James Donald CAMERON, Congress, PA (1833-1918)

CAMERON, James Donald, (son of Simon Cameron), a Senator from Pennsylvania; born in Middletown, Dauphin County, Pa., May 14, 1833; graduated from Princeton College in 1852, and received a graduate degree in 1855; bank clerk and cashier; president of the Northern Central Railway Co. of Pennsylvania 1866-1874; Secretary of War in the Cabinet of President Ulysses Grant 1876-1877; chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1880; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of his father, Simon Cameron, March 5, 1877; reelected in 1879, 1885, and 1890, and served from March 20, 1877, to March 3, 1897; chairman, Committee on Naval Affairs (Forty-seventh through Fifty-second and Fifty-fourth Congresses), Committee on Revolutionary Claims (Fifty-third Congress); was not a candidate for reelection; engaged in several business enterprises in Harrisburg, Pa.; died at his country home, ‘Donegal,’ in Lancaster County, Pa., August 30, 1918; interment in the Harrisburg Cemetery, Harrisburg, Pa.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Harrison, Robert. “Blaine and the Camerons: A Study in the Limits of Machine Power.” Pennsylvania History 49 (July 1982): 157-75.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present