292 Indiana Magazine of History Lewis Cass and the Politics Of

292 Indiana Magazine of History

Lewis Cass and the Politics of Moderation. By Willard Carl Klunder. (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1996. Pp. xiv, 416. Illustrations, maps, table, notes, bibliography, index. $39.00.) Lewis Cass, according to Willard Carl Klunder, is “a curiously neglected historical figure” (p. ix). Though he served for nearly half a century as Michigan territorial governor, United States senator, secretary of war under Andrew Jackson and of state under James Buchanan, and minister to France, he has received no modern schol- arly biography. This thorough, well-researched work aims to rectify that defect. If historical importance is measured by the length of one’s political vita, then Cass was certainly important. Like fellow Democrat Buchanan and Whig John McLean, he was forever in the public eye as a prominent officeholder and presidential hopeful. Today, however, he usually merits only a brief mention as the Democratic stan- dard bearer against Zachary Taylor in 1848 and author of the ill-fated “popular sovereignty” formula for addressing the issue of slavery in the western territories. Klunder does better at remedying the neglect of Cass than at showing why it was undeserved. His Cass is a stalwart patriot and Democratic partisan, aggressively expansionist in foreign policy yet always seeking accommodation and compromise in domestic contro- versy. Cass’s preference for moderation and the middle way, com- bined with his administrative talent and amiable personal qualities, served him well politically until the sectional division over slavery opened the ground beneath his feet. Like Buchanan, Cass always appeased the slave interest, even sacrificing popular sovereignty to southern demands for a more definite proslavery stance. Yet he stood for the Union when it came to war. Though he avoids hagiography, Klunder evidently considers Cass an admirable and sympathetic figure. Many contemporaries did not, and it is easy to see why. Cads gasconading belligerence against Britain and Mexico and persistent evasiveness on hot-button domestic issues could be read as proof of pure patriotism-r of crass popularity seeking. As Klunder shows, Cass had a penchant for political trimming and truckling. Always eager to avoid offense, Cass abstained from alcohol but pretended to drink at parties; he held Masonic office but refused to appear in regalia. It was perfectly char- acteristic of the man that his one undoubted claim to fame, the popular sovereignty doctrine, was an ingenious device for dodging a difficult question. In the end those who thought it could not be dodged were right. “Above all,” concludes Klunder, Cass was “a true democrat.” However, he assigns no content to Cass’s democracy beyond a plat- itudinous belief in “the ability and right of the people to govern themselves” (p. 313). If Cass had the courage of his convictions, it was Book Reviews 293 often unclear what those convictions were. Cads disposition to seg- regate moral concerns from practical politics, while sometimes an asset, was certainly also his greatest weakness. Statesmanship does not reside only in political expediency. Many in Cads own party who looked for forthright principled stands on issues from banking to slavery despised and distrusted him. Lewis Cass went along to get along. Whether that best fits him for obscurity or renown, praise or obloquy, is something readers can judge for themselves. DANIELFELLER is associate professor of history, University of New Mexico, Albu- querque. He is the author of The Jacksonian Promise: America, 1815-1840 (1995).

James Buchanan and the Political Crisis of the 1850s. Edited by Michael J. Birkner. (Selinsgrove, Pa.: Susquehanna Universi- ty Press, 1996. Pp. 215. Illustrations, notes, select bibliography, index. $29.50.) This monograph emerged from a symposium held at Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, marking the bicen- tennial of James Buchanan’s birth. It contains several articles and a panel discussion exploring the career of Pennsylvania’s only president. It will appeal almost exclusively to political historians who study the 1850s. There are, for example, only fleeting references to contemporary Indianians such as Jesse D. Bright. Michael J. Birkner introduces the historical debate swirling around Buchanan’s presidency. He notes that Philip S. Klein’s sympathetic biography (President James Buchanan: A Biography, 1962) stands in stark contrast to the assessment of most historians, includ- ing the contributors to this volume. Setting the stage, Birkner cas- tigates Buchanan for his mismanagement of the Dred Scott case and “Bleeding Kansas” and concludes that he was “a canny wheeler- dealer” (p. 25) undone by the pressures of the White House. Michael F. Holt, influential author of The Political Crisis of the 1850s (1978), surveys the election of 1856 and claims that it could have been much closer. Holt argues that John C. Fremont, the first Republican presidential candidate, was irreparably damaged in the three-way race by rumors that he was a Catholic. The American party or “Know-Nothing” nominee, Millard Fillmore, failed spectac- ularly in his effort to gain the votes of conservative Whigs and Democrats. The heated national debates over the Lecompton (Kansas) Constitution and the nomination of Buchanan, who drew the united support of southern and northern Democrats, scuttled Fillmore. This pivotal canvass was the last for both the Whigs and Know-Nothings and presaged the Republican triumph of 1860. Peter B. Knupfer depicts Buchanan as “a typical member of the Jacksonian political generation’’ (p. 152) who was morally obtuse regarding slavery. Buchanan’s ostracism of fellow Democrat Stephen