Simon Cameron
Simon Cameron was an American businessman and politician who was four times elected senator from Pennsylvania, and whose involvement in politics spanned over half a century. He served as United States Secretary of War under President Abraham Lincoln at the start of the American Civil War.
A native of Maytown, Pennsylvania, Cameron made a fortune in railways, canals, and banking. Initially a supporter of James Buchanan, whom he succeeded in the Senate when Buchanan became Secretary of State in 1845, Cameron broke with Buchanan and the Democratic Party by the 1850s. An opponent of slavery, Cameron briefly joined the Know Nothing Party before switching to the Republicans in 1856. He won election to another term in the Senate in 1857 and provided pivotal support to Lincoln at the 1860 Republican National Convention.
Lincoln appointed Cameron as his first Secretary of War. Cameron's wartime tenure was marked by allegations of corruption and lax management, and he was demoted to minister to Russia in January 1862. He remained there only briefly, and returned to the United States. There, he rebuilt his political machine in Pennsylvania, securing a third term in the Senate in 1867. After ten years in his third stretch in office, he resigned, arranging the election of his son, J. Donald Cameron, in his place. Cameron lived to the age of 90; his machine survived him by several decades, dominating Pennsylvania politics until the 1920s.
Early life and education
Simon Cameron was born in Maytown, Pennsylvania, on March 8, 1799, the third of eight children of Charles Cameron and his wife Martha Pfautz Cameron. Charles Cameron's father, named Simon, had emigrated from Scotland in 1766 to the colonial-era Province of Pennsylvania. A farmer, he continued his trade in Lancaster County and fought with the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War. Martha Cameron was the granddaughter of Hans Michel Pfoutz, one of the first Palatine Germans to emigrate to the Thirteen Colonies.Charles Cameron was a tailor and tavern keeper in Maytown, but was less than successful in those occupations. In 1808, he moved from Lancaster County north to Sunbury, in Northumberland County, but within two years was living in Lewisburg with his wife, but without his children. He died in January 1811, and his children then boarded with other families. Simon was sent to live with the family of Dr. Peter Grahl, a physician in Sunbury. The Grahls were childless and treated him like their son, and he expanded his rudimentary education in the libraries of Dr. Grahl and his neighbors. In Sunbury, he met and got to know Lorenzo Da Ponte, a librettist for Mozart and other composers. In December 1813, Simon visited Philadelphia with him.
Prewar career
Pennsylvania newspapers
Soon after his 17th birthday, Cameron apprenticed himself as a printer to Andrew Kennedy, publisher of the Sunbury and Northumberland Gazette and Republican Advertiser. In 1817, Kennedy, who had suffered financial troubles, released Cameron from his indentures, and he went to Harrisburg, where he indentured himself to James Peacock, publisher of the Pennsylvania Republican, the leading Pennsylvania newspaper outside of Philadelphia; after two years' apprenticeship, Cameron was made the newspaper's assistant editor.Involvement with a newspaper in Harrisburg, the state capital, meant involvement in Pennsylvania politics; in 1842, Cameron said he had attended almost every session of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the state legislature, since 1817. He met Samuel D. Ingham, the Secretary of the Commonwealth and proprietor of the Doylestown Messenger. Following the departure of its editor, he hired Cameron as his replacement in January 1821. Cameron held this position throughout the year, but the newspaper was not profitable and merged with another local paper, costing Cameron his job.
Cameron next worked as a compositor for the Congressional Globe, a periodical that reported on the Congress. Although it paid little, the work was ideal for a young man interested in politics, allowing him to build contacts with national political figures, including U.S. President James Monroe and U.S. Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. In 1822, Cameron returned to Harrisburg as a partner in the Pennsylvania Intelligencer. He then purchased the Republican and merged it with the Intelligencer, using a loan from an uncle. These enterprises gave Cameron enough security that he felt he could marry; on October 16, 1822, he married Margaret Brua, with whom he had ten children, six of whom reached adulthood.
Political involvement
In 1823, Cameron's friend John Andrew Shulze was elected Pennsylvania governor, and Cameron spent several years in the profitable post of State Printer. In 1829, Shulze appointed him Adjutant-General of Pennsylvania. His brief term in this position gained him the rank, which he used as a title throughout his life, of general. With his appointment, Cameron, who had sold his stake in the Intelligencer and bought one in the Pennsylvania Reporter and Democratic Herald, divested himself of his interest in the printing trade and ceased to be an active journalist, though he ensured his state contracts would be transferred to his brother James. Shulze also awarded Simon Cameron contracts for the construction of canals in Pennsylvania. Cameron, who founded the Bank of Middletown, became wealthy through banking, canals and railroads.A delegate from Dauphin County to the Harrisburg State Convention of the Democratic-Republicans in 1824, Cameron was slow to support the presidential candidacy of General Andrew Jackson in the 1824 election, despite Jackson's broad support in Pennsylvania, and only did so because he supported Calhoun for vice president. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams was elected and made Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky his successor at the State Department. In that capacity, Clay was responsible for selecting three printers in each state to print the laws and resolutions of Congress, and since Cameron was not known as an ardent Jacksonian, his firm became one of the official printers. Cameron corresponded extensively with Clay, offering him political advice on Pennsylvania affairs. Adams advocated internal improvements to the nation's transportation infrastructure, financed by high tariffs, policies Cameron supported. By the time the administration lost control of Congress in 1827, Cameron began to gravitate away from Adams and towards Jackson. In doing so, Cameron followed a new political ally, Pennsylvania Congressman James Buchanan. His support for Jackson in his successful run for the presidency in 1828 was only lukewarm.
Cameron's support for Jackson grew in the president's first term, though he was busy with his involvement in banking, founding the Bank of Middletown, and canal and railroad construction. Jackson found Cameron to be a useful lieutenant in Pennsylvania. The president had originally pledged to serve only one term; changing his mind, he enlisted Cameron to get the Pennsylvania legislature to pass a resolution urging him to change his position and run again in 1832. Calhoun had broken with the administration, and Jackson convened the 1832 Democratic National Convention for the main purpose of endorsing a new running mate, Martin Van Buren of New York. Pennsylvania politicians preferred one of their own to run with Jackson, but Cameron arranged a delegation that backed Van Buren, and he was elected along with Jackson. As a reward, Cameron was appointed to the Board of Visitors of the United States Military Academy, though he held the position only briefly. By the mid-1830s, Cameron had built a national reputation in what was becoming known as the Democratic Party.
Image:Simon Cameron.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A man in middle age with a black suit and bowtie|Portrait of Simon Cameron by Freeman Thorpe
Buchanan had left the House of Representatives after 1831, and then served as minister to Russia. When he returned, Cameron tried to get him elected to the Senate in 1833, lobbying the legislature for votes—until 1913, senators were elected by state legislatures. He was not successful, but the following year, Cameron prevailed on Jackson to give Pennsylvania's senior senator, William Wilkins, a diplomatic post, opening a seat that Buchanan might fill. His success in getting Buchanan elected on the fourth ballot pleased both the new senator and Vice President Van Buren, and increased his influence in Washington. Nevertheless, when Cameron sought appointment by Jackson in 1835 as governor of Michigan Territory, he did not get it.
Although he was not a delegate to the 1835 Democratic National Convention, Cameron supported the nomination of Van Buren for president and Congressman Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky for vice president, and campaigned for them; both were elected. Still seeking a federal position, he asked Buchanan for help being appointed a commissioner under the 1837 treaty with the Winnebago Indians, who ceded land in exchange for payments to tribe members as well as to those who had part-Native American descent. The commissioners were to pass on claims by traders to whom recipients were said to owe money. Cameron was named as one of the two commissioners, and in August 1838, journeyed to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin Territory. There, they adjudicated the traders' claims, and also those of people of part-Native American blood who sought compensation. Many of the latter were represented by whites, and there were allegations of abuses, both at the time and since, though documentary evidence was never presented. According to Cameron biographer Paul Kahan, "the lack of evidence, coupled with the vague assertions of corruption, became a hallmark of this scandal, and it is one of the reasons why it is so hard for historians to assess who was actually telling the truth." According to another biographer, Erwin S. Bradley, "briefly, Cameron's part in the Winnebago affair may be stated as follows: he did exceed his instructions and showed poor business acumen in failing to require bond of the third parties intrusted with the certificates; but the charges ... remain unproved". The impression of corruption long clouded Cameron's reputation, his enemies mocking him, to his anger, as the "Great Winnebago Chief".
Cameron had announced a campaign to be elected to the House of Representatives in 1838, but had abandoned it once he gained the federal appointment. Despite his long political career, this was the closest he ever came to placing his name before the public for a vote. Somewhat shunned after the Winnebago affair, Cameron continued to support Buchanan. The defeat of Van Buren for re-election in 1840 divided Pennsylvania Democrats into those who backed the former president to run again in 1844, and those who supported the administration of Governor David R. Porter. Both Cameron and Senator Buchanan joined the latter camp, and were known as "Improvement Men", and supported continued public improvements, a protective tariff, and the establishment of a state bank. As a supporter of Buchanan, Cameron was strongly opposed to the presidential candidacy of Van Buren in 1844, and supported those at the national convention to require a two-thirds vote to nominate, thus effectively dooming Van Buren's candidacy, though his exact role is uncertain. Cameron was unenthusiastic about the eventual presidential nominee, former Tennessee governor James K. Polk, not liking Polk's ambiguous position on tariffs, and worked for his election in a desultory fashion. Polk won Pennsylvania, and was elected president.