U.S. Secretary of War Simon Cameron is…
March 1862 CE
His corruption is so notorious that Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, when discussing Cameron's honesty with Lincoln, told Lincoln that "I don't think that he would steal a red hot stove".
When Cameron demanded Stevens retract this statement Stevens told Lincoln "I believe I told you he would not steal a red-hot stove. I will now take that back."
He is succeeded by Edwin M. Stanton, who had been serving as a legal advisor to the War Secretary.
He now serves as United States Minister to Russia.
Cameron had become a Whig Party member, and later a member of the Democratic Party, before being elected to replace James Buchanan in the Senate in 1844.
He had switched to the Republican Party and was nominated for President, but had given his support to Abraham Lincoln at the 1860 Republican National Convention.
Lincoln, as part of a political bargain, had named Cameron Secretary of War.