SIMON CAMERON - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 05/05/1867 - HFSID 286525

SIMON CAMERON
ALS sending a referral
Autograph Letter signed: "Simon Cameron" as US Senator, 1 page, 4¾x7¼. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1867 May 5. He has marked the letter Private".To A. J. Glossbrenner, in full: "I have been waiting to write [illegible name] till I should hear from you. But, if he is willing to give me [illegible phrase] them. Mr. Robert Byron of Cumberland is a man of high character & fitness. I [illegible phrase] place for at once. Please let me hear from you, at your convenience. Truly yours". Simon Cameron (1799-1889) was Senator from Pennsylvania (Democrat, 1845-1849; Republican, 1857-1861, 1867-1877) and a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1860. Cameron became Secretary of War in a political bargain at the 1860 Republican National Convention at which his political supporters convinced Lincoln's campaign managers to give him a Cabinet post in return for the votes of Pennsylvania delegates. After his appointment as Secretary of War, Cameron dispensed a raft of civil and military appointments and army contracts, and charges of corruption ran rampant. In 1862, in an effort to be rid of him, Lincoln gave him the diplomatic post of Minister to Russia, and appointed Edwin M. Stanton as Secretary of War. A. J. Glossbrenner, author of a history of York County (1834), was Sergeant-at-Arms of the US House of Representatives in the 1850s. In 1863 he founded a Democratic Party newspaper, The Age, in Philadelphia. The paper consistently attacked President Lincoln and was accused of Southern sympathies, eliciting angry demonstrations outside its office. In 1850, Cameron and Glossbrenner shared ownership of a utility, the Pottsville Gas Company, and served together on its board. No information is available on Robert Byron, but not all of Simon Cameron's contemporaries would have considered him a credible character witness. Edges irregularly cut. 1 vertical 1 horizontal fold crease. Ink marks at lower left edge. Otherwise fine condition.