CASS, LEWIS (1782-1866). An American statesman. He was born on October 9, 1782, at Exeter, N. II., and was the son of Jonathan Cass. a blacksmith by trade, who joined the Revolutionary Army, rose to the rank of cap tain before the close of the war, reentered the military service, removed to Ohio. and attained the rank of major. The son attended Phillips Exeter Academy. taught school for several months at Wilmington, Del., and followed his father to Marietta, Ohio, in 1799 or 1800. He studied law in the office of R. J. Meigs, later Governor of Ohio, was admitted to the bar in 1S02. and in 1804 was elected prosecuting at torney of Muskingum County. Two years later he was elected a member of the Ohio Legislature. and in the same year married a (laughter of the Revolutionary leader General Spencer. As a member of the Legislature, Cass was active in the advocacy of measures to thwart the intrigues of Aaron Burr (q.v.), and, in recognition of his service's, President Jefferson appointed him in 1807 to a Federal marshalship, which he held for six years. In the War of 1812 Cass entered the service as colonel of Ohio volunteers, took part in Hull's disastrous attempt to invade Canada, strongly condemned that officer's surrender of Detroit, and was the chief witness against the defendant in the Hull court-martial at Albany, N. Y. (See HULL, WILLIAm.) He was ap pointed major-general of Ohio militia in Decem ber, 1812, a colonel in the regular army in February, 1813, and a brigadier-general in the regular army in :March, 1813; took an active part in the campaign of 1813 under General larrison (q.v.), and on October 2!) of that year was appointed Governor of the Territory of .Michigan. Relations with the English and the Indians, as well as the internal conditions of a frontier territory, made the office particularly burdensome and enhaneed the value of his ser vices therein. During his long term of ollice he administered the affairs of the territory under his (which even after the organiza tion of Indiana in ISIS included all the land as far west as the Mississippi and north of the northern line of Illinois) with the greatest abil ity and good judgment, making as many as twenty-two important treaties with the Indians, establishing an orderly and efficient civil govern ment, and steadily upholding thm dignity of the national Government against the frequent and un warranted encroachments of the British author ities in Canada. In 1831, upon the reorganiza
tion of Jackson's Cabinet. he was appointed Sec retary of War, which office he held during the Black Ilawk and first Semtnole wars and the nullification movement in South Carolina. In 1 S36 he was sent by Jackson as Minister to Frame. and during Ids residence in Paris at tracted attention abroad, besides winning great popularity at home, by protesting vigorously against the quintuple treaty for the suppression of the slave trade, which involved the right of search, and which, owing largely to the influence of Cass, the Freneh Government refused to rati fy. lle resigned in 1842. owing to his emphatic disapproval of the Ashburton Treaty just nego tiated by the Secretary of State, Mr. Webster. He was informally proposed for the Presidency as early as 1842, but although, by favoring the annexation of Texas. he placed himself in har mony with the controlling element of his party, he failed to secure the Democratic nomination in Di t4. 'Michigan, in the following February, elected him to the United States Senate, where he upheld the extreme American claims to the territory of the far Northwest. He opposed the Wilmot Proviso (q.v.) as untimely, and in a letter of December 24, 1847, to Mr. A. O. P. Nicholson, of Nashville, Tenn., first definitely formulated the doctrine which later been Hie known as that of 'squatter sovereignty.' fhe Democratic Convention of 154S nominated him for the Presidency, but the Van Burenites, or 'Barnburners' (q.v.), of New York. bolted the Democratic ticket, and the Whig candidate, Gen eral Taylor, was elected.