ence of the best. Governing frontier settlements where rough characters abounded and roystering habits prevailed, he was always in his own deportment courteous and complaisant, always abstemious, always self-respecting; and as unexceptionable in his private character and in all his domestic and social relations as he was in his public capacity and deportment. Permanent American settlement may be said to have begun with him; and it was a great and lasting boon to Michigan when it was given a governor at once so able, so patriotic, so attentive to his duties, and so worthy in his public and private life of respect and esteem.

CHAPTER XI.

THE TERRITORY ADVANCES TO THE DIGNITY OF A STATE.

WHEN Lewis Cass resigned the office of governor of Michigan, there were living within the territory many men of ability and education, who were thoroughly familiar with its affairs and fully possessed of the public confidence. The appointment of any one of these to the vacant office would have been recognized as that of a competent and suitable person. Some of them Some of them as, for example, William Woodbridge, who had been secretary of the territory, and as such had occasionally acted as governor in the absence of Governor Cass, and who, after resigning the office of secretary, had been successively delegate in Congress and judge, and Austin E. Wing, who had also been delegate in Congress - were already well known at Washington, and others might have been known through Governor Cass had he been consulted. The late governor was a democrat by conviction and not merely in a party sense; it was no new doctrine with him, when, in his famous Nicholson letter, previous to the meeting of the nominating

convention of his party in 1848, he laid down the proposition respecting the inherent right of the people of the territories to self-government which, by way of ridicule, was christened by his opponents as the doctrine of squatter sovereignty; he had himself as governor endeavored to devolve upon the people as belonging to them of right such appointing power as the law had confided to him; and it is not probable, had he been consulted by the president respecting officers for the territory he was leaving, that he would have advised looking beyond the territory itself for such officers, or that he would have felt any difficulty in naming perfectly competent men, who had cast their fortunes with the territory, for every important office in it. It is very rare that a new community in a frontier region contains among its members so many men of culture and ability as Michigan had among its citizens while it remained a territory; and there could have been no just excuse for treating it as a community unfit to govern itself, and requiring rulers sent in from abroad to govern it. This had been necessary in the case of the Northwest Territory, for the settlement was in its infancy and everybody was a new-comer when the organization took place; and it was excusable also in the cases of earlier appointments for Michigan, considering its peculiar population and circumstances. The excuse no longer existed in view of the large, intelligent, and self-respecting population which the territory had acquired.

JACKSON'S APPOINTMENTS TO OFFICE. 207

But a period had now arrived constituting a new era in American politics, when for a long time no general maxim of government was to be so powerful at Washington as the maxim that to the victor belong the spoils of office. This maxim of war, when war meant robbery and plunder, was now being adopted in the civil administration of the government, and was to vitalize all political life and be the chief spring of all political action and energy. As the people of the territories had no vote, they constituted no part of the victors. who had captured and taken possession of the general government, and were, therefore, entitled to no consideration in the distribution of rewards. These must go to Virginia, Pennsylvania, and other states, where many citizens who had shown their patriotism by their labors in electing the president were now waiting in expectation of receiving their share in the division of what had been won at that election. Personal fitness for office was found in the fact that claims had been established by labors in securing the election of the presidential incumbent, and this, if not sufficient for all cases, would seem to have been thought ample in the case of a merely territorial position. But circumstances of a more personal nature might also have some influence, and it therefore caused no surprise when Mr. John T. Mason of Virginia, brother-in-law to the late Postmaster-general Barry, but wholly ignorant of

the territory and its people, was appointed territorial secretary. What fitness he might have developed for the office no one can tell, as he soon elected not to discharge its duties, and went abroad on an enterprise for private parties. The president thereupon transferred the appointment to Stevens T. Mason, his son. The only reason ever advanced for this selection, and the only one that could have existed, was that the father requested it.

The appointment of a successor to Governor Cass had not as yet been made, and by law the new secretary would be acting governor and also acting superintendent of Indian affairs. A rumor soon spread that young Mason was under the age of legal majority; that in fact he was but nineteen years of age; and his personal appearance indicated the truth of the rumor. A committee of citizens was thereupon appointed to inquire into the facts; and on calling upon him was frankly told by the young gentleman that he was indeed under age, but he added that the president very well knew the fact when he made the appointment. Young as the secretary was, he had not failed to imbibe the spirit which was dictating the distribution of political favors; and he justified the appointment to the committee on the ground that the emoluments of the office were needed for the support of his father's family while the father was absent from the country. To a com