Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1858-11-18
A MAN OF LUCK.

In connection with some comments on the
recent illness of Gen. Cass, the Washington
correspondent of the New York Times gives
the following pretty faithful picture of the
veteran Secretary of State:
General Cass is wonderful old man. He
has not survived his immortality. He was
born a soldier, became a pedagogue, and
graduated as a backwoodsman. Taking to
politics as his natural element, and to Office
as his inheritance. he emerged from frontier
life as a Cabinet Minister, and in due course
of progression becams courtier Through
his varied experiences, caution, timidity, the
middle safe course, have been guiding stars
to General Cass and his chosen pathway
Adulation has always been stepping stone
to his ambition. While quietly voyagiug
about Northern lakes, making treaties with
Indians, Gen. Cass was writing private let
ters to Mr. Clay, congratulating him on his
vindcation from Mr. Buchanan's charges of
corruption. I have been told by his CON-
panion in these excursions among the dreary
wlds of the Northwest thatnever did word
escape him in those exciting times indicating
preference for man or party. In private
he congratulated Mr.. Clay, because Mr..
Clay had the actual power; but he knew
that Jackson was the man for the coming
time, and reserved himself.
True to the IN medic MttssimuS, when
jackson removed the deposits, Secretary Cass
paced the floor of his private Office in an
agony of doubt. The thunders of the op-
position and the terrors Of impeachment
were above and before him. He dared say
neither yea nor nay Jackson knew his man
and sent Gen. Cass to Paris. Here was an
other instance of his unfailing luck and his
tact. Jackson would have crushed to pow
Ger another man who had hesitated in that
emergency, but he only introduced Gen.
Cass to Louis Philippe.
His whole life has been luck. When he
left Detroit to take the War Department, he
gave orders to his agent to sell large tract
Of land adjoining the town. lie was to sell
it for $50, 900. After some time the agent
wrote that he had been offered $50, ,OOO.-
Gen Cass instantly replied, "Don't sell till
further orders" He would have quickly
taken his own fixed price, but being offered
more, he must look further. The property
is now covered by the best part of -four
ishipg city and is worth ss,0OO,O0O. Gen.
Cass is millionaire. While Governor and
indian Agent, enjoying an excellent salary,
he so managed his accounts as to strike a
balance against the Government of SGT ,OOO.
He patiently waited nearly two years, and
one fine morning during the halcyon days of
John Tyler, walked up to the Treasury pre-
sented his claim, and brought away the s67,-
600 in gold.
Studious and scholarly, he writes well, and
has taste for classical and elegant things.
In Paris, he turned diplomacy over to his
secretaries, and wrote book of elaborate
eulogy on Louis Philippe, which is really a
very fine biographical memoir. To further
employ his leisure, he took possession of the
flag ship of the American squadron in the
Mediterranean, and with his family explored
the blue Egean, and meditated amidst the
ruins of Greece, Italy and Ionia. He ex-
ploded, by protest. the Quintuple Treaty
and returned home to quarrel with Mr..
Webster, invent non-intervention, and run
for the Presidency.
In this last enterprise Gen. Cass' luck
failed him for the first time in his life. His
star paled before the meteor of Buena Vista.
Yet it was characteristic of the canuy thrift
of this veteran politician, that pending the
contest with General Taylor, he had appoint
ed l0cuns tenens to keep phis seat in the Sen.
ate warm, and when be wished to return to