Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-06-27


SIMON CAMERON. Up to the last at
tack he was conscious and had no trouble in
swallowing the food given him aud which he
appeared to assimilate.
The date of the funeral has not yet been
decided upon. just previous to the sinking
appeared to recognize several friends His
general condition, while very weak, was such
that the doctors had hopes that his life might
be prolonged until the return of Senator Don
Cameron, who had cabled that he would sail
from Liverpool yesterday. Soon after his
arrival his father will be hurried in the Har-
risburg cemetery.
Simon Csmeron's Life.
OF the early life and struggles of the "gen-
is known, and that little indicates merely the
humdrum life of an ordinary country lad at
that day. The date of his birth was March
8, 1896. His parents were of the hardy,
thrifty Scotch Irish stock who leveled the
primeval forests, fought the Indians, and,
allied with the German element af Berks and
Northampton counties, ultimately drove the
Quakers from their early control of the
province of Pennsylvania. There is but lit
tie doubt that the memory of Cameron's
early struggles with poverty made deep
impression on his mind in after life, and in
this connection he has said more than once:
any son Donald has had great many adj
vantages, but l had one that was worth all
of them-poverty.n He was of the blood of
the old Scotch Camerons. His grandfather,
another Simon, came nearly $50 years ago
from Scotland and settled in that same Dom
egal township where the later Simon has
just died.
Apprenticed to Printer.
In 1914 young Simon apprenticed himself
to Andrew Kennedy, publisher of the North
CUMBERLAND County Gazette, just across the
river from Sanbury He was regular
printers devil' at first, welding, once a
week, the clumsy balls which were then
used instead Of rollers in mixing the forms
subsequently being promoted TO pull" the
old Ramage press. Before completing his
apprenticeship, however. he went to Harris
burg and finished his trade in the Office Of
James Peacock's Republican. He boarded
in his employers family, and there met Sec
Rotary of State Ingham, afterward Andrew
Jacksons secretary of the treasury.
His Entrance into Politics.
Ingham was not in political luck just then
His own county had gone against him the
previous fall and he was anxious to bring it
back into line. Cameron struck him as be
ing an intelligent, enterprising young fellow,
and he asked him to go to Doylestown to run
The Democrat during the next campaign
He went, played his cards well, got the DEM
ocratic factions together, absorbed the rival
Democratic paper, carried the county in the
l.. -
for all time to come.
He Goes To the Capital
The Doylestown Democrat, however, gave
at that time little evidence of the prosperity
that has kept it alive and thriving ever since,
and young Cameron dropped it after the
campaign was over, and went back to the
case. He scraped together 500, spent most
of it in getting to Washington and there got
job on The Congressional Globe. 1t was
hard work and poor pay, and after one sea-
son he quit and returned to the Harrisburg
Office, where he had finished his trade One
thing he had gained in Washington was the
acquaintance of John c. Calhoun
Points in His Political Career.
At Harrisburg Cameron bought paper
and called it The Intelligencer, and with it
did good work for John c. Calhoun for the
presidency. He then was made state
printer, and later helped elect Van Buren,
delegation from Pennsylvania In 1916,
upon Buchanan going into Folks cabinet,
Cameron made the race for United Stat OF
senator and was elected as protectionist,
which he had been for years, over the demo
cratic free trader He missed a reelection
A Better Prophet Than Lincoln
In 1860 he was Pennsylvania choice for
presidential candidate in the Republican
convention When the convention met Sem
ator Cameron, finding his own chances gone,
threw his influence to Lincoln. After the
election Lincoln summoned Cameron to
Springfield. He had already offered him
the treasury department. Now he said:
"Mr. Chase is a very ambitious man, and is
being urged for the cabinet"
"Well the war department is the place for
a man anxious to make a great reputation, n
said Cameron.
@Whyp
because we are going to have a great
war"
Lincoln did not believe any such thing,
but offered Cameron his choice of the wal
or treasury departments. The Pennsylvania
refused to make a choice, and was made sec
rotary of war
His Relations with Reporters.
newspaper correspondents, but he had dis
like to being interviewed una wares. One day
he was talking to several correspondents who
had called to pay their respects. As they
were leaving he requested that no "intsr-
views" should follow the visit, and gave the
following story as his reason "Day before
yesterday New York Sun reporter called
on me and, representing that he was short of
funds and being away from home, asked me
to loan him SO to get back to New York
Az / am an old Newspaper man my
self and glad to help any Of
the craft who are in need,~
was only too glad to give him, and not lend
him, what he asked / had q short talk with
him, entirely informal, and, must say, a
trifie off-guard; but Judge of my surprise
two days later, to read in the Sun column
interview with me, which contained, among
some things l certainly said, very many
things did not say. 1t was a gross be
trayal of confidence and of the privacy
which obtains among gentlemen, and it pu
me to the trouble Of going down to the tele
any responsibility for the interview as pub
lished.n
Later Life of the General.
His vigorous ideas soon got him int,
trouble there. His retirement from the cab
met was accompanied by his appointment, a
his own request, minister to Russia
When Lincoln's denomination was being op
posed by Chase and others Cameron wa
summoned home to help look after tn
fences. In 1857 Cameron returned to tn
senate and was for many years conspicuou
In its proceedings He resigned his place il
the senate in 1876, and secured the election O
his son, Don, the present senator, to tn
vacancy. Since then he has lived IN com
parativs retirement upon handsome coun
| try placsat the spot where his ancestors set
tied when they came TO this country, AM
which he had made center for cultured an
] able men, and place Of good-fellowship TO
al his friends.