James Campbell, American politician from Pennsylvania, Appointed state Attorney General and United States Postmaster General.
Background
James Campbell was born on September 1, 1812 in Southwark, Pennsylvania (now part of Philadelphia), United States; the son of Anthony Campbell, a prosperous storekeeper, and of Catharine McGarvey, his wife, both Irish and Catholic in race and religion.
Education
His boyhood was one well-disciplined, at home, by the church, and under the schoolmasters of Southwark, John and Geraldus Stockdale, pedagogues and disciplinarians of the old school.
Career
He became school commissioner in 1840 and his influential position is demonstrated by the fact that Gov. Porter appointed him to the court of common pleas in 1842 before he was thirty. He was on the bench ten years and was often called upon to bear the insults which Catholics suffered in the troublous forties. Politically he was arrayed with the Tyler forces for their brief day and then became a Buchanan man. In 1851 he was nominated for supreme court justice to strengthen the rest of the Democratic ticket among his adherents. The balance of the ticket was elected but anti-Catholic prejudice defeated Campbell. The next year Gov. Bigler appointed him attorney-general. In 1852 Campbell marshalled his forces in favor of Pierce during a campaign in which the latter was accused of anti-Catholic prejudice. As a result of this valuable service and upon the recommendations of the state chairman and of Buchanan, Pierce appointed him postmaster-general. In 1853, when Campbell undertook his new task, he was described as a fat jolly man who tended strictly to business. His ambition was to promote the efficiency of his department. He instituted new methods; he attempted to get better rates and more efficient service from the railroad and steamship companies carrying mail; he vainly strove to have the franking privilege abolished. Upon his recommendation the registry system was established. He sought more favorable postage rates with foreign nations, and his success with Bremen laid the foundation for cheaper foreign postages, although Great Britain would not yield during Campbell's term. He was an energetic and hard-working cabinet member, but he was not outstanding in the administration, and, as a Catholic, during the Know-Nothing furor of 1854-55, he probably contributed to the administration's unpopularity. In 1857 he returned from Washington with his career behind him; Buchanan gave his confidence only to those unconnected with the Pierce administration.
Thenceforth, with the exception of once during the Civil War, when he was nearly elected to the United States Senate as a war Democrat, he spent his life with his law practise and as a trustee and director of various charities and institutions, among which were Girard College and Jefferson Medical College. He passed these last thirty-five years in the quiet, steady, almost monotonous mode of life devoted to duty and usefulness, which seemed best to fit his nature.
Achievements
Religion
Though Campbell was not a strict religionist, he was loyal to his church and became the best-known leader of the Catholic Democrats of Philadelphia.
Connections
His wife, Emilie S. Chapron whom he had married October 28, 1845, died, leaving him two sons.