Lewis Cass

Infobox US Cabinet official
name=Lewis Cass

---

order=2nd
title=Governor of Michigan Territory
term_start=October 29, 1813
term_end=August 6, 1831
predecessor=William Hull
successor=George Bryan Porter
order2=14th
title2=United States Secretary of War
term_start2=August 1, 1831
term_end2=October 5, 1836
president2=Andrew Jackson
predecessor2=John Henry Eaton
successor2=Joel Roberts Poinsett
ambassador_from3=United States
country3=France
term_start3=October 4, 1836
term_end3=November 12, 1842
predecessor3=Edward Livingston
successor3=William R. King
president3=Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler
jr/sr4 =United States Senator
state4=Michigan
term_start4 = March 4, 1845
term_end4 = May 29, 1848
January 20, 1849ndash March 3, 1857
preceded4 = Augustus S. Porter (1845)
Thomas Fitzgerald (1849)
succeeded4 = Thomas Fitzgerald (1848)
Zachariah Chandler (1857)
order5 = 46th President pro tempore of the United States Senate
term_start5 = December 4, 1854
term_end5 = December 4, 1854
vicepresident5 = vacant
predecessor5 = David R. Atchison
successor5 = Jesse D. Bright
order6=22nd
title6=United States Secretary of State
term_start6=March 6, 1857
term_end6=December 14, 1860
president6=James Buchanan
predecessor6=William L. Marcy
successor6=Jeremiah S. Black
birth_date=birth date|1782|10|9|mf=y
birth_place=Exeter, New Hampshire U.S.
death_date=death date and age|1866|06|17|1782|10|09
death_place=Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
party=Democratic
spouse=Eliza Spencer Cass
profession=Politician, Lawyer

Lewis Cass (October 9, 1782 – June 17, 1866) was an American military officer and politician. During his long political career, Cass served as a governor of the Michigan Territory, an American ambassador, and a U.S. Senator representing Michigan. He was the nominee of the Democratic Party for President of the United States in 1848. [ [http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=93&keyword=cass Cass, Lewis, 1782-1866 ] ]

Early life

Cass was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, where he attended Phillips Exeter Academy. His parents were Major Jonathan Cass and Molly Gilman. In 1800 he moved with his family to Marietta, Ohio. On May 26, 1806, he married the former Elizabeth Spencer.Heidler, David S., and Heidler, Jeanne T. (eds.) (2004). "Encyclopedia of the War of 1812", pp. 83-84. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1591143624.]

Territorial governor

During the War of 1812, Cass served as a brigadier general and participated in the Battle of the Thames. As a reward for his service, he was appointed Governor of the Michigan Territory by President James Madison on October 29, 1813, and served until 1831. He was frequently absent, and several territorial secretaries often served as acting governor in his place.

In 1817, he was one of two commissioners (along with Duncan McArthur) who negotiated the Treaty of Fort Meigs, which was signed September 29 of that year with several Native American tribes.

In 1820, he led an expedition to the northern part of the territory, in the northern Great Lakes region in present-day northern Minnesota, in order to map the region and discover the source of the Mississippi River. The source of the river had been unknown until then, resulting in an undefined border between the United States and British North America. The expedition erroneously identified Cass Lake as the source of the river. The source of the river was correctly identified in 1832 by Henry Schoolcraft, who had been Cass's expedition geologist, as nearby Lake Itasca.

Later political career

On August 1, 1831, Cass resigned as governor of the Michigan Territory to take the post of Secretary of War under President Andrew Jackson, a position he would hold until 1836. Cass was a central figure in formulating and implementing the Indian removal policy of the Jackson administration. Next, Cass was appointed ambassador to France, which he remained until 1842.

His great-great grandson Cass Ballenger was a U.S. Representative from North Carolina.

Cass represented Michigan in the United States Senate from 1845 to 1848. He served as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs in the 30th Congress. In 1848, he resigned from the Senate to run for President. William Orlando Butler was his running mate. [Kleber, John E. (ed.) (1992). "The Kentucky Encyclopedia", p. 146. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813117720, ISBN 9780813117720.] Cass was a leading supporter of the Doctrine of Popular Sovereignty, which held that the people who lived in a territory should decide whether or not to permit slavery there. [Klunder, Willard Carl (1996). "Lewis Cass and the Politics of Moderation", pp. 266-67. Kent State University Press. ISBN 0873385365, ISBN 9780873385367.] His nomination caused a split in the Democratic party, leading many antislavery Democrats to join the Free Soil Party. He also supported the annexation of Texas.

After losing the election to Zachary Taylor, he returned to the Senate, serving from 1849 to 1857. He was the first non-incumbent Democratic presidential candidate to lose an election.

From 1857 to 1860, Cass served as Secretary of State under President James Buchanan. He was sympathetic to American filibusterers and was instrumental in having Commodore Hiram Paulding removed from command for his landing of marines in Nicaragua and compelling the removal of William Walker to the United States. [ [http://www.fas.org/man/crs/crs_931007.htm Collier, Ellen C. (1993) "Instances of Use of United States Forces Abroad, 1798 - 1993" "CRS Issue Brief" Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, Washington DC] ] Cass resigned on December 13, 1860, because of Buchanan's failure to protect federal interests in the South and failure to mobilize the federal military, actions that might have averted the threatened secession of Southern states. [Cass's resignation statement, quoted in McLaughlin, Andrew Cunningham (1899) "Lewis Cass" Houghton, Mifflin, Boston, pp. 345-346, [http://worldcat.org/oclc/4377268 OCLC 4377268] , (standard library edition, first edition was published in 1891)]

Cass died in 1866 and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan.

Commemoration

* A statue of Cass is one of the two that were submitted by Michigan to the National Statuary Hall collection in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. It stands in the National Statuary Hall room. (The other statue is of Zachariah Chandler, which is in the Hall of Columns. The Chandler statue will eventually be replaced by a statue of President Gerald Ford.)
* The Liberty ship ""

ee also

* List of places named for Lewis Cass
*Origins of the American Civil War

Notes

References

* [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/sw-sa/Cass.htm Secretaries of War and Secretaries of the Army]