Cameron had arisen from his printer’s case in his native county of Lancaster, and had attained prominence as a newspaper publisher in Doylestown and Harrisburg, and had been appointed to the office of Adjutant General by Governor Shulze, when he was but thirty years of age. He had extensive banking and large iron interests for that day. He had become a wealthy and influential man. On account of his business interests he did not give enthusiastic support to Polk, yet held his grip on the management of the party in Pennsylvania. There were a number of prominent candidates for the senatorship to succeed Buchanan, one of whom was the able George W. Woodward, who finally received the nomination of his party, and there did not seem to be a ripple on the political surface. But Cameron saw his opportunity, and with the power of the canal board, which he controlled, together with a combination of Protection or Cameron Democrats with the Whigs, Cameron defeated Woodward, and served from 1845 to 1849. His election was a keen disappointment to President Polk and Secretary of State Buchanan. The new Republican Party became a national organization in 1856. Former Senator Simon Cameron was in the Know Nothing organization but was smarting under his long and bitter contest for Senator in 1855, when he was defeated by former Governor William Bigler. Colonel John W. Forney was chairman of Democratic State Committee and had absolute charge of the battle that was fought for the election of James Buchanan, to whom he was romantically attached. In the event of Buchanan’s election Forney was assured the editorship of the Washington Union, the organ of the administration, and the Senate printing. There were subsequent developments which led the President to assent to the sacrifice of Forney, and when tendered a cabinet position, the President was forced to recall it. President Buchanan then turned to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, which was still Democratic, and asked that Colonel Forney be elected United States Senator. The Democratic Party was demoralized in 1856, when many of its most distinguished members supported Fremont, and in this condition, the party lines were rather closely drawn. The Senate stood fifteen Democrats to eighteen opposition, and the House had fifty-three Democrats to forty-seven opposition, giving the Democrats three majority on joint ballot. The nomination of Forney was not cordially supported by those who were smarting under the defeat he had given them in October, but there were very few who were favorable to Cameron, and certainly not one-fourth of the members would have preferred him as a candidate. But Cameron, with his exceptional shrewdness as a political manager, saw that he could depend upon the resentments against Forney among the opposition members to support him if he could assure them of his ability to defeat Forney.