What do you think?
Amiable Scoundrel: Simon Cameron, Lincoln's Scandalous Secretary of War
From abject poverty to undisputed political boss of Pennsylvania, Lincoln’s secretary of war, senator, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and a founder of the Republican Party, Simon Cameron (1799–1889) was one of the nineteenth century’s most prominent political figures. In his wake, however, he left a series of questionable political and business dealings and, at the age of eighty, even a sex scandal.
Far more than a biography of Cameron, Amiable Scoundrel is also a portrait of an era that allowed—indeed, encouraged—a man such as Cameron to seize political control. The political changes of the early nineteenth century enabled him not only to improve his status but also to exert real political authority. The changes caused by the Civil War, in turn, allowed Cameron to consolidate his political authority into a successful, well-oiled political machine. A key figure in designing and implementing the Union’s military strategy during the Civil War’s crucial first year, Cameron played an essential role in pushing Abraham Lincoln to permit the enlistment of African Americans into the U.S. Army, a stance that eventually led to his forced resignation. Yet his legacy has languished, nearly forgotten save for the fact that his name has become shorthand for corruption, even though no evidence has ever been presented to prove that Cameron was corrupt.
Amiable Scoundrel puts Cameron’s actions into a larger historical context by demonstrating that many politicians of the time, including Abraham Lincoln, used similar tactics to win elections and advance their careers. This study is the fascinating story of Cameron’s life and an illuminating portrait of his times.
Far more than a biography of Cameron, Amiable Scoundrel is also a portrait of an era that allowed—indeed, encouraged—a man such as Cameron to seize political control. The political changes of the early nineteenth century enabled him not only to improve his status but also to exert real political authority. The changes caused by the Civil War, in turn, allowed Cameron to consolidate his political authority into a successful, well-oiled political machine. A key figure in designing and implementing the Union’s military strategy during the Civil War’s crucial first year, Cameron played an essential role in pushing Abraham Lincoln to permit the enlistment of African Americans into the U.S. Army, a stance that eventually led to his forced resignation. Yet his legacy has languished, nearly forgotten save for the fact that his name has become shorthand for corruption, even though no evidence has ever been presented to prove that Cameron was corrupt.
Amiable Scoundrel puts Cameron’s actions into a larger historical context by demonstrating that many politicians of the time, including Abraham Lincoln, used similar tactics to win elections and advance their careers. This study is the fascinating story of Cameron’s life and an illuminating portrait of his times.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2016
About the author
Paul Kahan
12 books8 followersDr. Paul Kahan is a leading expert on U.S. political, economic, and diplomatic history, with a particular interest in the half-century between Andrew Jackson's election to the presidency in 1828 and the so-called end of Reconstruction in 1877. He earned his Ph.D. in U.S. history from Temple University, an M.A. in Modern American History & Literature from Drew University, and B.A. degrees in history and English from Alfred University.
Dr. Kahan has published several books, including "Eastern State Penitentiary: A History," "Amiable Scoundrel: Simon Cameron, Lincoln's Scandalous Secretary of War," "The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant: Preserving the Civil War's Legacy," and "The Bank War: Andrew Jackson, Nicholas Biddle, and the Fight for American Finance." Find out more about Dr. Kahan and his work by visiting his website, www.paulkahan.com or his facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/pkahan
Dr. Kahan has published several books, including "Eastern State Penitentiary: A History," "Amiable Scoundrel: Simon Cameron, Lincoln's Scandalous Secretary of War," "The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant: Preserving the Civil War's Legacy," and "The Bank War: Andrew Jackson, Nicholas Biddle, and the Fight for American Finance." Find out more about Dr. Kahan and his work by visiting his website, www.paulkahan.com or his facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/pkahan
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 31, 2018
This turned out to be an excellent book to read after I read Chernow’s Grant. The last part of this book covers U. S. Grant’s presidency and his relationship to Cameron.
Simon Cameron (1799-1889) was one of the 19th century’s prominent political figures. He rose from poverty to the political boss of Pennsylvania. Before reading this book all I knew about Cameron was that he was a crooked politician. He was one of the best users of the 19th century spoils system. But he was loyal to the Union and Lincoln. Cameron was key in designing and implementing the Union’s military strategy during the Civil War. Cameron was a key politician of his day. He served as Senator from Pennsylvania, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Lincoln’s Secretary of War.
The book is well written and researched. Kahan reveals both the good and bad of Cameron’s political career. Kahan did a good job of staying neutral with his presentation of Cameron’s career. The author reveals the corruption of our early political system. Paul Kahan is a well-known historian. He received his Ph.D. in U.S. History from Temple University. I read his book “The Bank War: Andrew Jackson” and enjoyed it. Kahan is a lecturer at Ohlone College in Fremont, California.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is almost ten hours. Michael Kazalski does a good job narrating the book. Kazalski is a voice-over artist and audiobook narrator.
Simon Cameron (1799-1889) was one of the 19th century’s prominent political figures. He rose from poverty to the political boss of Pennsylvania. Before reading this book all I knew about Cameron was that he was a crooked politician. He was one of the best users of the 19th century spoils system. But he was loyal to the Union and Lincoln. Cameron was key in designing and implementing the Union’s military strategy during the Civil War. Cameron was a key politician of his day. He served as Senator from Pennsylvania, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Lincoln’s Secretary of War.
The book is well written and researched. Kahan reveals both the good and bad of Cameron’s political career. Kahan did a good job of staying neutral with his presentation of Cameron’s career. The author reveals the corruption of our early political system. Paul Kahan is a well-known historian. He received his Ph.D. in U.S. History from Temple University. I read his book “The Bank War: Andrew Jackson” and enjoyed it. Kahan is a lecturer at Ohlone College in Fremont, California.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is almost ten hours. Michael Kazalski does a good job narrating the book. Kazalski is a voice-over artist and audiobook narrator.
September 26, 2025
This book is a good read on one of the more controversial members of Lincoln’s cabinet. Although Kahan is quick to demonstrate how various alleged Cameron scandals were grounded more in rumor than fact, he also avoids swinging the pendulum too far in a revisionist direction, allowing Cameron’s transactional and often opportunistic nature to shine through at all times. Likewise, the exhaustive exploration of Pennsylvania’s 19th-century politics goes a long way in contextualizing not only Cameron’s actions but also the broader second and third-party systems.
Admittedly, I wish Cameron’s post-Senate retirement received more exploration (e.g., in his biography on Chester Arthur, Thomas Reeves briefly mentions that Cameron was one of the earliest proponents of aligning the Republican Party with the Virginia Readjusters. This is briefly alluded to here in chapter 10 - but not discussed as thoroughly as I would have wanted.)
Nevertheless, on the whole, this is a balanced look into Cameron’s career that demonstrates why his popular modern-day reputation is reductive, without overcorrecting on that point. Verdict: 3.75/5.
Admittedly, I wish Cameron’s post-Senate retirement received more exploration (e.g., in his biography on Chester Arthur, Thomas Reeves briefly mentions that Cameron was one of the earliest proponents of aligning the Republican Party with the Virginia Readjusters. This is briefly alluded to here in chapter 10 - but not discussed as thoroughly as I would have wanted.)
Nevertheless, on the whole, this is a balanced look into Cameron’s career that demonstrates why his popular modern-day reputation is reductive, without overcorrecting on that point. Verdict: 3.75/5.
January 22, 2019
Simon Cameron who was appointed then ditched by Abraham Lincoln as his first Secretary of War gets a reassessment in Paul Kahan's biography. He was a genially corrupt man in a most corrupt
age. The post Civil War Gilded Age is where he finally found his place.
The founder of Pennsylvania's solid Republican machine which lasted from post Civil War until the
30s was born in 1799 and grew up in poverty. But like another man of a couple of generations later
one George Washington Plunkitt, he's a man who saw his opportunities and took them. Not any kind
of orator, Cameron's talents lay with political management.
Not that he didn't have convictions, one of those convictions is that he was a hard and fast anti-slavery advocate. He was a Jacksonian Democrat at first and succeeded ally James Buchanan in the
US Senate, when Buchanan became Secretary of State in the Polk administration. It was after that
presidency that these allies diverged and Cameron lost a bid for a full term in the Senate. It was
slavery that primarily diverged them as well as Buchanan's ambitions for the White House come
what may.
When Buchanan became president Cameron returned to the Senate now boss of Pennsylvania's new
Republican Party. He delivered Pennsylvania's delegation to Lincoln at the right moment at the
1860 convention and got his seat in the cabinet.
More than rumors about war contracts being awarded to profiteers drove public opinion and forced
Lincoln to remove Cameron from his post. He got a gracious reward as Minister to Russia for about
a year.
Cameron of course did not like being removed, who would. But he never let emotions rule him. He
was back in good graces and worked hard for Lincoln's nomination and re-election. And by 1867
he was back in the Senate as a radical Republican opposing Andrew Johnson on Reconstruction and
supporting Johnson's impeachment.
Cameron served all through the Grant administration, even succeeded in getting his Donald Cameron appointed War Secretary in the final year of the Grant presidency. He retired from the
Senate that year and as boss of the state had his son Donald succeed him as Senator. After that it
was a graceful retirement until his death in 1889.
His life on a personal level was a model of deportment. He was happily married to the same woman for over 50 years. It was interesting to learn that Cameron was also singularly devoted to
a frail son described as having a mental affliction. My gut feeling says it was Down's Syndrome
and Cameron made sure all his life and in his will that Simon, Jr. was provided for.
One way or another Simon Cameron was a symbol for an age, two ages in fact, the Jacksonian and
the Gilded Age. His life is a bridge to both.
age. The post Civil War Gilded Age is where he finally found his place.
The founder of Pennsylvania's solid Republican machine which lasted from post Civil War until the
30s was born in 1799 and grew up in poverty. But like another man of a couple of generations later
one George Washington Plunkitt, he's a man who saw his opportunities and took them. Not any kind
of orator, Cameron's talents lay with political management.
Not that he didn't have convictions, one of those convictions is that he was a hard and fast anti-slavery advocate. He was a Jacksonian Democrat at first and succeeded ally James Buchanan in the
US Senate, when Buchanan became Secretary of State in the Polk administration. It was after that
presidency that these allies diverged and Cameron lost a bid for a full term in the Senate. It was
slavery that primarily diverged them as well as Buchanan's ambitions for the White House come
what may.
When Buchanan became president Cameron returned to the Senate now boss of Pennsylvania's new
Republican Party. He delivered Pennsylvania's delegation to Lincoln at the right moment at the
1860 convention and got his seat in the cabinet.
More than rumors about war contracts being awarded to profiteers drove public opinion and forced
Lincoln to remove Cameron from his post. He got a gracious reward as Minister to Russia for about
a year.
Cameron of course did not like being removed, who would. But he never let emotions rule him. He
was back in good graces and worked hard for Lincoln's nomination and re-election. And by 1867
he was back in the Senate as a radical Republican opposing Andrew Johnson on Reconstruction and
supporting Johnson's impeachment.
Cameron served all through the Grant administration, even succeeded in getting his Donald Cameron appointed War Secretary in the final year of the Grant presidency. He retired from the
Senate that year and as boss of the state had his son Donald succeed him as Senator. After that it
was a graceful retirement until his death in 1889.
His life on a personal level was a model of deportment. He was happily married to the same woman for over 50 years. It was interesting to learn that Cameron was also singularly devoted to
a frail son described as having a mental affliction. My gut feeling says it was Down's Syndrome
and Cameron made sure all his life and in his will that Simon, Jr. was provided for.
One way or another Simon Cameron was a symbol for an age, two ages in fact, the Jacksonian and
the Gilded Age. His life is a bridge to both.
September 24, 2020
Before Cameron became a byword for ineptitude and corruption as Lincoln's first Secretary of War, there was a long public career stretching from being a junior newspaper publisher and enthusiastic Jacksonian to being an established businessman and a founder of the Republican Party. One reality is that Cameron was a long-time practitioner of "honest graft," in that while he was angling for plum public positions and contracts, that didn't mean that the job itself would be slighted; it's how business was conducted prior to the unpleasantness of the 1860s. The real issue with Cameron as Secretary of War is that whatever his talents as a politician and a businessman (which were many), the sort of attention to detail and organization that were needed just weren't part of Cameron's nature. The last straw though was, having joined the Republicans out of a long brewing disgust for what he saw as overweening sectional demands from the Slave South, Cameron was in advance of administration position on emancipation and arming freed Blacks. As for the corruption, Cameron dryly noted that if he wanted to make money that was the easiest thing in the world out of government; not that this prevented him looking for good public jobs for his sons and relations. Regarding the ineptitude, well, Cameron seems self-aware enough that he was really not the man for the job and that if the administration needed a scapegoat, he was prepared to be a good party man and take the hit. He still remained Mr. Republican in Pennsylvania pretty much until his death; all in all an enlightening look at how American politics really worked in the mid-19th century.
January 14, 2021
An excellent and readable book. Prose is fluid throughout and as an avid biography reader, I enjoyed the precise detail. My favorite part of the book was the portion when Cameron was Secretary of War and I learned additional information about DC and the riots that occurred as the Civil War began. THe author also presents a balanced approach to Cameron and controversies surrounding him. Highly recommended read!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews