small farming village with the building of the pennsylvania canal and the pennsylvania railroad, it became the center of industry and manufacturing until its decline in 1970 three at the day its largest economic drivers are state and federal government . with the help of our comcast cable partners for the next 90 minutes we will learn about the city's history and literary scene from local authors. we begin our special feature on hereford with a look at simon cameron, lincoln's beleaguered secretary of war. >> simon cameron is the most talented and important political leader in american history if people haven't heard of. cameron was without a doubt the most talented political machine builder, the most

talented politician of his generation. people talk about the age of andrew jackson but in many ways we should talk about the age of simon cameron. this is a man whose political skills were undeniable and the man who built a political machine that lasted far beyond any of those instructed by his contemporaries. he was a man who mastered his moment and when you think he was one of 1799, the last year of george washington's life he died in 1889 and during that 90 year. he really rose to the top of first pennsylvania and then america's political elite by mastering his moment . >>

it goes something like this. stephen, congressman from pennsylvania, well-known abolitionist was meeting with president lincoln early in his first term. lincoln happened to ask stevens what do you think about cameron as the secretary of war. stevenson said i don't think cameron would steal a red-hot still. this delighted lincoln who loved a good joke, particularly at simon cameron expense. lincoln repeated this joke during a cabinet meeting and cameron was aghast because the whole thing, whole premise of the joke is that cameron is totally corrupt. cameron ran into stevens after the meeting and said why would you say something like that? i demand a retraction. a few weeks later stevens was meeting with the president and before he gets up to leave out to say, the last w i said cameron wouldn't steal a red-hot still. i take that back. and, of course, that just delights lincoln even more.

cameron is irredeemably corrupt. for most civil historians that's everything you need to know about simon cameron. he wouldn't steal a red-hot stove. or maybe he would. but when i think we begin scratching away at that replication we find out there's a whole lot of smoke and not a lot of fire. in many ways cameron has been unable to use the word victim but victimized by an undeniably humorous story. his reputation for corruption goes back to late 1830s when he was selected by president martin van buren to adjust the claims of the winnebago native americans under the terms of a treaty the united states sign with the winnebagos. this year was unusual for the united states to sign treaties with native americans. typically what would happen is the treaty would mandate the united states would pay, the native americans in gold and oftentimes the united states would be responsible for the

tribes debts. this was the case with the winnebago treaty. typically what would happen is the federal government send commissioners out to meet with the tribes, discuss who was eligible to receive money and try to figure out who the tribes owed money to. cameron was sent out in 1839. he gets to prior to shane wisconsin where he finds the goal that was supposed to pay these claims has it been forwarded by the local army officer. cameron does a crackerjack job adjudicating these claims but without any gold, the inset paying the native americans and the traders with whom they had negotiated, he pays them in notes drawn on his tank of middletown, a bank headquartered in pennsylvania. to cameron this makes sense that he's got the note. he can pay the native americans and is totally consistent with the terms of the treaty. but to his political enemies in pennsylvania and in washington this looks like a swindle.

this looks like he is paying native americans in the present paper currency and he himself is going to be paid back in gold. it's important to remember 1840 as a presidential election year. as we move into 1839 the drumbeat of the whigs against martin van buren a sitting president is getting louder and more vicious. and by tarring cameron as corrupt they can tie cameron to the president and hopefully elect a week in 1840. that's what happened. they tar cameron with being a great winnebago chief. this slander follows came throughout his political life and creates a narrative where cameron is helplessly and irredeemably corrupt. uses the government to make money. he is not about fleecing poor defenseless native americans, and this becomes the dominant narrative. when his political enemies charge and with the bribery or corruption or charge them with

spoils midship, it fits that pre-existing narrative. if you investigate the individual cases what you find is that a lot of smoke but very little fire. most of the people who charge kamman with corruption do so for partisan reasons, and the war department and the house both investigate the so-called winnebago fraud and five that there's absolutely no wrongdoi wrongdoing. his first elected office is in 1845 when he assumes the pennsylvania senate seat vacated by his friend and political patron james buchanan. buchanan is going into james k polk cabinet as secretary of state, and cameron decides to take over his friends political office. there's a real important step in between the 1820s and cameron becoming senator from pennsylvania. that's cameron founding the make of middletown.

cameron takes the wealthy earns in the 1820s and early 1830s and pursues banking which provides a really effective way of building of political prestige. by founding the bank of middletown he has access to a ready source of credit that he can extend to politically influential people about the state, politicians, party leaders, et cetera. what that does is make him politically prominent, even though he doesn't hold elective office until the 1840s. by the time we get to the late 1820s cameron is a well-known and well-respected partisan political operative. he is james carville in the 19th century. and so when he decides to replace james buchanan in the senate in 1845 he is able to do that because it's almost 20 years of bridge building throughout the state. i would want to emphasize the

importance of state political power that national political identity. most of most important political figures of this area is sent to national political office because they control or have at their disposal a very powerful base of people in their states here i think that's reflected in cameron is political career. it's important remember that to get to becoming senator you don't face the voters. you get elected by the state legislature with the idea you were going to represent the states interest. so in order to get elected you need the support of the state legislator, prominent party officials. and kamman did that. he did that to his cultivation through the immediate and he did that to the bank of middletown where they can he provided low-cost or no cost credit to influential political leaders and legislators.

so cameron rises to lincoln to radar by being the man who by 1860 is in the control more or less of pennsylvania's republican party. it's important to point out cameron started up politically as a democrat. he runs for the sin in 1845 as a democrat, but as we get into the 1850s increasingly the issue of slavery is tearing a political party apart. one of the key things to understand about cameron is political career is he always sees himself as a pennsylvanian first antidemocrat or republican second. he believes he is in the senate to protect pennsylvania's industrial interest and to advocate for pennsylvania's political rights and political interest. he does that consistently throughout his career. it's frequent for historians to point to the fact he migrates from democratic party to the

know nothing party to the republican party as evidence of his total lack of principle. but in reality cameron has a very well-developed sense of principles that is operating under. he is a pennsylvanian first and when he sees the parties as protecting those interests and being in favor of those interests, he's willing to work with him. but when he sees it parties operating against those principles, he opposes him. during his first four years in the senate from 1845-1849 he is a democrat but he is one of the biggest pains in the neck to the democratic president james k polk. he defeats the nominees for various political offices. he runs afoul of polk on one of his signature initiatives which is lowering the tariff. so in a lot of ways cameron is identified as a democrat but it would be more accurate to call him a pennsylvanian rather than a democrat. he would make that argument if you were here.

in the 1850 1850s when he is out the political office he nonetheless uses his wealth and political connection to really reinforce his political machine. and by that i mean a group of people who are willing to support him because of a personal attachment to him. a cms thwarting the interest of pennsylvania. they depend upon his access to federal and state patronage for the own livelihood and so they're committed to voting for him or both principal and pragmatic reasons. and by the time we get to the 1850s we have seen the collapse more or less of the whig party and its replacement by the republican party. cameron fills that vacuum. he's got partisan political experience. is probably the most talented political operative a alleys ina state of pennsylvania, if not nationwide. and he controls pennsylvania's republican party. the person who controls pennsylvania's republican party

is in a really strong position because pennsylvanian is, as the second-highest number of electoral votes in the united states. pennsylvania the kingmaker. so to be the guy who controls the state put you in a really enviable position. you might not become president but you will have a very large voice and he was going to become president. when cameron goes, with his supporters go to the republican national convention in 1860, they are in a strong position. not so much to get their guy the nomination but to ensure whoever gets the nomination owes their guy big time. and, in fact, lincolns people who reach out and say we need your help securing the nomination, if we get the nomination and would win the election we promise you i cabinet seat. that's exactly what happened. cameron's men throw their support behind lincoln. lincoln gets the nomination and then cameron works very, very

aggressively to win pennsylvania for abraham lincoln, which he succeeds in doing. and so begin in november 1860 cameron fuld expects that he will be rewarded with a seat in lincolns cabinet. lincoln ends up trying to renege on that bargain because cameras political enemies in pennsylvania as well as new yorkers who irritated by a pennsylvanians place in the cabinet conspired to work against cameron, but ultimately he succeeds and he is taken into lincolns cabinet where he has a very rocky tenure for about 10 months. as i understand the negotiations in chicago, relatively vague about which cabinet seat cameron would ultimately be offered. cameron seems to prefer being secretary of the treasury based on the idea that he was a businessman with years of experience building canals, in the banking industry, in the

newspaper industry. and that would be very valuable experience as secretary of the treasury. when cameron and lincoln ultimately get down to brass tacks and decide which seat cameron is going to get, the only state that is really left is secretary of war. in fact cameron says to link and you should pick someone else for secretary of war. there is cleared and were coming. take someone who wants to make a reputation in this office. lincoln says no, no, no. i want you for this office took initially cameron declined but the day before the inauguration to meet with lincoln and says okay, i will take secretary of war. historians have pointed to this as proof that lincoln didn't believe there was a war coming because why would he put simon cameron in a secretary of war? if you look at the the main linn ends up putting in his cabinet initially, cameron has a fairly, cameron is actually fairly experienced when it comes to the military. he had been a visitor to west

point which a sentiment he was on the board of directors. he oversaw military education at west point, and he served briefly as pennsylvania state adjutant general which meant that he oversaw the state militia. so meager as it was cameron does have some military experience, and he is advocating the fact there is a were coming, at the south is going to resist lincolns election and perhaps lincoln understood that cameron was somewhat farsighted as to the challenges that lincoln would face their insect shortly before lincoln's inauguration he asked cameron to go to washington and meet with leaders in the army to assess preparations for the inauguration and for potential military conflict. so on some level lincoln must have trusted cameron military judgment. that being said, lincoln and cameron did not have the best relationship.

it's undeniable cameron was incredible amiable, easy to get along with. typically these are words used to describe lincoln. lincoln is out of character in his dealings with cameron. he is difficult. he is irascible. he really likes watching cameron squirm. we see this in two instances. the first is the period between the election in november 1860 and the inauguration in march 1861. lincoln does everything in his power to renege on the agreement to take cameron into his cabinet. and in part this have to do with the fact that lincoln is pressured by cameron's political appointments in pennsylvania and also to a lesser extent people in new york who were opposed to lincoln taking a pennsylvanian into his cabinet. lincoln deals with cameron very, very brusquely.

he is quite rude in dealing with this very, very important politician. it's a really shocking departure from lincoln's normal behavior when dealing with political problems. the other uncharacteristic incident in the relationship is lincoln dealing with firing simon cameron. there's no doubt lincoln fires simon cameron from the cabinet, but he doesn't interrelate aggressive and brusque way. he sent a camera in a letter in january 1861 that says i am accepting your letter of recognition. i will gratify your desire to lead the cabinet and pursue a diplomatic post. the problem with that is cameron had not resigned. lincoln was accepting of resignation before cameron had submitted. the writing was on the wall. lincoln lauded cameron out of the cabinet. but even lincoln's letter was brusque, obnoxious and rude. in fact, william seward and sam,

two other cabinet members and lincoln's cabinet who very infrequently saw eye to eye, went to lincoln and said you have direct cameron another letter. this is just too rude, to obnoxious. you will kill this man's political career. so lincoln ends up writing a far more genial letter backdating it and allowing cameron to actually submit a letter of resignation, sort of a face-saving effort. there's another incident where cameron is censured by the house of representatives in 1862, and though lincoln comes to cameron stefanski taken three weeks to do it. it's a very, very tepid defense. mostly about covering his administrations like, and less about actually coming to cameron to defense. and again these are really uncharacteristic episodes in lincoln's of political career. this is a man who would take an insult to the face and would

turn it around and turn into a joke, and who had, said in his second inaugural address with malice towards none. he had quite a bit of malice toward simon cameron and cameron becomes the focal point of a lot of lincoln's frustration during the early part of war. it's really astonishing when you stand back and look at the american army on the eve of the american civil war. the army had only about 16,000 men in it. most of them were out west picking fights with native americans. when lincoln, following the firing at fort sumter, lincoln calls for 75,00 75,000 voluntee. that is a fivefold expansion in the size of the army. it's going to require explosive growth overnight. you have a country that is designed to equip, feed, clothe and transixteen thousand troops. it is now being to do all of that times five.

answer cameron faces really unprecedented challenges administratively, that none of his predecessors had ever seen. in addition, he's cutting against a pervasive american fear of standing armies. americans have an anti-military tradition. i want to keep the army small because if they don't army might be used to strip away their rights. cameron is now time to grow the army by a factor of five overnight. he's got this bureaucracy of the war department that is divided into these eight bureaus, sort of overseen by these ancient generals, most of them are not talking to one another. most of the staff resigns to go join the confederacy and most of the leading army officers, the court of the professional army does the same thing. so here you are, simon cameron, facing the unprecedented challenges eating to grow the army by a factor of five and

needing it yesterday, needing to close ou our feed, train and eqp those men. and it's shocking. then you add to that the fact that cameron is not an administrator. cameron is a politician, and the skills they got into this position are not the skills that are going to help them succeed. that being said, i want to point out i think this attachment i i think historians have been unfair to cameron. when you look at the scope of the challenges he faced, when you look at his total lack of preparation for them, he actually dealt with them about as well as anyone could have expected him. was he the worlds greatest secretary of war? know he was not. could it have been substantially worse? absolutely. and had he been secretary of war in any other era, i think he would've performed admirably in that job. i think the books most surprising revelation is the reason behind cameras dismissal from the cabinet.

historians have repeated the lie that cameron was dismissed from the cabinet dude issues of corruption. they point to a story from the fall of 1861 where a bunch of new york bond traders come to the white house and say we are not going to suck anymore federal government bonds and less you dismiss simon cameron from the cabinet because of corruption. lincoln is alleged to have said look, bring me one proven instance of corruption and simon cabinet -- simon cameron is out of the cabinet. they are never able to do that so lincoln doesn't fire cameron in the autumn of 1861. historians point to the story as widespread proof of simon cameron to corruption but also they point to it as what a great guy lincoln was. here he was defending simon cameron. the reality is far less rosy in that scenario would say. lincoln turns to his secretary

after the bond salesman late and say if i gave in to them, the next thing would be people coming for seward. annexing after that people coming for chase and said i would have no cabinet left. so he defends cameron at least in part as a way of ensuring the integrity of his cabinet. ultimately lincoln does fire cameron, but again it has nothing to do with corruption and everything to do with the issue of slavery. here we need to take a step back and talk about cameras attitude towards the issue of slavery and his attitude towards race. cameron is a conservative on the issue of slavery. i which i mean he didn't like slavery but he didn't believe the federal government had the power to interfere where it already existed. he believed slavery was sanctioned by the constitution. so south carolina to site and wanted to be a slave state, that was regrettable but there's nothing pennsylvania could do. by the same token if pennsylvania side it did not

want to be a slave state, it's right to not have slavery should be protected. one of the things that irritates cameron in the late 1850s is what he sees as the slave states attack on northern states' rights, their states right, to not be slave states. as part of the compromise of 1850 the better government had instituted a more aggressive fugitive slave law which mandated among other things that state officials, even in free states, were required to help recapture escaped slaves. so if a slave escape from maryland and got to pennsylvania, pennsylvania state officials were required to spend pennsylvania tax went to try to recapture that slave. cameron sees this as hideous. he said i respect south to less constitutional right to be a slave state. why isn't south carolina respecting pennsylvania's state right to be a free state?

but again this is all predicated on that idea that states have a constitutional right to decide whether or not they want to be free state or slave states. but the biggest statement on his attitudes about race come from his consistent advocacy that the army should enlist african-americans. and he begins making that point early in the war. as early as april 1861, he says to the president this is going to be an long drawnout war. it is going to require us to make war not only on the confederate army, but also the confederate infrastructure. and there is no bigger a more important infrastructure and slavery. let's enlist escaped slaves, they are coming by the dozens across our lines. let's augment our power, drain main power from the south and let's win this war. lincoln said no, no, no, we can't do that because if we do, the slave states you don't leave

the union will immediately go over to the confederacy. throughout the summer as the war goes very poorly for the union, cameron begins making this point even more aggressively. he says let's enlist african-americans. it's clear that drumbeat is falling on deaf ears. cameron begins taking his criticism public. throughout the autumn of 1861 he is seen in the company of army officers and politicians who are advocating these things. and, in fact, he is actually at a speech standing next to a politician who argues for this. cameron doesn't say anything but his very presence speaks volumes about where his heart is on the issue. however, it's not until it publicly comes out in support of enlisting african-americans that lincoln decides cameron has got to go.

that happens in early december. shortly before president lincoln submits his first annual report to congress, he requests reports from the various cabinet departments. cameron submits his report on the war department and includes a paragraph advocating the enlistment of african-americans. in order to force the presidents hand he sensed that draft out to the press before giving it to the president. he then gives it to the president who is aghast at this recommendation, fearing it's going to cost and support in the border states and the orders postmaster general player to try get all of the copies of this report back. blair isn't able to do that. the report ends up in the newspaper along with the amendment report lincoln forces camera to issue another story is not only secretary of war advocates enlistment of african-americans, it's now price it lincoln tries to squelch recommendation by his cabinet official. it exposes the fault lines in lincoln administration. and from that moment cameras

time is limited. he is marginalized throughout december of 1861, and in januard out of the cabinet unceremoniously. cameron returns to the senate in 1867 and begins his third and longest stand as senator from pennsylvania. he's innocent from 1867-1877 where he is a leading voice for pennsylvania's interest what also for some very progressive political positions. including the enfranchisement of african-americans. he becomes a very aggressive voice for black rights in the united states. believing that the war doesn't end of these questions and that the grant administration, grant is elected in 1868, has a responsibility to continue the work begun by the lincoln administration to redeem the seceded states and to remove any

sort of political disabilities of southern blacks are having. and, in fact, on the state level cameron advocates vigorously to amend pennsylvania's state constitution, which has been amended in the 1830s the bar african-americans from voting. and so again we see these incredibly progressive stances on issues of race, but cameron has a long career after the war. ..

was driven by the oil system. the rise of new york senator, to the victor goes the spoils and the idea was political leaders sought office and rewarded their political supporters with the spoils of that office. government jobs, patronage, contracts, etc. cameron is a young man when that system is just coming into existence. he retires in the late 1870s in large part because the era of that spoils system is coming to a close. increasingly the republican party and part of the democratic party are

committing themselves to civil service reform. the idea that we shouldn't hire people because their political cronies of simon cameron, we should hire them because they are competent and their jobs should not depend on a republican being president or a democrat being president and in a lot of ways, we live in a post-civil service era. where you get government jobs , most government jobs are civil service jobs. you take a test, show them your resume, if you are applied for the job regardless of your political resume you should have been. it doesn't always work out that way but as a result of politics are much less driven by that system. cameron could see that in 1870s and increasingly he was a man out of step where politics was increasingly going. this was a man who built a political machine based on attachment to him, cemented by his access to state and federal patronage and with the beginning of civil service reform in the 1870s and 1890s it was clear that system was under assault you begin to see an erosion of these political machines.

nevertheless camera cameron built the most successful political machine in our history. cameron political machine controlled pennsylvania into the 1930s so he controlled pennsylvania. his political machine controlled pennsylvania for nearly 50 years after his death and one of the reasons i wrote the book was to remind people there's more to cameron than just that famous caddies see the stevens story. this was a human being with nuance and ideas. he wasn't this mustache your villain but he was a person and his career has a lot to teach us about the way in which politics worked in the 1820s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. >> book tvs exploration of harrisburg literary life continues. up next, cooper wingert talks about his book"slavery and the undergrounil