Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/542

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508
CAMERON
CAMERON

democrats, republicans, and liberals, and re-elected in 1881 to fill the term of Senator Matthew H. Car- penter, deceased, serving until 3 March, 1885.


CAMERON, Hector, Canadian lawyer, b. in Montreal, 3 June, 1833. He is of Scottish descent, and is the only svirviving son of the late assistant commissary-general, Kenneth Cameron. He was educated at King's college, London, and at Trinity college, Dublin, where he was graduated in 1851. afterward taking the degree of M. A. at tlie uni- versity of Toronto. He studied law in that city, and was admitted to the bar of Ontario in 1854. Since 1874 he has represented North Victoria in the House of Commons. Mr. Cameron is regarded as one of the best authorities on constitutional law in Canada, and was selected by the Dominion gov- ernment to argue the question of the boundary of Ontario before the judicial committee of the Im- perial priw council.


CAMERON, John, Canadian R. C. bishop, b. in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, in February, 1827. He received his preparatory education at home, and, when sixteen years of age, went to Rome, where he spent ten years fitting himself for the priesthood. In 1853 he was ordained a priest, and at the same time received his degree as doctor of philosophy, and also of divinity. The year following, he re- turned to Nova Scotia, and was placed in charge of St. Frangois Xavier college at Arichat, and, after the removal of this seminary to Antigonish, he acted as its president and professor of divinity for three years. He returned to Arichat in 1863, and took charge of a large parisli, discharging at the same time the duties of vicar-general. In 1870 he was appointed titular bishop of Titopolis, and co- adjutor to the bishop of Arichat, and was con- secrated at Rome by Cardinal Cullen. After at- tending the sittings of the ecumenical council, he returned to his diocese in the autumn of the same year. Bishop MacKinnon becoming infirm through age, in 1877 Dr. Cameron, his coadjutor, was con- stituted administrator of the diocese of Aricliat, becoming bishop shortly afterward, wlien Bishop MacKinnon resigned, immediately after his ap- pointment he removed to Antigonish, and entered with such zeal and energy u}:)on the work before him that he never paused until he freed his diocese of the heaA'y debt with which it was encumbered when he entered upon his duties as bishop. He is an eloquent preacher and a thoi'ough scholar.


CAMERON, John Hillyard, Canadian states- man, b. in Beaucaire, Languedoc. B^rance, 14 April, 1817; d. in Toronto, 14 Nov., 1876. He was a son of Capt. Angus Cameron, of the 79th Highlanders, was educated at Kilkenny college, Ireland, and at Upper Canada college, Toronto ; studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Upper Canada in 1838, and to that of Lower Canada in 18G9. He was first elected to parliament in 1846, and ap- pointed solicitor-general the same year. He be- came a member of the executive council in 1847, and had a seat in parliament from 1846 till 1876, with the exception of four years. While in parlia- ment he introduced and carried the address to the queen, praying for the exemption from the income tax of the property of colonists in Great Britain, which was granted. He was also insti'umental in securing increased postal facilities between the United States, Great Britain, and Canada ; carried the address to the queen, requesting the removal of the disabilities that prevented synodical action in the church of England in ( 'anada ; and he also prepared and carried through two church synod bills. He published a " Digest of Cases determined in the Upper Canada Court " (1840) ; " Rules of Court relating to Pleading in the Court of Queen's Bench " ; and " Reports of Cases determined in the Queen's Bench." lie was a bencher of the law society, and treasurer of that body ; chancellor of the university of Trinity college (from which he had received the degree of D. C. L.), and a member of the senate of Toronto university. He was a commissioner for revising the statutes of Upper Canada in 1840, and for consolidating the statutes in 1856. He married, in 1843, Elizabeth, third daughter of H. J. Boulton, at one time chief justice of Newfoundland. She died in 1844, and in 1849 he married Ellen Madeleine de Berrier, second daughter of Gen. Mallett, of Favetteville, N. C.


CAMERON, Malcolm, Canadian statesman, b. in Three Rivers. Canada East, 25 April, 1808 ; d. in Ottawa, 1 June, 1876. He was the son of the hospital sergeant of a Highland regiment, was entirely seir-('lucated, and served first as a farm- boy, subse(|uently as a stable-boy in Montreal, then as a clerk in a brewery, which he finally left to open a general store on his own account. In 1836 he began his political career as a representative for the county of Lanark in the old Upper Canada assembly. He who had arisen from poverty and obscurity to a place of honor and importance through his own endeavors, and owed nothing to adventitious circumstances, was not likely to favor oligarchical privileges, a state church, or the irre- sponsible government of a family compact ; con- sequently he opposed those abuses with all his power, both in parliament and on the hustings, and contributed in no slight degree to a removal of disabilities that now leaves the government of Canada so essentially a government of the people. Under Sir Charles Bagot's regime, 1842-3, he was appointed inspector of revenue, and he held a seat in the cabinet of the Baldwin-Ijafontaine adminis- tration. He was once president of the council, and afterward commissioner of public works, was also minister of agriculture, as well as postmaster- general, at the Ilincks reconstruction in 1851 be- came again president of the council, and at the time of his death represented South Ontario in the House of Commons.


CAMERON. Matthew Crooks, Canadian states- man, b. in Dundas, Ontario, 2 Oct., 1822. He was educated at Upper Canada college, Toronto, ad- mitted to the bar in 1849, and rapidly distinguished himself in his profession. In 1861 he was elected to the assembly by the conservatives of North On- tario. He was defeated at the general election in 1863, but returned in the following year. After the confederation in 1867 he contested a seat in the House of Commons, but was not successful. He then entered the Sandfield Macdonald cabinet (Ontario) as provincial secretary and registrar, sitting for East Toronto. In July, 1871, he ex- changed his portfolio for that of commissioner of crown lands, and after the fall of the government, in December of the same year, led the Ontario op- position for four years. He was appointed puisne judge of the court of queen's bench in 1878, and chief justice of the court of common pleas in 1884.


CAMERON, Robert Alexander, soldier, b. in Brooklyn, N. Y.. 22 Feb., 1828. He was graduated at Indiana medical college in 1850, and practised his profession at Valparaiso, Ind., till 1861. He was a member of the Indiana legislature in 1860-'L He entered the national service as a captain in the 9th Indiana volunteers in 1861, became lieutenant-colonel of the 19th Indiana the same year, and colonel of the 34th in 1862. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers on 11 Aug., 1863, and commanded the 13th army corps after Gen. Ran-