CASS, Lewis, American statesman, diplo matist and soldier: b. Exeter, N. H., 9 Oct. 1782; d. Detroit, Mich., 17 June 1866. In 1800 he removed to Marietta, Ohio, where he entered on the study of the law. He was admitted to the bar in December 1802, and soon after estab lished himself at Zanesville, where he gradually acquired practice. In 1806 he was elected to the Ohio legislature. He served in the first year of the second war with England and in 1813 was appointed governor of Michigan Ter ritory, holding office till July 1831. Michigan at this time had no territorial legislature, and the business of selecting laws far it from the codes of the States devolved on Governor Cass and the territorial judges. Governor Cass was also ex officio superintendent of Indian affairs for the territory, which then included what now constitutes the two States of Michigan and Wis consin, and this remained for several years the most important part of his duties. Of all this extensive territory, it was only a little tract bordering on Lake Erie and the Detroit River to which the Indian title had not been ex tinguished. Within the bounds of his Indian superintendency, ultimately made to embrace all the tribes northwest of the Ohio, there were reckoned to be 40,000 Indians, mustering at least 9,000 warriors. The recent hostilities, and the distrust and suspicions of the Indians, occa sioned by the constant calls upon them for addi tional cessions of land, rendered this office one of great delicacy and difficulty. But Governor Cass, while steadily carrying out the policy of acquisition, succeeded also in maintaining the respect, and even in securing the affection of the Indians. In 1817 he obtained, in conjunction with Governor McArthur, a cession of most of the remaining Indian lands within the State of Ohio, with adjoining tracts in Indiana and Michigan, to the extent of 4,000,000 acres in the whole. This cession removed the Indian barrier hitherto intervening between the settle ments of Ohio and those of Michigan. In 1819 he met the Chippewas at Saginaw, and obtained a cession of lands in the peninsula of Michigan to the extent of 6,000,000 acres. As yet the northwestern regions were very imperfectly known. At the suggestion of Governor Cass, an expedition, in which he himself bore a conspic uous part, and of which an account has been published by Schoolcraft, was set on foot in 1820, for exploring the northern shore of Lake Superior, and the course of the upper Missis sippi. The next year, by a long, circuitous river
navigation, he visited Chicago, then nothing but a military post, with a wide wilderness all about it, and there made a treaty with the Chippewas, Ottawas and Potawatamies, by which a large additional tract was obtained, completing the extinction of the Indian title to the peninsula of Michigan south of Grand River. In 1828 he made two treaties, one at Green Bay, the other at Saint Joseph's, by which many millions of acres were credited to the United States. Up to his resignation of the office of governor of Michigan, in July 1831, he had concluded 22 treaties with the Indians by which cessions had I been acquired in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michi gan and Wisconsin, to an amount equal to nearly or quite a fourth part of the entire area of those states. When President Jackson re constructed his Cabinet in August, 1831, Cass was appointed Secretary of War. The policy of the removal of the Indians, especially the southern tribes, to districts west of the Missis sippi, had been warmly espoused by General Jackson. The defense of this policy, which had elicited much criticism and a warm oppo sition, was ably entered upon by Secretary Cass in his first annual report. In 1836 he was appointed Minister to France, a post which he held till 1842. He was on excellent terms with Louis Philippe, of whose character he gave a very friendly and favorable account in his