CASS 



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CASSAVA 



surrounded by Russian territory, and on the 

 east by Persia. About 850 square miles of its 

 area is occupied by islands. There is no 

 ebb or flow of tides in this sea, and its water 

 is less salt than that of the ocean, because of 

 the many rivers that flow into it. The Volga, 

 Ural, Terek and Kura are the most important 

 of its supply streams, and these form important 

 links in the commercial communications be- 

 tween Europe and Asia. Astrakhan, at the 

 mouth of the Volga, is its most important 

 port. The development of the oil wells in the 

 Baku territory has recently added considerably 

 to the commercial value of this inland sea. 

 See ASTRAKHAN; BAKU; and for location on 

 map, see EUROPE. 



CASS, LEWIS (1782-1866), an American 

 statesman, soldier and diplomat, whose name 

 is connected with important events in Amer- 

 ican history from the War of 1812 to the 

 War of Secession. He studied at the famous 

 Phillips Academy 

 in his native 

 town of Exeter, 

 N. H., completed 

 a law course in 

 Marietta, O., and 

 later became 

 prominent in 

 Ohio politics. On 

 the outbreak of 

 the War of 1812 

 he was made 

 colonel of Ohio 

 volunteers, be- 

 coming brigadier- 

 general of the reg- 

 ular army after a man in lhe ea?ly period ' 

 year of service. In 1813 General Cass was 

 appointed governor of the Territory of Mich- 

 igan, then a great unsettled tract of country 

 on the western frontier. During his long term 

 of office, which continued until 1830, he made 

 treaties with the Indians, built roads, organized 

 townships and counties and laid the foundations 

 of civilization in the wilderness under his con- 

 trol. 



Cass became Jackson's Secretary of War in 

 1831. He was ambassador to France between 

 1836 and 1842, resigning in the latter year 

 because of his disapproval of the Webster- 

 Ashburton Treaty (which see). In 1845 the 

 state of Michigan elected him to the Senate 

 of the United States, and he represented the 

 state in that body until 1857, except for a brief 

 period in 1848 while he was campaigning for 



LEWIS CASS 

 Michigan's greatest states- 



the Presidency on the Democratic ticket. A 

 letter of his, dated 1847, contains the first 

 definite statement of the doctrine of "squatter 

 sovereignty." During the anti-slavery struggle 

 he favored Clay's compromise measures, upheld 

 the Fugitive Slave Law, and voted for the 

 Kansas-Nebraska Bill. See SQUATTER SOVER- 

 EIGNTY; FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS; KANSAS-NE- 

 BRASKA BILL. 



Cass was appointed Secretary of State by 

 Buchanan, and resigned in 1860 because of the 

 President's refusal to strengthen the forts at 

 Charleston, S. C. He was one of the statesmen 

 of the "old school," deserving of honor because 

 of his work in building up and Americanizing 

 an important section of his country. 



CASSANDRA, kasan'dra, in classical 

 mythology, the unhappy prophetess of Greek 

 legend who was doomed to utter her prophe- 

 cies to unbelieving ears. She was the daughter 

 of the Trojan king and queen, Priam and 

 Hecuba, and was loved by Apollo, from whom 

 she received the power to foretell the future. 

 When she would not return his love the angry 

 god decreed that none should believe her words. 

 Again and again she warned her countrymen 

 not to keep the stolen wife of Menelaus, the 

 beautiful Helen, and she vainly begged them 

 not to take the Wooden Horse within the 

 walls of Troy (see TROY). In some of the 

 Grecian myths she is carried away to Greece 

 by Agamemnon and there murdered by his 

 wife, Clytemnestra. This story is told by 

 Aeschylus in his tragedy, Agamemnon. 



The unhappy lot of Cassandra is the subject 

 of a fine poem by Schiller, a stanza of which 

 is here given: 



And men my prophet wail deride ! 



The solemn sorrow dies in scorn ; 

 And lonely in the waste I hide 



The tortured heart that would forewarn. 

 Amid the happy, unregarded, 



Mock'd by their fearful joy, I trod ; 

 Oh, dark to me the lot awarded, 



Thou evil Pythian god ! 



CASSAVA, kasah'va, an important food 

 crop, widely cultivated in tropical countries 

 but native of South America. It is a bushy 

 shrub, with broad, shining, hand-shaped leaves. 

 There are two forms, bitter and sweet, both 

 cultivated for their starchy roots in the West 

 Indies, Africa and tropical America. Excellent 

 crops are produced from stem cuttings on light, 

 sandy, well-drained soils prepared as for corn. 

 Bitter cassava contains a poisonous juice, which 

 when pressed out and boiled becomes a deli- 

 cious sauce called casareep. The tapioca of 







