CHAPTER XV

GENERAL LEWIS CASS AND REORGANIZATION

A period of conflict always leaves behind it changed and unsettled conditions. Between the close of a war and the final readjustment of affairs leading up to a settled and permanent life, there must be a time of reorganization. Into this period of reconstruction the western territory about the Great Lakes passed at the close of the War of 1812. Since the Ordinance of 1787 the Northwest Territory had been subdivided. Ohio had become a state in 1802, and the region west of it had all been included in a territory under the general name of Indiana, of which section William Henry Harrison was the first governor. From Indiana, in its turn, Michigan was set off in 1805, with William Hull as its first governor. On Hull’s retirement from public life, after the surrender of Detroit, Colonel Lewis Cass was appointed governor of Michigan Territory. As the man who had most influence on the Northwest during these years of reconstruction, Governor Cass deserves detailed notice.

Born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1782, Lewis Cass was the son of a soldier of the Revolution. During his son’s boyhood Major Cass, the father, was with Anthony Wayne or in command of Fort Hamilton, and after the peace of Greenville he brought his family, as did so many of the soldiers, to the rich country through which he had marched in war time. The young man divided his time between Marietta, where he began the study of law, and the frontier, where his father was hewing a home and making a living out of the wilderness. Under the state constitution of Ohio the first certificate of admission to the bar was given in 1802 to Lewis Cass. In the school of the county court the young lawyer gained a first-hand knowledge of the practice of the law and an understanding of the people of the frontier and how to deal with them, both of which served him well in his governorship. Even before he reached the proper age of eligibility he was sent to the Ohio legislature, and at the outbreak of the War of 1812 he was given a colonel’s commission.

Cass was one of the three Ohio colonels who served with Hull in the ill-starred Detroit expedition. Indeed, he led one of the few successful minor charges of that campaign. To his great indignation he was included by his general in that surrender, although he was not at the fort. For some months he was prisoner of war on parole. As soon as he was released he joined Harrison, under whom he did such efficient service that Harrison left him after the battle of the Thames in command of Detroit and the northwest frontier. The President soon appointed Cass governor of Michigan Territory, which then included only the lower peninsula of the present state, but to which the territory that is now Wisconsin was added in 1818 under the name of the Huron District.

Indiana became a state two years after the close of the war, but as governor of Michigan Territory and superintendent of Indian affairs General Cass had control of all Indian posts in the Northwest, as well as of the whole of Michigan, Wisconsin, and northern Illinois. Illinois became a state in 1818, but at that time the only recognized settlements were in the southern portion of the territory, and the region about Chicago was practically left to the care of General Cass. The management of this vast territory presented many difficulties. The governor’s immediate residence, Detroit, was four-fifths Canadian, and of this population a large proportion was French. It was only fifty years since Major Gladwin had taken possession of a Detroit that was wholly French, and when the Americans took command in 1796 they had found a large predominance of French-Canadians. These settlers were in the best of times poor farmers, and in war times they had stopped all attempts to cultivate the land. Governor Cass found among them the most absolute ignorance of the rudimentary principles of farming that he had ever encountered. They used one piece of ground, without the least attempt to fertilize, until it was exhausted, and then proceeded to another. As these settlers of Detroit were typical of the more scattered inhabitants of the region, and as the Indians were almost entirely dependent on the gifts and supplies of the ruling people, Cass found himself confronted by the problem of how to feed a starving territory. For its immediate need he sought and obtained government bounties for the people. For the remedy of the condition he did everything in his power to stimulate settlement, urging the government to survey the land and allot portions for sale. In this he was hindered by the false reports of the first surveyors, who for some reason represented the whole of Michigan as so swampy, barren, or otherwise unfit for cultivation that there could be no incentive to immediate settlement. This, be it remembered, was said of Michigan, whose rich bottom-lands, fertile prairies, and timber tracts were soon to be so productive and whose orchards were to become among the greatest fruit producers of the states. Cass did everything in his power to counteract these statements and to further immigration. Occupation of the land by thrifty settlers would solve the difficulties by making the inhabitants independent as they became capable of producing what they needed, and would also lessen their isolation by creating lines of communication with the East. In these efforts he was successful. A public sale of lands was held in 1818, and by 1820 the population had nearly doubled since before the war. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 brought in a period of rapid immigration in which Cass began to see the fulfilment of his hopes. The population jumped from nine thousand in 1820 to thirty-two thousand in 1830. This came just before he was called to the position of Secretary of War at Washington. During his period of national service he had the satisfaction of seeing his territory flooded with newcomers, till in 1837 it entered the Union as a state with one hundred and seventy-five thousand inhabitants. It was due to the statesmanship of its governor that Michigan Territory was so well-ordered and well-developed a region and was therefore so soon ready for statehood. He educated the original settlers to self-government, organized courts and legislative assemblies and guided their policies, and furthered the cause of public education. During the eighteen years of his governorship he devoted himself to such service with a zeal that won immediate results.

In his double position as governor and superintendent of Indian affairs, Cass did much else for the western lake region. Even after the cessation of hostilities, he found the British attitude hostile and aggravating. This showed itself in two ways. The British were inclined to ignore the rights of the United States citizens and to interfere with their liberty when the proximity of the two nations brought up any disputed question; they also stirred the Indians to hostility. Governor Cass stood out boldly, insisting that the United States must be treated according to the customs of international law between two equal powers. In time the British came to realize that they were dealing with a nation, not with a detached and feeble territory. Governor Cass could not handle so openly the British instigation of the Indians to hostility toward the United States and its western settlers. There was no law to prevent the distribution of sixty tons of presents among the Indians who gathered at Malden from the American as well as from the Canadian side of the river. The British did not realize that the time had come for them to give up their guardianship of all Indian tribes who did not live within their lawful jurisdiction.

In the conduct of Indian affairs Governor Cass showed himself skilled as no leader had been since the days of the wise French explorers. The Indians had never forgotten the French missionaries. “Seven generations,” said a Chippewa chief, “have passed since the Frenchmen came to these falls (Sault Ste. Marie), but we have not forgotten them. Just, very just, were they to us.” This spirit of fairness now returned in Governor Cass, who combined with it an insight into Indian character, a patience that enabled him to deal with the savages, and an energy which made him go to endless trouble to arrange matters with them. The work of this wonderful man held off raids and massacres,--if not open and continued war,--which would have retarded settlement in this exposed wilderness for many years. If the white men were to occupy the greater part of the country, agreements must be made and kept with the Indians. Cass recognized this as his cardinal principle, and began to act on it even before the close of the war. He first made treaties with the Indians near Detroit. From this centre the circle widened until it included the whole of his vast territory and parts of more settled regions. At St. Mary’s in Ohio, at Saginaw in Michigan, and at Chicago in Illinois, he concluded treaties which brought to the United States vast stretches of valuable territory.

With the permission of the government Cass organized an expedition to go into the remote sections of its northwestern possessions, investigate their resources, and come into friendly relations with the Indians. Of this picturesque and important expedition made by twenty Americans into the then unknown Lake Superior country Mr. Schoolcraft, one of his scientific companions, has left us a full account. In every transaction the figure of Cass stands out strong and forceful. At Sault Ste. Marie he wanted to obtain a piece of ground which through old British and French treaties the Indians had previously admitted to belong to the white men. Adorned with British medals the Indians greeted him with an independence of word and gesture that soon became open rudeness and impudence. Retiring from the council the chiefs ran up the British flag on their lodge and cleared the room in preparation for battle. Governor Cass, with a single interpreter, walked into the Indian camp, tore down the British flag, and faced the astonished savages. The Americans were studious, he said, to render justice and promote peace with the Indians, but the flag was the distinguishing token of national power, and two could not fly over the same spot. The Indians were forbidden to raise any flag but the American, and if they should the United States would put strong feet on their necks and crush them to earth. With these words he turned and walked out of the lodge with the British flag in his hand. In a few hours the Indians signed the treaty, and the expedition proceeded on its way.

At the request of Cass mineralogists and geologists had been sent with him, and they made such discoveries as he had expected of copper and other minerals. So valuable were they that the attention of the whole United States was turned toward this rich region. Part of the company, led by Cass, returned by way of Chicago, a village of only ten or twelve houses outside the limits of a well-garrisoned fort, but with a location in what seemed to Cass “the most fertile and beautiful country that could be imagined.”

Six years later Cass was back on Lake Superior making on the site of Duluth important treaties with the tribes of Wisconsin and Minnesota. In all these treaties with the Indians he insisted on three points. The chiefs should understand fully what they were doing; just remuneration should be made by the Americans; and the promises made should be faithfully observed on both sides. The flag that he carried into the lake region remained during his administration the symbol of justice and honor, and won the respect of all.