Simon Cameron: Difference between revisions

'''Simon Cameron''' (March 8, 1799 – June 26, 1889) 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.

[[File:Simon Cameron 2.png|right|frameless|1040x1040px]]

== Return to the Senate ==

Even before he resigned as minister to Russia, Cameron was a candidate in the January 1863 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania. Wilmot, the incumbent, was initially the Republican frontrunner for the seat, but was believed to have no chance of overcoming the Democratic one-seat majority in the General Assembly. Cameron's campaign was boosted by Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, making Cameron appear to have led the way on the issue of freeing and arming the rebels' slaves. Wrote Cameron sarcastically, "well hurrah for Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation with the use of Black troops after the War Minister was deposed for the recommendation! Hurrah! Hurrah!"

Despite this, Cameron was unable to gain any Democratic votes in the General Assembly; that party, remembering the events of 1845 and 1857, stationed armed men in the state capitol. Governor Curtin refused to intervene, and no Democrat was willing to chance the consequences of voting for Cameron. Democrat Charles Buckalew was elected with 67 votes to 65 for Cameron and 1 for William D. Kelley. The Pennsylvania House of Representativesissued a report urging the prosecution of Cameron for bribery, but the factions of the Republican Party united against this and no charges were brought.

== Third Senate term ==

Cameron was sworn in for a third term in the Senate on March 4, 1867, a session called nine months early by a law designed to ensure that Johnson would not control Reconstruction. Cameron was among those supporting the legislation pressed by the radicals, stating he did not see how the South could expect anything better after they had tried to destroy the Union. When, in 1868, the battle between president and Congress culminated with the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, Cameron was a strong supporter of removing Johnson from office, and was twice ruled out of order by the presiding officer in the trial, his old cabinet colleague, Chase, now chief justice.

The Curtin faction remained a threat; there had been some public dismay at the selection of Cameron over the popular wartime governor. The 1868 state party convention denied Cameron the position of chair of the Pennsylvania delegation to the 1868 Republican National Convention and bound the delegation to support Curtin for vice president; he did not win. Curtin's influence was curtailed when the new president, Republican Ulysses S. Grant, appointed him minister to Russia. Cameron was where ambitious young men in Pennsylvania, such as Matthew Quay, looked to for influence, and Curtin's influence in the mainstream Republican Party was destroyed when he supported the Liberal Republican Party and its presidential candidate, Horace Greeley, in 1872. Quay became increasingly prominent as a Cameron lieutenant; the senator also looked to promote his son Don at every opportunity.

== Fourth term and resignation ==

With the help of Quay and others, the Camerons continued to build a political machine which would endure in the state for decades. This consisted of an alliance between the local Republican organizations, manufacturers and the railroads. Cameron, having outlasted or simply outlived most of those who aided him early in his career, thrived by continuing to attract new adherents, such as Quay, often as loyal to him personally as to the Republican Party.

The 1872 elections were successful for Pennsylvania Republicans, re-electing Grant, electing a Republican governor, John F. Hartranft, and a Republican-majority legislature that was to fill Cameron's seat in the Senate. Quay, soon to be Hartranft's Secretary of the Commonwealth, successfully managed Cameron's re-election bid, turning back a bid by industrialist Charlemagne Tower for the Republican caucus endorsement, and Cameron won easily in the General Assembly. on January 22, 1873, with 76 votes to 50 for William A. Wallace and two scattered. One supporter marked the first time Cameron had won a Senate term without a bitter battle with, "Nothing can beat you. You are invincible." The ''Harrisburg Patriot''called Cameron the "undisputed master in Pennsylvania".

== Retirement and death ==

Control of the Cameron machine passed seamlessly to Don Cameron and Quay, and during the remainder of Simon Cameron's lifetime, he saw his son elected again twice, in 1879 and 1885, and Matthew Quay elected to the Senate in 1887. Having not appointed a Pennsylvanian to a major post, Hayes left the choice of minister to Britain to the state's congressional caucus. When Simon Cameron's name was mentioned, no one was willing to oppose it, but on learning that some considered themselves coerced, Hayes named John Welsh instead.