History of Donegal Heights, (Lancaster County) Pennsylvania United States of America

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Simon Cameron, statesman, was born in Donegal, Lancaster county, Pa., March 8, 1799; son of Charles Cameron, a country tailor, whose ancestors of the third generation had immigrated to Pennsylvania from Scotland. Charles Cameron's life was a continual struggle with poverty, and at last his failure in business caused a dispersion of his family. Simon, then but nine years of age, was adopted by a physician, whose idea of fitting the boy for a medical career determined him, at the age of ten years, to apprentice himself to a printer, and after learning the trade he worked as a journeyman at Lancaster, Harrisburg and in the government printing office, Washington. While employed in the office of the Harrisburg Republican he met Samuel D. Ingham, then secretary of state for Pennsylvania, and owner of the Doylestown Democrat, which had fallen on evil days. He was invited by Ingham to undertake the editorship of the paper, and so cleverly did he fulfill the requirements of the position that the journal was shortly restored to popular favor, and he became a prominent figure in local political circles. In 1821 he purchased the Harrisburg Republican. which he renamed the Intelligencer. This paper he conducted with great ability, and his bold and vigorous advocacy of high tariff, and of John C. Calhoun as a candidate for the presidency, commanded the attention of statesmen and politicians everywhere. With increasing fame came increasing profits, and after five years he had command of sufficient funds to enable him to undertake large business operations, which soon netted him a handsome fortune. He was cashier of a bank, president of two railroad companies, and adjutant-general of the state. In 1845, upon the resignation of James Buchanan as United States senator, he was elected to fill the unexpired term, and as senator acted with the Democratic party. He retired from the senate, March 3, 1849. In 1854, upon the repeal of the Missouri compromise bill, Mr. Cameron left his party and helped to form the People's party. In 1857 the new party controlled the state legislature and elected Mr. Cameron to the senate, to succeed Richard Brodhead. During his second term he took a conspicuous part in the discussion of the vital question of the hour, and he was so pronounced in his advocacy of peace and conciliation that his loyalty to the Union was at the time questioned. He was one of the presidential candidates who had a strong support in the convention of 1860, and he failed of securing the nomination of vice-president on the ticket with Abraham Lincoln, through a lack of harmony in the Pennsylvania delegation. Immediately upon Mr. Lincoln's election, Mr. Cameron was called to a place in his cabinet, and, resigning his seat in the senate, March 4, 1861, became secretary of war. After the attack upon Fort Sumter, realizing that war was inevitable, Secretary Cameron advocated strenuous war measures, and went so far as to favor a proclamation of emancipation to all slaves who would desert their masters and enlist in the Union army. In this he stood alone among his associates, and feeling that his usefulness would be impaired by their opposition, he resigned his portfolio in January, 1862, and was at once appointed by President Lincoln minister to Russia. In November, 1862, he resigned this office as well, but during the short term of his occupancy he had succeeded in enlisting the friendship of Russia in the Federal cause. He was a delegate to the Baltimore convention of 1864, and to the Loyalists' Philadelphia convention of 1866, and he was again returned to the senate in 1867, succeeding Edgar Cowan. In 1873 he was elected to the senate for the fourth time. Not being in sympathy with the civil service policy inaugurated by President Hayes, and feeling inadequate to the undertaking of a conflict of such magnitude at his advanced age, he resigned his seat in 1877, and his son, James Donald Cameron, was at once elected his successor. Simon Cameron's control of his party in his own state was wellnigh absolute, and his consummate ability as a political leader was universally acknowledged. He became known as the "czar of Pennsylvania politics." He died at his home in Lancaster county, Pa., June 26, 1889.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Donegal Heights, (Lancaster County) Pennsylvania

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