Louisiana capitolian., 1880-08-24
SIMON CAMERON.
4 RICH CANAL EPIsODE IN WHICH THIS
swEET-sCENTED RADICAL Is THE
PROMINENT FIGURE.
n. q. City Item.

been ~ completely masters Of Pennsyi- ;
yania that more than once the PROPOSE
tion has been made to abandon the Ola
Quaker name in which the State once
xloried and change it to Caneronia.
But it was not always thus. The power
Of the Camerons by no means goes back |
~ the time whereof the memory OF man |
runneth not to tho contrary; for in his
Younger days Old Simon had to struggle
AGAINST difficulties, and c,irious'y
enough his first start in fortune was
made here in New Orleans. 1t happened
after this fashion. About the year
ie3O tho Canal and Banking Company
ofthis city was ushered into existence
fur the purpose principally Of construct
ins what has since been known as the
New Canal. After due advertisement
prospective contractors came hither from
all ouarters and eventually Cameron be-
came the high contracting party Of the
second part. This,i must be remembered,
was before the days Of 'lrelge boats, anu
the digging was all dono by hand
when Q thousand or 80 Of laborers were
at work on the canal the Asiatic cholera
broke ont among them, and hundreds OF
them died.
One Saturday night Simon surveyed
his weeks work, and said, "bchold 1t
il not good" Then straightway he went
to tho Canal Bank and drew out ~, ,oO,
or thereabout, for the ostensible purpose
of paving his hands. But never cent
thereof did the hands get. Monday re-
turned. but Simon returned not. He
disappeared, and the places along the
canal which knew him as q contractor,
knew hin, no more forever. In short,
Simon left his workncn in the lurcl,
and for years it was not known what
became Of him. Twenty years after,
the branch of Il socalled Continental
Insurance Company was establ'shed
here, and Simon Cameron was president
of tho parent company. But the hrst
loss proyed to be worse than worthless,
and tho agent ran away. Very little
more was heard Of Simon until he ap.
pesred in the high role of Secretary OF
War in Lincoln's Cabinet, the position
being promised him for controlling the
Pennsylvania delegation in the conven
tion which first nominated the Srea
rail splitter. In this capacity he devel
oped such selfish and lnoncy-graspin,
oualities that Honest Old Abe soon tlrc'
Of his services. The facts became noto
rious that Simon was corruptly mixe'
up with all sorts of army contracts, an
in consequence Of expected profits, h
vas opposed to all peace propositions
He was quietly requested to resign, bu
refused to do so, and at length Mr.. Lii
coin dismissed him with the followin
curt note:
Hon. Simon Cameron, Secrctaryoi War:
DEAR Slk-I have this day appointe
Non. Edwin N. Stanton to lie SocretaI
Of War, and yon to bc Minister Plenip'
tentiary to Russia. Very Truly,
A. LINCOLN.
Simon, however, wished the blow
be eoftened and asked to be allowed
tender an antc.,latcd letter of resign
tion. OF this Col. Mcclure says: Z"
nv presence the proposition was ma
and determined upon to ask Lincoln
allow letter Of resignation to be ant
dated, and to write kind acceptance
the same in reply.
The record shows that Mr.. Gamer
voluntarily resigned, while, in point
fAct, he was sulnmarily removed witho
notice" He, however, got sl5, 600 as
sutAt and $4,000 for his service
Minister abroad, but within two mont
he resigned, returned to Pennsylva'
and got himself elected as a member
Congress, and after he was tired of
place he handed it over to his son D'
After Simon's canal episode here,
never made his appearance in N
Orleans till he cauc as n "visiting stat
man," being accompanied in his pile
mage by the fair Widow Oliver, W
whom he subsequently had trouble.
Such is one of tho avOwed leaders
the great Republican party-the pa
Of (which moral ideas
Col. Fred Grant isn't great sold
Indeed, 80 far as We know, he has nc
undergone a baptism of fire. lie
very valiant fellow, however, as is
ven by his conduct at Galesburg,
nois, the other day. Col. Fred was
ofa hungry crowd that got off the tt
at that town to get something to
The walters didn't move fast enough
suit him, and 80 he rose up in his WI