The quote is from the 1853 White, red, black, sketches of American society in the United States, by F. and T. Pulszky (p. 87). The word shows up in Victor Hugo's 1866 Les travailleurs de la mer as "le grand Michigantier", also referring to Cass.
In Off-hand takings; or, Crayon sketches of the noticeable men of our age By George Washington Bungay (1854) we have this anecdote, of an encounter between Lewis Cass of Michigan and John Parker Hale of New Hampshire, attributed to an interaction in 1848.
The Lewis Cass ran for president in 1848 and lost to Zachary Taylor. This bit of ephemera from the campaign is from the Cornell University Political Americana Collection, ID number 2214.TK0011.
