VOL. XVI.
No. 9.
BOSTON.
SEPTEMBER, 1904.
LEWIS CASS AS A LAWYER. BY EUGENE L. DIDIER. THE siren politics has allured many prom ising lawyers from the bar to the forum, and from the bench to legislative halls. In the early days of the republic, the majority of the intellectually ambitious young men sought the law as the surest road to fame and fortune. In the first decade of the nineteenth cen tury, Lewis Cass, the son of a brave New Hampshire officer in the American Revolu tion, like so many New England youths, set out to seek his fortune in the then almost unknown region now comprised in the great State of Ohio. Arriving at Pittsburg, the outpost of civilization, one hundred years ago, he descended the Ohio River in a flat boat, and, in October, 1800, reached Mari etta, the pioneer settlement of south eastern Ohio. With the energy of the sturdy Puri tan stock and the enthusiasm of youth, the young man of seventeen entered upon the study of the law in the office of the Hon. Return I. Meigs. At the end of two years he was admitted to the bar, being the first lawyer admitted in the State of Ohio. He began the practice of his profession at Zanesville. Business was slow in coming, at first, but the young lawyer was patient and studi ous, and, within three years after graduating, he had acquired sufficient practice to enable him to marry. Soon after this, he was elected to the Ohio legislature, and took his seat in December, 1806. The first business that came up was a special message from Governor Tiffan, in relation to the object of Aaron Burr in gathering boats, men and
arms on the Ohio River. A committee, j£ which Mr. Cass was a member, was ap pointed to investigate the matter. He drafted an address, in which he proclaimed the attachment of Ohio to the union, which Burr was suspected of a design of dividing by making the Alleghanies the western boundary of the United States. President Jefferson, who pretended to be greatly alarmed by Burr's movements, expressed the highest appreciation of Mr. Cass's services, and appointed him United States Marshal for Ohio. The duties of the office were light, and left him ample time to continue his profession. In 1812, he was retained as counsel by two State judges who were impeached by the lower House of the Ohio legislature for hav ing decided that a State law was unconsti tutional and void. His able and successful argument in this case, which attracted no little attention in the western country, greatly added to his reputation as an advo cate. His practice was profitable for the time and place, and, when he was appointed Governor of Michigan, in 1815, and removed to Detroit, he was able to purchase a home stead of five hundred acres, for which he paid in cash, $12.000. This purchase was deemed extravagant at the time, but it proved a very excellent investment, for, by the rapid growth of Detroit, it made him a very wealthy man. Lewis Cass's experience as a young pioneer lawyer, was at times more exciting than agreeable. His practice was exten
