West Chester Pa: Jany:
9. 1861
Dear Sir
Nothing short of considerations of imperative duty could
induce me to trouble you with a letter at this time knowing as I do the
anxieties which must necessarily be crowding upon you.
Let me beg you to reconsider your offer to Simon Cameron of
a seat in your cabinet. I have known him for twenty years. He is not qualified
for the position by talent or information. He is a mere politician and of the
lowest sort. He has not a single idea of statesman. But that is not the most
formidable objection. What his reputation for integrity is you can learn from
the protest of the 28 members of the Pennsylvania legislature which accompanies
this. Since 1854 when that protest was signed his reputation has not improved.
It has been openly charged that he bought his present position by money. I do
not verify the charge for I have no personal knowledge on the subject; but I
trust it is enough for you to know that his character is subject to the most
serious suspicions of the want of political integrity. I have some knowledge of
the efforts that were made by him to obtain the nomination at Chicago, and you
I think cannot be entirely ignorant of some of them. In my opinion they were
such as no honourable man would stoop to. But they do not make a drop in the
bucket in comparison with what is gravely alleged against him in a long
political career, in which he was never elected to the people to any thing and
has succeeded in making himself most odious to the most worthy and high minded
of every political party to which he has become attached.
I voted for him on the first ballot at Chicago but that vote
involves me in no inconsistency. His supporters earnestly desired a large
complimentary vote for their chief, and in order to obtain that vote promised
that after the first ballot they would cast their votes as a majority of the
delegation would determine. Having ascertained how that majority would be, and
that if the proposition was not acceded to, a large proportion of the Cameron
men would vote for Seward I consented to cast a complimentary vote for Cameron
on the distinct understanding that it should not be used as a lever to put him
into the cabinet. It was said there that he would not accept a cabinet office,
and the declaration was but a repetition of what he had said at Harrisburg,
openly, and often, during the session of the state convention. It was under
these circumstances I voted, and induced others to vote for Cameron, on the
first ballot. But for this movement we should have nominated a candidate at
Chicago whom the country wd not have sustained. For the Cameron men would
certainly have executed their threats.
Mr Cameron is not popular in Penna. He has no strength with
the people. He could not be elected on the state ticket to any office. Had he
been nominated for the presidency he could not have received the vote of his
own state. There are men and a good many of them that clamor for him, but
divest him of his factious influence as a suposed dispenser of political
favour, and there are not two them that would not deny all association with him
and repel the imputation of it as disparaging and disreputable.
I beg leave to assure you that I feel no concern as to Mr
Cameron's adverse influence in the distribution of the federal patronage. My
sole object in writing is to warn you of the danger to your administration in
making the proposed appointment.
with the highest
respect
very truly yours
Joseph J Lewis.
SOURCE: Abraham Lincoln Papers
at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
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