The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1877-03-19

favorable. their crowns descend peacefully
to the heads Of their children. Rich men
die, and their possessions go down subject
to contest of the last testament, the caprice
of surrogates, and tho policy of the law
which il unfriendly to great estates. But
SIMON CAMERON resigns his seat in the
American Senate and hands it over to
his son without question. He reasons. no
doubt that inasmuch as II was originally
bought with his money. II should bc num-
bered with his other goods and chattcls,
and follow the same law Of descent The
Legislature OF Pennsylvania being of the
same opinion, the transaction has been hap
PLY completed, and the young chief Of the
Winncbagoes stands in the mOccasns of his
father, although he has yet to sit in his seat
At all events We may for the present regard
the public record Of SIMON CAMERON a.
closed. and review his career as one that
belongs to history.
Mr.. BENTON, one Of Mr.. cAMERoN's con
temporarics has left behind him an enduring
monument In the form OF his Thirty Years
in the United States Senate. which contains
a vast deal OF Mr.. BENTON and nothing al
all Of SIMON CAMERON. The letters and
speeches of WEBSTER, and CLAY, and CAL
HoUN adorn our libraries, and he who seeks
10 know what they were and what they did.
will turn to the books in which they yet
live and speak. But Of Mr.. CAMERON We
have no literary remains He has witnessed
the intellectual encounters Of an asscmblagc
Of eloquent statesmen comparable only TO
PITT and BURKE and Fox, and has heard
oratons flow whose lofty periods roll down
the centuries; but il he caught a spark of
inspiration, he never uttered a word that lived
beyond the hour. Indeed, notwithstanding
his long association with men Of genius. he
seems to have heartily dcspiscd the whole
race Of them, and only the other day he Is
said to have given vent to his feelings In
a profane maledction upon "all them
damned literary felers.' On the whole il
may be safely said that except in the bulky
reports of investigating commttoes-they
We're always large where he was concerned
Mr.. CAMERON will not survive in books OF his
own or anybody elsc's making.
Nor do we find Mr.. CAMERoN's name asso-
ciated otherwise than In the list Of yeas and
nays with any great measure for the public
good. Mr.. CLAY had his American system.
Mr.. VAN buren, had his Sub-Treasury, Mr
slavery crusade, and even Pig-Iron KELLEY
has his double-back action brand new patent
interconvertible bonds but Mr.. CAMERON, 50
far as heard from, has only had BILL CALDER
and his horse contractors. Although h.
has joined successfully every political
organization Of his time, whenever it
was about to obtain working majority of
the American people, he was never identified
with the rise of any party, the progress of
any idea or the triumph Of any principle.
Who then, and what was this remarkable
man who went in aud out OF the Ameri-
can Senate for more than third Of a con-
fury, who held a great commonwealth a.
an appanasc and who now startlcs this
drowsy world by bcckoning his son to his
place, as he wraps his toga about him and
wlthdraws in mock majesty from the stage.
SIMON CAMERoN's first appearance he
You'd tho Congressional district in which
lie lived, was in 1888, when he wa
appointed United States Commissioner to-
settle certain claims of the Winnie
hago Indians. He took one BROADuEAD
/ into partnership with him. bought up
the claims for next to nothing, paying in
notes Of the Mddletown Bank Of which be-
was the cashier, and then. in his capacity of
| Commissioner gravoly allowed these idcnti-
/ cal claims. In this operation SIMON and
/ his partner would have rakcd in Il fine
harvest but for the fact that Major
mucrward Major-Gcnoral) InrcHcocK, Mill
tafy disbulsng agent at st. Louis,
dishonorcd SIMoN's drafts, and reported to
the department the monstruus and cruel
swlndle in all its shocking details. II was
| by this commercial operation that he ac-
| qurcd his best known title, that Of the
Minnebago Chief and "a little volume.
known in Pennsylvania rs the Win
nrhago Pamphlet, and containing all OF
Ma or HirCHCOCK's unvarni-hed letters,
together with much other Interesting mate
rial, has, from time to time, given him
n good deal Of trouble. Every few
yegrS somebody, on mischief intent would
get out new edition, and Mr., CAMERON
would be compelled to hunt up all the
copies, and burn them, over and over again.
In lNij he secured his first election to the
| Senate under circumstances tho reverse of
credtable. lie was then pretending to act
| with the Democratic party, but he was uni
| Norsally distust'd as nm essentially cor
rupt man, and his apostasy was anticipated.
In 1870 he was again a candidate, but was
defeated by boilers who refused to be bound
by the nomination of purchased caucus.
ASK US not they said in pamphlet which
they published "to support a nomination
brought about, as we believe, by the con-
centrated aud cohesive power of public
plumber and the supcraddcd element of
shameless and Wholesale private bribery"
In 1857 he was the Republican candidate
for senator against JOHN w. FORNEY who
was understood to be the choice of the Prcs-
dent elect JAMES BUCHAHAN. The LcSis-
lature was about evenly divided, and CAM
EXON bought three mcmbers 90 LEDo, MA
NEHR, and WAGoNsrLLFR--w have long
since sunk into their graves, while thoil
name' live in perpetual infamy among the
people Of the State. Mr.. CAMERON was
successful, aud the three wrctchcs who took
his bride lived and died with marks Of the
lepcr's touch on their forchoads. There
was no subsequent contest with regard to