Again
the popular cry was raised, "On to Richmond!" It was at this
moment of military inactivity and popular restlessness that
charges of peculation were brought forward against Cameron.
These charges both were and were not well founded. Himself a
rich man, it is not likely that Cameron profited personally by
government contracts, even though the acrimonious Thad Stevens
said of his appointment as Secretary that it would add "another
million to his fortune." There seems little doubt, however, that
Cameron showered lucrative contracts upon his political
retainers. And no boss has ever held the State of Pennsylvania in
a firmer grip. His tenure of the Secretaryship of War was one
means to that end.
The restless alarm of the country at large expressed itself in
such extravagant words as these which Senator Grimes wrote to
Senator Fessenden: "We are going to destruction as fast as
imbecility, corruption, and the wheels of time can carry us." So
dissatisfied, indeed, was Congress with the conduct of the war
that it appointed a committee of investigation. During December,
1861, and January, 1862, the committee was summoning generals
before it, questioning them, listening to all manner of views,
accomplishing nothing, but rendering more and more feverish an
atmosphere already surcharged with anxiety.
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