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54-499: In Defensor pacis , Marsilius of Padua advocated a form of republicanism that views the people as the only legitimate source of political authority. Sovereignty lies with the people, and the people should elect, correct, and, if necessary, depose its political leaders. Popular sovereignty in its modern sense is an idea that dates to the social contract school represented by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), John Locke (1632–1704), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). Rousseau authored

108-470: A Revolutionary War veteran who fought under General George Washington at Bunker Hill . Cass attended the private Phillips Exeter Academy . In 1800, the family moved to Marietta , Ohio , part of a wave of westward migration after the end of the war and defeat of Native Americans in the Northwest Indian War . Cass studied law with Return J. Meigs Jr. , was admitted to the bar, and began

162-581: A band of Native Americans. The Americans killed one Native American and scalped him. Cass and his fellow Americans then withdrew safely. Cass became colonel of the 27th United States Infantry Regiment on February 20, 1813. Soon after, he was promoted to brigadier general in the Regular Army on March 12, 1813. Cass took part in the Battle of the Thames , which saw the death of Tecumseh . Cass resigned from

216-442: A book titled The Social Contract , a prominent political work that highlighted the idea of the " general will ". The central tenet of popular sovereignty is that the legitimacy of a government's authority and of its laws is based on the consent of the governed . Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau all held that individuals enter into a social contract, voluntarily giving up some of their natural freedom, so as to secure protection from

270-556: A consolation prize for his previous presidential runs. Although retaining incumbent Secretary of State William L. Marcy was considered the best option by many, Buchanan made it clear that he did not want to keep anyone from the Pierce Administration. Moreover, Marcy had opposed his earlier presidential bids, and was in poor health in any event, ultimately dying in July 1857. Cass, aged 75, was seen by most as too old for such

324-411: A demanding position and was thought to likely be little more than a figurehead. Buchanan, weighing many of the other options for Secretary of State, considered that Cass was the best choice to avoid political infighting and sectional tensions. Buchanan wrote a flattering letter offering him the post of Secretary of State, commenting that he was remarkably active and energetic for his advanced age. Cass, who

378-604: A fellow Democrat as president all failed in their bid to do so. Cass made another bid for president in 1852 but neither he nor rival Democratic contenders Buchanan and Stephen Douglas secured a majority of delegates’ votes at the Democratic Convention in Baltimore , and the party went with Franklin Pierce instead. On March 6, 1857, President James Buchanan appointed Cass to serve as Secretary of State as

432-401: A legalistic notion of popular sovereignty does not necessarily imply an effective, functioning democracy . A party or even an individual dictator may claim to represent the will of the people and rule in its name, which would be congruent with Hobbes's view on the subject. Most modern definitions present democracy as a necessary condition of popular sovereignty. Judge Ivor Jennings called

486-411: A middle position on the slavery issue. It said that actual residents of territories should be able to decide by voting whether or not slavery would be allowed in the territory. The federal government did not have to make the decision, and by appealing to democracy, Cass and Douglas hoped they could finesse the question of support for or opposition to slavery. Douglas applied popular sovereignty to Kansas in

540-460: A number of bands negotiated being allowed to remain in Michigan. At the end of his term, President Jackson appointed Cass to succeed Edward Livingston as the U.S. Minister to France on October 4, 1836. He presented his credentials on December 1, 1836, and served until he left his post on November 12, 1842, when he was succeeded by William R. King , who later became the 13th Vice President of

594-893: A position he would hold until 1836. Cass was a central figure in implementing the Indian removal policy of the Jackson administration; Congress had passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830. While it was directed chiefly against the Southeastern tribes, especially the Five Civilized Tribes, it also affected tribes in Ohio, Illinois, and other areas east of the Mississippi River. Most were forced to Indian Territory in present-day Kansas and Oklahoma , but

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648-697: A practice in Zanesville . In 1806, Cass was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives . The following year, President Thomas Jefferson appointed Cass as the U.S. Marshal for Ohio. He joined the Freemasons , an increasingly popular fraternal organization in that period, being initiated as an Entered Apprentice in what was later American Union Lodge No.1 at Marietta on December 5, 1803. He achieved his Fellow Craft degree on April 2, 1804, and his Master Mason degree on May 7, 1804. On June 24, 1805, he

702-530: A reconnaissance force combined with 150 Ohio infantry troops under Cass were near the bridge leading to Fort Malden. Two British guns fired on the Americans and disabled an American cannon. The Americans captured two British soldiers after they crossed the bridge, before safely withdrawing with their prisoners. On July 28, 1812, Colonel Cass conducted a hit-and-run attack at the Rivière aux Canards driving back

756-520: A small number of slaves continued to reside in Michigan until it achieved statehood. Despite his later claims to the contrary, as territorial governor, Cass is known to have owned at least one slave, a household servant, as evidenced by 1818 correspondence between him and Alexander Macomb . Slavery continued in Michigan until admission to the Union in 1837, when its first state constitution outlawed slavery statewide. In 1830, Cass published an article in

810-500: A study of the early history of American constitutionalism. In describing how Americans attempted to apply this doctrine prior to the territorial struggle over slavery that led to the Civil War, political scientist Donald S. Lutz noted the variety of American applications: To speak of popular sovereignty is to place ultimate authority in the people. There are a variety of ways in which sovereignty may be expressed. It may be immediate in

864-408: A visionary plan of reformation which ended, not in the separation of the church from the state, but in the subjection of the church to the state. In 1535, Thomas Cromwell paid William Marshall to translate Defensor into English in order to give intellectual support towards the implementation of Royal Supremacy . Lewis Cass Lewis Cass (October 9, 1782 – June 17, 1866)

918-537: Is for this reason that every definition of republican government implies a theory of consent. The American Revolution marked a departure in the concept of popular sovereignty as it had been discussed and employed in the European historical context. American revolutionaries aimed to substitute the sovereignty in the person of King George III , with a collective sovereign—composed of the people. Thenceforth, American revolutionaries generally agreed with and were committed to

972-609: Is found among the School of Salamanca (see e.g. Francisco de Vitoria (1483–1546) or Francisco Suarez (1548–1617)). Like the theorists of the divine right of kings and Locke, the Salamancans saw sovereignty as emanating originally from God . However, unlike the divine right theorists and in agreement with Locke, they saw it as passing from God to all people equally, not only to monarchs . Republics and popular monarchies are theoretically based on popular sovereignty. However,

1026-405: Is not opposed to penalties against heretics , but he would have them pronounced only by civil tribunals. Desiring to see the clergy practice a holy poverty, he proposes the suppression of tithes and the seizure by the secular power of the greater part of the property of the church. The clergy, thus deprived of its wealth, privileges and jurisdiction , is further to be deprived of independence, for

1080-588: The 30th Congress . In 1848, he resigned from the Senate to run for president in the 1848 election . William Orlando Butler was selected as his running mate. Cass was a leading supporter of the doctrine of popular sovereignty , which held that the (white male) American citizens who lived in a territory should decide whether to permit slavery there. His nomination caused a split in the Democratic Party, leading many antislavery Northern Democrats to join

1134-656: The Battle of the Thames in the War of 1812 and was appointed to govern Michigan Territory in 1813. He negotiated treaties with American tribes to open land for American settlement as part of the belief in the 19th century phrase " manifest destiny " at the time, and led a survey expedition into the northwest part of the territory. Cass resigned as governor in 1831 to accept appointment as Secretary of War under Andrew Jackson. As Secretary of War, he helped implement Jackson's policy of Indian removal . After serving as ambassador to France from 1836 to 1842, he unsuccessfully sought

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1188-643: The Free Soil Party , which nominated former President Martin Van Buren . After losing the election to Zachary Taylor , Cass was returned by the state legislature to the Senate, serving from 1849 to 1857. He was the first non-incumbent Democratic presidential candidate to lose an election and the first Democrat who was unsuccessful in his bid to succeed another Democrat as president. Apart from James Buchanan's election to succeed Franklin Pierce in 1856, subsequent Democrats who attempted election to succeed

1242-566: The Holy Scriptures , define dogmas or distribute benefices; moreover, he is to be elected by the Christian people, or by the delegates of the people, i.e. the princes, or by the council, and these are also to have the power to punish, suspend or depose him. The theory was purely democratic , but was all ready to be transformed, by means of a series of fictions and implications, into an imperialist doctrine; and in like manner it contained

1296-549: The North American Review that passionately argued that Indians were "inherently inferior" to whites, and incapable of being civilized and thus should be removed from the eastern United States. This article caught the attention and approval of Andrew Jackson. On August 1, 1831, Cass resigned as governor of the Michigan Territory to take the post of Secretary of War under President Andrew Jackson ,

1350-589: The War of 1812 broke out, Cass took command of the 3rd Ohio Volunteer Regiment . During the war, Cass conducted several military operations around the Canada–United States border . On July 16, 1812, a British force consisting of the 41st Regiment of Foot , 60 men of the Canadian Militia and a number of Indians were posted near Fort Malden . Cass and Colonel James Miller led a concealed American reconnaissance force near them. The British detected

1404-512: The scriptures or define dogma . As its name implies, it describes the State as the defender of the public peace, which is the most indispensable benefit of human society. The author of the law expresses the will of the people, not of the whole populace, but of the most important part ( valentior ) of the citizens; these people should themselves elect, or at least appoint, the head of the government, who, lest he should be tempted to put himself above

1458-595: The Americans, and sent a party of Indians over a nearby bridge to draw them out; however, once the Indians crossed, the concealed Americans opened fire, wounding two and killing one. Cass and Miller send word to General William Hull , requesting permission to attack Fort Malden and hold it until reinforcements arrived. However, Hull, an indecisive officer, was unsupportive and refused to agree to their request, which led Cass and Miller to withdraw their men back to American lines. On July 19, 1812, Colonel Duncan McArthur with

1512-614: The Army on May 1, 1814. As a reward for his military service, Cass was appointed Governor of the Michigan Territory by President James Madison on October 29, 1813, serving until 1831. As he was frequently traveling on business, several territorial secretaries often acted as governor in his place. During this period, he helped negotiate and implement treaties with Native American tribes in Michigan, by which they ceded substantial amounts of land. Some were given small reservations in

1566-724: The Cabinet in December 1860 in protest of Buchanan's handling of the threatened secession of several Southern states. Since his death in 1866, he has been commemorated in various ways, including with a statue in the National Statuary Hall . Cass was born on October 9, 1782, in Exeter, New Hampshire , near the end of the American Revolution . His parents were Molly ( née Gilman) Cass and Major Jonathan Cass,

1620-749: The Kansas-Nebraska Act, which passed Congress in 1854. The Act had two unexpected results. By dropping the Missouri Compromise of 1820 under which said slavery would never be allowed in Kansas, it was a major boost for the expansion of slavery. Overnight, outrage united anti-slavery forces across the North into an "anti-Nebraska" movement that soon was institutionalized as the Republican Party , with its firm commitment to stop

1674-594: The United States under President Franklin Pierce . In the 1844 Democratic convention , Cass stood as a candidate for the presidential nomination, losing on the 9th ballot to dark horse candidate James K. Polk . Cass was elected by the state legislature to represent Michigan in the United States Senate , serving in 1845–1848. He served as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs in

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1728-595: The United States to accept the islands under a protectorate in June 1858. Cass resigned on December 14, 1860, because of what he considered Buchanan's failure to protect federal interests in the South and failure to mobilize the federal military, actions that might have averted the threatened secession of Southern states. On May 26, 1806, Cass married Elizabeth Spencer (1786–1853), the daughter of Dr. Joseph Spencer Jr. and Deborah (née Seldon) Spencer. Her paternal grandfather

1782-593: The anti-slavery wing of the party. Van Buren led the Free Soil Party 's presidential ticket and appealed to many anti-slavery Democrats, possibly contributing to the victory of Whig nominee Zachary Taylor . Cass returned to the Senate in 1849 and continued to serve until 1857 when he accepted appointment as the Secretary of State . He unsuccessfully sought to buy land from Mexico and sympathized with American filibusters in Latin America . Cass resigned from

1836-535: The appointment. In 1820, Cass led an expedition to the northwestern part of Michigan Territory, in the Great Lakes region in today's northern Minnesota . Its purpose was to map the region and locate the source of the Mississippi River . The headwater of the great river was then unknown, resulting in an undefined border between the United States and British North America , which had been linked to

1890-405: The century. The context of the work lies in the political struggle between Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Pope John XXII . The treatise is vehemently anticlerical . Marsilius' work was censured by Pope Benedict XII and Pope Clement VI . Defensor pacis extends the tradition of Dante 's De Monarchia separating the secular State from religious authority. It affirmed the sovereignty of

1944-504: The civil power is to have the right of appointing to benefices, etc. The supreme authority in the church is to be the council, but a council summoned by the emperor. The pope, no longer possessing any more power than other bishops (though Marsilius recognizes that the supremacy of the See of Rome goes back to the earliest times of Christianity), is to content himself with a pre-eminence mainly of an honorary kind, without claiming to interpret

1998-418: The dangers inherent in the freedom of others. Whether men are seen as naturally more prone to violence and rapine (Hobbes) or to cooperation and kindness (Rousseau), the idea that a legitimate social order emerges only when liberties and duties are equal among citizens binds the social contract thinkers to the concept of popular sovereignty. An earlier development of the theory of popular sovereignty

2052-519: The expansion of slavery. Also, pro- and anti-slavery elements moved into Kansas with the intention of allowing or banning slavery, which led to a raging state-level civil war, known as " Bleeding Kansas ". Abraham Lincoln targeted popular sovereignty in the Lincoln–Douglas debates of 1858, which left Douglas in a position that alienated Southern pro-slavery Democrats, who considered him weak in his support of slavery. The Southern Democrats broke with

2106-619: The extradition of William Walker to the United States. Cass attempted to buy more land from Mexico , but faced opposition from both Mexico and congressional leaders. He also negotiated a final settlement to the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty , limiting U.S. and British control of Latin American countries. The chiefs of Raiatea and Tahaa in the South Pacific, refusing to accept the rule of King Tamatoa V , unsuccessfully petitioned

2160-528: The final four months of Buchanan's administration. As expected, the aged Cass largely delegated major decision-making to subordinates, but eagerly signed his name on papers and dispatches penned by them. While sympathetic to American filibusters in Central America, he was instrumental in having Commodore Hiram Paulding removed from command for his landing of Marines in Nicaragua and compelling

2214-399: The notion that governments are the creation of the consent of its people "ridiculous", as "the people cannot decide until somebody decides who are the people". The application of the doctrine of popular sovereignty receives particular emphasis in American history, notes historian Christian G. Fritz's American Sovereigns: The People and America's Constitutional Tradition Before the Civil War ,

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2268-405: The party and ran their own candidate against Lincoln and Douglas in 1860. Defensor pacis The tract Defensor pacis ( The Defender of Peace ) laid the foundations of modern doctrines of popular sovereignty . It was written by Marsilius of Padua (Italian: Marsilio da Padova ), an Italian medieval scholar. It appeared in 1324 and provoked a storm of controversy that lasted through

2322-507: The people and civil law and sought to greatly limit the power of the Papacy , which he viewed as the "cause of the trouble which prevails among men" and which he characterized as a "fictitious" power. He proposed the seizure of church property by civil authority and the elimination of tithes . In his view, the Papacy would retain only an honorary pre-eminence without any authority to interpret

2376-511: The presidential nomination at the 1844 Democratic National Convention ; a deadlock between supporters of Cass and former President Martin Van Buren ended with the nomination of James K. Polk . In 1845, the Michigan Legislature elected Cass to the Senate, where he served until 1848. Cass's nomination at the 1848 Democratic National Convention precipitated a split in the party, as Cass's advocacy for popular sovereignty alienated

2430-545: The principle that governments were legitimate only if they rested on popular sovereignty – that is, the sovereignty of the people. This was often linked with the notion of the consent of the governed—the idea of the people as a sovereign—and had clear 17th- and 18th-century intellectual roots in English history. In the 1850s, in the run-up to the Civil War, Northern Democrats led by Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan and Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois promoted popular sovereignty as

2484-498: The right to decide on whether to permit or prohibit slavery , believing in the idea of states' rights . Born in Exeter, New Hampshire , he attended Phillips Exeter Academy before establishing a legal practice in Zanesville, Ohio . After serving in the Ohio House of Representatives , he was appointed as a U.S. Marshal . Cass also joined the Freemasons and would eventually co-found the Grand Lodge of Michigan . He fought at

2538-666: The river. The Cass expedition erroneously identified what became known as Cass Lake as the Mississippi's source. It was not until 1832 that Henry Rowe Schoolcraft , the Cass expedition's geologist, identified nearby Lake Itasca as the headwater of the Mississippi. Though the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory , which included what later became Michigan Territory,

2592-618: The scope of the laws, should have at his disposal only a limited armed force. This chief is responsible to the people for his breaches of the law, and in serious cases they can sentence him to death. The real cause of the trouble which prevails among men is the Papacy, the development of which is the result of a series of usurpations. Marsilius denies, not only to the pope, but to the bishops and clergy , any coercive jurisdiction or any right to pronounce in temporal matters. He also denies episcopal authority of excommunications and interdicts , or other imposed interpretations of divine law . He

2646-445: The sense that the people make the law themselves, or mediated through representatives who are subject to election and recall; it may be ultimate in the sense that the people have a negative or veto over legislation, or it may be something much less dramatic. In short, popular sovereignty covers a multitude of institutional possibilities. In each case, however, popular sovereignty assumes the existence of some form of popular consent, and it

2700-528: The territory. In 1817, Cass was one of the two commissioners (along with Duncan McArthur ), who negotiated the Treaty of Fort Meigs , which was signed on September 29 with several Native American tribes of the region, under which they ceded large amounts of territory to the United States. This helped open up areas of Michigan to settlement by Euro-Americans. That same year, Cass was named to serve as Secretary of War under President James Monroe , but he declined

2754-738: Was Joseph Spencer , a Continental Congressman who was a major general in the Continental Army . Lewis and Elizabeth were the parents of seven children, five of whom lived past infancy: Cass died on June 17, 1866, in Detroit , Michigan . He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit. Through his daughter Mary, he was the great-grandfather of Cass Canfield (longtime president and chairman of Harper & Brothers , later Harper & Row ). Through his daughter Matilda, he

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2808-480: Was a United States Army officer and politician. He represented Michigan in the United States Senate and served in the Cabinets of two U.S. Presidents, Andrew Jackson and James Buchanan . He was also the 1848 Democratic presidential nominee. A slave owner himself, he was a leading spokesman for the doctrine of popular sovereignty , which at the time held the idea that people in each U.S state should have

2862-480: Was admitted as Charter member of the Lodge of Amity 105 (later No.5), Zanesville. He served as the first Worshipful Master of the Lodge of Amity in 1806. Cass was one of the founders of the Grand Lodge of Ohio , representing the Lodge of Amity at the first meeting on January 4, 1808. He was elected Deputy Grand Master on January 5, 1809, and Grand Master on January 3, 1810, January 8, 1811, and January 8, 1812. After

2916-465: Was retiring from the Senate, but not eager to leave Washington and return home to Michigan, immediately accepted. Taking the position, Cass promised to refrain from making anti-British remarks in public (having served in the War of 1812, Cass had a low opinion of London). Most assumed Cass was a temporary Secretary of State until a younger, more fit man could be found, however, he ultimately served for all but

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