The daily gazette., 1882-06-29
PENsYLvAN1A bosses.
How Simon Cameron COrruptIy ObtaineA
Political Control of a Great State And
Transferred This Power to HIS Son.

/ D.. x LInlih, Correspondence NJ L. star. sIs
Few men whose memory reaches back tb
the dark days of 1851, and to the salient
public events of that trying time, need to
be Informed ofwhat Cameronism means OF
why the word is offensive in the ears oil
honest men. Since the close of the war
however, generation has grown up which
is not familiar with many things that oc-
CURED 20 years ago or more, and to which
probably the spectacle of the tenacious
Cameron dictatorship in the Keystone State
is something of q mystery. a'ls1 n i{nlE
The elder Cameron, Simon, was born fiji
this State in 1893, and his early manhood
was devoted to the editing of a primitive
Democratic paper Thus he secured an ext
tensive political acquaintance and, tnever
afflicted with bashfulness, was not slow I'd
claim his share of whatever spoils or patron
age was distributable. Perhaps his bio
graphy cannot be more eoncisely and graph
cally written than in the following letter
from the pen of his Republican colleague
Hon William D. Kelley, dated Philadelphia
August IA, 1865. ea {tr5 nj
Il was but youth when I first heard the
name of Simon Cameron, and it was as the
perpetrator of great crime. He had been
made the agent of the Government to carry
large amount of money, due them to tho
| Winnebago Indians, and instead of paying
| the specie which the Government confided
to him for that purpose, he retained it and
gave them the notes of the Middletown bank
OF which he was the owner. AT their en-
| campment in the remote wilderness these
notes were utterly worthless. The Indians
could not use them for any purpose there,
nor carry them to Middletown for redempL
ton. But what was that to Simon Cameron P
Was not their loss his gain, and was not hG
so much the richer by every note that failed
to come home for redemption, though they
| did suffer and starVe 0 't' - A4A7
| "For more than 80 years / have watched
| the torturous career of this man and have
never seen reason to abandon my first inn
preston Of his character. Whether acting
| with the Democrats, the Know Nothing oil
the Republican party-for he has In return
/ disgraced them all-he has never been false
to his criminal instincts. He has endeavored
to turn them all to profitable account. Hin
ambition is sordid and panders to his avarice
| and he measures honors by the perqusiteb
they expose to his grasp.
81 need not recite the dsgraceful facts at
tending his several canvasses for the United
States Senate. Their nauseous odor lingerB
In your nostrils to this hour. In the first hN
bought the votes of three Democratic MEM
bers, and in the last bid $50, 900 for the one
vote which would have elected him. This
last transaction was so fragrant that the
| Legislature was compelled to take cog
nizance of it, and if justice be not lame al
well as blind, the law and honor of our
State will yet be vindicated. ss-E
Gas have said, he begged and bargained
for the influence which induced Mr.. Lincoln
to invite him to seat in his Cabinet.
"In less than one year from the day OH
which Simon Cameron was installed as Sec
retary of War, Congress, though at that
early day lit had before 1t but partial evidence
of his crime, Indignantly drove him from
that high office. Two-thirds of the mem
bers of the Lower House were friends of
that Administration, and would gladly have
sustained each member of it, as they did its
distinguished head"
"The evil report of his deeds pervades tho
country as a reproach to our State. Yes,
unhappily for Pennsylvania, the buzzard-
winged fame of Simon Cameron is national
By months of abject solicitations and cor
rupt bargaining he procured mass of let
ters, certificates and recantations that i'm
posed him upon President LINCOLN as tho
representative man of the Keystone State
That was an evil hour for Pennsylvania
You will remember how he organized the
navy agency in this city, and feel the ineffa-
BILE reproach he has brought upon our Navy
Yard and commercial business men,"
So wrote Congressman Kelley. OF the
800, 900 in gold instructed to Simon for the
| Winnebagos, only few Thousand dollars in
bank notes were paid to them. Six years
which he was elected to the Federal Senate,
defeating the nominee of his own (thd
Democratic) party. Henceforth he was
everything by turns-Democrat, Whig,
Know Nothing-but he contrived to remain
in office most of the time, and always made
the office pay for it.
There was no stinginess in Simon when
he wanted to buy an influential place, and
In 1860 he sent to the Pennsylvania RepubI
lican delegation to Chicago pledged and fet-
tered to support him for the Presidency.
| Because of this prominence Lincoln was in
duced to appoint him Secretary of War at
the outbreak of the rebellion. In eight
months before he was forced out of the
| Administration, he had well bankrupted the
country, but the contracts he had awarded
| brought princely fortunes to the bene-
ficiaries, and thenceforth Simon took rank
among the wealthiest men in the Nation.
Even in that. troublous era, a Republican,
| Congress found leisure to pass damning
| vote of censure upon him
| Simon brought the science of manipulated
conventions down to so fine o point that
the Republican Legislature of Pennsyl-
vania formally demanded his criminal
prosecution for bribery in 1868. Neverthe-
less he kept his grip on the lever of the
machine, and meantime began to identify
himself closely with the great corporations
which sprung up here during and after the
war. Through these agencies he was again
elected to the United States Senate in 1867
and 1873; and it may be worthy of remark,
that before resigning his grip he made Hon.
William d. Kelley one of his most servile
| henchmen.
Turn me now to Donald. He is his
fathers son with all his fathers vices, but
lacking the mental yigor and few re-
deeming qualities which enabled the elder
| Cameron to win and retain friends. Don
has been in the Senate and in the Cabinet,
but he has never delivered speech or won
recognition as the author of any meritorious
law or policy. The solitary public act with
which he is prominently identified is the
quartering of Federal troops in Louisiana
and South Carolina to intimidate the voters
at the polls. This he did as Secretary of
War under Grant, and he also assisted in
| stealing the Presidency for Hayes.
Cameronism has debauched Pennsylvania
politics for 40 years, and only now is any
numerically large section of the Republican
party revolving against the infamy.
S~~-
A Long Hemorrhage.
During the excursion of Mattahoon Tribe
to Cape May, last Thursday, Fred Schmidt
of Fourth and Lombard streets, was taken
with severe bleeding or hemorrhage of the