The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1889-07-03
GEN. CAMERON DEAD.
The Sage of Donegal Passes
Away at the Age of 90 Years.
HIS CAREER AND CHARACTER.

General Simon Cameron died at hi
residence in Donegal, Lancaster county
Pa, at o'clock Wednesday evening
/ June 2G, 1889.
The condition of General Cameron
| during the day was encouraging an,
death came suddenly. Up to the last at
tack of weakness he was conscious an,
TOOK food without difficulty. Around tn,
deathbed were ex-Attorney General Mac
Veagh and wife, Mrs. Haldeman, jane
Cameron, Simon B. Cameron and wifi
and Mrs. David Watts, a grind daught
er.
4 Harrisburg telegram says:
Although General Camerons dealt
has been expected for several days, tn,
announcement that he had succumbeg
to the attack Of paralysis which prostrat
ed him last week, created poignant sor
row in this community The Genera
died at 5 o'clock this evening, surround
ed by his near relatives, who were per
mitted 10 be present at his deathbed
Senator Cameron is on the way to thi.
country from Scotland, and soon aftel
his arrival his father will be buried in
the Harrisburg cemetery.
Simon Cameron was born in Lancaster
county, Pa, March S, 1899. He became
a printer and in 1920 the editor of a
newspaper at Doyles;own. In 1922 he
removed to Harrisburg, where he edited
a Democratic journal, became State Prin-
ter, president of bank, and subsequent
ly of two railroad companies. In 1876
he was elected United States Senator to
fill the vacancy caused by the resigna.
ton Of Mr. Buchanan, his term closing
in 1919. He acted with the Democratic
party, voting in favor of declaring that
war existed with Mexico and in favor OF
the proposition to extend the Missouri
compromise line to the Pacific. After
the repeal Of the Missouri Compromise
in 1884 he allied himself with the Re-
publican party, and in 1857 he was again
elected United States Senator. In the
Republican convention held at Chicago
in May, 1860, he was proposed as can
didate for the Presidency, and on the
first ballot received about 50 votes. His
name was then withdrawn, his friends
voting for Mr.. Lincoln. On LincoIn's in
auguratlOn, March T. 1861, General Cam
eron became Secretary OF War. He re-
manned in the Cabinet till January a.
1862, when he resigned, and was appoint
ed Minister to Russia. but returned in
November. In 1866 he was again elected
to the United States Senate, and in 1872
was chosen Chairman of the Committee
on Foreign Relations, in place of Senator
Sumner. He was reelected TO the SEN
ate in 1873, but resigned in 1877. and was
succeeded by his son, J Donald Cameron.
He was extensively engaged in railroad
and canal building in early life, and
served a term as Adjutant General. from
which office he took his title.
The man whom Roscoe Conkling once
called "the wisest politician that ever
lived has had a wonderful experience.
Take him only as national character,
and his career spans the wide stretch of
years from Clay to Conkling, from the
elder Harrison to the younger. He took
his seat as a Senator from Pennsylvania
when James Buchahan resigned it to
take a Cabinet position under Polk /;
when the death of President Harrison
was still fresh as a national sorrow when
Clay and Webster Benton and Calhoun
were quoted as the rival leaders of polit-
ical thought He resigned his seat in
the Senate when Blaine and Conkling.
Sherman and Edmunds had succeeded
them when the grandson of the former
Harrison was already well along in the
career which has now brought him into
the Presidency. He went to Washington
when it was village of 5000 people and
got place as jOurneyman printer on
the National Lateiiigeacer Monroe was
President then, and General Cameron
knew every President since, and advised
most of them, except President Harrison,
whom he never met
In the great events of the meantime
he was an influential factor. As politi-
clan he held the lines over conventions
which made Presidents. and over combi-
nations which wrecked the proudest am
bitions. As Lincoln's Secretary of War,
he laid the mighty foundations of the
national military power which crushed
tie rebellion. As Minister to st. Peters
burg, his diplomacy secured the active
friendship Of Russia, and prevented Ma
poleon's scheme for the joint recognition
of the Confederacy by the great Euro
pean powers.
He saw the end Of all the great polit-
ical careers of the Jackson period, and
the oldest leader now in public life,
when he first took his seat in Congress
had Simon Cameron pointed out to him
as one of the leaders of the Senate. Lin
coin, Douglas, Stevens, Sumner and
Grant; the war, the abolition of slavery,
the protective tariff, in its modern sense,
the Republican party-all were unheard
of for years after he was Senator Of the
United States.
He was Secretary of War and had been
twice a Senator, when a New York law
yer came before him one day as agent
for patent yeast powder, which he was
trying TO have introduced into the Com
rnissary Department.
lie made good argument" said
General Cameron, telling the story one
sunny afternoon in his library, whose
windows look out on the old stump of
tree under which he slept when, a pin
ter boy, he had hoated down the Susque-
hanna in search of his fortune. "Be
made good argument. and impressed
me with the belief that mis- yeast powder
was very good yeast powder indeed. l
it, but the Commissary of
didn't think l knew much
about yeast powders, and he rejected
IT,
General Cameron lived to sit in the
Senate tkat counted the votes by which
his same yeast powder agent was defeat
ii for the Presidency by one vote.
The yeast powder agent was Samuel J.
rlden.