In January, 1849, Cass was elected to the Senate, to till the vacancy caused by his own resignation upon entering the Presidential cam paign, and two years later he was again elected for the full term. lie favored Clay's compro mise measures of 1850 (q.v.) upheld the Fugitive Slave Law (q.v.), and went with those of his party who voted for the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, Ile was a candidate for the Presidential nomination in the Democratic Convention of 18511, and his defeat was intensified by the election in Mield gan of a Legislature strongly Republican, which resulted in his retirement from the Senate. Pres ident Buchanan called him to the Cabinet as Secretary of State, an office which he resigned in December, 1860, upon the President's refusal to reinforce the forts at Charleston, S. C. Ibis closing years were spent in Detroit, where he was a pronounced supporter of the Union in the face of those who were at war against it. Ile died in Detroit, June 17, 1866, in his eighty year.
His latest biographer. MeLaughlin, estimates his character in the following words: "lie was a great American statesman, building up and Americanizing an important section of his coun try, struggling in places of trust for the recog nition of American dignity and for the develop ment of generous nationalism. With the great slavery contest Ids name is inseparably con nected; he stood with Webster and Clay for Union, for coneiliation. for the Constitution as it seemed to he established. Ile 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 nation al dignity, and imlon•1 the people with a sense of their power." Ile has frequently been called
a 'dough-face,' and a 'Northern man with South ern principles,' but, though he appears to have courted the Southern vote, his attitude seems never to have been one of weak subserviency. Ilk persistent and thorough distrust and dislike of Great Britain, his belief in the doctrine of 'manifest destiny,' and the fact that he belonged to the older school of conservative statesmen, who put the integrity of the Union before everything else, are perhaps truer explanations of his political career." Besides numerous maga zine articles on Western and Indian affairs, he published Inquiries Concerning the History, Traditions, and Languages of the Indians Living Withiii the United States (1823), and France: Its King, Court, and Government (1840). Throughout his life lie was deeply interested in American history, and his various publications are still of value, "real additions to knowledge," says his biographer. Ile was also an outspoken advocate of temperance. Ris life has been writ ten in the American Statesmen Series, by An drew C. McLaughlin (Boston, 1891), who studies his career as that of a "representative pioneer in the old Northwest," one of the chief purposes of the volume being to show the development of that region and to trace the growth of its polit ical life. Before the death of General Cass, W. L. G. Smith wrote the Life and Times of Lewis Cass (New York, 1856), in the prepara tion of which he had access to a diary which was kept by Cass on a tour in the Levant. School craft published the Outlines of ('ass's Life and Character (Albany, 1848) and Young, the Life and Public Service of Gen. Letais Cass (Detroit, 1852).