ambassador to France
Which position did Lewis Cass hold from Oct 1836 to Nov 1842?
Lewis Cass Lewis Cass ( October 9 , 1782June 17 , 1866 ) was an American military officer , politician , and statesman . He represented Michigan in the United States Senate and served in the Cabinets of two U.S . Presidents , Andrew Jackson and James Buchanan . He was also the 1848 Democratic presidential nominee and a leading spokesman for the Doctrine of Popular Sovereignty , which held that the people in each territory should decide whether to permit slavery . Born in Exeter , New Hampshire , he attended Phillips Exeter Academy before establishing a legal practice in Zanesville , Ohio . After serving in the Ohio House of Representatives , he was appointed as a U.S . Marshal . Cass also joined the Freemasons and would eventually co-found the Grand Lodge of Michigan . He fought at the Battle of the Thames in the War of 1812 and was appointed to govern Michigan Territory in 1813 . He negotiated treaties with Native Americans to open land for American settlement and led a survey expedition into the northwest part of the territory . Cass resigned as governor in 1831 to accept appointment as Secretary of War under Andrew Jackson . As Secretary of War , he helped implement Jacksons policy of Indian removal . After serving as ambassador to France from 1836 to 1842 , he unsuccessfully sought the presidential nomination at the 1844 Democratic National Convention ; a deadlock between supporters of Cass and former President Martin Van Buren ended with the nomination of James K . Polk . In 1845 , the Michigan Legislature elected Cass to the Senate , where he served until 1848 . Casss nomination at the 1848 Democratic National Convention precipitated a split in the party , as Casss advocacy for popular sovereignty alienated the anti-slavery wing of the party . Van Buren led the Free Soil Partys presidential ticket and appealed to many anti-slavery Democrats , possibly contributing to the victory of Whig nominee Zachary Taylor . Cass returned to the Senate in 1849 and continued to serve until 1857 when he accepted appointment as the Secretary of State . He unsuccessfully sought to buy land from Mexico and sympathized with American filibusters in Latin America . Cass resigned from the Cabinet in December 1860 in protest of Buchanans handling of the threatened secession of several Southern states . Since his death in 1866 , he has been commemorated in various ways , including with a statue in the National Statuary Hall . Early life . Cass was born on October 9 , 1782 , in Exeter , New Hampshire , just after the end of the American Revolution . His parents were Molly ( née Gilman ) Cass and Major Jonathan Cass , a Revolutionary War veteran who fought under General George Washington at Bunker Hill . Cass attended the private Phillips Exeter Academy . In 1800 , the family moved to Marietta , Ohio , part of a wave of westward migration after the end of the war and defeat of Native Americans in the Northwest Indian War . Cass studied law with Return J . Meigs Jr. , was admitted to the bar , and began a practice in Zanesville . Career . In 1806 , Cass was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives . The following year , President Thomas Jefferson appointed Cass as the U.S . Marshal for Ohio . He joined the Freemasons , an increasingly popular fraternal organization in that period , being initiated as an Entered Apprentice in what was later American Union Lodge No.1 at Marietta on December 5 , 1803 . He achieved his Fellow Craft degree on April 2 , 1804 , and his Master Mason degree on May 7 , 1804 . On June 24 , 1805 , he was admitted as Charter member of the Lodge of Amity 105 ( later No.5 ) , Zanesville . He served as the first Worshipful Master of the Lodge of Amity in 1806 . Cass was one of the founders of the Grand Lodge of Ohio , representing the Lodge of Amity at the first meeting on January 4 , 1808 . He was elected Deputy Grand Master on January 5 , 1809 , and Grand Master on January 3 , 1810 , January 8 , 1811 , and January 8 , 1812 . War of 1812 . When the War of 1812 began against the United Kingdom , Cass took command of the 3rd Ohio Volunteer Regiment . He became colonel of the 27th United States Infantry Regiment on February 20 , 1813 . Soon after , he was promoted to brigadier general in the Regular Army on March 12 , 1813 . Cass took part in the Battle of the Thames , a defeat of British and Native Indian forces . Cass resigned from the Army on May 1 , 1814 . Territorial Governor of Michigan . As a reward for his military service , Cass was appointed Governor of the Michigan Territory by President James Madison on October 29 , 1813 , serving until 1831 . As he was frequently traveling on business , several territorial secretaries often acted as governor in his place . During this period , he helped negotiate and implement treaties with Native American tribes in Michigan , by which they ceded substantial amounts of land . Some were given small reservations in the territory . In 1817 , Cass was one of the two commissioners ( along with Duncan McArthur ) , who negotiated the Treaty of Fort Meigs , which was signed on September 29 with several Native American tribes of the region , under which they ceded large amounts of territory to the United States . This helped open up areas of Michigan to settlement by Euro-Americans . That same year , Cass was named to serve as Secretary of War under President James Monroe , but he declined the appointment . In 1820 , Cass led an expedition to the northwestern part of Michigan Territory , in the Great Lakes region in todays northern Minnesota . Its purpose was to map the region and locate the source of the Mississippi River . The headwater of the great river was then unknown , resulting in an undefined border between the United States and British North America , which had been linked to the river . The Cass expedition erroneously identified what became known as Cass Lake as the Mississippis source . It was not until 1832 that Henry Rowe Schoolcraft , the Cass expeditions geologist , identified nearby Lake Itasca as the headwater of the Mississippi . Secretary of War . 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 implementing the Indian removal policy of the Jackson administration ; Congress had passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830 . While it was directed chiefly against the Southeastern tribes , especially the Five Civilized Tribes , it also affected tribes in Ohio , Illinois , and other areas east of the Mississippi River . Most were forced to Indian Territory in present-day Kansas and Oklahoma , but a number of bands negotiated being allowed to remain in Michigan . U.S . Minister to France . At the end of his term , President Jackson appointed Cass to succeed Edward Livingston as the U.S . Minister to France on October 4 , 1836 . He presented his credentials on December 1 , 1836 , and served until he left his post on November 12 , 1842 , when he was succeeded by William R . King , who later became the 13th Vice President of the United States under President Franklin Pierce . Presidential ambitions and U.S . Senate . In the 1844 Democratic convention Cass stood as a candidate for the presidential nomination , losing on the 9th ballot to dark horse candidate James K . Polk . Cass was elected by the state legislature to represent Michigan in the United States Senate , serving in 1845-48 . 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 in the 1848 election . William Orlando Butler was selected as his running mate . Cass was a leading supporter of the doctrine of popular sovereignty , which held that the American citizens who lived in a territory should decide whether to permit slavery there . His nomination caused a split in the Democratic Party , leading many antislavery Northern Democrats to join the Free Soil Party , which nominated former President Martin Van Buren . After losing the election to Zachary Taylor , Cass was returned by the state legislature to the Senate , serving from 1849 to 57 . He was the first non-incumbent Democratic presidential candidate to lose an election and the first Democrat who was unsuccessful in his bid to succeed another Democrat as President . Apart from James Buchanans election to succeed Franklin Pierce in 1856 , subsequent Democrats who attempted election to succeed another Democrat as President all failed in their bid to do so . Cass made another bid for president in 1852 but neither he nor rival Democratic contenders Buchanan and Stephen Douglas secured a majority of delegates votes at the Democratic Convention in Baltimore , and the party went with Franklin Pierce instead . U.S . Secretary of State . On March 6 , 1857 , President James Buchanan appointed Cass to serve as Secretary of State as a consolation prize for his previous presidential runs . Although retaining incumbent Secretary of State William L . Marcy was considered the best option by many , Buchanan made it clear that he did not want to keep anyone from the Pierce Administration . Moreover , Marcy had opposed his earlier presidential bids , and was in poor health in any event , ultimately dying in July 1857 . Cass , aged 75 , was seen by most as too old for such a demanding position and was thought to be likely be little more than a figurehead . Buchanan , weighing many of the other options for Secretary of State , considered that Cass was the best choice to avoid political infighting and sectional tensions . Buchanan , who did not particularly like Cass , nonetheless wrote a flattering letter offering him the post of Secretary of State , commenting that he was remarkably active and energetic for his advanced age . Cass , who was retiring from the Senate , but not eager to leave Washington and return home to Michigan , immediately accepted . Aware of his age and physical limitations , Cass agreed to delegate most of his powers as Secretary of State to an Assistant Secretary of State or the president himself . He also promised to refrain from making anti-British remarks in public ( having served in the War of 1812 , Cass had a low opinion of London ) . Most assumed Cass was a temporary Secretary of State until a younger , more fit man could be found , however , he ultimately served for all but the final four months of Buchanans administration . As expected , the aged Cass largely delegated major decision-making to subordinates , but eagerly signed his name on papers and dispatches penned by them . While sympathetic to American filibusters in Central America , he was instrumental in having Commodore Hiram Paulding removed from command for his landing of Marines in Nicaragua and compelling the extradition of William Walker to the United States . Cass attempted to buy more land from Mexico , but faced opposition from both Mexico and congressional leaders . He also negotiated a final settlement to the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty , limiting U.S . and British control of Latin American countries . The chiefs of Raiatea and Tahaa in the South Pacific , refusing to accept the rule of King Tamatoa V , unsuccessfully petitioned the United States to accept the islands under a protectorate in June 1858 . Cass resigned on December 14 , 1860 , because of what he considered Buchanans 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 . Personal life . On May 26 , 1806 , Cass married Elizabeth Spencer ( 1786–1853 ) , the daughter of Dr . Joseph Spencer Jr . and Deborah ( née Seldon ) Spencer . Her paternal grandfather was Joseph Spencer , a Continental Congressman who was a major general in the Continental Army . Lewis and Elizabeth were the parents of seven children , five of whom lived past infancy : - Isabella Cass ( 1805–1879 ) , who married Theodorus Marinus Roest van Limburg , a Dutch journalist , diplomat , and politician . - Elizabeth Selden Cass ( 1812–1832 ) - Lewis Cass , Jr . ( 1814–1878 ) , who served as an army officer and as U.S . Chargé dAffaires and Minister to the Papal States . - Mary Sophia Cass ( 1812–1882 ) , who married Army officer Augustus Canfield , an officer of the Corps of Topographical Engineers . - Matilda Frances Cass ( 1818–1898 ) , who married Henry Ledyard , the mayor of Detroit . - Ellen Cass ( 1821–1824 ) , who died young . - Spencer Cass ( 1828-1828 ) , who died in infancy . Cass died on June 17 , 1866 , in Detroit , Michigan . He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit , Michigan . Descendants . Through his daughter Matilda , he was the grandfather of Elizabeth Cass Ledyard ( wife of Francis Wayland Goddard ) ; Henry Brockholst Ledyard Jr . ( who was president of the Michigan Central Railroad ) ; Susan Livingston Ledyard ( wife of Hamilton Bullock Tompkins ) ; Lewis Cass Ledyard ( a prominent lawyer with Carter Ledyard & Milburn who was the personal counsel of J . Pierpont Morgan ) ; and Matilda Spancer Ledyard . Casss great-great grandson , Republican Thomas Cass Ballenger , represented North Carolinas 10th Congressional District from 1986 to 2005 . 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 President Gerald Ford , the only U.S . president to come from Michigan. ) - The Liberty ship - He is the eponym of the village of Casstown , Ohio , the community of Cassville , West Virginia , Cassopolis , Michigan , and Cass County , Michigan , as well as Cass City , Michigan , and the Cass River that runs around the surrounding area . - Cass Avenue in Detroit . Cass Avenue in Mt . Clemens . - The Lewis Cass Legacy Society , which supports The Michigan Masonic Charitable Foundation , was named for his support of Michigan Freemasonry . - Bartow County , Georgia was originally named Cass County after Lewis Cass , but was changed in 1861 after Francis Bartow died as a Confederate war hero and due to Casss alleged opposition to slavery , even though he was an advocate of states rights via the doctrine of popular sovereignty . Cassville , Georgia is an unincorporated community in the same county , was originally the county seat before the name was changed from Cass County . The seat was moved to Cartersville , Georgia after General Sherman destroyed Cassville in his Atlanta Campaign of 1864 . - Cass Technical High School in Detroit , Cass High School in Bartow County , Georgia , Lewis Cass High School in Walton , Indiana , and Lewis Cass Elementary in Livonia , Michigan were named in honor of Lewis Cass . - Cass Street in Milwaukee , WI was named in honor of Lewis Cass . - The Lewis Cass Building , a principal state office building in the Lansing , Michigan capitol government complex . It was renamed on June 30 , 2020 to the Elliott-Larsen Building . - Lewis Cass is the namesake of counties in the following states : Indiana , Iowa , Minnesota , Missouri , Nebraska , Illinois , Michigan , and Texas . However , Cass County , North Dakota , was named for his nephew . - Lewis Cass is the namesake of Cass Street in Green Bay , Wisconsin . Other honors and memberships . - Elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1820 . - Elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1826 .