Amiable Scoundrel by Paul Kahan

Author:Paul Kahan [Kahan, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO010000 Biography & Autobiography / Political
ISBN: 9781612348476
Publisher: Potomac Books
Published: 2016-05-10T16:00:00+00:00

Two things are immediately apparent about Bryant’s criticism of Cameron: first, they are entirely based on rumor and, second, those rumors reflect complaints by individuals angered by the fact that the War Department did not award them contracts. Samuel F. Du Pont wrote to his wife and claimed that many of the claims against Cameron were politically motivated, designed to force moderates out of the cabinet to make way for abolitionists.27 Cameron’s supporters vigorously fought the attacks on his character and the calls for his removal, but they became so ubiquitous that Chase was forced to defend his colleague, telling one correspondent, “Of course Cameron makes mistakes. . . . But he is administering his department vigorously, patriotically, and honestly, I am quite sure.”28 While Van Wyck’s committee turned up some mistakes and fraud, in general it yielded a relatively small number of either. With regard to Cameron specifically, Lincoln thought many of the committee members “each had a good-sized axe to grind” with the secretary of war and therefore took their charges with a sizable grain of salt.29

A related challenge concerned public opinion in both the United States and Europe. In early May, one correspondent warned Cameron not to “underrate the importance of the English press,” and later that month both the president and the secretary of war met with New York representative F. B. Cutting to discuss strategies for massaging European public opinion.30 The fact that the administration was so concerned about public opinion disgusted New York Republican George T. Strong, who denounced the war secretary as “wanting in moral courage, [because] the first question he asks about any measure is ‘What will the newspapers say?’”31 Cameron had good reason to worry what the newspapers said; as one of his friends noted, “You are said to be rich, but your general reputation is that of an inordinate lover of gain. . . . If there is truth to these reports, change your tactics, for it is nearly as public as the report of the retreat at Bull Run.”32 A few days after Bull Run, one critic even went so far as to write, “Your cursed ambition has been the cause of the death of your amiable brother. You have pushed yourself into [a] position for which God and nature never intended and you will meet your reward by the midnight howls of your conscience.”33

Worse, bad news kept coming. On August 10 Confederates routed a small force under General Nathaniel Lyon, a well-known and popular abolitionist, at Wilson’s Creek, outside Springfield, Missouri. Lyon was killed, and many in the press blamed Cameron for the defeat.34 A fresh wave of criticism of the cabinet erupted in August, and though Seward and Welles were also targets, Cameron caught the lion’s share. One of Lincoln’s friends passed along rumors that “Mr. Seward is drunk, daily; and it is universally believed that Cameron is a thief—All men believe you, upright—but know you lack experience and fear you lack nerve,” while a prominent Republican

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