Lewis Cass
1782 - 1866
A New Hampshire schoolmate of Daniel Webster's, Lewis Cass moved to Ohio at the turn of the century, where his opposition to Aaron Burr in the Ohio legislature led Thomas Jefferson to appoint him marshal of the state. Thanks to his distinguished performance against the British in 1812, Cass was named governor of Michigan Territory in 1813, a post he held until 1831. During his tenure, Cass amassed a personal fortune, secured the territory around the Great Lakes, built roads, and negotiated treaties with the Chippewa and other Indian tribes. He served as secretary of war under Andrew Jackson, who named him minister to France in 1836, and he remained in Paris until 1842, "where he befriended G.P.A. Healy:. Cass spent the remainder of his career in the Senate, where he was a leader of the Democratic Party. In 1848 he was the Democratic nominee for President, though he lost to Zachary Taylor; in 1857 James Buchanan named him secretary of state, a position he relished. But in 1860, Cass resigned to protest Buchanan's failure to secure the Union forts in Charleston harbor. Brady photographed Cass on several occasions, including this majestic portrait, made around the time he joined Buchanan's cabinet.

See William Marcy

Mathew Brady Studio
Imperial salted-paper print, 1857
45 x 33.5 cm (17 3/4 x 13 1/8 inches); 29 x 23 inches framed
Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts,
on deposit from Harvard College Library; bequest of Evert Jansen Wendell