Background
James Donald Cameron was born on May 14, 1833 at Middletown, Pennsylvania, United States; the son of Simon Cameron and Margaret (Brua) Cameron.
politician secretary of war senator statesman railroad president
James Donald Cameron was born on May 14, 1833 at Middletown, Pennsylvania, United States; the son of Simon Cameron and Margaret (Brua) Cameron.
Cameron was raised and educated near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Princeton College, Cameron worked in the banking and railroad industries.
He began his apprenticeship as a clerk in the bank, but was soon promoted to cashier and subsequently became president. Other family properties came under his management early because of the elder Cameron's increasing absorption in state and national politics. During the Civil War the son was active in forwarding Union troops over the "Cameron Road, " and from 1863 to 1874 he was president of the company. It is said that he personally made the railroad arrangements to get Lincoln to Washington in 1861 when there were rumors of plots against the President. He seems to have had much of his father's ability, energy, and shrewdness, and to have been typical of the men of affairs who were beginning to dominate the life of the nation. But it was not as a business man that he earned a nation-wide reputation: it was as an audacious politician. Here also his father had paved the way for him, but once in the rough and tumble of politics, Don Cameron was well able to stand alone. In his father's notable struggle against Gov. Andrew G. Curtin for the senatorship in 1867, the son successfully directed the maneuvers in the legislature from start to finish. The Governor's defeat gave the Camerons undisputed domination of the politics of the state. The father also acquired great influence with President Grant and when a vacancy occurred in the War Office in 1876 he succeeded in having his son appointed as secretary of war. Don Cameron's incumbency was brief (May 22, 1876 - March 3, 1877), but his energetic handling of departmental business amply demonstrated his competence. He was not averse to using his office, however, to serve political ends. When Hayes's chances of winning the electoral votes of Florida and Louisiana in 1877 were doubtful, Cameron placed Federal troops at the disposal of Republican politicians in these states. For this service and for the notable assistance that he had rendered Hayes in the Republican nominating convention, the elder Cameron and other Pennsylvania Republicans demanded that the Secretary be continued in the War Department under the new administration. Hayes refused; he disapproved of the political methods of the Camerons and wanted an entirely new cabinet. Senator Cameron then decided to surrender his own place to his son as a consolation prize. The subservient Pennsylvania legislature readily acquiesced and elected Don Cameron for the remaining two years of his father's term. A more striking example of entrenched political power could hardly be found. At the same time Don also took over the active management of the state political machine which his father had built up and with the aid of lieutenants like Matthew Quay ran it skilfully and defiantly as long as he remained in public life. It enabled him to be returned to the Senate in 1879, 1885, and 1891.
Election to the chairmanship of the Republican national committee in 1879 for a time widened his influence in national politics. He promptly turned it to Grant's advantage, joining with Conkling of New York and Logan of Illinois in a strenuous campaign to have the war hero nominated for a third term. Shrewd plans were laid to control the convention of 1880, but their strategy was discovered and defeated. Although successful as a politician, Cameron never employed the arts commonly used by public men to popularize themselves with the people. He despised all such methods. Like his father he worked in ante-rooms, committees, and caucuses to attain his ends. On the whole his twenty years in the Senate were undistinguished. He made politics, not statesmanship, his principal public business. At a time when the public treasury was being drained for pensions, relief measures, and the like, he was in the forefront of those serving private causes. In national legislation he generally stood with his party, but on occasion, as in the case of the "Force Bill" of 1890, showed admirable and courageous independence. And, unlike his father, he would not bend or yield to public sentiment. He was especially earnest in his support of a high tariff and other measures favorable to the rapidly expanding business interests. In 1883 he went so far as to vote against a protective tariff because its iron duty seemed too low. Yet for some unknown reason he supported free silver as "honest money, the money of the people" and on October 30, 1893, he voted against the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Law. At the end of his third full term, 1897, possibly foreseeing defeat, he retired voluntarily from the Senate and spent the rest of his life in the management of his private affairs and in the quiet enjoyment of his Lancaster farm and his houseboat on the Southern coast. Thoroughly honest in personal matters, he was held in high regard by his friends.
Cameron died on August 30, 1918 at his country home called "Donegal" (Cameron Estate) in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He was interred at Harrisburg Cemetery in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Cameron was the last surviving Cabinet member of the Grant Administration.
Cameron was an active politician who, with the initial aid of his father Simon Cameron, and his political ally Matthew Quay, set up a political machine in the Pennsylvania legislature that ensured Cameron would be reelected to office. Senator Cameron rarely gave speeches, and he was viewed as being judicious, unemotional, and reticent. Cameron disapproved of the popular artful oratory methods used by his contemporaries while his own speeches were forceful and direct. Adopting his father's method, Cameron's strength as a politician relied on working inside the antechamber, committees, and caucuses to obtain his goals. Cameron distinguish himself in the Senate in 1890 when he supported the Federal Elections Bill, that ensured African Americans's voting protection rights in the Solid South. However, on the whole, Cameron's nearly twenty years in the Senate remained undistinguished while for the most part he voted on the Republican Party line. Cameron, like his father, protected the interest of the Pennsylvania Railroad PRR, ensuring that Pennsylvania government House Speakers E. Reed Myer and his successor Henry M. Long, remained sympathetic to the PRR.
Cameron was re-elected in 1879, 1885, and in 1891 with his last term ending in March, 1897. He was succeeded by Boies Penrose.
Cameron was part of a political family dynasty started by his father Simon Cameron carrying on his legacy as Secretary of War and U. S. Senator. Cameron's ascendency to Secretary of War, was started when a Democratic controlled House launched an investigation in 1876 into Secretary of War William W. Belknap, who ubruptly resigned office over bribery charges. Succeeding Alphonso Taft as Secretary of War, Cameron was in charge of the Great Souix War and the controversial Election of 1876, that almost caused a second civil war. Cameron was part of a transitionary period when civilian control was reestablished over the War Department during the end of Reconstruction. Cameron followed in his father Simon's footsteps, protecting the railroad interests of the PPR, in control of Pennsylvania Republican Party politics.
He was a member of the Grant Administration.
He was a judicious, reticent, unemotional man. His speeches were few and brief, but direct and forceful.
As Senator, Cameron was known as a quiet, but powerful, political boss during the Gilded Age, who supported African American voting rights.
He was married twice. His first wife, Mary McCormick, died in 1874. Four years later he married Elizabeth Sherman, niece of John and William T. Sherman.
