Lewis Cass and the Politics of Moderation (review)

BOOK REVIEWS177 accuracy and because of the influence of Robert Todd Lincoln on their work, but concludes that the recoUections still have value for the discerning and cautious historian. Burlingame's footnotes provide needed historical and historiographical context for the recollections ofLincoln's associates. Helpful also are indications ofwhere Nicolay eventually used the interviews in his writings on Lincoln. Lincoln scholars should find this volume useful because of the information it brings together in one place and stimulating because of the larger questions it raises concerning the use of historical evidence. Judith A Rice Southwest Missouri State University Lewis Cass and the Politics of Moderation. By Willard Carl Klunder. (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1996. Pp. 416. $39.00) Lewis Cass played an important role in American Democratic politics from the early republic to the sectional crisis. As territorial governor, he shepherded Michigan through the war of 1812. A life-long Democrat, he served as a secretary of war to Andrew Jackson, minister to France under Martin Van Buren, senator from Michigan, and Democratic presidential nominee in 1848. More important than the offices he served was his crucial role in promoting Manifest Destiny and articulating the doctrine of popular sovereignty, which was meant to give western territories self-determination on the slavery issue. As architect of the popular sovereignty idea later espoused by Stephen Douglas, the politician's ideas played a central role in debate surrounding the rising sectional conflict. Remarkably, Lewis Cass and the Politics of Moderation by Willard Carl Klunder is the first full-scale scholarly biography of this important and fascinating character. Klunder thoroughly traces the career of his subject and skillfully tackles the man's involvement with the issues of his day. While the author has provided a useful work that is well-researched and thoughtful, the book's thesis, that its subject espoused a "poUtics of moderation," is too kind to Cass and ultimately unpersuasive. Civil War historians may forget that Cass began his career as a frontier administrator . Klunder describes Cass's long-standingjob as governor ofthe Michigan territory from 1813 to 183 1. Here, especially in his experience in the Warof 18 12, Klunder locates Cass's "Anglophobia" and Jeffersonian democracy which ultimately fed his desire for expansion of the Union. Cass remained concerned with the frontier issues as secretary of war during the Jackson presidency, as he was closely involved with the policies "Indian Removal" that culminated in the Cherokee march from Georgia to Oklahoma in the Trail of Tears. Cass's longstanding enthusiasm for territorial expansion can be traced to his days as a frontier administrator. Moreover, Klunder effectively traces the doctrine of popular sovereignty to Cass's Jacksonian democracy and argues the seeds of the popular sovereignty doctrine developed during the Jackson period. I78CIVIL WAR HISTORY Popular sovereignty became central to national political controversy in the political controversy that followed the conquests resulting from the Mexican War. It is here that Klunder's characterization of Cass's politics as moderate becomes most problematic. An ardent supporter of expansion in the northwest, Cass also wholeheartedly backed the territorial conquestresulting from the Mexican War. In 1 848, Cass eyed Cuba and even the Yucatan as potential outposts for American growth. When it came to Manifest Destiny, a central issue of his day, Cass was anything but the cautious moderate. His enthusiasm for territorial growth led Cass to back popular sovereignty as a way to quiet anxiety over slavery and promote geographical expansion. Here, Klunder effectively documents the problems Cass encountered in attempting to take a moderate position on slavery in the territories, especially as secretary of state in the Buchanan administration. In the most interesting portion of the biography , Klunderportrays Cass's anxiety overthe poUtical chaos broughtby popular sovereignty and slavery. Cass ultimately blamed the failures of the doctrine he had invented on Northerners such as Stephen Douglas and abandoned popular sovereignty to back John Breckenridge in the presidential election of i860. In short, the irreconcilable difficulties of popular sovereignty made Lewis Cass increasingly immoderate, or at least made the kind ofpro-Southern moderation he espoused increasingly irrelevant.Too sympathetic to his subject, Klunder overlooks the ways in which Manifest Destiny...