James Donald Cameron (May 14, 1833 – August 30, 1918) was an American politician from Pennsylvania who served as Secretary of War under Ulysses S. Grant and in the United States Senate for twenty years.
Born in Middletown, Pennsylvania, the son of Simon Cameron, the 26th Secretary of War and a powerful Pennsylvania politician and Margaret Brua. Cameron graduated from Princeton College (today Princeton University) in 1852 and received a graduate d...
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James Donald Cameron (May 14, 1833 – August 30, 1918) was an American politician from Pennsylvania who served as Secretary of War under Ulysses S. Grant and in the United States Senate for twenty years.
Born in Middletown, Pennsylvania, the son of Simon Cameron, the 26th Secretary of War and a powerful Pennsylvania politician and Margaret Brua. Cameron graduated from Princeton College (today Princeton University) in 1852 and received a graduate degree in 1855. He worked as a bank clerk and cashier and was later president of the Northern Central Railway from 1866 to 1874. In 1876, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Cameron to his cabinet as Secretary of War, a post his father once served in during the Lincoln administration, to succeed Alphonso Taft, who became Attorney General, and served as so until the end of Grant's presidency.
In 1877, his father resigned from his seat in the United States Senate and Cameron was appointed to fill the vacancy under the ensurance of the...
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