CHAPTER VI.

LEWIS CASS,

THE COURTEOUS.

It is an invigorating exercise, to attempt the analytical portraiture of great logical powers; and it is an exhilarating one, to describe adroit talents employed in splendid declamation. But, to many persons, it is not less pleasing to contemplate simple statesmanship habitually adorned with decided good nature.

We propose to sketch the career of General Cass as a civilian, military chieftain, and patriotic statesman.

He was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, Oct. 9th, 1782. His ancestors were among the first settlers of that part of the country. It is said that his father bore a commission in the revolutionary army, which he joined the day after the battle of Lexington, and in which he continued until the close of the war, having borne a part in the battles of Bunker Hill, Saratoga, Trenton, Princeton, Monmouth, and Germantown. In 1799, he moved with his family to Ohio, and settled in the vicinity of Zanesville, where, after a life of honor and usefulness, he died, August, 1830.

The son of whom we are speaking, was educated

mainly at the Academy of Exeter, and studied law at Marietta, under the late Governor Meigs. He was admitted to the bar in 1802, and pursued the practice of his profession for several years with distinguished suc

cess.

He was elected a member of the Ohio Legislature in 1806. About this time the movements of Colonel Burr began greatly to alarm the country. Mr. Cass was appointed on the committee to which the subject was referred, and drafted the law by which the local authorities were enabled to arrest the party and boats on their passage down the Ohio. Having thus timely baffled a project which was deemed of a revolutionary character, designed to separate the west from the east, the same pen drafted the address to Mr. Jefferson, which unfolded the views of the Ohio Legislature on this important subject.

Mr. Cass was appointed Marshal of the State, in 1807, which office he resigned in 1813. In 1812, he volunteered in the force called out to join the army under General Hull, and marched to Dayton, where he was elected Colonel of the 3d regiment of the Ohio volunteers.

Thus have we arrived at the period when his military service was fairly begun. His prevailing trait of courteous patriotism was developed from the first. The history of that expedition says: "Having to break through an almost trackless wilderness, the army suffered much on its route to Detroit, and it was necessary that the officers of the volunteers should be exemplars in fatigue and privations, lest the men, unused to military discipline

should turn back in discouragement. Colonel Cass was among the most urgent for an invasion of the Canadian province, immediately after the army arrived at Detroit ; but General Hull did not cross the river, until after the lapse of several days, and thereby lost all the advantages of a prompt and decisive movement. The advanced detachment was commanded by Colonel Cass, and he was the first man who landed, in arms, on the enemy's shore after the declaration of war. On entering Canada, General Hull distributed a proclamation, among the inhabitants, which, at the time, had much notoriety, and was generally ascribed to Colonel Cass: it is now known that he wrote it. Whatever opinions may have been entertained of the inglorious descent from promise to fulfillment, it was generally regarded as a high spirited and eloquent document. Colonel Cass soon dislodged the British posted at the bridge over the Canards. There he maintained his ground, in expectation that the army would advance and follow up the success, by striking at Malden; but he was disappointed by the indecision of the general, who ordered the detachment to return."

Immediately after this disastrous movement, Colonel Cass repaired to Washington, and reported the proceedings to Government. In the following spring his position was changed, being appointed colonel of the 27th regiment of infantry, and soon after he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. He joined General Harrison, at Seneca, and crossing Lake Erie with him, after Perry's victory, was present in the pursuit of Proctor, and participated in the triumph at the Moravian