desired to retire to private life and his profession; but his State demanded his presence in a still higher position. The Legisla ture elected him a United States Senator, a vacancy occurring from the failure of the previous Legislature to elect a successor to Senator Walter Brooke, whose term expired in 1853. He took his seat as Senator on January 26, 1851.

Governor Brown voted for the Kansas Bill in the Senate of the United States in May, 1854, although he expressed himself not entirely satisfied with it. He respected the Constitution more than a compromise, and, as he said, acquiesced in the Compromise of 1850, just as we all did in the Compromise of 1820, without approving it; and in February, 1858, supporting the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution, he said, "I accepted the Compromise of 1854, I say, reluctantly in the beginning; but, having accepted it, I made up my mind, as a man of honor, to abide by it." He voted for the so-called English Bill, desiring "to see this question settled on the terms proposed," although he did not like the terms. He believed, however, the bill had a tendency to heal pending difficulties, and give peace, to some extent, to the country.

In 1855, an expression of Senator Brown's views in reference to the American party having been invited by J. S. Morris, Esq., editor of the Port Gibson Reveille, the result was the "Letter against Know-Nothingism," in which the Senator from Mississippi reviewed the new organization, and most eloquently and emphatically denounced it as tending to revive the worst characteristics of the Jacobins, the Star-Chamber, and the Inquisition. The effort to excuse secrecy by citing the example of Free Masons and Odd-Fellows, Senator Brown showed to be weak and futile, for "things to be compared must have some sort of resemblance to each other. Free Mason and Odd-Fellow associations are purely charitable; Know-Nothings are exclusively political. We have the highest Christian example for dispensing charities in secret, but the same authority teaches us to govern openly." The next paragraph is the index to the spirit and tone of the whole letter:

"I am American enough to prefer my own countrymen to any other, and Protestant enough to prefer a follower of Luther to a disciple of Loyola. But my love of country will forever keep me out of any asso

ciation that (if fame speaks truly) binds its members by terrible oaths to sustain American Protestants for office, though they may be fools, knaves, or traitors, in preference to Irish or German Catholics, though they may have genius, honor, and the highest evidences of patriotic devotion to our country and our institutions. All other things being equal, I should certainly prefer an American Protestant to an Irish Catholic. But I will take no oath, nor come under any party obligation, that may compel me to sustain a fool or a knave in preference to a man of sense and honor. While I assume no censorship over other men's thoughts or actions, I am free to say, for myself alone, that such oaths and such obligations are, to my mind, palpably at war with man's highest and most sacred duty to his country."

Senator Brown has declared himself in favor of the abolition of the franking-privilege. Touching the Pacific Railroad, he doubts the constitutionality of its being done by Congress, "unless there be direct and immediate necessity" for it as a means of national defence, and he believed (January, 1859) that no such necessity existed. He believes in the protection of slavery in the Territories, on the basis of the Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court,—that slaves were property, and that slaveholders had the same right to carry their slave property to the Territories that any other citizen from any other State had to carry any other kind of property; and that, when there, the Government should protect it. In the running discussion consequent upon his speech on this subject, (February 23, 1859,) and in reply to interrogatories from Northern Senators, Senator Brown declared that he utterly, totally, entirely, persistently, and consistently repudiated the whole doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty, by which, said he, "I mean Territorial Sovereignty. I utterly deny that there is any sovereignty in a Territory."

Senator Brown is very much beloved by his State, and the great secret—which is no secret of his success and influence is the direct and energetic manner in which he carries out what seems right and just. His speeches strongly partake of those characteristics which have led him to the front rank of Southern statesmen, a prompt eloquence and a disregard for policy when weighed against conviction. The following passage, concluding his speech at Hazlehurst, Mississippi, in September, 1858, on his return from the exciting scenes of the first session of the ThirtyFifth Congress, may fitly conclude this personal and political sketch:

"I have no silly aspirations for the Presidency, and therefore have no occasion to suspect that my judgment has been warped by ambition. I am ambitious, but my ambition does not lead me toward the Presidency. That is the road to apostasy: I would rather be the independent Senator that I am, and speak for Mississippi, than be President, and be subject to the call of every demagogue and compelled to speak for a heterogeneous mass with as many opinions as the rainbow has hues. Whenever the South can no longer rely on the National Democracy, and feels that the time has come for her to go it alone, I will stand for her if she can find no son more worthy of her confidence. But I never will consent to compromise my principles, or flatter Free-Soilers for their votes. When it comes to that, I stand out."

If

One of Governor Brown's biographers, before quoted, says, As a Senator he has been eminently national in his course. to the casual observer he has sometimes appeared a little sectional, it must be borne in mind that he comes from the South,a section against which Abolition has directed its batteries,―and that it was his duty, as it was his pleasure, to defend that section. Senator Brown was re-elected for six years, commencing March 4 of the present year, (1859.)

8*

SIMON CAMERON,

OF PENNSYLVANIA.

It is one of the happiest results of our institutions, that none can claim respect or command public confidence on account of parentage. No prominent position can be gained by inheritance: every man must, so to speak, be his own father. The history of Simon Cameron is an illustration of this fact. He is one of the large number of our public men who, besides the disadvantage of early orphanage, have had to struggle against poverty and obscurity. All he is he has made himself.

Descended from the hardy Cameronians of Scotland, the subject of this sketch possesses many of the acute and persistent characteristics of his race. His great-grandfather, Donald Cameron, was among those who sided with the unfortunate but chivalrous Charles Edward. He took part in the famous battle of Culloden in 1746, and soon after that disastrous fight emigrated to America. Arriving here, he served in the army, and was present at the storming of the Heights of Abraham, at Quebec, under the gallant Wolfe. On the maternal side his grandfather was a German Huguenot, who, being subjected to religious persecution, sought in this country that toleration which he could not find at home. He soon actively engaged in the service of his adopted country, took a distinguished part in the Indian wars of those days, and became the intimate friend and companion of the famous Captain Sam Brady, whose great achievements as an Indian fighter are so well known.

The father of Senator Cameron was in an humble occupation, but had the reputation of being an honest, industrious, highly-intellectual, and much-respected citizen. In consequence of the financial revulsions about the beginning of the present century, he was overwhelmed in ruin, in the crowding shadow of which he sank into the grave, leaving his family in very destitute circumstances.

At the death of his father, which occurred in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, Simon Cameron was about nine years old, having been born in 1799, at Lancaster in the same State. Thus deprived of their natural guardian and protector, and left in a state of almost absolute destitution, it was impossible for the children to enjoy even the poor advantages of the then existing system of school-education. The mother, though possessed of great energy and a courage the most unfaltering, had more than enough to do to feed and clothe and keep together her little ones until they might be able to provide for themselves.

Discouraging and unpropitious as were these dismal circumstances, they had no disheartening effect or influence on the mind of Simon; on the contrary, they stimulated him to exertions proportionate to the obstacles to be overcome. He thirsted for knowledge, and, having once found the way to satisfy this growing appetite, spent, from his boyhood, every leisure moment in reading. He soon devoured every thing in the shape of a book he met with, and, there being then no well-furnished libraries accessible to boys, as there are now, he directed his attention to the village printing-office. The exchange newspapers contained a mine of information, and from it he determined to dig out the jewels. The knowledge to be obtained in this was of a useful and practical character, and he eagerly devoted himself to its acquisition. An opportunity offering, he apprenticed himself to the printer, and for a couple of years enjoyed the benefits of his position. At that time (in 1817) his employer succumbed to financial reverses and closed his establishment.

Having arrived at the age of eighteen, and acquired a good stock of practical knowledge, he was emboldened to commence life with a confident reliance upon himself. Almost penniless, and with a little bundle of clothing under his arm, the youth started out, with the intention of working his way-how, or in what manner, he hardly ventured to imagine-to South America, and joining in the struggle for independence which was then going on between the South American colonies and Old Spain. His intention was frustrated. When he reached Harrisburg, he found his feet so blistered, and his energies so exhausted, that he could proceed no farther, at least for several days. To subsist during this period, was the next consideration. Having a