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ledge. From that college he subsequently received the honorary degree of LL. D. He had previously been admitted an honorary member of the American Philosophical Society, in Philadelphia; of the New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Indiana Historical Societies; of the American Antiquarian Society; and of the Columbian Institute.

In July, 1831, having been appointed secretary of war by President Jackson, Governor CASS resigned his office as governor of the territory, after having administered it for eighteen years. When he began his administration, he found the country small in population, without resources, and almost sunk under the devastations of war. He left it with a wide-spread population, and thriving with unprecedented prosperity. This auspicious condition may not all be attributed to executive instrumentality. But an administration, impartial, vigilant, pervading, and intelligent, may be fairly supposed to have shed a happy influence on all around. It will be long remembered in Michigan, where its termination was universally regretted.

The duties of the war department were discharged by General Cass, at two of the most critical periods of our history, with consummate skill and tact. During the state-rights issue in South Carolina, he was the chief person engaged in sending a deputation from the old dominion to mediate between the state and the general government; while his instructions to General Scott, who had been sent down to South Carolina by General Jackson, expressly prohibited all interference with the civil institutions of the state. He exhibited the same high regard for the rights of the states in the contest between the general government and Governor Gayle, of Alabama, on the subject of the intrusion on the Indians. His orders were again given to the commanding officer to obey the civil authorities in all respects, and to admit any state officer with process into his fort, to execute the law. Indeed the testimony may be borne to General CASS, that, contrary to military leaders in general, he has always placed the civil authority above the military.

In October, 1836, General CASS was appointed minister from our government to France, an important post, which he filled till December, 1842. Perhaps no minister, since the time of Doctor Franklin, enjoyed the respect and confidence of the government and people of France to as high a degree as the General; none could be more universally admired for his love of freedom; and none therefore could be better enabled to render essential services to his own country. He was consulted on every important question of state, and his opinions regarded with the highest deference. Thus he was enabled by the force of argument, and the weight of his high character, to break down

the quintuple treaty, already concluded and partially signed by the five great powers of Europe-England, France, Russia, Austria and Prussia-which would have constituted England permanent mistress of the sea, by giving her the control over the police of the ocean. General CASS caused this treaty for the Right of Search, and the impunity of insulting our flag on the high waters, to be annulled, and another treaty to be substituted for it, in virtue of which our own ships of war were charged with the execution of our own laws.

On his return to the United States, General CASS was nominated for the presidency, and received one hundred and twenty-five votes at the Baltimore convention in 1844; but Mr. Polk received the final nomination, and General Cass at once came forward in support of the nominee, addressing the people of the west in his behalf. In the same year he was elected a United States senator from Michigan, and took his seat in 1845, with Mr. Polk for president. In the session of 1845– 46, he rendered most important services on the Oregon question, and adhered to the last to his firm conviction that the United States were lawfully entitled to the whole territory up to latitude fifty-four degrees and forty minutes. The probability is that England would never have conceded the boundary of forty-nine, which was finally agreed on, but for his firmness. During the Mexican war, the General supported Mr. Polk's administration, being chairman of the military committee of the

senate.

In 1848 General CASS was nominated for the presidency against General Taylor, then fresh from the battle fields of Mexico, and supported, in some states, as a democratic candidate for that high office. He received the electoral votes of half the states of the Union, even though a portion of the Democracy organized on a sectional issue, and voted for an independent candidate. In 1852, he was again before the Baltimore Convention, and received a larger number of votes than any other man, but the choice ultimately fell on General Pierce. But his greatest triumph was achieved during the session of congress immediately following the election of General Taylor; when pending the agitation of the slavery question, which threatened our domestic peace and the perpetuity of the Union, he led on to victory by inducing the legislature to adopt the platform on which he had stood on the Presidential canvass. He was also the first statesman of the North who declared what was called the Wilmot Proviso unconstitutional; his speech was unanswerable, and tended greatly to restore the threatened peace of the country. In voting against the Wilmot Proviso, he acted

was fully prepared to resign his seat in the senate and return to private life, rather than to act so as, in his judgment, would do violence to the constitution, and injure the rights of his Southern brethern. His arguments, however, convinced the people of his state that they had been in the wrong, and the legislature of Michigan repealed the instructions before the vote on the measures of adjustment was finally taken in the United States Senate. He has often given full evidence that honors have no attractions for him, when, in his judgment, they conflict with his duty to his country. With him the post of duty is always that of honor.

General CASS was reëlected to the United States Senate in 1851. The election took place in advance of the organization of the legislature, and even before the House had elected its speaker. No living American statesman more entirely fills the public eye, at home and abroad, than General CASS; none is more thoroughly wedded to republican liberty, or is considered an abler representative of the democratic principle of self-government. In him the cause of freedom has found a champion, whose fame, while borne triumphantly aloft in his own country, has penetrated the prison walls of the oppressed of other climes, till even children have been taught to lisp his name with

reverence.

All the relations of private life, are sustained by General Cass in a manner which secures high and universal esteem. With great powers of mind, grasping every object to which they are applied, and preventing its escape, if it can benefit his country, or his own neighborhood, all are compelled to love him. No one who knows him, will attempt to detract from his fair fame; such an attempt, indeed, would fail of success, for high morals, entire freedom from bigotry, generous hospitality, and almost boundless benevolence, secure to him the warm affections of his immediate neighbors; and the prayer of millions is, that he may long enjoy life in his family, in his museum, and in the senate of his country.

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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.

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