L BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH EWIS CASS was governor of Michigan Territory for eighteen years (1813-31), during which time he bent his great energies to promote the settlement of Michigan. Cass was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, Oct. 9, 1782. His ancestors were of Puritan stock, early settlers of New England. His father was a commissioned officer in the Revolutionary Army and participated in the battles of Bunker Hill, Saratoga, Trenton, Princeton, Monmouth and Germantown. Lewis was the eldest in a family of three boys and two girls. His early education was received in Exeter Academy, New Hampshire. At the age of seventeen, he set out on foot over the Alleghanies to seek his future in the "Great West." He studied law at Marietta, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar when he was twenty years old. Four years later he was elected to the legisla ture of Ohio, which state had been recently admitted to the Union. He there originated the bill which inaugurated the movement that led to the defeat of the conspiracy of Aaron Burr. In 1807 President Jefferson appointed him Marshall of Ohio, a position which he held until the outbreak of the War of 1812. In the latter part of 1811 the Indians, attempting to recover lands ceded to the Government, attacked the American camps on the Wabash, and Kentucky and Ohio troops went to the rescue. Cass was among the first to reach the rendezvous at Dayton, and by acclamation was elected Colonel of the Third Regiment of Ohio Volunteers. Early in June the following year, anticipating the war with England, this Regiment with Cass in command marched two hundred miles through the wilderness to Detroit. Meantime war had been formally declared. Cass urged the immediate invasion of Canada, and was the author of the proclamation of that event. He was the first armed American to land on the Canada shore, and with a small detachment of troops fought and won the first battle. General Hull, for reasons which now have been quite generally accepted as mitigating his conduct, did not follow up these early successes. Cass was ordered by Hull to give up his sword to a British officer; the Colonel indignantly broke it. At the surrender of Detroit his command was included in the capitula Cass was paroled and went immediately to Washington to report the causes of the disaster. He was immediately appointed a Colonel in the Regular Army and was soon after promoted to Brigadier-General. Released from parole he again repaired to the frontier, and joined the army for the recovery of Michigan. The brilliant victory |