Cass, Lewis,

Cass, Lewis, American statesman, born at Exeter, New Hampshire, 9th October 1782. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1803, but in 1812, on the outbreak of the second war with Great Britain, entered the army, and rose rapidly to the rank of general. Left in command of Michigan at the close of the war, he was for eighteen years civil governor of the territory which under his skilful administration became a settled and civilised state. From 1831 to 1836 Cass was Secretary of War under General Jackson, and from 1836 to 1842 he was United States Minister at Paris. In 1844 he was much spoken of for the presidency, and in 1848 he received the Democratic nomination, but was defeated at the polls by General Taylor; in 1852 he again lost the nomination. He sat in the senate from 1845 to 1857, when he was appointed Secretary of State, resigning office in 1860 in consequence of President Buchanan's refusal to reinforce Fort Sumter. He now retired from active life, and died at Detroit, 17th June 1866. Scrupulously honest, and generally a prudent and cautious legislator, Cass's position on most questions of his time resolved itself into one of compromise and moderation. His attitude towards slavery was inconsistent, but he appears to have sympathised with the Union in the civil war. For Britain he evinced a bitter hostility. He published a work on the history and languages of the United States Indians (1823), and France: its King, Court, and Government (1840). See Lives by W. L. Smith (1856) and A. C. McLaughlin (1891).