deep forests, encountering hardships and privations, which, if they tried the human system, no doubt left a favorable impress upon the character of the country.

When the Revolution broke out, his father was about nineteen years of age. Animated by the spirit of the times, he entered the army as a private soldier, the day after the battle of Lexington, and remained in it until its disbandment, in 1783, when he left it a captain, which rank he obtained by his gallantry and good conduct. During that period, he was in the battles of Bunker Hill, in both the battles of Saratoga, in that of Long Island, of White Plains, of Trenton, of Princeton, of Germantown, of Brandywine, in the expedition of Sullivan up the Susquehanna into the western part of New York, and in almost all the active operations of the army in the Northern and Middle States. He was recommended by the New Hampshire delegation in Congress, as the first marshal of that State under the Constitution, and, as one of the senators wrote to him, the question was not, who was the man, but will he accept? So many revolutionary officers had, however, been appointed, that it was thought best, by General Washington, not to add to their number. Without his own knowledge, he was appointed a captain in the army, upon its organization, and immediately ordered to the West, and for some time commanded the fort at the mouth of French Creek, upon the Alleghany.

He afterwards joined Wayne's army, as a major, in command of the Third Regiment, and was stationed at Fort Hamilton, the site of the present town of that name in Ohio. In 1799, he resigned his military commission, and removed, with his family, to Wakatomaka, upon the Muskingum river, a few miles above Zanesville, and established himself upon a tract of land, in the United States Military District, being the first choice which fell to him by lot, in the location of the revolutionary bounty land warrants. Here, for thirty years, he lived the peaceful life of a farmer, esteemed and respected, carrying into his retirement the fruits of a long and varied experience, an experience aided by reading and observation, and by a strong and vigorous intellect, and fulfilling the best of all duties, the duties of private life, with a purity of purpose and a sense of honor, ever operating and never questioned. He died in 1830, calmly and resignedly, and watching the approaches of death upon the bed of sickness with as little

fear as he had encountered them on the battle field. So composed was he, that, when the last struggle came, he observed, "This then is death!" and thus he died.

His venerable consort followed him to the grave in the course of two years afterwards. She was a native of New Hampshire, of masculine intellect, strictly attentive to the duties of her household, and in the absence of her husband in the wars, had the sole charge of their family.

Major Cass was the type of his class; a representative, and a faithful one, of that band of patriots who hazarded all they had and all they hoped for, in the great contest into which they entered for the assertion of human rights, and for the resistance of foreign tyranny. The whole history of human devotedness and exertion, contains no chapter equal in patriotism, in courage, in suffering, in self-sacrifice, in examples of public and of private virtue, and in all the best elements which adorn our nature, to that which records the story of the American Revolution. For seven long years, against the most powerful nation then on the face of the globe, without pay, almost without clothing or provisions, and through trials, whose description we may read, but whose extent we can never appreciate, did the men of that day maintain their own Revolution, and the cause of their country, without the shadow of change until the new republic took her station among the independent nations of the world.

Lewis Cass had two brothers and two sisters, himself being the eldest of the five. One of the brothers, Charles L., is dead, and held a captain's commission in the United States Army. The other brother, George, is a farmer, residing in the town of Dresden, in the State of Ohio. The two sisters, Mrs. Silliman and Mrs. Munroe, are widows, the former residing in the State of Missouri, and the latter in the State of Ohio. All are respected and esteemed throughout the circuit of their acquaintance.

Young Lewis evinced great precocity in acquiring the rudiments of education, and showed more fondness for books than for boyish amusement. His father having been absent from home for several years, engaged in the wars at a trifling pecuniary compensation, and that liquidated in exchange for a depreciated currency, was without wealth and ill prepared to afford his son the benefit of a collegiate education. There was an academy, however, at Exeter, under the charge of Benjamin Abbott, and the name of young

Cass was entered upon the roll of its pupils in the year 1792. Although scarcely ten years of age, yet such was his disposition to acquire knowledge and become familiar with the classics of other times, that he applied his youthful mind to the labor before him with unremitting assiduity; and what by some is regarded as a burthen, to him was a source of pleasure. The Exeter Academy is his Alma Mater. The Principal was an accomplished scholar. To a strong intellect, well stored with learning, he added a reasonable but rigid discipline for the government of the young minds committed to his direction. Young Cass was naturally kind and obedient, slow to fancy injuries, but prompt to repel and chastise, if in his power, real aggressions. Many incidents are related of his academic career, demonstrative of his disposition in this respect. / He was favored with a robust constitution, and seldom detained at home by sickness. He was a descendant of a hardy race. But although he had no reason to anticipate disease, yet he had the good sense to take proper care of his health, and to refrain from an indulgence in those pleasures whose inevitable tendency is to weaken, rather than strengthen, both body and mind. The number of young men in attendance at the Academy, from Exeter and vicinity, was large for those days, and during a portion of the time he had for companions at that seat of learning, the distinguished Buckingham and Salstonstall, and Daniel Webster. The latter was esteemed by his associates, but he did not then give promise of those commanding powers of intellect which, later in life, placed him among the most eminent men of the age in which he lived. Dr. Abbott was well qualified, by firmness and discretion, to exercise a moral power over young men, and by his virtue and learning, to prepare them for the duties of life. For more than half a century he occupied this station, and then retired voluntarily, with the respect of the community and the gratitude of all who had enjoyed the benefit of his supervision. Both the Everetts-Alexander and Edward-enjoyed the benefits of his tutelage. Young Cass remained at the Academy, diligently pursuing the usual course of studies, until 1799, when, in the seventeenth year of his age, he began to look forward to the future, and, scanning the various employments of mankind, to determine what should be his occupation to gain a livelihood. His father had returned from the wilds of the North-western territory, and gave a glowing account of the boundless extent of tillable land, watered

by ever-running springs and large rivers, but covered with heavy forest trees, and the woods filled with wild beasts, there being hardly but two spots where the arm of the frontier-men had made a clearing and let in the sun, the one at Marietta and the other at Cincinnati. The young student had not been accustomed to farming, and believed he should make a sorry business of it if he made the attempt, especially in that far-off region. His father, however, with the consent of his mother, had concluded to emigrate there as soon as was practicable, and settle upon land acquired by his own bravery.

Young Cass was thus thrown upon his own resources at this early period of his life; but with a well educated mind and healthy body, he repined not at his lot, and felt himself equal to the emergency. He determined, with the consent of his parents, to visit the southern country, and there, by teaching or some other respectable employment, earn the means to defray his necessary expenses whilst acquiring a sufficient knowledge of the law to enable him to practice at the bar of the courts. Accordingly he soon bid farewell to the Academy and the companions of his youth, and left Exeter with his father and family for Wilmington, in Delaware, where his father was stationed for a few months for military service, and where for a short time Lewis was employed in teaching in an academy at that place. He was there when Gen. Washington died, and witnessed the burst of grief through the whole country, a tribute as well to his own transcendental worth, as to the feelings of the American people. He made several valuable personal acquaintances, whose friendship he retained through life. The city of Wilmington was pleasantly situated upon an arm of the majestic river which washes the eastern banks of the State in its course to the ocean. The surrounding country was in a high state of cultivation, and yielded a large revenue to the owners. The great thoroughfare leading from Philadelphia to Baltimore, passed through Wilmington, and vessels of large tonnage, coastwise and foreign, visited its wharves. The plantations were covered with slaves, and, for aught that appeared, were content with their lot. They loved their masters and mistresses, and were treated as part and parcel of the household. So far as his personal comforts were concerned, it was a pleasant residence, and he had no reason to indulge in gloomy forebodings of the future, or to doubt success and prosperity. But his thoughts were upon the

Great West; and wheresoever he might go, he deemed it advisable there to study his profession, and pursue his business. He had heard so much concerning the country beyond the mountains, from the lips of his father, had thought so much about it, and blessed with a mind capacious enough to grasp its future greatness in wealth and power, that he no longer was skeptical of the choice his interest required.

From Wilmington, Major Cass with his family repaired to Harper's Ferry, where they resided a brief time, and where Lewis often contemplated with admiration the gigantic natural features which give interest to that remarkable spot, exploring its recesses with ever-increasing admiration. The scenery itself, and Mr. Jefferson's graphical description of it, left impressions which time has not effaced. Leaving Harper's Ferry, they removed to Winchester, where Lewis often conversed with General Morgan, of revolutionary memory, and listened hour after hour to anecdotes told by him, and by a Mr. Bush, the innkeeper, of the early life and conduct of Washington, who was stationed for some time at the fort, whose dilapidated walls were then visible. It was impossible to hear these narratives, and witness the interest of the speakers, without the conviction that there was something in the character and bearing of the great American, which almost in the infancy of his career gave the promise of future distinction, as it gave the proof of ascendency over his associates and companions. From Winchester-hospitable and delightful Winchester, which has left pleasant memories of those days-they traveled the route known as Braddock's, to Cumberland, and thence across the mountains to Pittsburgh. Here Lewis first saw General Harrison, who was then on his way to Indiana, of which he had just been appointed governor by Mr. John Adams. General St. Clair, the governor of the North-western territory, was also there, as was also General Wilkeson, at that time the Commissary General of the Army. General St. Clair was a most interesting relic of the revolutionary period; tall, erect, though advanced in years, well educated, gentlemanly, thoroughly acquainted with the world, and abounding in anecdotes, descriptive of the men and the scenes he had encountered in his eventful career. He had been an officer of the British army, before the Revolution, and had served in the campaign under Wolfe, which terminated in the capture of Quebec. Resigning his military commission, he established himself at a