the
secretary's soothing presence. It was impossible
to rave and pace the floor and invoke anything
"eternal" or transient while this placid gentleman
was sitting by in serene silence. Eaton resigned
April 7, 1831. Van Buren followed on April 11,
with a letter admirably adapted to conceal the
real reason for his withdrawal, while it set forth
modestly the fact of his own future candidacy for
the presidency, which "disturbing topic" he had
in vain attempted to "discountenance."2 Barry,

1 Niles's Register, vol. xl. p. 377 ff.

2 Ibid., vol. xl. p. 43.

SECRETARY OF WAR 137

the postmaster-general, was asked to remain. The
other three, who were known as "Calhoun men,'*
were not in the best of humor, and did not appre
ciate Van Buren's suggestion that the cabinet
should be a unit. Ingham, the secretary of the
treasury, and Branch, the secretary of the navy,
tendered their resignations on the 19th, but they
made at the same time the distinct statement that
they understood at last that their presence in the
cabinet was no longer desired. Berrien retired
from the office of attorney-general on June 15
with a similar announcement. The newspapers
of the day teemed with abuse and recrimination.
Ingham asserted that Eaton had formed a conspi
racy to murder him. Eaton accused Ingham of
wanton insult, and finally demanded "satisfac
tion." The affairs of the Eaton family were pre
sented for general inspection, and a most savory
ragbag of old scandal was opened for the gratifica
tion of a keen-scented public.

The new cabinet was a very able one. It could
be counted on as opposed to Calhoun and devoted
to Jackson and his heir-apparent. Undoubtedly
the President profited by the change. Edward
Livingston of Louisiana became secretary of state ;
Louis McLane of Delaware, secretary of the trea
sury; Levi Woodbury of New Hampshire, secre
tary of the navy; Roger B. Taney of Maryland,
attorney-general. Barry retained his position as
postmaster-general until 1835, when he became
minister to Spain, and was succeeded by Amos

138 LEWIS CASS

Kendall, who, holding the position of fourth audi
tor, had been an adviser in the "kitchen cabinet'*
from the beginning of the administration. It was
intended that Judge White, senator from Tennes
see, should become secretary of war, and give
Eaton a chance to fill the vacancy in the Senate.
But White refused, and Cass was offered the port
folio. Rumor assigned the ex-secretary to Michi
gan to take Cass's place, but he was finally ap
pointed governor of Florida, and went to seek
consolation for abuse and insult in the everglades
of that wild Territory. In August, 1831, there
fore, Cass assumed the duties of secretary of war.
National politics were in a peculiar condition.
Though he had lost no opportunity to keep him
self informed of what was going on in the higher
governmental circles, he could not have anticipated
the conditions which he discovered. We are but
just coming to an appreciation of what this period
signifies in our development as a constitutional
state. It meant that national politics and methods
were mob politics and methods. The trickster
politicians who had been turning thumb-screws
and pulling wires for thirty years in the States
now transferred their machinery to a broader field.
Jackson was not a demagogue. He sincerely be
lieved in the doctrines he preached and in the
sentiments which he put into practice. But he
was the conduit pipe through which flowed into
the field of national administration the tide of
political proscription, intrigue, and legerdemain

SECRETARY OF WAR 139

which had been long triumphantly deluging the
States. Van Buren has been charged with intro
ducing the "spoils system " from New York, where
from the beginning of the century removal from
office followed change in party control, as night
follows day. But the fact is that the virus was
well on its festering way in the national system
before Van Buren's responsibility began. Al
though the "Little Magician" must have aided
by his counsel and given the benefit of his expe
rience, no one man can be charged with the estab
lishment of the practice of spoils distribution. It
came by natural evolution. The scrambling, punch-
drinking mob which invaded Washington at Jack
son's inauguration, besieging his hotel, crowding
and pushing their way into the White House, tip
ping over tubs of punch and buckets of ices, stand
ing with muddy hob-nailed shoes on the damask
furniture, thrusting themselves into the nooks and
corners of the executive mansion with the air of
copartners, who had at last an opportunity to take
account of the assets of the firm, — these were the
people who demanded that aristocratic incumbents
be deprived of their offices by him who was elected
as the representative of "the people," the soldier,
the rough and ready statesman who despised the
borrowed conventionalities of so-called good so
ciety. Such was the inauguration of the spoils
system. The offices of trust were handed over to
the men who brought the greatest pressure to
bear, and could make plain their political influ-

140 LEWIS CASS

ence to the scullions of the "kitchen cabinet." If
the student of American politics is to understand
the place which the spoils system holds he must
see that its introduction was a natural phase in
our national development, not a mere incident
without antecedent causes rooted in the past. It
was when Jackson was installed that "the people"
first realized their power and demanded that the
divinity of vox populi be recognized. There was
great talk about "the people" in those canting
years, as if our social or political system gave
place for classes or privilege. On that notable
fourth of March the crowds invaded Washington
to shout for a new-found liberty; a Bastille of
respectability had fallen, and the guillotine soon
lopped off the heads of the office -holding nobility,
who had too long lived in aristocratic ease above
"the people."

The new cabinet had a dignity of its own.
Now that the line of succession was determined
upon and the wires laid for eight years to come,
there was not so much room for the back-stairs
influence. In all the more important matters of
state, the real cabinet worked its will and had its
proper influence. Only where cunning manipula
tion was necessary for political prosperity did the
spirits of the "kitchen cabinet" introduce their
sinister methods. Jackson himself was the presid
ing genius of his own administration and its mas
tering spirit. He came to his conclusions swiftly
and by instinct, and although they were often

SECRETARY OF WAR 141

tenable only by the help of the blindest obstinacy,
his obstinacy was always as blind as the occasion
required. But a word of flattery or the right
insinuation at the nick of time would start the
wheels of his prejudice in the direction desired
by a cunning politician. Thus he was often influ
enced and guided by men of less real ability and
strength of character than his own.

The only Indian war in the Northwest after 1815
occurred almost immediately after Cass accepted
the war portfolio. Black Hawk, a Sac chief, re
fused to remain in the reservation beyond the
Mississippi. Early in the spring of 1832 he en
tered Wisconsin and Illinois, and spread alarm
and consternation through the West. United
States troops were hurried to the spot. Volun
teers were called from Michigan and Illinois, and
a border war was soon devastating the country.
The War Department seems to have been man
aged with alertness. Cass had been too long ac
quainted with Indian characteristics not to realize
the importance of rapidity and the prompt exhibi
tion of authority. But the terrible ravages of the
cholera were added to the horrors of war. The
troops died in such numbers that panic and disease
seemed likely to do much greater damage than
any human enemy. The dreadful summer of 1832
was long remembered by the citizens of the North
west. A portion of its perils was over when the
Indians were nearly annihilated in a battle on
August 2. Black Hawk escaped death, but was

142 LEWIS CASS

imprisoned, and the next year was shown around
the country as a triumphal captive. The success
ful administration of Indian affairs during Cass's
governorship, and the peace which prevailed dur
ing that time, lead one to believe that had he still
been governor and superintendent he would have
quieted the Indians without all the fuss and flour
ish of war.

The actual conduct of the affairs of the War
Department involved, of course, in the main a
great deal of routine work. But the details of
that work scarcely need to be given here. In the
great questions of Jackson's administration Cass
was more than an interested spectator. His posi
tion brought him into active cooperation with the
President, whose influence had a great effect on
his later political life.

An affair more important to the country than
an Indian war occupied the attention of his depart
ment in the autumn of 1832. Calhoun's damp
ened ambitions sought encouraging warmth from
the fires of state jealousies. The reorganization
of the cabinet in opposition to him, the known
hostility of the. President, the evident drift of
political favor in the direction of Jackson and his
cajolers, quenched his burning hope, and left him
but the ashes of disappointment. His native State
was uneasy under a tariff which seemed to be all
for the manufacturers of New England, and his
zeal for national glory gave place to sectional jeaU
ousy, which now blazed brightly forth. His whole

SECRETARY OF WAR 143

life henceforth was given to the support of what
he thought were the interests of his State. His
elaborate arguments, woven with greatest care,
furnished a protecting garment for slavery. His
keen eyes were always endeavoring to pierce the
veil of the future, and he endeavored to show in
prophetic vision before his countrymen the weal
and woe which he fancied that he himself dis
cerned. Although he seemed to see farther than
his contemporaries, the truths of the future were
perverted by his diseased imagination into false
hood, and though he was a seer he did not become
a soothsayer. When slave labor comes into com
petition with free labor, it shows an economical
and therefore an incurable weakness. It is inter
esting to notice that the first practical application
of the doctrine of nullification, the sister of seces
sion, came as the result of industrial differences
between the North and the South. The most ear
nest advocates of nullification tilted at the tariff
windmill as the cause of their woes, and would
not confess, or did not see, the deadening influ
ence of slavery. The tariff of 1828 was so absurd
in its provisions that it fairly won the epithet
"abominable," but this act did not drive the South
to extreme measures. It was left for the more
moderate and sensible measure of 1832, which
decreased the revenue by several millions, to in
duce South Carolina to bluster forth in nullifica
tion. Calhoun had already begun to print his
finely wrought treatises. McDuffie, on the floor

144 LEWIS CASS

of the House, gave utterance to the opinion of his
State, when he proclaimed that, if she failed in
the struggle she was waging, the brief days of
American liberty would be numbered.

South Carolina was frantic because her threats
were simply neglected, and during the summer
and autumn of 1832 meetings were held, fiercely
denouncing protection to Yankee industries, and
proclaiming that for the cause of liberty and honor
a stand must be made against the tyranny of trad
ing New England. The legislature, which was
summoned in October, issued a call for a state
convention, and on November 19 the delegates
met at Columbia. The practical workings of the
nullification theory were now to be exhibited.
Calhoun saw more clearly than Jefferson had seen
the logical relationship between the federal govern
ment and the States of our Union, if it was the
result of a compact between sovereignties. Ho
saw that in the State, and not the legislature of
the State, must reside this extraordinary power
of nullification and resistance. Jefferson, in the
angry haste of politics, propounded a half -formed
illogical doctrine, based on falsehood and carried
to an absurd conclusion. Calhoun selected his
course to suit the prejudices of "King Cotton,"
but when once he had turned the historical com
pass to a false pole he followed its direction with
patient regard for the stern laws of logic. Nulli
fication, as it showed itself in South Carolina, was
a legitimate expression of state- sovereignty, and

SECRETARY OF WAR 145

the method of its actual application was an illumi
nating lesson to those who had not followed argu
ment or appreciated the ends of theory.

A committee of twenty-one, appointed by Gov
ernor Hamilton, who was president of the popular
convention, drew up an "Ordinance," "To pro
vide for arresting the operation of certain acts of
the Congress of the United States, purporting to
be laws laying duties and imposts on the importa
tion of foreign commodities." The obnoxious laws
were declared null and void, and the legislature
was authorized to adopt such measures as might
be necessary to give full effect to the views of the
convention. All appeals to the Supreme Court
of the United States were forbidden, and all offi
cers and jurors were to be bound by oath to ob
serve the ordinance and the laws of the legislature
passed in pursuance of it. If there was an at
tempt on the part of the central government to
enforce the tariff laws, the people of the State, it
was announced, would consider themselves absolved
from all further political obligation as a member
of the confederacy, and would prepare to do all
the acts of a sovereign and independent commu
nity. An address to the people of the United
States abounded in mathematical and rhetorical
figures, whosev services were invoked to prove the
injustice of the tariff and to portray the position
of the State. "We would infinitely prefer," pro
claimed these inconsistent slave barons, forming
a political and social oligarchy, "that the territory

146 LEWIS CASS

of the State should be the cemetery of freemen
than the habitation of slaves." l Not till February
1, however, was there to be a resistance to the
laws of the United States.

It was boldly done. But "Old Hickory" at
Washington was prompt and energetic. In the
heat of the presidential campaign, when the people
were shouting themselves hoarse for their hero,
and raising tall hickory poles as party emblems,
the old general had turned uneasily toward South
Carolina, and listened for premonitory rumblings
of the earthquake. He did not waste his energy
in wringing his hands, as did Buchanan in another
fateful crisis in our history. On October 6 the
collector of customs was given explicit directions
what to do in case there was any attempt to avoid
payment of duties. As early as October 29 Major-
General Macomb sent word to Major Heileman,
commanding the troops of the United States in
Charleston, that information received by the ex
ecutive suggested the possibility of an attempt to
seize the forts, and the commander was warned
to be on his guard.2 Additional troops were sent to
Fort Moultrie, November 7, and on the 18th Cass
wrote to General Scott, directing him to proceed
at once to Charleston for the purpose of examin
ing the defenses, and to hold himself in readiness
to assist the civil officers of the United States, if

1 Full proceedings of convention, Niles, vol. xliii. pp. 219, 230,
ate.

'2 American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. v. p. 158.

SECRETARY OF WAR 147

occasion should make it necessary and the Presi
dent should so direct. A fortnight later a confi
dential letter from the War Department compli
mented General Scott on the discretion and good
judgment he had manifested. The following sen
tences from Cass's letter very succinctly state the
attitude of the general government toward the
whole conspiracy: "I cannot but hope that the
good sense and patriotism of the citizens of South
Carolina will still prevent the occurrence of those
consequences which must result from the attempt
to enforce the ordinance recently passed by the
convention of that State. In any event, the Presi
dent will perform his duty, and only his duty,
under the Constitution of the United States."1
Reinforcements were sent to Charleston on the
4th.

Congress assembled on December 3, and read
a very quiet and restrained message from the
President, in which there was no blare from the
trumpet of war. Yet Jackson was excited enough.
If his annual message was calm, the storm was to
follow. His practical sense pierced the bubble
arguments of the nullifiers, and in homely phrase
he summed up the dire results of state sovereignty.
"If this thing goes on," he said to his friend Dale,
" our country will be like a bag of meal with both
ends open. Pick it up in the middle or endwise,
and it will run out. I must tie the bag and save
the country." When South Carolina adopted the

1 American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. v. p. 159.

118 LEWIS CASS

ordinance, and nullification was fairly in view, he
was prepared to strike. It was generally believed
that he had made up his mind to seize Calhoun on
the charge of treason, the instant force was used
against the officers of the United States, and many
believed that the fear of such consequences influ
enced the final settlement of the controversy. On
December 11 appeared his celebrated proclama
tion, full of earnest, pathetic pleading, strong
assertion, and profound argument. Verbally it
belongs to Livingston, but it is filled with the
spirit of Jackson. On that hang his claims to
grateful remembrance. That he was instrumental
in infecting the body politic with the loathsome
disease of spoils distribution, that his blundering
financial management hastened and aggravated a
disastrous panic, that under the fostering wings
of his administration a whole brood of evil politi
cal fledglings matured, — all these faults will be
forgotten by the people who remember that the
hero of New Orleans bruised with his heel the
hissing head of nullification.

Vessels were sent to Charleston by the Navy
Department in December, and as February 1 ap
proached every precaution was taken by the War
Department to prepare for forcible resistance.
Cass wrote to General Scott, ordering him again
to Charleston (January 26) to repel with force any
attempt to seize the forts, but throughout all to
use the utmost discretion and self-restraint. This
letter, in some unknown way, reached the public

SECRETARY OF WAR 149

press, and the contents of the last clause, which
suggested that two places be examined as possible
strategic points for the federal army, caused con
siderable excitement in the angered State. Gen
eral Scott assures us, in his eulogistic autobiogra
phy, that if a spade had been put into the ground
at this time for a new work beyond Sullivan's
Island, civil war would have been inaugurated on
the spot. The popular imagination pictures Jack
son raving for war and aching to crush Calhoun
and his fellow plotters. There is no doubt that
he occasionally gave way to wrath, and expressed
his opinion with more vehemence than grace; it is
perfectly clear that he made every preparation
against forcible resistance to federal authority;
but it is just as clear that he was anxious to avoid
a conflict if possible. The letters of Cass at this
period show very distinctly the extreme solicitude
which tempered the stern decision of the adminis
tration. There is good reason to believe that a
letter, purporting to come "from one of the ablest
men in the country," which appeared in the "Rich
mond Enquirer " under date of December 13, 1832,
was written by Cass himself at the request of the
President. Artfully suggesting the importance of
Virginia, this letter proposes that the Old Domin
ion, "in one of those forcible appeals she so well
knows how to make," should urge upon Congress
a great reduction of the tariff, and "plead as a
suffering sister with wayward South Carolina."1

1 Smith's Life and Times of Lewis C'ass, p. 274.

150 LEWIS CASS

The suggestion was followed. Virginia, whether
influenced by this appeal "from one of the ablest
men," or not, prepared to play the role of umpire,
sending B. W. Leigh as envoy to Charleston. He
was there received with honor, and though his
pleadings probably had little direct influence, Vir
ginia's intercession gave another excuse for back
ing down from the high ground of the ordinance.
Such was unquestionably Jackson's attitude.
While presenting a bold front and making every
preparation to defend federal property and execute
federal law, while angry with all the heat of his
choleric nature at the nullifying conspirators,
while every warlike impulse was opposed to capit
ulation with a State in arms, he nevertheless had
a fervent love for the Union, of which even his
own unreasoning wrath could not deprive him.

The end of the controversy can be stated in a
word. Pending conciliatory measures on the part
of the general government, the time for putting
the nullifying laws into practical operation was
postponed. The President, in a message issued
January 16, asked Congress to make certain regu
lations with regard to the customs districts, and
to authorize the use of the military force for the
purpose of protecting and assisting the civil offi
cers in the discharge of their duties. A bill drafted
to meet these suggestions was introduced into
Congress. Perfectly right on every constitutional
and political ground, such a proposition was re
ceived with some dismay by conservative lovers

SECRETARY OF WAR 151

of peace, and the bill as drafted soon labored un
der unpopular epithets, and was commonly known
as the "force bill" or "bloody bill." Verplanck,
a representative from New York, had already in
troduced into the House a measure for the reduc
tion of the tariff. This was so sweeping in its
provisions that it meant practically an abandon
ment of the protective policy and a complete sur
render to South Carolina. Clay, the great com
promiser, now came forward, February 12, with
a plan for a gradual reduction of the revenue.
Great was the consternation at the North when
the father of the "American system" was beheld
preparing to murder his own child by slow poison.
Manufacturers hastened to Washington to prevent
such action; but some saw their danger, and re
mained to advocate the passage of the measure.
It was passed side by side with the "force bill."
Both were signed by the President on March 2,
and thus with mingled threats and coaxings the
petulant State was won back to obedience. On
the whole, it was a shameful victory for state
impudence. Although the "force bill " was passed,
and Jackson upheld the national dignity, nullifica
tion accomplished its purpose, — the reduction of
the tariff. The objectionable ordinance was re
pealed by South Carolina, but at the same time
she proclaimed the "force bill" null and void
within her limits.

This was an instructive period in the life of
Cass. He completed his fiftieth year in the midst

152 LEWIS CASS

of the controversy, and as yet he had seen very
little of national politics. The long years of his
governorship had been spent in active manage
ment of local concerns, or in long journeys through
the wilderness. His constant reading had made
him more familiar with questions of national poli
tics than most men would have been had they
spent a score of years in a frontier settlement,
where for a considerable period even newspapers,
with their stale newTs, came late and irregularly
through the mails. His first practical training in
national politics he received in the stern Jack-
sonian school, a school whose cardinal regulations
possessed a mischievous inconsistency. Love for
the Union, hatred of foreign aggression, champion
ship of popular rights, spoils distribution, machine
politics, were badly mingled; strict construction
of the Constitution struggled in equal conflict with
a reckless abuse of power; and high-handed inter
ference was supported by appeals to the "people,"
who are unknown in our political system except
as they express their will by constitutional and
prescribed methods. Cass did not forget the stand
taken against nullification. From this time he
was a radical Jacksonian Democrat. The success
of the administration in its foreign relations also
met with his approbation, and increased the feel
ing which he already had, that our country should
present a bold front to other nations. Jackson
won his deepest admiration, and inspired him witli
the love which the peremptory old general seemed

SECRETARY OF WAR ir>:$

often to force upon those about him by his inde
finable grace, and by an unexpected and curiously
vigorous sweetness in-the-rough.

In 1833 Jackson went North on a tour for re
creation and applause. Cass accompanied him.
Crowds cheered the tough old general who had
just put down nullification. Cities tendered him
their freedom and the mob went wild. The aris
tocrats averted their faces, but the popular enthu
siasm was undoubted. Harvard, to the disgust
of the learned, dubbed his illiterate excellency
Doctor of Laws. From these scenes of merry
making and exultation, and before the exhausting
itinerary was finished, the President hurried home,
on the plea of illness, to strike another blow at
the Bank of the United States. It is possible
that he was moved by proper motives. But sheer
malice against Nicholas Biddle and his moneyed
monster was probably the chief cause. With a
reckless indifference to the effect on the business
of the country, an indifference which arose from
a complete ignorance of the laws of finance and
the sensitive nature of capital, he dashed into a
contest with the national bank as if he were hunt-
mg Indians in the swamps of Florida. By law,
the public funds were to be deposited in the bank,
subject to removal by the secretary of the treasury,
who was to give his reasons to Congress in case
of removal. Jackson determined upon a removal
of the deposits and a distribution of the money
among the various state banks. He had difficulty

154 LEWIS CASS

in getting his cabinet to agree to this. Duane,
the secretary of the treasury, was determined to
stand on what he considered his prerogative, and
refused to remove the deposits at the President's
request. He was dismissed, and Taney was trans
ferred to the Treasury, ready to do Jackson's bid
ding and elaborately to defend his action. Mc-
Lane, who in the early part of the year had been
transferred from the Treasury Department to that
of State, and had all along been averse to a re
moval of the deposits, was still strongly opposed
to the measure. He wished to resign, but was
dissuaded. On September 23 Cass made an ap
pointment with Lewis to discuss the matter. Lewis
was the head of the " kitchen cabinet," the fami
liar of Jackson. "He commenced the conversa
tion,"1 wrote Lewis, "by remarking that his ob
ject in desiring to see me before I left was to
inform me that he had determined to resign his
seat in the cabinet, and wished to converse with
me upon the subject before he handed his letter
of resignation to the President. He said he dif
fered with the President with regard to the mea
sures which were about to be adopted for the
removal of the public deposits from the United
States Bank, and as his remaining in the cabinet
might embarrass his operations, he owed it, he
thought, both to himself and the President, to
withdraw." Lewis urged him to acquaint Jackson
with his intention before he actually resigned, and

1 Parton's Jackson, vol. iii. p. 501.

SECRETARY OF WAR 155

the result of the interview between the secretary
and his chief was that Cass was asked to remain,
with the understanding that the responsibility for
the act should rest, not with the cabinet, but with
the President alone. In a later cabinet meeting,
when asked his opinion of the measure, Cass sim
ply and frankly said: "You know, sir, I have
always thought that the matter rests entirely with
the secretary of the treasury."

The political affiliations of the new West during
these years are evident. Michigan was a Territory
struggling vehemently until 1837 for admission.
Her last successful efforts were stimulated, per
haps, by a hope that if she was admitted to the
Union a small rill from the plethoric national trea
sury would trickle into her ready coffers. Party
organization on national lines was hardly known
as yet. On all great questions the people natu
rally belonged with their brethren of New York
and New England ; but of course there was great
admiration among the poor settlers for the "man
of the people," and Michigan may be counted in
the line of Democratic States until the slavery
question offered a great moral issue. There were
occasional backslidings from the true Democratic
faith. The hard times which followed the finan
cial disasters of 1837 turned people against "the
Little Magician," whose magic wand had lost its
cunning. The people of Michigan shouted them
selves hoarse for Harrison and "hard cider" in
1840, and the State was carried by the Whigs by

156 LEWIS CASS

some 2000 as against a majority of 3000 for Van
Buren in 1836, when the vote of the quasi State
was only about one fourth of what it was four
years later. But it will be noticed that in 1840
Harrison was the popular hero, the stalwart "Old
Tip; " " Matty " Van Buren was the aristocrat of
the White House, who was rolling in wealth and
supping from golden spoons, while the people who
had elected him were starving. The students of
our politics have not fully confessed the efficiency
of poverty as a political motor. Our practical
politicians in these latter days have carefully conned
the lessons of the past, and cover up most dexter
ously any advantage their candidate may have by
reason of superior education or the ability inher
ited from good ancestry.

In the other States of the Northwest somewhat
similar courses can be traced, varied by the pecul
iarities of their settlement. Ohio, with her strong
Eastern flavor, inclined with some constancy to
whiggery. Of the Northwestern States, Illinois
alone in 1840 clung by a small majority to the
failing cause of Jacksonism, and cast its electoral
votes for Van Buren. But that State had all along
been peculiarly Democratic. It had a large South
ern element. Many of the poor whites pushed
their way north over the prairies of Illinois. From
1826 every general election resulted in favor of
Jackson and his party until the old general went
into restless retirement at the Hermitage. Doubt
less the persistency of Illinois in her political

SECRETARY OF WAR 157

course can be attributed largely to this strong
Southern element. But it would be anticipating
later political divisions to attribute such Demo
cratic affiliation entirely to the Southern settlers.
Jacksonian Democracy was the political faith of
the masses, of those most easily influenced by
the tricks of the politician and the wire-puller.
"The people" were Democrats, from whatever
part of the country they came. Cook County,
which was settled by Yankees, pushing and vigor
ous men, did not fall behind the settlers of south
ern Illinois in zeal for Democracy. This county
was Democratic even in 1844, casting 2027 votes
for Polk and only 1117 for Clay. Democracy
was firmly planted and unbending. Party lines
at first were not closely drawn, but there was no
hope for the man who was opposed to the "man
of the people." The campaigns were conducted
in that new Western country in a manner which
leads us to look with more equanimity upon the
vices of modern politics. The saloons in the
county seats were chartered by the candidates for
popular favors; whiskey in vast quantities heigh
tened the fervor of the people, whose voice was
to be the voice of God. Governor Ford, who was
an interested spectator on these occasions, tells us
of a minister of the gospel whose "morality was
not of the pinched kind which prevented him from
using all the common arts of a candidate for office."
He went forth to election with a Bible in one
pocket and a bottle of whiskey in the other, pre-

138 LEWIS CASS

pared to inake himself agreeable to all. So fully
had the people adopted the creed of "Old Hick
ory " that we are told that Democrats were divided
in that pork-packing State into "whole hog" Jack
son men and nominal Jackson men.1 The people
had come into the West in order to better their
condition, and politics were considered by many
a legitimate road to bodily comfort. Few seemed
to realize that they were laying the foundations of
a great commonwealth; but the race of politicians
developed, as in the East. The politician "for
revenue only " practiced his clever tactics, and
early in the history of these frontier States wires
were laid as skillfully as in the more populous
States of the coast. The people, on the whole,
took far more interest in politics than in political
principles.

The Western States developed rapidly during
these years. The craze for internal improvement
left some good behind, and the wild speculation in
land drew immigrants into the country by thou
sands. Steamers on the lakes were crowded with
families on their way to Michigan and the West.
Ninety steamers arrived at Detroit in May, 1836,
crowded with new settlers and with those who
were anxious to speculate in the Western lands.
Land sales were enormous. The roads in the in
terior of Michigan were thronged with wagons.
The immigrants of this period were, as before,
principally from New York and New England.
1 Ford's History of Illinois, p. 105.

SECRETARY OF WAR 159

Others, from Ireland and Germany, however, began
about 1832 to find their way in small numbers into
the West.

One other matter of importance remains to be
discussed in this period of Cass's life. The re
moval of the Florida Indians to reservations west
of the Mississippi was carefully considered by
Cass as soon as he became secretary. He had
long contemplated the desirability of such a plan.
No one better understood the condition of the red
man in the Northwest, or more keenly appreciated
the difficulties of the Indian problem. His work
in Michigan amply proves his fairness and hon
esty, his humanity and sympathy. In 1830 he
wrote for the "North American Review" a long
article on the subject of removal. It is candid
in its tone and exhaustive in treatment, pointing
out the woeful condition of the Indians in their
present situation, picturing their degradation as
victims to the vices of Christian civilization. He
contended that they must be removed, and that
speedily, if a remnant was to be saved. He
showed no sympathy for the maudlin sentimental
ity which would weep over the sorrows of the noble
warrior and suggest no remedy for evident evils.

Later animosity has declared that the whole
plan of removing the southern Indians was one
of the satanic wiles of the slaveholder. But it
will not do to antedate political motive. The
planters did wish to get possession of the land
held by the Creeks and Seminoles, and the planter

160 LEWIS CASS

was a slaveholder. But there is no need of attri
buting the desire to the political greed of the slavo-
cracy. This error is more plainly illustrated by
an earlier instance. Calhoun's plan, when secre
tary of war under Monroe, to remove the Indians
of New York into the western part of Michigan
Territory, now Wisconsin, has been seriously re
ferred, not to a desire to release New York, but
to a wish to burden the free Northwest and retard
its developmento It is true that the contradictory
interests of North and South came out pretty
clearly in the Missouri compromise discussion ;
but it is anticipating later politics and entirely
misconstruing the growth of Calhoun as a states
man and a slavocrat to think that he or any one
foresaw in 1820 the whole drift of Southern efforts
to obtain room for slavery extension. It is just
as much the part of folly to announce that Cass
was a "doughface " in 1831, pandering to Southern
prejudices and bending a pliable conscience, as it
is to state that his good sense in 1820 concerning
the removal of the New York Indians was due to
a desire to circumvent a plan of a plotting slave
holder. He was a Western man, not a Southerner,
and his action was a Western action, based on West
ern appreciation of the Indian character and of the
relation of the tribes to the general government.

The idea of removing the Indians was, as Ben-
ton says, as old as Jefferson. It had been dis
cussed at various times. Monroe, in his annual
message in 1824, set forth the desirability of trans-

SECRETARY OF WAR 161

porting them into the West. Cass elaborated a
plan in his first report in 1831. He believed that
the Indians would be better off if freed from the
influence of the whites. He feared the practical
application of the doctrine announced by the Su
preme Court, that a tribe within the limits of the
State was exempt from state control; he realized
that the executive and the court were at variance
on the subject, and that a uniform basis of man
agement ought to be determined upon if possible.
It is apparent that he sided with the President in
maintaining the authority of the executive as a
"coordinate branch of the government," and per
haps thought that, as far as it affected a present
practical question, Jackson was right in his famous
opposition to the judiciary: "John Marshall has
given his judgment, let him enforce it if he can."
Indeed, Cass the next year, March, 1832, seems
to have printed an exhaustive argument in the
"Globe," attempting to prove that the Supreme
Court was wrong and Jackson was right in the
Cherokee matter. "When a solemn and final de
cision was pronounced, and Georgia refused to
obey the decree of the court, no reproof for her
refractory spirit was heard; on the contrary, a
learned review of the decision came out, attributed
to executive countenance and favor." l When one
of the cabinet spent his time in writing a long
refutation of a judicial decision of the Supreme
Court, affairs of state were assuredly in a badly

1 From a speech by Mr. Miller, in Senate, 1833.

162 LEWIS CASS

mixed condition. But the Jacksonian party was
a creature more curious than any curiosity of
mythology ; although its body and legs were popu
lar sovereignty and mob democracy, the head and
arms were monarchical arrogance and the invinci
ble obstinacy of self-reliance.

We need not go into the woeful scenes which
resulted from the effort to remove the Creeks and
Seminoles. As in other difficulties of this kind,
the wrong was not all on one side. Sentimental
ignorance alone represents the cruel Oceola as a
noble brave, fighting with generous patriotism for
the lands of his family and the graves of his sires.
On the other hand, no one can look upon this
scene from the history of a slave-owning country
without feelings of shame and indignation. Be
fore there was any excuse for war, the slave deal
ers were too anxious to get control of the negroes
of the Seminoles. Actual hostilities were begun
by a wanton outrage; the wife of Oceola was
seized as the daughter of a slave, and was carried
away into slavery. Oceola' s vengeance was felt,
and he was captured by treachery. One who re
spects his country shrinks from poking into the
slime of the disgraceful contest, where our govern
ment became a trafficker in human flesh, and used
its power in behalf of the lowest passions of man.
Had it not been for the shameful greed of the
slave dealer, who longed to get possession of the
negroes who were either held in slavery by the
Seminoles or lived with them on terms of equality,

SECRETARY OF WAR 163

the course of the war would have been different
and the contest more honorable. But these human
vampires respected no treaties and regarded no
rights. In the end, the war was not successful.
After the expenditure of not less than 830,000,000
and the loss of many lives, after eight years of
slave chasing and Indian hunting in the miasmic
swamps and everglades, under the torrid sun of
Florida, the government was obliged to take the
advice which Cass had given when war had fairly
begun — obtain peace by giving Florida to the
possession of armed settlers.1

Many charges and recriminations were the fruits
of this shameful affair. Scott was charged with
inefficiency. Cass was accused of negligence.
Abuse was heaped on all interested. Jackson, as
usual, lost himself in a paroxysm of rage because
all went not well. "Let the damned scoundrels
defend their country," he exclaimed; "he could
take fifty women, and whip every Indian that
ever crossed the Suwanee."2 A fair examination
absolves the secretary of war from the charge of
carelessness or neglect. He apparently acted on
the knowledge sent him, and supplied the generals
at the front with all the troops they asked for or
suggested the need of. The truth is, that it was
no easy task to drive a handful of determined men
from retreats which were almost inaccessible, and
the deeds of the army, as such, were by no means

1 Schouler's History of the United States, vol. iv. p. 319.

2 Niles, vol. Hi. p. 98.

164 LEWIS CASS

without honor. But Cass cannot be relieved of
the charge that negro slavery did not appeal to
him in its awfulness, and that he could see no
harm in returning the fugitive slaves to bondage.
Who in those days did see the institution in its
proper light? The war was nearly finished before
even Giddings of Ohio branded it as a slave chase
and pointed the finger of shame. This war, in
deed, marks the lowest depth to which Northern
apathy sank. After 1841, not a step could be
taken by the government that suspicious abolition
ists did not peer about for a possible proslavery
motive.

The War Department, at the period of which
we are speaking, had charge of many matters
which are now cared for by the Department of
the Interior. The details of the office demanded
constant attention, and it is apparent from the
long reports which General Cass made that he
studied with care all portions of his duties. He
entered into an elaborate discussion of the neces
sity for coast defenses. Arguing that a navy was
the best fortification, he advised the building of
a navy which would be at least nearly adequate
for purposes of defense. He examined with care
the condition of the army, and it may be said, to
his honor, that he advocated that the practice of
giving whiskey rations to the soldiers should be
stopped.

Until Cass took the war portfolio, his life had
been spent in active employment. During his

SECRETARY OF WAR 165

governorship he had passed months at a time trav
eling over the Western country, and now incessant
sedentary labor and constant attention to the de
tails of his office were impairing his health, and it
soon became evident that he must have change
and diversion. The President therefore offered
to appoint him minister to France, and Cass ac
cepted the offer, with the understanding that he
should be allowed to leave Paris on a tour for
recreation and pleasure. James Buchanan has
left us the improbable story that Cass was trans
ported because Jackson desired to get rid of him
and to employ some one possessed of more alert
ness and business ability. According to this ac
count, the President used the following language :
"I can no longer consent to do the duties both of
the President and secretary of war. General Cass
will decide nothing for himself, but comes to me
constantly with great bundles of papers, to decide
questions for him which he ought to decide him
self."1 The light of events to be recorded here
after will properly illumine this statement made
by Buchanan, whose indecision and vacillation can
not be reasoned out of the memory of the American
people. Every circumstance refutes it. Jackson
admired Cass; Cass loved Jackson. The visitor
at the Hermitage in later years saw in the hall
the bust of the Northwestern statesman. Their
whole intercourse is the best proof of mutual con
sideration and respect. That a man who had

1 Curtis's Lift of Buchanan, vol. ii. p. 399.

166 LEWIS CASS

continuously acted with promptitude and boldness
from the battle at the River Canard until he be
came secretary of war should suddenly become
timid and hesitating is beyond belief. Twice dur
ing Jackson's administration Cass offered to re
sign, and twice was persuaded to keep his office.
At the end Jackson accepted the resignation with
reluctance. After the return of Cass from France,
the venerable ex-President, praising him for his
services abroad, referred to their pleasant official
relations and to the efficiency with which the af
fairs of the War Department had been conducted.1
If the secretary had been grossly incapable, Jack
son would not have waited until the closing months
of his administration before he put the department
into more competent hands. In June, 1836, the
appointment as minister to Paris was sent in to
the Senate, and immediately received the unani
mous consent of that body — no slight compliment,
if we consider the height of political animosity in
those bitter days.

1 Private Papers of Lewis Cass.

CHAPTER VI

MINISTER TO FRANCE

THE diplomatic relations between France and
the United States were not altogether harmonious
between 1833 and the date of the appointment of
Cass. A successful treaty, negotiated in 1831,
had won from France a promise to pay for the
Napoleonic spoliations of American commerce.
The United States had long awaited the time
when their rights in this matter would be fairly
considered, until patience, long continued, was in
danger of being construed as timidity. Under
Jackson's sway, however, a new system was
adopted; when our dignified demands for the ful
fillment of the treaty of 1831 were disregarded,
and the Chamber of Deputies refused to pass the
appropriation bill, the President stormed in the
White House, and the shrill voice of John Quiricy
Adams was heard in Congress calling upon the
people to resent a wanton insult and prepare the
country for war. In January, 1835, the French
minister at Washington was recalled, arid in
April Livingston left Paris. But judicious and
expressive threats had the proper effect. The
money was paid. Louis Philippe sat on a totter-

168 LEWIS CASS

ing throne, and he knew that a war with America
would deprive him of popular support. He had,
moreover, a real affection for the republic, and an
admiration for the vigorous old warrior of the
White House, who so fully represented self-confi
dent democracy. The "bourgeois king" had vis
ited America in his earlier days, and had become
personally acquainted with men and manners. A
tour through the backwoods of Pennsylvania and
Ohio brought to him a knowledge of the rough
ness, heartiness, and good fellowship of the demo
cratic West, and he retained a kingly sympathy
and a generous enthusiasm for whole-souled West
ern uncouthness and the virile Americanism which
Jackson personified.

Cass continued to perform the duties of secre
tary of war through the summer of 1836, and in
October sailed for England, there to remain until
assured that an American minister would be re
ceived in France. After a brief delay on this
account, he repaired to Paris and entered upon
his duties. The ordinary affairs of the legation
occupied his attention for some time. Business
had accumulated during the suspension of diplo
matic relations, and it now demanded immediate
settlement. But a minister's chief function in
peaceful times is to be the representative of his
country at court, and to care for the social as well
as the more material interests of itinerant fellow-
countrymen. Even in those days this was no
slight task. Sometimes in a single evening he

MINISTER TO FRANCE 169

presented as many as fifty of his countrymen to
the "citizen king." American visitors in Paris
at this time spoke of the respectful attention they
received from the legation. The plain, straight
forward diplomat from the wilds of the Northwest,
whose victories in the crooked and narrow art had
hitherto been won over the red savage of the West
ern woods, quickly assumed a prominent and in
fluential position at the gay capital. It looked as
if the days when Franklin received the admiration
of the gaudy court, or when Gouverneur Morris
practiced his charms, had returned. The minister
became the personal friend of the king, and was
treated as an intimate.

Actual business of the embassy was not so con
fining that no opportunity was left for other pur
suits. The peculiarities of European life and pol
itics possessed a unique interest for one whose
general reading had never been supplemented by
travel or a wide experience. Nothing seemed to
escape him. His pen was at work a good portion
of the time, making his impressions permanent.
The ineffectual uneasiness of the French people
as he now saw them, and the misunderstandings
between governors and governed, were unceasingly
curious to one who had never known classes, and
whose whole political theory and practice had been
based on the principle of equality and the rights
of self-government. In a real scientific spirit he
traveled through France, noticing the condition of
the people and learning continual lessons. He

170 LEWIS CASS

visited England, but a nearer acquaintance did
not deprive him of that deep-rooted suspicion and
distrust which are so evident in all his public
career. He saw Victoria crowned as queen. But
all the splendor of court seemed only to harden
and sharpen his democratic loyalty. He carried
his criticism of English aristocratic life to an
absurd extent. He belonged to the school of
triumphant democracy. The crass ignorance of
the English concerning American life, and the
unfriendly criticism of their captious travelers,
filled him with an indignation which now is quite
amusing.

In accordance with the understanding at the
time of his appointment, he left his post at Paris
for his vacation. In May, 1837, he set sail with
his family from Marseilles on board the old fri
gate, The Constitution, commanded by Commo
dore Elliot. A description of his itinerary would
now be uninteresting, but to him the journey gave
the greatest pleasure. Naturally of a philosophic
and scholarly turn, he experienced the delight
of the philosopher and scholar in visiting places
of historical and archaeological interest. On the
other hand, his strong practical sense and his
sympathy for humanity prevented him from losing
himself in the admiration of past glories, when
political wrongs and social evils and stagnation
everywhere met his eyes. He admired the beau
ties of Italy and Greece, but they taught him a
lesson for America. Everything possessed for

MINISTER TO FRANCE 171

him a present and a human interest: no palace or
hovel or beautiful landscape won his attention
because of mere picturesqueness, or lost for him
its peculiar place in the life and history of man.
Greece and Italy furnished him an opportunity
for studying the real humanities, — not their dead
languages, but the places these nations had act
ually held and were holding in the great drama of
the world's history, whose denouement he believed
would be the complete freedom, the ideal liberty.
He saw in the Parthenon more than a relic and
a ruin; he mused over Salamis and Marathon
without shadowy romanticism, for ho saw before
him spots where the destiny of Europe was de
cided. Delphi itself appealed to no shallow im
agination, but awakened thoughts of the eternal
power of God, and the shifting, transient nature
of the works of man. "Parnassus indeed is there,
with the clouds resting on its snowy summit, and
the blue waves of the Gulf of Corinth rolling at
its feet, in a stream as bright and clear as when
its waters purified the persons of the ministers and
votaries of the temple, but could not cleanse their
hearts from a debasing superstition. But these
are the works of God which mock the pride of
man and bid defiance to his power, witnesses of
change themselves unchangeable."

By special permission from the Sultan the Amer
ican frigate sailed to Constantinople and on into
the Black Sea. The travelers stood in the shadow
of St. Sophia ; and here again the teachings of

172 LEWIS CASS

sacred and profane history were emphasized and
illustrated. A sail through the 2Egean recalled
the beauties and the grandeur of the "inland seas,"
and there came vividly to the mind of Cass another
scene, when through the islands at the north of
Michigan wound a fleet of three hundred Indian
canoes. There is something pathetic in the way
in which, amid scenes of unbroken interest or
magnificence, his mind continually reverted to the
rough picturesqueness and daring life of the fron
tier. The ^Egean suggested similarities, the pal
ace at St. Cloud contrasts. At the age of fifty-
five he was becoming acquainted with a broader
world; with a wider retrospect he was preparing
for twenty years of political conflict. Egypt and
Palestine were included in the journey, and the
Pyramids and the Jordan encouraged more mono
logue ; which, it must be confessed, partook some
what extravagantly of the stilted grandiloquence
common to the rhetoric of fifty years ago. A
visit to the islands of Candia and Cyprus called
out two interesting articles, which wrere sent to
the "Southern Literary Messenger," published at
Richmond. These are full of historic information
and of practical philosophy, for after all Cass was
a scholar to the end rather than a political trick
ster, and nothing shows his scholarly inclinations
more than the trip to the old East.

In November, 1837, the general returned to
Paris, invigorated in body and mind. For some
time no very important diplomatic problems were

MINISTER TO FRANCE 173

presented for solution, and the time was employed
in a study of French manners and political condi
tions. As has already been said, the king became
a close friend of the American minister, so inti
mate, indeed, that the other ambassadors are re
ported to have been jealous of the undue influence
of the republican representative. Louis Philippe
was an affable and courteous man, possessed of
a wonderful store of knowledge, and he won the
admiration and even affection of Cass. There is
no doubt that the citizen king had many noble
qualities. His shabby treatment of Gouverneur
Morris, who furnished him with funds for his
travels in America, and gave him unlimited credit
with his own New York banker, is not a complete
index to his character. There was much in him
that merited admiration, though he had some bour
geois propensities and certain tendencies to small-
ness where a greater breadth was to be expected.
And yet he was a real king, and his grasp of
affairs often belied the maxim of the doctrinaires,
that the king reigns but does not rule. Thiers
served him with his brilliance and Guizot with his
philosophic wisdom, but the constitutional "King
of the French " did not always give himself up to
their guidance. Physical courage he did not lack,
but he seems to have needed political energy,
promptness, and decision. This weakness after
ward showed itself in the evil days of February,
1848, when too complacently he yielded to insur
rection, and gave up his crown, soon to be seized

174 LEWIS CASS

by one with more cunning and with more relent
less ambition.

The happiness of the domestic life of the king
and his personal attractions blinded Cass to politi
cal faults. He had begun to take notes of his
impressions of France and Europe when he came
to Paris, and he now published in an American
periodical an account of the life of King Louis
Philippe, with a commentary on French govern
ment and the conditions of the people. In 1840
these articles were published in New York in book
form, with the title "France, its King, Court,
and Government. By an American." The book
has many merits. It recounts the life of Louis
Philippe in his early days of adversity, when he
fled from revolutionary France ; it relates his trav
els in an easy flowing narrative, and gives an at
tractive picture of his wanderings in America and
his visit to the Western country with which the
writer was so well acquainted. There is a vein
of pleasantry and humor in this portion of the
story, though Cass by mental construction was ill
adapted to light and vivacious description ; never
theless certain aspects of Western life are presented
with vividness, and there is the charm which
always conies with the tale of one who writes of
what he knows and loves. The later life of the
king and his character are set forth in an interest
ing fashion. The description of political France
of fifty years ago gives the book lasting historic
value. It is apparent that he had peered with no

MINISTER TO FRANCE 175

careless glance into the woeful depths of seething
Paris ; that he appreciated the uneasiness and dis
content of its hidden life, that from the standpoint
of happy democracy he could judge with pecul
iar advantage the fruitless longings and insensate
clamorings of the people who did not know the
good they had, and sought what they could not use.
"God be praised!" wrote Cass, "we have no
Paris, with its powerful influence and its inflam
mable materials. He who occupies the lowliest
cabin upon the very verge of civilization has just
as important a part to play in the fate of our
country as the denizen of the proudest city in the
land."

From such observations and studies as these,
Cass was called to important diplomatic duties.
For some time England and the United States
had been giving each other the retort courteous,
from which the next step is the cut direct. The
northeastern boundary question had become an
active stimulant to disorder. Maine would not be
robbed, and Canada would not be cheated. Even
more serious complications had arisen, growing
out of the Canadian rebellion of 1837 and the
turbulence in western New York consequent upon
it. At that time an invasion of the province was
threatened by some fugitives and by American
sympathizers. A small steamer, the Caroline, was
to be used for this purpose, but when lying at
the American shore in the Niagara River she was
seized by an expedition from Canada and sent

176 LEWIS CASS

over the falls. A citizen of the United States
was killed in the affray, and the excitement did
not die out in a moment. Three years later Alex
ander McLeod came from Canada to New York,
and openly claimed the honor of having killed
the American. He was at once arrested on the
charge of murder, and held for trial. His deten
tion immediately became a serious diplomatic dif
ficulty. Lord Palmer ston demanded McLeod 's
release. Our government had not charge of the
prisoner and could not surrender him, for Gov
ernor Seward positively refused to renounce the
jurisdiction of the State of New York. The Eng
lish now acknowledged the Caroline affair as an
international one, and assumed the position that
not McLeod, but the British government was re
sponsible, if any breach of law had been commit
ted. It looked in the early part of 1841 as if war
with Great Britain was imminent. "If he should
be condemned we must throw away the scabbard,"
wrote Mr. Harcourt, in March. Upon Webster,
who had been called to the foreign office by Har
rison, and retained in his position when Tyler be
came President, devolved the task of guiding the
country through the difficulties which now beset
it.

Cass had a point of vantage from which to view
European affairs and to watch the shifting clouds
of war and politics. Even Stevenson at the Court
of St. James did not have such extra-official means
of discovering the popular sentiment of England

MINISTER TO FRANCE 177

as were furnished to Cass by the English colony
at Paris. On March 5, 1841, Cass wrote to
Webster that he had reliable information that the
English fleet was preparing for the order to sail
to Halifax. "Of one thing I am sure: there is
a bad feeling against us in England, and this feel
ing is daily and manifestly augmenting." The
terrible efficiency of the steam frigates, with their
heavy guns "carrying balls weighing from sixty to
a hundred pounds,"1 warned defenseless America
to forge her coat of mail. Ten days after this
first warning another letter was sent relating in
confidence the substance of several interviews with
the king, who asserted that the French antipathy
to England would implicate France in the war if
it were once begun. The hostility to England
entertained by our minister to France was begin
ning to affect his speech a little. There was no
need of his announcing to Webster, in a strident
missive, that the English were the "most credu
lous people upon the face of the earth in all that
concerns their own wishes or pretensions;" that
they were "always right and everybody else wrong."
He added advice: "Bend all your effort to steam.
Equip all the steam vessels you can." Webster
already appreciated the danger, and such peremp
tory language was a little beyond the margin of
good taste and discretion. There is no evidence
that Webster resented it at the time, but when an
opportunity for retaliation offered itself he seized
1 Curtis, Life of Daniel Webster, vol. ii. p. 63.

178 LEWIS CASS

upon it in a manner which suggests the energy of
accumulated resentment.

In good season all danger of war from this
affair disappeared, when McLeod was acquitted
by a jury in New York, in October, 1841.

The winter of 1842 was the beginning of the
end of Cass's diplomatic career; it was also the
beginning of a new period in his life, the interpre
tation of which requires patient discrimination.
Did he from this time on consciously endeavor to
reach the presidential chair by any and all means?
Are his acts all to be read in the light of a con
suming ambition? Did he henceforth stifle his
conscience and give up his principles in exchange
for the political support of the slaveholder? The
slavery question was fairly in politics. The slave-
baron had catechised Van Buren when he came
before the people for election. The nefarious gag
laws had aroused Northern indignation. The ex
treme abolitionists were continuing their crusade
with wonted vehemence and fanatical vigor. But
the day had gone by when Garrison could be
dragged through the streets of Boston at the end
of a halter, or Prudence Crandall insulted and im
poverished in puritanic Connecticut. In the waver
ing North the ultra-abolitionist was allowed in
peace to denounce the Constitution as "a covenant
with death and an agreement with hell." The mod
erate abolitionists, at the same time, prepared to
fight with the ballot in accordance with rule and
reason. In the midst of all the sound and non-

MINISTER TO FRANCE 179

sense of the "hard cider" campaign of 1840 little
attention was paid to the nominees of the Liberty
party. For them a vote was cast so trifling that
it scarcely caused a ripple on the placid satisfac
tion with which the country welcomed the election
of plain "Old Tip." But the slavery question
was fairly in politics. Henceforth a candidate
for favors must run the gauntlet for Southern in
spection, and soon for Northern investigation as
well.

In December, 1841, the representatives of Eng
land, France, Prussia, Russia, and Austria, high
contracting parties at London, entered into a
treaty for the suppression of the slave trade. The
cruisers of each nation were accorded the right to
detain and search vessels belonging to any one of
the others, if such vessel should "on reasonable
grounds be suspected of being engaged in the
traffic in slaves." Inasmuch as English ships of
war outnumbered those of the other countries, this
gave to England special facilities for checking this
traffic, against which she had proclaimed a war to
the knife. Moreover the treaty was a pretentious
and suspicious formality, for the Mediterranean
was specially excluded, and no ship belonging to
Russia, Austria, or Prussia had ever been engaged
in the slave trade, or been interfered with, on that
charge, by British vessels. That England had
the motive of bolstering up her claims to search
and visitation seems, therefore, undeniable. Cass
was uneasy. The people whom he hated had

180 LEWIS CASS

gained possession of a leverage. Stimulated by
his antipathy his imagination conjured up evils to
come. On February 1, 1842, a pamphlet from
his pen was published in Paris, inveighing against
the treaty and attempting to infer the purpose of
England from her past assumption of right. It
bore the title, "An Examination of the Question,
now in Discussion, between the American and
British Governments, concerning the Right of
Search, by an American," and had for a motto,
"' When we doubted, we took the trick.' London
Times, January, 1842." The pamphlet contained
a discussion of the whole question of the right of
search, showing the insolence of Britain in the
past, her steady progress towrard dominion on the
sea, and the reasons for fearing that the quintuple
treaty was simply another step toward a consum
mation she so devoutly wished. The suspicions
of the design of England were perhaps partly
unfounded; but she had no right to complain
because she was suspected. Lord Brougham, in
the House of Lords (February 21, 1842), an
nounced that the sole wish of England was "to
see the infernal slave traffic put down," and that
"any general right of search," or any object ex
cept the prevention of slave trade in Africa was
not sought or contemplated.1 "We now may do
England more justice than Cass could then do
her. But in view of all her conduct, then fresh
in men's minds, the United States was bound to

1 Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, vol. Ix. p. 718.

MINISTER TO FRANCE 181

object to such apparent justification by the other
four great nations of Europe.

The pamphlet was received with approbation in
America. Niles printed the document in full, to
the exclusion of " other matter," remarking that
it was "attributed to the pen of our vigilant and
talented minister at the French court."

On February 13 a protest against the concur
rence of the French government in the quintuple
treaty was written at the American legation at
Paris and transmitted to M. Guizot, minister of
foreign affairs. This asserted that England had
recently been vigorously claiming the right to
enter and examine American vessels for the pur
pose of ascertaining their nationality ; the ratifica
tion of the treaty under consideration might seem
to sanction this right claimed by one of the con
tracting parties. "The United States," it contin
ued, "do not fear that any such united attempts
will be made upon their independence. What,
however, they may reasonably fear is that in the
execution of this treaty measures will be taken
which they must resist." The appeal to French
jealousy of England, the covert intimation that
war might ensue, — "one of those desperate strug
gles which have sometimes occurred in the history
of the world," — sufficed to turn France into oppo
sition, and she refused to ratify the treaty. The
sensitive French people felt that England was far
too condescending; and, moreover, France had
her own sweet sins; for many of her southern

182 LEWIS CASS

ports had more than a vicarious interest in the
remunerative traffic. Not till 1845 did the two
countries agree to keep an effective double fleet
on the coast of Africa to crush the trade, a plan
which, it will be seen, was an imitation of the
one adopted by America in 1842. England was
greatly annoyed at the withdrawal of France.
Lord Brougham attacked Cass as a leader of low
American democracy pandering to mob jealousy
of England. Wheaton, however, asserted that
the treaty of Washington was the determining in
fluence which brought about the rejection of the
treaty by France, and Webster and Cass after
wards had a spirited controversy on the subject in
the Senate,1 in April, 1846.

The American government sanctioned the pro
test which Cass had sent Guizot on his own autho
rity, and accepted its doctrines. "Tyler too,"
the quasi-Whig, who had been borne into office
with Democratic luggage in the whirlwind of pop
ular enthusiasm for Harrison, and was now ruling
in solitary state, a president without a party, was
not the man to object because of too much zeal
for slavery. Webster, although he publicly ap
proved, looked somewhat askance at the pamphlet
and protest, and privately commented severely on
the conduct of both Cass and Stevenson. "They
thought," he said, "to make great political head
way upon a popular gale."2 Even the pamphlet

1 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 29th Congress, p. 627.

2 Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, vol. xi. p. 243.

MINISTER TO FRANCE 183

he declared "quite inconclusive" as a "piece of
law logic," however distinguished it might be for
ardent American feeling.1 History, however, has
proved the reverse. All flat denunciations of
search and visitation were unsuccessful, while the
inconclusive "law logic" of Cass has become a
recognized rule in international law. He plainly
propounded a principle which Mr. Webster seem
ingly failed to grasp, although it is the only rea
sonable and sensible ground for determining such
difficulties. It would not do to declare: "If you
touch our vessels we will fight." Were we to pro
tect every piratical slaver which insolently raised
our flag? The principle, as laid down in the
pamphlet, and years afterward, through the efforts
of Cass, acknowledged by England to be correct,
was simply this : you have no right to touch our
vessels on the high seas; if you suspect that a
vessel carrying our flag is not entitled to it, you
examine her papers at your peril; if you are mis
taken, you must answer to the American govern
ment. This reasoning underlies the whole com
mon law, and Mr. Webster ought to have been
wiser than to sneer at it.

In political circles in America the action was
widely discussed. Adams called Cass's protest
"absurd," and finally poured out upon it one of
those pieces of venomous resentment which some
times issued from him when the thought of the
iniquity of slavery caused the old man's blood to

1 Curtis's Life of Daniel Webster, vol. ii. p. 118.

184 LEWIS CASS

boil. He wrote: "Cass's Protest of the 13th of
February, 1842, against the ratification by France
of the treaty signed and sealed by her own ambas
sador, is a compound of Yankee cunning, of Ital
ian perfidy, and of French legerete, cemented by
shameless profligacy, unparalleled in American
diplomacy. Tyler's approval of it is at once dis
honest, mean, insincere, and hollow-hearted."1

There was, however, great diplomatic wisdom
in the movement. Tyler wrote to Webster that
he had "risen from the perusal of the foreign
newspapers with a feeling essentially in favor of
General Cass's course." "The message has been
the basis of his movements, and the refusal of
France to ratify the treaty of the five powers gives
us more sea-room with Lord Ashburton. . . .
The 4 Times ' of London assumed a tone which
looked confoundedly as if the ratification by the
five powers was afterward to be proclaimed as
equivalent to the establishment of a new rule of
national law."2 There was exultation in more
than one quarter. "For the first time in our his
tory," wrote Wheaton from Berlin, "could it be
said that the American government had exerted
an influence on the policy of Europe."3 The wis
dom of the action can be determined only by a
consideration of the circumstances of the case. It
is easy enough now to hurl invectives because our

1 Memoirs, vol. xi. p. 338.

2 Letters and Times of the Tylers, vol. ii. p. 233.

3 Quoted ibid.

MINISTER TO FRANCE 185

foreign minister interfered with a treaty, the os
tensible intent of which was to check the slave
trade. It is easy enough to attribute it all to the
craving ambition of a crafty "log roller," as does
Von Hoist.1 "The scheming political 4 log roller,'
with a high aim at the object of his own personal
ambition, and the hot temperament of the would-be
great man of mediocre endowments and mediocre
education, cooperated to give such a form to the
effusions of the ardent patriot that Adams's hard
judgment upon them seems scarcely exaggerated."
This keen German critic of our country's history,
who has so shrewdly interpreted and so skillfully
arranged his facts, has frequently failed to pierce
into American popular feeling and emotion ; more
over, an affectionate regard for Adams has often
blinded him to the faults of the noble old man,
and a bitter entry in a diary replete with denun
ciation has been taken as temperate criticism. No
one can estimate too highly the life and work of
that last of the Puritans; but he who writes his
tory by the fitful light of such comment will see
but darkly.

The prime motive for the action of Cass in this
affair was his inveterate dislike and distrust of
England, sentiments which he had good cause to
entertain. It will be remembered that not until
1839 (less than three years before the date of his
pamphlet) did the English give up their efforts in
the Northwest, as already described, and that his

1 History of the United States, vol. ii. p. 489.

186 LEWIS CASS

whole life preceding his admission to Jackson's
cabinet had brought him into antagonism with
British aggression. Filled with pride for America
and her institutions, he had met in Europe the
sneers and condescensions of English travelers,
who looked pityingly upon his country and with
qualified approbation upon France. His writings
in the early years of his ministry shadow forth the
same suspicion. Yet no one can say decisively
that the slavery question did not also move him.
The pamphlet announced that the writer was no
slaveholder, that he never had been, and never
should be; but he found his way to the beaten
track of biblical justification, and pointed to Jo
seph in the bondage of Egypt. A few months
before his objection to the treaty he had been
proposed as a candidate- for the presidency by a
meeting in Philadelphia, and had published in the
"Philadelphia Sentinel" a carefully worded reply.
"He certainly does not in his letter," says Niles,
"court a nomination to that office; but yet admits
that in the contingency of being called upon by
the general voice of the Democratic party he would
not withhold his assent."1 But even on the sup
position that the presidential bee had begun its
buzzing, it is anticipating later political tactics
to suppose that, as the prime condition of Demo
cratic support, he threw himself into the arms
of the slavocracy. "The favoring gale," which
would waft him on his way, was bold opposition
1 Niles, Ixi. p. 80, October 2, 1841.

MINISTER TO FRANCE 187

to England, ardent Americanism, and evident dis
approval of forcible abolition.

Admitting as possible the play of various mo
tives, it is still true that the pamphlet and protest
were entirely justifiable. England had been assert
ing with renewed vigor her right of visitation,
which she now cleverly distinguished from search,
and had carried her principles into exasperating
practice. Mr. Eugene Schuyler, in speaking of
the treaty, has left the weight of his undoubted
authority in favor of General Cass's action. "For
tunately," he writes, "our minister to Paris at
that time was General Lewis Cass, a man of great
experience, of decided views, and who had suc
ceeded in obtaining a very intimate and friendly
footing with the French government."1 This au
thor shows more plainly than any one else has
done, how the defense of American rights on the
seas is coupled with the name of Cass.

The Ashburton treaty was signed at Washing
ton August 9, 1842. It was ratified by the Sen
ate August 26, by a vote of thirty -nine to nine.
Webster could fairly pride himself upon the result
of the negotiations; and the approval of the Sen
ate seems very complimentary to his efforts, if one
considers his anomalous condition. Even before
a treaty was signed, there were clamorous demands
for his resignation by the Whig newspapers; for
it was hard to bear with equanimity that their
own giant should be used to sustain the renegade

1 American Diplomacy and the Furtherance of Commerce, p. 252.

188 LEWIS CASS

Whig who occupied the presidential chair. Yet
Tyler's own self-satisfied suavity, it may be said,
had aided not a little in smoothing out the "wrin
kles of negotiation."1 Virginian though he was,
he first suggested that each nation should keep a
squadron on the coast of Africa to suppress the
slave trade,2 a stipulation which forms article
eight of the treaty. The squadrons were to be
independent of each other, but the two govern
ments agreed, nevertheless, to give such orders to
the officers commanding the respective forces as
should enable them "most effectually to act in
concert and cooperation, upon mutual consulta
tion," as exigencies might arise, for the execution
of all such orders.

A copy of the treaty, and the news of its ratifi
cation, reached Paris September 17, and Cass
immediately sent word to his government that he
could no longer be useful in his position, and that
his private affairs demanded his attention at home.
When later he had received letters and dispatches
from Mr. Webster in relation to the matter, he
sent a long communication in which he complained
because there was no renunciation by Great Brit
ain of her right of search. The pretensions of
the English in this regard had of late been pro
ductive of some injury. American traders had
been stopped and searched with a view to ascer
taining their real nationality, and whether or not

1 Schouler's History of the United States, vol. iv. p. 403.

2 Letters and Times of the Tylers, vol. ii. p. 219.

MINISTER TO FRANCE 189

they were slavers. Cass by his pamphlet and
protest had identified himself with the controversy,
and now that a treaty had been made and ratified
he felt piqued that England was not forced to
forego her assumption; his government had not
gone so far as he had expected, or as his protest
had promised. He was in an awkward position,
and he tried to extricate himself by criticising
Webster and by objecting to the treaty after it
had been signed and ratified. His own enthusi
asm and sense had prompted him to oppose Great
Britain, and the President had approved his con
duct. But now affairs had taken a different turn.
Resignation was open to him, and a dignified
withdrawal would have been sufficient. A bitter
correspondence, however, which attracted a great
deal of attention, was begun between Cass and
Webster. Adams wrote about it in that bitter
diary : " The controversy between Lewis Cass and
Daniel Webster about the Ashburton Treaty, the
rights of visitation and of search, and the Quin
tuple treaty, still, with the comet, the zodiacal
light, and the Millerite prediction of the second
advent of Christ arid the end of the world within
five weeks from this day, continue to absorb much
of the public and of my attention." He compared
the "rumpus" to the complaints of Silas Deane
and to Monroe's famous attack upon the Washing
ton administration.

The letters which passed between the ex-minis
ter and the secretary of state have been published

190 LEWIS CASS

in the public documents, and do not need presen
tation here. The President reported them in an
swer to a request from the Senate. Cass insisted
that he was thrown into an embarrassing position
by Webster's action, and charged that the coun
try, through the secretary of state, had stultified
itself in not making a renunciation of the right of
visitation and search a condition precedent to the
consideration of the matters which were treated
of in the eighth article. He did not directly
criticise the President and Senate, but announced
his belief that the ratification of the treaty ought
to have been coupled with an express denunciation
of the right of search. Webster, on the other
hand, asserted that no such stand was needed on
our part, that the Ashburton treaty reaffirmed
and made stronger America's opposition to Eng
lish assumption on the seas, that the government
of the United States relied on its own power and
not upon statements in treaties or conventions.
Again Mr. Webster ought to have been wiser.
Our vessels were being visited and searched in
spite of our "power" and our denial of such a
right. Short of war, negotiation was the only
means of obtaining cessation of such annoyances.
He himself found it necessary to protest in later
years. The odious right was claimed, and occa
sionally exercised, by Great Britain for sixteen
years, until Cass himself as secretary of state took
up the old argument of his pamphlet which Web
ster had deemed inconclusive, and compelled the

MINISTER TO FRANCE 191

English government to recognize its cogency and
publicly to abandon her pretensions. What Cass
said in these letters to Webster had already been
suggested in the debates in the Senate, and events
soon proved him "in the right and Mr. Web
ster in the wrong." l The secretary in this corre
spondence quoted with approbation a passage from
the President's message, which intimated that the
clause of the treaty providing for cruisers on
the coast of Africa had removed "all pretext on the
part of others for violating the immunities of the
American flag on the seas." But English states
men at once repelled such an interpretation. "Nor
do we understand," said Sir Robert Peel, then
prime minister, "that in signing that treaty the
United States could suppose that the claim was
abandoned." It was undoubtedly unfortunate that,
at a time when the statement would have carried
peculiar force, Webster did not see fit to announce
our unflinching adherence to our rights.

In one particular the ex-minister was wholly at
a disadvantage. The treaty as ratified was none
of his special business, and he was not called upon
to denounce it except as a private citizen. On
the other hand Webster was, as Sumner said, as
powerful as he was unamiable, and the lack of
good humor gave his adversary an opportunity for
effective retort which he might otherwise have
missed. The quarrel continued until March, 1843,
some months after the return of General Cass from
1 Schuyler's American Diplomacy, p. 255.

192 LEWIS CASS

Paris; but, of course, nothing was accomplished
by it. It may be doubted whether this ill-natured
controversy was of great assistance in the race for
the presidency; probably it did help a little, al
though the people of the country were, on the
whole, pretty well satisfied with the Ashburton
settlement, and did not perceive the need of a
bolder stand against English presumption.

This matter has heretofore been treated of in
a partisan manner. The lives of Webster hold
his letters up for admiration. Cass's letters ap
pear without their answers in his biographies.
Mr. Peter Harvey has left us a story in his
" Personal Reminiscences and Anecdotes of Daniel
Webster," which has found credence in the minds
of more trustworthy writers. According to this
account, Cass was so overwhelmed by the replies
of Webster to his attacks that he confessed him
self beaten, said his position was unbearable, and
begged that he be allowed to write another letter
to which the secretary should promise to make no
surrejoinder. This tale bears its own refutation
on its face, but it has been accepted even by those
who have generally placed the correct value on
Mr. Harvey's productions.1 Cass was applauded
and toasted for his success in the controversy, and
it is perfectly clear that it did riot detract from

1 Mr. Lodge in his life of Webster has declared that " a more
untrustworthy book it would be impossible to imagine." Yet his
own admirable sketch of Webster's career has given new currency
to the tale.

MINISTER TO FRANCE 193

his popularity and the high estimation in which
he was held at the time. Moreover in recognizing
him as one of their great leaders the Democracy
accepted his attacks upon Webster. He had lost
his senses, if he whined for pity, as Harvey asserts
that he did. I have the explicit denial of this
fact from Mr. Charles E. Anderson, who was
secretary of the legation at Paris, and who knew
Cass with a keener appreciation and with a better
judgment than this "loving and devoted Boswell"
knew Webster.

"The sage of Marshfield " was mighty in argu
ment, but Cass was well able to hold his own.
His ability, of which there cannot be the slightest
doubt, his strength in debate, and his power in
argument have been greatly under-estimated since
his death. The eulogistic biographies which ap
peared in his lifetime, though not without their
merits, lack discrimination and lose the weight
belonging to judicious approval. The generation
of the Rebellion, naturally enough, is but just
emerging from a state of antipathetic criticism
of all who were not of the vehement antislavery
school. Those still living, who knew Cass in his
vigor, are not willing to admit, whatever may
have been their political convictions, that in real
strength and capacity, in mental virility or acu
men, he was overmatched by any save the very
greatest of his day. His placid, kindly disposi
tion won for him a lasting affection among those
who knew him, arid remembrance may have warped

194 LEWIS CASS

judgment ; but the name of Cass recalls to an old
Michigan Whig a friend to be loved and admired,
and a foe to be dreaded. Of the statesmen of his
generation, only Webster surpassed him in pro
fundity of argument. Calhoun excelled him in
keenness and directness of debate. Clay outstripped
him in fiery beauty of eloquence and in power for
popular leadership. Although he never tried to
imitate the professional tactics of Van Buren, the
only Democratic leader comparable to him, he at
least equaled the "Little Magician" in all the
more graceful and honorable arts of statesmanship.
The American citizens of Paris were loath to
bid farewell to the representative of their country,
whose constant attention and courtesy they appre
ciated. His residence was elegant and attractive.
"General Cass's hotel is furnished sumptuously,"
wrote Charles Sumner in his journal. "The table
was splendid, and the attendance perfect; servants
in small clothes constantly supplying you with
some new luxury. . . . Mr. Cass is a man of
large private fortune, and is said to live in a style
superior to that of any minister ever sent by
America."1 On November 11 a public dinner
was given the retiring minister by his resident
countrymen. The expressions of regret at his
departure were many, and seemingly from the
heart. The master of the feast in his address
reminded the company that they had come to-

1 Memoirs and Letters of Charles Sumner, by Edward L. Pierce,
vol. i. p. 253.

MINISTER TO FRANCE 195

gether, without distinction of party, to testify
affectionate respect for their distinguished guest.
Making due allowance for the flattering unction
of post-prandial phrases, we still see that the
news correspondent was right in his message, which
announced: "General Cass has won all hearts at
Paris. They loved the man; they admired the
dauntless envoy of their country."1 The speech
of General Cass in answer to the toast, "Honor
to our illustrious fellow citizen, and a happy return
to a grateful country," was a finished piece of
declamation over the smiling Providence which
especially shapes the ends of the United States of
America. His eloquence had the old-fashioned
sonorous quality. He offered none of "the foam
Aphrodite of Bacchus 's sea," nor the froth and
airy nothingness of modern after-dinner speech-
making. There was little to lighten the heavy
rhythm of his sentences. His response was, as
his addresses usually were, scholarly, philosophic,
sensible, and, above all, democratic. He could
continually strike the keynote of the democratic
anthem, leaving the frivolous overtones for more
frolicsome speakers and writers. The peculiar vic
tory of Cass as the champion of American rights
was applauded in the toast, "The sovereignty of
the seas, common to all nations, but exclusive
wider every flag."

Another chapter of the career of Cass was
tnded. He had conducted himself with rare dis-
1 Communication to New York Courier and Enquirer.

196 LEWIS CASS

cretion as an American minister, and had quite
outdone himself as a politician. Diplomatic mis
sions are usually dangerous to political ambition,
for absence does not make the voter's heart grow
fonder; but his six years' residence abroad had
increased his reputation and his popularity.

CHAPTER VII

A DEMOCRATIC LEADEE. — THE ELECTION OF 1844

GENERAL CASS left his son-in-law, Mr. Led-
yard, as charge d'affaires at Paris. After a
voyage of three weeks, not a slow trip for those
times, he arrived in Boston on December 6, 1842.
The people of the country were ready to welcome
him with enthusiasm. Immediately upon his ar
rival the "citizens of New England," in a flatter
ing letter, congratulated him on his safe return to
his native country, " after faithful and energetic
service in an important crisis " of his mission, and
asked for a meeting with him in Faneuil Hall,
"the spot in which of all others America would
desire to welcome her deserving ones." He was
obliged by other arrangements to forego the plea
sure and the profit of communion with the political
spirit of New England, and contented himself
with meeting informally at his hotel those who
wished to pay their respects to him. In New
York even greater honors awaited him. A new
luminary had been discovered by the sweeping
astrolabe of the political astrologer. Ignorant of
his fame and unappreciative of the popular curi
osity, he had intended to hurry on to Washington,

198 LEWIS CASS

and thence home, where business matters claimed
his immediate attention. But metropolitan demo
cracy has generally obtained what it has sought.
The governor's rooms were tendered him, and
there he was received with cheers and all the ap
probation of party and patriotic devotion. Such
ceremonies were bearding Van Buren in his very
den; but as yet they could be accounted for as
admiration for the envoy whose boldness had dig
nified America.

These evidences of popular approval in Northern
States prove that his opposition to the quintuple
treaty was not considered truckling to the slave
power. Although an abolitionist was still an out
cast, if no longer an outlaw, nevertheless open
bidding for Southern favor or the use of a diplo
matic mission for the defense of slavery would
have been promptly resented. The political "boss-
ism " of the Southerner added a sting to what
mi<2fht have been otherwise harmless. Indeed that

O

fact must be remembered through the whole his
tory of the slavery question. Without doubt the
immorality of human bondage aroused the slum
bering consciences of the people; the shrill cries
of the fanatic, the pleading eloquence of Phillips,
the wonderful bravery of Giddings and Adams,
the incessant agitation of a subject which would
not down, were more than mere steps in a pro
gress toward united Northern sentiment; they were
productive of a thought which, in the end, led the
people, rejecting extravagances, to accept what

A DEMOCRATIC LEADER 199

was politically sound and morally right. But the
infamous three fifths compromise gave power to
the owner of chattels, and allowed the representa
tion of things; the domineering slave baron, in
the halls of Congress, kindled by his insolent
orderings the resentment of the "d — d trading
Yankee." Without doing injustice, therefore, to
the impetus of higher motives, or under-estimating
the mighty propelling power of any moral move
ment, simply because it is moral, we must admit
that very often, when the North was animated to
special effort, and when Northern representatives
showed themselves persistent and energetic, there
was some current beside the moral one holding
them to their duty, there was an evident dislike
of the tactics, methods, and aims of the slave
holder. So, even if hatred of the black sin of
the South had as yet found no broad resting-place,
jealousy of Southern dictation, as well as national
pride and human shame, would have prevented
the people of New York and Boston from receiv
ing with acclamations any one who in their opin
ion had used a diplomatic office to pander to the
prejudices of the slave-owner, and had for personal
glory sought to shield a piratical traffic behind his
country's name and his country's honor.

Cass was welcomed at Washington by the Con
gressmen and satellite politicians who wished to
scan the face of a new prophet. All the way from
the capital to his Michigan home there were ap
plause and curiosity sufficient to satisfy the most

200 LEWIS CASS

hungry. He did not reach Detroit until February
14, and his way from Washington was one tri
umphal march. The legislatures of Pennsylvania
and Ohio welcomed and honored him, and the
governors and principal officers came out several
miles to escort him to their respective capitals,
under the firing of artillery, ringing of bells,
martial music, and a general turnout of all the
volunteer militia. It is interesting to read in
Niles an item recounting the popular enthusiasm
over Cass, and by its side to see another short
paragraph telling how Henry Clay was boisterously
applauded at each step of a journey through the
South. There were warmth and color in those
young days of our country. There were heroes
and a hero worship strange to us in these later
days. A committee from Detroit met their re
turning fellow citizen at Ypsilanti, and he was
conducted to his home by the route he had taken
thirty years before, when he had hoped to escort
Brush with his supplies to the assistance of Hull.
Nothing speaks so well for Cass as the honor he
had at his own home. The city was enthusiasti
cally devoted; he was the political Nestor of the
State. Without using the arts of machine politics
he retained his hold on the popular confidence and
support, until the later spirit of liberty demanded
a new leader inspired by the gospel of a new dis
pensation.

At a banquet given in his honor soon after his
return Cass was heartily toasted, with the hope

A DEMOCRATIC LEADER -J01

of adding another spark to the kindling enthusi
asm of the country. His name was now fairly
before the people, and letters began to pour in
upon him asking him all conceivable questions
and propounding a series of enigmas, with the
intention of ascertaining his exact political belief
by the Socratic and Yankee method of discovering
truth. Before Cass had reached Boston, on his
return from France, the Democratic Central Com
mittee of Shelby County, Indiana, summoned a
convention of all who were in favor of "the nomi
nation of either General Cass or Richard M.
Johnson." In November, almost before the glare
of the rockets of the congressional election had
faded away, a convention of his friends in Harris-
burg announced their preference for Lewis Cass
as the next Democratic candidate for the presi
dency. The "New York Herald," indorsing the
action of this convention, demanded new men and
a new movement. The congressional election of
1842 had been unusually mild and sensible, and
in this sluggish indisposition the "Herald" saw
need for the tonic of novelty. None of the old
leaders could longer awaken enthusiasm; "but
the movement now first made in Pennsylvania
looks more like the real spirit of the people than
anything we have seen of late. In that State, and
in that way, did the name of Jackson and Harri
son come up, and carry all before them." Cass
was the very man, this paper declared, who could
with proper attention and effort be carried into

202 LEWIS CASS

the presidency with a universal shout of acclama
tion. The "Herald" went at it with a will, issued
extra copies, and shouted in leaded lines for an
other hero of 1812, believing that a new Jackson
was found to lead the chosen Democratic seed
back from captivity.

The Whig papers, curious and incredulous,
doubted the orthodoxy of the new candidate, and
the Democrats desired to be sure of him. Hardly
had he landed when a letter from Mahlon Dicker-
son, a fellow member of Jackson's cabinet, was
sent asking him for a full confession of faith.
The answer was frankly given. "I am a member
of the Democratic party, and have been so from
my youth. I was called into public life by Mr.
Jefferson, thirty-six years ago, and am a firm be
liever in the principles laid down by him." Two
short paragraphs, in addition to this shrewd state
ment of old Republican affiliation, announced hos
tility to a national bank and belief in the saving
efficacy of specie payment.

Interrogatories to the various candidates before
the country were issued by a convention at Indian
apolis early in 1843. To these, answers were sent
by Calhoun, Buchanan, Johnson, and Cass. All
sound the tocsin of faithful partisanship with no
uncertain sound. Even Calhoun, long a free lance
ready to strike at anything opposed to his cher
ished state sovereignty and organized anarchy,
seemed to have temporarily left his nomadic poli
tics. He replied that he had no reason to doubt

A DEMOCRATIC LEADER 203

that his friends would abide by the decision of a
convention fairly summoned to express the wishes
of the party. All this looked like happiness and
harmony. Cass gave his answers to the questions
at some length and with great good sense. Hav
ing always entertained a doubt of the constitution
ality of a bank, he now condemned it; the pro
ceeds from the sale of public land should not be
distributed among the States, because it was sim
ply taking the money out of one pocket to drop
it into the other, and sums equal to those dis
tributed must needs be raised again by taxation ;
a tariff for revenue with incidental protection
should be "wisely and moderately established and
then left to its own operation, so that the commu
nity could calculate on its reasonable duration
and thus avoid ruinous fluctuations;" an amend
ment to the Constitution limiting the veto power
seemed at the time unnecessary and therefore in
expedient. All this constituted a sufficiently good
platform. As affairs then stood the Democratic
party was without doubt lying quietly at good an
chorage. Would it be content without the excite
ment and flurry of new and momentous issues?

On Jefferson's birthday the Democratic citizens
of Philadelphia celebrated the occasion, and Cass
was invited to be present. His well-worded letter
of regret was read amid the enthusiasm of those
present, and the following toast was offered: "Gen
eral Lewis Cass, the soldier, the diplomatist, and
the statesman : his correspondence with Webster

204 LEWIS CASS

proves his knowledge of the American character,
and his ability to defend it." Lord Brougham's
bitter attack on Cass aided his popularity and his
chances for nomination. That noble lord accused
him of debasing himself to pander to the lowest,
meanest feeling of the "groveling and groundling "
politician, and asserted that he, an American min
ister, had appealed to the hatred of England felt
by the "rabble." Such charges by a British aris
tocrat were sweet morsels for the democracy on
whom Cass hoped to rely. In various portions
of the country wires were pulled for the new
Michigan candidate. A friend in New York in
sisted that the elective offices ought to be divided
among the adherents of Cass and Calhoun as well
as of Van Buren, "so as to divide the loaves and
fishes party." Men in Pennsylvania, in accord
ance with Cass's desires, deprecated the attacks
upon Van Buren, lest such conduct might react
and insure the persistent enmity of his followers.1
Early in 1842, therefore, eighteen months be
fore the day of election, candidates for the Demo
cratic nomination were fairly before the country
with a careful, reserved, and negative policy.
The only difficulty seemed to lie in the choice of
any one of them as standard bearer. Many felt
that Van Buren had been harshly treated in 1840,
and hoped that the people, returning to reason,
would undo the riot of the last campaign and put
the "Little Magician" in the White House again.

1 Private papers of Lewis Cass.

A DEMOCRATIC LEADER 205

He had been a brave and consistent leader; and
had been beaten rather by the financial distress
of the country and the sins which Jackson had
visited upon him than because of any errors of his
own. But poetic justice is not political justice;
and when once a candidate has been defeated there
is a natural hesitation about sacrificing party in
terest on the altar of idealistic honor. Moreover
Van Buren had had his turn, and of course had
satisfied only a portion of the horde of hungry
officeseekers. Those not satisfied with their share
of the spoils would naturally seek another leader,
from whom they might expect to obtain their de
sires. If he could not be elected with prestige
of success to buoy him up, with the power of the
officeholder to aid him, what reason was there to
expect his election after he had been defeated, and
when the officeholders had nothing to gain and
everything to lose by his election ? Although the
majority of the party were still favorably disposed
towards him, therefore, and though many of the
politicians still obeyed the customary rein, and
did becoming homage to their peerless teacher,
there was good reason to believe that, even if no
new issue presented itself, there would be a strong
effort for a new candidate in whom the people
might imagine any and all virtues, and whose
unknown quantity might be substituted to solve
widely different problems.

Buchanan could rely on the strong support of
Pennsylvania, his own State. He belonged to

206 LEWIS CASS

the school of the cautious, judicious politicians,
who seek a safe retreat from worry and vexation
in a mild policy of indecision and wise delay.
Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky was the reputed
slayer of Tecumseh. It might be doubted whether
this fact of itself qualified him for the presidency ;
but that was not the point at issue. It unques
tionably added to his availability as a nominee.
He had been a convenient and obedient cat's paw
for Jackson, a harmless and purposeless vice-presi
dent under Van Buren, and was now refreshingly
frank and coyly open in the expression of his
wants; he would take either the presidency or the
vice-presidency as the party desired.

There was never any real hope of Calhoun's
nomination. His opinions were too dangerously
evident, and he was the enemy of the dying sage
at the Hermitage. He exhibited unexpected
strength, however, even in New York where Van
Buren was supposed to dominate matters ; for the
young men of the party admired the towering
ability of the old nullifier, who had now appar
ently drifted back fairly within the headlands of
the Democratic haven. The experienced voter
learns to estimate aright the superiority of medio
crity ; but the young voter places too high a valu
ation upon greatness. Beyond all, Calhoun was
of Irish descent, and the potent bond of Celtic
sympathy held for him the allegiance of a power
ful political constituency in the great cities of the
Atlantic seaboard, an element which has never

A DEMOCRATIC LEADER 207

been addicted to fair-weather voting, or to off-
year epidemics, or to despising the primary meet
ing. Since the days of Jefferson there has been
an intimacy between the aristocratic South and
the congested population of Northern cities, — a
union based partly, perhaps, on the very name of
the favorite party ; partly on the fact that Feder
alists, Whigs, and Republicans have represented
the tariff, the bank, internal improvements, and
strong government; partly on the fact that the
immigrant, who has come to the "land of free
dom," gravitates without thought to the party
which was born of opposition to centralization,
and was the advocate of individualism; partly on
the fact that democracy represents what is peculiar
to America, and is forcibly distinct from the civi
lization of trans-Atlantic countries, and is there
fore attractive to him who has shaken from his
feet the dust of old association. At this time the
foreign element, especially the Irish, was strongly
Democratic ; for the Whigs seem to have repelled
them, and driven them to vote "en masse against
the candidates of the Whig party."1 For immi
gration had begun and had awakened the fears of
many Americans. In the fourth decade of the
century 538,381 emigrants, and in the fifth decade
about three times that number, landed on our
coast.

The old competitor of the Democracy was in its
turn girding itself for the race. There could be

i W. H. Seward's Works, vol. iii. p. 387.

208 LEWIS CASS

no doubt who would be its leader. The victory
of Harrison and Tyler in 1840 had proved but
a defeat for the Whigs. Perhaps it was a just
retribution upon a party which had contented itself
with declamation and innuendo, and had drawn
to itself all the vexed spirits and the homeless
malcontents whose teeth had been set on edge by
the personal government of Jackson or the panic
of 1837. With one accord this conglomerate
party, which disappointment had pressed into some
degree of coherency, was decided this time upon
the nomination of nobody of unknown principles.
It was already shouting for "Harry of the West,"
who was the very impersonation of Whig doctrine
and desire. When a party is unwilling to trust
its fortunes and its principles to its true leader,
and when in the hour of hope it deserts him on
whom it relies in the hour of trial and despair, its
fortunes are without real value and its principles
of no worth. If one were to seek for the secret
of the cohesion and the permanence of the Demo
cratic party he would find it largely in its devotion
to its leaders and its faith in itself.

There was another party, whose presence in the
coming election was to have decisive influence,
which remained unnoticed in the early days of
this long campaign. Reference has already been
made to the Liberty party, composed of voting
abolitionists, who had determined upon reaching
their ends by political means. Their insignificant
vote in 1840 had not discouraged them, and they

A DEMOCRATIC LEADER 209

were again marshaling for the conflict with unsub
dued energy and enthusiasm. Northern opposi
tion to the "gag laws" had borne fruit in toler
ance for abolitionism. Adams and Giddings, on
the floor of Congress, had fought a good fight,
which had won the admiration of the people. The
"old man eloquent" had lashed the slaveholders
till they writhed in mingled anger and chagrin,
and the new Ohio representative, censured by the
House for presumptuous resolutions concerning
slavery as a "municipal" and not an international
institution, had resigned his seat, to be reflected
by an overwhelming majority. These men were
the prophets crying in the wilderness, making
straight the way for final salvation from the curse
of slavery. Adams was anticipating the creed of
the Republican party by twenty years, devoted to
the Union, opposed to the barbarism of the South,
prophesying that slavery would be engulfed in the
abyss if the Southern States, in the love of their
sweet sin, should endeavor to separate themselves
from the Union. Although neither of these men
can be considered a member in good standing of
the Liberty party as a political organization, they
blazed the way for constitutional and legal opposi
tion. They attracted the attention of the thought
ful, and won the respect and sympathy of the
generous. Yet Birney himself fiercely assaulted
Adams in a letter to his party, and in the very
district of the old hero cooperated with the Demo
crats to defeat him. It was one of the best in-

210 LEWIS CASS

stances of the way in which principle sometimes
runs away with reason, and sense is smothered in
sentiment.

Of the Tyler faction there is little to be said.
With a great estimation of himself and his popu
larity in the country, the President seems actually
to have anticipated the support of the people. He
had turned his back on every Whig measure and
read every Whig guide-post backward, until at
the end of his administration he had passed by
even ultra-Democracy, and was hand and glove
with John C. Calhoun himself. A free use of the
spoils of office had failed to create a party devoted
to his interests, and in isolated self-sufficiency his
complacency was fed by the flattery of a cunning
"kitchen cabinet," which ruled him and moulded
his whims to suit themselves. The people abso
lutely refused to dance to his piping, and his
"great country party" proved but a sorry court
party of officeholders and officeseekers and poli
tical pariahs.

One question was coming ever more prominently
before the country — should Texas be annexed ?
It will not do to go into the early history of the
Lone Star Republic and show how it broke away
from stagnant Mexico, how it was colonized by
slave owners from the Southern States, who were
intent from the first on gaining new fields and
introducing their system, and by that element of
our population which is always ready for excite
ment and peril. The annexation plan began in

A DEMOCRATIC LEADER 211

conspiracy ; it was carried along by the dark and
devious machinery of sly diplomacy; it ended in
a disgraceful war, waged under false pretenses,
and brought by swaggering success to a shameful
end.

Tyler thrust the Texas question into the face of
the country. Webster retired from the foreign
office in May, 1843, and after a short interim,
when the duties of the office were performed by
Legare, Upshur was appointed, to be followed on
his death by Calhoun. The appointment of the
great advocate of slavery meant that annexation
would be carried to a conclusion. The plan had
for some time been cautiously whispered over in
meetings of the President's intimates. Upshur
had used a bullying tone to Mexico, and hints of
affectionate consideration had been given to Texas.
Calhoun, now at the head of a pro-slavery cabinet,
and the adviser of a slaveholding president, bent
his energies to obtain more territory where the
industrial system of the South might have more
room and full play. The annexation of Texas
is the first great effort on the part of the slave
States to get vantage ground for bond labor in its
unequal wrestle with the labor of the North. Of
course, vainglory and national pride clothed a
loathsome plan with patriotism, and blinded the
eyes of many people to its real intent. Immediate
"re-annexation" was daily becoming more popu
lar as a campaign cry, and it soon became evident
that it must be a determining quantity in the

212 LEWIS CASS

coming election. In spite of the fact that the
idea had at first shocked and surprised the people,
when they were allowed to look behind the cur
tain, they soon endured it, and at last embraced
it. Every day the danger became more imminent
that no candidate could expect Southern sympathy
and support who was unwilling to adopt as his
own this unjustifiable scheme. It did not appear
to the whole North in its worst light, for there
was a cry that England had her hand in the mess,
and that if the United States was not on the watch
the Lone Star would be added to the Union Jack.
Such artful and revolting deception was enough to
awaken the patriotism of the North, although the
truth seems to be that all that England desired
was to win Texas for abolition and liberty, — at
the same time, however, probably desiring that no
other power should profit by annexation.

On the same day in April, 1844, two letters
appeared opposing the acquisition of Texas. One
was from Clay, who believed that he could recon
cile friends and foes.1 The other was from Van
Buren, who entered into a full discussion of the
matter from its beginning, and expressed his un
qualified dissent from annexation. Clay had not
materially injured his chances, for the Whig party
was never so strong in the South or so bedridden
with slavery as was the Democratic; but from the
date of this letter Van Buren 's prestige began to
decline. Hitherto he had bent the suppliant knee

1 Coleman s Crittenden, p. 218.

A DEMOCRATIC LEADER 213

to the slavocracy ; but here was a breach of disci
pline not to be tolerated, and a search was begun
for a candidate who could be relied on. Jackson
had already written a letter in favor of annexation,
in which he spoke of the necessity of having Texas
for military reasons, and called up the horrors of
a servile insurrection which might be engendered
by a British army, if the territory did not fall to
us. A second letter from Old Hickory, wrung
from him by Van Buren's friends, disclosed him
clinging to both poles, — true to Van Buren and
true to annexation, intimating that his past grand
protege had spoken in ignorance, and that all
would be right when it came to the pinch.

Cass was ready to throw himself into the breach.
He had been urged by friends to embrace his op
portunity the moment that Van Buren declared
against Texas. A letter written from Detroit,
May 10, was decidedly for annexation. It was
addressed to Hon. E. A. Hannegan, at Washing
ton. Its publication won for him support from
the immediate annexationists. It struck the old
key, and the only one which could awaken a sym
pathetic response in the North. Praising the ""in
tuitive sagacity " of Jackson, and appealing to
American fear and jealousy of English ambition,
Cass put this question, shrewdly adapted to inspire
the patriotism of the North and to excite the South
to fury : " What more favorable position could be
taken for the occupation of English black troops,
and for letting them loose upon our Southern

214 LEWIS CASS

States than is afforded by Texas?" The end of
this letter was worthy of the beginning: "Every
day satisfies me more and more that a majority
of the American people are in favor of annexation.
Were they not, the measure ought not to be ef
fected. But as they are, the sooner it is effected
the better. I do not touch the details of the ne
gotiation. That must be left to the responsibility
of the government." l • Vox populi, vox del. Into
how many slums and sloughs of wickedness did
that absurd Democratic shibboleth summon the
country ! There was to be no virtue in statesman
ship except in clairvoyant reading of the popular
will. Obedience was the first and greatest com
mandment, and a regard for it allowed the politi
cian and self-seeker to pose as a ministering angel
obeying the divine voice.

Yet one who studies the career of Cass from
the beginning will see elements of earnestness and
sincerity in this letter, demagogic as it seems at
first. It was another instance of his somewhat
absurd yet natural antipathy to England. More
over, his practice had been from the beginning to
respect and cherish the whims and fancies of the
people ; his admiration for Jackson was not feigned.
Had he opposed the annexation of Texas he might
have had little chance of nomination in 1844, but
his reputation for honesty and independence would
be higher with this generation. It is nevertheless
not fair to brand a man as a " doughface" because

1 Niles, vol. Ixvi. p. 197,

A DEMOCRATIC LEADER '215

he happens to be desirous of office and to advocate
a plan of action to which thousands around him
are attracted. Had he not been a candidate for
honors in the Democratic convention, his wish
for Texas would not seem strange to any one ; it
would be entirely consistent with his vigorous
American nature, with his broad Western enthu
siasm for "bigness" and empire. His later cham
pionship of our right to "all Oregon" has never
been attributed to demagoguery and insincerity,
nor could it be. The longing for territory is
much the same, whether the land lies toward the
equator or the pole. To call a man a "doughface "
and a "Northern man with Southern principles,"
without attempting to show acts inconsistent with
character, training, sectional influence, and pre
vious behavior; to denounce him as a hypocrite
without stating more than one fact from which to
infer hypocrisy, is a practice more fitted to politi
cal harangues than to history. We are just recov
ering from the habit of talking as if every one
who was not an abolitionist or directly in favor
of the uprooting of slavery was morally weak, if
not spiritually and mentally crooked. This con
demns nine out of ten men at the North in the
fifth decade of the century. It gives no room
even for the play of conservatism, for doubt, for
mental inertia, for the feeling so common at the
beginning of every great moral movement that
the agitator is a senseless fanatic.

After the appearance of Clay's letter, there was

216 LEWIS CASS

short time for discussion before the Whig conven
tion assembled at Baltimore. Of course Clay was
nominated by acclamation; a very whirlwind of
applause announced the beginning of a campaign
with confidence and enthusiasm. Theodore Fre-
linghuysen was nominated for vice-president. A
ratification meeting, one of the greatest pageants
in the history of electioneering pomps, was ad
dressed the next day by the orators of the party.
Even Webster, leaving his dalliance with "Tyler-
ism," found his way back into the old ranks, and
thundered out his approbation of the work of
the convention. There was no long and involved
statement of principles. The name of Clay was
enough. The convention was content with a short
creed : " A tariff for revenue to defray the neces
sary expenses of the government, and discrimina
tion with special reference to the protection of the
domestic labor of the country; the distribution of
the proceeds of the sales of public lands ; a single
term for the presidency; a reform of executive
usurpations ; and generally such an administration
of the affairs of the country as shall impart to
every branch of the public service the greatest
practicable efficiency, controlled by a well-regu
lated and wise economy."

Upon the publication of Van Buren?s letter op
posing annexation, the South looked around cau
tiously for another candidate on whom it could
rely, and when the convention met Van Buren did
not receive the full vote of a single slaveholding

A DEMOCRATIC LEADER 217

State except Missouri. Calhoun had withdrawn.
The South had fallen away to Cass and Johnson.
Except to those who saw how set the wind, the
nomination of Van Buren must have seemed pre
destined. State conventions in all parts of the
Union had instructed their delegates to vote for
him, and it was certain that he would have a
majority on the first ballot. Mutterings and com
plaints, ominous of disaffection, were heard in the
Southern States, and yet no one could have fore
seen that opposition to re-annexation had so under
mined him. This convention is an interesting
one from more than one point of view. The North
ern wing of the Democratic party was clipped and
crippled, as it was to be so many times in the
future. The South, with definite purpose begot
ten of common material interest, won its way.
This convention marks a differentiation between
the Democracy, with its Southern proclivities, and
the Whig party, which was hourly drifting farther
from such moorings. The Democracy was going
over to the South; the Whig party was getting
entangled in the skein of "free soil and free men."
In spite of the fact that the Van Buren men had
a majority of the convention, and indeed because
of that fact, a motion was adopted requiring that
a vote of two thirds was necessary for a choice,
a plan used in two previous conventions. That
the motion could be carried amid much argument
for its democracy and other absurd falsehoods,
proves that delegates instructed to vote for Van

218 LEWIS CASS

Buren were ready to defeat him and to vote for
Cass or any other available Texas candidate. But
ler of New York and others argued against the
adoption of that rule, which has more than once
muzzled a Democratic convention, but it was
adopted by a vote of 148 to 118, almost every one
of the Southern States voting solidly for the reso
lution.

The convention met on May 27. The first bal
lot was taken on the afternoon of Tuesday, giving
151 for Van Buren, 83 for Cass, 24 for Johnson,
and scattering votes for other candidates. This
showed a clear majority of 31 for Van Buren.
Seven ballots were taken in succession. In the
second Cass's vote increased to 94, aided especially
by votes from the New England States. The
seventh gave Van Buren 99, and Cass 123. Every
ballot showed the Michigan man steadily gaining,
and no other candidate holding his own. But
after an ineffectual effort to have the two thirds
rule rescinded, the convention adjourned until the
next morning. During the night the wire-pullers
set their machine in motion. Amid a great deal
of confusion and display of ill-temper an eighth
vote was taken, in which Cass fell to 114, and
James K. Polk of Tennessee received 44. The
trap had been sprung. A stampede, that well-
known phenomenon of these latter days, was be
gun. The States swung slowly over to the new
man, and before the ninth ballot was finished the
convention was in an uproar. States changed

A DEMOCRATIC LEADER 219

their votes from Cass, and Polk was unanimously
nominated. Cass had directed the delegates from
Michigan to withdraw his name at any time in
the interest of harmony. Texas annexation had
won the day. The Democratic party, shorn of its
manhood, was wooing the infamous policy of Tyler,
Calhoun, and slavery extension. George M. Dallas
of Pennsylvania was chosen for second place on the
ticket, to mollify the protectionists of the home-
market State.

Polk was the first "dark horse" of the political
race-course. "The nomination was a surprise and
a marvel to the country."1 Benton could find
but two small occurrences which might have served
as a warning of what was coming. These were
well calculated to deceive the people, and the
consequence was that the result of the convention
bewildered the common voter. "Who the devil
is Polk?" was an inquiry constantly made, fur
nishing the Whigs with unlimited glee. The idea
of putting an unknown fledgeling against their
peerless Clay seemed ridiculous, and Whig success
from the outset was believed to be assured. The
convention is an early example of the efficiency of
such a tool in the hands of the skillful politician,
who has room for his work from the primary cau
cus up to the final nomination.

Had Cass been nominated, inasmuch as he was
pledged for annexation, he would without doubt
have been elected, and the canvass would have

. 1 Benton's Thirty Years' View, vol. ii. p. 594.

220 LEWIS CASS

been a fair combat with equal weapons; but as
Polk was nominated by underhand methods, and
against the wishes of the bulk of the party, so
the campaign was one of falsehood and intrigue.
The Democrats were at first capable only of sad
jollity in the presence of the excitement and confi
dence of the Whigs, but as the months went on
this unknown chieftain aroused unexpected enthu
siasm, and it became apparent that Polk, with
the added cubit of annexation, was not the pigmy
which he had been first considered by his super
cilious opponents. "Polk, Dallas, and the Tariff
of 1842 " was a mighty battle-cry. Never has
there been anything more shameful in political
warfare than the brazen charge in the North that
Polk was more friendly to the tariff than was
Henry Clay himself. With magnificent effrontery
the Whigs were dared to repeal their pet tariff.
But Texas, not the tariff, was the question of the
campaign, and had Clay been guided to the end
by his earlier and better motives, he might have
won the day. Texas was destined to be an Ameri
can State, — its annexation meant more territory
for slavery; and it can hardly be claimed that
Clay seriously objected because such would have
been the result of its acquisition. Nevertheless,
had the Whigs been victorious, the Mexican war
might have been averted; Texas perhaps might
have been secured without a shameless disregard
of constitutional law and common national cour
tesy.

A DEMOCRATIC LEADER 221

Clay, however, was uneasy. Trustful in his
own tact and his knowledge of the popular feel
ings, his ready pen flowed smoothly on in letter
after letter, until at last appeared his famous
Alabama letter: "Far from having any personal
objection to the annexation of Texas, I should be
glad to see it annexed without dishonor, without
war, with the common consent of the Union, and
upon just and fair terms." The letters, written
to win Southern voters, did not win them, but
simply weakened his support at the North. For
the Liberty party was again in the field, with
Birney at its head for the second time, and the
"Alabama letter" was an efficient weapon in many
of the Northern States. In the North Clay was
attacked as a friend to annexation, and in the
South as a foe to it. One Whig afterwards wit
tily remarked that "the only qualification he should
ask of a candidate in the future would be that he
could neither read nor write." l It has been posi
tively asserted recently that Birney 's vote was
greatly decreased by the "Garland forgery," con
cocted by the Whig central committee of Michi
gan;2 but without doubt Clay's letter added more
to the Liberty vote than was lost by any other
means. How deeply that shaft struck home is
apparent in reading the autobiography of Thurlow
Weed, where he exposes the inmost recesses of

1 Quoted in Schouler's History of the United States, vol. iv. p.
478.

2 James G. Birney and His Times, p. 354.

222 LEWIS CASS

his political soul; he sighs and mourns over that
fatal blunder years after it had dealt its destruc
tion. The vote of the Liberty party was greater
in New York than the Democratic majority, and
if they had united against Polk and annexation,
Clay, who represented the better elements of the
political life of the time, would have been elected.
Birney's home was now in Michigan, and here,
too, his party held the balance of power. It was
ominous. The free Northwest was becoming im
bued with the abolition feeling. Cass's own State
was drifting away from pro-slavery Democracy.
It will be seen later how his fortunes were influ
enced by the growth of this sentiment. "The
abolitionists deserve to be damned, and they will
be," was a usual expression of a common feeling.
But only four years later the Whigs of the North
west were dangerously near the principles of the
party so forcibly condemned in 1844.

Cass took an active part in the campaign, not
traveling over the whole country to speak for Polk
and Texas, but using his influence steadily for the
ticket, and not sulking in his tent because of his
own failure. A grand Democratic mass meeting
at Nashville, where Polk himself was present, was
one of the monster meetings so frequent during
that summer when men, dropping ordinary pur
suits, gave themselves up to the joyful excitement
so dear to the politics-loving people of the coun
try. Cass was one of the orators of the occasion,
and on his way back to Detroit addressed uim-

A DEMOCRATIC LEADER 223

mense multitudes " at various places in Ohio and
Indiana on the issues of the campaign. All au
diences were then "huge concourses" or "immense
multitudes," if we are to believe the head-lines of
the times; and without doubt the Northwest was
alive and interested. Cass returned to Detroit,
prophesying that the Northwest would give its
suffrages for the Democratic ticket. All but Ohio
answered his expectations, and in that State Clay
received about 20,000 less votes than Harrison
had received four years before. The Northwest,
in spite of the fact that it had begun to lean to
ward free soil, was evidently still clinging to the
idol of its youth. If Cass was in favor of annexa
tion so was his section, so were his friends and
companions in business and politics. This is not
complete justification. A statesman should be a
leader, and should create sound public sentiment.
But we must remember that a belief in the sacred -
ness of popular clamor was a living faith with the
true Democratic statesman of that time ; we must
remember that Cass was a Western man, and filled
with the Western spirit; national grandeur and
boldness in action, so much admired by the Wes
tern settler, had their charms for him. It is just
to take into account atmosphere and environment.
The "dark horse " and his black policy, sped by
fraud and political trickery, won the day. The
nation seemed hushed and dumbfounded at its
own act. There was little rejoicing among the
successful, and no glorification ; for many had

224 LEWIS CASS

voted for Polk only in reluctant obedience to the
party whip. "It is hardly possible at this day,"
says an observer, "to conceive the distress which
pervaded the city of Philadelphia the night follow
ing the news, and for many days after. It was
as if the firstborn of every family had been stricken
down. The city next day was clothed in gloom ;
thousands of women were weeping, but none ex
ulting."1 The election of Polk meant the imme
diate annexation of Texas, war with Mexico, the
consequent purchase of California, Nevada, and
Arizona; it meant that the golden sands of that
western wilderness would be sifted and its quartz
crushed, that a magnificent city of American in
dustry and American liberty would stretch itself
along the windy heights within the Golden Gate;
it meant that American civilization was to pene
trate into the nooks and corners of a country which
might not have given its blessings to the world for
centuries if held by the nerveless hand of Mexico.
But one is led to query whether wealth and na
tional grandeur are fairly purchased by dishonor.
Even before the great apostle of annexation reached
the presidential chair, Tyler and Calhoun had
made the last proposition, and only the finishing
touches were needed to bring Texas within the
fold.

1 Sargent, Public Men and Events, vol. ii. p. 250.

CHAPTER VIII

SENATOR. — CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. —
SQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY

ON February 4, 1845, Cass was elected to the
United States Senate from Michigan, and he was
present at the special session in March. He was
appointed to the second place on the Committee
on Foreign Relations, and during the remainder
of his public life was greatly interested in matters
of international concern. He at once took a promi
nent and influential position, and was recognized
as one of the leaders of the Senate. His speeches
were often too learned and too long to be convin
cing; his cumbersome sentences were not always
enlivening; but when he rose to speak on a sub
ject in which he was much interested he was always
impressive. His large figure, his finely shaped
head, his firm mouth, and intelligent features be
spoke earnestness, thoughtfulness, and intellectual
integrity. Through the rest of his life he was
the great champion of Americanism and national
honor; and though his continual guardianship of
our country sometimes caused a laugh at his ex
pense in the few merry days which the Senate
enjoyed during these troublous times, his true

226 LEWIS CASS

patriotic fervor and his serious appreciation of
our needs and our dangers won respect, while his
courteous demeanor and his frank friendliness,
which knew not jealousy or envy, endeared him to
political foes, and disarmed factious opposition.

The Democratic convention of the preceding
campaign had mollified Northern resentment by
coupling the "re-occupation" of Oregon with the
"re-annexation" of Texas. Care for Oregon had
long been a favorite Northwestern policy, and no
doubt the proclamation of these unexpected bans
by the Democratic party contributed largely to
its success in that portion of the country. Cass
entered the Senate bent on re-occupation, filled as
usual with the aggressive, hastening spirit of his
ambitious section. Polk, in his inaugural, had
declared the undoubted right of the United States
to the whole of Oregon, and now the country rang
with another artful alliteration, which was intended
to drown all feeble appeals to sense. Russia had
receded into the rains of Alaska north of 54° 40',
and America now claimed all the country interven
ing between the northern boundary of California,
then Mexican territory, and the southern line of
the Russian possessions. "Fifty-four forty or
fight! " was well calculated to tickle the brains of
the thoughtless and to arouse the ambition of the
West. There has always been an uneasy element
in our country preferring the adventure of new
settlement to the restriction and comfort of exist
ence in older communities. The rough Northwest

SENATOR 227

was already getting too crowded for these restless
spirits. People started in long caravans on their
tiresome journey over the dry and dreary plains of
the West in search of new homes on the Columbia
River, encouraged by the burning hope of the
adventurer and by patriotic devotion, fully per
suaded of a duty to wrest Oregon, as well as
Texas, from the clutch of England.

But Polk was only half-hearted. Texas was
made ours, and afterward Oregon seemed not of
so much consequence to him. Buchanan, the new
secretary of state, offered to accept the line of
49°, which already bounded our possessions as far
as the Rocky Mountains. The proposition was
immediately rejected by the British minister; and
our government, piqued at the refusal of a fail-
compromise, presented claims to the whole region.
Such was the state of affairs when Congress as
sembled in December, 1845. Although a new
member, Cass was not a stranger to national af
fairs, and the Oregon matter came near to North
western feeling and appealed peculiarly to personal
prejudices. On December 9 he introduced a reso
lution on the defenses of the country, and a few
days later supported it in an able speech, in which
he held up the spectre of war, and insisted that
nothing but sensible precautions would avoid armed
collision with Great Britain. This was the begin
ning of the "exciting and at times inflammatory
debates on the Oregon question, which lasted,
with intervals, for months."1 In January he
1 Sargent, Public Men and Events, vol. ii. p. 271.

228 LEWIS CASS

delivered a long and eloquent address on European
interference in American affairs, and until the
determination of the controversy he was the leader
of the "fifty-four forties" in the Senate. His
continual reference to an "inevitable" war came
to be a source of amusement to the senators; but
in the midst of all the heat and anger of a discus
sion, which almost equaled in acerbity the fiercest
debates on the slavery question, Cass never forgot
his courtesy or lowered his dignity by personal
abuse. The good humor of his intense earnestness
is illustrated by the story of his rising to speak
with the statement that he was not going to make
a war speech nor use the word "inevitable." He
had not proceeded far, however, before the use
of the familiar word put the Senate into roars of
laughter at his expense, in which he joined as
heartily as any.1 It was during these debates that
Crittenden castigated Allen of Ohio so severely
for his superciliousness and invective, and that
Hannegan of Indiana made use of an expression
often appropriated since in political screeds: if
Polk, he said, had, during election, advocated the
occupation of Oregon for mere buncombe and
claptrap, he would be doomed "to an infamy so
profound, a damnation so deep, that the hand of
resurrection will never be able to drag him forth." 2
It is impossible to go into the whole discussion

1 Sargent, Public Men and Events, vol. ii. p. 273. Newspaper
clippings in private papers of Cass.

2 Benton, vol. ii. p. 665.

SENATOR 229

of the Oregon question. Such controversies, which
find their origin and arguments in the diplomacy
of long-past days, or in the uncertainties of dis
covery and exploration, can be ended by compro
mise alone, unless the stern hand of war interferes.
America had a color of title to the territory as far
as the possessions of Russia; but that is about all
that can be said of it. Claims were traced back
to the early Spanish discoveries on the one hand,
and to the voyage of the buccaneer Drake on the
other. For Spain by the treaty of 1819 had ceded
all her claims to the United States. In spite,
therefore, of a number of long orations from Cass,
who showed a depth of historical knowledge and
a power of arrangement and argument which made
him the equal of Webster and of Benton in these
debates, the controversy ended in compromise.
Seldom does a senator in his first session step
forward into leadership; but Cass seemed in a
moment to be at home, and was recognized imme
diately as chief opponent or ally. He was of
course struggling to keep himself so before the
public that his nomination in 1848 might be cer
tain. His speeches were carefully printed, and
a judicious circulation of them kept him prominent
as the patriotic champion of American privileges.
Although attached to party, he absolutely refused
to be identified with the administration on this
issue. It was a movement of his own. He could
count on the sympathy of the West, at least, and
upon the common jealousy of England ; and in so

230 LEWIS CASS

far as the Oregon question assumed serious form,
or in so far as threats and precautionary prepara
tions for hostility brought England to less arro
gant consideration of the case, the credit is largely
due to Cass.

England was not pleased at all this. The Presi
dent, in a special message in March, advised an
increase of the army and navy. On the receipt
in London of the news that the House had passed
a joint resolution to give the one year notice for
terminating the joint occupancy of Oregon, stocks
fell one per cent, and consols more than two per
cent.1 Both countries, however, soon softened
down for amicable settlement. The forty -ninth
parallel was taken as the boundary as far west as
its intersection with the channel "which separates
the continent from Vancouver's Island." Cass
and thirteen other extremists voted against ratifi
cation in vain. Compromise was sensible; but
had it not been for the "bluff" of the "fifty-four
forties " a fair bargain would have been reached
only with difficulty, if at all. Had every one
been as ready to renounce all claims as were Web
ster and others from the beginning, the outcome
would have been doubtful.

Even more serious matters were holding the
attention of the President and the country. The
annexation of Texas had not driven Mexico to
immediate war, but every day made hostilities
more certain. Slowly and craftily Polk proceeded
1 Niles, vol. Ixx. p. 65.

SENATOR 231

to win the coveted prize of California, to bully
and to bribe until poor Mexico should satisfy the
unjust ambition of a people who boasted of their
liberty and enlightenment. The events of Folk's
administration show us how slavery had poisoned
the whole national system. After failure in secret
negotiations, which relied on a craven and abject
spirit in the Mexicans, General Taylor was ordered
to occupy the territory between the Nueces and
the Rio Grande, a portion of Mexico to which
Texas had not the slightest claim, except a paper
one unsupported by successful adverse occupation.
His position threatened Matamoras. An engage
ment ensued. The President proclaimed that Amer
ican blood had been spilled on American soil, and
Congress declared that war existed by act of
Mexico.

The legislation which carried on this war, begun
with these specious falsehoods, cannot here be re
viewed; but in these Democratic straits Cass came
forward once more as the champion of national
rights, and was the main stay of the President
and his party. The Machiavellian methods of
the administration have been fully made known
only recently, and we cannot charge that every
supporter of the war countenanced the whole pro
cedure, and was particeps criminis to the whole
extent of the crime. Cass's speech on the Ten
Regiment Bill was good campaign powder. Not
that his defense of the measure was disingenuous
or insincere; for no one can say that when once

232 LEWIS CASS

the war was begun it ought not to have been car
ried on effectually. The conduct of Cass as a
Democrat is open to little criticism at this junc
ture; and possibly it would not be fair to expect
him to see so clearly as those Whigs whose party
interests made their very prejudices incline towards
the right course, or as the younger men of the
North, who were growing restive under the saddle
and bridle of slavocratic masters.

Considerable space has been given to Texas and
the piratical assault on Mexico because the most
prominent fact of the later career of Cass is con
nected with this acquisition of new territory. On
August 8, 1846, a resolution was offered in the
House to appropriate 82,000,000 "for the purpose
of defraying any extraordinary expenses which
may be incurred in the intercourse between the
United States and foreign nations." This signified
that land was to be acquired from Mexico by pur
chase, and in the course of the discussion David
Wilmot, a representative from Pennsylvania, of
fered an amendment providing that the funda
mental condition to the acquisition of any territory
from Mexico should be that slavery should never
exist in any portion of it. The bill with the
amendment was passed by the House. But in the
confusion at the end of the session it was talked
to death in the Senate by Senator Davis of Massa
chusetts, who was effusively defending the proviso
when Congress adjourned until the next session.
Immediately after the adjournment of the Senate

SENATOR 233

Cass said that he was sorry that the proviso had
been lost. His later acts were inconsistent with
the inference drawn from this remark, and great
political capital was manufactured in consequence.
At the next session of Congress, 1847, the pro
viso came up again as a rider to the appropriation
by the House of $3,000,000 for the purposes men
tioned before. But the Senate would not be thus
circumvented, and forced the House to agree to
the appropriation, riderless. During the session
Cass spoke often on the general proposition of
voting money to the government. On March 1,
1847, he came out directly in opposition to the
proviso. His reasons were six: 1. The present
was not the time to introduce a sectional topic.

2. It would be quite in season to provide for the
government of a Territory after it was obtained.

3. Any such proviso expressed too much confi
dence in the outcome of the war. 4. Legislation
at that time would be inoperative, and not binding
on succeeding Congresses. 5. The adoption of
the proviso might bring the war to an untimely
issue. 6. It would prevent the acquisition of a
single foot of territory, and thus disappoint a vast
majority of the American people. He attempted to
show by a course of very hollow reasoning that
the Northern legislatures which had passed resolu
tions deprecating the spread of slavery would not
be satisfied by the adoption of the proviso. Ver
mont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan

234 LEWIS CASS

had already passed such measures. The Demo
cratic legislature of Cass's own State had advo
cated the extension of the Ordinance of 1787 over
any new territory acquired.

This speech is the beginning of another chapter
in the career of Cass. He had been the leader
and the prophet of his State and the Northwest.
His political life from this time on illustrates
Northwestern development from the reverse side.
His energetic constituents, breathing the free air
of the West, their eyes open to national needs and
to the immorality of slavery, however much it
might be supported by constitutional props, have
now outstripped their leader, and erelong he will
be looked upon as the representative of their past
beliefs and their bygone acquiescence in a corrod
ing sin. This is the true interpretation of Cass's
political life. This is what makes him the best
centre from which to study the development of
the Northwest as a portion of the nation. The
great movement against slavery, it must be re
membered, came from new men. The old states
men, who had grown used to the pollution, were
unable to take a stand in opposition ; not Webster
or Cass, but Seward and Lincoln and Chase put
the proper estimate upon the institution. Yet the
remarks of Senator Miller, after Cass's objection
to the proviso, are worth recording: "He was
connected in many honorable ways, in war and in
peace, with the history of the Northwest, and he
is now one of its brightest ornaments, command-

SENATOR 235

ing a position so high and so influential, it was
hoped, nay expected by all the free North, that
he would on this occasion have given all the talent
and influence within his control to extend and
secure to other Territories that great ordinance of
free labor, the practical advantages of which, so
cial and political, he was so fully aware [of], and
no doubt highly appreciated."1

As the campaign of 1848 approached, it became
apparent that Cass was to be the favorite of the
Democratic party. • His views on various subjects
were in consequence sought with care, and in the
course of the catechism he promulgated a doctrine
which furnished material for discussion until de
bate was silenced by the more eloquent bombard
ment of Sumter. This was the doctrine of popular
sovereignty in the Territories. It was first fairly
announced by Cass; he first introduced it as an
active principle in the political life of the time;
he first marshaled arguments in its defense. It
will not do to say that he created it. No great
thought influencing the career of a free nation is
begotten in the brain of a single man, to spring
into existence at once endowed with full vigor.
Senator Dickinson of New York had already sug
gested the idea. But Cass took the wandering,
tentative suggestions of statesmen and people, and
combined them and arranged them in a clear, suc
cinct statement of a great political principle. He
first struck the clear note, for which others had

1 Congressional Record, vol. xvii. p. 551.

^fS=H^^
l«K-,i°' ^

UNwcRsn

236 LEWIS CASS

been unconsciously or furtively feeling. In that
sense he was the author of the doctrine of which
Stephen A. Douglas afterwards became godfather
and fiercest defender. So intimately did the later
debates between Douglas and Lincoln associate
this theory with the name of the former, that an
explicit statement of its true origin is needed here.
The "Little Giant," a ready and active debater
in years when Cass was beginning to feel the
burdens of age, leveled his lance in agile defense
of this proposition so often and so valiantly, that
to him has been attributed a paternity to which
he has no right.

In answer to queries from Mr. A. O. P. Nich
olson of Nashville, Tennessee, Cass wrote a letter,
December 24, 1847, which was the first embodi
ment of the doctrine of "squatter sovereignty."
The Wilinot proviso, he said, had been long before
the people, and he was impressed with the belief
that a change had been going on in the public
mind, and in his own as well as in the minds
of others; doubts were resolving themselves into
convictions that the principle involved should be
kept out of the national legislature. He went
on to argue that the central government did not
have the authority to govern the Territories under
those provisions of the Constitution which grant
"the power to dispose of and make all needful
rules and regulations respecting the territory and
other property belonging to the United States ; "
that the lives and possessions of citizens could not

SENATOR 237

be controlled by an authority which was merely
"called into existence for the purpose of making
rules and regulations for the disposition and man
agement of property." "If the relation of master
and servant may be regulated or annihilated . . .
so may the relation of husband and wife, of parent
and child, and of any other condition which our
institutions and the habits of our society recog
nize." The internal concerns of the Territories
ought, he maintained, to be regulated by the peo
ple inhabiting them, without molestation or direc
tion from Congress. "They are just as capable
of doing so as the people of the States ; and they
can do so at any rate as soon as their political
independence is recognized by their admission into
the Union." Even if the central government could
interfere with the internal affairs of the Territories,
a proposition which he denied, it would be inexpe
dient to exercise a doubtful and invidious authority
that statehood would soon brush away.

The Ordinance of 1787, under which Cass had
acted as governor, and which bestows upon the
appointees of the central government almost de
spotic power, did not furnish good material for his
arguments. But he succeeded in presenting with
great ability his belief that the Territories ought
to decide for themselves whether or not slavery
should exist within their limits. It was not such
an easy task as it might seem at first to prove the
unreasonableness of this doctrine. It was after
wards so ably defended as to win the favor of the

238 LEWIS CASS

Northern Democracy until the outbreak of the
war. Nevertheless, the author of a principle which
half the North accepted has, without fact or testi
mony, been charged with selfish insincerity in its
inception and advocacy. We can judge of animus
and motive only from acts. The rest of the life
and conduct of Cass furnish no evidence to sustain
the charge of inconsistency or insincerity in the
Nicholson letter. While governor he had encour
aged popular participation in the affairs of the
Territory, had aided and promoted local self-gov
ernment, had obeyed the wishes of the people with
out regard to his own official right of appointment,
and had yielded other high prerogatives. His
Democracy was orthodox, and his practice cannot
be shown to have varied from his fundamental
theory. His article on the removal of the Indians,
published twenty years before this, contains an
exact parity of reasoning. Moreover, if in draft
ing this letter he was hollow and insincere, hoping
by dodging an issue to win Southern support with
out losing Northern favor, the same indictment
must be brought against many others in whom
the people of Michigan have had the utmost con
fidence. He was warned by the most influential
of his colleagues from his State of the danger of
writing letters, but when this letter was shown
them before its publication they accepted its prin
ciples.1 From the information I have been able

1 Conversation with Governor Alpheus Felch, senator from
Michigan, 1847.

SENATOR 239

to obtain by conversation with those who were
intimate with General Cass at the time, I have
been induced to draw the conclusion that his Nich
olson letter was a frank statement of his conscien
tious belief, not an avoidance of a dreaded issue
nor an attempt to devise new interpretations.1

Within three years after the appearance of
Cass's letter four distinct solutions of the prob
lems arising from the acquisition of new territory
were presented and found their advocates: first,
the principle of the Wilmot proviso : that slavery
should be entirely excluded; second, the doctrine
of Calhoun : that slaves were property, and that
it was the bounden duty of Congress to protect
the rights of the Southerner to his slaves within
territory of the United States, just as the law
protected property in sheep and oxen ; third, that
the line of 36° 30', extended to the Pacific, would
be an equitable division; fourth, that the people
of the Territories ought to be allowed to decide the
question for themselves. This last was nicely
calculated to take its skillful way between the two
extremes. It is not unreasonable to think that
Cass hoped and believed that popular sovereignty
would show the advantage of freedom over slavery,
and that the Territories would be won naturally
for and by free labor. Thus his action is inter
preted by men who were his political opponents
at the time.2 In February, 1848, the treaty of

1 See, also, Judge Cooley's Michigan, p. 205.

2 Private correspondence with the author.

240 LEWIS CASS

Guadalupe Hidalgo added to the United States
a half million of square miles. Whether or not
this territory, stretching away from the western
boundary of Texas to the Pacific, was to be inun
dated by the black tide of slavery or consecrated
to freedom, was the question which awakened the
people of the country; and all the hushing cries
of the conservatives, who cried down and frowned
down "agitation," could not lull the men of the
North to sleep.

Cass received from various quarters recommen
dations and nominations for the presidency in 1848.
His only serious competitor was Buchanan, and
when Pennsylvania announced in convention that
Cass was her second choice, the people of the
country saw that she had practically given way
before the popular demands for the Northwestern
candidate. But the party was not without its
schisms. New York was torn by conflicting fac
tions, separated largely on personal issues. The
fond personal attachment for Van Buren, which
argues more strongly than words that he was not
all a political juggler, held many old stalwarts
of the party in faithful adherence to him. His
rejection by the convention of 1844 because of
his opposition to annexation had won a semi-trust
ful respect from the haters of slavery who were
not of his party, and had kindled an unexpected
spark in the hearts of his old friends, who had
seen no wrong in human bondage till their chief
was repudiated by the slave owners. Silas Wright,

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY L>41

a Van Buren Democrat, had accepted the nomina
tion for governor in 1844, and his name was in
voked in behalf of Polk and the straight ticket.
In spite of this, the "wheelhorses " of the party
were not rewarded for their labors; after some
offers to give what the Van Buren faction did not
want, the spoils were turned over to the other
faction by the President, who was thrown into an
agony of jealousy when it was asserted that Wright
had elected him. Hunger for office, therefore,
and disappointment put the disaffected ever more
at variance with the orthodox Democrats who sup
ported the administration. The supporters of
Wright and Van Buren were sneered at as " Barn-

O

burners," a name borrowed from the recent dis
turbances in Rhode Island, where the defeated
Dorrites, it was alleged, had sought revenge by
burning the barns of the law-and-order party.1
Their tampering with anti-slavery suggested that
the name was an allusion to an "anti-Radical
story of a thick-skulled Dutchman who had burnt
his barn to clear it of rats and mice."2 Marcy's
faction, representing the conservative men of the
party, who were ready to abide by the pro-slavery
acts of the administration, were dubbed "Old
Hunkers," the name referring to their "hanker
ing" for office, or perhaps simply to their heavy,
plodding conservatism in matters of state policy.
As the slavery question came more prominently

1 Autobiography of Thurlow Weed, vol. i. p. 534.

2 Whig Almanac, 18-49, p. 11.

242 LEWIS CASS

before the country, the Barnburners and the Whigs
in New York cooperated to discountenance slavery
extension, and the two factions of the Democracy
became more widely separated. Many, of course,
were not so much friends of freedom as foes to
those who had disappointed their own fond hopes
for their chief; and longings for revenge were at
the bottom of many of their aspirations for free
soil. Such persons ultimately dropped back into
the pro-slavery, non-interference wing of the party,
so soon as personal disputes again gave place to
vital political principles. A moral reform gets
no real life blood from pique.

After the Democratic convention of Syracuse,
September, 1847, the warring cliques were so
widely separated by questions of policy, as well
as by jealousy, that they can scarcely be consid
ered portions of one party. At that time a reso
lution was offered on the part of the Barnburners,
declaring "uncompromising hostility" to the ex
tension of sla\^ry into the Territories then free.
The refusal of the convention, which was plainly
in the hands of the Hunkers, to accept this caused
the secession of their opponents, who thereupon
organized for themselves, and prepared to contest
the seats of the delegates chosen for the national
Democratic convention. The Van Buren men an
nounced the severance of all bonds which would
bind them to vote for a presidential candidate who
was pledged against the Wilmot proviso. Thus
the fall elections of 1847 in New York showed how

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 243

utterly demoralized the party was in that State;
the Whigs elected their ticket by over thirty thou
sand majority, and unless these grievous wounds
could be healed there was little hope for the can
didates presented by the Baltimore convention.

But the healing art is quite beyond the intelli
gence of a popular gathering, and when the na
tional convention met, in May, 1848, it attempted
a simple cure by offering to admit both factions
to active participation in its proceedings. The
committee on credentials first tried to bind both
delegations to abide by the decision of the conven
tion. This the Barnburners refused to consent
to, and in consequence New York had no further
share in the proceedings. Cass was nominated
on the fourth ballot. General William O. Butler
of Tennessee was presented for vice-president.
These nominations were received with satisfaction
by the party. Independent newspapers acknow
ledged the upright character and ability of Gen
eral Cass, and prophesied his election unless the
Whigs should present a man who possessed the
popular confidence and respect. Success was,
however, far from certain. The Hunkers acqui
esced quite readily, and were thus fairly installed
as the "regular" Democratic party of New York.
But the Barnburners were now more fierce than
ever, for the Van Buren men had never forgiven
Cass for his candidacy in 1844; and, moreover,
he now stood out conspicuously as the opponent
of the Wilmot proviso. Those who were Free-

244 LEWIS CASS

Boilers for personal considerations, as well as those
who had conscientious scruples, were held by this
nomination in political affinity.

The Baltimore convention handled the slavery
question with that masterly caution which was to
characterize its action until the Kebellion. The
Southern wing must be kept true to its work by
statements which were also shrewdly calculated
not to turn away Northern adherents. From this
time forward the regular programme was to depre
cate discussion, and to beseech the people of the
North to rest in security on the bosom of the Con
stitution. A platform of platitudes declared that
Congress had no authority to interfere with slavery
in the States, — a very safe proposition, — and
then condemned all efforts to induce it to interfere
with questions of slavery, or to take "incipient
steps thereto." Yancey of Alabama offered a reso
lution so cleverly worded that Benton himself
seems to have misunderstood the meaning of its
rejection: "The doctrine of non-interference with
the rights of property of any portion of this con
federation, be it in the States or in the Territories,
by any other than the parties interested in them,
is the true republican doctrine recognized by this
body." This article of faith was rejected by a
vote of 246 against 36. The non-interference ad
vocated by Yancey was apparently the absolute
"non-interference" of Calhoun. The refusal of
the convention to accept the resolution may have
come merely from a wish not to publish its senti-

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 245

rneiits ; but, on the other hand, it may have been
a tacit declaration of a belief in the right of States
and Territories to "interfere" and to settle the
question of slavery within their limits, which was
the Cass doctrine of popular sovereignty.

Upon receiving the news of his nomination,
General Cass wrote a brief letter of acceptance,
acquiescing in the platform of the convention.
He stated his determination, if elected, not to be
a candidate for reelection, a pledge that seems to
have had a certain popularity in those days. He
believed that the real difference between the two
great parties was the difference between Hamilton-
ism and Jeffersonism. With a "sacred regard to
' the principles and compromises of the Constitu
tion,' " he earnestly desired their maintenance "in
a spirit of moderation and brotherly love so vitally
essential to the perpetuity of the Union." He at
once resigned his seat in the Senate as inconsistent
with his presidential candidacy, and prepared for
the active work of the campaign.

The Whig party had no principle it dared to
avow. It had been so long toying with its better
self that a serious regard for its own high aims
seemed lost in the frivolity of the excited hunt for
office. At the best the party was moribund; but
it was determined now upon one frantic effort for
success; for the dragon of Democracy seemed to
sit as perpetual guardian of the golden apples of
the public patronage. Yet its course for the past
few years had been its greatest. Its leaders had

246 LEWIS CASS

constantly objected to the crimes of "Polk the
Mendacious;" and had it now dared to utter the
thought which arose in it, a new lease of life would
have been given to it; nay, more, the very foun
tain of youth was at its lips, offering a vigor which
it had never yet possessed in the vital elixir of a
great moral principle. Clay, still at the head of
the party, held the deep affection of its members.
His many defeats, however, had tempered their
admiration with discretion, and though he was
hopeful and bright under the lengthening shadows
of age, and felt his heart beat as quickly at the
prospect of success as it had done twenty years
before, even some of his personal friends and de
votees searched for some one who would win more
votes and appeal to the people with the enthusiasm
of novelty. Webster never had any chance for
nomination to the presidency, as indeed no New
England man of principle and vigor could have.
Scott had won his spurs in the war of 1812, and
had sincr that time been kept before the people
because of his military position. The Mexican
war gave him opportunities to attract attention,
but he was from the first overshadowed by Taylor,
whose rough energy had caught the popular fancy,
ever ready to clothe with heroic ornaments and
to endow with heroic spirit the image of its own
worshiped self. Such has been the history of
the Democratic spirit. Not even Jefferson, who
taught and led, became the perfect popular hero;
but Jackson, who certainly did not pose above the

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 247

people to influence or instruct them, became the
one real dictator whom the country lias had. Tay
lor, therefore, from the first was sure of strong
support in opposition to the other three possible
candidates, if he could be brought before the peo
ple with adroitness, and could be shown in poli
tics, as well as in war, to be possessed of a rough,
hearty devotion to his country's interests. He
must, of course, have slight predilections to Whig-
gery to keep the party in countenance. But the
country was for the moment weary of this ceaseless
conflict of old party principles, of questions about
national banks and internal improvements; the
Whigs desired above all to shun any true issue
brought up by the war and the new territory ; and
the candidate who has no gospel to preach is sure
of the support of those who would rather talk than
listen.

Tlmrlow Weed takes to himself the credit of
first proposing the name of General Taylor. Soon
after the battle of Resaca de la Palma, in May,
1846, this cunning prophet, who in the past had
often played the Cassandra in Whig councils, met
the brother of Zachary Taylor, and after asking
him of the general's health and inquiring as to his
political "prejudices," remarked quietly, "Your
brother is to be our next president. " Weed thought
it advisable to send the "rough and ready" soldier
some suggestions concerning his conduct, and they
admirably illustrate the nature of this whole cam
paign from the Whig standpoint. The general

248 LEWIS CASS

was warned that if he kept "his eyes toward Mex
ico, closing them and his ears to all that was pass
ing behind him, the presidential question would
take care of itself and of him; . . . and that,
finally, if General Taylor himself left the question
entirely to the people they would certainly elect
him." At the start Taylor was probably quite in
earnest in his short letter, which said that he had
enough on hand in Mexico without paying any
attention to presidential prospects. Until the con
vention he was fairly circumspect and silent. In
the beginning surprised at his own prominence
and distrusting his own ability, he soon came to
look with the eyes of others, and to entertain an
ambition which bade fair to make him dangerously
restless. But he consistently proclaimed himself a
candidate of the whole people rather than a strait
ened party man, and finally said he would not with
draw even if Clay were nominated, for no nomina
tion, he said, would occasion a change of principles
or make him the creature of party prejudices.
The Whig: convention assembled in Philadel-

O

phia June 7, 1848. An exciting contest followed.
While the majority of the party still clung fondly
to the idol of their past, the chief engineers of the
machine had determined that sentiment must make
way for availability. On the first ballot Taylor
received 111 votes, Clay 97, Scott 43, Webster
22. On the fourth Taylor had 171 and Scott 63.
Clay had but 32 and Webster 13. Millard Fill-
more of New York was nominated for vice-presi-

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY iMi)

dent. Such was the result of the convention,
which was branded as the "slaughter-house of
Whig principles."

There was only one issue before the country,
and that was whether or not the new territory of
the West was to be given to slavery or dedicated
to freedom. But the convention retained its self-
possession with regard to this matter as patiently as
had its opponent, and was content to push on to
the hustings a man who stood for no policy, whose
ideas were not known on a single great problem
of government, who had no experience in civil
life, who had never so much as exercised the right
of suffrage, whose knowledge of public men and
events was confined to the information he might
desultorily gather at a frontier post from the news
papers and periodicals of the day. But there were
many members of this assembly who would not be
bound by its insolent indifference to the sentiment
animating the great mass of the party, especially
in New England and the Northwest. In Massa
chusetts there was a division into "Cotton Whigs "
and "Conscience Wrhigs," and in the Northwest
not only did the Liberty party have strength, but
the Whigs also in various ways had proclaimed
opposition to slavery extension. In the conven
tion, immediately after the announcement that
Taylor had received the nomination, a series of
declarations were made by delegates from Massa
chusetts and Ohio which caused the wildest excite
ment, and showed clearly enough the disorganiza-

250 LEWIS CASS

tion of the old party. Allen of Massachusetts
pronounced the Whig party disbanded, uttering
the prophetic words that "under the providence
of God its dissolution may be for the benefit of
humanity." Henry Wilson proclaimed that he
would not recognize the nomination. "We have
nominated a candidate who has said to the nation
that he will not be bound by the principles of any
party. Sir, I will go home, and, so help me God,
I will do all I can to defeat the election of that
candidate." Many complained because "free soil
and free territory " had yielded to the discipline
of the selfish heavily laden South, and because
machine politics and chicanery had overborne the
real wishes of the people. "That great moral
principle," said Campbell of Ohio, "which has
fastened itself so firmly on the free Whigs of
Ohio, will arouse to action, in all the majesty
of her strength, the young giant of the West."
How true this was the speaker himself could
not have known; the whole gigantic power of the
West was to arise in a righteous fury in defense
of this great moral idea; caution and old-fashioned
regard for order and organization might still
keep many within the old lines; but the recre
ancy of the Whig party to the fondest hopes
of the free Northwest must sooner or later occa
sion the conception of a new and overshadowing
party, untrammeled by a past, unburdened by
dead issues, pressing forward to the goal of a high
calling.

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 251

If the two great parties were satisfied to shut
their eyes to danger, and to pretend that there
was none, simply because they would not see it,
such voluntary blindness was intolerable for many
whose vision had been touched by the entering
light of truth. In the evening after the nomina
tion of Taylor, fifteen of the dissatisfied delegates
met to consider plans for the future. A mass
convention of the citizens of Ohio in favor of "free
territory" had been summoned to meet in Colum
bus in June, and these fifteen conspirators for
liberty decided to use their efforts to persuade this
convention to issue a call for a national gathering
at Buffalo. The Ohio convention issued such a
summons for August 9. About the same time
the Barnburners met in Utica. A letter was read
from Martin Van Buren, expressing his determi
nation not to accept a nomination, declaring his
inability to vote for either Taylor or Cass, and
branding the extension of slavery as a "moral
curse." In spite of this declaration he was chosen
by the convention. Henry Dodge, United States
Senator from Wisconsin, was selected as the can
didate for vice-president. Van Buren accepted.
Dodge concluded to support Cass. In November,
1847, the Liberty party had nominated John P.
Hale of New Hampshire for president, but there
was definite hope that the action of the Buffalo
convention would be ratified. All waited, there
fore, with some anxiety for that meeting. Already
the Democratic papers were furious because the

252 LEWIS CASS

"Little Magician" had forgotten his past "great
ness," and revealed the truth of the "federal
charges" that "Mr. Van Buren's distinguished
characteristics are selfishness and a propensity for
intrigue."1 Even if there were no confluence of
the different anti-slavery streams, Cass's chances
in New York were greatly lessened by the Barn
burner discontent, and party hatred of the "rene
gades " was proportionately increased.

On August 9 there assembled at Buffalo a
strange company. The Barnburners, who had
been orthodox Democrats, supporters of Jackson
and Van Buren in the palmy days of the party,
met with delegates of the Liberty party, who not
long before had been hated as crazy fanatics ; the
"Conscience Whigs" of Massachusetts, the free-
territory men from Ohio, the disappointed Clay
Whigs, who had cursed the supporters of Birney
four years before, the "Land Reformers" and
"Workingmen of New York," and the advocates
of cheap postage, came together as strange bed
fellows in the misery of an eventful crisis. This
Free-Soil movement has often been denominated
a Democratic movement. The enumeration of the
elements given above shows us that no old estab
lished party name can be applied to it. The
party was composed of various elements now
united for a common purpose. Some of the men
of this convention were to drop back into the old
Democratic ranks ; others were to be charter mem'

1 New York Sun.

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 1253

bers of the Republican party. Samuel J. Tilden
was there as well as Charles Francis Adams and
Salmon P. Chase.

The platform, chiefly the work of Mr. Chase,1
was a masterpiece, filled with ringing sentences,
and charged with enthusiasm. "Congress," it de
clared in a forcible aphorism, "has no more power
to make a slave than to make a king." "Thun
ders of applause " followed the reading of such
clarion-toned sentences as this: "Resolved, that
we inscribe on our banner free soil, free speech,
free labor, and free men, and under it we will
fight on and fight ever, until a triumphant victory
shall reward our exertions." The convention from
the first seemed impressed with the solemnity of
the occasion and the weight of its responsibility.
And yet one must confess that there was a very
mundane alloy in this heavenly sentiment; for
many longed for revenge on Cass and the Hunkers,
and were willing to obtain it by shouting for free
soil. Van Buren was nominated amid acclama
tions of enthusiasm. The conscientious Free-Soil-
ers were willing to take the bitter portion in hum
ble hope that good would result. The name of
Charles Francis Adams, the son of John Quincy
Adams, was placed below that of the old chief of
the Albany Regency, the calm and gentle man to
whom "the old man eloquent" had once ascribed
"fawning servility" and "profound dissimulation
and duplicity." How strangely in 1837 would

1 G. W. Julian, Political Recollections, p. 58.

254 LEWIS CASS

have sounded the war-cry of 1848, "Van Buren
and Free Soil — Adams and Liberty."

This Buffalo convention was a prominent event
in the life of Cass. The nomination of Van
Buren, this combination of dissatisfied Democrats
and Liberty men, assured his defeat, unless his
party, in spite of its distressed condition in New
York, should work with a rare courage and vehe
mence. But Cass's career is peculiarly connected
with the development of the Free-Soil movement
from the point of view of principle. He was
hailed throughout this campaign as the candidate
of the vigorous West. He was rightly called the
"Father of the West." "The history of the
Western States forms a part of his biography,"
the "Detroit Free Press" said with truth. But
a calm scrutiny of the forces at work in the old
Northwest, for which he had done so much, shows
that its vigor was no longer his. Its strong and
characteristic sections, which had formed its very
pith and marrow, were no longer in sympathy
with their great leader and representative. Al
ready the Western Reserve had shown its parent
age by sending Giddings to Congress to labor by
the side of Adams. The Puritan stock of Ohio,
awakened to the existence of a new crusade for
liberty, brought forward its hard sense, sound
morality, and obstinate adherence to principle.
"Beware ! the blood of the Roundheads is aroused,"
shouted a delegate in the Buffalo Convention.

O

This is not mere metaphor, it is sober statement

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 255

of fact. The counties of the Northwest first settled
by New Englanders furnished early supporters of
the Liberty party, active advocates of free soil.
There the Republican party had its strength in
the days of its youth, when all the vigor of its
new life was given to assailing the aggressions of
a national sin. Political affiliations are not soon
forgotten, and to-day Republican strength lies in
this old robust region of Ohio. A political party
could gerrymander the State successfully if its
managers were acquainted with the genealogy of
its counties. The New Connecticut has given us
Giddings and Garfield. It has given us many
pathfinders in unexplored regions of culture, educa
tion, and liberal citizenship. We must not omit,
however, the influence of that milder Puritan of
mysticism, the Quaker ; his kind and gentle influ
ence is traceable through the Northwest. The
inhabitants of Pennsylvania pushed their way
westward through the middle of Ohio across the
Indiana line.

Speaking generally, the New England township
system has most effectually made its way westward
along the parallels of latitude. Michigan and
Wisconsin adopted the township nearly in its
primitive simplicity. There was the same tend
ency in northern Ohio; and wherever \ve see the
self-governing spirit of New England, there we
see in the field of national affairs a relationship
with the politics of the same stalwart section.
The early settlers of Michigan were in a marked

i>56 LEWIS CASS

degree from Massachusetts or from New York,
to which latter State many of them had moved
from homes east of the Hudson. The political
and educational history of Michigan has its indi
viduality, but the influence of inherited tendencies
is apparent. Of course in early days the popular
creed of Jacksonian Democracy made itself felt
among the people of a new country. But it is
fair to assume that Michigan would have swung
into the Whig column much sooner if it had not
been for the personal admiration and respect which
its people felt for Lewis Cass.

An examination of the vote of Ohio in 1844
will exhibit the truth of these general statements.
There were seventy-nine counties in Ohio in 1844,
but Trumbull County alone, the heart of this
western New England, gave one eleventh of all
the votes cast for the Liberty ticket in Ohio. Five
counties of this same region, containing one elev
enth of the total vote of the State, gave more than
one fourth of the Liberty vote. And if one exam
ines more closely he will see even more definite
proof of the assertion. The Whigs, of course,
had their strength largely in the districts where
the Liberty and Free-Soil movement manifested
itself. In 1848 the twentieth Congressional dis
trict, including the counties of Ashtabula, Cuya-
hoga, Geauga, and Lake, cast 7338 Free-Soil
votes, only 700 less than the whole Liberty vote
of Ohio in 1844. That district gave Van Buren
three fourths as many votes as were received by

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 1>57

both Cass and Taylor. In this election the Free-
Soilers held the balance of power in the State,
casting 35,354 votes; but of these nearly one half
were cast by the three districts of the Western
Reserve, although there were twenty-one districts
in the State.

But northeastern Ohio, the peculiar centre of
western New England ism, has not simply followed
and reproduced. Modern Puritanism and the spirit
of the latter-day Ironsides have here deeply cut
their lines. The saying is not uncommon that the
Western Reserve is more New England than New
England herself.1 Here the Yankee character
developed under new and inspiring conditions,
and furnished brain and conscience, sincerity and
moral enthusiasm to the whole country. Its ear
lier inhabitants were, it is true, rough in their
manners and "stupid" in religion;2 most of its
first settlers perhaps hurried to the West to escape
the iron -clad theology and the stilted social regime
of old, dogmatic, straight-laced Connecticut, and
there in the freer air of a new country, unburdened
by prescription, there grew a more liberal theology,
a more generous citizenship, and a more human
idea of liberty. Slipping their old cables, these
thoughtful people drifted off occasionally into
"isms " and fanaticisms. But this was the natural
revolt from a sad theology and acrid Federalism,
and with this personal freedom of thought was a

1 The Old Northwest, Hinsdale, p. 388.

2 Robbing's Diary, p, 225.

258 LEWIS CASS

sound Puritan principle and a guiding common
sense. President Storrs of Western Reserve Col
lege preached anti-slavery doctrines as early as
1832, x and planted the humanizing seed in youth
ful minds of northeastern Ohio. The result was
that the Western Reserve had a definitely formu
lated anti-slavery sentiment before any other sec
tion of the country. John Quincy Adams led his
district and showed it the way. But Giddings
was the child of his surroundings, the voice and
expression of the will of his constituents.,

Ohio has been taken to illustrate the energy of
New England in the West, because, the early
settlers coming into the State within well-known
geographical lines, their influence is easily trace
able and capable of definite description and com
parison. The compact New Englandism of the
Western Reserve has made itself conspicuous, but
the same general statements of tendencies and
influences will hold true of the whole Northwest.
When once Michigan was aroused to a sense of
the real state of things she too fell in beside Ohio,
and has remained her political sister.

Cass was admired and respected by his State.
Even those who disagreed with him in politics
found it hard to oppose him at the polls. Upon
the appearance of the Nicholson letter, many of his
old admirers felt constrained to turn against him.
Yet they still had faith in him as a man. "From
the time of the publication of this letter,'' writes

1 The Old Northwest, Hinsdale, p. 392.

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 259

one of his friendly enemies, who used every effort
to defeat him, "I opposed the election of General
Cass to the presidency, though it cost me a pang
as keen as to have set myself against my own
father."1 It was believed by those who knew the
liberal character of the general that he thought
his theory of "popular sovereignty" would assure
in the end free Territories. And so it would, if
the slave power had allowed a fair application of
it, and not simply used it until it was no longer
serviceable. The consistency of Cass was unques
tioned by all who knew his previous career; his
sterling character, his honesty, his uprightness in
political affairs, the purity and charm of his pri
vate life were admired by all who were not blinded
by party animosity. So in spite of differences
and these Free-Soil antipathies, in spite of the
most malignant attacks upon Cass by the Whig
newspaper of his own city, which denied him
credit even for his masterly governorship, Cass
carried Michigan by a good plurality. Yet Van
Buren received over 10,000 votes, — more than
Cass's majority over Taylor. Cass also received
the support of Ohio, a rare tribute to the personal
admiration and respect for the man. He received
16,415 votes more than Taylor, whereas Clay had
defeated Polk by 5940. The Northwestern candi
date received the electoral vote of every North
western State, but in each one the Whigs and the
Free-Soilers together outnumbered the Democrats.

1 Private and confidential letter to the author.

260 LEWIS CASS

Even young Wisconsin gave 10,418 votes for Van
Buren, more than one fourth of the total vote of
the State. A prophet was not needed to trace
the future political development of the Northwest.

Cass was bitterly attacked in some portions of
the country, particularly in his own section, be
cause he had not accepted an invitation to attend a
convention at Chicago, called to discuss the subject
of internal improvements. The New West needed
the aid of the general government in developing
its resources, especially in opening its harbors for
commerce. The Democrats, never lenient toward
such hopes, had recently been charged with "salt
water" interpretation of the Constitution, and the
residents on the fresh water of the Great Lakes
wanted a recognition of their claims. Cass always
disclaimed hostility to national improvements, and
afterwards, in a speech in the Senate in 1851,
proved that his course had been in favor of such
assistance from the government. But he was now
running on a platform which denied the constitu
tionality of a general improvement system, and
the severe and continuous attacks upon him in the
Whig papers on this ground probably reduced his
vote to some extent.

The slavery question was, however, the promi
nent if not the determining factor of the campaign
of 1848. Taylor was a Southern man, a planta
tion owner and a slave owner. The South felt
that it could trust him, that a Southern man with
Southern interests was preferable to a Northern

CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY 261

man, however Southern might be his principles.
A mass Democratic convention of the citizens of
Charleston selected Taylor as their candidate.
The "Richmond Times" said that he was "thor
oughly identified with the South in feeling and
interest." He was represented in Alabama as one
who loved "the South and her cherished institu
tions;" and so, while the Free-Soilers were desig
nating Cass and Taylor as "the Devil and Beelze
bub," and the Northern man was being castigated
in the North for his apostasy to slavery, he was
marked by Southern Democrats as an unsafe can
didate because he was not, as Taylor was, a slave
holder. Polk carried Georgia in 1844. Cass lost
it. The same is true of Louisiana. Everywhere
south of Mason and Dixon's line the Democracy
lost ground. Yet the Democratic support of Van
Buren in New York was decisive. This cannot
be attributed to anti-slavery sentiment. The Barn
burners, fighting for political existence and re
venge, and aided by opponents of slavery, polled
more votes than the "regular" faction. This fact
proves that personal pique was the great motive in
that State of politicians.

CHAPTER IX

SENATOR. — THE COMPROMISE OF 1850

THE Buffalo convention and the evident uneasi
ness of the North had perhaps influenced Congress,
as it droned along far into the summer of 1848.
A territorial government was given to Oregon, by
an act approved August 14, which extended over
that territory the Ordinance of 1787 with its "re
strictions and prohibitions." But in the meantime
new complications had arisen, for California was
even more in need of organization and government
than Oregon had been a year before. Although
it was known when California was acquired that
gold had been found there by the Mexicans, the
idea of a New Eldorado did not immediately take
hold of the people. An accidental discovery by
workmen of the yellow grains of gold in January,
1848, soon set the country afire, and a perfect
exodus from the East began in the early summer.
Business men and school-teachers, lawyers and
clergymen, forsook their callings to hasten to the
gold fields; the restless and unemployed class of
every community begged or borrowed money for
the journey. The young men especially were over
come with anxiety to make a fortune in a moment,

SENATOR — THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 2C3

and quickly broke all ties which bound them to
the humdrum life of the plodding East. The
"New York Tribune" estimated that 8098 persons
had set sail for California between December 7,
1848, and February 8, 1849. The very crews of
the vessels deserted to dig for gold when once they
had reached the fabled coast. "Nothing, sir,"
wrote Commodore Jones from Monterey, "can
exceed the deplorable state of things in all Upper
California at this time, growing out of the mad
dening effects of the gold mania." 1 He described
the country as in a very "whirlwind of anarchy
and confusion confounded," where life and pro
perty were everywhere in great jeopardy.

When Congress met, in December, 1848, it had
to face a stormy and unsatisfactory session. None
of the real problems before the country had been
solved. On the contrary, there were feelings of
greater bitterness than ever. All were uncertain
about the meaning of the election, except that it
had disclosed great opposition in the North to the
extension of slavery and an unexpected defection
from the ranks of the old parties. No one knew
where the President-elect would stand on the mo
mentous issues which were agitating the country.
Had Cass been elected, every one would have
known his position, his belief in the absolute un-
constitutionality of excluding slavery from the Ter
ritories by act of Congress. Yet even an admirer
of him, with confidence in his sincerity, his up-
1 October, 1848. Niles, vol. Ixxv. p. 113.

2G4 LEWIS CASS

Tightness and honor, would hesitate to assert that
under such circumstances his election would have
been for the best interests of the country. Possi
bly the election of Taylor showed much more
clearly than anything else could have done the
utter futility of the Whig organization and the
folly of dodging principles. The only thing that
the Whigs gained by the election was a redistri
bution of the spoils. Inwardly, the party knew
not itself. One of its greatest men, William H.
Seward, who, faithful to his party, was faithful
also to freedom and free territory, who had shown
many times before his readiness to withstand the
slave power with boldness, was to take his place in
the Senate on the same day that a slaveholder, a
member of the same party, took the oath as presi
dent. Under such circumstances it was impossible
to foretell the future, or to see even so far as to
the end of this thirtieth Congress. In Ohio poli
tics were in such a condition that Chase, the author
of the Buffalo platform, was during the winter
elected to the Senate. He had been a Democrat,
and perhaps never entirely freed himself from the
fundamental ideas of the Democracy, but his clear
vision led him away from the fold of the old party,
and his election was an era in the progress of Free-
Soil ideas in the free Northwest.

Measures were at once introduced into the House
which tested its sentiment and disclosed unusual
harmony among Northern members. From this
time the part which the Democracy had played

SENATOR — THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 20.-,

since 1844 began to react against it. Contrary to
its inherited belief that such issues were not proper
material for political discussion, it had allowed
the slavery question to become an active political
principle. By its energetic advocacy Texas and
the vast territory to the west had been acquired,
and now the Nemesis was upon it. The party
must either divide into two opposing wings inca
pable of working together, or the Northern wing
must make itself subservient to the interests of
the slaveholders. To such action we can trace its
ultimate loss of power in the agricultural States of
the North, which by all the traditions of the past
were the natural allies of the planting South. For
the free Northern farmer, whatever might be his
economic interests, was unable to remain in a
party which was devoted to slave labor.

President Polk, in his annual message, called
the attention of Congress to the anomalous condi
tion of New Mexico and California, and advised
that they be given territorial governments at once,
and that the Missouri line be extended to the
Pacific. But it was not easy to do anything in
this short session, and it wore away to its close
without any decision of the great question.

Although Cass had shown, on the whole, remark
able strength in the Northwest and had carried
every State in the election, there was considerable
dissatisfaction in Michigan with the principles
for which he stood, and there was strong evi
dence that the anti-slavery sentiment had obtained

2CG LEWIS CASS

a hold upon many members of his own party.
When the legislature assembled in January, 1849,
it was apparent that lie was to have difficulty in
securing reelection to the Senate. Resolutions
favoring the Wilmot proviso and instructing sena
tors to vote for it were passed by both Houses by
substantial majorities, and it did not seem possible
that he could win the requisite support. But he
was still the leader of his party and had great
personal influence, while party discipline could be
relied upon to overcome a portion of the opposi
tion and to force some of the wavering members
into line. On January 23 he was reflected by a
vote of 44 to 38. Plainly enough Cass no longer
represented as he had done the growing sentiment
of the Northwest. The day of defeat might be
postponed by dint of energy and party manage
ment, and if for any reason a conservative spirit
gained ground, he as its conspicuous exponent
would gain new support; but in the end the con
trolling sympathy of Michigan was sure to be with
the principle of Free Soil, and the growth of this
sentiment meant his ultimate overthrow.1 Cass

1 Mr. T. C. Smith, in discussing' the condition of the Free Soil
party in 1849-50, points out the fact mentioned in the text at
various times, viz., that the personal influence of Cass was very
marked in Michigan, doubtless retarding the growth or at least
delaying" the full expression of the anti-slavery sentiment. " In
Michigan," says Mr. Smith, " the one great difference at the out
set was that the State, unlike its neighbors, was in the hands of a
' boss.' Lewis Cass, though an honest, able man, was a thorough
politician and partisan, and kept a controlling' hand over every

SENATOR — THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 -JG7

presented his credentials and was sworn in on
March 3. He was a member of the Senate during
the famous debate on the appropriation bill, which
lasted well on into the morning of the 4th. But
he refused to take any part in the discussion, on
the ground that the Senate was adjourned by lapse
of time at midnight between the 3d and 4th.

Taylor took the oath of office on Monday, the
5th of March. His cabinet did not stand for a
distinct principle ; it contained four Southern re
presentatives, one of whom was an avowed pro-
slavery man, and three Northern men, of whom
one had an anti-slavery record. The President
himself was unquestionably determined to do what
seemed to him right, and he proved himself singu
larly fair and candid. That the South should be
robbed of its property seemed to him wrong: on
the other hand, he could see no justice in the de
mand that the western territories should be admit
ted with slavery, if the people themselves did not
want it. He was able to make the non-interfer
ence rule work both ways. The South was furious.
The idea that the domain for which it had plotted
and fought was to be lost to slavery, after all, was
simply maddening. California, however, was in
need of some government at once. The existing
military rule was inappropriate and inadequate,
and it seemed unjust that the people should be

movement of his party in the State." Smith, The Liberty and Free
Soil Parties in the Northwest, p. 198. (N. Y. 1898.) This judg
ment confirms the result of mv own studies.

2G8 LEWIS CASS

left in anarchy till Congress could come to some
conclusion on slavery, a question which little trou
bled the average gold-hunter of the Pacific slope.
The President was ready to protect the people if
they took steps to organize a state government.

The people of California now gave a remark
able example of the wonderful institutional instinct
of the Anglo-Saxon. Of their own accord they
adopted a constitution, October, 1849, established
a government, and applied for admittance to the
Union as a State, without having passed through
the stage of territorial pupilage. This step was
entirely in accord with the wishes of President
Taylor, who had already sent an agent to suggest
this very move, which was begun, however, before
he arrived. A clause prohibiting slavery was
adopted unanimously in the convention, and the
constitution was ratified by the people with only
811 dissenting votes. This was a severe blow to
the South. It brought the slaveholders face to
face with the weakness of their peculiar institution ;
they saw the need of the artificial aid of the na
tional government if slavery was to maintain itself
against the power of free labor and the mighty
energy of the North. Hence came the bitter ve
hemence of despair and the instinctive fierceness
of a struggle for self-preservation. From this
time forward the thought of dissolution of the
Union gradually grew into a confirmed belief of
its necessity, and continually became more familiar
to the Southern people.

SENATOR — THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 2C9

In January, 1849, the legislature of Michigan
passed a joint resolution concerning the extension
of slavery to the new Territories. It repudiated
squatter sovereignty, and asserted that Congress
had the power, and that it was its duty, to prohibit
by enactment the introduction of slavery into the
West. The senators were "instructed" and the
representatives requested to use their efforts to
accomplish such an object. Cass was elected to
the Senate but a few days after these resolutions
were approved, and he therefore began his second
term with the knowledge on both sides that his
own beliefs on the great question were different
from those of a majority of the legislature and of
his constituents. His election under these circum
stances shows that he was still trusted, even if he
did hold disagreeable theories concerning slavery.
Strong opposition to him had appeared in the
nomination by the separate houses; and in the
joint election the vote was close. The first ballot,
which actually tested his strength, gave him 44
votes and to all others 38. This indicated quite
a change in feeling when compared with the action
of the legislature in 1845, when the opposition
was scarcely worthy of consideration. To vote
against General Cass was a severe trial to some
of his old friends, who loved him personally and
admired him as a statesman; but Michigan was
on the high road to its later Kepublican beliefs,
and in reelecting its trusted leader it was simply
postponing the day of .separation from him.

270 LEWIS CASS

Some hoped that the resolution of the legisla
ture would be binding on him; others expected
that the difficulty would blow over, and that Cass
would thus avoid without disobeying the instruc
tions. How clear and firm his opinions were,
however, is illustrated by his correspondence dur
ing the following autumn. In November he re
ceived a letter from prominent Democrats of New
York, among them Daniel E. Sickles and Charles
O' Conor, asking him to name a day for a public
dinner in his honor. " Even amid the fierce con
tests of party," they said, "all men have awarded
to you the praise and admiration due to one who
has so highly distinguished himself as the father
of the West, a soldier in war, a statesman in
peace, an eloquent advocate and defender of the
honor of his country both in councils at home and
in her representation abroad; and therefore you
cannot be surprised to learn that the Democracy
of this city, whose leader and champion you are,
regard you with an affection almost filial." He
declined the invitation in a vigorous letter, in
which he discussed at some length the topics of
the day. His strong Western spirit plainly forms
part of his robust nature still; and though grow
ing out of harmony with his section in some par
ticulars, he has not lost his sense of its desires or
tendencies. "An emigrant to the West in early
youth, the better portion of my life has been
passed in that great contest with nature in which
the forest has given way and an empire has arisen,

SENATOR — THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 271

already among the most magnificent creations of
human industry and enterprise. Placed in a geo
graphical position to exert a powerful influence
upon the duration of the confederacy of republics,
attached to the Union, and to the whole Union,
and attached equally to the principles of freedom,
and to the Constitution by which these are guarded
and secured, should the time ever come, — as I
trust it will not, — and come whence and why it
may, when dissolution shall find advocates, and
the hand of violence shall attempt to sever the
bond that holds us together, the West will rise
up as one man to stay a deed so fatal to the cause
of liberty here and throughout the world, — aye,
and it will be stayed. Success can never hallow
the effort." He clearly foresaw the meaning of
the coming contest, and appreciated the loyal
Union spirit of his constituents. This statement
comes from the leader of the Democratic party
who has been accused of weak-kneed subserviency
to the South, — from the leader of a party whose
Northern members ten years later too often decried
ua Union founded on force." This is one of the
first frank announcements from a Democratic poli
tician of the North that peaceful dissolution is
impossible, — aye more, that dissolution can and
will be prevented. Such gift of prophecy lay in
his sympathetic appreciation of popular feeling,
in his clear perception of actual facts.

The thirty-first Congress was very able, and
one of the most famous in our history. The session

272 LEWIS CASS

lasted nearly ten months, dragging its wear}T length
through the summer of 1850. Nearly the whole
of the first month was consumed by the House
in an endeavor to elect a speaker, a difficult task,
inasmuch as the balance of power was held by
the "immortal nine," dogged opponents of sla
very. But the territorial contest, once fairly be
gun, continued with unflagging energy for months.
The President's message told of the action of
California, recommended its admittance should its
"constitution be conformable to the Constitution
of the United States," and advised Congress to
abstain from the discussion of "those exciting
topics which have hitherto produced painful im
pressions on the public mind." So mild an exhor
tation to temperance sounded almost ludicrous in
the midst of the intense excitement.

On December 27 Foote of Mississippi offered
a resolution that it was the duty of Congress to
establish suitable territorial governments for Cali
fornia, Deseret (Utah), and New Mexico. Cass
spoke on this resolution January 21 and 22. He
desired to make a complete exposition of his views,
and, if possible, to influence his own State; for
he felt that if the legislature persisted in its in
structions he must resign. He spoke for the
greater portion of two days with great clearness
and force, and this speech stands to-day the most
complete defense of the doctrine of "squatter sov
ereignty " that has ever been given. He argued
that the people of the Territories were capable of

SENATOR — THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 1173

governing themselves, and that the exercise of
powers of government by Congress would be an
act of unwarranted tyranny, contrary to the great
principles of American liberty. Moreover there
was, he contended, no clause in the Constitution
which gives to Congress express power to pass any
law respecting slavery in the Territories. Such
power was not contained in the clause which gave
Congress power to make "all needful rules and
regulations respecting the territory or other pro
perty belonging to the United States," for that was
a power over property and not persons ; a miscon
ception had arisen because of a confusion between
"territory" and "Territory," which latter was not
land, but a political community organized as a
territorial government. This proposition he dis
cussed at length, and with great keenness. He
then denied that the authority of Congress could
be deduced from the war or treaty-making power;
for that would not account for congressional con
trol over territory not acquired by war or treaty,
and no agreement with the individual States could
enlarge the competence of Congress under the
Constitution. The right to admit new States was
equally ineffectual; the reasoning on this clause
was simply analogical, and not convincing ; though
the Territories might be likened to boys in pupil
age, the analogy was not perfect, nor could such
suppositions bestow authority upon a body pos
sessed of enumerated powers. The right to sell,
the right of ownership, and the right or duty of

274 LEWIS CASS

settlement were equally insufficient privileges from
which to deduce a right to govern persons; for
every implied power ought to bear a fair relation
to the specific one. The right of sovereignty, the
nature of government, nationality, and the princi
ples of agency and trust had all been summoned
to do battle in opposition to " squatter sovereignty; "
but these principles overlooked the character of
the Constitution itself, and lost sight of the doc
trines of that "noble state paper," the Virginia
Resolutions of 1799.

Other more technical reasons for claiming that
this power was inherent in Congress he brought
up and combated. The right of self-government
by the people of the Territories was given by no
earthly potentate or people. "They got it from
Almighty God; from the same omnipotent and
beneficent Being who gave us our rights, and who
gave to our fathers the power and the will to
assert and maintain them." He ended by asking
those who could think that there was any constitu
tional basis for the Wilmot proviso to consider
the circumstances of the times and the inexpe
diency of the measure. His closing sentences
were as follows : " I will endeavor to discharge my
duty, as an American senator, to the country and
to the whole country, agreeably to the convictions
of my own duty and of the obligations of the Con
stitution, and when I cannot do this I shall cease
to have any duty here to perform. My sentiments
upon the Wilmot proviso are now before the Sen-

SENATOR — THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 -75

ate, and will soon be before my constituents and
the country. I am precluded from voting in con
formity with them. I have been instructed by
the legislature of Michigan to vote in favor of
this measure. I am a believer in the right of in
struction when fairly exercised, and under proper
circumstances. There are limitations upon this
exercise; but I need not seek to ascertain their
extent or application, for they do not concern my
present position. I acknowledge the obligation
of the instructions I have received, and cannot act
in opposition to them. Nor can I act in opposi
tion to my own convictions of the true meaning of
the Constitution. When the time comes, and I
am required to vote upon this measure as a practi
cal one, in a bill providing for a territorial govern
ment, I shall know how to reconcile my duty to
the legislature with my duty to myself, by surren
dering a trust I can no longer fulfill."1

The modern student, thinking calmly on these
great questions, soon finds common sense a suffi
cient rebuttal of "squatter sovereignty." If the
Constitution is to be strictly construed, then Con
gress has no power to acquire territory. But if
such a power is admitted, government is essential
to complete acquisition, and follows as a natural
consequent upon the very heels of possession, if
it is not actually a part of it. Such authority has
been exercised by the national government from

*/ O

the beginning of its history. It throws a strong

1 Appendix to fhf Congressional Clobf. vol. xxii. pt, 1, p. 74.

276 LEWIS CASS

light on the confusion of the times that such self-
evident propositions were rejected by a large por
tion of the people, and that "squatter sovereignty "
was accepted as logically sound and conclusive;
but we must remember that the Kebellion has
cleared the air for us, and we now see plainly
what was befogged forty years ago.

On January 29 Clay introduced a series of eight
resolutions, the intent of which was to compromise
the conflicting claims of North and South. The
first proposed the admission of California without
any restriction by Congress; the second, that, in
asmuch as slavery was not likely to exist in any
of the Territories obtained from Mexico, govern
ments ought to be established there without re
striction or condition on the subject of slavery;
the third, that the boundary between Texas and
New Mexico should be agreed upon; the fourth,
that Texas be paid a sum of money in considera
tion of giving up in large part her claims to land
in New Mexico; the fifth, that the abolition of
slavery in the District of Columbia under present
circumstances was inexpedient; the sixth, that it
was expedient to prevent the slave trade in the
District of Columbia; the seventh, that a more
effectual fugitive slave law ought to be passed;
the eighth, that Congress had no power to prohibit
the slave trade between slave States. Clay begged
the senators to refrain from discussing this mea
sure until they had taken time to consider it ; but
debate immediately ensued, and continued for

SENATOR — THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 277

months. Cass was on his feet often during these
debates, a steady and consistent advocate for put
ting an end to an unnecessary agitation. In addi
tion to his arguments on unconstitutionality, he
insisted that the law of nature had banished slav
ery forever from California, and that the proviso
discussion was one of selfish sentiment.

The presentation of a petition by Senator Hale
of New Hampshire for the peaceable dissolution
of the Union called forth (February 12) an elo
quent and forcible address from Cass. "To dis
solve this Union peaceably! " he exclaimed. "He
who believes that such a government as this> with
its traditions, its institutions, its promises of the
past, its performances of the present, and its hopes
of the future, living in the heart's core of almost
every American, can be broken up without blood
shed, has read human nature and human history
to little purpose." February 20 he frankly out
lined his course in regard to the proviso. He
confessed his inconsistency. The "retailing of
conversations in railroad cars " was not needed to
prove that at first he was ready to vote for the
measure. A calm investigation and unimpassioned
consideration of expediency had led him to change
his mind. With unusual vehemence he repelled
the insinuation that he was a "doughface " because
he was not ready to "cover the country with blood
and conflagration to abolish slavery." On the
conclusion of his speech Clay thanked him, and
agreed with him that the country was in danger

278 LEWIS CASS

because of "ultraism," which made calm discus
sion an impossibility. No one can read these
fervid speeches without being convinced of Cass's
thorough sincerity and intense moral earnestness.
He believed slavery was a misfortune to the South ;
yet that only the passing ages could bring about
emancipation without the destruction of both races;
but that "God in his providence" might bring
it about. Only one who is intent upon finding
chicanery and low ambition in this period of his
life will fail to sympathize with his intense, how
ever mistaken, eagerness for compromise.

Webster's famous 7th of March speech, in which
he deplored unnecessary agitation, advocated com
promise, and lamented sentiment, had direct effect
at the North. It was itself the expression of re
action and conservatism. It aided the growing
desire to settle the question and to restore har
mony, and seems to have influenced the legislature
of Michigan to reconsider its instructions and re
quests to the congressmen of the State.1 April 11
Cass exultingly read to the Senate resolutions
freeing him from any obligation to vote contrary
to his judgment, and heartily approving the pa
triotic stand taken by those who had "united their
efforts to preserve the Union one and indivisible."

This was a session of great speeches. On March
4 Calhoun's views were read to the Senate by a
fellow-senator. He himself was too weak to speak.

1 Private correspondence between the author and a member of
the legislature at that time.

SENATOR — THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 i>7<)

The old nullifier was dying. But his last energies
were devoted to the South and to slavery, to a
cause that was doomed and to a system that had
cast its blight on the State which he had loved so
well and served so faithfully. His argument was
simple — equilibrium must be maintained ; the en
croachments of the North must be prevented ; only
by a zealous care for Southern interests, by a main
tenance of political equality, could harmony be
secured and the Southern States remain in the
Union consistently with their honor and safety.
"The cry of ' Union, Union, the glorious Union! '
can no more prevent disunion than the cry of
k Health, health, glorious health ! ' on the part of
a physician can save a patient lying dangerously
ill." The South, he said, must be protected by
some constitutional provision, which there would
be no difficulty in devising. He referred, doubt
less, to his plan of electing two presidents, one
from each section, who should protect their respec
tive interests, a plan he had already worked out in
his "Discourse on the Constitution and Govern
ment of the United States."

As Webster's 7th of March speech expressed
the longing for peace and the growing weariness
at the North of the endless discussion, and was a
manifestation of conservatism and reaction, so on
the other hand Seward's and Chase's words de
clared the unwavering zeal of the earnest and
serious, who were content with no temporizing
compromise, and demanded principles in accord

280 LEWIS CASS

with the "higher law." Se ward's speech was one
of the greatest in the annals of American oratory;
he saw so clearly, he felt so keenly, he argued so
calmly and logically. "I feel assured that slavery
must give way, and will give way, to the salutary
instructions of economy, and to the ripening in
fluences of humanity ; that emancipation is inevi
table, and is near ; that it may be hastened or hin
dered ; and that, whether it be peaceful or violent,
depends on the question whether it be hastened or
hindered; . . . that all measures which fortify
slavery, or extend it, tend to the consummation of
violence; ... all that check its extension and
abate its strength tend to its peaceful extirpation."
Webster and Clay and Cass saw through the glass
of past prejudices but darkly. Seward and Chase
read the present and the future face to face. Cass
in an elaborate address on March 13 and 14 sharply
rebuked Seward for accepting office under a Con
stitution which recognized the necessity of an "im
moral" fugitive slave law, and criticised the "equi
librium " propositions of Calhoun.

There was great disagreement concerning the
various proposals of Clay's compromise measure.
One objected to one clause and another to another
clause, and finally the whole subject was on April
13 referred to a select committee of thirteen, of
which Clay was chairman, and Cass was a mem
ber. On May 8 this committee reported, and
recommended three bills. The first provided for
three distinct objects: the immediate admittance

SENATOR — THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 281

of California, the establishment of territorial gov
ernments for New Mexico and Utah, with the stip
ulation that the territorial legislature should pass
no law with reference to slavery, the settlement of
the boundary of Texas, and the payment to that
State of a sum of money, as a recompense for her
giving up her claim to part of New Mexico. The
second bill provided for the return of fugitive
slaves; the third for the discontinuance of the
slave trade in the District of Columbia. This re
port had been agreed upon by the committee after
long discussions and debates. Its reception by
the Senate was not flattering. Some of the radi
cal Southern members demanded that California
should not be admitted. Others from the North,
on the other hand, asserted that the admission of
California should not be made conditional upon
the formation of territorial governments, and de
sired that the principle of the Wilmot proviso
should be applied to the Territories. It seemed
absolutely impossible to harmonize differences.
The debate went on day after day with mechanical
regularity, but with unfailing vehemence and bit
terness. Cass was continually on his feet, the
able and persistent ally of Clay and a champion
of the compromise.

President Taylor had been drawn into obstinate
opposition to the committee's plans, partly because
his loyal heart was stirred to resentment by the
treasonable threats of the South, and partly be
cause he had from the first been in favor of admit-

282 LEWIS CASS

ting California with her constitution as adopted.
On July 9 he died. Presidential duties had wor
ried and annoyed him, and had told severely upon
him. His last words tell the tale of an unpreten
tious life, whose late ambition had not brought
peace or happiness : " I have always done my duty ,
I am ready to die; my only regret is for the friends
I leave behind me.'' Fillmore became president,
and the weight of executive influence was thrown
in favor of the compromise measure.

On June 11 and August 12 the doctrine of non
interference, of the absolute and divine rio-ht of

c5

the people of the Territories to govern themselves,
was ably discussed and defended by Cass. He
fondly believed that the compromise would still
the raging tempest. "There can be no Wilmot
proviso, and no one proposes to interfere with the
claims of Texas. Then why not terminate this
whole controversy, and thus banish its remem
brances from our councils and country. . . . That
done, we should enter again upon a glorious career,
with none to trouble us or to make us afraid.
God grant that the denunciation contained in the
command to the prophet may not already have
gone out against us. Say ye not a confederacy,
to all them to whom this people shall say a confed
eracy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid."

He was winning his State to a temporary faith
in his beliefs. A Democratic convention of Michi
gan in June passed resolutions in favor of the
compromise, and eulogized the "patriotic efforts"

SENATOR -THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 28b

of General Cass. "Placing himself in the breach,
and stemming a current of popular prejudice and
fanaticism as relentless and proscriptive in its
character as it is sectional and destructive in its
objects, he has achieved a moral triumph no less
creditable to himself than it is salutary in its re
sults upon the permanency of our republican form
of government." The convention also advocated
congressional non-intervention as the only sound
basis for the Democratic party.

The different provisions of the compromise bill
were finally passed piecemeal. Territorial gov
ernments were given to Utah and to New Mex
ico. California was admitted. Texas was given
110,000,000 in lieu of all title to land organized
as part of New Mexico. The slave trade in the
District of Columbia was abolished. An infamous
fugitive slave law was passed, providing for sum
mary proceedings and a shameful disregard foi
the rights of free blacks. Undoubtedly the coun
try breathed more easily when the compromise
was adopted, and many deceived themselves into
believing that strife was forever stifled. But the
act contained the seeds of its own destruction.
Slave-hunting in the North began at once, and in
earnest. Greeley1 estimated that within the first
year of the existence of these new regulations more
persons were seized as fugitive slaves than during
the preceding sixty years. Cass had been in favor
of making the original slave law of 1793 more

1 The American Conflict, p. 210.

284 LEWIS CASS

effective by adequate amendments. He was will
ing to do "justice" to the South. But the South
on its part did not, and could not, appreciate
Northern hatred of slave-hunting; and the conse
quent result of this strict law was to bring the
evils of slavery, in its most revolting and inhuman
aspects, home to the consciences of a people whose
moral sense was not blunted. The compromise
of 1850, which was hailed as the final settlement
of sectional differences, in fact precipitated the
Rebellion, and hastened the destruction of the
"institution" of the South. Strange does it seem
now that a representative of the free Northwest
could not see more clearly, could have thus lost
moral insight into the first principles of respect
able republican liberty. He desired, it is true, that
provision should be made for a jury trial in the
State to which the alleged runaway might be trans
ported, but he voted against allowing such a safe
guard of liberty in the North, because that would
be doing "injustice" to the South. He refused
to favor an amendment to this infamous law,
which would have permitted the issue of a writ of
habeas corpus. A dark complexion was a crime
which freed the nation from all consideration.

Those who had worked so strongly through the
long oppressive weeks of summer for a compromise
which would save the Union were terribly disap
pointed and goaded to a pitch of anger because
there was still agitation and opposition. The
strong and uncompromising adherents of free soil

SENATOR — THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 285

were thought to be nursing "in their bosoms the
feelings of disappointment and hate," — and to have
shut their eyes to the fruits of a happy Union
"which compromise ushered into existence." l Yet
unquestionably there was on the whole a feeling
of rest and relief because the crisis had passed
without destruction. A great reaction toward con
servatism had made itself felt among the mercan
tile classes of the North, who began to realize how
much the industries of the country would be dis
turbed by disunion. Trade is always timid. The
steady compromisers were therefore honored at
the marts of trade and commerce. A number of
citizens of New York gave Cass a public reception
November 28, 1850, just before the opening of
Congress. His "eloquent address " was received
with "vehement applause."2 It was an earnest
appeal for contentment, and for a recognition of
the finality of the compromise. A member of the
Congress which had just passed one of the most
shameful acts that ever sullied a statute book,
depriving a man with a black skin of all security
In liberty or in the pursuit of happiness, talked
about the. "precious heritage of liberty. . . . And
where in the long annals of mankind do we find
a people so highly favored as we are at this mo
ment, when we seem to be struck with judicial
blindness — almost ready, I may say, in the lan
guage of Scripture, to rush upon the thick bosses

1 Smith, Life and Times of Lewis Cass, p. 710.

2 Newspaper article. .

28G LEWIS CASS

of Jehovah's buckler? The sun never shone upon
a country as free and prosperous as this, where
human freedom finds less oppression, the human
intellect less restraint, or human industry less op
position."

There was a vigorous desire on the part of the
people to reason themselves to sleep, and to make
use of all sorts of devices to rid themselves of this
horrid insomnia; but it was a hard task, although
there was an evident backsliding after the high
excitement of 1850. Cass was elected senator in
February, 1851, by a handsome majority. This
is a clear indication of the acquiescence in the
" finality" of the compromise. Many people of
the North were prepared to assert that they would
take no thought for the morrow. The appalling-
cases of cruelty were too frequent, however; and
action was bound sooner or later to follow reac
tion. Orators might depict the beauties of patri
archal slavery, but the despair of the captured
fugitives, their readiness to die rather than to be
taken back to the South, belied all efforts of that
kind. The contradictions of pamphleteers and
deluded conservatives were daily made more glar
ing; the sentimentalists of the North were up
braided because they discountenanced the capture
of slaves and their return to the blessed and happy
bondage, from which ecstatic state they were es
caping in hundreds to the ruin of their kind,
gentle, and Christian masters.

Other orators and statesmen used words similar

SENATOR — THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 'J87

to those of Cass. But all Union-saving speeches
and prayers were ineffectual. When Congress
met, in December, it was apparent that, although
there was a calm after the storm, some would in
sist on being shocked and horrified at the fugitive
slave act. President Fillinore's message indorsed
the finality of the compromise. But the indorse
ment itself called forth a bitter debate. "The
farmer of Ohio," said Giddings, "will never turn
out to chase the panting fugitive/' Petitions
against the act came in scores. Cass lamented
that sentiment and ultraism had bewitched the
people. In a speech in the Senate (February,
1851) he deplored the statement that the law was
contrary to public sentiment, and could not be
enforced. He read a ringing resolution adopted
by a meeting in Springfield, Massachusetts, which
hailed the escape of a hunted slave, and avowed
the hope that, "law or no law, constitution or no
constitution, Union or no Union, the hospitality
of Massachusetts will never be violated by the de
liverance of any fugitive from oppression to his
tyrant again." Such "unpatriotic " resolutions
he attributed to the teachings of English emissa
ries, who were journeying over our land, preaching
abolition and the sinfulness of the Constitution.

As the campaign of 1852 approached, it became
evident that the Democrats had the advantage of
harmony and discipline. Not all Democrats were
in favor of the Fugitive Slave Act, but there was
no such division in their ranks as in those of the

288 LEWIS CASS

Whigs, where the anti-slavery sentiment would
not down. The conservative reaction wras still
vigorous during the summer of this year. Those
who were crying "Peace, peace," would evidently
still cling to the old parties, and many would turn
to the one whose history promised no attack upon
the "peculiar institution" of the Southern States.
The horrors of the slave chase were not yet com
pletely brought home to the Northern conscience
and sympathy. The National Democratic Con
vention met in Baltimore on June 1. On the first
ballot Cass was the favorite. He received 116
votes; Buchanan received 93; Marcy, 27; and
there were 27 scattering. The contest was long
and exciting. Cass was still recognized as the
leader of his party ; but the practical politician is
loath to place in nomination a man once defeated,
whose weak points have been brought into view,
and who no longer can awaken enthusiasm from
novelty. The balloting continued; Cass's vote at
one time dropped to 25. Douglas, on the thirti
eth ballot, had as many as 92. On the thirty-fifth
Cass's vote reached 131. Then the name of Frank
lin Pierce was introduced. Marcy was still for
midable, receiving 97 on the forty-fifth ballot;'
but on the forty-ninth the New Hampshire man
was chosen. The second place on the ticket was
given to William R. King of Alabama.

The candidates were suited to the task assigned
them. Pierce is not one of the great men of our
political history, but belongs in the column of

SENATOR — THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 289

presidential accidents. He had served in Congress
for some ten years, and had been a brigadier-
general in the Mexican war. He had in no way
shown any preeminent ability. What was wanted
was precisely such a colorless candidate to carry
the standard of the party announcing the "finality "
of the compromise of 1850. Resolutions were
adopted declaring that Congress had no power to
interfere with the domestic institutions of the sev
eral States, and that all the efforts of the aboli
tionists to induce Congress to take such steps were
calculated to lead to the most alarming conse
quences. The party was pledged to resist all at
tempts at "renewing" the agitation of the slavery
question in Congress or out of it. Pierce accepted
the nomination, and approved heartily of the plat
form.

The Whig convention, which met soon after
ward, seemed to have as great travail as its rival
had suffered in bringing forth a candidate. Its
Southern members had already indicated the neces
sity of agreeing to the compromise, while at the
North there was a strong element of the party
which was no longer bound to it by principles,
but simply by past associations. Scott, Fillmore,
and Webster were the candidates. The first was
nominated on the fifty -third ballot. Had Webster
been nominated the campaign might have taken
a different line, for his readiness to accept radical
conservatism on the slavery question had already
been demonstrated ; but he did not receive a single

290 LEWIS CASS

Southern vote in the convention. The platform,
supposed to have been the work of Webster, adopted
adjustment and finality, and acquiesced in the
Fugitive Slave Law. The party had passed its last
resolution. There was truth in the epitaph which
the public wrote upon its tomb : " Died of an at
tempt to swallow the Fugitive Slave Law."

A Free-Soil National Convention in August
nominated John P. Hale for president and George
W. Julian for vice-president. Both the great
parties were pronounced hopelessly corrupt and
unworthy of confidence; and were wittily charac
terized as the " Whig and Democratic wings of the
great Compromise party of the Nation." This
campaign was conducted with great enthusiasm
and with the courage of moral earnestness; but
the result seemed to furnish even less encourage
ment than had been offered four years before.
The vote had actually fallen off. It represented,
however, the actual strength of the anti-slavery
men in politics unaided by any side issue. There
was great zeal in the North to lie prostrate in
worship before the Constitution, compromise, and
conciliation. In New York, where Van Buren
had received such a great vote in 1848, the Free-
Soilers did not hold even the balance of power.
In Michigan there were 3000 less votes cast for
Hale than had been cast for Van Buren. The
same proportionate falling off appears in the other
Northwestern States, including Ohio, and yet this
portion of the Union was especially true to the

SENATOR — THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 291

faith. Most of the old Barnburners of New York
forgot their Free-Soil aberration, and voted and
worked for Pierce. Many of the Northern Whigs
found it hard to be reconciled; they were said,
in the slang of the day, "to swallow the candidates
and to spit upon the platform."

The Democrats had felt great confidence in their
success, but no one had anticipated such a victory
as they won. Scott received only 42 electoral
votes, carrying in the North Massachusetts and
Vermont, in the South Kentucky and Tennessee.
Not a single State especially interested in slavery
deigned to reward the party which had been for
years stifling all its better feelings and hopes out
of tender consideration for the "rights" of the
South. The popular plurality was not so crush
ing, only 202,008; but Taylor had beaten Cass
by a plurality of 138,447. There was no excuse
for the Whigs longer to pretend to exist as a
party. They had been kept together since 1848
by spoils and the memory of past glory. In the
light of this defeat even memory lost its sweetness.
Though some were still obstinate and used the
old name, the party was gone. Some rude shock
was necessary to shake into crystals the different
elements held in the solution of uncertainty and
doubt. Such a shock soon came, and the study
of the next eight years of this sixth decade of our
history may be devoted to watching the effect upon
the North of blow after blow from the arrogant
South. The Democracy, now given up to South-

292 LEWIS CASS

ern policy and flushed with victory, scarcely real
ized the danger of presumption until the free
Northwest had brought into being a gigantic young
party filled with the enthusiasm of youth, princi
ple, and patriotism. Not till the Whigs were
disorganized and thrown into confusion by over
whelming defeat, was there an opportunity for a
recombination in opposition to slavery. The tri
umph of the compromise was all that was needed
to destroy it.

CHAPTER X

THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. — •
THE NORTHWEST FORMS A NEW PARTY

A STUDY of the popular vote of 1852 might
have made the Democratic party somewhat cau
tious ; for its actual majority was very small. But
compromise and finality, as represented by Pierce,
seemed to be triumphant, and the new president
was eager for adjustment and for the enforcement
of the law. His message, December, 1853, once
more proclaimed that the slavery contest should
be considered settled. From its uneasy slumbers
the country was suddenly awakened on January
16, 1854, by Senator Dixon of Kentucky. The
successor of Henry Clay gave notice that when a
bill to establish a territorial government in Ne
braska should come up for consideration, he should
offer a resolution repealing the Missouri compro
mise and permitting the citizens of the several
States and Territories to take and hold their slaves
within any of the Territories of the United States.
January 23, Stephen A. Douglas reported from
the Committee on Territories a bill for the forma
tion of two Territories, — Kansas and Nebraska,
• — which provided that all cases involving the title

294 LEWIS CASS

to slaves and questions of personal freedom should
be referred to the local tribunals with right of
appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.
This, of course, meant the repeal of the Missouri
compromise. It was declared to be the intent of
the act to carry into practical operation the princi
ples established by the compromise measure of
1850. Non-intervention was now made applica
ble, not alone to the "broken crests and deep
valleys," nor to the mountain tops "capped by
perennial snow," nor to the barren mountain sides
of New Mexico and Utah, but to the broad rolling
prairies west of the Mississippi. The section of
the Missouri ccmpromise, excluding slavery north
of 36° 30', was declared inoperative and void, as
being inconsistent with the principle of non-inter
vention recognized by the legislation of 1850.
There is ostensible but not real truth, therefore,
in the statement of Jefferson Davis that the Mis
souri line was erased, not in 1854, but by Clay's
last effort at mediation.

The act as adopted contained the following state
ment, afterwards a subject of some discussion : " It
being the true intent and meaning of the act not
to legislate slavery into any Territory or State,
nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people
thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their
domestic institutions in their own way, subject
only to the Constitution of the United States."
Jefferson Davis, in his work on the "Rise and
Fall of the Confederate Government," maintains

REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 295

that the claim afterwards advanced by Douglas
and others, that this declaration was intended to
assert the right of the first settlers of the Territory
to determine the character of its institutions, led
to the dissensions which resulted in a rupture of
the Democratic party, lie insists that this right
to "regulate their domestic institutions" belonged

O O

to the people of a Territory only at the moment
of forming a constitution for admittance into the
Union. The same statements have been made by
other writers in behalf of the "Lost Cause." The
"Little Giant," who declaimed in his frenzied
fashion in favor of the rights of the slaveholder,
until he was abused and execrated by the more
advanced people of the North, is now slandered
and maligned by the advocates of the South. He
is described as an "able and eloquent demagogue,"
whose popular sovereignty was merely "a short
cut to all the ends of Black Republicanism." The
truth is, however, that the South, rinding itself
beaten at its own game, thereupon followed the
advice of the old lawyer to a member newly ad
mitted to the profession : having neither law nor
facts in its favor, it abused the other side. An
unprejudiced reading of the speeches of Cass and
Douglas on the act of 1854 will show that popular
or "squatter sovereignty" meant control over leg
islation by the people of a Territory. Cass made
two eloquent and skillful speeches on the subject,
clear as the sun at noonday.1 The fact is that the

1 As late as 1855 Cass repeated the arguim nt for popular sov-

29G LEWIS CASS

remarkable infatuation of the South allowed it,
even as late as 1854, to believe that it could com
pete for the Western prairie with the free North,
whose population was far greater, and which was
constantly receiving such additions from the old
world that it could pour a steady stream of immi
grants into the new Territories. Not until the
painful truth came home, that competition with
the free North in expansion, in power, in vigor,
was a hopeless task, did the ordinary slave-owner
abuse popular sovereignty and demand the affirm
ative protection by Congress of all his rights to
property in persons. We shall see that in this
hopeless contest he at last turned even to the ne
farious slave trade, which had been piracy for
forty years and illegal for fifty, hoping in spite of
defeat that the forests of Africa would give the
means to counteract the emigration from the crowded
fields and cities of Europe.

Cass, as the inventor of popular sovereignty,
has been burdened with abusive epithets, and ac
cused of pernicious intents ; but, after all, popular
sovereignty, though artificial, and an absurd de
duction from general principles, if honestly carried
out would have chained slavery within its early
limits, wherein it was doomed to destruction by

ereignty in the early sense of that word : ' ' The negation of all
power of interference by Congress in the internal government of
the Territories is the true constitutional doctrine." From a letter
to the Detroit Free Press, August, 1855, quoted in Smith's Cass,
p. 771.

REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 207

the silent operation of economic and industrial
laws. But the South would not live up to the
doctrine when the struggle went against it. Cali
fornia was lost; the mountain-passes of New Mex
ico were forbidding; and the plains beyond the
mountains had not yet suggested their beautiful
transformation at the touch of irrigation and mod
ern mechanical skill. The Kansas and Nebraska
country, stretching away to the Rocky Mountains
and north to the British provinces, the remaining
portions of the Louisiana purchase, must be won
for slavery, or the slave baron could IK> longer
crack his whip in the halls of the Capitol in defi
ance of Northern sentiment and " sentimentality."
Cass lamented the reopening of the slavery con
test by this bill. He regretted that it should be
necessary to reconsider a compromise of over thirty
years' standing; but he admitted that the line of
demarcation was inconsistent with the theory of
non-intervention, and he believed that the com
plete recognition of that theory was the only means
of obtaining peace. He therefore announced his
adherence to the bill. He did not believe that
the South would gain anything by the equality
she demanded, for he trusted that the region in
dispute was so ill adapted to slave labor that no
human power could ever establish it there. Bor
rowing the famous words of Webster, he exclaimed,
"It is excluded by law, superior to that which
admits it elsewhere, — the law of nature, of physi
cal geography, the law of the formation of the

298 LEWIS CASS

earth. That law settles forever, with a strength
beyond all terms of human enactment, that slavery
cannot exist there." Curiously enough, the elo
quent historian of our civil war, Dr. Draper, pro
pounded the same opinion as late as 1867 j1 but
the learned advocate of the control of nature orer
man hit upon an unfortunate example. The Great
American Desert has bloomed as if touched with
the wand of Ceres herself, and the skill of man,
by upturning the soil, has brought rain from the
clouds; the dry plains of Kansas and Nebraska
are dry -no longer, and the rough buffalo grass
and cactus have given place to more useful and
luxuriant crops. It is fortunate that the Ameri
can people were not willing to trust to the appar
ent infertility of their wild lands, but aroused
themselves to active opposition. For the South
was determined that at least one more slave State
should be added to the list. The passage of the
Kansas-Nebraska bill was the beginning of the
end. The advice of Seward had been neglected.
The slave States, ignorant of their own inherent
weakness, madly began a struggle for equality,
demanding an opportunity for the contest.

President Pierce signed the measure May 30,
1854. The day of compromise was past. They
who had boasted of final adjustment by the com
promise of 1850 now disregarded one which had
been considered inviolable. The basis was non
interference. Freedom must be attained, not by

1 History of American Civil War, vol. i. p. 411.

REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 299

"bargains of equivocal prudence," but by fair
legislation, by the vigor of free labor and free
thought, now by Southern folly given fair play
without let or hindrance. The shifting sands of
compromise were gone. "This seems to me," ex
claimed Seward, "auspicious of better days and
better and wiser legislation. Through all the
darkness and gloom of the present hour bright
stars are breaking, that inspire me with hope and
excite me to perseverance." Cass did not see so
clearly nor feel so deeply as the men of the new
generation. His companions in thought had gone,
and he lingered still, one of the old school who
had loved the Union with a tenderness and loyalty
which could be known only by those who had seen
it rise and prosper, and who had helped make it
what it was. He hoped and believed that his
doctrine of non-intervention would preserve the
Territories for freedom. The violence, the greed,
the stern resolve of the leaders of the new South
appeared as dire portents to Seward, to Chase, to
Simmer; but they were hidden from the patriarch
of a o-eneration whose memories recalled Southern

O

hospitality and true chivalry, when as yet embit
tering topics had not arisen.

His opinions are well expressed in a letter writ
ten to a friend in Detroit, June 4: "As you are
aware we have passed the Nebraska bill. I be
lieve it was a wise measure, and that it will have
the effect of forever withdrawing the slavery con
test from Congress. And it is founded on the

300 LEWIS CASS

true American principle of allowing every political
community to regulate its own domestic concerns
for itself. I am aware that the measure has ex
cited a good deal of opposition in our State, but
I believe that the more it is examined and becomes
known, the more favor it will meet from reason
able men of both parties." 1

The repeal of the Missouri compromise came
like a whirlwind upon the people of the North.
At a time when the Federal Government was
giving itself up to the demands of slavery, the
sentiment of liberty was growing. The Demo
cratic party had surrendered to the South, but it
was called to reckon with true democracy at the
North. Many who had not been aroused hitherto
now shouted for the sacredness of the bargain of
1820. The awaited shock had come. Indignant
Democrats who had voted for Pierce in 1852,
thinking that the last word had been said for
slavery, joined with Whigs who were half gleeful
that their boastful old-time enemies had not found
such easy sailing, and half angry that the compro
mise of their own chieftain had been abandoned.
Crystallization into a new party came at once.
Emigrant aid societies and private benevolence
armed the sturdy New Englander and hurried him
off to the new Territory to hold the doubtful ground
for liberty with the rifle. Earnest men in all the
North, startled by seeing the last barrier broken,
demanded an end of irresolution and trifling.

1 Letter to Mr. J. IT. Cleveland. Detroit.

REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 301

The Whigs and the Democrats who were provoked
to opposition wasted too much time and thought
on "breach of faith," and lamented with over
much sorrow the destruction of a geographical
line, which had been for many years the bane of
our politics. Such persons, however, were soon
found hand in glove with the Free-Soilers, who
saw in the obnoxious measure only an instance
of the perfidy of slavery and the folly of compro
mises and bargains with sin.

The Republican party was born in the North
west. It breathed its early life in that virile re
gion which had never felt the enervating influence
of colonialism, in a section which was now filled
with the power of a highly developed and organ
ized society, and yet had not lost the zeal, vital
ity, and energy of a primitive and newly settled
country. Men of the young West easily free
themselves from associations of party and leave
the shallow ruts of custom. They do not know the
burdening weight of tradition and inheritance, and
they readily think for themselves and act as they
think. The pioneer who has wrought his own
work and fought his own fight has no respect for
prescription, and bases superiority on skill and
endurance. Yet side by side with this marked
individualism and independence, there is a gener
ous altruism and a comprehension of society.
Lessons are learned from nature. Her breadth
and liberality do not teach the settler selfishness.
lie may lose opportunities for refinement and

302 LEWIS CASS

culture, but his views are not limited to a narrow
horizon. These characteristics display themselves
variously; there is a deep, broad, and fervent
love of country, an admiration of her greatness
and an appreciation of her manifest destiny. Ge
ography teaches patriotism. "Vast prairies cov
ered by the unbroken dome of the sky, and navi
gable rivers all converging to a common trunk,
perpetually suggest to him Unionism."1 He is
proud of the mightiness of the Republic. With
out acute susceptibility to criticism, he delights in
praise of the grandeur and glory of his country.
"The true American is found in the Great Val
ley." Naturally, therefore, in 1854, old party
trammels were soonest cast aside by the people of
the Northwest. They most readily bent to the
task of forming a party upon the corner-stone of
unionism and freedom, a party opposed to state
sovereignty and to a sectional constitutional inter
pretation which would shield wrong. They gave
their strength to the party which advocated nation
alism. From 1854 until the close of the civil
war, the upper part of the Great Valley was the
centre of loyalty and Republicanism. Here was
the early home of the new union-anti-slavery party,
and it has never yet wandered far from its birth
place; every one of its successful candidates for
the presidency has come from the old Northwest,
and all its nominees, save one, have been Western
men.

1 Draper's History of the American Civil }Var, vol. i. p. 412.

REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 303

In addition to this natural tendency, there were
two other reasons for the appearance of the Repub
lican party in the West, before the East was ready
to break old party lines. The South long counted
on the influence of commercial conservatism in the
North, and it cannot be denied that this operated
much more strongly in the mercantile centres of
the East than in the farming West, which had
few commercial relations with the cotton States.
The second reason was an equally potent one.
The Northwest was honeycombed by the under
ground railroad. The fugitives from service found
their way to Canada by the shortest road, and the
slave chase awakened Northwestern resentment.

Upon the passage of the Nebraska bill there
came a demand for a new party. Men who had
never voted a Free-Soil ticket now avowed their
willingness to support any candidate on a sound
anti-slavery platform. The East, with its usual
conservatism, hesitated to break old ties and to
launch a new party without prestige and tradi
tions. Possibly the very first active suggestion
of the new party came from the little town of
Ripon, Wisconsin. There, in February, 1854,
while the obnoxious act was under discussion in
Congress, a local meeting was held, and the prin
ciples for the coming emergency were considered.
On March 20, in a town meeting, the committees
of the Whig and Free-Soil parties were dissolved
and a new committee was chosen, composed of
three Whigs, one Free-Soiler, and one Democrat.

304 LEWIS CASS

Thus in miniature were the dissolution of the old
and the formation of the new faithfully typified.
The "solitary tallow candle" and the "little white
schoolhouse " have become immortal in our history.
In May, immediately after the passage of the
Kansas-Nebraska bill, some thirty congressmen at
Washington met and considered the formation of
the "Republican" party.

By that time the name was in the air. It was
a question as to where and by whom it should be
adopted. Horace Greeley, who had fought so
valiantly against slavery, was getting disheartened.
"I faintly hope the time has come predicted by
Dan Webster when he said : ; I think there will
be a North. ' ' The veterans of the East listened
to calls from the excited Northwest. Editors "can
direct and animate a healthy public indignation,
but not create a soul beneath the ribs of Death." 1
Greeley wrote to Jacob M. Howard of Michigan,
that Wisconsin on July 13 would adopt the name
Republican, and he advised Michigan to anticipate
such action in the convention summoned for the
6th.2 But no such advice was needed ; the work
of arousing interest in such a plan was already
begun, and to Michigan belongs the honor of really
conceiving and christening the Republican party.
The "Detroit Tribune," June 2, formulated its
proposition frankly: "Our proposition is that a

1 Greeley, quoted in Fowler's History of the Republican Party,
p. 163.

2 I6>W., p. 173.

REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 305

convention be called, irrespective of party organi
zation, for the purpose of agreeing upon some plan
of action that shall combine the whole anti -slavery
sentiment of the State upon one ticket." The
"call" published in that paper, said to be the
work of Isaac P. Christiancy, began with the
words, "A great wrong has been perpetrated."
It invited all, "without reference to former politi
cal associations, who think the time has arrived
for Union at the North to protect liberty from
being overthrown and downtrodden, to assemble
in mass convention, Thursday the sixth of July
next, at one o'clock, at Jackson, there to take
such measures as shall be thought best to concen
trate the popular sentiment of this State against
the encroachments of the slave power."

On that date, July 6, 1854, the Whigs and
Free-Soilers, or the "Free Democracy" of Michi
gan, met and formed a single party. The name
Republican was adopted. A powerful platform,
attributed to Jacob M. Howard, was accepted as
the basis of the new party. It resolved "That in
view of the necessity of battling for the first prin
ciples of republican government and against the
schemes of aristocracy, the most revolting and
oppressive with which the world was ever cursed
or man debased, we will cooperate and be known
as Republicans until the contest be terminated."
The strength of the new party was at once great.
Wisconsin took the same position the next week.
In the East the Whigs, as a rule, maintained

306 LEWIS CASS

their organization. The Northwest was on its feet
and equipped for battle.

Under these circumstances General Cass had
a hard campaign in Michigan. The theory of
"squatter sovereignty," which he first had amply
unfolded to the world, was now made applicable
to nearly all the Territories; but his own State
had inaugurated an attack upon the doctrine, and
in his own city strong men were loathing it. He
spoke at length before the Democratic convention
of Michigan in September, and took an active
part in the campaign, ably defending his theory
of the Constitution and the incompetence of Con
gress in territorial government. In the course of
his speech before the convention he denounced
slavery as a great social and political evil, asserted
that he had said the same thing more than once
in the Senate, and that he never entertained any
other opinion regarding it. His whole career at
tests the truth of this. But the slaveholders, now
keenly sensitive to unkind allusions, resented such
unpleasant truths. The South fondly nursed the
viper which was poisoning its life. The "Rich
mond Enquirer " arraigned Cass before the bar of
popular judgment: "If this language be correctly
given in the report of his speech, he has severed
the last cord which bound him to the Democracy
of the South." Cass had tried to do "justice " to
both sections, and had fallen into disrepute with
each. It is pathetic to see him left naked to his
enemies after all his zealous service and honest

REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 307

striving after duty, which in the corrupt currents
of the world does not always lie in the trimming
consideration of contesting principles. The "En
quirer" ranked him with those "illustrious apos
tates," Benton and Van Buren, "in the limbo of
lost and dishonored politicians," - a trio, one
would think, of no mean proportions. On No
vember 4, in a "grand rally" at Detroit, Cass
elaborately defended his spoiled child, "squatter
sovereignty." He took leave of the South, but
avowed his purpose manfully to defend its consti
tutional rights. He pleaded with friends of the
Union to be moderate and forbearing, so far as
mere personal interests were concerned, but coun
seled that they be vigilant for the maintenance
of justice and law. It was an able and noble
speech. This man, who has been accused of vacil
lation and skillful legerdemain in politics, knew
how to cling amid the abuse of foes, and of old-
time friends, to a position which he thought right.
The spirit of Henry Clay and of the past genera
tion permeated the speech of the 4th of November.
It contained the old calmness, the fairness, and
the judicial blindness which would not and could
not see that moral enthusiasm was awakened, and
that argument could no more lull it to sleep than
whistling could calm a tempest.

The result of the elections showed the strength
of protest against the violation of the compromise.
The Northwest vigorously supported the new party.
Michigan elected the whole state ticket, and three

308 LEWIS CASS

out of four congressmen. Cass seemed ill requited
for his services to the old party, but a comparison
of the figures will prove that, though his influence
had waned, it was still of weight. Two of the
three congressmen elected in Wisconsin were Re
publicans. In Illinois, the Nebraska and Doug
las Democrats were 18,000 behind in the vote of
the State, although two years before Pierce had
had a clear majority of more than 5000 over
Scott and Hale, the last having received less than
10,000 votes. Even in Indiana the Republicans
had a majority of some 14,000. Ohio, of course,
came prominently forward. The old Western Re
serve district cast two Republican votes for every
one cast for Nebraska and "squatter sovereignty."
Maine was the only one of the Eastern States that
adopted for the campaign the new name or elected
a Republican ticket.

The different elements in Northwestern life once
more gave evidence of the power of inherited ideas
and prejudices. The Southern element, as if in
obedience to the famous words of King James's
charter, 1609, advanced into the country on a line
running "west and northwest," — its presence is
evident in the southern counties of Indiana, — and
running northward penetrated as far north as the
centre of Illinois. In the northern tier of coun
ties, which were settled from New York and New
England, the Republican vote was 8372, and the
Nebraska vote 2776; in the ninth district, in the
southern point, 2911 votes were cast for the Re-

THE NORTHWEST FORMS A NEW PARTY 309

publican candidate, and 8498 for the Democratic.
Possibly the most characteristic and startling ex
ception, which proved the rule, was the vote of
Madison County, the former home of Edward
Coles, who moved from Virginia to Illinois to free
his slaves, and left the impress of his character
on the surrounding country. Madison County
cast 2220 Republican ballots, and but 393 "for
Nebraska."

The great danger to the Republican party seemed
to be the American party, — a sub rosa organiza
tion, which attempted to substitute another ques
tion for the slavery question, and to excite the
people by holding up the spectre of Rome and the
tyranny of Catholicism. This party was not built
on the broad foundation of the necessity of pre
serving a pure ballot and free government by
maintaining sound American doctrine and insist
ing upon good American intelligence as a basis
for suffrage. Its platform was not so much its
oft-repeated "America for Americans," as it was
America for Protestants, and anything to avoid a
decision on the real problems of the day. Its se
cret organization was at once an insult to the people
and the assurance of its failure. No "order"
having a hierarchy and degrees, and encumbering
a political topic with paraphernalia and mystic
symbolism, can rise to dignity in a free country
and dominate a frank and thoughtful people, the
very essence of whose institutions is common
participation, common undertaking, and common

310 LEWIS CASS

judgment. So great, however, was the desire of
men in those harrowing days to avoid responsibil
ity that this organization assumed alarming pro
portions, and threatened the success of the party
which faced present realities. It served a purpose
quite different from the one hoped for or contem
plated. Whigs and Democrats too obstinate or
proud to transfer their allegiance at once to the
Republicans took this secret passage, and finally
emerged thence into good standing with the anti-
slavery party, without the shame of having changed
their coats in broad daylight.

This organization appeared in 1852. At first
it simply interrogated candidates, but in 1854 it
masqueraded as a political party, and for a few
years played its role not without some success.
In some of the Eastern States, especially, it held
its head high; and in the border States it long
lingered, until Western Republicanism with its
sense of present duty, sincerity, and actuality
shamed it out of sight. The real name adopted
by these whispering politicians was as silly as
their purpose. "The Sons of '76, or the Order
of the Star-Spangled Banner," was the title used
in its inner mysterious circles. The sobriquet,
"Know-Nothing," arose from the answers of its
members, who uniformly replied "I don't know"
to all inquiries as to the name and purpose of the
organization ; only those who had taken the higher
degrees knew its more serious intents or how am
bitiously it had been christened. No party can

THE NORTHWEST FORMS A NEW PARTY 311

hope to succeed in the United States which has
but one aim, and that, too, not a political one.
The success of the Republican party has often
been cited to disprove such a statement and to
furnish inspiration for new movements. The his
toric analogy is deceptive. The Republican party,
although inspired with a truly moral purpose, was
a political party, with a well - known and well-
defined policy in affairs of state, and not simply
a combination of enthusiasts burning with zeal
for the realization of a single idea. The Know-
Nothing party had no political virility. "It would
seem,*' sneered Greeley, "as devoid of the ele
ments of persistence as an anti-cholera or an anti-
potato-rot party would be."1

Such an unwholesome fungus was specially ob
noxious to Cass, who was peculiarly liberal and
sympathetic. He was too much of a scholar to
be a bigot, and too much a man of affairs to be
a pedant. He lamented that such narrow and
bitter intolerance could exist. "Mr. President,"
he said in the Senate, "strange doctrines are
abroad, and strange organizations are employed
to promulgate and enforce them. Our political
history contains no such chapter in the progress
of our country as that which is now opening. The
grave questions of constitutionality and policy,
which have been so long the battle-cry of parties,
are contemptuously rejected, and intolerance, reli
gious and political, finds zealous, and it may be

1 Whig Almanac. 1855, p. 23.

312 LEWIS CASS

they will prove successful, advocates, in this mid
dle of the nineteenth century, boasting with much
self-complacency of its intelligence, and, in this
free country, founded upon immigration, and grown
powerful and prosperous by toleration. It is a
system of proscription which would exclude the
first general who fell at the head of an organized
American army . . . from all political confidence,
because he happened to be born on the wrong side
of the Atlantic, and would exclude, also, the last
surviving signer of the Declaration of Indepen
dence from any similar token of regard because
he was a Catholic, were those eminent leaders in
our revolutionary cause now living to witness this
appeal to local and sectarian prejudices."1 This
spirit of fanaticism and intolerance Cass unfortu
nately considered a part and parcel of that North
ern enthusiasm which had begotten the Republi
can party. He did not see that nativism was
merely histrionic. Hamlet called to duty, feigns
a silly madness, goes about unkempt, wreaks in
sudden wrath unpremeditated vengeance on poor
old Polonius, arranges a pretty mimicry of the
murder in the garden, all to tickle his imagina
tion, consume time, and delay action.

Resolutions from the legislature of Michigan
were presented in the Senate, February 5, 1855,
by Mr. Stuart, the colleague of General Cass, in
structing these two gentlemen, and requesting the
representatives, to vote for an act prohibiting slav-
1 Cong. Globe, vol. xxx. p. 556.

THE NORTHWEST FORMS A NEW PARTY 313

ery in the territories, and for the repeal of the
Fugitive Slave Law. Cass replied at length, re
fusing to obey the dictates of a party which had
suddenly and, as he believed, temporarily become
possessed of the government of the State. When
instructed before, he had acknowledged that such
instructions were valid "under proper circum
stances," but asserted that there were "limitations
upon this exercise." He now thought these limi
tations in force. He was fully persuaded that the
adoption of the measure proposed "would be the
signal for the breaking up of the government and
the dissolution of the Confederacy." Mr. Stuart
followed the example of his senior colleague.

The South was alert in many directions during
these years. Its appetite, only whetted by the
acquisition of Texas and the West, those pleasing
results of Southern "filibustering," craved more
for slavery. Cuba, almost touching Florida, was
provokingly near, and the South was tantalized
by the propinquity. Not to speak of attempts at
robbery, more than one attempt had been made in
previous years to secure the island honorably. In
1852 England and France suggested to the United
States that the three countries pledge themselves
not to make any effort to acquire Cuba. Our
country refused. In August, 1854, James Buch
anan, J. Y. Mason, and Pierre Soule, ministers
to England, France, and Spain, were instructed
to meet and to adopt measures for perfect concert
of action directed to the end of obtaining Cuba

314 LEWIS CASS

from Spain. From Aix la Chapelle, in October,
they issued what is known as the Ostend Mani
festo. After outlining how profitable and honor
able a sale of the "fair isle" would prove for
Spain, this notorious document pointed to the
needs of the United States in the premises, and
contemplated the possible necessity of "wresting"
the treasure from its owner. It was said that we
should be "recreant to our duty and unworthy of
our gallant forefathers, and commit base treason
against our posterity, should we permit Cuba to
be Africanized and become a second St. Domingo
with all its attendant horrors to the white race,
and suffer the flames to extend to our own neigh
boring shores, seriously to endanger, or actually
to consume, the fair fabric of our Union." This
shameful proclamation, characterized by the Re
publican platform of 1856 as "the highwaymen's
plea, that might makes right," was at first scarcely
credited in its enormity at home or abroad. It
was not, however, discountenanced by the Pierce
administration. The free American Republic held
itself out to the world as the armed champion of
slavery, and acknowledged its brutal indifference
in the face of Christendom. The countries of
Europe, too apt to hide larceny under the cloak
of diplomacy, looked upon our avowed greed with
a sense of awe, surprise, and shame at the inartis
tic nudity of our propositions, not covered even
by respectable and cunning verbiage.

Such schemes attracted the attention of Cass.

THE NORTHWEST FORMS A NEW TARTY 315

He had a never-failing ambition for his country
and a never-ceasing suspicion of England. In
February, 1854, he called the attention of the
Senate to a speech delivered by Lord Clarendon,
in which it was announced that on questions of
policy the French and English nations were in
entire accord in every part of the world. Cass
then declared that this meant opposition to our ac
quisition of Cuba; and, though Lord Clarendon
afterward, in referring to this statement, dis
claimed all such agreements or intentions, and
was said to be "the most astonished man in Eu
rope at General Cass's construction of his speech,"
yet circumstantial evidence strongly contradicts
his denial. Alluding again in February, 1855, to
the general subject of our foreign relations, after
the issue of the Ostend Manifesto, Cass in a mas
terly speech resented the interference of foreign
countries. Yet the stealing of Cuba he heartily
condemned: l'Such a case of rapacity will, I trust,
never stain our annals." While condemning all
allusions to "filibustering, and the bullying spirit
of Democracy," and while irritated by the paternal
tone of European nations, he did not forget common
decency or advocate robbery in behalf of slavery.

This buccaneering spirit, grown so great by
feeding on the coarse meat of slavery, manifested
itself in many ways. An attempt was made to
conquer and colonize Nicaragua and to give it up
to the unique civilization of the South. The De
mocratic convention which nominated Buchanan

31G LEWIS CASS

actually proclaimed that the people of the United
States could but "sympathize with the efforts
which are being made by the people of Central
America to regenerate that portion of the continent
which covers the passage across the inter-oceanic
isthmus." A belief in the "positive goodness" of
slavery had made the South mad. This "regener
ating " process was unsuccessful. Moreover, those
who had longed for more territory in the West
now asked for more slaves to fill it. "We are
losing Kansas," said the "Charleston Standard,"
in 1856, "because we are lacking in population."
The only remedy seemed a reopening of the traffic
which had been piracy for thirty years and more.

The attitude of Cass on the questions of inter
national concern from 1850 to 1856 was not far
from right. He made a number of very able
speeches, all showing his old-time jealousy of in
terference by foreign powers. The Clay ton -Bul-
wer treaty he had accepted with the hope that it
would settle some of our difficulties regarding
Central America. But when England, desiring
a substantial footing in that reentrant angle of our
continent, began to quibble and demur, he ex
pressed his usual antipathy to what he considered
her ambitious duplicity. The last speeches of his
active life in the Senate exhibit little decline in
vigor of thought and feeling.

In the meantime the contest for the possession
of Kansas was waging. Such scenes a modern
American would wish to pass by with averted

THE NORTHWEST FORMS A NEW PARTY 317

eyes. Missouri poured armed ruffians over the
border to hold the Territory for slavery, and for
some time this element seemed to have its own
way. A pro-slavery territorial government was
established early in 1855 by wholesale fraud and
intimidation. A series of acts were passed which
savored of the blackest of the early laws of South
Carolina. Governor Keeder vetoed such bills, but
they were passed without hesitation over his veto.
At the petition of the pro-slavery men he was re
moved, and Wilson Shannon of Ohio was named
in his stead. At the outset this man apparently
showed a zeal for ruffianism and barbarity, and
in the end was incompetent. The Free-State men,
in October, 1855, formed a constitution and, after
the adoption of it by the people, they applied for
admittance into the Union. In March, 1856, the
House sent a committee, composed of William A.
Howard of Michigan, John Sherman of Ohio, and
Mordecai Oliver of Missouri, to examine the pro
ceedings in Kansas. The first two members de
clared in their report that elections were carried
by fraud and violence, and that this constitution
framed by the convention embodied the will of a
majority of the people. A bill to admit Kansas
under this free constitution, at first defeated in
the House, was afterwards passed by a majority
of two. The Senate, however, preferred to pass
an act for authorizing the formation of a constitu
tion under which the Territory could be admit
ted. Cass was selected to propose the memorial

318 LEWIS CASS

of the Topeka legislature asking for the admit
tance of the State. Yet he was opposed to the
recognition of an instrument agreed upon by "one
portion " of the people. He was in favor of allow
ing the citizens of the Territory to vote fairly upon
the question; but he did not approve of admitting
the State under the Topeka Free State Constitu
tion above referred to, asserting that such a course
would simply perpetuate ill feeling and division.
On May 12 and 13, 1856, he spoke at length on
this topic, severely arraigning Seward and others
who tried to heap upon the administration the
opprobrium of the anarchy of Kansas.

Sumiier followed Cass on the 19th and 20th.
This famous speech reached the highest point in
the denunciation of slavery and its devotees. The
Northern men with Southern principles were de
nounced as bitterly as the Southern men with no
principles. Senator Butler of South Carolina was
depicted as the Don Quixote of slavery, accom
panied by Douglas as its very Sancho Panza. There
was no cowardly mincing of terms, but the crime
against Kansas was presented with all the burning
eloquence of this classicist among American ora
tors. Because of his tendency to load his speech
with overwrought and hyper - cunning phrases,
and to burden it with historic allusions and Latin
quotations, highly dramatic passages sometimes
fell flat before an unappreciative audience. But
now he was so much in earnest, so bitter in his
intensity, that the galleries and the Senate listened

THE NORTHWEST FORMS A NEW PARTY 319

with breathless attention to his daring, scathing
attack, and watched him in bewilderment as he
tore garment and veil from the foul creature he de
tested. He ended with an appeal for the purity of
the ballot and protection against violence, that free
labor might not be blasted by unwelcome associa
tion with slave labor. "In dutiful respect for the
early Fathers, whose aspirations are now ignobly
thwarted; in the name of the Constitution which
has been outraged, of the laws trampled down —
of justice banished — of humanity degraded — of
peace destroyed — of freedom crushed to earth; and
in the name of the Heavenly Father, whose service
is perfect freedom, I make this last appeal."

When Stunner sat down Cass rose. He had
listened, he said, with equal regret and surprise to
this speech, " the most un-American and unpatriotic
that ever grated on the ears of the members of this
high body." Douglas followed with a highly per
sonal and offensive speech, ranting like a common
scold, and storming about with wild and uncouth
gesticulations. Simmer's reply to these respond
ents so amply discloses his estimate of the charac
ter of each that it merits passing attention. The
following reference to Cass shows the respect of
this ardent anti-slavery man, and goes far to dis
prove the groundless attacks upon Cass's conduct
and character which became so common at the
North in the heat of the slavery discussion : " The
senator from Michigan knows full well that nothing
can fall from me which can have anything but

320 LEWIS CASS

kindness for him. He has said on the floor to
day that he listened to my speech with regret. I
have never avowed on this floor how often, with
my heart brimming full of friendship for him, I
have listened with regret to what has fallen from
his lips." Douglas was treated to a castigation,
which must have made the "Little Giant" squirm,
bold as he was. "No person with the upright
form of a man can be allowed, without violation
of all decency, to switch out from his tongue the
perpetual stench of offensive personality." These
parallel passages illustrate the kindness felt for
the sincere, earnest, scholarly, mistaken advocate
of "squatter sovereignty," and the dislike for the
younger advocate of the same false doctrine.

This speech, too caustic and trenchant to be re
ceived with calmness by Southern members, was
ground for personal assault. Preston S. Brooks,
a member of the House from South Carolina, took
it upon himself to avenge the honor of the South
and his State. A day or two after the speech was
delivered, he entered the senate chamber, and find
ing Mr. Sumner at his desk he brutally attacked
him, striking him over the head with a heavy
walking cane, and leaving him bruised and insen
sible on the floor. It was years before Sumner
recovered his health and strength sufficiently to
continue his duties, and he was never again the
same man; his physical vigor was permanently
impaired. His empty chair long stood as a mute
appeal to the thoughtful lovers of justice.

THE NORTHWEST FORMS A NEW PARTY 321

Cass was elected by the Senate a member of a
committee to investigate the circumstances of the
assault. It is to be regretted that he did not find
words to denounce such a shameful attack upon
free speech. The Senate committee reported lack
of jurisdiction, and the House of Representatives
was unable to secure the necessary two thirds for
the expulsion of Brooks. Because of the implied
censure in the resolutions, however, he resigned,
and asserted that the House had no jurisdiction
over him. He was quickly reflected by his dis
trict, where he was received with enthusiasm and
affection. "Hit him again," were the words of
admonition from his constituents, and the Southern
papers applauded his "elegant arid effectual " blows.
This assault, as much as any other one thing,
opened the eyes of the North to the brutality, the
roughness, and the hopeless vulgarity of the "di
vine institution." "There is no denying the hu
miliating fact," said the "Springfield Republican,"
"that this country is under the reign of ruffian
ism. The remedy for ruffianism is in a united
North." The disease begat the remedy.

The campaign of 1856 followed close upon these
exciting events. The Democratic National Con
vention met in Cincinnati in June. Buchanan
had the lead from the start, and was nominated.
In answer to a letter signed by Andrew F. Web
ster and others in November of 1855, Cass said
that he did not desire to have his name used in
the convention ; but some of the delegates insisted

322 LEWIS CASS

on voting for him. He received only five votes
on the first ballot, and at no time showed great
strength, though retaining a few faithful adherents
to the end. John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky
was nominated as vice-president. The convention
adopted a platform on the old lines, repudiating
"all sectional parties . . . whose avowed pur
pose, if consummated, must end in civil war and
disunion." " Non-interference " was once more
proclaimed the sovereign remedy. The American
party put Fillmore in nomination, and he attracted
the few Whigs who still answered to the name.
The Republicans, holding their first national con
vention at Philadelphia, selected as their candi
dates John C. Fremont of California and William
L. Dayton of New Jerse}7. The platform was
definite and decided. It recounted the crimes
against Kansas, and advocated its immediate ad
mission as a State under a free constitution ; it
denied "the authority of Congress, of a territorial
legislature, of any individual or association of in
dividuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any
Territory of the United States," and proclaimed
its belief that Congress had "sovereign power over
the Territories of the United States." The issue
between the two great parties was sharply drawn.
One announced that Congress had authority over
the Territories, and was in duty bound to exercise
it for the prevention of slavery. The other ad
vocated the uniform application of the "demo
cratic principle " of non-interference in "the organ-

THE NORTHWEST FORMS A NEW PARTY 323

ization of the Territories and the admission of new
States."

The campaign was one of the most serious, ear
nest, and enthusiastic in our history. Fremont,
because of his romantic career and personal charms,
was easily converted into an ideal champion,
strongly appealing to the imagination and the
affection of the vigorous young party of freedom.
Everywhere in the North went up the rallying cry,
"Free soil, free speech, free men, and Fremont."
The times were not yet ripe for complete success.
The Democratic party gained the day, carrying
every Southern State save Maryland, which gave
itself up to Know-Nothingism. But such a vic
tory was the victory of Pyrrhus. The Republi
cans cast more votes in the free States than did
the Democrats. In the East only Pennsylvania
and New Jersey, in the West only Illinois, In
diana, and California cast their electoral votes for
the Democratic candidate. In the first of these
alone, Buchanan's own State, did the Democrats
outnumber the Republicans and Know-Nothings
combined. The "sectional party " exhibited a
wonderful vigor. The threat was often heard in
the campaign that its success meant the separation
of the Union. From the time of this election that
was a standing menace.

It was a source of regret to Cass that a party
with a "sectional" aim should find support in the
country. For above all else he loved the Union,
and he hoped against hope that harmony would

324 LEWIS CASS

be restored by the old sedatives with which he was
familiar. Michigan, so long faithful to him, now
gave Fremont a popular plurality of nearly twenty
thousand, and elected a legislature with an over
whelming Republican majority. January 10,
1857, Zachariah Chandler was elected to succeed
the great advocate of popular sovereignty, whose
doctrine his own State now so vehemently con
demned. Of 106 votes cast by both Houses of
the legislature, Cass received only 16. His defeat
was a great triumph for the Republicans of the
nation. Though they had failed to elect their
"Pathfinder" president, they felt as if the signal
rebuke administered by Michigan was equivalent
to a victory.

Meanwhile matters were in a woeful condition
in stricken Kansas. Governor Shannon had re
signed in despair, feeling, as he afterwards ex
pressed it, as if one might as well attempt "to
govern the Devil in hell " as to govern Kansas.
John W. Geary of Pennsylvania succeeded to the
trust. The Territory was literally in a state of
war. While the marching and counter-marching
of election parades were exciting the enthusiasm
of the people of the States, men in the harassed
Territory carried the rifle instead of the campaign
torch, and filled their pouches with powder and
shot as the most eloquent campaign arguments.
Before the opening of the new year the fighting
seemed to have ceased, though each party held its
breath expectantly. The Free State government

THE NORTHWEST FORMS A NEW PARTY 325

still claimed legal and effective existence, while
the territorial legislature, described as a "vulgar,
illiterate, hiccoughing rout," plotted and planned
for slavery. Governor Geary, suspecting the sin
cerity of the administration, and perceiving that
the election of Buchanan meant a victory for pro-
slavery partisanship in Kansas, resigned March
4, 1857. The history of the remaining months of
the year is quickly told. Robert J. Walker of
Mississippi, appointed to succeed Governor Geary,
prevailed upon the Free State men to cease dally
ing longer with their mythical state constitution,
and to join in the territorial elections of the au
tumn. As a consequence, these resulted in the
choice of a Free State legislature. In the mean
time, however, a convention summoned by the old
pro-slavery legislature had met at Lecompton and
adopted a constitution recognizing slavery. It was
submitted to the people; but instead of being
allowed to cast a ballot either for or against the
constitution, they were compelled to choose between
adopting it "with slavery" or "without slavery."
The Free State men refused to vote, and it conse
quently received a great majority of the ballots
cast. The Lecompton constitution, thus adopted
by the pro-slavery voters of the Territory, was ac
cepted by the President, and the next year it was
actually recognized by the Senate, although mean
while, on a fair ballot, it had been emphatically
rejected by the people. By the early part of 1858
the pro-slavery party was so hopelessly in the

326 LEWIS CASS

minority that the only question was whether Kan
sas should be admitted as a free State or barred
out entirely. In fact, not until the withdrawal of
the Southern senators, after the election of Lin
coln, did the Senate consent to its admission with
a constitution forbidding slavery.

The Kansas trouble is a long and bloody disser
tation on the theme of popular sovereignty. The
immigrants from the free States had won the day
against slavery. Kansas was saved, not by the
Kepublican party, nor by the abolitionists, who
talked and agitated, but by the men who went to
the spot to express their "sovereignty" and to
fight for freedom. It must be confessed that, as
far as saving the Territories from becoming slave
States is concerned, popular sovereignty had not
been unsuccessful. But no one cared to see again
the disgraceful scramble and the rough-and-tumble
contest for vantage ground. By the beginning of
Buchanan's administration many Democrats began
to deny that the people of a Territory had a right
to regulate the subject of slavery, save by deter
mining, at the moment of their entering the Union,
whether they should come in as a free or a slave
State. To the people of the South popular sover
eignty had become so objectionable, because of its
failure for their purposes, that it was openly
spurned, and recourse was had to the solid ground
of Calhoun's dogmas: that slaves were property,
and that the United States government was in
duty bound to protect such property everywhere.

THE NORTHWEST FORMS A NEW PARTY 327

Opposed to this was the assertion of the Republi
cans: that slaves were not property save by the
"municipal" law of certain States; that Congress
could not and must not, by act or omission to act,
allow the Territories of the Union to be sullied by
the foot of a slave.

Buchanan, in his inaugural, while reaffirming
the right of the people of a Territory to decide for
themselves what their constitution should be, took
all the pith and marrow from the doctrine of popu
lar sovereignty by doubting their right to such a
determination, except at the time of their forming
a state constitution. He humbly referred the mat
ter, however, to the Supreme Court, of whose
coming decision he seems to have had knowledge.

The Dred Scott decision, March, 1857, did not
help matters. The solemn statement, coming from
a portion of a divided court, of the great historical
falsehood that negroes were not and could not
become citizens; the promulgation of an obiter
dictum calculated to have effect in the domain of
politics; the assertion that the Missouri compro
mise was beyond the competence of Congress, that
slaves were property when taken into the Territo
ries, and that all "needful rules and regulations"
of Congress must respect the private property of
the slave-owner, — all this simply awakened the
Republican party to greater effort. Wrong now
came clothed in the ermine of justice. Effort
must not cease until the disgraceful decision was
blotted from the records of the court.

CHAPTER XI

SECRETARY OF STATE. — SECESSION. — THE LAST
YEARS

FOR the sake of as much perspicuity as limited
space would allow, the history of "bleeding Kan
sas " under border ruffians has been thus briefly
outlined, and the contest of arguments until the
secession of the Southern States has been suggested
in advance. It will now be necessary to turn from
internal politics and the hurly-burly of the ap
proaching " irrepressible conflict," and to look into
the quieter paths of administration and diplomacy.
Cass's more active career ended with the 4th of
March, 1857. He remained a political mentor to
many in his party and took a sad interest in the
never-abating struggle; but he was old, the excite
ment of continual controversy was distasteful, and
his new position fortunately gave him employment
for which his experience and talents well fitted him.
He accepted the office of secretary of state from
President Buchanan, and entered upon his duties
at once. His companions in the cabinet were
Howell Cobb of Georgia, secretary of the treasury ;
John B. Floyd of Virginia, secretary of war ; Isaac
Toucey of Connecticut, secretary of the navy;

SECRETARY OF STATE 329

Aaron V. Brown of Tennessee, postmaster-gen
eral; Jacob Thompson of Mississippi, secretary
of the interior; and Jeremiah S. Black of Penn
sylvania, attorney-general. This cabinet was an
able one, but its four Southern members well indi
cated that the body of the Democratic party was
in the South, and that an administration had be
gun which would treat slavery with tenderness and
handle secession with gloves.

A number of interesting diplomatic problems
were offered for solution during the years of Cass's
secretaryship. The Clayton-Bui wer treaty pre
sented the usual amount of uncertainty and em
barrassment, and an even more serious cause of
disagreement with Great Britain came up for con
sideration. By a strange irony of fortune the
most important correspondence conducted by the
foreign office during Buchanan's administration
had to do with the right of search and with the
irritating claims put forth by Great Britain of a
right to examine our vessels to determine whether
they were slavers. In the celebrated controversy
between Mr. Webster and Mr. Cass in 1842-43,
the latter had contended that our government
should have stipulated or at least vigorously as
serted that such aggressions were illegal and must
be stopped. In the letters with which he so ut
terly " demolished" the petulant ex-minister, Mr.
Webster declared that such a stipulation was need
less. Now the question arose anew under more
unfortunate circumstances.

330 LEWIS CASS

It could not be denied that during the years of
Buchanan's administration the South was hungry
for more slaves. Its woeful defeat in the Territo
ries, and its continual failure to hold its own in
wealth and population in comparison with the
North, directed its eyes to the only means of com
petition, the increase of the dead weight of the
laboring population. In many portions of the
South the reopening of the slave trade was pub
licly advocated. Governor Adams of South Caro
lina, in 1857, denounced the laws which forbade
the traffic. During the succeeding year the same
yearnings were exhibited by remarks in conven
tions and by paragraphs in the Southern papers.
The genial soil of Florida received many new car
goes of inhabitants, and the vessels of the com
mercial North lent their aid to the infamous trade.
But English cruisers, altogether too zealous in
hatred of the nefarious commerce, appeared off
the coast of Cuba and in the Gulf of Mexico with
orders to search merchantmen suspected of carry
ing slaves. However laudable the object, its ex
ecution was exasperating as well as absolutely un
justifiable. In the spring of 1858 the Gulf of
Mexico and neighboring waters frequented by
American merchantmen were patroled by a police
force of British cruisers in a manner calculated to
incense all sections of the country and the mem
bers of all political parties. American vessels
were searched, or "visited," as the English would
Bay in more polite parlance, with an insolence

SECRETARY OF STATE 331

which awakened the animosity of the very haters
of slavery.

In April, 1858, in response to a call from the
Senate for information concerning the slave trade,
the secretaries of state and of the navy furnished
dispatches and correspondence. Although our gov
ernment professed becoming zeal in the matter, it
was evident that the efforts of the British and the
American cruisers on the coast of Africa were not
efficacious. The slave trade was flourishing. In
May the President responded to another call from
the Senate for information about search or seizure
in the Gulf of Mexico. The correspondence sent
in by Secretary Cass showed atrocious interfer
ence with our commerce by English cruisers ; some
of our vessels were fired upon, and a number
searched after the insulting fashion which marked
so much of our treatment from England before
1861. Warlike speeches followed in Congress.
At the suggestion of Cass, war vessels were sent
into Southern waters, while he prepared to contest
the case with the English government in diplo
matic dispatches.

He entered gladly into the controversy, for the
circumstances seemed powerfully to vindicate his
arguments in his correspondence with Webster.
On April 10 he wrote to Lord Napier an able let
ter. He denied that there was any fundamental
difference between "visit" and "search." The
right to examine and pass upon a vessel's national
character and identity he denied. "To permit

332 LEWIS CASS

a foreign officer to board the vessel of another
power, to assume command in her, to call for and
examine her papers, to pass judgment upon her
character, to decide the broad inquiry, whether
she is navigated according to law, and to send her
in at pleasure for trial, cannot be submitted to by
any independent nation without dishonor."1 He
announced the principle, which makes perfectly
clear and reasonable the distinction for which he
had always contended between searching a real
and a spurious American vessel. It had been
argued that if American vessels could not be vis
ited and investigated, any foreign ship, even one
belonging to a nation which had a treaty with
England allowing search for the prevention of the
slave trade, might carry on such trade with impu
nity by merely hoisting the American flag. In
the following words the secretary cleared the sub
ject of its fog : " A merchant vessel upon the high
seas is protected by her national character. He
who forcibly enters her does so upon his own re
sponsibility. Undoubtedly, if a vessel assume a
national character to which she is not entitled,
and is sailing under false colors, she cannot be
protected by the assumption of a nationality to
which she has no claim. As the identity of a
person must be determined by the officer bearing
a process for his arrest, and determined at the
risk of such officer, so must the national identity
of a vessel be determined, at the like hazard to

1 Senate Documents, vol. xii., 1857-58.

SECRETARY OF STATE 333

him, who, doubting the flag she displays, searches
her to ascertain her true character. There no
doubt may be circumstances which may go far to
modify the complaints a nation would have a right
to make for such a violation of its sovereignty.
If the boarding officer had just grounds for suspi
cion, and deported himself with propriety in the
performance of his task, doing no injury, and
peaceably retiring when satisfied of his error, no
nation would make such an act the subject of
serious reclamation." This was much the same
as the logic of his pamphlet issued in 1842, and
which had been so unjustly condemned as "incon
clusive." In fact it was sound, conclusive, and
unanswerable. From the early years of his gov
ernorship Cass had pondered this subject, and he
was now prepared to write the exhaustive dispatch
which contained the thought of years in its irrefu
table arguments. His quotations from English
authorities were so appropriate and his reasoning
so true that the English government had perforce
to abandon a claim which had been a source of
vexation and annoyance since the definitive treaty
of 1783. Various communications passed between
the two countries after the writing of this impor
tant dispatch of April 10. Cass insisted that
search and visitation must cease. On June 8,
1858, G. M. Dallas, our minister to the court of
St. James, wrote to our foreign office the summary
of one of the most important interviews in the
diplomatic history of the United States.

334 LEWIS CASS

Beginning his letter somewhat disconsolately,
Mr. Dallas continued: "I had written thus far
when I was obliged to hurry off and keep an en
gagement to meet Lord Malmesbury at his resi
dence in Whitehall Gardens at twelve o'clock,
and I returned after an hour's interview with a
result little expected when I went.

" Something within the last twelve hours had
shifted his lordship's mind to an opposite point
of the compass. He talked a great deal and I
listened. He was anxious to fix as precisely as
possible what the American government wanted
on the right of search, and I said, in as gentle
a manner as could be distinct : 4 Discontinuance,
nothing more, nothing less; that, at all events,
was my present aim. General Cass had the broad
subject between himself and Lord Napier, and I
was not authorized to meddle with that.' He re
curred to your admirable letter of the 10th of
April last, lying before him, and read a number
of passages. He expressed his entire assent with
your position on international laws on the illegal
ity of visit or search except by conventional agree
ment, and seemed full of admiration for its ability.
. . . In fine, we came to an understanding."1
A minute of the conference, written by Lord
Malmesbury himself, gave proof of the withdrawal
of Great Britain from the position she had held
so long and so provokingly. "Her Majesty's gov
ernment recognizes the principle of international
1 Senate Docs. 2d Sess. 35th Cong., vol. i. p. 34.

SECRETARY OF STATE 335

law as laid down by General Cass in his note of
the 10th of April."1 In his annual message of
December 6, 1858, President Buchanan said: "I
am gratified to inform you that the long-pending
controversy between the two governments, in rela
tion to the question of visitation and search, has
been amicably adjusted.'!2 During the succeeding
year, correspondence was conducted between Sec
retary Cass and the English and French govern
ments, which resulted in the agreement upon cer
tain rules and instructions to seamen, concerning
the right of visitation. Singular enough does it
seem to see the government of Great Britain ex
plicitly telling her naval officers that "no mer
chant vessel navigating the high seas is subject to
any foreign jurisdiction. A vessel of war cannot,
therefore, visit, detain, or seize (except under the
treaty) any merchant vessel not recognized as be
longing to her own nation."3 The commanders
of her ships of war were instructed to treat vessels
bearing a foreign flag with the utmost deference ;
only under cases of the strongest suspicion might
they stop a ship and examine her papers for the
purpose of ascertaining her real character, and
then for such conduct an officer must consider
himself as possibly responsible for damages, inas
much as any unjustifiable inquiry would be basis

1 Senate Docs. 2d Sess. 35th Cong., vol. i. p. 35. See also, pp.
36-30, ibid.

2 Ibid., p. 12.

3 Senate Docs. 1st Sess. 30th Cong. , p. 78. The italics are my

33G LEWIS CASS

for a claim for indemnity.1 Our government sent
substantially similar instructions to the command
ers of our African fleet. Because of other excit
ing topics, the greatness of this diplomatic victory
attracted comparatively little attention. Yet it
was one of the most just and most brilliant tri
umphs of which to this day our diplomacy can
boast. The withdrawal of England's claims to
extra-territorial jurisdiction has never been asso
ciated as it should be with the name and fame of
Cass, who pushed his argument so strongly and
clinched it so effectively. Unfortunately for him
his distinguished success in this business was
thrown into obscurity by the lowering clouds of
secession and rebellion, portentous of the awful
catastrophe of 1861.

Serious difficulties with Mexico during Presi
dent Buchanan's administration also called forth
many dispatches from our foreign office, which
are full of dignified American feeling and replete
with pithy maxims of sound international law.
The governments of Mexico were at this time turn
ing on their axes in a series of well-executed revo
lutions, performed with such rapidity that our
government scarcely knew in whom to recognize
the legitimate authority. General Cass's message
to Mr. McLane, minister resident to that country,
contains an application of the Monroe doctrine
very succinctly worded : " While we do not deny
the right of any other power to carry on hostile

1 Senate Docs. 1st Sess. Sfith Cong-., p. 78.

SECRETARY OF STATE 337

operations against Mexico, for the redress of its
grievances, we firmly object to its holding posses
sion of any part of that country, or endeavoring
by force to control its political destiny." Had
it been possible for our government to adhere to
this policy, the interference of the French and
the unhappy fate of Maximilian might have been
averted.

The best known and not the least important of
Cass's dispatches and instructions is one sent by
him to our various representatives in Europe,
June 27, 1859, on the outbreak of the Italian war.
It outlined the neutral character and policy of the
United States, and denned our position on the
subject of commercial blockades in such judicious
terms that his words have since been frequently
quoted by writers on the law of nations. But
general rules in such a matter are dangerous.
Only two years before the Rebellion, when our
government established the most extensive com
mercial blockade ever made effective and legiti
mate in the history of the world, and that too
under circumstances which go far to shake any
a priori arguments concerning the right of such
action, our secretary of state entered into a long
and learned disquisition, asserting the injustice of
any but very limited, definite, and effectual re
strictions upon commercial intercourse. This same
dispatch contained a summary of the attitude of
the United States toward the treaty of Paris and
the rights of neutrals.

338 LEWIS CASS

While engaged in the congenial work of diplo
macy Cass could not lose sight of the disturbed
condition of the country in internal politics. The
growth of the Republican party, protesting against
the Dred Scott case and the injustice to Kansas,
seemed so perilous to the South during the later
years of Buchanan's administration, that threats of
secession in case of its final success were made with
frankness. Cass, more than many of the promi
nent men of the time, saw and felt the impending
danger. The violence of political feeling, the viru
lence of party action, the antipathy to slavery, and
the hatred of Southern bravado, which no State
exhibited better than his own, affected the old
statesman with misgivings, and filled the last days
of his active life with acute grief and foreboding.

Singularly simple in its real meaning, the cam
paign of 1860 seems, at first sight, unusually in
tricate and complex. The Democratic party was
split into two factions. The first was composed
of those who were unwilling to give themselves
up entirely to Southern dictation, or to turn their
backs on the doctrine of "squatter sovereignty,"
which had carried them through the last two elec
tions ; they clung to old principles, though profess
ing a willingness to abide by the decisions of the
Supreme Court. They nominated Stephen A.
Douglas for president and Ilerschel V. Johnson
of Georgia for vice-president. The Southern wing
of the Democracy, with those Northern men who
were willing to accept the Dred Scott case and to

SECRETARY OF STATE 339

see in it a final decision establishing the legality
of slavery in the Territories, nominated John C.
Breckinridge of Kentucky and Joseph Lane of
Oregon. A third ticket was presented by a party
styling itself the Constitutional Union party, a
mere reminiscence of the days when words were
called upon to fill political chasms and to conceal
facts. The nominees of this party were John Bell
of Tennessee and Edward Everett of Massachu
setts. It stood for union under the laws and the
Constitution, which could mean nothing when the
question was, "What are the laws and the Consti
tution?" The Republican party, meeting in con
vention at Chicago, nominated Abraham Lincoln
of Illinois and Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. Theirs
was a Northern platform, denouncing the spread
of slavery and denying the power of Congress or
of any territorial legislature to legalize slavery in
the Territories. The popular tactics of the man
agers of the party, and their shrewdness in appeal
ing to the enthusiasm as well as the moral motives
of the people, insured success against the quarrel
ing factions of the enemy. The old Northwest
was faithful to its party and its principle, even
Illinois giving Lincoln a clear majority over all of.
nearly 5000, while Michigan gave over 20,000,
and Ohio a plurality of nearly 45,000. The North
was solid, with the exception of New Jersey, which
was divided. Lincoln was elected by a popular
plurality of 491,654, and by a decided electoral
majority.

340 LEWIS CASS

The Republican victory furnished excuse for
putting into active operation the plots for seces
sion which had been long contemplated by the
advanced conspirators of the South. On Novem
ber 10 a bill to raise and equip 10,000 volunteers
was introduced into the legislature of South Caro
lina, and her senators resigned their seats in Con
gress. The Gulf States fell into line with some
hesitation, while the border States held back, de
ploring the hasty action of the more slave-cursed
States of the South. The cabinet, of which Gen
eral Cass was a member, was the centre if not the
source of the conspiracy. From it flowed sugges
tion and inspiration for the active agitators in the
South ; into it percolated all the sly schemes and
wily devices of the crafty leaders of the Rebellion.
Floyd, the secretary of war, Thompson, the secre
tary of the interior, Cobb, the secretary of the
treasury, were engaged in correspondence with
the enemies of the Union, furnishing them with
munitions of war, treasonably using their author
ity and the resources of the nation, rilling the
vacillating mind of the wavering President with
gloomy fears and excuses for delay. Buchanan,
lacking the courage to follow out any distinct line
of policy, contented himself with argument and
appeal. The assistant secretary of state was an
active conspirator for secession, even before the
election.

Cass himself held a fair and consistent position.
Lamenting the threatened disruption of the Union,

SECRETARY OF STATE 341

he was not ready to yield every point for the sake
of avoiding trouble. "At a cabinet meeting, held
November 9, General Cass spoke with much ear
nestness and feeling about the impending crisis,
admitted fully all the great wrongs and outrages
which had been committed against the South by
Northern fanaticism, and deplored it. But he was
emphatic in his condemnation of the doctrine of
secession by any State from the Union. He
doubted the efficacy of the appeal for a convention,
but seemed to think it might be well enough to try
it. He spoke warmly in favor of using force to
coerce a State that attempted to secede." This is
the testimony of Secretary Floyd himself. Though
it is doubtful if Cass ever emphatically acknow
ledged the right to coerce a State as such, his
opinions were substantially those here attributed
to him. He was decidedly for the Union. The
conspiracy widened and deepened. The secretary
of war, openly disowning secession, covertly gave
secret information to the foes of the government,
who knew before it was transmitted to Congress
what would be the position of the President in his
message to Congress in December.

General Cass seems, at least at first, to have
acquiesced in the general tenor of the President's
message, so far as the theoretical relation between
the national government and the States was con
cerned. Secretary Floyd tells us that when portions
of it were first read to the cabinet for approval
Cass heartily commended it ; for it then inculcated,

342 LEWIS CASS

it seems, submission to Lincoln's election, and
perhaps even intimated the use of force to compel
such submission. The document, when finished,
presented a combination of power and weakness
in the central government which were conditions
of complete inertia. After charging the present
unpleasantness upon the sectional antipathy of the
North, the message gave a detailed argument on
the subject of secession and the powers of the na
tional government — secession is illegal, the union
is by nature indissoluble, but there is no power in
Congress or in any branch of the federal govern
ment to compel a State to remain in the Union ;
it is the duty of the President to enforce the laws ;
but, if it is impracticable to do so by the ordinary
methods, as at present in South Carolina, Con
gress should determine whether or not existing
laws should be amended to carry out effectually
the objects of the Constitution; amendments to
the Constitution are advisable. The last proposi
tion was absurd. The amendments suggested would
have granted all the South had contended for, and
would have nullified the voice of the people as
expressed in the last election.

The subtle principles of law propounded by the
President were too finely spun to be readily ac
cepted by the practical people of the North. That
immaterial entity, the State, may be incapable
of coercion, may not be within reach of the iron
hand of the law; the federal government under
the Constitution may not have been expressly

SECRETARY OF STATE 343

given power to wage war upon a recalcitrant State;
one of the great instruments of that great sover
eignty, the people of the United States, may
refuse to perform its functions; but the federal
authority comes into contact with individuals, and
they can be held to their allegiance; the property
of the federal state can and must be protected,
and its laws must act and its writs must run
within the borders of every State; war upon States
is unnecessary, for an indestructible State, though
refusing to perform its functions, can never cease
to be a member of an indestructible Union. Such
sound, practical sense soon found its place in the
minds of the sobered people of the North, although
not for months were they fully aroused to fight
for its logical conclusions and assert in arms that
the nation was an organic whole. But argument
\vas unnecessary and entirely beside the mark ; it
was the duty of the executive to enforce the laws.
Even Buchanan admitted that the central govern
ment operated directly on persons. There was,
as yet, no practical instance of secession, and if
the President had held firmly in his hands the
reins of government, quickly dismissed the con
spiring secessionists from his cabinet, used his
power as the executive and commander-in-chief to
protect the property and enforce the laws of the
United States, there is good reason to think that
secession would have meant less in our history.

Though apparently agreeing with the argument
of the message, and believing that a State could

344 LEWIS CASS

not be coerced, Cass was not willing to admit that
the federal government was impotent.1 At vari
ous cabinet meetings he insisted that the forts in
Charleston harbor should be reinforced, and that,
in view of the well-known conspiracy to disobey
the laws, steps should be taken to strengthen the
hand of the government in the Southern States.
On December 13 he made a last effort to convince
the President of the necessity of such action, but
he was rebuffed. "These forts," he said, "must
be strengthened. I demand it." "I am sorry to
differ from the secretary of state," the President
replied. "I have made up my mind. The inter
ests of the country do not demand a reinforcement
of the forces in Charleston. I cannot do it, and
I take the responsibility on myself." The next
day2 General Cass handed in his resignation as

1 " Not recognizing any right in a State to secede except as a
revolutionary measure, General Cass would have resisted the
attempt at the commencement, and, as the sworn officer of the
United States, he would have done his utmost to preserve its in
tegrity. ' I speak to Cable,' he would say, ' and he tells me he is
a Georgian ; to Floyd, and he tells me he is a Virginian ; to you,
and you tell me you are a Carolinian. I am not a Michigaiider :
I am a citizen of the United States. The laws of the United
States bind you, as they bind me, individually ; if you, the citi
zens of Georgia, or Virginia, or Carolina, refuse obedience to them,
it is my sworn duty to enforce them.' " Crawford, The Genesis of
the Civil War, p. 23.

2 The resignation was dated December 12, and Buchanan's
reply three days later. A memorandum made by the President
and printed in Curtis's Life of Buchanan is dated December 15,
and refers to the resignations being handed in that evening.
But it is apparent that this memorandum was written some days

SECRETARY OF STATE 345

secretary of state. Mr. Cobb had already re
signed the treasury portfolio because of what he
considered the "paramount" claims of his State.
The resignation of the secretary of state, added
to the prevailing excitement, was almost univer
sally commended by the papers of the North that
were not indissolubly wedded to the inactive policy
of the administration. His house was filled for
the next few days with congratulating friends, and
Zachariah Chandler called to welcome him into
the fold of the Republican party. The old states
man was still consistent, however ; he was a Demo
crat, but a Jackson Democrat.

The letter of resignation is worth reading, inas
much as it gives in short form the position which
Cass held. The important clauses are as follows : —

k* It has been my decided opinion, which for some time
past I have urged at various meetings of the cabinet,
that additional troops should be sent to ree'nforce the
forts in the harbor of Charleston, with a view to their
better defense, should they be attacked, and that an

after the day on which it was dated. Dispatches sent to the
newspapers seem to make it clear that Cass sent in his resignation
on the fourteenth. The following- is from a dispatch to the N.
Y. Advertiser, dated Washington, Dec. 15. " During this morn
ing and yesterday afternoon further developments have been
made respecting the causes of disagreement, between the Presi
dent and the secretary of state, which led to the resignation of
the latter." A similar dispatch to the Herald dated the four
teenth, speaks of the rumor that Cass had resigned and says that
on the afternoon of that day " the report was fully confirmed."
Other like evidence could be cited to support the statement in
the text. The usual statement is that Cass resigned the fifteenth.

aiG LEWIS CASS

armed vessel should likewise be ordered there to aid if
necessary in the defense, and also, should it be required,
in the collection of the revenue, and it is yet my opinion
that these measures should be adopted without the least
delay. I have likewise urged the expediency of immedi
ately removing the custom-house at Charleston to one of
the forts in the port, and of making arrangements for the
collection of the duties there by having a collector and
other officers ready to act when necessary, so that when
the office may become vacant the proper authority may
be there to collect the duties on the part of the United
States.

" I continue to think that these arrangements should
be immediately made. While the right and the responsi
bility of deciding belong to you, it is very desirable that
at this perilous juncture there should be as far as possi
ble unanimity in your councils with a view to safe and
efficient action. I have, therefore, felt it my duty to
tender you my resignation of the office of secretary of
state and to ask your permission to retire from that
official association with yourself and the members of
your cabinet which I have enjoyed during almost four
years without the occurrence of a single incident to
interrupt the personal intercourse which has so happily
existed."

The action of General Cass has been criticised
by Buchanan's apologists who, now that the whole
conspiracy is as clear as noonday, still claim that
it was not the President's duty to act until some
thing was done, and until Congress gave further
power. That the Southern forts were in danger
there could be no doubt; Buchanan's message

SECESSION 347

confessed that South Carolina was on the point of
lawless disregard of the behests of the central
government; conventions to consider secession had
been called throughout the Southern States; the
cabinet itself was jn conspiracy against the govern
ment; the very air was heavy with threats of
secession and violence. Mr. Buchanan's most
learned and famous apologist has sneered at the
prophetic sagacity of Cass. Not clairvoyance or
the spirit of prophecy, but decision, observation,
and common sense were the attributes of one who
saw, not what might be, but what was.

December 20 Washington was electrified by the
announcement that South Carolina had at last
adopted an ordinance of secession. Mr. Benson
J. Lossing, the skillful writer of American his
tory, was at the house of Cass when a bulletin
telling of this action was received. "The vener
able statesman read the few words that announced
the startling fact, and then, throwing up his hands,
while tears started from his eyes, he exclaimed
with uncommon unction : 4 Can it be ! can it be !
Oh,' he said, ' I had hoped to retire from the
public service, and go home to die with the happy
thought, that I should leave to my children, as an
inheritance from patriotic men, a united and pros
perous republic. But it is all over ! This is but
the beginning of the end. The people in the
South are mad ; the people in the North are asleep.
The President is pale with fear, for his official
household is full of traitors, and conspirators con-

348 LEWIS CASS

trol the government. God only knows what is
to be the fate of my poor country ! to Him alone
must we look in this hour of thick darkness.'"1
It will be seen, however, that he advocated that
action be superadded to faith and devotion.

One other topic remains to be considered in
connection with Cass's resignation from the cabi
net. The letter, dated December 12, assigned as
a reason the President's refusal to reinforce the
Charleston forts, and his neglect to prepare for
the collection of duties at that port. President
Buchanan in accepting the resignation, without
deigning to argue the question, stated his belief
that reinforcements at Charleston were unneces
sary, and expressed his regret that anything should
occur to disturb the official relations existing be
tween him and his secretary. From memoranda
printed in the "Life of James Buchanan,"2 it ap
pears that Cass announced his purpose to resign
as early as the llth. Newspapers of the time
make it evident that nearly a week before the
letter was handed in rumors of Cass's resignation
were rife. His withdrawal was received with
marked gratification by many, even of those who
had not become converts to "black Republican
ism." In spite of these facts, Buchanan records
that, on December 17, Black and Thompson both
informed him that Cass desired to withdraw his
resignation. It is always hard to prove a nega-

1 Pictorial History of the Civil War, Lossing, vol. i. p. 141.

2 By George Ticknor Curtis.

SECESSION 349

tive, but direct and circumstantial evidence con
tradicts this statement. In the first place, mem
bers of his family who were with him at the time,
and were well aware of his thoughts and feel
ings, positively deny the truth of such assertions.
This alone might be sufficient. But, moreover,
the resignation, as already suggested, was not
unpremeditated; all the world knew of his em
phatic disapproval of the President's negligence
and timidity, and he found himself lionized and
applauded by nearly all save the avowed secession
ists. Even the "Charleston Mercury" hastened
to add its modicum of praise by styling him a
"hoary trickster and humbug," and comparing
"his present imbecility" with his "past treachery
to the South." "The past secretary will survive,"
remarked the "New York Times," with laconic
sarcasm, as it quoted these expressions of Southern
rage. That under such circumstances he should
contemplate the backward step of seeking rein
statement is simply incredible and ridiculous.

"Oh, for an hour of Andrew Jackson," sighed
the "Springfield Republican." That was what
was wanted. With Jackson in the White House
and Cass as secretary of \var the rebel armies
would not have been equipped with governmental
arms and accoutrements. The fire and vigor of
"Old Hickory" had given to Cass his first great
inspiration in national politics. All he could do
now was to administer a silent rebuke to timidity
where hesitation and cowardice were crimes.

350 LEWIS CASS

"Ain't it too bad/' said a prominent senator,
"that a man has to break his sword twice in a
lifetime, at the beginning and at the end of his
eventful career. At the surrender of Hnll at
Detroit, Cass was so disgusted at the conduct of
his commander, and at not having a fight, that
he broke his sword. Now he breaks it because
his chief won't fight." l

The events rapidly following upon one another
through the dreadful winter of 1860-61 do not
form part of our story. The treachery of the
cabinet, the lethargy of the executive, the confu
sion and dismay, the low-hanging clouds of war
and distress, the frenzy of the insane South and
its boastful preparations for a grand confederacy
on the cornerstone of slavery, left their sorrowful
shadows upon the Union-loving people of the North
and filled with gloomy forebodings the mind of
the old statesman whose life had been given to
his country. When the bombardment of Sumter
thrilled the continent and fired the popular heart,
Cass was ready with his word of encouragement.
At an immense Union meeting in Detroit, April
24, he was made chairman and delivered in a few
words an eloquent address. Cheer followed cheer,
as the old general, with dramatic effect, thanked
God that the American flag still floated over his
home and his friends. "No American can see its
folds spread out to the breeze without feeling a

1 Quoted in Life and Public Services of Andrew Johnson, by
John Savage.

THE LAST YEARS 351

thrill of pride at his heart, and without recalling
the splendid deeds it has witnessed. . . . You
need no one to tell you what are the dangers of
your country, nor what are your duties to meet and
avert them. There is but one path for every true
man to travel, and that is broad and plain. It
will conduct us, not indeed without trials and
sufferings, to peace and to the restoration of the
Union. He who is not for his country is against
her. There is no neutral position to be occupied.
It is the duty of all zealously to support the gov
ernment in its efforts to bring this unhappy civil
war to a speedy and satisfactory conclusion, by
the restoration, in its integrity, of that great char
ter of freedom bequeathed to us, by Washington
and his compatriots." Sorrowing over his coun
try torn by civil war, the old man was not weak
ened by age into imbecile maunderings about
senseless compromise; by word and example he
inspired the patriotic hearts of his fellow citizens.
If he was occasionally downcast, his desire for
union never faltered. Referring at one time to
the bonfires with which New Hampshire celebrated
the formation of the Republic, "I have loved the
Union," he exclaimed, "ever since the light of
that bonfire greeted my eyes. I have given fifty-
five years of my life and my best efforts to its
preservation. I fear I am doomed to see it per
ish." It was such a spirit as this which had made
him the advocate of compromise and consideration,
and which now made him zealous for force.

352 LEWIS CASS

The last public speech of General Cass was de
livered at Hillsdale, Michigan, August 13, 1862,
at a "war meeting" called for the purpose of
arousing enthusiasm and raising volunteers for the
service. The address was short and impressive.
He spoke for some twenty minutes earnestly and
from the heart. He began with a truthful refer
ence to his own patriotism. "I am sufficiently
warned by the advance of age that I can have but
little participation in public affairs, but if time
has diminished my power to be useful to my coun
try, it has left undiminished the deep interest I
feel in her destiny, and my love and reverence for
our glorious Constitution which we owe to the
kindness of Providence and to the wisdom of our
fathers." The whole speech breathes forth the
broad sympathy and love of Union which marked
his life. Age, which is proverbially kind, did not
bring with it enervated principles and the senti
mentality of moral and mental languor. He re
ferred to the energy of his own State and praised
the exertions it was making for the general wel
fare. He had visited many portions of it before
the Indian had given way to the industry and
enterprise of the white man. "I have lived to
see it rivaling its sister States in the sacred work
of defending the Constitution. And now the course
of events has rendered it necessary for the govern
ment to appeal again to the people. Additional
troops are required for the speedy suppression
of the Rebellion. Patriotism and policy equally

THE LAST YEARS 353

dictate that our force should be such as to enable
us to act with vigor and efficiency against our
enemies, and promptly to reduce them to uncondi
tional submission to the laws." Of all the states
men of his generation, Cass has been understood
the least. In the eyes of many, he still appears
as a "Northern man with Southern principles,"
a "doughface," as false and untrustworthy; while
Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, whose aims
were identical with his, have defenders and apolo
gists by the score; while there is condonation for
the rankest acts of the "Copperheads," who ma
ligned and vilified and hissed at home while our
soldiers were fighting in the field ; while men who
proved false to their oaths, and gave their energies
to the destruction of their country, are given high
offices of honor and of public trust.

One more event of importance intruded itself
into the sadly quiet life of the old statesman.
Throughout his career he had suspected and op
posed the cunning designs of England, had re
sented her effrontery, had vindicated our rights
against her. A fitting close of a public life, which
had been strangely consistent and direct, was an
act of justice toward England in following out
the lines of comity for which he had so often con
tended. In the latter part of 1861, two commis
sioners from the Confederacy, intended for Eng
land and France, were taken on board the English
ship Trent. An American steamer, the San Ja-
cinto, stopped the Trent on her voyage, took from

354 LEWIS CASS

her the Confederate commissioners and proceeded
with them to Boston. England claimed with jus
tice that this was a direct violation of her sover
eignty, an insult for which immediate atonement
was demanded. Our government hesitated. Eng
land did not, but immediately made arrangements
for war and to mobilize her forces ; issued a pro
clamation to prevent the exportation of arms and
ammunition; ordered her minister at Washington
to withdraw unless the prisoners were released
and our government offered apology within a few
days. Flaring into unbecoming wrath, she lav
ished, it is said, not far from £5,000,000 in pre
paration for a war which, in spite of the vexations
of this whole affair, was needless, and which would
not have been nearly so imminent had not her
blustering hardened our people into 'obstinacy.
While our government delayed, the people were
anxious in spite of their dislike of England's
haste. General Cass was besought by some of
the influential citizens of Detroit to throw the
weight of his advice into the scale, with the pur
pose of inducing our government to surrender the
commissioners and to prevent war. He was per
suaded, and wrote a long telegraphic dispatch
covering the whole ground, and bringing to bear
his learning and the experience of fifty years in
which he had thought over and discussed the ques
tion of search and visitation. The cabinet decided
to humble itself, that it might be exalted on
the altar of law and honesty. Seward is reported

THE LAST YEARS 3;"»

afterwards to have intimated that Cass's dispatch
was of determining weight in the cabinet discus
sions on the question of surrender. The report
seems well founded ; but, whether it was thus deter
minant or not, the dispatch is a graceful end of a
life of public service which had been devoted to
America, and had resented encroachments upon
her dignity.

The last years of Cass were spent quietly at his
home in Detroit. He lived to see the Union re
stored, and the black curse of our country wiped
out by the war. His love of books and his schol
arly tastes helped him to fill his last days with
pleasurable occupation. His many friends, whom
he had assisted and to whom he had given a true
affection during the years of his active life, did
not forsake him when the evil days of sorrow and
weakness came upon him. Lifted up by an un
faltering trust, he patiently and cheerfully awaited
the end. He was sometimes noticed walking the
well-known streets, which he had seen develop
from the narrow, crooked ways of the rambling
French town into the broad avenues of a modern
city. But his work was over; he had reached
advanced age before his retirement from public
life, and all that was left him was the sorrowful
pleasure of peaceful waiting. He died June 17,
18G6, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. The
reports in the public papers, the resolutions of
societies, the farewell comments of friends, be
token the esteem in which he was held and the

350 LEWIS CASS

grief at his death. Members of the bar, who had
known his faithful service to the State, spoke in
loving admiration of his life. Many men in the
prime of life, or nearing the easy descent of age,
recalled with gratitude the encouragement and aid
given them in the uncertain days of their young
manhood. There was no one to cavil. Even his
political career, ending in patriotic devotion to
country and love for his State and the Union, left
little room for fault-finding to those who remem
bered his pure private life, and his generous friend
ship and high-minded regard for truth and fairness
in all matters of daily business and intercourse.
The Republican paper of Detroit, not failing in
discrimination while discussing the events of his
life, showed a hearty respect for the patriot, the
citizen, and the man. Private uprightness, sin
cerity, and rugged stalwartness of character con
quered partisan acrimony in days when even the
bitterness of politics seemed sweeter than honey
in the honeycomb.

If the foregoing sketch is at all adequate, no
elaborate assignment of attributes is needed in
conclusion. The character of Cass is presented
by his acts, by his attitude on great public ques
tions, and by the results of a life given to the
service of his country.1 Scarcely another man in

1 In the preparation of the general sketch of the character of
Cass, I have relied not only on the impressions produced by a
careful study of his words and acts, but also upon statements
made to me by men who knew him well, and whose candor and

THE LAST YEARS 357

our history was for so many years so closely con
nected with the rise and progress of the United
States. He stands as a representative of the Old
Northwest. Taking his life as a centre, we can
trace the political, social, and industrial develop
ment of this section of the Union, which, in large
part because of his efforts, changed in a genera
tion from wildness and stagnation into order and
activity. He was the "Father of the West," but
his generous patriotism left no room for selfish
provincialism. He was a democrat in the general
sense of the word, inculcating throughout his ca
reer with unflinching zeal the great doctrine of
faith in the people, and in the dignity and worth
of the common American voter; but his love of
individual liberty and his advocacy of personal

intelligent discrimination I could trust. As I have said in my
preface, I have neither cared nor dared to reject the estimate of
the personality of Cass given me by men of intelligence who knew
him as he was, men of affairs who were part of the times of which
I write and who could speak, from their own knowledge, concern
ing the moral worth, integrity and intellectual strength of the
subject of my sketch. I have not placed confidence in the ran
dom recollections of those who chanced to know him ; but have
sought the sober judgment of persons of experience who knew the
historical circumstance and were able from their knowledge of the
man to reach sensible and reasonable conclusions. To give no cre
dence to the statements of such men as I have consulted, and to
rely on the opinion of the secondary writers or the prejudiced as
sertions of contemporaries would be to disregard the most funda
mental canon in the preparation of historical narrative. I add this
note because I think that it is customary to underestimate the
character and the intellectual ability of Cass, and because some
fault has been found by critics of the first edition with my gen
eral appraisal of his worth and influence.

358 LEWIS CASS

rights did not blind his eyes to the grand individ
uality of the nation, and the bright destiny of a
Union which was more than a union of States.
With an extreme Americanism he indorsed in
his life the party doctrine that the "world is too
much governed ;" but he did not lose himself in
silly sentimentalities about the needlessness of gov
ernment, nor confound lawlessness and liberty.
He was a Democrat in the party sense of the
word, a strong adherent to the party organization ;
but he did not let his hunger for success or his
thirst for revenge deaden his senses to a percep
tion of justice, nor cause him to see liberty in
rebellion and freedom under the manacles of the
slave.

He was fair and honest, winning by his frank
ness the confidence of fellow-partisans and oppo
nents. The Republican party seemed to him at
first a sectional party, built upon localism and in-
considerateness, but, when it proved the defender
of the Union, although he never forsook his own
standard, nor capitulated in dogma, he gave advice
and counsel in behalf of the great purpose of those
against whom he might have stored up wrath.
In his speeches in the Senate, in private conversa
tion, and in correspondence with friends, he al
ways pleaded for the broader sympathy and more
charitable interpretation. In spite of the vigor
of his utterances and the force of his speech
when once aroused to defend a great national prin
ciple or to expound party doctrine, the records of

THE LAST YEARS 359

Congress will be searched in vain for a prevail
ing or even passing feeling of ill-will against him.
Those who came in contact with him were disarmed
of suspicions by his benignant frankness and the
complete good faith which action and word em
phasized. Yet his sincerity has been especially
stabbed by innuendo, and attacked by open state
ment, until those who have not known him as he
was pass him by as a man who smothered his
small principles and traded conscience for ap
plause. That the hope of the presidency did not
dazzle his judgment until it could not read in the
inner white light of his heart, it would be pre
sumptuous to declare. Blind self-deception, so
ready to answer our call for guidance, may have
led him into the ditch. But we turn to a full
record of his life, and ask that those who cavil at
a part may construe with the context before them.
The doctrine of popular sovereignty has added its
blight to his name, but it was not for him a new
doctrine; his more prominent political life was
begun in an effort to promote, among the body of
the people, interest and action in local affairs.
His love of union, his great feeling of nationalism,
and his resentment of foreign interference, gave
a coherence and consistency to his life, and prove
by their continuance his thoroughness, earnestness,
and sincerity.

The daily social and family life of General Cass
was one of such even courtesy and kindness that
mere assertion leaves little room for explanation

3CO LEWIS CASS

or addition. To those who came to him for aid
or advice he was an interested friend ; young men
especially attracted him, and he took great plea
sure in giving them encouragement, in offering
them help in their times of doubt or need. He
was not fond of general society ; his simple tastes
and quiet, abstemious habits held him back from
an indulgence in the mere frivolity and formality
of Washington life. In his own home, however,
he dispensed a large and delightful hospitality.
From 1831 until his withdrawal from Buchanan's
cabinet, he spent the greater portion of his time
away from Detroit; but his old house at that
place, filled with curios and interesting relics
from the frontiers of America and the gay capitals
of Europe, was not infrequently occupied, and he
there received his friends with generous, unstinted
welcome. He then had the finest library in Michi
gan, and the room which held his favorite books
was his own peculiar home. There he often en
tertained small companies of more intimate friends
and of distinguished men. While agreeable and
entertaining in private conversation, showing wide
reading and broad comprehension, impressing all
who listened to his unpretentious talk with the
feeling that they were in the presence of a well-
informed and cultured gentleman, he had none of
the rarer charms of personal grace or of wit and
brilliance; there was no flash of sudden genius or
warmth of kindling enthusiasm over a keen or
subtle argument. On the contrary, in public and

THE LAST YEARS 3d

in private speech, his face generally maintained
a certain immobility. His features were heavy,
only occasionally lighted up when unusual circum
stances called for the determination, boldness, and
vigor of the man. Even then he was impressive,
ponderous, sternly dominant. Yet a customary
look of benignity softened the severity of his face ;
in hours of political success or defeat he main
tained his serenity and hopefulness ; he habitually,
in his private conversations, refrained from rancor
or trenchant criticism and imputation.

Before the public, General Cass was a man who
carried weight by the density and compactness of
his arguments, by the vigor of his language, and
the gravity of his sense. He was not always right;
his earlier vigor and fire were tempered into bold
ness and decision in middle age, and became un
bending, consistent conservatism in the days of
his later public service, a conservatism which often
led him to adopt political inexpedients and did
not restrain him from error. But his public utter
ances always made an impression, and doubtless
served to dampen a too ardent impetuosity. He
often, perhaps usually, read his speeches from
manuscript. They were skillfully and elaborately
prepared. His large figure and his erect bearing
aided the dignity of his words; and often where
a man of less significant appearance would escape
attention, or leave an audience unaffected by his
appeals, the physical poise and stateliness of Cass
would arrest the attention of the heedless, and

362 LEWIS CASS

compel conviction in the doubting. So universally
thoughtful and well-considered, however, were his
public addresses, that mere physical greatness was
not needed to make them worthy of notice. What
was worth doing at all seemed worth doing well ;
his orations at agricultural meetings and at great
industrial celebrations show the customary breadth
of scholarship and careful preparation. He was
not an orator in the sense that Henry Clay and
Patrick Henry were orators. He belonged rather
to the unimpassioned school of steady thinkers and
not too ready speakers, whose words come for a
purpose and with the stored-up energy of convic
tion. An opponent was rather crushed by the
dead weight of argument than taken captive by
blandishments of rhetoric.

He was a scholar and a man of books as well
as a politician and a statesman. His essays were
often even graceful, and always bore the same
marks of care which his speeches presented. When
starting on one of his long voyages in his bark
canoe in the days of his governorship, he used to
supply himself with a number of books; and, as
he journeyed, he read them thoughtfully, or he
listened while one of his companions read them to
him. The information, thus stored away in his
mind, often in later years showed itself in some
rare and unexpected piece of knowledge. He
never was enticed by the excitement of politics
entirely to forsake his books. He could not be
come a profound scholar in the midst of his active

THE LAST YEARS 363

life, but his learning was unusually wide, often
surprising by its scope even those who knew him
well and had reason to respect his studies. To an
intimate acquaintance with the great facts of his
tory he added no meagre knowledge of science and
literature. In 1827 he read before the Detroit
Historical Society an essay on the Early History
of Detroit and the Conspiracy of Pontiac, a valu
able contribution to historical literature. This
essay and three others by fellow-members of the
society have been published under the title " Sketches
of Michigan." In 1830 he delivered a scholarly
address before the Association of Alumni of Ham
ilton College, and in 1836, as first president of
the American Historical Association, he read an
article which bears the marks of thoughtful prepa
ration, as well as knowledge and appreciation of
the great truths of history and of political philoso
phy. His articles in the "North American Re
view " treat generally of Indian and Western sub
jects, and show his great acquaintance with Indian
character and of the problems which affect our
country's progress. These essays are long and
discursive, written at a time when our important
magazines invited profound and exhaustive treat-
inent of interesting and serious topics. While
secretary of war he prepared for the "American
Quarterly Review" an account of the siege of New
Orleans. The article, covering some sixty pages
of the magazine, is of lasting historic value, inas
much as it was based upon papers and information

304 LEWIS CASS

intrusted to him by General Jackson. His most
valuable literary work was in connection with the
history of New France. Dr. Francis Parkman
acknowledges his indebtedness to "Hon. Lewis
Cass for a curious collection of papers relating to
the siege of Detroit by the Indians."1 While
minister in France, he collected and examined docu
mentary evidence relating to the French power in
America, and procured important papers which
were published by the Wisconsin Historical So
ciety. He not only gave material and inspiration
to Mrs. Sheldon for her "Early History of Michi
gan," but aided and encouraged M. Pierre Margry
to begin the studies which have resulted in such
valuable additions to historical information. His
own studies of contemporary France, while repre
senting our own government, were embodied in
a book already mentioned, "France, its King,
Court, and Government," a book of 190 closely
printed octavo pages. About the same time he
published "Three Hours at Saint Cloud," and an
article of no little worth in the "Democratic Re
view " on "The Modern French Judicature." All
the contributions to periodicals were more than
mere trivialities dashed off in haste for a penny a
line; they are real additions to knowledge.

In public and private life he was honest. About
1815 he bought, with funds received from the sale
of lands in Ohio, a large tract of land near De
troit. As the city grew, this property came into

1 Conspiracy of Pontiac, Preface.

THE LAST YEARS 365

demand, and its sale in lots made him wealthy.
He had no temptation to be dishonest in public
dealings, or, as is sometimes charged, to be a
"money-maker." He was completely free from
the taints of financial corruption. To honesty he
added temperance. He seldom tasted wine of any
kind, though not refusing to provide his guests
with the best. His public work in behalf of tem
perance has been spoken of; when secretary of
war he called attention to the subject of intemper
ance in the army, and advocated that other rations
be substituted for whiskey. He also spoke pub
licly of the evils of drink. His moderation reached
beyond the limits of meat and drink, and showed
itself in a life strangely regular and methodical,
prolonged, in consequence, to an advanced age,
unimpaired by disease, or weakened by aught
save the attacks of time.

The name of Lewis Cass will not be written in
the future with those of the few men whose influ
ence is everywhere discernible, and who perpetuate
themselves in institutions and in national tenden
cies. He was not a Washington, nor a Lincoln,
nor a Hamilton, nor a Jefferson, nor a John
Quincy Adams. But he was a great American
statesman, building up and Americanizing an im
portant section of his country, struggling in places
of trust for the recognition of American dignity
and for the development of generous nationalism.
With the great slavery contest his name is insepa
rably connected ; he stood with Webster and Clay

36G LEWIS CASS

for Union, for conciliation, for the Constitution
as it seemed to be established. He was one of
those men whose broad love of country and pride
in her greatness, however exaggerated, however
absurd it may seem in these days of cynical self-
restraint, lifted her from colonialism to national
dignity, and imbued the people with a sense of
their power.

INDEX

INDEX

ABBOTT, BENJAMIN, studies of Cass
under, at Exeter, 38.

Abolitionists, begin agitation, their
factions, 178 ; persecuted in North,
178, 198 ; results of their actions,
198, 199; not to be over-praised,
215 ; execrated, in 1844, 222.

Adams, Charles Francis, nominated
for vice-presidency, 253.

Adams, John Quincy, urges prepara
tions for war against France, 107 ;

oppose slavery extension, 242 ; se
cede from state convention, 242 ;
refuse to support a candidate pledged
against Wilmot Proviso, 242, 243;
at national convention, 243 ; bitter
against Cass, 243 ; in convention at
Utica nominate Van Buren, 251 ;
at Buffalo Convention, 252 ; out
number Cass's supporters in New
York, 2G1 ; support Pierce in 1852,
291.

calls Cass's protest to Guizot ab- ! Barry, William T., asked to remaii

surd, 183, 184 ; his prejudices, 185;
comments on controversy between
Cass and Webster, 189 ; his anti-
slavery contest, 198, 209 ; attacked
by Birney, 209 ; his opinion of Van
Buren, 253 ; contrast to Giddings,
in relation to constituents, 258.

Adams, Gov. James H., of South Car
olina, denounces laws against slave
trade, 330.

Allen, Charles, refuses to support
Taylor for president, 250.

Allen, William, attacked by Critten-
den, 228.

American party. See Know-Nothing
party.

Anderson, Charles E., denies story of
Cass's submission to Webster, 193.

Ashburton, Lord, negotiates with
Webster, 184.

Atkinson, General John, overawes
Indians, 128.

Austria, signs treaty against slave
trade, 179.

BANK, motives for Jackson's attack
on, 153 ; removal of deposits from,
153, 154 ; Cass's views of, 203.

Barnburners, their origin as faction
friendly to Van Buren, 240, 241 ;

in Jackson's cabinet, 13G ; succeeded
by Kendall, 137 ; minister to Spain,
137.

Bell, John, candidate of Constitu
tional Union party for president
in 1860, 339.

Benton, Thomas H., on removing In
dians, 1GO ; on Polk's nomination,
219 ; classed by South with Cass and
Van Buren as dishonored for with
holding unlimited support, 307.

Berrien, John M., resigns from Jack
son's cabinet, 137.

Biddle, Nicholas, hatred of Jackson
for, 153.

Birney, James G., nominated for pre
sident in 1843, 209 ; attacks Adams,
209 ; Garland forgery against, 221 ;
lives in Michigan, 222.

Black, Jeremiah S., attorney-general
under Buchanan, 329 ; says Cass
wishes to withdraw resignation,
348.

Black Hawk, brings on war in North
west, 141 ; captured, 141, 142.

Black Hawk war, 141, 142.

Blennerhassett, Harmon, involved by
Burr in his schemes, 49 ; visits of
Cass to, 49.

Blockade, doctrine of, defined by

370

INDEX

Cass, 337 ; later modified by expe
rience, 337.

Bonaparte, Napoleon, confiscates
American shipping, 53.

Boyd, George, describes English pre
sents to Indians, 110.

Branch, John, resigns from cabinet,
137.

Breckenridge, John C., nominated for
vice-president in 1852, 322; nomi
nated for president in 1860, 339.

Brock, Isaac, on effect of Hull's pro
clamation, 69, 70 ; prepares to at
tack Detroit, 76 ; demands surren
der, 77 ; on numbers of Hull's force,

80, 81 ; aware of Hull's imbecility,

81, 82.

Brooks, Preston S., assaults Sumner,

320 ; resigns from House, reflected,

321 ; applauded by South, 321.
Brougham, Lord, disclaims for Eng
land any pretense to right of search
except to put down slave trade,
180 ; attacks Cass for demagogy,
182 ; his attack increases Cass's pop
ularity, 204.

Brown, Aaron V., postmaster-general,
329.

Brush, Captain , asks Hull for an

escort, 73, 74 ; his efforts to reach
Detroit, 77 ; surrendered by Hull,
80.

Buchanan, James, on Jackson's de
sire to get rid of Cass for indeci
sion, 165 ; candidate for nomina
tion in 1843, 202, 205 ; offers to
compromise Oregon, 227 ; candi
date for nomination in 1848, 240 ;
candidate in 1852, 288 ; connection
with Ostend Manifesto, 313, 314;
nominated for president, 321 ;
elected, 323 ; his view on popular
sovereignty, 327 ; appoints Cass
secretary of state, 328 ; announces
settlement of controversy over right
of search, 335 ; his secession mes
sage, 341, 342 ; refuses to reinforce
forts at Charleston, 344, 348; his
action defended, 346, 347; says
Cass wishes to withdraw resigna
tion, 348.

Burr, Aaron, his schemes in the West,
47, 48 ; his character, 48 ; ensnares

Blennerhassett, 48 ; betrayed by Wil
kinson, 49 ; his flight, trial, and ac
quittal, 50 ; plan of Federalists to
make him president, 53.

Butler, Senator A. P., denounced by
Sumner, 318.

Butler, William O., nominated for
vice-president, 243.

CADILLAC, LA MOTTE, founds Detroit,
14.

Calhoun, John C., letter of Cass to,
on English intrigues with Indians,
111 ; letter of Cass to, proposing
Western tour, 116, 117; Jackson's
quarrel with, 133 ; his wife refuses
to meet Mrs. Eaton, 134 ; his friends
in cabinet resign, 137 ; embittered
by loss of hope to succeed Jackson,
142: becomes advocate of slavery
in South Carolina, 143 ; commits
himself to doctrine of nullification,
144 ; plans to remove New York
Indians into Northwest to retard its
growth, 160 ; compared with Cass
in debate, 194 ; candidate for nomi
nation in 1843, 202 ; promises sub
mission to convention, 202, 203 ; has
no real hope of nomination, 206 ;
supported by Irish in North, 206;
secretary of state under Tyler, 211 ;
works for annexation of Texas, 211,
224 ; withdraws his candidacy, 217 ;
his doctrine of slavery in Territories
rejected by Democratic Convention,
244 ; his last speech read to Senate,
278 ; his argument to preserve equi
librium of sections, 279; criticised
by Cass, 280.

California, gold fever in, 262, 263;
needs territorial government, 265,
267 ; adopts a state constitution
prohibiting slavery, 268; its admis
sion recommended by Taylor, 272;
admitted, 283; carried by Buchanan,
323.

Campbell, L. D., on Whig party in
1848, 250.

Campbell, Judge William W., quoted,
67.

Canada, Northwest a part of, 3 ; de
sire to conquer, in 1812, 59, GO ;
Hull's invasion of, 61-84; Hull's

INDEX

371

proclamation to, 68, 69; its effect,
G9, 70; shelters hostile Indians after
war, 102 ; boundary controversy
with, 175; rebellion in, and Caro
line affair, 175.

Caroline affair, 175, 170.

Cass, John, 34.

Cass, Jonathan, father of Louis Cass,
34; his character, 34; enters army
in Revolution, 35; his military ser
vices, 35; marries, 35; opposes paper
money mob, 37; in Wayne's West
ern campaign, 38; commands Fort
Hamilton, 38; at Wilmington, 31);
moves to Ohio, 39, 40; locates land
warrants, 42.

Cass, Lewis, on Indian liking for
French, 11; on agricultural igno
rance of Canadians, 26; a represent
ative man of Northwest, 29, 30;
ancestry, 34, 35 ; birth, 35 ; influ
enced in childhood by troubles of
Confederacy, 3G; recollects rejoi
cings on adoption of Constitution,
37; education, 38, 39; acquaintance
at Exeter with Webster, 38; certi
ficate of studies performed, 39 ;
teaches school, 39 ; migrates to
West, 40; at Marietta in 1799, 41;
studies law, 42; frontier life, 42;
adopts Jeffersonian ideals, 43; fal
sity of charge of changing party for
office, 44; admitted to bar, 44; prac
tices in Zanesville, 45; describes ex
periences on circuit, 40.

Ohio Jeffrrsonian Politician.
Elected to legislature in 1800, 47;
on committee to investigate Burr's
schemes, 49; drafts bill authorizing
governor to suppress them, 49, 50;
instigates passage of resolution ex
pressing attachment to government,
50; accepts office of United States
.marshal, 51 ; marries, his private
life, 51; success at bar, 52; defends
judges impeached for declaring a
law unconstitutional, 52; his career
changed by outbreak of war, 59.
In War of 1812. In spite of later
denial, hopes to conquer Canada, 59,
60; colonel of third Ohio regiment,
60; his address to soldiers, 60; his
part in Hull's campaign, 63; arrives

at Detroit, 63; on mission to British
at Maiden, 05; urges attack, 66, 70;
his enthusiasm, 07; possibly the
author of Hull's proclamation, 08,
69; leads an attack upon British
outpost, 71, 72; his disgust at Hull's
weakness, 72; urges sending escort
for provisions, 74 ; informs Hull
that Ohio militia will refuse to obey
order to retreat, 74; asks for per
mission to replace Miller, 75; plans
to depose Hull, 75; urges Meigs to
come and assume command, 76; sent
to escort Brush, 77; on returning,
obliged to surrender wrth Hull, 79;
his exasperation, 79, 80; at Wash
ington, reports Hull's incompetence,
82; witness in court-martial of Hull,
83; not prejudiced from political
reasons, 83; appointed major-gen
eral, 85 ; raises a regiment, as col
onel in army, 85 ; made brigadier-
general in regular army, 85 ; in
Harrison's campaign of 1813, 86 ; at
battle of Thames, 87.

Governor of Michigan Territory.
Appointed in 1813, 88; his duties,
89 ; endeavors to relieve distress, 90,
91 ; determines to chastise Indians,
91 ; leads attacks upon them, 92 ;
induces Indians to aid, 92 ; his influ
ence restrains them from excesses,
92, 99 ; resigns military commission,
93; hampered by lack of authority,
93; obliged to rely on yolunteers,
93, 94 ; continues to harass Upper
Canada, 94 ; his task to American
ize Michigan, 95 ; distributes relief
among poor, 96 ; wishes to introduce
American farmers, 97; urges prompt
surveying of bounty lands, 97, 98 j
disappointed at gloomy report of
surveyors, 98 ; secures opening of a
land office, 98 ; hampered by British
interference, 99 ; acquires a hatred
for England, 100, 101 ; protests
against English search of vessels
on lakes, 101, 102 ; troubles with
soldiers, 102 ; authorized to cease
giving Indians presents, 103 ; re
fuses to release Vidal, and demands
return of British deserter seized in
Detroit, 104 ; his action in arresting

372

INDEX

Vidal ratified, 105; arrogant com
plaint of Colonel James to, 105 ; re
plies to Janies, 106 ; resents med
dling of English between territorial
government and Indians, 107, 10S ;
explains English policy to Monroe,
108; applauded in East, 110 ; gains
increasing influence over Indians,
110 ; detaches them from British
influence, 110 ; annoyed by British
intrigue throughout term, 110, 111 ;
describes British presents, 111, 112;
vast region controlled by, 115 ; his
travels and treaties, 115, 116; ac
quires land by treaty with Indians,
116 ; his voyage with Schoolcraft in
Michigan and Wisconsin, 116-122;
his departure, 117 ; meets Indians at
Sault St. Marie, 118 ; announces in
tention to found a military station,
118 ; goes alone to Indian camp and
tears down British flag, 119 ; suc
cess of his courageous decision, 120;
wins respect of Indians, 120 ; con
ducts experiments to test existence
of tides in lakes, 121 ; tries to pre
pare "habitants" for self-govern
ment, 122; the " Cass Code," 122;
invites suggestions for local nomi
nations, 122 ; urges building roads, i
123 ; encourages growth of political j
feeling, 124 ; aids churches, 125 ; !
suggests educational system, 125 ;
his opinion of education and demo
cracy, 125, 126 ; other Indian trea
ties, 126, 127 ; his dangerous mis
sion to Winnebagoes, 127, 128 ;
escapes assassination, 128 ; organ
izes defense in Illinois, 128 ; pre
vents war by promptness, 129 ; dar
ing in this exploit, 129; outlines
a policy toward Indians, 129 ; his
honorable dealing with them, 130 ;
its success, 130 ; tries to diminish
drunkenness among Indians, 130,
131 ; regard of Indians for, 131 ; his
tact toward them, 131, 132.
Secretary of War. Appointed by
Jackson in 1831, 138 ; directs Scott
to go to Charleston, 146 ; explains
attitude of government toward
South Carolina, 147 ; orders Scott
to repel any aggression, 148 ; author

of letter urging Virginia to intercede
with South Carolina, 149; his pre
paration for national politics, 152 ;
becomes a Jacksonian Democrat,
152 ; confirmed in belief in bold
foreign policy, 152 ; his admiration
for Jackson, 153 ; with Jackson on
tour in the North, 153 ; tells Lewis
he disapproves of removal of depos
its and wishes to resign, 1.54 ; per
suaded by Jackson to remain, 155 ;
disclaims responsibility, 155 ; advo
cates removal of Florida Indians to
West, 159, 161 ; his action not influ
enced by any regard for slavery, 160 ;
opposes Supreme Court doctrine re
lative to Indians, 161 ; advises armed
settlement of Florida, 163 ; not guilty
of carelessness in Semiuole war, 163;
on fortifications, 164 ; urges building
of navy, 164 ; advocates discontinu
ance of whiskey rations, 164 ; health
impaired by office life, 164, 165 ; ac
cepts mission to France, 165 ; said
by Buchanan to have annoyed Jack
son by indecision, 165 ; improbability
of story about, 166 ; his warm friend
ship with Jackson, 166.
Minister to France. Reasons for
his appointment, 165, 166 ; goes to
Paris, 168 ; social duties, 168, 169 ;
his intimate relations with Louia
Philippe, 169 ; his interest in French
people and society, 169 ; visits Eng
land, 170 ; indignant at English man
ners, 170 : his travels in 1837, 170 ;
vie%vs of Italy and Greece, 171 ; in
Turkey and Syria, 172 ; affection
for Louis Philippe, 173 ; writes his
life, 174 ; his description of France,
174, 175 ; appreciates discontent of
French people, 175 ; expects war
with England in 1811, 177 ; urges
Webster to resent English preten
sions, 177 ; and prepares navy, 177 ;
opposes treaty to suppress slave
trade, 180 ; considers it merely an
English trick to gain right of search,
180 ; his pamphlet approved in Amer
ica, 181 ; writes protest to France
against treaty, 181 ; attacked in Eng
land, 182 ; suspected of demagogy
by Webster, 182; denounced by

INDEX

373

Adams, 183, 184 ; his prime motive
dislike of England, 185 ; possibly in
fluenced by desire to please the
South, 180 ; proposed for presi
dency, his reply, 186; good results
of his diplomacy, 1ST ; wishes to re
sign on news of Ashburton treaty,
188 ; protests against treaty for not
containing abandonment of right of
search, 188, 189 ; bitter correspond
ence with Webster, 189-193; com
plains of stultification by treaty,
1!»0 ; in the right against Webster,
191 ; his interference uncalled for,
191 ; said to have confessed to Web
ster his overthrow, 192 ; falsity of
story, 192, 193 ; his ability in de
bate, 193, 194 ; his life in Paris, 194 ;
praised at his departure, 195 ; his
speech, 195 ; his diplomatic ability,
196.

Candidate for Presidential Nomi
nation. His enthusiastic reception
in New England and New York, 197,
198 ; not looked upon as subservient
to slave power, 198 ; his welcome at
Washington, 199 ; journey to De
troit, 200 ; public honors in Pennsyl
vania and Ohio, 200 ; reception in
Detroit, 200 ; questioned on public
matters, 201 ; nominated by local
Democratic conventions, 201 ; up
held by "New York Herald," 201,
202 ; replies to Dickerson asserting
his Democratic orthodoxy, 202 ; his
answer to Indianapolis convention,
203 ; views on bank, public lands,
tariff, etc., 203; aided by Webster
controversy and Brougham's attack,
203, 204 ; deprecates partisan attacks
of followers upon Van Buren, 204 ;
writes letter in favor of Texas an
nexation, 213 ; appeals to jealousy
of English interference, 213 ; asserts
popular demand for it, 214 ; his de
sire for annexation due to Western
training, 215 ; not a " doughface,"
215 ; vote for, in Democratic na
tional convention at Baltimore in
1844, 218 ; directs supporters to
withdraw his name at any time in
interest of harmony, 219 ; his active
part in campaign of 1844, 222, 223 ;

prophesies success in Northwest,
223.

In United States Senate. Elected
in 1845, 225 ; on Committee on For
eign Relations, 225 ; his oratorical
ability, 225 ; champion of American
ism, 225, 226 ; absence of personal
enemies, 22G ; favors occupation of
Oregon, 226 ; introduces resolution
to prepare for war with England,
227 ; leads the extreme wing, 228;
refers to inevitable war, 228; circu
lates speeches to aid his candidacy,
229; protests in vain against treaty,
230; supports Polk in Mexican war
legislation, 231, 232; expresses sor
row at loss of Wilmot Proviso, 233;
later speaks against it as unneces
sary and liable to prevent acquisi
tion of territory, 23;?; from this
time, ceases completely to represent
Northwest, 234; comment of Sena
tor Miller on, 234, 235; the father
of " squatter sovereignty," 235; his
letter to Nicholson, 236, 237 ; argues
against power of Congress over Ter
ritories, 238; not insincere in advo
cating this doctrine, 238 ; possibly
expects popular sovereignty will as
sure freedom instead of slavery, 239;
lack of opposing candidates for pre
sidential nomination in 1848, 240;
nominated, 243; hatred of Barn
burners for, 243; his letter of ac
ceptance, 245; resigns seat in Sen
ate, 245.

Candidate for Presidency. His
chances lessened by Van Bnren's
nomination in New York, 252; called
the Western candidate, 254; yet
ceases to represent the new spirit
of the West, 254; his influence keeps
Michigan Democratic, 256, 258, his
consistency, 259; carries Michigan
and other Northwestern States, 259;
attacked for declining to attend in
ternal improvements convention,
260 ; later disclaims hostility to
them, 260: not trusted by the South,
261 ; defeated by loss of South and
of New York, 261 ; his defeat prob
ably fortunate for country, 263,
264.

374

INDEX

In Senate Again. Reflected with
difficulty, 26(3, 269; his party leader
ship in Michigan, 266 n.; in Sen
ate on March 3, 1849, 267; invited
by New York Democrats to accept
a public dinner, 270; his reply, 270,
271; announces his opposition as a
Western man to disunion, 271 ; pre
fers to resign rather than obey Free-
Soil instructions of Michigan legis
lature, 272, 275; his speech on squat
ter sovereignty, 272-275; argument j
from Democratic principles, 273, |
274; from the Constitution, 273; in
debate on Clay's compromise, 277 ;
on peaceful disunion, 277 ; confesses
inconsistency with regard to Wilniot
Proviso, 277; thanked by Clay, 277;
views on slavery, 278 ; exults in
compromise resolutions of Michigan
legislature, 278 : denounces both
Seward and Calhoun, 280; member
of compromise committee, 280; aids
Clay, 281; continues to advocate
non-interference, 282 ; influences
sentiment of his State, 282; favors
Fugitive Slave Lawr 283 ; votes
against jury trial for fugitives in
North, 284; appeals for recognition
of finality of compromise, 285; re-
elected senator, 286; laments unpa
triotic opposition to Fugitive Slave
Law, 287 ; a candidate in Democratic
Convention of 1852, 288; upholds
Kansas-Nebraska bill, 295; regrets
reopening of agitation, 297 ; thinks
South will not gain, 297, 299; hopes
principle of non-intervention will
bring peace, 299, 300; in campaign
of 1854 in Michigan, 306; denounces
slavery as evil, 306; condemned by
South for so doing, 306, 307 ; pleads
for calmness and forbearance, 307 ;
denounces Know - Nothing party,
311, 312; considers it part of Re
publican movement, 312; refuses to
obey instructions of Michigan legis
lature, 313 ; suspects England of
purpose to prevent annexation of

Cuba, 315; disapproves of Ostend
Manifesto, 315; on Clayton-Bulwer

treaty, 316; disapproves of Topeka

Constitution for Kansas, 318; con

demns Sumner's Kansas speech,
319; Sumner's reply to, 319; on
Senate committee to investigate as
sault on Simmer, 321 ; not a candi
date for nomination in 1856, 321,
322; regrets "sectionalism" of Re
publican party, 323 ; refused re
election by Michigan legislature,
324; denies right of visitation, 331,
332; admits right to investigate
genuineness of flag, 332, 333 ;
strength of his argument, 333; his
position adopted by England, 335;
view of Monroe doctrine, 336; dis
patch on neutrality and blockades,
337.

Secretary of State. In Buchanan's
cabinet, 328 ; negotiations over Clay
ton-Bulwer treaty, 329 ; reports
English outrages on vessels, 331 ;
suggests sending war vessels to
Southern waters, 331 ; negotiations
with Napier, 331-335 ; feels danger
from growth of Republican party,
338 ; laments secession, 340, 341 ;
wishes to use force against it, 341 ;
yet agrees with portions of Buchan
an's message, 341 ; but insists that
forts at Charleston be reinforced,
344 ; resigns in disgust, 344, 345.
Last Years. Applauded by North
and by Republicans, 345; justified
in his position, 346, 348 ; over
whelmed at news of secession, 347 ;
does not desire to withdraw resig
nation, 348, 349 ; addresses Union
meeting in 1861, 350 ; urges vigor
ous support of government, 351 ;
his last speech urging volunteering,
352, 353 ; urges Seward to surren
der Mason and Slidell, 354, 355 ;
last years and death, 355 ; funeral
honors, 355, 356 ; general view of
his career, 356-366 ; a representa
tive Northwestern Democrat, 357 ;
his democracy, 357, 358 ; breadth
of feeling, 358; kindliness, 358, 359 ;
real sincerity, 359 ; self-deceived by
presidential ambition, 359 ; social
life, 359, 360 ; his culture, 360 ; per
sonal appearance, 361 ; oratorical
and forensic ability, 361, 362 ; read
ing habits, 362 ; contributions to

INDEX

37,1

history, 363, 364; property, 364,
365; honesty, 365 ; temperance, 365 ;
final summary, 365, 366.

Personal Trails. General view,
151-153, 36f>, 366; unfavorable
views, 63, 185, 296 ; was he a
"doughface"? 170, 178, ISO, 214,
215, '278, '284; courage, 67, 75, 92,
105, 119, 128; conservatism, 361;
consistency, 259, 359; debate, power
in, 193, 194, 229; demagogy, 214,
35'J; diplomatic ability, 18-4, 196,
336 ; education, 39 ; energy, 40, 66,
72, 86, 94, 127 ; executive ability,
1(15, 166; friendliness, 38, 115, 173,
195, 258, 319, 359; justice, 120, 130,
259 ; keenness oi observation, 169 ;
kindliness, 38, 358 ; legal ability,
52 ; literary ability and interests,
170-172, 195, 355, 3152-364; military
ability, 71, 91 ; oratory, 194, 195,
225, 362; partisanship, 229, 231 ; per
sonal appearance, 225, 361 ; pomp-
ousness, 68, 195, 361 ; private life,
51, 359 ; social qualities, 169, 194,
359-361; temper, 79, 108; temper
ance, 131, 3U5 ; Western represen
tative, 215, 223, 234, 270, 357.

Poliiic/il I'iewx. Americanism, 60,
186, 225, 350, 351 ; Ash burton treaty,
188-193; Bank, 154, 203; blockade,
law of, 337 ; Burr conspiracy, 49 ;
compromise of 1850, 281, 285, 287 ;
democracy, 43, 122, 124, 152, 214,
274, 357, 358; disunion, 271, 277,
341, 342, 344-346, 347; education,
125, 126; England, 100-102, 104,
108, 170, 177, 180-183, 185, 213, 228,
315,316; foreign policy, 152; France,
174; Fugitive Slave Act, 283, 284,
287; Hull's campaign, 82, 83 ; In
dians, policy toward, 91, 92, 107,
110, 111, 115-120, 127-132, 159, 161;
instructions, doctrine of, 275; in
ternal improvements, 123, 260 ; in
ternational law, 104, 106, 333, 337 ;
judiciary, 52; Kansas, constitution
of, 318, 319 ; Kansas-Nebraska bill,
297,299 ; Know-Nothings, 311, 312 ;
lands, public, 203 ; Monroe doc
trine, 336 ; navy, 164 ; Oregon, 227-
230 ; Ostend Manifesto, 315 ; pre
sidential ambitious, 186, 202, 203,

227, 235, 288, 321 ; Republican party,
313, 323, 358 ; search, right of, 180-
183, 189-191, 329, 331-336, 354 ; slav
ery, 186, 278, 297, 306 ; South,
regard for, 284, 307 ; squatter sov
ereignty, 235, 236, 273-275, 295-297,

306, 307, 35: » ; States' rights, 161 ,
tariff, 203 ; Tex is, 213, 223; Trent

; affair, 354 ; Union, 36, 152, 271, 299,

307, 323, 352 ; war of 1812, 59 ; war,
Mexican, 231 ; war of Rebellion,
37)1-354; Wilmot Proviso, 233,274,
277.

Champlain, his explorations, 4.

Chandler, Zachariah, elected Senator
1 in Cass's place, 324 ; congratulates
Cass on resignation from cabinet,
345.

Chase, Salmon P., his estimate of slav
ery question, 234 ; writes platform
i at Buffalo Convention, 253 ; elected
! to Senate, 264 ; his speech on com-
I promise, 279.

Cherokees, decision of Supreme Court
', concerning, 161.

| Christiancy, Isaac P., writes call for
Republican Convention, 305.

Clarendon, Lord, announces political
accord of France and England, 315;
denies any reference to Cuba, 315.

Clark, Governor James, makes treaty
with Indians, 126 ; cooperates with
Cass in outlining Indian policy, 129.

Clay, Henry, leader of war party in
1812, 55 ; boasts of future conquest
of Canada, 59, 80 ; introduces com
promise tariff, 151 ; compared with
Cass in debate, 194 ; his journey in
South, 200; undisputed leadership
of Whig party in 1843, 207, 208 ;
writes letter against Texas annexa
tion, 212 ; nominated by acclama
tion, 216 ; might have won, 220 ;
weakens hold on North by Alabama
letter, 221 ; carries Ohio, 223 ; de
feated in election, 223 ; discarded
as a candidate in 1848, 246, 248 ; in
troduces compromise resolutions,
276 ; begs senators to refrain from
debate, 276 ; aided by Cass, 281 ;
his aims identical with Cass's, 363,
365.

Cobb, Ho well, secretary of treasury,

376

INDEX

328 ; his conduct during process of
secession, 340 ; resigns, 345.

Coles, Edward, moves from Virginia
to Illinois, his anti-slavery influ
ence, 309.

Compromise of 1850, introduced, its
provisions, 276 ; debate on, 27G-283 ;
re-introduced, 280, 281 ; Cass's opin
ion of, 281; adopted, 283; really
hastens Rebellion, 284 ; extolled by
Cass and others, 280 ; declared a
finality by Whig and Democratic
parties, 289, 290.

Connecticut Land Company, surveys
Western Reserve, 5.

Constitutional Union party, nominates
Bell for president, its character,
339.

Crandall, Prudence, 178.

Crawford, W. H., betrays Calhoun to
Jackson, 133.

Creeks, plan to remove to the West,
159, 1G2.

Crittenden, J. J., attacks Allen, 228.

Croghan, Colonel George, his reply to
threat of massacre, 80, 86.

Cuba, its annexation desired by South,
313 ; refusal of United States to
guarantee not to acquire it, 313 ;
Ostend Manifesto concerning, 313,
314 ; Cass's opinion of, 315.

Cutler, Manasseh, opposes entrance
of Ohio into Union, 44.

DALLAS, GEORGE M., candidate for
vice-presidency, 219 ; describes in
terview with Lord Malmesbury, 334.

Dalliby, Captain, asks permission to
fire on English, 76.

Davis, Jefferson, says Missouri Com
promise was erased in 1850, 294;
his view of Douglas's non-interfer
ence, 294, 295.

Davis, John, talks Wilniot Proviso to
death, 232.

Dayton, William L., nominated by
Republicans for vice-president, 322.

Dearborn, Henry A. S., presides over
Hull court-martial, 82; partly to
blame for Hull's surrender, 83.

Democratic party, its inconsistent
principles and practices under Jack
son, 152, 162 ; popular in North

west, 156-158; Cass's popularity
with, in 1843, 201 ; movement in,
to nominate Cass, 201 ; interrogates
candidates for nomination, 202; tired
of Van Buren as a candidate,
205 ; controlled at convention by
Southern wing, 217 ; apparently con
trolled by Van Buren men, 217;
adopts two-thirds rule, 217 ; nomi
nates Polk, 218, 219; its double-
faced campaign, 220 ; its mass
meetings, 222 ; carries Northwest,
223; significance of its election,
224 ; demands re-occupation of Ore
gon, 226 ; favors nomination of
Cass, 235, 240 ; New York factions
of, 240 ; at national convention of
fers to admit both Barnburners
and Hunkers, 243 ; nominates Cass
and Butler, 243 ; its policy toward
slavery, 244 ; condemns abolition
agitation, 244 ; rejects Calhoun's
non - interference, 244, 245 ; de
nounces Van Buren, 252 ; hampered
by Free-Soil nominations, 254; and
by Cass's attitude on internal im
provements, 260 ; members of, in
South, favor Taylor, 261 ; defeated
by loss of New York through Barn
burners, 261 ; relation of Northern
and Southern wings of, after 1848,
265; its condition in 1852, 287;
at national convention nominates
Pierce, 288 ; indorses finality of com
promise, 289 ; its great victory in
election, 291, 293 ; Northern mem
bers of, repudiate Nebraska bill, 300 ;
advocates filibustering in Nicara
gua, 316 ; nominates Buchanan, 321 ;
its platform, 322 ; gains election
through the South, 323 ; has a ma
jority in Pennsylvania only of North
ern States, 323 ; factions of, in
I860, 330; Northern wing of, no
minates Douglas, 338 ; Southern
wing nominates Breckinridge, 339.

Denonville, Governor, on the fur
trade, 8 ; asks Du Lhut to fortify
Straits, 9.

Detroit, its settlement, 3, 14, 15; its
character, 16 ; life in, under French
regime, 16, 17 ; its conservatism,
16, 17 ; slow entrance of American

INDEX

377

life into, 18, 19 ; mediaeval traits of,
19 ; held by English until 1796, 32,
33 ; in Hull's iuvasioii of Canada,
61, 63, 74, 75 ; attack upon, 76-78 ;
surrendered, 79 ; recovery, 88 ; mil
itary importance of, 93 ; return of
Cass to, in 1643, '200.

Dickerson, Mahlou, a.sks Cass for his
political opinions, 20'2 .

Dickinson, Daniel S., suggests squat
ter sovereignty, 235.

Diplomatic history, difficulties over
French spoliation payments, 167,
168 ; final accommodation, 167, 168 ;
Cass's mission to France, 168-
196; the McLeod affair, 175-178;
Cass's protest against slave-trade
treaty, 181, 182, 185; Ashburton
treaty, 187, lt>8 ; controversy be
tween Cass and Webster over, 188-
193 ; Oregon negotiations, 227, 229,

230 ; events preceding Mexican war,

231 ; negotiations concerning Cuba.
313; Ostend Manifesto, 314; diffi
culties over Clayton-Bulwer treaty,
329 ; correspondence between Cass
and Napier over right of visitation,
331-333 ; abandonment of claim by
England, 334, 335 ; agreement be
tween England, France, and United
States over right of search, 335,
33(5 ; difficulties with Mexico, 336 ;
blockade, doctrine of, denned by
Cass in 1859, 337.

Disunion, growth of feeling for, in
South, 268; Cass's opinion of, 271,
277 ; threatened, if Republican party
succeed, 323 ; carried out in 1860,
340-347 ; Cass's position on, 341 ;
Buchanan's doctrine of, 341, 342 ;
common-sense view of, 342, 343.

Dixon, Archibald, gives notice of re
peal of Missouri Compromise, 293.

Dodge, Henry, declines Barnburners'
nomination for vice-presidency, 251.

Douglas, Stephen A., anticipated by
Cass in doctrine of squatter sover
eignty, 236 ; candidate for presi
dential nomination in 1852, 288;
introduces Kansas- Nebraska bill,
2'. 3, 294 ; abused by both North
and South, 295 ; denounced by
Simmer, 318 ; replies to Simmer,

319 ; bitter retort of Sumner to,
320 ; nominated for president, 338.

Draper, Dr. John W., on impossibil
ity of slavery in Kansas, 298.

Dred Scott decision, 327.

Duane, William T., refuses to remove
deposits, 154.

Du Lhut, establishes post on Lake
Superior, 9.

EATON, JOHN H., resigns from cabinet,
136 ; his quarrel with Ingham, 137 ;
plan to make him senator, 138 ;
governor of Florida, 138.

Eaton, Mrs. " Peggy," refusal of so
ciety to recognize, 134 ; attentions
of Van Buren to, 134, 135; attempts
of Jackson to vindicate, 135.

Elliott, Commodore Jesse Duncan,
voyage of Cass with, 170.

England, kept out of Northwest by
licoureurs des bois," 9; after 1763
becomes patron of Indians, 32 ; em
ploys them as allies, 32, 33 ; holds
frontier posts until 1796, 32, 33 ; ne
cessity of counteracting its influ
ence over Indians, 33 ; partisanship
of Federalists for, 53, 54 ; war with,
popular in Northwest, 56 ; intrigues
with Indians in years before war,
56, 58 ; continues until 1840 to re
tard American growth in Northwest
by instigating Indians, 49, 111, 112 ,
slow to realize strength or growth
of United States, 99, 100 ; hopes to
reabsorb States, 101 ; continues to
search vessels on Lake Erie, 101 ;
defied by Cass in Vidal case, 103-
105 ; its policy to pose as protector
of Indians, 105-109 ; its policy at a
grand council described by Mrs.
Jameson, 113, 114 ; visited by Cass,
his impressions, 170 ; boundary dis
putes with, 175 ; demands release of
McLeod on threat of war, 176 ; its
war preparations described by Cass,
177 ; signs treaty to suppress slave
trade, 179 ; suspected of attempting
to justify claims to right of search,
179 ; attacked by Cass in a pam
phlet, 180 ; justice of its position,
180. 181 ; annoyed at rejection of
treaty by France, 182 ; renews

378

INDEX

claim to right of visitation, 187.
188, 100, 191 ; its alleged designs
upon Texas, 212, 213 ; rejects Buch
anan's oft'er of a compromise in Ore
gon, 227 ; danger of war with, 227,
228 ; alarmed at threat of war, 230 ;
accepts forty-ninth parallel as
boundary, 230; suggests that Uni
ted States join in a pledge not to
acquire Cuba, 313 ; held by Cass to
oppose American acquisition, 315 ;
quibbles over Clayton - Bulwer
treaty, 310 ; searches slave-traders
in American waters, 330, 331 ; con
troversy with Cass over right of
search, 331-333 ; abandons right of
search, 334-336 ; demands apology
for seizure of Mason and Slidell
from the Trent, 354 ; threatens war,
354.

Eustis, William, approves Hull's pro
clamation, 69.

Everett, Edward, nominated for vice-
presidency, 339.

FEDERALISTS, oppose admission of
Ohio, 44 ; plan to make Burr presi
dent, 53 ; oppose Jett'ersou's foreign
policy, 53, 54.

Fillmore, Millard, nominated for vice-
president, 248 ; favors compromise,
282 ; on finality of compromise, 287 ;
candidate for nomination in 1852,
289 ; nominated by Know-Nothings,
322.

Findlay, James, commands Ohio mili
tia, CO ; wishes to depose Hull, 72.

Florida, Jackson's career in, 133 ;
Eaton governor of, 138 ; Seminole
war in, 1G2-1G4 ; slave trade with,
330.

Floyd, John B., secretary of war
under Buchanan, 328 ; aids seces
sionists, 340 ; on Cass's willingness
to coerce seceding States, 341 ;
openly disowns secession, 341.

Foote, Henry S., offers resolution to
organize Territories, 272.

Force Bill, recommended by Jackson,
150 ; its provisions and effect, 150,
151.

Ford, Governor Seabury, describes po
litical methods in Northwest, 157.

France, discourages colonization, 15 ;
its absurd policy toward colonies,
15 : partisanship of Jelfersonians
for, 54 ; agrees but fails to pay for
spoliations, 1G7 ; threatened by
Jackson, 1G7 ; rupture of diplo
matic relations with, 167 ; finally
pays, 1G7, 168 ; mission of Cass to,
as minister, 168-196 ; social duties
of minister in, 168, 169 ; Cass's ob
servations on, 1G9, 173, 175 ; signs
treat y to suppress slave trade, 179 ;
at Cass's suggestion, refuses to ratify
treaty, 181 ; later agrees to keep
fleet on African coast, 182 ; sug
gests to United States to join in
guaranteeing Cuba to Spain, 313.

Franklin, Benjamin, his mission to
French court, 169.

Free-Soil party, suggested by dissatis
fied Whigs, 251 : by Free Territory
Convention in Ohio, 251 ; by Barn
burners at Utica, 251 ; formed at
Buffalo Convention, 252-254 ; ele
ments of, 252 : not a Democratic
movement, 252 ; its platform, 253 ;
nominates Van Buren and Adams,
253, 254; its vote in 1848 and its
significance, 25G, 257, 259, 260 ; holds
balance of power, 259 ; denounced
for not favoring Compromise, 285 ;
nominates Hale and Julian, 290 ; its
vote in 1852, 290 ; denounces repeal
of Missouri Compromise, 301.

Frelinghuysen, Theodore, nominated
for vice-president, 216.

Fremont, John C., nominated by RP-
publicans, 322 ; his fitness for can
didacy, 323.

French, explore the West, 3, 4; at
tempt to convert Indians, 4 ; kept
out of Ohio by Iroquois, 5 ; settle in
Michigan and Wisconsin, G, 7 ; de
sire fur trade, 7 ; their methods of
trading, 8-10 ; assume Indian habits,
10 ; beloved by Indians, 11 ; form a
stagnant element in Northwest, 11,
12 ; their life, 12 ; discouraged by
government, 15 ; gregarious methods
of settlement, 17, 21 ; their manners,
20, 21; "pipe-stem" farms, 21;
laziness. 21 ; love of sport, 21, 23,
24 ; clumsy farming methods, 22,

INDEX

370

23, 26 ; social life, 23, 24 ; other
classes of half-breeds, 25, 26; their
stupidity, 25, 26; their lack of edu
cation, 27, 28; disiike American
law, 28; life centres around church,
29; less important in Illinois and
Indiana than in Michigan, 29; prob
lem of their assimilation., 31; averse
to taxation, 31; prostrated by war
of 1812, 89, 90, <JG; liopes of Cass to
educate, 97.

Fugitive Slave Law, enacted, 283; its
effect, 283, 284; Cass's approval of,
284; arouses North, 280; petitions
against, in Congress, 287.

Fur trade, its importance, 7, 8; how
carried on, 8-10.

GARFIELD, JAMES A., remark of Cass
to, 36; representative of Western
Reserve, 255, 258.

Garland forgery ia campaign of 1844,
221.

Garrison, William Lloyd, mobbed in
Boston, 178.

Geary, John W., governor of Kansas,
324; resigns, 325.

Georgia, upheld against Supreme
Court by Jackson and Cass, Itil.

Giddings, Joshua R., points out true
character of Semiiiole war, 104; his
courage, 198; censured by House,
209; representative of Western Re
serve, 254; on Fugitive Slave Act,
287.

Gilman, Mary, marries John Cass,
mother of Lewis Cass, 35.

Greeley, Horace, on effects of Fugi
tive Slave Law, 283; discouraged
in 1854, 304; advises Michigan anti-
Nebraska men to adopt name Re
publican, 304 ; on Know - Nothing
party, 311.

Grundy, Felix, War Republican in
1812, 55.

Guizot, under Louis Philippe, 173 ;
urged by Cass not to ratify slave-
trade treaty, 181.

HALDIMAN, GOVERNOR, on consumption

of rum in Detroit, 32.
Hale, John P., nominated by Liberty

party, 251 ; presents disunion peti

tion, 277 ; nominated by Free-Soil
party, 290.

Hamilton, Col. Henry, offers bounties
on American scalps, 32.

Hamilton, governor of South Carolina,
appoints committee to draw up or
dinance of nullification, 145.

Hamlin, Hannibal, elected vice-presi
dent, 339.

Hannegan, E. A., letter of Cass to, on
Texas, 213; on Folk's claim to Ore
gon, 228.

Harcourt, , threatens war if Mc-

Leod be condemned, 176.

Harrison, William Henry, on English
intrigues with Indians, 57; wins
battle of Tippecanoe, 58; aided b>
Cass in 1813, 80; invades Canada,
86; wins battle of Thames, 87; com
pliments Cass, 87 ; leaves Cass to
command, 88; concludes armistice
with Indians, 89; makes treaty of
alliance with Indians, 92; poses as
popular hero in 1840, 156; carries
Northwest except Illinois, 15(5.

Harvard College, gives Jackson a de
gree, 153.

Harvey, Peter, tells fictitions story of
Cass's confession of defeat to Web
ster, 192, 193.

Heald, Captain, ordered by Hull to
evacuate Fort Dearborn, 81.

Heilemau, Major, in command at
Charleston, 14(5.

Hildreth, Richard, quoted, 64.

House of Representatives, passes Wil-
mot Proviso, 232r 233; its struggle
to elect a speaker in 1849, 272 ; fails
to expel Brooks after his assault on
Suinner, 321.

Howard, Jacob M., letter of Greeley
to, on name Republican, 304; writes
platform for new party, 305.

Howard, William A., on committee to
visit Kansas, 317.

Hudson Bay Company, 9.

Hull, Governor William, on ancestry
of Canadians, 14 ; his failure in civil
office, Gl; after hesitation, accepts
command of force to invade Canada,
61 ; urged to go to Detroit, 61 ; his
baggage captured, 62; his conduct
defended by descendants, G2 ; com-

380

INDEX

plains of militia. G3; his force, 84 ;
refuses to invade Canada until or
dered to, 65; enters Canada with
forebodings, 66, 67; continues inac
tive, 70 ; his indecision, 71 ; refuses
to follow up Cass's success, 72; fails
to announce war to garrison at
Mackinac, 72, 73; dreads Indian
warfare, 73; forced to send troops
to aid Brush, 74 ; announces an at
tack, then retreats, 74; wishes to
abandon Detroit, 74; orders Miller
back to Detroit after his victory,
75; refuses to allow Dalliby to fire
on English fort, 76; refuses Brock's
demand for surrender, 77 ; appalled
with fear of Indians, 78; surrenders,
79; includes all forces in surrender,
80; numbers of his force, 80, 81; or
ders evacuation of Fort Dearborn,
81; released on parole, 82 ; sacrificed
by administration, 82, 83; really
deserves condemnation by court-
martial, 83; his sentence, 84; later
years, 84.

Hunkers, their origin as Polk faction
in New York, 241; control Demo
cratic state convention and reject
anti-slavery resolution, 242; at De
mocratic convention, 243; support
Cass and become " regular " party
in New York, 243.

ILLINOIS, retarded by French occu
pancy, 2, 29; Indian war alarm in,
128; Black Hawk war in, 141;
strongly Democratic, 156-158; car
ried by Republicans in 1854, 308;
analysis of vote in, 308, 309; carried
by Democrats in 1856, 323; votes
for Lincoln in 1860, 339.

Indiana, retarded by French occu
pancy, 2; but less so than Michigan,
29; admitted to Union as a State,
115; Democrats of, favor nomination |
of Cass, 201 ; carried by Republicans !
in 1854, 308; carried by Buchanan !
in 1856, 323; votes for Lincoln in
1860, 339.

Indians, attempts of French to con
vert, 4; rivalry of English and !
French for fur trade with, 7, 8;
drenched with brandy, 8; friendly

with French, 10; regret their defeat,
11; trade in Detroit, 18; protected
by English, 32; encouraged to op
pose Americans, 32; continue de
pendent upon English, 33; campaign
of Wayne against, 38; English in-
trigues with, before war of 181'-!,
56-58; Harrison's campaign against,
57, 58; their alliance not sought by
United States, 58; alarmed at Hull's
invasion of Canada, 70; in English
army, opposed to Hull, 73, 76, 78,
81 ; massacre garrison of Fort Dear
born, 81; in massacre at Raisin, 85;
ravage Michigan, 86, 88, 91; spare
lives of French, 89; punished by
Cass, 91, 92; make treaty of alliance
with Cass and Harrison, 92; contin
ued subsidizing of, by English, 99,
100, 111, 112; protected by English,
102, 105-108; refusal of Cass to per
mit meddling with, 106, 107; efforts
of Cass to detach from English al
liance, 110; Grand Council of, de
scribed, 113, 114; all under Cass's
supervision, 115; cede land by
treaty, 116; Cass's interview with,
at Sault de St. Marie, 118-120; re
fuse to agree to an American garri
son, 118, 119; overawed by Cass's
courage, 119, 120; further boundary
treaties with, 126, 127; war with, in
1827, averted by Cass's energy, 127-
129; plan for treatment of, made by
Cass, 129; reasons for Cass's success
with, 130-132; efforts of Cass to re
duce drunkenness among, 130, 131;
their respect for Cass, 131 ; removal
of, to West, 159-161 ; essays of Cass
upon, 363.

Ingham, Samuel D., resigns from Jack
son's cabinet, 137 ; his quarrel with
Eaton, 137.

Internal improvements, demand for,
in West, 260 ; Cass's position on,
260 ; in campaign of 1848, 260.

Irish in New York, favor Calhoun,
206 ; belong to Democratic party,
their reasons, 207.

Iroquois, results of failure of French
to convert, 4.

JACKSON, ANDREW, reconstructs cabi-

INDEX

381

net, 133-138 ; iiis quarrel with Cal-
houn, 133 ; his character, 134, 135 ;
tries to force Mrs. Eaton upon so
ciety, 134-13(5 ; his friendship for
Van Buren, 13(1; not a demagogue,
138 ; but used by spoils politicians,
139 ; significance of his election,
140 ; his obstinacy, 140, 141 ; di
rected by other.s, 141 ; takes mili
tary precautions against nullifica
tion, 140 ; his annual message, 147 ;
remark on impossibility of nullifi
cation, 147 ; intends to seize Cal-
lioun, 148 ; issues proclamation,
148 ; anxious to avoid a conflict,
149, 150 ; asks for authority to en
force laws, 150; signs compromise
tariff and Force Bill, 151 ; admi
ration of Cass for, 152, 153 ; his
Northern tour in 1833, 153 ; attacks
bank, his motives, 153 ; his indiffer
ence to, and ignorance of, finance,
153 ; removes deposits, 153, 154 ;
persuades Cass not to resign, 155 ;
his popularity in Northwest, 157,
158 ; upheld by Cass in his favor
ing Georgia against Supreme Court,
101 ; enraged at failures in Semi-
uole war, 103 ; said to have been an
noyed at Cass's indecision, 105 ; his
friendly relations with Cass, 105,
106 ; threatens France, 107 ; writes
letter in favor of Texas annexation,
213 ; writes in favor of Van Buren.
213 ; praised by Cass, 213 ; the coun
try's one dictator, 240 ; gives Cass
historical papers, 304.

James, Colonel, correspondence with
Cass, 102 ; complains of murder of
an Indian, 105 ; sharp reply of Cass
to, 100 ; censured by Cass for push
ing Indian claims, 107, 108 ; asserts
rights of British Indian allies in
United States, 109.

Jameson, Mrs. Anna, contrasts Cana
dians with Yankees, 20; describes
Indian council at Mauitoulin, 113,
114.

Jefferson, Thomas, his relation to
Rousseau, 43, 44 ; sends agent to
investigate Burr's schemes, 49 ;
issues proclamation against them,
50 ; his reply to Ohio resolutions of

support, 50 ; suggests removing all
Western postmasters, 50 ; gratitude
to Cass, 51 ; his foreign policy, 54 ;
author of nullification, 144 ; Cass a
follower of, 202 ; less of a dictator
than Jackson, 24G.

Jesuits, try to convert Indians, 4 ;
discourage colonization, 15.

Johnson, Herschel V., nominated for
vice-president, 338.

Johnson, Colonel It. M., kills Tecura-
seh, 87; in Eaton affair, 135; can
didate for nomination in 1844, 201,
202, 20G ; his character and ambi
tions, 200 ; vote for, in convention,
218.

Jones, Commodore Jacob, describes
gold mania in California, 263.

Julian, George W., nominated for
vice-president, 290.

KANSAS, struggle for, 310-318, 324-
320 ; seized by Missouri ruffians,
317 ; npplies for admission under
Free State Constitution, 317 ; de
bate over, in Senate, 317, 318 ; its
admission advocated by Republi
cans, 322 ; successive governors in,

324, 325 ; warfare in, 324, 325 ;
pacified by R. J. Walker, 325 ;
chooses a Free State legislature,
325 ; attempt to force Lecompton
constitution on, 325 ; rejects it,
325 ; refused admission by South,

325, 326 ; saved by popular sover
eignty, 320.

Kansas-Nebraska Bill, introduced by
Douglas in 1854, 293; repeals Mis
souri Compromise, 294; Cass's
speech on, 297 ; passed and signed,
298 ; causes outbreak at North, 300.

Kendall, Amos, succeeds Barry as
postmaster-general, 137.

Kentucky, furious at Hull's surren
der, 85; sends army to be massacred
at River Raisin, 85.

King, William R., nominated for vice-
president in 1852, 288.

Know-Nothing party, its principles,
309; attracts dissatisfied Whigs and
Democrats, 310 ; enters politics in
1854, 310 ; its success in border
States, 310; impossible of success,

382

INDEX

311 ; views of Cass upon, 311, 312;
nominates Fillmore in 1856, 322 ;
carries Maryland, 323.

LA HONTAN, BARON DK, describes car
goes of women sent to Canada, 14.

Lands, public, in Michigan, efforts of
Cass to promote sale of, 97, 98;
Cass's view of, 203.

Lane, Joseph, nominated for vice-
president, 339.

La Salle, takes possession of Missis
sippi valley, 6.

Legare', Hugh S., secretary of state
under Tyler, 211.

Leigh, B. W., sent by Virginia as en
voy to South Carolina, 150.

Levant, Cass's tour in, 170-172.

Lewis, William B., dissuades Cass
from resigning from Jackson's cabi
net, 154.

Liberty party, its vote in 1840, 179,
208 ; its attitude toward Whig abo
litionists, 209; nominates Birney in
1844, 221 ; attacks Clay as an au-
nexationist, 221; holds balance of
power in New York and Michigan,
222; execrated by Whigs, 222 ; nom
inates Hale, 251; members of, at
Buffalo convention, 252, 254.

Lincoln, Abraham, takes proper view
of slavery question, 234 ; nomi
nated and elected president, 339.

Livingston, Ed ward, secretary of state,
137; writes nullification proclama
tion, 148 ; breaks off diplomatic re
lations with France, 167.

Lossing, Benson J., describes Cass's
reception of news of secession, 347.

Louis XIV., his efforts to develop
and control Canada, 7, 8, 9.

Louis Philippe, dreads war with Amer
ica, 168 ; friendly to United States,
168; appreciates American charac
ter, 168 ; his character, 173 ; lacks
courage and decision, 173 ; life of,
written by Cass, 174, 175.

McARTHUR, DUNCAN, commands Ohio
militia, 60; informed of beginning
of war, 62; wishes to depose Hull,
72; sent to aid Brush, 77; included
in Hull's surrender, 79; testimony

in Hull court-martial, 83 ; makes
treaties with Indians, 116.

McDuffie, George, in House, predicts
disunion, 143.

McKenney, Thomas L., on tour with
Cass among Indians, 126, 127.

McLane, Louis, secretary of treasury,
137; opposed to removal of depos
its, 154.

McLane, Robert M., Cass's letter to,
on Monroe doctrine, 336.

McLeod, Alexander, arrested for par
ticipation in Caroline affair, 176 ;
his release made a political question
by England, 176; acquitted, 178.

Macomb, Major-General, warns com
mander at Charleston against at
tack, 146.

Madison, James, obliged to advocate
war of 1812, 54; driven by South
and West, 55; his incompetent con
duct of war, 62; his proclamation
satirized, 68; pardons Hull, 84 ;
appoints Cass governor of Michigan,
88; advises Congress not to grant
bounty lands in Michigan, 98.

Maine, carried by Republicans, 308.

Malmesbury, Lord, agrees with Dal
las to abandon right of search, 334,
335.

Marcy, W. L., candidate for nomina
tion in 1852, 288.

Marshall, John, defied by Jackson,
161.

Martineau, Harriet, describes half-
breeds, 25; charmed by scenery of
Michigan, 99.

Maryland, carried by Know-Nothings
in 1856, 323.

Mason, J. Y., connection with Ost-
end Manifesto, 313.

Massachusetts, settlers from, in Michi
gan, 124; visit of Cass to, in 1842,
197; "conscience" and "cotton'*
Whigs in, 249.

Meigs, R. J., law studies of Cass with,
42 ; a Jeffersonian, 44 ; sends rein
forcements to Hull, 73 ; urged by
Cass to come and assume command
in place of Hull, 75, 76.

Mexico, bullied by Upshur, 211 ; forced
into war by Folk's administration,
231 ; difficulties with, in Buchanan's

INDEX

383

administration, 336; revolutions in,
336.

Michigan, slowness of American set
tlement, 2; labors of Cass to Ameri
canize, 2; late development of self-
government in, 3; settled hy French,
6, 14; results, 6, 7; fur trade in, 7;
typified by Detroit, 18 ; life of
French in, 19-31 ; lack of education
in, 27 ; influence of Cass upon Amer
icanization of, 30, 31; Hull's gov
ernorship of, 61; raises militia
companies to aid Hull, 63, 64; rav
aged by Indians, 86, 88; Cass's
governorship of, 88-132; destitu
tion in, after war, 89, 90; efforts of
Cass to relieve, 90, 91, 96; freed from
Indian ravages, 91, 92, 94; Cass's
efforts to Americanize, 95; bounty
lands selected in, 97; reported by
surveyors a barren waste, 98; pro
gress hindered by this error, 98;
land office opened in, 98; its dimen
sions, 115; Indians cede land in,
116; explored by Cass and School-
craft, 118-122; its progress to self-
government, 122, 123; builds roads,
123; democratic feeling in, encour
aged by Cass, 124; public education
in, 124, 125; demands admission as
a State, 155; a Democratic State
except in 1840, 155; immigration
into, 158; enthusiasm over Cass in
1842, 200, 201; Liberty party vote
in, 222; elects Cass to Senate, 225;
favors Wilmot Proviso, 233, 234;
adopts township system, 255; kept
in Democratic party by Cass, 256;
popularity of Cass in, 258, 259 ;
Free-Soil vote in, 259; passes Wil
mot Proviso resolutions, 266, 269;
reelects Cass, 266, 269; rescinds
Wilmot Proviso instructions to
Cass, 278; sentiment in, favors com
promise, 282, 283 ; reelects Cass,
286; Free-Soil vote in, 290; move
ment in, toward new party, 304, 305 ;
forms Republican party, its plat
form, 305; campaign of 1854 in, 306-
308; carried by Republicans, 307;
instructs senators to vote against
Fugitive Slave Law, 312; carried by
Republicans, 324; elects Chandler

to succeed Casa, 324; carried by
Lincoln, 339; popular honors in, to
Cass, 355, 356.

Miller, Colonel Morris S., commands
regular infantry under Hull, (11 ;
successful expedition into Canada,
71; refuses to assume responsibil
ity, 72; successful action with Eng
lish and Indians, 75; asks for provi
sions, 75; ordered back to Detroit,
75; gives up Vidal to Cass, 103.

Miller, Senator, regrets Cass's oppo
sition to Wilmot Proviso, 234.

Missouri, sends ruffians into Kansas,
317.

Missouri Compromise, extension of
its line suggested in 1847, 239; sug
gested again in 1849, 265 ; repealed
by Kansas-Nebraska bill, 294.

Monroe, James, letter of Cass to, on
troubles with English, 108; pro
poses removal of Indians to West,
160.

Morris, Gouverneur, his mission to
France, 169; contemptible treat
ment of, by Louis Philippe, 173.

NAPIER, LORD CHARLES, letter of Cass
to, on right of search, 331-333.

New England, emigrants from, in
Detroit, 19, 158; its attitude toward
England and France, 53, 54; dam
aged by Jefferson's policy of em
bargo, 54; favored by tariff, 142;
influence of emigrants from, upon
politics of Northwest, 254-258; upon
township system, 255.

New Hampshire, its ratification of
Constitution described by Cass,
36, 37 ; paper-money craze in, 37;
adopts Wilmot Proviso resolutions,
233.

New Jersey, passes Wilmot Proviso
resolutions. 233; carried by Demo
crats in 1856, 323; divided in 1860,
339.

New Mexico, needs territorial govern
ment, 265; organized, 283.

New York, held by Iroquois against
French, 4; emigrants from, in Mich
igan, 124, 156; spoils system in, 139;
arrests McLeod, 176; refuses to
surrender him, 176; acquits him,

384

INDEX

178; visit of Cass to, in 1842, 197;
popularity of Calhoun in, 206, 207 ;
Liberty party vote in 1844, 222;
passes Wilmot Proviso resolutions.
233; factions in Democrats of, 240- !
242; carried by Whigs, 243; decides |
election of 1848, 2G1; collapse of
Free-Soilers in, 290, 291.

"New York Herald," advocates Cass
for president in 1843, 201, 202.

Nicaragua, filibustering in, 315; ap
plauded by South, 316.

Nicholson, A. O. P., letter of Cass to,
236.

Niles, Hezekiah, on British intrigues
with Indians, 112; approves Cass's
letter on slave-trade treaty, 181 ; on
Cass's candidacy for nomination,
186.

North, Jackson's tour in, 153; ceases
to persecute abolitionists, 178; pop
ularity of Cass in, 197-200; begins
to resent subserviency to slavery,
198, 199; fails to understand cause
of Texas annexation, 211, L12; favors
Wilmot Proviso, 233; affected by
Webster's 7th of March speech,
278, 279 ; exasperated by Fugitive
Slave Law, 284; conservative reac
tion in, 285, 286, 290; denounces
Douglas for Kansas-Nebraska bill,
295, 300; old parties in, fall to pieces,
300; sends emigrants to contest
Kansas with South, 300; votes for
Lincoln in 1860, 339; repudiates
Buchanan's doctrines of secession,
342; paralyzed during winter of
1861, 350; war meetings in, 350-
353.

Northwest, view of its development,
1, 2; its settlement from the East,
2; necessity of Americanizing, 2, 3;
its settlement by French, 3-14 ; ex
plorations in, 6 ; taken possession of
by French, 6; held for France by
bush-rangers, 8-10; influenced by
presence of French, 12; life of
French habitants in, 20-24; influ
ence of Cass upon, 30, 31 ; problems
in, to introduce democracy and
counteract English influence, 33;
favors war of 1812, 55, 56; national
feeling in, 56; saved by battle of the

Thames, 88; growth of, retarded
by English intrigues with Indians,
100 ; all Indians in, controlled by
Cass, 115; explorations in, by Cass,
117-122; Indian treaties in, 126,
127; Black Hawk war in, 141; chol
era in, 141 ; Democratic party
strength in, 156; political methods
in, 157, 158; more interested in
politics than in principles, 158; im
migration into, 158, 159; carried by
Polk in 1844, 223; demands Oregon,
226, 227; begins to grow anti-slav
ery, 234, 249; ceases to be fully
represented by Cass, 254; influence
of New England settlers upon poli
tics of, 255-258; supports Cass in
election of 1848, 259; Free-Soil vote
in, 259,260; demands internal im
provements, 260; votes for Pierce,
290; organizes Republican party,
301; Union sentiment in, 302; con
tinues to furnish Republican lead
ers, 302; less bound by commercial
ties to South, 303; underground
railroad in, 303; votes for Lincoln
in 1860, 339; Cass the representa
tive of, 357.

Nullification, Calhoun's theory of,
144; ordinance of, adopted by South
Carolina, 145; Jackson's opinion of,
147; and his proclamation on, 148.

O'CoNOH, CHARLES, letter to Cass, 270.

Ohio, held by Iroquois against French,
4; remains unknown during eight
eenth century, 5; early public edu
cation in, 26, 27; settlement of,
after treaty of Greenville, 40; char
acter of immigrants, 40, 41, 43;
democracy in, 43; adopts a consti
tution, 44; its entrance into Union
opposed by Federalists, 44; frontier
law practice in, 45-47; investigates
and checks Burr's conspiracy, 49,
50; impeaches judges for declaring
a law unconstitutional, 52: raises
regiments in war of 1812, 60; furi
ous at Hull's surrender, 85; strength
of Whig party in, 156; welcomes
Cass in 1843, 200; carried by Clay
in 1844, 223; passes Wilmot Pro
viso resolutions, 233 ; free territorj

INDEX

385

convention in, 251; influence of
New England settlers in, 255; anti-
slavery vote of, in 1844 and 1848,
256,257: carried by Cass, 259; elects
Chase to Senate, 2G4; carried by
Republicans, 308.

Oliver, Mordecai, on committee to
visit Kansas, 317.

Ordinance of 1787, territorial govern
ment under, 122; its conflict with
Cass's doctrine of popular sover
eignty, 237; extended over Oregon,
262.

Oregon, demand of Democrats and
Northwest for, 226 ; offer of Buch
anan to compromise, 227; com
promise rejected by England, 227;
danger of war over, 228; debate on,
in Senate, 228; discussion of claims
to, 229 ; possession of, settled by
compromise, 230 ; given a territo
rial government, 262.

Osceola, sentimental view of, 1G2; his
real wrongs, 162.

Ostend Manifesto, 314.

Owen, Commodore, demands return
of Vidal, 104.

PALMERSTON, LORD, demands release
of McLeod, 176.

Parkman, Francis, on New France,
6, 11 ; aided by Cass, 364.

Peel, Sir Robert, denies that right of
search is abandoned, 191.

Pennsylvania, welcomes Cass in 1842,
200 ; favors Cass for presidential
nomination, 201, 202 ; favors Wil-
mot Proviso, 233 ; supports Cass in
1848, 240 ; emigrants from, in Ohio,
255 ; carried by Democrats in 1856,
323.

Perry, Oliver H., victory on Lake
Erie, 86.

Phillips, Wendell, results of his la
bors, 198.

Pierce, Franklin, nominated for pre
sident in 1S52, 288; his character,
288, 289 ; approves compromise,
289 ; supported by Barnburners, 291 ;
proclaims finality of compromise,
293; signs Kansas-Nebraska bill,
298.

Polk, James K. nominated by a trick

in 1844, 218, 219; the first " darh
horse," 219 ; derided by Whigs,
21'.) ; claimed to be in favor of tariff,
220; at Nashville meeting, 222;
elected, 223 ; significance of his
election, 224 ; claims all of Oregon,
226 ; not really anxious for it, 227 ;
advises increase of army and navy,
230; drives Mexico into war, 230,
231; jealous of Silas Wright, 241;
urges organization of new Territo
ries and extension of Missouri com
promise line, 265.

Popular sovereignty in Territories,
suggested by Dickinson, 235 ; Cass
the real author of doctrine, 235,
236 ; outlined in Nicholson letter,
236, 237 ; question of Cass's sincer
ity in advocating, 238, 239 ; ex
plained by Cass in 1850, 272-275 ;
its absurdity, 275, 27G ; as inter
preted by South, 294, 295 ; its sig
nificance to Cass and Douglas, 295,
296; in Democratic platform of
1850, 322 ; its actual working in
Kansas, 326; abandoned by South,
326.

Prevost, , letter of Brock to, 70.

Proctor, Colonel Henry A., arrives at
Maiden, 73; fails to restrain Indi
ans, 86 ; retreats, 86 ; defeated
Thames, 87.

Prussia, signs treaty against slave
trade, 179.

QUAKERS, tbeir influence in Northwest,
255.

RANDOLPH, JOHN, sarcastic remark on
conquest of Canada, 62.

Reaume, Justice, his arbitrary law, 13

R^collet fathers, at Quebec, 4.

Reeder, Andrew H., vetoes pro-slav
ery bills in Kansas, 317 ; removed,
317.

Republican party, strong in Western
Reserve, 255 ; why begun in North
west, 301-303; supposed beginning
in Ripon, 303 ; planned for by Con
gressmen, 304 ; name suggested by
Grpeley, 304 ; carries Northwest and
Maine, 308 ; nominates Fremont and
Dayton, its platform, 322; defeated

386

INDEX

in election, 323; carries Michigan
and defeats Cass for reelection, 324 ;
continues to grow, 3:38 ; nominates |
and elects Lincoln, 339 ; applauds
Cass for resigning from Buchanan's
cabinet, 345 ; Cass's opinion of,
358.

Rhode Island, passes Wilmot Proviso
resolutions, 233.

Richmond, Duke of, gives Indians
presents, 110,

Russia, signs treaty against slave
trade, 179.

ST. CLAIR, ARTHUR, his unpopularity
in Ohio, 44.

Saint-Lusson, at Sault de Ste. Marie, 6.

Schley, Judge William, on aversion of
Canadians to taxes, 31.

Schoolcraft, Henry R. , on Cass's
Northwestern tour, 117 ; describes
departure, 117 ; names a lake for
Cass, 121 ; reports on mineral re
sources, 121.

Schuyler, Eugene, approves Cass's
protest to France, 187.

Scott, General Winfield, sent to
Charleston to resist milliners, 146 ;
complimented by Cass on his dis
cretion, 147 ; again ordered to
Charleston, 148 ; thinks civil war
imminent, 149 ; charged with inef
ficiency in Seminole war, 163 ; over
shadowed by Taylor in Mexican
war, 246 ; in Whig convention of
1848,248; nominated in 1852, 289;
defeated, 291.

Search, right of, controversy over, on
Lake Erie, 101, 102 ; protest of Cass
against recognizing, in slave-trade
suppression, 180-182 ; Cass's doc
trine of, superior to Webster's, 183 ;
continues to be exercised by Eng
land, 188, 189, 191 ; controversy be
tween Cass and Webster over its
omission from Ashburton treaty,
190-193 ; controversy of Cass with j
Napier over, 331-334 ; abandoned
by England, 335, 336; involved in
Trent affair, 354.

Beminoles, plan to remove to West,
159; war with, 162-164; desire of
South for their negroes, 162.

Senate, ratifies Ash-burton treaty, 187;
requests Tyler for correspondence
between Cass and Webster, 1:K»;
election of Cass to, his place in,
225 ; debates Oregon question, 227,
230 ; ratines Oregon treaty, 230 ;
debates Ten-Regiment bill, 231; de
feats Wilmot Proviso, 232 ; debates
appropriation bill, 267 ; debates
compromise o»f 1850, 276-283; de
bates Kansas- troubles, 317-320 ; un
able to punish assault on Sumner,
321 ; recognizes Lecompton consti
tution for Kansas, 325 ; refuses to
admit Kansas- as a free State, 326;
calls for information concerning
slave trade, 331.

Seward, W. H.? refuses to give up
McLeod, 176 ; puts proper estimate
on slavery question, 234 ; elected
to Senate, 264 ; his speech on com
promise, 279, 280 ; attacked by Cass,
280 ; optimistic after passage of
Kansas-Nebraska bill, 299 ; attacked
by Cass, 318.

Shannon, Wilson, succeeds Reeder as
governor of Kansas, his character,
317 ; resigns, 324.

Sherman, John, on committee to visit
Kansas, 317.

Sibley, Solomon, encounters Cass in
Ohio, 42.

Sickles, Daniel E., letter to Cass, 270.

Slavery, attempts to introduce into
Northwest, 40, 41 ; not recognized
by South as cause of weakness, 143 ;
said to be cause for removal of In
dians, 160 ; causes Seminole war,
162 ; enters politics under Van
Buren and Tyler, 178 ; movement
against, not understood by old
statesmen, 234 ; Calhoun's theory
of, in Territories, 239 ; decides elec
tion of 1848, 260 ; held by Cass to
be impossible in Kansas, 297, 298;
his error, 298 ; deplored by Cass in
1854, 306.

Slave trade, international treaty for
suppression of, 179 ; considered by
Cass to be a mere pretext for
strengthening England's claim to
right of search, 179 ; treaty con
demned by Cass in a pamphlet, 180;

INDEX

387

protested against, 181 ; treaty re
fused ratification by France, 181 ;
later plans to put down, 182 ; in
Ashburton treaty, 188 ; abolished in
District of Columbia, 283 ; move
ment in South to reopen, with Af
rica, 296, 330 ; attempts of England
to prevent, in American waters,

330, asi.

Smith, W. L. G., his life of Cass,
quoted, 36.

Soult§, Pierre, his connection with
Osteud Manifesto, 313, 314.

South, sectionally organized in 1800,
53 ; brings on war of 1812, 55 ;
refuses to recognize slavery as
cause of inferiority, 143 ; desires
to seize slaves among Seminoles,
1(52 ; catechises Van Buren, 178 ;
its overbearing manners, 199 ; tour
of Clay in, 200 ; demands Texas for
more slave territory, 211 ; opposes
Van Buren after his letter on Texas,
216, 217 ; gains control of Demo
cratic party, 217 ; not influenced by
Clay's Alabama letter, 221 ; prefers
Taylor to Cass in 1848, 260, 261;
its aggressive policy alienates North
west, 265 ; furious at danger of los
ing control of Territories, 267 ; be
gins to look forward to disunion,
268 ; plan of Calhoun to protect,
279 ; opposes admission of Califor
nia, 281 ; does not appreciate effect
of Fugitive Slave Law, 284; its
peculiar view of popular sover
eignty, 294, 295 ; hopes to compete
with North for Territories, 296;
advocates reopening of slave trade,
296 ; its desperation in 1854, 297 ;
relies on commercial interests to
control North, 303 ; denounces Cass
for speaking disrespectfully of slav
ery, 306 ; desires to annex Cuba,
313 ; favors filibustering, 316 ; ap
plauds Brooks's assault on Sumner,
321 ; recognizes failure of popular
sovereignty, 326 ; adopts Calhoun's
dogma, 326 ; advocates reopening
of slave trade, 330 ; plans to secede
in 1860, 340 ; aided by Buchanan's
cabinet, 340.

South Carolina, opposes tariff, 142;

threatens nullification, 143, 144 ;
calls state convention, 144 ; adopts
nullification ordinance, 145 ; pre
parations against violence in, 146-
148 ; excitement in, over federal
movements, 149 ; appealed to by
Virginia, 150 ; postpones operation
of ordinance, 150; gains point in
compromise tariff, 151 ; prepares
to secede in 1860, 340 ; controversy
in Buchanan's cabinet over strength
ening forts in, 344-347 ; adopts ordi
nance of secession, 348.

Southwest, Burr's plan to separate
from Union, 47, 4>S ; brings on war
of 1812, 55.

Spain, its claims to Oregon, 229.

Spencer, Elizabeth, marries Cass, 51 .

Spencer, General , ancestor of

Cass's wife, 51.

Spoils system, significance of its intro
duction under Jackson, 138-140 ; in
timately connected with democracy,
140.

Stevenson, Andrew, minister to Eng
land, 176 ; criticised by Webster, 182.

Storrs, Charles B., preaches anti-slav
ery doctrines, 258.

Stuart, Charles E., presents anti-slav
ery resolutions of Michigan to Sen
ate, 312 ; refuses to follow them,
313.

Sumner, Charles, describes Cass's
house in Paris, 194 ; his speech on
Kansas, 318, 319; denounced by
Cass and Douglas, 319 ; professes
friendship for Cass, 319, 320 : makes
bitter reply to Douglas, 320 ; as
saulted by Brooks, 320.

Supreme Court, its decision in Chero
kee case criticised by Jackson and
Cass, 161 ; its Dred Scott decision,
327.

TANEY, ROGER B., attorney-general,
137 ; as secretary of treasury, re
moves deposits from bank, 154.

Tariff, considered sectional by South,
142; in 1832, drives South Carolina
into nullification, 143 ; compromise
in 1833, proposed by Clay, 151 ;
Cass's views on. 20:>, ; in campaign
of 1841, 2'.'0.

388

INDEX

Taylor, Zachary, ordered to occupy
up to Bio Grande, 231 ; popular
favorite in Mexican war, 246, 247 ;
suitable candidate for president,
247 ; suggested by Ward, 247 ; claims
to be candidate of people, not of
Whigs, 248 ; nominated, 248 ; oppo
sition to his nomination, 249, 250 ;
preferred by Southern Democrats to
Cass, 2GO, 261 ; inaugurated, 2G7 ;
his attitude toward Territories, 267 ;
suggests state organization to Cali
fornia, 2G8 ; recommends mildness,
272 ; opposes Clay's compromise,
281 ; his death and character, 282.

Tecumseh, his schemes instigated by
English, 57 ; defeated at Tippecanoe,
f>8 ; taunts Proctor with cowardice,
86 ; killed at battle of Thames, 87.

Texas, its early history, 210; begin
ning of plan to annex, 211 ; annexa
tion, advocated by Tyler, 211 ; de
manded by South for slave terri
tory, 211, 212; question of, enters
politics in 1843, 211, 212; alleged
designs of England upon, stir up
North, 212, 213; letters of Van
Buren and Clay against, 212 ; let
ters of Jackson on, 213; Cass's ar
gument for its annexation, 213 ;
really decides campaign of 1844,
220 ; Clay's Alabama letter on, 221 ;
annexed under Tyler and Calhoun,
224 ; its boundaries cause war with
Mexico, 231 ; its claims settled in
compromise, 283.

Thiers, Adolph, under Louis Philippe,
173.

Thompson, Jacob, secretary of the
interior, 329 ; aids secessionists, 340 ;
says Cass wishes to withdraw resig
nation, 348.

Tiffin, Governor Edward, warned by
Jefferson of Burr's schemes, 49 ;
his message to legislature, 49 ; sug
gestion of Jefferson to, 50.

Tilden, Samuel J., at Buffalo Conven
tion, 253.

Toucey, Isaac, secretary of navy under
Buchanan, 328.

Town meeting, system follows New
England settlers in Northwest, 255.

Trent affair, 353, 354.

Tyler, John, approves Cass's opposi
tion to slave-trade treaty, 182, 184 ;
aids in Ashburton negotiations, 188 ;
suggests slave-trade article, 188 ;
reports to Senate correspondence
between Cass and Webster, 190 ;
agrees with Calhoun, 210 ; fails to
create a personal party, 210 ; raises
question of Texas, 211 ; works for
annexation, 224.

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, its influence
11 Northwest, 303.

Upshur, A. P., secretary of state un
der Tyler, his policy toward Mexico
and Texas, 211.

Utah, receives territorial government,
283.

VAN BUREN, MARTIN, in Hull court-
martial, 83 ; his attentions to Mrs.
Eaton, 135 ; gains Jackson's confi
dence, 136 ; resigns from cabinet,
136 ; not responsible for spoils sys
tem, 139 ; called aristocrat in elec
tion of 1840, 156 ; questioned by
slaveholders, 178 ; candidate for
nomination in 1843, 204 ; his abil
ity as president, 204, 205 ; move
ment against his renomination, 205 ;
damages chances for nomination
by letter against Texas, 212, 213 ;
letter of Jackson in favor of, 213 ;
discarded by South, 216 ; dele
gates instructed to vote for, 217 ;
defeated by two-thirds rule, 218 ;
faction support of, in New York,
240 ; leads friends to oppose ex
tension of slavery, 240 ; letter to
Utica convention, 251 ; nominated
by Barnburners, 251 ; denounced
by Democrats, 252 ; nominated at
Buffalo Convention, 253 ; vote for,
in 1848, 256, 259, 260 ; classed by
South with Cass and Benton, 307.

Van Horn, , in Hull's campaign,

74.

Vermont, adopts Wilmot Proviso re
solutions, 233.

Verplanck, Gulian C., introduces tariff
bill, 151.

Victoria, Queen, Cass present at her
coronation, 170.

INDEX

389

Vidal, Lieutenant , seizes deserter

in Detroit, 103 ; arrested and turned
over to Cass, 103, 104 ; his release
demanded, 104; retained by Cass,
104 ; tried and fined, 105.

Virginia, its mediation in nullification
controversy suggested, 149 ; sends
envoy to South Carolina, 150.

Von Hoist, H. C., accuses Cass of
being led by political ambition in
his protest to Guizot, 185.

WALKER, ROBERT J . , succeeds Geary as
governor of Kansas, 325 ; persuades
Free State men to abandon Topeka \
Constitution, 325.

War Department, Cass's management !
of, in Black Hawk war, 141 ; in j
nullification excitement, 146, 14S ; ,
in Seminole war, 103, 1(54 ; other
matters considered by, 164 ; ques
tion of Cass's efficiency in, 165, ICG.

War of 1812, a sectional contest, 54,
55 ; brought on by Southwest and
South, 55 ; popular in Northwest,
55, 5G ; volunteers and militia called j
for, GO ; Hull's invasion of Canada,
61-84 ; feeble conduct of, by Madi
son's administration, 62, 73, 82, 83 ;
capture of Mackinaw, 72, 73 ; sur
render of Detroit, 79, 80 ; massacre
at Fort Dearborn, 81 ; court-mar
tial of Hull, 82-84; massacre of
River Raisin, 85 ; Perry's victory
on Lake Erie, 8G ; Harrison's vic
tory at the Thames, 87 ; alliance
with Indians, 92 ; ended by peace of
Ghent, 94.

War, Mexican, summary of its results,
224 ; begun by Polk, 231 ; a " pirat
ical assault," 232.

Wayne, Anthony, his campaign in
West, 38.

Webster, Andrew F., letter of Cass
to, in 1855,321.

Webster, Daniel, reminiscences of
Cass at school, 38 ; secretary of
state under Harrison and Tyler,
17G ; warned by Cass that England
is preparing for war, 177 ; annoyed
by Cass's advice, 177 ; controversy
with Cass in Senate, 182 ; criticises
Cass and Stevenson, 182 ; calls

Cass's argument inconclusive, 183 ;
fails to grasp real principle, 183 ;
concludes Ashburton treaty, 187 ;
his position in cabinet, 187, 188;
sends Ashburton treaty to Cass,
188 ; controversy with Cass over
Ashburton treaty, 189-193 ; his ar
guments inferior to Cass's, 190 ;
wrong in claiming that right of
search is abandoned, 191 ; in this
case not superior in reasoning to
Cass, 192, 193 ; only statesman of
period superior to Cass in debate,
194 ; retires from State Department,
211 ; opposes claims to Oregon,
230 ; unable to estimate anti-slavery
movement, 234 ; has no chance for
nomination, 24G, 24.S ; his 7th of
March speech, 278 ; its ett'ect in
North, 278 ; candidate for nomina
tion in 1852, 289 ; his aims identical
with Cass's, 3G3, 365.

Weed, Thurlow, laments over Clay's
Alabama letter, 221, 222; manages
Taylor's campaign, 247, 248.

Western Reserve, its survey in 1796,
5 ; spirit of, contrasted with Michi
gan, 16 ; its anti-slavery spirit. 254,
255, 258 ; later a stronghold of Re
publican party, 255; its vote in
elections of 1844 and 1848, 256, 257 ;
retains old New England ideas with
modifications, 257 ; its Republican
vote in 1854, 308.

Western Reserve College, early anti-
slavery sentiments in, 258.

Wheaton, Henry, asserts that treaty
of Washington led France to reject
slave-trade treaty, 182 ; on effect of
Cass's protest, 184.

Whig party, profits by panic to defeat
Van Buren, 155; carries Michigan,
155; its strength in Ohio, 156; de
mands resignation of Webster from
Tyler's cabinet, 187 ; doubts Cass's
orthodoxy as a Democrat, 202 ; en
thusiastic for Clay in 1843, 208 ;
nominates him, 216 ; its platform,
216; delighted at nomination of
Polk, 219 ; damaged by Clay's Texas
letters, 221 ; carries Ohio, 223 ; de
feated in election, 223, 224 ; stunned
at its defeat, 224 ; carries New

390

INDEX

York in 1847, 243 ; its condition in
1848, 245 ; chances of success, 246 ;
tired of Clay as candidate, 246 ;
favors Taylor over Webster and
Scott, 246 ; wishes to avoid territo
rial issues, 247 ; campaign in, for
Taylor's nomination, 247, 248; in
national convention, nominates Tay
lor, 248 ; refuses to adopt platform,
249 ; anti-slavery members of, 249 ;
protests in, against Taylor's nomi
nation, 250 ; gains only offices by
election of Taylor, 264 ; its success
means nothing in politics, 264 ; its
national convention in 1852, 289;
nominates Scott and indorses com
promise, 289, 290; discontent of
Northern members of, 291 ; defeated I
in i852, 2'J1 ; necessity of its de
struction, 201, 292; retains organi
zation in East, 305 ; nominates Fill-
more in 1850, 322.

Whipple, Major, Cass's reply to, 92.

White, Hugh Lawson, senator from
Tennessee, refuses War Department, j
138.

Wilkinson, James, betrays Burr to |
Jefferson, 49.

Wilmot, David, offers anti-slavery
amendment to Two-million bill, 232. \

Wilmot Proviso, its introduction and
failure in Senate, 232 ; again passes
House, 233 ; Cass's reasons for op-

posing, 233, 274, 277 ; demanded by
Northern state legislatures, 233.

Wilson, Henry, refuses to support
Taylor, 250.

Winchester, General Jataes, defeated
in 1813, 85.

Winnebagoes, war with, prevented in
1827, 127, 128.

Wisconsin, its slowness to be Ameri
canized, 2 ; discovery of, 4 ; settled
by French, 6, 12, 13 ; character of
life in, 13 ; governed by Cass, 115 ;
explorations in, 121, 127, 128 ; Black
Hawk war in, 141 ; adopts township
system, 255; heavy Free-Soil vote
in, 260 ; forms Republican party,
305.

Witherell, Judge James, leads Michi
gan militia to aid Hull, 64.

Woodbury, Levi, secretary of navy,
137.

Woodward, Judge Augustus B., on an
cestry of Canadians, 14 ; founder of
University of Michigan, 27.

Wright, Silas, accepts nomination for
governor in 1844, 241 ; said to have
elected Polk, 241.

YANCEY, W. L., offers non-interfer
ence resolution in Democratic con
vention, 244.

ZANE, EBENEZER, cuts post-road, 44.

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