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listen to the request. The army was new, most of the officers and soldiers had been suddenly collected from various parts of the country, and he considered the example of more importance than any risk he may have felt he was encountering.

General Harrison, in his official report to the Secretary of War, spoke of General Cass as an officer of the highest merit, cheering and animating every breast. He put him in the same class of merit with Perry; and none, surely, could ever be higher. And an eye-witness, writing some years afterwards, says, "I well recollect General Cass, of the north-western army. He was conspicuous at the landing of the troops on the Canada shore, below Malden, on the 27th of September, and conspicuous at the battle of the Thames, as the volunteer aid of the commanding general. I saw him in the midst of the battle, in the deep woods, upon the banks of the Thames, during the roar and clangor of fire-arms and savage yells of the enemy. Then I was a green youth of seventeen, and a volunteer from Kentucky."

General Cass, although but then just entering upon the thirtysecond year of his life, and bred to the peaceful profession of the law-having, as we have seen, devoted most of his time before the war to books and the cultivation of his mind-evinced all the courage and steadiness of a veteran. His sterling patriotism, strong intellect, and extended popularity as a civilian, contributed to give him prominence at the commencement of hostilities, and he had the integrity and good sense not to abuse the confidence of his companions, or prove recreant in his duty to the government.

CHAPTER VI.

General Cass in Command of North-western Frontier-Detroit his Head-quarters-Letter from Governor Meigs Surprise of General Cass-Appointed Governor of Territory of Michigan-Acceptance-Resigns the Office of Marshal-Summoned to Albany as a Witness on Hull's Trial-His JourneyCuts open the Mail Bags-Reports the Burning of Buffalo from Cold Spring-Incident at the Genesee River, near Rochester-Arrival at Albany-His Testimony-The Charges-Sentence of Courtmartial-President's Action-An Examination of the Trial, its Proceedings, and Hull's DefenseHis imbecility.

The signal success of the American arms, so gloriously achieved on the Thames, restored to the United States all the posts which had been surrendered by General Hull. Six hundred British surrendered as prisoners of war. The slaughter among the Indians was great. A number of field-pieces, and several thousand stand of small arms were among the trophies, and all the standards except one, acquired by the enemy during the previous campaign, were recaptured.

General Harrison having now accomplished the object of the expedition, and being without orders from the War Department for his subsequent operations, left General Cass, with a part of his troops, in command of the north-western frontier, including the subjugated western district of Upper Canada, and proceeded down Lake Erie, to operate against the enemy on the Niagara frontier. General Cass fixed his head-quarters at Detroit. Here he remained employed in the arduous and responsible duties of such an extensive command, in a country surrounded by Indians and destitute of resources, with the whole hostile population of that portion of the British province to hold in submission. The destitution of the country was such that pen can hardly describe it, but it may, in some measure, be comprehended by the fact that even some of the troops were compelled, at one time, to resort to the precarious resource of fishing, as a means of subsistence.

While thus employed, one day in the month of October, 1813, sitting in his office opening and reading his mail, which had just arrived, and which came at such long intervals that its arrival was regarded as an important event, General Cass opened a letter from Governor Meigs, then in Washington, congratulating him

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upon his new appointment, without mentioning what it was. completed the reading of his mail without being further enlightened upon this point. Naturally anxious to know to what honorable position his government had assigned him, he awaited further information with a considerable degree of solicitude. But the post was so irregular in those times, that some two long weeks elapsed before its next arrival. When it came, as it finally did, however, it contained the unsolicited appointment of Governor of the Territory of Michigan. Gratified with this high mark of confidence in his capacity and integrity, and especially with the manner in which it was conferred by the government, General Cass accepted it. But he did so with much reluctance. He had settled, as he supposed, permanently in Ohio, a rapidly growing state, standing in the front rank of his profession, at variance with no person in private intercourse, and his family contented with their happy home. He had left it to give his country the benefit of his services in the hour of need, expecting at the end of the war to return to the pursuits of peace in the valley of the Muskingum. The idea that he should be killed, at no time occurred to his mind, and as to being taken and held as a prisoner or hostage, that thought was wholly inadmissible. He was averse, therefore, to remaining at Detroit, and making that his family abode. Nor did he decide to do so for some time afterwards. His soldierly frankness, his bravery and promptitude in the dark hour of emergency, and his courtesy and pleasing manners, had won the attachment and respect of all who became acquainted with him. And surrounded, as the people of the Territory were, by merciless savages, whose undeviating friendship could not be relied upon, however fair the promise, located on a distant frontier, and in constant fear of an attack from the inhuman marauders, they felt that General Cass, of all others, was just the man to be at the helm of state, and direct its course. Laying aside his own personal predilections, and over-ruling the wishes of his family, he yielded to the persuasions of his friends in Michigan, and entered upon his new duties. The civil organization of the Territory, and its military defense, devolved upon him.

These multiplied duties he continued to exercise until ordered by the government, in December, to repair to Albany, in the State of New York, to attend, as a witness, the trial of General Hull, before a court-martial.

In the meantime, now no longer intending to make Ohio his residence, he resigned the office of marshal of that State, which had been bestowed on him in 1807, by President Jefferson.

In the course of a few days, General Cass, in company with others ordered on the same duty, started from Detroit to proceed to Albany. The journey was long and tedious, and performed on horseback, each person carrying his own provisions, until they reached Cleveland. At Brownstown, they met the post, and General Cass, for the first and only time in his life, cut the mail bags and examined the contents, so far as to learn whether there were any despatches for himself. The road, from that point to the river Raisin, a mere Indian path, was, for one third of the distance, a continuous swamp. Slightly frozen, horse and rider would frequently become mired, and both wet and chilled with the water and wintry cold of that northern latitude. On the third day, at evening, they were so fortunate as to reach Fort Meigs, and the condition of the country through which they were traveling was such that, on proceeding forward from thence, they would only make ten or a dozen miles distance between sun and sun, for several days. Sometimes, at night, they could not find a spot of dry ground large enough to accommodate their encampment. Each would be compelled to seek out a place for himself; and General Cass having become pretty well accustomed to the hap-hazard life of the frontier, and its exhaustless expedients to hold body and soul together, under such circumstances, would spread his saddle blanket at the root of some tree, where the prospect was the most promising, and take up his lodgings for the night. As to kindling a fire, that, on several occasions, was impossible. The only comfortable night's rest they had before they reached Cleveland, was under the roof of an humble log dwelling, at Sandusky Bay. At Cleveland, the party were so fortunate as to procure a sleigh and driver, and hastened on with more rapid pace and accommodations to Erie, far-famed as the port from whence Perry embarked his gallant fleet to meet Barclay. Proceeding on their journey along the southern coast of Lake Erie, they arrived in Buffalo, and found it in ruins, the next day after the British incendiaries had applied the torch to the wooden buildings which composed the village. Only one tenement had been spared by the vindictive and relentless foe. General Cass and his party halted at Cold Spring, some three miles easterly from the conflagration,

and there found many of the citizens of Buffalo, with their families, suddenly driven from their homes in the dead of winter, and destitute, in many instances, of provisions and ordinary wearing apparel. By special request, he cheerfully communicated to the Secretary of War the condition of the town and vicinity. It was a scene of destruction and distress, he said, such as he never before witnessed. After passing a day amid this scene of distress and desolation, General Cass resumed his journey. He traveled by the way of Batavia and Canandaigua. Years afterwards, he crossed the Genesee river at Rochester, the bridge constructed over this stream of water at Carthage having fallen a few days before. What was more remarkable and equally fortunate to its builder, was that he warranted the bridge to stand for one year, as it was said, and that year had expired a day or two before it fell. Passing on, the party proceeded over Seneca lake and Onondaga hill to Utica, and thence to Albany, which place they reached soon after the commencement of the court-martial. General Cass was examined as a witness.

The court convened January 3d, 1814, with a full board, and General Dearborn was the president. No objection was taken to the constitution of this court, by the accused. All were officers in the regular service, attached to their country, and, to this day, no evidence has appeared, neither has it been intimated publicly, in any quarter, that any of them, save the presiding officer, could have had any motive to judge General Hull harshly, or be betrayed into passion from their relations with the war. It has been alledged that some of them were violent partizans of the national administration, and that this constituted their only qualification to sit as members; and, at the same time, it has been admitted that others of the members, particularly General Bloomfield, of revolutionary memory, and Colonel Fenwick and Colonel House, were competent members, both on the score of competency and impartiality. But, whether any of the judges entertained political views in harmony with those of Jefferson and Madison, and felt it to be the duty of every citizen of the republic, whether in or out of commission, to do his duty and whole duty to the country, at that critical period of its existence, it does not appear from the public records; nor has it been intimated publicly, in any quarter, that the court divided on any subject that came before it. On the contrary, it is a well conceded fact, insomuch that it is

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